by Helena Escalante | Goals, Growth, Marketing, Mindset, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 22 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA:
How to turn any venture into an admired brand
— From: Bigger Than This: How to turn any venture into an admired brand by Fabian Geyrhalter
Since I love marketing and the creativity behind it, I’m always delighted to hear how companies brand themselves. The media likes this too, and frequently we hear the branding stories about startups with innovative concepts or products becoming beloved brands, as people flock to purchase whatever they’re selling.
Rarely, if at all, do we hear about companies that sell commodities turning them into beloved brands. That is, until now. Branding Guru Fabian Geyrhalter, author of How to Launch a Brand, recently published his second book, Bigger Than This. In it, he details 8 principles that help companies who sell commodities (“products and services that have remained widely unchanged”) turn their brands around to tell empathic stories that resonate with their existing tribes and create new raving fans.
Here are the 8 principles. Follow one or follow all to position your brand strongly:
1. Tell your story. Stories are memorable and relatable. “They flip the intangible into something tangible, the unrelated into something emotional.”
2. Believe in something and be vocal about it. “Any brand can stand for something meaningful, but to do that it has to define and embody its values.” And the values need to be aligned with those of the customers and the community.
3. Root for a cause. “Identify a social cause that can be activated in an authentic way to manifest that the purpose of the product/service goes deeper than solely generating sales.”
4. Connect with your heritage. We all like to anchor ourselves to different places because we feel a sense of connection or belonging. “Connect your product with the desire of consumers to formulate a deeper connection with the place your brand will be known for.”
5. Be delighted to delight customers. “A small, unexpected gesture will lead to them seeing [your brand] as a friend.”
6. Be transparent. “Create a strategic plan on how far you will take the idea of transparency and where your brand will draw the line.”
7. Stand in solidarity with your customers. “Only deep and honest empathy will touch people’s hearts long term. A quote from Alan Alda in the book says, “… focusing on the other person’s need and not my own was the most effective way to make a sale.”
8. Customize if possible. “Start simply by using your collected customer data to create personal experiences surrounding your customer service or product interactions. Customization can start a small as that and grow from there.”
Finally, the book leaves you with this short and helpful template for a “simple positioning statement to derive the bigger story,” and it instructs to “put extra emphasis in deriving your ‘because’—your reason to believe.”
“To [target audience]
our product is the [category]
that provides [functional, symbolic or emotional benefits]
because [support/reasons to believe].”
ACTION
TODAY: Take a look at what you do or what you sell. Could your brand benefit from any of the principles above? If so, identify the one that you can start implementing today (even if just with one tiny action). Note that these principles could also apply to a personal brand. What does your online image say about you in the various social media platforms that you have? How can you tell your story in the best light possible to resonate with those you lead?
FUTURE: Run both your business and personal brands through the above principles and template. Both brands will come out stronger and better positioned to suit your goals.
Let me know if you’d like me to put together an online branding session (at no cost, of course). I know a few branding gurus and will gladly invite them to share their knowledge with us via Facebook Live or a webinar or video chat. I think we could all benefit from hearing experts in the field as to how to position our business and personal brands in a stronger way. Shoot me an email to let me know if you’re in, and I will plan accordingly if this idea gains traction. Fingers crossed!
Know someone who might like this post? Please share it via email, Facebook or Twitter!
by Helena Escalante | Goals, Growth, Habits, Mindset, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 31 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA:
Put doubts in your doubts.
— From: Simple Is the New Smart: 26 Success Strategies to Build Confidence, Inspire Yourself, and Reach Your Ultimate Potential by Rob Fazio
Whenever we are going to do something, whether for the first or the umpteenth time, doubts may creep in. It’s natural, but if left unchecked, doubts can sometimes take over and paralyze or derail us.
