Let me share with you a brief story about a local company who failed to recognize the importance of appearance.

Recently I watched a local restaurant close it’s doors for what I believe to be the 3 (possibly 4th) time in the past few years. Sure it’s not all that uncommon for a restaurant to go under, change hands or be replaced with a more appealing alternative, but in a matter of a few years? Not a single one of them making it for more than a year or two, often times only months? Something isn’t right.

Why?

It’s not location. This particular restaurant is smack dab in the middle of the local shopping hub. There is a hotel 3 doors down and a huge movie theater right across the street. No, not the location.

It’s not the food. Honestly the food isn’t wasn’t half bad. I would have likened the menu to an Applebees or Ruby Tuesdays, not over the top, but a decent place to have a casual dinner with the family. So no it’s not that the kitchen can’t put together a decent meal.

It wasn’t the service. The service was pretty good in my experience. Everyone was nice, polite and happy to serve with a smile. Again not the service.

Not the atmosphere. Similar to that of an Olive Garden. It’s comfortable, again not over the top, but a decent atmosphere. There is a nice bar area, a huge flat screen TV. (You would think that alone would bring in a few off the street or at least a few guests of the hotel down the street which houses it’s fair share of business travelers. So no I wouldn’t say it’s the atmosphere.

So What Then?

In my opinion one of the biggest contributing factors to this particular restaurants persistent failure is do to appearance and branding. The owners, managers, decision makers, whatever the case may be, failed to take a hard look at branding and appearance.

How Can I Be So Sure

I’m not, in all honest there were more than likely a number of contributing factors that plague this restaurant, but I do know that branding and appearance was definitely one of them.

I personally passed by this little place for almost 3 years before figuring out that it was actually a restaurant and then taking the time to walk through the front door. There was nothing that stood out and grabbed me, said hey there is a great restaurant here, come eat. In fact there was nothing there that even said, hey this is a restaurant! To be honest, for the longest time I thought it was an extension of the children’s daycare center next door.

The signage or logo whatever one might call that mess was severely lacking. All this money had been dumped into building a decent restaurant, yet not a single person thought to take the time and invest in the outside appearance. What’s that old saying, “first impressions are everything”?

I wasn’t alone here either, my reaction or lack thereof was quite similar to that of others. More than half the people I mentioned this place to had no idea that it was there and the other half where pretty sure that it was just some low budget buffet that wouldn’t really be worth their time to check out if they were looking for a decent meal.

This isn’t a huge community and the simple fact that so many local people, who more than likely pass by this place each day had the same impression as I, that should tell you something. Imagine what the outsiders and visitors must have thought? Probably not much at.

How Could Some of this Been Avoided?

Simply taking the time to give some thought and invest in their appearance. I am not going to lecture you on how to go about it or who to hire, I am going to simply say, get involved and put some thought into it. The interaction with the person creating your logo, signage, branding etc., should not stop at we are a restaurant, this is our name, put something together for us.

Enlist the right person for the job. If you head out to the local sign company with nothing in hand and ask them to put together a nice sign for you, no doubt they are experienced and are every bit capable of putting together some great signage. However if you head out to the local sign company and ask them to design your logo plus make signage, be sure that they at least have someone who is capable of doing so. If my outlets aren’t working I don’t call the plumber, do you?

So please take some time, put some thought into it and invest in your appearance, if you don’t customers like me might just pass you by.

While employed full time I saw reason and benefit to begin focusing on the creation of a personal brand. I knew that my time with the company was limited and I was to soon find myself back in the arms of entrepreneurship. Developing a brand in preparation seemed to make sense. Now I do not envision myself as a rock star or film actor trying to salvage some bit of privacy from my adoring fans but for one reason or another I decided to go with a “pen name”. It was also not in any way necessary to hide my moonlighting from my employer as he encouraged it. It was simply because I felt this a more brandable and memorable name. The name itself is a slight variation on a family name so it is not completely fictitious. My first name is in fact Jeremy. (I did consider going with Tyler Durden for a short period.) I make no effort to hide my given name, as you can just as easily find it on the about page of any website I lay claim to, however the alias is that which I use on several of my social profiles. The problem I am having is in deciding if it makes sense to move forward with this “pen name” as I push try to advance my career and business. Any thoughts?

A few disclaimers:

I am not looking to sign of on anything contractual with my alias.

My business name is separate and no part of my name appears in the title, however the is a very blurred line between how my clients recognize it, often we are one and the same. I would like it to remain that way.

