1) Your Personal Brand1) Your Personal Brand2) Problem Solving 2) Problem Solving

THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE September 2012

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1) Your Personal Brand1) Your Personal Brand

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Your Personal BrandYour Personal Brand• How you are perceived…both ‘stand-alone’, and relative

to your peers/competitors.

• Do you actually know? Are you strong enough to look in the mirror, and see what others see?

• Why does it matter? Why should you care?

• Based on what your brand stands for, you will be: accepted, embraced, ignored, rejected, recommended, despised, or….?

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Your Personal BrandYour Personal Brand• Is your personal brand really relevant to your success?

• Your personal brand is only relevant if you need to interact with humans to achieve your objectives.

• Or, if you want to ask someone for something

o help, access, money, advice, a favor, “become my partner”; “buy my service”, etc.;

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Your Personal BrandYour Personal Brand• What creates your personal brand? Every one of your

‘touch-points’

• ‘Touch-points’= each element of your persona that ‘touches’ the world

• Visually; physically; orally; your actions; your thinking; degree to which you link ‘word and deed’/are trusted (do you deliver on your commitments?); problem-solving abilities (do you solve problems or deliver them?); your values; et.al.

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‘‘Engineering’ Your Personal BrandEngineering’ Your Personal Brand• It can be done…but it takes strength, self-confidence,

honesty and HUMILITY

• You have to be willing to look in the mirror and see what’s there

• It starts with a self-assessment; and input from people who will be honest with you….who are VERY hard to find…

• Requires: being open; being “coachable”

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‘‘Engineering’ Your Personal BrandEngineering’ Your Personal Brand• We all have limitations/areas that need work

• BUT -- limitations are only weaknesses if:

o we fail to acknowledge them

o we fail to act on that knowledge

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‘‘Engineering’ Your Personal BrandEngineering’ Your Personal Brand• Every one of us can improve our brand…and this should be

a life-long commitment.

• My challenge to you: if you could re-engineer your personal brand, how would you change it…what dimensions/elements would you want to engineer?

• And, do you actually KNOW what elements of your personal brand need to be addressed?

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Improve Your Personal Brand…TodayImprove Your Personal Brand…Today• 1) Find 4-5 people who will tell you the truth about

you. Ideally—360 degrees represented (peers, subordinates, bosses.)

• 2) Ask them for:

o 2-3 strengths/positive elements of your brand

o 2-3 limitations/areas you need to work on

o get it in writing

o and tell them you NEED THE TRUTH

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Improve Your Personal Brand…TodayImprove Your Personal Brand…Today• 3) Look across the ‘limitations’ and identify consistent

themes/areas to work on

• 4) For each ‘limitation’:

o create a reminder that you see EVERY DAY;

o create 1-2 CONCRETE actions/things you cando to address this limitation/manage around it;

o look at ‘a’ and act on ‘b’ … DAILY.

• If you do ‘4’ (above), you will improve your personal brand. Period. You can start…today.

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2) Problem Solving2) Problem Solving

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Problem-SolvingProblem-Solving• For every entrepreneur, there will always be problems,

obstacles, adversity, and challenges

• “Your ability to succeed will be directly proportional to your ability to solve problems”

• Remember: Entrepreneurs are guerilla fighters

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Problem-SolvingProblem-Solving• There is a reason why the word ‘creative’

often precedes the word ‘problem-solving’, and why the words ‘rigid’ and ‘linear’ don’t.

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Problem-SolvingProblem-Solving• Two problem-solving tools: affinity and incentives

• Affinity: nature of your relationship/connection with someone

o Customer, prospect, friend, family, etc.

o Stronger affinity = bigger potential ask

o Affinity; often driven by your personal brand

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Problem-SolvingProblem-Solving• Incentives: a motivating/compelling reason to do a

particular thing

o ‘Everybody has their price’

o Q) To use incentives effectively requires….?

o A) Knowledge of your target and what motivates them—ego, money, affinity, power, desire to help, etc.;

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Problem-SolvingProblem-Solving• Very few of the problems that you will

confront can’t be solved…with some focus, creativity and determination.

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Problem-Solving: Final ThoughtsProblem-Solving: Final Thoughts• ‘Delivering problems’ hurts your personal brand;

solving them enhances it

• So, when you come to the table with a problem in one hand…….make sure to have a solution in the other hand.