How to Build a Personal Brand That Stands Out in a Saturated Market

You don’t need to be louder - you need to be clearer.

In this episode, I'm chatting with visibility strategist Ivana Ivanek about what it really takes to stand out in a saturated market without turning yourself into a content machine or sacrificing your integrity.

We also discuss:

• How to build a brand based on your values and story
• Why your message matters more than your expertise
• Where to start if you have no idea what your "personal brand" actually is
• How your personal brand allows you to pivot while maintaining customer loyalty
• How having a supportive community can help you find your voice and get over your fear of being seen

Links & References:

• If you're serious about growing your business in 2025, check out the new Powerful Women Rising Connection Network!
• Learn more about how Ivana helps coaches and educators make money and lasting impact HERE!
• Connect with Ivana on Instagram
• Listen to the Online Business by Design podcast

Chapters

• 0:02 Warm Welcome And Intros
• 0:41 Ivana’s Path To Personal Branding
• 2:56 What Personal Branding Is And Isn’t
• 6:25 Values Over Logos In Crowded Markets
• 9:44 From Life Story To Brand Message
• 14:04 Letting People In Without Oversharing
• 17:24 How Quiet Founders Still Stand Out
• 22:20 Women, Visibility, And Cultural Barriers
• 27:20 Belonging, Community, And Outgrowing Circles

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Hello, Ivana.

SPEAKER_02: 0:03

Welcome to the Powerful Woman Rising podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 0:06

Melissa, I'm so stoked to be here. It has been a while since we connected, and everybody who doesn't know about podcasting, there's quite a brood behind the scenes to get together, but we finally made it. And I just can't wait to have this conversation with you today.

SPEAKER_02: 0:20

Yes, I'm so excited to talk to you too. I know time zones, no matter how long I've been doing this, are still so confusing and still never cease to mess everything up. So I'm glad we both got here the same time, same day, and I'm excited to talk to you. So before we dive into the conversation, tell everybody just a little bit about you and about what you do.

unknown: 0:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 0:41

So my name is Ivana Ivanik. I'm the founder of Fabulous Foundation, personal brand strategist, mindset coach, and the host of the online business by design podcast. I help female founders stand out in saturated markets through personal branding so they can make money and impact. I love that. And how long have you been doing this work? I've been doing business strategy in the digital space since almost five years now, and I specialized on personal branding three years ago.

SPEAKER_02: 1:10

Okay, awesome. Is your background in like marketing and branding in business?

SPEAKER_00: 1:16

It is in marketing, in sales mainly, but this has just developed as I have founded a very successful business in during COVID, actually, and I have made money within a month. And this has developed quite well, which I'm still doing on the side. And then I thought, okay, this was uh something that I did from the comfort of my own home with no proper pants on, while you know the whole world didn't know what to do. And um, as uh we all develop and grow, I grew into uh my specifics, so to say, and took the skill set that I had from the corporate world and just adjusted into the digital space.

SPEAKER_02: 1:53

Yeah, that's great. I'm excited for this conversation. I love talking to people who have the kind of background and experience and knowledge that you do because I think there's so many of us who go into business because we're so excited to do the thing that we want to do, right? Like we're so excited to make our cupcakes or be a life coach or sell whatever our product is. And we're not really excited about all of the business stuff, but we don't even really realize like how much there is that we don't know, right? We just think we're gonna show up with our cupcakes and everyone's gonna buy them and it's gonna be great. And so I love talking to people like you who have that expertise about some of the like behind the scenes that those of us who are maybe newer in business are still kind of getting established, like things that we don't even know that we don't know. So I'm excited to talk to you today, especially about personal branding, because I think there's a lot of misconceptions about what that means and why it's important. So let's start with what personal branding is and maybe what it isn't.

