1. What is a Brand Equation?
The Brand Therapist now in session answering:
What is a Brand Equation?
First for some context. This concept is really aimed toward small business and solo entrepreneurs based on my belief that you are your brand.
So, if you are a bigger company there is still a lot of relevance in this concept but it’s going to work a little differently for you than it would for a smaller business where the owner really is the face of their brand.
So, what is a brand equation? This is going to look a little different for everyone because we are all unique and individual for who we are as people and as a brand.
But the breakdown is very simple. It’s LIFE + Business = Brand
Ok so what does that really mean though?
This is a concept I created after I failed miserably in a previous business. I created a brand that I am still very proud of and from the outside looking in, looked super successful, but the problem was that it wasn’t in line with my personal values and my life.
So, this equation is something I created and now use as a quick check in or test any time I have to make a business decision to keep me on brand and moving forward and not make those mistakes again.
It works for any business decisions you’re looking at. It doesn’t matter if it’s an advertising opportunity, a new service, or product you’re thinking about for your business and can even going into hiring and delegating work out to others. It’s gotta fit your brand.
So, anything that would affect your brand, you can ask yourself these questions and take a look at this equation to give yourself a quick, easy way of helping in that decision making process.
Will this decision support my life and my business?
So, let’s start with the life component, the most important in my opinion and think about where we are today in our world. Tech and social is such a huge part in our everyday lives both for personal and biz and we don’t have that hardline separation between personal and professionals that we had even 10 years ago.
This doesn’t mean I expect you to share your personal life with the world, but what it does mean is you need to be genuinely connected to your brand and be authentic in who you are as a person through your brand. People really want to see the reality and they’re very quick to call out the fake or smoke and mirrors. They want to see some of the struggles and challenges that we face and share the process with them and the progress we’re making vs. the perfection a lot of us try to achieve before we put things out there.
With my previous failure and burnout that I ended up hitting that caused me to walk away from the business I created. I felt like I was living a double life and miserable at both ends. I was me with my family and friends, and in the business world I had this persona I had to carry as this super polished professional. It just wasn’t who I was. I left the life part of this equation behind. I wasn’t doing the right things personally for me, personally for my family, and then when I was with my family I was very stressed about the business. I just couldn’t do it anymore. I was missing the business connection to my life. There’s gotta be a connection of the two.
The next component is your business. This is a little more simple of a definition because it’s what you do. It’s the income piece of the puzzle, the products/services you’re selling, and then it even breaks down into some of the other pieces like the clients you’re working with.
So these two components together equal your brand.
To avoid a brand breakdown, ask the right questions.
I know it’s not that simple and building a brand and having a biz is so much complex than that, but if we use this equation at the core of our biz to help make these big decisions, we can make build a super successful brand with just these two basic factors of this three part equation.
What happens if we forget one of these or we’re not paying attention to one of these parts of the equations, we have what I call a brand breakdown.
And it can occur when any little piece of those gets forgotten. What it does is cause you to be off brand. This can be very slight or major and have major effects on you (like it did me in my last biz), or it can affect the consumers perception of your business where maybe you think you’re doing all the right things but the consumer’s not relating the way you want them to because there’s a breakdown somewhere in this equations and so it’s something just to look at throughout the whole things and any time I have clients struggling with their business somewhere is we go back through this equation and we find that brand breakdown.
The really easy way to use this equation when you are making decisions in your biz, is you ask yourself two questions.
Is it right for your life?
Is it right for your biz?
If the answer is no to either of those, you need to step back and reevaluate the situation.
If you answer yes to both of these, then that might be a good opportunity for your brand.
If the answer was no. It doesn’t mean it was a bad idea or it couldn’t be super successful or a really great opportunity. It’s just not right for your brand at this time. That may change in the future that may spin off in another biz opportunity that you work toward but separate for the brand you’re building.
It’s a super simple tool I use for not so simple decisions.
Listen to the audio at https://www.thebrandtherapist.co/podcast-1/episode/ea4b1870/2-how-to-be-your-own-brand
For our services check out The Brand Therapist and contact us at https://www.thebrandtherapist.co/