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Three “Love You Loyal” Realities to Build a “Love You Loyal” Brand

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Anything Less Will Be Forgettable

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Brand, reputation, relationship the impression that people have of us and our business. We help shape and form it, but the image people take away isn’t in our control. Or is it? In some ways, what people decide about us has to do with experience we might never have been a part of. Some folks dislike all techies or all teachers. Some are biased against our age group and no actions will change that. Some are fiercely loyal to our competitor so much so that they cannot see us.

What does it take to get loyalty like that?

Three “Love You Loyal” Realities to “Love You Loyal” Brand

But with the folks who don’t know us and hold nothing against us. We have a chance to invite them into a passionate business relationship. To that well, we have to understand three critical “love you loyal” realities about you and your brand. You probably already know these intuitively, but you may not have put them all together in one place.

  1. A brand is how people think and feel about us … not what they say. People might remember what tell them or repeat what we want them to say. They might even agree with what we’ve taught them is our value base. If we invite them in, value them, ask them to contribute to it, they see the values in action, become part of what we’re building and want to protect it.
  2. People have expectations based on who they think and feel we are. People use our values to interpret our behaviors and our behaviors to interpret our values. If we share our intentions and how those intentions support our values, people make the connections that support us and help us see the unfavorable disconnects.
  3. The environment — especially other people — influences the thoughts and feelings people have about us. People feel a loyalty until someone tells a story that shakes their belief or their understanding. If we’re consistent with our shared values, state our intentions to keep them, and let folks contribute as vibrant growing part of improving on that, they’ll protect us against influences that might unravel the best of plans.

If we love our customers loyal, by knowing what we stand for and what we stand for is defined by valuing, serving, and protecting them, they will love us loyal back.

What’s one way you’ve seen a person or a company these three “love you loyal” realities into a web presence or a brand?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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What Makes a Blog Compelling?

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Talk to Me

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What will make a blog compelling to a user?

It’s a favorite question. Getting people to come and stay is what I do, and talking about it is almost as much fun. I might have said it in a slightly more corporate way, but what I answered was basically this.

Humanity is what’s compelling. We’re all hungry for a connection that makes us feel real.

Quality content that serves real human needs served up by a real human being is the combination of three things: head, heart, and practical meaning. Put them together and a blog — or rather one who writes it — can make a reader feel inspired, moved to action, and wholly alive.

People recognize the real deal.

Visitors to a barroom or a blog figure out quickly whether they get to be who they really are, and whether that’s okay with everyone already there.

Authenticity allows everyone to tell their own truth and feel valued for it.

When that “feeling valued” happens, we give back — in attention, participation, and loyalty. When we’re invested, we don’t walk away.

That’s the heart of compelling.

A compelling blog is human in every way.

What makes a blog compelling to you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Recently, working with a client, I was asked the question,

Jammies, Teary Eyes, and My Dad's Saloon: Is Your Best Behavior Authentic?

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But I Want to Wear My Jammies!!

Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it. — Salavdor Dali

When I was small, it was rare that my mom would take me to my dad’s saloon. Usually we were there to return the family car so that he could drive home when he locked up in the wee hours of the morning. Naturally the folks at the bar knew her and knew me as my mom and dad’s daughter. While we waited for my dad to drive us home, we’d be saying “hellos” to friends of my parents.

Once when I was about 5 years old. I took a great challenge. I went to my bedroom and got ready for bed on my own. I had new pajamas. I couldn’t wait to wear them. They were pale green, thin cottony shirt and pants stamped with teddy bears all over them. I prized my favorite new jammies. They had buttons and a collar. They were like real clothes to sleep in.

Rather than being proud of my self-dressing accomplishment, my mom was thrown by it. She made a face. She said it was’t time yet. I was told I to change back into my clothes. We had to take the car to my dad at the tavern.

I suggested we show everyone my new pajamas. I pointed out that they looked like real clothes. She made it clear that my thought was out of the question. I got teary-eyed and pouty. My mom got adamant that I wouldn’t wear the pajamas and that I would find a way to a new attitude. She said some behavior was for just at home.

I was the daughter of the owner. His customers were also his friends. I grew up learning that my pajamas and teary-eyed mad attitudes didn’t belong in my dad’s tavern. I met those people with my best behavior.

Is that authentic?

Is Your Best Behavior Authentic?

One of the best things I ever heard a young mother say to her kids was, “Act as if you know how to behave.” Her children were polite, kind, and a pleasure to spend time with — both in public and at home. That’s what my mom believed too.