SPEAKER_00: 2:56

I will start with what personal branding is for me. Like, first of all, what it isn't, it's not hiding behind your logo. Personal branding is you as a persona operating your business as a real human being up front. I have an incredible cool example here. And personal branding is nothing new, it's just it's becoming really fancy, and I know we all like fancy nowadays, right? Because the markets are saturated, the people have lost trust as we um proceeded over the last years, and there are just so many coaches out there, and the question is who to pick. There are so many um psychotherapists out there, and the question is who to pick, who is the best, who do I trust, who do I like? And it's no longer about uh finding a company, because if you Google psychotherapists, it will show you probably 20 in your area, coaches, same, business strategist, or whatever service you are looking for. And for me, personal branding is something that is so much more sustainable than just operating and having a business. Personal branding for me personally should be something that is you that you build, where you take the people on your journey that creates a ripple effect of impact. You are a thought leader, not only an expert. And your personal brand should allow you to pivot at any given time in your business. So, as let's say Melissa, you sell cupcakes today. By the way, I love this um example. And because people love Melissa, and Melissa has this, you have this incredible fan club and community of people that are like, this is my woman, like what she does, the way she thinks, the way she moves through life, the way she handles obstacles, and the way she makes cupcakes is just my kind of person. So it might be that Melissa won't do you won't do cupcakes anymore in two years, but you go to wedding cakes. I'm sure one of those people in this community or fan club will either tell people that you're doing um uh wedding cakes now, or we'll get married at some point and be like, thank god I know you. Another cool example is Beyonce. Like, I'm a forever fan of Beyoncé. She has made RB for years. And what is she doing now? Her brand new album is uh anything but RB. And people still love her, people still go to the concerts because it's Beyonce. And a personal brand should allow you to do this over and over again as you develop as a human being.

SPEAKER_02: 5:32

Yeah, so it's really more about who you are than what you do.

SPEAKER_00: 5:38

Exactly. And I think you had an incredible cool episode just uh just recently aired the difference between marketing and sales and how to navigate that. I just uh I tuned in recently into that. And the truth is personal branding is marketing, is your visibility and marketing strategy. And yes, of course, we speak of our about our expertise on podcasts, we speak about it in our content on social media, we write about it in articles, and we present webinars in front of already curated audiences. But the truth is that a sustainable brand is built on value, not only expertise. It's built on the message that matters to the world in the current state.

SPEAKER_02: 6:25

So if I'm listening to this and I think, okay, that sounds like a great idea. I understand what you're saying in theory, but I don't know what my personal brand is. Like I know what my logo is, I know what my colors are, I know my website is really pretty. Where do I start when it comes to figuring out my own personal brand?

SPEAKER_00: 6:44

I love this question. This is something really um cool. And I dare to say that everybody is or has a personal brand because the work we do, and especially in the transformation industry, and when we are running our passionate, intentional businesses, as we can do this right now, and to really the work we want to be doing, this is not coming from the idea of I woke up as an expert, I'm gonna make a bank. This idea usually comes to us from knowledge, experiences, and things we have already lived through, tackled, and now are ready to bring it to the world. So let's say, Melissa, you are building communities. Why is it so important to you to put women into communities? Why can't we sit in our corner? Like, what has moved you to bring us together?

SPEAKER_02: 7:40

I mean, I think there's a lot of different things. One of them is my own experience, like in middle school in particular, being the girl that had to eat lunch in the bathroom every day because I didn't have friends and I didn't have anybody to sit with. And that was a terrible feeling. And so I've always really wanted to make sure that everyone feels like they have friends that they can sit with. And then that really translated into the business world where um, you know, we're spending so much money and so much time on all of these things that we think that we need, and we're trying to do all of these things by ourselves, and none of that is sustainable without having support and community.

SPEAKER_00: 8:24

How does how does community sprinkle in your everyday life outside of business? Have you a community gatherer?

SPEAKER_02: 8:33

Yeah, I mean, I think that's where that's where all of my support system and you know people who started out as people I met at networking events or referral partners or just like online acquaintances that have become like some of my best friends.

SPEAKER_00: 8:49

Tea over cupcakes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So what I hear here is that you are creating belonging through community and create support systems for success. And this is your personal brand. Whether it is business strategy, it doesn't matter, can be anything. Can be if you put yourself out as the brand who creates belonging and wants everyone to have friends and succeed in their doing, then today you teach strategy and tomorrow you can support moms going through perimenopause.

