Inspiration vs Imitation: A Creative Director’s Advice on Authentic Branding with Jasmine Haitalani

Today, I am absolutely thrilled to be introducing a special guest who is near and dear to my heart: Jasmine Haitalani, the owner of Highflier Powerhouse and an incredible creative director whose mission is to ensure that your personal brand is truly a reflection of who you are. I’ve been working with Jasmine and Highflier Powerhouse for over a year and a half; any beautiful images, sales pages, and design that you see, they created. She’s been kind enough to come on and talk all about what authentic branding is, why it’s so important to prioritize authentic branding, and what can happen if you let yourself cringe away from being your truest, most genuine self. Without further ado, let’s jump right in!

Who is Jasmine Haitalani?

I’ll start by introducing you more fully to Jasmine. Jasmine’s Instagram bio has to be one of my top favorites I’ve ever read. It says, “Helping million dollar coaches not look like the stale 50 year old white male CEO and brand themselves with flavor.” I mean, come on. That’s amazing. Talk about authentic branding!

Jasmine’s company, Highflier Powerhouse, specializes in taking your ideas of what you might want your branding to look like and transforming those ideas into utterly eye-popping concepts that show off your “special sauce” and show clients exactly what makes you different, what makes you brilliant, and what makes you the one they want to work with!

But enough from me—I’m going to let Jasmine tell her own story.

Jasmine’s Story

Jasmine: So, I’m a creative director for coaches. I originally started as a brand and website designer and slowly developed my way into a more leadership-type role, because I knew that my expertise wasn’t necessarily in doing the daily design tasks. It was more about the strategy and building the vision, and really discovering what my clients’ signature “secret sauce” is and how we can amplify that in their branding, in their visuals, really however we choose to work with them! Typically, clients come to work with us when they have an idea of what they want, but they don’t know how to put it together. Or they have this gut feeling about what they’re looking for, but they don’t know how they want to execute that. And it kind of just took off from there! Isn’t that awesome? Jasmine’s commitment to helping clients find their own personal flavor of authentic branding is really amazing, and I’ve loved working with her for the past year and a half on my own authentic branding for my business. I’m totally obsessed with everything we’ve done, and you can be, too! But first, you need to know the truth about what branding actually is…

The Truth About Branding

Jasmine: “The difference that I see in clients is when they make that distinction that it’s no longer about the fonts, the colors, the images—those are all assets that can help you communicate your messaging and your vision and what kind of energy you want to deliver to your audience…But when they get clear on who they are as a personal brand, once they’ve made that discovery and decided to go all-in on it, that’s when they start making more sales, having a bigger impact, and attracting more ideal clients. When they realize, “I am the brand.”

As fun as it is to pick out the basic pieces of your branding—all the pretty fonts, the fun colors, the eye-catching images—this isn’t what matters to really jump into authentic branding. Authentic branding isn’t about making sure your color scheme complements instead of clashing or your fonts having enough serifs. It’s about recognizing that those things aren’t the brand: you are!
It’s not just about having a unique look. Your tone, your style, and your personality should be infused everywhere in your branding. When you focus too much on the basics and not enough on selling who you are as a business owner, you’re probably not going to be attracting those dream clients you desperately want to work with. Why? Let me tell you…

LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS | LISTEN ON SPOTIFY | LISTEN ON GOOGLE PODCASTS

Why Authentic Branding Matters

Imagine this with me. There’s a dream client you want to work with so badly, you can hardly stand it. Your style and theirs match up perfectly. Your methods fit exactly with what they need. You 100% GET what they’re trying to accomplish, and you know in your heart of hearts that you are the one who can help them get there.

Only…they aren’t biting. They don’t seem to see just how great of a fit it would be to work with you. Why?

Because they have no idea who you really are.

If you don’t take the time to really flesh out authentic branding in your business, clients can and will sense the lack of substance there. If your identity isn’t shining through every aspect of your branding, how are any potential clients going to know whether or not you’re a good fit for them? Pretty aesthetics and gorgeous graphics are a great first step to catching someone’s attention, but if there’s nothing real behind it, they’re going to walk away and start looking elsewhere. You want those ideal clients to see that you’re the best fit for them? Start owning your personal brand by prioritizing authentic branding! You believe that people will love working with you, right? Now prove it. Get confident, get genuine, and start showing off everything that makes you YOU!

Drawing the Line Between Inspiration and Imitation

Jasmine: “I can tell who is working with which coach based on how they present themselves sometimes. And it’s not the coach’s fault—they’re just teaching them, but honestly, I feel like they just need more confidence embodying who they truly are instead of feeling like they need to fit this coach’s mold in order to achieve their success…Sometimes they see it as, ‘I feel so inspired by this person and I love what they’re doing, and I want to be able to do that, too!’ And it’s like, there is your own way of achieving that success…your audience will love it so much more because they know they won’t be able to get it anywhere else.”

People can smell a fake from a mile away, and that especially applies in the business world. When you start prioritizing authentic branding, you need to say goodbye to “borrowing” things from other people. There’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from others (we’ve all got a carefully curated Pinterest board for something, right?), but it’s when you cross the line from inspiration to imitation that you’re going to run into a problem.

If you’re taking ideas from someone in a similar space to yours who is particularly successful, here’s the thing: someone is going to recognize that, and they’re going to know that you’re not utilizing authentic branding. After all, they’ve seen this somewhere before! As much as it can feel like a big risk to boldly be yourself, trust me, trust me, trust me—it is going to attract people so much more than if they see you playing Simon Says with someone else’s branding strategy.

Go Out and Be Yourself!

The #PrettyAwkward brand is all about finding what makes you different from all of the other entrepreneurs in your industry, so of course I fell in love with what Jasmine does! Jasmine has done wonderful work for my brand, and I can’t wait to see the results of what we’ve been working on. 

If you’re ready to take your authentic branding to the next level and show off your personality in your business, make sure you connect with Jasmine through Instagram @highflierpowerhouse,  through her podcast (Becoming The Brand on Apple + Spotify), or through her website (www.highflierpowerhouse.com)!

Get immediate access to my free class: More Profit$ In Your Pocket, Less Burnout In Your Biz: https://meganyelaney.com/more-profit-less-burnout-class

And join my Free FB Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/impactfulpassiveincome

If you’re on Instagram, shoot me a DM @meganyelaney!