The Illusion of Personality Branding and the Danger of Personality Business
It’s a personality brand, not a personality business.
Running a business that incorporates some level of personality branding is like driving a car. You put yourself in the driver’s seat but you turn the steering wheel, not the car wheels themselves. You step on the gas pedal and a hundred tiny reactions make the motor whir & the wheels spin.
You are not the car.
The car still functions whether it’s you in the driver’s seat or your best friend.
There are two real dangers of personality business – as opposed to personality branding:
- You risk being the only engine of growth for your business.
- You risk creating a customer base of sycophants.
Let’s examine the first risk.
When you are the only engine of growth for your business, you can’t maximize your effort-to-results ratio. In other words, to get results, you need to put in a comparable amount of work. You don’t move forward unless you’re putting in the effort.
Your goal is find your sweet spot (click here for a guide to finding your sweet spot) such that all you need to do is flick a switch here or there to create big rewards for both yourself and your customers.
- Do you have a product (program, blog, service, project, etc…) that generates new sales without advertising? That spreads exponentially through word-of-mouth from delighted soul to delighted soul?
- Do you have systems or applications that automate as much of your workflow as possible?
- Are your offerings progressive? Do they grow with your customers to generate additional revenue?
Now, the second risk.
This is an altogether more controversial statement. But one that needs to be made. There are too many businesses in this space that are driven by the desire of the customer to be more like the business owner. Are your customers working towards their own version of success or they working on being more like you?
- Are they out to please you in anyway they can? Or are they willing to push back when they have a new need or a question about your vision?
- Do they engage you in meaningful conversation or just want to be “doing things right?”
- Do they apply your teaching, product, or solution? Or do they just keep coming back for more?
And in fact, these risks are interrelated. In an effort to launch a relationship-based, personality brand, many business owners – and rightly so – offer their services 1:1. Then, due to a marketing misunderstanding, they position the offer as essentially “spend some time with me” instead of “get xyz results.”
If your business is positioned to be about just spending time with you, it’s near impossible to not be the sole engine of growth. If all you’re selling is access to your world, you’ll be forced to create & recreate that world… and all the logistics that go along with it. It’s a slippery slope of of too much work, too much frustration, and too much energy drained.
You can be a role model without creating an atmosphere of “I wanna be just like you!” You can create offerings that sell your ideas instead of yourself. You can create a brand is driven by your unique talents, experience, and perspective without being a slave to a business that requires your 24/7 supervision.
Here’s a 3 point plan:
1. Sever the emotional attachment you have to your business. Yes, I believe in work/life integration. But I also believe that your business cannot thrive if you allow it to control your sense of self-worth or self-knowledge.
Just like being a mother or father doesn’t wholly define you, being your business can’t define you either. Personality brands blur this line but they don’t erase it. Understand where you stop and your business begins. Hat tip to Adam on this one.
2. Separate your work from your technique or ideas. Your ideas and your technique exist separate from the work you put into your business. Others can (and should) run with your ideas. Others can (and should) execute your techniques.
It’s easy to get caught up and assuming you are a necessary part of the equation. You are not. Unless you’re prepared to helicopter-parent your business (gosh, I sure hope you’re not), build a business that’s based on scaling your ideas or technique.
3. Save yourself from over-sharing. Some business owners like to leak their own gossip in the name of “authenticity.” It’s all out front because there’s little in the way of strategy on the back end.
Authenticity isn’t an excuse or a demand to air your dirty laundry. Authenticity is an opportunity ask potential customers to align with your values, the value you provide to them, and the vision you have for who they’re becoming as human beings. Hat tip to Ali Shapiro on this one.
The illusion of personality branding is that you’re selling yourself. The risk is that you find yourself sold to a business model that crashes into a tree.
Make your goal to be the confident, in-control driver of your business. Not the commodity being sold.
— PS —
Kick Start Labs is about to release a brand new resource on the basics of product development. If you’ve found yourself little more than a commodity in your business, it’s time to take a serious look at how you can develop a product or service that liberates you. Keep your eyes peeled – registration opens Friday.
