Title: Market Your Talents NOT Yourself

Recorded: 12/31/02

Dave: Let's get started. I think several more people were intending to be here today but who knows. They might not have realized that this was the place to be on New Year's Eve.

 

 I welcome all of you. We have a nice small group so we can get into this conversation. I want to let you know the call is being recorded and this is a Buck Branding Teleparty call, called "Market your talents, not yourself". This is an amazing idea that I've been working on for just a little while. It's a pretty new one. Where this came from in the past was, I used to do a class called, "Market your talents shamelessly", and it was a part of the attraction program that Thomas Leonard created with a bunch of coaches, maybe 3 or 4 years ago. I was leading a lot of those programs and my favorite one to lead, which I led many, many times for hundreds, maybe even thousands of people was, "Market your talents shamelessly". I learned a lot about talents in my process of leading those conversations.

 

  Everyone Under-values his/her talents

The one thing I found out for sure, without fail, everyone that I talked to was underestimating and undervaluing their talents. That is just a universal thing. There's a lot of possible reasons for that. The reasons may not be that important but we'll talk about them a little bit anyway just to see if they lead to any insights.

 

Talking about what you do is hard because your head is full of "stuff"

The idea of this program is that most people in personal service businesses like coaching, training, speaking, massage therapy, accounting, lawyering, all those kinds of personal services, when they try to talk about what they do, it's amazingly difficult. I think it's surprisingly difficult and it takes us by surprise because we think that since we are the business, that we should be able to easily and naturally be able to talk about who we are and what we do. The reason it's become so challenging is because when you try to talk about what you do, you've got a lot of stuff in there. There's a lot of stuff in there and to sort it all out and figure out how to describe it is amazingly difficult. You've got a lifetime of experiences. You've got so many skills. You've got all kinds of natural talents and gifts.

 

The important thing is:
how your talents are valuable to another person

So, what we're going to do in this conversation is go through a bit of a process where we look at your talents and your skills and your experiences and we're going to pinpoint and highlight a few of them. And then, we're going to specifically work together, and I think this is the key part of the process, we're going to work together in talking about how does that experience or that skill or that talent, how would that be of value to another person. Not how would it be valuable to you, that's not really that important. It's how would it be valuable to another person. And that process is almost impossible to do by yourself because you don't know how it would be valuable to another person, because you're not another person, unless you have some kind of an existential gift where you can be two people at once. We're going to use conversation and being together with each other and we'll have a few different people share some different ideas from their experiences and skills and natural strengths and these different areas of talent. And then, we'll have the other people in the group share from their perspective how they might get value from working with someone who had that talent or skill or knowledge or whatever it might be. So, this is a step by step process.

 

 

"Share yourself with generosity to an eagerly waiting world"

The first thing, I want to share with you the mantra. There's a little mantra for this program. I just came up with it the other day. It's something like "Share yourself with generosity to an eagerly waiting world". That's the mantra. That's my personal mantra for the upcoming year is to share myself with generosity to an eagerly waiting world. And there's several different elements of that but the first part about sharing myself with generosity is, like all of me and not holding any of me back, especially the stuff that I wonder about and I'm not so sure how might this be valuable. It's to share myself more fully in all the work that I'm doing, in coaching, in speaking, designing programs and just really sharing myself fully and generously. That's really the key. The operating word is generously. Then, the other part is, to an eagerly waiting world. And that's a bold way of looking at life but I think it's a very powerful one. Most of the times, we've been brought up, or somehow we got the idea that we should hold ourselves back, not try to stand out, not try to be too special and mostly other people don't care. I think the world is shifting and I'm aiming to help make that shift happen where more and more of us are really wanting to experience all of what we are around and that we go to see talk or that we work with in any way. We want all of them. We want more of them. We're able. We're willing to be around people more fully, both sharing ourselves more fully and to accept more of them and even the things that might seem bizarre or strange. We want it all. To kind of shift the whole idea of moving from holding ourselves back to sharing ourselves generously and actually assuming that others want that from us, an eagerly awaiting world. So, I went off on a little bit of a tangent there but that's the mantra for this program and all of the programs that I do around branding. I just want to get us in the right frame of mind to talk about this.

 

 What is the distinction between marketing yourself and marketing your talents?

Now, the next thing is, let's look at a couple of distinctions before we get into the process. The first distinction is, what's the distinction between marketing yourself and marketing your talents? Anyone have a thought on that?

Rosemary: I think it's almost like the difference between hardware and software. When you talk about your talents, it's more like hardware. For example, I'm a very, very good writer. That's different than marketing my personality which is more this chemistry of if it works and if it's a fit, for example in a coaching relationship. I could, perhaps, help somebody improve their writing, but if the software, the chemistry, wasn't right, it's not going to be probably a good situation.

Dave: Interesting. I think you're right.

Rosemary: I can probably help anybody with their writing. I don't know if that makes sense.

Dave: It's interesting because in any personal service when you're marketing it, there is something about the personal connection between you and the client and I think in some ways, that's where marketing yourself comes into play. There are definitely situations where people will hire you because of who you are. That definitely exists. So, that's kind of the marketing yourself where people hire you for who you are. They want to be around you because of who you are. Then, I think, on the other side, marketing your talents, is more on the idea of what can you do, what capabilities do you have, what insights do you have. And we'll talk about this whole idea of talent.

 

 So, I think talents are easier to translate into value because you can say, "Oh. You're good at writing. Well then, that's good for me because I need someone to help me write some thing" or "I need someone to help me become a writer." So, your talent has a specific application to something that I want to accomplish.

Rosemary: So basically marketing your talents is more like marketing your…versus marketing yourself which is more like marketing your blue sky.

Dave: I think that's a very interesting analogy. What did you say the first part was? That talents were what?

Rosemary: I left it blank because I was trying to think of an example. But, like we have a water tank business that we're trying to sell and the business, the tanks and the profitability is the talent and the blue sky is ourselves. So, in a coaching situation, for example, your skills as a coach are your talents or what you have to offer are your talents, whereas the relationship with you is your blue sky.

Dave: Yeah, it's like the intangible part.

Rosemary: Yeah. The chemistry.

Dave: Right. So, the marketing yourself is an intangible part and the marketing your talents is the tangible part.

Rosemary: Yes.

Dave: Now, here's the point. Both matter. It's not that you want to only have one or the other. You have both and both are important. But from a perspective of marketing and having a person who's a stranger to you see you as a resource or as an asset in some way, the tangible stuff is a lot easier to market.

Elizabeth: The tangible stuff, I think, is more readily visible or more spoken to, more readily observed perhaps by the person who does not know you. It's like something for them to sink their teeth in or wrap their mind around, if you will. And then they start looking at, "OK. Well, you have these talents and so do A, B, C, D people and if I'm going to spend money and hang out, then what are the additional characteristics or traits that I'm willing to pay for?"

Dave: That's a great point.

Elizabeth: Does that make sense?

  Marketing is making connections with strangers.

Dave: Yeah. And remember, an important distinction here is the whole distinction of what is marketing. Marketing is making connections with strangers. That's what marketing is. It's for someone who's never heard of you before. They hear of you. They read an article. They see you speak. They hear you on the radio. They somehow happen upon your website. There's all sorts of ways. They see an advertisement. There's so many different ways of marketing, of getting yourself into the public but the point is, that their first connection with you, you're a stranger to them. And that's what marketing is. Marketing is introducing yourself, hopefully to lots of people who are strangers.

 

 So, when people first meet a stranger, the tangible stuff, the logical stuff, is much easier like Elizabeth said, to get your arms around, to say, "Oh, I might want that. That sounds like something I might need or something that I want to do right now." Then, once they get passed that "Oh, I might want what you've got.", the marketing part is over. Now, you're into selling.

 

 Selling is when the person contacts you and says, "Hey, I saw you speak.", "Hey, I read your article.", "Hey, I saw your website. I'd like to talk with you about what you're doing. Maybe I would like to hire you for whatever it is you do." That's the selling part. Now, when you get to selling, it's more of a combination of your talents and yourself. People are going to buy you in terms of who you are. They're also going to buy your talents in terms of what you can do and how you can help. So, the whole part about yourself comes into play in the selling process. But, at the marketing level, it's going to be way more about your talents and the logical connection between what you can do and the value that you have to offer, and what this stranger wants and needs in their life right now.

