How to Get Your Customers to Care About Your Business

When I first moved to Los Angeles in 2003, there was a street called “Stinkin’ Lincoln.”

Stinkin’ Lincoln is one of those really long streets with a lot of traffic and a lot of ugly buildings.

Over the last 10 years, I’ve watched all the ugly buildings gradually being replaced with beautifully branded buildings. The mom and pop shops that weren’t evolving and becoming branded were getting lost. People weren’t noticing them. There were driving right on by because we now live in a branded world.

The future of business is brand.

The more people jump into business…

The more people set up shop…

The more options people have on the internet around the world searching through over a billion websites…

The more important your brand becomes…

Those split-second distinctions really matter. Whether you convey that through the imagery or the language that you’re using.

The experience of how your brand is presented lies in the tiniest little details. Those little details determine whether someone leans in and says, “I’m interested” or whether they just gloss over and think, “Been there. Done that. Seen that before.”

99.9% of all businesses are been there, done that, has been businesses.

If you want your business to be relevant in the future, then you’ve got to understand that the future is branding.

We no longer live in a world where it’s enough to be able to convince someone with your logic and with the emotion behind your marketing. You’ve really got to pass what I call “the third yes,” the visceral gut yes that causes someone to lean and say, “This person checks out. I can tell they are the real deal.” Who they’re being. What they’re saying. It all lines up. It matches.”

 That’s when someone says, “I trust this person, this company, and what they have to say.”

If you don’t have all of those signals aligning and working together, it can create the opposite feeling of, “I gotta get out of here. Something about this isn’t right. This company hasn’t spent the time to really invest in how they’re appearing in the marketplace. And if they’re not investing in how they’re coming across, are they really investing in their products and services? Probably not.“

As a company in our branded world where every impression counts, you have to learn how to care about all the little details.

And the truth is, especially with service-based businesses, that 80% of customers are lost based on a single interaction.

We live in a time where trust is in crisis. The 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer said that trust is at an all time low — trust in government, trust in institutions, trust in companies, and trust in media are at an all-time low.

So, how can you win trust?

You win trust through caring.

Caring about your interactions with your customer.

Caring about the experience they have.

Caring about all the little details.

All of that matters.

Traditionally in business, people have dismissed this stuff and believed: “It’s about the bottom line, it’s about the bottom line, is about the bottom line. It’s about having the best products and services.”

But, guess what?

The Internet’s here. Amazon is A to Z. Every product you could possibly ever want is on Amazon. When it comes to training, you’ve got Coursera. You’ve got Udemy. You’ve got millions of products that are being offered all the time. When it comes to coaching and consulting, there are so many experts around the world who do what you do.

In this world, those details now matter. And they’ve started to matter a lot.

So, we’ve been creating all kinds of details and materials. We’ve been creating journals.

And, I’ve got to say, when my clients are writing their hopes, their dreams, their highest aspiration in a journal that we designed, a journal that has our company name on the cover — Live Your Message — our brand has real meaning for them.

When they open one of our journals up, the first thing they see is, “Be the Superhero to Your Tribe.” That’s the tagline of our business because our promise is that there are going to be times where people come up to you and they say, “I know you from the internet.” 

You become internet famous — not for the sake of fame, but for the sake of impact. What if you could change the world from your living room? Change the world from your computer?

Well, you can.

These details matter both online and offline. You want to create beautiful materials everywhere. You want to carefully consider:

How do you design your programs? How do they look and feel? Do people really want to work with you? How does that look on the Internet? What do your websites look like? What do all your different materials look like?

We’ve got a whole line of t-shirts with slogans like, Live Your Message, Be the Superhero to Your Tribe, Take to the Sky, It’s Your Time to Fly, and You Know Me from the Internet.

Our students, clients, and customers love our brand so much that they wear our shirts when they’re gardening. When they’re working out. When they’re playing with their family. Now that means something!

What would happen if your brand were like that? What would happen if you took on a greater level of meaning that went beyond the transactional nature of business? That went beyond what people were buying and what you do for them? What would happen if the core messages of your brand — what you stand for, what you believe, what you express on an everyday basis — were words to live by?

That’s when you start to have something that’s greater than the sum of its parts — where all the little pieces come together to form something that’s so much bigger. Where you start to have real significance in the hearts and minds of your tribe. Where you become memorable.

You stir emotions in their hearts. They’re inspired by you. They’re empowered by you. They’re even challenged by you…

And you pass “the gut test.” Not just on the first impression, but every single time they meet you. They know: This person checks out and they care about the details. Every time I experience this company, this person, this business and these products, I have that same impression reinforced. These people are the real deal.

When you have a brand like this, you’ve got the potential to become internet famous.

I’m not talking about internet famous because you have the coolest cat who can do the funniest tricks.

I’m not talking about being internet famous because you’ve got a shock of pink hair or you’ve got the craziest personality.

I’m talking about using the platform of the Internet — which over 4 billion people worldwide have access to — to change the world from your living room. From your computer.

That’s the power of becoming internet famous… and you have that power.

The question is: Do you care enough to make all the little details count?

Are you ready to be relevant in a world that has so much noise?

Are you ready to grab attention and get your customers to care about your business?

That’s what I invite you to do…

I invite you to really care about the details, so you can build a brand that’s going to stand the test of time.

I want to invite you to really think about the experience that your customers are having, that your students are having, that your clients are having every time they encounter you online or offline.

When you start to really care about those details,  notice those details and become consistent in those details, then your brand becomes larger than the sum of its parts.

That’s when you build something meaningful.

That’s when you build something that will stand the test of time.

That’s when you become internet famous — for all the right reasons.

So you can change the world from your computer, from your living room, and make the impact that you’re here to make.

And, yes, it all begins with the details.

Now, go out there and Live Your Message.