What Problem does your Brand Solve? (4-10-24)

Last week we started a series about personal branding and thinking about the space you own in someone’s mind. This week we will dive a little deeper and reflect on brands and the problem they solve.

Let’s pretend for a minute that you’re hungry and you’re looking to go somewhere to eat. Where would you go? What places immediately popped into your mind? Now let’s slightly tweak the problem you’re solving. You’re hungry AND you need to grab something relatively quickly. Where do you go? Maybe you think about Panera, Chipotle, or McDonalds. Let’s say you’re hungry AND you want a place where you can kick back and chill. Where do you go? My first thought is Moontown, a local brewpub. Let’s say you’re hungry AND are craving pizza. Where do you go? Maybe you think of a chain like Pizza Hut or maybe you think of a local pizza place.

You might be wondering how this connects with personal branding. All the above places could solve the generic issue of being hungry. However, each of them is best equipped to solve a more specific hunger related problem. Some brands focus more on speed, others on types of food, and others on the overarching experience they want to deliver. Similarly, I often hear people articulate their personal brand by saying things like, “I’m creative. I’m a leader. I’m a team player.” All those things could be true. They are also very generic and broad. They are often so broad that they end up representing a generic brand instead of a specific person. When I hear things like this I often say, “I hear the buzzwords, but I don’t hear YOU. Can you get more specific? What do you help with?”

I think all of us can address a variety of problems, and there are certain types of problems we are best equipped to solve. If you’re looking for someone to build detailed process maps, do hardcore editing of documents, code computers, understand/apply regulatory rulings, have/share deep medical expertise, embrace rigid standards, or run a large multi-billion dollar company I am NOT your guy. Those are all important skills, and they are NOT my strengths or passions. However, if you need someone to communicate something clearly and effectively, move people to take action, love/care for people, transform ambiguity into smaller parts so you can attack a problem, look at things from perspectives you wouldn’t think of, tell bad dad jokes, keep it real, bring the energy and funktastic flavor, or rock an awesome beard then call me 😉 Those are all problems that align with my passion and strengths. Those are the kinds of problems I’m more uniquely positioned to solve. That is what my brand is about (or at least I hope that’s how you experience me).

The challenge: What specific problems do you solve? When should people call you vs someone else?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Decoder Rings and Communication (4-15-15)

Last week we finished thoughts on self-reflection, and this week we are going to look at decoding messages. When I was younger I remember opening cereal boxes and getting cool toys. One toy was the decoder ring. You used this to crack a code that was somewhere on the cereal box. Each number corresponded to a letter, and once you set up the ring it was easy to decode the message to see what it really said.

Sometimes I wish I had a decoder ring at work. At this point I’m sure you’re probably smiling or chuckling while saying, “Yeah, we could use that decoder ring to translate all of these crazy corporate acronyms.” That’s true. However, I would want to use the decoder ring on the buzzword phrases we use to help us understand what we actually mean. For example, we could use it on phrases like, “We need to be more creative,” “We need to put the customer at the center of all we do,” “We need to make faster decisions,” etc. We say these things, but do we really understand what we are saying?

When people say they want creativity, what they usually mean is that they want the output of creativity without any of the messiness. In actuality, when you say you want creativity, what you are really saying is that you want change. You want to disrupt the normal way of doing things. You are saying that you are okay with ideas that are muddy for a while until they are finally polished and revealed to be worth something. You want to do things that make people at least a little bit uncomfortable. That is what you are saying when you say you want creativity. If you don’t want those things, then you don’t want creativity.

Similarly, if you say you want to make faster decisions, what you are actually saying is that you are okay with taking on more risk. You are okay with making mistakes. It means that you are willing to give folks more power, which comes with responsibility and accountability. It means that you are willing to invest the time, effort, and resources to ensure the right people are capable of making the right decisions. If you don’t want those things, then you don’t want to make faster decisions.

