Member Spotlight: Virtual Personal Branding Production with Lori Vajda - Ep 217

Speaker A: You're about to listen to Enthusiastically Self Employed, the podcast created for you as a coach, consultant, speaker and or author. I created this podcast for those of us who are enthusiastic about growing our business and learning along the way. My name is Brenda Bello and I'm your host. Prior to becoming Enthusiastically Self Employed, I was a corporate marketer who always admired those who were self employed. Through this podcast, I'll share my learnings and expert guest interviews with you. You'll learn business marketing and LinkedIn tips to help you as a solopreneur or small business owner. Remember to follow this show to get the newest podcast episodes loaded into your podcast player of choice. Now let's get started. Welcome back to the podcast. I've got another member interview coming up this week and I just realized, hey, I haven't published this one yet. So today this is a Member Spotlight interview for my Marketing with Mellor program featuring Lori Vit. And what I do is I invite Marketing with Mellor members in for an interview with me and started doing this on Zoom along with Marketing with Mellor Community so we all get the chance to ask questions and then publish it on my podcast. So today you're going to be hearing from Lori Vita and she talks about her service offerings, which essentially are an interview package, a done for you service which helps to create social media content and other marketing content for you. You'll have to listen to Lori describe it in her own words. Some of the questions that you'll hear from others in the group. We're asking her how to describe this service. We're asking what type of people that she's working with. Is it one and done or is it something as an ongoing retainer type of situation? And if people want to get on the path to start working with you, what's the next step that you should take? And this is such an important marketing element. It's so simple too. But I feel like sometimes people overlook that path of doing business with you.

Speaker B: So.

Speaker A: So wherever you're at, wherever you're publishing your content, my friend, whether it's on a podcast, on a LinkedIn post, in an email newsletter, there should be some type of a call to action for people. On that note, if you're interested in learning more about marketing with meller, go to mellermarketing.com join there's my call to action woven in there. With that said onto the show. So today is May 21, 2026. You're here for a Marketing with Mellor member Spotlight interview. I started doing things a few Months ago. And I have a podcast called Enthusiastically Self Employed. And over the years, I've been bringing people from my LinkedIn Live interviews into my podcast and often interviewing people who are not yet part of my world. Their connections I have, but they weren't clients and they weren't members. And I started realizing, gosh, we've all got 24 hours in a day. And when you're self employed, you got to be really focused how you're spending those 24 hours. You all know I've moved into the season of no more Free for free. And I'm also at the same time shifting more attention to my clients and members. People like, like Lori and like all of you as well. So I've decided to focus my podcast interviews on my clients and numbers. So we're going to be talking today with Lori Vida and very excited to hear from you. So, Lori, before we get started, there might be people who are either listening to this on the podcast or even here in the room on Zoom today in marketing with Mellor who aren't as familiar with you. So why don't you take a minute, tell us about yourself, tell us your name of your company, what do you do, and who do you help?

Speaker B: Great. First, thank you, Brenda, for this opportunity. I've been watching your both the video and listening to the audio and the podcast. And so I really appreciate being here today. So, as, uh, Brenda mentioned, my name is Lori Vida. It's spelled V A J, D A. So when you see it, I think the best way that I say to remember it is think of Vitamin. And now you've got my last name. Makes it easier to do. My company is Sticky Brand Lab, and we are a personal branding production company. We use a virtual studio and conversational interviews to produce high quality video, audio, downloadables, carousels, all sorts of things that any professional or entrepreneur would need in order to share their thought leadership. And we use invisible production process to remove the interview process or to remove the interviewer so that all your audience sees is you. And it looks like you are having a conversation and you're natural and you're using your hands and your facial expressions. And so it removes any of that. The best part about the conversational interview is it removes the fear that people have or that deer in a headlight look that people have when they're just recording themselves. Because when you're talking, um, naturally you. Your face expresses, your shoulders express, your head nods, your voice changes, and it makes you sound like you.

