How can you be involved in a variety of things, make multiple streams of income and still have specific and powerful brands in each niche market? Where do you drive traffic first? How do you make sense of it all?
These have been my questions, and I think a few simple thoughts, questions, and realizations that I have had will help you in developing your personal brand. Read on and you’ll find out how to start the process of figuring this out and why it matters.

There is a key concern that needs to be addressed and will make more sense as you read this.

Brands are specific.  Brands are niches.  Brands create followers, movements and tribes.  You however may not be.  You are dynamic.  You are changing.  You will be involved in multiple businesses, ventures and projects throughout your life time.  So how do you deal with both?  We live in a world where YOU MUST BE A BRAND.  You must be niche you must build a following, innovate and lead… or perish.  The conflict and dillema here is that the world is changing so rapidly, and your interests may need to be diversified to such an extent that you can not brand them all in one place.  If you tie yourself to only one ship ultimately you will sink.  So how do you lead and get people to follow you AS WELL AS the ventures you’re involved in?

There are a few simple steps that may help you to understand this concept and apply it in your life and in your business.

1. Brand Called you- you have to brand yourself as an entrepreneur or someone in business or the most general area of interest you will have. This is YOU as a person. That is what this site is for me.  You must first develop this brand and this site, but your success with this is based on the next two items.  (You’ll have to figure out number 3 for your self first, but once you do the order to implement this is number 2 then 3)

2. Everything leveraged through the internet is made in the real world first. Networking, getting to know people, and being a good net worker is still ultimately a huge key to success. One of the books that most profoundly influenced me on this subject was “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi.  Simply stated, you want to create a portal to all the rest of your ventures.  This is essential because you are always going to be meeting people doing things or just sending emails.  Do you have a domain name, a site where people can go to learn more about you?  How “googleable” are you?  Whether you like it or not and whether you actively promote yourself or not, people who don’t know you now will want to be able to test you by googling you.  The key to expanding you business, life, happiness, and income is probably in exchanging with people who you do not know yet.  Your own personal site gives you a level of credibility that set you apart and automatically makes you a desirable person to do business with.  YOU must have a personal site, so that the next time you send an email, hand out your business card, write a comment on a blog, or even give a speech you can give people the permission to give you credibility by googling you.

3. SO where do you start to develop You?  YOU in the market place may be involved in a variety of things. What about you is unchanging though? This is where we talk about soul purpose. There are two people who have taught me an amazing amount about soul purpose, they are Garrett Gunderson and Garret White. This is a deep and extensive topic but focusing on branding there is a specific focus to consider.

You’re soul purpose basically defined is “The combination of inborn abilities and passions that identify a person as an individual, and provide a natural direction for that person’s most fulfilling life.” (Economics of Soul Purpose, p6)

More simply stated you may know it as a mission statement. I’m spending some time here because this is the key, critical element to your entire business strategy in a “world that’s flat”, dynamic, 2.0 and changing faster and more drastically than anyone could have ever thought. It all comes back to the idea of your own personal economy. Ultimately the only security that can ever be real is the value built inside yourself. Knowing that, you will inevitably decide to take that to the world.  Soul Purpose is expressed in a variety of ways. Mine has a lot to do with adventure, helping others, being creative, pushing limits, and making new possibility. As you can see from my blog, it’s all about the idea of adventure, truly living and finding new things about yourself every day.

Well, obviously that is never going to be just one business. My soul purpose is not my business, it is not net work marketing specifically, it is not travel, it is not any one of my talents, passions, or abilities. These are all expressions of my soul purpose.

So your first step in this entire process is deciding what you are about regardless of the market. Regardless of your industry. Regardless of what is in demand. Regardless of any outside condition. Who are you at the core that is unchanging? The powerful question I asked myself when first trying to determine my soul purpose was very simple yet had a huge impact on me. I have since shared it with several people and had many eye opening experiences.

“What was the central continuing theme/element that was a part of everything you have ever been passionate about or everything you’ve ever been “into?”

You see, this soul purpose/mission statement discussion is a very deep one, but you have to find a central theme. I looked back at my life and saw that I had been passionate, fully engaged and truly so excited and into different things that I ate, breathed, and slept that activity or project. The activity or project or focus changed from time to time, but there was something about me that was consistent. I hope that helps illustrate the concept and why it is important.

For more on Soul Purpose watch this video

Just remember that YOU are the most niche, niche their ever could be.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

This is important because the only brand you will ever tie yourself to that CAN NOT CHANGE is you.  Your reputation, image, and persona goes out to the world whether you like it or not.  Make sure you like it and many other people will too, you’ll be able to have followers of just you.  This is one of the ultimate keys to success, especially in our market today.  It is specifically key to many of the people I know will be reading this in the network marketing industry.  Ultimately, whatever industry you are in today, whatever business you are in, your success in marketing and promoting that business all boils down to one simple thing.  Leadership.  “If you have followers, you’ll have dollars.”

How do I do this?

Here is where we transition from philosophical to practical.

4. Your “You Site” (PS a “you site” is ridiculously simple to get set up.  visit my associates at Mojonomic to get yours) is where you build leadership in the market place it is also where you send people on your business card or the signature on your emails.  This is the hub for you.  Everything tied to you goes here, you may send someone to a specific site for a specific purpose but generally and always this site will be where everyone can find you online.  It’s location never changes, and people can always follow you there.

Your “You Site” then sends people to different areas of interest and to each one of your ventures.  You have to be passionate about everything you do because it will show.  SO you may have links to your MLM business, to your affiliate marketing project, you may have a real estate section or some other kind of investment you are doing, whatever you are promoting and/or monetizing needs to be tied to your “You Site.” Now you can focus on building relationships founded on you.  The ventures you’re involved in will change but people’s trust in you and for you will not, as long as you continue to build quality relationships and a following in the market place.

An example of my card, no company name just me and it sends people to andrewjamesinc.com

5. For a Brand or promotion to be successful it must be specific and simple.

This is such a key concept.  If you have a network marketing or affiliate marketing opportunity you are promoting, the site you create and the brand you create specifically for that must be specific.  There’s a multitude of reasons but basically it all has to do with two things

First: How people Find you.

Second: Conversion.

How people find you is ultimately based on their interest.  People search online for what they are interested in.  You come up in a conversation between two people because you have a specific solution to a specific problem.  People blog about a specific thing you say or do.  So for the brand of each venture to work it needs to be focused and specific.  The great thing about this is that you can outsource and automate each brand.  Let’s say you’re on the board of directors for a new start up, include it on your businesses page of your own site, then link to a specific site about that.  You don’t have to go out actively promoting that specific venture in all your networking, just promote you and people will find it.

Conversion is the same story.  Specific sites get specific results.  When you land on a capture page, if there is more than one choice for people to make the choice they will often make is no choice at all.

That’s it.  This turned out to be a lot longer than I thought but I hope it was insightful and helpful to you.  To summarize here’s the simple formula.

The formula:

YOU AS A BRAND FOR WHAT YOU ARE + NETWORKING AND BEING A PERSON OF GREATNESS AND SIGNIFICANCE + ALL YOUR OPPORTUNITIES + SPECIFICITY WITH THOSE OPPORTUNITIES TO THEIR NICHE = HUGE SUCCESS WITH ALL YOU DO.

or if you like steps

1. build the brand called you, have a “you site”

2. network and go about doing business and always bring people back to this site to increase your value and credibility in the market place

3. use your “you site” as a hub and a traffic control center to send people to specific sites for specifc brands you have created for specific purposes.

AJ