Jeremy Slate Teaches CPAs the Best Practices On Commanding Your Brand

Jeremy Slate is an entrepreneur, media expert, CEO, and founder of Command Your Brand. He helps visionaries and founders to make an impact on the power of appearing on top-rated podcasts. Not only has Slate been named a Top Influencer by Forbes he has also been named a Talk Millennial Influencer by Buzzfeed. 

Jeremy Slate—The backstory behind Command Your Brand.

"It's a wild story of how I got here." 

Like many successful entrepreneurs before him, it's not surprising that Slate's early years in the industry were vastly different from the path he finds himself on today. Slate began with a master's degree in ancient history. After graduate school he worked as a highschool teacher. When his mother suffered a stroke, Slate did some serious introspection. He left his teaching career and began to pursue other endeavors. Slate tried everything from network marketing, to selling life insurance. Eventually he found himself working at a friend's marketing firm to pay the bills. "I started a podcast as a hobby." His podcast began to grow. "The original brand was called Get Featured Media, and we helped people to be interviewed on other successful podcasts. We made six figures in our first nine months in business" He decided to part ways with his co-founder which led the company to break up.  At the end of 2017, they reformed the company as Command Your Brand.

The Definition Of Brand According to Slate

To put it simply—branding is how people experience, perceive and view your brand. 

Slate emphasises that establishing your brand requires an active approach.

Branding is:

• How people perceive your expertise 
• Branding can be visual—the visual elements, including your graphics and your logo
• Branding can be aesthetic—the feel behind the brand
• Branding is your social identity

"Commanding your brand comes from the perspective of you being active in creating it. "

The Importance of Being Proactive in  Commanding Your Brand—Why not let your products and services speak for themselves?

Slate provides a two part answer.

The media news cycle

"If you wait for the media to talk about you, it's not going to happen. You have to be willing to tell your story and to put it in front of the right people." According to Slate, people who want to be successful at branding need to approach the media with why they are newsworthy. He explains that this is an active process that you have to make happen. "You need to do what you need to do to get in front of people. This means writing a good pitch, writing good press releases, working with the local media, podcasts and making genuine connections."

Being prepared to deal with negative attention

Negative things will happen to you. "If you have not consistently created positive attention through your Google reviews and media placements the negative attention will hurt." Slate advises that business owners prepare themselves—people attack things that grow.

What Are Some Of The Ways to Create a Brand?

"I always look at the brand through a media perspective," says Slate.

• Understand who your target audience is and the things they care about. He suggests that business owners narrow down their niche. "For a CPA you might want to focus on attracting a certain type of business client. Niching down is going to make your message impact better." 

• Create content that speaks specifically to your target prospect. 

• Protect and build your reputation by being trustworthy. 

These are the steps to setting yourself apart from competitors. You are not competing against other CPAs—you are focusing on your ideal client.

How CPA Firm Owners can Leverage their Podcasts to Help Build their Brand?

CPA firm owners who are interested in podcasting can do the following in order to help their brand:

• Have your own podcast

Create specific questions and the right answers for your target audience. Ensure that your verbiage is correct before you start a podcast to avoid legal implications. 

• Slate recommends that beginners consider doing media tours through appearing on podcasts as guests before starting their own podcasts. "This gives you experience, as well as a content hub where people can go to find your information."

Four Common Mistakes When Podcasting or Appearing as a Guest

• Being too short sighted when starting your own podcast. "You have to commit time to it, and give your podcast time to grow. Give yourself time to find your voice. You can't quit after 3 months."
• Have quality audio. "You don't have to have a professional setup like I do here, but you want to have good audio so that people can hear and understand you."
• Provide value for your audience instead of focusing on yourself. 
• Avoid being too structured. This can lead to stress. 

"It's normal to be nervous. I'm almost 1000 interviews into my own podcast and when I still get a really big interview, I get nervous. You have to be willing to confront your fears, do it and grow from there."

Closing Remarks from Jeremy Slate

"People who are building a brand, getting media attention, leading to publications and podcasts should set up alerts.google.com."

This will provide you with media features while you build your brand. Receiving alerts will allow you more opportunities to promote your brand. 

Jeremy Slate has recently written a book, Unremarkable To Extraordinary. "We're all born unremarkable, but it's the things we do in life and how we show up that make us extraordinary."

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