Stand In The Future

Success at branding means being flexible in your response to unpredictable shifts in market conditions. What you offer can be a perfect fit for today’s economy and consumer needs and totally off the mark a year from now, when conditions change or your competitors may change the dynamics of the entire game.

Individuals and businesses often fail because they refuse to alter their approach in times of uncertainty. Travel agencies weren’t prepared for the advent of consumers having easy access to online booking. To succeed they’ve had to focus on areas where personal service is still an essential in the successful coordinating a trip, like group travel.

Similarly, the economy and the Internet are greatly impacting the fields of training, professional speaking and consulting. Rising costs are resulting in smaller budgets, as companies reduce their spending on expensive conferences and trade shows that require air travel and lodging.

Webinars and other less costly methods of electronic communication are becoming more commonplace. Participants log in rather than fly in and participate from the comfort of their home office, often while wearing their pajamas.

If you’re marketing your expertise to prospective clients in today’s economy, wait no longer on planning and implementing a strategy that involves video. Whether it’s a single streaming video greeting on your website, an entire series of video vignettes that you can email or a full-length program that you distribute via DVD – you’ll find that video is among your best calling cards. It allows you to concisely and professionally articulate and present your unique proposition to prospective clients in a compelling manner.

Strive for authenticity over style in your video presentations. Get comfortable with the camera lens and connect with your audience. Work with a company that will provide you with measurable data that track the results of your video marketing campaigns. Play close attention to what works in terms of response rates and sales conversions.

In all circumstances, remain flexible and willing to toss out what’s not working in favor of a fresh approach.

Go for No!

I was recently asked to participate on a panel on branding by the National Speaker’s Association’s Portland chapter. It was a great opportunity to share many of the insights I offer here each week in our Branding You email. It also allowed me to pick up some new tips and strategies from the other panelists.

I was really pleased to meet Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz, two professional speakers and trainers that work together as a couple. They mostly address matters pertaining to sales – through a strategy they call “Go For No!” It is billed as “the ultimate strategy for failing your way to success.”™

Their strategy is quite simple. Rather than avoid failure, they encourage clients to embrace it. They note that most people call it quits after one or two tries. However, statistically, it’s shown that it takes about seven encounters with a prospect to get them to say yes.

‘No’ doesn’t mean ‘no’. It means ‘not now’. Accelerating the number of ‘no’s you’re willing to encounter will dramatically impact the number of times you get to a yes.

Richard and Andrea have a lot of other great insights on developing products and other aspects of Branding You! I encourage you to check out their site: www.GoForNo.com, and book by the same title.

Look for areas in your personal branding campaign where you may have stopped short of getting your intended result after being rejected several times.    Vow to “go for more no’s” if it is a matter that you’re still passionate about.

Remember that success in Branding You starts and ends with you.

What’s Your Secret Sauce?

Branding is all about distinguishing yourself from others.

You may think you are clear about what sets you apart but if you’re not clear in communicating it you will suffer the consequences. The cluttered marketplace can prove to be a brutal battleground for those who don’t rise above the fray.

Branding is more than having good graphics. There has to be a substantive reason for prospects to break from what’s familiar and do business with you.

Here’s a tried and true practice that works. Take a blank piece of paper and draw a line down the center. On the left side list all of the benefits you provide clients. On the right side, list how yours match up against your key competitors.

Dig deep. Get specific. Survey some of your existing clients. Ask your long-standing clients why they continue to do business with you. Ask any recent converts to share what it was that brought them to your side.

You may determine that your list just doesn’t stack up. Resist seeing it as “what’s wrong” and see it instead as “what’s missing.” There is very little power in a ‘right vs. wrong’ conversation. But when you can see what’s missing it provides an opening for you to take effective action.

Consider partnerships and alliances that will allow you to pair your strengths with those of others. Perhaps there’s a niche you haven’t considered, or the possibility of broadening your market.

Just like in any great sauce, you want to combine just the right mixture of ingredients that create a memorable experience for your clients and that keeps them coming back.

Your Only Time Is Now

We’re conditioned socially to set our focus on the future and to believe that our past experiences dictate its outcome. It’s easy to get stuck in an internal dialogue with oneself about what we wish we “would’ve, should’ve or could’ve” done differently.

“If I’d just had better parenting,” or “If I’d had more money” are common refrains from individuals looking to explain away unwanted circumstances in life and business. And yet, there are just as many inspiring stories of people who have overcome their challenges and accomplished their heart’s desire.

A critical distinction to make during the process of Branding You, or any other endeavor, is that you can’t access the past. You can think about it, talk about and even obsess about it – but you can’t impact it. The same goes for the future.

You can only act in the present moment. Accomplishments occur in successive instances of Now. There is only right now, followed by another moment of right now.

I invite you to get past an intellectual understanding of this discussion and to apply what I’m saying experientially. If you really get this you’ll experience a new sense of freedom in your life and in your career.

If you think you’re limited by yesterday’s bank balance it will shape what you see as possible for your finances right now and you will act accordingly. But if you stand in the present, with a clean slate, anything is possible.

Some will hear this as pie-in-the-sky positive thinking — but it is not. It has nothing to do with positive thinking. It’s neutral thinking. Starting from zero, nothing or “no thing” in the way. You declare a future based on no evidence, like John Kennedy did when he pledged that we would place a man on the moon within a decade.

The way you use language is always your best barometer for how your life and your business affairs are going to turn out. Whether you recognize it or not, you are always declaring something about the future. And, get this, you’ll always be right. If you say something is impossible, you’re right. But when you declare something as being possible you take ownership of your results. Listen to your words. What are you declaring about your personal brand, your relationships and your life? Are you playing small for some well-justified reason that is tied to the past? Let that conversation go. It no longer serves you.

For more on this vital subject, I’d recommend the metaphysical classic “The Power of Now,” by Eckhart Tolle. He is also featured in a series of webinars on Oprah.com, discussing “A New Earth,” his latest book.