What do you want to be known for?

This week’s blog is coming to you from being in the thick of the "almost final" review of the manuscript for my upcoming book “Marketing Me: Take Charge of Your Personal Brand and Make Your Mark on the World”

It’s so exciting knowing this work will be released into the world soon.

As I review this content, all of which I feel so passionately about, one thing keeps coming up.

In order to be able to create something useful, there are a lot of things I need to NOT include.

Not because it’s not great information.

Not because it won’t help people.

But because too many insights, too many thoughts and ideas will make it hard to absorb and effectively process the main big idea of the book.

My first draft had 62,000 words. Together with my editing team that was distilled to 32,000 during the first edit, and we decided to keep some of the content for a future book.

The second draft quickly morphed to 42,000 words.

Which we then distilled to 32,000 words.

And sure enough, following that it crept up yet again, as my fountain of insights overflowed :-) 

Now I’m doing the final review – and while the most important part of that is putting each section, each paragraph, each sentence through the filter of:

“Does this serve the reader to be here?”

“Does it help them understand the big idea of the book better?”

“Will it help them make progress and implement it?”

If not – then it needs to go.

Which is hard, as there’s a lot of good insights and information in here.

I have a great repository of content for future books piling up!

It’s important to remember the central “one big idea” of the book and ensure that every word in the book supports that purpose, or delivers on that promise to the reader.

So it doesn’t become convoluted and lose it’s overall potency.

It’s like that with our own brand, positioning and messaging as well.

We can be known for lots of things, but not lot lots of things at once.

People these days are looking for specialists. People who are the best in the field in what they do.

Yet at the same time craving simplicity. 

We need to make it easy for people to understand us.

And beyond that, we need to be easy to engage with and transact with.

People these days will do their own desktop research before they contact you – look at what you publish, what others are saying about you - then make a decision on who is the best person or organisation to help them.

If you’re sharing too many ideas in different directions, too many services and offers - you're making it hard for people to know who you are and what you do.

You might be brilliant but if you’re too hard to process you won’t connect with your audience.

Even if you do connect on a personal level, which is a great start, you can end up attracting the wrong people and the ones who aren’t an ideal commercial fit.

Or if you want to be referrable by others, you need to make it easy and give people the tools to be able to very simply explain what you do and how you can help them.


Clarity around your marketing and messaging is knowing

What to say,

How to say it,

When to say it,

Who to say it to.


A lot of people think their biggest marketing roadblock is not having a marketing system (and you know I'm a big fan of those!), but there’s no use putting in place systems if you don’t have on your message, audience and uniqueness.

It would be akin to setting up a production line for a food product when you don’t have the recipe nailed.

You’ll just end up producing more content that won’t hit the mark.

In the best case you’ll simply be expending valuable energy – but in the worst case you will put out mixed and messy messaging that will leave your audience confused and not taking action.

Before you start scaling up your content and brand-building efforts it’s important to be very clear about:

Who you are,

What you do,

Who you’re serving,

How you can help them,

Why they can trust you.


For many of us, especially if we’ve been in business for a while, or had a lengthy or distinguished career, knowing what to omit from our messaging at any given time is as important as knowing what to include, to communicate with this type of clarity.

I have a simple process that can help you nail this – whether you are an individual desiring to attract more prospects and clients, or a corporate team or small business that needs to lift your profile amongst your key stakeholders.

The principles are the same – and I’d be delighted to help you lead you (and your team, if you have one) into a place of clarity and confidence around your messaging.

Just get in touch and tell me a little bit about your situation and I’ll let you know the best option for you!

Because when your messaging is clear and dialled in, you draw in people who feel compelled to be in your world, and who are eager to share you with others, because they are clear on how you can help them and others in their own life or business.

That’s how to be in service to your audience – and this ultimately will be in service to you too!

OK – that's my share for the week - now, to return the focus back to editing….excited to have this labour of love in your hands soon!

******
 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nina Christian is a Marketing Futurist & Global Marketing Mentor who helps people do their marketing in a more human way. 

She is a Certified Practicing Marketer (CPM), Life Member and Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute & AMI State Chair (Vic) and for 20 years was director of Braveda (Winner, Best Marketing Agency, Australian Marketing Excellence Awards).

Several years ago Nina saw the world of marketing shifting – this time as people became their own brands.  With this, she created a new business as a thought leader, combining her expertise in brand building with personal positioning, resulting in a breakthrough praxis known as Marketing Me™.

She has a knack for simplifying the complex which comes from being a hands-on mum to five children, and uses this to turn time-sucking activities into easy-to-follow systems and processes that make a lot of sense and get outcomes fast.

There are different ways to work with Nina based on your situation and organisation size - with all of them you'll see rapid transformation and tangible outcomes fast. Book a chat with Nina here.