The Questions

Do you see an alias as harmful in a business setting?

Would a personal brand formed around an Alias lead to awkward explanations more often then it is worth? (I have had to explain once or twice.)

Is it to late to turn back now and how would reinventing hurt my forward progress this far in?

Any examples of someone who has made this work for them in this particular environment?

Basically I am looking for some guidance, a discussion on the pros and cons. If you have any thoughts please feel free to voice theme below.

For reference – The alias is Jeremy Delane, my given name is Vossman.

Why?
Creating a buzz around your personal brand is beneficial to you in much the same way that creating buzz around any product is beneficial, ultimately it increases sales. Drawing from my own experience… I have a nice client base with several repeat customers, I am not hurting for work nor do I dump a whole lot of money into marketing each month. I am happy with my clients in most cases and wouldn’t want to replace them. However, I work a lot more than I would like to be working on a daily or weekly basis moving on into the future. Don’t get me wrong I would never hope to get rid of my current clients, but I think to myself. Wouldn’t it be nice to work a tad less as well as increase my income by landing some of the “big fish” in the pond? Enter personal branding. For the most part there are not a whole lot of “big fish” out there that make a habit out of working with the small fish (even though they are often times more talented, qualified and offer a better product.) No, the big fish are usually attracted to the other big fish, the ones who have created a name for themselves, positioned themselves as the expert in the pond. All made possible by strong personal branding.

That is not to say that thoose whom have created a strong personal brand do not have the skill to back it up. I would say that often times the two go hand in hand and are ultimately essential to the continued success of the personal brand. I mean you could spend millions marketing a product and sure your initial sales might more than make up for the money spent but if the product sucks it will eventually fail. So lets not forget that it is important to enforce your personal brand, you don’t necessarily need to be the best you just need to act like it and at least have the skill to back up the product.

Ok, How?
First you will need to make a plan, chances are if you are exploring the creation of a personal brand you already have some thoughts on the corresponding skill or product that your brand will market. Now focus. Figure out what is going to set you apart from the crowd and make you more desirable then the next guy/gal and then focus on every last detail. Now get to work.

You can probably guess that my focus will be on the online form of personal branding but, before I get into a few of the million ways available to you via the web, I want to first share an example of personal branding in the “offline” world.

Several months ago I joined a local networking group. In that group there were members of all different business backgrounds, shapes, sizes and personality. Over time I learned about each one and started to recognize specific traits for each, but one in particular stood out far above the rest. He was an older gentleman that was involved in the travel industry and from what I could tell very knowledgable and certainly experienced and apparently also very good at personal branding. Each day he showed up to the meeting ready to speak wearing his captains hat and going by the name Capt Dave. He made himself to stand out from the crowd and thus will forever stick in my mind as Capt Dave the Travel Consultant. He had created a very recognizable personal brand and had me wanting to book a ticket simply because he was Capt Dave!

Now on to creating your personal brand online…
What avenue to choose? To me it make sense to approach this in much the same way that you would approach the marketing of any other product, choose the avenue that best suits your target market. Find out where your “customers” are hiding and make your presence known! Clearly one of the best approaches would be to start with a weblog or even a simple website and begin positioning yourself as an expert straight away. You may very well be in the learning process yourself but if in doing so you decide to share what you are learning (i.e. your journey or path to success) people will start to look up to you for your knowledge. Find your skill develop it and pursue it with a passion, you will create an expert afterall.

Attack social media full force. Again, where is your target market and what social media outlets are they using? For starters you can find a small group from just about every niche out there using twitter, dive in and get involved. Simply joining the discussion puts you one step ahead of those you choose to sit by idley.

Make it personal. Add that personal touch to everything you do, let people know who you are, where you came from, what you have achieved and where you are headed.

Openly display your credentials and give yourself credit where credit is due. Don’t get boastful but don’t be afraid to toot your own horn once and awhile. People want to know why you should have a say in it all.

Don’t be afraid to entice them a bit, give them more than your run of the mill incentive, give them something dirt cheap or better yet give them something for free! (Why do you think so many of these online gurus start you out with a free eBook)

Most importantly carry your “captains hat” with you wherever you go, brand everything from your business card to your email signiture. Showcase your uniqueness wherever you go.

Let me get started, I have work to do if I want to catch up with a lot of you out there!

This article was inspired by the most excellent eBook “Rockstar Personal Branding” which can be obtained via Rockable Press. I suggest you get your copy now!