Today, brand matters so so much so let’s discuss WHY and HOW you can continue to build yours. Don’t let no brand be your brand. Lets use the power of brand.

In this edition of LiveTime with Alec…

• Do not let no brand be your brand.
• You get to curate your brand, there is a lot of power in that.
• Your brand is not a font, a logo, its you.
• Its okay if your brand is you and that you are unique.

Episode Transcribe

-What’s up everybody, welcome to the LiveTime With Alec,

I’m Alec,

It’s Tuesday, man, good to hang with you guys. In the midst of this chaos, in the midst of the unrest, in the midst of this COVID pandemic, it’s hard to move forward, it’s hard to stay focused, it’s hard to keep contributing and doing what we do, but you know what, at the end of the day, we gotta move on, with ourselves, our businesses, we’ve gotta push ourselves forward. We cannot sit back and not change. And I’m here to change with you guys today. Man, we need a lot of change, don’t we? I hope to be a voice to that in the coming weeks and months, I hope I will be a voice of that today, I hope to encourage everybody to change themselves because it’s time. Today, my friends, I wanna talk about the power of branding and wow, what more important time than now to talk about the power of brand and in doing that, let’s dump this out and bring up another little viewpoint here. In doing the power of brand, there are some things that we have to understand. Thanks for joining me guys, if we were live across Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, welcome, throw a comment, let me know where you’re joining me from, I would love to understand who’s watching and who’s hanging, but let’s talk about brand for a second. Every single new hire orientation than I do and I sit down with everybody, who’s brand new to our company at loanDepot, we talk about brand because it’s so, so important. And so, the first thing we have to understand about brand, is that you, make decisions based on the power of brand. Let me give you a example. If you shop at Amazon, let me hear you, throw a comment in there, let me know you’re listening and if you shop at Amazon, let me know, because I’m gonna do this right now. If I put Amazon… Hi Ohio, hi Melissa. If I put Amazon up on the screen, watch this. So let’s go here and let’s put up Amazon, boom. What emotions do you feel when you see that logo on the screen? What’s up Brooklyn, what’s up Stephen LA? What emotions do you see when you get this logo over here on the screen? What do you feel? A lot of you guys feel… Hey, Stephen? A lot of guys feel happiness because Amazon’s like Christmas every day, isn’t it? Like when you see this and you see the smile, by the way, that’s not a smile. That’s not smile, on the logo. I thought it was a smile, but yes, Brian, your wife does count because you’re in a relationship with Amazon, trust me. Shaun, Amazon prime member all day. This is not a smile. They have everything from a to Z and here’s the power of brand. Do you know that there is a store that sells the thing you’re buying at the bottom of the page, when you look stuff up on Amazon? There’s a store. I mean, did you know this? Look at this. Let’s go, let’s go right now. Let’s go to Amazon, right now. Let me share my screen. I wanna show you guys what’s going on here. Share screen, Amazon. There we go. You guys see this with me? Let me make it a little bigger. Okay, we’re on Amazon. And let’s go look at some of the products here. What’s up Kevin on Long Island? Let’s go check it out here. Sunglasses, awesome. I need some sunglasses. Look, you see all the stuff about it, all the stats, everyone who’s bought, the ratings, you’re feeling good. Who sells these sunglasses? Who’s selling these sunglasses? These guys. COASION is selling these sunglasses. But you, don’t even care, do you? You don’t even care, do you? That who’s selling those? Why don’t you care? Kevin, I cringe… . Yeah, brother, I’m telling you. So, when you see this, I’m gonna put it up again. When you see this, what gives you the confidence to buy that, without even caring, who who’s selling it? Brand. Now, you’ve built brand trust over the years, didn’t you? or your spouse did. Because you pushed a button and stuff showed up at your house. So, this matters. This is a thing. And yet you don’t care, because you know, you can return it, the next day. No questions asked. Ship at the mail. Melissa, now bringing it to me, I feel you. So, let’s do this. What emotions, experiences, thoughts come up for you, when I put this brand on the screen? Brooks, dude, I get it, bro. This is the truth. This is the power of brand. They’re giving you an experience. They’re dealing it in. So what about this brand? The Google. The powerful and almighty knowing Google. It became a verb in our society. It became something all of you do, you Google yourself. It’s a powerful brand. Represents a lot of things to a lot of us, but I’ll guarantee you right now all of you like Shaun, are having an emotional response to this brand. Aren’t