In order to do for others what you would wish they would do for you, and love your neighbor as yourself, you need to do for yourself what you would wish others would do for themselves and love yourself as you would wish others would love themselves.
Love starts with knowing, and knowing starts with asking, and asking starts with being curious.
Discovering your brand is a useful way to discover your strengths and weaknesses, what you love and what you hate, so you can find out how you can make your way in the world doing what you love and being an inspiration to others while doing your share in solving problems in the world and helping to bring paradise.
Thus finding your brand is a wonderful way to bring the spiritual into the practical and lead a harmonious life where you can make a living doing what you love, and love living, and help make the world a better place.
Your brand is a way to package your gifts in a way that they are recognizable for others and you can use them to serve others, and at the same time attract wealth by the value you bring to others.
Finding your brand is a fun and productive way to soul search.
Your brand is very personal. Your business should look like you, sound like you and its values should align with your values.
The ABC of branding is: Your brand should be:
A. Authentic to you, have your DNA.
B. Built to last, subliminale, solid, something people can trust. It should have consistency.
C. Created to support you in having a significant impact on the world. And that is not about numbers, it is about fairness, truth, love and health.
The 5 pillars of a legacy brand can be described in the acronym LASER:
L. LegacyWhat do you want to build that will outlast you? Why does the business exist? What is your story? Why does it matter? Why you?
A. Brand archetypes Secret Sauce. They tell a story and they are a short cut to meaning. What is your brand archetype? Find out by answering the questions below.
S.Your Story. Wherever you go, you take your story with you. What is your story? Find out by answering the questions below.
E. Expression, everyone looks for that look and feel of the brand. What is the ook and feel of your brand?
R. Results: A business and a brand should not live independently. One should not exist without the other. They should work together. How do your business and brand work together?
Discover your brand in 21 questions, which you can fill in in your very own Brand Chart (Click the link to upload and fill it in).
4 questions to discover your purpose,
4 questions to discover your ikigai and
12 questions to discover your archetype
And a bonus question where you describe your brand in 3 words.
1. What do you love? That reveals a gift that’s in you.
2. What do you hate? That’s what you were born to fix.
3.What makes you cry? That’s what you heal best.
4.What annoys you? That’s what you are best at solving.
Ikigai: basically means that you plan your activities at the intersection between what you love, your mission, what you are good at, your passion, your profession, your vocation, what you think the world needs and what you can get paid for.
What are you good at?
What do you love?
What do you think the world needs?
What can you be paid for?
Profession: What are you good at that you can get paid for?
Passion:What are you good at that you love?
Mission: What do you love that you think the world needs?
Vocation: What do you think the world needs that you can get paid for?
Ikigai: What do you love that you are good at and can get paid for that you think the world needs?
Or: What service or product that does not exist but which you wish existed can you provide?
Michel Neray says:
-What you do is your product. What do you do?
-How you do what you do is your brand. How do you do what you do?
-Why you do what you do how you do it is your story. Why do you do what you do how you do it?
Archetype:
Look for the 3 archetypes that suit you best.
Read them all, put down “yes” under the ones that are you, “no” under the ones that are not you and “a little “ under the ones that are kind of you.
Highlight the yes’s in yellow: with underneath number 1 for the top, 2 for the middle, 3. for the least.
Highlight orange for a little.
Red letters for “no”
The Innocent
Motto:
Free to be you and me
Core desire:
To experience paradise
Goal: To be happy
Greatest fear: To be punished for doing something bad or wrong
+Strategy: To do things right
Weakness: Boring for all their naive innocence
Talent: Faith and optimism
The Innocent is also known as: Muse, traditionalist, naive, mystic, saint, romantic, dreamer.
Everyman
Motto: All men and women are created equal
Core Desire: Connecting with others
Goal: To belong
Greatest fear: To be left out or to stand out from the crowd
Strategy: Develop ordinary solid virtues, be down to earth, the common touch
Weakness: Losing one’s own self in an effort to blend in or for the sake of superficial relationships Talent: Realism, empathy, lack of pretense
Everyman is also known as: The regular guy/gal, the orphan, the good old boy, everyman, the realist, the working stiff, the solid citizen, the good neighbor, the silent majority.
The Hero
Motto: Where there’s a will, there’s a way
Core desire: To prove one’s worth through courageous acts
Goal: Expert mastery in a way that improves the world
Greatest fear: Weakness, vulnerability, being a “chicken”
Strategy: To be as strong and competent as possible
Weakness: Arrogance, always needing another battle to fight
Talent: Competence and courage
The Hero is also known as: The warrior, crusader, rescuer, superhero, the soldier, dragon slayer, the winner and the team player.