Rob Fazio quotes a successful strategy by Al Petitpas, renowned psychologist to athletes, that helps “turn [around] people’s level of performance in sport and life.” The secret? Putting doubts in your doubts. Here’s how it works:
1. Scan for your doubts. Make a list of your doubts. Fear is usually the strongest of all, but it could also be “something that seems as harmless as a gut feeling about who is watching you or the setup of a situation.”
2. Understand and verify. Once you have a list, you can understand the source of your doubts by asking: “Where are these doubts coming from? What are the triggers? Are they real or did you create them?” And once you’ve answered, then ask “Is there any value?” This is important to verify, because, “for example… if you feel unprepared… that may be a cue to prepare more.” This step helps you see what is real and valid, and what isn’t.
3. Identify what the doubts are preventing. Those pesky doubts always have a way of stopping us short, even if temporarily, when they appear. “The way to counteract this is by asking yourself a simple, yet powerful question: ‘What would I achieve if I didn’t have any doubts?’ This question gives us forward momentum [and creates] a vision of success that focuses on the positive.”
4. Put doubt in your doubts. Our doubts usually start with “what if…” and then we imagine the worst-case scenario. So, what if we were to turn that on its head? Shift the negative “what ifs” into “questions that guide [you] toward success”:
“What if…
→ I wasn’t afraid?
→ I didn’t think about what others think?
→ I was confident right now?
→ I was able to get out of my own way?”
5. Shout out the doubt. Take the questions above and transform them into positive, strong statements that you can believe and that resonate with you and your values. “You need to believe in yourself or no one else will.
→ ‘I wasn’t afraid?’ becomes: ‘I know how to manage my fear.’
→ ‘I didn’t think about what others think?’ becomes: ‘I care more about what I think than what others think of me.’
→ ‘I was confident right now?’ becomes: ‘I am confident and strong.’
→ ‘I was able to get out of my own way?’ becomes: ‘Who I am is my strongest asset, and I help myself win.’”
6. Replace the doubt with doing. Action cures fear. “This is where the focus happens and you shift from doubt to doing. Identify one situation where your doubts have held you back, and attack. Leverage your newfound confidence and lean into your discomfort.”
7. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. By building the habit of doubting your doubts and taking action “you will have more power and control over yourself and debilitate your doubts.” More importantly, you will be able to take action where necessary in the case of true and valid doubts (e.g. more preparation in the above example), or dispel them if they arise out of fear or out of another emotion that is not serving you at this time.
ACTION
TODAY: Take one of your doubts and run it through the steps above. What did you learn? I’m sure a positive mind shift took place!
FUTURE: Make some time in the near future to create a list of doubts and run each doubt through the steps above. Take action where you need to. Rinse and repeat as often as needed. I’m sure you will be able to lift a burden off your shoulders (the stress we undergo from our doubts is not only unnecessary but also quite draining), and have peace of mind knowing that you are moving forward towards the completion of your goals.
Like what you read? Then don’t doubt for a second and help us spread the word via email, Facebook or Twitter. Your friends with doubts will thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Goals, Growth, Habits, Mindset, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 9 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA:
There are 4 steps that we must go through if we want to change something
— From: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth by T. Harv Eker (read a sample)
I’d venture a guess that when you look at the different areas of your life, you are pulled in two different directions. One side pulls towards feeling immense gratitude and counting your blessings. The other one pulls towards feeling that there is so much potential in you, that there’s so much more that you can do, that you are pleased but not satisfied in the area of XYZ and that if you could only… __________ (fill in the blank with your answer).
Whatever that answer is, it just means that you need to change a few things (big or small) to make it happen. However, change is easier said than done. That’s why I love what T.Harv Eker has to say about it:
“The roots create the fruits.” Imagine a tree with fruits. “In life, our fruits are called our results. [If you] don’t like them, there aren’t enough of them, they’re too small, or they don’t taste good […] you cannot change the fruits that are already hanging on the tree. You can, however, change tomorrow’s fruits. But to do so, you will have to dig below the ground and strengthen the roots.”
By digging below the ground, of course, he means taking four steps to transform our current mental blueprint and start yielding better fruits. (While in this book the methodology is applied to wealth, I believe these steps apply to all changes we want to implement.)
- Awareness: “You can’t change anything unless you know it exists.”
- Understanding: “By understanding where your ‘way of thinking’ originates, you can recognize that it has to come from outside you.” You didn’t come to this world knowing what you know. This thought that is not letting you get the best yield of fruit has had to come from some external source—family, school, culture, work, etc.—and you simply adopted it as true.
- Disassociation: “Once you realize this way of thinking isn’t you [and it isn’t serving you or holding value for you anymore], you can separate yourself from it and choose in the present whether to keep it or let it go—based on who you are today, and where you want to be tomorrow.”
- Reconditioning: Feeding your mind with new patterns of thought and actions that will guide you towards achieving your goals.
ACTION
TODAY: Set aside some time to look at the area(s) in which you’d like to yield better fruits. Examine carefully the actions that have led you there. It’s hard to look objectively at yourself, but one way I find that helps me do this, is to pretend that I am giving advice to my best friend. Detaching myself that way let’s me look at my situation differently. The “best friend” approach takes all judgment and criticism away and instead provides just constructive feedback and resources.
FUTURE: Disassociate yourself from thought patterns that no longer serve you by being aware of them when they pop up in your mind. “Unlearn” those things or habits that have not worked for you. Determine which new patters of thought and action you are going to learn next. A good way of doing this is modeling after someone who has already reached the goal you want to attain. Look for those people, ask them, or read about them, look at their mindset so that you can start emulating it.
My wish for you is that your tree of life will soon bear plenty of your desired fruits!
***
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by Helena Escalante | Mindset, Networking, Planning, Resources, Tools
TODAY’S IDEA:
There is a method to “hack” networking events for best results.
— From: Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People by Vanessa Van Edwards
Happy Friday! It’s social Friday. And whether you are at a social event for business or pleasure this weekend, you may find yourself in a room full of strangers and need to make the most out of it. Instead of dreading it, now you can hack the social scene in your favor.
Vanessa Van Edwards, behavioral investigator, and her team at Science of People studied superconnectors (those people who make the most quality contacts and who have the most robust network on LinkedIn). Science of People studied many networking events by placing cameras on the venues and looking at the patterns of people. They analyzed the foot traffic of those individuals who easily worked the room as a way to see if there were networking hacks that could be learned and applied by anyone. The verdict? Yes, there is indeed a way to work a room successfully!
Take a look at the room. “Whether you are at a networking event, holiday party, wedding, dinner at a friend’s house, or in a conference ballroom, most events have this basic setup… a social map… the start zone, the social zone, and the side zone.”
Image courtesy of Portfolio/Penguin
The start zone is where you check in, enter the room, hang your coat, etc. This is where you land when you arrive to the event and where you get prepped to network. This, as well as the side zone (where the rest rooms are or around the food tables, are the not the best zones to stay in, psychologically speaking, as people in these zones are not necessarily ready to network at that moment. Areas marked with X in the map are traps to avoid.
The social zone is the best part to stand in, optimally, as people exit the bar (areas marked with stars and the triangle between them). That is when they turn around, drink in hand, and are ready to meet and greet. At that point they’re thinking: “Who do I know?” “Who do I talk to?” And you become an instant savior if you stand there and say “Hi! It’s so nice to meet you.” It is right then and there that they will be ready to network and you can start making meaningful connections.
Who would have thought… Makes total sense, doesn’t it? Want to learn more about this? You can read here and here, and watch this five-minute video. Also, since I adapted this post from a longer book review that I wrote for The New York Public Library, you can read that here.
ACTION
TODAY: If you are going to an event today, put this to the test! If not, simply study the zones and make a note in your schedule to revisit this when you have a social event next.
