If you’ve been a member of my community, you know that small businesses have to brand differently from the big guys — especially if the brand is YOU.
Almost every successful small business follows one of these archetypes, although of course most of them have never heard of them. Most coaches and consultants use one of these 3 archetypes: Role Model, Educator and Innovator.
The Role Model has the message, “If I can do it, you can too.” The Educator has the message, “I have special knowledge to share. If you apply my knowledge, you will be successful.” The Innovator has one solution to a serious problem that you can only get from him or her.
This free ebook discusses the 5 archetypes. I explainthe concept much more detail in my next Amazon book: Your Mess Is Not Your Message.
So far I’ve talked to three very successful business owners who are business coaches and also Role Models.
In today’s podcast episode, I’ve had the honor of talking with an Educator archetype. Robert Middleton has recently shifted direction, but for many years he was a go-to consultant for small businesses.
Robert is a true Educator. He doesn’t share stories about his personal life. In fact, most of us didn’t know he had a personal life! His stories are about successful small businesses. He also explains concepts with the use of stories.
One thing that surprised me in the discussion: Robert talks about the importance of Educators also becoming learners. Educators like to learn new things they can share. They also like to learn new ways to explain concepts. Robert says he’s learned a lot from trying to explain something that people just didn’t “get.”
Robert also talked about the way Educators actually enjoy learning. They constantly experiment with ways to communicate what they’ve learned.
We had a lively dialogue! Click here to listen and learn more.