Be Different or be dead

February 28, 2022

10 easy ways you can create an audacious personal brand

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10 easy ways you can create an audacious personal brand.

Building a personal brand is more than seizing some words that you think tell the story of who you are and what you stand for. Rather, it’s a process of defining and then doing many ‘small things’ that collectively define you.

Personal brand building is a strategic process that asks more than ‘Who am I?’, it also then asks ‘Who do I need to be?’. The latter question is the strategic piece; ‘How do I need to be perceived?’ is answered as if you were creating a business plan with a competitive advantage claim.

Your brand needs to be forever relevant, for if it fades from resonating with the people around you, it’s useless.
To be effective, a brand must continue to resonate with those that experience it; they must see it as a ‘forever’ solution to problems they continue to have or challenges they continue to face.

A brand that doesn’t relate to the issues people care about in the moment is irrelevant and the person propagating the brand goes unnoticed.

Furthermore, a compelling brand is amoebic. It adapts to and changes with the circumstances surrounding the person owning it. It’s like a coronavirus variant that is searching for new ways to stay alive.
A meaningful brand position is forever in a state of flux, anxious to morph itself to survive in a new environment.

So, in no particular order, these are the actions I took to adapt and evolve my brand during my career, starting from an entry level systems analyst position to president and CMO three decades later.

Each action helped me stay relevant during highly changing and turbulent times, but no single one was a ‘silver bullet’ for success.

‘Stay relevant’ brand actions

▪️ Identify the people who you want to ‘talk to’ about who you are and what you do These are the foxes in any organization who tend to make career decisions in your space. It’s important that these people get exposed to the values you represent.

▪️ Have a good understanding of the other players the other players competing for the same brand attributes to understand the brand field you are competing with and their brand claims.

▪️ When presented with a task, ask yourself the question “How can I do this differently?” than others. This is a critical question to get you noticed (if you answer it right). Just having the subject top of mind will lead you in the right direction; use it as the lens to determine what to do and how to do it. Ask yourself this question everyday.

▪️ Purge every aspect of copying from your being.
This is tough because it’s almost second nature for people to ask ‘How did someone else do it?’; to benchmark best in class and apply best practices.

We’ve been conditioned to believe that we are better off when we follow the best in the herd, which is nonsense. All we have done is temporarily change our position in it.

Using a boilerplate that someone else developed robs you of the originality needed to stand out and be remarkable.
Copying what others do keeps you in ‘the common herd’ and prevents you from being noticed. Do whatever it takes to act with attitude and in a way that separates you from the crowd.

▪️ Look at what everyone else is doing then do the opposite. Amazing results are achieved by contrarian acts.

▪️ Learn to focus on the critical few things you need to be successful. It’s so tempting to chase the possibilities that are out there but the problem is that you are busy but ineffective in delivering quality results. Different people are “mindlessly” focused on a few critical things that are not on anyone else’s radar.

▪️ Shed the CRAP that gets in the way of your ability to focus on your key priorities. Holding on to comfy food may satisfy your appetite temporarily, but it won’t enable your quest to stand-out from the herd in the long run.

▪️ Connect with weird and different people. If you’re going to seek stimulation from others, lean in to people who don’t follow the rules and have off-the-wall views.

▪️ Be the first to take on new projects. Covet opportunities to offer standard solutions to radical problems that have not been addressed before. Your solution to a new problem will carry the ‘different’ tag.

▪️ Loosen up on planning; tighten up on execution. Most people think the value is in the cleverness of a plan; of course they’re wrong.
Jump into the messy inelegant world of implementation where results get delivered. Different people get stuff done; they don’t sit around pondering theoretical possibilities.

The do-it brand

▪️ In my experience a winning brand position is to adopt a ‘do-it’ persona. However, never act without a framework that will create a better than average probability of success. Unharnessed action may feel good at the time, but it will likely not produce the outcome you desire.

Build context for action. Action with no context is at best uncontrolled behaviour with no predictable outcome. Context could be your career goals, your personal set of values or the organization’s strategic game plan. Context sets the boundaries inside which acceptable action is defined and outside which inappropriate action resides.

Look for an opportunity to add value to the actions you take. Go beyond what might be expected; surprise the judges observing you by adding extras rather than simply meeting expectations. ‘Action - Plus’ is a way to think about it: act and do more.

