Posted on September 14, 2012 by Stephan Wiedner

This week I’ve been inspired by two warm-hearted Noomii coaches: Madeleine McBrearty and Linda Deming Ratcliff.

Both of these wonderful women face a unique challenge. Or at least I think they do. How do you say “I love my clients” without sounding totally mushy and still professing to offer genuine value?!

I’ve completed the VIA strengths survey a couple times and my number one strength is my capacity to love and be loved by others. I’m pretty sure both Madeleine and Linda would find the same results. Both of them said “I just love my clients”. And I believe them. It’s genuine and it’s from their heart.

Hands up if the capacity to love and be loved is your #1 strength! Yay!

Anyway, my approach with personal branding is to look at your strengths and figure out how that is a benefit to your clients.

For example, if you’re top strength is that you are “one with spirit”, so what? How does that benefit your ideal clients?

Or maybe you persevered through emigration from your home country, a divorce, post-secondary education, and a natural disaster that swept your house away. So what? How does that benefit your ideal clients?

Usually there is a really good answer. If you dig a little, you can come up with something that is unique to you. It will lie in your belief system or your natural way of being. You just need to put your finger on it and articulate it to prospective clients (Sounds so easy, doesn’t it? Email me for help.)

When it comes to love, I’m struggling. My own formula doesn’t seem to work with people whose hearts are bigger than the little chest cavity in which it resides. I can’t answer the question of how the capacity to love and be loved translates into a selling feature that clients are willing to pay for.

In other words, who wants a coach that loves them? I’m sure lots of people want that but is a selling feature that you can come out and claim.

Can you see the billboards? “Hire me, I’m a loving person.”

Ya, well so is my grandmother but she’s not gonna help me with my business.

Perhaps I’m asking the wrong question. Instead of wondering who wants a coach that loves them, I should be asking how do you become a coach that is loved by others?

How do you become loved by others?

Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, one of the largest branding agencies in the world has a book called “Lovemarks”. The description of the book on Amazon.com does a pretty good job to describe why and how brands want to create an emotional connection with customers. This partial excerpt is good:

“In his second book, Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands, Roberts recounts the journey from Products to Trademarks to Brands – and the urgency of taking the next step up – to Lovemarks. Roberts offers a lively, critical assessment of brands and the problems that face them in an increasingly competitive world. His argument is straightforward. Numbed by the assult of commodification and customer indifference, brands have simply run out of juice. The solution? The creation of products and experiences that will create long-term emotional relationships with consumers.”

You may not be a mega brand but you are faced with growing competition and customer indifference just like them.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself that will hopefully spread more love and perhaps make it part of your brand.

1. How do you show your existing clients you love them?
2. What do your family members love about you? Do you show that side of yourself to your clients? Do people get that same impression when they read your website or Noomii profile?
3. What could you do to support your ideal clients without expecting anything in return?
4. What information can you package and give away on your website to people you love?

As a parting thought I want to ask, again, who wants a coach that loves them? Linda Deming Ratcliff is looking for a couple extra clients for certification. She would LOVE a couple referrals. Send her a note if someone in your life could benefit from some loving coaching (maybe yourself). In addition to loving her clients, I think she has a lot to offer. You gotta talk to her find out.

Please share your loving thoughts in the comments.

With Love,
Stephan Wiedner