One of a my readers emailed me a few weeks ago for advice on an upcoming interview. I spent nearly an hour on the phone with him and haven’t heard from him since. He’s now officially become “that guy” in my book.

Don’t be that guy.

It’s interesting to think about how many small businesses get suckered into “branding” themselves before actually doing anything. The sad part: I was one of them. I had incorporated my first company many years ago and was feeling great. Nevermind the fact that I didn’t have a single sales prospect yet — I had to have a business card and other sales collateral. A few days later, I was a couple of hundred dollars poorer with boxes of shiny new stationary sitting on my doorstep. Suffice it to say, that business never went much further than that.

The lesson: Building your business creates the brand. The unconscious process of forming your brand comes out of unrelenting passion, not unending spin.

Ever heard of Starbucks? Contrary to what you may have heard or thought, Starbucks never sought to create a brand. Instead, the company passionately sought to create appreciation for a better tasting cup of coffee. It was, in fact, as basic as that.

Starbucks was too busy sourcing and roasting the highest-quality coffee beans to think about branding. Starbucks was too busy educating customers on how and why they should appreciate a stronger, bolder, more flavorful cup of coffee to think about branding. Starbucks was too busy creating a comforting and welcoming place for people to exhale than to think about branding.

Last week, I met Ryan Moede with Viget Labs (a web strategy firm based just outside of Washington, DC). He told me that before they accept a particular client, the Viget team asks themselves if they’d ever become employees of the client company. Unless the answer is yes, they won’t proceed. Rather than taking just any work that comes their way, they’re relentlessly focused on building their business with the right clients — the branding inevitably follows.

So, the first thing to do is to start ignoring all the “professionals” out there that advise you to spend hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars on “creating” a brand for your company. Instead, focus your efforts on being the best at what you do — the brand will follow.

I was visiting my home, just outside of DC, this weekend and met a number of great folks involved in a wide range of industries. As I sit here on the ride back to San Francisco, I’ve been thinking about one particular entrepreneur that struck me because I still don’t know what he and his small business do, even after chatting for 20 minutes. (To protect the innocent, I won’t call him out publicly but I’m working with him privately now make things better.)

I met with him for a second time earlier this week and peppered him with some more questions before we discovered the problem: He shied away from picking a particular niche because he thought it would limit his profit margins or customer counts. He’s not alone — unfortunately, I see this far too often.

Here’s the thing though — why be a small fish in a ginormous pond? It’s far smarter to be the big-ass fish in the tiny little pond. Less is more.

Mark Vadon, Blue Nile’s co-founder, was quoted in a recent BusinessWeek article:

I want to be the best in the world at one thing. I don’t want to be half-assed at a lot of things.

Most businesses suck when they try to do too many things — cut down the number of things you do and your margins shoot through the roof. Every small business that I’ve consulted has told me that once they narrowed their focus to a specific niche, their sales skyrocketed.

In fact, when my own construction company decided to stop actively looking for commercial work, our residential sales skyrocketed. Once we focused on the few things we did better than anyone else, everything got better — more clients, more money and, most importantly, less stress.

How do you define your niche? To start, determine one thing that you do better than anyone else. Not sure? Ask people who know you well. I bet they can come up with at least one thing that makes you a rock star. If you need more help, Geekpreneur has some tips on ways to find your niche and I recently included a few more tips here: the importance of being the best at what you do.

By narrowing your focus, you’ll start to be seen as the expert in your industry. Which instills confidence in your customers and brings even more people to your door. Doesn’t get much better than that.

A column in this month’s Inc. magazine describes what it was like to work for the world’s most successful entrepreneur, Bill Gates:

Bill came in. I thought about how strange it was that he had two legs, two arms, one head, etc. – almost exactly like a regular human being.

So, maybe Bill isn’t the right person to compare ourselves against but the point is that the people around you need to easily recognize that you are a real person, just like them.

When I was first starting out, I pretty much ignored returning emails and phone calls under the impression that I was simply “too busy” for it. Then one day I realized that people had stopped coming to me when opportunity knocked, and it hit me: I had to make myself more accessible if I wanted to get ahead.

