Episode 21: How Branding Transforms Your Creative Offers With Aiza Cheung

  📍 Welcome to CreativeMind Smart Money, the podcast where creativity and business smarts collide. I’m your host, Samantha Eck, bookkeeper, business coach, and your go to guide for building the creative business of your dreams. Whether it’s mastering your money, streamlining your systems, or growing your business, I’m here to share insights that empower you to thrive.

Plus, I’ll be bringing in industry experts to dive into all aspects of entrepreneurship, so you can turn your passion into profit without losing your creative spark. Let’s get started.

You’re listening to the creative mind, smart money podcast. And today I’m hanging out with none other than Aiza, AKA the brand chef. You heard that right? Aiza is not your average brand designer. She’s got this genius knack for whipping up unforgettable brands, taking what you do, adding your own unique flavor, what she calls your special sauce and serving it up in a way that’s bursting with personality. We’re talking brands so on point, they speak for themselves, no sales pitch required. Oh, and did I mention she’s a huge foodie? Aiza is always mixing branding with her love for food, using tasty analogies that somehow make everything make sense. It’s her sweet spot, and I can’t wait to dive into her creative process with you today. How are you today, Aiza?

I’m very good. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, absolutely, I’m so glad to have you. So can you tell the listeners what kind of led you into becoming a brand designer?

So I have actually been on the design track my whole life. I was always an artsy kid and then went to university and was like, Oh, maybe I should do something that would make me money. And then was like, okay, well, Graphic design is kind of the, the in between like art and the business. So I did that and then I was in the industry for a while in agencies and things like that.

And then six years ago, I, got made redundant from my job. And it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I went on holiday, came back and then started working for myself and haven’t looked back. So yeah, so that’s how I became, a designer that worked for myself, , but for branding specifically.

So I did some branding while I was like in an agency and things like that. But, when I really got into it was when I did some professional development, learning about brand strategy and things like that. While I was working for myself and that was just, The light bulb moment for me. I love brand strategy, but the best thing about it is like translating it into a brand identity.

So that’s when I really got into it and then went all in as a brand designer.

That’s awesome. And I love that. I mean, I feel the same way. I don’t think I’d ever go back to working for anybody else. You get that certain freedom once you start working for yourself.

Yes. Yeah, definitely. It’s just so good.

Yes, let’s start with the basics. What exactly does it mean to brand your signature offer? And why is it important for business owners to do this?

So branding your signature offer is slightly different to branding your business. So if you have a brand for your business already, perfect. The kind of extension of that is branding your offer. And that is basically to help your offer stand out. So It’s about creating something slightly separate.

So like, it’s almost like a sister branch or a sister brand, to your main business so that you can almost talk about it like a product and showcase it like a product. And also everything within it, the whole experience, it feels like its own thing and it really makes it much more easy to explain easy for your clients to connect with you and buy into what you’ve got, right?

Like it’s easier , for them to understand what your offer is and what experience they might, see in your offer. So it’s very visual, a visual way to tell. People what your offer is about.

absolutely. And speaking of visuals, how does that go beyond just having a logo or a color palette?

So I always start with brand strategy. So I always try and get into the nitty gritty of what is it that you do? Why do you do it? Who’s it for? All the underlying foundational elements. And the reason for that is then your visuals are based on something. You’re not just plucking something out of thin air or like, Oh, this is pretty.

I like this. It’s not really about, you yourself. It’s about you and the customer or the client. So I always like to think about it as like a Venn diagram. So it’s like you and them, and then where you meet in the middle is like the perfect way to visualize, your identity.

Yes. I love that. A lot of business owners might think my offer is great as it is. Why do I need to brand it? What would you say to those who don’t see the value in branding their offer and what are some key benefits they might be missing out on?

Yeah, so you can have the best offer in the world, right? And you might have like really good content and a really good internal experience when you take your clients through it but if it doesn’t look the part, then it won’t attract the right clients, which means like it can get lost in all the other offers are out there or, your clients might not connect and get attracted to look into what you’re offering in the first place.

