123. 2 Simple Steps To Building A Brand Your Prospects Love

Hey. Hey. Welcome back to Friday Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neary and this is episode 125. Today we are talking about building a brand your prospects love. This episode today is going to be a little more tactical than normal. As you know, a lot of my Friday Bullpen sessions are often dedicated to topics around your mindset. How to eliminate certain limiting beliefs that are keeping you from reaching your full potential. But today, today is going to be pretty damn tactical, especially if you are out selling a product, a service. I don't care what industry you're in today, I want to share with you a couple steps you can leverage today to start building a brand your prospects love. It's steps that I've used over the past seven years as I've built my brand that has really helped me bring the right people into my life. Heck, I don't even care if you're a young sales professional, young business professional just out of college. These steps, these tips could help you build better relationships with people you're trying to connect in your career. So, yeah, we're just going to get very tactical today because right now, here's what I'm seeing in my coaching business. I work with a lot of insurance advisors and I get a lot of insurance advisors reaching out to me, asking me.

How they could attract better prospects into their sales pipeline and they're stuck right now. We could agree. The last 12, 14 months, it's been very difficult to connect with prospects just because the environment we live in. However, I believe this is a problem that's been going on much longer than the length of the pandemic that we've been dealing with. And it's how do I bring the right prospects? That's the key, the right prospects into my world by getting them to know me, like me and trust me. Right? So today I want to share with you the two things that I've done that I think have worked extremely well for me building my brand, whether it was as an insurance advisor or now with my coaching consulting business. And, and I want to pass those on to you. Now. Let me be very, very clear. I am by no means any, any kind of marketing branding guru, but these are two steps that I have used that have really, really have done more for my career than anything else. Because my brand building adventure started seven years ago in 2014 when Amy and I decided to move out here. I went to work for an insurance agency that really didn't have much of a marketing budget. So I had to figure it out. And as I was in a market, nobody knew who I was, right? So I had to get as many people to like me as fast as I could. Now, up until that point, one of the challenges that I always had was just being myself. I was afraid to be myself. I was afraid to let people really get to know me. Because, number one, if I'm selling insurance, it's business, right? Why would I talk about my life? Why would I talk about me? I'm here to do business, keep it professional, keep it at a business level. And number two, I was afraid of what people might say if I was just myself, quite frankly. And that's really where the first step of building a brand your prospects love comes in. Just be you, start sharing you.

You see, in these conversations with insurance advisors, they often want to know how they could create the same kind of LinkedIn content that I do, the content that has attracted them into reaching out to me.

Because they want to build better relationships, they want to attract the right prospects in their life. And they know they need to be using social media platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram, but they don't know how to do it right.

Or they believe that for me to post stuff out on platforms like social media, for me to reach out, whether it's social media, your emails, however you communicate with your prospects, there is this belief that you have to be viewed as a subject matter expert at all times. If you want to be taken serious, seriously by your prospects, you've got to be viewed as the smartest, brightest, sharpest subject matter expert there is. And so what you do is every post you make on LinkedIn or Instagram is built on some form of your expertise in the area that you operate in every day. Whatever it is you sell, whatever industry you're in.

It'S what your emails say as they're going out to your prospects. It constantly displays your subject matter expertise. Your website, your company's website constantly reinstates how good you are, how much expertise you have in your industry, in the product you sell. But the problem is it doesn't get your prospects to connect with you, at least not the right ones. And so for those advisors I coach that I work with, for anybody listening, and if you sell any product, any service of any kind, or you are in a position where you're just trying to build a brand people love, here's the first step.

