Susan Friedmann [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas, and tips from the masters. Every week, I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books. Today, my special guest is Kim Rosdiba. Kim is a strategic branding mastermind who's shaped some of the world's most iconic brands. With over 3 decades of experience, Kim has been the driving force between multimillion dollar campaigns for Fortune 500 giants. From his celebrated book, Branding Queens, to his latest work, Loyalnomics, the Power of Branding, Kim has unparalleled expertise in strategic branding, loyalty, and storytelling all the way from Calgary, Canada. Kim, it's an absolute pleasure to welcome you to the show, and thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.
Kim Rozdeba [00:01:05]:
Susan, thank you very much. I'm really excited to be on your show. I've been listening to your show for many years. Actually, when I was starting writing my first book, I was learning from you. So I'm really excited to be here.
Susan Friedmann [00:01:18]:
Oh, well, that's such a compliment. I love it. Oh, my goodness. What a great way to start the interview. Kim, let's get very basic and start introducing this idea of branding, and let's get a definition so we're all on the same page with what exactly is your definition of a brand?
Kim Rozdeba [00:01:40]:
There's a lot of definitions out there. But mine, I've kind of paraphrased a very famous quote from Maya Angelou. And my definition of a brand is a brand isn't what it says or does, but how it makes its customers feel. But at the end of the day, it's how we're making our customers feel that's really important. Now, it's not to say that they own the brand. They absolutely do, but we can influence it. Today, what I'm gonna talk to you about is how do I influence the brand and how that customer is going to feel?
Susan Friedmann [00:02:18]:
Wow. We could get really deep into this, I know, and you and I had this great conversation prior to coming on the air. But let's talk about the fact that there's an author brand and then there's a book brand. What's the difference here? And perhaps even where do you feel from your perspective an author should put their energy? Should it be in the book, or should it be in themselves?
Kim Rozdeba [00:02:47]:
This is a great question because I think this is where it gets complicated. And sometimes we start muddling. We go from one to the other without really understanding that we're talking about the book versus the author. Authors, when they talk about branding, sometimes get confused with the book brand and with their own brand. And I think we gotta step back and just look at the person. You wrote a book. What is your brand? How are you gonna position yourself? And then positioning the book becomes the second aspect to this. I know we don't have a lot of time, and I think it's really important that we understand what the author brand is.
Kim Rozdeba [00:03:28]:
And I look at this from a lens of about 5 different pillars, And the 5 different pillars is commitment, construct, community, content, and consistency.
Susan Friedmann [00:03:42]:
And those are the 5 pillars that you highlight in the book. And I think what would be really helpful, let's go through each one of them and look at, well, what does each one mean and maybe some practicalities of each one? How does that sound?
Kim Rozdeba [00:04:01]:
That's great.
Susan Friedmann [00:04:02]:
So I'll start with the first one. Is it commitment?
Kim Rozdeba [00:04:05]:
Commitment. The big question that has to be answered in branding is what problem are you solving? From a customer's perspective, that's what they care about. So when you start with the first one, which is commitment, commitment talks about what is your values. It's the why. Why are you doing this? What's your promise? What's the essence of what you're trying to accomplish? And when you look at this from a author's perspective, it's gonna be much bigger than just one book. So it's important to establish understanding what your promise is going to be. And it's gonna be bigger than one book unless you're just gonna write one book. If you're just gonna write one book, but the book itself is a piece to that solution that you're trying to provide.
Susan Friedmann [00:04:52]:
What's coming to mind for me, Kim, as you say that is share what your commitment was to you writing your book, this last one, the loyalnomics.
Kim Rozdeba [00:05:04]:
It was quite clear for me of trying to communicate what a brand is. There's a lot of noise out there. There's a lot of miscommunication. There's a lot of, you know, interesting perspectives of what a brand is. A lot of look at branding as part of marketing, and I see branding as far more holistic. When you look at an organization, you look at what you're trying to achieve, it's much bigger than just marketing. It's much bigger than just advertising. Every touchpoint that a customer has that interacts either directly with you or with your product, I.
Kim Rozdeba [00:05:39]:
E, your book, how is it making them feel? It's the collective.
Susan Friedmann [00:05:45]:
So I was gonna delve even deeper into that. How is it making them feel? What exactly does that mean in terms of the book? Is it the way you write it? Is it the stories you tell? What is it? Is it the colors that you use? What is it that does that?