A dirty little secret
Here’s a dirty little secret about business in the digital age: people aren’t as financially successful as you think they are.
I’m not saying anyone is lying about their earnings. If someone tells you how much they’re producing, I would trust it. What I mean is that you perceive the people you admire, many of the business owners who seem to be “crushing it,” to be more financially successful than they are.
This isn’t an exposé on others lack of success; it’s an exposé on the thought patterns and assumptions that keep you struggling when you should be thriving.
When you stare at your Twitter stream or the fancy websites of your colleagues, your mind plays tricks on you. You confuse the shiny veneer with deep success. I do too. It’s an easy mistake to make.
When you see a highly organized, well-executed launch, you associate it with a small team of gifted marketers and lots of sales. What you don’t see is the one-woman show, the sleepless nights, the endless “hustle,” the working-too-hard-for-too-little routine.
When you see an ebook or a program or an affiliate campaign, you associate it with waking up every day to hundreds of dollars more in the bank. What you don’t see is the lack of sales or the constant work required to move a small amount of inventory.
When you see a business with a wait list, you associate it with a calendar full of exciting clients and a bank account full of service fees. What you don’t see is the unpaid bills, the anxiety of asking for payment, and nagging feeling that there’s a better way to be spending time. What you don’t hear is the quiet whisper of, “Who am I to want anything different than this? I should feel blessed to be this busy.”
This might even be you now. You’ve executed the launch, you’ve created an opportunity for leveraged income, or you’ve sold out your calendar. People tell you that you’re successful. And you believe them. But again, you’re left with the nagging thought, “I didn’t think that success would feel like this.”
Look, I’m not trying to be a downer. I’m an optimist – but I’m also a realist. And I woke up with a strong desire to let you in on this secret. The reality is that I know all this because these business owners – the ones you associate with big launches, profitable products, and sold out service calendars – they come to me when they’ve had enough. And I’m generally as surprised to hear from them as you’d be! They open up and tell me they want to make more money, work less, and structure the business differently.
What I’ve discovered is that the source of their frustration is the engine of their business, the thing that keeps it motoring down the road. What’s the engine? It’s them!
When you’re trying to be the engine of your own business it can manifest in many ways:
- pushing out tons of free stuff to try to gain traction
- doing “the work” at the expense of building the business
- saying “yes” to every opportunity for exposure or joint venture
- changing surface-level tactics and hoping for a different result
I recently wrote that after the sparkly follow-your-passion dreams wear off and the reality of hard work sets in, it’s easy to confuse busyness with business. When you are the engine of your business growth, busyness seems like the answer. If only you put in more hours, if only you checked more things off the list, you could get the business where you want it to be.
It’s the truly successful people who realize their business is run by something greater than their sheer effort.
The business grows because it’s built to grow. The model provides for growth through clear channels of customer acquisition, products that build on previous successes, and systems that eliminate busywork while replicating results.
It’s a mindset shift. And a drastic one, at that.
It requires you accepting that more work, harder work, or sheer will is not the key to getting ahead.
And it requires that you have faith in your ability to step back from the work far enough to see how the business could succeed without your constant interference.
Busyness is the enemy of business.
The road from follow-your-passion to thriving business can be a bumpy one. Once you realize “if you build it, they will come” isn’t a business strategy, it’s tempting to spend every waking hour tweaking, writing, emailing, networking, and trying to push through.
“…while you’re doing it, doing it, doing it, there’s something much more important that isn’t getting done.”
— Michael E Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited
Busyness isn’t business.
Don’t confuse the two. You can work until you’re blue in the face and still not succeed. That’s not to say that hard work doesn’t or won’t pay off. But is what you’re spending your day doing really getting you one (or better, a few) steps ahead? Are your daily actions tuned to the goal you’ve set in front of you?
Check yourself.
Your goal can’t be to work yourself to the bone. The sense of accomplishment you’ve been missing won’t come from just checking tasks off a list.
What you’re missing is progress, the sense that what you’re doing matters in the larger scheme of things.
