Posted by
Ryan Prucker on Monday, October 22, 2007 3:50:54 PM
We all know that in business and life, your image can make or break you.
Having a great product or service simply is not enough. It’s imperative that we create a successful, professional image that will attract, persuade, and instill confidence. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, business owner, salesperson or someone whose talent IS your business, image matters.
Here are seven strategies for creating the Image to Succeed and the quality to back it up:
Step #1: Perception and Reality – Improve your perception and reality will follow.
Act as if you've already made it. Think about how you would like people to perceive you, and act in that manner. Decide how you ultimately want to be seen, and make your last move first. Once you do that and set that goal of your perception, not only will others believe it, but you'll believe it, and soon, your reality will meet and exceed that perception. Success is magnetic.
Step #2: Belief and Confidence – Master your self belief and confidence.
In order for you to be successful, people have to buy into you and what you're doing. They have to believe that you believe. Confidence breed’s success and uncertainty brings failure. When you believe in yourself and you show confidence, you instill trust, respect, and comfort. People will take you seriously, respect you, and they'll be more likely to spend money with you, do business with you, and ultimately invest their time with you and your company.
Step #3: Impact and Benefit – Focus on the impact you make. Remember to identify your core value and what makes you unique. Then use that value to show how you make an impact. List the features, find the corresponding benefits, and then focus on the benefits. That's where you make an impact into other people's lives. And ultimately, that's what most people care about.
Step #4: Story and Experiences – Grow your story and experiences. Identify what you do, how you do it, who you do it for, and why you do it. Then look back and gather your experiences, or create experiences and capitalize on every life experience. Then take your story and your experiences, broad stroke it, rephrase it, and then you will have a completed story that you can shorten, summarize, glamorize or simplify to create the maximum effect.
Step #5: Consistent Look –Determine how everything that you've built can flush itself out and how it is combined and packaged together. How does it look in the media, website, print, and business materials using color, graphic, images and message. Create a consistent look to not only represent your business, but reflects your clients, their needs and a brand they can see themselves in.
Step #6: Relevance – Never loose focus and always develop your relevance. Whether your business has been around for five months or 50 years, keep yourself relevant, fresh, and newsworthy. Know when it's time to change and update yourself, create a headline for yourself, and rejuvenate yourself and your business to show how you're relevant in other people's lives.
Step #7: Goals – Goals are essential to your success. Set a goal, understand what you're hoping to achieve by a specific action, measure the success, course correct if you need to, and then focus on achieving that goal and setting a new one.
These seven strategies can be immediately implemented to create the momentum forward to be successful. This type of imaging creates everything we need to help us believe in our success as well as the tools to achieve it. Imaging is not just a strategy; it’s a state of mind. It’s the perfect balance of a winning image, backed up by a quality product or service. As an Image Specialist and speaker, I have seen these strategies transform businesses and individuals, and it works.
Always believe that anything is possible if you believe in yourself and take action to show it.
Image Specialist, Ryan Prucker's Website