A Note From A Goat

For as long as I can remember I’ve loved soap. Not store-bought soap, the good stuff. Hand-made artisan soap. My wife calls me a “soap-hound”.

I was at a craft festival in Woodstock when I happened upon Sweet Rama’s Soaps. The owner explained that their products were made from milk from their own goats. Hand-milked by her children.

So, I bought a few bars. Fresh Cut Grass, Juniper and Sage, Citrus and Basil and few others. The soap was amazing. A few months later, when I ran out, I decided to order some more from their website.

When my order came, at the bottom of the box was personal note with X’s and O’s written on the back of a photograph from Midgie, Stella and Puck thanking me for my purchase.

But Midgie isn’t the owner. Midgie is a goat. And Stella and Puck are her kids.

In marketing, “customer lifetime value” is a term used for the prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer.

My customer lifetime value to Sweet Rama’s was drastically increased by a note from a goat.

What personal touch can you put on your customer experience that can have the same effect?

The Big Ask

It was hard to say positive with just $87 in the bank.

Brothers Bert and John had a T-shirt business. For years, they’d been traveling hundreds of miles in their mini-van trying to sell shirts at every university and street fair on the East Coast.

But nothing clicked.

They wondered, maybe our designs are bad? They didn’t know the answer. They needed to ask. To get feedback, they started to throw keg parties at the end of every trip and asked students what designs they liked.

With money running out, the brothers confided in each other how hard it was to stay positive. Bert asked, “What if there was someone who was always happy no matter what was happening?" So John did a doodle. A bohemian guy with a beret and sunglasses and a big smile. This is that guy. So, they put it on a shirt.

The college kids at the next keg party loved the bohemian guy design. The first run of tees sold out in an hour.

Today, Life is Good, has 160 employees and does $100M/yr in tee-shirt sales.

You may think your products are great. You may be putting in the miles. But the secret to success isn’t in your head. It’s in your customers.

You just have to ask.

Can You Feel?

Dominique Apollon is 45 years old. But he almost started crying as he put on his band-aid.

It wasn’t because his cut hurt really bad. Although it probably did. He was almost brought to tears because his bandage was brown. Because Dominique is brown, too.

After he pulled himself together, he took a picture of the bandage on his hand and posted it on Twitter. It got re-tweeted over 100k times and picked up by major media channels.

People really felt it.

Tru-Colour Bandages, the company that made the bandage that Dominique was wearing was started by a man who was discouraged when he couldn’t find a band-aid that matched his African American son’s skin tone. 

But the power of the Tru-Colour brand isn’t that it stops cuts from bleeding better than other bandages. Or that it sticks better and doesn't come off when it gets wet. 

The power is in how it makes people feel about themselves. As Dominique put it, “I really just felt like I belonged, like I was welcomed, like I was valued.”

What can you do to assure you are delivering a product, a service, or an experience with that kind of benefit?

Something people really feel.

Brand Yourself Or Die: 8 Steps To Career Longevity

Remember when you could land a job and camp out at the same desk for 15 or 20 years? Those days are not just fading, they’re gone. People are getting more freedom and flexibility in their lives by giving up the serial desk job and working remotely for many different companies at one time. Apps like Uber, TaskRabbit, Fiverr and hundreds of others are redefining how we work. New technology is changing our economy and the way we are doing business. Adapt or die.

Ok, “adapt or die” may be a little strong, but the truth is that we are moving from an era of full-time employment into an era of independent contractors. It has been happening gradually, so you may not have noticed it at all, but it is in full swing:

●      In 2006, independent and contingent workers—contractors, temps, and the self-employed—stood at 42.6 million, or about 30% of the workforce. That’s more than 60 million people. (The last time the government counted contingent workers was in 2006, so updated numbers are not available)

●      According to a 2014 study commissioned by the Freelancers Union, 53 million Americans are independent workers -- about 34 percent of the total workforce. This number is expected to balloon to 50 percent by 2020.

A Personal Brand: Your Job Insurance Policy

Even if you are a full-time employee and have great job security, the way people perceive your work is changing as a result of this macro-socio-economic shift. More and more companies are divesting themselves of full-time employees because of the high benefits cost. It gives them more flexibility, but it gives the freelancer or contract worker less security. So controlling your career trajectory is more critical now than ever before.

The professional climate is increasingly unstable even compared to a just few decades ago. Now, in the marketing world, when agencies lose a client there are layoffs. When a company takes a downward turn, there are layoffs. An acquisition? A restructuring? Layoffs. Corporate unpredictability means you can’t be overly dependent on your employer for your personal identity or for managing your career. Having a personal branded presence that's strong and independent of an employer is really preparation for the inevitable. It will assure your survival and success in your career, whether that’s working for another company, agency or brand, or whether it's developing an independent freelance or consulting career.

Job? No Job? A Personal Brand Can Help

Developing a personal brand will help you take control of your own destiny.

Branding is a shortcut for people to get to know who you are, what you do well, and how you can help them. Since you can’t tell everyone everything about yourself, a brand does the hard work of getting your main points across. For example, we know that Tim Ferriss celebrates high performance, Ira Glass likes compelling stories, and Rachel Ray is all about kitchen confidence, all from their own personal branding. We don’t know those people personally, but we do know a good deal about them because of their personal brands.

If you have a full-time job, a personal branding presence shows your expertise in your field. It demonstrates to others that you are up to date on your industry, category, and career. It also has the added benefit of lending you more credibility in the job that you already have.

If you don’t have a job or are a contract worker, a personal brand will make you more attractive to recruiters or your next employer. LinkedIn, social profiles, and maybe even a YouTube channel will help demonstrate your skill. Developing content and writing articles about your work and industry will elevate you in search results and therefore easier for recruiters and potential employers to find. It will also make you desirable to an employer looking for the top talent in their industry because your brand is connecting the dots; broadcasting your expertise so they can easily understand how you can help solve their problems. The critical thinking you do about what you stand for and the independent actions you take affect how you show up in the professional world. It’s hard work, but it pays off.

While working on your personal brand, I guarantee you will encounter many ah-ha moments. These are moments of understanding about your own professional (and sometimes personal) development. Developing and maintaining your personal brand will help you discern which skills you have and those you may need to learn.

As you develop your professional profile, for example, you may see holes in your skillset, or an uneven distribution of knowledge in one area. You will want to address these so you can truly stand out among your peers. You may need additional skills and may want to go to more conferences or make more network connections. But also in these ah-ha moments you may happily realize you have even more experience to leverage than you thought.

Fear is OK

You may be thinking, "I'm afraid. I'm afraid of putting myself out there. Self-promotion was never my thing. Plus, it's a lot of work. What are people going to think of me? What's my employer going to think of me?"

You are probably overthinking it.

These are all legitimate fears that everyone has before they begin. In reality, your employer probably won’t even notice. You may be surprised to find that your friends or your peers are not going to really care that much either. In fact,  you're doing it for yourself. Your investment in your professional development shows a level of strength and interest in yourself and your career that I like to think of as professional self-care. Your friends, peers, and colleagues are more likely want to emulate you than criticize you.

Developing a Personal Brand is a Sign of Strength and Independence

Your personal brand is going to show that you have a life outside of your corporate umbrella and your employer will be less apt to take you for granted or feel that they have a controlling degree of leverage over you.

Fear sneaks up on you in unexpected ways when doing important work like this, especially in the form of excuses. One of the most common excuses? “I’m too (insert: old/young) to create a brand.”

I can guarantee you never are too old to start creating your personal brand. I began developing my own personal brand in 2014. Before that, I had lived entirely under agency and corporate umbrellas and had only a LinkedIn page and a meager personal portfolio site. Now, I have a 14k person email list, publish an industry-recognized newsletter, written over 80 articles and have a YouTube channel with 150 videos and 170k subscribers.  Going deeper into my brand development has reaped incredible benefits for my business. Over 60% of my new business for my agency comes exclusively from my personally branded content marketing.

Fear is natural, but don’t let it stop you from enhancing your career and stopping short of success.

Freedom is Inevitable

I like to reframe it and characterize fear as harness-able energy you can use to break through to the next level. You’ll find that your success is greatly enhanced by your ability to view fear in that way. The benefits of facing your fears, putting a stake in the ground and declaring your value are both subtle and profound. Here are just a few benefits that I think are important:

You will feel less physiologically enslaved. Having a personal brand that's independent of a job will make you feel freer so if job insecurity occurs down the line, you won’t feel like you are totally exposed and are taken by surprise without any idea of what to do next. You'll be more apt to feel that you have more control over your life and that you can more easily architect your next steps.

You’ll have more self-worth and confidence. You can get a level of emotional fulfillment and sense of personal identity from full-time employment. But when you have a presence outside of a full-time job and a strong commitment to that presence, your self-worth and confidence are independent of your employment status. And that's always valuable.

It will keep you sharp. Developing a brand persona keeps you on your toes. It forces you to stay up to date with your industry and core competencies as you develop your opinions, create your content and deliver your brand message. A personal brand is one of the best ways to stay motivated and strong 

It will work your creativity muscle. Challenging yourself to define and develop your own brand is a challenging project and whenever you face a challenge, you up your level of creativity. Consistently maintaining a personal brand, whether that's content, social media, website, branded assets, etc., will force you to consistently work that creativity muscle. This will keep you focused - on top of your category and on top of your career.

How To Create Your Personal Brand

I have organized a systematic, step-by-step way to approach building your brand. As someone who has created and developed hundreds of brands, I have been a student of brand building methodology for decades. I’ve succeeded at scaling some of the most effective branding processes used by global agencies and Fortune 100 clients so they can be leveraged by an individual in building their own personal brand. Each brand and its development is a little different, but if you follow these guidelines you’ll be well on your way to having a beautiful and exciting brand presence in no time.

#1 Current State

You need to start with a really clear picture of the current state of your personal brand. It’s a little like taking an inventory that will help you understand where you’re covered and where you need to develop. You need to know where you already have a presence, so ask yourself these simple questions:

●      Do you have a robust LinkedIn profile?

●      What social media platforms are you truly active on?

●      Do you have a website?

●      Do you develop content of any kind?

●      What is the extent of your network or audience?

●      Have you employed any visual design assets that identify you?

Your answers will give you a good understanding of your current state, your starting line, which will provide context for determining what you are missing and what you need to create.

#2 Your Future State

The future state of your personal brand may be a bit foggy when you first start out, and that’s okay. Like anything else, your professional and brand goals will evolve and change over time. But if you're ever going to get there, you have to start. Ask yourself these questions:

●      What do want to be?

●      What do you want to do?

●      What do you want to accomplish?

●      Who can you help?

Capture all your answers so you can plan how you will get there. Building out your future state can be a big undertaking and is way too much to cover in this article, but just getting your initial thoughts and ideas down is the end goal of this exercise. Begin with your most obvious goals and others will show up as your brand develops.

If you are having a hard time trying to find out where you want to go or discovering your passion, What Color Is My Parachute?  is a classic book that will walk you through the many ways your career can go. You can also check out my video on how to find your passion. 

#3 Skills

You’ll want to capture the current state of the skills you have so you can assess which skills you're going to need to get to your desired professional future state. Some questions:

●      Which software applications do you know? (e.g., MS Office Suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, other industry specific applications)

●      What specific skills do you have? (e.g., finance, customer service, account management, budgeting, media planning, promotional or sales/marketing experience. The list can go on and on.)

○      “Hard” Skills? (Technical Skills, physical skills)

○      “Soft” Skills? (People skills, communication, writing, negotiation, salesmanship)

Plan which new skills you can acquire now, and which ones you’ll learn at a later time. Mastering a new software program can feel like a big task, so I suggest breaking it down. Consider taking a class from reputable platforms like like Udemy, Lynda, Skillshare, Coursera or start where most projects begin: Google it. If you are really stuck, this article from Forbes can help you work through the rough spots.

#4 Grow Your Network

You can't do everything yourself, so you want to make sure that you know who’s in your network and who can help and teach you what you need to know. Start by getting your LinkedIn connections up to date; think of everyone you work with, socialize with and even enjoy recreational hobbies with (think: your basketball league or your kid’s soccer team parents). Once you’ve reviewed your network and have begun to consolidate them into LinkedIn, look for people who can assist you in getting to your future state.

●      Who you can you bring into a mastermind group?

●      Who can be a mentor?

●      Who can help you get an introduction to your top employer pick?

●      Who already does what it is you want to be doing?

●      Who could provide you an informational interview?

Figure out what you can do for yourself, but then also, who you might need to employ, or interact with in order to help with things that aren't necessarily within your skill set.

#5 Audience Definition

Your target audience is the group of people that will be interested in hearing what you and your brand have to say. To narrow this group down, ask:

●      Who are the people that can benefit from the information you have?

●      Who will be interested in your point of view and who will benefit from your knowledge and expertise?

These people are your target audience.

Once you know who your audience is, learn where they “hang out”. Think about how and where your audience consumes information, and that's the place you want to be. For example, you may be more comfortable in Snapchat or Twitter, but if your customer watches videos, is in the blogosphere, or in an industry Facebook Community or Group that's where you want to show up. Interact, join the conversation, ask questions, solicit feedback, build relationships, provide real value for free.

#6 Get In The Right Channels

Take another look at all the social media channels you listed in your initial “Current State” audit. Why have you chosen those channels? Is it because that’s where your audience is or because that's where you're more comfortable? Examine all your channels through the lens of your audience and weed out what doesn’t match up with their preferences.

Also, consider if all your chosen brand touchpoints or channels are supportable. Most people make the mistake of trying to be everywhere. They post on Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, Medium, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook, oh, and of course a blog. They drive themselves crazy trying to develop content or interact on way too many channels. They don't go deep enough to develop relationships and conversations within the channels where their customers show up. Think about how deep you can go into each of your chosen channels. Keep your list focused, your content interesting and your interactions truly engaging.

#7 Brand Design

From logo and color palette to messaging and graphics, these are the things people commonly think of when they think about brand design. Start with a good checklist so you can mark off the items you have and begin developing which assets (that’s design speak for different parts of your brand) you need.Do you have an identity? A color palette? Have you made choices around fonts or imagery or iconography? There's a broad range of elements that you need to have for your personal brand. Take stock, do an audit of what brand assets you have, and then you'll know exactly what it is that you're missing and what you may need to develop.

Start with this free pdf: “9 Design Elements Your Brand Absolutely Positively Needs”.  It is a very thorough list that will help you take a quick and easy audit so you can move ahead with certainty.

#8 Implementation

There's a saying, “You have to plan the work and then you have to work the plan.” It is true for putting together your brand. By going through this assessment, you have developed a valuable map of where you are and where you want to go. You know what you have and what you need. You know your target audience and how to deliver your brand. You have a clear idea of how to get to the next stage in your personal brand.

You have all the information you need.

I know, it’s a lot. But ignoring it is not an option. Don't be afraid to start. Get out there. The possibilities are endless, so try not to get overwhelmed. Just take one step at a time. If you put in consistent effort, you can get there. I guarantee you it's going to be an inspiring journey. Best of all, it‘s going to create in you a strong sense of security and control over your professional life.

The first step is always the hardest, but it's also the most satisfying. Once you take it, you're going to feel a tremendous amount of self-accomplishment. So look back over this list and get started today with #1. Take your “Current State” audit and after you do, make sure you take a moment and congratulate yourself. Every step that gets you closer to your new personal brand is a job well done.

Remember; be consistent and never quit.

Out of Orbit: A Brand Named Desire

My wife Beth loves Orbit cinnamon gum. Or I should say, she loved Orbit cinnamon gum. Because Orbit cinnamon has been discontinued.

Beth is unhappy about that. If you could heard her tell it, Orbit was the best cinnamon gum that had ever been invented.

To be truthful, Orbit cinnamon is available. It’s just not available in stores. You can still buy it online. On eBay. But it’s not $1.49 like it used to be. It costs $83.00. A pack. Or just under $6.00 a stick. And that’s for sticks that are 6 months past their “use by” date.

Scarcity is a strong motivator in triggering desire. Countless website sales pages use countdown timers. “Only 12 hours before the price goes up”. In-stock numbers work, too. “Only 2 left!” You can almost hear the mouses clicking.

Wrigley, the makers of Orbit, are missing out on every marketers dream. When the pent-up desire for your product has reached the level that a single stick of gum costs $6.00, you do two things. You tell the world the story about the lengths people are going to get the best cinnamon gum ever invented, the gum that only you make.

