Kristen Hartnagel is the founder of Evolve Now!, and a founding member of Brand Builders Group. 

She’s a professional speaker, personal brand strategist, and certified Infinite Possibilities trainer. 

As a professional singer, songwriter, and recording artist, a beautifully effective way to deliver her message is with keynote concerts. 

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Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

Video Course: First Step to Famous

3 Key Points:

Building a personal brand is not about you.

Create your core target audience.

Niching down helps you clarify your own messaging.

Show Notes:

[5:19] Why should I consider becoming a brand?

[10:55] So how can we articulate the problem you solve?

[13:45] Word clouds are foundational because it is what we’re going to use when we start to develop those external facing assets.

[16:44] So we need to spend more time letting people feel what they’re feeling, kind of giving words to something that’s been floating around up there that they haven’t really even recognized or acknowledged.

[20:15] So another exercise is to really drill down about who you’re serving.

[22:02] So how can we have the language that really helps those people that you really want to serve to know that you are the best fit for them?

[28:21] So first step to famous really means how can I be more known in this space in this industry, where I’m trying to help people.

Hey Gorgeous, this is Episode Number 349. And our amazing guest today is Kristen Hartnagel.

Hi, this is Kristen Hartnagel, you are listening to Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski. Enjoy.

I am super pumped about our guest today Kristen Hartnagel. Kristen is the founder of Evolve Now and she’s a founding member of Brand Builders Group. She’s a professional speaker, a professional Brand Strategist, and a certified Infinitive Possibilities trainer. I just love that certification. As a professional singer, songwriter, and recording artist. A beautifully effective way to deliver her message is with Keynote Concerts. So I am super excited to dive in. Today we will be talking about a personal brand, and that this is not you which might be quite an amazing conversation to have and will help you in your understanding of branding for your business. In case we have not met yet, I’m Christine Schlonski, the host of Heart Sells! Podcast, where I talk with inspirational successful heart-centered entrepreneurs and business leaders about how they have built a widely successful business. In many cases, these amazing human beings had to overcome some challenges when it came to selling their products and services. Past guests include Bob Burg, Ian Altman, Andrea Waltz Pia Silva, as well as Kate Erickson Susie Carder, and Natalie Ledwell. This episode is brought to you by Heart Sells! Academy, where we support heart-centered ambitious entrepreneurs who love what they do but don’t really enjoy selling to redefined sales for them. We show them how to sell with ease, how to transition into the sale with grace, and how to close with confidence. If you do struggle with selling a little bit, you want to check out christineschlonski.com and book your sales assessment session, where we take you really, really deep into your sales process, analyze your sales skills, and figure out what’s really in your way to sell successfully from your heart. So let’s dive in with the wonderful Kristen Hartnagel. I am so super pumped. you are here today Kirsten, welcome.

Thank you. I really appreciate you having me on as your guest.

Yeah, we connected through a very beautiful soul who was a guest on the show a while ago, Judy Hoberman, and I just love how we connected and yeah, how much value you bring to the world. So I could not wait to get you on Heart Sells! Podcast to talk about all the heart-centeredness and brand building in being you obviously, and then also your own little project of evolution, so to speak. So I can’t wait to dive in with you. Where should we start? Like, what’s on your heart today?

First of all, let’s do acknowledge Judy Hoberman. Because she is just a delicious human being. She contributes so much to women and leadership. And yeah, without her we wouldn’t know one another. And that’s just it describes her, she’s such a giver and a connector. And so if you haven’t checked out that episode, make sure you go back and listen to it. So I’m glad she introduced us. This is really a delight to get to know you.

Definitely yeah. Judy is a wonderful connector. And as you said, super heart-centered. We had so much fun on our episodes together. And yeah, what she brings out to the world, especially to connect us women is just amazing. And that’s also when I know, you know when you enter someone’s world, and you’re so aligned with them, right? It just clicks, then, you know, the people they surround themselves with? Must be great people, right? There’s no doubt about that. So I was so excited to get to know you a little bit better and to finally have you on Heart Sells! Podcast. So let’s dive right in for our listeners, like, what can they learn especially, so there are two topics, right? There’s like you’re the founder of Evolve Now, but also the co-founder of Brand Builders Group. So where do you think people who struggle with sales would love for us to start the conversation?

