The Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast

94 ⎸ Niche your Brand with Mallika Malhotra

April 19, 2023 Serena Shoup, CPA Episode 94
The Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast
94 ⎸ Niche your Brand with Mallika Malhotra
Show Notes Transcript

In this interview episode, I chat with Mallika Malhotra about brand strategy, niching, and positioning. A continuation of last week’s topic around marketing!

In this episode you’ll hear:

  • How to begin working on your branding
  • How to define a niche whether you’re established or brand new
  • How to position your team as part of your branding if you are building an agency

Resources mentioned in this episode:

  • Be sure to watch for her September Mastermind

Meet Mallika:
Mallika Malhotra is The Brand CEO, an award-winning branding expert, confidence-stirring mentor, dynamic speaker, and author. For years, she worked in corporate advertising on big brands like L’Oreal, Oil of Olay, and Hidden Valley Ranch. Now she helps women entrepreneurs master their message, stand out in their crowded market with a power niche, and develop brands that are magnetic, memorable and money-making. She’s on a mission to empower women to unleash their power so they can achieve leadership and success. When she's not building brands, Mallika is drinking coffee or red wine, reading a stack of books and dreaming about their next global adventure. She lives in beautiful Maine with her husband, 3 sons and mini Bernedoodle, Jax.

Connect with Mallika:

Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me, @ambitiousbookkeeper

For more information about the Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast or interest in our programs or mentoring visit our resources below:

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[00:00:00] 

Serena: Welcome back to the Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast. Today I have a special guest. I always have special guests, right? You guys, know that I, , curate the best guests for the podcast, but today I have Malika on and we're kind of gonna continue the conversation from last week or the topic of conversation from last week, which is kind of branding and marketing and positioning. And I'm really excited to have this conversation today. So thank you so much and welcome to the podcast. [00:01:00] Would you like to introduce yourself? 

Mallika: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. my name is Malika Malhotra. I am the brand CEO I am a brand strategist, a mentor and speaker for female entrepreneurs. So I work with women who are service-based, so they could be coaches or photographers or bookkeepers. And they really struggle with standing out in their industry because it's super crowded. And what I do with them is I really help them find their power niche first, and then we strengthen their message around their skills and their strengths, and then we really build this brand that's magnetic, that's memorable and makes them a lot of money. So that's what I do, in my business. 

Serena: Oh, I love that. I love it. So, yeah, that this is definitely a topic that a lot of my students and other, bookkeepers and accountants struggle with is their branding and their positioning in the marketplace to be able to stand out because. [00:02:00] Especially when you first enter the bookkeeping market as an entrepreneur.

I, I mean, I felt this way. I was like, everybody's already doing this. Like, how am I gonna be the one to get the clients? And so I love having, you know, this conversation with people and I think you and I are very aligned on exactly how you, do that. Um, 

So we were talking about like the topics we were gonna dive into. And last week on the podcast, I had a guest on, and we talked about marketing and a little bit about branding and positioning. but neither of us are branding experts or marketing experts. It was just kind of like a conversation from the perspective of an accountant or a C F O advisory firm, that has had success with their own branding and positioning.

But not really like the expertise. So I'm really excited to have you on here to dive a little deeper on like why it is important to establish your branding. And I [00:03:00] do have a question actually that just popped into my head, regarding that because when you were talking about helping female, service-based entrepreneurs, do you primarily work with.

Like a solo entrepreneur or have you done this exercise with a firm when someone is trying to step back from being like a personal brand and be more of a, a company brand, if you will? 

Mallika: Yeah, I think the rules apply to both. Yeah. Could be a solopreneur, you could be a professional doctor, lawyer, you could have a small firm or corporate.

And, you know, branding the real supply to all of them. Cuz what branding really is, is you know, the impression that we're making in our prospect customer's mind. How are we standing out versus everybody else? What story are we telling that's building that connection, that emotional relationship with our audience so that they begin to know us, like us, trust us, right?[00:04:00] 

And so often I think when we're starting out, we kind of. Go right into business and we think branding is my website and I need a logo and I need fancy colors and fonts. When, yes, all those things are fun and exciting and necessary, but those are really expressions of the brand. Mm-hmm. What I always advise is to take a step back first, and really you need to do the work in defining what your brand is, what the strategy will be.

Then to define the colors and the website and the social media. So you have to ask yourself some key questions first, and one of them is, you know, who are you, what do you value? Meaning like what are you gonna put a stake in the ground for something you really believe in? Who are you meant to serve?

