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What Is Your Brand? The Answer May Be Under Your Nose

Are you struggling to define your brand? It may be easier than you think.

First, let’s make sure we’re clear on what a brand is:

“Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from that of your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.” [Source: Entrepreneur.com’s Small Business Encyclopedia]

With that in mind, you need to answer these questions to define your brand:

  • What is your promise to your clients?
  • What can your clients expect from your services?
  • What differentiates you from other speakers who compete for the same business as you?
  • Who are you?
  • Who do you want to be?
  • Who do you want to be in your clients’ eyes?

You can — and should — spend some time thinking about and answering those questions. The best answers may already be under your nose, though. Where?

Look at testimonials from your clients and feedback forms from your audience members.

That’s what I suggested to a speaker I was consulting with recently, as she was up against a brick wall in trying to define her brand. She knows herself and her speaking business better than anyone — naturally — but she was struggling to answer the questions above. With well over a decade’s worth of raving testimonial letters on file, though, she had perhaps the best branding consultant at her disposal… free of charge.

If you want a brand that effectively communicates what you promise… what clients can expect… what makes you different from your competitors… who you are… I guarantee you’ll find it in those letters from past clients and in feedback forms completed by past audience members. That’s the best way to make sure your brand is true to you. And as an added bonus, if you can utilize some actual verbiage from those archives, you’ll be able to state your brand in a way that resonates with your target audience… by speaking their language.