The problem for me happens when I see people having their hands in two or more of these businesses- and actively selling them all at the same time to the same people.  Two things could start to happen if you are one of these people:

* Your personal brand message can get garbled:   Are you selling skin-care, jewelry, clothing or hand-bags? If you are selling them all, do they somehow tie into your personal brand and represent who you are, your unique selling proposition and business goals? Do you have some passion around the combination of MLM lines you represent or did someone just do a really good job recruiting you and convincing you that their MLM was the best?

I need you to step back before you sign up for a lot of good money-making MLM businesses and evaluate if YOU:

a) believe in the product so you can sell it with passion and purpose,

b) can find a tie-in with the product and who you are/your personal brand,

c) have enough connections to have the reach to the MLM’s target market. In other words, do your circle of friends represent the accurate target market for the MLM you want to start selling?

* Your actual verbal message can get garbled: I recently saw someone who was has a business organizing things/people speak at an event.  However, I really did not hear her speak to organization. Rather, what I heard (and maybe misunderstood, but that’s the problem) was her talk about her lotion/body care line she represents and her bag line she represents. Both body care and bags appeared to be MLM and neither really carried her message of why she has an organization business and what she could do for me to organize my life, closet, office, bills, etc.

Even if you don’t sell MLM, but are in professional services (doctors, lawyers, etc), you need to stop and consider the same two questions above. I see plenty of doctors and lawyers who are selling products and services that are not connected to their actual service and brand. I appreciate the economy has prompted even professionals to have to get creative with their multiple income channels, but at what cost?

For example, I know a lawyer who sells candles for “fun”.  Are you planning on creating a romantic atmosphere in court for your clients? If you must sell candles, disconnect the concept from your legal practice and sell the candles on the weekend to moms in your neighborhood.

I also know of many dentists who sell/administer Botox out of their office.  To them I ask: “Aren’t you diluting your specialty as a dentist by telling me I can come in and get Botox from you, too?”

I’ve also seen plenty of dermatologists really go off-base by offering tons of make-up lines and creams and gels, etc.  Too much product sales in my opinion.  I can go to Sephora and get the same stuff. And no, just because you are a dermatologist doesn’t mean the products are more credible to me -because all the products are overwhelming and so are you.

So if you are selling, or considering selling, one or more MLM product lines  or adding a product or service to your professional degree’d offerings, please consider the two potential problems above.   While having multiple income streams is smart,  which ones really serve you well and complement your current profession and personal brand best?

Puris:  What type of coach are you?

Williams: I am a professional life and business coach. I work primarily with fempreneurs (female entrepreneurs) to create the life they want and get the best business results possible. This process often includes a variety of focus areas including clarifying desires and goals, developing a realistic plan of action and the stuff that can help or hinder us like how we manage our time, prioritization skills, perception of balance, habits and mindset.

Puris: How did you get started in coaching?

Williams:  It’s a bit cliché, but true- I have always served the role of “coach” since I can remember. People have come to me for support, insight, advice, guidance and encouragement for years across a variety of work and volunteer roles. I didn’t realize it was coaching until I began to research alternatives to my corporate job. I started a corporate job just out of graduate school in 2004 and although I had learned about and had experience with leadership and management coaching, I hadn’t even thought about having my own coaching business. Within 2 years I discovered that although my corporate job grew me, I knew it wasn’t truly allowing me to express my true purpose and gifts to the fullest extent.

My journey has been an inspiration and source of wisdom with my clients and in assisting others to embrace their passion and purpose and make their dreams a reality. Anything is really possible even if where you are isn’t where you want to be. It all plays an important role and all the experiences (successes and failures) are most useful when you gather lessons along the way.

Puris: How does someone know they need a coach or would benefit from working with one?

Williams:  If you have been thinking about it already that’s an indicator that it’s’ time to take action and work with a coach. Some might be thinking, “I really need to kick my business into high gear, but I’m not sure where to start,” “I am excited to launch my business and could really use some direction and support” or even “I’ve been in business for many years and need a new perspective, someone to hold me accountable to push myself to greater levels.” Another common sentiment I hear is “I feel overwhelmed and scattered in my time and energy and could use some help to get focused and more efficient with my time.” If you are thinking any of these or something similar you are in a great spot to benefit the most from hiring a coach. Listen to your gut and heed your own insight about what or whom you need to move forward.

So stop and think to yourself, what areas of your personal and business life could be enhanced via the use of a life/business coach?  Are you managing your time and resources as best you can? Only then can we build you a brand that is well-rounded and successful and represents a credible and memorable you.

Many industries are perceived as static and slow to change and grow.  One in particular is the legal industry and lawyers.  I work with plenty of fabulous lawyers and law firms up for the challenge of developing a personal brand that is dynamic and flexible.  However, the legal industry as a whole is not viewed as such.  For those of you who remember, think about the show, “Paper Chase”.  Not sure that perception has changed over the decades since that show aired.

I was just at the American Bar Association (ABA) Law Practice Management (LPM) conference in Napa, California.  We were working on developing a program for lawyers, when this topic came up again.   As we work hard on bringing new concepts and trends to lawyers and working on helping younger lawyers see the need to be outgoing, dynamic and brand-oriented, we always keep in mind a few thing.  Lawyers can be slower to change, more risk-averse and more security-oriented.

If you think about it, these generalized traits make sense.  The law is about precedent and following what came before to get to a new place in the future. Legal educational institutions and firms have been around for centuries and take pride in having this longevity.  I remember my international law professor had been teaching at my law school for something like 30 years by the time I took his class- and the running joke was that there hadn’t been many changes to the curriculum since he started at the law school.

However, with the longevity and prestige there is always the danger of stagnation.  This stagnation comes from following precedent, becoming comfortable with “what has always work in the past” and a general fear of trying new things, growing or following new trends.  Fear of the unknown is common and something I appreciate.

The way to grow and succeed, though, is via a shift in perspective.   Appreciate your tried and true ways, but always keep your eyes and ears open for a new method and process.  Your personal brand will thank you for it and so will your family and clientele.

dreamstime.com

I work with many business owners and CEOs on the topic of compassion. Sadly,  it seems the word does not have a place in business for many people.  Long ago, I realized the importance of compassion in business and realized that my business thrived as a result of it.

Compassion is simply a means by which we put ourselves in another’s shoes and see the world through their eyes.   It may not always be a pretty view. In fact, the other party’s view point may be completely foreign, hard to get to and even ludicrous at times. 

However, that is the point of success and personal brand optimization.  If we are able to stretch ourselves to a point where we can, and are willing to, see the other party’s point of view, then the end result is success- success as an individual and success as a business owner. 

In order to see what your prospects and clients need from you, you must be able to put yourself in their shoes.  Strong personal brands are made of those people who know what it is like to be on the “other side” of the equation- this allows you to understand my needs and my emotional triggers so you can communicate with me well.

Women are more natural at displaying compassion in part because of our mothering instincts.  Notice, I did not say that men cannot be compassionate.  In fact, compassionate men are very powerful and effective.  So if you are a man reading this, please don’t dismiss your capacity for compassion and personal brand growth.

Stop and think- do you have compassion for your colleagues, prospects, and clients?  Do you get that their needs may be different from yours and that their emotional quotient may be higher or lower than yours?  When you do, you’ve got a successful brand.

As humans, in life, we connect with people over things we have in common.  That’s why alumni networks and fan clubs are so popular. We also connect with people over hardships.  Even if we have not suffered the exact hardship, we respect people who are brave enough to share their hardship. We also view those people as ones who have endured to live on and prosper. They give us hope for our own future.

So often we hear that our pain is also our passion.  Great businesses, and thus great personal brands, are built on solving a problem that used to plague the founder of the business.  If I can find a way to cure my own pain, then I’m going to have a deep passion for curing others’ pain.  Every great business has passion and drive behind it. That passion and drive usually comes from a cure to a pain.  Great examples are everywhere, everyday.  How many times have you heard an interview with a company founder that goes like this:

“I started this company because I realized that X product or service we offer  fixed my problem [helped me navigate an area/deal with a level of people, etc]“.

So what is your pain? Do you have a passion around helping others not suffer the same pain?  If so, you’ve got a great business idea and an even greater personal brand.

In personal brand management, we teach that everything is about the emotional quotient- what feeling do you drum up in us about who you are so that we remember you and want to be around you, buy from you, etc? Trader Joe’s clearly has that emotional quotient value mastered.

We can all agree that their quality may not be the absolute best and their prices are low, but not the lowest.  We’ve all noticed how the packaging tends to shrink (one less egg-roll, a few ounces less jam), but I still go back and so do all the people we have surveyed.  The reason is that Trader Joe’s still gives us that happy feeling-and that is priceless.

