Personal Branding for the 21st Century Entrepreneur
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It’s the very formula adopted by some of the oldest and richest corporations still operating today.
In the 20th Century, mediocre in mass quantities was the recipe for success. It worked because there wasn’t as much competition in the market and there were fewer advertising and marketing channels to reach a mass audience
In the 21st Century mediocre will get you no more than mediocre results (if you get any results at all). The marketplace is crammed with similar products in almost every industry. And the advertising and marketing channels to reach consumers is virtually infinite.
Being mediocre in a crowded market results in low profitability. When faced with choices that are all relatively similar, a consumer will choose the cheapest price or the name they recognize from a previous purchase.
Mediocrity is a death knell for corporations in the 21st century. As the symbol of the beginning of the end for a corporation, it could be worse for individual entrepreneurs.
Pick a product after some market research. Try to market that product to the masses. The product never takes off.
The business fails within 2 to 3 years. The mediocre entrepreneur has no other income streams, so he has to return to the job market. The mediocre entrepreneur ends up working in a cubicle doing menial, repetitive work that slowly drains their soul from his body.
Mediocre entrepreneur retires at 67 with heart disease and other stress related ailments from living an unfulfilled life. The Small Business Administration estimates that 70% of new businesses fail within the first three years.
That equals to a lot of disgruntled, disheartened entrepreneurs tucking their tails between their legs and groveling for a job… in some cases from their competitors.
When you’re mediocre, you increase your chances of failure in a market where there are too many choices for the consumer. Even worse, when you’re mediocre, your ability to bounce back from set- backs is virtually non-existent.
There is no place for a mediocre entrepreneur in the 21st century. He will not thrive. He is destined to fail.
The anecdote to mediocrity is exceptional. The 21st century entrepreneur doesn’t strive for mediocrity to appease a mass audience. That road to success has been barricaded. The 21st Century entrepreneur strives for excellence, which is marketed and directed to a targeted audience, willing to pay the premium prices. This is where Personal Branding comes into play. Enter…
“Personal branding is about deciding to take an active role in the direction of your life. You benefit from creating a personal brand because it allows you to self-manage your life and stop depending on others to do it for you. Your personal brand helps you make the most of what you’ve got to offer.’� ~Susan Chritton
Your Personal Brand is an emotional identification that comes to mind when someone thinks of you. Your personal brand exemplifies your values and those values that others associate with you.
It can be considered your personal alter-ego. If you control your personal branding, you can influence how others perceive you. If you don’t control your personal branding, it will take on a life of its own.
A good perception can be an opportunity. A bad perception is a mountain that you may not be able to climb.
Your personal branding message tells people who you are, what you do and what makes you different or how you create value for your target market.
Personal branding is also critical because you have a life beyond your company. This life beyond your company can also generate additional income streams for you.
I am NOT a consultant. I am NOT trying to sell people on coaching. I am NOT trying to sell you monthly continuity programs. I simply saw that young entrepreneurs were absolutely misguided in how to brand themselves for success and I wanted to help the 21st Century Entrepreneur succeed.
I believe in Capitalism. The greatest nations in all the world have embraced capitalism and have been prosperous because of it. In the land of hand-outs and bail-outs…the ENTREPRENEUR is king. The 21st Century Entrepreneur has been conditioned to believe that bail-outs are normal and okay.
NO…they are not. YOU create your reality. YOU create your wealth. YOU create your own success. NOT the government. Put your future in your own hands and do something with your life. Embrace personal branding for the 21st century entrepreneur and use your talents to serve your customers…and serve them well.
Your wealth will be in direct correlation with how you serve your customer. So use your talents and personally brand yourself as the obvious expert in your chosen field and serve your customers with the utmost integrity. Not because you HAVE to, but because you WANT to.
A well-executed personal branding campaign creates a strong, consistent, and specific association between the individual and the perceived value they offer.
Branding is the promise of the value you’ll receive. This promise could be the difference in making thousands to hundreds of thousands more dollars a year, creating associations with world leaders, building a career instead of being stuck in a job and the opportunity to open doors to entrepreneurship.
I realized that a lot of my peers were destroying their personal brands by some of their activities on social media before they could even establish themselves.
Talking about it wasn’t enough. I needed to go further. I needed to find a way to teach my peers what personal branding is, how to dissect the core of this concept and how to put it to use to get powerful results.
I just started making calls and scheduling interviews. I figured the best way for my peers to learn how to use personal branding to… Read more…