The Caregiver
Motto: Love your neighbor as yourself
Core desire: To protect and care for others
Goal: To help others
Greatest fear: Selfishness and ingratitude
Strategy: Doing things for others
Weakness: Martyrdom and being exploited
Talent: Compassion, generosity
The Caregiver is also known as: The saint, altruist, parent, helper, support
The Explorer
Motto: Don’t fence me in
Core desire: The freedom to find out who you are through exploring the world
Goal: To experience a better, more authentic, more fulfilling life
Biggest fear: Getting trapped, conformity, and inner emptiness
Strategy: Journey, seeking out and experiencing new things, escape from boredom
Weakness: Aimless wandering, becoming a misfit
Talent: Autonomy, ambition, being true to one’s own soul
The explorer is also known as: The seeker, wanderer, adventurer, individualist, pilgrim.
The Rebel
Motto: Rules are made to be broken
Core desire: Revenge or revolution
Goal: To overturn what isn’t working
Greatest fear: To be powerless or ineffectual
Strategy: Disrupt, destroy, or shock
Weakness: Crossing over to the dark side, crime
Talent: Outrageousness, radical freedom
The Rebel is also known as: The Outlaw, revolutionary, the villain, wild man/woman, misfit.
The Lover
Motto: You’re the only one
Core desire: Intimacy and experience
Goal: Being in a relationship with the people, work and surroundings they love
Greatest fear: Being alone, a wallflower, unwanted, unloved
Strategy: To become more and more physically and emotionally attractive
Weakness: Outward-directed desire to please others at risk of losing own Identity
Talent: Passion, gratitude, appreciation, and commitment
The Lover is also known as: The partner, friend, intimate, enthusiast, sensualist, spouse, Teambuilder.
The Creator
Motto: If you can imagine it, it can be done
Core desire: To create things of enduring value
Goal: To realize a vision
Greatest fear: Mediocre vision or execution
Strategy: Develop artistic control and skill
Task: To create culture, express own vision
Weakness: Perfectionism, bad solutions
Talent: Creativity and imagination
The Creator is also known as: The artist, inventor, innovator, musician, writer or dreamer.
The Jester
Motto: You only live once
Core desire: To live in the moment with full enjoyment
Goal: To have a great time and lighten up the world
Greatest fear: Being bored or boring others
Strategy: Play, make jokes, be funny
Weakness: Frivolity, wasting time
Talent: Joy
The Jester is also known as: Provocateur, trickster, entertainer, practical joker or comedian.
The Sage
Motto: The truth will set you free
Core desire: To find the truth.
Goal: To use intelligence and analysis to understand the world.
Biggest fear: Being duped, misled; ignorance.
Strategy: Seeking out information and knowledge; self-reflection and understanding thought processes.
Weakness: Can study details forever and never act.
Talent: Wisdom, intelligence.
The Sage is also known as: The expert, scholar, detective, advisor, thinker, philosopher, academic, researcher, planner, professional, mentor, teacher, contemplative.
The Magician
Motto: I make things happen.
Core desire: Understanding the fundamental laws of the universe
Goal: To make dreams come true
Greatest fear: Unintended negative consequences
Strategy: Develop a vision and live by it
Weakness: Becoming manipulative
Talent: Finding win-win solutions
The Magician is also known as: The visionary, alchemist, catalyst, inventor, charismatic leader, shaman, healer, medicine man.
The Ruler
Motto: Power isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.
Core desire: Control
Goal: Create a prosperous, successful family or community
Strategy: Exercise power
Greatest fear: Chaos, being overthrown
Weakness: Being authoritarian, unable to delegate
Talent: Responsibility, leadership
The Ruler is also known as: The boss, leader, aristocrat, king, queen, politician, role model, manager or administrator.
See how your archetypes fit in the archetype wheel and what their colours are:
Blue:Creator (Innovation) , Ruler(Content) , Caregiver(Service): Provide structure to the world.
Green: Innocent(Safety) , Sage (Understanding) , Explorer (Freedom) : Yearn for Paradise.
Yellow: Rebel (Liberation), Magician (Power), Hero (Mastery): Leave a mark on the world.
Red: Lover (intimacy), Jester (Enjoyment), Everyman (Belonging) : Connect with others.
Some use other colours:
3 words to describe your brand:
Fill this Brand Chart in and come back to it now and then to see how your answers evolve or change, or maybe stay the same.
Begin with the end in mind, end with the beginning in mind, and always think, what is the best step to take next, and take that with the following step in mind.
Service plus Significance equals Success.
Doing what you love is not only important for your success, it also helps your body make the happiness proteins, which are very important for your health.
It’s the sweet spot of being self aware but not selfish, so you can serve more, and serve better,with more happiness and effect, and thus with more satisfaction.
Combine that with an oxytocin promoting work environment and you are all set for a health and happiness promoting way o life.
Listen to professor Paul Zak’s explanation how to achieve that:
The Moral Molecule | Paul Zak | Talks at Google, March 24, 2015
So find what you love to do so much you would do it for free, perfect your skills and make a living living the life you love!
For more soul search tools, see: Soul Search Tools: Which are useful, which are not?
Sources:
Map and Fire, Branding and Digital marketing Services to grow your business,
Sustainable Ways of Attracting Wealth,4wins4u, August 15, 2021, Anna Elize