So it’s really about Giving your offer a stage to shine. So without a strong brand, you’re relying on your potential clients to figure out why your offer is great. So like you’re making them work hard and it’s also you’re working hard to explain what you’ve got here as well. So having, branding for your offer means that they can see the value right away.

So then it’s almost like it does some of the heavy lifting for you. And then they see the value as well. Um

you guys haven’t already checked out, or you don’t know eyes on threads, I love her threads the way she talks about her own brand and her business just resonates so clearly. And I think that when you really listen to what she has to say, it’ll make you be that much clearer on what your branding could be. You mentioned that you’re welcome. You mentioned that Brandy makes your offer look more legit, not just something that’s thrown together. What are the key elements that make an offer feel very polished and professional? And how can Brandy elevate the perception of an offer, especially in such a crowded market?

so it’s not so much like the traditional sense of looking professional, right? It’s basically trying to, like I said earlier, tell a story with the visuals. You want it to reflect how good your offer is. That’s the key thing here. Like we know your offer is great. We know you deliver a great service.

You have a great offer. So we want that. there to be a visual consistency for your offer. And when you have that consistency, then it’ll start feeling polished. It’ll start feeling professional and the whole thing would seem a lot more legit because you’ve spent the time, you’ve spent the effort, you’ve spent the resources to design something, create something and put.

your money and branding and messaging and all of that together. So that’s how, everything comes together, to make it polished and professional.

And then your second part of your question about like elevating the perception of the offer, that’s, Basically it right like we want your offer to have a certain energy, whatever that energy may be.

So that’s this is why the brand strategy bit comes in. We want it to speak to potential clients. We want them to have the right perception. of your offer. So it goes from like, Oh, this is nice to have. I kind of, Oh, this is interesting to like, Oh my gosh, I need this like right now.

So that’s the, then it becomes like a magnet for them. So then they see you as like the option, like, Oh, I need to work with you because this is all I need. I don’t need anything else.

yes. I completely agree. I think that if you don’t have that strategy behind your business, you’re just running in a circle, so to say, because you’re not really speaking to your brand. You’re more just putting something out there. I myself have recently gone through this transformation where I’ve more strategically put something behind my brand instead of just being like, ah, I’m just going to toss some stuff out there. And it feels more purposeful and much more polished and

Mm hmm.

Presentable, so I think that’s so important and I think not enough people know that honestly.

Nah. And it’s grounded in something, right? You have a reason to do the things you’re doing, whether or not it’s visual or you’re messaging or where you show up. Everything comes back to like, okay, what’s the strategy behind this? And then, yeah. It almost makes decision making easier too.

it does. Absolutely. In a world where so many similar offers exist, what strategies can business owners use to showcase how their offer is truly unique and what role does branding play in setting your offer apart from the competition?

So first of all, branding offer is already a way to showcase, your offer and how unique it is, because not a lot of people do it, right? They maybe give it a name, but then they tend to use their own branding because their branding is set already. But I like to think about if we think about actual consumer goods and consumer products, for example, innocent smoothies or something, they have different flavors and each of the flavors have different designs.

So that’s kind of where we want to be with our offers because we want people to immediately know, oh, this look, this brand. means that it’s this for me. so it’s setting those boundaries and setting those expectations for your clients. So that’s a way, I guess of thinking about it.

And then, yeah, it’s basically, if you think about it like that, then you can, it’s almost like, Oh, how can I, Use my current branding and spin it off to make my offer stand out. So it’s like it’s a sister brand It’s not like completely separate because we still want some link To it as well. So that’s how I would approach it.

yeah, absolutely. And I think it really does come back to that strategy to, like, when you understand and fully know what you’re offering, you’ll have a clearer picture. And instead of. Copying almost someone else that’s out there, or being similar to someone else that you’re going to be your own brand because. You have a strategy, you know what you want to talk about, you know, what you want to look like, you know, exactly what you want your brand to be. And that’s what’s going to differentiate you from someone who say a competitor.