Because you really aren't meant to work with everyone. You're really meant to work with a particular subset. Yeah. And how are you different knowing what that unique value proposition is. Right? What's gonna set [00:05:00] yourself. And then what is the problem you're solving and then the transformation that you're making.

All of that, those answers are gonna really help you start shaping what your brand should be and giving you some insight. Then on the other parts of branding, the visual parts of branding. And so it's, it's very important to do this work first and it's really a lot of internal work, right? Yeah. Cause it's kind of an inside job.

These, reflective questions for your. 

Serena: Yeah, absolutely. And it's definitely like something that requires not just one sitting. I think like, yeah, you can block off a couple hours when you're like the freshest possible and feeling creative, but there's gonna be certain times and like throughout the the day or the weeks or the months where you're like, actually this is a really important.

Value of my brand. And so I'll like just jot it, like keep a [00:06:00] little notebook of like things that are deal breakers and things that are not, and, and things like that. So it's, I wanna encourage people to know that like, it's not something that necessarily has to be or can be done in one sitting. It's, you're gonna have to really do a lot of reflection and give yourself time.

Mallika: Totally. I a hundred percent support that because some people think it's like, you know, done in a night overnight success story to become this brand or it's one and done. Branding really is organic. Like you're always shaping your brand because the marketplace is always changing, right? Competitors come in, competitors go out.

Maybe the client needs are changing. Maybe technology is changing, so, You will have a core foundation of your brand, but it will require refinement and tweaking over time. It's kind of just one of those things that, it happens in business, so it's never a set it and forget it. You're always gonna be working on it.

 And so you give yourself [00:07:00] grace, right? So it's, it's work in. 

Serena: Yeah. Yeah. I've worked with a lot of people that are like, I need to figure out like my colors and my fonts and my brand, and like that way I can just get my website and be done with it. And it's like, well that's also really hard to do when you're at the very beginning stages of your business because you don't really know yet.

Who you wanna work with, who you connect with, well, like where your sweet spot is with types of clients. So that kind of leads us into the other topic we were gonna talk about, which is nicheing. Yes. So I would love to dive into like what you, what your process is for leading someone into figuring all of that.

Mallika: Yeah, so often people come to me when they are kind of plateauing in business. Maybe they're attracting the wrong clients, maybe they've been in this hamster wheel, right? You know, different messages every other month because they're just [00:08:00] trying to throw a spaghetti at the wall and they haven't figured out their sweet spot yet, and it feels overwhelming and frustrating and they're like, Can I get paid my worth?

Why am I being overlooked and people going to my competitors? And often it's because you are position yourself, your brand as a generalist, and it's not very clear of how you're an expert and what you're a specialist in. And when you have. Job, a bookkeeper, accountant, a photographer in a saturated market, it makes it even more crucial for you to get laser focused in what is your area of expertise?

Who are you meant to serve? What is that specific target audience? How are you different? Meaning, what is your special sauce, your superpower, and then do you have a system? Is it a process or a vehicle or a methodology that you use? And those [00:09:00] four components are what I call the bullseye branding formula.

That's sort of my proprietary signature formula, but that's gonna help you discover what that niche is. It's gonna help you move from being AJA trades to being a much more of a specialist, move from serving everyone and feeling burnt out. And going to a specific target market where everything, all of your communications is so targeted to them and it's simplified that message and it's liberating because you don't have to talk about everybody else.

Right. So those are the four steps that I really work on with my clients. And to get there, really, you look at the data that you already. So some people think, you know, it's so hard to do, but really the first step is look at the data you already have, meaning your last 20 clients. You need to do an audit.

You need to list them out, and you need to look at which are the ones you wanna fire that you really, they are not in [00:10:00] alignment anymore, which are the ones that do not pay you what you're worth. They will and deal you. They ask for discounts. You can gently fire them and send them along their way to somebody.

Ones you wanna keep are the ones that you love to work with. They are, you're passionate about the relationship. You have great results with them. They're coachable, they're doing the work, and they are, you know, so loyal to you then, and spreading the word. And so when you do that assessment and you see who those clients are, then you have to figure out like, what's the common thread here?

