THE TOP 7 WAYS TO REFLECT BEING A BRAND OF SERVICE

Austin, Texas is an awesome city.  We formally engaged ‘Stay@Home’ in Austin, TX on 3/16/2020.  Today marks week 4.  Though I’m naturally online daily researching the online presence of my projects, clients, and prospects – social is feeding me lots of different connections – which leads to more new connections.

I’ve noticed a wide range of reactions to covid-19 from both personal and business perspectives.  I find I’ve ‘followed’ many and ‘unfollowed’ more.  I’ve noticed several folks went quiet during this time and others excessively chatty.  Those who follow me tell me that I give too much, and yet right now, I feel as if I’m not giving enough.  So today, I’ll share the top 7 ways to embody ‘service’ as part of your brand.

#1:  Pay attention to what is happening in the world (by spending a few minutes/day on your favorite social feeds) and acknowledge or respond with a positive thought.  This doesn’t mean showing up like a Pollyanna cheerleader when the world is in crisis (i.e. March 2020 coronavirus).  This means if someone is posting a breakthrough regardless of the crisis, like, comment with authentic words, and share with your network to edify their good work.

#2: Find someone who’s doing a good job of being of service and celebrate them.  Interestingly enough, when I started writing this article, I received an email from a local restaurant chain (Waterloo Ice House), who usually sends an email 1-3x/quarter centered around a holiday offer.  This time, they were celebrating crawfish

season with a takeout family dinner and the ability for others to buy 1 and get a matching donation for a first responder meal.  It was so in line with their brand, past communications, and with the awareness of what is going on today – I took the time to share their goodness on my main social channel.  Though I have contacts around the world, living in Austin the last 20 years means there are many of my colleagues locally who know this firm.  Hope they liked, commented, shared & donated, too!

#3: Make a list of your top 10-20 clients & partners.  Text them, call them, make a social referral, and boldly share what they are doing well.  Create a 1:1 coffee call or a group happy hour to celebrate their successes.  This is not a time to complain publicly if your desire is to embody ‘service’ as part of your brand.  It is time to TAKE ACTION, support others, and ask for help.

#4: Share a challenge and how someone helped you through it.  The best example I can share today is that in week 4, I wrapped (2) amazing client engagements.  The breakthroughs were game changing and inspired them to leave me reviews.  Ye ha.  What they don’t know is their ‘not yet’ attitude to continuing our retainer has caused me to a) join a colleague running a google ad for a product, b) reach out to other potential opportunities to fill my calendar, and c) finish that online course I purchased on Black Friday to expand my online course platform.  My business friend who turned me on to the product to sell with google ads has me receiving texts throughout the day with order notices.  Who knew these silly little texts would keep my head up, make me feel like I’m accomplishing good things, and position me for my next work challenge.  I’m so grateful for the $$extra and the uplifting texts saying Grace has a new order.

#5: Share fun things you or others are doing outside of work!  As a Personal Branding Strategist®, you’d think I’d remember how powerful it is to share the 3rd dimension of yourself in the right way at the right time.  My new hubby and I are both performing musicians (the cover photo of this article), and no surprise, we’ve been learning lots of songs over the last 4 weeks.  Though our duo act isn’t live at The Vineyard @ Florence right now, we are enjoying learning and playing new material – and – sharing it on social.  I’ve even been playing some long-haired classical music from my college days.  Taking a photo of the dogeared music of the 3rd movement for Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata – along with a video – went CRAZY in one of my private groups.  This is a group I’m tentative to share in; now I know what works!

#6: Engage with Your Offline Groups Online.  I’m so impressed with the CEO of eWomenNetwork.  In a week’s time, she was able to reimagine her top two face2face networking events into online events.  Now, her groups around the world are flourishing in just a few short weeks and the women AND men who attend are transacting business.  I had attendees from TX, CO, AZ, FL, WI & Canada at our last networking event.  Anyone around the world can attend!  Next one here.

#7: Share Your One Thing.  Put the one thing you could do FREE to support your tribe on the wires.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a business tip or a cooking, hiking, or #stayathome hack that others might enjoy.  Me – as I’m received lots of connections on LinkedIn – I’m sharing this FREE 7Day LinkedIn Challenge – especially with those who have a blue cover photo: http://bit.ly/BlueCover

Tag me when you are sharing the caught doing great service posts.  Love to see what you and your network are doing to change the world – right now.