Achieve with a twist; leave your fingerprints and personal mark on what you do. Doing something without leaving a trace of YOU is a missed opportunity to leave a lasting impression. If your action blends in with what everyone else does, no one notices and your brand pays the price.

Pause, then act. Be disciplined about taking action. Before moving, take a deep breath to ensure your action is grounded and will have the highest probability of making a positive impact.
Use ‘the pause’ as a necessary element of the acting process. Once you commit to act it’s a chore to shift direction so use the pause wisely.

Prepare for follow up. The results of your action must be determined in order to learn from them. Think through exactly how you intend to track the outcome and the impact it had on people. Develop an improvement plan for any action that didn’t work out the way you had intended.

Memorable action isn’t a knee jerk response; it’s taken with a sense of purpose.

Finally, Try, try and try. While others are seeking the impossible dream of perfection the do-it brand people are achieving results inch-by-inch.

▪️ Ensure that your brand addresses the critical issue of the day for your organization by continually measuring and refreshing your only claim.

And, again, remember that if your brand doesn’t respond to a compelling and relevant need that your business has, it will simply fall on deaf ears and be perceived as merely self serving.
If your brand, however, resonates with people and is consistent with the strategic imperatives of the business, it makes you the currency leader among your peers with the job satisfaction and career growth that goes along with that leadership position.

▪️ Develop the competency to recover brilliantly when you make a mistake (and you will, that’s what do-it professionals do). Fix your mistake (because that’s what people expect) fast, and then add something to the mix that surprises them. You will be remembered for your risk taking and brilliance of recovery; your mistake will quickly be forgotten.

▪️ Develop a communication plan to expose your brand both within your organization and to external audiences.
- Offer to do presentations on your chosen brand topic;
- Get quoted as a subject matter expert in any internal communications media your organization uses;
- Write articles for your organization and for external publications on your brand content; be the thought leader;
- Offer to talk to customers on your brand topic. Help them in any issues they have, and get known on the outside. In my case many of our customers were interested in what we were doing in the area of customer service as well as a ME marketing. I had many speaking engagements to air my brand;
- Talk to the media on your topic. Make it interesting for them. Get them calling you. Your organization’s reputation will overtime be influenced by you.

▪️ Listen to the conversation about you and use your social media presence as the ‘listening post’.
Dedicate time to monitor social media feeds to get real time hands-on feedback from various audiences on your brand.

And engage in any conversation to show that you’re interested in the commentary and to further reinforce your personal tag.

Online dating

▪️ Look to online dating for help. I’m not suggesting that you necessarily get involved in online dating, but I do believe the process can provide valuable insights on how to effectively position one’s brand in a highly contested world.

The crucial element in online dating is the personal profile where the challenge is to describe and ‘paint a picture’ of yourself that leaves no doubt as to who you are and what your specific interests are with the objective of attracting interest from people who are aligned with you — a daunting task given the size of the internet universe.

Bland, general and vague profiles attract few worthwhile hits whereas clear, expressive, and detailed profiles, on the other hand, stand-out to people who are looking for specific characteristics — specifics in the profile do a better job of explaining a brand and hence attract people who are interested in it.

Think of an online personal profile as a granular version of your brand and use it to express what makes you special. Over emphasize your attributes and specifically those that you think make you distinct from everyone else.

And also apply the ‘so what and who cares?’ test intended to catch the vague generalities and a helium-filled claims used by the crowd. If it’s a statement that everyone else uses, delete it and focus on what makes you special.

And don’t expect miracles overnight. You most likely will not come up with a profile that is sufficiently detailed to get the response you want, nor will it likely be crystal clear on how you are different than everyone else.
Doesn’t matter. It’s a start. Work with it and revise it as you experience its impact on your intended audience.

Wrap up

Building an effective personal brand is a journey; it’s not a one-shot exercise. And it’s not built by seizing on a single attribute or trait, but rather by consistently expressing a collection of ‘little things’ that people care about.

Cheers
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 2.28.22 at 04:33 am by Roy Osing
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February 21, 2022

How an unexpected bomb that blows up in your face can be no biggie

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How an unexpected bomb that blows up in your face can be no biggie.

▪️A pandemic shuts your business down.
▪️You’ve just been told you’re fired.
▪️An unfiltered remark your friend makes completely blindsides you.
▪️A small business tax increase announced by the government immediately increases your operating costs and reduces your profits.
▪️An aggressive move made by your closest competitor jeopardizes your market position.
▪️you’ve just lost the best player on your team.

