Today we're talking about you as a business owner being the brand of your business, especially as a solopreneur or with a small team. If you have a smaller type of business, you'll definitely be the face of your brand. So let's talk about that today and what that means for you.
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I am Jen Argue, I have been leading masterminds for the past five years for six and seven-figure entrepreneurs, and I would love to help you start your own mastermind as well so that you can create a really big impact with those around you and work a lot less and make a lot more at the same time.
So early in my business, I used to get a little nervous when I would host something in a Facebook group as a response to somebody else's comment about needing help with something and then see a bunch of other people list responses as well that were in my same field or my same line of interest.
And I used to feel a little insecure about that and wonder is there room for me if all these other people are doing the same thing? And now I know as a more seasoned business owner that is actually a good thing when we see lots of other people doing something that we are interested in doing.
That means that there's a demand for it, and very likely it's going to be very good for you, but in order for it to be very good for you. It's important for your personal brand to stand out because let's just imagine. That there is a whole block of coffee shops, and we know when you go to certain areas that similar type of businesses tend to group together, right?
Like maybe coffee shops, maybe automobile repair shops, sometimes gas stations or boutiques or ice cream shops. There tends to be a lot of the same thing in the same area which is actually good because it brings the people with that demand together in the same spot. And you're kind of sharing each other's audiences, right?
But, if you think about, let's go back to our example of a coffee shop. Each coffee shop is a little bit different and most likely they want to be a little bit different, right? To stand out from the crowd. It might be that they have this identity as an old diner coffee shop, and you get your coffee in the diner mug and it's kind of, you know, it's from the big bun machine and it's, you can get scrambled eggs and toast with it, or muffins or donuts.
And then there might be another coffee shop where it's, they have more espresso machines and they serve it in a certain type of cup, and the lighting is different and the side dishes are different maybe it's croissants or some kind of unique croissants.
I went to a coffee shop not too long ago and they had a croissant with spam In it, that was amazing. I mean like so different, right? And of course, I had to try it, probably wasn't my favorite thing, but I was glad I tried it. I like to do that, try new foods and sample things, and then there might be another coffee shop that sells boba in their coffee, those little chewy sweet pearls of tapioca.
So there's all these different ways of making yourself stand out in a sea of the same industry, the same things that people are selling. So let's say, you are a social media marketer and you want to stand out. What are some things that you are going to offer? What is the way you're going to present it?
And let's talk about…just in general, you and who you are and the energy that you bring to your business because all of that, when you're a smaller business, is a large part of your branding and part of your USP, which stands for “Unique Selling Proposition,” and that just simply means what makes you special.
So it's what makes you special that is going to either draw people to you or push them away from you. Not everybody wants Boba in their coffee, [laugh] and not everybody wants spam croissants, but for those people that like those things, they are going to be drawn there and become loyal customers, and the same is going to happen for you as well.
Now one of the problems that happens when typically when people are starting their business is that they're not quite sure who they are. They might feel, and I felt this way, like do I need to be a certain way to run a successful business? I see so and so being successful. Maybe I need to be like them, or maybe my website needs to look like theirs.
I remember way back in the day when I took “B School” that it was a very popular thing for everybody taking [laugh] “B School” when they were designing their websites to want it to look like Marie Forleo's. And honestly, I'm not sure that that works. I'm pretty sure that doesn't work because Marie's website reflects Marie.
And our websites need to reflect who we are and the energy that we have, the unique thing that we do, the opinions that we have, the voice that we use, our methods, that we like all these things need to be present on our websites to draw people to us or push them away. Because the more we can be, in a way just very polarizing the better because then the people who are drawn to us are going to be fiercely loyal.
And what are the benefits of having an audience that's fiercely loyal? Well, they're going to very easily know how to talk about you behind your back in a good way. So oftentimes what you might hear is when somebody is talking about a business that they really love, they're probably going to tell the founder's story.
Oh, you know, they might say something like, I love this person. I've been following her for a long time. She used to be this, but then she had this happen to her and that's why she's doing this now. And so you can see how knowing your founder's story is really important because people love stories and people feel attached to you when they know your story and they feel proud of being there in the beginning, especially if they were there in the beginning.
Or even if not, if they can relate to part of your story, they feel like you inspire them. And they want to tell people about it. It's exciting to have a story to inspire people. So knowing all these things about how you can stand out is going to help launch your brand and build a community of fiercely loyal customers and just not even customers, but even an audience who will someday become customers or share with their friends who might become customers someday. Though as you think about being yourself, I want you to really think about what feels good to you.
