Building Family Values into your business
If you’re an entrepreneur, YOU are your brand. YOU create the feelings. The experience. The lasting impression that someone shares after you leave the room.
All of that, is your personal brand. And our personal brands are highly influenced by our personal values.
Many entrepreneurs, especially “mompreneurs” (with which I identify more, because I never had any desire to run my own business until I was a mom) rank family values amongst one of their top priorities. So, what does it look like to include “Family Values” as part of your business values?
Let’s take a look.
When it comes to TIME
Building a business is a business in itself. It takes time and energy.
When you’re building your business, if you don’t take this into account, you could start trading your family values right away.
Below are some examples of how that trade looks, with an associated - yet untrue - mindset in brackets.
You start to take calls during dinner time [otherwise you won’t get any clients]
You wake up early [otherwise you can’t fit everything in]
You never take a day off [otherwise I may miss a client opportunity on social media]
You never take time to yourself [otherwise my business will never grow]
If Family Values are indeed important enough to create your business around, you need to START that way.
Block your calendar for family time. Get the necessary amount of sleep. Take days off. Take time for yourself every day.
Because these activities aren’t TAKING AWAY from your business. They contribute to your PERSONAL BRAND, and every moment you can spend embracing your personal brand - your WHY - the MORE it contributes to your business growth.
When it comes to LIFE VISIBILITY
The COVID-19 pandemic has actually done wonders for humans in this arena. People are working from their kitchens. Cats are crawling across computers. Kids are playing (and sometimes screaming) in the background.
This is LIFE. And each human has one.
To hide it, and pretend that we don’t, is NOT living in alignment with our personal brand.
Each moment we pretend to be someone we’re not, the LESS effective we become.
So own it! All the beautiful messiness.
Because I for one KNOW that my son popping in to say “Hi” on a call, or me taking time in the day to prep dinner, doesn’t impact my ability to coach you.
That confidence by the way…comes from spending time embracing your personal brand ;)
When it comes to MINDSET
I’m a mindset junkie. So to me, most things come down to mindset.
Having a MINDSET of “family first”, and building an expectation around actions that support that mindset, is a lot different than just saying, “I have family values.”
I have a family contingency plan in place at all times. If I am on a coaching call, sales call, or teaching my online cardio dance class, and my husband or son suffers an injury, I’m out. I don’t have to think about it. I don’t feel bad. I don’t have to make excuses. I just go.
When my parents came to drop off Christmas presents, and were late due to weather, and it conflicted with a sales call I had scheduled, I excused myself to go say goodbye. Because I would have felt TERRIBLE taking a sales call over seeing my parents (who don’t live in the same city as me). But I didn’t feel nearly as bad making a prospect wait for 5 minutes.
And guess what? That prospect became a client. Because they TOO understood Family Values.
In Summary
This post was inspired by the upcoming Family Day in Alberta. A day which I normally spend with my parents. Something that will not be possible this year due to the pandemic. This hurts my heart. And the reason is because Family Values are so important to me. That’s my personal brand on display.
So if you too are feeling the PANG that not being with your family causes, embrace it. It’s your personal brand shining through. A beautiful dimension of you that will allow you to connect to the right people, whether that be your next coach, a new friend, or even a new ideal client :)
If you’re looking for more ways to let your personal brand shine, check out the upcoming A Brand That Speaks Workshop, with a module SPECIFICALLY for translating your personal values into business values!
