Purpose is the Key to Profit & Performance in Uncertain Times

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Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of Image Group International and an award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old-school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies, and hacks for the new tech world. Here you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques, and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image, and reputation.

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Hello, everybody. Great to have you here with me today. Before we start our chat, I kindly ask you to rate the show on Apple Podcasts. If you do, please also send us an email confirmation. And we'll send you our free ebook, The Real World Guide to authentic personal branding. Cheers.

0:50
So let's get started with the show. We know that the Coronavirus has brought the global economy to its knees in the last few years. And obviously, a lot of people and their businesses have gone through some major stresses. And now the world is also dealing with the consequences of a conflict, a new conflict between, Of course, Russia and Ukraine, it's been going on for the last couple of months. This current world geopolitical macro issue is having obviously an effect, as I mentioned, costs on individuals and personal security from a psychological point of view, but of course, businesses and sales and you know, and even keeping their teams on how this affects different industries in different businesses, depending exactly, you know, where they are, from the point of view of their products and services, and how much are they required in times like crisis, but let's just generally speaking, obviously, for our listeners out there, I leave that to you to see where you fit in. The fact is that at times of crisis and adversity, employees, colleagues or clients are always looking, and I mean, always looking for leaders for reassurance, inspiration, and courage to guide them. 

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And what do I mean by that? Well, look, from a leadership point of view, you've got, obviously, leadership from a self-leadership point of view, and then you've got group leadership. But let's look at this, from a grip leadership point of view, people are looking for that for confidence in themselves. Because if the leaders are not confident, that creates serious instability and possible cognitive dissonance on the individual, so the aspect of you know, even if you're not confident at times, you know, the fake it till you become confident, is a very important skill to cultivate. Because that's gonna enrol people into a vision, and also a mission to move forward. So that's essential. And of course, companies need that. Communities need that. And of course, countries need that. And if you look at the whole concept of what is going on in the world today, we need, you know, we need the courage to be and the courage to lead and the courage to be purposeful, more than ever. In fact, you know, a survey of more than 14 170 global leaders revealed that purpose, not profit is the key to success. I mean, a turbulent global economy. And this research was done by EY Beacon Institute. And if you think about it, there's a lot. There's a lot that sort of speaks from that particular statement, purpose, not profit. Because if you look at sustainable businesses, especially entrepreneurial businesses when they first started, it's the purpose that got them started. And in most cases, it wasn't looking good. I'm just going to set up a business right now. So I can make a lot of money. The money came later, you know, but the vision, the value is, why they existed, came way before profits. And of course, if you get that right, that purpose bid, right first, you can at least expect the profits to come in later, assuming of course you do all the other right things as well, including getting your systems in place and having the right team so the crisis is far from the best of times a disaster, but actually can be a good opportunity to steer your colleagues your associates from you know, a person It's non-business panic, to a brand purpose, you know, especially your teams. Because as we're talking about business here in the workplace, you know, your teams are looking for this. And your teams are certainly not looking for wimpy leaders, you know, leaders that specifically lack the courage to lead, but they're in positions because of some positional entitlement. You know this is the opportunity to really, really shine. And of course, from a leadership point of view, and we're talking about self-leadership here as well, that I noted at the outset, group leadership, from my perspective comes from self-leadership. And this is essential, because you'll see a lot of leaders in organizations, you know, groups, and of course, even government, you know, that you question how did they ever get in a position of leadership. And certainly, in many experiences, it didn't come from personal power, I came from positional power I contacts in the right position at that time, and, you know, political games that go on to get some of those positions.

6:07
So today's you know, focus on you taking control. And as you know, all my work is about self-leadership is around, you know, reclaiming your personal power to lead here. And at times people think they can't do that. Well, you know, I'll correct that and say, you know, you mostly can, it's just sometimes you need some support behind the scenes, some encouragement, and certainly some courage. Now, let's pay attention to this. How to Activate your purpose, okay? And how to do that to provide stability. So your people obviously, feel confident, courageous, okay. And alive. And also how you can leverage all that for your business. Now, you might ask me, John, what do I have to do to reach my business's purpose of golf? Well, first of all, your purpose is Why do you exist? And this can sound airy-fairy? To a lot of people. But that's a relevant question when it comes to profit, that follows purpose, as opposed to profit, that comes before purpose. And that's different psychology again. 

7:24
So the Why do we exist is, you know, could mean basically what you get up in a bed in the morning too, you know, to go and create out their product service, whatever, why do you do that? What do you want to fulfil in this lifetime? That is a burning desire inside you that says, I've got to do that. Otherwise? Obviously, if I'd only do that, I'd feel like it was all a waste of time. So what is that purpose? How do you work that out? Well, you're going to ask a few questions of yourself, and also reflect right now, especially if you run a business, but if you don't run a business, it could be your career, reflect right now, where are you, you know, we know that your personal values, for instance, again, is what anchors you. It's what anchors you to solid ground. So if you have, again, loose personal values, or you don't even know what they are, I can virtually guarantee you, you know, it's like a boat in the middle of the sea, okay, with storms, basically, and hell, and out of control waves, it's gonna go all over the place, if not flip and virtually, sink. And if you relate to that, in the current climate that we're living in, I, we had COVID We've got a war now. Guess what, what's next. And trust me, there will be some next and that next doesn't mean in 20 years' time or 10 years' time, it'll be around the corner because that's the way the cycles work. Okay. So basically reflect the way your business is right now. You know, are you adding value to your clients, you know, or are you just obviously drudging along, you know, hoping that as things were in the past, they will be in the future. But I can tell you this guarantee there will not be because, you know, there is major paradigm shifts happening on the planet right now. And it's either you're going to be with, you know, and on with the new game, or you're going to get left behind. So reflect what your business is, you know, what do you have to do to transform or not even transform alibi to different positions, you know, and what that means is, of course, you're going to look at your purpose, you're going to look at also other stuff like your systems and your people right now, and how relevant you are in the overall game of love and war if I can use that term because that's actually what's going on right now.

