Discussion at this month’s TEN gathering focused on a topic familiar to many business owners, especially to those whose businesses have experienced significant growth in a short period of time: the identity crisis.

Here’s the situation: if your company has grown quickly through the addition of multiple products or services, and each one targets a distinct audience, should you:

Create multiple brands for each product and service?

or

Operate with one brand that encompasses all aspects of your business?

With a brand for each product or service, you might be able to speak more directly to each of your target audiences, but with one all-encompassing brand, you have the opportunity to carry more weight in the marketplace and take advantage of cross-promotional opportunities.

Realistically, the arguments for and against each option varies greatly depending on your product mix, audience segments, and current and desired position in the market place. But two important points emerged from the TEN discussion:

1. An identity crisis—not knowing who you are as a company—is typically a symptom of not knowing how you are perceived by your clients and target audience(s).
2. An identity crisis is also a symptom of not clearly knowing where you want to be in the future.

Business owners that find themselves in the midst of an identity crisis should pause, and take a step back to re-evaluate their business. Take a brief time-out to reset the bricks and mortar so that your business has the support to continue growing in a way that is both manageable and profitable.

During this pause, inform yourself:

• Find out what your audience thinks of you, how they find you, and what they really need from you. (You might be surprised to find that you’re over-valuing your current brand.)
• Think about your goals as a company; where do you want to be in five years, ten years? (Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.)

Once you’ve established a plan for where you want to take your business, and armed yourself with accurate knowledge about how your business is perceived in the marketplace, you will be able to make an informed decision about which direction to take your brand(s).

Listening. It seems like a relatively simple concept, but in this busy world of hustle and bustle, of I-need-the-answer-now mentality, the importance of listening is something that perhaps we’ve let slip by the wayside —both personally and professionally.

The world is constantly changing—I get it. People are busier than ever. Today, we are exposed to new images, new ideas, new products, new words, new software, new, new, new…it's overwhelming trying to keep up. I once saw a stat that a week's worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century . That's a lot of information. No wonder we retain as little as 25-50% of what we hear in any given conversation. So I still find it surprising, and somewhat shameful, that when having a conversation with a colleague or a friend, they're genuinely surprised when I remember something they told me a few days ago, let alone a week or month ago. I believe in active listening, and practice it by focusing on a few simple things:

• Repeat the words in a conversation mentally as a person says it
• Make eye contact—there's nothing more insulting than someone who is constantly distracted when you're talking
• Use positive body language to acknowledge you are listening. Something as simple as a head nod, smile or "mmhmm"
• Encourage two-way conversation by asking questions, requesting clarification, or summarizing comments
• Don't interrupt—and especially don't interrupt half-way though someone's sentence with "Yeah, yeah, yeah" like you know what they're going to say
• Relate your comments to something the other person has said during the conversation
• Remember what you've been taught since you were born…treat others as you want to be treated

Listening is not just the polite thing to do. It has tremendous benefits both professionally and personally:

• You learn new things: a leader in any organization can learn a lot by simply listening to their employees' biggest frustrations or challenges.
• You are equipped to make better decisions: a brainstorming session is much more effective when everyone's thoughts are discussed openly.
• You are more efficient: you retain more information through active listening and can use this knowledge to make future decisions quickly and with confidence
• You earn respect and trust: people feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas with others who listen and are genuinely interested.

"I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening." — Larry King

What can be done with your website design, layout, and content to make it easier for users to get what they’re looking for?

Steve Krug offers up some enlightened advice in his book Don’t Make Me Think. A must-read for anyone involved in website development, Krug’s book will help you learn more about how users really use the Web. It also provides excellent advice on which website elements are required so that users don’t have to think. Below are some key learnings from the book.

How We Really Use the Web

1. We don’t read pages, we scan them. Why?

• We’re usually in a hurry
• We know we don’t need to read everything
• We’re good at it

2. We don’t make optimal choices. We satisfice (we don’t choose the best option – we choose the first reasonable option). Why?

• We’re usually in a hurry
• There’s not much of a penalty for guessing wrong
• Weighing options may not improve our chances
• Guessing is more fun

3. We don’t figure out how things work. We muddle through. Why?

• It’s not important to us
• If we find something that works, we stick to it

Designing Pages for Scanning, Not Reading

There are five important things you can do to make sure users see and understand as much of your site as possible.

1. Create a clear visual hierarchy

• The more important something is, the more prominent it is (bold, bigger font)
• Things that are related logically are also related visually (grouping things together under one heading)
• Things are “nested” visually to show what’s part of what

2. Take advantage of conventions (conventions of page layout & formatting)

• They’re very useful - well-applied conventions make it easier for users to go from site to site without expending a lot of effort figuring out how things work
• Designers are often reluctant to take advantage of them

3. Break up pages into clearly defined areas

• Allow users to decide quickly which areas of the page to focus on and which ones to safely ignore

4. Make it obvious what’s clickable

• When you force users to think about something that should be mindless (like what’s clickable), you’re squandering the limited reservoir of patience

5. Keep the noise down to a dull roar

• There are 2 kinds of noise:
• Busy-ness – everything on the page is clamoring for attention
• Background Noise – lots of tiny bits of noise that wear us down

To learn more about website usability, pick up a copy of Don’t Make Me Think. It’s a quick read, it’s an informative guide, and it’s an invaluable tool that will help you develop more user-friendly, accessible, and efficient websites for your audience.

When asked to write this blog, my first reaction was complete intimidation. As Incite’s Administrative Assistant, blogging doesn’t constitute one of my normal day to day duties.

Why Is It So Terrifying?

This feeling always comes up whenever I have to do something out of the ordinary. In my experience at Incite, I see some of our clients react the same way when it comes to marketing. Either marketing is a new concept to them or Incite is recommending they consider an entirely new approach to it. Change is never easy and stepping outside our comfort zone often evokes feelings of fear and unease. But why?

The reasons are not always rational and likely very personal to each individual. Inside our comfort zone we feel safe and secure. As soon as we start to step outside, our anxiety mounts and we begin to feel stress. So, we typically retreat back to the safety of what we know. But that’s a problem.

Why Is It Important To Stretch Our Comfort Zone?

Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Much like Incite’s clients, we all want to grow. But to expect personal or professional growth while we remain tucked safely within our comfort zone is, according to Einstein, insane!

Stretching our comfort zone allows us to learn, grow and build confidence. Here are some tips to help get past the fear:

1. Accept The Challenge: Know and accept that stretching your comfort zone is going to be uncomfortable and challenging. There will be good days and bad days, but in the end taking on the challenge is the only way to achieve rewards.
2. Take Baby Steps: Break your challenge into small manageable steps and do them consistently until you have achieved your goal. Like a baby learning to walk, don’t be afraid to take a step, fall down, get up and try again until you get it right.
3. Be Reasonable: Challenge yourself to something that is somewhat of a stretch for your current skill set. As you gain more confidence, challenge yourself to increasingly difficult goals.
4. Get Some Support: Taking risks are less scary when we have people encouraging us. Surround yourself with supportive people and let them help. Much like a client coming to Incite to support them in their marketing, it helps to lean on someone as we tackle new challenges.

Whether you are a company seeking to grow, or an individual wanting to get more out of your life and career, we need to challenge ourselves and take risks. Things are only as scary as we make them out to be, and I can now safely say that writing a blog is no longer a fear for me.