The Ultimate Guide To Claiming Your Personal Brand Authority
Get Paid For Who You Are
The Ultimate Guide To Claiming Your Personal Brand Authority
By: Shana Yao
Getting paid for who you are. It sounds great, but it's not like someone is going to hand you a wad of cash just for being the amazing person you are... or is it?
Whether you have a business or even if you have a job, getting paid for who you are means you have the opportunity to show up as yourself - all of those strong opinions, personal flaws, occasional F-bombs... getting paid for who you are means people - your ideal clients - pay you not only for what you do, but who you are.
THE SITUATION
You’re a natural leader and have achieved success in the past. But in your business, it’s just a different game. You don’t get paid just for “showing up”. You have to manage multiple touch points in your personal communication AND in your business. And those things are not things we are trained to do in school.
This is why you may be a strong leader and have produced success in the past, but to really own your success and expertise, you need to really make use of your resources.
As a leader in your past, you need to do things DIFFERENTLY. Different than the people who hacked their businesses together who are now rolling in dough. They don’t have the magic answer. In fact YOU do.
“You don’t create your position in the marketplace. You claim it. That means understanding what you do, who you do it for and WHY you do it.”
THE POWER OF POSITIONING
There are a few essential points you should consider when you claim your positioning - before you can actually demonstrate this new positioning you have decided to claim.
1. Begin with the end in mind. Because of your experience you're on a rapid growth trajectory and need to plan from where you WANT to be and then build the plan that gets you there.
2. Stand in your value - this means reclaiming your once high standards and NOT losing sight of them.
3. The faster you move, the further ahead you need to look - that means you are ALWAYS focused on your end goal and CAN because your business is positioned correctly. If you don’t, your growth in your intelligent mind will surpass your cash flow.
If you don't do that, your values can become misaligned with who you are. Incongruent with who you actually are. Not attracting clients. Not charging your worth. Not owning your own expertise.
“This means, who you are is who your business is - it needs to embody who you are - business alignment.”
And while you may the only employee you have, one of the first title’s you need to claim as CEO of your company, is the Director of First Impressions. To craft your unique message and create the language you want people to say about you
You attract what you ARE. So if you are not confident about what you do, what you sell - if you yourself are afraid to invest in your business, that is who you will attract.
Distracted easily? Feeling like you don't know enough? You attract what you ARE and the image you put out - whether you are aware of it or not.
You may think you are independent, but the truth is, most people are AFRAID to show up as themselves. You worry about other people’s opinions of you and I’m just going to tell you that in order to be successful, you have to really BE YOU. Down to the subtle details.
Have you ever read someone’s blog post or website? Watched someone’s video - and you notice how they always wear glasses, or even how their hair hangs in their face a certain way… people are paying attention to the DETAILS that you don’t even notice.
It’s an energy - even if it’s online or in a video - you are sending out a silent message just by showing up as you. Call it "your personality" or the look in your eyes, it's energy, and you don't even know it's coming out of you.
That means that how you present yourself must be in integrity with who you are. We as humans have 11 million bits of information going on at any one time - but we can only notice 40. At any given moment in time, we are only aware of 40 bits out of 11 million.
That means that you can’t actually control everything about your own vibration. You can control what you say, what you wear, maybe even how you sound, but the insecurity in your voice because you’re speaking about something you don’t inherently know? Yes - on the outside it may sound great - but it’s you tonality, the tick in your eye, and the random appearances you make that are NOT in alignment with your truth.
This makes being in alignment with what you offer and who your client is even MORE important. Because when you are in alignment, the only thing you have to be is YOU. You don’t have to “try to” sound intelligent - you just ARE intelligent. You don’t have to try to sell something you don’t feel is worth a high price because you understand how you and your life solves someone’s URGENT PROBLEM.
WHY PEOPLE BUY
Why people buy comes down to ONE WORD. Whether you are a health coach, a small business owner, you sell a product or service - the ONE thing that your ideal clients
buy is your CONVICTION.
“People buy your CONVICTION. Your promise to show up as YOU - as your personal brand and mission. Your belief. Your dogma. Your credence. Your truth.”