Something happens that is completely unexpected, and could never have been predicted.

And it’s not a minor incremental event; it’s a BIG! discontinuity.

How often does this happen in business or your personal life?

It’s normal

It seems that ‘I didn’t see that coming!’ is becoming the new normal in all aspects of our world these days.

In spite of the plethora of sophisticated planning, forecasting and prediction tools available to us, as well as the pumped up awareness we try to exercise in our personal life, stuff we didn’t see coming hits us more often than occurrences we have successfully predicted.

The challenge is to be able to deal with it the best way possible to mitigate any potential downside for us personally.

Here are some ‘deal with it’ actions to take to get through the pain of the unexpected:

#1. Accept it

Understand that the unexpected is now a common element of life and accept it, because if you still believe that your original plan in anything will turn out the way you’ve intended, you’re in trouble. If you don’t have the right frame, you have no chance of turning a surprise into a successful outcome.

You can’t be leaning away from chaotic possibilities; you need to be leaning into it in order to turn a potentially disastrous event into a positive one.

#2. Be wary of predictive tools

Realize the limitations of forecasting tools and don’t put too much reliance on them. Treat the predictive tools as part of your ‘this is what might happen’ thinking; a possibility and no more.

If you give the result produced by the common predictive toolset serious credence, you are vulnerable to the surprise attack.

#3. Develop spider senses

Developing your spider senses to be acutely aware of conditions that might spawn discontinuity is essential if a win is to be extracted from a hit. You need to be prepared for a hit and constantly be uncomfortable in your skin.

If you’re not looking for a possible disruption, you will likely miss it when — not if — it occurs.

If you’re comfortable in these times, you’re not prepared.

#4. Get a rhythm

Try to be more nimble in the face of the unexpected. Can you dance? Can you change your cadence and rhythm to act differently when the unexpected happens?

Generally you don’t have a month to decide what action to take; get used to real time responses that make use of the very best information you have available to you.

Be on your toes, dash, stay on your toes and dash again — the only planning process that will work for a world where constant body blows is the expected.

#5. Have tolerance

Tolerate the blindside as a reality we all face at some point in our lives. There’s no point trying to fight it; it’s a legitimate fact of life over which we have little or no control.

If we can accept the likelihood that a massive shift will likely occur, our openness places us in a good position to create a positive outcome from it.
Intolerance to the blindside and believing that it is unlikely is an unreasonable position to take and it results in being subsumed by it.

#6. Create perspective

Develop a perspective about these happenings. Is the unexpected event a big deal or a no biggie?

You need to be able to assess the importance of the zinger in the total scheme of things in order to decide how much emotional energy you should be expending on responding to it. Pouring your guts into an event with little of no import in your life doesn’t make any sense; it’s draining and counterproductive.

I used the simple 1 — 10 scale to assess whether I should be reacting to a body slam; anything over a ‘7’ got my attention and I was all over treating it serious and responding accordingly. Anything in the ‘5’ to ‘6’ range got mediocre attention; less than ‘5’ got a nod of acknowledgment and nothing more.

#7. Have a backup plan

Always have a contingency plan just in case. If the unpredicted affects a plan you put into action, you should have thought through a contingency in the event that it is thrown off course.

No plan or strategy ever turns out the way we originally thought it would so be prepared with an option that you can throw into place on a moment’s notice.

As part of your strategic planning process, ask ‘what if’ of your critical assumptions. What if your estimated sales fall short by 50%? What if your business is suddenly closed — COVID certainly wasn’t expected, was it?

What if you lose your anchor client for your new product? Assess every cataclysmic event that could impact your plan and have a response ready and waiting to implement.

#8. Take a deep breath

Pause, take a deep breath and think before you act. OMG! knee-jerk responses are dangerous and typically lose the long term perspective; they play out in the here and now and can prejudice the future.

So think about the event that just played out; look for reasons why it occurred; consult the contingencies you’ve developed and then act on the one you believe is appropriate given all things considered.

#9. Stop being naïve

Lose the naivety; bad stuff happens. You’ll only be surprised if you have a pollyanna attitude to believe that continuity of anything is possible.

Being in a state of comfort has its roots founded in the past, where the rate and degree of change — across social norms, technology, politics and markets — was much more modest than it is today.