Kim Rozdeba [00:06:04]:
All of it. Right from the cover to the back page. What you're trying to do is your book is either going to be educating, entertaining. There is a certain thing that you're trying to achieve. You're either trying to convince a reader of maybe a new concept. You are trying to change behavior. You may be, as I said, entertained, just pure entertainment. In a lot of cases, the nonfiction is generally we're trying to educate, and we're trying to give them another perspective or to help.
Susan Friedmann [00:06:36]:
Yeah. Self help. I mean, there's so much in self help. And as you say, many times, when you're sharing your expertise, you're also maybe highlighting a problem. Your book is there to help solve that problem, that challenge that somebody may have in a certain area.
Kim Rozdeba [00:06:54]:
Yeah. The net impression that you're trying to leave might be as simple as gratitude, or you know what? I feel better.
Susan Friedmann [00:07:03]:
I felt better, I know, when I first learned about imposter syndrome. And I found a book on that exact term, which I never even knew existed. And all of a sudden, I'm like, oh my goodness. I'm not the only person in the world who ever suffered or felt that way. You know, and this was way back 30 years ago. Yeah. But that made me feel so much better to know something more about something that I didn't even know existed.
Kim Rozdeba [00:07:34]:
Yeah. I mean, if you write a book that changes people's lives, wow. That's incredible.
Susan Friedmann [00:07:42]:
Yeah. Many people want to do that. Well, we don't wanna run out of time with going through these 5 pillars. Let's go on to construction, your second one. Talk to us about construction. What does that mean?
Kim Rozdeba [00:07:54]:
This is the look and feel. This is look and feel of a personality. So it's, you know, your name. Your name becomes really important because that's how people associate with you. Is there any other touch points? Color, typography, fonts, personality? Likability becomes huge. When we look at an author, there's sort of like 2 elements, I think, that are really important. 1 is credibility and how do you build that credibility through reputation, an authority on something, a presence. But the other piece that is just as important, if not more important in some cases, is likability.
Kim Rozdeba [00:08:34]:
Likability becomes, you know, your personality. How do you write? How do you communicate? How do you respond? You know, when you get a a question from a reader, you know, how do you respond? Do you give it a week or 2, or do you immediately respond? And are you excited to engage? Understanding how you're going to present yourself becomes really important. I said to you earlier, Susan, your British accent is a part of your brand, and it's a part of your construct. You can't change that.
Susan Friedmann [00:09:06]:
And it's so funny because I never ever thought about that being such a distinction. But, you know, as a speaker, people are like, Oh, I love the way you speak. And I'm like, Really? When I talk to my brother, he says, you sound so American. I was like, okay. Yes. But you're right. I mean, there are certain aspects. I recall, you know, when I did a lot more live presentations that I wore a scarf, the same scarf every time.
Susan Friedmann [00:09:36]:
I just felt that that was me, that made me. And I'm sure that that carried over as well.
Kim Rozdeba [00:09:44]:
Seth Godin, pretty famous author. He's written over 20 books, similar to yourself. He wears eyeglasses, and he's wears yellow eyeglasses. That's one of his, trademarks. When you see him in any images, he's wearing those glasses.
Susan Friedmann [00:10:02]:
I never thought about that, but absolutely, I can recall this. Yeah. I'm just seeing them right now. Yep. That he wear them. He's not allowed to change his frames. No.
Kim Rozdeba [00:10:12]:
I think he has a deal with, whoever is supplying the glasses.
Susan Friedmann [00:10:17]:
Exactly. That would be a great sponsor. Let's move on to community, the 3rd pillar.
Kim Rozdeba [00:10:23]:
The 3rd pillar, community. Okay? Obviously, it is your readers, which are really important. But there are others that you gotta look at that are just as important, particularly as a new author, and that is your influencers and advocates, because it's so important to have others, and particularly when you're trying to build a reputation, to have others who already have established themselves as either as an author or an expert in an area, to have them also amplify your message. So it's building these networks of influencers and advocates that become really important prior to actually writing your book, but also having them right there when you're actually launching your book.
Susan Friedmann [00:11:09]:
Yeah. And influencers these days, I mean, are even bigger than they ever used to be because they've got all these platforms that they can talk about you on. So, yes. So making friends with influencers is a very good move. Let's move on to the 4th pillar, and that's content. Let's talk about that.
Kim Rozdeba [00:11:32]:
This is all the touch points. This is all the communication touch points. And a lot of people, this would be marketing. But to me, it's bigger than marketing because you've got other aspects of communications that are taking place that are not in your traditional marketing toolbox. And this is looking at, again, from a author's perspective, one of the critical ones, and I saw this in your newsletter that you sent out this morning, is having a website. Hugely important. If people can't find you because they're going to want to look for you, right, if they're interested in this topic and they go, oh, this Kim guy was kind of interesting, I wanna find out more about him. They're gonna go on the Internet and they're going to Google my name, if they can spell it, and they're gonna find out more about me.
