Curating an Authentic Experience

OK all. I want to talk about something that’s super important to me. The curation of authentic experiences.

Specifically, of HUMAN experiences.

And when I say, “experience”, this is what I mean (from our good friends at Merriam-Webster): “the fact or state of having been affected by or gained knowledge through direct observation or participation”.

Specifically, my definition is based on how others have been affected by participating in something with you.

Whether that’s a direct message, an in-person chat, a social media post, a blog, a coaching session, handling a complaint, an annual job review, all of these things affect another human. So today we’re talking about how to CURATE that experience so it’s in alignment with your personal brand.

Define Your Experience

In order to accurately curate your experience for others, you first need to know WHAT you want others to experience when they hang out with you (and in your places). What do you want them to FEEL?

Most often, this is tied into your values.

For me, one thing I can’t stand is people NOT listening to others. So, if that’s something I stand so strongly for, I can curate my experience around that. For example:

- I can reflect that in my social media messaging

- I can reflect that in a resume or cover letter (or hiring practices from the business side)

- I can ensure that my coaching practices create the space for people to feel heard

- I can create a follow-up process that takes past feedback into account

- I can ensure that any complaint handling procedures take this into account

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. You can audit any (and all) of your activities and practices against this value. And any other values that are important to you.

A Unique Experience (by default)

If you audit your actions against your values, you will be automatically creating a unique experience for others. Why? Because no one else cares about all the same things as you in exactly the same quantities ;)

This is highly underrated in the business industry. But at the end of the day, we’re all trying to stand out as a unique solution to a problem. Honoring your unique values will do just that.

Now, for the Curation

Actually curating any experience is about taking actions that LIVE the values your experience is based on.

A good first step here, is to REMOVE any activities you do that are NOT aligned with your values. The trouble most people encounter here is that there’s a reason you think you need to take these actions. You need to do this to get to your revenue goals, or you need to do that to be a “successful” business.

But I’ll tell you what, no number of THOSE things can curate YOUR authentic experience…because they we’re based on your authenticity.

Those are all thing someone ELSE told you.

Once you remove the things that are not contributing to the experience you want to provide, you’re automatically left with the things that DO. And all of a sudden, 100% of your activities drive that aligned behavior. Boom.

Obtain Feedback

Of course, other people are living in the world of THEIR values, not ours, so it’s impossible to know if we are making the impact we’re trying to make without asking people about it.

Quick note here on “marketing research”: the work of obtaining feedback is wasted without an hypothesis. In this example, we have a built-in hypothesis: I am endeavoring to make people (to use my example) feel heard. So, I ask them exactly that.

In X experience with me, can you please explain to the degree you felt HEARD?

This helps you identify any break points in your experience. Maybe you’re moving through one piece of the on-boarding process too fast. Maybe you realize that when you feel tired or emotional, you have trouble creating the required space. If you’re working in a team, you may find that another team member isn’t quite aligned on how to live the values in a way that tells the story and works for them.

Remember, this is a LEARNING opportunity for you. Curating your experience is a PROCESS, and you should expect it to be continually iterated over time as you learn more effective ways to create your desired experiences.

Participation has an effect EVERY TIME

One last note in this story. Even if you don’t go through this exercise at all; even if you do some and stop at your default, every time you interact with another human, you effect them. They have an experience of you.

So, you can curate that. Or you can hope that it works out.

I think you know what side I’m on ;)

If you’re ready to Curate Your Experience around your personal brand, let’s get started!