SPEAKER_02: 9:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 9:25

Right. So this is the message you're bringing to the world that we all belong, that we all need somebody that's no matter who and what we are doing, that nobody nobody has done it alone.

SPEAKER_02: 9:35

Yeah. Yeah. So is your personal brand more about your like mission and your values than it is like your personality and the things that you like and your hobbies? Like, is it is it more about like for me, for the example we're talking about, is it more about this like inclusivity and community and wanting a space for everyone and wanting, you know, to support female entrepreneurs than it is about, you know, how much I love Taylor Swift and Starbucks? Or is all of that part of the personal brand?

SPEAKER_00: 10:12

It is all part of it. We uh the most important thing are the values and the foundational values and the change we want to create in the world.

SPEAKER_02: 10:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 10:21

Then the second part is of course, let the people in in your life. And this is something where people are very, very scared of because they say, Oh my god, do I now need to share everything on social media? Do I need to tell everyone what I eat when I walk? When I had an argument with my husband, do I need to tell that my kids didn't behave? No, none of that. Because there is also, if we then think further, and let's say you are creating community and you create belonging, true community, then there are parts in your life that are doing exactly the same thing in your private life, and it's easy to recreate because it's a value you are living up to every day in and out. I can give you an example from my life. I travel, like I'm not a digital nomad, but I do move countries frequently, let's say two to five years sequencing. So I moved from Greece to Southeast Asia, from Southeast Asia to the Caribbean, from the Caribbean to Barcelona, back to Europe now. And I'm taking the people along on this journey. What I do, I mean, I'm not on an airplane every day, but what I do, I immerse myself in culture. In every city, there is something exciting I do. And what I do most of the time is eating and enjoying a glass of wine. What I also do is I go to the gym and I run. So I take the people along on this journey, and I teach people that they need to, you know, teach themselves to do hard things no matter what, if they want to have a personal, successful brand, because your brain doesn't know the difference between going to the gym at 9 p.m. when you're tired or showing up on social media. Resilience is resilience. So these are the tiny bits that I take people along in my life where first of all I can sustain it. I do it almost every other day. So there's enough content to show what I do.

SPEAKER_02: 12:13

I love that. So when it comes to standing out in a saturated market, I think this is what I really want to talk about. And I know personal branding is a huge part of this, but how do the two tie together? Because I know I have a lot of conversations, and I'm sure you do too, with entrepreneurs and people who are newer in business that think like everyone does what I do. There are a hundred million people who are doing this, right? Everybody's a coach, everybody's a realtor, everybody's a photographer. And so how does personal branding help people stand out in those markets, especially when they are not like the loudest, right? Or they're not like the most outrageous. How does like a normal person use personal branding to stand out?

SPEAKER_00: 13:04

There is two things I need to mention here. It's so personal branding is not new, as I already said. Like personal brands exist throughout like hundreds of years. It's just like now that it's getting more and more important, as there are, as you say, everybody thinks that everyone is a coach. The reason why we think, as an example, the reason why we think as such is because if you are a coach, then all you do is watch coaches doing business every single day. Before I started in this industry five years ago, I didn't know how many they are. And if we break it down into in numbers, then it's probably a 0.0001 something of the whole population who are actually coaches and who are visible online. So just because you see it everywhere, it doesn't mean everyone is a coach. Secondly, um we have this opportunity now to reach buyers beyond borders through social media, through diverse platforms. And what is so great about this era, especially right now, is that you don't have to be the loudest, as you say, but we cannot play small anymore. It can't just be that you say, okay, I want to be a little bit visible and I want to do a little bit, because then I highly recommend staying in your local area and not bother being with being visible online and trying to sprinkle around a little bit, because it's either all or nothing. This is what saturated markets require. And this is maybe what we would say is the loud, right? You don't have to scream loud, but you have to be in places. If this is not someone's cup of tea and you don't want to make your millions, then really chill in your local area because this is the best thing you can do. However, if someone wants to go big and seize today's opportunities, we need to level up and get onto platforms that most of the people will fear because podcasting, writing articles, speaking on stages, this is all the things that we women were not taught. Although we have the rights to do it, we were not taught how to seize them and not to feel like less off when we want it. So it's all or nothing. And um the truth is traditional PR, people on podcasts are looking for people like you listening right now. The celebrity era is over. And be like fresh up, like fresh perspectives, new thinking, um, new faces, and new names. And not seizing that is actually a huge, huge loss. And um, you know, just not not taking this opportunity and getting over yourself and be like, okay, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna learn the skill, I'm gonna put myself out there, is a shame. And I see so much potential going to waste here.

