Are You Courageous Enough To Polarize?

Polarity and Your Brand Voice

I’m going to spend the next few blogs addressing the concept of polarity. You can have it all, but you can’t have it both ways. You’ve heard you can have it all, and I can tell you yes, you can have it all, which is the success of your business and your brand. It makes the difference you’re meant to make, but you can’t have it both ways in that everybody’s going to like you. In order to resonate, in order to matter, you need to communicate what you stand for. That’s a pretty intense thing to do. It’s imperative. You must do it. It’s not an option, but small business entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, get a little timid because they don’t want to piss anybody off, quite frankly.

In order to resonate, in order to matter, you need to communicate what you stand for. #brandvoice Click To Tweet
When you get clear about what you stand for, you need to actually begin standing for it. You can’t appeal to both sides. You can’t hang in the middle. You can’t have it both ways. In order to resonate, you need to actually take a stand for something. The more exposed, the more clear and transparent you are about what you stand for as a brand, what emotional solution you really provide, and the personality of how you do what you do, the more you amplify your resonance it’s also going to amplify your polarization. Polarization is like those magnets where they go to either pole.

Politics. Where do you stand on the issue, candidate number one? Well, candidate number one is going to stand for these issues. If you believe that, you align to that emotionally, you’re going to start polarizing. If you’re trying to stay into the middle and please everybody you’re not going to be pleasing anyone. When you do that you absolutely start creating the natural law of polarization where some people will not align to you; in fact, they will move away from you. They don’t like you. They won’t believe you. They won’t agree with you. That is a problem for the ego, always.

If You Resist Polarizing, Your Brand Won’t Go Anywhere

Unless you’re willing to display that active courage of standing for something, you won’t relate or connector resonate with much of anyone. If you won’t stand for something, if you won’t be courageous enough to polarize, then your brand will really not go anywhere. It will stay in the middle, and the middle is absolute death. You must have a compelling connection. You must have a stance. The problem is we don’t want to lose the other half or lose the other people, but they’re not your people anyway. They’re not for you, and, as I say, get over yourself. They’re not your people. Let it go. In order to have your people you’re going to have to be willing to let it go.

The deep dive is what do I stand for and am I willing to polarize? Am I willing to adjust my messaging so that I really connect with my target audience and knowing that I’m going to disconnect from a lot more people. Your brand clients and customers are going to align with what you stand for as a brand, because in a sea of choice they can get their needs met elsewhere and they will. If you’re a flat line, if you don’t stand for anything, they will not invest in the relationship with you. They will not buy your product, and they will not stick around and be loyal throughout economy changes, throughout trouble. There’s no connection, there’s no relationship to stay in for a bigger reason.

Look at polarization, look at resonance. Are you willing to tell the truth about what you stand for, and are you willing to take on the negative consequences of doing so? Quite recently I was sending out some email and I made a very clear statement in the email. I am relating more, and more and more people are choosing to invest in branding services with us, and more and more people are opting out of our list. That is a good thing. That means my voice is actually standing for something. I’m at the stage where I’m willing to be polarizing, because the middle is death. If you’re too close to the middle, you will go out of business. You must have your resonance quotient go up, your polarization quotient’s going to go up with it. They correlate.

If you want it all, if you want to do what you’re meant to do with this business, with this brand, this time now, make the impact you care to make. You’re not putting this much skin in the game to not win or to not serve. Another way to look at it is the amount you polarize is the amount, the rate of success that you’re going to have. If people start opting out of your list you might be doing something right. While people are buying you might be spot on to your target audience. This all dialed back into clarity about what it is that you do stand for, clarity about what your brand is meant to be doing, who you’re meant to be serving, what you really stand for.

Kerri Konik is a seasoned senior branding executive who has committed her focus and expertise to bringing big agency strategies to business owners and entrepreneurs to achieve next level growth. Kerri is the CEO of her 5th venture, Brandscape Atelier, a women-owned boutique agency specializing in strategic branding for small business. They develop brand strategy, identity, messaging and marketing that ignites emotional connection, increases sales, drives growth and profits, resulting in sustainability and achieving a greater impact in the world.