You’re a stylist and you believe everyone you dress should wear gold pants? That every client you want to work with has to wear gold pants?
You’re a health coach and you believe that it’s your THOUGHTS that turn your health and diet around? That you help people with their diet but you preach about building your mind
You’re a fertility and child doctor and you believe that it’s conscious PRE conception that will change the health and life of your child.
Whatever you do - it’s YOUR STRONG OPINION on what you do and who you are - that is the POSITIONING that DEFINES YOUR NICHE.
Communication helps people decide - that would be visual communication - your branding, your colors your FONTS - your verbal communication - actually telling people what you think. Not just teaching them facts but TELLING them things they may disagree with.
Most people ASK what people want. And when you don’t get a response, you pull back. But you see, asking people is exactly how you DON’T attract your clients. You may get clients but they may be random and few.
THE DECISION
If you want to really be paid for who you are, you have to own who you ALREADY are and believe in yourself.
You need to believe that your ideal clients - your profit generating niche - need what you do. That you were BORN to create what your ideal clients were BORN to buy.
When you show up as YOU - the people who are attracted to you - attracted to your strong opinions - in your truth, in your darkest moments, even when they don’t like what you are saying, they LOVE YOU. They “get you”. And you “Get them”.
Success is a delayed mirror. Just like how if you wanted to lose 10 lbs and then one day you don’t eat the cake you always eat one night. You don’t wake up 10 lbs thinner. In fact, it may take you 10 weeks or longer. But if you KEEP not eating cake, eventually you will lose those 10 lbs.
If you express who you are and what you believe - if you show your personal style and you see nothing? That’s ok. You keep doing it and the right way in the right places? And eventually your tribe of loyal fans will show up.
Everyone is looking for clients. But owning who you are is different. You have an inner knowing because you understand how you fit in the world. How your story plays into your business.
It is not your job to think WHY and HOW, It’s now your job to DECIDE.
You are not like the rest. You have so much experience. So much heart. And so much to gain from taking the risk of being you. You can be ahead of the rest..by just getting in touch with yourself again.
What do you love? What inspires you? What made you live the incredible life and learn the powerful lessons you learned?
This is how you will gain visibility to your ideal client. If you are constantly looking for them, you will be trying to learn, over-learn and do things that cause you to focus on everything OUTSIDE of you.
This is one of the secret unspoken rules of positioning - to know who your ideal clients are you have to know who YOU are. And how to position yourself into your business so you can charge more.
You don't find them, you define them
So let’s look at brands who own their niche because it’s positioned correctly
THE PROOF
Starbucks
Starbucks clearly has a well positioned brand. Before Starbucks existed, people were paying 5 cents a cup. Charging $5 for a coffee? Outrageous. But Howard Schultz had an idea. Did he know people would pay more or the coffee? NO! But he decided to OWN HIS IDEA. He had gone to Italy and wanted to bring the rich boutique like coffee house experiences to America.
He decided to build his brand to deliver not just great coffee, but a GREAT EXPERIENCE. Today their mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.
It’s hard to imagine a world without Starbucks - but because he used his ideas and knowledge to build this passionate brand - now you can’t go a few feet without seeing a Starbucks store.
Kris Carr - Crazy Sexy You
She’s an amazing and super successful author and inspirational speaker. Many years ago, she was diagnosed with cancer. And instead of falling victim to it, she decided to start a business about it.
She turned her life and work to cure her cancer diagnosis into a movement that’s inspired millions of people to lead healthier, happier lives.
While Kris has been on Oprah, the NY Times bestsellers list and nearly every media outlet you can imagine, most of the time she’s teaching people how to live purposefully by eating more veggies, drinking green juice and living a holistic life.
Both of those companies and brands have a MISSION. What sets them apart - what made them successful was by knowing how their life who they knew themselves to be from the inside out. It’s an energy. In fact, there is an energy of all successful brands.
You not only see it in what they wear, what their branding is on the outside, but the silent energy inside of them.
THE UNFAIR ADVANTAGE
What is the energy of our brand? People buy what you sell, but they also buy YOU - what is the energy they get when they first come into contact with you? What is the journey they experience? What is the mood?
“Your brand’s energy is found inside (drumroll please)... the touch points of your STORY - understanding how you and your story fit into your business.”
You’ve heard of raving fans? In actuality, when you are able to navigate them and connect them to the touch points of your story - because YOU understand the role it plays in your business - how it helps them - that’s called “enrolling them” in your personal mission. How you get them to tell your story over and over again. To share it. To share your business.
Your business and what you sell - the things that make up your solid foundation, needs to answer:
What do you want them to say?
What do you want to hear?
What is the feeling you want them to say?
What is the experience you want them to have?
You get the unfair advantage over your competition because you create a unique experience based on who you are that they can't get anywhere else
The biggest mistakes (and ones you should avoid are):
1. You assume people know what to expect. You think they know who you are so you go to TEACH - you try to teach new information that you THINK they need to hear. But that’s just called over delivering. Information is important - but if that’s all they wanted, they would search google.
This may be why you find your clients have no loyalty. I mean they may be watching your videos, but they aren’t BUYING. And they aren’t buying because they don’t know you.
2. You are focusing on building your list. YES - you need a list - you should have funnels and have ways people can receive communication from you. But if you aren’t focusing on attracting QUALITY CLIENTS - then you are spending time on the WRONG things.
The truth is, if your business is positioned correctly, people would LOOK for your list. They will WANT to follow you. And want to buy from you. If you had a list of 10 people and they all bought $10K from you a year - you would be making $100K. If you have a list of 10000 and only 1 bought from you….
3. You are selling something and focusing on selling LOW VALUE things. A session here and there. Bits and pieces of what you do. If you don’t have a signature program or something that sets you apart from your competition - you will HAVE competition.
Just as how we talked about focusing on you? You actually need to understand how your experience- ALL OF IT - is a transformational solution for your ideal clients.
People buy transformation. They may spend money on fast fixes and small things, but they buy, believe, OWN something that will transform them.
And if you were born to create what your clients were born to buy, you sell something that no one else is delivering. You sell what you sell, and then you sell the silent and invisible energy of success.
This means, you own your expertise.
What are you the most of in your field and how can you become more of it? What makes you different? What is your HIGHEST and greatest value?
Your highest value is made up of
- What you do best
- What people value about you
- What you love to do
In order to stand out and actually BE an answer for people. What you sell needs to be based in human values for more compelling value proposition.
So in marketing one of the first things you learn in business school is a value proposition This means the value of your product or service to others.
But a COMPELLING value proposition is based on that AND your personal value. This is how you attract people who”GET” you.
It’s like dating - it’s actually a function of our brains. We have 3 brains - a physical brain - the fight or flight that causes us to fear things that we don’t recognize, that are selling us, or that we see as threats.
Then we have our emotional brain - the one where our gut reactions, heartfelt decisions are made
And then we have our stupid thinking brains that not only learn but also justify what we think - whether it’s right or wrong. So if you’re business and what you sell is based on logic only - what you THINK will sell, you will be stuck selling (fear brain) and over learning to try to market it (stupid thinking brain)
If what you sell is based on you - it’s designed from your EMOTIONAL brain - it’s found in your life experience and expertise. You know it works, because it worked for YOU.
It’s like dating - you can't help who you fall in love with. The people you attract - your niche - you solve an urgent problem for them. Like say you had a severe skin disorder. It ruined your life back then.You didn’t go out, didn’t date, and spent time SUFFERING. And because of it, you became a nutritional therapist.You learned that it’s not only your diet that fixed it, but your MIND. You believe that so strongly in your gut. So you package that together in your signature program. Your marketing consists of teaching people about how to fix your skin, and ALSO how to manage your mind and how your thoughts are related.
You recommend products you believe in because you know they are good because they worked for YOU. You share diet secrets only YOU know because YOU discovered them.
People become committed to a company because they believe what you believe. And they don’t know what you believe if you are just focused on building a list, teaching facts, or not being you on Facebook.
