Microbusiness brand development.

Or, put a sexier way: making your brand more of what it needs to be to connect with your Right People. Becoming even more of who you ARE in service to your Right People. This is what I mean when I talk about ‘microbusiness brand development.’

Developing a business brand can be an arduous, insecurity-laden process. It can also feel thrilling and emancipating. It’s a PROCESS and most likely, you’ll toggle between emotional states as you do the deep work of articulating The Who, The Value, The Vibe, and The View as it relates to your brand.

So, what phase of the microbusiness brand development process are YOU in?

Identifying where you are, what you’re currently challenged by, and where you’re heading next are all ways to gain perspective — and isn’t perspective what we all really want?

Note: As I crafted this post, I was reminded of my colleague Charlie Gilkey’s wonderful series on The Business Lifecycle. While there’s some overlap between stage of business and phase in brand development, it’s not always lockstep.

Here are the 5 Phases of Microbusiness Brand Development:

→ PHASE 1: Committed Conceptualizer

This is the aspirational, Total Newbie phase. Whether you’re new to owning your own business or just new to this particular business idea of yours, we all start in this phase.

WHERE YOU ARE IN THE BIG PICTURE OF BRAND DEV

In this phase, you probably don’t know your USP from your Brand Proposition from your tagline. You know you want a business and you understand that you need a thoughtful brand to support it, but you’re not quite sure how to make it all come together. You have an idea of what business you want to be in, but don’t yet know what your services will look like, who you really want to work with, or how you will market your business (i.e. reach potential clients and customers).

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND, BRANDING-WISE

As a Committed Conceptualizer, it’s easy to get caught up in external visual branding doodads like “Which social media sharing plugin should I use?” “Should I host my site on Blogger or WordPress?” “What colors do I want in my logo?” In this phase, these concerns seem pressing because they feel like “what your business is really about,” but in actuality, this is not the time to be concerned about the minor details.

WHAT TO FOCUS ON IN THIS PHASE

It’s time to get clear on what business you want to be in, how you want to make money, who needs the solution you want to provide, what experiences you have to help position you as credible, and what you want your experience of business to look and feel like (AKA lifestyle factors), as this suggests the type of business model in which you might thrive. And yes — all of this exploration and decision-making needs to happen before you commit to any visual branding or naming ideas.

→ PHASE 2: Avid Adopter

This is the phase in which you’re drawn to every Shiny Object that presents itself as a foolproof template or a surefire blueprint. I don’t say that as a criticism. We have aaaaaaaaallllll been there. (I currently have a tiny mirror taped to the top of my MacBook so I can watch myself as I type this. Not really. But you get the idea.) If a personal development guru, messianic business figure, or online superstar is talking, you’re listening. You sign up for every free call, download every bonus e-book, and opt-in for every coach’s complimentary 30-minute session, all in hopes of finding the spark, the trick, or the path that will lead you into pastures of business success.

WHERE YOU ARE IN THE BIG PICTURE OF BRAND DEV

As an Avid Adopter, you’re clearer on who you want to serve, why, and how, but you’re struggling to identify which strategies and tactics will help you build your business. (And you’re damn sure the right ones are out there, if only you look hard enough.) You spend a lot of time on long walks listening to marketing podcasts, panning for gold in your favorite brand’s blog post archives, and Skype chatting with friends about who said what about which topic.

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND, BRANDING-WISE

You’re looking for voices of expertise. You’re open to input. You’re also at your most vulnerable, because you’re convinced that somebody knows something you don’t know about how to run your business. (You’re both right and wrong about that.) In this phase, you’re likely to be able to quickly name the 3 online business owners you’d most like to emulate in your brand. And if you hired a creative professional to create a website for you at this point, you’d probably tell them to make your website or your copy look or sound “just like So-and-So’s,” or “like So-and-So’s, but me.” (Again, not a slam. Just a truth. Ask any active professional copywriter or web designer how often he or she hears this and you’ll get a lot of head-nodding.)

