Nikki Takahashi is a digital media designer, brand strategist, and the founder and CEO of Fetching Finn. Her agency gets clients noticed in person, online, and in print. Through her work, Nikki has helped over 300 entrepreneurs embrace and amplify what makes them unique. 

On top of this, Nikki hosts the Square Peg Entrepreneur podcast, featuring industry disruptors and mavericks in business. She’s also an aspiring videographer and avid traveler who has spent over a quarter century mastering and teaching the art of karate. 

I’ve had the great pleasure to work with Nikki through some trainings we’ve both done. In this time, I’ve been able to get to know her and been continually impressed by her talent. 

 

Last week on Creating Your Encore Career, she joined me to talk about branding and standing out in the online space.

 

The Problem

The reason why we need service providers like Nikki is because, when it comes to personal branding, people are often very concerned about being accepted and fitting in that their branding and messaging comes out looking “beige.” It’s very industry polite but doesn't showcase them in a light that makes them stand out as unique. 

 

Many of Nikki’s clients have an edge to them that would be fascinating to focus on and feature but they're hesitant to do so. Many times, this is because they come from a corporate world and want to fit in. This tugs at Nikki’s heartstrings and is something she works with her clients to overcome.

 

StoryBrand

One of the ways we can showcase our unique selves is by applying the principles of StoryBrand.

Years ago, Nikki only did logo and website design for her clients. She didn’t understand marketing at all. This changed when she read Building A StoryBrand by Donald Miller. 

She took the concepts in the book and applied it to the homepage of her website. She used his seven part framework and took potential clients through her “hero’s journey,” as Miller suggests in the book. Within the first month, her revenue tripled. 

From there, she took a training from Miller and became certified under him. This helped her finally serve her clients in a way that felt really good. 

What You May Be Doing Well

When Nikki works with ex-corporate entrepreneurs (like you), they're already accustomed to having a number of different departments in their business. This makes them much better at delegating. 

 

This way, they can be focused on their craft and on what they do best and delegate all the rest. This makes things so much cleaner, easier, and less stressful. 

 

Upcoming Trends

One upcoming trend that Nikki highlighted in our conversation was a change in mindset. 

Many content creators are less concerned about attention to detail than in the past. They are shifting to a mindset of “just get things out.” Creators are pushing out content and worrying less about perfection.

Listen to the full episode linked above to hear more branding tips from Nikki!