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Well, welcome back to section six of the Progress Pyramid—a pyramid designed to help you manage the maelstrom of issues we face as business owners and get them down on one page.

So what are we tackling in session six? Clients. Most importantly, you need a clear brand promise.

Now, I've got a format here—there are a thousand formats. Take your strategy statement we covered earlier—objective, scope, and advantage—and align it with the customer problems you're solving. Then look at what your brand is promising. What are you focusing on? Set some clear goals. This is just one brand promise format, but let’s talk fundamentals.

There’s a great book called Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout. It says a brand is simply the position you own in a customer’s mind. So what do you want to mean in a client’s mind? You have five senses—work across all five. And here’s the kicker: consistency is everything.

You can have an ugly logo—that’s not your brand. That’s just a logo. You can have a basic message. But if you show up consistently, you’ll make a bigger impact than all the ad hoc, inconsistent efforts in the world.

So what’s a brand promise? It’s the promise held in the mind of your ideal client. When they see anything from you, they think, “Oh yeah, that’s the fast-food guy,” or “That red car? That’s a Ferrari.” Everyone knows that Tiffany blue box. So what’s your equivalent?

At the heart of every brand is a promise to make a difference in someone’s life. What unique difference are you called to make? At Kelly+Partners, it’s this: make our clients better off. We reduce financial stress. We help them run better lives and better businesses.

When people think of me, I want them to think: “That guy is energetic. He wants to help. His expertise is financial, and he’ll help me.” That’s our brand position. And you deliver on that in everything your business does.

It starts with you—the founder. How you walk. How you talk. How you dress. Whether you turn up on time. How you run meetings. How you recruit. The way you deliver. Whether you leave a mess or go above and beyond. Every single touchpoint sends a signal. Life is show business—not tell business.

Jeff Bezos once said: “A brand is built by promises kept.” That’s the game. So list your touchpoints—not just your ads and website, but the way you speak, your tone, your energy, your follow-through. All of it speaks.

Who you are is what your business becomes. If you want a strong brand, it starts with you. That mission, those values, those behaviors—they reach your clients through your strategy, your people, your systems, and your delivery.

At Kelly+Partners, we want to reach into our clients’ minds, hearts, and lives—and let them know: we’re here to help you be better off. Healthier. Wealthier. Wiser. And we’ll make that real in everything we do.