The Battles Worth Fighting For Your Brand

There is a dirty little secret nobody tells you when you start your own business.

You have to fight for your brand.

You are the chief warrior—the hero—for the promises you make.

Which means you decide when to lead, when to fight and when to rest for a new day. The sage chooses his/her battles carefully…

I’ve been working with an advisor—let’s call him “Jack”—who had retooled his practice over several years and was ready to rethink marketing his firm. Put yourself in his position. You’ve announced to your posse that you’re overhauling your messaging, your website, your marketing materials, really everything you use to tell the world who you are.

You’re excited—maybe a little anxious—but mostly just ready to rock-and-roll.

So you’re caught by surprise when your inner circle pushes back. In Jack’s case, employees, industry pals, even a client or two got VERY uncomfortable when we started pushing the envelope on positioning the firm. He listened carefully to the feedback and ultimately followed his gut on the balance between innovation and team unity.

The second battle is often with yourself. Because when your inner circle starts being critical, who are you going to listen to? That voice inside that tells you it’s time to break out or the people around you telling you to play it safe? Jack held fast—he’d come to the table very thoughtfully and was not about to be dissuaded by a few naysayers.

A third battle can come from the “experts”. In Jack’s case, he was referred to a web developer who was entrenched in the industry—which meant they were VERY tuned in to what his competitors were doing. But that also kept them from seeing what was happening in the rest of the digital world. They were stuck in an industry mindset and snarkily drop-kicked new ideas that didn’t fit their experience. Pushing for new/more/better required Jack to dig deep and uncover some “patience reserves” he didn’t know he had.

Innovation and paradigm-busting breakthroughs don’t come without a little testing, a little bloodshed.

When you’re making big decisions you can choose to swallow hard and stand by your vision.

Or you can water down your brand by committee.

Isn’t it better to be the hero your brand needs you to be?

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