Feeling a Bit Scared of Branding?

When I told my list of subscribers and blog readers that I was going to create a 30-Day Branding Challenge, the one thing I heard more than anything else was how scared everyone was. The thought of branding is scary to you, not because you don’t know how to do it. You are scared by the very idea. If this is you, then you don’t stop reading branding challenge – introduction.

I’ve been there too. In fact, there are times I’m still in that place with certain marketing aspects (usually something technical).

If there’s one thing about branding that I DO know, it’s that putting you out there is worth it. It’s really uncomfortable at times, but branding is a necessity if you want to truly be the best business that you can be online.

And if that’s not your goal – if you’re perfectly happy just skating by with some extra dollars, rather than being the top of your niche, please stop reading. This course is for those who have this compulsion to make la difference in people’s lives.

You don’t get that by skating by.

Give not Grab

And you don’t get that from being a greedy money monster, either.

If you make a couple of dollars on Amazon by picking the items off the bestseller’s list and making a blog with ghostwritten content, that’s fine. However, you know you’re not memorable that way.

You won’t change a life or help someone that way.

I’m going to ask you to really be uncomfortable for 30 days. You might feel worried, doubtful, ugly, ashamed, insignificant, and a whole lot of other adjectives you’ll have to hurdle over to succeed.

But it’s sooooooo worth it.

What If’s

“But what if I get made fun of?”

I put off video marketing for at least two years when it was first hot because I felt too fat. I am 5’0 and overweight and older.

I worried about being made fun of if I did a video – I thought my marketing message would be lost. When I did it, my world didn’t collapse.

Yet when I did it, my world didn’t collapse.

Let’s get real, too – how many truly physically beautiful people do you know in person? Not celebrities – but in your life. Most people are average or below.

You are not here to impress people by your looks. Yo uare branding yourself to make a difference.

Relax

So quit worrying if you:

· Are fat
· Are bald (or going bald)
· Have a bad accent
· Have a mole, birthmark, or wart on the end of your nose
· Have any other physical excuse for not branding yourself online

And I tell you this stuff above because I want you to know it’s the LEAST of your worries!

Now if I was in the weight loss niche trying to position myself as the standard of beautiful weight loss, or trying to be a porn star, I might have a problem. Fortunately, that’s not my niche.

 

Dissenters in the Rank

“But what if they disagree with me?”

Oh, you’re going to have haters. You WILL have people who say you are WRONG and worthless as a leader in your niche. I have seen this attack on people who are in the self-help, motivational niche and all they DO is offer uplifting messages – yet they’ve been attacked.

So what do you do when you have people who come at you? You respond, stand firm and disagree – or ignore them.

You are NOT the “Jerk Whisperer.” Remember that, please.

You aren’t going to change their minds and they won’t change yours – unless you cower to the way they express their dislike for you.

I don’t care who doesn’t like me – unless I lose every single one of my followers, and then I know maybe I‘m far off base somewhere.

But until that happens, I’m going to be ME and you be YOU. And that doesn’t have to be the exact same thing.

You just have to have the strength to believe in yourself that you’re right. I have a lot of this. I’m very opinionated and I love to argue. I love debate. If you’re not like that, you should probably start boosting yourself up a bit mentally.

Find your inner Honey Badger – “he don’t care – he don’t give a shit!” If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go to YouTube and type in Honey Badger – that viral video shows you an animal that strongly believes in itself.

This Will Either Be Your Best Experience or Your Worst Nightmare

Once you start branding in a way that you truly feel excited about, it’s very freeing! You’ll enjoy working on your business each day. Eventually, you’ll crave more branding. You’ll begin to see what a powerful effect you have on other people. Your readers will start to look up to you.

In Accidental Branding, one of the books I read to educate myself about this process, Craig from Craigslist kept getting asked what he REALLY wanted to do now that he had all that money.

He just wants to work. Every day – 7 days a week. This career path you’re on should become something like that for you. You should crave it. Doesn’t mean you DO have to work 7 days a week, but then again you won’t consider it “work” when this change occurs.

But let’s look at this another way and laugh about it…in case you’re still terrified.

Right now, you’re fairly unknown. Otherwise, you probably wouldn’t be taking a branding course, right? Well if you have to, pretend nobody cares what you have to say – that nobody’s watching or listening or reading.

Your efforts are being totally ignored.

Maybe that will free you to let loose during these 30 days.

Because when people DO start tuning into you as YOU (not some phony brand or persona), you’re going to feel very satisfied knowing you have an audience who appreciates your “you-ness.”

There is NOTHING more boring to me than landing on some blog or website with 3rd person text and proper writing and absolutely no opinion.

I will not respond to that.

I want warts on your nose.

I want you to tell me how much you love Donald Trump (even though I don’t – because I respect your ability to say what you believe in).

If I can’t be ME, and have to hide who I am just to make a quick buck, then I can’t sleep at night – and I sure won’t look forward to working the next day.

That’s no fun! So please, before you scroll through another page of this, make a promise to me – to you – that for 30 days you will be 100% real.

How This Challenge Works

Now that we’ve put FEAR on our back burner (or are wearing blinders so we can’t see it), OR we’re doing it afraid because courage will come later, let’s talk about how this challenge will work.

I have educated myself about branding further than what I already knew on my own. So first I’m going to share with you the background to this story.

When the branding challenge begins

Each day will have a different task associated with branding online – or off, in the case of some of the exercises.The days may not be consecutive, but there will be thirty days of exercises to follow.

What I want you to do is try out all of the branding processes I show you in MY version – not what you’ve learned before – and see what resonates with you.

And you’d better read carefully – because if you see a subtitle that talks about Twitter and you bypass it because you’re already on there, you’re going to miss out on my lesson on how it SHOULD be used.

 

The lessons

We’ll be doing a combination of tasks such as thought tasks, brand development tasks, and building presences (the right way) on various online platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, etc.

If a day seems “slow” to you, just because you haven’t put something on a site somewhere, just recognize that brand building is MORE than just “content” – it’s about becoming the best (not just saying you are), and we’re working on that, too.

We will be discovering, through this challenge, whether you want to brand as an umbrella (meaning one theme to cover everything you do), or individual websites (if your niches are not related at ALL).

We’ll learn how to effectively build a brand people CONNECT with – because you can call yourself something all day long, but if your actions don’t reflect it, it won’t make an impact with consumers.

Tomorrow in branding challenge- introduction part 2 we are going to be looking at your personal preferences for this challenge.