Now that’s an undertaking that requires lots of fore-thought, planning and careful consideration. An agreement with multiple crew members and a solid, justifiable reason.

In the same way, large scale brands and big companies have these limitations to contend with. No decisions can be made over night; planning, testing and yet more planning are required before any ideas are finalised. Roll-out of a fresh campaign takes forever, and requires approval from multiple “crew members” Wow. Laborious?

Can you start to see how you being a small brand, nimble and speedboat-esque can be hugely advantageous?

You have a face, show it. Being a small company, you can establish meaningful, personal relationships quickly. Face-to-face or Skype meetings can be instigated and the client sees who they will be doing business with. Its personal and it builds faith in you. People feel re-assured speaking directly to the guy they are going to give their money too. When did you last speak to the CEO of a corporate monster?

You have a voice, build dialogue. You can and should pick up the phone and speak to your prospective clients. They will have the pleasure of speaking directly to you; this creates trust and establishes relationship. They are speaking to a human being, not the human being’s PA, or even worse, a faceless call centre drone. You and your brand will be remembered for the right reasons.

You have an opinion, let it be known. Your brand has values, it has opinions. You are able to express these without needing to water it down and filter everything through the high echelons of corporate. Utilising social media to speak directly to your demographic, blogging authentically, tweeting, creates leadership and makes you memorable.

You can and should take risks. Hulking brands play it safe. They have a huge reputation to maintain. It’s taken them a long time and a load of money to establish the brand that they have in place. They are far less inclined to create a stir, to make waves. The fear of potentially compromising what they’ve established frightens the life out of them. In general big companies conform to the mass. Play it safe. You can bring pioneering spirit to the market, test new ideas and alter course very quickly.

As Seth Godin says: “Playing it safe. Following the rules. They seem like the best ways to avoid failure. Alas, that pattern is awfully dangerous. The current marketing “rules” will ultimately lead to failure. In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.” (The Purple Cow)

Who doesn’t love the speed boat zipping about, making a splash? It’s exciting, compelling and it grabs attention! Something the big boys struggle to do. So why not go and make waves?

If you’ve enjoyed this Bright Spark, please “Like” it above and spread the love. Thanks.

The thing is, no one chooses the generalist. Imagine for a moment you are suffering with an annoying aliment. Let’s say a really persistent sore throat. Now, you have the option of either going to see your local GP or, an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. Given the choice, which would you be drawn too? Which would have you think:

“They’ll know EXACTLY what’s going on, be able to pin-point the problem immediately, save my time, effort and and a whole load of hassle”The ENT specialist right? The niche practitioner wins.

You are the champion. When you niche to a specific demographic, addressing a tight range of people and problems, you become the champion for this group. Their perception of you will be one of the expert, the specialist. No longer the generalist jack-of-all-trades.

You speak their language and metaphorically, call them by name. You fight their corner and they will love you for it. Being consistent in this buys belief which in turn translates into paying clients. Win!

1. Own it for two months.

“Own” a niche for two whole months.Who is it that most appeals to you right now in this moment? Is it male tech-entrepreneurs, struggling with confidence issues around company expansion? Or, is it female portrait photographers, looking for a portfolio website? Yes. Get that specific. You hear how these sound super-specialist? But don’t panic, think of this as “niche version 1.0.” You are just choosing something for two months, this isn’t set in stone for the rest of your days.

2. Ask five friends.

Contact five friends and colleagues and ask what they are most likely to come to you for help with.You’ll notice a common theme, and it may even surprise you, for example: “I’d come to you when I want objective help with getting clarity on a financial issue “. Use this to focus and inform your niche choice. This is one of the powerful qualities you are naturally putting out into the world and when you own it, it builds peoples trust.

3. Picture this.

Envisage an ideal client for you right now. Take a large piece of paper and write down, 25 things about them and their life.Things you might want to include:

• What job do they do?
• Where do they live? Why there?
• What brands do they love?
• Where do they shop?
• Do they cycle?
• Drive? What car if so?
• What do they earn?
• What’s their age?

Doing this will build a personality profile that you can tangibly target. A niche demographic you can point your mouse/networking/phone calls at. Again, don’t get hung up about this needing to be “THE one” Have fun with it! The truth is building a truly authentic brand takes time and experience. Taking steps like these above get you moving and alieviate the “stuckness” of niche-phobia.

One chunk at a time…

1. Remember that you are an individual and thus can only take on one task at a time, don’t beat yourself up when you haven’t yet reached global brand domination-that is your intention right? Your day will come my friend. One bite at a time, don’t choke trying gorge on this brand-beast in one sitting.
2. A luminous brand is an identity from the heart. If you don’t understand what’s going on for you inside, you won’t be able to share it with the world outside. Period. Take a bite into that juicy hunk of the brand-elephant called “life-purpose”, listen to what your gut is calling you to do in the world-explore it and have the faith to ACT on it.
3. It takes time AND this is a good thing, it means you can savour every mouthful, appreciate the unique unfolding of flavours, reflect on the impact you are having at every step of brand journey. Enjoy! Nobody does “you” like you do you, they never will. You are a unique brand and thus, so is your business. Full awareness of this means you don’t have to rush in case someone gets their first.

If you’d like help with eating your brand-elephant, because frankly, I have some great recipes- check out “Ignite your brand, attract more clients” and maybe you’d like to book in for a complementary consultation?

This initial protest had focus, the individuals involved knew why they were there. They clearly had a message and were being led by their cause. Together this collective had a systemic identity, a brand and it got noticed.

In the following hours, chaos interviened. The root cause had been diffused as others came with differing intentions-to instigate chaos and take advantage of mass, their contribution was to incite anarchy, confusion and a wave of looting and destruction swept across the neighbouring boroughs, and then the country.

Without identity, without a brand its just hoodlums wreaking havoc and, inevitably and quite literally after 3 days, the riot burnt itself out. The original pertinent message was lost to headlines of “thugs run riot and make a mock of the country”.

Without a strong and true brand, your business and career identity is in a similar way, very much at risk of turning to chaos and burning out, potentially taking you with it as a side effect. Your voice will be lost in amongst the noise, the crowds, the chaos of modern life.

Have you felt like you’ve needed to scream at the top of your voice just to get the attention of your potential audience? Then battle, FIGHT to secure them as clients? Hard work right? Defining your mission and personal identity from the core, from the heart, will unleash your unique voice, a voice that circumvents the noise and naturally finds your people, your niche.

If you’re feeling the irritation and frustration of not having the clarity around your personal brand and wish to have someone support you in turning this around, get in touch. Your voice needs to be heard.

If you feel motivated to discover your own, true, personal brand and start attracting in the RIGHT clients at the RIGHT money for what you love doing. Please get in touch.

This was a reminder to me that it’s all too common to work to the point of physical / mental exhaustion when what you do for your “work” is what you love. It’s easy to forget to rest and relax. Sometimes it takes something debilitating to stop us such as this. I wonder to what extent, at what volume the body needs to SHOUT at us before we listen? A pain in the neck? The flu? A broken bone? A heart attack? Something more permanently debilitating? Before we stop and listen.

To me, recognition of this is huge. A potential pitfall of bravely following your most compelling dream at full-steam-ahead? Maybe. Unless you recognise AND respond to the message your body has for you.

With that in mind, enter…the Joy-injection (dubious name I’ll admit)

• How much time do you allocate to “joy” in your working day? I’m talking about stopping, really stopping for a whole hour at lunch, heck take two hours, get away from the screen, take a mindful walk, being present to your surroundings, eat a really, really good sandwich (screw the expense or the calorific content).

• The first rule: if you contemplate a potential “Joy Injection” and it makes you feel a twinge of fun or pleasure then it’s a prime candidate, get it scheduled.

• The other rule, the most important rule, these injections of joy are for YOU, nobody else. You deserve them, the world will continue to spin, your clients will still love you. You will feel better, you will work/perform far more effectively if you need a re-frame.

• Use some form of calendar such as Google Calendar or iCal and inject something joyous into your day, every day, for the next week. When you see it pop up on that day in your calendar, honour it. Respect yourself and your right to indulge in a little joy each and every day. Go schedule!

I’d love to hear what Joy Injections you schedule into your calendar for the next week, please head over to http://www.facebook.com/luminouslives and share them with the world. You will inspire/raise the bar/grant permission for somebody else.

The reasons we do this? Wow, many and varied, learned patterns from childhood, locking away aspects of yourself not deemed suitable or appropriate, mannerisms confined to dark rooms, perceived to be too left-field to gain approval (approval=love) among other things.

What’s important is that this can be released, with courage, space, time and commitment. The benefits? Well, huge. You stop hiding, you get to have a choice and you remember how good it feels to be fully present and whole. Free of “should”.

Shine a torch into the shadows:

1. If you had a day to live, what would you NEED to do in order to feel complete? Spend 2 minutes now contemplating that reality. Write down the biggie’s that spring to mind. Then, get busy doing them…your time is now. No kidding.

2. Write a letter to your 10 year old self letting them know how life has turned out to be so far. What do you want them to know about their future? What is it they feared back then, but didn’t need to, because that fear never transpired? Maybe the 10 year old you, has been pushed to the back of the cave, but, they are still very much around, waiting for you to listen to their hopes and dreams again.

