Do you know the POWER of YOUR Brand?
What is a brand?
Your brand is what distinguishes your business from another.
It is how you present yourself to the world. It makes your business unique, enabling it to stand out from the crowd and attract the right kind of people, opportunities, and adventures!
Taking time out to get clear about what makes your brand special, what’s important and what you have to offer is vital in growing your presence, increasing your visibility, and developing your brand.
What is reputation, and why is it important?
Your reputation is what other people think or say about you and your brand behind your back or when you are not in the room. Ultimately you have no control over this. You cannot make people think a certain way, and you cannot make them say what you want them to say about you and your business. Nevertheless, in today’s world, your reputation as a business owner, a leader and a brand is incredibly important. It has the power to potentially make or break your business.
“It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
But even if you cannot control what people think, that doesn’t mean you cannot be intentional and strategic about it. I’d like to invite you to be intentional about building your reputation. One that reflects your brand, your values, the real added value you deliver, and the experience you create for your customers, partners and other key stakeholders.
Intentionally build a reputation that works to reinforce everything you do, drives the right people to you and helps to build trust.
The best way to start is with the end in mind. And the best way is to take some time to think about what you’d like your reputation to be. In other words, what do you want people to say about you and your brand, and how do you want to be perceived?
An exercise to try: The fly on the wall - it’s a great one to do with your team too.
Imagine that you are a fly on the wall. Imagine you are in an airport lounge or sports club or wherever your customers or other key stakeholders hang out, and because you are a ‘fly on the wall’, you can see them all sitting around, talking about your brand and you can hear what they are saying.
What would you LIKE people to say about your brand and why?
What would be the best thing ever?
What would you NOT want them to say?
Even though you know you cannot control what people think and say about you and your brand, you can do everything you can to help them.
Becoming the ‘go-to’ brand for what you do.
Ultimately your goal should be to create a brand and reputation that means you can become the ‘go-to’ business for what you do.
You want people to associate you and your brand with what you do, and recommend and refer you to their colleagues, friends and family.
How can you expect other people to be clear about this if you are not?
What is it that you want to be known for? The ‘go-to brand for…..
Be intentional here and think about what you want people to know about your brand and what you want your brand to be associated with.
Getting clear on who you are, what your DNA is, what your Lego bricks are and what makes you who you are, enables you to distinguish yourself and your brand and differentiate yourself from your competition.
There is no-one, and no other business with the same unique DNA, building blocks, experience and stories. With your unique perspective on things and looks at the world or sees things the way you do. This is what makes you special and what makes you unique, which in turn makes your brand unique and stand out from everything else.
It is incredibly exciting, and it fires me up just thinking about the endless opportunities available to you simply by capturing what makes your brand special and sharing it with more people.
By getting intentional, you can influence what people say about you. You can give your audience the words they need to describe you, introduce you and your brand, talk about you, and spread the word about you to others.
If you don’t get intentional, you will find that they’ll choose their own words, make up their own description, and introduce you in their own way, which may or may not be how you would like them to.
Becoming the ‘go-to’ brand for what you do is where the power lies. It is the essence of building your brand and future-proofing your business. We want your brand to be on the tip of everybody’s tongues, ready to reach all those people who need you.
This is the first step to igniting the ripple effect and achieving consistent word-of-mouth recommendations and referrals and safeguarding the future of your business.