“So, how do I become more accessible?”

First, make sure you give people multiple ways to get in touch with you. If you’re reading this, you probably have a cell phone, email account, Facebook profile and a Twitter account. Use them.

Then, make sure you actually reply like a human. It’s that simple.

Well, not really, but it’s a start. Here are some extra tips for you:

• Visibility creates opportunities. People will never know how great you are unless they know you exist. Use blogs, Facebook, and your voicemail greeting to start getting your personal brand out there. (You did rethink your personal brand, didn’t you?)
• Be reachable. Let’s be honest, you probably have an account on nearly every Web 2.0 site out there. OK, maybe not every one but you probably do have an email, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or FriendFeed account. Just use them.
• Show your face. You can’t get ahead by sitting behind your computer all day. Get out there and start meeting people. You know the saying – a picture is worth a thousand words. Start putting a face to the name by actually meeting the people you interact with online.
• Respond promptly. Most people are on deadlines. The more quickly you can follow up when someone contacts you, the more likely they will return the favor. If you have the time, respond to messages right away.

We’re all busy. Some days it seems like you’ve got neverending phone calls to return and emails to answer, but it’s time to stop making excuses.

I wake up at 6am every morning to catch up on email because I know that the people I’m replying to are still in bed — they can’t possibly reply back to me immediately with a one-liner. Stick to your schedule and keep the lines of communication open, the results will be well worth it.

This is the fifth in a series of posts about rethinking your personal brand.

Pushing forward in spite of obstacles and challenges can seem difficult (if not impossible) at times. You may be feeling pressure from friends or family to give it up already and go the safe route. Ignore them – and remember that nothing that’s worth having comes easy.

In the words of Calvin Coolidge:

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press On” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Most successful people will tell you that they “failed” many times along the way. The difference between them and the people who are struggling to get by is that the highly successful picked themselves up and tried again. And again. And again.

Dale Carnegie noted that, “The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.”

So ask yourself this: Do you want to be successful or mediocre?

Here’s what you can do now: After you’ve thought deeply about a big idea you can execute, and you’ve verified just how sleepy your competition is, don’t let anyone talk you out of charging ahead. Pursuing big ideas requires persistence. So don’t give up when things don’t go exactly as planned – stay the course and you will see (big) results!

This is the fourth in a series of posts about rethinking your personal brand.

Just because ideas are ephemeral doesn’t mean you can’t apply the same kind of rigorous management attention to idea generation that you apply to everything else you do. Viewing yourself with new frame of reference is a great way to see if you’re presenting the right image.

Most successful entrepreneurs have adopted some form of process to capture ideas that (randomly) come to them on a daily basis and from the people that matter (usually their customers or employees).

Here’s what I do:

1. I carry a Moleskine notebook around on a daily basis and keep my favorite Parker pen (with gel insert, of course) to capture my ideas immediately.
2. On a monthly basis, I email 5 people (usually a mix of recent contacts and previous clients) asking them what they think of me. Here’s what you can do today: Email your friends, trusted customers and advisors (you have those, right?) and simply ask them, “When you think of me, what words come to mind?” Input from those who know (and love) you best is invaluable when it comes time to build a personal brand that is uniquely you.

As Tom Peters said, “take a lesson from the big brands.” Most businesses will survey their customers by simply picking up the phone and calling them. If email is more your style, shoot them a quick note asking what comes to mind when they hear your name. The comments you gather can help determine if their vision of you is how you want to be seen. If they weren’t able to capture your personal brand in a sentence or two, or if they stumbled through their response, your personal brand isn’t clear enough.

Remember, new ideas are all around you. Make sure you’re organized enough to capture them when they start falling in your lap. Bonus: Having all of your ideas captured in one notebook will make it easy to go back and see patterns. (Still don’t believe me? Tim Ferriss has an eight-foot stretch of shelves in my house containing nothing but full notebooks.)

Image Credit: place_light

This is the third in a series of posts about rethinking your personal brand.

Back in college, I started up a small consulting company to provide some outsourced Linux system administration. Oh, and photography. Oh wait, and business process consulting.

