The compound interest of brand building.

Think of your work this last week. What if three years from now, you’re still doing the same thing? How would you feel?

How content would you be if the rest of your work life looked like the last week? What do you wish you were doing less of? More of??

What do you wish you had time to do for your brand? Maybe you think about writing a book? Or teaching a class? Or starting a community give-back program?

Well, why don’t you? It’s not that you don’t care. My guess is that the culprit is time. There’s not enough of it. By the time you go to all the networking events and figure something to say on as many social media platforms as possible. Generate enough work to get through the week; to make enough to survive another month.

So it’s not that you don’t have enough time. It’s that the things you spend time on aren’t building on themselves. There’s no residual value. You’re treading water.

And that’s where brand building comes in.

My favorite way to think of brand building is rings on a tree. You complete a cycle of brand building activities and at the end, you’ve added another ring. You’ve grown.

When you’re building a brand, it’s about shifting your thinking. Away from sales as the end goal and onto relationship building. Away from instant returns and onto long term goals.

It’s a long game. Very little of what you do is asking for a sale. It’s mostly giving value. You tell stories, give things away, offer tips and tricks. And you do this in emails, on social media, and at events.

You cultivate a strong brand voice and use it to build a community around your work. And you build brand equity over time.

And a brand voice starts with brand strategy. Spending the time to figure out the heart and soul of your brand. It’s going to make everything else you do — from messaging and websites to introductions and emails — easier and more effective.

(Developing Your Authentic Voice — Watch Now.)

And at first, it’s just a little bit. Let’s say you’re 5% more effective this month. You build just a little bit more loyalty. Your messaging draws in a few more people who are just right for what you do.

But isn’t this all just more work? Why do it?

Why not just pay for leads? Well, because if you’re not brand building then whatever you’re doing now… you can never stop.

How much do you pay for leads? You’ll never be able to stop paying.

How much time do you spend networking? That will never decrease.

Eventually brand building will take over most of the work of lead generation for you. And that’s the sweet spot. That’s when you’re free to start spending more on more time on what you love and what you want to explore.

Maybe for you it’s writing a book. You’re not networking so much and suddenly you have hours each week to write. You finish that book.

And that book, it just helps your brand go deeper. You’re investing in things that help the rings of your brand tree grow. Which is only going to give you more time to spend on bigger and more meaningful brand pieces.

Your brand gets deeper. You serve people better. And you like your work more.

But at some point, you have to plant the tree. It’s like the old Chinese proverb:

When is the best time to plant a tree? Twenty years ago. When is the second best time? Today.

Start the cycle of brand building. Get a little bit more effective this month. And build on it next month. Yourself three years from now thanks you.