Lesson 1: Brand Yourself Because Branding is Everything

Lesson number one. In this first lesson I want to give you one insight and that is, everything is a brand.

Everything is a brand. Everything that you buy, that you look at, the coffee you drink, the computer you use, the desk, your video camera. Everything around you is part of a brand, and a brand is simply a collection of products that serve one specific group of people, one specific type of person.

Like moms or cross fitters or people who work from home, or travelers, or men in puberty, or entrepreneurs or real estate investors or artists, these are all just groups of people, and a brand exists to build a specific group of products for that specific group of people.

Everything you buy, everything you do, all the clothes that you wear, Mizzen and Main is a brand that serves entrepreneurs and travelers. Young men who travel a lot and tend to be business professionals.

So, I am the perfect target market for this brand.

Garmin watches are for fitness nerds who track their runs, their steps their heart rate and all that.

The stuff that you consume, the stuff that’s around you, the stuff you listen to, the stuff you buy, is all a reflection of who you are.

When getting started

When you’re starting a business, most people ask the question what products do I sell or what’s the right business, but a much better, more useful question is who is the business for?

Now, a really easy way to hack this, is to pick a person, preferably a person that you like and a person that you know and just observe what do they buy a lot of. And what does that say about who they are.

For example

For example, I have a friend who is really into astrology, and she buys crystals and she buys charts and is crazy about astrology.

I’m not into that stuff but she is. She spends a lot of money in that.

I spend a lot of money on things like supplements and health and workout equipment for my home gym. I spend a lot of money on my home office.

These are all specific lifestyle areas of your life. If you can tune into that person who is behind what it is that they’re buying, you will be so effective at this business.

If you can’t think of no one you absolutely want to serve. Then pick yourself, go with yourself and look at the types of products that you buy a lot of or something that you’ve bought a lot of in the past.

Let’s say that you’ve gone on a journey and you’ve lost 50 pounds before on the keto diet. Look at the types of things that you bought while you were on that journey during that part of your life.

Start there! Because there’s a really good chance that there are other people who are also going on that journey. And if you develop the type of business that serves those people who are going on that journey. You’ll be really really effective. You’ll know exactly who to speak to, what they’re going through, the types of things they buy, the branding that will make sense for them. And it’s so much easier to build that type of a business, when you’re speaking to a very specific person.

Here’s a tip

Here’s a little tip, if you will, it’s even easier if you choose someone who is at the beginning of their journey.

So one of the first businesses a friend of mine started was a yoga business. He targeted people who were beginning their career as a yogi or their exploration as a yogi. So what does somebody buy when they’re getting into yoga? They first buy a mat, then they buy blocks and towels, and then they buy yoga pants or yoga clothes. That was their brand, their brand served, that person, who was starting a new adventure and it was the adventure of getting into yoga. So if you can identify someone who is starting a new journey. Then you can identify where to start your new business. Just remember Everything is a Brand.