You, the people you want to serve and the transformation that only you can help them make
Getting to the core of things—like to the Earth’s core—involves digging down. At Revealing Genius, we call getting to what is at the core of your professional brand “excavating”—and “excavate” is the first step in our time-proven ETA™ process for executive branding.
Notably, developing your professional brand isn’t just about knowing yourself well. It’s also about deeply caring about and understanding the people you most want to serve. At Revealing Genius, we refer to the people you’ll identify as your ideal customers as “your beloved avatar.” Knowing your beloved avatar well will help you not only dig into the core of your brand but also have conviction about it. More on this later.
The third thing that’s at the core of your brand is the transformation that you—and only you—can help your beloved avatar make. Having a picture in your mind of your client making this transformation will inspire your passion to get up every day ready to make this change a reality.
So, what is at the core of your professional brand? The three-prong answer is you, the people you want to serve and the transformation that only you can help them make.
Let’s talk about each of these in more detail.
Excavate What Is at the Core of Your Professional Brand
When you’re excavating your brand as part of the Revealing Genius ETA™ process, you’ll get at the core of your professional brand by focusing on yourself. To tap into your personal genius, you’ll ask and answer such questions as:
- What am I good at? What are my key competencies?
- Who are my heroes and why?
- What quote or mantra do I live by?
- What do I want to do more of? Less of?
When you’re in the excavate step of your personal brand journey with Revealing Genius, you will also take science-based assessments to help you understand your strengths and your style. I’ve seen these assessments help clients own strengths they previously didn’t give themselves credit for having. I’ve also seen my clients’ surprise at something an assessment revealed they do exceptionally well—and then come to own that uniqueness.
One more idea about excavation: Think about your “brandthem.” This is the upbeat song or piece of music that makes you feel great about yourself and gets you going. Participants in our 7-Day Summit identify and share theirs. Take a moment to put yours on now as you read the rest of this post.
Your Beloved Avatar Shares Your Brand Spotlight
Many business people talk about their customers and clients. Maybe even their ideal customers and clients. But how many do you know who refer to the people they serve as their “beloved avatar”? At Revealing Genius, we’ve seen how this terminology makes a difference.
While “avatar” is simply “an icon or figure representing a particular person,” “beloved” means cared for deeply. Your beloved avatar is someone you’d love to serve. You’d move mountains to make your beloved avatar’s life better. Your mission in life is to help them.
This may seem very theoretical, so let me give you a real-life example. A good writer I know was only kind of ho-hum about her brand until she defined who she most wants to use her skills to serve. Her beloved avatar is “people who are alive with purpose and vision.” Once that phrase defined who she would aim to work with, she couldn’t wait to get to it!
In all, when you know who your best clients are—and you love them—you’ll have all the energy in the world to serve them as only you can.
Transformation Is What Is at the Core of Your Professional Brand
Lots of business people talk about practicing their “elevator pitch” so they can talk effectively about what they do in just a few minutes.
At Revealing Genius, we help people polish their elevator pitches. But our approach is a little different. When we help our clients develop “elevator pitches,” we coach them to include the transformation that they will help their beloved avatar to experience.
I’m rather partial to the example I’m going to give you—because it’s the example of my mom, an accomplished keyboard player. If you ask my mother what she does, she won’t say, “I’m the music director at my church”—even though she is. She won’t say, “I’m one of those rare keyboard players who can make both pianos or organs sing”—even though she is. If you ask my mother about what she does, she’ll tell you about the transformation she makes for her beloved avatar—the members of her congregation—each time she plays in church.
My mother’s elevator pitch, aka transformation statement, is:
“Through my music, I enable my congregation to peacefully pause and reflect so they can tap into what makes their spirits soar.”
So, when you’re ready to get at what is at the core of your professional brand, you’ll be addressing three things: who you are, the people you most want to serve and the transformation you’ll bring about in them—the transformation that only you can deliver.
Don’t worry! You don’t have to do this alone. Besides the help in this post, you can get more ideas and inspiration from our 45-minute complimentary webinar, our blog, our 7-Day Summit, RG365 membership daily emails and 1:1 sessions.
I look forward to learning about the core of your professional brand—and seeing the transformation you’re going to make for your beloved avatar.
