Glisten Academy - The Business Accelerator - Make Your Brand Dazzle

Contents

Your brand is everything Page 3

It's more than just being really, really good looking Page 3

Your personal brand and how to dazzle Page 5

Being an industry expert Page 7

Your dream customer Page 10

A polished visual identity and photos that captivate Page 12

Social media that actually makes you money Page 13

Luxe printed materials and boutique-style products Page 14

Bringing it all together with your website Page 15

Resources to help you makeover your brand Page 16

Brand tour and workbook Online

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In this lesson, you’ll learn …

How to attract the right clients and staff with branding that instantly captivates and effortlessly SELLS.

Do you want to know the secret to selling high-priced cleaning services and having a full schedule
packed with fabulous clients? You need a brand that dazzles, glistens, and sparkles!

Repeat these words and really think about what it means to DAZZLE. It's doing a double take. It's
that little flip in your stomach. It's that BURST of excitement in your heart. It's a crystal clear
VISION of a better you. And it's what makes people sign up and pay for something so fast, they
literally don't even THINK about the price because they want what you can give them THAT
BADLY.

And brands that dazzle easily and effortlessly sell - every day. Your potential customers won't ever get
to experience your elite cleaning services if your brand isn't glamorous, professional, and impeccable.

You bought this program because I promised you a better life: less stress running your company, help
with attracting great clients and staff, more profits so you can pay yourself a sensational salary, and a
happier day-to-day life. Everything you buy is in pursuit of a sparklier life -the little and the big
purchases. All products and services sell because they have one thing in common: the promise of a
BETTER LIFE. It's that simple -but creating that desire takes time, effort, and a lot of education.*

Luckily, you have this program and you have me: the industry's #1 expert on luxury branding for
cleaning businesses. I can help you take your brand from dull to dazzling, and once you do, you will
completely transform your business. I promise. As your personal coach, my mission is to help you
become the #1 cleaning service in your market, with 5-star reviews, waiting lists, awards, and have you
LOVING the whole process and experience.

This module is very hands-on (not cleaning, but computer work!) Make sure you complete the
assignments in the workbook.

Let's get dazzling!

Katie Pearse

*The contents of this lesson are based on a profound understanding of human psychology that I have
studied both in university and throughout my marketing career. I have listed educational resources at
the end of this lesson if you'd like to learn more about the science of selling.

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It's More than Just Being Really, Really Good Looking

I was lucky when I started my cleaning business in 2008, because I was already a web designer with
graphic design skills and had been a professional marketing consultant for several years. All I had to
do was apply my skills to my own business and voila! My fresh and fun eco-chic house cleaning brand
was born. (I was using “Squad” before the tweens were!)

But good news -you don't have to be a pro designer to have a professional looking brand. Today, more
than ever before, there are a ton of tools and hacks to create a polished visual identity. (Affordable
pre-made logos with font pairings and color palettes are just one of the services I provide to cleaning
biz owners just like you).

But a pretty face is only one part of the recipe. Branding your business is much more than a logo, font
choice, or business card. It goes much deeper than that.

Step 1: Getting to Know You

This is the first step and it means exactly what it says -people have to know you exist, and you can
easily do this with your website, social media marketing, print advertising, and networking. Make an
impact and help them remember you, with creative and unique copywriting, social media images and
captions, and other methods to really stand out from all the other cleaning companies in your market.

Step 2: Loving You

How do you transition from being noticed by people to them feeling connected with you? Sharing
personal stories and photos, behind-the-scenes tours, staff highlights, product reviews, pro cleaning
tips, free checklists and planners to help them manager their home in between visits.

have a strong brand that highlights your dynamic personality

really stand for something (eco-friendly products, specialty cleaning, premium services, high-
end couture cleaning)

make it quick and easy for people decide if you are a good fit for them

be bold, be brave, be different, BE YOU!

