"Again, it's showing up every day and being consistent."
Welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview with Treva Graves, the founder and CEO of Bloom Personal Branding.
With over 8 years of experience as a global personal brand strategist, Treva has worked with a diverse range of clients and organizations to build influence, impact, credibility and income. She is passionate about speaking, personal branding and working with clients to leverage quick wins with the long game in mind.
In this interview, Treva talks about her approach to personal branding, the biggest business achievement she has celebrated with her team, and how she is adapting to the current shift in the workplace. She also shares her advice for new business owners and her expectations for the year to come in the online business world
Check out more interviews with entrepreneurs here.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET FEATURED?
All interviews are 100% FREE OF CHARGE
Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Treva Graves: I am the founder and CEO of Bloom Personal Branding and have been in business since 2013. As a global personal brand strategist I have worked with hundreds of clients and organizations ranging from 7 figure and start-up entrepreneurs, New York Times bestselling authors, professional speakers, coaches, politicians, CEO’s, business and sales executives to build influence, impact, credibility and income.
I work with you to provide a focused portrait of your professional reputation – one that will be invaluable for your professional success. I love what I do and have a passion for speaking, personal branding and working with clients to leverage quick wins with the long game in mind.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, services, or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Treva Graves: I would tell Mr. Buffet that my approach is personalized to the individual as I guide each of my clients to create a personal brand that is authentic, consistent and memorable. Why? Because it’s your reputation.
After working with me, you will feel confident and empowered with a confident, visible personal and online presence to stand out from the crowd that is uniquely yours. We determine what problem you solve for your team or business and craft a brand positioning statement that shares who you really are and how you will serve others.
That’s what it’s all about. Serving others.
What advice do you wish you received when you started your business journey and what do you intend on improving in the next quarter?
Treva Graves: I wish I someone would have told me to have a business mentor who is in a similar business as me to watch and observe how they set up their programs, billing practices, social media management and developing an overall strategy.
If I would have known then what I know now, I would have had more clarity and vision for what I wanted to do. My goal for the next quarter is promoting and selling my new book which will be published on Amazon in February 2023. My book is called Self-Doubt Detox.
I wrote it for women to help them overcome their confidence “bullies” by detoxing their self-doubt through my 5-Step program to build amazing self-confidence.
Here is a two fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
Treva Graves: The best self-help book I have ever read is Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why.” This book really made me think about why I am doing what I do and how I am serving others to the best of my uniqueness. I re-read it often and I tell my clients to read it as well. It provided so much clarity for me.
The book also provided insight for me to develop my personal brand, write my brand positioning statement and strategic planning for the content I share when I speak at an event, coach a client and what I put out on social media.
The biggest lesson I have learned in being an entrepreneur and business owner is that you have to show up every day. This pertains to leadership as well. Showing up every day means being visible and present both in person and on social media.
It means having an open-door policy for your team and your clients. When I first started my company, I wasn’t being consistent, especially with social media. If you are not consistent there, it is the kiss of death. You will never develop a following.
Social media is the lifeblood of my business, so I made it mandatory for myself to plan and be organized with my calendar and put time in it for my clients, my team and social media management.
Christopher Hitchens, an American journalist, is quoted as saying that “everyone has a book in them” Have you written a book? If so, please share with us details about it. If you haven’t, what book would you like to write and how would you like it to benefit the readers?
Treva Graves: My 3rd book, Self-Doubt Detox – 5 Steps to Beat Your Bully and Bloom Confidence will be published on Amazon in February, 2023. In the book I share my personal stories of how I overcame confidence “bullies” and developed a 5-step plan so you can overcome yours too. I introduce my #1 Branded Coaching Methodology called BLOOM.
Bloom stands for Believe, Love, Observation, Opportunity and Mentorship with the final chapter on achieving Self-Worth. I also have an in-depth chapter on the different types of bullies you may have in your life. Bullies can be people, problems, situations and even addictions. The theme of the book is that you need to own your power and not give it away.
If you give your power to the bully, the bully always wins. You don’t want that for yourself, so own your power and keep it forever. You are not born with confidence. It is a choice.
I also wrote The Style File – A Woman’s Guide to Dress for Success in 2019. This book is for women to help them build a positive image and authentic style. It takes the reader through the process of a closet edit, a style challenge and how to dress for success with joy and confidence every day. The book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play and I-Tunes.
My e-book entitled Get Noticed, A 30-Day Plan to Bloom your Brand is available on my website and takes you through the process of developing your personal brand and gives you a 30-Day blueprint to get started now. It’s a great tool to help familiarize you to the concept of personal branding and how important it is for everyone regardless of what your career path is.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?.
Treva Graves: Most people think that because you run your own company, you can set your own hours, take whatever day off you want, work from home if it’s an on-line business and have the freedom to do whatever you want.
Although some of this may be true, I can honestly say I have never worked harder in my life. My name is my business. It’s not a 9-5 job. It’s an “all the time” job. It’s my reputation and I serve my clients and overdeliver every day. I want my clients and customers happy so that they share their positive experience working with me with others.
Every business owner I know says the same thing. Although it’s very satisfying to own your own business, the hours and time you put into it in order to have success are more than most people might think. I live, eat and breathe my company.
If you want to be successful, earn a large income, take those hard-earned days off and live the lifestyle you have always wanted, you need to put in the time. Again, it’s showing up every day and being consistent.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Treva Graves: If I could pick one, it would be a social media content and video creator where I could create content in the blink of an eye. Creating content is challenging and finding the time to do it is even harder. But I have learned ways to repurpose it and get the most bang for my buck. There just isn’t any way around getting out of social media if you are in business.
Customers will go to your website to find and learn more about you, but they will also find you on social media platforms to see if they like and trust you. So, a social media superpower content creator is someone I aspire to be! It’s an everyday necessity and making time for it is absolutely necessary.
My job as a personal brand coach is my passion and I love to do it 1:1 in coaching sessions, in workshops and even on a stage speaking in front of an audience. Personal Branding isn’t just for celebrities. It is the future of marketing.
If you aspire to be the next CEO of your company, it’s important that you have a unique powerful personal brand to set you apart from the rest. And on social media too!
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Treva Graves for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Treva Graves or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
