Your Actions Define Your Personal Brand

Your Actions Define Your Personal Brand

The 1st Engineer Battalion
Unit Insignia

When I read the article, "The Brand Artists," in the April 2014 issue of Inc. Magazine by Tom Foster it reminded me that branding is a universal concept. It applies to products, businesses, events, etc. Mostly, it applies to people because it takes people to build businesses, to make products, to plan events. The article focused on communicating that branding is no longer about what we say, it's about how what we say and what we do align with each other. A quote jumped out at me which evoked memories of the mottoes of some of the military units I'd served in, or alongside and how they helped the people who belonged to them develop their own brands.

The 91st Engineer Battalion
Unit Insignia

When I was a Combat Engineer Officer in the U.S. Army, I served with the 1st Engineer Battalion. Our motto was, "Always First!" These words helped convey our "brand" as a military unit, that's for sure. However, what was more compelling was the fact that we could also say that the 1st Engineer Battalion was the oldest, most decorated engineer battalion in the United States Army. The unit's long list of decorations awarded throughout 165 years of history reflected the bold actions the battalion had taken in the past and they created a legacy for every Sapper who served in it to fulfill. The motto compelled us to be better. We wanted to be better for each other so that, together, we could do great things when we were called to do so.

There was another motto which had made an impression on me even though I never served in the unit. The 91st Engineer Battalion must have liked their motto so much that they put it on their unit insignia, "Acts Not Words!" Their branding message, I think, said it all.  

Ranger tab- A symbol of bold leadership!
Motto: "Rangers Lead the Way!"

I didn't serve in a Ranger battalion, but I did earn the right to wear the Ranger tab, which means I graduated from the U.S. Army Ranger School at Ft. Benning, GA. The motto of the Rangers is, "Rangers Lead the Way!" What I learned from the experience is: Bold thinking leads to bold action! Bold action comes from conviction! Conviction comes from thinking about what you believe in. Find conviction and you can do things you never thought possible. You can "lead the way!" 

The point is, all three mottos create a compelling message, a compelling brand. They have the potential to inspire! The reason? Because each needs to be proven in order to have any meaning. The legacy needs to be fulfilled and perpetuated through actions in order to continue to be true. The people who wear these insignia must take action to define the brand in the way they want it to be perceived! They must think! They must find conviction! They must take action to accomplish their mission, regardless of the situation!

When Acts Personify Words There is Meaning. 

The quote Foster provided in his article was provided by Kelly O'Keefe, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's Brandcenter advertising school, who was illustrating how American Express's message about wanting to help small businesses didn't have any meaning until they launched Small Business Saturday, an annual national campaign intended to drive business to small businesses. As O'Keefe put it, "That's a physical manifestation of corporate behavior. It's not a message, it's an action- and that action shows intent."

Here's The Logic: 

Intent = Purpose.  
Purpose is created by values. 
Actions show Intent.
Therefore: 
Actions show your Values to the people in your World!

Three critical questions:

What Values are you branding yourself with to the people in your World through your Actions?

What Values do you WANT to brand yourself with?

What Actions will close the gap between those two answers?
The difference between the first two questions creates your To-Do List for Continuous Improvement.

Do You Know What to Do?

Isn't it about time to resume your journey on the path to:

• The life you dreamed of when you were a kid! CLICK HERE
• The kind of leader you envisioned you'd be when you got "there"! CLICK HERE

There is no cost. Everything you'll get by clicking on those links is free. I do ask you to make the investment of time and effort necessary to:

• Live the life you truly want!
• Create the culture you envision your organization can become!

If you want easy, look somewhere else. I cannot help you.

BOOM!

Tom Eakin

Success Engineer, BoomLife

Sign-Up for BoomLife's Newsletter to stay informed of updates, events and news about GPS Theory!

Looking for the Right Self Improvement Opportunities?

Try our GPS Theory App at www.goboomlife.com

Need an Inspirational Speaker for Your Next Event? 

Tom Eakin's presentation of "What Do You Want?" is designed to challenge the way you define success and inspire you to engineer your own personal, professional or organizational path to success. 

email us at tom@goboomlife.com

GET WHAT YOU WANT! 

Getting what you want and being the person you want to be can seem complicated and confusing! Together, we'll define what you want, what it takes to get it and help you realize the kind of success you never been able to achieve before! Sign up for personal one-on-one coaching. You can sign up for a program or a single-session. It's up to you!:

• 90-Day Success Engineering Program
• Personal Success Engineering Session

Can You Fathom Your Thoughts Into One Meaningful System?

Can You Fathom Your Thoughts Into One Meaningful System?

The other day, I was talking with my two youngest children. We were just finishing up a bible study and I was talking with them about understanding how to relate what they truly value, what God wants us to value, with what we want to do. My point was to illustrate how confusing life can be when we don't make a habit of always trying to understand the connection between what we decide to do in any given situation with the very simple but powerful concepts that represent the kinds of "goodness" we all say we value.

My daughter looked at me and said, "My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations." 

"It was in the book I just read, 'The Fault in Our Stars," by John Green."

"Do you understand what it means?"

"Hmmm, kind of," she shrugged. 

"Well, there must be a reason why you said it just now."

"Well, it kind of made sense with what you were talking about."  

WOW! I can't tell you how amazed I was at that point in time by the insight my 12-year old daughter had just shared with me. 

Source: http://the-fault-in-our-stars-quotes.tumblr.com/post/58670292552/christy1521-my-thoughts-are-stars-i-cant#notes

That quote represents, I believe, a fundamental cause of our human weaknesses. We all know what "good" means and we know what is "good." We just don't take the time to always understand how the people and things we interact with in this world can make it very difficult to see the connection between a decision we need to make at any given point in time and what is truly "good". 

A constellation is a series of connections, a network, a system of otherwise disconnected bodies which someone, at some point in time, connected in a way that created meaning for them. 

What I want to help my children with more than anything, is to recognize their values as stars; bright shining beacons of "goodness" which, when they connect them together and link them to the decisions they make and the actions they take, create a system of "goodness". The key is to always focus on the "stars" in our lives, constantly consider them and pay attention to the choices ahead of us.

We all have the ability to make the connections. To see the linkages in our lives between what we're meant to be doing, living by our core values, and the choices we are forced to make. It's not always easy. The world we live in makes it very confusing. That's why I put so much focus on core values. When we allow them to be the primary drivers of our decisions we dramatically increase our chances to make "good" decisions. We do things that make us feel satisfied with ourselves. We give ourselves the opportunity to be truly happy.

Thank you, Madeleine! You helped your Dad and it was "good"!

ORDER FINDING SUCCESS NOW
to learn how to create a system that
turns your values and dreams into
values-driven success!