Some Notes on Branding - MY CLARITY JOURNAL

Do you have a brand? According to Dorie Clark (Marketing and Strategy Consultant, Author) and Forbes.com, you already do; each of us has a brand.

The term branding has long been relegated to companies, but today almost every individual has a personal brand. Not many of us have consciously cultivated these brands, but they exist nonetheless. A digital footprint in the sands of time and space crowd sourced by friends, colleagues, and bosses. (“7 Things You Can Do To Build An Awesome Personal Brand” by Shama Hyder, Forbes.com)

Whether you’re an entrepreneur or an employee, you’ll benefit from improving your brand, standing out, and being visible. Otherwise, you’re just one in a “sea of sameness,” per Raymond Aaron (Author).

While the conference and webinar featured below are unrelated, each offered insight on branding.

Create Your Own Economy 10 – Conference

I attended the Create Your Own Economy 10 conference September 29^th to October 1^st at the Hyatt Regency near LAX.

The 3-day event was hosted by Raymond Aaron (Author, Real Estate Investor, and “Success Coach”). The first day started with Aaron explaining that there was no agenda for the event because transformation and “aha moments” don’t have a schedule. That was inspiring, but my left brain was confused. I had no choice but to put aside my expectation of an agenda. Ice-T with Raymond Aaron

BRANDING

The first major topic was branding. Aaron noted that an employee who promises a report at noon but doesn’t deliver, and does this consistently, is an example of an employee with a bad brand. The employee may be telling the manager what the manager wants to hear at that moment, but in the long run, delivering the report late and making excuses for the delay harms the employee’s brand. “Commit only to what you can really live up to; be prepared to say no,” Aaron advised.

As an entrepreneur, if you brand yourself correctly, “money comes to you and you can charge more.” The example Aaron gave was Hershey’s vs. Godiva. Hershey’s is branded as a treat and charges $4/lb while Godiva is branded as a gift and charges $40/lb.

Note: Before publication, I checked their annual sales. Godiva’s 2016 sales were close to $800M (SmartBrief). Hershey’s 2016 sales were more than $7B (The Wall Street Journal). So, yes, Godiva charges more per pound, but there’s nothing wrong with Hershey’s brand and business model. The Hershey’s ”treat” has had $7B+ sales every year since 2013.

Aaron also discussed the brands of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk; their attention to detail, demand for elegance, and unwavering vision for their companies. They were both focused, persistent, and, at times, unreasonable to get the results they wanted. Neither visionary was/is trying to win any popularity contests.

Aaron has a program to help individuals with branding. I have grouped the sales pitches together after the list of guest speakers below.

INTENTIONAL CONGRUENCE

If we do things that are not congruent, then time, effort and results would look like this: 1 hour of effort = 1 hour of results.

Intentional congruence is bringing your businesses together so that with the same amount of effort, you would get exponential results.

Aaron’s example was of a business owner who owned a bank, a furniture store, and a bakery, and he was on the board of directors at a university. Furniture for the bank and university was purchased from the furniture store, the accounts for all businesses and the university were held at the bank, meetings at the bank, furniture store and university were catered by the bakery, etc.

Aaron advises to seek things that will be congruent so that a little bit of effort would go a long way. Connecting your businesses this way would mutually benefit all your businesses.

GUEST SPEAKERS (in order of appearance)

Scott DeMoulin, Founder and CEO of Destiny Training Systems, talked about conscious capitalism and listed the 10 most common business mistakes. My favorite was mistake #4, “Vomiting on your prospects” (telling prospects everything you offer without trying to find out your customers’ needs and wants). I see this all the time.

Ice-T, Actor, Rapper, Songwriter, Musician, etc., said, “You don’t guide life, you ride life,” using his own career as an example. As a rapper, he had the opportunity to become an actor and he took it. I liked his description of the four phases in an actor’s life: “(1) Who is Ice-T? (2) Get me Ice-T. (3) Get me a young Ice-T. (4) Who is Ice-T?” He was my favorite speaker because he was real; he was honest about his life and the lessons he learned.

Loral Langemeier, Financial Advisor and Author, was my second favorite speaker. I loved her quotes, “A man is not a plan” and “If you hold on to your gift and don’t share it, you’re ripping people off.” She advises people to have a vision beyond themselves and helps people with their relationship with money and debt.

The “special surprise guest” was George Ross, Real Estate Attorney, Consultant to Donald Trump, and appeared as a consultant in The Apprentice. I never watched The Apprentice so I wasn’t familiar with Ross. He had two memorable quotes: “Negotiation is something you’re doing in your entire life” and “The 80-20 Rule…80% of what you do is useless, 20% of what you do will get you 80% of your profits.”

