Authenticity: Keeping Your Brand Real

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(Santa Fe, NM) - “Be authentic.” Easier said than done! How do we go about defining authenticity not only for ourselves, but for our businesses? “You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with,” is a quote attached to motivational speaker Jim Rohn. Author David Burkus expands on this thesis in a 2018 Mission.org piece: “Your friends really are your future. And the implication is that you don’t just need to be more deliberate about who you’re spending the most time with. You (should be) examining your entire network and its influence on your life; you need to know where you sit ***inside*** the larger network of your social community.”

Attaching the “your network is your net worth” nugget (thank you, Porter Gale), it’s obvious that it’s entirely up to us, the individual (including those behind brands), to “be deliberate” in our effort to build authentic relationships with trusted partners, aligned with our own personal and/or professional values.

Consistently checking in on these relationships allows us to see if “we’re friends for a time” or if respective parties are truly interested in mutual success - no one has time for lip service, whether that’s by DM, email or face to face. Taking responsibility, our honest assessment and acceptance of where we “sit” in our network of social, virtual and real-life connections creates a healthier environment for decision making, which helps us all progress to being better - and more authentic - people, founders, C-Suite leaders, and brands.

BSPOKE’s Breakout Brand Identity Training, a 3-Hour Work Session, delivers the following:

  • Exploration of established mission, vision and brand values to establish or re-energize unique brand proposition and a tailored path to breakout brand strategy

  • Determination of your brand’s most compelling stories

  • Differentiation within your business sector and beyond.

Review and purchase BSPOKE’s Breakout Brand Identity Training here, with mini-case studies featuring The Santa Fe Opera and The British American Business Council of Northern California. JM

Design credit: Margaret R. Thompson