Participant: I hire a virtual assistant. I don't hire Susie who's a virtual assistant. I'm looking for a virtual assistant. I'm not looking for Susie, a virtual assistant.

Dave: Yes. The first part, when you're the stranger, you're just looking for a particular solution to your problem. Virtual assistant is an idea you heard of. Then, once you go through the marketing process and you say, "Well, what are the virtual assistants out there. Let me try to track a few of them down." Once you call them, whatever their marketing, whatever they did to get their name out into the world so that you could find them, that's all about their talents and what they have to offer. Then, once you call them, that's selling and then it becomes more of a combination of the personality and the talent.

Bob: I think the self part is where you bring both your strengths and vulnerabilities to the table also and let them show through. So, once you've done the talent portion of marketing, then they get to feel, as the example, Susie, the V.A. versus the V.A. Susie.

Dave: Yes. Good.

Bob: And they can feel that, and as you said, then that would meet or not meet their needs.

Dave: Yeah. Very good. So, the important point here is that yourself, and I think we could define that as, Bob started with your strengths or one part of that, your personality, your life, the way you live your life, all that is kind of a part of yourself. Then, that comes into play when you're getting ready to close the deal.

 

 So, the first thing, that distinction between marketing yourself and marketing your talents, was that useful and if so how?

Rosemary: I think the analogy with the Susie, made it clear for me.

Dave: Yeah. Very good. That was good.

Participant: What's useful is recognizing what you need to do in relationship to strangers versus what you need to do in relationship to individuals. That's much clearer to me.

Dave: Excellent. That's a good point.

Rosemary: One of the things that triggered for me and something that I absolutely love about what Coachville does, and that is the deliverables of coaching. And the deliverables are like the talents and it makes, to me, that whole concept of the deliverables has made it much easier for me to describe coaching because when I think about real specific things.

Dave: Yeah. We'll talk about the deliverables, not specifically in those terms but when we talk about translating your talents into value, the value that you offer would be what you deliver.

Rosemary: Yeah. And that's what I mean. I don't think the way the coaching deliverables are written right now quite gives everybody the right direction.

Dave: It's in the right direction for sure.

Rosemary: Yeah.

Bob: I think it makes it very clear in the approach because you wouldn't come across as some down home boy or whatever it might be to strangers. You've got to have your skills there first, your talents.

Dave: Yes.

Bob: And if you try to do it the other way, you're going to lose.

Dave: Yeah. At a marketing level, when the stranger is first looking for a solution, they're going to look for who's got a solution.

Elizabeth: You know, there's an incredible example that you are, in fact, I think, looking for solutions. And I've got a great example of this. Somebody may have all the talents and gifts in the world and if they can't put them actually into action though and/or come up with them, and if that's really what you're looking for, and they're a bozo to boot, you're not going to go there.

Dave: Right.

Elizabeth: I've got a great example I can give later but let's go on.

Dave: OK. Thank you. Cool.

 

  What makes marketing your self so challenging?

I think that's an important distinction but when you think about your past experiences of marketing yourself, what makes that so challenging from your experience? Probably all of us have tried to market ourselves. We say this all the time. "I've got to market myself." So, when you try to market yourself, why is that challenging or what makes that so challenging?

Rosemary: Well it puts yourself in a really vulnerable position much more than your talents. I own those or those are mine but they're not as associated with them and so therefore I don't get as rejected.

Dave: Exactly. When you're marketing yourself to strangers and the strangers don't call, you get personally rejected.

Elizabeth: I was going to say basically the same thing in just a different way. I really applaud you for saying that, Rosemary. Mine would be, what is it that we ask ourselves? What is it to be fully exposed? What is it to be vulnerable? What is that like? What do we need to do?

Dave: Yeah. And I am a big fan of putting your talents, what you can do and your experiences and your skills, putting all that out there as generously as you can. But it's almost like there's a power, and kind of a second part of the question is what makes it easier than marketing yourself is that somehow your talents are, they're not separate from you because they're you, but it makes it seem a little bit separate like it's more of a product. It's a value, a solution looking for a problem rather than you personally looking for someone personal to connect with you.

