Hello Friends,
What do you do? This is a pretty common question in the world today. It can be pretty easy to answer and it can be very difficult. It is always important to try and simplify. It is trendy in tech jobs to attempt to seem overly clever in naming job titles. Instead of clever they can come across as pretentious.
BD Ninja (Business Development Representative)
Rainmaker (Salesperson)
Happiness Hero (Customer Service Representative)
Lead Code Wizard (Lead Developer)
Director of Beancounting (Accountant)
Digital Overlord (Website Manager)
Marketing Rockstar (Marketing Executive)
New Media Guru (Digital Marketing Manager)
I'm all for creativity but position titles should be clear and benefit those that see it.
Here are some mission statements from large brands that miss the mark instead of clearly stating why people would want to do business with them. They come across as tone deaf when they talk about themslelves too much instead of the customer.
McDonald's: "Our Worldwide operations are aligned around a global strategy called the Plan to Win, which center on an exceptional customer experience - People, Products, Place, Price, Promotion." They are sending the message that they benefit if we are their customers. They state 5 words that start with P that are the standard P's taught in any marketing class. I'd rather just hear about a meal that makes me happy. The lesson here is that McDonald's is talking about themselves and how big they are instead of the customer.
Albertson's: "To create a shopping experience that pleases our customers; a workplace that creates opportunities and a great working environment for our associates: and a business that achieves financial success." They talked about the customer, but ended with their financial success, so what is the most important point to take away? I understand that they see their shareholders as customers and that is why they injected "financial success" but I don't think it helps.
Barnes and Noble: "Our mission is to operate the best specialty retail business in America, regardless of the product we sell." They are telling us they want to be the best and we can help them with that. The brand messaging would be more successful if they clearly stated how they will help us.
"MGM Resorts International is the leader in entertainment & hospitality - a diverse collection of extraordinary people, distinctive brands and best in class destinations." This is another example of bragging. People appreciate brands the same way they appreciate people. If they tell people they are the best it can be a major turnoff.
Some salespeople try and focus on their customer by discussing the benefits that they provide, but at a cocktail party it can sound confusing. They might say "I help firms achieve a 24% increase in profitability fiscally". It does focus on the customer but it is confusing in terms of what they actually do for a living.
A friend of mine introduced me to an interesting model that is called a One-Liner and it is used to describe movie scripts written with the goal of getting picked up by studios. The One-Liners follow the same fundamentals of stories that are used in movies. Donald Miller wrote "Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen." He discusses the fundamentals of a message with a Character, Problem, Plan, and Success.
Get Donald Miller's "Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen"
Donald Miller uses a Yoga Class as an example to craft an effective One-Liner:
The Character: Mom's
The Problem: Busy Schedules
The Plan: Short, meaningful workouts
The Success: Health and renewed energy
One-Liner: "We provide busy mom's with a short, meaningful workout they can use to stay healthy and have renewed energy."
To arrive at a simpler description for what YForest does, I had to start by writing about my experience and why I started YForest (See Below):
I have a renewed interest in golf with my son Liam playing in golf tournaments and with my drive to improve my golf game.
I played college golf and have helped golfers with their games my entire life.
In Sales and Sales leadership I have applied golf principals that have led to success.
In golf, I have applied business principals for improvement.
My resume includes creating and growing a golf social network startup.
My experience includes work in Sales and Sales leadership in every size of company. They have all grown and gone through considerable growth, acquisitions, and change. Change is extremely difficult and the fear of change spreads throughout an organization.
When I first became a sales rep I applied creative strategies to grow my territory and was consumed with applying these ideas, but I also moved away from best practices that lead to success. I had a realization that to grow, people need to apply best practices and creativity when it applies to a business, sales career, or golf game.
Being creative requires a process that I have learned over a 20-year career. Everyone is different and has the potential to be creative and improve results. People need to approach creativity differently because some people are naturally creative while others need to start with solving a problem.
To start refining my message, I listed my experience and insights throughout my career. I'm combining my passions of golf and business and using performance strategies and best practices to help people achieve greater results. Golf and Business have so many similarities.
Here is how I worked through Donald Miller's StoryBrand Model:
The Character: Golfers and People in Business
The problem: The fear of change is destroying people's creativity and performance
The Solution: A Formula that offers growth ideas
The Result: Transformed results
YForest One-Liner:
In golf and business the fear of change is destroying people's creativity and performance. YForest has a formula that offers an infusion of growth ideas that will transform their results.
YForest Job Title:
Creativity and Performance Consultant in Golf and Business
The purpose of the StoryBrand One-Liner is to encourage people to inject themselves into the story as the character where they can relate to the problem, see the solution, and desire the result. In this case, anyone that has been a golf instructor can relate to golfers resistance to change what they are currently doing to improve. The average golf handicap has stayed the same for years. People fall into habits and want to get better but don't want to change what they are currently doing. People in leadership have been given large goals in growing companies that are difficult to achieve and have experienced a fear of change with the people that they manage. Change is necessary for improvement. Employees have given ideas to Leadership to help improve a company and help it grow but are met with a resistance to their idea because Leadership doesn't want to change what they are doing. If everyone can work together and overcome the fear of change, creativity can be applied and performance can be improved tremendously.
The combination of writing out the who, what, where, when, why, and how of your story, then combining Donald Miller's StoryBrand excercise is a constructive method to refine your message.
If you are a golfer or work in business and would like to discuss ways to fight the fear of change that is destroying creativity and performance then reach out now!
Creatively,
Brian
email: brianlovegren@yforest.co
text or call: 504-741-7560