Just the other day, it struck me suddenly to ask my friends on Facebook “What is my personal brand?”

Looking back on that question as I type this right now, I am reminded of the almost 15-year-old Fast Company article Tom Peters wrote (in 1997) The Brand Called You.

But, at the time, I hadn’t made that connection.  I simply received the thought and immediately posted it on my Facebook Wall (Last Thursday morning, 4/21).

This is what I wrote:

“Hey FB Peeps, here’s a crazy, fun question that occurred to me to ask you:

If I were a brand (like a product), how would you describe me?

What would be your brand experience with Tshombe?”

I was surprised and humbled by the answers.

Here’s a screenshot (Click to enlarge & read comments):

Someone else sent me a private message answer to my question through Facebook.  She wrote:

“Special K for”kick”: if we all had a bowl of Tsombe’s [sic] energy and  love of life every morning, we’d be healthier.”

I actually was taken a little bit aback, inspired that I impact people in just a powerful, fun way.

One former client of mine who now is one of my best friends tweeted the next day:

#FF @tshombe because I haven’t had anyone give me so much unconditional love and support since my dear departed Mama!

What’s interesting is at least one of the respondents, I don’t really know at all (the one who direct messaged me), and the others fall into a range between a few months to about 10 years that we’ve known each other.

Not a lot of time, really.

So, here’s what’s come up.

How am I incorporating my personal brand in my business brand?

I tend to believe that they are so interconnected as to be nearly indistinguishable.

Indeed, to have leads, prospects, and clients feel connected to and inspired by me and what I offer and to have them articulate that publicly (and of course express monetary appreciation!) the way these wonderful people have on Facebook is exactly how I want my business to be perceived in the world marketplace.

Do you see the qualities expressed by my Facebook Peeps reflected in this blog?

(I’m actually not sure, yet, how to express verbally or visually the common thread(s) in the Facebook Comments that make up my  personal brand.  Is there one word or phrase that encompasses them all?)

For those of you familiar with my other offerings, is my personal brand congruently and consistently reflected in them, as well?

What would you recommend that I do, say, or express more of (and/or less of) to show up more powerfully as “Tshombe”?

Is that what you think of when someone says a person or company is “magnetic” or has a magnetic personality?

Because many entrepreneurs are too cautious with their marketing and brand promises, fearing they may alienate people who might otherwise buy from them, this one-sided view of magnetism in business is a trap.

A literal magnet both attracts AND repels.

In a recent interview for The New York Enterprise Report, social media personality Gary Vaynerchuk advises “to stay out of the middle. . . come at your marketing with some energy, be creative, and really push it.”

I’m not necessarily advising to go out of your way to be confrontational or offensive, though that certainly would be ‘staying out of the middle.’

However, as Business Coach and self-proclaimed (which, by the way, is a lesson in itself, that we can proclaim for ourselves what and who we are) Thought Leader Andrea J. Lee offers, I am suggesting that we be “Bold, Outrageous, and Provocative” in our messaging.

No one seems to have embraced this philosophy (at least in the tech services industry) more than Bob Parsons, founder of the domain registration and website hosting company Go Daddy.

Aside from the recent controversy surrounding Bob Parsons shooting an elephant (which has been considerable.  PETA has closed their account with Go Daddy and other people have followed suit), Go Daddy is most known for the edgy, suggestive Go Daddy Girls in tight white tank tops who prance around all over their commercials and advertisements.

Bob Parsons and Go Daddy have been both praised as innovative and brilliant and reviled as tasteless and offensive.

The result?

According to Wikipedia, Go Daddy is currently the largest ICANN-accredited registrar in the world, and is four times the size of its closest competitor.

Magnetic?

I’ll say.

What about you?

Are you and your marketing boring and bland — “in the middle”?

In what ways are you embracing (or can you embrace) marketing that is magnetic?

Last week, the marketing strategist and copywriter Karri Flatla wrote an excellent (if controversial) article called The 3 Ps of Pricing Your Services, where she gives compelling reasons for fee-based over hourly pricing.

As I say, Karri’s article is excellent, and I highly recommend you read it.

I would also like to add what I learned from Adam Urbanski about why the idea of charging by the hour is not a relevant or even helpful consideration. According to Adam, and I agree with his assessment, the focus of our pricing structure — especially when we’re talking about providing services as opposed to products — needs to be on the value our services provide to our clients.

