
The Distilled Brand Podcast
Hosted by Erica Breuer and Ryan Rhoten, The Distilled Brand Podcast is for solopreneurs, freelancers, or anyone making money from their expertise. In each episode, we'll provide actionable tips and insights to help you know what to do next when building your brand online.
Latest episodes

Feb 7, 2023 • 46min
S2 E2 Brand Identity with Lisa Furze
When it comes to branding the first thing many people think about is colors, fonts, and logos. And while those things are important to creating your visual brand, a lot more goes into it than selecting your color palette.
Lisa Furze is a brand consultant & designer. She helps her clients match the quality of their products and services to their brand, so you create branding you can't wait to share.
During this conversation, a few topics we discuss are:
The 3 core pillars of brand identity
The role your values play in brand design
Why you may not be ready for a visual identity
How brand identity plays into your overall positioning
How and why you should inject personality into your brand
And so much more.
So, if you've been thinking about updating your brand's visual identity, you'll want to listen to this episode as we walk through Lisa's process and answer all of the top questions you might have about branding.
Meet Lisa
Website: LisaFurze.com

Jan 24, 2023 • 55min
S2 E1 Email Marketing with Mason Mitcham
For many solopreneurs, email marketing is scary. It makes you vulnerable. You think things like - What if I send a bad email? What if people unsubscribe? If this sounds like you then you'll love today's guest.
Mason Mitcham is an email marketing strategist. He develops custom email marketing strategies for coaches, B2B consultants, and agencies who want to close more clients without any additional ad spend. But more than that, Mason is an email advocate because he knows not only is email not dead, but it's the key to growing your business.
During this conversation, a few topics we discuss are:
"Salesy" emails
Why you need to send emails
A cadence for getting started with email marketing
A formula you can use to write emails that your list will open
How unsubscribes can actually make you money...Juicy stuff this one
And so much more.
So, whether you're afraid to send emails because you don't know what to say or you want to begin sending emails but don't know how to get started, Mason will put your mind at ease.
Meet Mason
LinkedIn: Mason Mitcham
Website: Mason-Mitcham.com

Dec 12, 2022 • 52min
S1 E10 Organic and Paid Traffic with Mateo Moore
Do you find digital marketing confusing? Considering all its crazy acronyms like - CMS, CTR, CPC, CPM, PPC, SERP, SEM, and SEO - it's easy to get overwhelmed quickly. Fortunately, today's guest is an expert at what all of those crazy letters mean and how to best use them to build awareness for your brand.
Mateo Moore is the owner of Extension.Team. A non-traditional marketing agency specializing in driving leads for their clients using Paid and Organic traffic. When he's not helping clients master their digital marketing acronyms, Mateo serves as a fractional CMO as well.
In a wide-ranging and sometimes technical conversation we cover things like:
Organic vs paid traffic
Why keywords are going away
Linking your audience and message
Where you should be online
The importance of reducing friction
Why you need a relationship funnel - not a sales funnel
Meet Mateo
LinkedIn: Mateo Moore
Website: Extension.Team

Dec 1, 2022 • 1h 2min
S1 E9 Customer Interviews with Ryan Paul Gibson
Ryan Paul Gibson, a customer research interview specialist, discusses the right and wrong ways to talk to customers. Topics include types of research, the ideal number of clients to talk to, and questions to ask in interviews.

Nov 14, 2022 • 55min
S1 E8 Your Speaker Brand with Erin Thomas
Have you ever been told you should be a speaker? Or maybe you've thought about "becoming a speaker" but you're not sure how to get started? If so then you're in luck because today's guest specializes in helping folks, maybe just like you, build and develop your speaker brand.
Erin Thomas is co-founder of The S.T.A.R. Experience (you'll have to listen to understand the acronym but it's worth it). The S.T.A.R. Experience is a program that helps speakers gain brand clarity, confidence, and visibility - in just 30 days.
During this conversation, we talk about the following topics.
Growing your Personal Brand
The importance of aligned Messaging (we embrace this one!)
Tools to build a speaker brand
Is speaking only for extroverts?
How to create a speaker reel (you probably haven't heard of half this advice)
How to write a speaker pitch
Meet Erin
LinkedIn: Erin Thomas
Website: The Star Experience

Oct 30, 2022 • 39min
S1 E7 LinkedIn Video with Kamara Toffolo
If you have an inkling that you should be doing video, but you're not sure what to talk about, or you're concerned about how you look on camera, this episode is for you.
Today's guest is Kamara Toffolo. Kamara is a LinkedIn Top Voice and was named in 2019 by JobScan as the #1 Job Search Expert to follow on LinkedIn, but her recognition and success in the market is due in part to her talent and success with video content.
From high-quality YouTube content to interviews and Q&A sessions on LinkedIn Live, Kamara has effectively built and strengthened her brand as a one-woman video production house, even though she wasn't comfortable being on camera when she started.
During this conversation, we talk about the following topics.
1. How to get comfortable on camera - can you say Googly Eyes?
2. The easiest way to find relevant content.
3. The equipment you need (it's not what you think)
4. Why you should be doing video...even if it scares you.
Meet Kamara
LinkedIn: Kamara Toffolo
Youtube: Kamara Toffolo Careers

