How to Steer Your Brand in Times of Uncertainty

Who Is your Hero?

I want to talk about accessing your courage by simply accessing your hero. Often, we all struggle with remembering, “What am I trying to do again?”, when we get into that fog of fear and confusion. I can tell you that at every level, every step of the way, we come up against this. No matter how successful you are, there will be those times.

What we do, in order to champion you and champion our brands, we ask them, “Who is your hero?” If somebody other than you was doing this, who would that be? Who do you really, really respect? Who do you honor and you really trust their judgment? For me in my business, one of my heroes is Coco Chanel, before she built the house of couture. Atelier, in French, means a workshop, and it is very much an artist’s workshop. It is just enough symbolic messaging for me to tune into our own brand, and I’ll say, “What would Coco do?” When I’m coming up against a challenge and something isn’t feeling right, or I am about to maybe allow something to go out the door that is not up to par. You have to stop yourself and just grip onto your faith. Grip onto your moment of courage, and access your hero. Ask yourself that question from there.

The way to do that is to identify who is one, two or three of people, that if it wasn’t you doing this job, who would do this? Let’s say it would be Steve Jobs or it would be Gandhi. It may be one of your favorite brands, Elon Musk or the head of Amazon. Identify who you really resonate with as a hero. Then take a moment and ask yourself the question. You know in your gut when something is not quite right, or it is sub par. You might be making a choice because you don’t have the budget to do it the way you would like, or you are feeling desperate or you are feeling a lot of pressure to just get it done already, and move on.

Ask yourself this question: “What would (insert hero),” what would they do? It is just enough to remind you what you stand for as as brand and what you stand for as a brand warrior. It will slow you down enough and get you out of that fear or out of that decision-making that is probably not in your best interest. You can pause long enough to say, “Is this serving my vision? Is this the right move, right now?”

You may need to just put something on pause and maybe re-edit something or go back and tweak the color. Then, you can be proud of what you put out. We often have to hold the vision for our clients when they get into that place of futility. This is a way for you to just have me in your back pocket if you will, to have me champion you. You say, “What would my hero do?” Insert your hero. If you have been one of our clients, you know that can be me championing you. Sometimes it comes in the form of a phone call, where I will get up in that conversation, and say, “What are you doing? Wait a second. What is the vision again? Is this on mark? It is not on mark? It is on brand? If it is not, what else can we do, because I need you to feel good about what you are doing. And so do you”

Kerri Konik is a seasoned brand strategist and leading expert in igniting emotional connection and optimizing customer experience to drive business growth. She is a consultant, advisor and speaker on catalyzing the emotional bonds between customers, brands, and leaders to increase value, progress, and accelerate the speed of change, growth and desired impact. An entrepreneur at heart, Kerri has launched five businesses, and is the CEO of InspireFire, a women-owned brand strategy and marketing consultancy based in Philadelphia.