Who You Know or Who Knows You?
The old saying, “it’s who you know” may be valid, but not nearly as valuable as ‘Who Knows You’.
The moment your name becomes recognizable by strangers you will be in a very powerful place. When people know you, that you don’t yet know, it will be the result of either something you did that was very good or very bad. I will assume that most of you have no interest in being known for the latter and that your goal is to provide great products and services to the market that help others for the better.
Regardless of how great your idea, product or service if people don’t know you they can’t invest in it. If they don’t recognize you for who you are they will not move mountains to help you. Getting people to recognize you before you are a star is a completely different way to think and requires very clever public relations. It has never been easier than it is right now to accomplish this.
In fact, this is what I wrote extensively about in The 10X Rule and have since validated and built on over the last two years. I believe I have actually cracked the code on accelerating WHO KNOWS YOU. I will be delivering this information at my 10X Everything live video webcast.
When a person moves into immense power and success it is not just because of their Rolodex or contacts it is because people they don’t yet know now recognize who they are. It is your job to make your face recognizable to strangers. “I don’t know you, I won’t grow you.”
The idea has always been to network, collect business cards, and keep building your network. Today the power brokers know they must leapfrog this networking concept to WHO KNOWS YOU. Celebrities know the power of being recognized and while they complain about it that is where their star power and their value is created. It’s a magical moment when people you don’t yet know recognize you. There is even a measurement for being known.
The Q Score is a measurement of the familiarity and appeal of a brand, celebrity or entertainment product used in the US. The higher the Q Score, the more highly regarded the item or person is among the group familiar with them. Q Scores and other variants are primarily used by the advertising, marketing, media and public relations industries.
Wouldn’t it be really powerful if you could increase your recognizable factor in the marketplace. “Oh, he or she is the one who runs that company….” This accelerates the idea of networking to moving from who you know to WHO KNOWS YOU (before you even know them).
By the way, if you don’t know my face I will keep putting it there until you do, cause it is my job to make my face recognizable to you. This type of activity requires tremendous effort, resources, and creativity but is the Holy Grail of PR.
Oh, by the way, “Anyone that says they don’t want to be recognized everywhere is either a criminal, a liar, or very stupid.”
