Latest / LET'S MAKE WAVES with Rana AlBasri Mouawad / Why More Research Won't Fix Your Personal Brand

Transcript

Why More Research Won't Fix Your Personal Brand · LET'S MAKE WAVES with Rana AlBasri Mouawad

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: This summer I stood at the bottom of a rock climbing wall for the first time in 15 years.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, my hands were shaking, staring up at the wall, and I wasn't really sure if I could climb and finish it.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: But somewhere between the second hold or the fifth, maybe, I had more clarity about my business than I've honestly had in months of strategizing at my desk.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the kind of thing that people online who talk about personal brand will tell you about personal brand.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: The usual advice is usually, we all know it, it's either related to content or analysis or something about social media.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: But after years of doing what I do, I can promise you this.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the clearest thing you can do for your messaging, for clarity on your differentiator as a business owner, for your personal brand, is to actually get the right assessment of what is truly not working for you and for your business, and then go do something that has nothing to do with your business.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I know I know this sounds a little bit strange, and this is the episode where I will make my case.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what most people do when their messaging feels muddy or their goals feel foggy, or they're feeling like they're being invisible online, even in person.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: They sit down and then they try to think their way into clarity.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: They look around what's out there, what has worked for other people, what is popular, and then they either copy it or they find a way to do the same.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And this looks like it comes in different shapes.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: It might look like more brainstorming or more frameworks, more scrolling on other people's content.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: In the end, it's in hope for something that sparks an idea so that we can call it our own.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And trust me, I understand the instinct, it actually feels productive.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing that I learned from my own experience, and another thing that I learned way back when I was in the agency years ago.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And by marrying both lessons, the results are more often than none very, very, very effective and very strong.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So let me tell you this story, which is from the first lesson.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Back in the day, I was still working at a multinational agency.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the teams in the creative department would do everything and anything but to sit and create when they get a brief from the client.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: So what happens is that the client would give a brief, and then the great the creative team would go out, I don't know, go party, go to an amusement park, go for walks, runs, shopping spree, whatever it is.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And what they do is that they design and they create on the go.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: They write notes, they sketch, and it's just a few days later when the team actually meets to brainstorm ideas for the client brief.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Except that when they actually meet, each one of those team members from the creative team already has a concept and they have an idea in mind.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: They have sketches, they have notes.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So what basically happens is that they don't start from scratch or an empty white page if you want.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: They start with raw but really solid ideas and they kind of cross-pollinate concepts from each other before coming up with a final strategy to tackle the client brief.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that particular exercise and watching them do all of that, it taught me something a very long time ago.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: It taught me that clarity rarely shows up in the expected ways.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: It actually comes when we do things and we live things.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you can't think your way into knowing who you are, but you actually have to live your way into it.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: The other lesson is this: you don't know what you don't know.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you cannot fix when you don't know what is broken, right?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let me explain this.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: This year, this summer, I turned 50, and every birthday before this one, I'd put myself through the same ritual, which was a hard internal audit that was basically based on feelings and not all the time on concrete facts.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And first, please tell me I'm not the only one who does this, but honestly, so many things go through my head, what I've built, where am I, how far am I from my goals, am I behind?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Am I right on track?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: All of it.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it was exhausting.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm being really honest, it never actually gave me the kind of clarity that I was seeking.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: It gave me a to-do list, and that to-do list what became more anxiety that dressed up as a reflection, if you want, because I would do the hard work and go through my to-do list, and a lot of the times, so many things in it will still not work.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: So this year something shifted.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't sit down and force an answer out of myself.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: What I did is that I looked for an honest opinion on some things in my business that I needed to change because my vision for my business has expanded.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to serve more than just corporate clients that I'm currently serving now, and I want to do more work with founders and business owners beyond my one-on-ones.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: So because I cannot fix or build what I don't really properly see or know, I seeked the assessment that I needed for this new addition plan for my business.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the other thing that I also did this year, and I think it matters just as much.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I put myself back into the student seat and that mindset.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, other than joining a mastermind, I joined it not as an expert in the room, but as someone who is learning alongside a sales coach who is specialized in what I was planning to build and add to my consultancy business.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew what I had to do, but I didn't clearly see it.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And when I got an assessment by the right expert, I was able to know what part of my plan was working and what part was not.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what happened.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: By getting this assessment, I knew what I had to do next.