Personal Brand Story and Business Values,
with Reme Mancera and Ixchel Alcantara

Hello everyone. Welcome to Intersection Chats. I am Reme Mancera a personal brand story strategist, and here is Hi everybody, this is Ixchel Alcantara. I’m a fractional CFO and a strategic business partner. Thank you for being here, and we are going to talk about the intersection between personal brand story and business values. So let’s start. Ixchel, based on your own experience, how do you think personal brand story and the business values, how they affect each other, how they are connected? Thanks, Reme. First of all, I wanna thank you for having me here today. Excuse the voice. I have a cold. It sounds kind of funny. But what I would like to say is I like to think of business as this ecosystem that’s interconnected. And so in my experience, um, your brand story and your, and your business values, they’re kind of what I would say symbiotic. They depend on one another. They keep each other. They help the owner and the team stay in alignment and keep each other, um, in check, for lack of a better word, in order to move forward with how, just how they market, but also their deliverability, their operations, everything that their whole ecosystem is. And so there’s. I’ve seen that some people start with their values and then build off their story. Mm-hmm. I think it kind of grows as you grow as a business, it’s, it’s, it feeds off of each other. Um, and that’s the intersection that I see with values and brand story. Yeah, and I think also because it’s like, it’s a, it’s not something that is like static and it’s going to evolve because they are going to live like together and they are going to evolve in a parallel way. So I agree on that. How they, they feed each other and how both of them are important in my opinion. You can use your stories as a way to highlight what are your values. What is important to you and also something that I really see as an opportunity is how you might mention your values even, I dunno, in your About Me page, but then is like, you can use your stories as a way to highlight how. Those values are important for you as a person in different areas of your life and in different ways in your business. As you say, it’s not just one thing. It’s like even when how you connect with your own team or with the people that work, uh, with you in some capacity. So there are more like just doing an exercise and deciding what are your values and what are, uh, the, the points that you are going to highlight, right? Absolutely. I agree with you 100%. Um, you pointed into it’s like evolving. Mm-hmm. And it’s how you connect with your team. Um, one of the things that I’ve noticed working in corporate is the brand story really wasn’t talked about and the values were not continuously. Reminded, wow. The organization. So as small business owners, we can actually leverage brand story, that intersection to remind us as we’re ever growing. And also I’d say it’s a good way to remind us what our boundaries are. Yeah. Right? Because as business owners, when you start off and you’re by yourself, you’re what you call entrepreneur, right? You’re doing it all and boundaries can get really leaky really, really fast. But every time you’re sharing your story on social or every time you’re revaluing, do these values, is this actually what I mean by this value? Or what is that value is really how I’m defining. Um, it’s like, um, a good. It’s a good way of, of setting that. Mm. I would say that practice. Mm-hmm. So that as you continue to grow, you don’t fall into that corporate pattern that, that I experienced. Um, which is where I think corporate kind of goes sideways. Mm-hmm. Um, with their team. Yeah. Yeah. I love that idea of the boundaries and, and this is something I feel related to specifically to storytelling. There are a lot of conversation around boundaries and especially if you want to protect your privacy and how much you share and all that. So there is, uh, that conversation, but I agree about the how incorporating your, your values can be a way to set your boundaries. Um, and again, we have. As a business owner, that creates something, especially as you said, like when you’re, when you are just one person and you’re the face of your brand, you have started this business. Usually, especially the people that, um, we might work with, they, they have, um, they want to impact, have an impact. Mm-hmm. They, they want to have a certain lifestyle, but also they want this, this work that they do is important for them. Mm-hmm. So how. Sharing your, your values and how, sharing the pieces of your stories, helping to explain that, provide context to the people. Like, okay, I can connect with this person because we have certain values in common because I understand why for this person is important to work with me or give a solution for me. So I have found how. Again, the values, sharing your values and sharing stories around your values is really helpful to build that connection with potential clients or audience, or as you said, like people that you are going to collaborate or people that are in your team as well. Right. How has been your, your, your experience around this, uh, specific part of, uh, how is. Talking about why you started your business. If I’m talking about, well, I mean, in my experience I see that people start taking more accountability for what decisions they’re making as a whole. Mm-hmm. So it’s not that we don’t take our business seriously. We do. But we don’t fall prey to like the shiny object syndrome. We’re more intentional about the decisions we make. We stop making decisions off of, um, the what ifs or, or even, you know, we’re emotional beings and sometimes we’re triggered, right. Yeah. Off of that. And so I think getting really clear on the why as part of like your, your brand story and, and aligning it to your values. Um. And I’m thinking more of even like the numbers of financing, right? I, I think you can make better business decisions and operations financially, even like how you decide to grow. Mm-hmm. Because of that. Why? It’s almost like if you don’t have that brand story infused with values and infused with your why, you are all over the place and you’re oozing. And then you’re stuck on this pattern of, let me jump from here to over here and to over there and to, because we’re thinking about the greater picture is I wanna create impact. Yeah. But we’re not defining how and why. Mm-hmm. And I think our brand story and our values, when we align them together and in that inter intersection and we use them and we leverage them, it’s a reminder for us whenever we are making decisions or when we’re showing up in collaborations, or even when we’re showing up to be in someone’s podcast. Right? Yeah. We’re more conscientious of why we’re doing it. Not just why we’re delivering the service or why we’re delivering the product, but why are we, um, doing the things that we’re doing in our business and for why. Yeah. Yeah. I love this. Um, yeah, sorry. Um, I, I love this idea of how taking decisions, especially around finance and operations that are like your expertise. Um, how. If you have before having those, uh, making those decisions, having clarity and intention in your own values and, and, and your journey that has the bring you here is like all that will give you like more confidence that you are doing the right decision or you are more certain about a certain, uh, a specific decision because you know how is based. In what you believe and in what you stand for, and in the reason why you started this in the first place. So. When you have all that like aligned, if you will, is like everything makes more sense and you are more like, you have this confident that yeah, this the, the, the path that I want to try. And it’s not that it’s the right decision because things can go in a direction to another, but you stand for that decision. You, you believe in that decision and that’s like something so important. Uh, I don’t know for you, but for me. When I started my business, one of the things that it was like not unexpected, but was bigger than I thought is like for good and bad. I am the one taking all the decision in this business, and that is. It was kind of overwhelming at the beginning because it’s like you need to do all the decisions and, and it’s like you need to consider the pros and cons and all that. So, uh, I dunno how it was for you, but for me it was like that at the beginning. Um, same here. I came from a, from a background of. Of, uh, corporate where I saw how it was structured, right? I saw what worked and what didn’t, and then I saw what they were doing and that maybe just hmm, wasn’t in alignment with my values. Right? Um, but then when I was in the business, it feels really overwhelming, like you said, and really hard. And I’m witnessing you there. I see it a lot. I saw it in myself. Um. To be honest, um, I initially started doing copy mm-hmm. Even though my background was accounting, because I, I wanted to explore a way to, um, help people connect and use their voice to connect to the right audience. Right. I eventually, I realized, no, I really, it’s not about a voice, it’s about the, the advocacy. Giving, uh, small business owners their advocacy back by helping them create that alignment, not just through the finance and the operations, but strategically as a whole, so that they get aligned to their values. Right? Um, and it was really hard for me at first. I was the person that was leaking all over the place. Until I got, I sat down and I got clear on my values, and from there, now I’m working with you on my brand story. And that takes a while too. Um, sometimes we question, well, this story means to me on a personal level, but does it, is it in alignment with what matters to my ideal person? Right? Yeah. It’s like finding that perfect blend, and that’s what I love about what you do. Thank you is bringing that in, right? That’s sometimes we have blinders or that’s not our, our, our strength. And I think that that’s You do it. So beautiful. Thank you so much. And I am so excited to be working together on your story. Um, and yeah, absolutely. This like. Uh, I, I want to share two thoughts, like one of is, this is like this idea of how you find a story, a meaningful moment, that this connected to your values, but this also connected to the people that you are talking to. For them to understand why this topic is important to you and why. Why this matter to you and why this, uh, working around this problem or this situation is something that you want to, to help them with. Um, so it’s really important, as you said, to to know. Why you are sharing that specific story. Otherwise feel like just random storytelling and it’s like, no, let’s do it with intention. So it makes sense for you, it makes sense for your audience, and it’s also helping your business because your client, your potential clients, we are understand you better and we’ll have more information and more details to make the right decision. For them. Mm-hmm. And see if you are a good fit. And then something else that I want to point out that, that you mentioned is how I have worked with so many clients that they were working in corporate and they felt there was not meaningful work. And they want to change and they need to change, um, for some of them. They have learned there what they don’t want to, to do in their own business or things that are like, uh, I need to pay attention to this because I am, I know how this can go and I don’t want to go my business in that direction. Um, and I remember for example, a specific client that I had, uh, she was a web designer. And she was working in a tech, uh, tech startup, uh, before working by the herself. And there she left because she felt like there it was more about the profit than the purpose, and for her was a lot of this alignment. So she