you? An emotional response is happening, when I put the logo up on the screen. Let’s do this one. Let’s do a fun one here. Let’s dump this, let’s share this. Look at this guys, if I throw this one up, I want you to tell me, what you see. All right, new brand, new emotion, new feelings coming in. When you see this brand, what emotional thing is happening in here? Pretty fascinating conversation, isn’t it? Because this brand right now, it’s known for being elitist, expensive. But also kind of kind of green, kind of powerful, kind of cool, kind of fast. They just shot a rocket into space. Now, note Tesla did, but I’m sure and guarantee you that you are collapsing that, into one thing, when you look at this brand. Yeah, going to the moon. Lots of stuff happened. Hi-tech, absolutely, when you see this brand in front of you. Let’s do one more and then I’ll layer in here, why we’re doing this little experiment together because it matters, guys. It matters. Here you go. This is one of my favorites. All right, there’s a brand. How do you feel about that brand? Pretty interesting. Pretty interesting brand up there. I’ve got one, right here. And when I show this brand, I get a lot of emotion. Some people are like, “Ooh, yeah. “Ooh, sexy. Ooh, fun. Ooh, nice.” And then I get some people who are like, “Android, Android, yeah.” And there was always one person in the back who was like, “Google Pixel, yay.” Brands create connection. They create an experience, they create an emotion. They create trust, exactly what Stephen’s saying. They create distrust, exactly what Melissa is saying. They create popularity, like Shaun’s saying. Brands have a place, brands communicate something, and brands can take you down, which we’re experiencing right now. Brands can take you down, if you’re associated with the wrong brand at the wrong time or something happens, and it’s a problem. And we’ve seen some of those companies in the past. I worked for Countrywide, and Countrywide at the time, was one of the most respected and renowned mortgage companies in its heyday. It was helping underserved communities more than anybody else and then, all of a sudden it became a stain on the earth. Brooks made a really great comment here like CrossFit. So, some of you guys that know me, know that I have owned a CrossFit Gym that started in my garage for 13 years. 13 years, I’ve owned a CrossFit Gym. And right now the founder and CEO of CrossFit came out and said, for lack of a better term, I made a racist tweet as more of a joke, but it felt terribly, in the worst possible time and now the CrossFit community is up in arms because of something that somebody did that represented the brand. So my question, as we dig in and understand that brand matters, brand is powerful. That we have connections to brand. Let me ask you this question. Who is the number one lender in the country right now? Number one lender in the country right now, who are they? You don’t have to answer, you can Google it, you can figure this out, like the power of Google. But I’ll tell you right now, they’re an internet based company, and they’re a brand based company. They built their business on brand, super bowl commercials, major advertisements. Brand, brand, brand, brand. So when you call them, you don’t care who the person is that you’re talking to, you’re just comfortable in the brand. To me, this is something we have to be aware of as local sales professionals. We have to understand that this exists in our world and how it exists and the emotions that connects. Hello, I’m live right now. Okay, just throw it right there. When you go live, this is what happens. I gotta put signs up, that’s the truth.- I’m sorry.- It’s okay. So, the power of brand means something. Thank you. And if you’re not focused on your brand, you have a huge problem. Let me explain. I’ve said this before, and I’m gonna keep saying it until you pay attention and listen to the truth. We are an internet first society now, welcome. Welcome to an internet first society. What does that mean? That means if you want information, where do you go? You go online. If you want to look something up, you go online. If you get referred to a customer, your customer looks you up online period, we go look at reviews. We go to online before we go to our friends and family for advice. Fact, fact, tell me I’m wrong. Tell me that’s the truth. When you want advice, you go live, I mean, you go online and you look for advice. That’s what you do. So the question you have to ask yourself, is how are you showing up in that space? Because I just showed you the brands that are showing up in that space. How are you there too? Because I’ll tell you this, if you’re not there, you are commoditizing the value you bring to your business. Let me say it again. If you are not at the top, the top of the sales cycle, which is the internet. If you are not there with your community, hanging out, sharing your message, telling the world why you matter and what you care about and what you do, if you are not