Step 3: Trust everything about you

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Especially in our industry, people have to trust us. You do this by not only having a professional
website, but a comprehensive online presence. No one is going to trust a business that doesn't have a
website, and every additional social media platform, listings and reviews online will help your
credibility. Bonus marks for articles and mentions from other sources, like bloggers and newspapers.

Remember your brand is about inspiring and connecting with your clients and future clients. Of
course, it extends to your internal culture as well. Do you make your clients and staff feel cared for,
listened to, and respected? Do you inspire them to live a better life now that the basics of their
housekeeping are taken care of? Are you inviting them to relax in their newly detoxed home? How
else can you bring sparkle and help them glisten up their home lives?

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Your Personal Brand and How to Dazzle

What is a brand anyway? This is how I see it: Your brand is

“Your brand is a really your purpose, your passions and your personality. And
combo of your when it comes to your business, it's YOU! Your brand is
personal purpose, everything that you're into so take everything that you care
passions and about and infuse it all into the service that you're inviting
personality. It’s people to experience
YOU and that’s
why it’s so unique.” What is your purpose? There's a reason that you started a
cleaning company. Either you saw a need in the market or you
love cleaning yourself. In my case I hired several cleaning

companies and independent cleaners and I was very

disappointed by the service that I received. And I thought. it's

not that that hard to deliver a really dazzling experience, and yet nobody seems to be doing it. I

thought, why not try this myself and see what I can do.

I partnered up with somebody who was very good at cleaning. We lived together at the time, and I
definitely was not a good cleaner (I was a marketer after all), but I told her she could teach me how to
clean and I’d take care of the marketing and website and all the business operations.

I thought it would be a lot of fun because it was an industry that seemed a little bit archaic (okay
maybe I thought it was VERY archaic, especially back in 2008 when I started). I knew that I could
take my online marketing skills and make things a lot easier for people who needed a cleaning service
by giving them online booking opportunities, online quotes, and that instant experience that I knew
people needed. I figured if people were too busy to clean their house they were likely too busy to have
in-home estimates and make phone calls to various business just to get an idea of the price to get their
house cleaned.

What are your passions?

What are you really into? When it comes to figuring out your color palette, your font choices, and
images that you like, it can seem overwhelming because there are infinite possibilities out there. What
you really want to do is determine what you are really passionate about. I love ballet, dogs and
bunnies, patent leather, glitter, sunbathing in California, wine, coffee, sushi, neutral colors, high-end
cosmetics, and extravagant EVERYTHING. And all these loves are infused throughout my social
media, my website, my programs, my conversations, my presentations, and definitely my business.

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People know my work -they recognize it and I get asked often, “Is that one of your websites? Did you
do this?”

Make a list of your tried and true obsessions, not the trends you love, but the things in life that have
stood the test of time. Once you determine what they are, your brand will come about so easily, it will
reveal itself to you.

What comprises your personality?

I was quite young when I launched my business (29) and my business partner at the time was even
younger. When I started the biz, I wanted it to be very different from the traditional cleaning
companies who were very much into that old-fashioned “maids” look. Lots of maroon colors, aprons
and those little lacy headpieces were rampant (not that anyone actually WORE any of that, which
actually would be REALLY unique if they did). But I wasn’t into any of that at the time and I was
determined to be different. My goal was to create a cleaning company that was really digitally
advanced and headed by young, vibrant people with lots of energy and bright colors. And again we
were eco-friendly so naturally I chose blue and green, which seems like an obvious choice, but back in
2008 it was unheard of! And that's how we launched. I used a lot of animated art and cartoons -again
I wanted to be different, show people that house cleaning wasn’t outdated and boring. A new biz was
in town, and we were fresh and fun!

