Going Solopreneur

One of the keys to building a remarkable brand is your ability to connect with your audience. In order to connect with your audience, you need to be expressive so you’re more human and relatable. You need to have a well-defined personality. Choosing your brand archetype is the first step in developing your brand’s personality.

We Don’t Care About These People

Back in 2013, my wife and I joined millions of other people and watched the first season of the Netflix Original series “House of Cards”. It was a different kind of show, dark and ruthless. The second season was more of the same, and then by the time the third season rolled out, we were both feeling pretty ‘meh’ about the series.

We both agreed that we simply no longer cared about the characters. They all seemed so selfish, cold-hearted, one-dimensional, and lacking any relatable personality. We tried to hang in there, but we just couldn’t connect with the characters anymore. So, we stopped watching.

Your brand can suffer that same fate if it doesn’t have a personality that people can relate to.

Why Personality Matters

Your brand’s personality helps you relate to and connect with your audience. Your personality makes you appear more human, and definitely more interesting. A consistent brand personality helps customers know what to expect from you. If your personality is helpful, they know they can rely on you for guidance. If your personality is silly or playful, they’ll expect you to be fun and entertaining.

One of the best ways to characterize your brand is to choose a physical representation of your brand’s personality—this is called your brand archetype.

What is a Brand Archetype?

If your brand were a real person, what kind of person would it be? An outlaw, an explorer, a jester? Your brand archetype is simply the physical characterization of your brand’s personality. Your archetype helps convey your personality to your audience.

Your archetype helps to humanize your brand and gives your customers a reason to care about you. Having a well-defined brand archetype helps you build relationships with your customers and fosters brand loyalty.

The 12 Brand Archetypes

There are typically 12 brand archetypes, and choosing the right archetype for your business is essential. Have a look through the archetypes below and see which of these best fits your brand’s personality.

The Innocent

aka The Dreamer, The Romantic

Quote: “Free to be you and me.”

Traits: Good, pure, optimistic, simple, moral, loyal

Examples: Ivory soap, Coca-Cola, Pepsodent toothpaste

Innocent brands are usually pure, simple, and trustworthy. They may have a long history, strong values, and are reliable.

The Regular Guy

aka The Everyman, The Good Guy

Quote: “All men and women are created equal.”

Traits: Friendly, empathetic, reliable, down-to-earth

Examples: Budweiser, Home Depot, Wendy’s

Regular Guy (or Regular Girl) brands are supportive, faithful, and instill a sense of belonging. They are familiar, honest, and dependable.

The Hero

aka The Superhero, The Warrior

Quote: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Traits: Courageous, strong, confident, bold

Examples: Nike, Red Cross, FedEx

Hero brands are brave, determined, and consider themselves superior to their competitors. They want to make a positive impact on the world, solve big problems and inspire others to do the same.

The Outlaw

aka The Rebel, The Revolutionary

Quote: “Rules are meant to be broken.”

Traits: Rebellious, wild, iconoclastic, free-spirited

Examples: Harley-Davidson, Virgin, Miley Cyrus

Outlaw brands are disruptive, they are risk-takers,

To your customers, your brand is the collection of expectations, experiences, and memories of interacting with your business. To build a better brand, you must provide better experiences. Today you’ll learn how you can create a WOW customer experience for one of your brand touchpoints.

The Customer Experience

My wife and I bought some candles a few years back during a trip to Monterey, CA. We love their unique scents (Teakwood & Tobacco is divine) and burn them all the time. We decided to order more so I found them online. P.F. Candle Co. shipped the candles as expected but when I opened the box it changed my image of their brand altogether.

Inside I found a hand-written note that said “Patrick, thank you so much. You’re awesome!” They also included small samples of three other scents, one of which (Golden Coast) has become my new favorite.

“Wow”, I thought, who takes the time to hand write thank-you notes to all of their customers? And why don’t more companies offer sample products to try when you order? It’s not that these things are hard to do or expensive, it’s that they took the time to think about their customer.

This simple but amazing experience has made me a P.F. Candle Co. fan for life.

Brand Touchpoints

Denise Lee Yohn, author of “What Great Brands Do” says, “A brand touchpoint is any way a person in the marketplace interacts with your brand—so practically every brand has hundreds of touchpoints and each plays a role in shaping brand perceptions.”

According to Forbes, “Customer experience is the cumulative impact of multiple touchpoints over time, which result in a real relationship feeling, or lack of it.” In other words, the customer experience is comprised of their entire end-to-end journey with your brand.