And then you start selling it again.

Creating a Customer Journey: 10 Steps to Web Copy That Converts

Is your website under-performing? Did you create your site thinking that customers would flock to it to buy your goods and then…crickets. The phone isn’t ringing. The order confirmations aren’t flooding your inbox. You wonder, “Why aren’t people engaging on my website? Why aren’t people calling me, emailing me, or downloading my freebie when they visit?”

The answer: It’s because you haven’t told them what you want them to do.

You need a customer journey.

Simply put, a customer journey is a path of movement and action for the visitors on your site; from the first headline they read, to the last click of the mouse. This path, laid out by you, tells the visitor where you want them to go and what do you want them to do when they get there.

A successful customer journey gives your site visitors a focused and seamless interaction with your brand — something every website owner aspires to.

Done correctly, the customer journey motivates your visitors to interact with you.

It shows them that you understand their problem and that you have the exact solution they need. It instills a feeling of trust and credibility toward your brand and products. It also helps the customer to feel empowered, engaged and in control of their decision, rather than being bombarded with Buy This NOW! messages.

The famous saying goes, “We buy from people we know, like, and trust.” A customer journey allows your audience to get to know you a little, like you (or at least like what you are saying) and trust that you have some expertise. However, it is not necessary to talk excessively about yourself, your company or your products to have people know, like and trust you. In fact, the biggest mistake most businesses make is talking too much about themselves. Keep the focus on reflecting the customer’s point of view, because that is what’s critical to creating more sales. Design consumer-centric communication and your customers will respond positively.

To begin, you need to know about your customer.

My video on how to develop a customer avatar will help you get started. Understand your customer, specifically:

• What motivates them? What are their values?

• What is their goal for visiting your site?

• What problem are they looking to solve? What pain points do they have?

• What other solutions might they be looking at? Where are they getting their information?

• What reasons might they have not to buy?

Next, you can start laying out the customer journey.

Ask yourself:

• How do you want people to engage on your site?

• Which pages do you want them to visit?

• In what order do you want them to visit those pages?

• What do you want them to do on those pages?

You need to take charge of the way visitors consume the information on your site. Don’t just trust or take for granted that they will arrive at the right page or see the right button at the right time. People rarely do — don’t leave it to chance. You need to lead the visitor through a thought process. It needs to be logical, simple and always come from their perspective.

Start with a hypothesis.

Build from an idea or a structure of a journey that you think will work. Later you will be checking your Google Analytics to get a sense of how people are actually interacting with your site. Take note of which pages they’re going to and how long they’re spending on those pages. Start to iterate, change and evolve the site over time using customer feedback, data, and quantifiable results.

Here are my 10 steps for creating a customer journey that converts:

Step 1: State the problem

Demonstrate to the customer that you understand their problem by writing a solid headline. Get their attention by showing them you know what they’re looking to solve. You’ve got about 3 seconds to prove you understand them, so the headline is very important. But don’t worry, you can change it if it’s not working or not working as well as you like. Keep testing this important piece of copy because it’s worth getting right.

To really show you understand the reader, use examples of the kinds of thoughts they may have or the other solutions they may have tried. In the body copy, use tangible examples in a storytelling format so your audience can really identify with it.

Step 2: Identify with the problem

Next, you need to show that you understand the problem and more importantly, have empathy for them as they wrestle with all the ordeals they have in experiencing the problem. Spend a line or two letting them know that solving their problem matters to you.

Step 3: State the solution

What is the solution to their problem? Describe the solution in general terms. Don’t mention your particular product or service just yet. State the solution in a sentence or two at the most.

Step 4: Describe the solution

Give the reader an introduction to your products and services. This is the “what” of what you offer. You can begin to talk about yourself a little in this section. A few sentences that help the reader understand what you do is ideal.

Step 5: Why you?

Let the reader know how your products/service solve the problem. Let them know what your specific solution is, and how it can help them. Be sure not to be long winded or braggy. What will you do for them? How will you do it? Be careful to steer clear of features here. Avoid talking about the all-leather soles of the boots you are selling, but instead, focus on how comfortable your customer will feel in those boots.

Step 6: Why you’re unique

Now that the reader knows you understand them and you understand that their problem is frustrating, they are likely to begin to feel like you understand them. This is the perfect time to let the reader know how your products and services are different. Demonstrate, through examples if you can, why your solution is different from the other people in your industry who do what you do.

Step 7: Get slightly braggy

This is your opportunity to lead them to understand that you’re the one they should choose. Talk about your products and services and how they’re better. For example, if you sell lip balm, let the reader know your product will heal and moisturize their dry, cracked lips (Step 6). Telling them about the healing properties of vitamin E and the moisturizing properties of avocado oil that you use, and how it’s helped hundreds of other people (Step 7) will help them understand why they should choose you.

Step 8: Results for them

Turn the spotlight back on them. Describe the result of using your product and remember to stay focused on benefits. Explain the emotional benefit as well as the functional benefit from engaging with you and buying or using your products or services. How are they going to feel? Remember, people buy results, not products.

Step 9: Barriers to purchase

Barriers to purchase are the thoughts that are going on in the customer’s mind that dissuade them from buying. Thoughts like, “No, I’m going to wait,” or “I’m not going to buy it because x,” If you can understand what x is (it’s often something like, “It’s too expensive,” or “It takes too much time,”) you can be preemptive about describing why they can feel confident in buying your product or service. Address any barriers to purchase by mirroring their inner voice exactly.

