Why do people respect some brands more than others? Why do some businesses rocket to the top, while others flounder? To gain respect in your market, earn referrals, and reach the social media buzz that will have your business thriving, you need to stand out. You need to fascinate your clients.

What Great Brands Already Know 

In my early 20s, I discovered the field of advertising. My personality felt custom-built for the profession: the creativity, the hallway brainstorming, the opportunity to shape pop culture and invent taglines from a handful of ordinary words.

In my second year in the business, I was the most award-winning copywriter in the country. I led campaigns for brands like MINI Cooper, Nike, Godiva, Coca-Cola, and BMW. I studied every great agency, devoured books and magazines, and honed my craft so that I could develop new ideas for my clients. Advertising and I had a torrid affair for more than a decade.

Along the way, I learned how communication is received and interpreted, and which types of messages stand out in a crowded marketplace. My experience in advertising taught me how to look at words and ideas through the eyes of others, and identify what they value.

Advertising isn’t about what a company wants to say. It’s about what the market wants to hear about, talk about, and buy. When companies don’t listen to what consumers need, want and value, messages fall flat, and they can damage a brand.

How the World Sees You

If you’ve done assessments like Myers-Briggs or Strengths Finder, you’re probably familiar with the concept of how you see the world. Most personality tests measure  this because they’re based on psychology. In my branding background I saw that while it’s important  to know how you see the world, what’s even more important, especially as women entrepreneurs, is to understand how the world sees you at your best.

In other words, what are the traits that are most valuable to people, that will help you create the most influence and bring your message to the public . If you believe that your message matters, it’s important to understand your personal brand, how to represent it , and how to get people to remember it and take action because of it.

Different is Better than Better

As conversations become more compressed and the marketplace more crowded, you need to know how others see you and respond to you. Rather than just knowing your strengths, you need to identify your differences and learn how to exploit them.

Focusing on your differences frees you from having to turn into something else, or learn a new skill. Different allows you to highlight the singular traits you already have within you. You aren’t necessarily better than your competition. but you do have built-in qualities that allow you to rise above others .

It’s good to be better, but better to be different. Different is better than better.

The best part is, you don’t have to CHANGE who you are. You just have to become MORE of who you already are.

The first step is identifying the traits of your personality or business that set you apart and  fascinate your clients and associates. The word “fascination” comes from the ancient Latin fascinare, “to bewitch or hold captive so others are powerless to resist.” Fascination is the most powerful force of attraction, drawing people into a state of intense focus.

In my research, I learned that there are seven different communication styles that people use to fascinate their listeners. I call these Fascination Advantages. They include Passion, Power, Prestige, Mystique, Innovation, Trust and Alert.

Each of us will use these Advantages in ways that suit our unique stories. The secret lies in discovering the personality traits that set you apart, and then infusing your brand with messages that support your special value.

I’d like to give you the opportunity to unlock your highest value so that you can direct your focus when you are sharing your message with the world.  I developed the Fascinate® test to show you how others  see you at your best.

To take the test and unlock a free preview of how you fascinate, go to www.howtofascinate.com/you and enter the code: EVE2019.

In just five minutes you will discover the communication qualities that people value most in you.  You will be presenting a more authentic you, requiring less effort and leaving a more memorable impression.

You will not change the world by being quiet. You’ll only change it  by being heard and by being the guardian of your own authentic message.

NY Times best-selling author and the #1 World Brand Guru Sally Hogshead discovered a new way to measure how people perceive your communication, through the Fascinate® test. Before researching the science of fascination, Sally rose to the top of the advertising profession in her early 20s, writing ads that fascinated millions of consumers.