This is not to be taken lightly. Your customer’s personal experiences with you will stick with them forever. Because of this, the customer experience is one of the most important factors in whether or not your business will be successful over time.

Think about all of the ways people interact with your brand. They might see your posts on social media, visit your website, walk into your store, or make an online purchase. What does the entire customer journey look like from beginning to end?

Here are some examples of customer touchpoints not everyone considers:

A good example of an often-overlooked brand touchpoint is your website’s 404 (page not found) page. Here’s how Clif Bar turned this normally ‘meh’ experience into something pretty fun and totally on-brand:

Look to Your Competition

One of the big reasons you focused on your competition was to see where they fall short. What brand touchpoints are they completely ignoring or getting all wrong? These are huge opportunities for your brand to stand out.

The Element of Surprise

When considering how you can create a WOW experience, one that really stands out in the eyes of your customers, focus on a touchpoint that most brands overlook. Surprise your customers by turning an ordinary experience into something extraordinary.

Your customers will be absolutely floored when they experience something unusual,

Yesterday, you did some research and identified one main competitor. Today, you are going to decide how your brand can differentiate from your competition by creating a unique selling proposition.

What is a Unique Selling Proposition?

Your unique selling proposition is what makes your business different from everyone else in your market. It’s a statement of your uniqueness. It’s how you stand out from your competitors in the minds of your customers. Until you can identify what makes you different from everyone else doing the same thing, you cannot effectively build your brand or market your business.

What Makes a Good Unique Selling Proposition?

A good unique selling proposition should simply and clearly state what makes you unique. The idea is not to say, “We’re the best!” but instead to say, “Here’s how we’re different from everyone else.” Once your audience understands how you are unique, they will be naturally drawn to your brand.

Here are a few examples of brands with very clear and very effective USPs:

Geico

You can probably recite Geico’s tagline from memory right now: “15 Minutes Could Save You 15 Percent or More on Car Insurance.” Geico gets how crowded the insurance marketplace is these days. They don’t claim to be the best or offer something amazing, they simply claim to be around 15% cheaper than their competition. If all auto insurance is basically created equal, wouldn’t you want to save 15%?

ThinkGeek

If you’re even a little bit nerdy, you’ll fall in love with ThinkGeek. They know exactly what their target market craves and they deliver, along with a huge dose of fun. Need a set of Star Wars Tiki Mugs or a Pac-Man Ghost Lamp? They’ve got you covered. Their USP is novelty items for geeks with an emphasis on fun. For instance, many of their items feature hilarious product demo videos, often shot by ThinkGeek employees.

TOMS Shoes

TOMS is a great example of a simple yet powerful USP. Like a lot of other brands, TOMS sells ethically-produced shoes and accessories. Their differentiator, though, sets them apart in a big way: “One for One—With every product you purchase, TOMS will help a person in need.”

You Must Be Radically Different

Here’s a fact you simply can’t ignore—the world is too competitive for you to be just a little bit different. You must be radically different.

Beware the dreaded “ers”

Too often I see brands try to differentiate by claiming to be faster, cheaper, lighter, smaller, bigger, etc. Relying on the “ers” is not enough to make your brand stand out in a crowded market. Stay away from using these adjectives to describe your brand.

You must be radically different. You have to claim something that no one else can claim. You must be able to identify at least one unique thing about your brand. It could be a unique product or service, a unique way of offering that product or service, or a product you created especially for your target market.

Niche Matters

A couple of days ago you created a niche for your brand—a unique product or service designed specifically for your target market. The main reason for creating your niche is to help your brand stand out from your competitors. Your niche makes your brand unique. Sure there might be others doing what you’re doing, but are they doing it your way and for the same target market? Probably not.

In today’s lesson, you’re going to shine a light on your competition. You’ll learn why it’s important to get to know your competition, some insights you can learn from them, and how getting to know them better can actually help your brand to be more successful.

Everyone Has Competition

When I owned my branding agency I worked with scores of entrepreneurs over the years. During the course of our brand-building work, I would always ask them if they knew who their main competitors were. Every now and then one of these new entrepreneurs would say “Oh, I don’t have any competition. Nobody else is doing what I’m doing.” I would just smile and tell them, “That’s great! But we’re going to go ahead and dig a little deeper anyway.”

You might think that your business is so unique that you simply have no competitors. In reality, there are almost no businesses in existence today who don’t have at least some competition. Even though your business is pretty unique in and of itself, you may have some competition lurking in businesses that are just vaguely similar to yours.

