Branding.  People define it in so many different ways, it can get confusing.  Most, though, will agree that a brand exists in the mind of your customer, your client.  It’s about perception.   And so entrepreneurs begin to delve into all the components that make up a brand.  Color choices are considered.  Logos are designed.  Public relations and communications strategies are launched.  A brand is a complex giant made of many parts.  In essence, it boils down to an entrepreneur, an organization, a business attempting to manage it’s reputation.

Reputation management.

On a business level, it’s about what other people think.

On a personal level, it’s still about what other people think.

The challenge is that there is so little one can do to control what other people think.   But what other people think translates into paying clients.

The best way to create disconnection and dissonance?  Is to not be who potential prospects expect you to be.

The best way to create connection?  Is to be sure all is congruent across the board.  Every single touch point, every single communication, should look, feel, and sound like you.

Consistency, as much as differentiation, comes from injecting who you are into the brand.

It’s about authenticity.  It’s about being real.  It’s about integrity, and doing what you say you will do.

It’s simple.

But it’s hard to do.

It becomes difficult for entrepreneurs, especially new start-ups, as they naturally seek to do what will bring success.

It’s like selecting clothes.  We select clothing that communicates to others a little bit about who we are.  All the components to communicating a brand are important, but what matters is the heart.  It begins with who you are and why you do what you do.

That’s the first step in developing a rock solid brand identity.

The problem is that entrepreneurs, especially new ones, will look around at other successful brands and emulate them — because they seem to work.  On the one hand, this could be because you aren’t sure who you are and why you do what you do.

But more often than not, it has more to do with being afraid to be vulnerable and put you — your who and why — out there for the world to judge.

Yes.  I said it.  For the world to judge.  Because make no mistake, judge it they will.

We are always being judged. And we can let our fear of other people’s opinions, our fear of other people’s reactions, keep a tight lid on our who and our why.  We all do it to some extent.  It’s natural.  It’s human.

Despite the fact that we rave about others who are vulnerable, who are who they are, who put their work out into the world unabashedly, it’s frightening to do that when it comes to our own story.

Here are a couple of ways to break free of that:

1)  Realize you’re comparing your behind-the-scenes with someone else’s highlight reel.  We don’t know what’s going on in someone’s heart and mind as they launch, even if they’ve experienced success before.  We haven’t seen the blood, sweat, and tears, and years of work it’s taken them to get where they currently are.  We see someone having what we think looks like success, and don’t realize it’s taken ten years.  And suddenly, we expect that our behind-the-scenes should look like their highlight reel.

It won’t.  It never does.

2)  Beginners always make mistakes.  (You’re always a beginner.)  New artists, new entrepreneurs, new-anything make mistakes.  Making mistakes is how you get good.

Make a mistake.  Learn from it.  Move on.  Do it different.

It’s not just for the ‘new’ though.  There’s always a next horizon, a new project, the next steps.  You’re always learning and growing.

So the making mistakes thing?  It should continue to happen.  This is good news.  It means you can give up being perfect — and just get started already.

3)  Keep it in perspective – and play for an audience of One.   I read something long ago in a book called ‘the Divine Conspiracy’ by Dallas Willard that, when I can remember it, changes everything.

He referred to the verse ‘There is now therefore no condemnation in Christ Jesus.”  He went on to make the point that if God doesn’t condemn me, how can anyone else?  Oh sure.  They might try.  But it puts the opinion of the opinion-ator in great perspective.

Should we surround ourselves with people who lift us higher and give constructive criticism that is helpful?  Absolutely.

But overall, in the big scheme of things, my business is not my life.  I have a life.  (So do you.)  And this is just one part of it.  If I’m doing the best I can and playing for an audience of One, knowing there’s no condemnation?  I get to be free.  I get to be free to be myself.  I get to relax.  I get to do the best I can today, and do even better tomorrow.  No matter what anyone thinks. Your business and your brand works the same way.

Start from the inside out.

Managing your reputation becomes much easier when it’s firmly rooted in who you are, in character.  Stand in that, and the reputation will take care of itself.

I say recovering, because clearly I have not fully recovered.

It still rears it’s ugly head from time to time.

It can even rear it’s ugly head when it comes to trying to hard to be authentic.

Your authentic voice can distinguish you from the rest of the heard.   It’s pivotal for solo-preneurs.

So you go off in search of living in the land of Brand You, but you’re stuck.

Because you can’t find your voice.

You try writing one way, then another.  You try speaking one way, and then another.  Or you try emulating the voice of successful entrepreneurs and end off completely off track.

You’re trying to hard to get it right.

Think about that.

You’re trying to hard to get ‘you’ right.

Finding your voice is a process of discovery, but it happens the way most things do.

It happens through engagement.

You begin.

As the process unfolds, it will ebb and flow.

As your business grows, your voice may change a little.   That’s what happens when we grow.

You will hit a steady groove once you find it.

Don’t let searching for the perfect voice — for you or your brand — get in the way of having a voice.  

Begin.

And relax.

Whether you recognize it or not, you already have a voice.

Stop trying so hard — and just use it.

Rooted & Grounded in Love,

Deb

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