Am I a bookkeeper? And really the clients that I love to work with that respect my prices, that I get great results. They're all photographers. So maybe should I be a niche in photography? Because photographers have certain products and programs that I can fully understand and become an expert and help them in terms of their cash flow and in terms of their savings.[00:11:00] 

You know, then you can rinse and repeat some of your systems and become this amazing specialist for photographers and that attracts more photographers. And the beauty of that too is once you're a specialist, you can command a higher price because you have all of these practices and guidelines that are specific to that industry.

Yeah, and so now all of a sudden you're no longer a generalist working with photographers and event planners and florist and doctors. You actually have kneed down to just photographers, and so when they have a problem of their accounting and bookkeeping is so out of control, they're willing to pay whatever it takes to work with you as a specialist.

Serena: one of the things that you'll start to, hear once you are able to narrow in on a niche like that, and I heard this, the other, I had a, a consult with, someone local actually, and. She's been following me for a while. She's been on my email list. We actually are in the same office [00:12:00] suite, but she was like, my goal is to get to the point in my business where I can hire you like you're the bookkeeper.

I want to like, do all take, just take care of all of it. So like that's, that's what happens when you follow this strategy. And yeah, it might take longer for some people to get there, but like reflect on your own kind of buying behavior when you. follow someone that knows exactly like. How to handle your industry or whatever, and you're like, ASPI, you aspire to work with that person.

You aspire to pay them. You know what I mean? And that's what, that's what ends up happening. And so that's part of why you can command dire prices, right? It's more exclusive. People are gonna ex aspire to work with you and yeah. It is very scary though, especially. So can we talk about like how to handle this for someone that maybe doesn't have a.

A previous client list of 20 clients and they're starting from [00:13:00] scratch. How, how would they go about really figuring out where their, you know, sweet spot is? 

Mallika: Sure. So, you know, if you don't have the clientele yet to do the audit, sometimes it's about looking at your expertise and doing a deep dive in your skills and your strengths.

Mm-hmm. And maybe the niche is more around that. Are you really good at solving a certain problem because you have this area of expertise where it feels easy for you. Right. We always wanna be working in that zone of genius. And so what are those areas of your. That people are always picking your brain or you know, you can actually just stand up and talk about it without preparation.

You know, I think not knowing what that is or dismissing some of those things is what makes our brands look like each other. Right? Yeah. Becomes close. And so what we are trying to do is not only look at the client, Intel that we have, but we're also doing a deep dive in our own skills and strengths and passions to really figure out what do [00:14:00] we wanna leverage.

So that we can position ourselves as a specialist and the expert. So you know, if you are an accountant, maybe you know, I don't know all the software, but like QuickBooks is your thing. You don't do anything else and you do QuickBooks or maybe, you know, there are some other apps or technology or things that you know how to do really, really fast.

Yeah. So you have to look at all of the things that are your skills, your strengths, your passions along with the client, work along with, you know, what makes you different. Maybe it's you work so fast that you can do somebody's bookkeeping. In a month, right? Like if, if they're starting with you, maybe it's like an intensive and so it's the vehicle that you're doing it is what's gonna niche you and set you apart.

So there are lots of different ways to niche, industry, service, product, price, location. but really the, the lesson here is, is that you [00:15:00] don't want to be doing all of those things. Yeah. You don't wanna be widespread in every industry for every type of client at every price point, multiple offers. Because if you're a solopreneur, it's not sustainable.

You don't have the capacity, you don't have the energy, you don't have the time, you don't have the. So what I always try to recommend is to, you go smaller, you go more narrow. But what that does is it increases your impact, your relevance, your resonance with the people that you want to serve, and that then attracts more and more people to you in that same boat.

Do can you work with other people? Sure, you can work with other people, but then that's your choice. Yeah. Not your messaging and your website copy and all the things that confus. People, and we all know a confused mind never buys. 

Serena: Yeah. Yeah. In the last episode, we, my guest said also a very common, quote was, you confuse, you lose, basically.[00:16:00] 

So, yeah, just keep that in mind and, and yeah, if you're, if your messaging looks like everybody else's, where we provide payroll, tax, and bookkeeping, Well, yeah, but to who and how are people gonna refer you and know you're the right person for them? Right. I think the, the referral thing is also a big component of that.

If you have a niche, when people talk about needing a bookkeeper and they know, you know, maybe you're a hair salon or whatever, and you're talking to. Or the person is a hair salon owner and they're talking to someone that knows of you, right? As a bookkeeper. And they're like, well, I know this bookkeeper, but I don't know if she handles HA hair salons.

