Even writing this title felt… incongruent.
Because it’s always important to brand your skill set, no matter your gender.
But here’s why I felt the need to post this blog, today of all days for women!
As women, we are still trying to prove ourselves.
We’ll out work, out hustle and out task everyone in the room - but sometimes it’s to the detriment of our brand.
Among the dozens of female business owners I get to work with, coach or speak to, “hard work” is never the issue, but it’s often the block for them getting ahead.
It is also what gets in the way of allowing a woman to see her true value and overcome “old thinking”; that “doing more” is “being more”.
I’d like to challenge us all to start thinking of our skill set in a new way.
A more empowering way.
Here are a few shifts you can ponder on your way to building a more Empowering Personal Brand for yourself in 2021;
Value Mastery over Productivity.
By mastering your skill set, you’ve already cut about 80% of the to do’s off your list. You’ve been at this too long, you’re too good, to still be ‘completing for time’ and space with yourself and prioritizing checklists over your skill set.
Experts who are in command of their skill set devote time to key learnings, insights and listening. They take time to master their unique angles, combined with deep understanding of their audience.
They gladly leave the “doing” and pushing to others, who haven’t figured this out, or are willing to hustle to get any prospect, or may not have the drive or years of experience. After all, there are always crumbs to be scooped up.
With this shift of perspective and a good step back, your output changes, your interactions become more meaningful, you find yourself spending time in different circles, your calendar begins to fill with a variety of opportunities - you’ve put yourself at a different level of visibility and impact.
Write Less; Think More
We are all suffering from content overwhelm. It’s true! We don’t need more stuff to read, look at or delete. The good news, is as a Master of your Skill set, you only need to compete with the value of your message - not other people’s stuff.
The clients who are CRUSHING their expertise and getting the results they want, are actually taking less with them to the finish line;
1 GOOD message
1 SOLID Platform
1 GREAT pitch.
And they’ve learned how to use it over and over and over to build what they want. That’s it.
They aren’t competing for space online, or writing their 6th book, or blogging 3 x per day. They don’t need to.
As soon as someone comes across their ‘stuff’ - they already know “THIS is the person to see about X.”
I wish more women would step back, and use their intuition. I wish they would take time to have deeper conversations, to evaluate what they’re saying, before putting out MORE stuff.
Beware the Curse of Ideation
Now, I caution everyone who is saying to themselves - “It’s thinking that got me into this mess! I’m always thinking of NEW ideas or things to do!” Then my response is usually, ‘then you aren’t focusing on the one right thing.’ This looks like,
communicating our best IDEA in a NEW WAY; not a NEW IDEA every 5 minutes.
Look, ideas are great - Launches are exciting. I get it!!
But, the lure of a ‘like’ or a slap on the back does little to soothe your hours of effort and years of brilliance - That is not the praise and credibility you’re going for as a Trusted, Valued Expert at this point in your career.
If you are building or launching anything new, line it up against the following criteria;
Does it serve the people I’ve committed to helping (or is it the ‘quick and easy win’)
Does it put me alongside other experts in my space (if not, are you avoiding this?)
Does it solve a real problem for people? (or am I placating or baiting with tips)
Ditch the Tag Line
A lot of women aren’t willing to jump into something they could be GREAT at, because they feel a pull or ‘commitment’ to a group of people - often times, disguised as their local market, their fans, or ‘people that know me’.
The truth is, I’m less interested in the people that ‘know you’ and more interested in those you could be helping get real results for. And you should be too.
Ditch the tagline, simply means - your willingness to Let Go. You worked hard on the website, the business cards, the book outline - I get it… those things aren’t all for naught.
But if we aren’t willing to ditch what’s not working and focus more on the impact we COULD be making - we’ll never reach that level of Expert status we deserve.
For more in depth insights I hope you’ll register and enjoy my FREE MASTERCLASS on becoming the Go To Expert in your space. It’s the best 30 min. you’ll spend on your business this week.
I hope this helps all of us to shift lose some things that you may need to bring into greater focus or share with a sister or group who are committed to stepping into their Thought Leadership once and for all.