As entrepreneurs, whether you are in the health and wellness field or a realtor, it’s important to remember that people buy from people they love and trust.
We so easily forget that our “brand” is how people perceive us. They use it to judge whether we are trustworthy and a good person to do business with.
It made me realize how easy it is to sabotage our brand by being attached to the outcome of “the sale” and going into fear if we feel the sale is not going to happen.
People can smell “fear” and it is easily detected in the language and tone of the conversation.
I just had a fascinating conversation with one of my new authors around the topic of choosing to love over fear. During the first meeting, I tried to identify what the main theme of the book was so I can help them create an outline and chapter plan for the book.
With this author, it became clear her journey as a mental health specialist was a progression shifting her emotional focus from unconsciously choosing to fear to consciously choosing to love and eventually to unconsciously choosing love.
This shift had opened up many doors for her to humanitarian contracts in exotic places such as the Bahamas. She was demonstrating to me through her story telling, that this simple shift in perspective of choosing to love over fear was the image she projected to her potential employers, and no doubt, helped in winning her such coveted contracts like the Bahamas.
How can we ensure we are projecting the right image to our customers through our brand and how do we sabotage it if we are attached to the outcome and let fear creep in?
Don’t be afraid to share your life story and why you are passionate about what you do.
Have the courage to be vulnerable and share your journey, even if you are concerned that you will be judged. You might be surprised that your customers will trust you more if you are honest and vulnerable.
Remember that most of us choose a career that is based on our own success at overcoming obstacles. If we can authentically share how we overcame our weakness (or human-ness?) and share it to help others, our customers will relate to us when they see we too had a time of weakness.
When I announced to the world on the TEDx stage that I might be the only Dyslexic book publisher, the response I received was overwhelming. A Dyslexic publisher?
Sharing my weakness demonstrated that anything was possible. I was received with very positive responses, particularly from writers that were considering working with me.
I love to demonstrate to those beating themselves up that they “are not good enough” that anything is possible. If I’m dyslexic and a best-selling published author and publisher, what are you worried about?
If I had chosen fear and worried about the outcome of being judged as dyslexic, I would never have had the opportunity to speak on the TEDx stage or inspire others who are afraid of being judged to share their story in a book.
Your brand is you, warts and all.
Don’t be afraid to share your more vulnerable parts. Your customers will love you more for it and trust you.
One of the most successful realtors I know is the one that published her memoirs. Her clients trust her more because they know her background and life story. Her journey of overcoming trauma and embracing vulnerability by sharing her weakness with her clients IS her brand.
She invites her potential clients to read her life story in her published book so that they understand why it’s so important to her to make sure they have a comfortable happy family home.
When her clients see how brave, committed and empowered she was on her life journey to become a successful realtor, they are drawn to do business with her. People do business with those they love and trust.
What better way to build trust than to expose your vulnerable under belly to your clients?
Embrace love over fear and be willing to be vulnerable and authentic. The brand of the real you is the one that people really want to buy from.
About the Author, Julie Salisbury
Julie Salisbury is the author of Around the World in Seven Years: One Woman's Life-Changing Journey and Founder of Influence Publishing and InspireABook coaching. She specializes in helping authors to write and publish their books as a strategy to live out their purpose to the full.
Julie is more than a publisher with over 13 year's experience in the industry. She draws on her product marketing career in the UK of over 20 years to focus on strategic business and marketing goals to reach a global market via traditional and online media and publicity, and through strong global distribution and sales. She has published over 200 authors in the last 10 years and her unique "partner" publishing model means the author keeps all rights and royalties.
Visit www.influencepublishing.com or email founder@influencepublishing.com for information.
