Jan
25
No Bullshit Branding & The Sustainable Empire of You
This is a guest post by Danielle LaPorte from White Hot Truth.
You’re a kick-starting, self-referencing, fiercely independent, remarkably tenacious, dollar-maximizing, idea-realizing entrepreneur. 9 to 5’rs come to bask in the glow of the freedom you’ve claimed. You eat-risk-for-breakfast. Your middle name is Innovate. You are…a Mighty Itty Biz Ruler!
How dare anyone call you…a brand?! You’re so much bigger than that. You don’t hide behind a manufactured image (do you?) You simply radiate and state the facts of your genius (right?)
You are The Empire of…You, and you’re rocking your authenticity all the way to the bank. (Can you back me up on this one?)
For the purposes of this regalizing exercise, we’re going to ban strike the word “brand” from the entrepreneurial lexicon. I’m a business strategist. I know branding is a useful term. It might even be more effective than “image”, or “persona.” But it’s a concept that we’ve gotten too comfortable with. It’s what I rile against in business, especially small business: that without the courage of our convictions and a bit of Buddhist realism, branding can set us up to create an image that we hope will sell. And that’s all backwards, people.
Image is a fragile thing. Hope is for suckers. And selling something that is not real, is fucking exhausting.
Back to the Empire of You… (or, if we must, your true brand…)
THE KEY QUALITIES OF SUSTAINABLE, EFFECTIVE, ONE-PERSON EMPIRES OF CONTENT, SERVICE, PRODUCTS, AND INNER PEACE:
1. Empires are rooted in their true strengths.
The operative word here is true. Not your acquired or make-you-look-good types of strength. Not necessarily all the things you’ve learned to do so well because you have to be chief cook and bottle washer or The X Man of your Itty Biz. But, as Markus Buckingham lays out in The Truth About You, your real strengths are the activities you do that make you feel strengthened and vital. That’s worth repeating: your true strength is what you do that makes you feels stronger.
Deceptively simple. Revolutionary. Sustainable.
And wait, it gets even better. You know what a weakness is? You got it. A weakness is the stuff you do that makes you feel weakened or drained. So all the crap you’re resenting – bookkeeping, kissing client ass, twittering your face off – get it off your plate and free up your passion reserves.
This means that you get to build your empire by doing what makes you feel like a rock star. Forget being well rounded, it’s highly overrated. Screw market surveys, appealing to them can perpetuate mediocrity. Make stuff that makes you feel good when you’re making it, and then make lots of it. THAT’s leverage.
2. Empresses don’t apologize. They just get prouder.
As if Naomi Dunford is going to say sorry for using “bat shit crazy” and “fucking fucked” in the same sentence. Like Steve Jobs has time to talk about his arrogance. I have never met a successful entrepreneur or artist (and by “successful” I mean prosperous, kind, and frequently happy,) who has apologized for being perfectionistic, mercurial, unrelenting, or whatever their hallmark characteristics were. Your most pronounced qualities are the through-line of your unfolding story, and they articulate your gifts and your challenges. They command attention, sometimes, respect. If you round out those edges, you, well, lose your edge.
So when do you shrink? And when do you shine?
Being completely fearless and without apology, what would you like to decree for your Itty Biz? Think: “Around here, we only work with people we like enough to have over for dinner. No lies, ever. All hyper-needy, under-appreciating clients are hereby banned from the kingdom no matter how much they’re paying me. Sundays are sacred. I hire the guy who makes me laugh the most. Three months off every year. Be the Giver. Yoga before email.”
If you’re not making your own rules, you’re following someone else’s.
3. Emperors serve by leading.
“Do me a favour,” I said to a former business partner, “just be yourself, it’ll be a lot easier that way.” Authenticity is incredibly efficient. Consistency builds velocity. When you’re who you really are, people know what to expect of you, and that’s a beautiful thing.
Show me who you are, even if it’s a bit risky (risk = momentum.) Show me why you got into this business. Explain why you believe in your product or service. Tell me your story. Be daring enough to tell us your ambitions – we’ll be the ones to help you get there. Care more about being accurately, precisely who you are, than what I might think about you.
Be open to the possibility of offending some people, of losing a few customers or readers. Be open to being worshipped, adored, and revered.
And for God’s sake, write your bio in first person – we all know you wrote it anyway.
“Building trustworthy brands” is the business conversation du jour because so many of us have forgotten to trust ourselves. If you tune out the noise of “how-to” and “10 steps” and “proven tactics” you’ll be able to hear your own royal, bad-ass sensibilities directing your course. And they will tell you: you’re sitting on an empire.