Speaker A: Wonderful. I already have some questions, but I'm going to hold off on them because I think it's going to be part of what we talk about today. So in these member Spotlight interviews, I ask you marketing with Mellor members, I ask you to tell us about a product, a service, and offering an event or something. And, and what we do is the guest and I, we come on a few minutes early and we do a bit of a debrief and we talk about what we're going to talk about. I always tell my guests, and I was telling Lori, I'm not going to script out every question, but here's the general flow of things, but I do want to know, what will we be talking about today? So, Laurie, what would you like to tell us about today?

Speaker B: I think one of the things that's interesting and part of the reason that I created this is because what I noticed for myself is that you have, uh, you're running a business or you're in your career and you know, you need to be on social platforms. You know, you need to be sharing your thought, leadership. And if you're a business, you know, you need to draw in people to what you do and who you are so that they choose you for your business. But finding the time to do that is so difficult. And finding the time to create audio and video. And in reality, in today's marketplace, you need to be on the platform that your preferred audience uses, and your audience is made up with people who prefer TikTok or Instagram or LinkedIn or Facebook. So I wanted to do something that I thought was really easy. And I noticed from being a podcast host and recording the audio and video that when we produced it and shared it with the guest, and almost every guest that we talked to always said, you made me sound better than I thought I would sound, or you made me look better than I thought. And that's because the magic was in the editing. So I thought to myself, I could create audio, video, downloadables in first person just by having a conversation with people. I personally would rather talk than sit in front of a computer and write it out. And what better way to spend 30 or 60 minutes interviewing somebody and then giving them a plethora of materials that they could share. It just made it so easy. So part of it was personal experience and part of it was hearing from professionals. And our, uh, target audience for that matter, was really quiet, private, and under the radar professionals and entrepreneurs. I like to think of these people as the ones who want to be out there, but they are inhibited or don't actually have Time to create. And also they don't want to be performers. Some of the big names out there, it feels like they're like, uh, it's magical, right? They're just so equipped with talking directly to the camera and sharing the information that is in their audience's head. So I thought, I'm going to give a leg up to people with years of experience and knowledge who want to showcase that in a way that grabs attention but also feels authentic and genuine to who they are.

Speaker A: So this is a, uh, this is an interview package then, or how do we describe this service?

Speaker B: That's a great question. So it's a combination of things. It is an interview, um, it's an interview process that we use. So depending on what package you get, it all looks pretty much the same. You're going to do an interview, I'm going to coach you so that the best of you shows up and your branding shows up. And then we're going to come up with a content strategy that's aligned with what you want to talk about or what's pertinent to your business or what really your audience needs to hear that lets them know you really understand them and you're the right choice for, for them. And then in that process, depending on what you choose in the package, I have two other things that I do that are included. One of those is an audio video storytelling audit. And what I'm looking for is how you appear on camera or how you sound or how you come across. And most importantly, how do you convey information in today's market? You can't just sit there and share knowledge. And to go to your point, no more free for free. For me, the best way to do that is to deliver insight with some value that kind of opens the door and lets people know that you know what you're talking about and that there's more if they work with you. So when we create the stories and do the interview, that's what we're focusing on. We're narrowing it down, making it easy for people to absorb the information. And so you could get, uh, video, you can get reels. I have, what I do is the fun size reel. And what that is, is we take the main reel and chop that up and put that through a system that kind of ranks how well it'll do. So these are 30 and under. They're under 60 minutes or 60 seconds, rather, um, 60 seconds and then the interview. The other part is the, what I call the twig method, turning your wisdom into growth. And what I've noticed is, especially on LinkedIn, is that people are trying to come up with stories, but they're using the present moment or a topic that's relevant right now, but they're not bringing their unique worldview to the story. So the twig process starts at the roots. It's just like a tree starts at the roots and looks at where's that foundational knowledge, the thing that led you to where you are today. And just a trunk of a tree with all of those rings, that's what's happening right now. So we're going to combine those synergistically so you've got stories and metaphors that you can use to tell or to share your insights and value. And so then as you move up the tree, you get to the branches and you'll notice on any big tree, there's four to six really thick branches. Those are the areas that you want to be known for and those could be in your industry, but they could also be part of your passion, your interests, your hobbies, because there's a market for that as well. And it allows you to reach a different audience than you would just being focused on a narrow thought leadership, for example. And then as you look at a tree, you'll notice the twigs. And so there's a little story here, if I've got a minute, is that when I was growing up, we did family camping and I got, I used to think I got stuck picking up twigs, but then I learned that any great fire starts with that smoldering. And that smoldering is made up of twigs, dry twigs that set fire or blaze. And so I like to think of the twigs on a tree as, as setting fire to who you are and the way that you approach things and the way that you do things. And then you'll notice on the tree there's leaves, flowers and fruit. And those are the materials that you give to your audience. They can be downloadables, they can be quotes, they can be checklists, they can be the fun size video that addresses what they're interested in.

