How To Manage Your Brand Through Transition

First things first, it doesn’t matter if you’re still on the fence on whether or not to make a change to your professional or personal life or you’ve already made the call on it, we all have to go through change not only more but also through more significant.

And that means you will face the next challenge that comes with that:

What are the next steps when you are ready for a change?

What do you need to consider when you transition?

And most importantly- how do you manage this transition - the right way?

This is exactly what we cover in this episode. So let’s go!

I’m not sure about you but my business and career certainly looks very different today compared to when I started, compared to last year when Covid-19 hit and also compared to the beginning of the year.

I’m sure you would all agree with me that the world doesn’t slow down, and the environment is always changing. 

So you cannot not change, evolve and with that, rebrand at some stage if you want to stay relevant.

Think of  Arnold Schwarzenegger as an example on how reinvented himself, to live the life he wanted to live.

He is an amazing example of reinvention to not only stay relevant but to elevate their career and get to the next stage of it.

To be honest- this is also what I’m doing with the majority of my clients. They have reached a level or a status and can’t seem to move any higher or don’t know what it takes for them to make the impact they want to make.

Only a few have a clear idea what they want to be known for and want to elevate this positioning. Most struggle with clearly articulating what it actually is that they want  

And that brings us to today’s topic which is the next challenge that comes with change:

How to manage your Brand through those transitions?

If you’ve listened in for a while, you know I love all things step-by-step so of course, also rebranding and managing transitions follow this method J

So let’s start with nr 1:

1.)   Clarify your goal

Start by determining where you want to be and where you really want to invest your time and energy. 

Let’s be real: there are so many shiny objects everywhere and I’m not an exception of potentially chasing one or sometimes too many of them myself. Which is why it is so important to work with a coach on that. It’s hard to be objective and to figure it out yourself. 

Another way to clarify it is by applying the proximity principle: if you even just have a rough idea as to what you might want to pursue, find relevant authorities, influencers and leaders who are already where you want to be. Get as much exposure to them and their lifestyle as possible.

You can’t think your way to clarity. You need to experience it. And experience comes from exposure to it

2.)   Focus on your point of difference

Instead of thinking you’ve just wasted time, money and energy on the ‘wrong’ industry or profession, think of it as your steppingstones to what’s next. Every single experience you’ve had so far has made you the person you are now with the strengths, skills and stories that no one else can compete with. This is exactly your point of difference to everyone else.

In order to make it work for you when you want to rebrand and reinvent yourself, you need to connect the dots and tell a compelling story which brings me into step 3:

3.)   Develop your brand story

Your brand story is what makes people remember you because you’re taking them on a journey. This is where we bring step 2 to life where we identified what makes you different, what are some of your milestones in your life, what have been some of the challenges you’ve faced and the results you’ve achieved to overcome them.

Key is to pick the narrative that supports your future goal which is why we have to start with clarifying where you want to go.

The good thing is that every single experience can be used as part of your story, depending on where you want to go. As long as you’re able to make sense of it and tell the story in a way that is easy to understand your future direction, people will buy into this.

Go back to epi 41 where I talk through how you can find and tell your story.

In a nutshell, it’s about going back in time and identify situations where you faced a challenge, could overcome it by taking a certain action and then had results / transformation.

A little formula you can use is:

I used to … (this is where you add your previous jobs or beliefs)

What I’ve experienced was (challenge) 

This was when I’ve come to realise is that …

This is the reason I (add your future goal)

The key is not to explain your transition in terms of your own interests (“I was bored with my job and decided to try something else,” or “I’m on a personal journey to find the real me”) but to focus on the value your prior experience brings. You really want to embrace your background and not try to hide it or deny your background. This makes you very quickly a target for not being trustworthy. It’s not about investing a new person. Instead it’s a shift of your direction and easy to see for people why you do it. 

4.)   Make it visible

Now it’s time to communicate your shift everywhere. If you’re concerned with what others may think, think again. We often overestimate how much attention people pay to us. Everyone is busy and don’t follow your every step or move you take.

As you already know, it all comes down to consistency. Making it easy for people to recognise you across different platforms is key to build your Brand and it’s also key when you want to rebrand yourself.

So make sure that you update your social media profiles and any touch points are consistent. That involves updating your photo, your tagline, your marketing collateral if you have any, your social media visuals, your email signature … you name it

5.)   Deliver on the promise 

You’ve done the groundwork but at this point, the real work starts. And that is to consistently deliver on your new promise. It can include creating content around your claimed area of expertise, interviewing thought leaders and share their expertise, develop programs that help others with what you want to be known for. You name it.

And stick with it. 

Whiles rebranding is key to stay relevant, you want to avoid a rebrand every 3 months as this will backfire and people will see you as flaky or confusing.

Don’t forget – your Brand is and always will be a promise to others, what they get when they engage you and is built over time. So every action you take (or don’t take), is part of building your Brand.

The challenge is to be strategic about identifying how you want to be perceived, developing a compelling story that explains your journey, and then spreading that message consistently and continuously. 

One of the biggest mistakes people make is to not communicate the transition and just show up with their new positioning. This is where rebranding usually goes wrong and we end up where we started.

So if there is one piece of advice I’d give you – then it’s this:

Invest in the groundwork that a rebrand or reinvention entails. Like the saying goes – you can’t read the label when you’re inside the jar. Save yourself the grief of a flop and work with a coach or a mastermind on your change.