Brand clarity can be tricky to get right
Even though you might not have thought of it, how others perceive you is a big part of your brand clarity. Several years ago I 
went to a retreat, where we had to answer a detailed set of questions about ourselves, asked by someone we did not know. After that, that person had to tell a third person what they knew about me, based on that questionnaire, and that third person wrote down everything said. Finally, the third person had to give me feedback about the kind of person I was perceived to be.
It reminded me of that child’s game of passing information from ear to ear and seeing how it changes from the first person to the last person. Remember doing that?
Since neither of these two people knew me at all before I answered the set of questions, I was shocked how much they got out of my answers to their questions. Here’s what I was told.
- Conscious
- Motivated to do big things
- Interesting
- Funny
- Gets the small stuff
- Exact
- Willing to learn
- Laughs at things
- Focused to take the time in making changes in business and life
- Gets answers and goes and implements them
- Wants ideas, not time
- Not lost in past story
- Has little family
- Admits when stuck
- No excuses
- Likes change
- Transforms other people’s business, life and her own
- Gets in her own way
- Has money to invest
- Has a non-scarcity mentality
- Good sense of humor
- Not clingy
- Gets support from spouse
Some of these don’t surprise me at all. Some made me smile (my laughing and sense of humor is mentioned 3 times!). Some I didn’t understand (wants ideas, not time). A few made me admit shortcomings (gets in her own way).
How we are perceived affects our messaging and our brand
The point is this – we give an impression about ourselves in all we say and do. While we may be unconscious about parts of ourselves, those unconscious parts are noticed by others. This affects our know/like/trust factor. And even worse, if we want to be known for something in particular and we don’t have internal clarity, then we won’t sound clear about our brand – our messaging will be fuzzy.
If you introduced yourself and said what you do to someone today, would that person get a clear sense of how you might help them? Would their ears perk up? Would there be an emotional connection with you? Would that person ask you a question or make a comment about what you said? Or, would the person say, “Oh, that’s nice” and change the conversation?
We may think we know how we come across, but in fact we might have not quite the same effect as we think or desire. And as our work changes, we sometimes slip into new ways of saying things that are not as clear as we think. So it’s helpful to check our messaging and our brand clarity now and then.
This is why I’ve been focusing a lot lately with my clients about maximizing your message and having brand clarity. Here are a few signs that you might be lacking:
- When people meet you, they don’t ask questions about what you do.
- Your sales are flat or slipping, even though you are still marketing consistently.
- You don’t feel super confident that you know the exact right words to introduce yourself.
To help you, I’ve created a Brand Clarity Self-Assessment which you can download at no cost by leaving your name and email right here: https://confidentmarketer.com/brand-clarity/. You can ask yourself this set of questions and get an idea about how much brand clarity you have. It’s a great conversation to have with your team, too.
I’ll be taking a small group through my Maximize Your Message course again in January – and it’s not too early to sign up! You can check it out to see if it’s for you here: https://maximizeyourmessage.com.
If someone make a list of your attributes, would the list surprise you? Brand clarity – it makes all the difference in being understood and being hired for your work. Check out the self-assessment tool here: https://confidentmarketer.com/brand-clarity/.
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