Education
Series on Branding
Empower Your Company: Shoot for the Heart By Kathy Heasley
In last month’s issue of In Business Magazine, we began our six-part series on this new way to build a business and build a brand. In this second article, we’ll focus on the first stage of that process: finding your heart. If you think this subject is too weak for a business person, think again. Heart is anything but weak. Finding your heart and putting it out there takes courage, strength and commitment.
others. So he went after his life’s work with a vengeance and became extremely successful.
The Most Potent Power in Business Business schools tell you that emotion has no place in the workplace. But, actually, the opposite is true. Heart, which we define as the fire, that higher purpose, that something bigger than yourself, is the most potent power your business has. Miss tapping into it, miss sharing it, and you miss out on your company’s greatest asset. That’s why the first stage in brand development is all about finding your heart. Without knowing what drives you, it’s impossible to go any further in the branding process and get it right. Several years ago, we worked with an investment company. You might think there’d be little heart there, but, in fact, there was. The founder had a burning drive to help ordinary people become more financially secure — not because of commissions or profits or the next toy he wanted to buy, but because, during an earlier economic downturn, he had experienced first-hand the emotional pain of losing everything. It affected him profoundly and he wanted to stop it from happening to
Heart Turns Work into Life’s Work What we are talking about is purpose, your “why” behind your “what.” It’s the very thing that will inspire others and make your emerging brand real. And if you haven’t done the soul searching required to find your why, there’s no time like the present. To do it, ask yourself the tough questions: What gets you up in the morning? What was your greatest win? Your greatest sorrow? Where do you want to be in five years? In 10 years? What do you want your legacy to be when you’re gone? Then, and perhaps most importantly, ask yourself, “Why?” as a follow-up to all those questions. Eventually, you will get to the heart, although sometimes it takes a professional’s help. If you’re wondering what makes the heart so powerful, consider what a former soldier told fellow entrepreneurs at a Heart & Mind Branding business seminar he attended. He was creating his post-military life following two tours of duty in Iraq, and during the presentation it dawned on him, “We made more progress when we connected heart to heart with the Iraqi people.” He had seen more than his share of combat overseas but said that, most of the time, his job was to win the Iraqi people over so they would accept our help. “When our orders told us to bark rules at them, we got resistance, we got nowhere.” He
Heart & Mind Branding — the Education Series The “Heart & Mind Branding” series takes business owners through the steps to consciously address improvements to their company’s success by implementing an integrated approach to branding. In Business Magazine presents the six-part series:
Intro Sept. 2011
Heart
Message
Image
Actions
Systems
Oct. 2011
Nov. 2011
Dec. 2011
Jan. 2012
Feb. 2012
To reference published segments, please access the archived issue on the In Business Magazine website, www.inbusinessmag.com.
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found that we are emotional beings. We buy with our hearts and justify with our minds; what goes for buying products, ideas and services also goes for winning people over. Emotion is everything. Heart Is for All Businesses and All People Yes, heart is alive and well even in realms where you might least expect it — such as the financial industry and the military. Heart isn’t just for nonprofit businesses. It’s for all businesses. Have you ever heard someone say, “… win the hearts and minds …”? The reason heart and mind are in that order is, when you connect with people’s hearts, they let you into their minds. Our soldier said the mind-first method was ineffective. And we’re all shoppers who make emotional purchases, so we know it doesn’t work on Main Street. Why, then, do we for one minute think it will work on Wall Street? Too many businesses, public and private, insist on emphasizing the mind side of business — the spreadsheets, the objectives, the sales quotas — when we learned from the last article in this series that every successful brand needs both heart and mind. If you’re running your business based on the numbers alone, if you’re seldom or never allowing your team and your customers into your heart, you aren’t going to become a breakthrough brand. The reasons are both inside and outside your company: Your team just won’t work hard enough for you; they won’t care enough. Your customers won’t connect with you; they’ll migrate to your competitors and shop price. Wouldn’t you rather have an engaged work force? Customers who are brand loyal? And a job that is a life’s purpose? Well, then, get busy and find your heart. Heasley & Partners, Inc. heasleyandpartners.com
Kathy Heasley is founder and principal of HEASLEY&PARTNERS, Inc., a branding company that helps organizations grow and prosper. She’s the creator of Heart & Mind® Branding, a Rich Dad Advisor, author of multiple books and CDs, and international marketing and communications coach.
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