Branding, NeuroEntrepreneurship and Your Message to Market | Art of Authority Podcast Ep 9 Mike Saunders The Authority Positioning Coach

Welcome to the Art of Authority podcast, bringing you interviews and episodes to help you radically optimize your authority and influence to become the go to expert in your field. Here's your host, authority positioning coach, Mike Saunders.

Hey guys, Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach, bringing you another segment of the Art of Authority. Hey, listen, today I spoke with two specific colleagues of mine, strategic alliances, on two very different topics, but I noticed a correlation between the two. The two topics are branding and neuro entrepreneurship. Now, neuro entrepreneurship is kind of one of those blue ocean strategies, because you don't hear that often, right? What causes an entrepreneur to become an entrepreneur, to take those risks, to scale up their business? And so what I wanted to do in this segment is just to speak to you a little bit about what each one of these conversations covered and then how they connect up and most importantly, how you can use it in your business as an entrepreneur, coach, consultant, or just a top notch salesperson. Because guess what? In authority positioning, in branding, it really is all a mental game. And some of these things that we need to be aware of. First of all is the most important piece is literally becoming aware of something. And I think that's the, that's one of the things that a lot of people don't realize is don't just let things happen to your brand. Don't just let things happen in your business. Notice them, be aware of them. Why did I make that decision? Why didn't I make that decision? Well, I was a little. I was afraid that if I made that marketing campaign that it wouldn't work. Or I was afraid if I put that Facebook Live that people wouldn't respond to it. And I think that's one of the first steps we need to remember when we're building our brand messaging. Our authority positioning is who we want to be in front of our audience. Well, that means that we need to know who we are. And who we are then is that educator and advocate and guide and coach for our cause. And what's our cause? Our cause is the solution to the problem that our target audience has. That's a whole other conversation. But we need to make sure that we are fixing a problem. You know, we can think of a myriad of examples, but what is your business, your service, your product, solving for your target audience? And once you know what that is and you can tell that story of how you came to, you know, fight against that battle and become the solution to that problem. Now you are telling that from a perspective of being that guide, because you can even be transparent and Say, look, I failed here, I stumbled here, but you know what? I got back up, and here's what I learned, and here's how you can implement that in your business. So that's a big, big piece from that branding side, that authority positioning side, knowing what you're voicing and your messaging, your message to market needs to be because you've heard people say, you know, just empathize with your target audience. And that doesn't mean, oh, you poor thing. It means, hey, I got you. I understand what you're going through, and it means that I'm going to show you the way. Now, Neuro entrepreneurship ties into that because you need to start noticing and realizing how you approach things and how you respond. Not react, but respond to things. Now, both of these colleagues of mine made similar statements where something that motivates you is way more powerful than something you're running from in fear. You know, I want to, you know, improve my business, to grow it and scale it, to increase my revenues. Why? And then whatever that answer is, go a little bit deeper. Well, why is that? Why do you want to accomplish that? That's way more powerful than going, I want to avoid bankruptcy, I want to avoid whatever. Right. And you need to think about that in your own business. We cannot run in fear. We cannot run in fear of lack, fear of the unknown. We have to step out in faith. And that's a spiritual principle, a biblical spiritual principle, of course. But even from just the perspective of being in business, we have to step out in faith sometimes and try that new technique, try that new process, test that new market. How are they going to respond to our product or service? Well, that's a step of faith. And once you start noticing that you can do that confidently, that comes through to your target audience and they see that. They see you as that innovator and that disruptor. If you keep doing things the way you've always done them in the past, just kind of, you know, same old, same old. At some point, it's going to fall on deaf ears and fallow ground, and you're not going to get the same results. We need to constantly be observing what's working in our business, what's not working in our business and in our messaging so that we can be innovating. And innovation does not have to be a disruption to an entire market. It can just be a new way that we are delivering our product or service to our client. It could be as simple as instead of mailing something to someone In a number 10 envelope, it could be the delivery device, the delivery package that you send it out in. It could be the branding in your emails, maybe you're messaging the font, the logo. Because of course, branding is way more than the visual and the design, but it's that whole holistic approach. So when someone looks at our business, they need to see us as that trusted advisor. They need to feel internally that, you know, and in fact, maybe they're not thinking, I trust this person. They look authoritative. They are the expert. Maybe they're not thinking that. And that's the way you want it. You want to come off as such a highly respected expert because of how you're teaching. You're not selling and pushing because that's doing it out of fear. You're kind of almost putting your arm around that target audience, that prospect, that customer, that client going, you know what? You mentioned that you'd like to do things this way and this way and this way. Let me tell you something. Here's what we found with some clients in the past, and here's what the result was. And if you want to go down that path, here's what to watch out for now. If you want to come down this path, here's where we have found to see some wonderful and spectacular results for our clients. So if we're able to take you down this path, this is what you're going to avoid and you're going to gain this. And you can fill in the blanks with those two examples. You know, exactly. In your business and your, your services. But those prospects, those clients, your target audience need to see you as developing new ways to do the same old thing because your competition is not doing this. And when you are seen as that innovator, that disruptor, even in a small scale, just even in their thinking and the way that you communicate with them and the content of what you describe. One of my colleagues had mentioned something to the effect of his client was getting some pushback on a project. And the person said, here's the scope of this entire project that I want to do. And they described it all and said, our budget is, you know, X, and the budget was like 10 times less than what it would take. And he said, you know, that's really interesting because everything you described I can deliver, and that's exactly what my firm does. But, you know, I don't know exactly what he said, but it's something to do the fact that you need to add another zero to that, because there's no way you can get this broad scope of what you described with this budget and the budget that they mentioned was a healthy size budget, but the vastness of what they needed. But if he had said something caustic or confrontational, that would have ended right there. But he was curious. Now, that is a way to approach and that perception of your brand, your expertise and your authority is huge. And again, your authority is not. I wrote this book and I'm on this podcast. I. Those are elements of your authority positioning. Those are tactical things. That's practical. Tactical, right. So if you say, well, how can I go out there and expand my authority? Those are some practical ways. You know, write some blog posts on your mindset and your thinking of your services, you know, do a podcast episode, all of those things. But in that example of the interaction, you are an extension of your brand. And I've heard it said that. I think it was Jeff Bezos that said your brand is what people talk about when you're not around. You know, kind of like character as well. You know, your character is what you do when people aren't around. So what is your brand standing for? What is your. Your message, your messaging, and how you work with your target audience and your clients in a caring way so that you can have that kind of a discussion and say, you know what, that project is massive in scope. Let's talk through that. Are there some elements that you would, you know, be able to leave out so that we can fit that budget, or is there any flexibility in that budget so you can include these things when you can take that approach, you now are presenting your brand from that. And let's kind of tie in that other word, neuro entrepreneurship. You're approaching it from a way of them being aware that you are not being caustic or confrontational. This is so important because you want people to hang up from that phone conversation, email exchange, you know, interpersonal interaction, feeling like you heard them. And I've experienced this, and I hope you have as well, where someone just feels like they heard me. I didn't get what I wanted, but you got me. And you know what? The answer that I got back from them was not what I was wanting, but I understand where they're coming from, and I now see where there is that gap. And so I get it. And that is what we need to focus on when we are working with our clients and our target audience and our educating them and being their advocate. So that's the thing that I want you to take away from today, is in your authority positioning, influence, expertise, whatever word you want to call it. It really gets down to caring about the people that you're working with and for and doing the right thing because that is a direct reflection on our brand. And remember, until next time, building your authority is your number one priority. Make it a great day.

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