Episode 72 of Landscape Digital Show reveals the connection between surfing and personal branding that instantly influences buyers and outcomes.
In all walks of life, people are most admired not for what they have achieved but how they went about it doing it.
How people get things done in life used to be known as reputation management, but now that we all manage our own media it is best described as personal branding.
A Harvard Business Review author observed that all surfers end their ride in exactly the same way: They fall into the water. It doesn’t matter if that ride was an epic success or dramatic defeat; the outcome is the same.
This is why what happens next matters most. Does he or she head back into the surf or pack it in for the day? I imagine that is something surfers talk about that defines their personal brands, who are the risk-takers and who are not.
Evaluating outcomes and taking action to create something better is what life and business are all about.
People admire winners, but we are especially interested in the path they chose to get there.
As an entrepreneur, this is your personal brand, and it’s never been more important for attracting the opportunities you desire for your business and your life.
Celebrate Endings That Create New Outcomes
Like so many other practices, surfing is a series of events. Knowing they all come to an end makes it that much easier to get back up and do it again in the quest for the perfect ride.
The truth is the perfect ride probably doesn’t exist for surfing or any other profession. Whether it does or doesn’t, the question that arises is always going to be the same.
Now what?
By definition, winning is an ending. It’s an event or outcome that had a beginning and now it’s over. That win may be an amazing landscape project that earned an industry award and put you on a big stage.
Now what?
Your current customers want to know. More important is that it shapes your personal brand for anyone that may be watching, and these days that audience is as large as the Internet.
What happens off stage matters as much and probably more than what happens when the spotlights are bright, because almost everybody can be good when they others are watching. Then there is that uncomfortable gap before the next event when we as human beings have all kinds of feelings
What happens in those gaps between events influences buyers more than we care to admit because that’s when your true character is revealed.
This is why it is vitally important to close the gap by celebrating the wins and the losses, and then taking action to create the next new one.
Your Brand Story Lives Between Wins and Losses
Have you ever noticed that when people win too often their methods and practices are scrutinized and sometimes criticized? This is one reason to publicly celebrate your losses just as much as your wins to humanize your personal brand.
If you are an introvert like me it can feel like work to live your life out loud on social media. But the truth is if you are not telling your story people will make assumptions based on what they think they know.
It’s fair to say that the term personal branding has business connotations, but it’s much more than that. Your personal brand impacts your success in life because it communicates who you are and what you care about, which of course either attracts or rejects people with similar interests and values.
The story of you is your personal brand and the easiest way to give your audience of fans, friends, and followers a glimpse into the authentic you is to document what’s happening in your world.
Video may be the best way to do this because it’s pretty hard to not be yourself in front of the camera. Just be mindful that it’s not so much what you have to say but how you say it that people will notice and remember.
Make no mistake that being your best self is a performance. After all, being yourself is typically being who you think people want you to be in the role you find yourself. You will have to find that balance for yourself.
You will have to find the balance that’s right for you.
Good luck.
Show Notes
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Call to Action
The call to action for this episode is to plan your personal brand just like a celebrity because it deserves that attention.
Determine the qualities that best represent who you are as a person because that personal brand is what will attract the right people to your business for years to come.