It wasn't long before EVERYONE was copying us -from the colors to similar logos and other design
elements, to using rabbits in their ads, to using a similar company name, to copy/pasting my words on
my website and using them on their own. We weren't different anymore, and people were confusing
other cleaning companies with us. So I rebranded completely, with a new logo, new colors, and more
sophisticated messaging and marketing campaigns

The challenge of any business is to stand out from your competitors. You’re a smart and creative
entrepreneur who knows exactly what she likes (and doesn’t like), what makes you money (and what
doesn’t), what makes your heart glow (and what makes it sink). Most businesses are bland: vague,
passive language, copycat logos, snooze-inducing tag lines… you have a REAL opportunity to stand
out! Having a bold, strong message is much more effective than the other boring companies, who are
simply emulating someone else. In the enormous world of cleaning, what can you do to look and
sound completely different?

“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” - Oscar Wilde

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Being an Industry Expert A.K.A. “Influencer"

A few years ago, when I started teaching marketing in business school, I would tell my students they
needed to become recognized experts in their respective fields. Today, we have a word for this:
influencer. Usually it's associated with Instagram, but when it comes to business, it goes beyond one
social media platform. Because your business is local, you want to focus on establishing yourself as
THE cleaning expert in your city, and this is pretty easy once you know how.

Step 1: Establish your online presence on Instagram

Secure your social media accounts and use them to communicate your expertise as a professional
cleaner to your followers. Use video to show zoomed in cleaning, and take lots of before and after
photos (make sure they are close ups so they don't identify your clients' homes). Post photos that are
professional, edited and filtered (Lightroom presets are my top recommendation). Write captions
that tell your story -as a person and as a business. Research and use hashtags to help you get
discovered. Once your Instagram account looks gorgeous and polished and has a good amount of
content (at least 9 posts), you can move on to step 2.

Step 2: Connect and collaborate with influencers

Do some searching and find a few Instagram influencers who have at least 20,000 followers, and look
at the accounts of those followers to make sure they are legitimate. A good indication of an authentic
influencer is by looking at their engagement -do they get comments and likes on posts? And if they
do, when you click on their accounts, are they local people or are they peers? What some
Instagrammers do, and this isn't necessarily a "bad" strategy, is to join a network (or "pod"). For
example, let's say I want to get a lot of engagement on my Glisten Academy Instagram posts. And you
want engagement on your cleaning business's account's posts. We agree to comment and like each
other's posts and find 10, 20, 30, 100 more "friends" to join us. Again, this isn't an unethical strategy,
and it can definitely help you with the algorithm, but if a local influencer doesn't actually have a lot of
local influence, then she's not going to be very effective in helping you.

Approach your chosen influencers and offer to give their followers a prize in exchange for
collaborating together on a contest. I am sure you are familiar with the "like, comment/tag and follow"
giveaways. These are simple. You post a photo or graphic with "GIVEAWAY" or "CONTEST" or
"WIN" overlaid, then in the caption tell them to follow both accounts, and then ask them to either
comment or tag a friend. When I started Karmiclean, I used a "shop local" Instagram account I

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manage with 23,000 followers to give away a free house cleaning. I gained over 300 followers in a
couple of days.

Not only does this save you a ton (the cost to pay Instagram to get you a follower is higher than a
contest costs), but it also has the added effect of doing a fun and friendly giveaway that everyone
loves, gets excited about, and will potentially get you not only more social media exposure, but also a
potential client. Encourage your winner to post about her experience, take before/after photos -really
hype things up before, during and after you give her the cleaning. Because she's won a free cleaning,
you can ask for more promotion than you would a regular, paying customer. This is a win-win for
everyone!

Step 3: Post and repurpose content

Blogging really goes hand-in-hand with Instagram, and it doesn't have to be time-consuming. What
you will do is create a post, and repurpose it for each platform. For example, let's say you want to post
a cleaning product you love to use on Instagram. You snap a photo, edit it, write a caption, and post it
to your feed. Once you've done 3 of those over the course of a week or two, you can take those posts
and turn them into a blog post all about "3 cleaning products we can't live without". This also works
the other way. Let's say you write a blog post about how best to clean a fridge: frequency, step-by-
step, products, before/after photos, and prices to hire your company to do it. You can break that blog
post into several Instagram posts and stories, copy/pasting sections of the blog post into Instagram
captions, and now that one blog post has become several great Instagram posts!