at the top of the cycle, you are relegating yourself to a commodity because your years of experience, your consultative value, everything you offer a client, they won’t care as they get further down the sales cycle. They won’t care. You become an interest rate quote. And you can say, “No, I have 30 years of experience. “I’m amazing. “Let me help you structure everything. “Let me help you understand down payment assistance “and how much you should put down.” And they’re like, “Hey, I’m further down than that. “I’m, I’m ready to go. “So what’s your rate?” And you find yourself back into a corner because, you can’t express the value you bring, the consultative nature you bring because at that point it’s too late. They’re looking to make a decision, not to get consultation and you lose, you lose. I wasn’t gonna do this but ima do it. We gonna do it live. I’m gonna show you a picture of somebody. If can find it. If I can find it while we’re chatting, I’m gonna show you a picture of somebody and I want you to be there with me. Sorry, I wasn’t gonna do this but I decided to do it live, so we’re gonna jump in. Darn it, I’m not gonna be able to find it fast enough and I’m not gonna show you guys what it is. Here’s what I’ll tell you to do. The number one lender in the country put out a super bowl commercial three years ago. It’s three years old now. I know, time moves fast online. But I want you to go… sorry two years ago, I want you to watch it. I want you to specifically pause it and pause the screen, when they show the loan professional, the loan consultant, on the screen. Just go pause it. It’s the commercial with Keegan-Michael Key, you’ll you’ll get it, you’ll figure it out. I want you to go online, Google that, YouTube that, go watch it and then pause it, when the loan officer comes on screen. If you do not believe for one second that you are in hand to hand combat, developing brand identity, you’re gonna lose the game, friends. If you do not show up on the internet space, somebody is gonna show up for you, on your behalf and they’re going to tell the audience, what your brand is as a professional. That’s what that commercial did. It’s time. It is so pastime. Because I’ll give you one more piece of advice, you deserve a seat at the table. You deserve it, you’ve worked hard, It’s years in your local community, years sponsoring the kids’ soccer games and the girl scout cookie purchases and the fundraisers, and you spent years supporting your local charities and churches and gyms, and all this stuff you’ve done in your community, you’ve put roots down, you deserve a seat at the table. If somebody has a mortgage question, you deserve the chance to showcase your professionalism but if you don’t build a dynamic, an authentic, engageable, relatable brand of yourself, on who you are and what you stand for at the top of the sales cycle, on the internet, in social media, you will not get a seat at the table. That’s the power of brand. It’s a mandatory skill guys, that you got to develop guys and gals. It’s a mandatory skill you’ve got to lean into and build. If you do not, you will not be here because the conversation is going to move past you and you won’t even know, and you deserve a seat at the table. You feel me on this? Are you with me on this? Because the comments were going hot until I made this like real, real and then all of a sudden now, everyone’s like, “I don’t know, I don’t know how I feel about this. “You’re saying some stuff “that’s making me feel uncomfortable.” Yeah. yes I am. Because I want you to be uncomfortable. I want you to put the camera on. I want you to showcase your message. I want you to showcase your pride of who you are as a business professional, what you do, what you contribute to the world because you gotta lay out your voice, you got a lot to say. You should say it. Everything else besides that is just excuses. You have a message to share. Melissa has a message to share and you deserve the chance to share it. You do, you’ve worked hard. You’ve earned it, you’ve earned the right to share it. And then I hear this complaint, because I just said, you’ve earned the right. All of a sudden I get a newbie who was like, “I only have two years in the business, “what right have I earned?” You have your conviction. You have your purpose in this space and you have your authentic self to share. I don’t care, if you’ve got two days in the business, you’re here, show up. And especially for you and those of you that have five, 10, 15, 20 years in the business, you definitely deserve the right to show up. So, turn on the camera and share your message. Yes, you will want to be strategic. Yes, you’ll want to figure out what your content strategy is. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Of course, you can, you’ll figure it out. You’ll figure it out. I watched a guy do, 10 videos in 10 days challenge. 