The first example Adam offered was the response someone gave to the Spanish Painter, Pablo Picasso, regarding a piece of art he produced.  I don’t remember the sum he required for it, but the person considering it exclaimed “What?!!  It only took you 5 minutes to do that sketch!”

“No, it didnt,” answered Picasso.  ”It took me a lifetime.”

When we get hung up on hourly pricing our services, we actually end up devaluing ourselves, converting our services into a common commodity that people can get anywhere.

The other story Adam offered involved a man’s trip to the dentist to have his tooth extracted.  The dentist efficiently goes to work, quickly and efficiently removing the man’s tooth, and sending him on his way to pay the receptionist.

Upon casually looking over the bill, his eyes slowly land on the total, which happens to be $1,200.  Shocked, the man begins throwing a fit in the lobby.  The dentist comes out to see what’s going on.

“What is this?!” Shouts the man.  ”$1,200? Come on.  You barely saw me 2 minutes.  I’m not buying your entire office; I just had my tooth extracted.”

“What’s the problem?” asked the dentist.  ”That I only took 2 minutes?  You can come back in, and I can take another 2 hours, if you like.”

The moral of the story is that time has little to do with value.

Time is what you use to create a solution, and value is what clients and customers get out of the solution.

Uncover the true value of your solution and charge based on value, not on time.

And at the height of our mania, it’s funny to hear people assert that they thrive off the anxiety, the stress, getting nearly caught with their pants down at the 11th hour but miraculously pulling it off at the very last minute.

This is an addiction.

Like any addiction, it masquerades as supporting you in your time of need but in reality it is not sustainable.  It’s destroying you, your relationships, and your effectiveness at work and at home.

You know what happens to an electrical circuit overloaded, don’t you?  A circuit breaker immediately interrupts the flow of electricity to prevent damage from occurring.

This happens to you, too.

Just over 5 1/2  years ago,  Stever Robbins wrote an article, Defeating Overwhelm, that appears in the 2005 issue of the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge for Business Leaders online research magazine, where he says that when we experience overwhelm, “At best, we flounder.  At worst, we shut down entirely.”

I wrote about Stever’s article in a different setting some time ago, but found myself revisiting it and realizing that for me and my clients (and I dare say, for you) finding and practicing solutions and preventative strategies for Overwhelm are as needed today (or more so) as when Stever wrote his article in 2005.

Sometimes it appears a bit tongue in cheek when Stever suggests that you become “emergency driven,” putting not-as-important things off until they become an emergency and HAVE to get done.

Or, when he tells you to get organized but not to tell anybody:

“Scatter books around your office and season the scene with old folders with papers spilling out of them. Then empty your real inbox (hidden in the corner behind the potted palm) daily, and enjoy an organized life.”

There’s also when he offers that you only do “just enough” so that you can downshift your life and create more freedom for yourself.

Is this Stever guy for real?

But, considering that Stever himself accomplishes more in a year than most of us can possibly do in a lifetime, it’s worth taking seriously what he says about defeating overwhelm.

Asks Stever, “Do you want to be highly productive, or do you want to have a life?  You can’t do both.”

Stever’s own life (I assume, since I don’t actually live with him!) belies the claim.  I dare say, if you put into practice Stever’s suggestions, you will be MORE productive that you are currently, not less — especially when you eliminate multitasking and learn to say No more frequently.

My hope is that you read Stever’s article a few times over (I come back to it regularly) and begin to implement the strategies one at a time, preferably before overwhelm sets in in the first place.

Here’s what to do, in bullet form:

Change your mindset:

• Adopt “labor savings” only if you’re sure they won’t result in long-term overwork.
• Don’t multitask important tasks.
• Never multitask people.
• Delegate.
• Become emergency driven.
• Settle.
• Schedule vacations.
• Say NO.

Which of these “anti-overwhelm” strategies are you going to implement today?

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Image by Ernst Vikne, under the Attribution-Share Alike Creative Commons license

Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?

The truth is that everyone loves feeling appreciated, whether it’s expressed verbally or in writing.  That it’s unusual to receive a thank you in the mail (particularly in the E-mail Age) makes a handwritten note especially memorable.

It means someone was thinking of you, and that feels great.  Wouldn’t you agree?

Isn’t that what we want from our clients, that they remember us?  If we’re top of mind because we went the extra mile to express appreciation, the greater the likelihood for either repeat business or new business generated by positive word-of-mouth, or both.

So, how about you?  Are you consistently expressing gratitude and saying (writing!) your thank yous?  It’s clear that thanking our clients and our potential clients makes good business sense.

