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Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where we explore the journeys that lead to success.

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I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you

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insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders, and experts who will share not just their expertise

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but the milestone moments that have reshaped their journeys and led to significant achievements.

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So if you're looking for motivation, you're in the right place. Subscribe now and discover the

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milestones that mark the path to success. Thank you so much for joining us today in another

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episode of Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership. My special guest today is Malika

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Malhotra, the brand CEO. She is an award-winning brand strategist, a mentor, and a speaker.

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After years of working in corporate advertising on renowned brands like L'Oreal and Oil of Olay,

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Malika now empowers women entrepreneurs to get clear on their brand message, define their power

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niche, and become sought after experts. Welcome to the show, Malika. Thank you so much for having me.

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I'm so excited to be here, Sheila. Well, I can't wait to share your story. So I understand your

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friends and your clients call you the brand energizer because you encourage women entrepreneurs

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to step out of their comfort zones, to take action, and to implement ideas. So share a little bit about

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how you got to where you are today and why your friends and clients call you that brand energizer.

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Yes, thank you. So as you mentioned, I started my career off in advertising, corporate advertising

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for a few years and loved that, learned strategy and all the basics of creating campaigns for big

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brands. But motherhood got in the way and I decided to pull out of the corporate workforce

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and stay home to raise my kids like a lot of women do. And while I was at home, I still had that itch

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to do something more and to build something using the skills and the strengths and my

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degrees and all my experience. And that's when I started exploring entrepreneurship and creating a

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business where I could have the flexibility of being at home, but also having something of my own.

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And I started off doing photography with children and family photography because I had a young

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family at the time that evolved into brand photography because I saw that there was a gap

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in the marketplace. And it was in 2015 when people were starting to use social media and blogs and

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blogging. And so we needed more than just a headshot. We needed storytelling, strategic imagery

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to build brands. And so did that for many, many years and loved it. But I really found that going

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back to that advertising career that I had, it was the strategy that was kind of my sweet spot where

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trying to understand people's purpose and mission and their vision and their values and

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tying it together with their point of distinction. And how do you package that to deliver your

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expertise? That is what was kind of my zone of genius. And I shifted again into more doing

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brand strategy and left brand photography. So fast forward to 2024. Most of my work that I

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do now is in mentorship for female entrepreneurs where I act as that brand energizer and I help

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them really look and leverage their strengths and skills and hone in on what they do really well,

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that zone of genius and really build a brand around that. So part of that is finding their niche.

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Part of that is building a foundational strategy. And then it's amping up that visibility so that

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they show up as the face of their brand and as that go-to expert. So this is the work that I

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love to do right now. I think helping women sort of stand in their power and really become leaders

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and authorities is such meaningful work for me because I think sometimes as women, it's easy to

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play small, right? And it's easy to let other people take the lead. And what I really try to

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do is to help these women find out what they're so good at so that they have to scream it to the

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world and share that with their audience. So when we talk about women entrepreneurs,

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is there a particular niche because we are with a marketing expert. Do you have a particular niche?

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Who do you serve? Yeah. So I work with women who are in service-based industries and are in crowded

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markets, right? So talking coaches, designers, copywriters, nutritionists, you know that there

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are so many other people that are doing similar things that you're doing. So how do you stand out

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I call these clients the invisible expert because they are good at what they do. They have experience,

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they have expertise, but for some reason they're getting overlooked, they're getting underpaid,

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and they feel overwhelmed with how to articulate their value. And so I help them with the messaging

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and the strategy and the visibility so that they become the in-demand brand and no longer the

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invisible expert. Well, it sounds like I'm your target market. So we're going to ask for some

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tips right here. I do know that many times us women entrepreneurs, we feel confused, we feel

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overwhelmed when it comes to marketing and branding, and there are so many choices out there.

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How do you help them gain that clarity, that brand clarity? Yeah, I think, you know, all of us,

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when we get started, right, we don't know what the story is to share. We're looking at the marketplace

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and maybe getting too much inspiration from our competitors, and then we risk looking like everybody

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else. Or we're trying to people please, especially as women, we want to do all the things for all of

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the clients instead of carving out a niche for ourselves that's laser focused. It's hard to get

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to that stage where you're ready to take the leap and really building the brand. And in the beginning,

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you're sort of experimenting and that's okay. But you hit a wall at some point, right, where

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you become stagnant and you're tired of not standing out. And this is where I work with my

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clients, do some of this self-discovery type of work, because your brand is within yourself,

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really. Your brand is all about, you know, what do you believe in? What are your values? What do

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you not believe in? Like what pisses you off, right? How are you different than everybody else?

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Is it in your personality? Is it in your deliverables? Is it in your process? Who do you

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serve? You're really not meant to work with everyone, even though we think we are. You're

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meant to serve a certain targeted audience that you can provide specific solutions for them,

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that leverage your strengths and your skills, right? How do you want your clients to feel

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when they're working with you and what is the transformation that you deliver? And I'm not

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talking features, right? You know, six one-on-one calls and a library of assets. Everybody can say

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the same thing. I'm talking about what is the results? How are you changing people's lives?

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And when you take all of those answers to all of those questions and you do like the deep

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discovery work to sit down and try to define those, you'll find that that is the foundation

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of what your authentic brand is because not everyone's going to answer the questions the same.

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And then it's about baking that into your messaging and your brand and having the courage

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to say, I might not work with all the people and I actually only work with this small segment and

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I want to own that, right? Or I don't want to be a Jane of all trades and say that I do all these

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different things. I'm actually going to go all in and say, I'm an expert in this. And that's when

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your brand starts getting sticky and sharp and stands out from everybody else.

