How is your personal brand experienced

How is your personal brand experienced in Australia?  How are your perceived?  We cannot be everything to everyone and that’s ok too. But expecting  that 100% of people we come across will like, trust and resonate with us and our personal brand is as likely as pigs flying or never having to pay taxes again.  It’s just implausible – sad but true.

In the public speaking arena there is interesting statistics  of the breakdown of how any audience will like/dislike/don’t care about you . On average it often plays out at 30-30-40 (30% will love you, 30% will dislike you and 40% will swing on the fence). It’s generally the same for how others experience you and your personal brand (written verbal, in person) – give or take some metric tweaks based on variables and circumstances.

People experience others differently based on many factors including conscious and unconscious biases, fear, hope, needs, past situations and environment.

What is tin to one is gold to another – and that’s ok.

And if you are someone who has passionate opinions and is a disrupter of any kind (ok, I definitely put my hand up high up here) it’s a given that you will not be everyone’s cup of tea. And whilst we all would prefer a utopian 100% tick of approval it just won’t happen. And nor should it really as it’s part of natural business selection in drawing in our tribe and intentions – mostly.  When I say mostly, I caveat that with a disdain of an attitude of  “I couldn’t care if you like me not, I don’t need to impress anyone”. That often comes from a place of arrogance and lack of EQ vs self-esteem and self-reflection. We should always treat people well, irrelevant if they are our tribe or not – it’s human decency.

But for business success we need to ensure that the content, purpose, motivations and intentions of our Personal Brand are consistent with how we are experienced by people we want to attract and maintain relationships with. We want to ensure that those we seek will experience us positively and as intended. If they don’t then we need to refine and re-tweak how we are showing up. And its ok to be in a position of having to refine – branding and positioning has to be nimble.

Before we check in to how we are being experienced by current and potential clients, staff, suppliers and networks clarity across the core personal brand elements that builds personal brand authority including:

WHO – your character, personality, values, beliefs, skills, knowledge equity, networks, physical & visual presence, voice tone, mannerisms, USPs and what you stand for and want to be known for.

WHAT – you want to achieve, attract and develop. What is your ideal market, the type of clients, staff, suppliers and networks you want to attract and maintain. ie: your business ideal tribe/s.

HOW – you really want to be perceived and remembered by your tribe. How do you want your market to truly feel about what you do, say, look like etc

And it’s the HOW that flows in a wave across intention to another’s perception. For example, if we want our personal brand to exemplify being a great listener and others experience us as disconnected, something is amiss. And of course we are often horrified if the feedback is counter to what we intended.

But how do we really get honest feedback of how we are truly experienced? We need to grab a big dose of courage and ask curious questions in a non-pressured way. We need to which encourages others to speak their truth.  Ignorance when it comes how we are experienced is not bliss as it will impact our bottom line and reputation. We want to attract not repel with our  personal brand to our ideal market and audience.

People generally shy away from delivering unpleasant feedback so we need to make the questions and framework ‘non-threatening’. We must create an environment of implicit comfort that sharing the truth will not be met with negativity or adverse ramifications by giving permission.

And doing that can be also be pretty scary. It is a very vulnerable place to be in to potentially hear things we don’t want to hear.  Sometimes our natural choice is to stick our heads in the sand – not knowing is safer. I too get a lump in my throat or stomach when I ask for feedback on how I am experienced. . We are human after all. But it’s so important to get the truth.

Some starters questions could be: 

– I know that everyone has a different viewpoint. So I would really appreciate your help and honest feedback. And no, don’t worry I won’t take offence if it’s negative. I would really like to know how you have experienced working with me.

– Hey I am curious. Can I ask how you felt about what I said / did /wrote ? Would be great to hear your experience and feedback.

– I would really value your personal thoughts. Can I ask how you honestly experienced my service/talk/coaching etc ? What did it feel like for you ?

Once you have the experience feedback you will know if your personal brand intentions have met reality and is working as intended.

So how is your personal brand being experienced and felt by your clients, colleagues, networks & tribes ? 

Try asking some curious experience questions.  Remember people may forget what you said and did but will never forget how they experienced you and how you made them feel.