Yeah, and I think infusing yourself in it is a big thing, especially for online service providers It’s like, okay. Well, you know It doesn’t have to be like, you know, everything that you do, but like think about what you love, think about what might be fun for your clients to, have a little bit of insight into your life as well.

So for example, how I do it is that I have like you said in the introduction, like I love food and I infuse food things into all my offers, into my branding, into the way I talk, into messaging, all of that. So that’s just like a small part, a fun part that people can resonate with. So is there something there that you can use for your offer and use it, to stand out, to your advantage.

Yes, absolutely. So you can’t just tell people about your offer. You honestly have to show them. So how can the visual and emotional elements of branding communicate the value of an offer better than words alone? And how can branding do the heavy lifting when it comes to showcasing your offers benefits?

So I think the key there is, It communicates better than words alone, so you can’t do it without words. I think that’s, one of the key things there, like figuring out your messaging, figure, figuring out what you want to say is really important. And. Branding it means that you’re, visualizing it and enhancing it and making it visually appealing so that when people look at it, they already get a connection and then it’s almost like when they see your messaging, when they read your messaging, they’re like, Oh, This is like building even more trust, even more confidence, even more excitement.

So it’s about, enhancing everything. So that’s how branding does that heavy lifting. It’s like, first of all, it’s the first impression. Someone sees your thing first and they see it. And they’re like, okay, well, what is this? And then it’s also like a long term thing because you’ll infuse all the branding visuals throughout the whole experience in within a course, within the handouts, within the presentations, anything that you might use, while you’re taking your client through the offer, that it becomes this whole world, this whole experience.

So then you’re showcasing that. And then, you know, the best thing, the best outcome would be, Of course, if they become advocates and loyal clients of yours and keep coming back and sharing it with other people. So it compounds.

Yes. Absolutely. I totally agree. And I think that’s so important too, because a lot of people like they push branding to the side. They don’t think that that’s a necessity when they first start up their business. They’re like, Oh, I can focus on other things. But when you think of successful brands, like let’s say, I don’t know, Nike, Nike is so successful because of everything they put behind their brand. Like people will buy you know, Nike shoes just because of the branding. So when you have that powerful brand and that powerful visual, people are more likely to gravitate towards you and your brand.

yeah, it’s about establishing a pattern as well. When they see it over and over and over again, it has that longevity. That’s how Nike, all those big brands build up the narrative, build up the perception. So understanding what you want that perception to be from the beginning is a great start, and then you can always build on that.

And brands evolve over time. You know, they probably look very different. Nike looks very different from when they first started to now. You still know, and when you see it, you associate Nike with a certain image in your head.

Yes, absolutely. So branding obviously makes it all easier to sign clients by grabbing attention and positioning your offer as the obvious choice. How can business owners ensure their brand creates that immediate connection and trust with potential clients and what should they focus on to make their brand irresistible to their target audience.

I think understanding is the main thing. You want to make sure that Your clients feel understood. That’s where you can create that immediate connection. If be like genuine, right. And trustworthy, and they get that feeling right from the start, both from like your visuals, as we said, and messaging, whatever the touch point might be like, we want it basically, we want.

Everything to be cohesive wherever they might see you, whether it’s your website, socials, emails, telephone calls, you know, anything like that, we want to show up in the same way so then they Give you the connection and trust that you’re asking for. I think that’s the main thing I think Then they’ll feel like you Understand who they are you feel like they or they feel like everything they see Makes sense to them and that you’re building on that understanding.

So, you know, sometimes it takes time to build that connection and trust. But having that immediate, just like, Oh, I kind of get you or you’re interesting or you understand me. That’s just like that little, little, connection that you might want to. Have in the beginning and then it grows from there.