Kim Rozdeba [00:12:18]:
But if I'm not there, it's gonna be impossible for them to find it. Others may talk about me, and it'll be on their sites, not on mine. You want to have the first word, and you wanna position your brand the way you want to position it. And the only way you can do that is by building your own website.
Susan Friedmann [00:12:36]:
What's coming to mind with that is having a name that is hard to not only spell, but pronounce. What about being known, for instance, you could be known as the branding guru, the branding mentor. I was known when I was in the trade show industry as the trade show coach. I'm now known as the author marketing mentor. Help me with that because that, for me, is easier to remember than trying to remember my name, which many people mispronounce and then can't even spell it.
Kim Rozdeba [00:13:17]:
Right. Because if you just put one n in, you're not gonna find you. You're gonna find the other Susan.
Susan Friedmann [00:13:23]:
The other Susan Friedman's. Exactly. And there are a ton of us out there, and you can spell it multiple ways. Exactly.
Kim Rozdeba [00:13:30]:
Yeah. What you're saying is exactly right. Find another handle that makes it easier for people to remember. The handle I use is my book title because if you Google my book title, either one, you'll find me. The good thing is is if you have the SEO that's appropriate that you've built and you have your titles also unique, you can actually get to me easier through the titles, and the titles are easier. And you know what? I want people to remember my title name because I want them to buy the book.
Susan Friedmann [00:14:02]:
Yes. It's so much easier to if you have a name that says what you do, in my Riches and Niches, How to Make It Big in a Small Market, that was key that I said, you know, create a name, particularly for your business that says what you do because people then remember that much more easily. And I think that's exactly what we're saying. Maybe I'm repeating it in different ways, but Yeah. Yes, that is so, so important. I remember going through having all these complicated but sort of what I thought were clever names for my company. I started off with, like, Diadem Communications, and people thought I was a wireless company. And I was like, what? Why don't they know that communications means, you know, media and PR, etcetera? But they didn't.
Kim Rozdeba [00:14:58]:
Yeah.
Susan Friedmann [00:14:59]:
That's when I had to go and change exactly what I was known for.
Kim Rozdeba [00:15:05]:
Right. And if we go back to the first pillar, which was commitment, in your commitment, you're gonna have to solve a problem. You've gotta define why you're doing what you're doing. And maybe in there, you can actually come up with a handle or a name that you can start utilizing that associates how you're gonna solve a problem to that target audience. You can tie it back there to try and get to and, again, that ties into the construct too as to how you fit that into associating your actual personality with that name. But the other two important ones from a content perspective outside of the website, because the website to me is a nonstarter, absolutely nonstarter. You gotta have that. Because if you don't, as I said, somebody else is gonna talk about you, and you should be the first one talking about yourself and positioning yourself correctly.
Kim Rozdeba [00:15:57]:
But the others is podcasts like this and then social media. And these allow for your personality to come across because otherwise a website, know, it's just words. Unless you've put video on there, which is also very nice, because then you can actually start communicating your personality.
Susan Friedmann [00:16:15]:
Now one thing you said about the website, it's an absolute. I often get asked, should it be a book website, or should it be an author website?
Kim Rozdeba [00:16:25]:
Well, if you wanna hide behind your book, then you would probably start with a book website. But a book website is just above the book. If you've got more than the book, I think a book, in a lot of cases, what we're talking about here today, is an ends to a means in the sense of it's an introduction to something bigger. You're gonna be out there either doing speaking engagements. You're gonna be doing other opportunities of consulting, possibly. So you wanna start with you first. You're the one that wrote the book.
Susan Friedmann [00:16:59]:
Very easy for authors wanting to stand behind the book. Yes.
Kim Rozdeba [00:17:04]:
You know, the book is a product. At the end of the day, the book is a product. It's a it's a widget.
Susan Friedmann [00:17:10]:
It's a big fat business card that's going to open doors. That's what I often tell authors. It's showing that you are an expert in an area. You've written a book. Yeah. And that's a testament to your expertise in that particular area.
Kim Rozdeba [00:17:29]:
Right. And people wanna know where it comes from. And what I mean by that, any brand, people wanna know the why. They wanna understand why you're doing this, and it's much bigger than educating on what a brand is.
