2010 was a pivotal year for me. Growing bored with the status quo, I questioned everything I was doing and wondered where I was going. Did I like independent consulting? Did I like teaching? Actually, I did. So then what was wrong; because something was definitely wrong.
As so often happens, a few events collided in late spring ’10 to clarify things for me. First, I’d gotten myself in too deep on a project that was going nowhere and making me miserable. I needed a new exhilarating focus.
Second, I was loving another big Social Venture Partners volunteer project, this one for the fantastic people at the Washington Environmental Council. My husband and I are outdoor people. Any photos you see on this site I probably made while hiking some mountain trail or, as is the case with the featured photo, while walking on Alki Beach. The environment matters a great deal to me. I have to strive to make a difference for the earth. So besides changing personal behavior and making donations, I’d worked with WEC, People for Puget Sound and, years ago, Climate Solutions. But I was doing my most rewarding work for free.
Third, following a decades-long commitment to helping fellow women succeed in the workplace, I got involved with the fantastic founding team of a new career training academy for women called GoGirl Academy who introduced me to the concept of a personal brand and the need for a personal brand statement. I knew well my professional reputation and diligently guarded it. But me, as a brand? No, I’d skipped that part of Tom Peters’ late ’90s teachings and I hadn’t gone there. I’d ignored the most valuable brand I’d ever have: mine.
Once you start thinking of yourself as a brand, all the basics of brand building have to come into play. Like positioning. What was mine?
Anyone who’s worked with me or taken one of my UW classes knows all too well my position on positioning. It boils down to a belief that if you’re not clear about what you stand for, you stand for nothing. Yet for five years, I’d refused to position Clarity. I rationalized it. My widely varied experience is what makes me valuable, I argued — with me. Most of my consulting work came through personal referrals and that was fine with me, so what did it matter?
Well here’s a big surprise: it mattered a lot. When I first started my consulting business, a very savvy services marketing friend said “don’t have a website, just do a blog. It’s what you know that’s going to matter.” But about what was I supposed to write? How did I narrow the field? I resisted signing up for Twitter until a few months ago. Same dilemma. I’m not really the “what I had for lunch today” type, so what would I tweet? Gee, I don’t know, maybe topics relevant to my positioning? There’s a novel idea.
This is the result. My goal at Clarity Communications Consulting is to give environmental entrepreneurs and environmental non-profits the tools and techniques to successfully out-market their competition.
Still working on that personal brand statement.
