What is your MORE?

One of our vendors recently mentioned how much they “LOVE” our brand.

She went on to point out how much it “appears to really irritate” our competition.

HUH?

When I asked her to explain, she offered, “You know you are a success when (your competition) is jealous of your brand. You provide MORE of all the things they aspire to be . . . creative, authentic, trusted, experienced, dependable — you know — that air of excellence.”

I’ll take that as a compliment . . . although I never specifically intended to irritate anyone. Not sure if one would call that a “side benefit”?

What is your MORE . . . your
Magnificent Outstanding Reason for Existence?

Seven Actions for Creating a MORE Authentic Brand . . .

  1. Define your mission, vision and values. What is your WHY? What matters to you? What matters to your clients/customers? How do you help them? Within your answers lies the basis for your mission, vision and values.
  2. Recognize your brand personality. As a small business owner, you are the face of your company. It’s a “package deal.” How does your passion, talent and expertise better serve your tribe and grow a better business? What is it that ONLY YOU offer?
  3. Create a niche AND boundaries. Know your customer and understand why they need YOU. Offer them the relief they seek, but also know when to draw a line if they ask for far more than what they are willing to pay.
  4. Be YOU. Let your audience get to know you. Be real, share stories of success, vulnerability, and near-misses. Your vulnerability will feed the path of “Know, Like, Trust.”
  5. Create consistency. Keep your message consistent, and share on a consistent basis. Whether through your website, social media, speaking engagements, or networking events, consistency builds brand equity.
  6. Honor your commitments. This is a big one. Yes, it’s great to keep promises, meet deadlines and return phone calls and emails . . . but we’re also talking about honoring our commitments to ourselves, as business-owners. It’s great to put our clients first, but equally important to make time for “re-fueling” our own reservoir . . . be it taking a walk, watching a movie or sneaking in a nap on the weekends.
  7. Be the competition others want to emulate. As our vendor pointed out to me, “You know ‘you’ve made it’ when your competition either tries to imitate you and/or decides they don’t like you.” Not everyone will want to play in your sand-box. And that’s OK! Stay true to your mission, vision and values, and you’ll gain the respect from those who matter.

We Brand. We Design. We Publish.

We take your business to the next level.

Contact Cathy for more info: [email protected]

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