Next-Step Branding: Three Keys to (Continued) Success

Dec. 1 is a red-letter day for many authors, as it officially marks the end of NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month that brings together more than 165,000 writers from across the globe in a community-supported effort to complete a 50,0000 word novel from scratch in a month’s time. As of yesterday evening at 6 p.m. Pacific, the NaNoWriMo site had recorded over 32,000 winners and nearly 2.8 billion words written.

But are you (and your Brand) ready for the next step?

Completing a novel in a month is one heck of an accomplishment—and it’s not the only achievement that's happening right now. For thousands of other aspiring authors, Dec. 1 also marks the homestretch for getting your manuscript to Houston for the venerable Golden Heart contest. Many others have completed a last-minute push to get a manuscript out the door to agents or editors, before the holidays put a choke-hold on everyone’s schedule. And in the waning days of the year, dozens of other accomplishments are being achieved as part of 100-day-challenges, in areas both professional and personal.
But after you scale the mountain, send the manuscript out, and hit your goal—what then? How do you leverage your accomplishment to refine your Brand for continued success? With your Next-Step Branding Plan:

Step One: Assess

No matter what, you need to honor your achievement by simply taking a few hours or days to revel in your success. You have worked hard for weeks—possibly even months—to get where you are today, and rushing headlong into the next project isn’t the smartest move. Instead, take the time to really experience the joy of achievement. It’s a feeling you should get used to enjoying over and over again!

Once you’re done patting yourself on the back, take a look at how you achieved this spectacular goal. What were the habits that you picked up to put you into accomplishment-mode—and what of those habits were strictly short-term (ignore all other work...and family members...and housecleaning) vs. potentially longer-term (get up an hour early)? What habits made you “feel” like the kind of person who could achieve this goal? What decisions did you make that helped ensure your success?

Next, consider the Brand you’ve established for yourself (and no excuses here, we ALL have Brands, whether we’ve spent time thinking about them or not). Does your most recent achievement “fit” with what you’ve considered your Brand to be? Should you refine your Brand to acknowledge your accomplishment, perhaps with words like “successful”, “achiever”, “accomplished”, “dedicated”, “goal-oriented”, “victorious”, or the like? Particularly when it comes to how you present yourself to your peers and industry colleagues (agents, editors, the media), the aftermath of extraordinary achievement is a perfect time to amp up your Brand.

Finally, turn back to the future. I make a big deal out of “Outcome Branding”, which is developing and refining your Brand to help you achieve specific, definable goals, and nowhere is it more important to define your goals than in the wake of an extraordinary achievement. What do you want to do next, specifically, in the next month—or three months—particularly since you’ve proven to yourself that you can achieve extraordinary goals? Write those goals down.

Step Two: Expand

For any of you who’ve read works on manifestation or achieving your goals, the idea of “expansion consciousness” isn’t new. The concept behind expansion consciousness is that if you’re not shaping your reality—someone else is doing it for you. So rather than give away that power, you should “expand” how you think of yourself and your ability to achieve.

When it comes to achieving your professional goals, expansion consciousness takes on even greater importance. Business—any business—is challenging. The market is tight, our time is increasingly fragmented, and we are constantly being asked to do more with less. By expanding how you think of your Brand, you open up your mind to considering new and perhaps unusual ways of achieving your goals.

For example, if your Brand up to this point was “Part-time writer, full-time professional Whoozit”, what shift in your mind would occur if you considered your self to be a “Professional Writer and Whoozit”? What if you put writing on a par with your other work, every bit as important and ‘real’?

If you’re already published, and your Brand is “Professional, Dependable Author”, consider what you need to do to take the next step in your career. What if you expanded your thinking to consider yourself as a “Professional, Prolific Author” or “Joyful, Successful Marketer” or even “Extreme-Achievement Master”? Note I’m not saying “Best-Selling Author” (although by all means, visualize that too), because that makes many writers nervous. But focus on Expanding your Brand to something that you feel is WITHIN your power to achieve—you can be more professional, for example, and you (clearly) can accomplish great things when you set your mind to it. As writers know very well, Words Have Power. Make the decision now to expand your Brand in a way that will help you see yourself as a person who continues that achievement.

Step Three: Achieve (again)

Now that you’ve imagined the next step on your path, it’s time to get to work. You’ve established extraordinary momentum with your recent achievement, and are now in uncharted territory. It’s all too easy to let that momentum slip away so that you can comfortably return to the rut out of which you just hauled yourself, and I URGE you not to do that.

If you just sent out your manuscript to one agent or editor—identify other possible candidates and start writing your next book. If you just finished a book from scratch and you love it—edit it and send it out. If you just sold your first novel, by all MEANS write the next one (and then the next). And if you just hit your first list, start thinking of yourself as a breakout author on the cusp of greatness… then let everyone know of your accomplishment, then write your next book. (see a theme here?)

Your ultimate achievements are completely within your power to define! So get started on reaching that next goal, and own your shiny new Brand!

Question: What accomplishments have YOU just achieved, and what’s your next goal?