[acb-hsp] Branding Your Uniqueness

[peter altschul]

Expert Perspective
  Your Best Brand Asset Is Understanding Yourself
  BY Phil Cooke 07-17-2012 8:30 AM
  This article is written by a member of our expert contributor 
community.  You're a beautiful and unique snowflake.  But does 
your personal brand--honestly--reflect that?
  The world isn't looking for a copy of an existing writer, 
musician, politician, CEO, or leader; they're looking for someone 
new, innovative, and original.  Your job is to discover how your 
unique gifts and talents can differentiate you from everyone 
else.
  You have no idea the number of people who call our offices each 
week asking us to "do the same thing for us that you did for your 
national clients." They want to copy someone they admire, and 
they're asking us to help get that story out there and get 
noticed by the national media.  But they've got it backwards.  
There's already one of those famous leaders.  A stnewst person 
needs to emphasize his or her unique differences.
  Besides, each of our clients were unique and brilliant long 
before I ever met them.  Probably the most powerful gift these 
leaders had was an understanding of who they were and what their 
talent and calling were about.
  That's something worth repeating: Probably the most powerful 
gift these leaders had was an understanding of who they were and 
what their talent and calling were about.
  Having an accurate understanding of what makes you unique and 
different is absolutely critical.  For many, an accurate 
understanding is obscured or undermined by a lack of 
professionalism, bad ideas, poor taste, inept leadership, 
insecurity, lack of people skills, bad assumptions, and more.  
These sorts of things plague many leaders today and hamper their 
effectiveness.
  What makes you different from all the others competing for your 
position?
  There's even more competition out there within the greater 
culture.  In today's world, everybody competes.  For media 
creators, product producers, sales professionals, and more--how 
can you compete with all the entertainment choices, lifestyle 
options, or new digital technologies that struggle for the 
limited time of the average person today? You may not have the 
resources, finances, or assets the competition has, but you can 
tell a better story, and the key to finding that story is 
discovering what makes you unique and different.
  What could it be that makes you different? Perhaps it's your 
unique communications style, your writing ability, your 
personality, or an expertise in an unusual area.  Being different 
can mean many things, including perspective, content, skill, and 
delivery.
  If competition from others is making it more difficult to get 
noticed, then perhaps you should consider a different niche.  
Some organizations have decided that because of duplication of 
services by other companies in the area, they should find a 
different way of doing their work or do it in a different place.
  Hollywood is particularly good at this; studios track what 
other studios are developing so they don't release a similar 
film.  Corporations spend enormous amounts of money following 
their competition's product development.
  Even smart employees watch for potential changes in company 
staffing or structure to ensure they don't get pushed out of a 
job because of duplication or competition.  It's not about 
conniving or cheating behind the scenes--it's about being aware 
and sensitive to the future.
  Ultimately, it's all about authenticity.  Being unique and 
different shouldn't mean stfakest.  In our efforts to relate to 
the culture or a potential customer or audience, we sometimes go 
over the top and end up conveying a message that's obviously 
dishonest and far from authentic.
  I'm told I was born with the gift of saying what everyone else 
in the room is thinking.  Whether it gets me in trouble or not, I 
often feel compelled to talk about the elephant in the room that 
everyone else sees but ignores.  That's why this issue of 
authenticity is so important for me.  I was born with a very 
sensitive BS button, and anytime a client presents an 
advertisement, website, TV program, or other presentation that 
smacks of insincerity, I light up.
  I regularly meet people who live out others' dreams and refuse 
to act on who they were created to be.  What about you? Have you 
watched your boss so closely that you've started becoming more 
like him or her than you? Have you followed a celebrity to the 
point where his or her style is obscuring your own? Have you 
followed trends to the point it's difficult to discover what's 
really inside you?
  Don't become something you aren't; developing a personal brand 
is about becoming who you truly are.  It happens even in the best 
of ways.  One friend got involved in raising money to build 
medical facilities in Third World countries.  It was a great 
cause and she certainly could have spent her life doing worse.  
Ultimately, it wasn't really her passion.  But she put off 
confronting that fact for years because it was such a great 
cause.  The problem was--it just wasn't stherst cause.  When she 
finally had the courage to step out into something she was 
personally passionate about, she had already wasted years of 
productivity.
  I know others who are trapped working in a company, church, or 
humanitarian organization who--although they do great work-- are 
settling for second best in their lives.  I can see they have so 
much more potential, but when I bring it up, they rationalize it 
with the importance of the cause, the need, or the great work 
they're doing.  They've been sucked into a regular paycheck, or 
refuse to change because they're not willing to risk taking a 
hard look at their lives, their gifts, and their future.  I 
understand, because I've been there.
  Finding your honest voice in the middle of the madness is 
absolutely critical.  But being absolutely truthful about what 
distinguishes you from the pack is a critical step to finding 
your identity.
  Excerpted from One Big Thing: Discovering What You Were Born 
to.