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It's not so easy when you don't have support, an expert like you by your side. I personally,

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you know, have done that process. I've even had to ask my clients, right? Like, why, why do you

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like working with me? Because somehow I struggle identifying that within my own self. I need that

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feedback. And that's why I think, you know, finding that support, having that coach is so important

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because they can help answer your questions. I had as a business mentor, a mentee about a month ago

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and she has a tea shop and a bookstore here locally. And it so happened to be that a client

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of 18 years walked in as I was there. It was a Saturday afternoon. And I said, wait, here we are

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like trying to, you know, look through the business plan to see what you're going to change. Let's

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just invite this client to answer some of the questions for you. And it turns out she had so

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many more ideas that were wowing us, but why? Because she understood her. So here we were like

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trying to, you know, brainstorm and everything. So I think having the support and having

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a coach is priceless, right? Yeah. I mean, sometimes you're in the weeds, right? You cannot see

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the macro level of your business because you're just in that minutia of your business and what an

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outside person is going to give you are the insights, this new perspective, they're going to

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connect the dots, see commonality, see patterns that sometimes you can't see when you're doing

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the business day to day. And that's where the strategic mind and the creative mind are going

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and the creativity kind of integrate together for you then to kind of learn new things about

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your brand or not even new, maybe things that have already been there, but you haven't even

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leveraged, right? And also looking at the data at hand. So many of my clients in my community forget

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to look at who are your last 20 clients? What can we learn about these clients? Are they all in a

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certain industry? Are they all in a certain season of business? Did they all ask you to help solve a

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specific problem? Did they all have the same transformation? This is the intel that you need

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that's going to help you carve out the niche, it's going to help you build the brand. So let me ask

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you this, what is your next milestone? You've been in business for over 20 years. You started with the,

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you know, kids clothing line, and then you moved on to the photography, which by the way, if you

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can't see her backdrop stage, it's just spectacular. You're definitely creative. So what's your next

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milestone? Yeah, I know it's a good question. And it's something that I always ask myself, like,

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what's next? And when you've been in business for over two decades, and you've done so many things,

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and you've pivoted your business so many ways, you know, it's something I don't take lightly,

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because I really want to think about what is the next strategic move for me. And so I think, you

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know, I do a lot of speaking right now, but a lot of it is not paid, it's more of like a brand

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awareness tool. And even though it scares me to death, to think about getting on a big stage,

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like in person or go to a conference, I think that would be a wonderful sort of milestone for me to

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be able to deliver my expertise, my authority, my leadership in a way in person, that I think will

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really next level my business and brand. You know, for a while, we couldn't do this in person stuff

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because of the pandemic. And I've been very safe on my virtual stages. And I think if I want to

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grow as a person, as a brand, I really need to explore pitching for some of these bigger

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conferences, and sharing what I already know I'm an expert in, right, these signature talks, but

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bringing them to a bigger stage. So that might be my next milestone. And it feels like getting

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goosebumps. It like scares me even just to say that out loud. So we'll see. Let's see if it happens.

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It's gonna happen in six months. I'll be your coach. How's it going, Malika?

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Yeah, accountability. Yes.

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We have so much in common. I'm also in that same stage. And we had before the podcast,

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how I told you, like just holding a phone and trying to record myself, I'll get stuck. But when

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I have a conversation, I feel good. So there is a local Toastmasters. I don't know if you've heard

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of Toastmasters. Yeah, I think I'm going to join it. And I'm seeing who wants to join me. I do have

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a friend doing it. And I've met people that have done it. So it seems like a great way to, you know,

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be involved in the community with other like minded people looking to speak. I look forward

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to hearing you speak. So before I let you go, what one key advice can you give our women

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entrepreneurs today so that they take action to work on their brand?

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Yeah. So what I would advise your audience, your listeners is, I want you to think about who you

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want to be in the next five years, and really put pen to paper to think about that person. What does

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she feel? How does she wake up in the morning? What is she wearing? What is she doing? And I want you,

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after you've defined that, I want you to start acting like her now. Because, and this is a

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practice, this is an exercise that I've done for myself. When I started acting like the woman that

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I wanted to be, that is when I saw change happen. It made me feel uncomfortable. I got out of my

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comfort zone, but it made me make different decisions for my business. Yes, I was going to

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invest in a coach that was out of my price range. Yes, I'm going to do that because that's the woman

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in five years that I want to be. And by doing those things now, that's what's going to create

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the momentum and the progress and the change in your business. You're going to next level quicker.

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Instead of staying in a safe place where you're doing just the minutiae things to grow your

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business and nothing's wrong with that. We all do that. But if you can change your mindset and

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start making decisions in the place of who you want to be, you'll start seeing changes quicker.

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Now you made my hair stand up. I love it. So where can my audience find you?

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Yes, thank you for asking. So my website is malikamalhotra.co, which I know is a mouthful,

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but I'm also on Instagram at malikamalhotra.co, very active on Instagram. Would love to connect

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with you. Would love to hear about your branding and your niche struggles and support you in any

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way. This is something that I feel passionate about and just helping women really create

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powerful brands so that they can be seen as confident leaders in our communities.

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Well, thank you so much for joining me today. And I hope we stay connected because I've been

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fascinated from the moment that I turned this on. So I look forward to staying in touch.

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Same here. Thank you so much, Sheila.