Speaker A: That's really fascinating.

Speaker B: I hope I got all that you were saying.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's great. So let me just pull a couple points out. I'm gonna pull some through threads, if you will, to go a little bit deeper. So is when people are working with you on these services, Lori, is it uh, a one and done project or is it a, uh, work with you once and then come back again as they're launching new offerings or as they're refining their messaging and tell Me too. About is it normally people who are at the beginning of their business journey or is it well established people? So we've got a couple questions in there for you.

Speaker B: Yeah, those are really great questions and I appreciate them a lot. It can be for people across the continuum, so people that are brand new and getting started and they just don't have time to focus on getting that material out there about themselves, about their company. So we're going to interview, use that interviewing style to help them talk about it in a way that's exciting. And then for people in careers or people that are in it midway in their business, they may be focusing on new things and so they want to get that out there and, and the way they've done it in the past hasn't been as effective. So they may use those services and of course then people who have just been in business because to best of my knowledge, I don't know of other companies doing this process exactly this way. In personal branding it's often, and I used to do this, so I know this firsthand is you're talking to somebody and you're trying to get to know them and you're listening for those unique phrases that they say and the things that are unique to them and you're interpreting that and then writing that in there. And so you're asking them to describe their personality and their tone and you're helping give, giving them that aligns, uh, with their brand. The difference here is I don't have to interpret, it is just you. All I'm doing is giving you a platform for sharing your stories in a natural way and then using the magic of editing so that it comes down and is concise. So I think I answered one question, but I think I missed the second question.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's okay. Now I'm like trying to remember what was the other question that I asked. So is it a project basis or people come back to you for updates? Because it sounds like this is a done for you service and for people who are like just take my money and do it for me because I don't like to do the editing and it's a lot of production that's involved. It would seem that they, there would be people that would come back again for a new batch or wearing a new outfit or talking about a new message or a new service. Is that the case?

