Authenticity is gold in business. It builds trust. Generates clients. Sells products and services. And it feels good to be living authentically too.
Your business communications have a vital role to play in expressing your authenticity. Your comms should match who you truly are as a person and as a leader and what you really believe in. And that takes effort.
Take Simon.
I’ve been working with Simon for the past few months to completely transform how he communicates his business. Simon is a great guy. And a brilliant financial advisor. Damn, he’s so good I even chose him as my own financial advisor!
But his comms didn’t match his authentic self, at all. His website was all suits and corporate language (see above left image). His advertising was a billboard at a blokey sports club even though his clients are primarily professional women. His blogs were packed with impenetrable finance speak even though his way of talking is very down to earth and clear.
So we wiped the slate clean and started again, reworking his comms to reflect his authentic self and his business as an expression of himself.
I started with Simon’s current situation: his strengths, his characteristics, his business challenges and his approach to his business. Then I worked with Simon to help him get really clear on his purpose, his goals, his values (fairness and loyalty) and who his customers really are.
Only then did we turn to his comms. And we changed everything.
We changed how he does his meetings, the content and style of his emails, the language and length of his blogs, how he seeks referrals and even the clothes he wears to work (no more suits!).
We also transformed his website. I worked with Simon to shape that process and I did all the copywriting for the site. Thanks to A Lined Design for helping design and deliver the new site.
The website is now a much more accurate reflection of who Simon actually is and the manner in which he works. Like Simon, the website is now welcoming, friendly, clear and completely focussed on his clients.
Simon is a values-based and fully independent financial adviser. He gets no commissions or benefits from any product providers or financial institutions. Even when they insist on paying him a commission (and many do!) he just transfers all the money back to you! Yes, he pays you!
Simon is different to almost every financial planner you will ever meet. He quit his job as a software developer to become an independent financial advisor when he couldn’t find anyone to give him the kind of honest and fair advice he wanted for himself and his family. Gutsy move.
The gold standard for independent financial adviser is the Profession of Independent Financial Advisers (PIFA). Only about 0.03% of financial planners are PIFA approved. 0.03%! That’s astonishing, right? And Simon is the first and only PIFA approved independent financial planner in Tasmania.
Simon’s independence makes him stand out from the crowd. Simon’s independence makes his offering highly valuable and distinct.
But until we did the overhaul, Simon’s comms made him look like any other boring, suited, corporate money man. And that is not who he is at all!
It’s super important in business to have your comms match who you truly are. It’s about allowing your authentic self to shine. And, as mentioned, that builds trust, generates clients and sells products and services. And it feels good when who you are is reflected in what you do and how you talk about it to other people, including clients.
Simon’s comms, including his new website, really do that now. If you like what you see on the website then you’ll like Simon because that’s what’s he really like.
Good comms is authentic comms.
If you want help making your communications more authentic, get in touch with me.
And if you want a financial planner get yourself on Simon’s books quickly, before word gets out and he gets fully booked up!