Is It Time to Redo Your Brand (Transcription)
[audio:https://www.thementalhealthgym.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Is-It-Time-To-Redo-Your-Brand.mp3|titles=Is It Time To Redo Your Brand?|artists=Dr. Ron Kaiser]
Hi everybody, this is Dr. Ron Kaiser with September 2013 podcast with The Mental Health Gym. In most places where you are hearing this podcast it is the change of season in one direction or the other. It’s really a glorious day in Philadelphia and I hope that wherever you are you are enjoying pleasant change of seasons. Now let’s get to work with the podcast. Today’s, actually this month’s podcast, is entitled, Is It Time to Redo Your Brand. Kind of a curious title but let me explain.
In the business world there has long been a lot of attention given to the type of brand that a company that produces a product really presents. So that you know for example that if you are going into a McDonalds, you are going to have a different experience that you might get if you are going in an olive garden or if you were in Napa valley area and went to the French laundry for dinner. These are all different kinds of experiences and you know in most cases from the name what kind of experience it would be because the various restaurants or restaurant chains have gone into quite a bit of promotion of their specific brand. The same holds true for almost any product or for almost any type of service. So that you know for example if you had to engage a lawyer you want a firm that is dealing with your specific problem whether it be retirement planning, personal injury or business law, things of that nature. Now one of the things that I have been thinking about lately I just that as the business have a brand, individuals really also have a brand. Mainly the way you are perceived by others and just like businesses we have built this brand through our actions overtime. In some cases it’s been a conscious effort to protect ourselves in a particular way, in other cases it has just kind of happened.
But I think it would be worth taking few minutes of your time and just examining what your brand is. Do people perceive you as that helpful person or that bright person or that highly sociable person or that energetic person who can be called upon to help in almost any endeavor? On the other hand are you perceived as being that particularly unhelpful person, the sarcastic one, the one who really feels uncomfortable in the presences of others, the kind of person who tends to give up easily and so on? We each have established a brand and I think it is a mistake to not acknowledge that these things do occur. In other words it is not necessarily a phony kind of thing to do, you know, you incorporate all your experiences, your personality variables and the things that you have tried to develop and change over time and that is how you project yourself to the outside world.
In some cases people actually do develop a phony brand bit I’m thinking more about just the genuine you, how do other perceive you. Now if you examine yourself you probably find that you are generally pleased with your brand or there are areas to improve upon, hopefully it doesn’t require whole sale improvement but you know for some people that may be the case, you may find that hey I have allowed the course of events to determine how I have evolved and how I preset myself to others and I’m really a nicer guy than that, I’m really more willing to be involved than that, am really capable of being more active than that, I really want to be able to project myself as being in better physical shape than that.
You know if you look at yourself you can probably find areas of improvement again hopefully not wholesale ones but almost everybody can improve and I wonder if as we go through the change of season and renewal whether it might not be a good assignment to give yourself to ask, you know, is it time to redo my brand. Are there things that I can consciously do to be able to let others know who the real me is? You know, can I be a little more assertive? Can I volunteer more? Can I be more helpful to other? Can I do something about my physical fitness and appearance so others don’t perceive me as a slob? Can I be more intellectually active, can I prepare myself for the next phase of my life so that I will not be able to be surprised by the fact that I might be offered a promotion or that there may be a time when I’m going to have to look towards retiring or things of this nature? And how am I going to be prepared for it? You know some of us pay more attention to the brand of our car and we have a pretty good sense of how that is presented to the outside world as well as when it is time to renovate it in some way or whether it is time to change brands.
I think the same applies to human beings. As uncomfortable as it may be to think of ourselves as a brand, it really exists. Let’s take this time, examine our brand and look at ways to redo it if it needs redoing. And if it doesn’t need redoing let’s take pride in it and make sure that others are aware of our brand and the we are maximizing our involvement with those who we want to be involved with and that we are contributing to the world in a way that we want.
Just some thoughts that are occurring to me at this time of seasonal change and keep in mind if you need help in redoing your brand some of that help may be available through reading materials that may be available on the web either at our website The Mental Health Gym or other places and in some cases may be appropriate to seek individual guidance to help in redoing the brand. Hope that gives you some food for thought. This has been Dr. Ron Kaiser with the September 2013 audio podcast from the mental health gym. Look forward to speaking with you again next month, please visit the website frequently and I hope you are on the mailing list to get our monthly newsletters. Always glad to hear from you and let’s have a real good month of September.