That’s why I was intrigued by the article headline The Art of Saying “Thank You,” written by the managing editor of PowerHomeBiz.com, Isabel Isidro.

I have to say that I didn’t expect to learn much from the article.  Like I mentioned, I’ve been saying thank you and writing thank you notes for years.

But, that’s what I get for getting uppity.   (Whenever I catch my mind saying “I know that already,” that’s precisely when I need to pay all the MORE attention!)

Isabel explains how great thank you notes are — whether mailed the old fashioned way or sent electronically — and she infers that if you aren’t sending them to your customers, you need to start sending them.

But maybe you are already sending thank you notes on a regular and consistent basis.  Even so, you may be still missing an opportunity to create more sales.

Every interaction with a client or potential client should have built into it a specific plan to develop or further the relationship.

You probably have heard the marketing wisdom that people do business with people they know, like and trust.  Expressing appreciation is one way to deliberately begin building trust, but after you’ve done that, “Now what?”

In other words, what plan do you have in place to further the relationship beyond simply engendering that warm, fuzzy feeling?

Have you ever thought of extending an offer that gives the client the opportunity to purchase from you again?  The client is already feeling awesome because you expressed genuine gratitude to them, and a carefully crafted offer that would further enhance their life would be a welcomed addition to the thank you note.

Isabel offers by way of illustration how Art.com expertly encouraged her to make a second purchase (which she did) when, in their thank you note to her (addressed to their “Valued Customer,” although if they had also used her name, it would’ve been even more effective), they offered her free shipping.

There wording was right on target:  “Now with our Free Shipping welcome offer, get your next purchase delivered on us!”

What satisfied customer could resist that offer?

When you feel appreciated by someone, aren’t you moved to return the gratitude and appreciation in some way?

Now, if you’re a real estate agent reading this, you might be thinking something like “If  I  just sold a house to someone, it would be a bit ridiculous to try to sell another house to the client in your thank you note to them!”

(And, I’d have to agree with you!…..Besides, the “free shipping” offer wouldn’t have the same effect, I’m afraid.)

The point is that we want to be strategic with our interactions with clients and proactively plan ways to leverage those interactions so that we are perpetually furthering the relationship.  This means thinking about ways to add value to the client, while also adding value to your pocketbook.

So, what would add value to a new homeowner?

Do they need lawncare or landscaping?  What about quality childcare?  Is health and fitness important to them?

Can you see where I’m going with this?  I’m sure you can come up with even better ideas.  These are just off the top of my head.

In these cases, you might decide to build solid relationships with various high-quality service providers who give you discount certificates to give your clients.  For example, a lawn care person might charge $200 a month (I’m just throwing a number out there, since I have no idea how much lawn care costs!), but because of your relationship with him, you can offer a thank you gift to your client of perhaps 25% off.  This alone would be a great way to raise your esteem in the eyes of the client and foster repeat business.

(Of course, you might also create a source of recurring income for yourself as well if, by agreement, the lawn care person paid you a percentage of the sale each month for the life of the client you brought him that he otherwise would have had to get on his own.)

Do you see the enormous power of the thank you?

What other ways might you add value to your clients that enhances and leverages your thank yous?

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Flickr Image by drcw under a Creative Commons license

As I think of him now, I am reminded with a warm feeling in my heart of what a darling child he is.  He’s very loving — and a little tenderhearted — and whenever I see him, he’s eager to show me all the things of his world.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him.

I remember one day when I was visiting, he showed me this little rocket-like toy that you pump up — I think he counted 10 or 12 pumps each time — and then you twisted something or stepped on something or something (my memory fails me) and then the rocket was suddenly launched into the atmosphere.  (Well, not exactly the atmosphere, but pretty high nonetheless.)

Heads up! because if you weren’t paying attention, it very well may be landing right on your head.

Fun.  Joy. Innocence.   Those words describe the little boy’s world.

Yet, as many parents the world over can attest, having a child with special needs can be trying at times, even at the best of times.

My client, however, is both creative and analytical at the same time.  She confided in me that life with her stepson can be challenging.

But, she said, “We just focus on his strengths.”

Wow.

That hit me smack in the face.  How inspiring is that?

If we can appreciate the value of focusing on the strengths of those with disabilities, why aren’t we fully embracing that concept with our spouses, partners, loved ones, friends?

…ourselves?

(Actually, I love most anything Google, but that’s probably beside the point.)

