Let’s talk a bit about the “real” business world here. In this “real” business world, a lot of people tell me that There’s no such thing as a digital part of your identity.
Au contraire to my business world where the digital part of your identity is your biggest asset and is the one that you can nurture without being omni-present at events all over the world. Digital rules my business world – how do you get digital to rule yours as well ?
How do you rock your identity ?
Let’s take it from scratch.
1. It’s all about the (digital) meetings between people.
A couple of days ago I was in a potential client meeting that started out with the prospect saying that he didn’t have any digital budget at all.
Later on in the conversation he said that what they focus on was the people in the stores – the face to face meetings between seller and buyer inside the store. The whole “space” the floor/store people operate in. He just didn’t think that digital could help in these meetings and form a trusted relationship. He didn’t believe in it at all, to the point where the brand wasn’t even present on their own facebook page – and didn’t reply to the comments. You need to focus on the meetings between people – digital as well as “real” business world.
2. So you’re meeting them digitally, then what?
Now it’s time to show them how much you are rockin in the real business world. What part of your identity are they meeting ? In many ways, this is where they should be mesmerized by the whole brand-building thing you’ve been doing for years on end. But if you’re just starting out, make sure that the snippets of your identity they can actually find out there, rocks. Aim to to show, and produce content around the parts of your identity that you take pride in – that are special for just you and extremely likeable for the people you’re trying to reach.
3. What people are you trying to reach – really ?
Toothless Tiger (my business where I teach companies to rock their identity) isn’t a companion for everybody because we want to work with companies that aspires to the term “the business of our business is more than business”. If the business of your business is simply “business” then we’re probably not what your looking for. But for the ones that strive to be more, we are often the perfect match. I think very well on planes and trains (and can’t wait for the long train ride Im taking from Helsingør to Berlin on monday to participate and write about the Next Conference . I believe in “reaching for the people that are the most like yourself”. In my case, the quirky ones. The cool ones. The ones that are grounded yet flying high. The ones that have a secret dream inside of saving the world, and becoming a billionaire rockstar while they’re doing it.
3 1/2: Rock your identity on the inside
Keep your target group close to the heart of yourself. I hope every day to earn my money while meanwhile honoring the respect of people just like me. I always mirror the things I do online with a “if I saw this from the outside, would I think it rocked”? If I don’t get that feeling, I wont post it. I need to have a good feeling about it, otherwise it will be sitting in the draft folder until I feel the urge to look at it again and give it another go.