I think that if we were to talk a little bit more about building a personal brand that helps people who are in all industries and who are selling because Personal Branding really is about getting so clear on your messaging. That you can articulate what you do and how you serve in a way that is compelling. So I think that would be good to start. But let me just clarify. I’m a founding team member of Brand Builders Group. And the co-founders are actually a husband and wife team, Rory and Aj Vaden.

Okay, cool. So what? Why do I need a strong brand? If I’m, you know, if I’m a coach or a consultant, why can’t I just coach and consult? Why should I consider becoming a brand?

That is such a great question, I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding around building a personal brand. And there’s a couple of things I’d love to clear up. The first is that building a personal brand is about you. So many people think that if I want to build a personal brand, it’s because I want to be an influencer or a celebrity, or I’m just trying to, you know, kind of build some fame. And that couldn’t be further from the truth. Those things happen as a byproduct, hopefully, if you do it really well. But the reason that you gain exposure and grow your audience is it’s only going to happen if you’re giving value. So Myth Number One, building a personal brand is really not about you so much as it is about the people that you serve. It’s about being so clear, that there’s no mistaking that you are their person, you’re the person that they should be doing business with. So the Second reason people should build a personal brand is that there’s so much noise out there, we just need to be able to let people feel who we are if we can express ourselves if we know ourselves. And we’re able to demonstrate who we are and show a little bit of our character and let our heart shine through. People will react, respond, they’ll be magnetized. I always like to say if we can do this, well, it’s as if we’re a magnet and not a megaphone. And the Third thing is that we do a lot of marketing, but marketing without some deep inner soul searching work, without exercises to really clarify who you are and what you do and how you serve. If that work isn’t done, marketing, in essence, is like throwing a bunch of spaghetti against the wall and hoping something sticks. So it’s spraying and praying instead of being super focused so that people can again, feel that you are their person.

Yeah, I love that. So personal brand is not about you.

Weird, it’s so counterintuitive.

It totally is. Right. Because when you think influencer, you know, like pictures come to mind like, oh, and you know, I love traveling. So obviously I post travel pictures as well. But you know, me in my Ferrari and me in the maladies and me over here, which maybe it’s part but I think some people just think that’s personal branding. If you put yourself out there in you know, beautiful, expensive cars, then that’s how you build your brand. And it’s about this soulmate, how I would call them so the clients are served. And the beautiful thing you do the gift you have whatever you give to the world. And I think that’s so important. And there’s a lot of misunderstanding in the markets of what a personal brand is, what an influencer is. And I always love to approach it from that perspective. How can you serve more people, which obviously you gain more influence when you achieve that, but it’s not about only about your lifestyle. I mean, if you teach a little bit lifestyle, you should show a little bit lifestyle, but it’s like what can people do when they learn from you? What empowers them on that path. So I just love it.

And I think there’s, um, there are corporations, companies who are really understanding the power of personal branding now. And they’re looking to find people within their organization that they can position as a Thought Leader, that they can kind of help support them building their personal brand because at the bottom line, people do business with people rather than with companies. And so as an individual, you can cast nets that the company can never cast. And so if you’re looking to attract the people about the content that you’re trying to sell or the products or services that you’re offering, and you find people within your organization who can talk about those things through their unique lens. That is really what’s going to help cast nets that the company can’t cast. And so it’s a really good thing to find people and help them really understand how to have that voice, how to give away so much value and education, that now they’re also attractors to the company.

Yeah, I love that idea. So what can people do who are maybe just starting out to become a coach or consultant or to go into like being a healer? Where can people start with personal brand building? And what kind of questions can they ask themselves? So they know like, at least they know I’m on the right track. And people will recognize me as a brand, which obviously helps to attract clients, and so on and so forth.