For example, you might be the only gourmet brownie shop in town, but your actual competition might not be other brownie shops. It might be other sweet treat shops selling cupcakes, or macarons, or even larger bakeries that carry breads, muffins, and cookies.

When looking for who your competitors are, you might need to broaden your view and look beyond the most obvious options.

Fear Not Your Competition

One big mistake I see entrepreneurs make all the time is ignoring their competition, or pretending they don’t exist. I get why they do it, they get stuck in the comparison trap. They see their competitors as more successful, always doing things better. Their Instagram feed looks better, their website is cooler, their tagline is catchier. The truth though is that they’re probably thinking those same things about you and your brand!

Don’t be afraid of your competition, embrace them. Get to know as much as you can about them, the good, the bad, and the ugly. By knowing where they are coming from and where they stand, you can differentiate. You can offer something more unique. You can be better.

Ideas for Researching Your Competition

Google search – One of the easiest ways to find out who your competition might be is to do a Google search on your topic. Be sure to be very specific. For example, a search for “gourmet doughnut shops in Wicker Park” will yield better results than “Chicago doughnuts”.

Social media – You can also search for similar brands on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Seeing their posts can offer up some great insights into who they are and what they’re all about.

Read reviews – You can find reviews of your competition on Google or Facebook. You can also check review sites like Yelp, Foursquare, Angie’s List, and even the Better Business Bureau. What are people saying about them? Notice any trends, good or bad?

Check out the competition – Want to know more about the competition? Use their product or service and get a feel for what they’re all about. Take note of how the experience made you feel, what was good about it, what could be improved, etc.

Ask your customers – What do your current clients know about your competitors? What have they heard about them? Have they tried them? Do they know anyone who has? What was their experience like?

In the last two days, you’ve taken the time to really get to know who your ideal client or customer is, then figured out where you could find more people like them, defining your target market. Today you’re going to learn what a niche is and then choose a compelling niche for your brand.

Ideal Client, Target Market, and Niche

There are three big factors you need to define if you want to create a business that really resonates with people – your ideal client, your target market, and your niche. Today focuses on the third and final part of the equation, creating a niche for your brand.

What is a Niche?

Now that you know who your ideal client is and you’ve defined your target market, it’s time to choose a niche for your brand. Your niche is a specific product or service that you create especially for your target market. Trail Toes is a great example of an effective niche. They have a very specific product (anti-friction foot cream) for a very specific audience (ultra-endurance athletes).

Here are few more examples of effective niche brands:

* Running coach for ultramarathoners

* Architectural firm for female-owned small businesses

* Lawyer for coal miners suffering from mesothelioma (a type of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos)

* Personal fitness training for expecting mothers in Austin, TX

* Car repair service exclusively for Prii (Prii is the plural term for Prius, according to Toyota)

Why Create a Niche?

Most businesses try to offer a wide range of products and services and market to as many people as possible. The problem with this approach is that their brand doesn’t really mean anything to anyone. It just becomes diluted and confusing.

In contrast, when you create a product or service specifically for one narrow segment of the population (your target market), they will see you as the brand that “gets” them. Your brand can relate to them, you feel their pain, and you help solve their problems. When you create an effective niche, your brand becomes the obvious choice.

How to Find Your Niche

Now it’s time to find your niche! Here are a few ideas to help you determine a product or service you can offer to your target market.

Look through your brand manifesto

Go back through your brand manifesto and see what core values and beliefs might resonate with your target market. What ideas could they really get behind? What themes stand out? Some examples of this:

* An architect notices one of her most important values is women entrepreneurs. She decides she’s going to focus her efforts on female-owned small businesses.

* A car mechanic believes strongly in protecting the environment. He creates a niche servicing only one car – the Toyota Prius.

Look at your current products or services

Think of ways of narrowing your particular product or service down to a smaller offering:

* A running coach who usually helps runners of all distances narrows his focus to only ultramarathoners.

* A lawyer who typically handles any legal issues that come across his desk decides to only represent coal miners with mesothelioma.

Check social groups

LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+ all have the ability to join groups. Look for groups focused on your product or service offering. Read through some of the comments and questions posted in these groups to see where needs exist and what holes could be filled. Meetups are groups of people that meet in person around a specific topic. Search their site for groups and see what topics they...

You should now have a very clear picture of who your ideal client or customer is. Today, you’re going to focus on finding more people like your ideal that you can effectively market and sell to. This is the second step in building meaningful connections with people and creating customers for life.

