Wouldn’t you love to be able to set yourself apart from the other consultants in your company so that you can attract your ideal customer?

​Well, you can, but it involves creating your own brand, rather than promoting your company's brand. 

I know that sounds scary, but it's actually pretty simple. 

Here are the steps:

I'll go into more detail in the future for how you can build your own personal brand, but first, you need to come up with a name...

We get paralyzed at the thought, and fret over whether this name or that name is better. 

This post should help you answer that question once and for all!

So...how do you do it?

Well, I got a question the other day from a team member about branding herself. ​

This team member was wanting to know if she should use a defining characteristic about herself in her actual business name. Because she says that’s her identity. That’s who she is. She wanted to use that characteristic as her business name.

You may be recovering from a personal or life tragedy that has defined you and become who you are. Such as a terminal illness, or a death in the family.

Or you or one of your children may be dealing with a physical or emotional challenge that you work through and that’s your daily life. Such as Cancer, Lyme disease, Diabetes, etc.

Talk about it? Absolutely yes! Include it in the content you share.

But that is not something you want in your business name.

What should you use? 

Check out my video below to find out!

Or, if you'd rather read, just keep reading...

One team member has their family name as their business brand name...

But she has many customers and team members who find her through the things she writes about; about her life, the challenges, and overcoming them.

She has very like-minded similar people coming to her, finding her through what she’s writing.

Much better way to do it!

I’m going to use another example. Let’s say Long John Silver decided to join a network marketing company selling fitness supplements that will pump you up.

He’s really excited about this new business, but he’s trying to decide what to name his business.

So he thinks,  “I’m gonna go with either Pirate Entrepreneur,  Pirate Businessman or the Pirate Business Dude.”

So all of those names kind of describe and define who is. He is a pirate and a business guy. And we already established that you shouldn’t do that.

There might be people who would buy from him, but they don’t know what he’s about.

Other pirates might be interested in him and he does want to attract other pirates; but because he’s just defining himself by who he is in his business he is inadvertently excluding all the non-pirates out there. The may not pay attention to him.

They just brush past and don’t give him a second look or at the products he is selling.

You never want to exclude anybody by your business name.

A better choice for Long John Silver would be to use his name, as we have already established. He could just use Long John Silver or John Silver.

And then in his posts on Facebook or on his blog he would talk about who he is in his life; and pirating would naturally come up because it is part of his life.

It’s who he is.

You do want your potential customers to get to know, like, and trust you.  

Though I don’t know how much you can trust a pirate.

His audience would see how unique he is and what sets him apart through his posts. And he is naturally going to attract those type of followers who are interested in what he has to offer.

Not only is he going to attract pirates, but other people who are interested in his product.

He’s not excluding anybody.  

Another great choice besides just Long John Silver’s name could be adding a benefit that his product offers to the potential customers.

Now it’s not all about him, but it’s about THEM.  

What they’ll get out of it. Why do they want to follow him. Then maybe a better name would be Get Pumped With John or Get Pumped up with John Silver. Or Buff Bods With John Silver, you get the idea.

So now these potential customers will think “Hey, yeah I want to get pumped up. I want a buff bod! Ok, I’ll follow this guy. I’ll listen to him a little bit more and see what he has to say and what he has to sell.”

But if it’s just John Silver Business Guy, people don’t know why they want to follow him. Unless they’re interested in business, but then that’s not what he’s really about.

What if someone else is using that name?

That’s OK. There are a limited amount of benefits and adjectives in your company. There are only so many you can use. But what sets you apart is using your name with either the benefit or adjective.

So don’t worry if someone else has a similar benefit or adjective in their name as well.

Don’t define your business with either a personal challenge or defining characteristic. Instead use the name or benefit.

THEN talk about on your blog or posts on Facebook (Or whatever social media you use) about your personal experiences and challenges.

It works!! People are successfully doing it!

Don’t limit yourself and don’t inadvertently turn anybody away. Be yourself through your name or how you can hep your potential customer.