#BYOB Episode 009 - Andrew Ford - Knowing your personality and how it influences your role in a start-up

BYOB Podcast
Written By Andrew Ford
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Last week we looked at values -  the core foundation drivers of your business that you have to match to your business in order to persist.  Persistence is the thing that gets your 1%.

This week we look at personality and how to design a business based on your personality. Knowing your personality allows you to know the best way you should be in your business, your best role within the business, what team do you need to fill in the gaps and how best to go to market. 

It is important to understand your personality so you know what strengths you have so you can focus on them. Just as important is knowing what you are not good at so you can hire people that are naturally good at those skills ot balance it up.

There are many personality tests on the market but the one we found most valuable was Roger Hamilton's Wealth Dynamics which gives you a detailed and easy to understand entrepreneur profile.   Understanding what kind of Wealth Dynamic profile you are, makes it a lot easier to accept and understand why you are not good at particular things and what work you are most likely to enjoy and thus succeed at.

The challenge with building a personal brand is knowing how to represent your personality online through words and pictures.  

To determine this, we ask our clients two key questions:

  1. What is the level of formality of your industry – the way that people would perceive you.

  2. Your level of openness – how much of your personal life do you want to share online. Keep in mind that often you need to sketch outside your comfort zone in sharing you values and stories to attract people customers that share the same values and want to do business with you.

Answering those questions based on a 1 to 10 scale allows us to map out exactly how to position your brand online and in social media.  Remember there are three brands in every business – people, business and products and when starting out your personal brand is often the only one visible and thus the most important.

I encourage you to take action from today's episode by first visiting Social Star University and check out Understanding your Personality course and then reviewing  Roger Hamilton's Wealth Dynamics

Next week we will look at life stages and where you are before we look at the final stage of resources.  

Andrew Ford
Marketing expert Andrew Ford, the founder of Social Star, has discovered the secret of ‘Powerful Branding’. With a fire for unleashing people’s inner brand and developing business models to generate profit from an individual’s passions, Andrew leverages ground-breaking digital and social media marketing techniques to create digital strategies for clients to attract maximum opportunities. Having established a strong name for himself in the field, Andrew blends traditional business techniques with now-necessary tools for entrepreneurs to achieve scale, quality, and influence in their niche. Andrew’s comprehensive business background and qualifications consist of a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) (RMIT 2003), a Graduate Certificate in Management (MBA Executive Program, University of Sydney 2005), and a Masters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Swinburne University 2011). Continually on the cutting edge of his own education, Andrew has tested his marketing theories in forums such as the BCG Business Strategy Competition, which he won in 2005 against all Victorian MBA schools, and the Venture Cup Business Plan Competition (Swinburne University 2003), which he won in the Masters category. With experience working at Hewlett-Packard, Sensis (Telstra) and IBM, Andrew also has mentored dozens of junior staffs to help them achieve their professional goals. Meeting and influencing high-profile public figures helped Andrew to realise just how many professionals require more understanding and control of their public brands or appearance, and need help with the skills to use the many amazing free tools at their disposal to generate success. At Social Star, Andrew consults with clients to uncover their personal brand – both where it is today and where it can be tomorrow – and refine and define how that should be displayed in social media in order to attract their perfect target audience. Andrew mentors his clients to rapidly grow their business’ audiences, resulting in larger potential client bases and higher revenue. Applying formulas that integrate over twenty years of Andrew’s business experience and fifteen years of formal business education, Social Star specialises in building clarity and velocity for clients’ brands using the ‘Understand, Build and Leverage’ methodology. ‘Having a Personal Business enables people to have an authentic, congruent connection with their valued clients and partners, using their brand as the bridge,’ says Andrew. ‘I’m highly driven to work with the new breed of entrepreneurs and small business owners – people who have a passion for making the world a better place. Traditional business models are stepping aside as people follow their innermost dreams and my role is to see them operate within their values while creating wealth. Some people think you have to sacrifice what you love to be successful in your business, yet it is actually the opposite. Follow your passion and success will come.’ Lecturing at Swinburne University from 2009 to 2011 on brand dynamics and digital marketing, presenting at numerous conferences, and consulting to hundreds of clients, Andrew has seen his philosophy work that if you follow your unique path, based on your skills, experience, values and goals, you will automatically attract the opportunities you desire and achieve the success you deserve. Living his mantra, Andrew has created a successful business and attracts high-profile clients including musicians, athletes, authors, models, entrepreneurs, professionals and small business owners, helping them find their ‘why’ in their business and fulfilment in their lives. Business for Andrew is more than work, it’s personal. Running a personal business means that he is able to fulfil all of his values rather than separating his life from work. It supports his two boys while providing social opportunities, educational development, fitness opportunities, spiritual fulfilment and many valuable friendships. Social Star has now become the vehicle for Andrew to crystallise his mission in the world, to help people love what they do, supporting his ‘why’, that if more people loved what they did, the world would be a better place.
http://www.andrewford.com.au/
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#BYOB Episode 010 - Elphie Coyle: Creating a team around your personality is essential to start up success
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#BYOB Episode 008 - Rohan Kopfler - Following your values isn't always easy