This is a guest post from fellow blogger (and BGB reader!) Jess- who likes to yammer on about being irresistible and such by embracing your inner “quirk”.
Luckily “quirk” doesn’t translate into jerk and she’s really quite charming. So I’m happy to have her throw her 2 cents in on BGB. Please do your verily best to make her feel welcome, so we can strong-arm her into coming back sometime. 😉
Your brand is a representation of you and your business, and is very often the first impression that people will have of you. It is the images, the types, the tagline, your customer service, and so much more. Your brand is the overall image and experience that people have of you and your business.
It is the mark that identifies you.
An irresistible brand happens when you put all of those brand pieces into place in such a way that your Right People are irresistibly drawn to you.
They love you, they feel like you’re talking directly to them, they feel at home and feel drawn to you in a way that they just cannot explain. They just know that you have something they want, and that they want to be around you.
Building an irresistible brand is not as hard as it may sound. But it’s not something that is likely to happen by accident either.
An irresistible brand is something that is built strategically, purposefully. It’s the end result of a process of exploring yourself, your customer and what you have to offer.
Many people look at this process as hard and dry, something they HAVE to do. It’s boring. They want to get into the fun stuff, and this feels too much like work.
And it shows in the end result.
They end up with a brand that is dry, lifeless and looks forced. It doesn’t speak very strongly to their Right People because they didn’t dig deep enough to identify who their Right People are.
And it doesn’t reflect who they are very accurately, either, because they didn’t take the time to dig deep into that to find out what makes them unique and what they have to offer that no one else does.
But you don’t have to build a dry, lifeless brand through a process that is painful and boring. You can take a different approach, and have a lot more fun with it.
And the result that you’ll end up with will be so irresistible that you’ll barely keep from being drawn in to it yourself!
It All Starts with You
The process of creating an irresistible brand starts with looking at you. This is a brand that is going to represent you after all, so it would make sense that we should start there. In fact, you should start with your quirkiness, with those things that are unique to you, that make you different.
These are the building blocks for your irresistible brand, and they are what you have to offer that no one else can. These quirky pieces will influence the rest of your business, including who you work with, what you have to offer, what problems you help people solve.
Hidden away within this quirkiness that is all you, are treasures that you will be amazed to discover. Chances are, at first or even second glance, these things will seem obvious, common place. After all, these are things you see every day, that you’ve lived with all your life.
And so you take them for granted.
But the truth is, these characteristics, these wants and desires, these personality quirks and even the pet peeves all say something about who you are and what makes you unique.
No one else has this unique combination of quirkiness, no one else can offer what you bring to the world.
This is precisely what can make you irresistible!
Your Right People are Looking for You
Your Right People aren’t looking for a copy of someone else – they are looking for something unique, something different. They are looking for you to show up in all your wonderful quirkiness, to share what only you can bring to the world.
Because they haven’t seen this anywhere else, and you can teach them things that no one else can. You can give them an experience that no one else can. You can make them feel like no one else can.
And they’ll see that right away.
It will shine through in your branding – your message, your tagline, your website, your bio, and everything else that you do. The people that you are meant to serve will be irresistibly drawn to you because you are simply being you and being real.
Eliminate Your Competition
When you show up as your own unique, quirky self, no one else can compete with you because no one else can be you.
Sure, they might offer some of the same services or products, but the experience of those services or products will be entirely different, because it will be coming from you.
So when you are designing your brand, don’t just throw together some colors, images, fonts and other elements in a haphazard way. Instead, get strategic and purposeful and really dig into what makes you unique. Look for the gold in those things that you take for granted that make you you.
And then embrace your quirkiness. Embrace it wholeheartedly, with everything you’ve got. Be proud of who you are and what you have to offer.
You don’t have to hide behind someone else, or try to be like someone because you think that’s what people want. You can be your own glorious, wonderfully quirky self. In fact, that is the only way that you can truly be all that you are meant to be in this world and serve the people you are meant to serve.
Just watch. As you start to embrace your quirkiness, watch how people respond to you. Watch what happens when you start to get that quirkiness into your branding, whether that be your website or blog, your social media profiles or something as simple as your business card.
I’m betting that you’ll start to see different people drawn to you, things will start to shift around you, and you’ll find yourself more in alignment with what you really want and who you are meant to be in the world.
Embrace your quirkiness and watch your irresistible brand unfold around you.
‘Nuff said. 🙂 Please drop your thoughts in the comments below, and make Jess feel welcome. And if you enjoyed this post, don’t forget to pass it along.