Phil Cole 0:05
Hello, and welcome to class solutions dental education Podcast, the podcast series where we share knowledge and experience to provide value to you and the dental practice. I'm your host, Phil Cole, and my co host, Chris Webb is with me. And in today's episode, we'll be talking about branding. And why is branding so important for today's practice and the best practices for implementing your brand. So I'm joined by my daughter, Caitlin Coles. She's brand photographer at Caitlyn Cole, Caitlyn Marie cole.com. And so she's going to be sharing with us the understanding of branding her experience and what she does for her customers. When she does her branding shoots. So hello, and welcome, my daughter to our podcast. So, of course, I know the story of, of Caitlin, and where she started and so forth. But I think it'd be important just to give us a little history of how you got started in photography.
Kaitlyn Cole 1:12
Yes, so um, obviously, you're my dad. So I know this little story, but, um, I've always been a daddy's girl from as long as I can remember. So everything he was doing, I had to try. And he used to be really into like these charcoal paintings, but it was super time consuming. So when he started having me and my younger sisters, he moved to photography as another art form that was obviously a lot faster than sitting for hours on end on a canvas. So when he's already got a new getting into photography, it was the one thing that clicked with me, no pun intended there. But I knew it was just something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. So I went full fledge kind of stole all the camera gear from him, which I will pay you back one day. Um, and ran full force. So I actually started in the sports industry. I thought that was originally what I wanted to do. So I did that for six years. I worked with the Detroit Lions as their team photographer, I had a lot of awesome opportunities at West Virginia University. USF working with Granger Smith and Tonio Brown, University of Michigan, Bauer hockey, the list goes on. But in 2018, I moved to Grand Rapids and decided I wanted to do premium photography, because I'm just super passionate about it. So when I left the NFL, obviously, there's a ton of photographers out there, left and right. So when I left, I was like, How can I differentiate myself from these other hundreds and 1000s of photographers? And how do I really make myself stand out and I came to the conclusion that there's only one me there's only one of myself that can offer the experience and everything I offer. So that's when I really started getting into branding photography, too, and how to differentiate yourself from hundreds and 1000s of others out there that are doing the same thing, essentially, as you
Chris Webb 3:08
originally, you know, when I think of branding, I think of like cowboys, right? And you get the iron real hot with the letter that you want. And yes, stick it and burn it into the cows hide, right. So we're not going to do that to people. Right. So what what is branding? And what is branding photography?
Kaitlyn Cole 3:26
Yeah, so I think when I was trying to just like define this, the best person out there that defines it as Marty Neumeier. So I'm just going to explain what he says, because I don't think there's anybody else out there that says it better. So many people think that branding is a logo. And it's not a logo, a logo is a symbol, but it's not a brand. Some people think it's a product. For example, if someone's talking about buying Adidas or Nike athletic wear, they really are just talking about what products they're going to buy. Some people think it's a promise, a brand can end up acting as a promise, but it's not a promise itself. And some other people think that a brand is an impression, but it's not an impression might be useful as a business owner, but it's not a brand. So if it's none of those things, what really is it? Marty says a brand is a result, a brand does a customer's gut feeling about a product service or company. It's not what you say it is. It's what they say it is. And I think that's just the best definition there is out there for that.
Chris Webb 4:28
Yeah, can you can you think of like a couple of can you give us a couple of examples. I know, since since meeting you and doing a branding session myself. I've read a couple of books that that you had suggested and Philip suggested, but they talk and share examples of companies out there that have built a brand for themselves. Can you give us a couple of examples of some of those brands and kind of what they do to differentiate themselves?
Kaitlyn Cole 4:56
Yeah, for sure. So one brand And I'm not like a huge fan of but one brand I automatically think of is McDonald's for example. What are some words that you think of when you guys think of McDonald's maybe like fast, cheap? And what? Yeah, yeah, exactly. So what are the elements that they're portraying to the world that they want those words to come back? Well, the drive thru system they have it's not a sit down fine Dine, it's a quick getting get out. The quality of the food obviously is cheap. It's not the it's not a steakhouse that's not their, their clients all that they're trying to reach. So different things like that, that they do to help that brand perception. Another one is apple that I really love. What are some words that you think of when you think of Apple, you think of simple, clean, minimalistic, creative. And if you look at like their advertising, they had that famous ad a while back where it was just a solid, plain color. And then it was a silhouette of a person like jumping with an iPhone, iPad. All of their marketing is super simple. They had the older I don't know if you guys remember that commercial, but it was two guys. And one was an Apple user. And one was a PC user. And the PC user was dressed in a suit very stuffy, you know. And then the Apple guy was in just like a jeans and a quarters that really cool, chill, creative. But they were just using that two simple contrasting people in their marketing to differentiate. If you look at their products, the mouse's the apple mouse's, they're super sleek, white, nice design, the iPhones are very against sleek, simple, the new ones have no button, no menu button, it's just a really, really clean design. And then creativity wise, they're pushing, if you use an apple think different, they don't mark it with oh, well, we have these features, we can do this, it's like if you own an Apple product, you're allowing yourself to think different, you're allowing yourself to change the world be creative, they do that with their ads, obviously, that really famous ad from a while ago that was talking about that, which I can probably pull up for you and show you later. But um, just all those different elements allow people to perceive your brand in the direction that you want it
Phil Cole 7:12
to go. Okay, so, I mean, those are some major big companies, those are some things that, of course, every consumer is using, but now put it into dental, you know, profession, the dental concept of everything. You know, I we've said this on several podcasts before this one. And it seems as though it's just a resounding thing, once again, is the old style of dentistry of being able to just you know, put a sign out front and people will show up is gone. The the younger generation of yourself and so forth. Definitely look in look at things, Google things for information, different things like that. So then, when it comes to a dentist, and buying a new practice doing a start up and stuff, what is why is it important to have this branding, because it's amazing with what we've seen you do for our customers or our clients already and what they get from it. But why is it why is it important for those who are listening?
Kaitlyn Cole 8:28
Yeah, the number one reason is deliberate differentiation. As I said earlier, there's probably a good couple 100 Maybe not dentists in your area, but a lot of competitors within your area. So you are the only differentiator you need to stand out. And then consistency is another one if you think about all the ads and and things that are being thrown at us left and right nowadays with ads and marketing, you want to show up consistently throughout the course. So if you have free downloads on your website, if you're showing up on social media, your website, printed materials, billboards anywhere you can really think of you need to be consistent. So when someone comes into contact with your business, they're not getting a different vibe on your social media than they are from your website than they are from the billboard when you're consistent across all platforms, no matter what that be. That just helps your customer better understand you and keep coming back for more. So then,
Phil Cole 9:23
I mean, when it comes to branding, no branding isn't just isn't just taking pictures and stuff like that. I mean, put it in perspective, as is what is all may be included in the branding itself, like what would you do to include what you would say included in branding and not just say photos?
Kaitlyn Cole 9:47
Yes, that's a great question. So branding as a whole there are so so many components that you that involve it so it's not an overnight kind of thing. This is something that takes time but it things that impact your brand are obviously like your colors, your logo, your design, but also things that people don't think about, like, how are you communicating and what is your language like in person on your website, all of your copy. If you're if you're trying to reach like a luxury, sophisticated clientele, what what apparel in kind of clothing are you wearing? Are you wearing a messy bun with ripped jeans, or are you having professional hair and makeup, you dress the part, you look professional, and you look sleek and clean. All of these different elements make up, like help you attract who you're trying to attract. Apparel, clothing, language, just the way you carry yourself things that you share on social media, there's so many elements that make up your brand. And again, just being consistent across all of those is the more most important thing. Because if you want your clientele to think of you in a certain light, and if you want your brand to have a certain reputation, you need to make sure that you're consistent across all those forms.
Phil Cole 11:02
And I think it's I think it's important for the listeners to understand that, when it comes to that, what was what she's saying with the branding, the logo and everything like that, too. When you witness somebody that has a website, let's just say that their colors are on their website maybe are, say just like blue and blue and yellow. But yet, they're putting out postcards that are orange, and red or orange and green, then then the problem is, is as Kailyn is saying, you're sending a mixed message, because if they're used to on the website, or if they're used to your road sign seen blue and yellow, and now you're saying about something, it's very easy for them to have the understanding that you're a different, a different office. But I think more important than anything for me when it comes to the branding with all the startups that we do with the new buyers that we do. The most important thing that I see when when Caitlyn has done her branding sessions with our clients is that they get to see who you are. And in dental, I'm telling you, it's a remember, it's a goodwill business. So goodwill when you bought the practice or when you're doing a startup, the practice is not like $1 store where any manager can come in and do it. It is where you are building relationship with your patients. Hence the reason why we ask how many active patients because those are the patients that are actively coming to you every within two years, every time every six months, because they have that trust and that belief in you what branding does, and I'm sorry to take all your thunder Kaelin but what branding does and what is done for our clients is that it immediately sets them in a new practice, it immediately sets them into getting people to understand who you are right now. Instead of the old school mentality of putting up a crappy website, throwing out some social media stuff with some teeth articles and you know and mouth situation, you know, Periodontal disease or something like that, but instead now sets you apart. Because they're getting to learn who you are as a dentist, would you say that you would agree with that concept? As far as I'm what I'm talking about?
Kaitlyn Cole 13:39
Yes, I actually wanted to hit on two things that you said earlier, if you don't mind. So when you're talking about the blue and gold billboards versus red postcard, stuff like that. Another again, again, McDonald's, when you when you see a McDonald's sign, you see those golden arches, and you know, it's McDonald's. The Arches aren't purple in Grand Rapids and red in Detroit, and orange and Maryland. They're golden across the board. Again, it's consistent, you know it, you recognize it. So that's like just a good example with that. And then for dentists and small business owners, the most important thing I can say about being consistent in your branding, design and visuals and things like that is you need when you pick your colors, I would say no more than five three to five is good, but you got to stick to those three to five you can't be black, white and green example for class. But then today I feel like you know, I want to be blue or purple or you have to stick to that and you also have to stick to a certain set of fonts. I would go no more than three fonts but again, consistency using the same three colors three to five colors, using the same fonts the same style of design. If you're going for like a minimalistic clean look. You don't want to be using like these 70s Disco type design templates and stuff like that. You want to be using nice, sleek, clean lines very minimalistic again, so you're trying to be consistent Get the brand perception that you want. So I just thought of those when you were saying those two points. But again, photography wise, I'm telling who you are, as your story. Think about, like all the stuff that we're doing online nowadays, like, for example, when you go to Zillow, and you're buying a house online, have you ever seen a photo where the house picture was, like, super blurry or dark, and you didn't even click on it? Because it looked awful. Or maybe you were at a restaurant and you saw a picture of the menu item, or you read the menu item, and you thought, oh, that sounds really good. But then right next to it was like a blurry, pixelated, super dark photo of the dish. And you're like, Okay, actually, that looks not great. Nevermind. So the branding, photography is absolutely necessary, a necessity. And it's super important, especially in today's age, because we're being bombarded with ads left and right. So again, how do you make yourself stand out? How do you differentiate yourself? Well, that's like, where I come in with the brand photography, especially like, I will sit you down, I have a questionnaire I go through, I learned every single inch I can of your business, I do a deep, friendly stock research on your website, social media, I'm looking for common themes, I'm looking for photo gaps, where I think we can improve. I'm looking at all these different elements. And I'm taking notes, and I'm creating these storylines for you. Because I'm the type of person that's not going to show up, take a headshot and just kind of wing it, the day of 80% of the work I do is done up front, I want to create photos for you that speak to exactly to who you want to ultimately increase your revenue. And I am trying to create photos that attract your ideal audience. I'm done seeing these fake stock photos, on websites and just all over they're just so inauthentic, they're not genuine. And I think that having your own set of imagery that has you in it, which is important for all small business owners, no matter how you feel about being in front of the camera, it's the truth. Sorry, rickettsia. But again, just like prop prop images, or stock imagery, that's just custom it speaks to you. It's on brand, using your colors, all that stuff is just so important.
Phil Cole 17:13
But Chris, I got I got something for you personally, but when it when she mentioned real quick the stock photos, I will tell you for the years that I've been owning class solutions, and and looking through you that you just pay attention to all these other websites and stuff for dental, it is amazing how many people still have this one dentist, his face and how he has been branded, maybe you know, in 15 different photos. But every time you look at these different it's like, oh, he's on that he's on the website that was just done Opie's on this website, too. So the stock photos, it is funny because you see it all the time. But what I was gonna say Chris is if you want to, I actually had her do a photo branding shoot with you for because of course with you doing transitions in real estate and stuff, you have your technically your own business, you're out there working with our clients and stuff. Give us your give us your experience.