Absolutely. I think, to start off, we call these the Brand DNA Helix Questions. And the first question, yeah, it’s like, really, the essence of who you are is your DNA. Now, how can we articulate that so clearly, out into like, we want to get clear on the internal-facing messaging. So you are so confident that everything you put out is going to be in alignment with this internal clarity. But most people skip that step. Most people say, if I’m going to start a business, if I’m trying to grow my coaching or consulting, they need an amazing website. But to build an amazing website without first getting clear on how we should language who you are. It’s almost like building a very, very expensive Billboard. And most websites that you see, they’re like, Here I am, here’s what I do benefit, benefit, don’t you want to work with me? and tap dancing real pretty isn’t the same as making a real connection? Do you want to be relatable? So the first question you want to ask yourself is, what problem do I solve? And it’s really one of the hardest questions in the very first part of building a personal brand. Because you solve a lot of problems. And we’re really wanting you to do that deep mental work of isolating out of all the problems that you solve, how can we get that distilled into a one-word representation of the problem that you solve? And so typically, when I ask that question, people will rattle off benefits, I’ll say, What problem do you solve? And they’ll say, I help people do this, this and this. And so it’s a little bit of a shift in a paradigm that I’m not asking about the benefits. And that’s challenging because you live in this space of the benefits, you really know how to articulate that. I’m asking you to look at the inverse of that. All of these benefits are only a value. If the person that you’re serving understands that they have a need in sales, we know we cannot sell something to somebody that we know they need, if they don’t know they need it. So how can we articulate the problem you solve? That’s the very first question we should be asking.

What problem do you solve?

So you need to be clear on who you are.

Do you have some examples, right? Everybody knows like benefits, you save money, you make money, I don’t know you keep out of jail or whatever, like that those motivators, that every entrepreneur basically has the same benefit when you work with someone, but what do you have some really cool examples of personal brands that could actually put it into one word?

Absolutely, I’ll use just kind of a generalization because, in the world of coaching, we typically will say, I help people get over themselves, or I help people break limiting beliefs or, and so those are good things. But when somebody needs to break through limiting beliefs, or when they need motivation, what is it that they’re struggling from? So I would suggest that people start with just a word cloud, if somebody has limiting beliefs, they may be feeling insecure, unsupported. They may have failed so many times that they just lack self-esteem. And so that would be a lack of confidence. And then we or maybe it’s even unworthiness right at the core. And then you want to just look at that whole word cloud and say, of the things that I do in my coaching, what problem stands out the most as, as what I know I’m uniquely positioned to help solve for and so let’s just take unworthiness as an example, it does not mean you’re going to start marketing unworthiness. Nobody really wants to say I don’t think that people self-identify with feeling unworthy. But when you really think about the people you serve, and you strip away all the things that are a cause of them underperforming, if unworthiness really is what’s causing them to not perform well, and you know that you can help them overcome unworthiness. Now you’re giving words to how it feels to be unworthy. Even if you never use the word unworthiness, you know, what it feels like, you know, how to describe what it feels like. And when you can talk about that. Suddenly, people say, Wait, how does she know? Like, it’s like she climbed inside my head in my heart, where where is she, they start to listen, because you’re relatable. Where have you been all my life, it’s like you were a fly on the wall. So being able to narrow that down really helps. And then we want to make a word cloud of all of the benefits. And these word clouds are foundational because it is what we’re going to use when we start to develop those external facing assets, like email copy, like the words on your website, like your video content for social media. But we have to start first about getting clear on who you are. And when people skip that step, you’ll notice that they’re all over the place. They’re talking about so many different topics, that it’s very confusing. And so if somebody finds you, for the very first time, and they don’t know who you are, and it looks like you’re trying to be an expert at too many things, it’s they’re not really seeing.