Speaker B: Exactly. That is exactly the case. You work on a retainer. The idea here is I'm going to have more, more material than you might purchase in depending on your package. So that material sits there. And so over time what ends up happening is you have new topics but we're re, we're using some of the old material so you don't even at some point need to show up. You can move to every other month or quarterly depending on what you want to focus on. You can go from a shorter 30 minute interview to a 90 minute interview and have months worth of content that I'm just going to chop up in these mini sessions. So it really is a nice way to do things because it re it you can do the ongoing. But I'm going to give you a personal example for myself. I used to write when I first started, before I started my career was I have a master's in social work and so I worked with children and families but I had a special uh, certificate if you will, in couples counseling. So I was working in the division of youth corrections. But I started my first side business as a co in coaching and I was a dating coach. And at the time that coaching started there were only two kinds of coaches, life coaches and business coaches. And I didn't want to do either of them because in the training I had to do both. And I realized my life and what was happening for me was around dating. And I had this degree and I thought, you know what, I'm going to put it out there. So I ended up with clients that were business owners, that were c, uh level professionals, all high achieving people who were interested in something that was new. And this dating coaching was new. And so it really gave me insight into the way that they saw their particular problem. And I applied a uh, strength based approach and storytelling to reshape that narrative and to help them identify what they were looking for in a partner. Now I'm going to put a pin in the coaching because that comes into play. The mental health comes into play. But what the business side business did at the time, more businesses were going online. And so I put my business online and I wrote the content for it and I used, I learned marketing, some of it old fashioned. Like for example to get on local tv, we sent uh, a vase. It was around Valentine, it was ahead of Valentine's Day. And the vase was filled with all sorts of things that were related to Valentine's. And so I ended up on radio and I ended up on TV because it was a clever way to get in front of people who were just. And I appreciated that and that opened the door to writing online. So one of my first jobs, if you will, was as a dating coach. To answer dating questions for an online magazine. Love to Know. Love to Know is still in practice, if you will. They still have a business. And what I did was write or, uh, write responses. Very like a conversation. People would read my responses, and they would say, I hear your voice, even though I don't know your voice.

Speaker A: And.

Speaker B: And it's just like, I'm talking to you. So I had that storytelling going on in there. But what also happened is it pivoted me as an entrepreneur, uh, and in up, uh, as a professional, into social media. And then social media led me to copywriting and content strategy, and I worked for agencies, small agencies, and I worked even for Fortune 5 or 100 companies. And that led me to podcasting and entrepreneurship and a pivot. So I like to say that I had a career portfolio, and all of us have that career portfolio, but we don't know how to integrate that thread all the way through. And I love to help people do that. I love to help them be and show up the way that they imagine themselves to do and to be.

Speaker A: I love that. And it's a skill that you have, Lori. And I'm sure your clients are like, how do you do that? You just sit down and you interview people and you come up with all this great content, and you do all the editing and the production for them, and I bet it's just a natural thing for you. What I'd like to do now, if it's okay, Lori, is we're going to change gears, and we're going to open up the Zoom for Marketing with Mellor members to ask you questions about your service offerings. And I just dropped into the chat a little while ago. Q and A is next. So raise your hand if you do have a question for Lori, and then I'll call on you and we'll get you to unmute, um, yourself, and then Lori will respond to your question. Question. So I see that we already have a hand raised by Royce Blake. So, Royce, what's your question?

Speaker B: Hey, Lori, how you feeling?

Speaker A: Are you nervous?

Speaker B: Yes, I am. If you would look nervous at all.

Speaker A: Uh, thank you.

Speaker B: No one knows you did awesome.

Speaker A: My question is it sounds.

Speaker B: And this is. And tell me if I'm wrong, but people are coming in for more than one session, and you're keeping a lot

Speaker A: of that content, and it builds over

Speaker B: time so you can repurpose that, too.

Speaker A: Is that right?

Speaker B: That's exactly right. And that's what happened with the company. Love to know. So I was answering questions, but if you go to their. This is 15 years later. If you go to their site and you search for dating questions, they repurposed it. So I'm no longer the author of the article someone else's, and I'm featured in there.

Speaker A: So.

Speaker B: So that's the benefit of evergreen content in the form of writing, video or audio is if done right, it can help people for, I want to say, for years to come. And you can repurpose forever.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: And I like to think of the stories that you've that a person has shared as reservoir sitting there on the shelf waiting to be used. So if somebody does a retainer of three months, they may end up with more like six months of material, uh, at some point. And then they can come in periodically or they've learned how they practiced enough sitting in front of a camera and animating their voice and being engaging in storytelling that they can do it on their own or they can continue with me.

Speaker A: That's great. Awesome. I think it's a great business model. And, um, thanks.

Speaker B: You're doing great. I appreciate that.