I do not endorse any of Aaron’s programs, but I’m listing the big sales pitches here because they were a large part of the conference.

10-10-10 Program – A program that helps entrepreneurs write and publish how-to, non-fiction books. The program promises “10 Chapters, 10 Hours of Your Time, 10 Weeks Printed.” There are three levels with the lowest tier priced at $787. Aaron and company work with the participant to select the topic and title of their book, and ghost writers help write the book. Aaron also holds the book launch and gives the author an award so that they are now “award-winning authors.” With a published book, entrepreneurs become authorities in their fields, their branding improves, and their visibility increases. Having a book, according to Aaron, sets you apart from others in the “sea of sameness.” His example is that if a realtor says, “I’m a realtor,” they’re just one realtor in a sea of realtors. But if they publish a book outlining 10 ways to find the perfect house, for example, the realtor is now an authority for having published a book. There were 10-10-10 Program participants in attendance. Many said they were asked to do radio or internet interviews and/or speaking engagements because of their books.
Up-branding Program – People who have signed up for the 10-10-10 Program may audition for this program which includes a private meeting and in-person coaching sessions with Aaron. I believe there is also a “co-author” credit with Aaron included.
5^th Annual Transformational Retreat in Costa Rica – Three levels of participation at $5K, $10K, and $15K that include luxury accommodations, group sessions for attendees led by Aaron.

MY TAKEAWAYS

I signed up for general admission which was free. There were paid registrations available which included photos with guest speakers and admission to a cocktail party the second evening of the conference. I didn’t sign up for any programs so overall it was an inexpensive conference for me…I just paid for coffee, lunch and parking. Was it worth my time (8:30 am to 6:30pm for three days)? I feel it was. There were nuggets of inspiration and valuable information in between the sales pitches.

Per Aaron, people who struggle do whatever happens to come up. People who are wealthy, however, have a “Power Hour” in the morning to decide what is the highest purpose of that day and what needs to be accomplished.

Aaron said that the average person watches 11 hours of television per week. [Note: I’m not sure where that number comes from…the 1960s? Hah! When I Googled the topic, I found that it’s much higher for Americans at 33 hours/week.] Either way, what if that average person cuts viewing in half and spends the remaining time doing something they love or something that will transform their lives? And if you add in all the time spent on social media (not for business or marketing purposes), there’s even more time in a week to get things done and accomplish a few goals.

Great reminders or new inspiration from the conference:

Power Hour in the morning. Well, maybe not a whole hour to just think, but maybe some time after meditation to decide the best way to spend my time. What’s important? What will help me achieve my goals?
Show up, be present, have a good attitude. “The most basic requirement to acquire wealth is showing up,” according to Aaron.
WORK ON MY BRAND!
Do things with intention; if I change my intention, that will change my physical universe.
Aaron also touched on the physical universe vs. the spiritual universe, and postulates to bridge the two. I’m going to put more thought into these topics; I need to look at my notes to try to formulate some action items.
Cut down my TV viewing…after I binge-watch season 2 of Stranger Things. ?

Oh, look at that. I have my To-Do List written out. Thank you, Blog!

One last quote from the conference: “Those who see the glass as half empty or half full miss the point. The glass is refillable.”

Personal Branding for Women Leaders – Webinar

On October 11^th, I attended a free one-hour webinar, Personal Branding for Women Leaders, sponsored by American Management Association. The speaker, Dorie Clark, has authored books about personal branding. In the webinar, she said that we already have a brand; our brand is how others see us. However, she also said that we can change that.

These are the steps she outlined in the webinar:

Discover your brand. Ask six co-workers to describe you using only three words. If they’re completely honest, this will give you an idea of how people see you. Clark told a story about a recruiter for a company who asks candidates, “How are you reinventing yourself?” The recruiter wants to see if candidates can change with the needs of the organization. Even if an employee still has the same title in two or three years, the role could change. Would the candidates be willing and able to adapt? So, how are you reinventing yourself?
Create your narrative. You can change the way others see you. How do you want to be seen and remembered? Also, become indispensable by becoming the center of your network.
Live your brand through your professionalism, communication, and appearance.

Your brand and reputation change over time. It’s good to re-evaluate yourself regularly to see if you’re living your brand.

Clark was an excellent speaker and my sparse notes are not doing her justice. If you’re interested in this webinar, please go to the American Management Association website to see if the replay is available. You will need to create a free online account to access content and sign up for future events. (Thank you, Cynthia F., for telling me about this educational website!)

Create Your Own Economy 10 – Conference

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