Chris Webb 18:16
Yeah, so one thing I was going to hit before that is just updating, like the importance of like, updating photos doesn't have to be every year, but every five years or you know, whatever. But it'd be nice to have some updated photos too, because it's always tough. When you look on, you look on somebody's website, and you see a picture of them, and then you go to meet with them in person, and they look nothing like that picture anymore. Whether they've aged or they've gained weight, or they lost weight, or whatever it is, you know, it's really nice to have an updated photo, and not a photo of your 60 of you when you were 30. So that's so that's something I was gonna throw in there too. But for my branding for my branding session, and I'm glad Caitlin kind of talked about it, it was really started out a little intimidating, right? Because you know that these are going to be photos of you. And you're going to be in almost all of them. But it was really cool because she took into consideration the things that were really important to me, whether it was you know, personal relationships, whether it was the fact that we we love to be outdoors and we love nature. My My family was in the photos work was in the photos, she asked me things about what Okay, what do you do when you're frustrated with with work? What do you do when you're really happy at work? You know, who do you talk to? Where do you like to go? Where do you do your, your your work? And so all of those things were put into those pictures, to the point where it didn't matter if I was looking at me, I was looking at the things that I loved and I was passionate about. And so then I was excited about those pictures being used for different marketing materials. So they've gone, you know, on posters, they've gone on a Um, posts on, you know, our social media, they've gone on our website, they've gone on fliers. And so all of those photos, I don't look at any more as like, oh, yeah, look, there's my face again. It was, Oh, hey, there's something else I was really passionate about and I love and it was there helping support who I am as a person and not just what I do.
Kaitlyn Cole 20:21
Yeah, I think the most important thing like overall, no matter who you are, what you do is your story and how to communicate that in a visual appealing way. That's like, the most important thing I can say is just how do we tell your story? And how do we connect with the people that you want to connect with, because people do business with people they want to know about you like, you don't have to share, obviously, everything we can pull the back the reins, if you don't want your family to be involved, or something like that, that's totally fine. But at the end of the day, you need to showcase who you are, and you as a person, because people do business with people. And I just really also believe in storytelling, I think it's the most powerful force on the earth. And so with me, I just tried to do that in a visual way to help people with their business.
Phil Cole 21:06
I think the other thing is to it's very important for the listeners is, once again, this is going to be geared more towards the buyers and the startups. But it doesn't really matter, I guess you can apply it in any way. But when you're buying a practice, one of the things that we get all the time is a buyer to say to us, Hey, do you think the doctor could stay on, you know, for a little bit just so that I can the patients can get used to me and stuff like that, you know, lots of offices out there can't have that happen, because the doctor doesn't have a practice big enough to be able to support two doctors, some some stand just as they would they call consultants to do that. But here's where I tell you where the branding to me, if used properly, you do a branding session, and you start when you go to give a letter out to the new to the patients that hey, so say Dr. Smith, the selling doctor puts out a letter that I've sold my practice and you know, in Dr. Webb is coming on board. You know, there's that goodwill, of course, so the most patients are going to be but man can you imagine then if Dr. Webb sent out a branding session of photos to know about what his likes are his his hobbies, his family and different things like that. That's instant, I mean, instant gratification, that's instant, not knowledge of who that who that person is, and allows those patients to just with a with a click of a button, be able to sit there and go. Nice, I like this guy, I like this woman, you know, doctor, of course, Dr. Smith is, of course going to pick the right person for us. And now I can see he did. The other thing that I think is so important is is for the older doctors, though, that are maybe when you're hitting that plateau of your career, you're kind of in your 50s, you're slowing down a little bit, you've you've made your you've made all of your mistakes, and you've made all of your improvements, per se. And now you just want to sit and relax. Once again, this is an another opportunity for you to take this branding, and separate yourself from what is going on around you. Because I'm telling you there's not the dental community, there are still not very many dentists, I would say maybe 30% tops that believe in marketing, per se. We do demographic reports for our clients all the time for buyers for sellers and stuff. And when we run these demographic reports that show how people are marking around them. There are very, very few dental offices that market well. The ones that do market well, they're typically DSOs or large group practices. But the ones but there's still doctors out there in fact, we're dealing one with with one right now that doesn't have a website. When you don't have a website, then then once again, what is the buyer getting? What is the patient's around you know, about you and stuff. So out of anything, I think branding is one of those things that's just so key because it can hit so many different different aspects of what you're trying to portray and how your image comes across like Caitlyn said, I think is set up perfectly with it's your image. I mean, and what do you want to portray as your image and so that's just I just think it's important for everybody to to under Stand, be a differentiator Don't be the common person, common dentists that does the same thing as everybody else does.
Chris Webb 25:11
So Caitlyn, let's say, let's say somebody's listening to this right now. And they're saying, You know what? I want to check this out, I want to talk to Caitlyn about this. What? What is the best way for them to get a hold of you? But then on top of that, what should they expect as far as communication with you? And then when they set up that, that appointment with you? What should they expect? As far as your process goes?