WHAT TO FOCUS ON IN THIS PHASE

This is not the time to invest in a full-scale brand design. This is the time to put up an inexpensive template site you can customize (Elegant Themes, Woo Themes, and Theme Forest have  some lovely, fairly flexible ones), write your own copy, and launch your first modestly priced service. Get your feet wet. In fact, do lots of your own writing around your business ideas, your Right Person, and your beliefs about what needs to change in your industry — and be prepared to scrap it all. This is a discovery phase and you will change a lot from month to month and year to year as you learn, practice, and integrate. The most important thing to focus on in this phase is coming to terms with your own strengths, style, and voice — and to tune out the noise. Unsubscribe from anyone’s e-newsletter whose insights you aren’t immediately applying. They will still be there when you’re ready.

→ PHASE 3: Devotedly Disillusioned

This is the phase in which you’ve tried a few things — and failed. Or tried a few things with a mediocre return. You’re burned out on seeing the Same Old Online Superstars launch project every project and garner more tweets, more Likes, more book deals, more guest appearances, and meanwhile, you can’t seem to get a viable business off the ground. (Branding? Who the eff cares right now, you’re thinking.) You’re starting to wonder if this whole “build a business around your passion and market it online” thing is a frickin’ scam. Can anyone do it besides those who’ve already Made It? Is it too late for you? Is the market too saturated? You’re in eff-it mode.

WHERE YOU ARE IN THE BIG PICTURE OF BRAND DEV

If you’re Devotedly Disillusioned, branding is not the first thing on your mind. You feel like a shiny new website is just icing on the cake — and you’re aware you haven’t yet baked the cake you want to keep serving. You can’t really hire a copywriter because you’re not sure what you stand for anymore or what your business will be about once you emerge from this funk. You somewhat bitterly watch colleagues and peers launch new websites all around you, and feel as if there’s something wrong with you for not being able to pull your brand dev together.

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND, BRANDING-WISE

You just want to know what works. Nothing works. Everything could work. You feel lost, confused, and frustrated — even a little bit tricked by the “industry” you thought was so easy to “break in to.” This can be an incredibly painful phase of brand development, because it’s shining a spotlight on all the gaps in your business model and showing you your areas for growth. As Devotedly Disillusioned as you are, you still probably have days where you peruse designers’ portfolios or pore over copywriter and branding specialists’ packages, looking for that magic something that will reignite your flame.

WHAT TO FOCUS ON IN THIS PHASE

As counterintuitive as it may seem, this is the time to lean into your strengths and rediscover your personal power — by getting offline, looking away from the theatre of values-based online microbusiness, and reconnecting to what you love to do and are fantastic at. Take your skill sets out into the “real world.” Read a book or some magazines that have nothing to do with your topic in business. Devotedly take a powder from following your online mentors and worthy peers. Show yourself that inspiration is everywhere. Living it in 3D makes delivering it in 2D so much more satisfying and meaningful.

→ PHASE 4: Meaning Masterminder

This is the phase in which you’re embracing the fact that probably no one knows your best path to business success but you, through figuring it out as you go along. You start experimenting. Maybe this works. Lemme try this. You have some wins and some losses. Yay, you! Experimentation is the true heart of entrepreneurship. You’re not willing to throw out “best practices” and what works well for other people entirely, but you’re interested in adapting what you see out there into something that feels good for you and your Right People readers and prospective clients. In this phase, many people get themselves into peer coaching circles or Mastermind groups, with the intention that sharing experiences cumulatively and giving each other feedback will help each one. (Sometimes that’s true; sometimes not. I’ve seen many a well-meaning entrepreneurial type be held back by the group she joined for support. So vet your peers carefully and go with your gut on this one.)

WHERE YOU ARE IN THE BIG PICTURE OF BRAND DEV

You’re ready for A Brand. You’re in a terrific position to begin investing carefully, thoughtfully, and consciously in a full-scale brand design (or redesign) with an experienced professional branding specialist, copywriter, and/or web designer. Chances are, this won’t be the last iteration of your work in the world, but it certainly can (and should) be a strong, clear, and gorgeously composed one.