left. So using. Story like that is, um, explaining how for her, it’s really important to be in alignment and, and to, and she’s helping, uh, like sustainable brand and conscious brand and all that. So it talks a lot about what is important to her. So it’s helping the audience to understand. Okay. This person has this sensibility that I feel connected with, and, and that’s going to help her to, to find people that will appreciate that, and the same will help reject people that they focus more, let’s say, on a fast, uh, result or, or something else. So it’s not, that is like wrong or, or right. It’s just that it fits, it, it fits or it, it is better for looking for another solution. Yeah, you, you have a very good point there. It’s about the idea of there’s this same, I think it’s, it’s different strokes for different folks. Oh. So depending on, I think sometimes we, we think we forget. Hold on a second. I need to cough. Yeah. Okay, we forget that our biggest value as small business owners is that we can, not only do we have a smaller capacity compared to these big corporations, um, we have the flexibility to be more conscientious and in alignment. With who we serve. And by that we’re creating more diversity in the market. Right? That is one of our biggest differentiators. And sometimes we don’t value that and, and our people are out there because we’re not the only ones that think that way. I am 100% sure of that. Right. Um, and so that’s really powerful and corporations are aware of that. That’s why they look at the profit, because if they can’t be profitable and you know, they’re living in maybe a place of, I have people that are invested in me, right? So now there’s this additional conflict that they have to make sure the profit is high. We don’t have that as small business owners. My point is we have the flexibility to focus more on aligned profits or what I like to say, aligned profits and more intentional how we function because we have a smaller, more intentional type of business. Um, and I love that because back to what I said, it creates that diversity in the market that bigger corporations don’t have the capacity. If they did that, they would go under because of the pH team. Yeah. Yeah. I love that idea of the aligned profit because it’s not that. Because we care about purpose. We don’t care about a business that is profitable. And I remember, uh, uh, when I was focused more on, on course helping course creators with their lunches and so on, I, I said a lot like this, not just, uh, as fancy. Spend hobby, this like a business. You want to be profitable, but that doesn’t mean that you are not coherent with your values and with and in alignment. So you feel all right of the things that you are doing. So you don’t need to be like oing, uh, like. Manipulative techniques or things like that because for some people they feel like, when you said strategic, it’s kind of a, a synonym of, uh, trying to manipulate people. And I always like to invite people to use the in intentional instead of that because it’s like you do things with an intention. So you are not just randomly doing things, you are analyzing and deciding what to do. So you put intention in, in, in what you do, but it, that doesn’t mean that you are trying to make people take decisions that are not right for them. Actually, the opposite. You want them to know what is important to you, to know more about what you do and, and how you have done this is so they have more information and they can connect with you and, and really make the decision based on that. Yes, I agree. You know, going back to what you were saying, I thought of, have you heard of Chobani? No, it’s a yogurt brand. Okay. Greek yogurt brand. And it’s, um, I really love that story because to bring my, your point of alignment and making more intentional decisions, and honestly, I know the word strategy is like, uh, right. Um, really strategy. That’s what it means. I think as a corporation, we think of. I mean, when we think of corporate, we think of that word and it feels so cold. Right. Um, and so well back to Chobani’s story. The owner of Chobani used to be, um, uh. He was, he had a family, um, business that made yogurts. And so when he came here to the US in New York, actually in an area in New York, he bought an old yogurt man manufacturing plant that was going under. His intention was to build that business in a way that was gonna build a community around itself. Right. That was his value, that was his intention, and that’s building his brand story. That’s why I know this. Um, and I really admired him because, and, and, and something that I really encourage my clients to do is as they’re building their business, what is your value? Because you could be profitable, right? And profitable is different, means different to every single business as far as the number is concerned, so long as you’re in alignment with the values that matter to you. In his case, he hired, he hir the managers that were losing their job because of the, you know, um, the failed yogurt manufacturing that was there before. Uh, and he worked with them as a team. And then he started hiring people from the community that needed jobs. Right? He’s still profitable. He ended up selling the company. Um, but the point of it was, and the reason why I’m bringing this up is we may be small right now, but eventually we could grow. And so really being, um, clear about what our values are and who we’re either. Bringing in as a partner to grow, who we’re borrowing from and how we’re wanting to grow. Like as far as like that capital, as well as who we’re selling to. If we decide to sell that, all of that brand story and values are infused into those decisions as well. Um, so I really, uh, like if there was, um. A business that I would love to embody or that embodies a lot of my values, it would be the way that he did it. Like it’s not just about the profits, it’s about intentionally like I wanna create