Sometimes the larger canvas of life brings its own uncertainties. In actual, we don’t really know what the future holds – even though we dimly believe that we do.
As is true for your personal brand.
Your influence should be seized and acted upon in the present, instead of holding a faintly long-term application of how you want your influence to be perceived.
This doesn’t mean side-tracking long-term thinking. This means creating moments for you to predictably go back to what defined you at the very first place. In many ways, personal brands have an interest gravity over a period of time. But in only one way, you can live every moment you create your brand’s content and communicate with people who truly build your foundation with love, respect, and a humble grandeur.
So how can you go back to those beautiful brand moments you have savoured with this unstoppable and imminent time?
- Go back to why you do what you do. Sometimes, reveling in the very existence of your purpose gives us an enough nudge to keep going on even when things get tough. Purpose supports you when profits look bleak – and even otherwise. It is then that initial ignition of building your brand from the ground-up that makes you remember the exhaustively pleasing start. And, when the journey continues, anything that needs a reflection should be seen from how you started. That fresh view before your journey started gives you the ability to see things differently and without any bias.
- Grow with failures, and advance your successes. Failures – or better put pivots – greet us with new perspectives and lessons that can help us advance our success. These moments of learning better over a period of time underscores a mindset for growth and advancement. The first time you lose your customer? The first attempt at raising funds? The first email that gave you a not so sanguine feeling? These intense moments teach you more than any MBA on earth. Every learning moment graduates you to becoming a better version of yourself.
- Have an inclusive approach to everything. Embrace the brand custodians and your loyal audience and also welcome scenic (and a bit unexpected) comments. They are meant to teach you something. The vastness of inclusion beckons the best answers to better questions that arise at unprecedented times. This is not to say that everyone is your audience. It is to believe that your audience sees their universe (of expectations and standards) in you when they work with you. So embrace every comment, testimonial, criticism and occasional jolts to serve your audience better over a period of time.
- Quit more often. Scale what is deeply entrenched in your way of thinking and doing. Quitting after proper reflection into what isn’t serving you anymore energises you for more meaningful pursuits. Quitting can also be parlayed into saying more ‘No’s’ so you can take charge of your time and focus on your brand’s essential growth drivers.
- Make every moment memorable. Your first website launch? Your first email subscriber? Your first comment on your blog? The first book purchase dollar in your bank account? These are all moments to remember and cherish. As, along the way, it is the process that’s the gift than the actual gift of an outcome itself. I still savor my ‘Paris Cafe’ cover diary. I still cherish my first opening liners when I venture into a sales conversation on a cold call. I still remember those codified lines when I started writing my first few emails. I have a beautiful haven of books that helped me crack open some difficult conversations and resolve them with care and insights that I learned over a period of time.
Make time for moments that matter to you. As these moments define your days and your days define how you live your life and how you work in the years gifted to you on this gorgeous planet.
To your moment of reading this post – thank you!
Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash
