I was having breakfast with a lovely friend of mine (and Faculty Member of Wonderful Web Women) Sharon Tieman the other week and she came out with a classic line. To be honest, Sharon constantly comes out with classic one-liners but this was one that made the light bulb come on for me. “People who sit on the fence for too long, always end up with splinters in their arse”.
The Relationship between Fence Sitting and Personal Branding
I want you think about the people in your industry who stand out as the leaders. There is something about them that draws people to them and often they have a polarising effect in the market. Some people LOVE them and other people can’t stand them. You may even find yourself saying sometimes “What would so-and-so say about this” or “What would they do in this situation”.
You may also find yourself thinking “geez, I can just imagine what so-and-so would say about that if they heard it”.
How do you know what they think and why do they resonate with you?
People who stand out as leaders in their field take a stand. They don’t sit on the fence and try to please everyone. They decide what they stand for and what they stand against. Now I’m not saying that leaders need to be inflexible. I’m saying they know what things matter.
This “taking a stand” is an important part of your personal brand but this is where it gets important (and powerful). To attract customers like a magnet in an online niche / community / tribe (which name you choose depends on the differing degrees of identity between the people in that group) it is essential that the stand you take resonates with the people you want to attract.
You can only be sure there is congruency between your values and those of your target market if you take the time to get to know them. Find out what makes them tick.
Here’s an example from my own experience
In online marketing people tend to fall into 2 camps.
There are some who teach that it doesn’t matter what topic or niche you build your business around as long as you make money. Your personal passions are not important. All you really need is to follow the steps.
There are others who say it is essential that you build your business around your passions because you won’t last the hard times. When the going gets tough it is your passion that gets you through and in addition, your target market can tell if you are passionate or not and this will impact on how successful your business is.
I can certainly understand both points of view and I have friends who have built businesses on both models. But me…I see business development as the most effective form of personal development so I only want to help people build a business around their passions (unless their true passion is business systems and that’s where they get their buzz).
So it should come as no surprise that I attract customers who want to build their business around their passions. This is part of my personal brand.
I share a story in a video of what happened when (ONCE) I promoted a product that was out of alignment with what I stand for and what my “tribe” believes. Woah did they burn me for acting in-congruently! This was an important lesson on how loyal people DO feel if you act in alignment with their values because they wouldn’t be complaining of betrayal if they didn’t feel loyal in the first place!
How Can You Apply This Idea To Your Personal Brand?
If you want to attract customers that YOU want to work with, they need to be able to identify that you are the person THEY want. There are just too many dull and boring people in the market place who sit on the fence and so blend in with the rest of the crowd. They sit there so long they get splinters in their bum and things really start to hurt (how far can I draw this analogy?)
Do some soul searching and market searching NOW and decide what things are important enough for you to jump off the fence and so stand out from the crowd.
This is one of the first steps to developing what I call a “Congruency Checklist”. If you’d like some help I’ve created a series of videos and worksheets to guide you through the process and they are my gift to you. They are just one part of a new concept I’m launching this week called “4th Dimension Mastery”. Love to know what you think.
Thought provoking!! Thank you…