Identity-First Branding: Turning Inner Truth into Market Impact with Katie Fitzgerald

Welcome to the behavioral profit, the show where

business meets behavior. I'm your host, Debbie

Longo, executive behavioral coach. And each week

we dive into the mindset shifts, leadership strategies,

and cultural behaviors that drive higher performance

and greater profits. Whether you're leading a

team or building a business, this is your space

to learn how human behavior fuels business success.

Katie Fitzgerald is the founder of K F I T Z

consulting a brand strategist who helps emotionally

intelligent professionals build identity first

business grounded in who they. Katie's work blends

personality, typology, emotional clarity, and

strategic culture to help therapists, coaches,

and creative steps into brands that feel honest

and stainable. She's here to talk about what

happens when marketing becomes an extension of

your inner truth, not a performance. Good afternoon,

Katie. Welcome to the show. Hello. Thank you

for having me. So I have a few questions here.

The first question is, what does it mean to build

an identity? first brand and why is that different

from traditional marketing? An identity first

brand essentially starts with who you are, not

just meeting the algorithm, not meeting trends,

and it doesn't just work off of market demand.

Essentially, what I aim to do with all of my

clients is build them a brand that feels authentic.

I don't want my clients to feel like they're

performing or role playing because at the end

of the day, if I set up all this marketing for

you, you and this brand, it really needs to reflect

who you are to give you that sales confidence.

If I get you those leads through marketing and

your sales confidence is off, it doesn't feel

like you're performing this idea of what's trending

right now. It's going to cause your sales confidence

to decrease. Like you really start to dysregulate

in a very, and that's where the nerves come in

and we have those sales issues. So I find that

if you just take a brand, make it authentic to

the It really changes the game for that solo

professional or small business owner. On this

podcast and all of my others, we're focusing

on executives and business owners, all different

industries on either different types of behavior.

How can we improve that industry? What we're

talking about here is the identity first brand.

So if somebody is interested in marketing or

wants to pursue a career in marketing, then this

podcast might give them some tips about the things

that they want to accomplish and exactly how

to develop their business or how to make it better.

When I develop my marketing, I want to make sure

potential client or customer is owing to be receptive.

People like instant gratification. It's good

to explain what the difference is between that

and working at a slower pace. Then what do I

get from those two things? What happens right

away when I work with the person and what's the

difference between the way that you do your business,

getting results right away and a little bit slower.

You can either go to a marketing consultant.

There's many of us out there. and get a cookie

cutter template. That's just essentially following

an algorithm, placing you into what seems to

work and you look like everybody else. It takes

a little time working with me developing a personally

typed brand. So what I do is Myers -Briggs testing,

which is your personality type. There's 16 of

them. Then I look at VARC, the way that you process

information, how you take things in. And essentially

I'm working with you one -on -one to build build

a brand that could last forever. Those cookie

cutter brands change all the time. And that's

when brands start to feel performative. When

you feel like you are not showing up as the person

that you truly are, but you're matching the trends

that are popular on LinkedIn at the time and

not truly being a thought leader like you can

be. The next question is how do personality frameworks

like Myers -Briggs shape your clients? Briggs

essentially is just pulling apart who you really

are. The reason I'm doing this is because everyone

has a different tempo. If you're an introvert,

you're not going to be wanting to do a video

every day or maybe running a whole podcast. The

marketing strategist, I take that into account.

I don't give you a plan that just works for anybody.

It's based off of who you are just to ensure

the success rate that it will happen. I look

at the different elements since there are 16

different personality types. Everyone's a little

different and I truly base the whole entire strategy

off of who you are to make sure that you perform

usually at 70 or higher success rate. So you're

saying that your success rate based on this Myers

-Briggs format is very effective. The biggest

thing that I've noticed is really the sales confidence.

A lot of people, it doesn't matter if you are

that solo professional that's aiming for the

top or you're already at the top, sales confidence

can always be influenced and affected, pressurized.

If you feel that your brand and what you stand

behind, what's online and what you're showing

up as is aligned, it's going to make a huge difference.

And that really comes down to biology, just nervous

system regulation. There's a difference in trying

to perform in front of others. If you want to

get into psychology, it's a sense of masking.