When you're trying to be somebody that you're not even in the smallest sense. You are going to feel some type of disalignment or incongruity, and that incongruity is going to show up. It's going to show up as maybe procrastination. Maybe it'll show up in people not being able to feel the energy behind what you're putting out, whether it's a marketing piece or whether it's your speaking or you're connecting, or even just meeting with them in a one-on-one.
People can sense that. And so being yourself, 100% yourself is what is most important. That alignment is going to propel you forward, and you might be having these thoughts, Ugh, what if people don't like me? What if I turn more people away? What if my business tanks, because who I am is not going to attract people?
But that is rarely the case, rarely. If you think about all the people that you admire, just think about them for a second. Pick about three people in your mind who you admire. What do you notice about number one, their energy and what do you notice about the way their personality is. Now, you might notice that their energy is usually one of service, right?
They want to help. They want to make a difference. But their personality the way they present that, can be completely different. There are all different types of people's personalities out there who are successful. There is not one specific successful type of personality. There are introverts who are successful.
There are extroverts who are successful. There are people who are smiley, who are successful. [laugh] There are people who never smile, who are successful. The whole range is out there and there's room for you. And the way I know that there's room for you is because there's only one you. And when you show up as yourself, you have no competition.
There is nobody out there who can match you and what you do. And if you're putting yourself out there and you're gaining traction, you might be an inspiration to somebody else and somebody else might try to be like you, somebody else might try to copy you, whether it's your personality or your stories or your programs, but guess what?
I guarantee those things are not going to be in alignment for them, which means they will not be successful at it. All those people who got Marie Forlio websites, I wonder if they were actually successful. I hope that those people, you know, use that to help them get traction and some movements, some momentum, but I hope that they quickly adapted it to who they are.
Something that felt more aligned that worked for them. Because that's the only thing that's going to work for you. If I have seen it so many times that people have built a business that wasn't aligned, you know, they maybe built things that was suggested by other people and they didn't process it through their own filters and ended up building something they didn't totally love because it wasn't completely aligned for them.
And that will make you want to throw your business away, that will burn you out. That will make you not want to do your work and show up and serve. Instead, building a business that completely reflects you what is in alignment with you and nobody else is a way for you to let go of that feeling of comparison, of envy, of jealousy, of feeling self-doubt, lack of confidence, all those things that come with comparison that thief of joy, all those things will slip away.
The more that you are in alignment with who you are in building a business based on your best self. So what are the components of that business? Like I mentioned before, it is knowing your founder's story, knowing all your stories that only belong to you. That is also what's going to set you apart from a lot of Chat GPT-generated copy, so they don't have your stories.
Only you do, and that's what's going to make you stand out these days is telling your stories. Second, what is your signature method? What is something that only you deliver in the way that you deliver it and you get people great success for it? What is that thing that you are an expert at? Be the expert. Be the best at what you do.
That will set you apart from all the others. Just embracing your personality, however, that is, if you're quiet, if you're chatty, if you're colorful, if you're neutrals. Whatever, if you're quiet, if you're loud, whatever it is, embrace yourself and your personality and show up fully always as yourself.
Another thing you can do is share your opinion. You have stories, you also have opinions, and your opinions will hopefully connect with people, but also be polarizing with people. You need both, [laugh] just to be always polarizing is kind of exhausting, frankly, and only being connecting or relatable is kind of boring.
So having a little bit of both is important in your brand. When you talk, when you talk about things that are important to you, the things that you would die on a hill for, and the things that are super relatable, just having opinions about things and sharing them. A lot of times people wonder like, I don't know what content to put out there.
Just start talking about your opinions about things you don't even have to talk about specifically your opinions about your product and your services but talk about other things happening, and that is going to catch people's attention and draw them in or push them away. But both are good. So talking about your opinions really helps you to stand out as well.
I hope these things that I shared with you today encourage you and inspire, and even challenge you to grasp who you are to do a deep dive on who you are and what your brand is, what your stories are, your opinions, your signature products, and methods, frameworks and your why, your founder's story, what's driving you.
I hope that you can identify what all those things are to encourage you to let go of any feeling of competition that you have or any feelings of not being worthy, having that self-doubt being jealous or envious of others, the more you scroll on social media, being grounded in these things is going to let all of that slip away and it's going to give you peace.
About running your business in a very aligned way that you will love and that will bring transformation to other people's lives because you are so focused and you are so on fire because you are so aligned. So if you have been moved by this talk today, please let me know. I would love to know what stood out to you, what you're going to focus on diving deep into, and how you are going to make that change to stand out and be the best you.
Thank you so much for listening today. I hope that if you found value in this that you would subscribe to my podcast and share it with a friend and leave a review.
Thank you so much!