a business that’s going to have that social impact in my community and build it up. Mm-hmm. I love that. And yeah, it’s a perfect example. How values and story are, are combined and. Just to, to share a bit of more context, because maybe for some people when we talk about values, they are not sure about what we mean. Um, I want to just share a couple of ideas for people to think about. Um, so it could be something like transparency, so that’s important to you, how you. Run your business could show that that’s a, a value that you have, and then you can share a story that shows how transparency is important for you. Has been important in the past, maybe in our previous pa uh, work experience, maybe in inside with your family or in other contexts. So again, that will provide context of, okay, these are huge value for that person. And it shows not just in the business, in the way that they run their businesses, but also in their story or let’s say could be innovation. Sustainability, simplicity, respect, any of those can be something that is important to you. And you want to have that as something that you have always in mind when you take the decisions of your business. And as you were saying before, like decisions around finance, that there is the decision around your business, your team, and how you run it. So just to provide a bit of more. Specific examples for people to, to have an idea on what, uh, we are talking about when we mention business values in general. I dunno if you want to add some, uh, other specific examples. Um, well, like for instance, mine are mutually beneficial. So by that I mean I wanna make sure that if I have a profit it’s mu mutually beneficial for the business. Me as my, the owner, my team, if I have any. Of course, number one, the client, because you, without them, you have no revenue. You don’t even have profit, you don’t have anything. Right? Um, and, and, and also for me personally, it’s that how is this going to matter? What’s the impact I’m creating with that profit, um, or advocacy? Am I helping. My ideal client make the best aligned decisions for them in a way that I’m not just telling them, this is what you need to do. I’m helping them gain their advocacy back where I, they can say, okay, well if this is not working, because let’s be aligned. Let’s be honest. Sorry. Even if we make aligned intentional decisions, sometimes we need to pivot. Yeah, sometimes we need to tweak and so giving them back that advocacy and confidence in their ability to make that decision is important to me because again, it’s not about just relying on my expertise, it’s also giving them their adv advocacy back to trust their inner knowing. Mm-hmm. That maybe slightly something feels off because you are in the everyday business more than maybe I am. Right. Only you know your business better than anybody. Um, so those are really, um, examples. And I don’t know how you go about developing or how you’ve gone about developing your values, but like, for instance, going through your questionnaire, like, help me even make it even crisper to define my values as a whole. ’cause sometimes they start as well, this is the word, right? This is a word that I’m thinking, but for instance, compassion. Compassion could be anything. Mm-hmm. Right? And that’s one of my values. Compassion from a perspective of someone coming in as your strategic partner or as your fractional CFO versus someone that’s compassionate from a therapist role is going to look different. Mm. Yeah, so I think that that’s where the intersection also, and going back of personal brand story and values comes in. You have the ability to expand more on those values through your band story every single day. Well, when you post or you share, not just on your website. But in your social media. And I just wanna take this one further and lean it more on the marketing aspect. ’cause I don’t think we’ve touched on that and how that intersection impacts that part of your, um, you know, business. Not only does it help you stay in alignment with the collaborations that you say yes to, it’s you all of a sudden start thinking a little bit more, um. About how you are spending your time on what platform you are showing up in. Hmm. Is it an alignment with not just my values, but I mean where my ideal client is, but my values, and then you start, you stop shaming yourself for not maybe dancing on TikTok, right? Or because that’s not you. Or maybe that’s not your ideal, or maybe your ideal client is there, but, but that’s not who you’re right. Um, so again, just to come full circle, the business is this ecosystem. It’s all tied in and brand story and values are at the core just as much as your why is it’s like. Your why is the core and your values and your brand, uh, your brand story or your brand stories are a way of expressing that why to the, to the world and inviting your ideal client in to work with you. Yeah, I love that. Um, as you said, when you bring a story to explain your values, it gives more nuance about what you mean. With that, and it can, I can have more context to understand better what you mean. That that’s, that’s one value that is important to you. And I love the, the mutual beneficial, uh, uh, of you because it’s like this talk a lot about you approach to work. So this is something that I always try to, to, to, to make people see how using your stories. Can be a way to highlight what makes you value unique and your approach unique because there could be more people offering similar services, but your approach is unique. It’s different. So using your stories and your, uh, strategic storytelling for highlighting that is a way to make your brand, your personal brand, or your brand memorable. So I love that idea of how. Even from your core values is this point of, okay, everyone in the ecosystem need to feel like seeing, need to feel like take care of, and need to feel that this is a win-win situation. So I love that, and