Fish Where the Fish Are Jumping

Successful branding is based on the idea of being aggressively individualistic, however, there are times when it pays to be a copy cat. Well, not exactly a copy cat, perhaps more of a voyeur or maybe even a little bit of a barnacle. I’m talking about emulating and even leveraging your competition to grow your own business .

As important as it is to be original in your branding, it is not always necessary to be a maverick in your efforts to find and attract ideal clients. We often think of competition as a negative thing, but there are many advantages to having good competitors. Competition keeps you on your toes and challenges you to continually improve and innovate. It forces you to continually define and refine your niche so you can claim a unique position in the marketplace. Competitors can also be great friends and referral partners.

However, one of the greatest benefits to having good competitors is [Read more…]

Is Your Personal Brand Ready for Promotion?

Have you ever wondered why sometimes really smart, qualified people are not promoted?  Why is it that some entrepreneurs are able to grab the spotlight while others stumble around in anonymity? Two articles I read recently in the Harvard Business Review and Marie Claire magazine address this issue by talking about something called “executive presence.” All other things being equal such as experience or education, the person with the strongest executive presence, or what I call good personal branding, will get the promotion or in the case of the entrepreneur, the business.

“You’re smart, driven, and good at what you do. But that alone won’t be enough to score you a promotion or corner office. A slew of other factors that constitute “executive presence”–from your wardrobe to your ability to inspire colleagues–will also play a huge role in how far you will go.”– Marie Claire Magazine

A study conducted by Sylvia Ann Hewlett of the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) concluded that having executive presence “accounts for as much as 28 percent of a woman’s success.”  That means almost a third of what goes into your success is not based on how well you actually do your job! So what makes up executive presence?  According to Hewlett, there are three basic factors:  how you look, how you speak and how you behave. “It’s all three things and nailing them makes you a contender.”

Let’s take a closer look… [Read more…]

“Does Your Brand Feel Pretty?”

Don’t you just love those days when you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror to see your skin has cleared up? Or when you spin around to  notice the past ten weeks of spinning class have finally firmed up your back side? And the best one, your prayer to the hair gods have finally been answered and you are having one of those rare perfect hair days? Doesn’t it just make you feel great? I can just see you now doing a happy dance in your pj’s.

Now let me ask you another question. What do you see when you look in the brand mirror? Does what you see make you feel like grinning from ear to ear, or does it make you feel like you wished you had just pulled the covers over your head and gone back to sleep? If so, ask yourself why are you living with a less than stellar brand image? [Read more…]