Ideal Client, Target Market, and Niche

There are three big factors you need to define if you want to create a business that really resonates with people – your ideal client, your target market, and your niche. Today focuses on the second part of the equation, your target market.

What is a Target Market?

Your target market is simply a specific group of people that your business serves really well. It’s most likely a group that your ideal client belongs to.

If your idea is to market your product or service to “everyone”, then your message will just end up getting lost in the mix. “Everyone” is just too big of an audience to do any kind of effective marketing. Even choosing “small-business owners” or “stay-at-home moms” ends up being way too broad of a market. In order to create a brand that really resonates with people, you need to get laser-focused on serving a narrow target market.

How to Define Your Target Market

Here are some things to consider when defining your target market:

* Where do they hang out? Do your ideal clients belong to any groups, communities, or networks? Where can you find these groups online and offline?

* What are their hobbies or interests? Do they share any common interests? Sci-Fi movies, pour-over coffee, and long-distance running are all good examples.

* Where do they shop? Do they prefer the local boutique or the mall? Kroger or Whole Foods? Best Buy or Amazon?

* Look at your current customer base. What characteristics or interests do they share? Where’s the common ground?

* Analyze your product or service. Make a list of all the benefits you provide (like no more blisters on your feet). Next, list all the people who have a need that your product or service fulfills.

* Check out your competition. Who are they serving? Be sure to choose a different target market than your competitors if you want to stand out.

How Well-Defined is Your Target Market?

You’ll know if you’ve done a good job of defining your target market if it meets the following criteria:

* It’s the right size – Your target market should be big enough for you to serve effectively. Too big or too small rarely work.

* Your message reaches them – You have to be able to connect with them either online or offline so you can start building relationships.

* They need you – They clearly understand why they need your product or service and how it helps them.

* They can afford you – It does no good to market to people who can’t afford you. For example, college students are a notably bad choice for your target market.

Trail Toes – Target Market Example

Trail Toes is “A phenomenal, ultra-extreme, anti-friction foot cream”. Their product is very simple – it’s a foot cream designed to prevent blisters while running extreme distances. Their ideal client is ultrarunners – people who run races longer than the 26.2 marathon distance, and I am definitely their ideal client. I run ultramarathon trail races – distances like 50k (31 miles), 50 miles, and 100 miles. A blister on my foot will take me out of a race, so I’ll do whatever it takes to reduce foot friction.

Let’s see if Trail Toes has defined an effective target market for their brand:

Their target market is ultrarunners and there’s definitely enough people in that group to sell to.

Your goal as a brand is to build authentic, meaningful relationships with your clients or customers. When you do this well you create raving fans and customers for life. In today’s lesson, you’ll learn how to create your ideal client profile.

Ideal Client, Target Market, and Niche

There are three big factors you need to define if you want to create a business that really resonates with people – your ideal client, your target market, and your niche. Today focuses on the first part of the equation, your ideal client.

The Importance of Understanding Your Ideal Client

If you want to build meaningful relationships with your clients or customers, you first need to know how to relate to them. It’s not enough to know their age, gender, or annual income. You need to get to know them at a deeply personal level. You need to know what they value in life, what they dream about, and what they’re afraid of.

When you meet them where they are they will start to see you as an understanding soul. They’ll see you as someone who gets them, someone who can help them. This is how you build trust.

Visualize One Person

I have a picture of a woman hanging up on my wall right next to my computer monitor. She’s blonde, she’s pretty, and she’s smiling. She’s a friend of mine and her name is Elisabeth.

My wife walked by my desk the other day and was like, “Um, why do you have a picture of Elisabeth hanging on the wall?” I just chuckled and got back to working. But really, here’s why: Elisabeth is an entrepreneur – she owns a productivity consulting business. She helps C-level executives get organized and more productive so they can get more done. To those executives, she’s a rock star. To me, Elisabeth is my ideal client.

When creating your ideal client profile, it helps to visualize one real person. This should be someone you know like your best customer or a friend who you feel might be a great fit for what you offer. The important thing here is that it’s someone you know personally. When you direct your messages or product offerings to that one real person, your message is crystal clear, laser-focused, and more authentic.

When I write a blog post, record a podcast, or create a new course, I do it for Elisabeth.

The Basics

It may help to know some basic information about your ideal client or customer. Some of this basic data might be gender, age, job title, annual income, or geographic location. Depending on your product or service offering, some of this information might be very important. If you own a local pie shop, geographic data is extremely relevant. For Elisabeth, job title and annual income are vital stats for her ideal clients.