Susan Friedmann [00:17:45]:
I think we've still got time for the last c. This is fascinating. I mean, my mind's going crazy here with all different things, and I know there's so much more to this conversation, and we're gonna have to have you back again. That's all there is to it. But let's tackle the 5th c, the 5th pillar, and that I believe was consistency.
Kim Rozdeba [00:18:08]:
Yeah. Without this one, all the rest fall apart over time. Because if you can't deliver consistent messaging and consistent personality, all of the other things that I've just talked about consistently, people look and go, either you're schizophrenic or, you know, you're talking one way. And this is where trust becomes really important. And you wanna build trust. If you wanna be a credible source of information, which is what a book is, trust becomes really important. And the trust comes from your question about, you know, the book versus the author. This becomes paramount.
Kim Rozdeba [00:18:47]:
Right? Because the trust is not in the book. The trust is with the author. And so to build that trust, you have to be consistent. So when you present yourself, be it on social, be it on podcasts, any other venue that you could be speaking and speaking engagements, that consistency becomes really important, and your messaging becomes really important. And that all goes back to your why, the commitment.
Susan Friedmann [00:19:14]:
Now that's beautiful. Yes. That consistency comes up all the time. In fact, it was just on a a webinar on podcasting and consistency. You know, you don't just start it, you've got to keep going. Even though it can be challenging sometimes to do an episode every week, and to do an article every week, and be on social media every week. So yeah.
Kim Rozdeba [00:19:42]:
Or be invited to a conference that makes no sense. It's an opportunity. You go, oh, gosh. There's some people I can, you know, present to. But if it doesn't fit, you shouldn't do it.
Susan Friedmann [00:19:53]:
When you said consistency holds it all together, the word glue came up for me. I thought, oh, this is the glue that holds all these things together. I like it.
Kim Rozdeba [00:20:04]:
I use the red thread because the red thread is the thread that ties and pulls everything together, and that's the brand.
Susan Friedmann [00:20:12]:
Yes. And we interviewed, the expert on the red thread, Thompson Webster. Her whole business is around the red thread.
Kim Rozdeba [00:20:20]:
Yeah.
Susan Friedmann [00:20:21]:
Yes. Beautiful. How can our listeners find out more about you and the book? This is so fascinating.
Kim Rozdeba [00:20:30]:
They can find me online. They can look for loyalnomics. It's all one word, Loyalnomics.I'm also on LinkedIn, but I also have a website, and it's rozdeba.com.
Susan Friedmann [00:20:44]:
Fabulous. And I'll put that and a link to the book in the show notes, Kim, because it's fascinating. And it's such a deep subject that really we don't know that much about. And the emphasis isn't necessarily on branding. So I think that's something, in fact, I know that that's something our listeners need to, you know, really delve more into so that they are more consistent with everything they do, they say, they write, how they appear, yes, their colors, I think all of that is critical. As you know, we always have our guests leave our listeners with the golden nugget. What's yours?
Kim Rozdeba [00:21:30]:
My golden nugget is you can be conscious or unconscious of building a brand. Most of us go through life without consciously building a brand. And you will whatever you're doing, you will provide a feeling to your customer, whether you are consciously trying to do it or not. Some of us are natural at trying to build that relationship. My golden nugget is step back a second and look at it from a totality, look at the 5 c's, and see where are you consciously building your brand.
Susan Friedmann [00:22:07]:
That's a lot to think about. That's so deep. It's like where are you thinking as the book? Are you thinking as yourself? Yeah. And maybe there's a shift. There's a whole shift in thinking when you're more conscious of this because it's not something that really comes to mind straightaway. And so you sharing this wisdom, and I think we just touched the tip of the iceberg. In fact, I know we touched just the tip of the iceberg with all of this. This is fabulous listeners.
Susan Friedmann [00:22:40]:
You're gonna have to listen to this several times again because there's really a lot here. It's very deep, so please do that. Kim, it's hard to let you go because I love to get deeper into this, and I know we're gonna have a part 2 because it's sort of crying out for more information to make people more conscious of branding, which I don't think has sort of hasn't got the appeal that some of the other marketing slash sales tactic strategies have. I appreciate you sharing your wisdom.
And listeners, if your book isn't selling the way you wanted or expected to, let's you and I jump on a quick call together to brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales because you've invested a whole lot of time, money, and energy, and it's time you got the return that you were hoping for. Go to Book Marketing Mentors to schedule your free call. In the meantime, I hope this powerful interview sparks some ideas you can use to sell more books.
Until next week, here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.
