It’s a Kind of Magic
WMMM #054 - This week, I share a tip for personal growth that translates to professional sales skills.
Jeff Keplar Newsletter February 17, 2024 5 min read
3 - 7 - 27
There is no shortage of people offering us advice on how to build our personal brand.
Brand-Building Framework, Northwestern University
Crafting Your Personal Brand: A Comprehensive Guide to Stand Out, mobilicard.com
7 Steps for Building a Successful Brand, shopify.com
The 4 Ps of Creating Your Personal Brand, economictimes.com
What is the 3 - 7 - 27 Law of Branding?, forbes.com
Advice includes:
Identify your niche
Have a Backstory
Get a professional headshot
Develop your online persona
Elevator Pitch
Content Creation
Engage and network
Be authentic
Continuous learning
Seek feedback
Give back
Monitor your brand (protect and defend).
It takes three contacts for someone to remember your name, seven to associate your name with your business, and twenty-seven to become a top-of-mind brand name.
Why We Should Care
Your personal brand is the image you present to the world.
It's how people perceive you and what sets you apart from others.
It makes you stand out from the crowd, highlighting your unique skills, experience, and points of view.
It shows future employers and prospective customers that you are serious about who you are, what you do, and how others view you.
One Golden Glance of What Should Be
Social media has forever changed the way we interact and conduct business.
That's why branding is no longer just a tool for large corporations to market themselves.
Your personal brand is a reflection of your identity.
It's also a commitment to potential employers and customers.
Over 70% of a potential employer's or customer's impression is formed from what they see and read of us online before engaging with us.
Irrespective of how we ask the question or analyze the data, the result remains the same: our online presence accounts for over 70% of others' evaluations of us.
Reputation
When we are authentic, our reputation is essential to our brand.
While our brand reflects our identity, our reputation is how others have experienced us.
A solid reputation increases our presence and exaggerates our strengths without us having to spend much energy.
Like the Halo Effect in behavioral psychology and highlighted in Gialdini's book Influence, it can create an aura around you that instills respect, even fear.
The Desert Fox
In World War II, while fighting in the desert of North Africa, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had a reputation for cunning and deceptive maneuvering that struck terror into everyone who faced him.
Even when his forces were depleted and British tanks outnumbered his five to one, entire cities would be evacuated at the news of his approach.
It's a Kind of Magic
The people around us, even our closest friends, do not reveal everything about themselves.
If we think about this long enough, it could make us uncomfortable since it would make it impossible for us to really judge others accurately.
So we prefer to ignore this fact and judge on appearance.
We take the easiest path.
We judge what we see and read: clothes, gestures, words, actions, and online presence.
This is the reason for the importance of making and maintaining a reputation that is our own creation.
It gives us a degree of control over how the world sees us.
Reputation has a power like magic.
Whether the same deeds appear brilliant or dreadful can depend entirely on the reputation of the doer.
A Bell that Rings Inside Our Minds
Have you ever had someone attempt to blame and shame you unfairly?
How did you react?
It might seem appropriate to ignore them.
This is especially the case when the source has a damaged reputation of their own and lacks credibility.
But don't.
Please do not take it lightly.
Don't let them get away with it.
We rarely address such things in this newsletter.
But our reputation is at stake.
It is best not to let ourselves get angry or defensive at these enemies (that is precisely what they are.)
That reveals insecurity, not confidence in our reputation.
But fight them with everything we've got.
If the odds are stacked against us, ignore the odds.
Protect our reputation at all costs.
If it means challenging their credibility and exposing them, then so be it.
Find a way to bring them out from behind their email signatures and into the light of day.
Once out in the open, let others be the judge.
Don't feel bad about this.
There are frauds out there, unfortunately.
Some people will throw shade on us to hide the truth behind actions they need or want to take.
It may cost us in the short term, but protecting your reputation is a long-term play.
This is not a trivial matter.
Be Awesome to Work With
People want to work with people they like.
"I'm at my best when I'm working with you."
That's the reputation you want.
Reputation = Brand
Our "Reputation Speaks for Itself," and we can proudly say that when we have built it brick by brick, nurtured it, protected it, and defended it.
Credits
This week's content is courtesy of:
The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene
Thank you for reading.
Jeff
When you think “sales leader,” I hope you think of me.
If you like what you read, please share this with a friend.
I offer my help to sales leaders and their teams.
I possess the skills identified in this article and share them as part of my service.
In my weekly newsletter, Win More, Make More, I provide tips, techniques, best practices, and real-life stories to help you improve your craft.