When it comes to creating their ideal customer profile, most businesses stop here at this very basic level of information. They don’t go below the surface to really get to know and understand their audience. In order to build trust and a meaningful relationship, you need to dig a little deeper.

Go Deeper

Once you know a few basic facts about your ideal client or customer, your next step is to go deeper. What do they believe in? What do they stand for? What are their needs and desires? What do they dream about? What are they afraid of? What keeps them up at night with worry?

When you can answer some of these questions, you will have a much deeper understanding of your ideal client. You’ll know how to meet them where they are. They will understand you better. They will be more engaged with you. They will see you as the person who can help them better than anyone else. They will be naturally attracted to your brand. They will become raving fans and customers for life. And then, they will tell all their friends about you.

How to Find Information

If you know the one person you are visualizing as your ide...

In today’s lesson, you’re going to learn what a brand manifesto is and why it’s so important to share your values and beliefs with your audience. You’ll learn how to make emotional connections with people and why this step is critical in building long-lasting relationships with your customers.

All Great Brands Start With Why

As Simon Sinek explains in his popular TED talk (35 million views and counting), and best-selling book Start With Why, people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. What this means is that the biggest brands out there today infuse what they believe into their brands. They take a stand. They share their values, passions, and desires with the world.

Their attraction is not based on what they do but rather why they do it. By doing this, they are able to make emotional connections with people. It’s these emotional connections that make these brands so successful.

People Buy Because They Believe What You Believe

I love Chipotle. From the very first time I walked into one of their stores, I was hooked. There was just something different about this place. Sure the food is amazingly delicious (the chips and guacamole are out of this world), but there was something bigger I was attracted to.

I strongly believe we should be creating a more sustainable food system. I believe it’s one of the most important things we can do for our community, for our country, and for the planet. It turns out Chipotle believes this as well. Walk into any Chipotle and you’ll see their “Food With Integrity” message next to their menu. So right there in that moment, I feel a deep emotional connection with this brand.

Here’s how Chipotle communicates their beliefs on their website:

Day after day we’re committed…

To sourcing the very best ingredients we can find and preparing them by hand.

To vegetables grown in healthy soil, and pork from pigs allowed to freely root and roam outdoors or in deeply bedded barns.

We’re committed because we understand the connection between how food is raised and prepared, and how it tastes.

We do it for farmers, animals, the environment, dentists, crane operators, ribbon dancers, magicians, cartographers, and you.

With every burrito we roll or bowl we fill, we’re working to cultivate a better world.

Let’s face it, I can get a pretty good burrito anywhere. The reason I am a diehard fan of Chipotle is because they believe what I believe.

What Do You Believe?

If you want to start making deep, meaningful connections with the right people then you need to be able to communicate what you believe. You’ll need to share your values and let people know what you stand for, and maybe even what you stand against. What are your passions, desires, and aspirations? Don’t be afraid to get personal, these are the things that make your brand more human and more relatable.

Brand Manifesto

Today you’re going to write your brand manifesto. Your brand manifesto is simply a declaration of your beliefs. But keep in mind that it’s more than a list or a document, it’s a way for people to emotionally connect with you and your brand. So take the time and put some thought into those things that you most firmly believe in. To get an idea of how this might look, here are a couple of examples of brands with awesome manifestos:

Both iFixit and Poseidon do a fantastic job of articulating those things they most...

Welcome to Day 2 of 21 Days to Build a Better Brand. I hope you’re excited to start taking action to build a better brand! Today you are going to create a vision for your brand. If you want to get somewhere, you have to have a very clear idea of where you want to go. Read on to learn why creating a vision for your brand is the crucial first step in building a more remarkable brand.

Where are you going?

I grew up in Southern California and every summer when I was a kid we would go on a family vacation. We would pack up the family station wagon and head off to some exotic faraway land like San Diego, San Francisco, or Lake Tahoe. In order to end up at the right place, my dad would get out a map and figure out the best route to take. This was back in the days before the Internet and Google maps, so yes, I’m old.

The point is that in order to get to our destination my dad had to look at a map and figure out where we were, then find the exact place on the map we wanted to go. Once he knew that he could figure out the best way to get there (and all the cool places we could stop along the way!).

This same principle applies to you and your brand. If you want to be successful, you need to have a clear idea of what success will look like for you. As a brand, you need to know where you are today and where you’re trying to go.

