Identity, Influence and Impact

I’ve been thinking about metamorphosis lately and what it means in business. It’s about becoming the new version of yourself and your business and sharing it with your community and the people you want to serve. I call this identity, influence and impact.

When we start a business we have a vision. We have a specific offer that we know people will be interested in. We want to build a team of people who love working for us and want to make an impact. Many entrepreneurs envision this when they start, but what happens is usually different.

There are more than 31 million entrepreneurs in just the United States. That makes it hard to get our message heard. We’re chasing prospects who aren’t sure if they want to commit. All while trying to master algorithms, from Facebook to Google, to ensure we reach the right people at the right time. It’s exhausting.

While technology makes some things easier, it also adds to the pressure to do more. Entrepreneurs feel the need to be omnipresent, but this is overwhelming because we can’t keep up. Spending all of our time marketing our business is not the best way to grow. It’s actually by serving our clients more deeply and by building relationships.

So, I want to offer a counter position: Less tech and more you will elevate your business.
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to create your new IDENTITY (whether you want to change your offer, business model or positioning).

Question 1: What crossroads or precipice are you facing? Think about what you love and want to keep in your business and what you want to change.

Question 2: What gifts have you never shared because they don’t seem relevant? Make a list of those gifts, no matter how unrelated or inconsequential they seem.

Question 3: What do you want to say or do that you haven’t? Fear is usually the culprit for this question. You need to step out of your comfort zone to elevate your identity.

A personal mantra of mine is, “Our purpose requires us to play full out.” We can’t play small and be faithful to our purpose. We have to play big. Think about this as you consider the next set of questions.

Question 1: What change do you want to create in your industry or community? Few businesses start from a place of passion. Most begin by wanting to remedy a situation.

Question 2: What are you unwilling to settle for (either for you or your clients)? For example, maybe you want people to stop using AI for their copy and content. Or maybe you don’t think technology is the solution for everything.

Question 3: What are you doing about what needs to change? If you don’t like AI, share why you think it isn’t a good idea and what you can do instead.

Question 4: What words describe what you need to embrace to be a next-level leader? People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care. Have conversations with people to determine what they’re struggling with and which issues you can help them with.

Once you figure out how to serve people more deeply, give the answers in the form of stories. Storytelling is a great way to back up your claim and demonstrate compassion. Explain why you’re the best person to help.
Now, we move on to INFLUENCE.

You have to be seen for people to understand how you can help them. But being seen isn’t the only thing to consider. Visibility without strategy is just noise. We need to know where ideal customers and clients are and show up for them there.

We need to move from me to we. Build your influence around your connections and relationships with them.

Think about power teams you can form. Teams you can collectively share with, pollinate each other’s audiences, and actively refer to each other. That is one of the best and fastest ways to grow your business because you’re borrowing other people’s authority.

Instead of attempting to sell a cold audience, you’re already starting with a warm audience.  Going this route makes you much more likely to get potential customers because you’re fast-tracking your visibility, influence and growth.

The last category to discuss is IMPACT. Not many entrepreneurs talk about this, but here’s why it’s important: Income follows impact.

Getting consistent results for your clients and sharing those results helps you create a legacy of impact. People want to work with people who get results.

Sharing your impact also helps create your thought leadership, built on credibility, expertise, experience, insight and intellectual influence. Demonstrating your reputation through the impact you’ve already made is what’s going to build your business.

Just sharing information isn’t enough to keep people coming to you. That doesn’t make you the go-to authority. You have to build influence to keep prospects interested and willing to pay for what you offer.