You are so passionate about it because it’s you, you want to share it - which instantly makes you feel more CONFIDENT. And it gives you something you believe is strongly in you are willing to go to bat for the people who need your help.
When your business is based on you, it’s PERSONAL. Nobody wants to feel like they are part of an automated funnel. We are all in this together
Instead of competing on price, you are competing on values and personality.
What do you need to do that? You need alignment so you Know how to describe what you do. What do you do? Who ARE you?
Decide today that you will create and own your personal brand. It’s a unique promise of value. When you know and communicate what makes you unique, relevant, and compelling. From there, your niche, your message, and your marketing can be established. It’s the intersection of who you are (the authentic you), knowing the urgent problem you solve, and the value you deliver to your target market - so now your niche - the people with that urgent problem - and the differentiation between you and your competitors who may be serving the same niche.
This means that you have to sell something that solves that urgent problem. That is the deep transformation they want.
It’s a step by step process. Something that is not being offered in the marketplace. And no one is doing it like you because they aren't you. What can you offer someone that works? How can you eliminate the competition?
THE PROCESS
So let’s get started… get your pen and paper out - you may want to set aside an hour and do this with concentrated focus.
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE KNOWN FOR?
WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU TEACH/SELL? What is the urgent problem you solve? Remember - it has to be DIFFERENT which means you have to include ALL of your highest value - are you creative? Where in your life have you solved your OWN problems? What is the unique way you solve that problem?
STAND APART FROM THE CROWD
How to say what you do, who you serve, describe their pain & urgent problems, and make them understand WHY you and your services are DIFFERENT
PACKAGE UP YOUR PROGRAMS & SERVICES
So you can make money while you sleep, not have to sell so much all the time to make your minimum income goal, make your money AND have a life
HOW TO MARKET & SELL - what is your strategic marketing plan?
Marketing your business is built from the understanding of your positioning and based on a customized marketing strategy
How can this program give you ROCK SOLID CONFIDENCE and UNWAVERING BELIEF
Then, if you keep doing everything we’ve covered - doing your marketing so it really gets to the subtle details of you - you will own your expertise, attract who you are meant to serve, and finally get paid for who you are.
So I want to ask you, what do you REALLY want? What can YOU do to move things forward today? What is the lesson that you teach that is the lesson you need to learn over and over again? What words do you need to share - the vulnerability inside of you that will access your ideal client’s emotional brain?
When you create products and programs that sell - THEN you will be recognized as a leader. People refer you business because they know what you do. You can create a compelling value proposition. And you know how to get the info out (tactics).
Help your ideal client to become a better person - as my mentor told me when I first started my business - Shana, change one life and you will never have to work at getting clients again.
What is the value you can deliver to show you care more and are making the world a better place? What is your personal mission?
Decide today that you will deepen your mission. To have a purpose and cause you believe in. To fall in love with yourself and your business all over again
Look in the mirror.
Who are you?
What do you need to showcase In your brand?
How can you inspire to help people want what you have
What is the feeling emotion?
How can you convey that in your message in your marketing
What is the emotional connection you have? To yourself? To your business?
Take this ultimate guide to self master as a small business owner and create your successful business so you can get paid for who you are. But if you are thinking, that’s A LOT of information. I want you to know, I get it. And I want you to schedule a chat with me so we can get you earning what you DESERVE to be making in your business.
Shana Yao is a Branding & Marketing Strategist, with over 28 years of experience managing multimillion dollar retail and shopping center locations, including the famed Rodeo Drive.
She works with high achieving clients to empower them to own their expertise so they can make a bigger impact in the world, with a signature business that reflects their personal style. She is host of the Marketing Made Meaningful podcast on ITunes, dog mom, and creative visionary.
Driven by purpose, her mission is to build Luminary Leaders of tomorrow to light up the world with change and innovation. Her focus around the areas of holistic health, personal style, and mental clarity, are based on the belief that true success is found in becoming the person you are meant to be in life and using that to empower your business. For it's the combination of your greatest strengths, talents, and life experience that fulfills your life and creates true, everlasting success.
Join her and other Luminary Leaders, lighting the world with their holistic and powerful businesses at the The Business Luminaries.