You get the idea: I tried to be everything to everyone but ended up being no one to anyone. More importantly, my clients started to see me as the guy they could just dump any task on. (In retrospect though, perhaps they trusted me enough to know that I could handle nearly anything they gave me and they knew I was the poor college kid that would take it with a smile.)

Look at monster.com or careerbuilder.com and compare them to the jobs section of your local newspaper – which are you most likely to check when you’re hunting for a new place to work? (If you’re reading this blog, you better not have chosen the newspaper.)

What I learned is that success favors a “best-of-breed player”, a company devoted to one line of business. The people that focus on dominating a single market usually destroy the people that try to be the best at everything. Make sense?

If I were to ask your friends, coworkers or employees what you’re an expert at, would they give me a concise answer that could be wrapped up in 10 seconds? If not, it’s time to take a step back and take a look at what you’re doing that’s confusing those around you. (Email me, I’ll help you brainstorm ways to fix it.)

Remember: Focus on what you do best and then tell the world about it. Widen your lens, narrow your focus.

Image Credit: laszlo-photo

This is the second in a series of posts about rethinking your personal brand.

Let’s face it, everyone’s a salesman and they’re constantly trying to feed you what they think you want to hear. The problem is that too many of them fail to follow through and actually deliver on their promises.

Take a look around the web and you’ll easily find 375649874 tips on building community to help evangelize your brand. Or The First 7 Days of Personal Branding. Or even Start Thinking About Your Personal Brand Early.

The truth of the matter is that you need to actually do something while you spread the word about it. Sure, go read the latest tips and tricks, but never forget to tend to business. The ultimate proof of your value is that someone is willing to pay for it.

P.S. Do go check out the personal branding links up above, they have some great insights!

Image Credit: VideoVillain

This is the first in a series of posts about rethinking your personal brand.

Times have changed: Smarts, diligence and hard work aren’t enough to ensure career success. We all know lots of hard-working, intelligent people who are stuck in dead-end jobs, unemployed or (worse) unhappy with their current position. Personal branding is about developing a strategy that positions you differently from others.

Know yourself. A successful personal brand is authentic, so you need to be honest about who you are. If you’re timid, shy and easily distracted, you’re not likely to succeed by pretending to be outgoing, loud and focused. In the words of Baltasar Gracián:

Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement.

Know your competitors. You can’t stand above the crowd without first taking a look around. It’s important to determine who the current players are and understand their particular strengths (and weaknesses).

Know your target. To be successful, you must not only have a personal brand, but also communicate it to the right people. Marketing yourself to the entire world is very expensive. The key to successful personal branding is to focus on your niche and then become the expert.

Your goal is to be different. Personal Branding is about discovering relevant differences and creating positive perceptions. It used to be about, “Can you do the job?” Today many people can do what you do.

Find out what makes you special and actively try to improve it even further. Real success won’t be far behind.

If you’re unsure about how to apply these tips to yourself, email me – I’d be happy to help brainstorm ideas. Also, don’t forget to signup for my newsletter where I’ll provide more insider’s tips on getting ahead.

Image Credit: kevindooley

Ten years ago, Tom Peters defined personal branding:

Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.

It’s that simple — and that hard. And that inescapable.

You already have a personal brand today. It’s a combination of everything you’ve done in your life to this point – it’s all of your accomplishments, your failures, your skills, your experiences and the stories you tell to tie it all together. If you haven’t already, it’s time to think about what your personal brand represents today and determine what you want it to be tomorrow. Starting today, I’m going to help you.

Here are five tips you can use to get started:

1. See the big picture.
2. Build community, but tend to business.
3. Widen your lens, but narrow your focus.
4. Organize for ideas.
5. Be persistent.

Your personal brand is one of your greatest business assets – you’re either building or diminishing it on a daily basis. With that in mind, I’m going to be elaborating on my five tips over the next few weeks – stay tuned.

Better yet, signup for my newsletter and be the first to hear about some things I’ve been working on, including some stuff you’ll never see on this site and more.

Image Credit: Lisandro Moises