This was Richard's question to the room as he prepared everyone for a session that would get them to step out of their comfort zones to reevaluate and discover their personal brands.
Richard specialises in using 'brand' to help companies and people create the world they want to succeed in. After working in the ad industry for 20 years, he pioneered a new way to use brands and do branding.
He believes that brand is a management issue, not a marketing concept, and everything can and must be driven by and aligned to your brand strategy – your business strategy, your products and services, your culture and people, your customer service and trade relationships, your marketplace positioning as well as (and not just) your marketing communications.
If you weren't able to attend the Network Breakfast, we've broken down the seminar below to help you to also discover your brand.
To begin, Richard says: "Ask yourself: 'What is my greatness' and 'What do I stand for?'""All brands stand for something, so what do you stand for?" Richard prompts
We all have needs, Richard explained, from safety and esteem to love, physiological needs and finally, self-actualisation, which represents everything you are capable of becoming and the desire to achieve that.
Realising your self-actualisation is the first step to discovering brand you.
Richard then asks you to score yourself from 1-10 on how good you think you are at your job.
The average, according to Richard, and the result based on answers from the room is seven.
"Seven is okay," Richard says. "But if we're looking at working on your brand, we want to be working towards a ten. Seven is the comfort zone - your business won't fail on a seven, but it's not a ten."
Next, Richard asks - what are the key attributes of a peak performer? Among answers from members of the drinks association were confidence, focus, passion, consistency, high productivity and determination.
Richard says, "this is the language of brand you. So when you are creating your CV, why aren't you putting those on there?"
This is where Richard coins the concept that you are more than your CV and says that we need to start using the descriptors that we consider to represent high-performing in the language we use to think about and describe ourselves.
"Brand you is about standing for something," Richard went on. "So, what do you want to stand for?"
Once you have an idea, Richard says you then need to look at what's holding you back.
"We all have fear, even the people that we think don't, but they have fear too, they just don't let it stop them."
So Richard asks you to make an agreement with yourself, to ask those two questions from the beginning and to start living a life that represents 10/10 to you.
Richard said, "Everyone has greatness in them. You are in charge of your reality; you are responsible as well - is your glass half full or half empty?"
To achieve this, Richard suggests taking two actions. Firstly, evaluate your 'have to do list' versus your 'like to do list'. Richard says, "there's always stuff that we have to do, but if your 'have to do list' is longer than your 'like to do list', there's a problem because that's not a good way to live."
"Do you want to survive or thrive?" Richard asks.
The second, is to do three actions a day that represent what you stand for. Richard told the room that his include sending smiley faces to people, talking to strangers in elevators and sending personalised post-cards to friends, families, and colleagues.
Other drinks association news:
- the drinks association's Women in drinks group has announced a formal partnership with Serendis Leadership Consulting to run a mentorship program in 2017. The program will partner 15 executives with 15 women from within the industry on a mentor/mentee basis to help the women with their professional development and progress in their careers.
- In October, the drinks association launched the Diversity and Inclusion at drinks Council. The Council is currently working on its policies and will announce its strategy and charter within the coming months.
- the drinks association has created a video explaining its services to members. You can view the video below.
the drinks association is the publisher of drinks bulletin.
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