Module 2: Build Your Brand
Build Your Brand: FAQ
01. Self-Limiting Beliefs
What's the point of making a list of my target market's self-limiting beliefs? Is it just to come up with the Anchor Belief?
02. Your Anchor Belief
I've got a long list of self-limiting beliefs. How do I narrow it down for one Anchor Belief?
Look for the common themes under all those self-limiting beliefs. What’s under the surface? To be clear, your Anchor Belief won’t encompass every single belief you have. But it will summarize what sets you apart and help your readers know if they’re in the right place. You’ll express all the details, angles, and nuances through your actual content and products/services, which we’ll cover in future modules.
Also, keep in mind that your Anchor Belief should tie back to your Problem Statement and speak to your target market’s pain points.
Your Anchor Belief will be the overarching theme of your business, but it will still be very specific to your target market’s needs and what you have to offer them.
How do I know if my Anchor Belief is good?
03. Your Signature Story
How do I show my struggle and still establish authority?
You don’t build authority because you’ve “made it” and have everything all figured out. You build authority because you’re on that journey now, but you’re just ahead of where your target market is on that journey.
Most of your Signature Story is the “before.” Which is absolutely necessary. But to your target market, the part between the “before” and where you are now is a black hole. That’s a crucial part of your Signature Story because your target market is where you once were. You don’t have to pretend to have “made it,” but your reader needs to see you as a trustworthy guide.
Flesh out the “journey” part so we can see how far you’ve come already. What have you learned? What parts have started to heal? Even seeing your small victories will give your reader hope and show them that you’ve been there too. Don’t skip sharing your journey. Your target market needs to see their struggle in your journey.
But I want to be inspiring, not share all my weaknesses. Can't my blog just focus on inspiring others?
If your target market person just wants inspiration, how is your blog different from Pinterest? You need them to view you as the right leader for them. To do that, you must include the parts of your story that will resonate with them. If you present yourself as a person where “everything is a breeze, and I was born this way,” they simply can’t relate to you.
Why does the Signature Story need to be short and concise? Is that really necessary?
Remember that Venn diagram in the lesson? Your Signature Story is a bite-sized snapshot of your experience with your topic, including only the parts that overlap with your target market’s pains and gains from your Perspective Map. Cut out any part of your story that isn’t absolutely essential. We’re going for lean and mean here.
You need to clearly and concisely state your problem, how you struggled through, and then your success while tying in that your reader can do it too. Because you did it, figured it out, and authentically experienced your reader’s problem, they can learn from you and accomplish the same thing.
04. Your Brand Promise
I feel like my Brand Promise is weak. How do I make it more powerful?
To make your Brand Promise “pop,” make sure you’re speaking to your target market. Also, avoid using weak words or bland jargon like “vibrant” or “personally rewarding”—what would that actually look like? To your reader, words like that sound abstract, and they can tune out before they’re even done reading your Brand Promise. Give them a visual for what you do now that you didn’t do before. The more specific, the better.
You must be able to communicate your Brand Promise with strong words. Watch for those self-limiting beliefs your target market has. They think they can’t do this because…why?
Why is it important to use the word "you" in my Brand Promise?
Using “you” helps your target market person see themselves in your Brand Promise and see themselves becoming a member of your community. Remember that your Brand Promise is speaking directly to that person. Suppose you were talking to me and trying to convince me that composting was worth my time and effort. And suppose you said, “When they compost, they get nutrient-rich dirt for their garden.” That doesn’t have quite the same effect as, “When you compost, you’ll get nutrient-rich dirt for your garden.”
I have too many Brand Promise drafts, and I'm having a hard time deciding on just one to use!
Go back to the checklist in the lesson and narrow your list down to the Brand Promises that meet the most criteria from that checklist.
After that, look through your Perspective Map and put your Target Market Goggles on. How are your potential Brand Promises answering her “why” and her self-limiting beliefs?
After you narrow down the list using those guidelines, try posting in your Daily Learning Log to get feedback from your program leaders and teammates.
Miscellaneous
Where will I put the core brand elements on my blog?
Remember that in this module, we’re getting all our ingredients ready so we can make that tricky soufflé. Don’t worry about adding your brand elements to your site just yet. We’ll tackle that in the next module, I promise! For now, focus on following the instructions in this module to create the best brand elements possible for your business.
How can I come up with creative wording for my brand elements so they "pop"?
You could use a thesaurus, but be careful of finding words that sound pretty but are too abstract for communicating what you really mean to your target market. Concrete and specific is always better! But one of the best things you can do is go back to your Treasure Trove of research and look for actual words from your target market to include in your brand elements. Your goal is for your super fan to see themselves in your brand elements, and reflecting back their own words is a powerful way to bring that about.
I feel like I'm way behind and slower than everyone else. Should I be worried?
You don’t have to rush. These brand elements are key to the rest of the program, so take your time and be as thorough as you need to be. With that said, perfectionism is a danger for many bloggers, and keeping up with the pace of the program is important too. You can always come back later during implementation week to fine-tune your brand elements. Your brand elements don’t have to be perfect this week. When they’re “good enough” for now (80% certainty!), move forward.
I'm worried my personality is coming across too strong in my brand elements. Should I try to tone it down?
People follow strong leaders, so don’t try to sound “professional” because that will dilute your brand in the process. Let your personality shine through!
This module makes me realize that in my target market research, I was looking for what I wanted to see and not what was actually there. What if I’m on the wrong path?
You can go back and look at your target research as often as you need to. That’s why this is a 12-week class. If you feel like you missed something, you’re the CEO, so you can go digging again and find it! Take your time. Study that target market research and make solid decisions. You’re learning a process that you’ll continue to revisit as your business grows.
I hear what my target market is saying, but I’m not passionate about it. What if I want to completely change topics from what my target market is telling me?
If you are truly uninterested in helping your target market with the problems they’re struggling with, the good news is that you now have all the tools you need to reinvent yourself. But if you do decide to make a major shift in your business, know that you’re basically starting from scratch. With that said, if you have the freedom to do that and that’s where you want to go with your business, you’re the CEO. You get to decide.
If you do decide to focus on an area that hasn’t brought you success yet, we have a bonus lesson in a future module called The Snowball Technique that will help you get traction from a starting position.
I know my business and blog should be all about my readers. But I love to write about my own everyday life, and I would miss that! Also, isn't it inspirational for people to see what my life looks like?
It’s not that you can’t share about your everyday life. When it comes to blogging, personal details and authority-building work both have their purpose and place. Right now, we’re building the foundation of your brand. In a future module, you’ll learn about when personal posts work best and how to tie that into a strong brand. Hang tight until then because you’ll gain a much greater sense of what needs to be done and how to go about it in a way that fulfills you and your reader.
Now that my brand elements are done, I’m worried I’ve gone way too narrow and I’ll leave out some of my readers. Help!
Remember that zooming in doesn’t prevent other people from joining your community. It just helps your readers see that you have a clear message—and helps them believe in your authority.
Case in point: My parenting site is clearly marketed to parents, and yet teachers and grandparents regularly read my posts, subscribe to my newsletter, and buy my products.
They see that I’m talking to parents. But the common thread of “I want to connect more deeply with the children in my life” also resonates with them. They see the authority and reason, “Well, if that works for those people, then it should work for me too!”
Being specific about the problem you’re solving doesn’t push everyone else away. Instead, it helps set you apart as a person who knows what they’re about. And that’s magnetic. You’re no longer “just a ______ blogger”—they see you as the authority you already are.