Your Personal Brand Is About Authentic Relationships

You are standing at the tallest point of the world… looking at a horizon 100s of miles away… life here is simple… you live or you die. Ravaged by wind and storm… this is a place where every single breath is a struggle.

But on this day all is calm and all is clear. You are in the moment completely present and able to experience life from the inside out. From this vantage point you can see the world in all its glory. What do you reflect on… your website… your next tweet? Probably not. You  ponder your life and the people that have made an impact in it. Your thoughts turn to the people that have supported you… loved you… nurtured you and believed in you.

As you survey the horizon of Personal Branding & Social Media… you realize the one and only thing that truly matters… when done correctly it initiates authentic relationships. Social media mirrors life… there are fake, in-authentic & shallow people… but also kind, genuine and gifted people who are able and willing to help you conquer the Mount Everest in your life.

Business is about relationships and with social media we have to CHOOSE to learn a new way of connecting and relating. It’s about being “good with” and “good to” people as we navigate the peaks and valleys of our lives.

Marketing is no longer something you outsource… it something that you do. While pieces of advertising may be outsourced, your Personal Brand is a series of daily marketing practices that allow you to effectively walk and talk your uniqueness in a world looking for personal evolution and transformation. Its the epitome of personal growth and development; that which you discover is great about yourself, becomes the very fabric upon which you effectively serve others.

Personal Branding 101:

Discover your gifts, talents & passions: This may take time and experience. Today you have a passion for sailing… only to learn that tomorrow you passion is for boats… later to discover that its really bodies of water. As you step more fully into your interests you learn about yourself, what you truly love compared to that which you simply know and enjoy. Be willing to move forward and sink fully into yourself as you learn, grow and develop.

The tumultuous but profound path to uncovering my own Personal Brand went like this…

Sociology of Relationships & Families –> Counseling Psychology –> Network Marketing –> Health Club Sales –> Radio Advertising & Marketing –> Wizard of Ads, Inc. –> Career of Influence –> Culture of Influence –> Team Building –> Innovative Leadership –> Uncommon Strategist –> Relationship Selling –> Personal Branding

This spans 20 years of professional education and experience and as you look over the list… a few commonalities begin to present themselves; relationships, communication, & branding strategy. As a branding strategist, my “deviations” in search of my own Personal Brand actually served to enrich my skills and ability to deliver value to Executives, Entrepreneurs & Experts within any field.  Each step along the your path will help to reveal your Personal Brand as you discover and determine your authentic skills and talents. And, more importantly, how to truly impact the lives of others with them.

This process also honed my passions of continuous personal development, teaching & communicating. All things I use to provide others with genuine and authentic value they can get no where else in the world.This is what you M-U-S-T identify for yourself, your brand, and your customers.

Be willing to decide right now what you stand for… knowing it may very well change. As you struggle to communicate effectively what it is that you do… you are learning and honing the very best that lives within you… and this is what your Personal Brand must be made of if others are to find value in it.

Consumer psychology tells us that people struggle to determine what it is that they really want. Therefore, as an extension of your brand, you must also have a skill set that allows you to help people discover their own talents, desires, passions and gifts. This authenticates your brand through delivery processes and ensures that you have established your business and your brand on the results that it promises to create. You must help others get clarity before you can genuinely help them.

Provide Value By Deploying Quality Marketing: Marketing is nothing more that the skill-set of building relationships through quality communication. For your marketing to be effective, you must first establish a “Messaging Platform”.

Imagine being able to connect with a prospect on Facebook or LinkedIn and immediately offer them a gift that provides them the ability to find a customer, make money or take meaningful action. To do this, you must have a “Messaging Platform” of:

1. Gifts, Links, Contacts, Knowledge etc. that is relevant, interesting and engaging.

2. Persuasive sound-bites that are relevant to your ideal customer profile so that you effectively use the exact words and phrases that describe your value, suspend dis-belief of prospects, and make you business serious money.

