Now we're going to keep going. So I had the luxury of having a first in person impression with you, but if I met you online, I would have had, like, five seconds to do all that. And that's because as humans, we're constantly scanning our surroundings for signals and patterns and cues that translate to meaning. And that meaning either helps us understand something. And when we understand something, we see it as safe and trusting. And when we don't understand something, we see it as risky and dangerous. Now, you know who doesn't have this ability? Characters in horror movies, right? They see danger and they just run right towards it. So if you ever find yourself screaming at the TV screen, why are you going into the scary basement? Congratulations.

You have the ability to see red flags. And so for all of us who enjoy surviving, we will see red flags. And we know to stay away. So I'm hoping that you all don't have, like, paranormal activity and, like, supernatural clowns on a daily basis. And so I'm assuming you're probably more keen to understanding the, like, less obvious signs that still say danger. Like, for instance, say, after our session, we meet a man named Jerry. Jerry's a corporate speaker. He's dressed in a suit.

Right. And your conversation with him is, like, very normal. But you can't help leaving that conversation absolutely racking your brain as to why Jerry wasn't wearing shoes. Super weird. He was totally normal. But our brain still says this. Or maybe Jerry had the less obvious sign of danger, but showed up to this conference with his shirt unbuttoned all the way down to, like, his sternum. Red flags, right? So, fun fact.

I actually wrote that as a hypothetical. But then I remembered that Jerry was real and he went to my wedding. So I always say that people notice things that don't make sense. Not the things that make sense. And now I can remember that whenever I look through my wedding photos and I see Jerry attending my wedding, I actually don't know who this man was. He was a plus one. And that's how he showed up. So is what it is.

So, as fellow humans, event coordinators are always looking out for these risky red flags. And that's because, like, if we think about their job, they're trying to take their best. Who is least likely to present the most risk to their job security because they have to spend thousands of dollars of company money on people they think are going to not absolutely wreck their jobs in front of all their businesses, their co workers, and their clients. And so the decision to hire you guys, you have to remember it's a weighty one because if you were in their shoes, you absolutely would probably go with the option who presented the least red flags, and you might pay more for it. So today we're going to be talking about maybe those digital red flags that you have out there online that you may not know, and how we can use branding to increase the ratio of referral to sales opportunity by communicating consistency, credibility, and trust with your online branding. I think we have to start by just like cleansing our minds of what we think we know about branding. Can we all raise a green flag if we're ready to unlearn something today? Thank you. Okay.

I would love for us all to to just think about the words that come to mind when we think about branding or brand. What are some words? Feel free to shout them out. Style. Style. What's another one? What is it? Reputation. Reputation. Interesting. Anyone else? Core identity messaging.

Anyone else? Positioning. Image. Image. Awesome. So these are all elements of branding. Absolutely. But do you want to hear my completely unpopular opinion as a branding professional? I don't think you necessarily absolutely need these things to be successful. Let's look at the most popular speakers on the industry today.

So we all know who this is. Yes. Who is she? Mel Robbins. Okay. Did you know that before Mel Robbins was famous, she was a CNN legal analyst and a moderately successful life coach? We know him. Jay Shetty. Jay Shetty. Before he was famous, he worked in corporate and he made videos on the side as a monk turned storyteller.