Just be you, just share you. You see, the game changer for me in building this brand, really connecting with the right people, is when I decided to go on LinkedIn platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and I just started to share parts of my life. I don't care what it is, I am an open book. So I am willing to share stories about my life, about my professional baseball career, about my mistakes, about lessons I've learned from the mistakes I've made, and lessons I've learned from the successes I've had. Just sharing those stories, it could be something as large as Andy playing professional baseball. It could be something as small as that day to day event that happened in my life that's so easy to overlook but had a big profound impact on my day, my week or my life. Passing those stories on to my audience gives them that opportunity to get to know me, you see, now they get to learn about my life. However, here's the key. If I am able to take those life lessons, those stories about my day to day life, my professional baseball career, all those events, all those moments that have happened in my life, I can turn those into life and business lessons that I can pass on to you. Now I've got you. You see, not only do you like the stories I'm sharing, not only do you feel like you're getting to know me, I'm actually teaching you something. I'm actually impacting your life and your business. You see, that's the step right there. That's the key to step number one is sharing parts of your life. But turning those events, those moments, those hobbies into life and business lessons you can pass on to others. If you can do that, you are going to get the right prospects to come into your life, to eventually come into your funnel and eventually become your clients. Because they are getting to know you, they are getting to like you. And if those stories resonate with them enough, connect with them enough, damn it, they may even trust you before they've ever met you.

You see, what's so interesting is the advisors that are reaching out to me to wonder, to learn how they can create the same kind of LinkedIn content they see me creating, don't realize the reason they reached out to me in the first place is because they are resonated with a piece of content I shared. I shared a story about my life that they connected with. They felt like I was talking right to them and that's what made them just have to reach out to me. And you can do the same thing. If you just start sharing parts of your life and turning those moments in your life into lessons, life and business lessons, your prospects can learn from that they can leverage to impact and improve their own Life, you do those two things, that, my friend, is going to be a powerful, powerful advantage for you to get your prospects to fall in love with your brand. And step number two, now we have to flip the equation that's telling your story. The second key to building a brand your prospects love is you gotta start telling their story. What is it they're trying to accomplish? What are their goals? What are their challenges they're facing? How is that making them feel? How is that impacting them internally? When you're able to share those stories where they can listen, they can watch, they can read and say, yes, that's me, that's what I want, that's what I'm going through, that's going to get them to realize you are telling their story. You are showing them how your product, your service, your solution can change them from where they are today to where they want to be. But you got to tell their story.

That's where the trust comes in, is when you're able, through your social media content, your emails, your website, you're able to tell the prospect's story and not focus all of your efforts on telling your own.

You will change the game. Because now with this combo of sharing your story, letting people get to know you so they can get to know you and like you, but now you turn around and you start telling their stories, you're showing what's happening to them. You're talking about the goals they're trying to achieve, the challenges that are keeping them from that goal, how it's impacting them on the outside, but. But more importantly, how is it impacting them on the inside, emotionally? If you're able to share that story crystal clear in a way that connects with them, they're gonna wanna do business with you. You are gonna build a brand your prospects love. Because now it's a brand they know, now it's a brand they connect with, and now it's a brand that they realize can change their life. That, my friend, is a powerful one, two, punch. Like I said, I'm not a marketing guru. I am not a branding guru. But there is one thing I do know, is that if I am willing to just open up and share my life with my audience, but use my life as a lesson to teach others, and then I'm equally able to tell their story because I have taken the time to know what their goals, where the destination is, they're trying to get to their challenges that are keeping them from that and how that is impacting them emotionally and I can share that story. Over and over again and show them how I fit into their life. Now I've got a powerful combo that will get them to know me, like me and trust me. And I will always bring the right prospects into my life. Because at the end of the day, if I'm just being me.

That person out there who doesn't like me, they're never going to buy from me. And that's what I want. I don't want them to buy from me. But if I just show the true me, if I show up as my brand every single day, the right people who resonate with that brand are always going to come into my life. And that's the key at the end of the day, building a brand your prospects love. And if you want to do that, it comes down to that simple 1, 2 combo at 1 2. Step number one, share your story. Start opening up, letting your audience get to know you a little bit. But turn it into lessons, life and business lessons that they can use to impact their own life. And number two, start telling their story. Do it in your emails. Do it with your website. Do it with your social media content. Use their story, their goals, their challenges, the destination they're trying to get to, the failures they're trying to avoid. Tell those stories over and over again. And you, my friend, will have a brand your prospects love. You will have a business you love because you will have a book of business filled with people you love working with. So go get that clarity. Go get that confidence. Because you know when those two come together, you know what happens next. You take massive action. So go take massive action on building that brand your prospects love Today.