Quick Steps to Brand Failure
With each decision, we are walking toward success or pushing it away. I have learned some of life’s greatest lessons by personally taking some hard knocks, as well as witnessing the epic meltdown of someone’s personal and professional brand that is very close to me. Whenever I meet with individuals who are in damage control’ mode, or experiencing a Professional and Personal Brand Crisis, I always hear the same questions “What happened to me? How did I fall so far?”
Steps to Failure:
- Bad input equals bad output. You must have real people in your life who will tell you the truth about your character, your brand and your choices.
- You are not teachable. You must be willing to listen to feedback and be lead. Have leaders abandoned teaching you because you don’t have ears to hear? (More on this in the next week’s blog).
- You choose to stay where you are. Failure is not a step to more failure unless you want it to be. Once you have made a mistake, you can rise up and make real positive changes, or you can hope’ for a way out of the mess and keep delaying the eventual fall to the bottom.
- You don’t have absolutes in your life. Brand destruction does not happen all at once. Brand drift occurs a bit each day if you are not paying close attention. No one wakes up one day and says, I want to destroy my Personal and Professional Brand today.’ The deterioration is gradual, and comes one compromise at a time, one image mistake at a time, one poorly worded email, one inappropriate reaction you get the picture.
- You haven’t identified your brand. Your life is really shaped by the opinions of others, and you have not formed your own view of WHO YOU ARE. If you are being led by the crowd and seeking popularity over character, you will eventually fall apart.
- You are surrounded by the yes’ crowd. The crowd in life can be self-serving. We often find ourselves following the crowd, or doing what everyone else is doing, when in reality, the crowd may be the worst group to follow. Many in the crowd are selfish and following a path they have been persuaded to follow because of a great commercial or advertising plan that is full of promises but not capable of delivering true success. If we are not paying attention we can turn into sheep and follow the one in front of us right off a cliff.
We must recognize the vital question that we all must ask ourselves before we can genuinely create a Professional and Personal Brand that is authentic, has longevity, creates a legacy and has a positive impact on the world around us. The important question we must ask ourselves is, Who am I and why am I here?’ Once you have determined this answer, you can shape a Personal and Professional Brand that stands the test of time and trials that are sure to come.
MODA Image and Brand Consulting helps people and companies to discern, develop and communicate a Personal and Professional Brand that can elevate a life, a career and a business. Please contact us for more information about any of our services fashion and image consulting, individual and corporate brand/image coaching, corporate and small business training and more!
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