Your brand is your baby.
It came from you and it still comes from you!
The Big Idea
It was a brilliant point of insight and inspiration! You figured out how to do it better, faster, or make a bigger impact. After staying up all through the night to write it out, making sure you aren’t crazy, you then muscled up the courage to tell people about your big idea. Some were excited, some didn’t understand, and some thought it was too big of a risk for you to attempt…and the idea persisted.
The Building
Whether you had people on your side or not, you knew that this idea was something you had to push forward with. The voice in your head said “It’s time, do it before someone else does. Do it and you’ll be happy. Do it and you’ll be a great success.”
So the building of the brand began. You put together a business plan, a financial outlook, and you got to work.
Whether you know it or not, this is the foundation of your brand. That excitement! The story of how the invention took shape in your mind. The idea of how you were going to change people’s lives, make things easier, make a difference in the world. The feeling of making a mark.
The Work
You did it! The business is running, you have employees, and you’re doing the work. What now? Leadership meetings, board meetings, spreadsheets galore! Was this the plan? Are you making the difference you set out to make? Are you changing the way life is lived – yours and those of your customers and employees?
The Brand In The World
Now that your systems are in place and you’re making the product or providing the service you set out to make, your brand is alive. It’s a living breathing thing and it’s beyond you. Because your brand is literally every single touch point your business has in the world, how do you now control it?
It starts with you.
Sorry. Not sorry. If you’re overworked, stressed, and afraid, so will your brand be because your employees will be and you will make decisions from that place as a leader. Every decision and action in the business should begin with a look toward your mission. Why are you in business to start with? Who are you trying to help? What difference are you trying to make? Yes, you have to pay attention to those dang spreadsheets but if they are in the black and you’re not happy with the results of your teams, what does it matter?
What your employees say about their leadership is your brand!
How you feel at the end of the day is your brand!
The messaging and energy you put out into the world is your brand!
The feel of your packaging and where it comes from is your brand!
Every decision matters, every piece of communication matters.
If you’re not on track with your mission, it’s not too late. Every member of your team wants to do something big, make a difference, follow a great leader…that leader is still you.