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.
Got Products?
Media allows us to touch the lives of people we may never meet. Effectively harness its power and you will dramatically impact the growth of your Personal Brand.
Until the advent of cable television there were only three major networks that controlled access to a mass audience. Video recorders and Tivo-like devices have allowed consumers to time-shift and watch media at times of their own choosing. Now we’re in an on-demand marketplace, where consumers are empowered through mobile devices to digest their media anytime and anywhere.
It’s a great time for professional speakers, trainers, authors and other experts with a compelling message to jump on the personal media bandwagon. Your focus should be on creating video products that speak to the varied interests of consumers that are on the go.
Organize your programs so that they are easily digested in chapter-style bite sizes of eight minutes or less. Allow viewers the freedom to cue up to the specific sections that meet their immediate needs.
Make the camera lens your best friend. Become comfortable connecting with an unseen audience. One on one communication can be twice as effective as simply documenting a presentation made before a live audience. However, if you haven’t mastered the skill of speaking to a lens, don’t let that stop you from getting into the product game. Go ahead and start taping your speaking engagements.
The interview format is also a highly effective way to comfortably convey your ideas. There are multitudes of ways to market and make money from your video products. You can package them as DVDs, offer them online as pay-per-view downloads, bundle them with your books, use them as infomercials – there are many options and room for a lot of creativity.
Work with a production company that offers a turnkey solution. You’ll save time and money by not having to put all of the production, packaging and distribution elements together piece-meal.
Managing Mystique
Personal Branding and being in business is all about creating and managing perceptions. Of course, what you deliver must match or surpass the expectation created by the initial perception or you’re setting yourself up for failure.
There’s a lot to learn from smart celebrities that know the power of maintaining a certain level of mystery. Give the public too much access and you run the risk of appearing common and boring.
Whitney Houston was at the top of her game before succumbing to drugs and an ill-conceived marriage to “bad boy” Bobby Brown. The couple added insult to injury by letting cameras document their drug-ridden debacle in a television realty series. On the other hand, Barbra Streisand knows how to manage her mystique. She gives few interviews and even fewer concerts, for which she commands a premium price.
Former President Bill Clinton continues to diminish his stature by refusing to control his impulse to speak out on every matter pertaining to his wife’s candidacy. By association, Hillary fails to distinguish herself as a potential leader of the free world when she doesn’t even appear to be able to influence her husband. A case in point has to do with the flap regarding portrayal of her 1996 trip to Bosnia. The story had all but died in the media until Bill raised it again and added even more inaccuracies to the accounts.
So how does all of this impact you and your personal brand? First, take an accounting of how much you give away for free. Are you devaluing your brand by providing free access to your expertise or have you set it up so that you’re paid?
There are no victims in the game of commerce. I’ll admit that this is a lesson I’ve had to learn the hard way. We all want to be eternally generous. But either you set boundaries or you’ll go broke. We train the marketplace on how to compensate us. When you position yourself as an expert you must also establish a system that guarantees that you are also highly compensated.
The legal profession has brilliantly established a precedent that you can follow. Offer prospective clients an initial 30–minute free consultation before your hourly rate kicks in. Start insisting on retainers.
If you’re uncomfortable making these demands, do some soul searching to ask yourself why. Who decides if you’re worth it? Only you do.