business-blogging Archives - Page 8 of 8

Branding IS Who We Are

It’s enough to say that a person’s perception is that person’s reality. What a person believes is what that person knows. Most folks don’t think about a difference between the two. Why should they? That’s philosophy. Life works out just fine without having to stop to think about such things, doesn’t it?

What did I just say?

In my own way, I said that customers decide who we are by what they perceive. They are the folks who define a brand. So the best plan is to make sure their perception matches what we want our brand to be, because in their eyes our brand is who we are.
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Choosing to Go Isn’t Easy

They say that when the learner is ready the teacher appears.

I had the privilege of attending a Seth Godin seminarthis week. My closest friends can’t believe I managed to get there.

Getting to a seminar is a problem for me. There are so many seminars, and there’s so little time. I have a problem choosing. I don’t really like to commit my time. I really like learning, but I’m leery of things that look like school.

Learning is task that I do by myself. A seminar is a BIG DEAL — It’s an investment of time and money. I have a whole speech that talks me out of such things. I can call that speech up in a second.

“NO WAY! Can’t afford it. No time. Too much to do. Need to be working, not spending. That would be fun. That would slacking. . . . taking the easy way. Can’t buy folks’ wisdom just ’cause I feel like it.”

What a crock!

It’s a great speech. It’s not a valid argument . . . but it works when want to talk myself out of something. It’s not about time or about slacking. NO WAY, No time is my back door to avoiding something that I feel is risky.

Attending a seminar is saying out loud that I want to learn something.

What if I go and it’s not what I thought? What if I don’t learn anything? What if I fall off my bike?

The answer’s the same to all three questions. But you knew that. I had to learn the hard way. I skipped the seminar on the value of seminars. If had skipped the Seth Godin seminar, I would have missed so much more.

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