Phyllis, a Registered Representative with Financial Network Investment Corporation, located in the branch of a Financial Institution, had inadvertently committed a serious branding sin: allowing other people to brand her. The tellers, loan officers and other staff at the institution had decided that she was the "debt master," because of her handling of a personal debt situation, and they were only referring customers who were in need of debt assistance. This unintentional branding, though well intentioned, really started to hurt Phyllis' earnings.
"These were people with no money, maybe something to put into a Roth IRA is all, so my income was really impacted," she says. At her lowest point, in September 2003, she earned a whopping $720.15 in net income. "But I was still seeing six, seven, eight people a day, so something had to change."
The change started when Phyllis attented Peter Montoya seminar in March, during one of his "The Brand Called You" presentations on the basics of branding. "I knew I needed to do something, but I had no idea what to do, where to go," she says. "I thought I had to take what walked in the door. Even my supervisor recognized the need for change, but didn't know how to change things for me." After hearing Peter's presentation, she signed up for coaching and for branding tools such as a Brochure, and Peter Montoya Creative Services in June 2003.
The process of learning branding was a challenge for Phyllis, starting with the critical questionnaire. "It probably took us 6-8 weeks to finally figure out my target market and what I wanted to specialize in," she says. "And we finally decided that I would specialize in creating tax-free income, because no one here at the credit union was doing that." She trained the credit union staff in referring others to her as "specializing in tax-free income." She was hesitant at first, as many new branders are, about the idea of turning away business that doesn't fit their specialization. But the hesitancy soon gave way to delight as the new brand took effect.
After launching her new brand, Phyllis' income leaped from $720 in September 2003 to $6049.44 in October-an astonishing 840% jump. And it's continued to grow since then; she earned more than $15,000 in January 2004 and was well on her way to matching that in February. It's hard to recall a more complete, instantaneous success story-strictly by referral, without using a branding process or any other branding tool! "If I continue the way I'm going, I will have doubled last year's income in four months," she says.
Today, Phyllis continues in her coaching program and working with the Think Tanks, is working to complete her Brochure and other materials, has developed a wine-related visual theme for her new brand, and plans to go back to Peter Montoya a second time to pick up 'finer points.' "The beauty of it is, my confidence level has soared," she says.
"The beauty of Peter Montoya was sitting there and doing the work in the strategy sessions, because that's where I found the confidence to say, 'I specialize in creating tax-free income,'" she says. "I was encouraged by planners who were making 10 times the money I was making. The information they shared and the knowledge they had just reinforced that what I was doing was correct." |
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