We were lucky to catch up with Lisa McGuire recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Lisa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard
‘One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.
There are lots of people who offer personal branding services. They help you craft a solid social media profile. They advise you on how to create a career shifting strategy. They coach you on the story you create to present yourself to the world.
They sell services with strategies on becoming a thought leader, publishing a book, or speaking from a well-regarded stage.
They tell you to start posting content, record videos, and appear on podcasts. When people begin to hesitate they are told, “just jump in, it will get easier.”
What I do differently is help people determine who they really are to know how they can accurately position their brand. It’s not about what the world told them they had to be.
It’s more about asking the question, “who are you underneath the story you were told you should be living?” and “What are the pieces that are genuinely you?”
After working with me many people feel liberated to live their own story. They become confident, show up courageously, and are convicted about what they are here to do.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’ve always been a marketer. I didn’t follow the traditional route. I started in education. Imagine having customers who are told they must buy a service, they have no option but to do it and then spending year after year sitting in a place they didn’t choose to be. Teaching in a classroom is one of the biggest proving grounds for anyone who wants to think about marketing.
You have to be creative, engaging, and insightful. You have to not only “read the room”, you have to also tune in to what’s going on in the lives of each person. This “trial by fire” into marketing gave me a solid foundation to move into business.
As I exited the classroom, I moved into a private educational setting in one of the highest performing school districts in the state. Private education is an industry where the message has traditionally been “you are so fortunate to be a part of this institution,” Communications were focused on the school first, leaving the students and parents to do the work of what it meant for them.
As a way to increase our market share I created momentum in our communications and marketing strategy by “flipping the script.” At that time, this was unheard of in this industry. After producing remarkable results (90+% re-enrollment and 436% growth) I was invited to speak at national conferences where I shared the multi-channel client-centric marketing campaign.
After 20+ years in the educational setting I launched my entrepreneurial career as a messaging strategist by building on my success in client-centric communications.
What became immediately clear is that education and business were light years apart. I discovered my self-taught skills fit well within a narrative framework so I trained to become one of the early StoryBrand Certified Guides. I started working with start-ups, coaches, consultants, service providers, and one of my early clients was Santa Claus. Yes, even Santa Claus could use marketing for his Santa school and placement agency.
After several years I started noticing clients in similar industries had the same message. When you went to a networking event, what made one financial advisor sound different than the other four financial advisors in the room?
When your audience doesn’t understand the difference in the value you offer you become a commodity to offer the lowest price. That’s no way to run a business.
The world moved online in 2020…and if you had not been there before, it was no longer optional. The digital footprint was not only about what you sold in your business, it was also about who was doing the selling.
The “About” page of the website shot up even more in popularity. This is where the story of who you are and WHY you have your business started to sell your offers.
I started to see several problems in common with my clients.
First, they couldn’t tell you the problem they solved for their clients. They could tell you what they sold. They could tell you the features, but they didn’t tell you the benefits. They also didn’t have a personal story of why they did what they chose to do. They left no clues of why the business had started.
What surprised me the most is many of my clients had no idea of how they differed from others in the industry. When asked, the answer was something like “great customer service” or “we really care.”
They could tell you what their competitors were doing. Yes, they were all over that, but they had little idea of why their customers chose them. I began to see they were suffering from insignificance and obscurity.
At that point I asked myself that same question…”So how do you differ from others?” I had my awards and the data metrics to prove my messaging strategy was strong, but what I didn’t have was an idea of who I was outside of the bullet points of my job description.
My identity had become what I did… versus who I was.
THAT was a problem for me. If your identity is about performance, what happens when that is gone.
I set out on what turned into a 2 ½ year process of self discovery.
One of the first hurdles I ran up against was discovering the three different stories I was telling.
The stories we tell the world. These are what we talk about when networking, posting on social media or even in a magazine article.
2. The stories we tell ourselves. These are rarely spoken about in public. Stories like “this has to be perfect before I can finish.” or “I have to finish this to-do list to prove that I’m valuable.”
3. The stories buried inside of our souls. These are stories we aren’t always consciously aware of but they’ve been there all along. They are about the value you create in this world.
Trying to determine who I was with these three different stories became overwhelming.
I set out on a quest to get the answers but couldn’t find a process to do it. I had to create one of my own. It became my signature framework, The Difference Is YOU ™. Curating those stories and melding them together into a cohesive narrative became not only an obsession…It became part of my purpose in life.
The transformation I experienced told me I was on the right path. It provided the confidence that I knew who I was and the courage that there was little life could throw at me that I would not be able to overcome. This new existence was an enormous gift.
Now, I help service providers who struggle to know how they differ from others in the industry. I help them discover who they are, know how and where to show up, and what to say when they do.
Imagine, being a thought leader or professional service provider who can build trust with an audience by allowing them to see who you are through your “personal brand of integrity.”
In an age where you can locate facts and build them into a message via artificial intelligence, we need to be able to show up as more than an expert.
How do I differ in working with personal branding clients?
Great marketing always starts with positioning.
If you don’t have enough trust to know yourself, how can you expect others to trust you?
It’s very hard to have a big message if you have a small sense of self.
This positioning requires doing the work to cut through the surface of knowing who you are.
I was recently asked, “Are you a marketer or a life coach?” My answer was “yes.”
I also became trained in mental fitness and am currently working on certification for business strategy with Human Design. Mental fitness helps us navigate through those stories we tell ourselves and Human Design is a blueprint that gives direction on who you came here to be.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
During the pandemic I suffered a foot injury I didn’t think much about. The impact in combination with past foot injuries eventually led me to a place where I had difficulty walking. At the end of 2022 I was told I would need major foot surgery that included seven procedures in one foot to be followed by 4 months of no driving.
As a solopreneur, this could have been devastating to my business but with a runway of time to prepare I knew there was an opportunity in front of me. Rather than feeling sorry for myself and worrying about what would happen I chose instead to ask this question, “What does this make possible?”
The answer led me to rebuild my business model just as I was rebuilding my foot. I discovered more clients I really wanted to work with. I wasted less time networking with little return and a renewed energy and spirit to work more in my Zone of Genius. It gave me time and focus to develop this deep work with 1:1 clients. and I built a group coaching program for entrepreneurs trying to start their own expert-based service business after leaving the corporate setting.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
By far, one of the most profound changes has come as a result of surrounding myself with people who challenge me to grow. I’m a member of two mastermind groups, both with very different approaches. Choosing to find people who prompt me to think differently about how I see myself has been both rewarding and at times, uncomfortable.
I started a podcast in late 2021 and for the last 110 weeks have produced an episode every Tuesday without fail. My social media followers support the show. People introduce me as a podcast host with listeners all over the world. Guests of the show comment about the quality interviews and ask to return for a second visit. People tell me they feel inspired. Listeners say I am relatable.
I’m also a regular contributor to posting on LInkedIn and engaging with others in comments and posts. I look at LinkedIn as part of my business and a networking event I attend Monday – Friday.
A strong reputation is built by fulfilling the commitment to be consistent. It’s also giving yourself grace when life happens and building upon the lessons when things don’t go your way.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lisamcguire.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamlisamcguire/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamlisamcguire
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-mcguire/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamlisamcguire
Image Credits
Credit photos by Courtney Lindberg