Build Your Brand Inside-Out

If you’re a millennial, then I’m sure at one point you’ve doubted or been challenged on whether you can actually make a difference at this age, whether it’s in your job, an entrepreneurial venture, or a school project. We’ve all been there. You face questions about your career, your leadership ability, your ability to scale impact, etc. But no matter what brand you’re trying to develop (personal, business, or other), there’s a method that I’ve found incredibly effective that I’d like to share with you. Warning, it’s not for the faint-of-heart! But if you have a little heart, soul, brains & courage, then I challenge you to build it inside-out.

#IGNITEYOURPASSION

In Howard Schultz’s book Pour Your Heart Into It, he mentions a board member who helped shape Starbucks’ brand to have a distinct, memorable identity that makes people feel better. In whatever you do, you have to make sure that you live, breathe, and embody it! Your passion is what gives your brand meaning and something your customers can relate to.

In a study my startup carried out polling over 300 Canadian university students, roughly a third stated that they wanted to discover a passion. So how do you do this? Look for things in your life that inspire you or which you are drawn towards. It could be in a book, an album, or a movie. But the most common answer I’ve found when asking millennials how they discovered their passion is through other people. Just by simply engaging in a conversation with someone, you can learn from their story and use takeaways to build your own. But igniting your passion isn’t something that happens overnight. It’s a process that requires you to constantly learn and reflect.

FIND PURPOSE IN DOING THINGS THAT SCARE YOU

Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, once said that when growing up, she always did something she wasn’t quite ready to do. Interestingly, in the same study I alluded to earlier, about half of all Canadian university students polled said they have a passion that they want to put towards a purpose. Increasingly, traditional 9-5 entry-level jobs aren’t cutting it for millennials. We not only want to do meaningful work; we want to find meaning in our work. But when finding a purpose to put your passion towards, there’s many doors you can open and roads you can go down. So whether it’s multiple job offers or potential partnership opportunities, you have to make sure it’s right for you.

When you open yourself up to new experiences and step outside your comfort zone, purpose finds you. In Canadian entrepreneur Bruce Poon Tip’s book Looptail, he discusses how he founded the sustainable travel company G Adventures (http://gadventures.com) at the ripe age of 21 on several credit cards, all because he believed that there was space in the travel industry between the resort and the backpacker. But it was his travels abroad that allowed him to see this point of view and discover this market niche. Bruce also made sure to surround himself with people who he could build a relationship with that transcended business. He could have taken many other career paths but ultimately chose the entrepreneurship route, fuelled by youth, passion, and good people. No matter what journey you take, you want to be surrounded at the finish line with winners that shared the same goal.

COMMUNITY IS YOUR BRAND

Finally, the hardest part in building your brand inside-out is connecting people through your passion & purpose. It’s about more than creating and leveraging social networks. It’s about honing and deepening your relationships. The lean startup mantra has always taught us to find customers, validate our idea, and create a product to ship. This approach, however, neglects millennial wants for brands that entertain, inform, and inspire. The key here is to connect with millennials’ desire for unique experiences & community. Focus on how many lives you can touch and connect to your passion & purpose. Soon enough, your brand will come alive.

A prime example is Jason Roberts’ Dallas-based project Better Block (http://betterblock.org ). Jason was inspired by the culture and architecture of unique spaces in Europe, and wanted to revitalize abandoned or run-down neighborhoods in his hometown Dallas. By promoting an event & broadcasting his brand’s passion & purpose to a wider audience, he was able to connect with people he had never even met to make a better block out of the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff. Better Block is now open-sourced and is transforming communities around the United States.

Another example is project HELP (https://www.facebook.com/HomelessnessEverywhereLackingPublicity ) started by Brad Golding, Tibor Kovacs and Teddy Nikolovs out of Cambridge, Ontario. The three high school students are alleviating and raising awareness for homelessness in southern Ontario by filming documentaries and handing out supplies with their friends and followers.

The people and brands in the examples illustrated follow a common thread. They are successful because they build relationships and unite people through passion, purpose, and community. It’s not easy, and it definitely takes time, but incorporating these principles into your brand-building strategy can give you the edge you need to stand out from the crowd!

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