Versus, I know this bookkeeper and she specializes in hair salons. So the likelihood of you getting that lead because you specialize in that industry, is much, much greater than the conversation of like, oh, I know of a bookkeeper, but I don't know if she [00:17:00] knows how to deal with hair salon stuff. You know what I mean?

Exactly. 

Mallika: And people, I mean, we're, I feel like customers are more sophisticated now. You know, we've had online tools, social media, People are looking for specialists. They're really not looking for generalists. They have specific problems. They want a specific solution, and they want it solved quickly. and they wanna have it solved successfully. So that's where, you know, positioning yourself as an expert is really gonna differentiate and give you this authority in the marketplace. and it just opens up more doors for you too when you special. So let's say you are a bookkeeper and you're specializing in hair salons, then you can see who can you partner with.

That also is within that industry, what, you know, conferences do you need to attend that are specific to that industry, right? And so it just makes marketing and collaborations and alliances and all of those networking easier because it's [00:18:00] already within a subgroup. 

Serena: Oh, absolutely. It also makes it easier to know where you should be marketing and, and that's a conversation I'm constantly having with other people.

Like, they're like, I don't know where to get clients. Well, like, what kind of client are you trying to attract or look for? And then, then I'll know how to guide you because if, if you're, like you said, a generalist or whatever, my recommendation is probably gonna be Upwork. But I would also recommend Upwork if you have a niche, because sometimes you.

Stand out on Upwork if you know the industry of the person that posted the job or the company and you can say, Hey, this is the industry that I specialize in. So it can, you know, or like you said, conferences, different networking groups that are specific to industries. It becomes a lot easier to figure out where to focus your time.

Marketing and connecting with people when you are specializing and. Yeah, like 

Mallika: if you're gonna pitch a podcast, you can do it in the [00:19:00] search bar and it'll be. Podcasts for hair salons. 

Serena: Yeah. Probably thousands. 

Mallika: And I'm, and now there's podcasts for everything, so I'm sure there's gonna be a handful of those.

You know, you know, you would do, you could do a search on, you know, magazines or publications that are targeted for hair salons and you could see how you can maybe look into that as an opportunity. to tap into the audience. So it just gives you more direct. It means that you're not spinning your wheels and you're feeling scattered.

It makes you feel like you're, you're really in the driver's seat and everything is intentional and strategic. And that's the difference, like when you're not niche and you're more generic and you're a Jane of all trades, and many of us start that way, you have to learn and there's no shame in that game.

But sometimes your products and services become more like a commodity. You're not niche or maybe you're not branded and everything starts to look the same. Right? And so [00:20:00] your pricing is always gonna be in that mid-level pricing. Mm-hmm. Um, and you might not get as many opportunities because you're not the expert versus when you position yourself as a specialist, there's just so many growth opportunities there that yes, people say, oh, you're gonna put me in a box.

I don't wanna be put in a box, but, More isn't a great strategy. Yeah. More for what? Like we want to be mindful and strategic and use, have ti the freedom of time. Right. And so by putting yourself not in a box, by putting yourself in your specialization and going deep, deep, deep in that, I think you'll have more 

Serena: impact.

I, I wholeheartedly agree and I have examples of, gaining clients. That walked away from another bookkeeper who was a generalist because. I was specializing in their industry, right? So it was like, well, she raised her prices. I didn't really have that great of a [00:21:00] relationship. I was basically there based on price anyway.

Now I'm at the point in my business where it's important for me to work with someone who understands my industry so I don't have to answer the same questions every month and like all this stuff, right? And so it became easier f That was a huge light bulb for me at that point. I was like, okay, I need to go all in on this industry because this is happening like naturally just because I am, you know, involved in certain conversations and making connections with certain people and it just made sense.

So, yeah, when you are a generalist in that situation, so this other bookkeeper. Didn't really have anything that was setting her apart. So when she did do that price increase and didn't add any extra value or, you know, present anything that was gonna make the business owner feel like she knew the industry better or whatever, right.

The client was. Easily walked away. Right. And even though [00:22:00] bookkeeping, client relationship is very sticky, like we are Yeah. In the numbers, we have access to certain things that you would never give access to anyone else, maybe not even your spouse. And, and it's really hard to walk away from a bookkeeper because of all that.

Like, it's a big deal to switch bookkeepers, but it's still a risk if you aren't able to show. Your value and, and all that. So, yeah. 

