Hi everyone! Honey Badger Tiff here! Hope y’all are having a very safe and lovely Labor Day weekend. I had to haul my fat butt up to CareNow this morning (LOVE that place cuz the waiting room is your living room when you use web check in) and it turns out I have a viral bronchial infection. I firmly believe it was all that vein popping yelling I did that let a little germ fly in when my mouth was open. LOL!

So today as I’m mapping out a bit of our upcoming branding challenge, I want to share with you a few obstacles I blurted out onto paper and see if you can add to or comment on this list. I need to know what others are concerned about when it comes to branding.

Here’s my short list of things that may be obstacles for people with branding:

1. Not knowing what your brand should even be. We all need direction on what we should be propping ourselves up as in the marketplace. Some of you may already know! When I was ghostwriter to the gurus, I knew immediately. Now, notsomuch.  I will be brainstorming this from scratch right alongside you guys.

2. Trying to be the brand of choice for everyone in that niche. This is a big mistake people make – trying to be everything for everyone.

This morning a long time follower said he was disappointed in my rant. Wanted me to rethink it. No. I’m me. You be you. If I’m not right for you, and you feel you have to move along, that’s okay. Your brand can’t make everyone happy.

Some people will need to follow your competitors’ brands – and they should! My brand is a little bit bitch (to those who deserve it). I’m blunt. If you turn your nose up to that, then find a sweetheart marketer to tune into.

You have to be willing to stand firm and not cave to pressure. If you say you’re the best green living instructor on the ‘net and someone calls you out and says your ideas are not smart, are you going to agree with them and cower behind your screen or show people you believe in yourself as much as they should and put up your dukes (figuratively speaking of course)?

And let me tell you ONE thing. The bigger you get, the more nameless, faceless people are going to try to knock you down. Trolls are abundant on the Internet. They love to argue because they’re not face to face. They will make some of the most ridiculous arguments you’ve ever seen and you’ll be wondering, “Are they SERIOUS?” Recognize there are QUITE a few idiots in this world – and they’ll be attracted to you because they don’t have the ability to go out and lead people themselves. It’s envy – that’s all.

3. Being afraid to brand. This is a biggie – and we usually laugh about video or fat pictures, but really, even if those two concepts weren’t involved, some people are going to be nervous branding themselves. It’s a confidence issue. You worry about “what if you AREN’T really the best in this niche?” Oh well, don’t worry about it – to some people, you WILL be the next best thing since sliced bread.

And branding is going to require you to share. You ready to share your story? Your experience? Your desire to help others who need your solutions? If you can’t get personal and become a relationship marketer, then you might ought to head to the latest GRQ wso and pick up a “let’s game google while we can” guide.

The reason your brand will take off is because you’re willing to be real with people. We see it time and time again here in the comments section – people thanking the hell out of me – not for any specific strategy, but for “being real.” It creates loyalty and trust, which directly converts into sales. It’s probably WHY gurus have told me my smaller 9k list converted at HUGE numbers above big time marketers with 100k lists – they don’t always have the same relationship with their subscribers.

4. Worrying that you’ll make the wrong branding decision and have to redo it later. Now is that so bad? Really, let’s think about it. We do a lot of work to build a brand (ghostwriter to the gurus) and later realize it isn’t working for us anymore. So what?

Consider it exciting – something new to pursue! Don’t be a Nelly about it. Embrace the change. I may flub my whole branding here in this challenge, but if I figure it out later, I’m just going to be happy I had a placeholder and happy that I did finally find my perfect brand later.

Now I do want to caution you about consistency. We don’t want to be changing up our brand every 30 days. Find your footing and if you realize you’re changing your mind too often, then you need to take a step back and really dig in deep to make a final decision.

5. Putting too much focus on that dirty USP. I dislike that USP (Unique Selling Proposition) term. It’s all about setting yourself apart to make a sale. But let’s build a real big, thriving business this time – don’t come to the table with “selling” in mind! Come to the table with SERVING in mind. So maybe we can keep the USP but turn it into Unique SERVING Proposition.

This, by the way, is opposite of most branding advice I’ve seen in recent years. Normally it’s all about selling. What a selfish way to build a business.

6. Not knowing how to brand. Do you just stick a header image up and make sure your site tags are in line with your brand? Of course not. You have to brand everywhere – we’re going to be slinging our brand all over the ‘net. We’ll be using almost all free methods (but of course a blog/domain will be needed and perhaps an email autoresponder, but there are free options for all of those if you’re flat broke)!

There will be optional things we can do – like if you want a logo created, go for it. But I’m going to try to keep this geared for newbie/shoestring budget marketers, not those who have dough to toss around and test things out without a second thought.

Now it’s your turn – first, what do you think of the above obstacles? And second, what others worry you?

Okay time for me to go heal myself. Any of you using a voodoo doll on me, I cry Uncle! No more colds, please LOL!

Tiff

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