What does "build your brand" mean and what does it actually take? There is a great deal of moving parts and pieces that go into building a brand. Today we’ll cover some of this and follow up with other blogs.

The first thing when it comes to building your brand is your story.

What is the story behind your company and you, and even further the employees or agents, whatever they may be that work for you?

Let’s start with your story as the business owner, Broker, or CEO/Founder. What made you get into this line of work or this industry? We need to define this on a deep level, not just a superficial answer, like I just like helping people etc.

I’ll help with giving ideas by providing my own examples of my story to help maybe clear things up on what exactly I am looking for and what you think of. When it comes to real estate, my story is as follows when it comes to why I chose to get into this business.

It all started for me about 16 years ago. I was working as a massage therapist and renting a home from my cousin. The house used to be my grandma’s and he inherited it because he was the one that was always there for her, helping her out. It was a small modest home in San Pedro, CA. At that time and for the most part, homes were expensive as can be in San Pedro. It has a small town feel and everyone knows everyone. I found out one day that my cousin had decided that he wanted to sell the home, he came to me first giving me the opportunity to purchase it before he put it on the market. At that time buying a home was nowhere in my thoughts. I was married with two kids and we were kind of just making it. I was stressed by the news and one day when talking to one of my patients somehow it came up that they were selling the home I was renting.

She asked me, "why don’t you buy it?" I replied with, "I don’t have 20% down, I don’t think my credit is good enough and I always thought, 'buying properties was only for those well established and with lots of money and savings.'" She quickly told me, "No that isn’t true." Then proceeded to tell me about her son who was a real estate broker and always helped people like me. She said it didn't cost anything to just talk to him. A couple of months went by and I actually went out on workers comp by request of the chiropractor that I was working for because he saw that I had a swollen thumb and noticed my hands hurt. He told me I had carpal tunnel and told me I needed surgery. My cousin was pushing more that he wanted to sell, so I went and talked to her son. He pulled me and my wife’s credit and income and said yes we could make it happen.

Honestly, I thought he was BSing me but he wasn’t.

With his help and my cousin willing to carry a small second, I was able to buy my first house. During the process, the broker asked me if I had ever considered getting into real estate? I told him no and he said he thought I would be great at it. He said I understood things and seemed like I would be awesome at helping people. He told me about a loan officer and realtor 101 class that he taught as his way of giving back to an industry that had given him so much.

I will say, I was impressed by him, one night while we were signing paperwork his wife called him because they were scheduled to leave to vacation in Hawaii the next day and she told him that he needed to pack, he told her, "it's ok, we don't need to, we’ll just buy clothes when we land." My wife and I both said, "I want to be able to just buy clothes when we land" and he replied, "well, come learn this business."

I took him up on his offer and I started his class. Within the first 30 days, I had landed and closed my first commercial loan. It was a loan no one else had been able to do for two years but I found a lender who could do it and we got it closed. I went on to make 120k that first year in the business. I never looked back.

It wasn’t easy, but I loved it. I loved putting keys in peoples hands to their first home and working with people everyone else turned away. So I guess in short, why I got into this business was to empower people. I wanted people to know that home ownership wasn’t a pipe dream or something reserved to the wealthy. I believe at my core that real estate is the path to true wealth.

As you can see, my why is detailed and has a few different emotional triggers. I believe that everyone has a "why" worth listening to and communicating to the public in order to bring attention and business to their business.

Figure out your "why" not just so that it is your daily motivation but also so that it becomes the motivation for others to want to do business with you.

So it becomes the reason why others feel drawn to you over your competitors.

Remember that price only becomes the deciding factor when there is an absence of value.

Your story is valuable, not only to your brand, but also to the people who come across your brand.