Step 10: Call to Action

Lastly, you need to tell them where to go and what to do.

Examples are:

• Follow this link

• Click this button

• Fill out this contact form

• Schedule time with me

• Download this thing

• Take this course

Be very explicit about telling them what to do next. After all, you’ve led them through this customer journey and now they believe you can solve their problem. Take the last step and tell them what they need to do to set your solution in motion.

Your customer journey may start out very simple and over time become more nuanced and detailed.

If you remember to keep the focus on your visitor’s goals and motivations for coming to your site, your customers will respond. Be willing to get in their shoes and think about their problem; what motivates them to change or take action?

If you do that along every step of the way, you will create copy that converts.

Philip VanDusen is a creative thought leader and principal of Verhaal Brand Design, an agency that specializes in leveraging brand strategy and design to build brand affinity and equity for companies and entrepreneurs. Get more from Philip in his newsletter brand•muse, join his 160k subscribers on his YouTube channel or connect with Verhaal Brand Design on Facebook.

Come and Get It: A Tale of Customer Motivation

The Chuck Wagon dog food commercials are an iconic piece of 20th century TV. A scruffy Benji-like pup was constantly chasing down a miniature chuck wagon in the quest to get his dinner.

My cousin’s ad agency was shooting a commercial that called for a farm scene where the dog was to chase the wagon through a flock of chickens. There was only one problem. Dogs won’t run through a flock of chickens. Why?

Because dogs know that if you run through a bunch of chickens odds are good you’re gonna get bunch of pissed-off pecks for your trouble. In the first 15 takes, the dog ran around the chickens.

Finally, to get the shot, they had to build a ramp, push the dog down it and toss a couple chickens in from the sides. Neither the dog, nor the chickens were very happy about it.

The moral of the story is that even though you may have an idea how you want your customer to behave, you just can’t force them to go where they don’t want to go. You have to know their motivation. It’s not to please you. You exist to please them.

And pushing them down a ramp isn’t going to make anyone very happy.

The Big Payoff: The ROI of Personal Branding

Personal branding is no longer a by-product of being rich and famous - for some, personal branding is a way to become rich and famous. The easy accessibility of website templates, stock photos, digital book publishing sites, and other marketing tools (not to mention social media) today has made personal branding ubiquitous. While the tools to create a personal brand are readily available, it takes a huge investment. It's truly a “long game” and takes patience, time, and focus to create a killer brand. In fact, there is so much work involved in creating and elevating a personal brand presence it could leave you wondering, “Why even bother creating and maintaining a personal brand?” Or even, “Is it worth it?”

Creating a personal brand is worth it, but it’s not always very clear exactly how it pays off. The ROI of personal branding can be tricky to quantify.

“Branding demands commitment; commitment to continual reinvention; striking chords with people to stir their emotions; and commitment to imagination. It is easy to be cynical about such things, much harder to be successful.”

– Sir Richard Branson

Most people think about ROI in terms of what they will get back on what they spend. ROI can be any result; sales, exposure, follows and likes, conversions, clicks to name just a few. Thinking about personal branding ROI in these terms is short-sighted. You can buy exposure through advertising, but the return on investment of personal branding is different because it's not based on promotion. Personal branding ROI is based on attraction. And the force of attraction depends on the strength of the brand.

Create a strong personal brand by consistently sharing what you know and how you learned it. It's as simple as that.

There's a Chinese proverb that says, "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime." It comes down to providing value by teaching others to succeed. Zig Ziglar had a famous quote, "You get everything you want out of life by helping others get everything they want out of life." Consistently share your expertise, experiences and knowledge, and provide value for others. Do this, and you are positioning yourself as someone worth knowing. You are building brand equity - in yourself.

When you build a personal brand, you spend time, money and effort to gain credibility, authenticity, and authority. The bonus is that you own your own destiny. Your future is not controlled by any other person, entity or company. That alone is a pretty spectacular payoff by anyone’s standards.

Personal branding is about magnetism.

As your personal brand grows, the force of attraction becomes more noticeable. Your brand begins to pull people in and become a powerful force that is almost magnetic. People will take notice and want to know more about you and experience your brand more often.

New business will seek you out as a result of this power of attraction. Instead of you having to go out and find new deals, new clients and new partners, opportunities will come to you. People will contact you because you are adding value to their lives. Showing that kind of generosity and heart will make people want to work with you, or for you. Brands and product companies will contact you to review their products or represent their brands. People will ask you to join them in professional communities and mastermind groups, in meet-ups. Your network will grow. People will seek you out on LinkedIn. They will start to see you as a thought leader. A strong personal brand can be the catalyst for these types of opportunities and more.

Positioning yourself as a thought leader also creates real leadership opportunities, such as serving on advisory boards or boards of directors. Because you are consistently putting your “answers” out there, people begin to see that you have something to valuable say and are exercising your authority to say it. Publications, blogs, podcasts, will start to reach out to you for contributions or appearances. At events and conferences, people will start to know who you are before you are even introduced.

You may be thinking, “I don’t need a personal brand. I have a secure job with a great company.” Don’t fool yourself, everyone needs a personal brand, even if you work for someone else. Why? Because now, companies are beginning to realize the value of employing people who have personal brands.

A personal brand is career insurance.

A company's message comes across as more human, more relatable, and more real when it's coming from someone people recognize, someone they feel is authentic or that they trust. A personal brand has a halo effect on your company. People with personal brands are more highly valued, which leads to less chance of layoffs and also the prospect of being more highly compensated. Always remember the extra bonus, which is that you own your own brand. So if a layoff or restructuring does come, you take it with you when you go. You aren’t left out in the cold without the professional identity that was tied to your employer.

