In this guest post, Certified Go-Giver Coach and very successful branding authority, Bill Ellis shares with us how the most effective brand you can put out there is…YOU. The authentic you!
Enjoy my friend Bill’s wisdom-filled words! – Bob Burg
As a branding authority I believe very firmly that all brands must have authenticity at their very core.
I recently received an email from LinkedIn® encouraging me to congratulate several of my connections on their new positions. As I reviewed their profiles I saw this listed under one man’s ‘Experience’ – Authenticity Creator. I cringed. Authenticity cannot be created. It’s simply one’s essence.
Consider this statement:
As long as you’re trying to be someone else, or putting on some act or behavior someone else taught you, you have no possibility of truly reaching people. The most valuable thing you have to give people is yourself. No matter what you think you’re selling, what you’re really offering is you.
~ Debra Davenport
“The Go-Giver” – page 91
With that comment, Debra Davenport delivers the Fourth Law of Stratospheric Success – The Law of Authenticity. If you have read The Go-Giver, you are quite familiar with Debra’s story.
At the age of forty-two she suddenly found her entire world upended and desperately needed to find employment. Her answer was real estate.
She quickly passed the exam and began learning everything that her firm had to offer…including every ‘close’ from A to Z. One year later she had not sold a single property. Filled with despair she decides to quit real estate after honoring her final appointment. For this outing she dropped all pretense of selling and relaxed. She was just Debra. She let herself have a good time. She made her first sale. She had unwittingly learned the concept of adding value — the value of being authentically herself.
Debra went on to achieve stratospheric success — not only in real estate and as a keynote speaker inspiring hundreds of others — but in her life. She discovered The Law of Authenticity.
Understand, authenticity cannot be created. It can be discovered, uncovered, polished and embraced as outlined in my Five Key Factors to a Truly Authentic Brand. Is it simple? Yes. Is it easy? Not necessarily. It is worth the effort.
As a very famous storyteller once wrote:
*Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.
~ Dr. Seuss
“Happy Birthday to You”
Excellent post Bill. As you grow your organization is it correct to assume that your culture becomes your collective authentic self and that it is still important to let individual authenticity come through in support of that?
“Today youse are Youse, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than Youse.”
Doug,
It’s not just important to let individual authenticity come through in support of your company’s brand…it is IMPERATIVE! Any brand is the sum of its assets and an organization’s people are at the top of the list. Individuals are hired for their particular skills and traits – both tangible and intangible. They have to be allowed and encouraged to reach their full potential in order to provide the most value to the company. In turn, the individuals have to respect, acknowledge and support the ‘collective authentic self’ of the organization – its brand.
This is what I call brand integration – the melding of both the organization’s and the individuals competencies and passions. Achieving this integration is critical to delivering the greatest collective value to those the organization will serve.
Great question Doug – thank you. Let me know if you have more questions and certainly add any further thoughts/comments.
Thanks Bill, I think you stated my nascent thought better than I did.
Plus I got to use nascent in a real sentence.
and I’ve just added a very cool word – nascent – to my vocabulary 🙂
So love this post Bill! Personally, I have found that when I stopped trying to be better, smarter, even more “professional” than I truly was, my business expanded exponentially. Turns out I was more attractive in the skin I was born with than the synthetic skin I was attempting to manufacture. Not to say I haven’t worked on improving; that’s ongoing. But I work on improving without feeling the need to eliminate what I’ve been given… warts and hiccups and all.
Linda,
Thanks for sharing your story – it’s right on target. As my blog states, authenticity cannot be created. I love your word choice – manufacturing. That does not work.
What you’ve described – improving our authentic self – is different. Think of it like polishing a diamond. A real diamond – even if not perfectly polished – will always be more valuable than cubic zirconia.
Keep being the diamond that you are!
Thanks for your comments – much appreciated.
Such an important lesson Linda. Great to be professional and improve yourself but the authenticity has to shine through. At some level I think we all worry no one will pay the real us so we try to be someone else. 🙂
That’s the truth ! Bill Ellis, I have never seen an elephant trying to be a butterfly. To portray oneself differently creates a great burden to constantly come up with a facade. The only exception is social behavior requiring tact, courtesy & respect. Sounds good in a nutshell, now I have get busy changing myself !
The elephant being a butterfly is a very funny analogy Adelinde. 🙂 but it is also so true. It really is a burden to be anything but authentic as we have to remember what it is we’re portraying and it really is just a facade. Best to you in changing yourself for the positive and thanks for your comments.