Meryl Runion's Brand Aid
How to Go from Generic Speaker to a Thought Leader
with Your Own Unique Message
© 2009 Meryl Runion

            

There are plenty of consultants in the speaking industry who are eager to help you discover your own unique message. I’m not one of them. What I am is someone who spent tens of thousands of dollars developing her own brand, and who created a process you can apply yourself. Brand Aid combines gems I learned from highly-paid consultants with observations from my own experience as a trainer, author, and speaker. I’ve presented Brand Aid at several National Speakers Association Meetings, including the national convention, as well as at an ASTD (Association for Training and Development) Conference. Brand Aid is a step-by-step process to distill the essence of what you have to say into a clear, concise message to transform you from a generic trainer into the thought leader you probably already are.

Like the 12 Step Programs – Brand Aid works if you work it. Here’s how you work it.

(You can purchase the audio for the program from the National Speaker’s Association at: http://www.softconference.com/MyNSA/sessionDetail.asp?SID=91095 http://www.softconference.com/MyNSA/search.asp#Result
and Laura Stack: http://www.softconference.com/MyNSA/sessionDetail.asp?SID=71726 )

Eight Questions to Determine the Key Concepts that Define Your Message
Begin the Brand Aid process by answering a series of eight questions about your message. These questions are:

1) What is your vision of a perfect world?
If everyone on earth did what you teach, what would the world look like? What would people experience that they are not experiencing now? How do you define perfection? Complete this sentence stem: Imagine a world where…

2) What is the contrasting current reality?
If the world already was the way you envisioned it, there would be no need for you or your services. So, instead of the perfect world you envision, what is the world like? What would a caricature exaggeration of this be? What is the worst situation you have ever experienced of people not doing what you recommend? What experiences have you had that make this a personal subject for you? Complete this sentence stem: Instead of this perfect world, we have a world where…

3) What obstacles prevent the world from being like your perfect world?
Why don’t people do what you teach already? What excuses do people give you for not doing things the way you recommend? What payoffs do you observe for doing things “wrong”? Complete this sentence stem: The obstacles to my perfect world are…

4) What do people need to know to create your perfect world?
What ways of thinking about your subject have you developed or can you develop? How is this different from what people currently know? Complete this sentence stem: To create this world, people need to know…

5) What principles do people need to believe in order to create your perfect world?
What values guide your wisdom? What do people need to accept as true to want to do what you recommend? What beliefs are assumed and encouraged in your teaching? Complete this sentence stem: My perfect world is based on the beliefs…

6) What do people need to do to create your perfect world?
What practices do you teach? What kind of action-steps do you recommend? How do people translate your information into action? Complete this sentence stem: The steps to create the perfect world are…

7) What do people need to stop doing to create your perfect world?
What practices do you advise against? What behaviors interfere with success? What is the wrong way to do things? Complete this sentence stem: To create this perfect world, people need to refrain from…

8) What about your answers are unique to you?
When you study other experts in related areas, what do they say that you disagree with? Is there anything you are almost afraid to say because it bumps up against conventional wisdom? What would you say if you were completely honest without any fear of triggering a reaction? Complete this sentence stem: I am the only one who…

SpeakStrong Brand Aid
To illustrate how these questions work, here are my answers for my SpeakStrong Brand. For clarity, I include links to different forms of expression to illustrate some of the answers.

1) Imagine a world where… Everyone says what they mean and means what they say without being mean when they say it. Where you always know where you stand. Where people are clear, kind and direct.
(A World of Truth demonstrates this: http://www.speakstrong.com/video/worldoftruth.swf )

2) Instead of this perfect world, we have a world where… People are afraid to tell the truth to each other. Incompetence goes unaddressed. People go along to get along. (This is demonstrated in my video, The Center for Lowered Expectations: http://www.speakstrong.com/video/bunnybubbles.html )

3) The obstacles to creating my perfect world are… The eight lame excuses and the shameful excuse: 1) Self-doubt, 2) Misplaced respect for authority, 3) Don’t know how, 4) No one else is saying anything, 5) Fear of negative consequences, 6) Habit, 7) Denial / Avoidance, 8) Fear of offending and (shameful) greed. (More depth at: http://www.speakstrong.com/excuse/ )

4) To create this world people need to know… They can change the way they communicate. Why they don’t speak up and why they should. Speaking up adds to their success level. (I demonstrate this with success stories people send me: http://www.speakstrong.com/newsletter/category/newsletter/success-story/ )

5) This perfect world is based on the beliefs and principles that...
Open communication is essential for success personally, professionally, and politically. When any communication is suppressed, it is costly for all involved and is likely to backfire. Leaders need to elevate the level of discourse personally, professionally, and politically. People have a right to be informed about things that affect them.

6) The steps to create the perfect world are… The six Principles of PowerPhrases – be brief, specific, targeted, say what you mean, mean what you say, and don’t be mean when you say it.

7) To create the perfect world, people need to refrain from… Poison Phrases – sarcasm, mixed messages, threats, pressure, etc. Making excuses for inappropriate silence.

8) I am the only one… Who emphasizes that those who don’t speak when something needs to be said are complicit in the problem. That talks about how the things we don’t say matter as much as what we do. Who examines the reasons we don’t speak. Who applies the same communication skills and principles to business, personal, and civic communication. Who emphasizes the need to rock the boat as a way to create a stable foundation. Who says “playing it safe” isn’t safe.

Collect Pithy Titles, Slogans, and Great Ways to Say Things
Okay, we’ve got our key concepts. Now, how do you find those catchy phrases, clever book titles, and sizzling slogans that stick in people’s minds and make your brand stand out? Here are seven tips to help you.

1) Listen to yourself and others talk about the topic. Discuss it with friends and ask them to tell you what strikes them as memorable. For example, after I presented at a speaker bureau showcase, a colleague came up to me and said, “I’ve got the title of your next book. It’s Some Boats Need to be Rocked.” She was quoting something I had said in my presentation, and I might have forgotten had she not highlighted it for me. (That book has yet to be written, but it will be, and I do a keynote by that title.)

After listening to a friend who provides diversity training, I suggested she use the phrase “Diversity landmines and diversity goldmines.” She loved it.

2) Research book titles on Amazon. Book titles can’t be copyrighted, so legally they’re fair game. Ethically and practically it’s another story, so be careful, but there are no limits for how you can use existing book titles for brainstorming. That’s how I came up with the title Brand Aid.

3) Use your thesaurus and rhyme dictionary liberally. You might find the exact words you love that way, and that is truly fair game.
Online thesaurus: http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=phrase
Online rhyme dictionary: http://www.rhymezone.com/

4) Study and adapt clichés and short well-known quotes. This takes advantage of familiar ideas without sounding tired. For example, I just visited Clichés online: http://www.clichesite.com/index.asp where I found the featured cliché: “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” I could turn this around to talk about how some people stay in places they’ve outgrown, saying, “A strong link is as weak as the chain it’s connected to.”

I visited Cliché Finder for ten random clichés: http://www.westegg.com/cliche/random.cgi and found the cliché, “Throw the baby out with the bathwater.” That could turn into a discussion of how we could take it one step further and throw the baby out and KEEP the bathwater. We could even make a case for why we might want to do that. If we had a keynote or section called “Lose the baby, keep the water,” people would think of us every time they bathe. Your call if that’s a good thing or not…

My favorite source of quotes online is: http://www.brainyquote.com/. I just looked for quotes at random and came up with: “Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right,” from Isaac Asimov. I find that quote very thought-provoking and it invites me to make it my own by shortening it. For example, “ethical immorality” was my first pass.

See how the game is played?

5) Use alliteration. The best resource for finding words that start with the same letter is the Scrabble Dictionary because the definitions are brief. I’ve explored the P’s extensively for combining with PowerPhrases.

6) Get familiar with the work of Sam Horn. Her whole brand is finding pithy ways to say things. For example, she wrote the book Tongue Fu. Pithy, isn’t it?

Sam Horn online: http://samhorn.com/

7) Read my latest book Speak Strong. Speak Strong has tips to cut to the core of your own message.

Go from Generic Trainer to Thought Leader with Your Own Unique Message
I started my career as a trainer who presented standardized seminars for an international seminar company. It was clear to me that my training was not about me – people were there to get information on the seminar topics. The company’s brand was my brand.

The more I presented my seminars, the more distinctive my own message became. If you’ve been speaking or training for a while, you’re probably presenting your own unique perspective on a variety of topics. These steps will help you define what is so special about your perspective and to position your brand. With any luck it will save you some money in the process.

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Meryl Runion and Speak Strong (SpeakStrong) provides Power Phrases (PowerPhrases) and other tools to help you improve communication skills at work and at home. You can read more about her at www.speakstrong.com.

Meryl is the author of six books on communication that have sold over a quarter million copies worldwide, including Speak Strong, PowerPhrases!, How to Use PowerPhrases, Perfect Phrases for Managers and Supervisors, and How to Say It: Performance Reviews. You can reach her at 719-684-2633, or by email:

You can also follow Meryl on Twitter: http://twitter.com/merylrunion.

 

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