Yes. Yes. I think that’s so important too. Cause I actually just experienced that recently where with my shift in my messaging and my branding, I’ve been posting a lot of stories lately and I’ve had someone that’s been watching me for months who finally reached out and was like, Hey, you know, your story just hit every single point.

I was like, Looking for and I was like, it wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t have that mindset shift to like speak more to them to make them feel understood because when we just speak about what we offer or what our offer is, it, I don’t think it connects quite as well as if we. Connect with who we’re trying to talk to.

Yeah. When you, when you mentioned that, it also made me think of visibility. That’s super important as well. No matter how you’re visible, whether it’s showing your face and doing video or using like stock photos or videos or any other type of medium, being visible is super important. If they can’t see you to make a connection, Then they’re not going to be there.

They’re not going to be there to connect with you at all. So being visible is also super important.

Yes. So for those who have multiple offers, how can branding help Differentiate them from one another and avoid confusing potential clients? And what are some best practices for making sure each offer has its own unique identity while still sitting under the overall brand?

This is where strategic branding comes in. So we want to look at your original, business, the branding for your business and see how we can have those offshoots, have those sister brandings to make them look like mini brands within your larger brand. So we don’t want it to look completely different or like with a completely different style or it feels completely different.

We want them to be in the same family. So there are different ways to do this. Like one would be like different emphasis on colors or just changing some typography, but still keeping it in the same family or just changing up the imagery, things like that. There are things to shift where you can make each offer different.

But when you look at all of them as a whole, they’re still like, Oh, They’re all part of the same brand. You can tell, this is where it comes back to the product thing that I was talking about. So the consumer brands where, they have loads of different flavours, for example. If you look at cereal, you know which ones, which flavours are which according to their brand or their packaging. But then you know that they’re all still from the same company. So we want our offers to kind of feel like that. Yeah.

Yeah, that totally makes sense. I mean, you know, when you think of Kellogg’s, you know, who is all under the Kellogg’s brand, things like that. So just making that kind of fit under the bigger umbrella, but still differentiating each individual offer.

So many people struggle with talking about their offer in a way that feels natural and compelling. How does branding help business owners talk about their offers more confidently? And how can a strong brand identity make promoting and selling an offer a little bit easier?

I think practice is the number one thing, you know, the more you do it, the easier it’ll get, you know, a few years ago, I’d be like, there’s no way I’m going to talk on stories. And now I’m just like, okay, yeah. I’ll do it. There’s no problem. So practice is, is one of those things, you know, you can have scripts, you can have visuals ready so that it’s easier for you to do those things.

And having a strong brand identity means that you have the strong strategy behind it. And so, like you said earlier, by having the strategy and being more confident because you’ve done the groundwork. You’ll tend to just know, you’ll tend to show up more, you’ll, it’ll tend to be easier to visualize things, to create assets because You’ve already done the hard work of like sifting through everything and making sure like, you know, what you want to talk about and how you want to show up.

After I work with a lot of clients, they actually say to me that, Oh, I feel a lot more confident. I’d feel a lot more motivated. Oh yeah. Here’s what I offer. Here’s what I do. Because look at me, like I have new branding for my offer. Like it looks so great. So it actually makes it a lot easier to talk about once you’ve done it.

Yes. Well, and I noticed that shift even in yourself like when you started. Doing your your brand of an offer. I think it was and I was like, oh my gosh That is such good marketing like wow.

I mean the thing is it was like it was on it was like a whim it was on a whim it was like okay I’m gonna get this offer done and like created and I was just so excited about it That I was showing up a lot like it’s called the offer oven. So Again, it’s food related. So I’m like, okay, well, I can play with that.

I can use that and see what I can do with it as well. So it’s like exciting for me to like figure it out. But also it’s fun for people to see me show up and me talk about it as well. So, Yeah, I think, I think sometimes it’s more like, okay, once you’ve done it, now you’ve got to keep doing it and keep trying to feel motivated about it.