Participant: It's what you do, not what you are.

Dave: Yes. And then it's like, "Well, OK, if I write an article and nobody calls, that just means the people who read that article didn't want what that article was talking about. It doesn't mean that they're rejecting me."

 

 Kind of the way I got tapped into this is that so many times, I would talk to someone about marketing themselves and then they would start telling me about a friend or a colleague, and they would totally come to life. "Oh, she's the greatest. She can do this. She can do that. She's done all these things." And, I'm thinking, why don't you talk about yourself that way? It always seems like it's so much easier to market or to talk about what someone else could do for you than what I can do. And I just saw this happen so many times where people would say, "Oh, I'm great at marketing other people but I just can't market myself." Well, why is that? What makes it so much easier to market someone else, talk about someone else so much easier than talking about yourself? I think it's because there's somehow a separation. It seems less personal. It seems more tangible like, oh, that person can do this, this and this, and when you're around them, these kinds of things start to happen. And the value and the translation of what they can do to what another person might want or need just becomes more logical, more disassociated some how and it just is easier to talk about it.

Rosemary: To me, what happens when you're talking about your talents rather than yourself is it takes the ego out of it. I think of marketing of yourself, you hesitate because you have to speak very highly of yourself when you're marketing yourself.

Dave: Yes!

Rosemary: And to a lot of people, that's a very uncomfortable thing to do.

Dave: That is such a great point.

Participant: Especially for women.

Dave: Especially for women. It's like you're trained not to speak highly of yourself.

Participant: Exactly.

Elizabeth: A lot of cultural prohibition against it.

Cultural training NOT speak boldly about what you can do

Dave: A LOT of cultural stuff. Especially for women, you're right. But even for any people, it's like how many times were you trying to talk excitedly about what you could do or what you would do, and someone who was bigger than you at the time would say, "Don't get too big for your britches." or "Don't get so full of yourself." or "Who do you think you are?"

Rosemary: I don't see it as being wholly a woman's issue but I know where you're coming from on that. Because I've heard men and women say that especially when I listen to or read networking calls. Like, "I just hate going out there and talking about me because people are going to think I…"

Dave: But it's perfectly fine

Rosemary: A big ego and all of that and that will turn them off. And I hear it from both men and women.

Dave: But it's perfectly fine, somehow, to talk boldly and excitedly about what someone else can do. That's why, in the past, it was such a common thing that people would have P.R. representatives, public relations representatives, because they're allowed to talk boldly about who you are so long as you don't do it about yourself. It's like there's some weird taboo about it.

Elizabeth: Like you're Mohammed Ali.

Dave: Yeah, exactly like that. I'm the greatest. Right? Like, you're not allowed to say that.

Rosemary: The reason he made such a big splash with that is because it so went against the grain that society said, "Oh my gosh, somebody's really saying that? Who is this guy?" And he got away with it but it was just that. He got away with it.

Dave: And he also happened to be amazingly talented.

Rosemary: Well, yes.

Participant: He could back it up.

Dave: Yeah, he could back it up. And there's some kind of a thing where if you're talking about yourself boldly and then something goes wrong and you can't back it up or who knows what might happen, then suddenly that's disaster.

Participant: You're a fraud.

Dave: Yeah, you're totally a fraud and that's a very personal thing as opposed to being able to talk about what someone else could do or what someone with these particular skills and talents and gifts might be able to do or could do for you. Then, suddenly it's not about a fraud. It's just about if the solution worked or maybe the solution didn't work. It's OK but it's not a fraud situation. It's like, oh, it didn't work out. OK. We'll try something else.

Participant: There's a much bigger load on it.

Dave: Yeah. Exactly. So, you can see why there's so many of these cultural things and burdens that come with talking boldly about yourself that I think would be mitigated if you're talking about your talents and about specific value that those talents have rather than talking about yourself. I don't know if this is true. This is just a hypothesis at this point but rather than talking about yourself, talking about your talents and specifically the value those talents can bring to someone, it will give you permission to speak boldly and confidently about them. It's almost like they're a little bit separate from you rather than you and whether you may or may not be a fraud.

Rosemary: I think when you're talking about your talents, in the past you somehow, at some point, get around to talking about how they're going to benefit the other person, and that's where you make the switch from ego to benefit. It really almost switches it from talking about yourself to talking about them.

Dave: Very good. Because talents can be applied. That's what we're about to do next. Because your talents can be applied and add value to the other person. So, it's about them and the value that they're seeking rather than necessarily you or their connection with you. And from a marketing perspective when you're talking about strangers, that makes a big difference. It makes a big difference.

 

  The eight area of talent

So, let's get into this and practice with it a little bit. The way we're going to do this is, we're going to go through the different areas of talent. And talent, I'm using the word very broadly. I'll go through the list of the different areas to talk about talents. What we want to do is, I'll read the whole list first. Then, we're going to go through each one and spend a few minutes on each one and if you have an example of a talent in that area that you can share with us, that would be great. Then, what we'll do is we'll kind of brainstorm as a group as to how would that skill, that strength, that experience possibly be of value to someone else. Under what circumstances, under what situations could that be valuable? That's kind of how we'll play the game. We're going to experiment with the whole idea of converting talents to value. I'll just go through the list very quickly, the different areas of talents and then we'll get into each one.

 

 1) The first one is experiences, things you've done, things you've been through, accomplishments, adventures. There's all sorts of things that you've experienced and your experiences are a part of your talent base, of what you have to offer.

 

 2) Your skills. Things that you do well, either natural talents or things that you've learned how to do. It could be either one.

 

 3) The third one is natural strengths or gifts and that would be capacities that are easy for you, things that just come easily and naturally to you, kind of like the way you're wired. They're like your natural gifts is the way I would call that.

 

 4) The fourth one is your perspective or your framework, the way you think about life - the way you think about things. That's a part of your talent. The way you view the world can be translated into value. It could be of value for someone to be around someone who thinks about life or work or the world in a particular way. So, your framework and your perspectives is a part of your talent base.

 

 5) The next one is your knowledge, information, things that you know about, things that you know how to do. Your resources, solutions that you know how to find and apply.

 

6) So, resources would be like solutions to particular problems or challenges outside of yourself but you know how to find them and you know how to apply them.

 

 7) The next one is connections, people that you know that have solutions and they're people that you know and could contact. So, you think, "Oh, you should really talk to so and so. They can definitely help you." The fact that you know that person and could call them and connect with them, that's a part of your talent. That has a value to it.

 

 8) And then the last one is your quirks, your unique qualities that might be a bit of a combination of natural strengths, skills, knowledge. It could be a combination of a lot of things but it's particularly the unique qualities that you have. We'll talk a little bit about that later too.

 

 Those are the 8 areas. Let's go through the list and we'll just spend a few minutes on each one and we'll talk together about how a particular experience or skill could be translated into value for another person. We're going to really count on all of us kind of really going into brainstorming mode to think about this.

 

  Jan shares about her experience

Let's have someone share an experience or two, how we can play this out. Anyone have something they could share?

Jan: I apologize. I got on the call late. I had relatives to visit. But when you mentioned experiences, I thought immediately about travel, how the travel that I've done has really opened my mind to a lot of things and made me more accepting of a lot of people and a lot of things that happen and that they do.

Dave: Alright. So, let's just talk about the experience first.

Jan: And then when you got down to framework and perspective, that kind of fits in there also.

Dave: Yes. I think you're definitely right. Your framework, your perspective would change based on some of your experiences. But let's just talk about experiences first.

 

 So, you, for example, have this amazing experience of taking some gymnasts to Japan. Right?

Jan: Right.

Dave: I happen to know Jan so I'll just throw that into the conversation. You took this group of gymnasts to Japan to compete and to experience the Japanese culture and this whole thing - A pretty amazing experience. Share with us one other experience that you can think of, something you've been through or something you accomplished.

Jan: You mean that's not travel related?

Dave: Yes.

Jan: Well actually, when I moved to Hawaii, it was kind of like I got off the plane and I felt like I was at home even though I didn't now anybody. And it made it very easy for me to meet people. I don't know if it was that or if it was because they were just easy to meet but it was easy to talk to people and be very friendly.