In addition, the customer service in their stores is excellent. Every employee works with passion and purpose and acts like they own the company! I love it.  I’ve heard they receive excellent benefits- even if they are part-time workers.  So clearly, Trader Joe’s has figured out the customer service personal branding secret, too- hire well, take care of your employees and the rest is history.

So stop and ask yourself- do you make your clients and prospects and friends and family happy?  When we think of you, do we forget the not-so-perfect stuff and remember you for the happiness you elicit in us?  Do you train your staff to provide that same level of happy customer service?  Hope so.  Visit a Trader Joe’s store and see how it works.

What American Idol did wrong, in my opinion, was to get Tommy Hilfiger to be the stylist/style guide for the contestants.  The entire point of giving any advice or being a consultant and running your own business is the following:  You have to understand: 1) your reality of what you do for a living/what you provide your clients and 2) your clients’/prospects’ reality and what they need from you.

So for example, a dentist’s reality is that he needs to take care of our oral hygiene and save our lives.  My reality as a potential patient is that I am afraid of pain/needles and fearful of going to see a dentist.   So a dentist has to overcome my negative reality somehow and get me to see his/her reality as a dentist before I will go get treatment for my teeth.

So American Idol producers should have asked themselves if Tommy Hilfiger was right for the job.  Does Tommy Hilfiger have a common reality with any of the American Idol contestants he is giving visual branding/styling advice to?

Tommy Hilfiger has been in the negative press ever since last year when his company was found to have unsafe/sweatshop working conditions in Bangledesh, where many workers died making his garments. What was worse was that he promised to make changes and ABC News discovered that no changes had been made one year later.  So perhaps Hilfiger doesn’t have a common reality with any of us about style or running an ethical business?

If you watched Hilfiger’s interactions with the American Idol contestants, you would have seen the obvious. Most contestants stared at him dumbly, wondering what the “older guy with the blazer” was doing telling them to cut their hair or clean up.  In fact, many contestants just flat out ignored his advice- as said so- making American Idol and Hilfiger have poor personal brands.

Of course it didn’t help matters when American Idol producers paired Hilfiger’s advice with that of the “American Idol stylist”.  The stylist was a very quiet woman who probably said two words the entire time and looked and acted with absolutely lack of any credibility or connection value to the contestants.

What would have worked better is if American Idol producers had not reached for their buddy, Hilfiger, and their local style gal.  But instead they should have stopped and though who would have a common reality and connection with the contestants.  Who could give credible advice about attire and posture and stance and gaze and all things personal branding.   Perhaps someone younger who could communicate better and be more of a strategic alliance.

What does this mean for you?  Figure out what your reality is as a service/product provider. Then learn what your clients’/prospects’ reality is and work to bridge the reality gap and share realities in order to be credible and give sage advice and get business.

I am not a fan of using stock photos in marketing materials- there is nothing genuine or real about stock photos.  We can always somehow tell that you and your business is not really represented.  The best thing to do is to use actual pictures of you and your business “in action”, producing results and working with clients.    So putting your head-shots on your marketing materials and business cards may sound like a great idea, right?

Well, no not really. All five of the business cards I saw had head shots of the business owner/CEO that looked nothing like them in real life.  Now, I’m not talking about the head-shot where you look fabulous and have pretty clothes on and nice make-up. I’m talking about the fact that the person in real life looked completely different than their head-shot to the point that there was no brand recall for me in my mind nor was there any association built up based on my past interaction with the person.  You only want your head-shots on your business cards if I can look down at your business card, see your head-shot and think to myself that your picture shows a “better” version of you than what stands before me.

Personal branding is about perception values and what kind of memory you create for me to use in my recall of you based on a genuine you.  If I see otherwise, I will subconsciously assume you are trying to pull one over on me by “disguising” the real you.  Does that make actual sense? No, but no one ever said our subconscious has to make actual sense.  You just have to understand it and adjust your personal brand and marketing accordingly.

For instance, look at the two head-shots of me that I have posted in this blog post. One is of me with straight hair and one with curly hair. I have naturally curly hair. I am recognized for my curly hair and it is part of my unique selling proposition. I rarely use the picture of me with straight hair because no one identifies me as someone with straight hair.  Therefore, they see me in that picture and may subconsciously think I am being fake and disingenuous by having straight hair.  Or worse, they may not even recall me!  The good news- I pretty much look like both those head-shots on any given day.

