YOU are unique.
YOU are magnetic!
YOU are a brand.
You will find value from reading this whether you are a business owner or an individual.
What's the first thing you think when you hear "branding"? Most of my new clients would answer that it is about "image": Logo, colors, letterheads, business cards, cool looking website, t-shirts, banners, flashy commercials, etc...
Sure. But that alone won't bring you the success you are longing for.
In 2009, I had the great privilege to help raw food advocate and culinary genius Diana Stobo with her brand identity. Today, Diana is helping thousands of people, has published two award winning books, is appearing on TV, and has a blog that is read all over the world.
To watch my branding session with Diana on video, click here:
One of the main key factors to successful brand development is known as "differentiation", so important to "compete".
There is tons of literature on differentiation (and branding in general) online.
In this present article, I'd like you to have one big A-HA around differentiation and competition, so read on.
When I first came here in the United States in 2003, many people told me that competition was tough in my line of work. Sooo many were already doing the same thing.
Well, I don't see things the same way. How can anybody compete with each other? There is only one of each of us.
I am the only ME there is. You are the only YOU there is.
Within two years, I had established a client base of 400. And that's my way of doing business. Taking care of "competition" by finding out who I am and embracing it overtly and covertly. The domain of the spiritual then meets the domain of the economy to transform our reality, individually and collectively. Harmony, flow and ease is restored.
Without getting too "brainy" about it, allow the truth and energy in the statements above and below to impact you.
"No one can compete with me, because I am the only ME there is!"
In regards to Branding. Branding starts with your "vertical alignment" (what Branding experts call "differentiation"). It being the DEEP connection that results from asking yourself: "Who am I? How am I naturally different (what are my gifts)? What do I stand for? What do my clients get from working with me or my company? And by the way... who are my clients?"The more vertical alignment you have, the more POWER you have in your "horizontal" branding efforts and strategies.
And actually, as we saw above, the more vertical alignment you have, the less competition you have, remember?
Vertical alignment = "Know Thyself".
Know Thyself = Freedom from competition.
This angle on branding might sound a little "spiritual" to you. I sure hope so! Does economy need to be separate from spirituality? We're seeing the results of un-integrated human thinking in the disintegration of our economy and resources.
Andre Malraux's said in the last millenium:
"The third millennium will be spiritual or there will be no third millennium."
I believe that the new economic (and political) paradigm we are moving toward as a whole, has to do with the realization that our "challenges" will find their solutions in our vertical alignment-- "Know Thyself", and I would add "And Embrace Thyself". And that is spiritual.
THE BIGGEST MISTAKE you can make when branding your business, in my eyes, is to play it safe to fit in and lack authenticity.
Why?
Because the most powerful factor in getting and keeping clients is... INTIMACY.
And intimacy can't happen without authenticity.
Ask your friends what they love about you. It is very likely that they won't name all the places where you are "perfect" or common, but more likely your quirks, the ways that make you unique. You want your clients to be able to "feel" you so that they can love you too, and choose you.
Not everyone will love you. Great! That means that they are not YOUR clients. They are someone else's. Can you live with that?
When you know yourself, and you are aligned with it, everything flows naturally, whether it is in your private life or business life.
We are moving from a paradigm of the
"survival of the fittest" to the "thriving of the authentic"!
In short, my admonition is: "Know thyself and embrace it. Your fulfilling success will follow, in your life AND in your business!"
If you are an individual, consider these "vertical questions":
Who am I? What are my deepest values? What gifts and talents did I come with in this lifetime? What gets me REALLY fired up? What is my purpose?
See you on the horizon!
