I surely believe this truth. I experience it in my life every moment. But I wasn’t sure where the factor of seven came from. Turns out there are references to it in many sources including The Old Testament, specifically the story of Cain & Abel.

HEART&MIND® Branding fits right in line with this universal truth. Think about how we seek to find the heart, that point of beauty and power within an organization, and then gift it to the world. Revealing that essence, that is what we are doing. No wonder the process, when boldly implemented has produced results seven times over and beyond.

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In a business environment where you still have to get work done, walking the doer/leader personal brand balance is a delicate slope. The last thing you want to be perceived as is a person who is above it all. That’s not a good personal brand position at all. But you don’t want to be perceived as a control freak a workhorse either. So what do you do?

Let me share some habits that some of the best leaders I know have shared with me:

Instead of providing answers, ask questions – leaders get stuff done by engaging others. Not demanding them to do it but giving them ownership by allowing them to find solutions and guide them along the way.

1. Allow time for learning – simple rule is if you didn’t hire expertise then you will need to allow time to train and develop it. So avoid the pitfall of “I’ll just do it.” No one learns, you lose out on leveraging your team, and your personal brand shifts to doer.
2. Encourage peer-to-peer learning – the way to learn is to teach so encourage those around you to teach each other. The more senior team members know more that they often think. They only realize it when they teach someone else. This puts you in the leader zone in a big way.
3. Get out of the office – you’ll be surprised how much your team will figure out when you’re not around. They have to. There’s no going into your office for answers. When you return to the office, check in and get the run down. If there’s an opportunity to correct, then impart your wisdom, don’t redo the work.

Positioning yourself as a leader takes relinquishing your ego and trusting in your team. It takes delegating and following up, not acquiescing. There is a difference. Give it a shot. It’s the only way you will grow as a brand both corporately and personally.

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Want to elevate your brand? It could mean being considered for that promotion, that board position, that venture funding… It’s time to “upgrade” your image. It can be as simple as a different haircut, a new suit, or a make-up update. Your appearance is the easiest thing to change and when you look the part—whatever that part may be—you’ll naturally feel more worthy of achieving it.

So what do you want? Start with who you genuinely are—that’s beautiful, you know! Then ask yourself, “Where do I want to go?” Then change and accentuate those aspects that get you there.

Want to look more professional? Buy some professional clothing. Trim that college hairstyle to a more commanding length. Need a creative edge? Add a little flair to that cut with asymmetry, color or texture. And opt for unique details in your professional wardrobe choices.

Whatever you do, keep your transformation meaningful to the people you want to serve. The real you, enhanced to deliver your meaningful message, doesn’t mean giving up your sense of self. You are focusing it and that alone will make you different.  Individualism won’t be lost, it will be leveraged!

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I’ve owned HEASLEY&PARTNERS for 20+ years. I’ve been through a lot of business cycles. Building a brand based on the concept of HEART was risky in 1994 when people were telling me, “You’re too sensitive, too nice for business.” I knew what I did worked (in those days it was just me), so I kept going. But I was timid and lacked confidence to put myself out there. I was a silent worker for a decade.

Overcoming that fear of risk for me came unexpectedly on an Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO) retreat. I thought I was just going to the mountains. Little did I know I was going on a life-changing Arizona rappelling adventure. Harnessed in, with one foot at the top of the ledge and the other just one step below on the 90-degree, 300-foot vertical drop, rope in hand, I realized I had a choice. I could step back up and feel like a failure, or I could take a leap of faith in myself and the mentor guides around me.

Intellectually, the choice was easy, but letting the rope slide through my gloved hand was so hard. I started to let go, then hesitated. Then looked at the guides and said, “I don’t know,” not wanting to finish the sentence as I put my foot back on top of the ledge.

They looked at me with eyes that said, “You can do it.” Mustering all my courage, at last more fearful of what staying at the top of the cliff represented than the descent itself, I stepped back off the ledge. As I began my descent it was exciting. “I’m doing this!” I thought. Then as I neared the bottom, I felt so happy and a surprise to me, powerful. I had power over me.

From that day forward I began to subconsciously act on this truth. If I could do that, I can do this. Regardless of what this is. Professionally, this has included standing up and speaking about HEART, branding and purpose in rooms of 4,000 people. Putting my ideas out in very public forums, open to ridicule. It’s included meeting and holding my own with leaders and dignitaries. And it has meant advising many people on how to build and run their businesses.

Confidence, no fear, that’s what wins. Without confidence everything feels risky.

So now you know my secret: I seek out and do things in other areas of my life that scare me. As the saying goes, “No one has ever found greatness in their comfort zone.”

For me that has included, yes, rappelling off cliffs, navigating level-4 rapids on the famed Payette River in Idaho, ocean kayaking, cycling through France and the biggest confidence builder of all, my intense, daily P90X work-outs—no exceptions.

I may sound like a daredevil, but I am not at all. That’s the point. Now, when I have to tackle a risky problem I draw on the wisdom that comes from time, business cycles and experience, of course. But I also draw on the courage from doing the things I “was once” afraid of. If I can do those scary things—and I can—I know nothing is out of my reach.