In fact, I have a great story to share. I had an oral surgeon who wanted to grow his personal brand. And he was making video clips. And what he said was, I’m trying to follow this formula about talking about the problem before I just dive in with the solution, just like you suggested, Kristen, but I’m just not feeling that people are relating to it. So I asked him to roleplay. And he shared I’m trying to tell surgeons how to stop unexpected bleeding. So I wanted them in surgery, I wanted them to just talk about, like, go through this mental checklist, don’t be caught off guard. And I explained to him that the energy with which he was creating that video was talking at people telling people don’t forget to go through their mental checklist kind of be prepared was his message. Instead, we want to help people feel what it’s like to be unprepared. First, we want to say you want confidence, say in oral surgery. The problem is things happen unexpectedly all the time. If you were to create a little checklist before you go into surgery, imagine how much more confident you’ll be. And so the feedback that he gave me from the very first video that he made that wasn’t impactful is that the comments were Wow, it sounds like you really know how to help people. And there’s the rub. People see wow you do good work, good for you go help them. But they don’t see that they’re the ones who need the help. When you get better and better at articulating the way it feels to have that problem. Suddenly, they’re like, you’re not talking to everybody else, you’re actually talking to me, I need you. So we need to spend more time letting people feel what they’re feeling kind of giving words to something that’s been floating around up there and thought soup that they haven’t really even recognized or acknowledged. And when you give words to that, you become you’re seen as that go-to person. Does that make sense?

Yeah, totally. And it’s more it’s also you kind of change the teaching style. Right? Like, not exactly like, I know, like, probably sometimes when I totally get caught up in things I probably also talked at people sometimes, but like, I’m being like really conscious about it. And not like opening that space for them to go there. And for you just to be the guide. That’s the difference. Because we know, I think like after we left school, nobody wants to be talked at anymore. So having that shift in the conversation is really important. That’s very valuable because I know a lot of people who are listening, probably do videos, or are looking for ways how to market in a different way, how to do maybe a podcast or an online summit or whatever. So it’s really good to be mindful of how to express What you want to say? So it really gets to people’s hearts, instead of just like the brain superior described early like, yeah, I get that good, good for her. Awesome.

Too many times, I think we have our own agenda. When it comes to trying to help people. It’s like, I know, everybody in the whole world would benefit from what I do. And there is this strong drive and desire to change the world and be part of the good. And if we go out there and do that with such zeal, but we haven’t done the work of Who am I best suited to serve, we end up missing the mark. Again, it’s more like that one-directional energetically of talking at people, instead of talking with people. So another exercise is to really drill down about who you’re serving. And I think a lot of people understand the value of kind of creating a core target audience, but they may not understand the why behind it. In fact, I hear a lot of clients who say, because I know that everybody in the world would love what I do. I don’t want to limit myself, I don’t want to say that I don’t serve other people by niching down. So we need to really educate niching down does not mean, you are not willing to serve people who are not in your core target audience. Niching down helps you clarify your own messaging, for example, you’re not going to talk to a 65-year-old human being the way you’re going to talk to an 18-year-old human being there are different subtleties that are going to help you be more relatable. Now, if you’re targeting 65-year-olds, does that mean if an 18-year-old needed you, you aren’t going to help them? No, it just means if you aim small, you’ll miss small.

So how can we have the language that really helps those people that you really want to serve to know that you are the best fit for them?

I just love that. If you aim small, yes, like have big dreams, right? Really go for it. So where do I start with this? How can I shift my mind to think bigger so that I have more impact?

