How to Build a Brand People Actually Remember with Lisa Chen | E25

Sherry Brooks

Okay Lisa, I have been wanting to have this conversation for so long. Because I feel like branding is one of those topics that gets talked about constantly — and also gets misunderstood completely. Like I have watched so many brilliant women redo their website, hire a photographer, spend three thousand dollars on a logo — and still feel invisible. What is actually going on there?

Lisa Chen

Right, and first — I love you for asking it this way because most people frame this as a design problem. "My brand doesn't look right." And the truth is, looking right has almost nothing to do with it. The women you're describing? They're invisible not because their visuals are wrong. They're invisible because they haven't made a decision yet. A brand is fundamentally a decision — about who you're for, what you stand for, and what you are absolutely not. And most people are terrified to make that call.

Sherry Brooks

Say more about that. The terrified part — because I think that's where it lives for most people listening right now.

Lisa Chen

Okay so here's what I see happen all the time. A woman comes to me and she says, "I want to work with ambitious women in business." And I say, "Great — which ambitious women? The ones burning out in corporate who want out? The ones who already left and are building something but feel stuck? The ones who are six figures in and can't scale?" And she goes quiet. Because the answer is — all of them. She wants to help all of them. Which means her brand is speaking to none of them specifically. And none of them feel like she's talking to them.

Sherry Brooks

Oh that is so good. Because it feels safer to stay broad, right? Like if I say I help everyone, I can't lose anyone. But what you're saying is — by trying not to lose anyone, you're actually reaching no one.

Lisa Chen

Exactly. And that's the Signal vs. Noise concept I talk about in the book. Your signal is the thing that cuts through — the thing that makes a specific person stop scrolling and think, "she's talking about me." Noise is everything else. Most brands are 80% noise and 20% signal, and they wonder why nobody's buying. The goal isn't to appeal to everyone. The goal is to be unmissable to someone.

Sherry Brooks

Unmissable to someone. I love that. Okay — so how do you find your signal? Like if someone's listening right now and they have no idea what their signal is, where do they even start?

Lisa Chen

I start with three questions. First: what's the problem you have personally lived through — not the one you studied, the one that woke you up at 3am and made you want to throw your laptop? Second: who are the people you get genuinely angry on behalf of? Like, you hear their situation and something in your chest goes — that is not okay. And third: what do people ask you for when they think nobody's watching? Not what you put on your bio — what do friends, colleagues, strangers DM you about? The overlap of those three things is almost always your signal.