Dave: So, you moved to a totally new place and you quickly got yourself acclimated and connecting with people.

Jan: Yeah. I mean, it was like I just totally felt at home.

Dave: Cool. OK. Good. So, here we go. We have 2 of Jan's experiences. One is taking a team of gymnasts, young gymnasts, to Japan. Another is the experience of moving to a totally new place and very easily and quickly getting acclimated and connecting with people and feeling a part of it, like she was at home there. What would be some possible ways that, that would be valuable? Someone who had those experiences, how could that be valuable to someone?

Jan: One thing that just comes to mind is that it's a difficult to run a business and people would come and start businesses and leave, and I had mine there a long time and I think it was because I felt so close to the people. I understood them right away so it easy to see what their needs were and I wasn't coming in and trying to do a mainland style program.

Dave: OK. Cool.

Jan: I don't know if that's what we're looking for.

Dave: It's definitely an idea. Right now, I'm looking for the outsider's perspective, someone besides Jan

Jan: Well, they were very concerned that here I was, somebody new who could teach their kids gymnastics, they were very concerned that I would leave after a few months because that's what everybody else did.

Dave: Gotcha. So that's another element of the experiences, being able to start a business in a strange place and be successful and to actually last. That's a great part of the experience too. Let's talk about it from an outside perspective, someone who has had these experiences, what is the situation, what is the scenario that could be valuable? Any ideas?

Rosemary: I think that for anybody starting a business, if you know any good lessons, you have to feel confident. You have to fit in with the people who you're serving through your business and how you do that would be something that, I think, anybody that's starting a business would want to know about.

Dave: I definitely think you're right. I think that's very good. What else?

Rosemary: It could have applications for coaching new business owners too.

Virginia: It could have an application for somebody who wants to start a new business in a different cultural milieu so that they would have access to a person who has successfully pulled that off, is culturally aware, is aware of the kinds of pitfalls you're going to face as a brand new entrepreneur in a different environment. So, those skills can be tapped into. She could market her talents in that way which would be very valuable to the client.

Dave: Exactly. Anyone starting a new business in a strange place that has a very different culture, that could be very valuable.

Rosemary: Either a different culture in terms of a different country or a different culture like if I tried to market to Phillipinos, I don't know from straight up about Phillipinos. Just plucking a population out of the air.

Dave: Sure.

Jan: And I could help you with that.

Dave: Yeah, exactly. Very good. That's exactly right.

Bob: I see also in that the aspect of that of starting a new business with total strangers, not just culture but there's a fear among many people, "I don't know anyone."

Dave: Right.

Bob: So, eliminating this fear, I think, would be a real important area.

Dave: Yeah. You make a great point, Bob, because so many people that I've talked to when I start helping them with their branding or whatever, I start trying to get a sense of their network and their connections and they say, "I don't know anyone." Well, that always just stuns me just starting off. How could you know no one? But I've heard so many people say that to me. So, if you're starting a business and you know no one, it would be really handy to work with someone who's been through that because I can't personally relate to that. Every time I've started a business, I had an amazing background of peopled that I already knew. So, starting with knowing no one, I have no idea how to do that.

Bob: But I can relate to that. I've had those feelings. Who do I know? Gee, no one.

Dave: Right. Exactly. And here's Jan. She's really been through it. She's done it.

Participant: She knows everybody.

Jan: Well, actually, when I moved to Florida, that's where I ended up. I didn't go into business right away. By the time I started a business and wanted to do something, I lost all my contacts. I couldn't go back to the people I knew and I really hadn't made new contacts in Florida.

Dave: So you've done it a couple of times.

Jan: It was much harder the second time.

Dave: Don't say that. You want to say, "Hey, I've been through this. I can do it. I've done it once. I can do it again."

Elizabeth: You know, there's something that we've said kind of circuitously here and that is, hearing you say it was harder the second time, and yet you did it. You have incredible ability to stay focused despite a new location, new people, new adventures, new businesses, teenagers, new countries, etc. That is extraordinarily valuable.

Dave: Yeah.

Rosemary: Amen. And not only that, you have all that to offer but you also can say not only have I done it, I can help you do it.

Dave: Well, yeah. That's the whole point.

