I am just not a Valentine’s Day person. Hearts, flowers, gifts, candlelit dinners… none do much for me. Acts of service are much more my love language, and not just one day a year.

That is why when I saw this shirt from Mahogony Mommies, it seemed like a perfect February uniform: Love is an Action Word.

Photo credit: Meghan’s first-grader. ❤️

I’ll admit, it feels a little strange to talk about love in the context of business. Culture, sure. Values, no problem. But love?

Even though we don’t always think about them this way, businesses, especially family businesses, are deeply human, and derived from love at their core. Us humans crave connection, respect, and a sense of belonging… in other words, love as action.

The book, Love as a Business Strategy, makes the case for building an internal “culture of love.” I think many businesses could take it one step further and develop a brand of love. 

In Six-Point’s brand strategy workshops, we define branding as “the consistent alignment of a company value proposition to customer values.” Basically, you have to connect the value that the company creates to what its customers value. 

We know that humans fundamentally and deeply value love. That is not a question. The question is… can a business produce love as a value proposition in an authentic, non-exploitative way? I believe we can.

Simon Sinek has a quote that I love: “There is a difference between providing a service and being willing to serve. Only one is generous.”

I think within these words lies the secret to love as a brand strategy, and it is something that many family businesses do quite naturally. In fact, it is one of the hidden strengths of many family businesses. 

I see it daily:

• An IT company going the extra mile to understand their customers’ businesses and make recommendations that may actually lose them short-term sales
• A manufacturer with a passion for engineering a product that can withstand a “forever” guarantee in a channel where skimping on quality boosts volume and profit margin
• A food producer who experiments and tinkers constantly but won’t release a new product until they have deemed it worthy of their customers (which has taken over a decade in some cases!)

This willingness to serve and deeply respect customers is of tremendous value in a world where the pressure is often focused on growing quickly, showing a profit immediately, and being opportunistic during market fluctuations. 

But a brand is a reputation… what others say about you, not what you say about yourself. So, if your company naturally acts out of love and respect for its customers, the opportunity is to become known for it. In many ways, this idea is fundamentally at odds with the mindset of humble service that permeates our culture. That said, it is important to connect with customers who value love, belonging, and respect. These will be your most loyal customers, and the ones who fully appreciate the value you are creating.

So, how can you build a brand of love without bragging? 

• Tell stories. I know, this is every branding expert’s advice, but one thing that I have learned over the years is that businesses get very good at telling case study stories. These are the stories of “problem/solution/outcome.” Totally fine, but it does nothing to showcase the heart behind the service or product. Instead, it is critical to tell stories of emotion and heart. Stories that people can relate to on a gut level. Don’t talk about technical problems. Talk about where people were emotionally. How were they feeling? What effect did this have on them? How did the work of your team fundamentally change things, and why was this important on a human level? 
• Amplify the voice of your customer. This means going beyond reviews alone. Are there opportunities for your existing customers to connect with or spend time with your prospective customers? Are there emails you’ve received or reviews that perfectly capture the love present in your company and your team? If so, don’t just share them once, or leave them in a “customer feedback” file somewhere. Talk about them and feature them prominently and consistently. Maybe there are other stakeholders in your business whose voices you can amplify as well? Is there a vendor you have had a relationship with for decades? A supplier who depends on your company’s success as much as your employees do? These voices can tell your story and affect your brand more than you will ever be able to.

• Create a sense of belonging. Humans want to be seen, feel connected to other humans, and to something bigger than themselves. At first, this may feel awkward in the context of a product or service, but think of a time when you were personally connected with a brand. The value of feeling seen and appreciated is universal. Can you connect your customers to your ability to create jobs in your community, or to develop and promote a key employee? Maybe you have specific stories of your company’s philanthropic initiatives or its ability to positively impact the environment? During COVID, brands became better at connecting these dots for customers, connecting dollars spent with customers’ ability to maintain jobs. The fact is, this impact is always true. 

If, like me, you believe that love is an action word, let’s make sure that we center it in every part of our lives, including in our business and in our relationships with our customers, suppliers, and colleagues. Let’s make love our legacy.

John Coltrane was an incredibly hardworking jazz musician, driven by the creative process to continue to become a better saxophonist and leader, and to capture more emotion and truth in his music. His drive for challenge and excellence is a reminder that there is joy and satisfaction in the hard work that all business leaders much engage in.

When immersed in brand strategy and positioning, we’re constantly reaching for  Windex and a fresh cloth to help companies see more clearly who they are, and who they can become. 

To my benefit, I almost compulsively do the same “polishing” on myself and my business as much as I do it for others. And just like my own house, I only get a moment of satisfaction looking into a sparkling clean mirror before I turn back and notice it is already smudged again, ready for yet another refresh.

All of the mirror-cleaning I’ve been doing lately has left me exhausted, but dead-set on desmudging still. Several years of rapid change through the pandemic was fueled, for our business as it was for many others, by necessity and adrenaline. It led to exciting and positive changes, and it has also been incredibly draining.