Love,
Danielle
Danielle LaPorte created WhiteHotTruth.com because self realization rocks. Her signature Fire Starter Sessions help entrepreneurs be more amazing in every way. You can find her on Twitter: @daniellelaporte
“Think: “Around here, we only work with people we like enough to have over for dinner. No lies, ever.”
This is going to be my new mantra. I’m cutting out the projects I don’t love (okay to be honest, I’m shoveling them over to my employees because I love cash) and carving out a brand new niche.
Love, loyalty and cash baby! Thanks for the kick in the pants.
Love your Bravado but not sure I know what you mean. Your strengths will determin your money. If you are on projects that drain you it is perhaps not you strengths, great teams are built, some people should not be merging files, some people you should not let near the phone. That is your job as a leader. Fairly sure strengths determine delegation too.
Marcus Buckingham strengths finder good template. Love your bravado though. Bring on our strengths.
Incredibly motivating! Makes me feel like maybe I really CAN do this thing. Thanks for the pep talk.
Danielle, I get a lot of criticism from people who say, “You aren’t doing x or y right and you could be doing a lot better with your blog.” And my answer is always, “Says who? Someone who assumes that they know what my goals are? Someone who should be putting the effort into their own work that they spend prancing onto my blog like a diva.
I think following the rules someone else created is a great way to try to be someone else. But we’re not anyone else, and that is a great thing, whether we believe it or not.
I like divas, but not divas who haven’t earned their diva-hood yet.
I love your definition of success, by the way. Looking forward to our upcoming talk when you’re able to come up for air for a few minutes!
Take care, pal.
Awesome post Danielle!
I am launching my life coaching business and am moving forward while feeling the fear. Thanks for reminding me to stand in my authenticity and passion.
Naomi, how do I post a cool avatar or self phonto on this blog?
All the best,
Jack
Jack, go to http://www.gravatar.com and register–then you’ll get a spiffy icon on just about every blog you comment on. :)
-Erica
Naomi Dunford and Danielle LaPorte together? Be still my beating heart.
I need to print this out and read it ten times over. Just awesome.
@josh
re: “Someone who assumes that they know what my goals are?” this is such a great point. this is why I get obsessive about knowing pple’s vision, where *they* want to go. then the X or Y decisions just snap!
Risk = momentum. That is worth a thousand blog posts right there. Thanks.
Danielle rocks every bit as hard as self-realization. I suppose because she embodies self-realization. I love this post, thanks so much for sharing it here!
Man, I love this one.
@Josh, I got tons of that. Tons of little smarmy, smug, condescending little “you’re so talented, dear, you really need to get your X in order.”
I didn’t have time to make them happy, I was too busy doing my shit, imperfect and out-of-order and messy though it may have been. And my shit has turned into a fantastic business.
@Sonia: You say “got.” Past tense. Has it stopped?
About 95% of it has stopped. I still get cranky folks, but I don’t get nearly as many who are condescending.
Either that or I am so behind on my email that I don’t see them any more, which is totally possible.
I loved this! I am a former Executive Director for Boys & Girls Harbor. I quit my six-figure job because i was tired for being punished for my authenticity. They used the word “passion” as if it was a curse. Thank you for giving voice to the frustrations and ambitions of so many of us.
Woot! Naomi AND Danielle, now that’s a force to be reckoned with. ;)
I love this. It is such a reminder to focus on what works and screw what is weighing you down. Thank you so much Danielle for this.
“THE KEY QUALITIES OF SUSTAINABLE, EFFECTIVE, ONE-PERSON EMPIRES OF CONTENT, SERVICE, PRODUCTS, AND INNER PEACE:”
You lost me at this one. I used to do proofreading for my dad (an attorney), and that reminded me of that. Lots of ALL CAPS and big words.
I am sure your point was good. But you probably lost a fair amount of readers in the middle by overdoing it.
-Erica
Awesome post, Danielle. These words came at the right time for me. Glad your advice has come into my life.
aww, come on now, stop pulling punches, tell us how you really feel!… ;)
Fiery and blisteringly honest and sincere and inspirational as usual, and with a couple of real gems in there too (I like ‘risk=momentum’ too, though it looks like Michael spotted it first). Nice to get some validation on choosing the road less travelled by. The rewards are many.
This is all very good, and also, maybe there is a place for self-reflection and improvement?
Because momentum and success are iterative, and without some a-ha, how do you do that?
Danielle, loving the “Empire of You” thing. This post has kick ass written all over it.
Booyah! Excellent post both in terms of valuable content and superb writing. Danielle-glad I found you on IttyBiz.
Cheers ~
Melissa
I’ve noticed a bit of a backlash on Branding recently.
While it may be the biz buzzword du jour, it is widely misunderstood and often gets a bad rap.