Being busy doesn’t level the learning curve. Being busy doesn’t create ease. Being busy doesn’t create satisfaction.
Know where you want to go and create a plan to get there. Remove any and all unnecessary tasks and busy work. Take time off, explore, enjoy.
Have faith that your plan will take time and that doesn’t mean that you have to fill it with work that is meaningless.
Your customers co-own your success. Who do you want to be in business with?
When community invests in an idea, it also co-owns its success.
– Nilofer Merchant, 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era
Your business is not yours alone. Welcome to the brave new world of co-creation and co-ownership. Here, individualism coexists with collectivism. Here, the results of your ambition rely on your ability to create the network that allows you to succeed.
So the question is: are you creating a customer network that is ready to co-create your vision?
There is a piece of “popular” business advice that asserts that “you should teach what you know to people who are a few steps behind you.”
For instance, if you’ve worked through a big personal transformation, you can become a life coach & help others through their own personal transformations. If you’re a blogger, you can help others set up their own blogs. If you write books, you can teach beginning authors how to get published.
Makers, keep reading, I’m not going to let you off the hook.
Hey, this isn’t a bad idea. In fact, this is probably a decent way to get started serving others and making money doing it. You’ve honed in on a specific problem that you can solve and you’re willing to put a price tag on it. Sure, go for it.
But where will you go next?
Honest question.
You can keep serving these clients, incrementally increasing the sophistication of what you’re offering. As you solve new problems for yourself, you can turn those solutions into products and services.
It makes a lot of sense and it can work. Just like monetization.
But will you be satisfied?
I like a challenge. I love the thrill of unleashing my great work for clients who scare the pants off of me. My work gets better & better in environments of great uncertainty.
Having a client that challenges me doesn’t mean that my back is against a wall, it means that my eyes are open to the full array of possibilities before us both. I’m not relying on personal experience or a single formula for my success. It’s an opportunity ripe for never-tried-before ideas and mutual magic-making.
By honoring their experiences, their knowledge, and their trust in our work, we can create something brand new. Together.
I used to feel threatened by the brilliance of my clients. I worried that I failed them when they had an idea or a revelation that wasn’t directly prompted by …me. And then I realized that our very connection was what made that possible. When working with clients that challenge me, I don’t have to be the end-all-be-all in business strategy.
No, it’s my job to co-create the space for our mutual success.
I can be the catalyst. Our work together is the entry point. It isn’t confined to my knowledge & expertise; it’s open to collaboration.
When you & your clients are co-owners of collaborative success, you both are creating something more meaningful than livelihood or results. You are creating movements, future opportunities, and networked transformation. The effects are more wide-reaching, the value is more long-lasting. The possibly of up-ending the status quo is much greater.
But will I rise to the occasion?
Look, it’s easier to cultivate a social network of people who want to be like you. To do what you’ve done. To grasp a little piece of your success. But the rewards of creating network connections to those who are ready to co-own your success are vast.
It can be the difference between slogging by doing something that once thrilled you and forging a new path to a more lucrative future, both financially & meaningfully.
- Are you cultivating a network of yes-people? Or are you gathering a select tribe of idea-challengers?
- Are you going with what you know? Or are you seeking out opportunities for growth?
- Are you seeking out reinforcement of your own experiences? Or are you creating a hub for shared intelligence?
“… attracting and seducing consumers with a relevant, helpful, and unique point of view works better than shoving more messages into the already loud marketplace.”
— Nilofer Merchant, 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era
But how will I find these people?
Here’s a common exercise I do with clients who are ready to make this jump:
Look around your network right now. Make a list of 5 people with a “relevant, helpful, and unique point of view” who are connected to you in some (even tenuous) way who could benefit from your time, talent, and skills.
- How would working for them be different than working with the clients or customers you currently have?
- What conversations or projects would get their attention?
- If you were working for/with them, what changes would you make to the day-to-day operations of your business?
- What problems or desires would you be working on?
- How would your message be different if it was crafted for them and not the mass market?
