Branding

I was a scruffy kid.

Not dirty. Just untidy. I didn’t really care how I looked. I never have to be honest. I was far more interested in doing things than in worrying about what I looked like. I didn’t care, and it genuinely never occurred to me that anyone else might care. A wrinkled t-shirt, frayed jeans, untidy tousled hair… They were just par for the course.

I wonder what that has cost me over the years.

Because I now know that people do care. Or, perhaps more accurately, people take notice subconsciously. Humans are judgment machines. I don’t mean that in a bad way. Our brains have evolved to solve puzzles. Judgment and weighing up the relative consequences are part of that problem-solving process.

But I still resist. I still like to do things my own way. I still wear things I like rather than things that might be more suitable.

A couple of months ago this was put into perspective by my interaction with the content of William Choi on LinkedIn. I read some of his content, and I got access to his free training (which I recommend to anyone interested).

As a result, I changed the look of my LinkedIn profile and my profile image.

I liked the result. It looked clean, and it stood out. I started changing a few other things here and there. I realised how a consistent image in a sea of randomness communicates a feeling of stability. So, following what Will teaches, I updated my profile look elsewhere, trying to make everything consistent. I have been impressed with the result.

Branding Update

So, following that, you may notice that there is a change to the branding of the Compelling Communicator newsletter this week. I have never really been the sort of person who naturally paid attention to how things look. I don’t notice differing fonts, and I have not really noticed in the past when colours clashed.

After updating my brand look elsewhere, I realised that, in contrast, my branding for The Compelling Communicator looked out of place and not up to the same standard. It was bugging me.

Initially, I changed the Unpacking Wisdom quotes from the original grey to the blue I use for my Chris Hanlon Communications business. But the more I changed to coordinate, the more the parts that didn’t match stood out. So I had to change it all.

But it also got me thinking…

I have had an irrational fear of changing my brand. I felt that I shouldn’t change things. I feared it would reflect poorly on me to change things as if I couldn’t decide. But when I thought about it, the truth is that I don’t have that many subscribers to my newsletter. If I am going to change anything, now is the time to do it.

Other Aspects of Communication

I also realised there is much more to communication than just choosing the words we will use. Authenticity comes from congruency between words and actions. Confidence makes a statement about who you are and your belief in your message. The simplicity of visuals cuts to the point, avoiding clutter and muddy thinking.

The importance of a consistent brand becomes apparent when you look at how you communicate your message in this way. With so much information flying around, a brand becomes an important touchstone for those interested in your message. It lets people know when to tune in and pay attention.

I have been ignoring this cornerstone of communication with this newsletter.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a reasonably consistent brand within this newsletter, but it wasn’t tied to anything else. So today, that changes. I have connected my brand with the newsletter with my business and LinkedIn branding.

More Than Skin Deep

There is more than the look, of course. One of the key things in a brand is to find and consistently use your voice. I would love to give some advice on this, but the truth is that this is something I struggle to get right myself.

All I can do is focus on being as Authentic as possible when writing these newsletters or speaking in my videos. This means if it is not something I would say to a friend, then it is not something I should say just because I am writing or talking to a camera.

I see this a lot with many of the people I coach. They feel that because they are on stage or talking into a camera, they need to sound or look a certain way. The truth is they need to sound and look like themselves. That is all that authenticity is. But it is incredibly important and surprisingly hard to do sometimes.

My Ongoing Journey

Normally, this would be the point where I might dispense some useful tips or information. But the truth is that I am learning this stuff myself right now. The brand thing, particularly regarding image and visuals, is new to me.

Another thing that surprised me was when I got help from a friend to create the new blue logos I have used on this page. Shout-out to Sam! 

He asked about the ‘big C’. -Now Sam has read every issue of this newsletter, and I discussed it with him before I started, so I was somewhat surprised. “You know that the ‘C’ is a magnet right, it is symbolising the magnetic quality of compelling communications”, I told him.

“Huh, if you say so”, he grunted. And I realised that I had never explained what that was. Ever. Not in person or, more importantly, in this newsletter. There is a lesson in that alone. What are you assuming that you have communicated but really never have?

Well, I still have a lot to learn on this subject, but I promise to let you know what I learn along the way. -Both the positive and the negative!

And if you have anything to share with me that you think might be useful please sing out.

Finally, here's a shout-out to William Choi: Follow him on LinkedIn.

Snippets is a section where I take some interesting text I have come across in the previous week and comment on it.

I can’t even remember where I heard this, but it grabbed me enough at the time to note it down.

This is something I came across a lot when talking to people who wanted or were put forward to do a TEDx talk. Many expressed that they weren’t sure that they had the expertise or the right to claim expertise by standing on stage and sharing their perspective.

-Equally, I had a number of encounters with people absolutely convinced that they were the embodiment of an expert, and it was ludicrous that people were not paying them enough attention. Unfortunately, their content did not match their self-assessment.

The truth is that expertise is relative.

I taught women’s self-defence in Wellington for over a decade. Among those women, I was an expert. I taught them something they didn’t know that they needed to know. But I also did some security work with an American ex-marine. I brought the same set of skills into that role, but I was not the expert there.

My point is if you want to share your expertise, know where it is based, who it is for, and what you can do with it. Don’t pretend to be able to do more than you can.

Do that, and you will get the respect of both those less and more experienced than you.

Unpacking Wisdom is a weekly section where I dive into a famous (or not so famous) quote and explore how this can apply to the Compelling Communicator.

This is a great classic quote, but today, I want to look at it in a slightly different context.

One of the strengths and weaknesses of Social Media is that it enables people to quickly and easily share an idea with the wider world. It is a strength because the power of this reach is unprecedented in human history. This can allow great ideas to circulate and be built upon quicker than ever before.

It is also a weakness. Because it is so easy to post and comment, many are written on the spur of the moment. Thoughtlessly. Or worse, under the influence of a strong emotion. I am as guilty as anyone of adding a snarky comment to something I have found amusing on social media.

But what is the outcome of that?

Just more stream-of-consciousness verbal diarrhoea fouling up the social media ecosystem. There is no value there. A moment of personal expression. Fleeting and gone. No lasting impact. Nothing added to the lives of anyone else.

Imagine for a moment if we treated the opportunity represented by social media with the gravity that Kant suggests in this quote. If every time we commented or posted, we did it to add value in a way that might be here 100 years from now.

If everyone did that, what we call social media would be a repository of human wisdom. Personal values and beliefs would be thoughtfully debated. Not to score points but to add value and perspective.

I know this is unrealistic.

That isn’t the point. The point is that if this vision gripped you, then there is nothing stopping you from living into that reality. Treating your online interactions as a weighty, important and enduring responsibility would certainly stand out.

And who knows? It might make a difference.

What I am up to this week…

Professionally:

I am putting together some workshops that I will be offering in the future. I will be wanting to test them with a few people for free. So look out for some more information on that soon.

What I am reading:

I finished Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, which I recommend for anyone interested in screenwriting. And am continuing with my John Milton books by Mark Dawson

What I am watching:

I have finally finished season two of The Righteous Gemstones, and about to get into season three.