Here’s a strategy to facilitate your brand growth as a personal brand and make it known to those who matter to your brand.
Someone has rightly said, “Read your old favourite books again after many years and watch your old favourite movies again after many years. The plot doesn’t change, but the person reading that book (or watching that movie) has changed.”
This quote emphasizes how our perspectives and depths of understanding always mature with time. These are things that only time brings. And as long as you keep growing in exposure and real-life experience, you can never be wiser than you will be in the next few years. You’re always at a spot in your growth journey. That’s why it’s important to always go over things again.
One funny thing about life, which no one can avoid, is that a less informed version of you will always have to make decisions that a more informed version of you will have to live and deal with.
For instance, how much did you know when you were choosing the course you studied in school? If you’ve been married for up to 3-5 years, how much did you understand when you were choosing whom to marry? Aren’t you more informed now than you were then? Do you see that?
Now, while some decisions cannot be easily reversed without leaving a lasting dent on you, some can be reviewed from a wiser lens.
As a business owner, you can start reviewing those things that represent your business publicly. You can start reviewing those choices you made in the year. You can start asking yourself really tough questions and then answer them objectively with the use of data and facts (not emotions).
As an intrapreneur (employee), you can also begin to review some of those choices and decisions you made earlier in the year. Perhaps a less informed version of you had already made decisions that are still affecting your life negatively to date. Instead of continuing on that decline, as the prodigal son did, come to yourself and do a review.
No success in life is as beautiful as the notes taken while on the journey towards achieving it. And no failure is as fatal as not learning anything at all from it.
Every year, I make it a duty to review my brands. I review everything I’ve been communicating about the brands. I review all my brand statements. I review my internal systems and processes through which I deliver value to my clients. I review our websites, brochures, rate cards, social media profiles, etc. And if there are things I wrote that came from a less-informed version of me, I allow a wiser version to proofread and edit them. This is how you tangibly communicate your growth.
When I say, “Let no one meet you again where they left you before,” this is exactly how I make it happen for myself.
Remember that the factor here is that you’re growing in experience and in exposure. If not, there will be no wiser version anywhere to review and edit anything. So, the first thing that should happen is that you’re truly taking your growth into your own hands and not leaving it to chance.
The only thing that will keep growing whether you ‘grow’ or not is your age. So, whether you ‘grow’ or not, in five year’s time, you’ll be five years older. The question is, are we going to meet a five-year-wiser person, or the same person we met five years ago?
I remain your BrandCore Strategist.