Today, with its deadly unpredictability must be respected and honored if you are to survive.

Morph your expectations into believing that anything is possible and that how we deal with the unexpected is the most significant determinant of progress.

Be prepared or be done. When the storm comes, it’s critical to be ready with a survival kit and storm shelter to protect you.

‘I didn’t see that coming’ should be part of every school curriculum under survival skills, what you need to know about getting by in a world of unpredictability and change.

And it’s more than developing the ability to cope; it’s about taking the forces you didn’t ask for and using them to your advantage.

Don’t be a victim. Be prepared for incoming.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 2.21.22 at 04:18 am by Roy Osing
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February 14, 2022

Why successful startup leaders are out-of-step with others

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Why successful startup leaders are out-of-step with others.

What is the prerequisite for a successful startup leader?

Is there one particular characteristic or attribute a person has that makes them more likely to succeed in the startup world than other individuals who also have a new idea they want to take to market?

Is it based on education? Is it based on how many degrees they have? Not at all. The fact is there are many individuals who have impressive academic credentials who fail at launching new businesses.

They walk away from university with an MBA, for example, with a chest full of case studies that they have mastered and land on an idea they think will change the world and bring them untold wealth. They get some funding and launch their startup. They apply everything they’ve learned at school. And they fail.

Why is that?

My experience has taught me that successful entrepreneurs are not made on the back of an academic pedigree; they need much more than a good education to take a brave idea that they have and turn it into an overwhelming market success.

Education helps but it doesn’t determine success.

An education should be looked upon as a required entry to the entrepreneur profession; without it, it’s a tough journey to succeed but with it there are no guarantees; you can still fail.

The secret, in my view, to at least having a decent shot at startup success is leaning away from the habits we learn from school.

We enter the unpredictable, uncertain and chaotic post-educational environment with our bags full of rote tools:
formulae.
— predictive models.
— business principles.
— economic theories.
— case studies.
— best practice methodologies.
— risk analysis techniques.

We are taught to believe that these tools will make the difference between a successful new idea and one that must be abandoned at some point.

The problem with the rote bag is that it’s contents aren’t particularly useful in a pandemic-like world where survival and success depends on a set of skills, competencies and knowledge that is different than what’s in our bag.
In addition, if everyone is practicing rote, it’s practically impossible for any single person to stand out and be noticed in the rote-practicing crowd.

The rote bag tools make you in-step with everyone else; what you need is to be out-of-step.

The best practice tool as I’ve said in my view is particularly egregious in terms of how it constrains one’s ability to be creative and separate themselves from those around them.

I’ve seen it happen before. The new CEO is faced with many launch challenges and turns to Google for suggestions on what to do.
The search results on their query returns a litany of approaches used by others around the world; the CEO picks one to copy because they believe it will work in their particular circumstances.

Copying best practices is a popular tactic used by not just startup leaders; most everyone uses it because it’s easy. But it does nothing to promote the innovation and creativity required for startups to succeed.

Copying forces the startup to be in-step with the crowd and is a formula to define it as common when it needs to be exceptional to succeed.

The startup leader needs to be out-of-step with the crowd.

I have seen success follow out-of-step people; those who reject crowd thinking and find best practices repugnant.

People who are constantly asking themselves ‘How can I do this differently than everyone else?’ People who look for weird, off-the-wall methods and outcomes as an expression of their individuality.

Out-of-step people make the world an interesting place to be and they make excellent startup leaders. And they are rewarded by achieving the recognition and reward they deserve.

My message to each of you intending to lead a startup: everyday when you get out of bed; decide that you will do something — some little thing — that is different than the in-step crowd.

If you make ’different thinking’ part of your daily routine eventually it will become part of your persona and will begin to govern the outcomes you deliver.

And success will follow. I guarantee it.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 2.14.22 at 04:30 am by Roy Osing
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February 12, 2022

How to navigate tough startup business risks

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How to navigate tough startup business risks.

Creating a startup can be a rewarding experience. You have the opportunity to start an enterprise on your own terms and truly innovate in your chosen field. But you must also accept that forming a startup is not without risk.

While few worthwhile pursuits are ever completely safe, the risks in forming a startup can certainly be a source of frustration. This means you need to become adept at navigating the risks in an agile and robust manner.

Let’s take a look at some of the aspects you should consider to address your startup business risks.

#1. Assess the risks

To best manage the toughest risks of a startup, you need to understand them from the earliest possible opportunity. The risks you face will vary depending on the type of business you’re running, which makes solid risk assessment vital. There will often be some basic common risks related to the location you’re operating in and the physical hazards of the work you perform. But you also need to identify which aspects of your unique combination of market targets, technological use, and even strategic approach can add to the difficulties.

As the leader of your organization, you can begin this process personally. It’s usually best to start with the planning stages, as it’s less overwhelming than when you’re in the midst of operations. Carefully analyze each element of your organization and business plan. Identify which challenges you face and be honest about the likelihood of the risk. This gives you a focus to put preventative measures in place.

It’s important to recognize that this risk assessment isn’t a one-and-done situation. Startup risks will evolve as your company grows and changes. Even individual projects you take on will have specific hazards. Build a solid set of assessment protocols to implement throughout the year and at intervals during projects. Make it a repeatable and reliable life cycle. Assess, plan, execute, assess again.

#2. Consider your people

The people interacting with your business can be both a source of risk and a solution to it. Their behavior and expertise impact your startup at all levels. No matter how much you think you have control of your company, you are reliant on people to succeed in your goals. As such, you need to focus on where people can make a difference in navigating risks.

This is easier to handle when you visualize the process. Stakeholder mapping provides clarification about the various groups of people who can impact your projects. This begins with analysis to identify who each stakeholder is and where they sit in the journey to your goals. Importantly, you can visually chart a course to highlight how each person influences risks along the way. Your analysis may include staff in your organization, investors you need to fund projects, even the general public’s positive or negative response to your services.

Following mapping, you need to consider your staff choices. These are the people who can have the best impact on helping you navigate all risks. Staff your organization not just for day-to-day running but also with those who have the skills to mitigate the risks you’ve identified. Indeed, seek out those professionals with the experience to provide you with greater insights into the risks of the tasks they’ll perform. These people will be invaluable in helping you to devise solutions and minimize future issues.

#3. Adopt the right tools

Automated tools have been prevalent for some time. But sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) software using machine learning and data analysis to help companies make decisions is increasingly accessible to startups. These programs can be used to monitor your company processes, create more efficient practices, and even perform internal audits. All of which allows you to recognize and navigate risks before they become problematic.

You’ll also find remote work tools have a role to play in risk management. Keeping employees productive away from a central workplace can mitigate many of the physical hazards they’re exposed to. Robust project management software can also limit the potential for drop-offs in productivity.

Yet, it’s vital to remember that no matter what tech tools you use, you are likely to be vulnerable to cybersecurity risks. As such, your adoption needs to be matched with assessments for areas of security weakness in your network and the software itself. It’d be wise to work with cybersecurity experts to make sure you have the protection and training you need.

#4. Take your time

Finally, it’s important to consider how your ambitions can represent a risk to your startup. One report found 70% of tech startups failed as a result of premature scaling. There will be times you should ease the accelerator pedal a little, and you certainly shouldn’t rush into expansion.

Have a little patience. Remember, your business plan is more than just a document used to secure funding. When done well, it’s a well-researched resource that gives you a step-by-step journey through the first years of operations. This is an approach you need to keep taking. Always be researching the markets. Be cognizant of your financial resources and how investing in more staff or equipment will likely lead to greater returns. Taking some risks is important, but don’t take ill-informed risks.

Perhaps most importantly, take time to make sure you don’t burn out. One of the biggest risks as an entrepreneur is you’ll work yourself so hard your mental and physical health will suffer; in turn, your business will suffer. Think about your wellness throughout, as this is a key to any success you seek.

Conclusion

A new startup can be a great opportunity to introduce fresh ideas and innovations into the marketplace. But the chance for success is often tempered by some tough risks. It’s important to take the time to regularly assess the risks so you can make more informed decisions. Consider how your stakeholders and tech tools both offer challenges and solutions here. Remember not to recklessly rush into growth, as this is often a route to disaster. While there’s no innovation without risk, you must take a sensible approach to minimizing these hazards where possible.

— Jori Hamilton is an experienced writer residing in the Pacific Northwest U.S. She covers a wide range of topics but takes a particular interest in covering topics related to wellness and mental health. To learn more about Jori, you can follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

• Posted 2.12.22 at 07:00 am by Roy Osing
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