Rising Star: Amanda Robins’ Super-powered branding

Wonderful Web Rising Stars Radio

We are very proud to feature our Wonderful Web Radio Rising Star interview. In this segment, we speak with Amanda Robins. Amanda aka Brainstorm is an idea genie on a mission to help business owners just like you discover their superpowers to reveal the true character that will help you conquer your fears, smash through obstacles and leap your way to success! Amanda Robins is the go-to creative branding and marketing strategist for business owners and professionals who think outside the box and are looking to add personality to their boring branding.

Transcript of the Interview

Announcement: Welcome to Rising Stars Radio, where we share the stories of ordinary people taking action to create extraordinary changes in their businesses. They are the true rising stars to watch. Get ready to take notes, around no fluff, cutting to the chase, 20-minute interview.

Janet: Hello, and welcome everybody to Rising Stars Radio. Janet Beckers here and I’m really excited to introduce you to my guest today, Amanda Robins from Superfy HQ. Amanda has been a member of the wonderful web community for years now. She’s been right there from the very beginning and still incredibly active member of our community. It’s been lovely watching her growth in her business over those years.

I’ll tell you what, I’ve just noticed in the last few months, just a real consolidation of her brand and her business. Really just stepping up and getting out there. Just everything. Just huge changes I’ve really noticed in the last few months. I’m really excited to share with you, Amanda’s story, and especially talk about what’s changed in just those last couple of months to really make it, that she’s stepping up and getting out there. Wonderful to welcome you Amanda, how are you going?

Amanda: Good, how are you?

Janet: Yeah, good. It’s very exciting to have you here. Our aim today is to be able to give the maximum value that we can to people in about 20 minutes. I know that you’ll be up for it. To start the ball rolling, would you mind to introduce yourself? Could you share who it is that you help and how it is that you do that?

Amanda: As Janet said, my name is Amanda Robins, or I’m also known as Brainstorm. I’m an ID genie on a mission to help business owners who think outside the box, create some kick-ass branding and marketing.

Janet: Love it! How do you do that? How do you work with people at the moment?

Amanda: At the moment we have a membership, 12-month membership mentoring program coming out. We also have brainstorming sessions which are really good. We help people to get clear and where they want to go. Really helping people just get out there, in fun, exciting and amazing ways, and just to step up with confidence like any superhero would do.

Janet: We’ll talk a little bit more in a moment and explore that concept of the superhero and how that fits in with your branding and also the change that I’ve noticed in your business. Before we get stuck into that, we should talk about our connection, how we’ve actually got to know each other. What programs have you been a part of that are run through the Wonderful Web community?

Amanda: I was, way back in the beginning, quite a few years ago, I’m part of the Wonderful Web Women Gold Membership.

Janet: That was our very, very first program.

Amanda: Yes. I got access to a lot of wonderful women that were getting out there, when the internet marketing is still new to women you could say. I also did the 90-day Romance Your Tribe.

Janet: Great. The nice part there is … The wonderful web women gold membership, that was about seven years ago, and that was when I was interviewing women who had created success online and that was every single week a different women for a few years even it kind of evolved into more of a program base and then the 90 day program is very much a step by step program as well. You’ve kind of seen it from something to be able to cherry pick and learn from lots of different people, and then also, something that’s very methodical, strategy step by step.

The thing that I’ve loved Amanda is the gold membership program, that hasn’t ran for a few years now, but you’re still incredibly active. In fact I would say have really stepped up into a leadership position within our product facebook group. You’re still very much part of our community.
Amanda: I think that’s the … I’ve gone from just being members in people’s groups to realizing that I’m stepping up as a leader. Which is something I think I’m naturally born to do but just haven’t had the confidence or direction to actually really step into that role.

