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Sometime’s it’s a lot of fun to watch favorite movies. One of my favorites is from last year; The Imitation Game. There’s a great line in it. It’s the line that Christopher, Alan Turing’s childhood class-mate, delivers and that Turing himself uses much later to encourage his Enigma-Code breaking team mate, Joan Clarke. It goes: ““Sometimes it’s the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.” How do you feel when you hear that line? Do you know anyone like that? Do you think there’s some of it in the person looking back at you through the mirror? If so, how do you tap into that latent potential? You see, I’m a firm believer that each of us has the potential to be that person. At least for the allotted fifteen minutes of fame that Andy Warhol promised us. As "master of my own destiny" here at A-Cubed, my vision is to help as many people as I can to realize their own potential. Are you interested in pursuing that goal with me? Here’s a few simple thoughts that will help. I’ve been thinking about some game rules needed to achieve an objective like this. Lesson one is ‘Do Less Stuff’. Sometimes we get so busy chasing it, we forget to ask 'why' we are! Are we working on the right stuff? Could we achieve more by doing less? I help my small business branding clients with content marketing, starting from their brand and moving forwards. I help them find their focus. Being clear about who you are and developing content that explains how you solve peoples’ problems builds relationships. Relationships lead to trust and trust drives new business. Getting to clarity requires removal of distractions; clean the windshield. Example: Recently, I had a conversation with a woman who sells Mary Kay cosmetics. She said a lot of things about why she sells Mary Kay and why people come to her for help. A number of her most important customers are successful business people who do a lot of public speaking. Mary Kay helps them feel better about how they present themselves and when they look good, her customers are better at their jobs. She knew all this, but she still hadn’t seen the larger point. So I asked her: “Do people come to you because you help them feel more confident? You’re the confidence lady!” I told her. It was like a light bulb got switched on – ‘That’s it!’, she said! She’d found her brand promise and her brand positioning statement. Focus: Cut through the details. Find the single compelling truth about yourself. Then be that person. Do that thing. And then tell that story in ways that help other people understand you because when they understand, they'll want what you've got to offer! Then tell it again, and again and again, in as many ways and as many times as you can imagine. Did you know? It takes a minimum of seven repetitions of any story for the message to finally get noticed. People are drowning in information; on average, we receive 2,000 to 3,000 ad messages every day. To get noticed, you have to have a continuous stream; timed, placed and executed with exceptional clarity, and personal importance to your customers. Brand image and brand identity. Your brand image is the way other people see you. Your brand identity is the way you see yourself. When your brand strategy draws these two circles together, you will be more successful in your business. Here's another tip: Surveymonkey.com allows people to create surveys and collect responses for free as long as the surveys are not longer than ten questions each. Want to understand what your customers think about all the important aspects of your business? Try sending out a link to a survey you've prepared and offer an incentive from them to complete it within a limited period of time! You'll get easy to read reports and statistics within days of publishing the survey that you can take action on. When you understand the gap between how you intend people to perceive your brand and how they really see it, you will be empowered to close the gap! Networking is in this story too. Networking is like opening a window in a stuffy room to enjoy the exhilaration of a refreshing, cool breeze sweep through. Locked up in your own head all day long, the world can become a pretty small place – same old ideas, same old perspectives. Open the window! But there’s more…. From a psychological POV, social interaction improves our mental well-being. To paraphrase Ghandi, the surest way to know yourself is to help others. Practically speaking, networking is your distribution strategy, especially if you are a service provider (doctor, lawyer, CPA, designer, programmer). Networking is putting your product (you) on the 'shelf' so other people can see, comparison shop and buy at the right time. Maybe you’re thinking about working on your small business branding strategy this year. I’ve helped a lot of people and would love to work with you. If you’d like to learn more about me and what I do, use the lead form on this page! Let’s talk soon! Strive to Thrive! Joe Hines This blog is written by Joe Hines, Lead Branding Architect at Professional Edge. Professional Edge is a marketing consulting firm focused on helping owners of small businesses develop more and better business relationships. You can find out more about us at Professional Edge. Joe also owns and operates A-Cubed Marketing Services, a virtual marketing services firm. We help our customers explain how they create value so they can sell more of their products and services. You can see examples of our work at A-cubed Marketing
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