But Who ARE You?
Remember when you were a teenager? You’d sit in a darkened room, hair covering one eye, writing your “poetry” about your life. Filled with angst, it asked all those tough questions, “Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose?”
It was all so melodramatic…
And yet, so true! And, unfortunately, these questions don’t go away as we get older. Sure, we “figure it out” the moment we mark our major on the college entrance form. And yeah, we knew exactly what we wanted to be when we graduated. That first job showed us we maybe needed to give it some more thought…as did the second and quite possibly the third. Hitting the big 25 made us rethink our priorities; 30 definitely shifted our perspectives, and at 36 (we were OK with 35 for some reason—it’s the 36 that kicked our butts!), we went running back to the “Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose?” mantra.
We thought we had it figured out each of those times, and for a while, we really did.
And then the market came crashing down. The daily newspaper ridiculed us, the nightly news harpooned us. Clients hid from us, and investors threw multiples at us like we had done to Buyers before them…
Is it any wonder we’re stressed out and seeking solace and solutions, trying to once again figure out who we are? If we even want to be what we are/were? And where we go from here?
Self-reflection in times like these isn’t a bad thing. And in fact, I think it’s great that we ARE thinking about what we want and who we want to be when we grow up (again).
Yesterday, I asked that you figure out the image you want to project, and the week before, what sets you apart. Today, we’re going to develop your brand a little deeper, and it starts with your logo.
What, did you think a logo was only for corporations?
Um, I’ve said it again, but it bears reminding: You and your business are a corporation.
There are a lot of great graphic artists, designers, and business coaches who can help you create a logo, but before you hand over Brand You to someone else, why not give it a shot yourself? Before you panic, know I’m not going to ask you to sketch something out, or grab your paintbrushes or even sing a little ditty…I’m going to ask you to develop a very clear, concise picture in your head of who YOU are and what YOUR LOGO looks like. You can then take that idea/image, Google some images to see what strikes you, and then turn it over to an advertising genius. Or, you may find that the image in your brain matches something you see, and stick with it.
You want help and a starting point, I hear ya…Please remember that I don’t know everything, and don’t pretend to be the Master. I know what works for me, though, in my unique business, and because of this, I’m going to clue you in on what worked for me, why, etc, just like I did yesterday. So bear with me…
Yesterday, we talked about my being a gatekeeper. I have two businesses: The one is my own real estate business, where I help clients buy and sell property. The second, though, is my real estate brokerage, where I help my clients (otherwise known as “my” Agents) sell THEIR clients homes. In both cases, I want my clients to see me as someone they can confide in and trust. I (and the Agents I work with) don’t sell “houses”, but rather, we sell homes, and a home to me is a place where you feel safe and calm. Sometimes when people start thinking of “calm”, they start moving r-e-a-l slow, so making sure I keep them on task and remind them of time is really important. I can’t forget who our primary clients are, either: While we service clients in all price ranges and throughout all areas of town, we started as and maintain a boutique firm, and a good majority of our clients are upper-middle-class homeowners.
When I put all this together in my head, I had this vision of a great, gated courtyard. I had in my head a very Spanish/Mediterranean-styled home, with Old World charm. I typed in “gates” first, and started perusing images. I must have gone through about a hundred till I moved off of just “gate” and over to “courtyard”. I wanted some greenery, but no flowers (flowers to me would have been too stodgy, too classic, too “English School Marm” for the image I was trying to project). I looked at another hundred or so, until I came across this image of a courtyard with old pillars and an empty, wide wicker chair. Now, to some people, they may have thought it looked very cold and desolate, but to me, the empty chair was perfect, because it allows my clients (Buyers and Agents) to see themselves in this chair. I added a clock (time) and boosted the greenery (no flowers!), and then stepped back.
On the one hand, the courtyard did indeed appear to be one you’d see in a Spanish-style home. But you didn’t see the home itself; in fact, you didn’t even see an outline. Which, in looking at it, really worked for me. While you want your logo to be very specific to you, if you get too specific, you’re really limiting your potential client base. While the home has a “rich” look to it, our first-time homeowners are not going to feel intimidated, either, because this courtyard isn’t a Louis XVII, manicured courtyard scene; it could just as easily be a scene from a mass home subdivision as it could a sprawling estate in Paradise Valley.
And it is unlike any other out there (see, you knew I’d get to the “uniqueness factor” sooner or later…).
I’m not going to claim it’s perfect. It’s a very expensive logo to have. Depending on what I’m having printed, the clock may appear as more of a white dot than an actual clock; and sometimes, the green gets lost in the blue background. And, because it’s an actual image, with multiple colors and shading within it, every time I have it replicated on my signs, I pay for a full color charge.
Its pluses, though, outweighed the minuses. And it’s a logo that has not only served us well, but stood the test of time, which is really, really crucial. Remember a minute ago, when I mentioned who our clients were? Right now, many of our clients are struggling. They may be losing their homes, their sense of security and community. That same courtyard—the one that knows no economic limits—can offer them protection and shelter, and that same chair can help them “take a load off”. It’s a blank slate, a new beginning. Its home. And for my Agent clients? When they’ve been beaten up and battered and they feel alone, they know they can come in, sit down, and we’ll be waiting to hear them, help them, and learn from them.
Now that you know where we started, I want you to take a few minutes, and think of the words that describe Brand You. If you can sketch/draw/color/paint, by all means: Break out the Crayola 64 and get on it. Or, for those of us less artistically inclined, seek out some images from your favorite web browser and see if anything “pops”. Get a few of them together, and then…
Put them aside until tomorrow!