Oct 17, 2022 • 54min
S1 E6 Being efficient as a business owner with Yvonne Heimann
Values, Goals, and Systems...Oh My. Today's guest is Yvonne Heimann. Yvi, as she is known on her popular YouTube channel Ask Yvi, is a verified ClickUp consultant, business efficiency, and scalability consultant. She helps entrepreneurs Boss their Business, so they can stop the crazy hustle and step into their CEO role with the right processes, systems, values, and goals in place.
With all of her focus on business efficiency and productivity, you'd think our discussion would focus on systems, but we spent much of the conversation talking about how your values and goals should drive your systems and business. During our conversation, we spoke about the following topics.
1. How do values impact our daily activities.
2. Why you need business and personal goals.
3. What to do when your goals conflict.
4. How you can use systems to activate your values and goals.
Meet Yvi
Web: AskYvi
LinkedIn: Yvonne Heimann
Youtube: AskYvi

Oct 3, 2022 • 45min
S1 E5 Influencer Marketing with Johanna Voss
Ever wondered what it takes to be an influencer? Erica and I did too, so we invited Johanna Voss on the podcast for a chat about influencer marketing. Johanna is a Talent Manager for women who are Multicultural Influencers and has supported over 500 successful brand/influencer partnerships to date.
During our conversation, we talk about the following topics.
1. What is an influencer? (probably not what you think)
2. What does a talent manager do?
3. The strategies and tactics of successful influencers (and how you can use them in your business)
4. The one thing you need to focus on to run a healthy business.
If you've ever wanted to see inside an influencer's mind, this episode is for you.
Meet Johanna
Web: JohannaVoss.com
LinkedIn: Johanna Voss
Instagram: johannavoss
Music purchased via Soudstripe.com
Track Title: Business Or Pleasure?
Artist Name(s): Avocado Junkie
Writer Name: Sander Kalmeijer
Soundstripe Inc. grants Ryan Rhoten a nonexclusive,
limited, non-sublicensable, and nontransferable license to download, reproduce,
prepare derivative works, distribute, perform and display the song Business Or Pleasure?
solely as combined with your work of authorship, titled S1 E5 Influencer Marketing with Johanna Voss.

Sep 18, 2022 • 47min
S1 E4 Building a Verbal Identity with Victoria Gamlen
If you're a solopreneur or freelancer who struggles to define why people buy your services (or you've never asked why), you get too many bad leads, or you feel like your messaging is off, then today's your lucky day because our guest is Victoria Gamlen.
Victoria is a tell-it-like she sees-it Freelance copywriter who helps B2B + B2C brands build verbal identities. Her work spans the B2B and B2C worlds - from enterprise SaaS to restaurants, to creative audio studios. During our chat we discuss the following topics:
The three components of brand voice
How to incorporate brand voice into your copy
Why customers buy from you
Why you need to speak directly to your target audience
Why you need to disqualify prospects
Why serving "everyone" makes you a commodity
In this wide-ranging discussion, we tackle many of the challenges solopreneurs and freelancers face when trying to grow their business, so if that's you listen in because this episode will provide you with the clarity you need to stop being toilet paper or water. You'll get the reference when you listen. If you haven't subscribed already, please do so you don't miss an episode.
You can learn more about Victoria at:
Website: VictoriaGamlen.com
LinkedIn: Victoria Gamlen
Until next time, Cheers!
Music purchased via Soudstripe.com
Track Title: Business Or Pleasure?
Artist Name(s): Avocado Junkie
Writer Name: Sander Kalmeijer
Soundstripe Inc. grants Ryan Rhoten a nonexclusive,
limited, non-sublicensable, and nontransferable license to download, reproduce,
prepare derivative works, distribute, perform and display the song Business Or Pleasure?
solely as combined with your work of authorship, titled S1 E4 TDB Podcast Victoria Gamlen.
Youtube code: N3BRAOUY5VHV0BWK

Sep 4, 2022 • 51min
S1 E3 Inbound Marketing with Warwick A. Brown
If you've ever struggled with developing an inbound marketing strategy or creating content that your audience actually wants to read, you need to listen to today's show with Warick A. Brown. Warwick is a master of developing content for his audience, and in this episode, he shares everything from how he researches topics to how he repurposes his content.
Check him out at:
Web: Account Manager Tips
LinkedIn: Warwick A. Brown
Music license purchased via Soundstripe.
Music is Business or Pleasure by Avacado Junkie
Written By
Sander Kalmeijer
Performed By
Avocado Junkie
Produced By
Avocado Junkie
Youtube: I7NIGKSZ6GOLWMEZ