This episode I want to talk to you about discovering your brand, your story, or if I’m going big … your purpose. This can be for a company or even just for yourself personally. We all have a purpose. I’m a believer that we are no cosmic accident and you are on this earth to fulfil a plan.
Call me a hopeless romantic, but if you keep listening, I know you are too, so I’m in good company.
But, let’s bring it back to business.
This piece of advice I personally struggle with. I know I have been doing it wrong all these years because what I am doing hasn’t been working. So I am going to listen to wise professionals like Allan Dib, Seth Godin, Phil Cooke, DeVon Franklin and Brene Brown who all say “Focus” and find your neich and become remarkable at it.
Phil Cooke says “you won’t get noticed for being pretty good at everything.” In case you haven’t noticed, we are now in a cluttered hyper competitive world where everyone and thing needs our attention. Being all things to all people leads to market failure. Can you image if I tried to be my husbands lover and mother? … Awkward.
Before we go any further, I need to hit you with something.
It is not about YOU!
I’m sorry I know were in the ‘i’ age, but its never been about you, the sooner we get over this the sooner we can get on with doing business.
DeVon Franklin points out that our role in life is more than getting promoted, or winning that client – it’s about how you leave an impact on the world.
Dale Carnegie also agrees and says to always look for opportunities to serve your customers. Small meaningful ways to leave people better off, and that’s the real pay off.
Now that I think of it, I’m pretty sure Jesus said something like that too, the last will be first and the first will be last, but that’s another story.
So, to discover your brand, your voice, there are a few steps to help. Notice how I said “discover” not “make up”? Even if you are a huge organisation, you still need to be your authentic self. Oh look at me sounding like Brene Brown. But seriously people buy from people, not bots, business is still about relationships.
Purpose is important because I want you to think about what first attracted you to that girl or guy!? I know for me I’m attracted to people who know who they are, what their values are and the direction they are headed.
The same goes with a business. A client or customers is not going to invest in you, and trust you, if you don’t know what your purpose is. How can you help them – if you can’t help yourself.
So a few simple questions to think over to discover who you are.
1 – What motivates you, gets you out of bed? What are you passionate about? People respond to passion. Contagious emotion. Can you imagine if I did the whole blog post like this…. boring..
This will help you discover your mission.
2- What are your client’s pain points? What problem will you solve for them? We all want relief from pain. This is essentially what you sell.
Ask your customers what are they really buying? Go deeper with this question too.
I love Henry’s Fords example “If I had to ask them what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster horses”. So I think ask people what they want and then do some psychoanalysis and study social economics on their answers to unlock the real answer.
3 – Who is your audience / customers? This is your niece market, where you’ll become the expert. Or the key person of influence.
4 – What’s your unique selling point? What makes you different to you competition. This will help you shape the ‘why’ behind what you do.
So, now
- You know how to discover your purpose
- you know who you’re talking
- and you are super passionate about it,
- But how do you share it with the world?
Well that’s another vlog post.
Summing up –
Understand it’s not about you.
Figure out what you’re passionate about and how you are going to save your niece market from their pain point.
It’s not as tricky as it sounds but it does take some thought. For me personally… it’s a mind map, with a lot of writing on walls – ‘A Beautiful Mind” style.
If you are interested in digging deeper into what I’ve just touched on, or want to know who my online mentors are that have inspired this write up, please send me an email or PM me and I’ll happily share my reading list.
dana@dananewell.com
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