As leaders, we have reinvented our businesses, and therefore ourselves, at least once or twice in rapid succession, and this pace of change persists. On top of it, with inflation and the threat of a recession, much of this innovation must happen even as profit margins keep shrinking. 

So, as we enter the last month of the year, how do we gather strength for what’s next? Is there an industrial size solution or home-made vinegar blend that can help us gaze more clearly at this moment, and into our future? What do we give thanks for? 

Is it possible to give thanks for the change and challenge itself? 

Long before he got his big break playing saxophone with Miles Davis, John Coltrane served in World War II and used the GI Bill to take music classes. He then worked as a journeyman musician for nine years, taking any gigs he could get, and learning whatever he could. 

Even once he was selected by Miles Davis to join his band, Coltrane referred to Davis as “Teacher” and spent years searching to find his voice on the saxophone. He then took a break for a summer-long collaboration with Thelonius Monk to learn even more before returning to Davis’ band.

From then on, Coltrane was on fire. He practiced incessantly. In less than 10 years, from 1957 up until his death in 1967 (at only 40 years old) he put out 25 albums, his style shifting and evolving in each one, including his best-known, the Grammy-nominated A Love Supreme. 

Coltrane loved learning. He loved being challenged. In the last year of his life, his celebrity was at its peak, and yet he was in almost constant pain from liver cancer. Still, he did not let up. He continued to perform and record until only weeks before he died. 

“The real risk is not changing. I have to feel that I’m after something. If I make money, fine. But I’d rather be striving. It’s the striving, man, it’s that I want.” -John Coltrane

When I am deep at work on my own business, or laser-focused with other leaders working on theirs, I am often reminded of Coltrane and his love of striving. Changing, learning, becoming better at our craft, and better versions of ourselves… for the best-led businesses, this is what it is all about. Profit is merely a proof-of-concept, a byproduct of the learning, not the end goal. 

It may feel sometimes like nothing you do is enough. It may feel like that the crystal clear mirror you spent so much time and care polishing will quickly become foggy. And that is true. There is always more to learn, more to try, and more to become. Or to borrow Coltrane’s words once more, “There is never any end…there are always new sounds to imagine, new feelings to get at.”

This Thanksgiving, I am going to try to embody that spirit of Coltrane. Instead of peace and restoration, I wish you even more change, challenge, struggle, and striving. 

We are blessed with an opportunity to continue to clean our mirrors. With each attempt we see a step more clearly, and we become more whole and better in the process.

Leaders of family businesses need confidence to answer critical questions surrounding their brand and company positioning. Lack of confidence often means that important decisions are not being made, and the brand will immediately begin to falter. In most cases, confidently answering questions about the business target market and differentiators is more important than picking the “best” answers to those questions.

I was having some severe writer’s block this week until I had an unexpectedly lovely chat with Steven Wolgemuth, author of The Crucial 12, an award-winning marketing book that unpacks what leaders need to successfully direct effective marketing efforts.

Steve and I were nerding out together about branding and marketing strategy when all of the sudden he said something that hit me hard.

He said that he has found a leader’s confidence in answering questions about positioning, business target markets, and other aspects of their strategy to be as important as the answers themselves.

I want to let that sink in for a moment.

It is as or more important that you can confidently answer questions around your business target market and differentiators than it is that you have picked the “best” answers to those questions.

As soon as he said that, I knew it to be true.

When I see family businesses get stuck – whether they are $5M or $20M or $1B in revenue – it is most often because they have lost confidence in their answers to those questions.

• Are we really meaningfully different from our competitors anymore?
• Are we targeting the right customers to fuel our future growth?
• How do we explain the complexity of our company in a way that our employees and prospects can understand?
• Are we driving our growth or just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks?

When, as a leader, you lose confidence in your answers, the effects trickle down almost immediately.

Your team becomes confused. Your marketing partner starts providing uninspiring or off-brand content and design. Your sales team starts going off-script and improvising. The clarity and consistency that you need to build value in your brand and drive sales and profit become elusive.

The most important thing to know is that it is natural and normal to go through these periods of uncertainty. If you didn’t question these things, you wouldn’t be doing your job to keep the company evolving, relevant, and competitive. The key is not to dwell too long on them. At some point soon, deciding becomes almost more important than the decision itself.

I’ve seen a 60-year-old company that built up a hugely complex (and confusing) divisional and product brand structure to avoid an emotionally charged decision to change the company name.

I talked the other day with a company that has been trying to decide whether they should launch a new product line for over five years.

I have recently had conversations with four different people in a company that is trying to decide whether to double down on their existing customer base or expand to a market they don’t know well. (Three have competing perspectives, and one is just desperate for a decision so they can move forward and do their job.)

These stalemates suck morale, energy, and money out of these businesses.

If you find yourself relating to this, consider participating in our leadership team workshop or our brand accelerator system. Both of these options can provide the clarity, confidence, and energy you need to move your team forward.

Remember, by not deciding to give clarity to your team, you are deciding to keep your company where it is. You are deciding to stay stuck.