Kaitlyn Cole 25:35
Yeah. So obviously, if you if you decide you want to do a photo session or not, or if you just have questions, I am an open book, I believe that the more we help each other, the more we help, help we get back to I'm all about community. So just regardless, you have any questions, I know this, I could go on for like four more hours about this, but I'm happy to answer any questions, but you can go to my website is Caitlin Murray cool. So it's kitlynmariecole.com That's my branding website, you can fill out my contact information and get with me there. Um, as far as the photography session experience goes, I obviously have a an agreement. And and we talked about your proposal, whether you want to do a quarter day, half day or a full day, we'll talk on that together and customize a collection for you, depending on what your needs are, if you're in need of something more in depth, like you're completely rebranding, new website, all these good stuff, or whether you just kind of need like a little refresh of headshots and some lifestyle working photos. We'll decide on that together. And then after that, I have that super detailed questionnaire where it asks about who are you trying to go after? Who are you as a person, what motivates you a lot of other questions, and then I do my friendly stalking, deep dive research on everything. And then after that, we have a pre shoot meeting where we come together, and I present my storylines to you. So I'll think of okay, these are the three points that I think we should really focus on. And then the sub points under that. And together, we'll say like, Oh, I think this is amazing. Like, I didn't even think about this, or you can tell me Caitlin like, and this isn't really me, we need to adjust this a little bit. And again, that way 80% of the work 90% of the work before we even show up to the session itself is done. It's prepared, we're organized, I'm not showing up and just winging it, where we have intention, we have purpose. And then obviously the photo shoot itself. And then about three weeks after that, that's when you'll get your full your full imagery library that you can use on any platforms you can think of, you get the high resolution and also websites, images, so they don't slow down your website and things like that.
Chris Webb 27:51
And one, can I just want to give one more quick plug like, this isn't this isn't aunt Susan, that just got a nice camera from Christmas from Uncle Doug. Right? Like it really is in depth. It's done professionally. If you've ever had a professional designer come in to help you pick out paint colors, or flooring colors or whatever, you know, designing kitchens and everything else. You know, they always give you this, you know, like this storyboard of, hey, here's some of these colors that could go here. Here's some finishes that can go over there. You get that with Kaitlyn with hey, here's what I'm thinking, this is going to look like here's what I'm thinking we're going to do over here. And so like I was blown away, I got a pretty big, pretty big, like storyboard of, hey, here are the things that I think are going to be really important. What do you think? Do you like these do not like them? And, and it was really impressive. So I just want to clarify again, that this is very professionally done, and I don't want kealan to undersell herself. This it's incredible.
Phil Cole 28:58
Well, I think I think the other glad Caitlin I'm sorry,
Kaitlyn Cole 29:02
sorry, no, you're good. Um, I just want to like reiterate to like i The deeper I can go. And the deeper you're willing to let me go, the better the photos turn out again. Because the better I can betray who you are and what like image and story you want to tell to your people. So it's just a win win for all of us when that happens.
Phil Cole 29:24
So yeah, I was just gonna say. So to kind of wrap things up. I mean, I think that anybody listening today has an understanding now of what branding is, and the importance of it. The importance, especially for a buyer, or a startup, something like that, because you need to make that that initial impact with your patients that you're that you've purchased through an acquisition or through the startup more than any time the startup. I do think though, that it's very important just for the last I guess, give Have a way before we finish here is to make sure people understand marketing companies out there are not doing branding. So if you get if you reach out and you can, I can tell you, I know five or six different dental marketing companies that are you that you're using, or that you've maybe looked into, that are not doing branding sessions. This is it's it's different than marketing, SEO, and different things like this. This once again, is that image, so make sure that that you understand that this isn't something that you you're going to get from your general marketing company out there. This is a specific thing that you need to reach out to. So. So I want to say thank you to my daughter, Caitlin Murray Cole. And all the information that you gave us, folks reach out to her. Caitlin can do you have a phone number you can leave to just for the sake of sometimes that might be easier.
Kaitlyn Cole 31:09
Yep, it's 989-598-0554.
Phil Cole 31:14
Okay, so you guys reach out to her have a conversation with her if you want. If you have some more information, I will tell you it. It's incredible. What the difference is between not having stock photos, and so forth. But once again, to go over the fact that what you're seeing is people are getting to know you, you're you're expressing yourself, and what you're all about to them. So once again, thank you, Caitlin, for your time. Don't forget her websites Caitlyn Marie cole.com. And if everybody enjoyed our show today, please rate us review us on Apple or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. So I'm Phil cool. And for my co hosts Chris Webb, and for our guests Calum Murray, call everyone. Have a great day. Thanks for listening.