10 videos in 10 days. The first day he talked like a robot. He’s not used to it. He’s not used to filming himself. He’s not used to showing up online. And by the way, the seventh and eighth day, way better. Man, he’s just talking, I’m like, “Oh yeah, there he is. “There’s the guy, there he is. “I can see you now.” Takes practice, but you gotta have a purpose and your purpose has to burn inside you so much that the light doesn’t deter you, the camera doesn’t dissuade you, when you step into this space, and build your brand. By the way, this is the coolest piece of news about branding. You have the choice on what your brand looks like and sounds like, because you get to create it and curate it every day. How cool is that? Let me say it again. You have the undeniable privilege and opportunity to craft and curate your brand, your unique brand every day. No one can do it for you. You get to do it, which is awesome. What do you want to be known for? Who are you? Why are you in this business? What do you care about? What are your hopes and dreams? You get to share that, you get to create that. That’s incredibly powerful and awesome. Can you imagine if somebody else had to create it for you? Who knows what they would say? But you get to create it. There’s power in that. There’s power in that reality. Because you get to be the one that curates it and puts it on display. But I can tell you right now, and I’ve said this before. If you don’t do it, if you do not do it, then no brand is your brand and you’re being discredited, you’re being commoditized, you’re not in the sales game and you should be, you should be. And I’ll tell you one more thing, to give you guys the last bit of encouragement today on the power of brand. It’s okay, that your brand is unique and it’s you and let me go deeper on that. Your brand is not a tagline. A tagline is not your brand. Your brand is not your logo, or your color scheme, your brand is your character, your soul, it’s your heart, It’s what shows up when you open your mouth. when you’re in the mix with humans, that’s what your brand is. People are not going to remember your tagline, they’re gonna remember how you made them feel, and that means every single one of you, from Melissa, to Brooks, to Kevin, to Shaun, every single one of you has a unique authentic brand that has an audience waiting for them to show up for everyone that loves Apple, there somebody who loves Android, for everyone who loves BMW, there’s someone that loves Mercedes. For everyone that loves Brooks, there’s someone that’s gonna love Kevin and Melissa. Do you guys get that? That’s the power of this. Look, I lean hard into this stuff and I can tell you right now that I get unfollowed all the time, because people are like, “All right, I’m done. “That was great message Alec, thanks, “but you’re now sounding repetitive “or you’re annoying, “or I don’t agree with you or whatever.” To what Brook said right there, You are your brand. But you have to showcase yourself. And not in like, a egotistical braggadocious way. You don’t need to humble-brag about how great you are, how fast you close the loan. But you do have to show up about why you’re here and what you’re doing and what’s your messaging, and what do you care about, that is what’s gonna empower your brand and what is going to drive you to the top of somebody’s mind, when they go, “Oh yeah, it’s time to get mortgage. “Who do I talk to?” Now trust me. I’m not shitting on having a logo or a color scheme or a cool font. I don’t care. Do it, if it makes you happy. I have LiveTime With Alec written above me and I like this font. I don’t care what makes you happy, but I don’t want you to get stuck and think that that is the thing. That’s not the thing. You are the thing. Here we go, being all right and motivational again . But it’s not about being motivational, Melissa. It’s about getting you to do something. I want everyone to act. I want to press into the action of the world. Not in the talking of the world, into the action of the world. That’s why I’m live. I’m live because this is the action, because this is real. I had someone come in and drop off a parking pass while we were talking, like this is really what’s happening. I want you in the same space. I want you in the same space with your community because I want you to have the power of your brand in their minds, when they decide they need a mortgage, Gotta earn it. But it’s yours for the taking. Friends, thanks for hanging out with me today. As a reminder, alechanson.com, check me out. I’ve got a weekly download, a weekly newsletter that comes out this Friday. This Friday, I’m at my podcast, it’s live with Anthony Hsieh, the CEO and founder LoanDepot and I’ll tell you right now, if you’ve ever wondered about what a story looks like, man, this guy has got one. It’s incredibly powerful, inspirational. I can’t wait to hang with him on Friday, I hope you guys hang with us too. And I’ll see you guys on the internet. Thanks Doug. Appreciate everybody out there. Hope you guys have a wonderful day. Go make a video about, why you’re in this business Barry you’re doing a good job on that. Appreciate it you guys. See you later.