So my advice for all of you is to err on the side of caution: do NOT include your head-shots on your business cards and use them judiciously on your marketing materials.

I was recently at a health fair put on by a technology company for its employees.  While at the event, I saw a business lawyer’s booth who has gone solo within the past two years.  This lawyer, we’ll call her, “Amy”.  Amy was at her booth along with a gentleman who was helping her out.  I had met Amy several years ago when she had just decided to hang out her own work shingle.  Since then it seems Amy’s brand has taken quiet a journey- and not for the good, in my humble opinion.

At her booth, Amy was dressed in a long red skirt, cowboy boots and a fitted red top.  Her colleague/friend was wearing tight jeans and a muscle shirt- all in black. His dark long hair was flowing in the breeze.  Reminded me of Fabio, for those of you who remember Fabio.  All that is well and fine- considering what venue you are appearing in and whether it is personal or for work.  While no other vendor was dressed “fancy”, they did fit the personal brand perception/part of what they were representing better than Amy did.  When I saw Amy, had I not known her, I would have thought she was in the creative arts professions like massage. I would have never correlated her to being a business lawyer.

It just got more confusing from there out.  Amy had a giant  life size vertical trade show banner/sign. Normally these signs advertise the company’s name, logo and services.  Amy’s sign had a life size picture of her.  What’s wrong with that, you say?  Well, nothing except that Amy was wearing a little black dress that was short, very tight and paired with stiletto-looking heals.  She was posed with her hands on her hips in a very suggestive way- in my opinion.  Next to her picture she had her services described with words like, “corporation formation”, “S Corporation”, etc.

I was utterly confused. Her picture did not match the words describing her services.  There was a complete mismatch of branding. In our society, anytime you see someone dressed as I’ve described above, you don’t ASSUME or have a perception of a lawyer.  I’ll leave it to your imagination as to what we all assume.  This is a PG blog.  Not to mention, she had legal formation service words juxtapositioned next to her picture– at a health fair for a technology company.

Oh and don’t tell me that my perception was wrong, because that can’t be so. My perception is my reality and so  it can’t ever be wrong.  Even if the facts don’t actually support my perception. Just like your perception can’t ever be wrong.

What does this mean for you?  As a lawyer or other professional, please consider:

-What visual personal brand are you conveying in your professional pictures?  I admire Amy not wearing a traditional blue suit, like many of us lawyers do.  She certainly stood out, which is always what I preach.  But make sure you stand out in a way that makes your credibility as a lawyer/professional match your visual personal brand. Maybe Amy would have seemed more credible to us as a business attorney if she had worn a nice blouse and skirt in the picture.

-Watch your posture and gaze in your printed business materials. Amy’s pose and stance and gaze suggested anything but a competent, credible business lawyer.

-Research your venues before you spend your money and precious time attending trade shows and events.   A technology company health fair is likely never going to be a good place to sell your services as a business lawyer who forms business entities.  What are the odds an employee would ever want that service at a health fair?  Maybe they’d like a will drafted??

-Be careful of whom you take with you to help out and represent your business brand. Just as you are a walking billboard for your business, so are the people that you verbally, or by association, suggest represent your business. While it was very nice of Amy’s friend to accompany her to the health fair and stand in her booth, the guy looked like he should be at a WWE booth instead. He may have well been a brilliant lawyer, but that was not my perception.

So now that you own the fact that you are unique, what do you do with that information?  A different problem associated with being unique is how to position your uniqueness.  This is the second place people often fail.  Personal branding is about my perceptions of you as a brand.  My perceptions are based on my life experiences.   Therefore, my perceptions can’t be wrong because they frame my world and who I am. So my perceptions are my reality.

The question becomes, do you know the perceptions of those with whom you do business or want to associate with?  To really get this, you have to step back and realize you have to take into account not only clients and prospects BUT also vendors who would send you referrals or even become your clients. We have certainly had vendors become clients along the way.

For clients and prospects, you need to do research about their business to figure out what is their reality so you can position your brand correctly. You really need to understand your prospects and clients well. What are their habits? Where do they shop?  What trends are in store for them?  Why would they want to work with you?

For vendors, you need to do the same ideally.  Who else do your vendor work with?  What other complimentary industry to yours do they deal in?  How can you help your vendors?

Once you come to realize that your clients come from many different areas, including from your vendors and friends, then you can work on understanding their realities and catering your uniqueness to resonate well with them all.