Flavilla Fongang – Align Yourself with the Leaders, Not the Followers

BIO: Flavilla Fongang is a Top 5 most influential tech woman. She is the author of 99 Strategies to get customers, International Keynote Speaker, BBC Brand Strategist, Brand Growth Coach, Branding & Marketing Agency MD, TLA Black Women in Tech Founder, and Tech Brains Talk Podcast. STORY: When Flavilla started a personal branding consultancy, she made the mistake of charging by the hour. This made her lose money, and people perceived her low rates as a reflection of her services. LEARNING: Don’t align yourself with followers who pay less. Align yourself with leaders who will pay premium rates.   “Align yourself with the leaders, not the followers.” Flavilla Fongang   Guest profilehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/flavillafongang/ (Flavilla Fongang) is a Top 5 most influential tech woman. She is the author ofhttps://amzn.to/3fLxjDR ( 99 Strategies to get customers), International Keynote Speaker, BBC Brand Strategist, Brand Growth Coach, Branding & Marketing Agency MD, TLA Black Women in Tech Founder, andhttps://open.spotify.com/episode/6XtB8CJSuNLJoCc35m5rnH?si=pyOeDldUTHam4qOWQampmw&nd=1 ( Tech Brains Talk Podcast). Worst investment everFlavilla worked in oil and gas and then later decided to become a fashion stylist who self-taught herself. She read a lot of books and learned about becoming a fashion stylist. Flavilla then quickly realized that people were very interested in personal branding, so she became a brand consultant. Not following her own adviceFlavilla would often advise her clients to pick a niche, but she couldn’t bring herself to pick one out of fear of losing opportunities. She was working with clients in all sorts of niches. So she became a jack of all trade. Another huge mistake Flavilla made with her business model was charging by the hour. People would comment about how cheap she was, and cheap is not good as it’s often viewed as a reflection of your value. Now the problem with the hourly rate is that if you are very efficient and good at what you do, you lose a lot