especially around a topic like yours that is around money, around how we run the business. So I feel that because that could be. So, quote unquote, goal is nice to bring that human aspect of compassion and um, mutual benefit benefit. So I love that, uh, that you bring that as well. Thank you so much, reme. Yeah, no, that was like as, as I grew in my business and we talk about just feeling like you’re an octopus all over the place until you get, uh, clear, okay, this is why my business exists. Mm-hmm. And here’s how I’m gonna express it through brand story and my values, and this is why it’s important. Um, I just, uh, thank you for that because that was my biggest. Pet peeve, for lack of a better word, with corporate is as sometimes as you grow bigger and you don’t have that in mind with your team, the human aspect gets removed and the profit takes over. Yeah, and that is the last thing. That I would like anybody to have happen. Um, because in it, not only do you lose the human, you also lose the impact. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like diluted. Do you say? Mm-hmm. That right? Like Yeah. It gets like, uh, what it, um, yeah. So before we wrap up. Um, there is any takeaways that you would like to highlight from this conversation or maybe something that we haven’t touched, but that you feel is important to, to mention? Um, you know, in my experience, and thank you for asking me that question, in my experience, because we are wearing as small business owners, we are wearing all the hats, right? Mm-hmm. Um, it can get overwhelming. And when we get really clear on our values, well, first of all on our why, and then it expands onto the brand story and, and the values. Um, not only does it keep us grounded, um. I think it provides greater value to our society and by example to the, even the contractors that we work with, because we influence other people, right? Yeah. And so if, if we are trying to create a greater impact, it’s like that ripple effect. Um, I really love the idea of highlighting the importance of this and actually addressing that, not just when you start your business. But throughout, when you look back at your 90 day plan or you look at your, um, everything else, um, you revisit that and also you give yourself permission to have values. I am sorry. You start seeing things not just as the hats I wear, but as the business centers that are working in alignment with me and my business, and that maybe they have an additional value. That feeds into the bigger value of the organization and that’s okay. Hmm. And to start building that even as small business owners. And that’s important because as we grow and we hire people to work with us, that’s gonna be huge. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Sorry, go ahead. To finish off, it’s not just the brand story, the values that kind of remind us and keep us in gear, it’s also. The team has to be aware and embody that. Hmm. Yeah. I love that approach because it’s like, again, the same that, uh, with our clients, also with the people that will work, uh, together with us, it’s like we want them to be aware of, uh, what are our values, what is important to us? And even if they don’t, a hundred percent has the same value that you, they. Somehow feel aligned or respected point of view or. See as a potential growth to be together with someone with those values. Even if that’s not my priority or my main focus, having someone with certain values could be like an enrich world situation for me. So it’s like even if we have complimentary values, if you will, we’ll be a way of growing and as you said, this triple effect. So it is going to have an impact in all the ecosystem and hopefully in the society as well. So we will get like small part into making the world a better place in if, if you will. Like we are trying to, to make things in a way that helps society to be in a way that we feel is, is better. And also this idea of the revisiting, because again, I, I know that we have mentioned already this, uh, you are evolving. So you are, you are going to grow even if things go well or not in your business, it’s going to evolve as you, as a person. You, you, you are constantly evolving, so your business as well. Mm. So I feel that this revisiting is a nice exercise just to. Yeah. To, to be intentional about it and to be incoherence, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So just to finish, I would like to invite you to, um, share one of like one to three words to summarize the idea of this, the power of this intersection. Mm-hmm. So I, I think I could just say it in one word. It’s intentionality. Beautiful. I mean, that’s the best word I could use it to describe what it allows us intentionality without shame. Oh, yeah. That’s, that’s really important. Yeah. For me, I think will be coherence like between what you feel and what you stand for, but also how you do your business, how you is. How you are in, in business. Um, so yeah, so thank you so much for this. Um, as you know, this was the first one, so, uh, so, uh, generous of you to, to accept this invitation. Even you, you are, uh, with your call. So thank you for, for doing that. And thank you to Mikki (Wilson) that was the one that put us in context. Absolutely. So grateful for her community as well. Um, yeah, so, uh, this is the first one. The idea is to have more of this conversation with other experts to talk about the intersection between personal brand story and their expertise. And thank you for being the first one and talking about business values and everything in between. Um, thank you for everyone that has watched or is going to watch the replay if they want to learn more about us. Um. Maybe find out, um, what we do and learning more about that. All the links are in the description so they can go, uh, and check it out. Um, feel free to reach out to us. So thank you so much and see you next time. Thank you, Reme. This was great. Thank you.