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I've worked this summer to build it, and that assessment gave me a new language, new angles, new ways of seeing my own work that I couldn't have seen it or found it by just staying in my lane or consuming more content or reading more books about my industry.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: So if you only ever consume information from people in your exact field, you kind of end up with the same ideas that everyone else in your field already has.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm saying this because I know that we both see it on social media.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Content in our feeds, in our grid, is looking the same.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So what happens when there is a lot of copying in that kind of environment, your message starts to sound like other people's message, and their message and their style will basically sound like yours.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just like we are in a loop.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: So clarity, and I mean real clarity, that the kind that makes your voice sound like nobody else usually comes from a real assessment and by clearing your mind to create something new and completely yours, and that happens by living.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this is how these two different experiences, when married together, can give you that result.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what this actually matters when it comes to your personal brand, and not just for a person your personal life or your personal growth.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Your message, your positioning, the thing that makes people trust you, all of it is supposed to be a reflection of something that is true.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not a strategy that you engineer just by sitting on your desk or just by seeing what is out there and copying it or trying to take something from it.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you're only ever consuming, researching, analyzing, you're actually pulling from the same well that everybody else is pulling from.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: But when your research and your analysis is based on a true assessment of your personal brand, so you can know the gaps in it, and that's how you can start fixing it and building accordingly.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then you add to your creativity when you go live and learn something new and do something and sit in rooms full of people that you don't know, maybe.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you come back with something nobody else has, and that is your actual experience.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And this is it.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Experience is the one thing that can't be copied or outsourced or generated by anyone else, and that's where the real message lives.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So let's be realistic here.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: I did all of that and I did this shift over the summer, and I know that we're in September now, so it doesn't really exactly give you three open months to go and find yourself.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's not realistic.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that, I'm not asking this from you.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be a big seasonal reset like what I did.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: It can live in your week, it can live, you know, in this month.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are seriously wanting to assess your personal brand and find out what's really missing or what you're doing wrong, I invite you to check out Brand Beyond Social.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Brand Beyond Social is a personal brand self-assessment masterclass and workbook.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: So they work hand in hand.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it's perfect for founders, solopreneurs, and business owners who are really doing the work.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: They're showing up online, but they're actually struggling to turn that visibility online and on social media into a trusted reputation that actually brings in the lead and grows their business.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: So this is perfect for you if you are running your business for a while, but your personal brand is not generating the trust or the leads that it should.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's the whole point of your reputation.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's to put you out there and put you above par from all of your competitions so that people choose you than choosing someone else who's doing the same work as you.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: It is perfect for you, this assessment, if you've you're actually respected by the people in person.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: They already know you, they know the results they can bring for them, but the strangers online don't convert into clients.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you have followed the social media advice for a while, you've posted consistently, but you still feel like something is missing, or you feel seen but not trusted, and you don't know which part of your brand is causing that gap.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: I will link brand Beyond Social for you in the show notes.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Check it out because this kind of assessment will give you the gaps for you to become the person people refer to, ask to speak on podcasts, and want to hire and work with.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to know what exactly is not working for you before you can take any kind of generic advice or mimic anything that is generic online.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Do check it out because in one sitting, you will run a complete diagnosis of your personal brand across my five pillars of the trust method so you can finally see what exactly in your reputation that is working and what is exactly in your personal brand that is quietly costing you the leads and the opportunities.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And by the end of it, I promise you this you will have a named diagnosis for what's not working and a very clear starting point of how to fix it.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: No more guessing, no more throwing more content at the problem, none of that.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what I want you to take from this episode.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: If your message feels muddy right now or your goals feel unclear, the answer probably isn't more research.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually sitting down and having a deep assessment, a deep dive into understanding what's not working and making more room in your week to actually live so you can be able to create.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: You can get brand beyond social now.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And here's something else that I would like to ask from you.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Do send me a DM and tell me what was the result of your assessment.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I promise I'll give you more ideas to fix any gap that you identify.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you want more on personal brand, reputation, communication strategy between episodes, that's what my newsletter, Built Not Branded, is for.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I will also leave a link in the show notes to sign up for the newsletter.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribe and tell me what you think by leaving a review.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: This helps me a lot, and thank you in advance if you did that already.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: See you next week.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Till then, keep making waves.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.