A key part of a successful, powerful brand is the Personal Brand Magic Equation, which makes your brand even more compelling. The equation starts with the needs your target audience has and the questions they ask you. Combine that with your personal experience, and your knowledge that reveals those answers. That equals an authentic, unique brand that sustains the power of attraction over time.

“Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.”

– Malcolm Forbes

Always remember the “personal” part of personal branding. Be the human being that you are. Share your experiences and be authentic. Share meaningful content that makes a difference in people's lives and solves people's problems.

If you do that, everyone succeeds.

You're Gonna Love It...or maybe not

Having lived in New York City and San Francisco, two of the restaurant capitals of America, I thought I’d tasted, or at least heard of, most of the foods that grace our country. But when I moved to Cincinnati, I was introduced to a culinary experience that I had no idea existed. Skyline Chili.

First of all, to call Skyline Chili “chili” is a stretch. What it is is a thin, bean-less, virtually meatless, chili-flavored sauce that is spooned over a wad of spaghetti or a hot dog and topped with a massive pile of shredded cheddar cheese. Cincinnatians love it. Skyline Chili restaurants are always packed. Friends said, “You have to try it! You’re gonna love it!”. 

Well I did, and I didn’t.

I thought Skyline Chili was gross. I thought it was a midwestern chili-esque Franken-food mistake that had somehow escaped the kitchen and was bent on terrorizing the populace.

But Skyline Chili taught me something. It taught me that you can succeed even if you aren’t universally loved. You can be weird. You can be different. But as long as you find your super-fans and give them that one thing they crave, you can endure. 

Even if some people think it’s gross

Fake Shoes: Brand Perception is Reality

Recently a pop-up store in a Los Angeles mall had an opening party. Over 80 social media influencers flocked to the champagne and caviar reception at Palessi, a new luxury shoe retailer with an Italian flair, glass and lacquer displays, black clad associates and slinky house music.

Swept up by the experience, the attendees plunked down thousands of dollars for shoes they described breathlessly in social media posts as “elegant and sophisticated”. Facing a video camera, holding up a pair of sneakers, a woman said “I would pay $400 to $500 for these”. And then she did.

In any other mall, the sneakers she was holding cost $19.99. 

Palessi was a fake. The products were from Payless Shoes.

Contrary to popular belief the product isn’t primarily responsible for the value perception of a brand. It’s what is around the product that controls whether you think something should be expensive or cheap. 

Visual branding, sound, technology, physical environment, digital user experience, and human interaction are all levers that affect how products are perceived. And most importantly, what people are willing to pay for them.

Are your customers perceiving your brand the way you want them to? What other levers can you pull?

Why I Am A Cow

In 1996 a creative director at Hallmark named Gordon MacKenzie published a book entitled “Orbiting the Giant Hairball”. It describes the necessary, but prickly relationship between corporations and the creatives who work for them. The creatives need the corporation so they can make a living, and the corporations need the designers to constantly produce beautiful, innovative products and ideas.

One part of the book I’ve always loved is when MacKenzie writes, “Designers are like cows”.

The idea is that if you constantly keep a cow in the barn and milk it, eventually the flow of milk will stop. For a cow to continue to produce it needs to get out of the barn and walk around in the pasture, feel the sunshine, eat grass, drink from a stream. From the outside, it may not look like a productive activity, but then you realize: this is where the milk is really being made.

The “24/7 entrepreneurial hustle” mentality has buried itself in the collective business consciousness over the last few years. But as we start the new year it will serve us to remember we aren’t machines. 

Every creative, every entrepreneur, every one of us needs time in the pasture.

The Hot Duck: A Tale of Brand Differentiation

The ducks in Central Park in New York City have a cushy gig. They paddle around, they look cute, they create a picturesque tableau in the pond. The females are speckled brown, the males have handsome green heads. People like them, they bring their kids to see them, they feed them breadcrumbs. The situation worked for everybody.

But then he showed up. He being a Mandarin Duck who just dropped in one day and threw the whole operation into a tizzy. New Yorkers, habitual nicknamers, started calling him the “Hot Duck”.

Why hot? Mandarin Ducks are an explosion of spectacular colors and swooping patterns of feathers formed into a shape of a duck. They’re breathtaking.

Suddenly, there were crowds of people at the duck pond. Throngs of tourists with huge zoom lenses. Suddenly all that people could see or talk about was: That. One. Duck.

On display at the duck pond was the perfect embodiment of Rule #1 in branding: Stand out from your competition. Like Tesla, Virgin, Uber, you have rise above the sea of sameness and make a bold statement. Ruffle feathers. Redefine how people see your category.

You have to be the Hot Duck.

No Brand Is An Island

If I could have just one book when stranded on a desert island it would be One Man’s Wilderness by Richard Proenneke. Richard was a salt-of-the-earth guy who in 1968 built a log cabin in the Alaskan Wilderness with nothing but hand tools.

He then proceeded to live in it, alone, for over 30 years. 

What captures my imagination his is resourcefulness, his independence, his appreciation for the things that nature gives us. Including winters where the temperature reached -40˚. Um...no thank you.

Richard didn’t need much. But once in a while his bush-pilot “Babe” Alsworth would fly in his mail or a sack of dried beans. Not even Richard Proenneke could go it entirely alone.

His story reminds me of how many entrepreneurs I know who have built their businesses with their bare hands. Many of them still trying to do everything themselves, wearing all the hats, from go-fer to brand strategist.