SPEAKER_02: 16:01

Yeah, absolutely. Why do you think? I mean, we don't have to dive too far down the rabbit hole into like the patriarchy and all the things, but why do you think, especially with women in particular, they have this fear of putting themselves out there and this fear of being seen? And it's so hard for them to be that visible.

SPEAKER_00: 16:23

Well, it hasn't been too long ago. That just I think this year it has been 50 years since in the UK women are allowed to open up their own bank account without their husband or even their son having to sign for them. So that's 50 years only. That's not a long time. And the truth is having that right like on white on paper is a good thing because a lot of women and a lot of men have been fighting for these rights. What we always miss out in our society, or what we delay with, is teaching uh the current people who are in this era how to seize those rights. You have them, but and of course we come with all our limiting beliefs and what we all like to talk so much in the in the in the digital space, but the truth is you're not alone with your limiting beliefs, because then we sit, we work on our limiting beliefs, and if none of these beliefs touches cultural thinking or upbringing, you will start outgrowing every single person surrounding you, and you will go down the spiral even more because then what we speak of speaking about belonging, you suddenly belong to nobody. Because your family doesn't understand, your friends no longer understand, your partner might not understand, has never been on your side. So if we don't look on this side of where is this actually coming from, and it comes from yes, you put the rights upon us, but you don't teach us what to do about it. Yeah, yeah, and then you you blame us for doing so because then we are too loud, too big, too extraordinary. I don't know, wanting too much, like high maintenance is a is a thing. Like I I heard this recently, like someone literally told me that I am high maintenance, and I said, like, you know what, I'm happy to be it because I'm gonna maintain it myself.

SPEAKER_01: 18:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 18:28

And we don't uh nowadays we miss uh the misconcept, the big misconception is that we often um still think in our society that women need help, let's say, especially from men or their partners, in carrying mineral water up the staircase. Yes, it's a thing. I mean it's cute, but I can do it. If I drink my wine, I carry it myself. If I drink my water, I carry it myself. But what or I make my own money, so there is no longer that need of um being codependent with someone, or marriage is no longer about what we are what we're gonna buy together. People have separate uh bank accounts nowadays. But what hasn't changed is that we still need the emotional support, and this is rising. And the emotional support is uh literally faith and belief in someone, and um we don't like just as women are not raised to seize opportunities and to be loud and to speak their voice, men are haven't been raised to support this type of woman who is successful, and then there is this clinch, and I see this all the time in relationships that when the woman starts going out, building a a business, there is fights discussions, like my relationship amongst um other things, also like we broke up because of it.

SPEAKER_02: 19:52

Yeah, and I feel like so much of what you're talking about goes back to what I was talking about in the beginning about why I think community is so important. Right. And especially having a community of people who are going through the same thing as you, right? If like I don't have any entrepreneurs in my family, my parents weren't entrepreneurs, my sister's not an entrepreneur, my husband's not an entrepreneur. And they can try their hardest to understand, but nobody understands the same way that somebody else who has gone through the same thing understands, right? Like something, you know, huge that feels huge to me, even like in the beginning of business when you get like a new client. And that's like like people cannot understand how huge that is, right? And to have a community of people who do understand and people that you can go to to support you when it's hard, to tell you that you're not alone, to celebrate with you to the degree that you want them to celebrate with you. I think that is it's really helpful in continuing to move forward in your business, but I think it's also really helpful with this fear of being seen because you are able to put yourself out there knowing that you've got these other women behind you. You've got these people who have your back, and it makes it so much less scary, I think.