Step 4: Educate and inspire

Not everyone who follows you will become a customer, and that's okay. One day, they might hire you.
In the meantime, you can give them professional cleaning tips, and inspire them to clean and organize
their personal homes. You can use your influence to teach others how to "D.I.Y" their cleaning, and
one day, when they are looking to outsource all their cleaning labor, you will be the first person they
contact.

Step 5: Live events

The last step in being an expert is hosting live events, where you invite your community of followers
to meet, learn, and be inspired by you in person. One of my favorite examples of this was the class I
taught, way back when I started my biz. I developed a class on how to clean with eco-friendly
products, how to make products, and taught professional cleaning tips. People LOVED these classes,
and I offered them at no charge when I partnered up with community organizations like the library,
but I also charged a small fee (to cover supplies) and had sold-out classes of excited ladies who came

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to make their own cleaning products and learn from the professionals how best to clean their homes.
You can also host customer appreciation soirees, or get involved in local business and entrepreneur
events. Be creative and find (or make your own) events that you can dazzle at -you'll grow as a person
and as a business owner!

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Your Dream Customer

Your customers worry their house cleaners will judge their fingerprinted glass, carelessly bang the
vacuum into their baseboards, accidentally leave the door open (bye bye Mr. Whiskers!), snoop
through their stuff and agree with each other than they are terrible housewives who lack even the
most basic cleaning skills and should be completely ashamed of themselves.

On top of that, they have to deal with the discomfort and stress of prepping and paying. Wasn't this
whole “hiring a house cleaner” thing supposed to EASE their stress and anxiety? In order to take the
leap and try out your cleaning service, your customer needs to feel instant trust and acceptance with
you and your people.

Yet maid service website after website shows her nothing personal, let alone intimate. There's no
photo of the owner, the site has no personality, no style, no manifesto, no story. Why would she trust
a nameless, faceless website? Her fears mount and she’s about to GIVE UP… *hits the back button and
clicks on the next search result.*

Then WOW, who is THIS? She’s landed on a website with friendly faces (real people not just stock
photos). She clicks over to the “About” page and sees a smiling professional-looking person – the
owner of this company. She or he looks like someone she could have a cappuccino with – or maybe
even a glass of wine. She skims a little more – they use eco-friendly cleaning products, send the same
cleaners every time, let their clients pay by credit card AND she can book online?! Whoa… now
THESE people are speaking her language.

So she clicks on the “book appointment” button and is taken to a simple booking form next to a photo
of a happy family that reminds her of her and her family – little Yorkie, twin boys, super handsome
husband…Instantly it clicks in her heart. “THIS COULD BE ME! THIS COULD BE US! I could be
this peaceful, loving and happy. I can picture it now: freshly made beds, gleaming floors, the scent of
fresh lemons… WHEN CAN YOU COME!?!?” She rushes to her purse, gleefully grabs her credit card,
and excitedly types in her info. She books, she pays, she enthusiastically commands Siri to remind her
she’s got a house cleaning appointment next Monday morning (as IF she’d forget!). She likes you on
Facebook and is instantly immersed in your world, even if only for a few moments.

She leans back and smiles. “I've got this. I’ve got our lives under control.” She breathes a sigh of relief.
You are now her dream come true. She texts her mom, sister and her 10 closest friends (complete
with emoticons) to tell them how excited she is! “I’ll let you know how it goes!” She thinks,
“Everything’s about to be different! I can’t wait to come home on Monday to a sparkling house. I

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deserve this. I will pre-order dinner for that night from because I am NOT going to make a mess in
our kitchen that night. This is going to be SO FANTASTIC."

This is truly an insight into your customer's journey when she's looking for YOUR cleaning service.
Not to be confused with a woman looking for a deal or amateur.

