So I want to take a moment and talk about family. I love my family. I’ve shared with you guys before and talked about my family and that they’re part of my why. They’re part of what makes me do what I want to do. They’re just such an important part of who I am, and I want to include them in absolutely everything that I do. What I want to talk to you about with family isn’t how you feel about your family. Hopefully you have a good relationship with everybody in your family. It’s something that we should all hope for and strive for. But in trying to find balance with everything that I do and the work that I do and how I go out and I help people and train different companies and employees, one of the things that surprises me is how often people take for granted whether or not their family knows what they do.

This is important and helpful, because a lot of times what happens is you’ll sit there and say, “Well, I have to work late. I have this big project that’s going on.” But what happens is there’s a disconnect. It’s almost the way that you want to be able to connect with your customers. You want your customers to understand who you are, what you offer, and why it’s important to them. Does your family know why your brand is important? Do they understand why you put in all the hours and the effort that you do every single week, every single day? By educating your family first, you’re able to build a better support system. You’re able to build a group of cheerleaders who can support you, and they’ll start talking to you about stuff. Because if they’re engaged, they start to become interested, and they might turn around and show you that they can actually help you in other ways. They’ll become brand champions or brand ambassadors for you, because they believe in what you’re doing. You already have their commitment and their love. Why not bring them in and turn them into a fan of your brand?

I love seeing small brands and businesses and everything where it’s a family-owned business. And a lot of people use the term family-owned business as a catchall. A lot of times it’s just the mom or just the dad or it’s just the two of them working on something without any involvement from anybody else. But once you can get the entire family, whatever size of family that is … Some people have very large families. Some people have just very small families. Whatever size you can get, if you can get them involved and get them truly invested in what you’re doing, you’re going to find that you’re going to feel more rewarded in everything that you’re doing, because your brand affects them as well. It’s not just you anymore. It’s a family-run business. Your family is interested and they’re encouraging you to succeed, but they can’t get this way unless they know what you’re doing.

I encourage you this week to sit down with just one … just pick one family member, sit down with them, and just ask them at the beginning, “What do I do for a living? What is it that I sell?” And hopefully, you’ll see that they’re able to mirror back what you’ve been feeling, what you’ve been showing over the years or over time. And hopefully, what you’ll do is you’ll understand that you have the support structure that’s been there. Maybe you didn’t realize it. But engage them and find out, and you’ll discover that they’re passionate, hopefully, about what you’re doing. Let me know in the comments below what person you ask. You don’t have to give their name. Just share, “I talked with my sister today. And I asked her this, and this is what she said.” And find out if it changes how you feel about your brand.

Maybe you need to explain a little bit to them. You should be comfortable with this, because you are having to share your brand with customers and everybody all the time. But you should be able to articulate very effectively what your brand does and what you do to promote that brand. And then gauge and see how receptive they are. See if they get excited. And as they get excited, make sure you pay attention. I’ll bet you that you’ll start feeling excited as well. You’ll understand how important they are to your brand and how they can help make your brand better. Again, let me know below, or just fill out a comment and let me know how it went. If you want to do that exercise with more than one family member, great. The more people that you engage, the better you are and the better and happier you’ll be. They’ll improve your why so that you can go out and figure out how you’re going to do your brand and what you’re going to do now. We’ll see you next week.