But there comes a time in the growth of any business when it pays to reach out. To have a partner fly in the right tools to help you survive the cold winters that can freeze even the hardiest enterprise in its tracks. 

It’s time to find your “Babe”.

Putting in the Reps

I had the pleasure of talking with Antonio Centeno last week in London. Antonio is the creator behind the “Real Men Real Style” YouTube channel. His most popular video, “How to Keep Your Shirt Tucked In ALL DAY” has 12 million views.

When Antonio started out with YouTube he was filming in his basement which had a dirt floor. He always wore a jacket and tie, but he didn’t wear dress shoes. He didn’t want to get them dirty. And because his early videos were shot from the waist up, a lot of the time he wasn’t even wearing pants.

Antonio filmed late at night, after work and after his young kids had gone to bed, so he could concentrate. He posted over 150 videos before he broke 10,000 subscribers. He compares that time period to lifting weights at the gym. He calls it “putting in the reps”.

With any type of content marketing, it can take a while to see results. But if you put in the reps, the results will come. Today, Real Men Real Style is a seven figure business with corporate sponsorship, a podcast, live conference events and over 2.1 million subscribers.

Because Antonio put in the reps.

Set It On Fire

It was 1967 and there were a hell of a lot of great guitar players in London. John Lennon, Jeff Beck, Brian Jones, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, were all playing the clubs. If you were a guitar player too, it was hard to get noticed.

But there was this one skinny guy named Jimi Hendrix from America. He was a good guitarist. Better than most. He dressed weird, but everyone was dressing weird. He used a lot of distortion, but everyone did that, too. One typical night, his band The Experience was playing the London Astoria. At the end of their 45 minute set Jimi kneeled, laid his guitar down on the stage and…set it on fire.

The audience loved it. The music press couldn’t stop writing about it. They started calling him “The Black Elvis”. Soon it was standing room only. He was that guy who torched his guitar.

Unless you live on a tiny atoll in the Pacific, chances are there are a lot of competitors around who do what you do. You may do it better. Better than most. But how can you be really different? What can you do to set it on fire?

Your Success is Real: 10 Ways to Conquer Impostor Syndrome

Here’s a phrase that sends chills: “ You don’t know what you’re doing, do you?”

Executives worldwide agree that their number one fear is being found incompetent (Harvard Business Review 2015). It’s probably a safe bet that the same fear applies to entrepreneurs and creative professionals as well. Psychologists call this fear of being “found out” impostor syndrome, a term coined in the 1970’s by researchers Pauline Clance, Ph.D., and Suzanne Imes, Ph.D. to describe the behavior that Clance observed in some of her graduate students.

So if you’re feeling like an impostor at work, take heart. Chances are that others feel the exact same way. Studies show that 70% of the population feels inferior at least once in their lives.

Impostor syndrome is defined as a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success. It’s a general feeling of unworthiness that manifests itself in:

• Being scared to try new things

• Being afraid to be ambitious

• Not pursuing your dreams or goals

• Not pursuing growth opportunities, like a promotion

Feeling like you don't deserve success and recognition, or diminishing your success affects creative people and entrepreneurs disproportionately to the general public, possibly because they are often more sensitive than other professionals. They also tend to be more egotistical, which paradoxically can be a precursor to the syndrome (see #2 below).

The very nature of having a business requires you to stand out, it requires you to stick your head above the pack and say “look at me, look at what I can do”. While this is a necessary appeal for attention and approval it can also make us feel unsafe and judged. This feeling of uncertainty is the root cause of impostor syndrome (refreshedminds.com).

It's important to overcome the feelings of unworthiness. Left unchecked, these thoughts and feelings can become more deeply ingrained in your psyche. It’s best to address these thoughts and feelings as soon as they come up.

Here are ten ways to combat impostor syndrome:

#1 Feelings Aren't Facts.

Impostor syndrome is a feeling. It doesn't manifest itself in reality. It's simply your emotional reaction to something you perceive on the outside world. Emotions don’t always tell us the truth; so don’t treat them as reliable indicators of reality.

#2 Accept the hard work. 

It may seem illogical, but impostor syndrome is actually based on an unrealized feeling of superiority. Scientists theorize that children who are told they are superior (more intelligent, artistically gifted, etc.) and praised for their effortless success expect life to be full of easy wins. As adults, they mistrust praise and are convinced of their “failure” because they had to work hard for the result. To them, hard work means they are losing their edge and it’s not praiseworthy. Know that hard work is all a part of the equation for success. 

#3 Don’t keep it a secret.

Secrets fester, and your quiet feelings of inferiority can be self-perpetuating if they are not addressed. Talk about it with your friends, your spouse, or your co-workers. Take twenty seconds of courage to put it out there and be vulnerable. You'd be surprised by the support that you get, the number of people who will identify with you and the reality check that ensues. Let your secret out.

#4 Define your own success.

Don't compare yourself to Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Compare yourself to yourself. Other definitions of success don't matter. You can define your own life and your own level of success. That sentence is without a doubt the most important career guidance I have ever shared, the hardest to achieve and the most rewarding when you do.

#5 It's not about you.

Impostor syndrome traps you in a self-centered mindset. You become consumed with thoughts about yourself; I’m worthless, I’m scared, I’m a loser. You can overcome this hyper-focus on the self by helping other people. Look for ways to serve other people and help them succeed. Check in with your co-workers and clients to see what help you can offer. By making it about others you feel better about yourself.

#6 Be vulnerable.