By opening the dialogue, you’ll start remembering what used to be so important, what used to be fun, you do remember the f-word right? Give it a try, you’ll thank yourself that you did. If the dialogue begins to really flow, consider buying a journal to capture it all in, some beauties here: http://www.thejournalshop.com/

3. Know this. Nobody is truly fooled by an act. The human perception is incredible, “gut-feel” tells you if somebody is faking it. So, today, when somebody says “hi, hows it going?” my challenge to you is be truthful, if things are difficult-say so. If things are shocking, scream. Purge my friend! Show up, be seen, lower the mask, even if it’s just for today. Feel the sense of relief?

If any of these points resonate with you and you’d like to explore further, get in touch. I love this stuff and I want to help you with it too.

2. Solar plexus breathing.
Starving your brain of oxygen which is what you’re essentially doing when you’re “head-rushing” insights panic, both in the mind and in the body. Learn to breathe properly, it’s simple and will change your life. The wonderful Head Space can help you here: http://www.getsomeheadspace.com/Tools/Take10

3. Screw “should”.
Should belongs to the language of incongruence, never mind should, what do you WANT to do and at what pace is a natural fit for you? It isn’t a race, no matter what stories you make up about it. Be brave enough to listen to and to act on your instincts.

4. A driving metaphor:
Spending time in the slow lane allows you to really observe what’s around you, in the landscape of your life. Don’t like what you see? Change direction, turn off, much easier when you are travelling at a speed that allows you to take the exit. If you’re hurtling along at a solid 90mph, you’ll never know (remember the wise words of Ferris Bueller?). If you have a tendency to drive flat-out, you may want to ask the question, “what is it I’m speeding away from and why am I afraid of it catching up with me?” Just saying.

I hope you find your natural pace. Remember, you are amazing no matter what speed you move at. If you’d like to explore this or anything else that might be holding you back from your true-magnificence, get in touch.

Some symptoms and ways of detecting a compromised brand:

1. You look and feel disengaged with your target audience: as if you are trying to be somebody else, you know, that guy you once met at a seminar that you didn’t really gel with, but maybe wished you were like a little, him. It’s clunky, it’s obvious, it’s inauthentic.

2. You lack joy and dynamism when talk about your work: When in alignment with your true-brand, talking about what you do and why, should be fun and captivating, both for you and those listening to you.

3. You potentially waffle, I’m sorry, but it’s true: talking all around the houses “Hi, what do you do?” quite likely using too many “stock” filler words, “yeah, I kind of deliver work on different levels with erm, people who, you know” blah, blah. Also, there might be an urge to awkwardly start selling which sounds like trying to convince, which often lands flat and comes out of lack of belief in your offering.

There is another way. If you want to move from disengaged, lacking joy and waffle to inspired, authentic and true, I run a morning 1-2-1 Brand Discovery consultation which will get you exactly that. Watch recent participants reflect on their experience here and sign up today! You don’t have to to shoe-horn into somebody else’s brand that doesn’t fit. What you have is unique, give it air time! Set it free!

I contemplated why this might have been a common pattern for me and think it’s an echo reverberating through from the past. The not wanting to impose on the people around me, believing them to have enough to occupy their busy, hectic lives, why add to their burden? This was a big hurdle to overcome as I kept defaulting to this position.

I realised that in holding back from asking for help, I was denying myself of a huge range of alternative view points, I was harbouring a lot of noise and clutter inside (which was slowing me down and overwhelming me) and denying other people the opportunity to share their great advice, impart their knowledge and be in the empowered position to help.

7 things on asking for help:

1. Pause the Ego: When you feel you need help, drop the attachment to feeling less-than or not good enough. We all need help now and again, it doesn’t mean you are weak, a failure or useless at your job.
2. Flip the dynamic: Think about it, it’s really an honour to be asked for help when the request comes from a genuine place. To be trusted enough to hold the space for a person to share their concerns or problems with you says something right?
3. Sharp focus: If it’s a practical problem you have, try and be as concise and specific with your request for help as you can be, this way the other person can pull potential answers for you much quicker and if they can’t, they will no doubt know the right person with the right answers.
4. Put it out there: Einstein said: “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created”. Share the load, get an alternative view point, open it up to many-minds.
5. The end result: Consider your desired outcome if the current problem has fogged up your clarity around the issue. Merely saying to the listener “I don’t know how to fix this, but I know how I’d like the end result to look” Will allow people to engage their imagination, it will be a creative and dynamic exploration of alternative options for you both.
6. Listen: It’s ancient, it’s overused but it’s true: “a problem shared is a problem halved” just the simple fact that somebody is actively listening to you vocalise your worries is a cathartic experience, this could be the solution in its self, but you won’t know that until you put it out there!
7. Be gracious: If somebody takes the time to listen to you, thank them, they will feel “seen”, appreciated and much more inclined to do so again in the future. Everyone wins!