Hmm. So first of all, if you’re really clear on why you’re doing what you do, what is creating this passion in the first place? We’re all being called to serve because there’s something placed on our hearts. And so what is that? And why do you think you can make a difference? A huge sadness that I see happening is that people do feel like they are we call them mission-driven messengers. Nothing can be more heartbreaking than knowing you are a mission-driven messenger. And you’re trying to get clear on how to serve more people. And then suddenly, as you start to gain clarity and momentum, Imposter syndrome sets, then you start to think about this is what I want to say, this is what I want to teach. And then you’ll have that monkey mind that little you say, but this has been said before other people are doing it, look at all the very successful people who have gone before you and they already have all the audience there is to have so you’re really climbing up a hill that is insurmountable. And this is where you just need to put your hands squarely on that little nice voice and say, Listen, I know you are trying to keep me safe. Because you want to keep me in the comfortable. You want to keep me where we’ve already experienced life. But if I’m going to grow, and I’m going to serve more people, I have to take risks and venture beyond what is comfortable. And so we need to battle imposter syndrome over and over again. But when it comes to dreaming big but aiming small, at this core target audience idea, we want to get clear on what makes you passionate about why you’re doing this. And we want to see who is this best served, you know, who am I best served to best suited to serve is what I’m trying to say Who am I best suited to serve. And typically, you are a version of who you’re best suited to serve. Because we are all teaching what we most need to learn. So if you can climb inside your own heart and mind of where you were five years ago, and what you needed, that’s gonna really help you articulate what you can do those other people might need. And I feel that when it comes to not taking the time to create your core target audience, we end up trying to say a lot. We’re going to make this better, we end up trying to talk about everything we know, we end up in essence, saying a little bit about a lot of things, which isn’t truly a value we can get, we can google it if we want to get a little tidbit a little tip or strategy. But what we really do to break through and become known as the go-to person to establish that leadership is when we can consolidate and focus and say a lot about a little, that narrowed focus helps you break through and become more known. So what are you passionate about what is placed on your heart, what makes your heart sing. Also, finding passion could be what breaks your heart that you want to go solve, or what really ticks you off that you want to eradicate. Those are all sources of passion. And once you’re super clear on why you’re doing what you do, it also helps you flesh out the words that will articulate why you are a champion of this. More questions in the brand DNA helix are what have you researched? And what are your results, when you can clearly communicate what goes into what makes you all the books, you’ve read all of the people that you’ve followed? Nobody on the planet has done exactly what you’ve done to get where you are. So you are a unique vessel of this information. Even I mean, nobody is telling an original story, we are all regurgitating what we’ve learned. But it becomes unique because it’s our lens on that information. Why do people listen to your podcast, because they want to hear your take on these ideas? It’s like I could learn this from anybody. But I only want to learn it from Christine, because she brings such heart to it. There’s something you do that nobody else does and that people listen to you. And we need to find that for each individual who’s out there trying to serve more people so they can be as clear.

I just love that. So profound. I was just like I’m listening to myself in my course. It is so amazing. And I mean, no wonder you guys have been so successful was Brand Builders Group, because you helped to hit multiple millions in your first year. Right, I just want to give, like recognition, a shout-out a compliment for such an achievement. And that is when you become so clear. That’s why branding is so so, so important. Because it will allow you to do so much more with the wonderful knowledge and gifts that you have and your special lens. So what I also love that you brought us a wonderful video course as a gift, First Step To Famous which I love the title. And we get to put the link in the show notes. Tell us like what do I get what I set up for that?

I think that that is a great way to just learn about the power of personal branding is personal branding, something that’s going to help me serve more people. And at first blush, some people say, Well, I’m not in this business to get famous. So let me clarify, you do want to become known as the go-to person in your space, you do absolutely want to establish thought leadership. So first step to famous really means how can I be more known in this space in this industry, where I’m trying to help people. So in this video series, it’s just a short four videos, talking about what personal branding is. What it means to get clear on the problem you solve. It kind of ties up the whole idea of serving more people by getting clearer in the marketplace about how to articulate you.

I just love it. Yeah. And I personally think it might be a growth process to own that, that you want to be the go-to person. Because I remember when I started out, I was just happy that it worked. And then the more people I had the fortune to work with to support and see the results. The more I was like OMG this needs to go into everyone’s hand because I truly believe that if people are empowered if people have a business that generates money, and you know not just revenue like profits for the entrepreneur, you have so much more choices. And I especially see women struggle in the heart-centered spiritual space because they think they have to give it all away, they over-deliver, they undercharge, and they just burn out. But now if you really turn the switch, and all of a sudden you have a company that works beautifully, that gets you a lot of money into the door, that gives you power, that gives you choice. And with that, you know, your children will see you in a different light. You don’t need to make choices out of a compromise, you can make choices because you can. And I think that’s a huge difference. Just imagine how beautiful the world would be if we don’t need to make choices on compromises anymore. But we really come from the heart, I’m getting out.