Google offers a cool little YouTube video tour of Google Maps that illustrates its many personal and business uses, as well as a getting-started, Google Maps User Guide that describes the basics of the online tool.

What I’m wondering is to what extent real estate agents are using Google Maps in their work.  Do you use Google Maps?  Have they made life easier for you and your clients?

I was just reading Joel Burslem’s article, written just slightly over a year ago, at the Future of Real Estate Marketing blog, and he’s as excited about Google Maps as I am — more so even, as he points out the real-world application of the technology, whereas I’ve just been using it primarily for personal use.

Joel reports that Google is definitely stepping into the real estate arena, beginning to populate Google Maps with real estate listings that can be searched geographically.  Obviously consumers will be using this technology, especially as it becomes more and more sophisticated.

Joel Burslem already is.

When he finds a home he likes,

“the very first thing I do is click over to a new tab, Google the address and pull it up on Maps.

From there, I can get a clear view of the street layout (access to freeways etc.), the terrain (how close is it to a park). I love Street View which gives me a first person look at the neighborhood. I start Googling local business to see how far the closest pub, pizza joint, drycleaners, etc. is from the home. I can also pull up instant directions to see how long my commute might be.

Sure I could do some of this on the originating source’s site. But like with all my other Google searches, I love the speed and clean look and feel to Maps”

Pretty slick, eh?  I’m thinking of the potential this has to keep real estate agents up-to-date and informed about the things their prospects care about.

So, are you using Google Maps as a help in your research?

Is it making life easier and helping you add value to your clients?

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Flickr Image by Stephen Mackenzie, under a Creative Commons license

Just about 2 years ago, however, the billionaire Bill Gates predicted that “Yellow Page usage amongst people in their, say below 50, will drop to near zero over the next five years.”

The truth value of that statement is yet to be seen, but in this Age of the Internet, a compelling online presence is essential for the real estate agent (and for entrepreneurs of every stripe, for that matter).

Why?

Prospective clients expect it.  In fact, they often will pre-screen businesses on the web before (or instead of) they call.  I know this, but I still am amazed every time I speak with a client-to-be or a new prospect or referral partner when they tell me they found me on the web.  Not only that, they tell me everything about me!

Market Hardware’s Fall 2007 edition of their small business newsletter, Web Insider, offered four main reasons potential clients do this.

1. They want to know if you’re credible.  Are you established?  Will you be around for the long haul?  Do you have references or testimonials?
2. They want information.  Can you answer my questions?  Are you an expert in your field?  What do you offer in the way of relevant information that I cannot easily access on my own or obtain from someone else?
3. They want to communicate.  How do I get in touch with you?  Do you have multiple ways I can contact you?
4. They want convenience.  Can I check out your business on my own terms, when I want?

How does your web site stack up to expectations?  Are you giving your customers what they want?

Feel the weight of the world on your shoulders because you have to do everything yourself?

I think someone (or, many someones) is trying to tell me something.

Dr. Dov Baron, a leader in the personal development arena (and one of my heroes!) who has held a private practice for over 20 years, has only in the last several years begun assembling a strategic team of individuals who are aligned with his mission and purpose.  Asked what he would do differently in his business, he remarked that he would have built a team sooner.

Small business coach, Michael Port, is oft heard commenting that nothing great is accomplished alone.

My coach trainer and mentor, Terri Levine (the Guru of Coaching) has created multiple companies, systems, programs, best selling books, and more all with the support of a super-talented team committed to her (and their) success.

On the surface, real estate tycoon Donald Trump appears singularly self-reliant.  Yet, according to Michael Sexton (President of Trump University), “he could never have reached the pinnacle of success without the support of a great team.”

Gary Keller in The Millionaire Real Estate Agent says that “hiring talent is the key to gaining leverage in your business life.”  In fact, he advises that in most cases, a real estate agent should hire administrative help even before the full development of business systems and tools.

Don’t think you need a team?

Michael Sexton expertly addresses that question on The Trump Blog, which I invite you to read for yourself by clicking HERE.

Being magnetic is all about flow and ease (Does a magnetic struggle to attract?).  Isn’t that what you want for your business and your life?

I know I do.

Giving his advice just before the start of 2008, Mr. Sexton offered that there is no better time to put together a quality team (to release unnecessary stress and overwhelm) than at the beginning of a new year.

Well, I say there’s no better time than right now, no matter what time of year it is!

Don’t you?

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Flickr image by Scott Maxwell, founder of The Gold Guys.  Used under a Creative Commons license.