Personal Branding and Delivering Experiences (5-1-24)

This will be the last in our series on personal branding. Last week was about brand vs image. This week is about personal brands and delivering experiences.

I’m about to ask you to think about specific people. These can be people you personally know, or they could be people you don’t know personally.

Think of a person who is always comes through in a clutch moment.
Think of a person who is insightful.
Think of someone with a great business mind.
Think of a person who is an inclusive leader.

For each of those people, take a second to think about what they specifically did that made you associate them with that trait. For example, you didn’t think someone was insightful, just because they told you they were. They did something and created an experience that made you stop and say, “Whoa. That made me think differently. They have something special.” I can think of a very specific person. They do an incredible job listening and looking at the entire situation, and then they ask questions that challenge my assumptions. I walk away from every conversation feeling smarter, because they asked questions to guide me to a new realization.

How does this connect with personal branding? I’m assuming that in each of those situations you could quickly think of someone. That means they have a strong brand associated with that trait 😉 I’m also assuming that you could think of specific things they have done to make you feel that way about them. Said another way, they created experiences with you that influenced the way you see them. Now, reflect on the personal brand you want to have. What do you want to stand for? What actions are you taking to reinforce your brand? What kind of experiences are you creating for others, and do they support the brand you want to create? The experiences we create with others don’t have to be large gestures. Instead, it’s often the consistency of small experiences we create that reinforces our brands with others.

The challenge- What actions do you need to take and what experiences do you need to deliver to make your brand a reality?

Bonus– Since you’ve already though of some cool people today, why don’t you drop them a line to let them know you were thinking of them.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Transforming Experiences with a Little Extra Effort (7-26-23)

Last week was about creating spaces where people can be real. This week is about transforming experiences with a little extra effort.

We stayed home during the week of July 4^th. We did a few small things like rode our bikes, played miniature golf, shot water guns, and did some crafts. It wasn’t anything too cool, but if you talk to my kids they light up and get excited like it was the best week ever. Here’s why. We all love the most recent Legend of Zelda video game, so I thought I could make things a little more special if I put in a little effort to make July 4^th a Zelda inspired week. Instead of just doing activities, I connected those activities to events that happen in the game. For example, we had to explore the land to find Zora’s Domain (bike riding). We had to save a town from pirates (miniature golf at a pirate themed place). We tried the Goron minecart shooting game (water gun fights). We built signs to show President Hudson we support him (structures made of spaghetti, pipe cleaners, and marshmallows). I hid bananas on our front porch and said they were left from the Yiga clan. Now, some of those things may not have meant much to you, which is totally okay. My kids got all the references and enjoyed how they tied the activities we did to a game we all love.

What does this have to do with anything? Every single day we create experiences for people around us. We might create experiences for customers who use the products we support. We might create experiences for teammates and co-workers. How would you describe the experiences you create for others? Are they positive? Are they neutral? Are they negative? Are they meaningful? In the grand scheme of things, the activities I did with my kids (bike riding, miniature golf, crafts) weren’t that unique or impressive. However, the moment I put in a little extra effort to connect those activities to a something my kids cared about, the experience transformed into something more special. By being a little more intentional and putting in a little more effort we can create experiences that truly resonate with others.

The challenge: How are you enhancing the experiences you create for people?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Translating Experiences into Lessons (5-6-15)

The past few entries have been focused on translating the messages we are sending. We are going to end this series thinking about translating the experiences we are absorbing every day as a way to learn and make us better.

There is an old adage that experience is the greatest teacher. While it is true that experience is a great teacher, it’s not very efficient on its own. Just because you experience something doesn’t mean you learn anything. This is why we have to translate these experiences we have on a daily basis in order to learn and grow. When I think about translating experiences there are two areas that come to mind.

Translating failure into knowledge that can make you better.

At a recent coaching forum a colleague made a comment along the lines of “We don’t do a good job connecting failure to learnings.” This struck me like a freight train. As I mentioned a few blogs ago, there have been times where I have made the same mistake over and over again, and it wasn’t until I translated that failure into a new way of acting that I was able to grow. Sound familiar to anyone? As a leader, am I setting up the right context and helping people translate their mistakes into something that can make them better? Am I translating my own mistakes into something that helps me grow?

Are you actively translating experiences into something that makes you better?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry