In this post, I’m gonna use the word resonate ALOT. Not because for this post it would be so good for SEO, not because Alex Wolf said resonate a million times in her book, not because for the next year it’s going to be the new buzzword because Alex said it…but because that’s exactly what Alex Wolf did to me. She resonated.
Resonated so much that it spawned this post, a FB post, an email, and a thousand texts to my girlfriends, all inspired by the 186 pages that I gulped down in the past 24 hours.
I’ve gotta admit it. This girl is good. She knows how to make you get up and babble endlessly at the mouth about something, to the point that you don’t even realize what you’ve done, until you look back and see that everyone is tired of you talking about it.
So tired that they themselves Google to see what all the hoopla is about . And then like a nasty rash, it spreads. Your friend is buying her book on Amazon, seeing who this delectable boss babe is, and her friend is doing it too.
And that’s exactly what Branding is. That’s exactly what influence is. That is exactly what Alex is.
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Here are the 3 takeaways from Alex Wolf’s Resonate that will change the entire way you look at your business.
If you have a major fear around never being the same again, do not keep reading. Do not pick up this book.
Because once you open the pages, there is no turning back.
1. Focus on feelings
Alex Wolf makes it very clear.
The foundation of magnetic branding is feelings. You see, when you make people feel, you make them do things that they can’t intentionally control.
Alex likens this to music, and how sometimes when you just hear something, you don’t know why it’s taking hold of you, but you just get up and dance. And even when you’re held back by societies fear of seeing you stumble over your two left feet, your head still bobs to the groove.
In brief, good branding makes us reactive.
In the same way that upon finishing Alex’s book, I went Motor mouthing to all my friends, in the same way that when you see a really good movie you passionately wave your frustrated hands in the air, pleading with the person that’s looking at you like ‘WTF’ on why they HAVE to see this movie.
Good branding makes you feel.
And as Alex so gracefully points out, the reason why so many people are struggling to build an audience is because they’re focused on being found, not felt.
2. Stop pandering to the audience that is blocking you out, focus on resonating with the early adopters.
Buyers reasoning has changed. We buy because we want to fit in, we buy because we want to understand who we are, we buy because we want to have an identity.
When you buy vegan and not plant based, it’s because vegan is your identity.
This is the reason why vegans are sooooo passionate about not being looped in with plant-based dieters.
Their purchase decisions are made up of a collective of psychographics, ideals and values that aren’t the same as someone who just wants to eat more alkaline.
Vegans are on a mission.
And like them, many of us are too. We’re on a mission to find out who we are and so we buy our way to self-discovery.
Because our identity is the center of our life, because we all have this massive desire to be accepted, many of us want our core values, our identity to be accepted by the masses.
We want to be loved, liked and cherished and so we spend so much time trying to bang down those walls in hopes that we will be accepted by “all of the people”.
But as Alex highlights, the masses don’t want you and your genius ideas. The early adopters do.
The masses are so fixed in being one of the “mass” they’re not open to new ideas and the only time they hop on the train is once it’s already going.
But the early adopters—they’re the ones that lead the masses because like me, when they find something they love, they run to anyone that is willing (or not willing) to listen and spread your message like an incurable venereal disease.
Every time you back down from what you really want to do because only a very few are catching on, it’s because you’re pandering to the masses.
In Resonate, Alex Wolf makes you melt deep down into this reality as you realize how much you’ve stopped and started building your empire over your desire to appease “the masses”.
There are very few early adopters, and that’s why when you first start your “movement” only few are willing to ride it with you.
But if you take them on the ride of their lifetime, they will be excited to ask their friends to come along too.
3. Your brand messaging should speak for yourself (literally) so it can vibrate to those that are a Perfect Match for it.
The biggest hang up that stops us from building our deep connection with our audience is our hang up about what we need to say.
The reason why none of us are resonating, is because we’re too busy trying to be perfect instead of raw.
We’re too busy trying to say the right thing.
We forget that human connection is not mathematical, yet we treat our messaging like it’s math.
Add a dash of buzz word here, a pinch of pain, a scoop of pleasure… oh yeah, and don’t forget to add a cup of urgency and sprinkle clickbait on top too.
We’re so busy trying to be accepted instead of resonant.
My theory of why this is so instinctual to us is because we know that as humans we need culture aka a group of people like us to survive. It’s been this way since the stone ages. We associate our desire for mass support and community with a form of protection.
That if we are everyone’s favorite, then our life choices are validated and the precious beliefs that we hold so dear to us our protected… because now we’re no longer on the outside.
That no matter if we no longer have to dash away from a massive grizzly bear to our tribe of people that can offer us safety in numbers, fear still feels this way and our body reacts as so.
We run away from what makes us vulnerable, right into the arms of what makes us comfortable.
The problem is, we are all fighting for our voice.
As Entrepreneurs, we’re desperately trying to find ways to connect with our audience but it’s like every time we try, we’re even further away from where we began.
Even when we realize that we need to speak to the people that are responding to us now, it’s like nothing in our messaging sticks.
Nothing that we do sends a surge so powerful that it electrifies people to move.
Alex Wolf chalks this up to the unknowing normalization that society has stained into our subconscious.
Even when we try to speak to our audience, most of what we have to say still isn’t our own words.
We try so hard to resonate, that we actually resonate with no one.
And that instead of trying to figure out how we should speak to our audience, we should really be narrowing down how we should speak to ourselves.
Because like Alex said, resonating is a form of vibration. When one thing vibrates, another thing that is on the same frequency responds to it with its own vibration.
Bossbabe blew up not because Alex Wolf wanted to resonate, she resonated because she vibed and her tribe vibed right back.
Final Thoughts
How as Entrepreneurs can we take Alex’s teachings and turn them into tangible strategies and results?
For those that are creative like myself, we just resume back to our normal artist nature and create from within…but what happens for those that don’t identify themselves as creative?
I like to think that for all us—Coaches, Entrepreneurs, Influencer’s and especially Coaches…
That we should accept Alex’s challenge and put more effort into our Personal Branding, specifically developing and identifying our voice, instead of leaving the most important aspect of our business (aka YOU) as the afterthought.
And consider that the art to selling is not intimidating people to the point that they feel guilty about why they haven’t taken that next leap, but making them feel so inspired that they question themselves on why they haven’t stepped up to become the identity they wish to be.
Out of all that Alex has to offer in Resonate, the biggest lesson I’ve learned, is one that will stick with me forever.
The magic of magnetic branding is unlocked when you tap into the magic within yourself. Find your voice, and you will attract the ones that echo back.