It's counterintuitive, but being vulnerable makes you stronger. Exposing yourself makes you more YOU and dissolves the impostor feelings. Statements like “I don’t know,” or “I’m sorry,” can lead to open, candid conversation. Try sharing your tender side and see what happens.

#7 Collect testimonials.

This is a way of “stacking the positives” with facts about your performance, rather than relying on your own opinion of how the world sees you. A great way to start is by asking your LinkedIn connections to write you a recommendation. Most likely people will be happy to publish a sentence or two of praise about you. You can post these on your website or put them on your social media, or just keep them in a “love file” on your computer. Collecting kudos about yourself is a great way to boost your self-esteem and to overcome impostor syndrome.

#8 Put Blinders On.

Don't compare yourself to other millionaires, other entrepreneurs, or other designers. Put blinders on and run your own race. Don’t keep a scorecard. If you must keep track of something, keep track of how much you have learned during a project or job, not how you are performing.Think about how far you've come, what you've accomplished, and how much more you know. That will give you fuel to go further.

# 9 No one else knows what they're doing either.

Impostor syndrome makes you feel like everybody else has life figured out. They have all the answers, and they do it all better than you do. The truth? They don't. We're all human, and by humanizing people and realizing that we're all progressing and struggling together, it takes the pressure off you. As Tina Fey says, “Seriously, I've just realized that almost everyone is a fraud, so I try not to feel too bad about it.”

# 10 You're Never Finished.

You are a work in progress. You're not done until you're dead. Period. So when those impostor feelings creep in, fight them off by reminding yourself that you are not “done for” or defeated. Keep moving forward, knowing that you will always be learning and growing. You're in a constant state of becoming. Always.

Putting an end to impostor syndrome is an act of self-love. Being able to fully convince yourself that you are praiseworthy and talented will help your career and your creativity thrive. If you can simply stall the thoughts for a bit by using some of all of these techniques, you’ll get much further than you can imagine.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us." – Marianne Williamson

Last One Standing

Hurricane Michael was called a once-in-a-100-years storm. One of the towns that Michael knocked square in the nose was Mexico Beach, which was virtually flattened. It wiped out most of the structures, but also severed the deep emotional connection of it’s residents. 

But one house made it through virtually unscathed.

Russell King and his nephew build their home on 40 foot pilings driven deep into the sand, constructing it out of re-enforced concrete that far exceeded all of Florida’s famously stringent building codes. They called it the Sand Palace. Their family’s emotional connection to Mexico Beach weathered the storm because they had built a solid foundation.

Verhaal will be leading a brand strategy workshop next week were we will be building a “brand pyramid” with our client. Brand pyramids are strategic tools constructed in five layers, much like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, with the brands functional benefits on the bottom building upwards to the emotional essence at the peak. 

Defining the emotional essence of a brand is critical. Why? Because people don’t buy using their heads, they buy with their hearts. They buy based on a deeper emotional connection. And you architect that connection by building from a solid strategic foundation.

Would your brand survive a 100-year storm?

Our New Frankenword

A portmanteau is a linguistic blend in which parts of multiple words or their sounds are combined into a new word. Smoke and fog combining to become smog. Motor and hotel becoming motel.  

A frankenword.

I was looking for a way to describe something that is a duality, a symbiosis, two things that exist in co-dependency. Why? Because I think the branding and business worlds need a new name. 

The world of design and the world of business are converging. They are fueling and sustaining each other in increasingly inextricable ways. For businesses to succeed in today’s commercial ecosystem they are required to be more and more creative, producing visually engaging content in an ever-expanding array of marketing channels.

For creative professionals to succeed it's necessary to be fluent in the machinations of finance, strategy, business, marketing, and in demonstrating the ROI of branding to clients.

Brand design is becoming more business and business is becoming more creative. They are merging. Those that embrace the merger will thrive and those that do not will wither.

Desiness? Bizign? Crearketing? Entrepreativity?

What is the design+business/business+creativity frankenword?

Don't Be Dr. Dynamite

A few years ago I was working on private-label food brands for big grocery retailers. I called it “big brand surfing”. That’s when you design products with names, colors, fonts and packaging that sound, look and feel remarkably similar to a major brand.

Think Dr. Pepper vs. Safeway’s Dr. Dynamite. Generally, the play is about price. But what they are really trading on is similarity. They try to look the same. They try to taste the same. You can sell a lot of stuff that way, but you are just surfing another brand’s wave. Success breeds clones.

Personal brands fall victim to this, too. On Instagram, social media star wannabes are increasingly adopting a popular, yet homogenized expression of beauty and now no one can tell them apart.

If you could capture the single most important quality that creates a successful brand, it boils down to differentiation.

Have you looked at your competition lately? How can you separate yourself from the pack? Aspire to a unique expression of your brand. 

Surf your own wave.

The Side Door

Jane Goodall wanted to study primates. But she didn’t know how she was going to do it. From England she made her way to a friend's farm in the Kenya highlands in 1957, but once there she desperately needed a way to make a living. 

The opportunity arose for her to study to be a secretary. It was a long way from studying apes, but she decided to take it.

One day, on the advice of a fellow student, Jane called Louis Leakey, the famous Kenyan archaeologist and paleontologist, to see if he needed help in his research. Louis didn’t have any openings for researchers, but he did need a secretary. He offered Jane the job.

Two years later she was in Tanzania studying primate behavior.

When I talk to my coaching clients I always stress the fact that you have to follow opportunities when they present themselves. Even those that may seem unrelated to your ultimate goal. Because one day they may help facilitate the achievement of your dreams.

What opportunity has come your way? Could it be a side door?