How do you define success?

Success is a very personal thing; it can look very different to each of us. Do you want 20 new clients over the next 12 months? Would you like to open a second location in 3 years? Is increasing sales by 10% each month your main objective? You need to create a crystal clear vision of where you want to go as a brand and then set S.M.A.R.T. goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) to make sure you get there.

Your Brand Snapshot

Before you get started setting goals and creating a big, bold vision for your brand you need to know where you right now. Start by taking a quick inventory or snapshot of what your brand looks like today.

How’s business today? Are your sales numbers where you want them to be? How many locations do you have? How many employees currently work for you? How does your brand look, sound, and feel to the outside world? What’s the story you are telling? Who is your customer and what do you know about them? What brand assets do you currently need or need to update? Your brand assets are things like your logo, website, advertising campaigns, social media accounts,  marketing campaigns, printed marketing materials, etc. The idea is to just take a quick look at where you are right now. This will act as your starting point as you move forward.

Create a Vision for Your Brand

Now that you know where you are, you need to decide where you want to go. This is a big and powerful first step for you and your brand if you want to build something truly remarkable.

I’m going to give you permission to think BIG when creating your brand vision. Here’s a great question you can ask yourself: If you could wave a magic wand and have the business of your dreams right now, what would that look like? What would you be doing? Who would you be helping? What would a day in your life look like? What would your sales numbers be like? Would you have more than one location? How many employees would you need? What’s the story you really want to tell? What does your customer look like?

Paint a clear and detailed picture of what your life and your brand would look like. Pay special attention to how all of this makes you feel. Is this the life you want for yourself? It really should be! There’s something very powerful about creating your vision and knowing exactly where you want to go. After all, if you don’t know where you’re going you’ll never be able to get there.

Day 2 Action Item – Create a Vision for Your Brand

Welcome to day 1 of the series 21 Days to Build a Better Brand! I’m simply thrilled that you have made this commitment to improving your brand and your business. Over the course of the next three weeks, you’ll learn everything you need to build a brand that both you and your customers will love.

Purpose

The purpose of this series is to help you build a more remarkable brand. Throughout this series, I’ll guide you through the brand-building process, one small step at a time. Yes, you’ll have a little work to do each day, but by the end of the series you should have a well-defined brand and be well on your way to building a more competitive, more profitable, more sustainable business that both you and your customers will love.

Why Am I Doing This?

For years I owned a design agency where I helped small business owners with their logo and website designs. I was really good at what I did but something kept bugging me. I realized that there was a huge disconnect between what people thought their brand was and what their brand actually was. So I decided to devote all of my expertise to teaching people how to create a more meaningful, more remarkable brand.

What is a Brand?

Let’s get this cleared up right away: Your logo is not your brand. This is not to say that having a well-designed logo is not important because it is. It means that just having a logo does not mean you’ve got your branding sorted.

Seth Godin has a great definition of what your brand is:

“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”

This means your brand is communicated to your customers in everything that you do as a business – from their experience using your website, to what your shop smells like, to the attitudes of your employees. Each time a customer interacts with your business in some way, they are experiencing your brand. (Note: these interactions are called brand touchpoints and you’ll be learning more about them in a later post)

The Importance of Building Your Brand

If every interaction with your business is an experience with your brand, wouldn’t you want to be sure that every one of those experiences was amazing? Of course you would! The problem is that a lot of business don’t agree. They don’t see brand-building as important as, say, hiring the best chef. That amazing restaurant experience can turn sour if the server has a bad attitude toward her customer. No world-class chef or gourmet meal can fix a bad experience like that.

This is why intentionally defining and building your brand is the single most effective way to create a competitive, profitable, and sustainable business.

Don’t Settle for Mediocre

There are way too many mediocre businesses out there today, but you don’t have to be one of them. You can (and should!) stand out in a sea of average. You should be so remarkable in everything you do and in every interaction with your customers, that they keep coming back to you again and again and again. Don’t settle for mediocre, be remarkable! I’ll show you how to do this over the next 21 days.

How it Works

Each day for next three weeks I will share a short teaching on one topic related to building your brand. Each day you will have one or more action items to complete. These action items shouldn’t take much of your time, but the more time you put into it, the more value you’ll get out of it.

I believe in the power of writing things down on paper – by hand. Something very visceral and meaningful happens when you take the time to write down your thoughts and ideas by hand. Also, you won’t be distracted by any technology so your ideas can flow more freely.