Unique People = Stand Out Brands
I’ve been using this header on my website for a while now, and I thought maybe it could use some framing.
When a business is new, it starts out based on the foundation of ONE brand…the owners brand. This can be done accidentally or deliberately, but either way it’s rooted in what the founder does or doesn’t know about themselves.
When a business starts to grow, there are more unique people who become involved. And there’s an opportunity to get those people aligned from the get-go, or not.
And when a company is ALIGNED; in it’s messaging, experience, execution and culture, THAT’S when you have a stand out brand.
And it doesn’t exist without the PEOPLE.
A Solid Foundation
The foundation of any business is rooted in the founder. When the founder has great clarity on…
WHO they help (target audience)
WHAT they do (product or service)
WHY they do it (core values)
HOW they do it (unique experience)
…they have a solid foundation on which to build a brand.
But there is one important soft skill that needs to be added to make these all come together: creating a FEELING.
That’s right. We’re putting our feeling caps on, people!
The who, what, why and how can easily get tactical. They become things that you write down somewhere as a vision or mission (or heaven forbid, an I Help Statement) and get buried away somewhere.
But the true power lies in tapping into the EMOTION attached to these things. When a human gets connected to the emotions tied to WHY they want to fix a certain problem for specific people, and COMMUNICATE that clearly, THAT’S when things start to happen.
The 4 pillars are what create the outline of the structure. The feelings are the cement that holds them together.
If you have all those things, you’re ready to build.
Supporting Personal Brands as a Leader
Why is the above clarity important before hiring any employees (or even contractors or freelancers)? Because if you stop at just 1 and 2 (which a lot of people do), you can’t clearly communicate your CORE VALUES, and therefore can’t get people aligned to them.
Core Values are those values that you go out on a limb for, and they are invariant. And they are based as who you are as a human.
Each business is, again, either on purpose or coincidentally, built on these principles.
When done on PURPOSE, the ability to communicate the values becomes easy.
And why is it important to communicate those values? Because ALL people have core values. And if the people you are working with DON’T have the same core values as you, it will continually be difficult to get those people aligned.
Again, if you have this clarity on what they are, you can make good hiring decisions. But if you don’t, the best case scenario is you get lucky. When it comes to growing a business, is that really what you want to base your strategy around?
Let’s assume you HAVE done the work, and find some great team members that are totally aligned with your values and HOW you’re going to get there (unique experience). What’s the best way to keep those people motivated?
LEARN how they would bring that experience to life. And find creative ways to let them do that.
Why?
Because when people are contributing in the ways that are aligned with their personal brands, they will do more. AND the time the spend will be more effective ;)
Learn more at an upcoming Lead With Your Personal Brand Bootcamp.
Elements of a Stand Out Brand
So now you’ve got the PEOPLE aligned. What else needs to be aligned for your brand to truly stand-out from the crowd?
Marketing messaging that aligns with both the STORY and the FEELING of the brand and the people
A sales strategy (and KPI’s) that give the sales team the freedom to live the brand experience
Products and services that execute on delivering the SAME brand experience
An internal culture that shows the team and clients how to LIVE the brand values
When all of these pieces are aligned, THAT’S when you achieve the all important CONSISTENCY that everyone is looking for.
Started from the bottom now we’re here
Not going to lie. The best time to start building your foundation is at the beginning. After all, it’s a lot more complicated to fix the foundation of a house AFTER there’s a house built on top of it.
But there’s also little value to continually building more floors onto a house with poor structural support. And it’s better to fix the foundation when you only have ONE story, then when you have 31.
This concept is what the Your Business Peeps Community if built around.
Silver gives you access to the KNOWLEDGE required to follow the process,
Gold gives you access to the RESOURCES required to create your foundation,
Platinum gives you the SUPPORT to build (or re-build) your house from the ground up.
If this you’re ready to build your solid foundation, let’s chat. Or Join Your Business Peeps to get started!