Janet: That probably leads us a little bit to that action that you’ve taken that’s led you to create the change in the last few months. One thing that I’ve particularly noticed with you Amanda is, I could see that you’re a person who could study and learn how to do things, and implement, and that you’re clever. You could pick things up, you could implement and you were doing a lot of the right things but there wasn’t necessarily a really strong brand or a strong focus. That was still a little bit scattered. Then I noticed that towards the end of last year when people would go over into our facebook group. In the 90 day program, and in the Shine program, and also with my platinums, an important thing we do is work out … Your signature system and let’s work out a name for your signature system so you can build your brand on that.

One of the things I say to people is … You work through what it is you actually do to help people so you know what your steps are that you’re going to be guiding your customers through. Now let’s see if we can work out a language. Go over to the facebook group and share your ideas and see what other people come up with. Without fail, you know people will be going, “Oh maybe try this. Maybe try that, or maybe tweak this a little bit.” Then Amanda would come flying in like the super hero you are and just go … “Here’s what we’re going to call it.” Not just come up with a name for a system, but you would break it down into, “Okay, that’s what we’re gonna name it this, and this is what it stands for.” It just made perfect sense.

These are across lots of different niches. I started watching and thought “Wow, this girl’s a natural. She’s a really creative thinker and really, really good at coming up with the names, with the brands.” Which is a real skill. It’s actually something that stumps a lot of people. It seems to me from the outside that once you started doing a few of these, people were just really starting to recognize that this is your talent. It seems now as that it is the thing that you’ve been able to step up and own, and build your whole base … your brand and your business around that.

Amanda: Yeah. It was something I was actually excited when that popped up on Facebook and it said “I’m just trying to name my signature system.” I said, “Goodie.” I just looked at it and I realized I had a flare for acronyms, and themes, and things like that. Just getting the ideas to really hone in on what people want. Not what I thought was good. On what suited their brand and their products. Someone wanted something that was a little hot and sexy, and she had the steps. I said “What about spicy?” Each one of the steps … Each one of the letters stood for a step in her system. She said “I love it. You’ve got it.” I realized that this was something that I enjoyed doing but I was also really good at.

Janet: Excellent. Let’s explore a little bit about your business now. The way that its changed in the last few months. It would be really helpful, I think, for people who … To be able to know what steps you’ve taken? What made the change? What it was before? What changes you made? What’s happening now in your business?

Amanda: My business, since I started, a lot of the time what I was doing was I was chasing the money. I could see the opportunities to make money or I would listen to programs where people would tell me “This is the next big thing. This is what you should be doing.” I created things I thought I should be doing, but there was no love to it. There was no energy. I just wasn’t feeling it, but I was learning, and I was growing. You’ve got to crack a few eggs til you find the right one.

Janet: That’s a great analogy.

Amanda: I kept going and then it was … It was so funny because I have a business consultant here. I started seeing him about June last year. Even just since June last year until now, my business has changed so much from the original concept I took to him. It just kept evolving. I realized what I needed to do was step back from what everyone was telling me what I should be doing, and actually tune into me and what I am good at. What I would love to do every day. I stepped back, watched a lot of television, and decided to become a super hero.

Janet: Watched a lot of television.

Amanda: Three seasons of Arrow and I wanted to be a superhero.

Janet: Oh, fantastic. You can tell that you’ve got kids. I think that that is a really important point that you’ve made. That you were chasing the money. You developed a lot of skills. You were taking a lot of action, but it was hard to get that traction until you could step back and … It’s not necessarily saying tapping into your passion, cause that can sometimes be something that people find very difficult to comprehend. A passion you almost feel as if it’s gotta be something that you have that full blown love and true attraction to, but the thing that your saying that you think is fun …

Something that “It would be fun for me to be doing this everyday.” Which is, for me, another way of describing passion. It’s a nice way of seeing it, as the things that give you joy.