I have a quote that hangs framed in my closet. I see it every day. Eleanor Roosevelt: “Do one thing every day that scares you.” She was right, and I do.

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When you think of Apple’s brand, you probably think of their innovative products, their tech-savvy employees and their massive following. You likely know more than a hand full of people who swear by one or more of their products. So how does Apple get their consumers to continuously shop with them and how can your smaller business gain that Apple-like loyalty? Here’s the answer.

A big part of creating that loyalty is creating a brand, but not just any brand, one that has genuine heart. When you do that, people connect emotionally, and it’s the emotional, not intellectual, connections that keep people wanting more. We have brand development clients that we have worked with for many years. And they have customers rain on them that same loyalty and longevity.

If heart is important, then so is making sure that heart is meaningful to the people you serve. Lots of companies overlook that. They spout out what they themselves want to say and do, not what the people they serve want to hear and receive. There is an experience disconnect, and that means a competitor with a more meaningful experience can slip on in.

Finally, you must be undisputedly different. For us, it is HEART&MIND^® BRANDING, a measurable, results-oriented brand development process that is completely different than anything out there. Believe it or not you can brand anything. Do you know how many people asked us (with a disbelieving up-talk tone) when we wanted to register the trademark for HEART&MIND Branding, “So what you’re saying is… you’re branding a method of branding?” Mostly attorneys, and yes that is what we wanted to do, and what we did.

Using ourselves as an example, it’s our process, but it’s also our culture. Selling more stuff doesn’t get us up in the morning. Transforming people’s lives, helping them live a life with purpose, that’s what gets us up in the morning. And it’s what we do. As a result? Our clients sell more stuff, in essence, they’re more successful and their growth trajectory takes on a new path.

Just like Apple, we have loyal clients worldwide who come to us and only us. Just like Apple, we are seldom in competitive situations. And just like Apple, price is seldom an issue because the return on investment is well worth it.

Loyalty begins with giving people something they can grasp and be loyal to. Something concise and understandable. Something they can feel and express. Something they can quickly and easily share with their friends. Because in the end, people are not loyal to businesses, they are loyal to brands. And whether or not that brand is small or large, it doesn’t matter. If we can enjoy Apple-like loyalty, so can you.

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HEART&MIND® Branding is all about bringing the heart to life in everything you do.

Everyone wants to ignite passion amongst the people in their business, but few tell you how to do it. Because we have been bringing the heart to life in businesses for more than twenty years, people always ask us how we do it. Well, here you go, our 5 Stages of HEART&MIND Branding. And, yes, it all happens in this order:

1. Find Your Heart – It’s all about finding your “story behind the story.” This is far more than your “why,” so be prepared for some soul searching. Your power is in your scars, not your crowns.
2. Create Your Message – You have to be able to put your heart into words, using language that connects heart-to-heart. That’s the only pathway to the mind.
3. Develop your Image – People get most of their communication cues from pictures, so you want to make sure that the images that surround your brand communicate the message of your heart. Anything else is “off brand.”
4. Determine Your Actions – We define a brand simply, with two words: The Promise and The Experience. At this stage, develop the actions, the experiences, that you can own and be very deliberate about it.
5. Establish Your Systems – Consistency is what makes a brand a brand. It makes it lasting. So figure out what is working and create systems that you can repeat. That’s valuable leverage.

This is the time-tested HEASLEY&PARTNERS process that crosses industries, cultures, countries and just about everything else. We know because we’ve worked with clients, given talks, and coached executives and entrepreneurs around the world. The heart resonates because first and foremost, we are all one thing and that’s… human.

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So here’s a little HEART&MIND Branding homework assignment.  Take a look at your communications last week, as many as you can, and ask yourself:

1.  Did I do more than just provide information?

2.  Did I put my heart into what I was communicating?

3.  Did I use words that people can understand and connect with?

4.  Did my communication come across genuinely?

5.  Was my communication meaningful to my audience?

6.  Was my communication different from others in my industry?

7.  Were the responses I received verbal, written, online and in body language positive and inviting?

Content matters, but delivery of that content speaks volumes about who you are, what you stand for and what you hope to achieve. Next time you need to make that big speech, write that report, post on Twitter or leave a note for someone, think about your own personal brand and make every communication an opportunity to reinforce it.  Brands are built moment by moment the little things matter!

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The Project Marketing Trap is when a company views every marketing activity as a separate project not as an integrated strategic business building discipline.  People wonder why marketing doesn’t work for them.  In many cases, this is the reason why.

One of our clients was stuck in the Product Marketing Trap.  The owner of the company would walk in and announce, for example, that the company needed a new digital campaign to boost sales.  The eager marketing manager in the room would happily add this exciting project to the task list.  As soon as the meeting was over, she’d start working on this cool new project. What was missing?  Goals, objectives, an understanding of how the spot will reinforce everything else they are doing, and an idea of what success looks like.  That’s just for starters.