Life stages

Marketing 101 teaches you to segment your customers into personas, but life stages are more
important than demographics. Women are the decision makers -even when there is a man in the
house -so focus on marketing to females. Who is the best client you’ve had? Where does she live?
Where does she work? What does she read? Where does she eat? 20% of your customers will make
up 80% of your business (the Pareto principle).

Speak your customer’s language

To write really good marketing copy, you need to speak your customer's language. If you can do this,
you’ll be WAY ahead of your competitors. Start paying attention to the words your clients use, and
repeat them back to them -in emails, texts, social media posts, and on your website.

You attract who you appear to be

Remember you will always attract what you're putting out to the world. If you are getting inquiries
from cheap people who say you're too expensive, then your branding looks cheap. Do you have a
professional email address or is it a free address with "hotmail.com or gmail.com"? How can you
expect to attract clients willing to invest in upscale services if you haven't invested in your own
business? People hire people they think are just like them. This doesn't have to mean you also have a
Mercedes and vacation home in Maui, but it means you conduct yourself with discretion and
professionalism .just like high-profile people do. Remember you're also selling a dream, so set the bar
high and they'll be attracted to you and your services.

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A Polished Visual Identity and Photos That
Captivate

Your logo needs to be professionally designed, and you will also need a consistent color palette and
fonts. Never deviate from your visual identity -decide on your look and style and stick to it. Websites
have always been visual, but now that Instagram is the reigning social media platform for cleaning
businesses, you can really focus your energy on selecting imagery to promote your brand. The images
you use can dramatically convey your business's professionalism and prove to your potential clients
that you can be trusted to take care of their homes and perform the highest standard of cleaning
services. You can use real life photos of yourself and your team cleaning, as well as styled stock photos
like the ones I create for the Glisten Academy photo membership.

Faces

People are drawn instantly to other faces (animal and human), which is why using real people in your
marketing is impactful. Select faces that reflect your company: polished, friendly, and attractive. Be
careful when choosing stock photos not to use people who look overly airbrushed or are not
representative of your actual team.

Obscured faces and hands in frame

You'll notice a lot of stock photos are composed with obscured faces or hands in the frame, and this is
in order to help you, the business owner, use the images with anonymity. With Glisten Academy, I use
some photos of my own face because I AM Glisten Academy, but in essence, the Academy isn't about
ME, it's about YOU. So when I use images like these, you can also imagine YOURSELF in their place.
It's a more subtle method of bringing things to life, without showing too many unique identifying
features that are attributed to one specific brand.

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Social Media that Sells

Content creation

When you are stumped for content and not sure what to post, look to brands and people who
complement cleaning. Get inspired by professional organizers, cleaning product brands, and other
household-related accounts. Repost their posts and add in your own thoughts and comments (or
don't if you really have nothing to say). Emoticons can often be your best friend when you're in a
hurry and don't have time to come up with a clever caption.

Add your clients on social media

Instagram is especially great for connecting with clients because it's less personal than Facebook. In
the client profile they fill out, ask them to share their Instagram name with you (make this optional of
course) and incentivize their engagement by giving away prizes regularly. Asking clients to share
photos of pets is a particularly effective way to engage them. Everyone loves pets, and your client
doesn't have to worry about being picture perfect!

Let's say my cleaning company is Bliss House Cleaning. You create a hashtag like #cleanedbybliss. Tell
all your customers, "When you come home and you see that beautiful house, snap a photo of your
favorite part of your cleaning service. Maybe it's the plumped up pillows on your bed, your dog's
water dish being filled, or something else. Snap a photo, post it and tag #cleanedbybliss," and we pick
a winner every week for a gift card, cleaning product, sheet face mask, or whatever else you love to
give away.

If you can jump on Instagram right now, you're going to be one of the few cleaning companies in your
city actively posting to it. This gives you a huge opportunity to cut through the clutter, and gain a lot
of exposure, especially with Instagram stories. As you probably know, stories are just basically little
photos, graphics or videos that expire within 24 hours -or you can save them forever as a "highlight".
Stories are fun because you can be a lot more "off the cuff " since it doesn't stay on your feed.

