Founders get into this bind: You dragged the business up by your own bootstraps or whatever; you got here by leveraging your talent or your charm or notoriety. At one point, you were all your company had.
But this is not that point. And now you’re going to get stretched thinner and thinner as your company has more and more success.
Clients like you. But can you still give yourself to every client? Do you want to?
If not, then your business needs to offer something that’s uniquely valuable – that is NOT you.
Find out why clients hire you in the first place. I mean REALLY why they hire you. What’s the thing you do or have or show that wins their business? Understand what makes you special. Name it.
If you can explain it, you can duplicate it.
You can figure out how others on your team deliver that without you there. Train them to do what you do, even when you don’t.
And then train them to talk about it.
Without talking about you.
Your company’s brand will stretch a whole lot further than you will. It goes two places at the same time. It keeps working when you can’t. This is why businesses have brands.
And this is why small businesses re-brand when they become not-quite-as-small.
Your personal brand is stretched too thin. Go build a bigger one.
