Meghan Lynch, Building Brand Value – InnovaBuzz 319

Meghan Lynch, Six Point Creative

In this episode, I’m really excited to have as my guest, Meghan Lynch from Six-Point Creative, a brand-development agency with special focus on working with second-stage entrepreneurs.  Six-Point Creative is a brand-development agency with a special focus on helping growth-minded business owners build their businesses to scale. That process starts with deep listening and strategy, and leads to great design that authentically reflects your company’s values, personality, and aspirations.

In our discussion, Meghan talked to me about:

• Building a deep understanding of your customers and how they are feeling
• Building a brand and brand values that are the foundation for clarity and consistency of message at every touch point with your customers
• Why conversations with your customers are vital

Michael Vann in episode 283 introduced us to Meghan.

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Show Notes from this episode with Meghan Lynch of Six Point Creative

Key points and takeaways from this episode include:

• A second stage company is a company that has hit a plateau.
• Be clear about what you want and what you don’t want. Don’t be afraid of losing opportunities. Don’t be afraid to say NO. Saying NO is your superpower to get to the next level.
• Educate your team about your target market. Let them talk to your clients so that they can really understand your clients’ pain points and how they can help them.
• Empathy is understanding your client not just from the prospect of how you can get them to buy but also throughout the engagement. Empathy enables you to be more effective in the delivery of your products and services as well as making sure that your clients are set up for success.
• Empathy enables you to understand what’s holding your clients back from accepting your advice and makes it easy for them to do what you need them to do.
• A brand is not a logo or a name. A brand is all about imbuing those things through emotions and experience.
• A brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. It is your reputation. It is the conversation you are creating. It is something that you can influence but cannot control.
• Your brand is your customer’s experience.
• Second stage companies need to think bigger and more emotionally. They need to start imbuing the rest of their team, their materials, and thought leadership with emotions.
• Clarity and consistency are the keys to having a strong brand.
• Be clear about what your brand promise is and what it isn’t. If you can articulate those guard rails to your team in a very clear and consistent way, they will start to embody the brand and the brand values.
• When you are very clear about what your brand promise is, what your brand will and will not do, and your aspirations for your brand, you can also empower your people who are in the frontlines of those touchpoints and experiences to really start applying that theory to reality.
• A successful brand touches everything in the company.
• It’s hard to read the label of your own bottle. Get out and talk to people outside of your company whom you can trust and have them mirror back to you what they think your value is.
• Educate your team. Don’t just keep telling them what to do. Listen very deeply and intently to what they have to say in getting that clarity, so that your team understands as whole what the potential of your brand is and what each of their roles are in making that potential happen. It makes them excited about it instead of seeing the changes as a potential threat.
• Demonstrate a deep understanding of your target market. Bring a fundamentally more valuable solution than the competition, and then, charge appropriately.
• Clearly define who your target market is. Let them see how well you understand them and how much exponential value they’ll get from what you are doing.
• Don’t grow and scale by exponentially getting more clients that pay less. Grow and scale by having fewer clients with larger relationships and bringing long term value, and who are paying a premium price for your expertise.
• Raising the bar for your team will help you continue to be able to get better clients that bring better work that are more in line with your values and expertise.
• Narrowing your focus more allows you to have those success stories that you can use to build your thought leadership and expertise that can then bring around more clients. This is when saying NO becomes a really powerful way to grow your business.
• Time and energy are our most finite resources. Make sure that you know where you are spending them. Double down on the things that fuel you and your team. That’s where your opportunity will come from.

The Buzz – Our Innovation Round

Here are Meghan’s answers to the questions of our Innovation round. Listen to the conversation to get the full scoop.

1. #1 thing to be more innovative – Curiosity. Read things outside of your business. Talk to people outside of your industry.
2. Best thing for new ideas – Getting out and talking to your target customers. Spend really deep quality time with them. Build relationships with them and understand not just what relates directly to your business, but what relates directly to their lives.
3. Favourite tool for innovation – Slack, Asana, Traction tools
4. Keep project/client on track – Team huddles – both internally and/or with clients.
5. Differentiate – Say NO. Anybody can say yes. It takes somebody who’s really focused and courageous to say NO. Learning to say NO confidently and strategically whether to opportunities or to clients is hugely empowering and is also a tremendous fuel for growth.

To Be a Leader

Talk to your customers. Make sure that you or your team is not guessing that they know what you’re customers think about your business and your services. Know what your customers care about. Don’t be afraid to ask your customers what they think about you. It helps cement those relationships.

Reach Out

You can reach out and thank Meghan through their website and on LinkedIn.

Suggested Guest

Meghan suggested we have a conversation with David C Baker, author of the Business of Expertise. So, David, keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation from us to the InnovaBuzz Podcast, courtesy of Meghan Lynch.

Links

• Website – Six Point Creative
• Twitter – @MeghanLynch
• LinkedIn
• Facebook

Cool Things About Meghan

• She’s a tenacious long-distance runner.
• She’s a thoughtful parent.
• She holds a Master’s Degree from the Boston College.

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