I believe that every one of us has unique qualities that make us who we are, and when these qualities are evoked in us in a positive way, our brilliance shines.

That is when our diamond sparkles the brightest and we are most attractive to our divine ideal clients and strategic alliances.

We want to make sure we capture this in our business brand because our particular zone of brilliance is one of those important elements that have us stand out from other coaches that work with similar clients or do similar work.

Many of us fail to see our own brilliance and the beauty in some of these unique qualities.

We can try to put them to the side or dummy them down — partly because we have gotten some negative feedback along the way that we are “too much”, “too different”, etc. — and all those external saboteurs manifest into our own judgments about who we “should be.”

And yet, as human beings, we are consistently showing other people who we are (in other words, you aren’t fooling anyone if you try to downplay that quirkiness!  We still know it’s there).  The people who adore you can see your brilliance shining through and recognize things in yourself that you may not be able to see or yet fully own.  And that is why it’s important when you are developing your business brand, to ask other people about what they think makes you uniquely brilliant in the world and as a coach.

I have my clients do a Zone of Brilliance exercise where they ask at least 6 people to share 4-6 words to describe their true essence and brilliance.  It’s important to look for words that evoke that totality of you.  Make sure they choose words that when put together really display that 360 view of you and not just some of your essence. You are multi-dimensional and we want that to be reflected in your brand.

Once you get these words fed back to you, you get to decide ultimately the list of words that you feel capture your essence.  It ultimately is honing in on that essence to make sure you are authentically aligning your brand with who you are. These words become tools that your web designer, copywriter and other marketing support team can use to make sure the work they do for you is a true reflection of your spirit.  And of course, you will want to be reminded of these so you make sure everything you do reflects the essence of you.

Not only is it helpful for creating your brand, it really is such a confidence lifter to hear from others what they think is brilliant about you!  (Nothing like getting a bunch of love notes about how you are awesome in your inbox!)

Recently my amazing client, Nicole Kleemann, did this exercise and said it was such a gift.  One of her friends even created a Wordle (which is one of those images with lots of words that are so popular right now) that had all of her Zone of Brilliance words.  Nicole liked this concept so much that she created Wordles with all the words she got back from her colleagues, friends and clients and then created this beautiful poster to remind her of her brilliance.  How cool is that?

Remember as coaches, people hire us because they feel they can trust us and feel connected to us, so it is so critical that the brand of us is a true reflection of the person you are, as that will draw those Divine Ideal Clients to you even more effectively

With appreciation,

Tara Butler Floch