Inspiration vs Intimidation…in your Brand Experience

Are you inspiring or intimating your audience?

I know your time is valuable. These show notes give you the gist of the episode, what is covered, any links or resources talked about in the show, and also gives you a few ways to listen, watch or digest this episode.

This episode’s topic, in a nutshell…

I discuss the dichotomy of: is there a point when you think you are inspiring someone, but actually you are just throwing so much out there (in your passion to get it out), that you are quite frankly…intimidating people.

This conversation is (obviously) heavily tainted by my own subjective opinion on this. But I’d invite you to consider this dichotomy with me and get in touch to let me know your thoughts.

Why do I think this important? How we behave and project ourselves to the outside world, has an impact on who we attract to work with us and that affects our quality of life and work. It’s important to know when, and if, what you think of as inspiring is actually being experienced as intimating.

As consultants, coaches, mentors or advisers to others, I would hope we would really rather not intimate our clients. In my experience that has always been a tactic that disengages and shortens the life time you have with a client.

Highlights 

In this episode I unpack:

• The wolves in sheep’s clothing to watch out for
• Why intimidation is a short-term tactic with consequences for your lifetime value of your client relationship
• My definition of inspiration (hint – it’s a beautiful symbiotic relationship)
• An example of someone who really inspires me
• An example of someone who doesn’t inspire me, but inspires others (however I fear may also be intimidating when it comes to people trying to emulate what he does).
• Why subject matter experts need to check-in with themselves to ensure that they are not being experienced as ‘intimidating’ when they actually want their clients to be truly inspired
• The difference between Personality Traits and Experience Traits (in the context of your brand strategy)

Did the nuance between inspiring and intimidating help at all? Do you think that you may, over the years, have strayed into intimating clients into action – because you were overridden by your positive intentions to do right by them?

How do you feel about it now? Maybe you already picked up on this and have made adjustments. What did you change? Have you seen a marked difference in the quality and lifetime of your clients?

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