Well Known, Well Paid and Wanted
In order to buy your services, your prospects brain wants to know, like and trust you.
So here are the three steps to have a stand-out personal brand and become well known,well paid & wanted:
Step 1: Know Me
The survival instinct of the brain is incredibly powerful. From the days of the caveman your brain just wants to keep you safe.
It needs to know if the brand it meets is friend or foe, if it should pump up the adrenaline and run for the hills or stick around to find out if there’s something worthwhile to gain.
The Amygdala is the fear centre that drives this flight or fight response, using memory and emotion to recognise brands, based on previous experiences and feelings to switch to high alert or remain open for business.
The first thing your prospect wants to know is “Do I know what you do and can that help me.”
If you don’t explain this clearly, or appear unsure about your expertise, the Amygdala’s early warning systems will be set off, putting up barriers and protecting itself from making bad decisions.
Tip: Develop a brand strategy before you start marketing – a clear core message makes it easy to explain what you do and why someone should choose you.
Step 2: Like Me
Your ideal prospects brain is 10,000 times more interested in itself than they are in you, so make sure your brand engages with their needs, wants and desires and less on how you work, your systems or processes.
Your personal brand is not what you know, it’s how much you know about your ideal client.
It’s amazing how likeable you can become if you simply talk more about your prospect than about yourself.
So the next thing your prospects brain wants to know, after your brand has explained what you do and how you can help them, is “Do I like the idea of working with you?”
Tip: Work out exactly who you want to attract, what makes them tick and how you want to make them feel.
Step 3: Trust Me
Once your prospects brain knows what you do, how you can help them and they feel they will like the experience of working with you, the next step is to give them no doubt that choosing you is a safe bet.
Their brain at this stage is asking the final question “Can I trust you will deliver on what you promise?”
Becoming a well paid, trusted service provider is all about how much the prospect values your expertise, and how confidently you explain how you help people.
Instead of being a generalist become a trusted specialist, because the confused mind never buys.
You can in increase value in your trust currency by being the go-to specialist, so find your inch-wide, mile-deep niche and stick with it.
Tip: Discover your single minded purpose, infuse this into your brand and just do what you know really well.
It is ironic that in order to stand out, you first need to go inside yourself to get the clarity and direction you need for your personal brand.
The ancient maxim inscribed on the entrance to the Temple Of Apollo at Delphi in Greece translates as “Know Thyself” and was quoted by Plato and Socrates to extol the virtue of understanding your sense of self before trying to understand the world and that by understanding yourself, you have a better understanding of others.
Your personal brand is your expertise, the thing you do with ease that others find difficult. That’s why it’s called expert-ease.
Find your expert-ease and you have found your personal brand.