“Talyn is such a professional and knows her stuff. I went to her full of thoughts, ideas, and passion. She was able to take it in, process it, and come up with a blueprint that truly speaks to who I am.”

— LaTonia Naylor, Founder, Monroe Naylor Consulting

Disclaimer: Clients may have made changes to their brand post-delivery and may not reflect the original work done by Boss Diplomat.

LaTonia Monroe Naylor was referred to Boss Diplomat via a mutual acquaintance on Facebook (of all places!). At the time, she was working on her new business consulting brand to help low-income business owners get started, improve their credit history, and become successful in their own ventures.

LaTonia originally approached me only looking for image consulting, but was struggling to build her personal brand, position her offerings, and price them accordingly. So, the Fairy BOSSmother (that’s me!) jumped in, guiding and encouraging LaTonia to:

Build a personal branding strategy with her name to stand out and take control as the BOSS
Demonstrate her value and packaging and pricing her offerings
Share her powerful personal story to connect her with mission-driven business owners

In the two years since working together, LaTonia has leveraged her name and recognition as a public figure to grow her business and even achieve her dream of publishing a book!

Pre-Personal Branding

I recognized immediately that a common challenge and theme would be shifting her mindset around certain areas, specifically charging for her work and using her name as her personal brand.

LaTonia’s perspective around charging for her work was particularly challenging as a civil servant. She was already a public figure with a string of nonprofit and volunteer experience, meaning she was used to giving her time and expertise away for free—and so were the people she worked with.

So, how would she position herself and her brand to be taken seriously and show off her unique value?

Additionally, LaTonia was hesitant to get vulnerable and share her deeply personal story (more of her inspiration below!) She’d never spoken about her experience and trauma publicly, but not doing so would leave out a powerful piece of her brand narrative and potentially miss an opportunity to connect with her ideal clients.

Choosing the business name was another challenge, as LaTonia initially came to me with a list of potential names that were a mix of numbers and letters that sounded more like political or social campaign names like “LaTonia4Ed” or “Inspir-Ed Rise Consulting.” The problem? All those numbers and punctuation would easily lead to confusion!

Not to mention, a quick Google search told us there were other businesses and nonprofits with very similar names using the words inspire, education, and rise, so more research was necessary. Yet she was hesitant to use her own name for her brand, so we had another significant area of mindset work.

LaTonia’s Branding Goals

Objective #1: Create a LEGIT personal brand. From LaTonia’s business name to her brand color palette to her image and wardrobe, my first order of business would be making her stand out! Since her name already held so much gravitas among her community that it simply made sense to use it to boost her personal brand.

Objective #2: Position LaTonia and her offerings as highly valuable and desirable. First, we would need to shift her mindset around her offerings and charge for them by making it easy to showcase how much value she offers. A crucial piece of this would be sharing her backstory of hardship. I also aimed to boost her confidence as the BOSS, empowering her to control her client acquisition and journey.

Objective #3: Set her up for future success. LaTonia also had big goals of becoming an author and thought leader and is highly committed to helping mission-driven businesses over profit-driven ones. As such, she would need to hone in on her target audience segments so she could speak directly to them with her messaging and offerings.

Bringing It All Together

Sharing LaTonia’s Powerful Story

LaTonia initially came to me for image consulting, but once she shared her business goals and story with me, we discussed her overall personal brand and moved forward with the Brand Blueprint. We built her business and refined her image simultaneously, ensuring she did everything right from Day 1.

The Brand Blueprint process took just three weeks, and we accomplished a lot in that short time! We first determined her brand narrative, leading with her traumatic story that many potential clients and community members could relate to.

LaTonia grew up facing divorce and trauma. She even faced unimaginable violence at the tender age of 16 when she was hit by a stray bullet. It would’ve been easy for LaTonia to choose anger and bitterness, but instead, she chose a path of giving and faith. It’s that path that led her to her mission of lifting others up out of violence and poverty.

Although this was daunting for LaTonia to share, the more we worked on her target audience and identified who she was already helping, the more it made sense for her to open up about this past trauma and connect more deeply with her clients.

A Name All Her Own

Next, we landed on Monroe Naylor Consulting, using Latonia’s maiden and married names for her business name. This empowered her to fully control her name, reputation, and identity as a public figure, leader, wife, and mother all wrapped up in one! Plus, using her name allowed her to tap into her already strong—now supercharged!—personal brand.

Using her name means LaTonia won’t be competing with other brands because her name is one of a kind. Her website will appear upon searching for her, and she won’t risk confusing visitors with a name that sounds like a campaign or movement.

Refined Brand Positioning

During the personal branding process, we also defined LaTonia’s three ideal client segments so she could focus on them and keep her messaging targeted. As we discussed her mission, LaTonia realized she wanted to help entrepreneurs struggling with domestic hardship, specifically:

Startup nonprofits that need support navigating legal, governance, and tax matters along with running their organizations
Home-based businesses that want to ensure they’re set up properly regarding finances, business structure, and operations
Individuals who struggle with personal financial management and need guidance to run their life like a business before starting an actual business

LaTonia explains that this keeps her crystal clear on who is her target audience—and who is not. After conducting focus groups and undergoing the Brand Blueprint process, she says she knows how to tune out that noise and cater to those she truly wants to serve. And she’s more than okay not being for everyone because she KNOWS her audience!

I also helped LaTonia develop core offerings that would best resonate with these ideal clients and help her fulfill her mission. These include:

Nonprofit Rise: A structured program to support nonprofits through the setup process and administration, including obtaining grants and funding, completing 501(c)3 applications, and setting up a board
Business Ally: A flexible service that supports home-based businesses with managing basic finances, accounting, and taxation
Personal Finance Hero: Financial coaching to guide individuals on managing finances, maximizing income, and avoiding further damage to improve their credit score

As someone who has worked with politicians and diplomats for over a decade on personal branding, I understand how difficult it is for many public figures to shift from helping people from an institutional point of view to charging them for that same service. This experience allowed me to coach LaTonia to understand and showcase her value and become more comfortable with getting paid for her expertise!

Building a Personal Image

As the face of her small business, another essential piece of LaTonia’s personal branding is her image. Before, she wore all the wrong colors—they made her look tired and unhealthy, even if that wasn’t the case.

Once I trained her on the colors she should wear, LaTonia could immediately see the difference. She appeared refreshed and energetic and gained a renewed sense of confidence by wearing colors she had never thought of wearing, including purple and mustard yellow!

“I got much more out of the experience than I anticipated, such as a legendary business name that was right in my head but not in my thoughts.” - LaTonia Naylor, Founder, Monroe Naylor Consulting

Monroe Naylor Consulting After the Branding Process

In our most recent catch-up conversation, LaTonia shared several exciting updates.

First, she accomplished a major goal by launching her book Mission-Rich AND Profit-Powered: A Guide to Transforming Your Passion Work Into a Fully Funded Business! It’s even accompanied by a workbook so nonprofit and small business leaders can take actionable steps toward setting up and maintaining a successful, profitable organization. LaTonia says building her personal brand helped her fast-track her journey to becoming an author.

Additionally, LaTonia shared that she regularly receives compliments on her personal brand and overall visual presentation. She’s become quite the style icon and has led confidently since the branding and image consulting process.

Clearly, LaTonia’s brand and image make an impact because she is constantly in the public eye and has various speaking engagements for most of the year!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=YOrV7KPB7bJmWsSu&v=lgUuX_gaB9Q&feature=youtu.be

Looking Ahead

But that’s not all, folks! LaTonia is also starting a new coaching program for nonprofits and small businesses with modules mirror her book, giving members the opportunity to walk through it with LaTonia. She is excited to teach people how to get grants and funding during the coaching program. Her goal? “No more struggling to make ends meet!”

Her upcoming Mission Rich Academy is also in the works. This will be a retainer program giving clients access to her for consulting each month. To top it all off, LaTonia is starting a virtual book club for those reading Mission-Rich AND Profit-Powered so they can discuss what they took from it and how to implement.

Overall, LaTonia reports that she has been attracting the right people into her business. While she’s still working toward charging more for her services, she notes this is a work in progress as she soars through her journey as an established thought leader.

And she’s got much more on the horizon, so stay tuned at monroenaylor.com or follow her on Instagram @moroenaylorllc!

“I believe that you need Boss Diplomat! I just want to see people do better, I want to see people grow, and I love to see people win. … I know the key to that is knowing who you are, knowing how to articulate that, how to send your message in a way that’s effective…and Boss Diplomat will help you do that.” - LaTonia Naylor, Founder, Monroe Naylor Consulting

Now It’s Your Turn

Are you ready to reposition your brand and stand out like the BOSS that you are? Get started by booking a free Mini Brand Session, where I take 30 minutes to review your current branding and challenges!

Book your free Mini Brand Session here