Alex Becker: Play To Your Strengths

by BusinessBusiness and Job SeekerEditor's PickJob Seeker

Play To Your Strengths

One Of My Strengths

One of my strengths is that I know that there are people who are better than I am at certain things. And that doesn’t take away from what I’m good at in the slightest. In fact, recognizing that fact makes me better at what I’m good at because it means I can incorporate ideas from others without having some kind of ego about it preventing me from doing something because it was someone else’s idea.

To wit, here is a video from Alex Becker, a thought leader in business that I very much so admire, where he discusses how important it is to play to one’s strengths.

Playing To Your Strengths Is Important In Both Business And Job Hunting

When you’re job hunting or running your business, you’ll be the most successful when you maximize your strengths and doing what makes you great. Don’t take my word for it though; watch the video above for an excellent argument about why this is so.

Crossposting

by BusinessEditor's Pick

Exposure

Crossposting is when a piece of content from one person appears on another person’s platform. This kind of posting can be really valuable for both the audiences and platforms involved.

The most seemingly obvious reason for the importance of cross posting is “exposure.” If you post on someone else’s platform you’re exposing your work to another person’s audience and you can get some of your audience to become your audience. The same is true for someone posting on your wall.

A group of people viewed from behind all with their arms around each other sitting on a ledge

Bringing audiences together can benefit everyone.

Bringing Value

Although exposure to a new audience can be valuable, I think the most important part of crossposting is bringing value to each audience.

So, if you’re cross posting on someone else’s platform and you bring value to that audience, you’ve brought a benefit to not only that audience, but also the platform you’re posting on.

The same is true when someone posts on your platform. If they’re bringing value to your audience, you both you and your audience benefit.

Crossposting And Providing Value In Practice

Recently, I’ve posted content from Deaftone Digital on my website, and had my own content featured on the Leave Law Behind blog. In both cases, there was value provided and received in a reciprocal manner, which is a win-win-win. The audience of all three platforms received value, and so did the platforms themselves.

 

Leave Law Behind Crosspost - Giving And Gaining Value

For Leave Law Behind, I wrote an article about why lawyers want to leave law. Often lawyers know that they are unhappy practicing law, but have a difficult time identifying why this is so. Once they have identified why being a lawyer is making them miserable, they can take the steps to leave law, which is exactly the service that Leave Law Behind provides.

My post provides value to the LLB audience by helping them identify why they are unhappy practicing law, and it provides value to the platform it is posted on by helping guide people toward retaining that platform’s services. Finally, Stand Out Professional Branding is benefited by exposure to Leave Law Behind’s audience.

DeafTone Digital Crosspost - Giving and Gaining Value

Deaftone Digital recently shared what their process of applying business values looked like on this platform. And they used a framework provided on Stand Out Professional Branding’s website to do so. It was hugely beneficial to Stand Out to have a real brand be willing demonstrate, in their own words, what it looks like to implement branding methodology that Stand Out sells.

Testimonials like this help drive business as much as anything else. And finally, DeafTone Digital benefited by gaining exposure to Stand Out’s audience. Another win-win-win.

Conclusion

Crossposting can be very beneficial for brands. But, instead of focusing on the exposure to be gained, focus on the value to be given when you’re providing content.

If you do that, you put your foot forward in the best way possible to a new audience, establish long lasting relationships with other businesses, and you will benefit from these things the most in the long term.

How Do You Define Your Business Values?

by BusinessEditor's Pick

Your business’s values are the umbrella under which you base all of your communications. As such, you have to define your business values before you start using them. A good example of how umbrella concept works in action is Nike. Their “Just Do It” slogan informs all of their communications. If “Just Do It” isn’t actually in one of their ads, it’s influencing the content.

So, the first thing you need to do when you’re trying to use values in your business communications is identify your values. I’ve prepared some questions below to help you start with that process.

Define Your Business Values

Questions For Defining Your Business Values

  • What values currently drive your business?
  • Why did you start your business?
  • What values do you want to be driving your business?
  • What values are your customers currently expressing by buying your product? 
  • Who is the intended recipient of your business’s services?
  • Identify a successful rival or competitor providing the same or similar good/service that you do. What value is a person expressing by purchasing that rival’s good/service? How has that rival successfully communicated that value to their customers?
  • How are you connecting those values and the purchase of your product in the mind of the customer with your marketing? Are you doing this at all?
  • When your customer purchases your product/service, what do you want them to be thinking?
Define Your Business Values

Next Steps

Once you’ve taken the time to define your business values, you need to synthesize a mission statement and a slogan from them. These will be what you use in your communications. But the first step in this process is defining your values so that you can use them.

I can help you develop and then implement that process effectively if you hire me to do so here.

Just Build It

by Editor's PickJob Seeker

You Just Need To Build It

You aren’t a professional content producer; that’s okay. You bring value through your skillset, not through highly polished productions. So, stop worrying about the medium that you’re making you’re point in, and just go ahead and build it already. Put it online. Make a podcast. Make an Instagram page. Go live on Facebook or YouTube. Whatever medium you want to use, just build it. Because that value you’re creating for someone can help you build your network, can help you advance at your current company, or could lead to your next job or your next client or your next milestone. 

If you’re going to put yourself out there as a source of value, where people can gain something from following you on social media or going to events you host, or whatever, you need to actually get your message out there. You can’t let something like production values or polish hold you back. So just build it!

Some Examples Of How To Communicate Value

Lawyer

If you’re a lawyer, just tell me what I need to know about the law so that when I need to hire a lawyer, I already trust you and I’ll spend my money with you because you’ve been a part of my Instagram feed for the past 5 months talking to a camera phone from behind your desk.

Physical Therapist rubbing a person's back

Physical Therapist

If you’re a physical therapist, show me a bunch of exercises I can do to rehab a torn calf muscle. So that when I tear my calf muscle, I call you right after I get out of the hospital because I’ve been watching your rehab videos on twitter for the past three months.

Financial Planner

If you’re a financial planner, tell me what I should do with some plain text Facebook posts now that the economy is in the tank, so that when I make some money I come to you to grow it because what you told me to do paid off.

Develop Your Network

To gain career security and develop a network of people who will use your services, you need to put yourself out there and provide value. That value has almost nothing to do with how polished your posts are. Sure, do your best to appear professional, but ultimately the value of your expertise is more important than anything else.