I am to Christine, I really would love it. If women could understand that there are some well-established thought patterns, there are some well-worn grooves that it may not even be our faults that we believe. But somewhere along the line, we bought, that it is humble to play small, that it is a good character trait to not associate spiritual growth with revenue. But the bottom line is, if you are helping somebody with something, there is a way to get compensated for it that stays in alignment. And I think that people step into their power, when they recognize this thing that has been placed on my heart, I didn’t place it there. And the only way I can truly serve is if I just grow into that. Imagine being this lighthouse, this beacon where the light is radiating in all directions from your truth, you won’t be able to keep people away. But it doesn’t serve anybody. It’s actually a trick of the ego in my mind to say that I don’t want to become more known, I really don’t want the fame or I don’t want to overcharge. I’m not suggesting that anybody overcharge. What I do know, though, is that the clearer you are on how you truly serve, when you have such a solid belief that who you are and what you do matters in the world, then you don’t want to become the best-kept secret anymore, you understand the way to change the world is to be known. So that you can attract the kind of people that you are being called to serve. We can’t help people if we’re in the shadows.

Yeah, I 100% agree. And, and also, you know, doing this act is pretty selfish, too. Because you want to be in a world you want to be surrounded by happiness, by beauty by possibilities, you know, you don’t want to play small and for that, you kind of have to break out of that box, that, you know, the society growing up, whatever it was kind of has put people in there. So I think it’s like really being empowered living the freedom of having a choice. That’s what life is about. And that’s why I’m like so, so, so super passionate, especially with women, because I see that they have like this mindset around money that’s not serving them, while men usually seem to accelerate more. And if we look at how the wealth is distributed in the world, in the world, you know, it’s mostly guys, it’s a small percentage of women who play in those ranks of really being wealthy. And I think well, it’s, it’s a birthright and we all can be empowered through it. So that’s why I’m so passionate for people to learn how to sell with the heart because that’s, you know, the positive influence but also what comes back to them, their lives, their families, what helps them to make their dreams come true. So, you know, brand building totally fits in there. And I know you guys have such a beautiful way of doing it and supporting people that yeah, it’s just I just want to thank you for the work you do. Unfortunately, we are already out of time for this episode. I’m happy we get to speak soon. So but what would you love to leave our listeners with?

I think the biggest thing is you are the only you on the planet. And getting really close to that essence of why you do what you do will help you have more confidence. And confidence brings clarity and clarity brings stronger messaging. And you’re way more likely to help the people you’re wanting to help when you can articulate why you Why should somebody work with you. And we want to help you do that because we want to help you get out there and be that mission-driven messenger who can serve more people?

Love it. Thank you so, so much for having been on the show today, Kristen, and yeah, I’m looking forward to our next conversation.

Thank you, Christine. It’s been a pleasure.

Well, time flies when you have fun and I had a ton of fun with Kirsten, I hope you too. I love the idea about branding, how to see branding how to incorporate it in a really natural way why you focus on your clients, hop on over to christineschlonski.com. Find the podcast tab and Episode 349. You will find the show notes, the transcripts all the links that connect to Kristen are just one click away. And while you’re over there, make sure you sign up for the Empowerment Notes. If you have not already, we will send you empowerment right into your inbox with amazing tips, strategies, things I have been learning over the past years that I’m happy to share with you to support you on your entrepreneurial adventure. And if you have not subscribed and rated and reviewed Heart Sells! Podcast, I would love if you can take a minute and hop on over to iTunes or Stitcher and leave a rating or review. Thank you so so much for having been here. Have a wonderful day wherever you are in this beautiful world and I’m saying bye for now.

Where to find Kristen Hartnagel on Social Media:

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