I hear people talk about separating business life, personal life, family life and every other segmentation you can think of. Its all nonsense. You are ONE person. And that person needs to grow if you are going to find meaning in life. But you need to know where you want to go before you can take any meaningful steps forward. CLARITY.
Clarity is best summed up by this episode of my podcast, but here are a few more thoughts.
I can’t get past it. I want to help people. Everyone tells me that “clarity” is too vague. It’s not a clear enough message…but it is all I can think about. I see its work everywhere. It’s universally applicable. I can’t get off it.
There is a concept in combat called “the fog of war”. Basically, it means that with so many unknown and stressful things happening at once, it’s easy to make decisions that are contrary to reason. Well, I believe you don’t need to be in a literal war to experience the fog.
Clarity is the North Star of progress in life. In order to move forward, you have to decide what you want to move forward to. Most of life seems to be at odds with clarity. We get sidetracked and busy. We face pushback and disappointment and the unexpected. These things constantly test our clarity. Oh, did I mention that clarity is EXTREMELY perishable?
The fog of life is real. It’s impossible to have clarity without putting in some very intentional work.
We’re ringing in the new year right for 2019. A new name, renewed trajectory and the desire to make this next year the clearest, most fulfilling year yet. I hope that you are gearing up to do the same. Why? Because we are all in the fight together.
As we recorded the last episode of the year, it’s a surreal thought that we only started 10 months ago. In this quick little episode, I take a little walk down the best moments of the year and talk about a bit of trajectory for 2019.
Since we’re all thinking about gratitude, I also wanted to bring up a topic that I feel is related. This is related to last week’s episode where I talked about the importance of having tough conversations. Everyone here knows that growth takes hard work and some pain. I call this pain the TRANSACTION OF GROWTH.
Turning 40 on the Dealers Compressed Podcast has me a little introspective this week as I discuss managing the speed of life in a way that isn’t so…well, URGENT! I visit the thinking of a couple of leaders/authors I respect greatly. One old, one new.
Dear Mark,
Every week we push our community of auto dealers to be better. You do the same to inspire your community. With the launch of Mark Wahlberg Chevrolet, we'd love to introduce you to our audience. I think you'll find yourself in good company.
Let's connect!
Paul J Daly
We’re one-third of the way down our journey to episode 100. We’re on the path. We’re IN process.
It should be no surprise to anyone in the automotive industry that things are changing…again. As a matter of fact, if you don’t understand and embrace the nature of the change, it might be a great time to find an exit. The truth is, it’s not just automotive, its life.
Some times you just need a moment to catch up. Thats just what we did on Episode 30 as I went all in on the reality of seasons in life. Everything in business and life submit to the basic principles of the “ups and downs”, the “ebb and flow”, the “wins and losses”.
A good brand beats every algorithm hack because brand can’t be hacked. A brand is not a logo. A brand is not name recognition or simply being “top-of-mind”. A brand is not a color scheme or a special sale. Those are merely tactics. Far too often, I see organizations and individuals waste time, energy, and lots of money because they do not understand how to effectively deploy brand in their marketing activities and customer relationships. Luckily, this is something my agency, Congruent, helps with on a regular basis.
Let’s be clear… BRAND IS A FEELING.
Even deeper, it is a reflection of how people feels about themselves. If you can effectively understand and connect with that feeling, you win. Once you understand this, your offerings get more refined, your messaging aligns both your customers and your team, and guess what… you also make more efficient use of your marketing dollars.
One of my favorite definitions of brand comes from marketing genius Seth Godin. Seth defines brand as, “A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer's decision to choose one product or service over another.”
I created this little equation to communicate the long-term ROI of brand building activities vs sales activities:
Sales Conversion = 1 sale
Brand Conversion = Religion
If you convince someone to buy something from you, great! You made a sale.
If you convince someone that they feel better about themselves for doing business with you because of your mission and values, CONGRATULATIONS! You have now become a part of who that person is. You won’t have to ask for the next sale.
Get it?
This is the most human element of marketing and business, which is why I love engaging and executing to brand so much. If you feel the same way, welcome to the team!
If you or your organization would like to be better, I’d love to help.
I talk about branding and other business topics on my weekly show. You can check it out here.
On this week’s show I thought it was a good idea to bring it back to basics…one camera, one voice, one mic and one goal. To have you walk away with one small moment of clarity you can deploy TODAY in order to move closer to person you want to be.