Decode what you’re saying and ask yourself if that’s what you really want.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Simplicity and Yo-yos (7-2-14)

When I was younger I used to be good with yo-yos. I only wish I was as good as this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq3rn8g15po. I love yo-yos because they epitomize simplicity. This simplicity combined with gravity allows people to do some amazing things if they will put in the time to master the art.

Think about how a yo-yo connects back to what this blog has recently discussed. At its core a yo-yo is basically a wheel and axle attached to a string. It has been sculpted to its elegant essence and not overly engineered (last week’s message). You have something simple (a yo-yo), but that doesn’t mean it’s easy (“simple does not equal easy” from two weeks ago). How much time do you think that person had to put in before these tricks became second nature?

There is still one thing left though. Once we have that essence and communicated it in a simple way, how do we pull it through? That’s the third thing a yo-yo can teach us. Once you have uncovered the simple essence of something: you keep going back to that essence, just like a yo-yo is meant to always come back to your hand.

Think of the video. If the yo-yo doesn’t return to his hand, then those tricks are not impressive. Instead, they are just a bunch of twirls and loops that end up looking like a convoluted mess. Does this sound like any presentations, communications, or movements you have witnessed? They might start with a great essence, but the essence is never revisited so it gets lost. When the essence gets lost, the power is lost. Now think about things that have resonated with you over a long period of time. What was different? I would bet the farm that it’s because that person found a simple essence that resonated with you and whenever there was an opportunity they connected everything back to that essence, reinvigorating it with renewed passion and energy. Everything kept coming back to that essence just like a yo-yo going back to the person’s hand. How did you feel when someone was able to keep that essence alive and strong?

If we want to do amazing things, if we want to spark and support change in ourselves and others, then we need to embrace this yo-yo mentality. We need to put in the time and effort to sculpt a simple essence and then we need to keep going back to it again and again, just like a yo-yo doing tricks before snapping back to our hands. It won’t be easy, but nothing worth doing ever is.

Have a jolly good day and a wonderful holiday,

Andrew Embry

Simplicity and Sculpting Communications (6-25-14)

Let’s stay focused on simple, and think about our role when it comes to communicating. I recently read an article and there was a quote from Bruce Lee that struck me. “It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.” This was his secret to mastery. This is also the secret to communicating things in a simple way.

Last week was about making sure that we put in the time and effort to try to process a concept before we declare it too complicated. This week is about being a sculptor. I believe that all people are sculptors. As you can read in the quote above, even when we are building something we are also sculpting. We are trying to shape it, focus it, and cut away the non-essentials. We do all of these things in order to reveal the elegant essence of something, and that’s where the beauty and power exist.

Sculpting and my poetry failure…

As you probably know I write poetry (if you ever want some, just ask 😉 Anyway, I submitted a poem to a college contest and got rejected. The person reviewing the applications was a friend and talked to me about it. She pulls out a poem and says, “You had this awesome theme going and this is the best line in the poem. Up until this point we were all captivated. Then, you added all of this stuff that is good, but it doesn’t really build off of your central theme. If anything, this extra material took away from the power in your theme. My advice to you, once you have identified that powerful theme or that riveting line figure out how to build off of it. If you can build on it, then you can layer more in. If you detract when you add stuff, then don’t add stuff. Why would you add on things and distill your message?”

Now, my ego was bruised, because I thought all of my lines and themes were riveting but she had a great point. Have you ever experienced anything like that where you added “good” stuff that just detracted? Now, all of my poems, presentations, and even these emails start long and I cut without mercy until I feel that I have revealed the simple powerful essence of what I am trying to communicate. Am I perfect? No, but I’m a lot more focused than I used to be.

The question I keep asking myself is, “Am I putting in the time to sculpt what I am trying to communicate or showing them a full block of marble, hoping that they will be able to see the vision?”

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Here is the link to the article http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2014/06/one-key-to-story-design-is-to-hack-away-at-the-unessential.html