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND, BRANDING-WISE

You’re massively interested in understanding your Right Person — the person most likely to buy from you. And you want a brand identity that speaks directly to that person. You’re perusing websites you like the looks (and sounds) of and vetting creative professionals left and right. You’re probably talking with peers about who they’ve enjoyed working with, who gave great perspective and who was little more than a hired pen or pixel-pusher. You dread making bad decisions, but you also know that choosing and committing yourself to moving forward thoughtfully is the only way you’ll make progress. You’re concerned about how you will adequately communicate what you have in mind to a creative pro, but you’re willing to trust the process.

WHAT TO FOCUS ON IN THIS PHASE

When you’re a Meaning Masterminder, it’s essential that you begin to separate your own personal vision, tastes, and core needs as a person and a buyer from those of your Right Person — the person most likely to buy from you. Now’s the time to humbly but confidently and without bias or assumption step into the shoes of another and see life as he or she experiences it. This isn’t the easiest thing to do, but making this mental and emotional shift will free up so much creative energy for you as a business owner and brand creator. You’ll begin to have lots of clear and actionable ideas that can truly support the growth your Right Person wants for him or herself.

→ PHASE 5: Earned Empathizer

This is the phase in which you have earned a degree of empathy for your Right People — through conscious observation, clearheaded question-asking, and the laying aside of your own ego so that you can hear what people really need and want to buy from you. To say you have empathy for another person is one thing, but earning empathy is an ongoing process of being open to what is instead of projecting what you want to have happen.

WHERE YOU ARE IN THE BIG PICTURE OF BRAND DEV

Your brand reflects a degree of empathy for your Right People: you’ve designed it that way. Granted, business owners’ audiences can change and shift as the market does, so it’s possible that the Right People you once served so well are no longer searching for a solution like yours. Or it’s possible that your own interests have changed or your skill sets have been upgraded, so you’re ready to serve a different Right Person through your business. And your brand must realign to reflect it.

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND, BRANDING-WISE

You think a lot about your brand’s positioning in the marketplace with respect to your Right People. How’s your conversation landing? Are you as available and accessible in your brand as your Right People need you to be? How are your brand advocates sharing your message out there? You also think a good deal about conversion (a somewhat scary-sounding word that’s really important to a smart business owner). Your brand is designed to support your business (not the other way around), so if your offers aren’t converting — if people aren’t buying from your sales page, if they aren’t signing up for your e-newsletter, if they aren’t registering for the call from the opt-in page — something needs to shift. You get that.

WHAT TO FOCUS ON IN THIS PHASE

Earned Empathizers need to stay watchful — watch the market, watch your peers and competitors, but most of all, watch your Right People. Don’t be afraid to reiterate or re-focus your brand conversation to move in a different direction (or — buzzword alert! — pivot). This is the phase in which to do what works, to know why it works, and for whom it works, and to be quick and light on your feet when it’s time to innovate.

All values-based microbusiness owners go through the 5 phases of brand development, and it’s a recursive process — which means it can loop back on itself.

A business owner who once found himself squarely in Phase 5 can find himself back in Phase 3 again when he’s reiterating or starting a new venture from scratch. The nice thing is, we take all of our previous experiences with us, so we’re never totally without chops again.

In the comments, I’d love to know:

Do you see yourself and your brand in any of these phases? Which one(s)? Which phase can you currently relate to most? I’ll be hanging out in the comments and I look forward to talking with you.

(Image credit.)

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Voice Notes is (now) an occasional Friday feature. We take you inside the online brand presence of a business owner we think you should know — through a dozen evocative sentence-starters.

Abby (Chief Voice Bureau Officer) says:

A couple years ago, a writer friend gave me a tip about Jeffrey Davis’ beautiful home on the web, Tracking Wonder. (What a great name, eh?) Jeffrey says wonder is the emotional heartbeat of creativity and creative enterprising. Since that time, he and I have conversed on Twitter and over email about our mutual fascination with what works and why when it comes to leading a fulfilling creative life. I’m so happy to endorse his new mentorship program for people actively writing or re-writing a book manuscript. It’s called Your Captivating Book. If you’re feeling led to move your book forward, and it’s a book that matters, this rich experience may be well-designed for you.

(The link above is our affiliate link, which means if you click it and secure a spot in Your Captivating Book, we’ll receive some thank-you monies from Jeffrey for helping to invite his Right People into the experience.)

Jeffrey Davis, Writer & Creativity Consultant

Jeffrey Davis is a writer and creativity consultant. At Tracking Wonder, he writes about the art and science of captivating creativity.

Twitter: @JeffreyDavis108, Facebook: Center To Page & Yoga As Muse

My top 3-5 Voice Values are:

Innovation, Depth, Enthusiasm, Clarity, Helpfulness. (Note: Discover your own Voice Values when you subscribe to The Voice Bureau’s Insider Stuff e-letter. Look for the sign-up box in the upper righthand corner of the site.)

One thing I know for sure about my Right People is:

They are uncompromising when it comes to making excellent art — books, projects, businesses, next life phase.

The best moment in my work week so far has been when:

A new team member genuinely appreciated our new Team Guide that includes our Code of Wonder, our Team Principles, and brand details (down to the hex colors!).

My brand is all about:

Receiving uncertainty with openness, delight, and curiosity as we make art that matters. That’s tracking wonder.

If I couldn’t do the work I’m doing now, I’d be:

A sculptor who makes art out of junk (or a wood gnome).

The best compliment I’ve ever received from a client is:

Calling me “a mentor, trainer, beloved friend and Zen master all wrapped up in one.” (Thank you, Luna Jaffe.)

I do the work I do because:

There are so many people “out there” with meaningful ideas, books, projects, and businesses that we need.

My lifestyle, in 3 words:

Shaped for serendipity.

If I could invite 3 people to dinner to give me their take on my work in the world, I’d invite:

Thoreau, Atticus Finch (he’s not fictional in my mind), and Rainer Rilke. (I’d probably be intimidated into silence the whole meal.)

My favorite question to ask people is:

What question are you living in today?

If my clients only hold onto one piece of advice from me, I hope it’s:

“Your mind + the desire for excellence (not perfection) + falling flat on your face are your greatest teachers and allies.” That, and “Embrace rejection.”

What I really wish you could see about yourself is:

You are a beautiful work of art. Seriously, there is beauty in Every. Single. Human. Being. On. This. Planet. Even, or especially, the difficult, edgy ones.

In the comments, we’d love to know:

What’s your way of tracking wonder? Jeffrey and I would love to hear, in the comments.

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‘Branded’ buzzwords. You’ve seen them, heard them, read them everywhere.

Especially on the websites of coaching brands, “personality” brands, and wellness or self improvement-focused brands.

As a brand voice specialist, I read a lot of copy from values-based microbusiness owners —

people trying to do good work, from the heart, and market it via an online platform. I write a lot of copy. And (now, under The Voice Bureau) I direct a lot of copy to be written. My work life (and my personal life) are saturated in language. It’s the mode that I move in and groove in.

Just as a good doctor prides herself on staying ‘up’ on modern medicine, and a good hairstylist takes continuing education to learn how to do tresses à la mode of the day, a good branding and copywriting specialist keeps her ear to the ground for language and stylistic trends. She knows which words are worn out, which words are gaining velocity, and (often) who used a phrase in the first place, who co-opted it from there, and how it thence snowballed into a linguistic phenomenon in our tiny subculture of the internet.

After polling our friends on Facebook, I was convinced to go ahead and run this post on the beloved-of-microbiz words whose star has risen — and imploded.

I admit: I have used some of these words in my own clients’ copy (mostly by request, I should add) and at different points, in my own copy, so for every finger I’m pointing out there, I assure you there are even more fingers (of my own) pointing back at me.

I mean this post not to be a diss, a razz, a rag, a harangue, a call-out, or a slam. That’s not my style. (Low Audacity value, anyone? Thesaurus Club, anyone?)

Rather, as someone who desires to lead by example in the values-based online microbusiness webiverse, I think it’s time to say what a lot of us are already thinking.

Here are 11 ‘buzzwords’ we should each personally consider retiring from our business brands in 2013.

1. Juicy. This word means . . . what, to you? Exciting? Stimulating? Rah-rah? Laden with unusual adjectives? If you know what you mean by ‘juicy,’ please use that word instead — especially if you’re instructing a creative professional to make a design or a page of copy ‘more juicy’. And if you don’t know what you mean by ‘juicy,’ then please use another word.

Caveat: Consider keeping ‘juicy’ in your brand language if you have a high Enthusiasm value. But realize how played out it is.

2. Soulful. What, exactly, does ‘soulful’ really mean? Is it a bougie take on ‘woo-woo’? Does it mean committed to a spiritual practice? Does it mean having a high Intimacy or Transparency value?

Caveat: Consider keeping ‘soulful’ in your brand language if you have a high Intimacy value.

3. Woo-woo. Let’s stop apologizing for being rooted in the spiritual, if we’re rooted in the spiritual, by calling it ‘woo-woo.’ Why denigrate something you truly believe in?

Caveat: Consider keeping ‘woo-woo’ in your brand language if you have a high Intimacy or Depth value. And only if you’re talking about how your Wrong People might see your high value on spirituality.

4. Savvy. I have used and abused this word in my copywriting past. In fact, I probably have this word a few places on my own site right now. And I’m seeing ‘savvy’ everywhere these days. Everybody’s Right People are ‘savvy.’ Everybody’s methodology is ‘savvy.’ I’m committing to really asking myself now, every time I feel tempted to select this word over a more precise alternative: Is savvy the word I actually mean? And if I think I do mean savvy, then savvy about what? I encourage you to ask the same questions of yourself.

Caveat: Consider keeping ‘savvy’ in your brand language if you have a high Excellence or Clarity value.

5. Telejam. The first person I ever heard use this catchy moniker was Danielle LaPorte, and since then, everybody and her sister is having one instead of a live call, a virtual class, or (God forbid) a teleseminar. I’m not against spicing the name up, but there are other options out there. (And not all Voice Values ‘jam’ and jam alike, you know. Some of us ‘chat,’ ‘riff,’ call people to the ‘playground,’ or invite people to a salon.

Caveat: Consider keeping ‘telejam’ in your brand language if you’re Danielle LaPorte. Everybody else, get your own phraseologie.

6. Whatevs-preneur. God bless the ‘preneurs. Have you noticed how everybody is adding ‘preneur to everything these days? Now in addition to entrepreneurs and solopreneurs, there are femmepreneurs, mompreneurs, digipreneurs, writerpreneurs. I won’t go on in case I offend someone dear to me. (I truly hope that isn’t the case.) But I’m thinking that the YOUR TOPIC AREA HERE-preneur wave has crested. Maybe not.

Caveat: Consider keeping ‘-preneur in your brand language if you’ve been using it for a while and have an established brand conversation around it, or a tribe who strongly identifies with it. If you’re new to the scene and wondering what to call yourself or your prospective clients, please look elsewhere.

7. Epic. Very few things in life are truly epic. Saving people from fires. Running a marathon as an amputee. These things are epic. I’ll put myself out there and say that launching an e-book on the internet is NOT epic. Using this word freely to describe your latest weekend adventure feels a bit grandiose, no?

Caveat: Consider keeping ‘epic’ in your brand language if you have a high Power or Audacity value.

8. Make it pop. When I hear this line, I imagine scantily clad women cavorting in a rap video. (And I like rap.) How, exactly, do you make a sentence pop? Or make your money savvy pop? (See the suggestions for ‘juicy,’ above.)

Caveat: Consider keeping ‘make it pop’ in your brand language if . . . nah.

9. Hustle. Oh, the hustling. It’s not for all of us. Hustling implies a motivation, a momentum, and a mindset that is not for everybody. And I’m seeing people with Voice Values at the other end of the spectrum from the hustlerific using this word with abandon. It just doesn’t quite land.

Caveat: Consider keeping ‘hustle’ in your brand language if you have a high Audacity value.

10. Authentic. Another word that makes us go hmm. Like ‘juicy,’ ‘soulful,’ ‘savvy,’ and ‘make it pop,’ above, ‘authentic’ doesn’t quite mean anything, does it? Does it simply mean not fake? Better to tell your readers what you’re committed to being authentic about. I purposely didn’t include ‘authenticity’ as one of the 16 Voice Values because all Voice Values have the capacity to be strongly authentic, each in their own way. If you hear one thing in this post, please hear this: no one style of communication holds the patent on authenticity. There’s lots of room for all of us in this conversation about life and business and what really matters.