My personality is like, oh, I like new shiny things, but I’m like, no, I need to stay grounded and use the same things that I’ve got, to, to talk about my offers that I have. So yeah, so I think that’s, that’s the main thing.

Yeah, and I think that’s so important is that you have to note that it takes practice It’s not just all gonna come at once sometimes your messaging is gonna be off but the more you talk about it and the more You refine it the better off you’re gonna be In the future, because people are going to start to resonate more with what you’re saying.

I always think, if you have an offer and you’ve, you know, probably launched it a few times, keep going and keep iterating, a lot of people that I work with, they’ve probably, you know, launched the offer a few times already, and like it’s tried and tested. So then. It’s ready. It’s ready for them, like both internally and externally for them to show up and be like, okay, now let’s legitimize this and let’s put a branding, put brand, a brand identity behind it so that it gets even more traction and even more eyes on it.

So that’s like where it got me really excited when I was designing my offer.

yes. So what’s your process for working with business owners to brand their offers, especially if they’re just starting out or unsure of where to begin. And can you walk us through the steps someone should take when starting to brand their offer for the 1st time?

Yeah. So like I said, just now it’s, if you’ve tested it a few times, like. Been through a few launches or like had a few clients go through your offer and you’re like, okay there are some legs to this and then that’s like a really good place to start the way I do it is I do it within my offer called the offer oven Where I take them on a sprint a design sprint, which is a seven day sprint I do things quickly because I Basically want you to hit the ground running, get what you need and get going.

So that’s how I work. So day one, we do strategy. Day two, I give you the creative direction. And then day three to seven, I basically start designing everything. Logo, colors, fonts, and things like that. So then, We have everything that you need so that and you can on day seven, I send you all your files and you can get implementing and get going.

And so that’s my process. And, I make sure that, we keep in touch quite a lot throughout the week. So we keep the dialogue open, and like work with you throughout the process to make sure that we’re always on the same page. So there’s no Be going off and then coming back and you’re like, Whoa, what is this?

What’s going on? It’s always like, okay, let’s talk about it. Let’s let’s, let’s make sure that we’re communicating every step of the way to make sure we’re still on the right track, which is why I can try and cater and get everything done in seven days.

Yes, I love that. So if my listeners want to be able to work with you or to find you, where can they do that?

I’m Studio Koya, and it’s C O Y A on Instagram. They can DM me, you can pop me an email. You can basically message me wherever you can find me. And, if you want to work with me, then the Offer Oven is where we what we’ve been talking about today and you can find that on my website at studiokoia.

com and yeah if you have any questions like feel free to message me I’m an open book so if you’re not sure and you’re like oh I don’t know if this is for me I will let you know once we discuss it for sure and whether or not it’s right because I don’t want to I want you to be in the right place when we do this because we want it to work for you so that’s always my goal

Yes, absolutely. Well, I want to say thank you so much for joining me today, Isa. It’s really been a joy. And I think that a lot of people are going to walk away with some really great actionable steps they can take to elevate their branding a little bit, but also a great way to connect with you and hopefully get in on that offer oven. So thank you again for being here. I really appreciate it.

thank you so much

📍 That’s it for today’s episode of Creative Minds Smart Money. A big thank you to Iza aka The Brand Chef for walking us through the magic of branding your offer. Here’s what we covered. Branding your offer gives it a distinct identity that helps it stand out in a crowded market. Visuals should reflect the quality of your work.

First impressions matter. Infusing your personality into your branding makes it relatable and engaging. And memorable. A strong brand strategy does the heavy lifting, helping you show up confidently and attract dream clients. If you’ve been wondering how to make your offer shine brighter, Aiza’s insight is the secret sauce you’ve been waiting for.

Take her advice and start elevating how you present your work today. Thanks for listening. And as always stay bold, stay authentic and keep building the creative business you dream of. Until next time, farewell, fellow travelers.