At a minimum, you need to have a rudimentary understanding of social media, profile set up, website navigation, email marketing, etc. With an effectively established Personal Brand and related messaging platform you can diminish your social media time to under an hour a day. It helps tremendously to possess excellent presentation and networking skills as well as a solid foundation in the language of persuasive marketing. Learn how to talk at networking events in a way the represents your brand, separates you from the norm and epitomizes you as the provider of choice. The marketing piece of your Personal Brand is a serious of skill-sets that involve the daily application of providing value to the world. The time is NOW to learn how to do this both on and off-line. Today’s business success has much less to do with what you do… but how effectively you communicate what you do.

Center Your Brand Around The Deepening Of Authentic Relationships: At the age of 9 I had the luxury of connecting heart to heart with a whale that swam right up to the boat my father and I were fishing on in Homer Alaska. I will always remember the swell of inspiration I felt when the whale and I locked eyes… and I felt the genuine curiosity and desire to connect that we shared. As I look back on that day… I realized that is when I fell in love with the idea of connecting. Its a natural part of life. All living things share a connection… and as people we must learn to remove the self-imposed barriers to the love and connection in our lives. Seek for opportunities to invest in your ability to deepen relationships with loved ones, professional contacts and with yourself. The spiritual work you do on yourself will have a massive ROI in terms of building value and loyalty with those who choose to be a part of what you do. And you will feel a deeper sense of meaning that can only come from contributing to the life of another.

While connecting on-line is a fundamental skill-set that is quite easy to learn… you must remember that people are always re-evaluating the value you offer. As you build your network(s) of prospects, clients, raving fans, colleagues & mentors, on-line, you must also provide opportunity to connect face to face with each of them.

One of the best ways to provide these contacts value is to become a promoter in what they do. If you are investing in a seminar… tell them you would like to invite your “tribe” and seek to craft a value price for them. Or, choose to purchase 5-10 tickets and give them away to your community. Then spend time with each of these people at the event to deepen the connection. Learn about their successes, struggles, concerns and frustrations.

My greatest strength has been the ability to create and sustain professional relationships. The current and future business climate dictates that you must do this too. You must have a skill set that allows you to dramatically and consistently impact lives. This is what you were born to do. Ask yourself, “Can I call 93%+ of your past clients and receive a phone call back?” What are you doing to show appreciation for the connection, support and business that others chose to give you? Deepening your relationships is about creating systems of appreciation and acknowledgment through time… ensuring that you put time, thought and emotion into these connections that another can experience and remember.

The secret to great relationships; Communicate with a specific outcome. I believe in sending those who pay you money heart-felt gifts. The gift should be designed to communicate something specific that you see in them and that you feel needs acknowledgment & celebration. When you do this correctly, your gifts will bring clients to the brink of tears… and you don’t need to spend more that $20 bucks… but you might need to shift your paradigm and take a few hours to craft an authentic gift that actually matters. Communication is the toolbox of quality relationships… always start with a specific outcome.

Remember… your Personal Brand should be designed to impact people’s lives and through it, your marketing will provide value. Be willing to share you knowledge, creativity and network with everyone you meet. Send good cheer and be the creator of value everywhere you go.

The world of business is awesome. It will challenge you mentally and emotionally in ways that can only be compared to climbing the world’s most angry mountain. It also provides you with tremendous joy and beauty that comes from the magical vistas of reaching its peak… its an amazing journey. Today’s business climate is poised for the fulfillment and success of those who carve a Personal Brand that is relevant and engaging to their chosen consumer. Take moments to witness the horizon and remember to reflect on what is truly important in your life; the people that have helped you directly and indirectly to climb to the top of your game. They have impacted your life… now use your Personal Brand as extension of who you are to dramatically impact theirs.

PS> A special thanks to one of my most influential mentors Roy H. Williams for the Mount Everest metaphor that so accurately describes the human condition of rising to the challenges of life and business. As my gift to you, I encourage you to learn more from Roy himself.