Mallika: Because you know that relationship is so intertwined. Like once you find a good bookkeeper, you're, you're, it's like for life. Mm-hmm. But if you raise your prices, you do have to prove your value.

You do have to prove why am I raising my prices? What am I bringing to the table? And so, yeah, that's a tough one. If someone left after that sticky relationship, you know, that's like a, you know, it's, we're all learning, right? Yeah. So that is red flag that says you might need to work on your brand a little bit.

You might need to work on, you know, either demonstrating your value, [00:23:00] defining your niche, or the customer relationship to keep those people. 

Serena: Yeah. And another point too I think is important to make is you're looking into nicheing If you have the skills and the knowledge of a certain industry, that's great.

You're, you've got a head start, but you don't necessarily have to start there. You can just decide, okay, I'm kind of interested in this industry, so I'm just gonna soak up as much as I can about it and learn and maybe talk to people in that industry and learn what their specific pain points are so that I have kind of.

A roadmap of the skills I am gonna need to build if I go into this industry. Because every industry has their nuances and yeah, if you're willing to do the work to specialize, you will be able to reap the benefits for sure. 

Mallika: Time. You have to make the commitment okay. I'm gonna pick this area of expertise.

I'm gonna pick this subset of the target [00:24:00] market. I'm gonna go all in. I'm gonna. And give yourself like six months to really commit. Because if you keep changing month after month and like, oh, this isn't working, I'm gonna bounce and do this one, your, your audience is gonna be totally confused and you're just, you're, you're not setting yourself up for success.

because it takes time. We know marketing and branding, it all takes time and you have to have a consistency behind it. It has to be cohesive, and it has to, we need to show up and be communicating this new positioning over and over and over again for people to finally get it so that you become memorable, referable, findable, and then hopefully profit.

Serena: Yeah, that is such a good point. Thank you for bringing that up, because sometimes people have this idea that I just need to go all in for like a month or two, but depending on what your marketing strategy is, right? If you're trying to be more relationship based and do events and stuff like that, you're still also gonna wanna [00:25:00] have some sort of social media.

Whatever presence. Right? So that when people do meet you, they have somewhere to go and kind of remember you. But understanding that, yeah, it could take six months or more to really become known in that industry and be the, the one that becomes top of mind. And I can say that for from experience too.

Like for sure. Yeah, a good six months from the point when I was like, okay, I'm gonna go all in on this industry. could it have been faster if I was more proactive about having conversations with more people? For sure. But I was also balancing like building the business and a team and the client work, right?

So depends on how much time you can put in. 

Mallika: You cannot be. The industry's best kept secret. You have to say, I am a specialist in this for people to know and understand. So [00:26:00] you can't just like put it on your website and hope, okay, they're all gonna come. It has to be consistent and cohesive, and you have to keep showing up.

You know, even in my, I'm a brand person, right? And even in the last, I would say in, in the last four or six months, I've always positioned myself as a brand strategist for female entre. But I've been finding that my skillset is really in this niche strategy. So I've been positioning myself now as a brand strategist, but a niche specialist.

And all I talk about is nicheing. I'm obsessed. Mm-hmm. My Instagram, my blog post. My newsletter when I'm speaking today on this podcast. Right. So now people. If I'm in a Facebook group and someone says, I need help with my niche, I'm getting tagged. Yeah. Cause it's, it's happening. Right. But you can't just expect it to happen without you going out there, because then you're just keeping it a secret.

Like you have to actively go out with intention and share what you want to be [00:27:00] known as a specialist, and no one can do that for you. You are the only person who can do that for 

Serena: your. That is so true. I think that's such a natural position for bookkeepers and accountants, just our personality type to take the backseat and let other people shout us out, which sometimes works, but your results are gonna be much slower.

Yeah. 

Mallika: I mean, I would imagine for bookkeepers, like referrals are a huge way of gaining. Leads. Yeah. But even with referrals, when you're telling people to refer, you should say, I'm a bookkeeper and I actually prefer to work with this type of customer, web designers, graphic designers, whatever you pick. And I actually am a specialist in this type, this part of bookkeeping or accounting.

Yeah. Right. When you can marry those two where it's an expertise with the niche, it just gives you what I call this bullseye brand. Yeah. It's very. It's very laser focused and people [00:28:00] remember that people, it's easy for then your referral network to send the right clients your way. Yeah. 

Serena: So can we talk about, for a minute, like how you were like, I'm obsessed, this is all I talk about.

have you found people really resist that because they're like, I'm bored of talking about that. 