“Attracting and seducing” the clients that will take your business to the next level begins with everyday changes in behavior. If you don’t adjust your routines, expectations, and message to be especially for them before you attract them, you’ll never have the opportunity to co-create your next-level business with them.
The answers to the above questions are your first steps. Those answers will guide you towards making the changes today that will breed success tomorrow. Those answers will help you step into the attitude of success before it’s even created.
Essentially, you’re inviting your future customers to co-own your success before they’ve even invested in your world.
And that’s why those kind of customers are powerful. And why that’s the kind of people you want to be in business with.
— PS —
I wrote this post with service providers in mind. But product creators & makers, you don’t get off so easy. I see so many makers limiting their visions to a customer who doesn’t fully appreciate what they do. And it shows. What happens if you challenge yourself to create your product for a more challenging set of customers? What would need to change about how your make, market, and sell your creation? How could your product fulfill the ultimate fantasy of a very special network?
Are the customer you’re courting ready to co-own your success?
— PPS —
If this is the kind of leap you’re looking to take in your business before the end of the year, I invite you to join me, Adam King, and a small group of dedicated business owners for Make Your Mark. It’s a 12-week, intensive business coaching program designed to allow you take on challenging, satisfying work that creates loads of personal wealth.
And it’s the only opportunity to coach long-term with me with Fall. There are a limited number of spots on the team – and they’re going quickly! Click here to learn more.
The Case Against Monetization — Or why your fear of launching is based on a serious misunderstanding
Has “monetization” made you nervous about pushing your business ideas to the next level?
The word “monetization” has a shadowy past in the world of business online. Bloggers have tried to monetize their audiences. Developers have tried to monetize free products. Old school media has tried to monetize their content.
Some people have made money through monetization. Some haven’t.
My problem with the idea of monetization isn’t that it doesn’t work but that it’s a destructive, extractive way to view your business. It lacks the innovation, disruption, and creativity that a value(s)-driven business model has.
Isn’t this all semantics?
Perhaps. But I put a lot of credence in the language people use. And when people use the word “monetization,” it blocks their creative juices and dampens their abundance receptors. Click to tweet it!
Here’s why:
Monetization is rent-seeking.
In economics, “rent-seeking” is basically trying to get a bigger piece of the pie. It assumes that there is a finite set of dollars or customers and that you need to through your weight around to get some of it.
The business owners I work with & that read this [site, blog, email] don’t think that way about their business growth. They want to serve. They want to contribute. They want to create things of great value. But they are often following strategies that were devised for monetization & rent-seeking.
And they see a false causality between monetization strategies & success.
For instance, blogs were never designed to be businesses. Blogging grew out of the human desire to record & reflect on life. They became communities out of the human desire to connect and cultivate intimacy.
At some point, people realized there was commercial opportunity in blogging. And I don’t blame them at all! Those early professional bloggers were creating something truly valuable, generating fresh wealth on a daily basis, creating connective threads through communities. As others wanted to get on the growing market, they wanted to learn how to duplicate the success those early bloggers had.
What started as genuine value creation became “monetization strategy.” Here, it was not only the business model that got copied but the content, communities, and outreach. Look around the blogosphere and you’ll see layer upon layer of sameness. Again, what was genuine value is now fluff designed to make money, generate traffic, and simulate credibility.
So when I see people tell you to create lots of free content, build an email list, reach some magic number, and then launch your first digital product, I want to throw up a little. It’s backwards because it’s a strategy that was reverse-engineered from a misunderstanding.
What will you do to generate new, stick-to-your-ribs value? Don’t worry if what you have in mind can’t be “free.” Who cares? Creating value creates buzz. Even when it’s for sale. Especially if it’s for sale. You can build a community or movement from a product that people pay for. Below are three examples of vibrant, profitable communities built on paid products.
Remember Tara Mohr from yesterday’s post? She was amazed at how her audience grew when she launched the very first session of Playing Big. Beyond reaching her sales goal, she added hundreds of new fans. People took notice because she was generating fresh value.