A brand is simply the public perception of a person, product or company.
Whatever people think of you or your company (pos or neg) THAT is your brand.
You may influence public perception (your brand) by being shrewd, crafty, fake, manufactured and manipulative OR by being fearless, unique, bold, authentic and passionate.
Whether you choose the former (boo, hiss), or the latter (bravo, hooray) speaks more to who you are as a person than to the merits of branding.
In other words, “Don’t hate the Game, hate the Player.”
>> Powerful post! Thank you.
well said!
‘Your true strength is what you do that makes you feels stronger.’
‘Selling something that is not real, is fucking exhausting.’
Let’s add those to the list of Things I Learned The Hard Way And Apparently Have To Keep On Learning.
Thanks for the kick up the ass.
You somehow managed to make it feel like tough love and inclusing at the same time.
Nice.
I usually skip reading guest posts, but I’m glad I read this one. My favorite line: “And for God’s sake, write your bio in first person – we all know you wrote it anyway.” (uh, yeah, I haven’t written a bio yet, but I still got a chuckle from that line.)
Danielle, great post. I always try to push the boundaries. Just not so much that I lose readers… I only have the five, and two of those are my parents.
@Danielle, thank god you’re here.
My take is “Show up for your Self, show up in you own life.” I rail against accountability coaching b/c I believe that the only act is to be accountable to my self. Go figure out how you can do that and be well.
What other people think of me is none of my biz. What I think of me is.
This is about pushing IN to ourselves, not away.
**** Screw market surveys, appealing to them can perpetuate mediocrity. Make stuff that makes you feel good when you’re making it, and then make lots of it. THAT’s leverage.***
It’s also a breath of fresh air. recycling Same-old is great for clothing and books and stuff, bad, bad, bad for ideas.
Winston Churchill said ” Success is going for one failure after another without losing enthusiasm.” Hm, wonder how he did that unless he was doing what made him feel stronger.
I am soooo glad to make your acquaintance. Life is too short for brand alone.
dawn
Awesome, awesome, awesome! Danielle, the perfect words at the perfect time…
“Rounding the edges”… gave me a bit of a pause.
Too often find myself rounding my edges while picking at someone else’s edges, when perhaps I could be celebrating & sharpening my edges – while leaving other people’s edges well enough alone!
Here’s to edginess!
Good stuff. I like “show me who you are” very much. My life’s too brief for people who won’t. As for those who don’t like what I show ‘em… “Glad we got that sorted out, buh bye.”
A measurement of success is how much time you spend hanging out with people who light up when you come into a room – and who light you up. This can also be virtually, of course. Naomi lights me up, so I come back to this room a lot.
I’m also a Marcus Buckingham fan. Glad to see him getting a mention.
Holy shit. I’m scribbling the, “Care more about being accurately, precisely who you are, than what I might think about you” all over the FREEDOM notecard you sent me.
Then I’m going to tape it to my forehead and get to work.
Love,
Erica
Thank you!!! I needed the reminder!
I have gotten bogged down in the details of how to blog.
It’s easy for us to get bogged down in the “how-to”s and forget that blogging is Writing. We write to share thoughts and ideas, and if we ameliorate ourselves so that we can just be one thing we lose our edge.
People are complicated and the world is messy. It’s better to be who you are and let others figure out which pidgeon-hole to put you in.
Hell Yes! Danielle, this is a great post!
Needed to hear this: “Be open to the possibility of offending some people, of losing a few customers or readers,”
I know this intellectually, need to give myself permission to be me and offend (because I know i will)once in awhile.
And I do only want to work with those who do stuff and not the hyper-needy. Thanks!
You are as always *so* on the nail, and RIGHT. I keep finding things to do that I have to, instead of doing the things that I love. It certainly explains my cash flow situation.
Right, going to do things that I *love* right now.
hurry!
xo
Dang Danielle, you really bring it girl! ;-) But I absolutely love your edge and this post served as a great reminder to me to focus on what makes me happy, what gets me fired up, and have no apologies while I’m doing it.
“Make stuff that makes you feel good when you’re making it, and then make lots of it. THAT’s leverage.”
I love this call to action. Why should I do my own laundry, when I’m no good at it? My housekeeper can’t crank out an ebook in six hours, but I can, and I enjoy it.
Entrepreneurs never have the problem of nothing to do–its TOO MUCH to do. And you have identified the #1 criteria for whether or not you should be doing something–is it something your LOVE to do? Can you make lots of it?
If not, go do what you love.
You rock, Danielle.
Wow — talk about a kick in the ass!!!! Motivated??? Inspired??? Call to action??
I needed this — THANKS SO MUCH DANIELLE!!!!