Mallika: Yes. And sometimes I do too. I'm like, God, people are gonna be like so sick of hearing this, but like we're in our own head. Yeah. 

Serena: Nobody has heard every single time you spoke, every podcast you were on, they have not read every single social media post.

Yes. 

Mallika: And you know, the more you become an expert and a master of the content, you're thinking of different ways to apply it. Right? When we're experts, it's not like there's this one formula we're looking. We're getting really deep into that and thinking like, you know, I could be nicheing for finance, nicheing for accountants, nicheing for graphic designers.

I could talk. Niche brands that are already [00:29:00] corporate versus, you know, entrepreneurs. I could talk about, you know, what happens when you don't niche? What are the benefits when you do niche? Like there are millions of topics Yeah. That you can talk about in your area of expertise, case studies, right before and afters, mistakes that were made.

So I think, yes. Are we putting ourselves in a box in some way? We might be, but it's, the boxer should be in because it's matching your skills and your strengths and your passions. And so I will never feel like an imposter syndrome anymore because I know ins and outs of this and that mastery is, the energy is contagious.

People wanna listen to you, people wanna hire you, people wanna book you and pay you, right? So I think the benefits outweigh the. I'm bored, I'm multi-passionate. You're putting me in a box. I like to be all the things [00:30:00] and you know, great. Be all the things. Just not in your business. Like yeah, you're getting paid.

You can be all the things at personal level, right? Yeah. Do you take some of that and put on your personal level, but when it comes to business and you wanna get paid and I wanna get paid well for my expertise and I don't wanna be working 24 7. Right? So like there comes a point where, As a business owner, you have to make decisions, right, of what is gonna help you be sustainable and profitable.

And just to work hard, work smarter, not harder. Yeah, and I, the niche strategy, and I've seen it in my business and I've see it in my client's business, is really critical and something that you just can't ignore, especially in 2023 when people. Launching businesses left and right and the market is just getting busier and saturated and noisier.

So you can be a generalist bookkeeper or a generalist brand strategist, and I might take you, you might do well, but if you are, you know, I'm a [00:31:00] bookkeeper for web designers, and who, you know, who are in six figure salaries. Yeah, right. And that's who I attract. That's who I work with. I have systems and practices.

I know that business inside and out, you're gonna be able to have a really fulfilling successful career because you have become the expert for that. You could be talking on stages, you could write a book, you could have, self-paced guide. Like there's so many ways to get out of that. I'm bored. Yeah.

It's just a matter of just having an open mind to it. 

Serena: Yeah. It, I. I compare it to like having a routine is actually more freeing because you know what to expect and you don't have to like spend so much time thinking about how you're gonna do stuff. It's just, it just happens on autopilot. Almost like Steve Jobs with his.

Uniform. You know what I mean? Like [00:32:00] it's the same idea. 

Mallika: Niches can evolve and pivot. So I'm a good example of that. I was a brand photographer for many, many years and that was my niche. And then I found after like I became very successful in that industry, I was doing as much strategy for my clients as the photo.

And so people started asking me like, oh, you helped me so much with my strategy during the photo shoot. Can we talk more about this? And then I would have like a group program on like how to create a standout brand. And so it was separate. And then as time went on, I realized like I actually enjoy the teaching and the mentorship more.

And if I really looked at my own skillsets, my own expertise, That is my zone of genius versus the photography. Like I always felt like the lighting and the technical part, I was good at it, but I had to work at it. Yeah. But with mentorship, the strategy, the brainstorming, the creativity, it like [00:33:00] lit me up and it was, it almost felt like it was easy to do.

Yeah. I had a little bit of a identity crisis cuz I'd been a photographer for so long. But I realized that my brand, my niche was shifting and so I slowly shifted. It was like 50 50 and then it was 60 40 and then it was 70 30 and then we hit a pandemic and no one was doing photography. And I decided I'm going all in.

I'm gonna go all in on strategy and mentorship cuz I can scale my business, I can work with people around the world and it's portable and fast forward to 2023. I have like 5% of my business is photography and the rest is all about brand strategy. And in the brand strategy, my point of difference is I always start with niche development.

Yeah. So just kind of a, you know, a story of the, you know, for the people who are like, there's no way I can't be doing this the rest of my life. Like, you will [00:34:00] pivot and turn. It's entrepreneurship, right? Yeah. It happens. And so, It's just a question of going deep and getting known and building your authority in the marketplace around one thing, and then you could see how that can grow in different ways later.