Speaker A: Thanks, Royce, for kicking us off. Great question. All right, next up is Tom, and then on deck is Elaine. So, Tom, what's your question for Lori? Hey, Lori, great job. Um, I'm really curious, just because I know that you've got a lot of experience. So my question is, have you found that it's easier to work with someone who's relatively new in their business, or is this. Is it better, or has it been easier with someone more established? Everything from their knowledge base to their energy to ability to really translate their message?

Speaker B: I love that question. I love it so much. So the answer is both, and here's why. At the beginning of your, uh, when you're starting your business, you're really new in there, and articulating what it's about is one of the biggest challenges every business owner faces. And you practice different things, and you're trying to not look so serious when somebody asks you what you do, because you recall all the things you want to say. And so this gives somebody practice in being able to do that. And I'm helping them along. So the conversation really removes that deer in a headlight focus. Because then my job is to make you feel comfortable and relaxed so that you can share your best self and your information in a way that is really resonates with you and is authentic to you. But later, as a professional, you have that under wraps. So now you're trying to articulate what separates, uh, you from your competition, or as Brenda says, your co opician Did

Speaker A: I get that right?

Speaker B: So now you're really able to tell those stories from your past in analogies or metaphors or just lessons learned. And so it makes you more intriguing and it takes you in a different direction. And so the conversational side interview style really helps because now I can, I can act as, ah, somebody that you're mentoring and I can pull that out of you in a natural way to guide the process. And that's what the questions are. And so you show up in a different way from when you were a new business owner.

Speaker A: That's awesome. Thanks for sharing that. Mhm.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Great question, Tom. Thank you. All right, next up, Elaine Belson. Elaine, what's your question? Elaine, you're muted. We're gonna, we're gonna do the Elaine. Remember when we were on the summit, we were like pointing. We're on zoom M right now for those listening on the podcast. And the universal symbol for your muted as you point down at your microphone. So there we go. Elaine, let's try it again.

Speaker B: Thank you, Lori. Great job. Thank you. I was curious, if I'm a client coming to you, what kinds of questions would you be asking me or advice that you'd be giving to me to help bring out the unique qualities that I have to offer both in my services and maybe in who I am. What I love, Elaine, about your question, because I think it's fantastic, is something that you're already gifted in, which is helping people feel really comfortable as they share their narrative. And then your natural style is to reframe that so that they see the strengths. And you've got tons of little metaphors. I love your, the way they chocolate cake. And I was like, that's a good one. Uh, the little things that you do. So in the same way I do that, I'm asking, I'm trying to find out if they know what they want to be known for. And if they don't, then they either can use the di. Depending on the package, the twig method might be included, or they can get the free version and do it themselves. But that really helps them understand their roots up through what's happening right now and what they want to be known for. And so what I end up doing is helping people. I'm uh, of the philosophy that less is more. And having walked, the experience of somebody asks you what you do and you know you can help them in a variety of ways and you've got tons of experience and so you just do this almost vomiting of your knowledge and the other person on the other side is that was like too much. And so learning how to break it down into smaller chunks is really helpful because you can paint a picture, you can show some insight and you can offer something of value that gives people a sense that you really understand who they are and you've got something to offer that can be of help to them. And so those little nuggets build up and the questions are usually designed to help you tell a story, help you niche down to something that somebody can take action on and spend still want more. And so I use my questions to help fill in all of those blanks because I act as your target audience. So part of the strategy and the pre interview coaching that happens is all around that and then of course setting up your space so that you show up as your best self.

Speaker A: All right, thank you so much, Elaine and thank you Lori for the question. And I'm going to try to keep us time here. We're going to start to wind us down here. And Lori, there may be people that are listening on the podcast that uh, now they're like, I want to work with Lori. So if they want to get on the path to getting started to working with you, should they email you? Visit website LinkedIn, what's the best next step for them?