Jan: And there's a common thread here, well actually 2 threads. One is find the passion and go with it, and the other one is get out there and meet new people wherever they are. It doesn't matter who you meet because someone will take you to the next person.

Dave: Right. And this is good. You see how this thing is like gaining momentum?

Rosemary: Especially when you consider that the world is eagerly waiting.

Dave: Exactly.

Rosemary: If you had it framed that way to begin with, meeting the next person is only going to introduce you to more of the eagerly awaiting world.

Dave: Exactly.

Bob: How much do you charge?

Dave: This is great. I just want to highlight something because it's so great. You can see as we've been talking about Jan and we just started off with a couple of experiences, and then you start looking at it and talking about it and the value of it has been building. I don't know, Jan, how you're feeling right now but I would kind of guess that you're starting to think, "Wow, you know, I really could do something here with this thing."

Jan: Right. That's exactly where I'm coming from because it's like, "Well, what can I do with this?" And I thought, gee, I shouldn't have brought that up. And I was feeling kind of bad about it and now I'm feeling really good about it.

Dave: Exactly.

Participant: Now you can generously offer your self.

Dave: That's the whole point. I think the power of this that you can see is, when Jan was thinking about it herself, she was thinking, "Oh, I don't really see how that is going to add up anything. I really shouldn't have shared that. I screwed up." But, then once we got it into the conversation and other people started looking at it, she started to see all this value. So, the clue here, and this is the most important thing because just looking at the time I can see we're not going to get to all the areas. We'll do a few more. But, the key thing to learn from this whole conversation is to realize that when you work on articulating the value that you have, the magic is to do it with a group of other people. Don't try to sit there by yourself and think, "Now, what have I done that's valuable?" because you're just not going to come up with very much. But if you can do it in a group of 3, 4, or 5 people, and organize it to take turns or whatever, in the conversation with a group of other people, you start making the connections because people can see you differently than you see yourself. The value because of the idea of the talents and the experiences, you think, "OK. Well, she's got that experience. How could that valuable to me or someone like me or someone else?" It's easier to think about it when it's not you.

Participant : I think that's great, Dave, and I'd like to add on to that too that when you have a talent, you think that it's so simple and you don't realize that it could be valuable to someone else because you assume they already know what to do.

Dave: Exactly. That's the fundamental premise of the whole program. It's that everyone undervalues their talents.

Rosemary: So, here I am, a person with a severe disability. I'm totally blind and that's a tremendous asset because I can market not total blindness but coping skills whenever you're faced with life's traumas. It could be a physical or an emotional. I've been there. So to have survived and actually created a fantastic life despite a severe disability, that's a tremendous thing to market.

Dave: Exactly. It's amazing really and I would bet that in a conversation with 3 or 4 other people, you start really looking at the experience and talking about it in more depth, you'd find more and more connections of your experience of going through that and coming out of it and still living it. You'd find more and more elements of that, that could be potentially very valuable to another person.

Rosemary: Woo Hoo!

  If you have the talent and the desire – the market is there

Dave: And that's the trick, to get into conversations. Because the value is there. The value is there. One of my other kind of fundamental premises of the work that I do in helping people with their brand is just this idea that for every person with their unique combination of experiences and skills and strengths and knowledge and framework, all of that, you wouldn't be here with all that stuff unless it was supposed to be of service to other people. Because the universe is always in balance. What you offer and whatever you have a desire to offer, there's definitely other people that have a need for that. If there wasn't, you wouldn't have the desire to offer it unless there was a need. because the universe, like I said, is always in balance. The only question is making the connection, you being able to articulate and describe all of the different elements of your talents and your skills and your strengths and how they could be valuable, and getting into the whole marketing thing so that these strangers who need it can find you. That's the whole game. It's not trying to figure out if the market is there. If you have the desire, the market IS there. The only game is how do you get known in the marketplace so that the people who need you can find you.

Participant: Yes, exactly.

Rosemary: Right on, Dave.

You've got to put it into words

Dave: And that's the whole game. But it starts with articulating the value. You've got to be able to talk about it. You've got to be able to put the words on it because the words, that's how we connect with each other. They've got to be able to see on a website or on a brochure or you've got to be getting yourself into the world through talking or writing so that people can read about it, see you, hear you or someone else can and then tell a friend. There's so many different ways it can happen but nothing happens until you put the words down.