Serena: Yeah. Yeah. So I'm gonna a, I'm gonna throw one more question at you that I kind of, I kind of brought up at the beginning, but this one's like more of a selfish question. I'm like, I wanna know how to approach this. and maybe it's one of those things that I'm like, I'm doing the right thing. I just need that validation or confirmation type of situation.

But one of the, the things that I've been focused on the past couple years is growing more as a firm. Instead of it being my face, the personal brand, although it is still very personal, brandee because I'm the one that, you know, does the marketing and the sales and, and has the initial conversations and builds the relationships and stuff.[00:35:00] 

But is there an approach that you would take? Because I still want, like, it's still a small firm. I still want our clients to feel. That personal touch, and I don't want it to feel corporatey, right? so it still is like my face. I just have to be very intentional when I have conversations with clients and talk about the team and we Right, and, and things like that.

And yes, I will be doing your onboarding and then after the second month you will have an account manager and. All that. Right. So do you think that that is the right approach for the feel that I'm trying to still portray in the marketplace? 

Mallika: Yeah. So I think you, maybe you started as more of a personal brand and then the business grew, so now you have more of like a team approach, right?

Yeah. So is the, the name of the brand isn't yours anymore. It's called 

Serena: Of course. [00:36:00] Bookkeeping. Of course. So it's, yeah, I, that was the initial stage of the, the rebrand was taking my name off of it completely. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so it's just my face now. 

Mallika: So what I would say is probably, of course, bookkeeping is still very an alignment to your personal brand because you started it.

But, I would work on defining the brand for the. Now more in terms of we, we believe in this. We are on a mission for this. The vision for our business is this. Yeah, we are different than other bookkeeping companies because of this and really trying to get those foundational elements of the brand very clear on.

The bigger brand, which is the, the team brand, right? Yeah. And so, yes, of course you are the face of the brand and you're gonna define that role, but you should also introduce the other bookkeepers, right? Mm-hmm. As extensions of the brand. Which, [00:37:00] like it or not, they're gonna need to show up and be visible because that's the really, the best way for it all to be shared.

And, and it's almost like this, the agency model, right? Yeah. And so, I have seen many personal brands become agencies, and it's like, how do we share that? Right? So you are the face of the brand, but really you need to introduce these other people and share, you know, how they're experts, how they fit into the overarching brand.

Mm-hmm. And then focus on all of the messaging. In the overarching brand and communicating, like I said, what do we believe in? How are we different? What is the transformation that we make? Who do we work with, right? And using that in your social media on your website so that people start seeing, of course, bookkeeping as more of a group versus.

Yeah. Okay. And it doesn't matter what your role is, like if you do the onboarding and all of that, that's kind of a behind the scenes thing, which is kind of your workflow. But the forward [00:38:00] facing should be, yes. You started it, you're the founder, but there are some other people. But all of us believe in the same core principles because we're all part of a.

Yeah, that makes 

Serena: sense. Yeah, I love that. And I'm sure that there's other listeners that are like, yes, I needed this information because I've been trying to do the same thing basically. So thank you so much for that. My selfish little question there. I 

Mallika: mean, and it's great cause your business is growing, right?

Your business is. Scaling. And so how do you, you know, shift the brand from the personal brand that works so well as a solopreneur and now you've created the business brand. But like I said, it's not like the business brand is gonna be drastically different than the personal brand. It's probably, probably still in alignment.

It's just a matter of communicating it and supplementing it with the other members so it feels more cohesive and like a team effort versus. 

Serena: Yeah. [00:39:00] Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for the conversation today. If someone wants to connect with you, on niche strategy or brand strategy, where is the best place for them to do that?

Mallika: Yes. Well, you can come visit my website, which is malika malhotra.co or on Instagram where I live and. And my handles@malkamalhotra.co. If you need help with your niche or your brand building, I would love to invite you to my mastermind, which launches twice a year, January and September. It's called the Brand Breakthrough, and we work on a lot of the things that we talked about today.

My intention is always to help people move from being a generalist to becoming that sought after specialist. 

Serena: I love that. And we will have all those links in the show notes so you don't have to worry about spelling. I know. Yes, I know 

Mallika: it's not an easy name. 

Serena: So thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today and I appreciate you and all of your insight.

It was awesome. 

Mallika: Yes, thank you so much.

[00:40:00] 

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