In this brief video, Melissa Pierce offers another way to look at it. The words posted under this video suggested that authenticity may be the wrong question.

I think I agree with her about the question.

Perhaps authenticity is rooted in intent and purpose.

Showing up as my best, cleaning my house, and doing the rest, help me . . .

  • show my respect for you and for myself.
  • raise my game and my investment
  • communicate with sensitivity and grace

For me, that’s authentic. Wearing my denim shirt with teddy bears all over it is also a statement of authenticity.

How do you see it? Are you authentic when you’re on your best behavior?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Cool Kids, Granny Dresses, and Back Channel Intercoms: How Do You Trust People You Can't See?

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I Heard Them Laughing

I was 13. What an awful age, but one for learning human dynamics.

A bunch of clueless moms had arranged something, a sleepover of about 8 girls. Who knows why they thought this group belonged together? We were mismatched in maturity, in intelligence, in interests, and most importantly in that sacred cow of 13-year-oldness … popularity. I dreaded going.

Additional humiliation. We all had to wear granny gowns.

Everything went in the awkward and tensely exciting way things do when you’re 13. I was mostly listening. Mostly everyone was mostly nice to mostly everyone. We ate. We talked. We listened to music.

I was the first in the group to use the facilities up the stairs. The group didn’t realize that a heating vent connected the party room to the bath room. That vent also served as a back channel intercom.

I heard them talk and laugh. They were talking “cool talk” about how cool they were and how cool I was not. Peer pressure and insecurity drives that sort of stuff. When you’re 13, finding who’s the coolest is the coolest thing of all.

Back downstairs, I didn’t let on. Other girls left the room. Other girls heard things. I saw it on their faces.

Before I went to sleep I vowed a 13-year-old’s vow that I’d never be a smiler who talked mean on a “back channel intercom.”

Air and Empty Shoes

Now, I send you a tweet. I write a comment on your blog. You answer.

I can’t see you. You can’t see me. That can be a scary feeling.

I have to use what you give me to decipher whether you mean what you say. Who knows? You could be laughing behind the screen. You could be back channeling messages. You could contradict what you tell me when you’re with cooler kids than I am.

But then offline life is like that too. . . .

Trust doesn’t happen spontaneously. We can’t engineer a community by inviting 8 pseudo friends to the same party or dressing in the same clothes. And as a species, it’s our nature to have all too many back channel intercoms.

I can’t see you. You can’t see me.
If we’re invisible, so are the things we stand for.
Can’t build much that lasts on air and empty shoes.
But we can let ourselves and our values shine through.
Integrity, consistency, and trustworthiness show up equally as whole and as frequently as we do.

Community grows from what we see, what we are, what we imagine together.
And the more we show up, the more we find in each other.

How do you trust people you can’t see?
People ask me that all the time. Now I’m asking you.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

What LaurenMarie Said . . . About Authenticity

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A community isn’t built or befriended,
it’s connected by offering and accepting.
Community is affinity, identity, and kinship
that make room for ideas, thoughts, and solutions.
Wherever a community gathers, we aspire and inspire each other intentionally . . . And our words shine with authenticity.

Naturally Authentic

When we’re fully expressed in what we’re doing, talking about it comes naturally. The sounds of our engagement breathe through us. We lean into where we want to be. We’re not changed by who’s watching.

Here’s what LaurenMarie said . . .

I notice with myself that sometimes I am just happy to be excited about what I do and share that with people. I hope that they catch the excitement, too, but I’m not hurt if they don’t.

Other times, I am nervous about telling someone about what I do because of what they will think of me. I know this has to do with me, not them, but I wonder what about me determines those two completely different reactions. I’ll have to observe more closely next time. I definitely like the first way better!

Ari, I like what you said. That is very insightful. hehe, employing tactics to be authentic makes you exactly the opposite, doesn’t it?

LaurenMarie from a comment on July 29, 2008

A successful and outstanding blogger said that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

What Color is the Sky in a World of Digital Media?

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Would Seeing Be Believing?

Suppose a colleague, a photographer, called asking you what you thought of the sunset last evening. You’re forced to admit that missed you it entirely. So the colleague emails you this huge photo.

Evening sky colors

What do you imagine your response would be?

    a. Wow! I need to pay more attention to the world around me.

    b. Hope the weather holds and we catch another sunset like this tonight.

    c. Up in the corner looks like storm clouds could be rolling in.

    d. They don’t make skies like that. Wonder how much she enhanced it?

    e. other

My dad often said, “Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.”

What color is the sky in the world of digital media?
How do we know what’s real?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!