Business Identity – Applying the Identity Principle to your Business

One of the most frequently asked questions I’ve received over the last week since posting the video of my TEDx Byron Bay presentation on the Identity Principle is,

“I thought you taught business stuff not personal development stuff??”

True!

But IDENTITY is just as important in business as it is in everyday life – and in fact, the same Identity Principle model can be applied to figuring out who your business is.

You see, I’m sick of people seeing their business as something other than a natural extension of who they are – because whether you realise it or not, it ALWAYS is. People who screw other people over in business, you can rest assured, are the same people who would sell their Grandmother for the right price. When people say,

“Don’t take it personally, it’s just business.”

While they are KIND OF right (you can’t let stuff get at you) – I still want to throw a rock at them. Of course I take stuff personally. I’m a person. And so is my business, in its own way.

So – how to use the Identity Principle to Uncover your Business Identity.

I, by the way, HEART the use of Identity over Brand – I just feel like Identity has so much more strength … just like I use Propaganda instead of marketing – because marketing is designed to sell stuff and propaganda is designed to win the hearts and minds of nations – so brand is designed to force coherent recognition of colours and logos within a demographic, while Identity is about searching for your core and bringing out a truly aligned and authentic life based on who YOU are.

• KNOW Who Your Business Is:

Vision: What’s your vision? Do you want to take over the world? Change an industry? Or just make enough money to cover the credit card bills on a monthly basis?

Values: What Values does your business hold dear? For instance, a major value for my business is being real – that is, talking the way I talk, writing the way I write, being who I am and NEVER letting ANYONE tell me there’s more money to be made by changing. In your business this ALSO means VALUE in terms of the VALUE you provide … I love the combination of the two meanings of this word because I think it perfectly sums up my life philosophy. Value and Value.

Planning: The only people I know who have written business plans are the ones who need funding from investors and the bank. If, however, you ask them you’ll find they engage in different kinds of planning. Mastermind groups, for instance, are incredibly effective. Me – I HEART Mind Mapping – my office walls are literally COVERED in butchers paper which is, in turn, COVERED in my plans and thoughts … find a way that works for you.

• OWN who your Business is:

Acceptance: I really hate it when I hear people say “I’m going to be the next / female Tony Robbins!”. It’s like – Dude. How about just being you? Mentors and role models are great – but accepting who you are and fully owning that will take you a lot further than trying to be someone else.

Forgiveness: Who does your business need to forgive? Do you still make business decisions based on having been hurt by a previous client or employee? I once knew a guy who could never trust his employees or contractors because 20 years ago someone had hurt him really badly. This held him back because he just  couldn’t trust his employees – and who wants to work for someone who doesn’t trust them?

Responsibility: Your success or failure in business is 100% on your own shoulders. Got stuff that’s holding you back? Yep – we all do. Getting around it – finding a way to put the hours in when the kids are asleep or after work – struggling free of the 80 hours of work IN the business to find a way to put in 20 or 30 hours ON the business. Yes. It’s hard. Yes – sometimes it’s almost impossible. What made you think it was supposed to be easy?

• LIVE who your Business is

Outward Reflection: Yes, okay – logos and stuff ARE important. But I’d love to see more people actually do interesting visual stuff that reflects the internal values of their business. Your logo, branding and website are only allowed to be boring if YOU are boring. Otherwise, come up with something interesting. Further, this relates to how YOU present in relations to your business – I get told off all the time for swearing on Facebook – by people who simply don’t understand this. I never do anything that doesn’t reflect my internal values. It’s the same reason that any time I’m offered a speaking gig on the condition that I cover my tattoo, I turn it down. I won’t be someone I’m not or hide who I am for any amount of money in the world.

Persuasion: Sales. The mere word strikes fear into the hearts of people all over the world. But let me echo what I said in my TED presentation – persuasion is a natural outcome from having complete clarity around your vision and values. When you understand the value and values you represent and you figure out for whose benefit you are providing them, sales is easy – because it becomes your MISSION on EARTH to persuade the people who need your help that you can help them.

If you saw someone you loved drowning in the ocean and you had a boat, when would you withdraw your offer of helping them out? When would you give up and sail away?

Interaction: Your ability to interact with the people around you is the number 1 indication of how far you’ll have the ability to rise in your life. I was very blessed to have an incredible role model in this area in my husband – right at the same time as I started my business, he started teaching me (through example) how to effectively interact with the people. His secret? Genuine Interest. He never fakes it. He simply finds something interesting in whatever another person is saying to him and hones in on it. Asks questions. Steers the conversation. In life this is a really valuable skill to have. In business, this is the skill that will make or break you.

• Give who your Business is:

Passion: The number of people who run businesses they hate makes me want to cry. Life is too short – and perhaps the dumbest part of it is that the effort it takes to succeed in a business you hate vs one you love is EXACTLY the same. So why not build a business around your passion?

If your passion is “Giving to Others” – you need to check yourself. So many people want to jump to this without having spent enough time working through the other 3 quadrants. If you want to Give of Yourself – you need to know who that self is – otherwise, what, exactly, are you giving?

This is the reason I’m not particularly fussed on “life coaching” – it seems to me the majority of life coaches I meet are lost. They’re searching for who they are and are trying to use working with other people either as a way to figure themselves out or worse, to avoid figuring themselves out.

Models: The Identity Principle is an example of a model. People have always told me that I’m an aberration – that the way I am is not normal. So I’ve spent a lot of time asking myself why I am the way I am – and the biggest answer that came to me was simply that I KNOW who The Leela is. Hence the pronoun. I always know where I stand with myself – I’ve never gone “looking for myself” because  I haven’t needed to. So the next thing I did was spent some time reading about Identity and then using that as a basis to figure out what the main parts were that I KNEW about myself that made me so sure of stuff. Then, I used all of that knowledge and created the picture I share with you above so that I can easily communicate with people and show them what I know.

In business this is just as powerful – and can include not only knowledge models but also the systems in your business – modeling how you sell, market, deliver, etc can make you a crap load of money while helping other people.

Others: And only now – at the very end – do we come to giving to others. Because giving BACK is important for the soul – and while I’m a big fan of both the Ego and of Selfishness, I recognise that Legacy lies in our ability to Give to Others.

However – trying to jump straight to this part of the picture is PURE selfishness.

When confronted with doing something they know they need to do, which is very far out of their comfort zone, I’ve heard women say,

“Oh I can’t do that, because I’ve got kids and they’re my first priority.”

And I’ll shrug and say Okay, but what I’m really thinking is,

“What would your children say if they knew you were using them as an excuse for not doing the things you KNOW you need to do?”

Harsh?

Absolutely.

But then, the truth often is.