Amanda: Yeah. If you’ve gotta work, you might as well enjoy doing it. Especially if you’re running your own business, because it comes off the back of you. If you’re not enjoying it, if you’re not having fun then your clients are not going to have fun. You’re not going to attract anyone because you’ve got this blah feeling about the whole thing. Where as, it came a lot of the times when I’d get off the phone to clients, I’d just have this feeling, cause they went from blah when they first started talking to me to excited and inspired about what they’re going to do next. It’s that little thing you pick out for them and all the sudden they’re like, “That’s it! I’ve got it! I can get on and do what I need to do.”

Janet: That’s brilliant. Once you’ve been able to identify. You’ve stepped back, got that big picture, and really got clear on that nice intersection between this is the thing that I find fun and I love to do. Also there’s that intersection where I realize now that I’m actually really good at it. It’s been recognized by others. Other people have pointed it out to me, that this is something that I’m really good at. What’s the next steps that you’ve put in place to turn that over into a brand?

Amanda: Once you work out your idea of where you want to go and the direction you can take, that’s when you start learning all the different things. You can put into practice what you’re learning. You can go and gather all the information in the world, but its not going to be useful until you have a direction to use it. Most of it you’re gonna forget before you get to implement it. Once I realized this is what I wanted to do, I got out there and I started moving. I started implementing the things I’ve learned over the years.

Then I realized what I thought was one thing that I wanted to do … What I thought people wanted, wasn’t the thing I thought they wanted. I was able to change directions. I realized that what I was selling was not necessarily people being the whole cartoony super hero type thing. It was actually having the confidence of a super hero.

Janet: Originally you were thinking, “Okay, my brand is going to be that I’m going to help you transform into a super hero and you’ll have a super hero brand.” But that wasn’t the thing that was attractive. It was being super hero like.

Amanda: Yeah. It was about being confident. It was about creating a larger than life presence in the marketplace. Some people just aren’t confident enough, or they have more of a serious side of business that they do, that they don’t want to go for super hero. Like I say to them, “Whether you wear your cape on the outside for everyone to see or under your power suit. It’s about stepping up and being the power authority that you are rather than …”

Janet: Oh! I love the idea of the cape’s on the outside for everyone to see or you’ve got it tucked underneath your power suit. That is awesome. There’s a name of this series … Of this episode of the podcast. I love it! In terms of … I’ve noticed a few things that you’ve done to consolidate your brand and give you a bigger presence quite quickly. One of those was through getting a book out there.

Amanda: Yep.

Janet: Could you share a little bit about how you were able to do that? How important that was to your building business brand?

Amanda: Getting a book out there is the number one thing that you should do to build your credibility. It’s worth the work that goes into it. What I did is, I had a couple books come out a couple years ago, and I decided I wanted to write another one about business. It was called “Instant Credibility.” It is a seven step formula and every letter of instant is one of the steps. What I did is, I walk my talk. I found experts that I knew and trusted and they put a story into the book. We got that out there at the beginning of the year. We became an Amazon Kindle best seller. Which is fantastic, and people loved it. I got the feedback from it. It was just amazing to get out there and get in front of people.

That is something we will do again with the Superfy brand. Get more books out there, get in front of people, and say, “This is what I do. I will teach you some of it. Then if you wanna come and work with me, come and work with me.” It’s like a little sampler. With me, I give it all. It’s not just about, here’s a little bit of what I do but you have to come work with me to find out. I’m like, “Here’s the exercises. Here’s how you get started, when you’re ready to take the next step, I’m here to help you.”

Janet: That’s brilliant. That’s such a respectful way, I think, of communicating with people. For people to take the time to buy your book and read your book, you need to make sure that you’re giving good value back that’s respectful of their time. Of course, you can’t possibly give away everything in that short, in a few hundred pages anyway. To be able to … A lot of times you’ll see people when they put their books out and you read it and you think, “That was just a hundred page sell center.” I just find that quite disrespectful of people’s time. I love that point that you’ve made. That you’re generous in the information that you are giving in that book, and when they’re ready for you, there you are. It’s just such a great way of setting the tone of the business relationship right from the beginning.

