Have a Strong Brand?

I have good new and bad news for you.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

The good news. Strong brands are cool. People understand what you do, sell, and stand for. Your brand works in your favor.

The bad news. If you need to change your brand, you will have a bit of a job ahead of you. For a period of time, people will still understand what you did, did sell, and did stand for.

Old habits die hard. So do strong brands.

I’ve noticed this because I’m in the midst of changing my brand. For over a decade I’ve been known as a entrepreneur coach. Rightfully so, because - well - that is in fact what I did for those years. It worked to be known for that brand and its offshoot - my focus on helping young entrepreneurs.

But as I change what I do, I find that the old brand is sticky. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me. In my twenties I sold and did tech support for computers. When I switched fields, it took nearly a decade for friends to stop asking me for computer help.

A startup that is pivoting has it easy. They haven’t had time to develop a really strong brand and following. I’m changing a brand that has grown over 20 years. Ope.

My current focus is on invention. The 5 second elevator pitch is simple and clear. “I help companies invent breakthrough next generation products.” I think it will be a while before it is sticky, though, for four reasons.

Brand identity has little to do - at first, that is - with expertise.

Like entrepreneur coaching, I know this field. I worked in invention for 6 years before becoming an entrepreneur coach. But my market doesn’t know that. The business community knows me for what I built over the past two decades. The market recognizes achievement, not just branding - they work together.

What I am doing now is being introduced slowly bit by bit, person by person, and message by message. It needs time to grow and sink in. The rule of 7 in marketing says that, on average, your message needs to be heard 7 times before it actually sticks. Plus, I’m pretty sure that actual achievement in the new brand’s field must be a part of those 7. Words alone aren’t enough.

My market is shifting.

I won’t be working with the same clientele. My market has shifted from early stage founders to existing companies who need help creating next generation products. For two decades, I didn’t talk with them because my focus was startups. Ope. Hi, new audience, I’m Steve.

I’m sort of my own worst enemy.

I didn’t stop loving the startup community or the youth entrepreneurship community. Last Friday I spent the day in Indianapolis at the STARTedUP Foundation Student Venture Challenge. I had a great day watching some wonderful high school students pitch their startups. I smiled when one from my region won the People’s Choice Award. Over lunch break, I talked with two exceptional now-in-college STARTedUP alumni who I’ve known for years about what they were doing now.

I’m not going to give that up. I love it. I’ll be going into some classrooms next year if I am asked. Yeah, people know that.

So, just as I take steps to build a new brand, I find it personally difficult to loosen my grip on the old brand. I love both startups and invention. I’ve never been the guy who can do just one thing, put my head down, and focus only on a singular goal. Boring!

I’ll probably have a side gig coaching entrepreneurs.

Right now I call chatting with entrepreneurs - in classrooms or coffee shops - the pro bono side of what I do. But I can see myself having a part time for-hire side gig coaching entrepreneurs.

I can see this coming. It’s actually not silly to have a side gig as I bootstrap my invention business. Most likely it will happen, and people will get to say, “See, told you he’s still an entrepreneur coach.” Hmmm.

TL;DR Recap

Changing a strong, sticky brand identity takes time and effort. Both for the market to see you differently and also for you (or me, in my case) to see yourself differently.

I’ll let you know how it works out!