May I Introduce You To The Momentum+Point…
I’ve been noticing that a lot of people will post on LinkedIn something like, “Behind this marketing campaign there are tons of unsexy hours that make this marketing campaign powerful.” And I’ve seen a few other things like, “building a powerful company is done with tons of unsexy hours.” But that’s true for everything in life. Anything worth doing is going to have a ton of unsexy hours put into it. If you want to get in shape and have a beach body, you’re going to have to put in a ton of hours at the gym and hold to consistent dietary habits to reach that goal. If you want to build a brand like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, or Bill Gates have built, go back, and look at pictures from when they first started out. All came from humble “unsexy” beginnings and thousands of hours of hard work.
It takes time and effort doing the things that others will not do to create something amazing. That’s exactly what it takes to reach the Momentum+Point. If you want your brand to reach the Momentum+Point, you’re going to have to put in a whole heap of unsexy hours to make that happen. But it’s a beautiful thing, that as you put in those hours, and you start to see some wins and the future you’ve dreamed of becomes reality.
Talk to anybody who’s really into working out. For them, working out becomes a part of their DNA. It becomes part of who they are. They get EXCITED about going to the gym! They know what it’s done for them, and they’ve seen the results.
Along those same lines, first, you have got to pick something that you are passionate about, and that you WANT to do. And secondly, you must understand it’s going to take a lot of those unsexy hours we’ve talked about to get to the desired result.
What is the Momentum+Point?
The Momentum+Point for any brand is based on five fundamental areas in any business: Impact, Organizational Development, Revenue Generation, Financial Management, and Operations Management. These five areas work in tandem to drive the momentum of your brand. Underperforming in any one of these five key areas can potentially keep your brand form thriving the way it should.
But, as you know, anything worth doing is worth working hard for. You probably will not be able to start a business and immediately have it running like a well-oiled machine. It will take hard work and somebody who is willing and excited about that hard work to gain the momentum needed.
The five areas of The Momentum+Point correlate to building a solid, impeccable brand. Let’s dive into each of these areas of alignment.
First area of alignment – Impact
Most companies out there would say they are about more than just the service or product provided. They’ll say they have corporate social responsibility in place. They understand that they have some sort of responsibility to their community, to the world. Whether that impact is diversity and inclusion, helping the environment, or providing a culture for individuals to empower their mental health. It may be a business or organization that’s aligned to religious view that believes that their impact is spiritual in nature and can be achieved through their business.
Now, how does this impact play into brand? If you look at companies today, there are those that are known for their impact on the world. If they’re a manufacturing company, they may want to lead their company towards zero emissions in the future. So, they set that as their impact vision. And in the world, we live in, many people will buy into that vision.
There is a book called Start Something that Matters by Blake Mycoskie. Blake explains, companies that build around an impact that matters to people beyond their service/product, that it built momentum in what they were trying to do. For example, at Toms shoes, for every pair of shoes they sold, someone in the world got a pair of shoes. This is the kind of impact that he’s wanted to make, and it caught on worldwide.
There are companies, however, that focus on other areas of alignment to build their brand, but at the end of the day, they must understand that just like when making a cake, you MUST have all the ingredients for it to bake and taste scrumdidlyumptuous! These brands and organizations understand the power of the impact they have, and how it builds their brand. So, if you truly are wanting building a small business that has a solid brand, you absolutely cannot forget about impact.
Second area of alignment – Organizational Development
Organizational development really focuses on a few key areas within a company. First of all, Org Dev is responsible for creating company culture. Creating a culture within your brand that focuses on the needs (both physically and emotionally) of your employees not only the bottom line is arguably the overarching function of the organizational development within your company.
Secondly, Org Dev is responsible for talent acquisition and optimization. This ensures that you’re not only acquiring the right talent, but also retaining the right talent. Making sure that the talent within your company is properly stratified and placed within the proper roles within the proper divisions. Ultimately that you’re utilizing people’s strengths and creating opportunities for their growth within your organization.
Finally, putting technology in place to make sure that your employees can be successful. If you are not utilizing technology, then that’s going reflect in the performance of your workforce. Your employees are the greatest assets that you have to work with, and most likely your most expensive as well. If you’re not attracting the right talent, if you’re not paying the right amount to get quality hires, if you’re not giving them opportunities for growth, then this is all going to be reflected in your culture and ultimately your brand.
You can tell the organizations that are not paying for the right talent, that their culture is horrible. Their service, operations, and looks on the employees faces tell it all. The great resignation has been quite the indicator that many companies had stopped focusing on providing a healthy culture. So, people left to go find companies that do.
So, we see that Organizational Development is another key ingredient in creating a brand that is healthy, well known, and growing.
For the final three parts of the Momentum+Point framework check out our post: Intro To The Momentum+Point (a sequel)