9:58
So redefining Number two would be your playing field. And what that means is you're operating right now in a new environment. It's not what it was like pre-COVID. You know, although there were, of course, cracks in the system, then the cracks are actually showing up more and more right now. So it's about redefining where you're going to be playing right now, you know, and, of course, what that means is, you know, for a lot of businesses, you might not have had a strong online or digital presence in today's world. Without that you're not going to survive long term, even if you're all the established money, right? The reality is, basically, the communications and the platforms out there are required for you to get your key messages out there. So technology is with us, and it's only going to get more and more important the way it is. So it's about you know, this is a new game in town, it's redefining your role in it, and then deciding, obviously, you know, what are you going to do to play in this new field that specifically has changed dramatically in the last few years. And the third one is, you know, disseminate purpose, right, your employee's rail, remember, I said to you know, people are looking for courageous leaders, we know this, and you can quote me on this. Basically, if you don't express yourself, eventually, you're in to suppress. And if you have too much suppression in your life, it will lead to depression. So you want to get out your story, you want to get out and be, you know, be who you truly want to be. Now, there's going to be fears involved with that there's going to be, you know, times baggage involved with that stories operating in our heads. But you got to deal with that, you know, because that will actually help you. And I'm not talking about psychobabble here, I'm talking about getting really to you know, to the ground roots level, why you want to do what you want to do. If you're not that serious about that one thing, you know, you can also avoid all of that, and you know, try to find a nice, comfy little job and hide in there for the rest of your life. You could do that as well. I mean, that's okay, a lot of the planet does that. But generally, I'd say to you, obviously, if you're listening to my podcast, or you've been a client of mine, you know, that's not the way we roll. And certainly, we know that that's not how our clients roll. So we're looking for something, you know, beyond that, beyond the mediocre. 

12:33
So let me share with you a real story, you know, how I and my team helped the clients find their business purpose, and held this elevated that team in the results. So what happened was, a client came to me as a very successful client, they've had quite a few ups and downs of mature clients. So you know, they had a lot of history. So they had a lot of ups and downs, a lot of success, including listing, you know, numerous companies on a stock exchange, and at the same time, leading different organizations. So we're talking about numerous startups, with high success, multi-million dollars. But of course, along the way, this particular client also had some failures, you know, and some of the fighters were potentially losing millions of those, you know, so, and this happens, if you're in the entrepreneurial world, you just got to understand sometimes, you know, that's what is part of the journey. So this client, from that then decided to, again, work for a large corporation, as one of the leaders, CEO, et cetera, advisors for other organizations. But you know, reached the stage where they said, to me, when they started working with us was, like, they've hit the sort of end of the road from the perspective that there's something more and less, something more was really to sit down with them and sort of reengaging with their hearts from the point of view of what really matters to them. And what mattered to them. This particular client was definitely an opportunity to leave a mark, to create something that's going to make the family proud, including kids, you know, his children, okay. And also knows that with all the work, and all the great things he's done over the years, he wants to be remembered to leave a legacy. So from that, basically, with a bit of work and a little bit of restructuring of thoughts and ideas. We put a system in place that actually looks like, the story that he shared. And then we put a plan on how we can execute that. And what we did was, of course, created you know, a new brand story for the clients a new store. We have, you know what he represented, and how we're going to position this in the marketplace. And what we're going to actually do to get that particular client noticed, including mainstream media and social media. Two years later, nearly two years later, basically, the client repurposed in a new project, the new legacy project, you know, a very substantial legacy Pro project that also attracted serious investors that we were part of. And, of course, today, you know, has launched a product out there that has a lot of interest and will only grow now moving into the next 10 years. So from a legacy point of view, he achieves a personal purpose for himself, making himself feel valued, and all worthwhile in his lifetime. At the same time, he knows his kids are going to be proud of him because what he's done has not been an easy feat, but at the same time, it's given him an opportunity, as opposed to sort of, let's say, cover over some of the mistakes of the past. And we all make mistakes, by the way, but it's, you know, it's given the opportunity to be authentic, and say, you know, what, right now reach the stage in my life where I want to create something magical. And whatever happened in the past, good and bad, I own that. But right now when it leaves something for the future, I want to be remembered for that, and that was important for him. So you know, that story is one example of many, when you've got the opportunity, you know, if you get the opportunity to share, to share your story, and also, you know, be encouraged to find more courage, right encouraged to find more courage in you. This is what it's all about.

16:54
So, as always, I thank you for listening, and I hope this episode was useful for you. If you liked it, please share it with colleagues and friends. Also, please keep in mind that I'm always here to help you in your personal and business brand journey. Please send me an email and I will contact you. You can also find me on social media. You can follow me on Twitter at Jon_Michail on LinkedIn as Jon Michail and on Facebook as Image Group International till next week. Have a great week and I look forward to speaking then Cheerio.

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Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass" Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists, based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence and authority in the business world.   To learn more and apply for your personal coaching, seminars and group workshops please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.