SPEAKER_00: 21:11

It is, I mean, society teaches us, for example, to stick with that one dear old friend we grew up with, right? And I'm not saying it's wrong because nobody will ever understand you better than somebody who is accommodated you throughout your teenage years. Like this basty, good to have her. But if we choose to fail our path forward, to build something on our own, to get better every single day, to be of service of humanity and making this place a better world, we will outgrow people. And then it seems like it's black or white. It seems like I need to choose between my friend or my business. But the truth is that you can have different conversations with your friend, and you need to be okay with that and not seeking that validation. And if you need validation to go places, as you say, to communities where you're not only understood but not questioned. I sometimes honestly don't understand every single move every entrepreneur makes. And I'm sometimes in like, you know, just with a big wow, okay, cool. Like that's risky. We always judge, right? We always have an opinion about things, and I mean judging not in a bad way, but I do not question them. I will sit down and say, tell me more, because I might even learn something from it. And you deserve to stand grounded with two feet on the ground and be faithful. And no one has the right to take this away from you because our success is built on delusions. Yeah. Only if we believe that we can go somewhere where nobody else can see us, only then can we actually go there because this is how we can pave the path forward. And how I'm dealing with family specifically is just something that I just don't speak with them about business. It's good enough for them to know that I'm doing fine and I'm leading with action. I'm not even saying it anymore. They just they just see she's good. You see her laughing on social media? Excellent. When she calls on a Sunday noon, great, she's not upset, she's not crying. It seems like she has enough to eat. That's enough to know for my family.

SPEAKER_02: 23:18

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So the last thing I want to ask you about is the idea of building trust with people. Um, because this is something, you know, we talk about this a lot in networking, that know, like, and trust factor, right? People buy from people that they know, that they like, and that they trust. And we talked about personal branding. And I think personal branding does a lot for the know and like part, right? I mean, there's plenty of people. I feel like my personal brand has become very clear, especially just in the last year or so. And there's a lot of people who are really drawn to it. And there are a lot of people that are like, I don't like her, and that's great. Um, but when it comes to trust, like I feel like trust is the thing that takes people from like I like her and I want to be around her and be in her space, to I want to give her my money. So how does personal branding relate to trust? Like, how do we build trust with people in a way that um feels true to us and to our personal brand?

SPEAKER_00: 24:24

As a personal brand, to be visible, you need to be in plot on platforms and spaces where other people don't go, first of all. And if somebody is listening to a podcast episode of 30 minutes, an hour, and somebody has been sitting with you and listens to your words, to your story, to your experiences, this is a huge stress factor. Another thing is as a personal brand, you will only be lit if you are there and if you're there consistently. So, and it's also not about really what we say so much, but what we do. If you say you're going to do XYZ, you can be sure that people really remember, uh, and you better show that you have done it. I mean, life uh comes always in between. There's always um, you know, uh parameters that don't allow us to follow up on the things we would say, right? We would do. But in general, I never suggest uh sharing anything online or in any space where you are not just through it and it hasn't happened yet. Personal branding happens with a slightly delay, with a slight delay, everything that is public. I share in Instagram stories or Facebook stories if something is really relevant right now, but that disappears in 24 hours, and I like to if I want to overshare something and let people more into you know into take them into depth in the story, but everything that you share publicly has already happened, you have learned your lesson from it, and now you're teaching somebody else. So you have already set the direction, you have walked a path, and you have followed up on it. And this is so crucial. Like I just announced recently that I'm gonna run a half marathon. My community voted for yes, go for it. So if I don't run this half marathon, I also need to have the you know the confidence to say why I didn't run it. It's not just not doing it and hope that nobody will find out to find out. And I think this is something we build and we often don't dare to say things that we didn't succeed in. And this is what makes it wobbly. Because then we don't suddenly don't speak about it anymore. Yeah, suddenly, you know, the one topic disappears completely, and people are like, but you know, yeah, yeah, I think it's very tricky. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 26:47

The consistency I think is huge, especially in online business because there's so many online businesses that are here today and gone next week, or you know, people that you see that today she sells essential oils and in two weeks she wants to sell your house. And two weeks later she has a clothing boutique or something, you know. And so I think that consistency is a huge thing that builds trust with audiences for sure. And the follow-through, I think, is very, I feel like it's very underrated. And I try to tell people a lot, like when it comes to networking, it's not just how you're showing up when you're meeting someone at a networking event, right? They want to see, are you the same person on LinkedIn as you were when I met you at this event, right? That consistency matters. And they also want to see like, are you gonna follow through on what you say you're gonna do? So if I meet you and I say, Oh my gosh, you've got to meet Susie, she does X, Y, and Z. And I think you guys would love each other. I will introduce you, right? It's going to we all give each other grace and we're all human. And you know, if if you're anything like me, you've got emails and DMs and texts and things coming from like 90 different directions. So things get lost, and I get that. But if I'm consistently not following through on what I've said I'm gonna do for you, that you're gonna remember that, right? And that's not gonna make you want to hire me, it's not gonna make you want to refer people to me, it's not gonna make you want to collaborate with me on a project. And so I think the consistency and also like the dependability, the follow-through, I think are huge when it comes to trust.

SPEAKER_00: 28:28

Absolutely. And I'm always at ease when I send an email with a question and I get an email back in a timely manner. And I know, and I just know, okay, this is going smooth, great. And you double down on that. And where else, if I have to wait for someone for a response for three weeks, I'll be like, you know what? Uh, we might not come together because I may be collaborations or um clients or whoever is reaching out to you who seeks help or correction. I agree on that as well. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. We forget that we are so we are still human beings, the conversation needs to happen. And if you are building a brand, or what I say right now, a social media presence and your digital business card, it seems the conversation is one way, but it's not because you have more consumers on the other side as producers, it's just that they not always tell us that they're consuming our content, but it's never a one-way street.

SPEAKER_02: 29:29

Yeah, absolutely. That's such a good reminder. Okay, so before we wrap up, if people want to learn more about personal branding, if they are interested in finding other ways for them to stand out in, you know, I think we all think we're in a crowded market. So no matter what market you're in, um, or they just want to connect with you and know more about what you do, what are the best ways for them to find you?

SPEAKER_00: 29:54

So you find me on Instagram, Ivana Ivanek underscore, or on LinkedIn under Ivana Ivanek. This is where I uh shale share daily stuff. You can also go on my website, ivanaivanec.com, where you can learn directly about my work. And if you found me at this show, there is a direct button where you can hop on a call with me if you desire to wish more about the modules and the work I'm doing. And tune into my podcast, Online Business by Design Podcast. It's a marketing and mindset podcast where you definitely get to learn about me, but I also have incredibly cool guests who are all about um intentional businesses, cool businesses, like all the fancy, what people call fancy, crazy stuff, but what is so possible for you right now, and I desire for everyone to get this chance to at least try and to see what's out there for them.

SPEAKER_02: 30:48

Yeah, I love that. I will put the links for all of that in the show notes. And do you know when the half marathon is going to be?

SPEAKER_00: 30:55

I didn't sign up yet because I couldn't decide which one.

unknown: 30:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 30:59

And I need like at least five months training. Like the Barcelona half marathon is too early. I won't make that just because of the training time. So it's gonna be somewhere April, May. I might even go to my home city, Vienna. But no promises here. There's something's gonna happen, and it's I I need to make this decision somewhere now. But I just moved to a new city, so I am all about, as you say, networking in here for business opportunities, speaking opportunities, uh navigating things like finding a supermarket. Yeah, priorities, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 31:32

All right, well, we're all gonna be on Instagram waiting to see this half marathon and cheering you on. Thank you so much, Melissa. Yeah, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. It was a great conversation.

SPEAKER_00: 31:43

Thank you so much. It has been my privilege.