Personal Brand Aid
How to clarify and communicate your uniqueness
© 2009 Meryl Runion

            

Who are you?    What are you here to for?    What do you say that no one else says?    What do you do that no one else does?    What makes you unique?

These are the questions every entrepreneur and intrapreneur needs to ask.

These are questions every teacher and coach needs to ask.

These are questions that every person on earth needs to ask. That’s because each of us has a purpose, a journey and a unique gift. If you don’t know what makes you unique – or even if you do know but you can’t communicate it, you might be living someone else’s life. You certainly won’t be living yours.

That’s why personal branding is such a hot topic these days.

Your brand is about a lot more than a great slogan
Too many people think that if they can just get a compelling catch-phrase or slogan, that they’ll be successful. But the slogan is only the packaging for what lies within. If the packaging doesn’t attract or the contents lack substance – or if the packaging and contents don’t match – you don’t have a strong personal brand. That’s why you need Brand Aid.

Eight Questions to Determine What You’re all About
Begin the Brand Aid process by answering a series of eight questions about your identity. These questions are:

1) What is your vision of a perfect world? What does a perfect world look like to you? What would people experience that they are not experiencing now? How do you define perfection? Complete this sentence stem: Imagine a world where… (I just heard an ad that says, “Imagine a world where pasta isn’t fattening.” It sounds a little superficial to me, but who am I to question someone else’s vision?)

This is the world you’re here to help create.

2) What is the contrasting current reality? Instead of the perfect world you envision, what is the world really like? What would a caricature exaggeration of this be? What is the worst situation you ever experienced of things not being what you envision? 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…

These are the situations you’re here to make people aware of.

3) What obstacles keep the world from being like your vision?
What stands in the way of the manifestation of your perfect world? What excuses do you and others give for not doing what it takes to move toward that perfection? What payoffs do you observe for the status quo? Complete this sentence stem: The obstacles to my perfect world are…

These are the obstacles you’re here to overcome and help others overcome.

4) What do you and others need to know to create your perfect world? What knowledge and information do you have that are unique to you? What do you know that most people don’t – information that will help create their vision? Complete this sentence stem: To create this world, people need to know…

This is the information you’re here to develop and share.

5) What principles do people need to believe to create your perfect world?
What values guide your wisdom? What do people need to care about to embrace your services, message and nature? What beliefs are assumed and encouraged in who you are and what you offer? Complete this sentence stem: My perfect world is based on the beliefs…

These are the principles you stand for in your life, communication and your work.

6) What do people need to do to create your perfect world?
What practices, actions and behaviors contribute to creating this perfect world? What kind of action-steps do you practice and recommend? How do people translate your vision into action? Complete this sentence stem: The steps to create the perfect world are…

These are the things you are here to do and help others do.

7) What do people need to stop doing to create your perfect world?
What actions 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…

These are the habits you’re here to break and help others break.

8) What is unique about your answers?
When you hear people talk, 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…   (Please note, by saying you’re the “only” one, you’re not bragging, you’re differentiating. This is your brand, and you’re the only one who can live it.)

This is your brand. It’s still rough and raw, but it’s your description of who you are.

SpeakStrong Brand Aid
To illustrate how the questions work, here are my answers for my SpeakStrong Brand. For clarity, I include links to different forms of expression I use 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... 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 The Center for Lowered Expectations. 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: 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. www.speakstrong.com/newsletter/category/newsletter/success-story/ )

5) This perfect world is based on the beliefs and principles that: 1.) Open communication is essential for success personally, professionally and politically. 2.) When any communication is suppressed, it is costly for all involved and is likely to backfire. 3.) Leaders need to elevate the level of discourse personally, professionally and politically. 4.) People have a right to be informed about things that affect them.

6) The steps to create the perfect world are… practice 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 memorable? Here are seven tips to help you.

1) Listen to yourself and others talk about things that relate to what you stand for.
Discuss your ideas and unique brand with friends. 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 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 sometimes people take it one step further and throw the baby out and KEEP the bathwater. You could even make a case for why you might want to do that. If you developed a slogan, “Lose the baby, keep the water,” people would think of you 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,” by 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. “Immoral ethics” is my second.

See how the game is played?

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

6) Get familiar with the work of Sam Horn. Sam Horn is all about finding pithy ways to say things. For example, she wrote the book Tongue Fu. Pithy, isn’t it? Sam Horn online: http://www.samhorn.com/

7) Read my latest book SpeakStrong, which has tips to cut to the core of your own message. http://www.speakstrong.com/store

Get clear, get creative and get communicating
Some people suggest you revisit your brand every few years. I suggest you do it more often than that, so that your personal brand will evolve and deepen as you do. Every person you touch should be touching you, and helping to clarify who you are, what you stand for, what you do, and why.

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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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