Caveat: Consider keeping ‘authentic’ in your brand language if you have a high Transparency value.

11. Badass. I admit to a fondness for this one, because it’s so far from anything I’d ever use to describe my own brand and the way I communicate. (You’ll recall my low Audacity value.) But the problem is, I’m seeing this everywhere. Who comes to my mind first when I hear the word? Justine Musk. Surely she’s not the first person to use this in her personal brand, but her use of it fits because it aligns with her Voice Values. See below if you’re wondering whether it could work for you, too.

Caveat: Consider keeping ‘badass’ in your brand language if you have a high Audacity value.

You know your top Voice Values, right? If not, we’d love for you to assess yourself for free. Access our complementary diagnostic by entering your email in the box below and clicking Go:

In the comments, we’d love to hear:

What words or phrases do you wish would retire in 2013? Put ’em in the comments below.

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Voice Notes is (now) an occasional Friday feature. We take you inside the online brand presence of a business owner we think you should know — through a dozen evocative sentence-starters.

Abby (Chief Voice Bureau Officer) says:

For the longest time, I’ve wished there were a simple, inexpensive ‘handbook’ for putting a would-be successful online business together from the foundations up. When Paul Jarvis mentioned to me late last year that he was getting ready to release just such a guide, I told him I’d be happy to endorse it and sing its praises. I’ve been fond of Paul’s thoughtful, no-nonsense-with-a-side-of-humor writing style for a while — not to mention his clean, cool digital designs — and his new book Be Awesome at Online Business: A Handbook for Succeeding on the Web, also takes the cake (a vegan cake, in Paul’s case). It’s the exact primer I’m going to encourage all of my new-to-selling-goods-and-services-online clients to read — because it’s needed. His advice is straight to the point, never cloudy, and BS-free, and his perspectives on building a viable online brand and sales platform are tried and true. If you’re looking for a refresher in the basics, or bringing your brand to the web for the first time, this book is for you.

(The link above is our affiliate link, which means if you click it and buy Be Awesome at Online Business, we’ll receive some thank-you monies from Paul for helping to get this in front of your eyeballs.)

Paul Jarvis, Digital Storyteller, Web Designer & Developer

Paul Jarvis is the genius designer and developer behind some of your favorite online brands, including Danielle LaPorte, Justine Musk, bestselling authors, Silicon Valley startups, and Fortune 500 companies.

Twitter: @pjrvs

Personality typing? Why, yes:

My Myers-Briggs type is INTJ (“The Scientist” or “The Conceptualizer Director”), which shouldn’t come as a shocker to anyone that even slightly knows me, being the introverted, logical, constant tinkerer that I am.

An unlikely source of creative inspiration for me is:

Walks in the forest. Call me Thoreau, but I’m happiest and most inspired when I’m alone in the woods.

My brand is all about:

Helping people succeed online.

If I couldn’t do the work I’m doing now, I’d be a:

Vegan chef. With all the tattoos, it’d be either that or a cat-burglar (which I’m too clumsy for).

The iPhone/Android app I wouldn’t want to live without is:

Instagram. I never realized how much I like taking photos (of food and rats) until I started using it. I have no problem admitting I’m a sucker for their hipsteresque filters, either.

The truest branding advice I’ve ever heard is:

Be authentic. (Danielle LaPorte.)

I can never get enough:

Cuddles from my wife and rats. [Abby’s note: He’s not kidding about the second one. Follow him on InstaGram and see!]

Three online voices who really inspire me are:

• Matt “Chevy”
• Corbett Barr
• Julien Smith

My lifestyle, in 3 words:

Quiet, LOUD, quiet.

My favorite question to ask people is:

Why do you need a website?

The song/track/album that feels the most like my brand is:

My actual band, Mojave — because the music I compose sounds like how I design and write (at least I think it does). [Abby’s note: Listen to this! Found myself some great new tracks to write by.]

If my clients only hold onto one piece of advice from me, I hope it’s:

Don’t try to emulate successful people. The reason they’re so successful is because they’re not trying to emulate anyone else.

In the comments, we’d love to know:

What does being awesome at online business mean to you? (Or feel free to say ‘hey’ to Paul. I’m sure he’d dig that, too.)

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