You will be at the top of Instagram when people find their Instagram account, they will see you along
the top of horizontal scrolling at the top. You can get a lot of traction from that. Definitely get
Instagram if you don't have it yet -even if you're not ready to post to it.

We will cover more about Instagram in the marketing lessons.

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Luxe Printed Materials and Boutique Products

Checklists, business cards, and other printed materials

Ensure anything you have created, designed and printed is done professionally (even if you use a
template, run it by a professional designer before you send it to print). I am more than happy to look
over any of your printed pieces -send them over to me by email or Voxer. Not only do your pieces
have to be professionally designed, but they need to be printed in high quality. This might mean fancy
heavyweight paper, glossy finishing, and metallic print. Your printer will have options for you. Do not
cheap out -remember you need to invest in your business if you expect people to invest in it too.
You're better off having 50 business cards that are top quality than 500 flimsy ones.

Take a look at Moo.com, Jukebox Print, and even Vistaprint for inspiration. Pinterest is always a
fabulous resource for design inspo as well.

Boutique-style products

Your brand is #1 -you don't waste time and energy promoting other brands. All your cleaning
products should be transferred into unbranded bottles that you can put a waterproof label on or write
on with a permanent marker. All your cleaning kits should be contained in a bag branded with your
company logo and tagline. You want to use every opportunity to promote your company -the logo,
the colors, the tagline and your hashtag. Make sure the supplies, equipment and products you use are
top-of the-line. You will naturally have signature products (like my cream-colored ostrich feather
duster), so continuously use them in your posts and other marketing. High quality doesn't even mean
expensive .often the products I use are way less expensive than common grocery-store cleaners, and
as a business, you can get your supplies wholesale. How can you take lacklustre products and
transform them into works of art? I'd love to see your before and afters so send them to me.

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Bringing it All Together with Your Website

We will talk about your website in depth in the marketing lesson of this program, and I also have a
separate course to learn even more about how to design, write, and publish your website, including
how to help boost your search engine results (SEO). You do not have to be a techie to create and
manage a fabulously effective website.

What you need to know right now about your website is that it is the most important business tool
you have. Your website can work hard for you, 24/7, to bring in leads and convert them to clients. It
takes a lot of work to set up and you will have to update it regularly, but it can produce incredible
results for you.

Just remember, I only use digital marketing and social media wasn't even that popular in
2008 .Instagram didn't even exist. And I managed to bring in 300 unique visitors PER DAY to my
website. Some filled out the quote form, some booked an appointment, others just browsed, and
others signed up for one of my email lists: last-minute appointments, my evaluation program or
signed up to to be a training house.

You can set up your website to answer questions, give quotes, book appointments, and help your
customers solve their problem fast. If you can do that, your schedule will be full, you can raise your
prices, and you can hire more cleaners. And there is nothing more exciting than bringing in
business .after all, that's what we are here to do.

Start thinking about your website and how you can apply what you've learned in this lesson to it.
What words and phrases do your customers use in their messages to you that you can add into your
website? What's missing from your website? What are customers always asking that you can add to
your FAQs? Do you need to start thinking about a photo shoot with your staff and a professional
photographer? Are you ready to transfer some of your blog posts to Instagram or use your social
media posts to create blog posts on your site? Do you have a lead magnet? Make a list of everything
you want to add to your website, and we will work on setting some realistic timelines so you can get
your website looking sparkly and pretty but working extremely hard in the background to bring in
clients.

The last thing to remember about your website is that you own it and are not subjected to the whims
of social media rules and algorithm changes. Your mission is to always bring your customers to your
website -directing them through search engine results and social media. Do not send your customers
off your website, not even to your social accounts. Keep them around as long as you can, and help
them book their cleaning services.

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