In my first 9 years in business I did everything by the book. I made sure I offered a great variety of services, I learned to design and be great at my job, I studied all the basics and even did an MBA in order to learn business from the inside. This would enable me to not only understand my own business better and learn all the little parts that I would need to manage, but also to be better for my clients.

But it wasn’t until a few years later that I learned what I believe is my biggest lesson in business. 9 years of working, studying and learning didn’t teach me what I needed to learn on my own. I’m teaching you this because I genuinely want you to skip the years of trying to figure this out on your own. I am absolutely certain that it will make an impressive impact on your own business as well. It will transform your business as it did mine!
I teach you part of these concepts in my free 7-day email course that helps you build a brand that attracts through branding. You can sign up for that right here:

So, here it goes:

During my first 9 years of business, I created an image around me that was plainly focused around what I do. And, this seems pretty logical and it made 100% sense to me too.

I graduated in Advertising and started working as an Art Director at Leo Burnett, one of the biggest ad agencies in the world. However, like most designers do, I quickly started working freelance on the side until I realized that I was making more money on my freelance work that at the agency. So, after a couple of years at Leo, I quit. I was pretty fortunate because all of the clients that I had for the next 7 years basically came from word of mouth. One client would always lead to a next one.
I worked with all sorts of businesses: artists, TV hosts, musicians, retailers, service providers, producers, you name it! The little marketing I had at the time was focused mainly on talking about what I did. I talked about graduating Cum Laude in Advertising and Graphic Design, I mentioned the crazy amount of services I offered and even went into my whole design process in case people were wondering.

I went on to do an MBA to learn even more about business and improve details and management of my own. However, the truth is, that even though I was doing all of these things, I was still very unmotivated to grow, expand and do more for myself and my business. You see, everything about my business was about what I did.
Literally about what I did.
It was all about design, and services and bla bla bla. All about finding different ways to make money, not really dedicating myself completely to anything else at all. The way I communicated reflected how I did business and how I felt about it as well.

That’s until I discovered the shift.

Fast forward to 2015, I made the decision to move to the US. This meant that my successful business built around my reputation and word-of-mouth sort of had to be left behind. The reason for this (without going into too much detail), is that my country, Venezuela, has currency control. This means that people don’t have free access to Dollars. So, by moving, I was basically leaving my clientele behind, since, of course, I needed Dollars in the US (as you can imagine).
With this move, I had to rethink my way of doing business and how I wanted to present myself. I actually went over these details and the story of my 2016 year in review right here. Anyways, I started studying, reading and researching a ton about how to take my business online. I didn’t want my physical location to ever be an impediment anymore. Because of this need for evolution, I landed with a couple of coaches that made me open my eyes.
The big mistake I was making was talking about what I do. Nobody really cared about what I do. Heck, I didn’t care about what I did either. What we all care about is what I can do for others.

It’s not about what you do, it’s about what you really do #business #branding

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What does that mean? That means that your communication shouldn’t be around the exact services or products that you’re selling, but rather, about what people achieve once they work with you. It’s about fulfilling needs and understanding specifically what they are –while communicating that to your audience.

So, I’ll give you a simple example. If there was a trainer that came up to you and offered a diet + exercise plan that would make you lose 10 pounds in 30 days, you might be interested. However, if there’s a trainer that offers you a plan to make you regain your confidence, feel absolutely amazing in your skin, smile and be happy, be able to run up a flight of stairs without breaking a sweat, and, oh, yeah, apart from that lose 10 pounds in 30 days you would be really interested, right?

It’s not really just about what you do, it’s about how you package it and position it to your audience. It’s about the experience of transformation you are helping them achieve.

I go into more detail on how to do this in my free 7-day email course on branding. Make sure you sign up for it here:

You see, in business, everything comes down to problems and solutions. Everyone has a particular problem, and what they are concerned with most is finding a solution for it. That’s what you’re doing reading this right now. You have a problem in your business and are looking for ways to make things happen, right?
What people really care about is the transformation you’re capable of bringing into their lives. So, when you focus your communication on the value that you deliver and the experience of transformation that you achieve for others, you start making real connections. And in the end, that’s what we all want.

If you continue focusing on what you do instead of the value you create, you will simply become one more. One more coach. One more trainer. One more company that does what hundreds more do out there.

On the other hand, when you focus on this value and solutions you’re creating, you start changing your view from you to your audience. That’s when the real magic happens.

And look, just analyze and think about the companies, people or brands that you’re loyal to. Chances are that they are building their businesses beyond talking about themselves, right? The reason people buy from Apple is not because it’s the best computer company in the world, it’s because they have brilliantly been able to make connections and make their buyers feel like they’re part of something truly special.

All it takes is to change the way you position and package yourself to your audience. Of course, it’s important that you actually understand who that audience is and what they value to be true. Because sometimes we have ideas about what people should love or want, without actually having a clear idea of it.

For me, discovering this shift in communication completely changed my perspective in business. I made huge changes.

First, I eliminated a whole bunch of services. Where I used to offer additional design and even photography, I decided to simplify and focus plainly and 100% on what I felt most confident that I could create the biggest impact on and where my passions lay the most. That means that I offer now only branding, web design and marketing services. That’s it. I focus only on building brands from the inside out. Any collateral material, flyers or brochures or CDs (which I did a lot) would have to be done by someone else.

Then I changed my communication. Where before it was about me, me, me. Now, I’m all about saying that:

Can you notice the absolutely huge difference it makes saying this versus saying that I design logos and websites? It no longer is about me, it’s about them. So, you really want to ask yourself what you do and how this translates into answers for your audience.

It’s funny, once I made this shift and stopped focusing so much on what I do and every piece of the services offered, everything changed for my business. You see, I came to realize that it wasn’t about me at all.

It wasn’t even about design.

What I do goes way beyond that. I believe that we’re here to do what we love, that we all have special gifts and have to capacity to positively impact and influence our own small world. I believe that people are good at heart, and there’s something special within each of us.

Fortunately, I have been able to prove my beliefs right again and again and again with the clients I have met and worked with over the years. What I do isn’t about design at all. It’s about helping others discover their passions and empowering people to live their life on their own terms.

I have been lucky enough to live my life on my own terms. This means that I have the freedom to be myself. To be authentic. To make my own decisions and live the consequences of those, but answering to no one but myself. To do what I love and get paid for it. To transform the lives of those around me.

What I do goes waaaay beyond design. I enable people to discover what makes them unique and how to use that in their favor. I help people discover that they have a voice. A beautiful logo and a great website are only a consequence of the rest of my work. It’s like finding a piece of carbon and working it to discover that there’s a diamond inside waiting to shine for the world, or rather, their own audience. And there are a ton of diamonds out there. More than most people would imagine. A lot of times, people don’t even know how amazing they are and the huge impact they can make on other people’s lives. That’s where I can come in and help them package and build a brand that is capable of reaching more people and having a rippling effect around them too.

Of course, when I realized all of this, and the huge impact that I could create, anything that held me back, stopped holding back. It was like a veil lifted off my eyes and I started deeply caring about my clients; even more so than my business. But guess what happened? My business started seeing the effects as well. I even went on talking about it right here when I mentioned that I increased my income by 1000% in 6 months.

You can see how this small shift in the way you look at your business can have an impressive impact on all that you do as well.

How will you transform your business? Where will you start making connections? I help you in this process in my free 7-day email course on branding and building a brand/business that attracts. Make sure you sign up for it right here: