{"id":8128,"date":"2010-09-20T13:26:02","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T12:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=8128"},"modified":"2010-09-20T13:27:14","modified_gmt":"2010-09-20T12:27:14","slug":"how-i-learned-everything-i-need-to-know-about-creating-a-good-perception-by-living-in-my-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/business-news\/how-i-learned-everything-i-need-to-know-about-creating-a-good-perception-by-living-in-my-car\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Learned Everything I Need to Know About Creating a Good \u201cPerception\u201d By Living In My Car"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Post by Richard Harmer Brady Media Group<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>First and foremost I no longer live in my car! With that said, you are more than welcome to send money so that NEVER happens to me again! Second, I didn\u2019t sleep in my car long, 10-11 nights I think….or was a few more?! Anyway, it wasn\u2019t that big of a deal and I was comfortable. Thank you to the Swiss Hotel parking lot lights for keeping me safe! Long story, but the person I was staying with was evicted from his apartment one morning. I actually caught him trying to commit suicide with Nyquil that same morning, an hour before his eviction. I was out all night and found him on the floor, then the po-po showed up to kick him out!! I KNOW!!!! CRAZY!!!! <\/p>\n

So that pretty much left me without a place to live. But the moral of this article is\u2026besides pay your apartment bill, is no matter where you are in life it\u2019s the perception you send to others is how you\u2019re inevitably perceived. Very simple! Companies and people are very much alike in that respect. Nobody knew I was living in my car. Not my parents, not my modeling agent (it was when I started modeling), NOBODY!! They couldn\u2019t\u2026it would \u201cdevalue\u201d me. So I would go to a friend\u2019s house to shower and clean up, etc…. He thought the water got turned off in the apartment, that\u2019s what I told him anyway. <\/p>\n

Perception! Can you judge a book by its cover? Should you? I say hell yeah!! You will anyway. When I look at a company to evaluate its brand or public perception I can instantly see where it fits in the market and what they can do right away to help its perception. It\u2019s not hard. Take out all the bullshit and all the fluff and what do you get? I compare it to walking into a dirty room\u2026What 5 things can you pick up right away or move to make the room look 10 times better? If you look at the room in its entirety it\u2019s all jacked up and crap is everywhere. Simplify what you\u2019re actually looking at. In other words, look at one thing at a time that can make the room look better; then repeat the process. With businesses it\u2019s not crap everywhere, it\u2019s complexity, red tape, perspective and lack of education. They make it hard to change to protect jobs that shouldn\u2019t be there in the first place or everything is done by \u201ccommittee\u201d so nothing gets done. When you think of a company or look at a logo, something positive or negative comes to mind. It strikes an emotional reaction, weather you\u2019re consciously aware or not. Guess what? When you look at a religious symbol, the SAME thing happens. It\u2019s instant! <\/p>\n

When I was living in my car, nobody SAW that! They only saw me dressed up and clean. I was a complete mess inside. I was worried about what I was going to do or where I was going to go! But I knew nobody saw that. All I had to do was create a positive perception and act as if I were already a successful person; then I would be fine. I just needed to change a few things about my actual appearance then I created an entirely different perception from someone that lived in his car. I did, and it worked! I made the messy \u201croom\u201d look MUCH better! It\u2019s common sense. Think about it. What can be seen by the customer or potential buyer? Is it positive? Can it easily be changed to be positive or memorable? This is where the rubber meets the road!! That\u2019s why I say that your \u201csocial media\u201d person should be more of a \u201cspokesperson\u201d. <\/p>\n

If that person has a positive persona, your company will. They have DIRECT contact with the audience. It\u2019s not just a \u201ctop\u201d down approach anymore, but very much a \u201cbottom\u201d up approach. By the way, notice how I said \u201cperson\u201d in social media, not a company\u2026 people interact with people, not organizations, but that\u2019s another article! <\/p>\n

I won\u2019t beat around the bush, I\u2019ll be honest and tell companies, \u201cwhatever you\u2019re doing sucks,\u201d it doesn\u2019t matter the explanation of why they\u2019re doing it. Creating a great perception is much easier than it sounds. Remember the whole first impression thing? Yeah, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. That\u2019s more true now than ever before. In everything you do, what people \u201cfirst\u201d think is the most likely way they will continue to \u201cview\u201d that company. Look, I\u2019m not saying you can\u2019t win them over. I\u2019m just saying it\u2019s much easier to begin the relationship building process if they have a positive and memorable experience with your brand. <\/p>\n

If you\u2019re on the inside it\u2019s hard to see HOW you\u2019re viewed from an external position\u2026huh\u2026 you\u2019re on the INSIDE! Like living in my car, I didn\u2019t think it was THAT bad! I had no idea what I was doing was dangerous and a little nutty till after the fact, till I could see my position from the outside. I just knew the perception I needed to create could NOT be that I lived in my car! So remember, in order to see what the public sees you may have to \u201clive\u201d in your customers\u2019 shoes or get an outside, unbiased and honest opinion. <\/p>\n

Perception is everything. Communication happens so fast nowadays, so make sure the time you\u2019re out of the \u201ccar\u201d you\u2019re at your very best as a person and as an organization. Oh\u2026 I\u2019m serious about sending money! I have a \u201csuccessful\u201d perception to uphold! <\/p>\n

Richard Harmer, Brand Strategist \u2014 Brady Media Group<\/a>. Join me Richard on Linkedin<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Post by Richard Harmer Brady Media Group First and foremost I no longer live in my car! With that said, you are more than welcome to send money so that NEVER happens to me again! Second, I didn\u2019t sleep in my car long, 10-11 nights I think….or was a few more?! Anyway, it wasn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}