World’s Biggest Summit

This one-hour phone consultation is designed to open up your inner brand dialog (yes, you have an inner brand dialog) so you can get a handle on the core elements that inform your story.

It’s time for some metaphorical de-fogging: Let’s get you clearer and more confident in the foundation of your brand. Think of it as learning to read your own special compass – one that always knows the direction in which your values and natural patterns point so you can drive your vision forward without confusion and overcome obstacles without losing your way.

Why Should I Work on My Brand Story?

I find that when business owners develop a strong brand story they benefit from the five C’s:

• Confidence – Understanding who you are and the natural patterns you keep expressing through your business choices helps you feel more confident in your own skin and less apologetic for external “shoulds” that aren’t really fits for you, but may come from the norms of the industry, or parental baggage, or some well-meant advice that makes you second guess yourself. Say “No” where appropriate and “Yes” with conviction, and say a whole lot less of the “er”, “um”, “maybe”, and “harrumphs”.
• Compass – I like the compass metaphor. A compass helps you know which way you’re going and let’s you explore with confidence that you can pick your own path without getting lost. You have the contrast a compass provides to let you know when the beaten path is moving you in the right direction and when it is actually taking you away from your goals.
• Clarity – Seeing your own patterns (behaviors, habits, biases, values, priorities, etc) and learning to name them gives you a vocabulary for talking about yourself and your business, they are also reflections of who your target audience is. This fuels the confidence mentioned above – so you can develop those strong talking points that will be part of your marketing and networking. Not rehearsed speeches, but flexible and resilient concepts that can be riffed on like a musician noodling over familiar chords, adapting to the communication needs of the situation at hand whether that’s making a one-minute speech at a networking meeting, writing a sales page, or explaining to a logo designer what you want your brand mark to communicate.
• Context – Remember the Beacon Principles from the summit session? Context is the other side of clarity – you understand where you fit in the business ecology, you start to identify those who value what you value (and what you provide) – and you can then think about how to maximize that value. Are you a glass of water outside on a rainy day, or a bottle of water at a stand by the park, or a thermos of water in the middle of a desert? What’s your sweet spot?
• Choices – Or more specifically, owning your choices: Digging into the motivations and priorities that underly your brand helps you own your decisions. Are you all about practical expansion? Or maybe you’re all about saving the world – or you get off on intellectual challenges – or wielding influence is more your thing. Recognizing your patterns and motivations can help you to stop apologizing for (or stalling on) pursuing the objectives that are important to you (vs. objectives important to some theoretical business from a business school textbook). Likewise if you’ve been denying or afraid of your own patterns then you may have been quietly finding ways to sabotage your own progress. The recognition gives you the ability to call yourself out on the carpet and determine which goals you are actually committed to.

Expectation Setting Time

All of the C’s above feed and feed off of each other. A single session gives you progress toward all of the above, by giving you vocabulary, and inspiration, and frames of approaching so that you can build the business that’s in your heart, which might not necessarily be the one that’s in someone else’s head.

We can’t create a full strategic positioning for you in just one hour, you’re too complicated and awesome for that, but sometimes one session is all someone needs to kickstart themselves to go and run and do and build.

With a modest amount of preparation we can have a very productive dialog that will give you some valuable insight into how you are presenting yourself and your business. Yes that does mean gathering and sharing some notes with me before the call, but this way we’ll both be ready to dive right in and have a fun and valuable session. At the end of the call we’ll wrap up with some action ideas that I’ll send to you in a follow-up email.

Prep Time

The good news is since you are coming here from The World’s Biggest Summit you’ve probably already thought about and may have even written down some notes on the questions I’d like to ask you before the call. That’s right, I’m interested in your responses to the Beacon Principle questions given during the lesson. There is a form to fill out online: it has a couple of administrative questions and then a set of questions from the session – I call it the DCF form for Difference, Context, Focus.

Remember: This isn’t a test (whew) – this is about helping me understand a little about who you are and where you are now so together we can help you get to where you want to be. I don’t need essays just a few notes – the purpose is just to help add focus to the call.

“In a short period of time David has helped me make some deep inroads into developing my personal brand. He has a way of helping you see yourself through a different, and powerful lens. Thanks David!”

~Cherith Harrison, CEO at Brookside Consultants

Break it Down

Okay, so as mentioned above, you’re going to answer some questions before the call. I’m going to read the answers and scribble on them a bit, also before the call. Next, we do the call. We’ll talk for most of the hour about the relationship of you and your business and wrap up at the end by defining some action items for you to explore. I’ll follow up via email with some discussion notes and a recap of the action items. You also get a recording of our conversation in mp3 format so you can review it as often as you like. In between there is a high likelihood of laughs, sighs and a few “a-ha” moments.

The fee is normally $250, but attendees of the World’s Biggest Summit get a special discount if (and only if) they use the event code GODDESSSUMMIT: Use the code and get 30% off! That’s the Brand Story Consultation session for just $175.

Because of the unusual nature of this offer it is only valid if purchased by December 31st, 2011.

“Bloody hell David! How do you keep asking stuff that makes me want to twirl, squeal with delight, throw-up and faint at the same time?!?!”

~Rebecca Leigh, Owner, Smartfresh Writing

How do I get started?

If you’re ready to schedule your Brand Story Consultation be sure to enter the Event Code GODDESSSUMMIT in the field below then click “Buy Now” – you’ll be taken to PayPal where you can complete your transaction. I’m afraid I can only give the 30% discount to those who put in the correct code as $175 represents a substantial savings from the normal $250 fee. When you’re done PayPal will return you to the Difference, Context, Focus questionnaire. Once I receive the submitted form and payment you will be contacted via email to schedule your call.

I’m ready – Sign Me Up!

Event Code:

Don’t delay, this offer is only valid until December 31st, 2011!

“Doing a session with David was gentle and curious and oh-so-enlightening.

It wasn’t until it was over that I realized he wasn’t telling me what I *should* do or what *he* thought I needed to do: he was very purposefully guiding me to my own true expression of what I’m doing in the world.

Getting off the phone, I was all abuzz. I knew how to share my mission. I could see clearly what needed shifting in my current business.

It’s like my lantern had a film on it and through gentle inquiry, David helped me clean it off. When we were done, my light was shining, my mission was glowing and I was ready to share it.”

~Tara Swiger, Writer and Teacher, TaraSwiger.com