Amanda: You know when you’ve done it right is when they start repeating back to you the lessons that they learned in the book.

Janet: Excellent, and using your language.

Amanda: Yes! I had a phone call with a client and she’d go “Oh, you said that in the book, you said you had to do X, Y, Zed.” And I’m like, “Yep.” You can tell that they’ve read it too.

Janet: That’s brilliant. It’s getting towards the end of our time. I want to make sure that … People who have … For me, a really important lesson from Amanda’s story is, here is a woman that had been learning for quite a few years, and implementing. Had developed a lot of different skills but wasn’t getting the traction. Wasn’t being able to build a tribe around her business as much, because the tribe couldn’t recognize that this is what she stands for, that she’s stepping up as the leader. As soon as … When you were saying about stepping back, finding out what the thing was that you were … That you could build your brand around. That’s fun.

That lovely intersection between something that you get a lot of enjoyment out of and that you’ve come to recognize that you’re actually pretty bloody good at it. Can really then … Once you’ve got that you build a huge momentum around your business. Do you, listener? If you feel as though you’ve been learning and implementing and I’ve been flat out at this for years, and years, and years, and I’m not getting anywhere. I’m obviously no good at this, blah, blah, blah. I find Amanda’s story incredibly inspiring for you. I can just see now Amanda’s on track and in a years time I will be interviewing her again and I know she’s going to be talking more about the success around this business, and this business brand.

I do hope that that give you that hope in knowing that you’ve just gotta get your train on the right track. Sometimes you just need a super hero to pick it up and put it on the right track, by the look of it. With that Amanda, what would be the key tips that you can give people that can help them to change their momentum and get in the right direction the way that you have?

Amanda: I think the first thing you do is to step back and reconnect with your genius. To realize that you are awesome. You are this spectacular person that is here to do something wonderful in the world and that you can do it. No matter how many times you’ve tried. How many businesses that you’ve started, because I started a lot, it’s okay. It’s just one more out of the way until you get to where you’re supposed to be.

The other thing that I would recommend is that if you can’t see it, then find somebody who is qualified to see it for you. Someone with experience, the track record to help pick out these little things. It’s that one thing thing that’s probably right in front of your face but you can’t see it. That it’s just going to give you this momentum, that it’s like a runaway train. Which is funny cause that’s a chapter for a book that I wrote. Once you create that momentum, it’s like a runaway train that you’re trying to catch up to, but your having so much fun doing it. It just booms. All the sudden, it might only been a couple months but you’ve gotten further in those couple of months than you’ve gotten in years. It makes all that trial and error worthwhile.

Janet: That’s great tips. Good tips. For people who are listening, I hope that this resonates with you and that it either gives you the confidence that “Maybe I’ve just gotta step back and talk to people who I can get to for some help to make sure I’m on the right track.” Also if you feel like you’re on the right track, that it’s going to give you that confidence of “I’m doing the right thing here.” I’d love it if you could leave any comments below to give some feedback to Amanda. What are the things that you got out of our call today? Things that you can implement in your business?

Any questions you’ve got as well, please leave them there. Amanda and I can come back and we can answer those for you. Go on the page where you’re listening to the interview and if you’re over on the podcast over on iTunes, just come over to Rising Stars Radio Show. Risingstarsradioshow.com and you’ll be able to find Amanda’s interview there and leave a comment as well. Are there any last words of wisdom? Anything else you would like to say before we go Amanda?

Amanda: For everyone listening, just the fact that your here listening, learning, and wanting to do something great is absolutely amazing. That’s the first step for you guys to strap on your capes and just fly.

Janet: Excellent. That’s a great way to finish. Thank you so much for your time Amanda and thank you so much everybody for taking the time to listen and be here, and I really do hope you have some wonderful notes from today. Bye.

Amanda: Bye.

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