Creating Personal Brand Alignment (part 2)
In the first article in this series, I talked about using our emotions as traffic lights. You can learn about that in more detail here. Today, as the first blog post of 2021, I want to dive deeper into HOW we create alignment.
Let’s do it.
What is alignment?
Alignment, by definition is, “a position of agreement or alliance”. So when it comes to your personal brand, you can look at it as the actions you are taking, or the thoughts that are being introduced, are in agreement with who you are.
Now, a lot of times we don’t consciously recognize who we really are. Throughout our lives, we are taught to “be” a certain way, and we start to expect that of ourselves. But those moments when something is introduced to us that we “should do” and something feels wrong about it, that’s our true self popping up and trying to show us the way.
The first step in creating this alignment is being able to recognize the misalignment. Again. check out Part 1 of the series for more information there.
You may think that the next step is to figure out what IS aligned for us. But it’s actually creating a commitment to explore your misalignment. And although our emotions are good indicators, and we can take action directly, on them, sometimes it’s not that clear.
Exploring misalignment
Let’s look at some examples of scenarios where you can commit to your alignment.
“My coach wants me to sell in the DM’s but I feel salesy”
This is one I hear a lot and it’s such a great example of personal brand misalignment. What I know, is that it’s possible to sell in a direct message. What that doesn’t mean is that it’s the right strategy for everyone. Everyone gets excited about sharing the TACTICS they use in their business that work for them. The problem with that, is the reason the tactic worked for them is because it’s aligned with their personal brand, and the only way it will work for you, is if it’s aligned with YOUR personal brand.
Coaches and online course providers are historically bad at framing their programs for people and telling them they DON’T need it. That’s because, they think they can help anyone. That they have a program that can work for anyone. And then, when people go through and can’t execute the same way, they feel like something is wrong with them, not the program.
If something feels wrong for you, YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO IT.
If your coach told you to go rob the convenience store, would you?
It’s up to your personal brand to decide.
“Everyone says my message is clear, but it doesn’t feel authentic”
Arg. This one also makes me nuts. How can you get excited about sharing your message if you don’t feel authentic?
This is another thing that people (and coaches) often miss. It doesn’t matter how clear something is to you if the business owner doesn’t feel like it’s right. Your business is there to represent YOU, and if you build all your messaging around something that doesn’t resonate with you, people can feel it.
It would be like me, not a coffee drinker, going to get a job at Starbucks and trying to convince someone to buy a certain type of coffee. I DON’T CARE. And people can tell.
Are you really going to build YOUR business on something you don’t care about?
“If I can just figure out my I Help Statement, I’ll be set”
Ok, one more. Because this one drives me absolutely NUTS.
At some point, one of the “gurus” decided that THIS was the one and only format to tell people what it is you do. And every other coach (and his dog) have an I Help Statement on their LinkedIn profile.
But let me ask you this: how many times have you heard two different people explain the same movie in EXACTLY the same words?
Never. Know why?
Because no two people experience a thing the same.
You don’t go around trying to figure out the “one right way” to explain your favorite movie do you?
So why are you doing that with your personal brand?
If the format feels wrong, it is.
A commitment to alignment
When you experience these types of misalignments, you have two different options.
Believe someone else over yourself and try to fit yourself into their box, or
Commit to discovering what works for you.
I’ll admit. At first glance it seems much easier to go with #1. SOMEONE knows what to do.
But if someone told you, “you need to be a banana to make your business successful”, you’d say, “well, I’m a person, so I need another option.”
Own your personal brand like THAT. Because you are who you are. Perfectly imperfect. And there is a way to embrace that in your business so all the decisions you make reflect YOU.
If you’re ready to explore more, I’m ready to chat.