FUTURE: Figure out when your next networking/social event is taking place. Make a note in your calendar to come back to revisit this post. Then when you get to your event, remember the social map, identify the zones and work the room. Once the event is over, analyze how you did compared to other times. What worked? What didn’t? How can you adapt the learning for future events?
Make a note in your calendar to come back to this post after your event and let me know how it went in the comments, please, I’d love to know.
Happy networking! 🙂
by Helena Escalante | Goals, Leadership, Planning, Tools
TODAY’S IDEA:
KISS = Keep It Super Simple
— From: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
This is one of my favorite books (yes, I know, I have so many…) because the Heath brothers manage to distill the art of effective messages down to a model that they’ve called SUCCESs. The first step is an idea that applies well to messaging and also to many other areas of business and life. The concept? Keep It Super Simple (remember it by its acronym: KISS).
The important thing to understand is that by simple they don’t mean dumbing down, what they mean is finding the core of the idea. This means “stripping an idea down to it’s most critical essence.” Yet the hard part is not “weeding out superfluous and tangential elements” but discarding other ideas “that may be really important but just aren’t the most important idea.”
To further explain, the authors describe what the Army calls Commander’s Intent. “Commander’s Intent manages to align the behavior of a soldier at all levels without requiring play-by-play instructions from their leaders. When people know the desired destination, they’re free to improvise, as needed, in arriving there.”
This is important because you can plan all you want but “no plan survives contact with the enemy.” Unpredictable things always occur, yet when that happens, the goal should be to keep the intent in mind. If everyone does that, you’ll inevitable get to where you want to go, or at least move closer into that direction. Note that the Commander’s Intent applies as well to people from all walks of life: “No sales plan survives contact with the customer.” “No lesson plan survives contact with teenagers.”
The way in which you can arrive at your Commander’s Intent is by asking these two questions:
- If we do nothing else during tomorrow’s mission, we must ____________.
- The single, most important thing that we must do tomorrow is ____________.
Simple enough, don’t you think?
“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery
ACTION
TODAY: What are you working on where the plan did not survive contact with the intended recipient? Take a moment to ponder the two questions above to arrive at the Commander’s Intent for your project. Once you have found your core idea, then you and all involved will be able to move forward in that direction.
FUTURE: How about setting a Commander’s Intent for each project that you work or collaborate on? Share the concept of Commander’s Intent and the two questions with your team, that way everyone involved will have clarity to move towards the common goal.
by Helena Escalante | Goals, Growth, Habits, Mindset, Tools
TODAY’S IDEA:
This person is my teacher
— From: Habit Changers: 81 Game-Changing Mantras to Mindfully Realize Your Goals by M. J. Ryan
Years ago, I was going through a rough time at work because I had the boss from hell. My mother told me that I should think of that person as an inverse mentor, to learn how not to do things, and how not to treat people. That idea made me focus on something good that could come out of such a difficult situation. Since I was planning my escape, my new focus enabled me to be very clear—going forward—on the things that I did not want and that I was not willing to tolerate. (Thanks, Mom, I know you’re reading this!)
So, when I read “This person is my teacher,” in M. J. Ryan’s book, I knew I had to share it with you. The concept behind this Buddhist practice is powerful:
“It’s about seeing everyone who annoys, frustrates, angers or otherwise bothers you as someone who is providing you the opportunity to grow some positive quality in yourself—your equanimity, your kindness, your patience, your boundaries, your tolerance…It’s up to you to figure out what you are supposed to be learning.”
Give yourself the opportunity to keep growing and learning even in the most difficult and craziest of situations. By thinking “this person is my teacher” you’ll create awareness in you, and soon you’ll be making the most out of the situation.
ACTION
TODAY & FUTURE: When someone or something is bothering you think, “this person/situation is my teacher” and figure out what you need to learn from that experience. It’s hard and it’s no fun when you’re going through it, but it will be worth it for you in the end.
I found this to be life-changing and hope you do too. Let me know if you got any a-ha moments in the comments, please!