Danielle LaPorte didn’t grow a massive blog and then launch products & services to serve her readers. She sensed she had wealth to offer the world, packaged it as a Fire Starter Session and offered it to anyone who could use it. I believe that the massive value she delivered through those sessions was much more the catalyst of her growth than the awesomeness of her blog. To this day, she continues to create fresh value first instead of extract monetary reward from her audience.
MailChimp created a great email service that companies paid for before they started giving free accounts away to microbusinesses by the drove. They had a profitable business long before they started growing through the freemium model. When they went freemium (you can have a robust email marketing account with them for FREE), they actually noticed a sweet uptick in larger, paying customers as well. That’s not because MailChimp started offering free accounts, it’s because they were delivering a great product.
Why on earth could going freemium bring in these larger and larger paying customers?
Because we did everything totally bass-ackwards.
— MailChimp blog
MailChimp regularly adds 2,000 new accounts per day, most of which are free, but that initial community grew because of the greatness of the product not because it was free.
A small percentage of a very large number is indeed a large number, but can your startup stay solvent while you wait for the conversion to kick in? Freemium only offers the hope that non-paying users will fall in love with your product and start paying for it.
— Rags Srinivasan, Gigaom
You’re looking for impact and growth. You’re hungry to make a difference in as many people’s lives as possible. But free first isn’t the only way.
Your greatest asset to growth might be the product or service you’ve been waiting so long to create.
Your fear of “monetization” is justified. It’s your fear of having something to sell that’s not. If only you had a framework for knowing whether you were truly creating a remarkable product with stick-to-your-ribs value or launching yet another rent-seeking monetization strategy, you could fix it, change it, launch the damn thing already.
If you find yourself questioning the products or services you’re considering launching, it’s probably because you see so much rent-seeking around you.
Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine whether your idea falls under true value creation or whether it’s just a monetization strategy:
- What is the impact of this product on my customer’s life right now?
- What is the impact of this product on my customer’s life over the next 1-5 years?
- How does this product address a genuine frustration or desire that my customer has?
- Would my customer seek out alternatives if my product didn’t exist?
- Who do I want my customer to become as a result of using my product?
- Will my customer want to tell his/her friends about my product?
Create something that people are willing to pay for first.
And let them pay for it! Let them tell their friends.
Don’t rest your success on your ability to convert the masses. Use your early adopters to recruit & court your next wave of customers.
Don’t rely on monetization strategies that seek to collect rent from a community you’re sharing with others in your niche. Generate fresh value that solves a problem or fulfills a need for the customers you want to serve.
There’s plenty of room in the kitchen to build a bigger pie. There are plenty of ways you can serve, needs you can fill.
You’ll create a more robust movement of customers who are engaged, motivated, and results-driven. You’ll get feedback you can actually use. You’ll see opportunities as they present themselves.
It might take longer to grow. But your growth will be more sustainable, longer-lasting, and less dependent on you.
And you can take that to the bank.
Playing Big is a Whole Life Strategy: Interview with Tara Mohr
When Tara Mohr asked her community of brilliant women what they were frustrated with in their lives, the answer was loud & clear: playing small.
They were tired of second guessing themselves, their ideas, and their callings. They were ready to step into something… bigger.
And so, Playing Big, Tara’s signature program for cultivating a bigger life on your own terms, was born. She’s now empowered hundreds of women to channel their brilliance into bigger self-expression & actualization. As you’ll hear Tara say:
Playing big is a whole life strategy. Click to tweet!
Tara’s story is important to the You Economy because it’s a double whammy. Playing Big leveraged the one-to-one work Tara had been doing all along, allowing her to scale her vision, grow her community, and get on the national stage. But the idea of playing big and the skills it requires are also an inherently important part of realizing your own power in the You Economy.
In this interview you’ll learn:
- What does “playing big” mean?
- “When women don’t hold back, they will naturally play huge.
- How did women learn to play small in the first place?
- What are some of the different ways women are playing big in this economic landscape?
- Isn’t playing big exhausting?
To find out more about Playing Big, click here. Or visit Tara’s site and grab her 10 Rules for Brilliant Women — as seen on the Today Show.