And I'm noticing that a lot of... Business folks

from executives to solo professionals all over

the place seem to be masking themselves and they

lose sight as to why they're really here and

what they're great at. Thank you for that. Next

question. You've helped clients move financial

crisis to clarity. What's the first shift that

makes that possible? Stop trying to play the

visibility game. It is not a formula. You can

post three times. You could post five times a

week, say authenticity and consistency. But what

does that mean? view, what gives you the drive

and the lack of emotional burnout. The biggest

issue that a lot of us run into is we don't come

and do our marketing videos. We don't show up

and do these things. But if you create a sustainable

system and schedule, it is completely accomplishable

and it's much easier to work on, which is why

I also infuse the personality type and take a

look at that when I'm deciding on schedules for

people, because even that you don't feel performative.

It doesn't like a sluggish task that you have

to do, be excited and talk about things that

excite you. That's how you develop your niche.

That's how you are recognized within your field

as a thought leader because you're passionate

versus just doing the trending hashtag or the

topic of the week. Yes, thank you. We just had

a podcast from somebody, an entire podcast on

burnout. She was talking about people who burn

out. What's their personality like? They're perfectionists.

They always think that they can do everything

right and they really try, but it never works

out like that because nobody's a perfectionist.

Make goals something that I don't think is achievable

or attainable. That clarity is important. Make

it an attainable goal, a reality. The last question

is what advice would you give to someone trying

to grow their business without abandoning themselves

in the process? Start from what you just said,

which is clarity. Look at where you feel like

you're faking things, you're making up these

words that everyone seems to be using in your

industry, and stop right there. Speak as yourself,

be your authentic self, and that's how you're

going to develop yourself into a thought leader,

someone that stands out from the crowd because

you're not just copying everyone else. You are

great at what you do, you know what you're doing,

and that's all you need to shine. That's essentially

it. If you overlook these and things you'll find

that stand out much brighter. If you take the

time to really look at yourself and identify

what you're already great at and highlight those

qualities, you know what you're doing, you know

what you're great at and you know what you're

selling, then you essentially will stand out

brighter than anyone else in your industry. These

industries topics that I do podcast on is to

ultimately increase sales and profits. As a coach,

I want to help the owner or example just to do

that. As far as abandoning themselves, which

is something we just talked about, I don't want

to not enjoy what I'm doing. And I want to think

and act social in any company that you are a

business owner in, like developing a team and

things that are motivational. If I abandon myself,

I'm not really with... other people, that's just

my own issue. And being social is definitely

going to make a great company and have great

employees that don't want to quit. They want

to stay there. And then essentially you will

have a great company because if I am a business

owner that goes through their employees, the

business owner says the employees quit because

the employee did this, but The business owner,

you should look at themselves because if they

have a lot of employees quitting, then what is

the issue? I'm saying employees, plural, more

than one. It's not only quitting. Maybe they're

not doing their job duties. What is the issue?

So what we're saying are all different ways of

helping companies and business owners and executives.

And they will have a great company and they will

be over the top. And then all the other companies

and their industry. How did you do this? Everything

is working perfect. You're making money. And

that's really what a business owner is looking

for. It's something I'm going to achieve when

I help them. And that's what's important. What

they want to do and what really should be happening

to help their company and be successful. Really

two different things. Do they want to look at

themselves and see what things they need to improve

in business? I love that you brought this up

because essentially people ask me, where did

you get the personality typing from? And some

of the best Forbes identified companies use personality

typing to create dynamic teams. It's understanding

who you're working with, being a leader. And

even when you work with me on a consulting front,

I require that my clients use designed affirmations

on the back of their computer or their phone

because everyone has something they can work

on. There's always an element. the self, the

personality, what we're doing every day for work

for many hours a day, we can always improve.

And that's essential to me. Making sure that

not only am I building you a brand, but I'm building

out the beautiful person that's in front of me,

my client, and really helping you achieve to

that very level. And it depends on the type of

person. Everyone's different. Everyone's affirmations

are different, but they're always business centered.

And they're really essential to getting to where

you want. Achieving those goals for real not

just making like you said earlier these goals

that are unattainable what is the point of that

really looking to make a difference and that's

why i like saying that i like to develop thought

leaders i really appreciate you being on the

show is there anything that you would like to

say in closing my last advice to anybody that

finds themselves struggling with marketing is

to pause look for that clarity don't chase visibility

just be your authentic self and highlight what

you already know How can they get in touch with

you? The best way to get in touch with me is

on LinkedIn, Katie Fitzgerald, or you can email

me at KFITZ Consulting. My information also will

be there. Thank you for being on the show. I

really appreciate it.