Do you have a memorable brand?

Find Your Superpower newsletter 059

Read time: 5 minutes

Topics covered: Branding, executive coaching, LinkedIn bootcamp launch

I have a venture capitalist friend who wears orange exclusively.

I mean religiously.

Those of you in the ASEAN startup and VC space would immediately know who I am referring to (and I am sure you will forward this email to him).

His wardrobe is orange… his business logo is also orange.

You may be wondering, is this simply a gimmick?

I beg to differ.

I believe that he genuinely likes the color orange, and he has wisely incorporated an element that best represents him into his sartorial and business decisions.

Our minds work in strange ways: from time to time when I see something orange, he pops up in my mind’s eye.

I can’t help but smile when that happens.

Simple and consistent branding decisions like these are more effective than we think in creating a lasting impression among our potential clients and collaborators.

We often complicate the matter by creating a convoluted backstory to our brand, or by bombarding an unsuspecting individual with multiple brands during a networking event.

Every time someone tells me that they have spent a small fortune revamping their logo or website, I feel like they’ve missed the point.

A brand is not a clever logo or a sexy website.

A brand is something simple and memorable.

Something we REMEMBER... for a long, long time.

LinkedIn: the eBay of professional services

Today, LinkedIn has become the new Craigslist and eBay for B2B and professional services.

In post after post, we see solopreneurs, small business owners, agency owners, coaches, consultants and keynote speakers peddling their services on LinkedIn. I am one of them.

For every topic—leadership potential, mindset shift, business scaling, career transition, mental health, personal finance—there is a coach who can help us on that.

That said, many people look like carbon copies of each other on LinkedIn:

• "Ambitious and strategic executive with growth mindset!"

• "A strong team player focused on customer success!"

• "An executive coach specializing in unlocking leadership potential!"

What makes you different from all of your competitors on the platform?

A sticky brand.

A simple and memorable brand.

And finding a memorable brand was a project that I worked on with Scott Harrison, a cohort 1 participant of my virtual, six-week Find Your Superpower LinkedIn bootcamp.

PS: thank you Scott for the testimonial

Scott’s red-ocean brand

Before Scott joined my bootcamp in February, I had the chance to audit his LinkedIn profile as part of my due diligence process.

My immediate observation was that Scott mostly coaches others in his LinkedIn posts, which clearly looks like what he should be doing, given that he is ... ahem ... an executive coach.

That’s what you expect a coach to do, right?

Which means that every other coach on LinkedIn is also doing that.

This is what we call a red-ocean strategy, which results in a very bloody ocean filled with coaches playing a zero-sum game and competing for essentially the same profile of clients: High-net-worth, high-performance senior executives looking to unlock a career promotion or make a career transition.

I should also point out that red oceans are filled with cutthroat competitors who embrace a scarcity mindset. Yikes, get me outta here!

Plus Scott’s posts were not getting the traction that he desired.

A hard pivot to Scott’s blue-ocean brand

I observed something truly unique about Scott that made him stand out: he is a Scotsman living in Singapore.

Next, I don’t think I need to point out that Scott’s name is... Scott.

I suggested that Scott play up the idea of “Scott, the Scotsman in Singapore.”

Not only does it have a ring to it, but its alliteration also makes it highly memorable.

This is Scott’s blue-ocean brand, a brand that immediately catapults him to top of mind... unless of course you can find me another executive coach on LinkedIn who is a Scotsman in Singapore called Scott.

Over the course of six weeks in the bootcamp, Scott did incredibly well on LinkedIn.

His posts have gone from from 10+ likes to:

• 88 likes: His first time unveiling the “Scott the Scotsman in Singapore” brand

• 188 likes: Showing his long working history and understanding of Singapore

• 112 likes: Showing his commitment to cross-cultural fluency

• 119 likes: Showcasing his client portfolio and establishing credibility as an executive coach

... all in less than two months.

Our special sauce: six business writing gyms

Scott achieved this by diligently participating in six weekly writing gyms, guided by two instructors who are LinkedIn Top Voices and experienced, full-time content creators.

He received peer support from his bootcamp buddies and he encouraged them in return.

Imagine how much faster Scott was learning by pacing 40+ other like-minded individuals week after week and seeing what worked for them, versus a much slower acquisition of data by going solo.

I recently met Scott at a public speaking conference, and he shared with me that since the bootcamp ended he has booked 12 new clients, four of which are corporate client retainers. As a result, he has not found the time to launch a newsletter, which is what I had suggested he consider doing next.

PS: Check out Scott's LinkedIn profile here. You can see the magic happening!

And if you are looking for an executive coach who thrives across cultures, consider Scott, the Scotsman in Singapore.

LAUNCH DAY: Cohort 3 is enrolling now

It is LAUNCH DAY today!

I volunteer as tribute to challenge you into action on LinkedIn.

My bootcamp coaching style is both empathetic BFF (good cop) and mom drill sergeant (bad cop) combined into one.

Feel free to check out some bootcamp testimonials here. You could also DM some of my past participants.

In the 72h pre-launch phase, slightly more than 50% of the seats in Cohort 3 were sold—our enrollment rate this time is significantly faster than it was for Cohorts 1 and 2.

PS: I am very grateful to the bootcamp alumni who referred new signups for cohort 3. Thank you for your endorsement and love!

ENROLLING NOW!

ENROLLING NOW!

ENROLLING NOW!

Thanks for reading issue 059 of my weekly Find Your Superpower newsletter.

For those of you who are new to my newsletter, Find Your Superpower is subscribed to by 37,000+ people, and discusses the following three goals: (1) Making a career transition, (2) Professional branding on LinkedIn, and (3) Reinventing ourselves for the future of work.