This kind of seat-of-the-pants marketing would happen almost every day at this company.  Ideas coming from everywhere and everyone.  Materials needed tomorrow, and a pace that made everyone feel like they were “making it happen.”  The marketing manager felt great because she had a long task list, which to her meant job security.  But the company was not getting results.  Beyond that, since every project was in essence a new “creation,” there was no leveraging the old for the new.  Messages were different, design was different, layout, type, everything was at the whims of the designer who won that project’s bid.  And the costs for all this original design was out of sight. Worst of all, it was just stuff, without heart.

Finally in an effort to prove our point, we took this client’s marketing materials and we spread them all out on the table for the owner to view.  What he saw was a hodge podge of brochures, one-off flyers, banner ads, landing pages… it looked like a mess.  They didn’t look like one company, they looked like twenty companies.  And, of course, the website would be the twenty-first company if we could have printed it out and put it on the table, too.

The business owner, once he saw how his company appeared to the rest of the world, was not happy. All these materials were confusing to him–the headlines, the messages, the offers, the photos and he was the one who had approved them all!  “If this is confusing to me, imagine how confusing it is to my customers,he said.  We hated to break the news to him, but it’s worse than that.  The reality is, the Project Marketing Trap doesn’t confuse customers, it just makes you invisible to most of them.

This company owner actually thought his business had a brand.  What he didn’t understand is that a brand goes far beyond your logo and the colors you call your own.  It takes a thought out plan of not only design, but also, and primarily, of heart, message, image, actions and systems. The five stages of HEART&MIND® Branding.  Not just for that one project, but for everything you say and everything you do.  Once you know your brand in terms of how it is genuine, meaningful and different, you are on your way.  From there, those points can cascade into everything else creating brand consistency.

The benefit, of course, is that a HEART&MIND Branding approach actually gives you a chance to break through the clutter out there and get noticed.  That’s good for business.  Another benefit is that you leverage your marketing dollars.  No longer is every project a new project with new project costs, so you save money.  You also benefit from speed.  Marketing work built on a solid brand foundation can be turned fast.  And that’s a requirement today.  Finally, you sell more stuff because people buy from companies that look legitimate. Project marketing makes you look shady.  Strategic marketing based on HEART&MIND Branding makes you look relevant, credible and larger than life.

Brand-based strategic marketing takes discipline, however.  It takes strong marketing professionals who can see the big picture, adhere to the rules of the brand and stop trying to please the owner and start trying to please the people the company serves.  That will please the owner more than anything.  It takes writers who understand the meaning of the term “message consistency” and who know this fact: a message that gets repeated gets remembered.  It takes a graphic design team that understands that their art is “commercial” art, not fine art or craft.  Its ultimate goal is to connect with the heart which of course is how we make buying decisions not just look good.  They must withstand the urge to simply play with the crayons and the coloring books as one colleague of mine used to say.  Others in the company need to have discipline, too.  Good ideas are only good if they fit in with the brand strategy.  If they don’t, they are simply expensive distractions masquerading as good ideas.

The Project Marketing Trap is one of the most costly business mistakes a company can make, both in terms of dollars and opportunity.  Marketing that works takes more than catchy headlines and pictures.  It takes a brand, it takes a plan and it takes discipline.  It takes breaking free of the Project Marketing Trap.

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Plenty of leaders we work with want to break through. They want to infuse heart into their companies. They want to be number one. The question really is, can they? Over the years, we have developed this neat little quiz that quickly tells us if a leader and his or her company has the stuff it takes to become number one. Test yourself. If this sounds like you, there’s time to change and you must  to truly realize your potential and break through. Be honest!

1. Is your company’s vision on the wall, but nobody can tell you what it is? Great companies have visions and missions that are lived every moment. What’s holding yours back?
2. Does your company continually invent a new message on a whim? Your task is to find the right message just one and reignite it with everything you do.
3. Does your company think of marketing as a promotion and deals to target markets? Marketing is relating and communicating with human beings. See markets as people and your results will improve.
4. Do your company’s marketing and messaging strategies change every quarter, every month, maybe with every communication? No one is hearing or believing in you. They haven’t had a chance. Not even your own internal audiences or you.
5. Does your company believe that its audiences are somehow beneath them? Get to know your audiences as people and you’ll find they have much to teach you. They are human beings who carry their own stories and have needs just like you.
6. Is your company constantly searching for the one ad, the one direct mail campaign, the one person, the one product that will assure your immediate success? Humans are not moved to action that quickly, and if they are momentarily, it is not for any sustained period of time. The only silver bullet is heart and that takes time.
7. Does your company seek to communicate solely through headlines? This disregards any and all other touch points you have with your audiences. There are more of those than there are headlines.
8. Is all the feedback you receive about your company from internal sources? It’s time to get out of your own skin.
9. Is your company always looking for the right sales people instead of inspiring and equipping the sales people you have? Perhaps you already have the right sales people.
10. Do the people at your company see their jobs as work a task to be done on the path to retirement? Vocation can be avocation if the work has meaning, and all work has meaning.

How did you score? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you have opportunity to improve your business and how it communicates with its audiences through HEART&MIND® Branding. As we’ve experienced many times over, success can happen in spite of many shortcomings. But it doesn’t tend to last without eventually tackling the challenges and doing the work that makes great companies great. No time like the present!

Want to learn more? Keep scrolling…

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