Bob: That brings up a question, Dave. How do you find the value? Many people ask that. They know there's a need out there. They believe exactly what you said but they say, "Gee, what are my talents?" So, to get that initial thing out to the strangers, how do you solve that prior problem?

Dave: Well, that's a great question. That's where you take this model. It's not really a model yet but the idea of the model is you look at these 8 different areas. You think for yourself about what are your experiences and just write as many experiences down as you can. Even with Jan a little bit but once she got going, she started thinking about different aspects of the experiences. And then you do the same thing with the skills and the natural strengths, etc. So, first you work by yourself. Fill this out in as much detail as you can. Then, you get into a conversation. Make an appointment either on the phone or make an appointment in person. Get a group of people together who are working on this and then take the time to do these value conversations because you need to do it with other people.

 

 So, just as a minor plug, the programs that I'm doing in January, the Brand Positioning program, the idea of the class is to get 15 or 20 people in a class over 6 weeks. We're going to work through this model and one other model over the course of 6 weeks and then there'll be ways to connect with other people in the class either by email or by phone to get together and to help each other with these values and you'll do it in a little mini community of people who are all working on it together. So, you can easily connect with others who want to do this for themselves and for other people and the class creates a mini environment to do that work over a 6 week period. That's the idea of the class.

Participant: That sounds great.

Dave: It's going to be very cool. It's called "Brand Positioning". That's the basic name of the class. The subtitle of the class is "The best thing for you would be me." which is a great little Irving Berlin tune and the whole purpose of the program is to be able to articulate the value of your talents. That's the whole program and to create a community of people to work on that together. Because like we've been realizing in this conversation, you can't do it by sitting by yourself thinking about it. You need to have other people you can set up a conference call and get on the bridge and I have a conference bridge available for free to anyone in the class if you want to organize a little call with 2 or 3 other people in the class. You just set up the time on the bridge and you go for it.

Rosemary: And how do we sign up?

Dave: You can sign up on my website. Just go into the davebuck.com, go to the catalog page and just click on the Brand Positioning. I have an afternoon and an evening one that are starting in January.

Participant: Dave, for how long is this?

Dave: The class is 6 weeks.

Participant: How many sessions?

Dave: There's 6 sessions.

Participant: Will you be running them after that as well?

Dave: Oh, of course. I just have a couple that are starting right away if you want to jump into this but I'll be doing this program a lot over the course of the next year.

Participant: Yeah. I'm not able to jump in right now.

Dave: That's fine.

 

 So, let's just take a couple of minutes. I want to just get a sense of any insights you had. And Jan, I want to thank you for sharing because your little thing of your trip to Japan and sharing even though you were hesitant and how you could see how that just exploded into value in the conversation, was really what made the whole conversation. So, I just want to thank you very much.

Jan: And I thank you because it was helpful to me, very helpful.

Dave: Very good.

 

 So, if you have a thought how this conversation was valuable, any insight that you had in the last 2 minutes that we have left. Anything like that, that you could share, I would love to hear it.

Bob: The one thing that stood out is the whole system and the second thing is the idea of getting together with a group of people versus trying to do it on your own. That was important and valuable to me.

Dave: Great.

Virginia: What was particular valuable to me was recognizing that marketing is to strangers and it's about talent and selling is to interested people and it's about a combination of self and talents.

Dave: That's great. That's a great distinction.

Rosemary: The mantra, love the mantra. And I'm in the class so I'm really juiced and excited now about being there.

Dave: That's great. Yeah. We're going to have a great time.

Participant: I can't wait. I'm going to sign up today.

Dave: That's great. I'm excited. Thank you very much, Rosemary.

Draku: I like the concept of getting the value from your talents and learning how to market it.

  Branding – Articulating value – is a team sport

Dave: Yeah. And like we've been talking about, you can see how the importance of doing this in conversation with other people, rather than trying to sit and figure it out by yourself. That's really the key point.

 

 Well, thank you all very much for playing and being a part of the party. Have a wonderful New Year's Eve and New Year's.