Mind Your Body TV Episode 40 with Leah Komaiko.
It’s been said that the term “authenticity in business” is a 21st-century phrase that’s evolved due to a convergence of different factors. If you stop to think about why, the answers are fairly apparent. We’ve had our fill of companies that don’t have time to talk to us, put us on hold after we’ve pressed our way through four voicemail prompts, and if we do connect with a human, he or she is across the Pacific and we can’t understand. We’ve surfed through websites trying to determine if we should or shouldn’t do business with the company in question: The site promises the world, but may only deliver one square foot.
This is where you, and your authentic business, come in. The door’s open.
This week’s video expert, female boomer Leah Komaiko, thinks you shouldn’t try to be every darn thing to everyone. You can’t, and intrinsically, you really aren’t.
This strategic marketing and brand expert, whose clients have included McDonald’s, Liz Claiborne and Disney, says it’s ok to be genuine and self-aware, to live—and conduct business—in your own truth as you remain clear about who you are and what you’re doing from eight-to-five (or these days eight-to-late). More authenticity in business can mean more success.
Tips to build your business
Just BE, and just BE WHO YOU ARE, says Komaiko. Be authentic, and even if you’re unsure whether your personality is big enough or good enough to succeed, act “as if it is.”
Take a breath, and take it all in, calmly, as you tell yourself, “I’m good enough just the way I am.” Take inventory of all the things you’ve done in your life, because they matter—just like your opinions and your relationships.
*Allow yourself to be bold—even if the bravado goes against what you learned as a child, like “Don’t show off!” You can tone it down, but once you’re perceived as a wallflower, it’s a long road to changing that label.
*Allow yourself to be pulled towards success and to your ultimate destiny. Don’t work so hard, she says, at pushing, pushing, pushing. You have something special to offer customers, who also want to be themselves. You will undoubtedly have to alter your course as the world around you demands rejuvenation and reinvention. Things change, and so can you. That’s ok, for the YOU that makes your business resonate is still at the core of your brand. And since you’ve built it, they’ll keep coming.
Watch Leah’s other inspiring Mind Your Body TV video here to take your brand to new heights.