Adrian’s Defining Day
It happens in a blinding flash.
That one profoundly, emotionally charged moment when the trajectory of your entire life, career (or both) is forever altered.
That singular moment in time becomes a defining day as the long arm of destiny taps you gently or forcefully on the shoulder. It’s how the universe informs you it has a new plan or a new direction in mind. The moment could be a cataclysmic, earth-shattering event or a seemingly casual encounter or comment. It delivers the bullseye of providence to your heart and soul.
Why you ask, does this level of introspection matter? Why is this insight about a defining day relevant to my business and career?
All good questions to ask.
Especially, if you are sincerely curious about building an instantly recognizable, highly differentiated brand identity, your defining day and how you responded to those events is like studying your true-life character under an X-ray machine.
Your true self and character are a composite of your real-life values. Coincidentally, brands personify and express values as well. You don’t need to be a fully-certified Freudian or Jungian psychoanalyst to figure this out. You merely require a healthy level of curiosity and common sense.
We only resonate with brands when they remind us of who we are. Then we buy the t-shirt, take the selfie and tell our friends. As described in Big Little Legends, NIKE, 7 Virtues Perfume, the City of Moose Jaw, SK, and the Savannah Bananas are just several examples of well-built brands that reflect deeply-rooted values.
Toughness, strength, and confidence are values Hollywood brought to the silver screen through characters like John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Based in Mechanicsburg, PA, West Shore Home reflects similar values on its purpose-driven mission to become “America’s Most Admired Home Improvement Company”.
Stubbornness, resilience, and resourcefulness are values that are embedded in a Texas-based fluid-power and hydraulics company. It helps explain the never-quit brand character that personifies Controlled Fluids Inc. Some of which you can point to a specific moment that everything changed.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a well-crafted video is worth more than a million when you see and feel how bedrock values are expressed through a story. When Adrian first shared the story of his defining day in one of our executive boot camps, the goosebumps felt around the room clearly signaled that this singular moment was worth exploring and bringing to life.
Like Adrian Patton and his colleagues at CFI, any company, community, or individual can create a powerful brand identity once a decision is made to drill deeper into our own DNA. Clear identification of those shared values helps shape and inspire a 2-6 word brand narrative, in this case, “For Those Who Don’t Back Down”. For CFI, this 6-word phrase becomes the metaphorical equivalent to NIKE’s 3-word expression “Just Do It” or a 4-word anti-littering gem from the Lone Star State, “Don’t Mess With Texas”. From a strategy perspective, that narrative becomes the anchor for a brand story that never ends.
Building a brand is simple. While not easy, the payoff can be enormous. The best brands in the world know that when you drive in your own lane there is no traffic. The first step is to be curious enough to discover the core values that already rest deep inside your soul and communicate that through a story that mirrors deep-seated convictions that other people also share. When people see parts of themselves in your story, brand magic happens. You become the highly referred and recommended provider. You emerge as the #1 and clearly obvious choice in your product-service category. Complete strangers will hear about you, start spreading the good word and if you are Jesse Cole, you get picked up by ESPN.
Bolstered by a positive, public reputation, profit and prosperity start showing up at your door as your customers, employees, and community take great pride and delight in sharing your brand story to the world.
Once you do what Adrian has done and give them a reason why.
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become” CARL JUNG
p.s…. This post is a sequel to what was published earlier this month and should you still wish to submit an essay of 500 to 1000 words about your “Defining Day”, we would gratefully accept and review your completed work. My direct e-mail is gair@gairmaxwell.com. If you actually dig in and do this one exercise, an insistent, whispering voice informs me something magical may happen.
p.p.s… One of the toughest questions for any business leader to answer is “Who Are We … Beyond Our Products and Services?”. It’s a question that speaks to identity, purpose and mission. For several years now, West Shore Home has zeroed in on this answer and finely-tuned their shared values.
BIG LITTLE LEGENDS.
Released in November of 2021 through Vancouver-based Page Two Publishing, the book with the magical cover is now available through AUDIBLE and Wal-Mart. Appreciate the groundswell of support that continues to flow in from Real Readers just like the Calgary-based, husband-and-wife team of Michael and Paulette Curtis.
“Heroes get remembered. Legends never die” BABE RUTH.
YOUR BRAND. ON TRACK.
If now is the opportune time to discover the brand story and strategy uniquely your own, consider exploring a metaphorical road trip called THE BRANDING HIGHWAY. Our Executive Bootcamps serve as a journey and destination to help your brand emerge as an undeniable, undisputed, "Category of One.” Along the way, you will discover how to create substantial Differentiation and strategic Relevance for your brand while aligning your executive team. Impossible to describe, it helps to take a quick peek at this Video Overview:
“The most important victory is the one which has to arrive” ENZO FERRARI
PLANNING A SPEAKING EVENT?
The wheels of business turn faster each quarter, and your company or industry association may be anxious to stay ahead of the lighting-fast relevance curve. In that respect, we are scheduling many in-person and virtual programs for 2022 with customized content designed to inspire conference attendees to acquire a “STADIUM-SIZED PERSPECTIVE.”
For more information on scheduling an In-Person or Virtual Speaking Program, please send us a note here: bookings@gairmaxwell.com.
Every week, someone asks a question about our videos and our media partner responsible for the storyboarding, production, and editing. Headquartered in the shadows of the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario, Defiant Astronaut Media is uniquely positioned to help business leaders rethink what's possible with this art form. How you can Sell a Purpose. Not a Product.
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“I hit it again because that shot was a defining moment, and when a defining moment comes along, you define the moment... or the moment defines you” ROY McAVOY