Speaker B: I would love for somebody to. You can connect with me on LinkedIn, DM me M and you can get on my newsletter. And then if you to talk one on one you can, you can let me know that too. You can go to my website stickybrandlab.com and you can reach out there and you can put FU in the message to let me know that. Get your mind out of there. Fu, follow up.

Speaker A: We're all reacting on the zoom here. We're all putting our hands over our faces going what?

Speaker B: No follow up. And that lets me know that you're interested in learning more and not just getting on the newsletter. So LinkedIn or the website is just perfect.

Speaker A: All right, wonderful. All right, Lori, Vita. And by the way, I only know how to pronounce Lori's name because I listened to her name pronunciation on LinkedIn and she said in the beginning, Laura, Lori, Vita. Like vitamin. Cuz I was, you know, before that I think I was really, um. Is it Vajra? Like how do you say it? But I love that name pronunciation feature on LinkedIn and I love that little sound bite that you, you've given us. So Lori, thank you so much for joining us. Any final comments before we wrap up our conversation today?

Speaker B: Yeah, putting that little name next to on LinkedIn actually was following you because you had that little message. And I thought, okay, people struggle with my name. Let's make it easy. And. And that's how that happened. So I want to thank you. I want to thank everybody for the great questions. I so appreciate each and every one of you, even if you didn't ask a, uh, great question. And getting to know you. One of the things I love about marketing with Mellor is that it becomes a community of support. And it's a community unlike any place that I've ever been. People show up for you, they support you in the best way possible, and I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for. That's why I can say I'm grateful for each and every one of you that showed up today and those that are listening, and especially Brenda, to you for giving me this opportunity. So thank you.

Speaker A: It's truly my pleasure. And I love that I'm freeing up my free time and I'm focusing on my clients and my members because we get to go into these deeper conversations. And it's great for the community here in marketing with Mellor, because we're all getting to know you better. When we do our office hours, we get our one minute introduction, but this is really, uh, a deeper dive into understanding what your business is all about. And I love the community that we're creating here. Sometimes we do business with each other, sometimes we refer business to. To each other. So it's really great introduction to understand you more. So thank you so much, Lori. And I think I mentioned to you the podcast will probably be live in July, maybe a little sooner than that, but I just want to. So thank you for your time and for being such a great guest today.

Speaker B: Thank you. I appreciate it.

Speaker A: All right, wonderful. And as we wrap up our conversation here today, I always like to share the, uh, upcoming calendar of events for marketing with Mellor. And if you're a member, you know that you get access to three live virtual events with us every month. If there's a topic you'd like me to cover, let me know, and I. I can add it in as a masterclass. We typically do the three live virtual events, including a masterclass and office hours and a roundtable discussion. Today's session is a member spotlight interview, so I've started adding these in, and I'm getting to the point where we're having about one per month on here. So today's interview was Lori, Vida. Next month we have. Judy Hayes will be our featured interview. But in the meantime, we also have a roundtable discussion on May 27th on webpage review and feedback. We're doing a masterclass at the beginning of June, what to post and how to post on LinkedIn when you're short on time. Then we've got our office hours and a series of other events that are coming up. I'm starting now to build out the calendar for the rest of the summer, so if you do have any topics you'd like me to feature, don't be shy, let me know. And if you'd like to be featured in a member interview and I haven't contacted you yet, message me in the comments on chat here before you leave today. I'm working through the list now and we've got a few more people in the queue, um, getting those scheduled in, but I just want to say thank you all so much for attending. I'm going to go ahead and stop the recording then, and we'll keep the Zoom open for a few more minutes for some networking. So thank you so much for joining. Hey, if you're looking to learn more about marketing techniques to help to shape your business, whether you're self employed or maybe you're a small business owner and just need to brush up on some different areas of marketing, I'm here to help you. I come from a corporate marketing background and I'm always weaving in really great marketing techniques into my business and I like to teach those techniques to you. Join Marketing with Mellor by going to mellermarketing.com join. You can join for just $67 per month. What are you waiting for? Join today. Mellermarketing.com join.