I recently crewed on a yacht called Cyclone for the final races of the Winter Series 2017. I was given the position of trimming the headsail.

A place I really love to be, as the headsail gives the boat lift and can be the main power driver for the boat at critical times.

It's also a high action, adrenalin position because you are most active during tacking (changing direction), and if you stuff it up, you can stop the boat and be dead in the water. 

If you know me, you know why I love this place of pressure!

But something happened that day that taught me a BIG lesson about my personal brand...

It's easy to put a green tinge or add a leaf to your logo and think that's enough but it really is just "greenwashing" your brand.

So you take it a step further and change the paper in your printer to a more sustainable option, pop a few recycling bins round the office, change the lights to LEDs and put some dolphin friendly tuna on the menu to make your brand more environmental.

It's a good start, but did you know your approach to sustainability can include social and environmental factors that add massive brand value?

Triple bottom line reporting is more than accounting for your brand asset on financial terms, it adds sustainably responsible actions of your brand to help evaluate your performance and worth.

And it makes sense for your brands sustainable direction so that you, your staff, partners, suppliers and customers can understand it as well.

My husband recently noticed a pain in his stomach which didn’t seem to get any better over time.

Not sure what it might be, I convinced him to go to our GP for a checkup.

Now we don't often go to the doctor and have no set GP at the local medical centre, but he managed to get an appointment the very next day.

One of the many GP's saw him straight away and sent him for a blood test. Neither of which cost him anything as it is covered by Medicare (government funded medical cover here in Australia).

A week or so later the medical centre called and asked him to go in to get his results, which culminated on another blood test which was completed immediately, again on the Medicare rebate.

He was then referred to a specialist and his appointment is 6 weeks away and it will cost $250 for the consultation.

There is a vital lesson here for professional service providers, especially those in the wellness industry..have you got it yet?

We’ve been told it’s no longer Business To Consumer (B2C) or Business To Business (B2B), it’s now Human To Human (H2H).

We need to learn to connect.

Instead of constantly creating content and pushing it out there as fast as we can, on as many channels as we can, we need to stop and focus on what really matters to our ideal audience.

Not just sharing what they need, when they need it most, we also need to be relatable, relevant and real.

We need to start sharing our brand story...

Regardless of the final outcome and winners of the Australian Open, there are some stand out personal tennis brands of the sport who have already won…

Ever asked yourself “Why am I here?”

Kids at school dread being asked the question “what do you want to be when you grow up?”.

I don’t blame them. It’s one of the most difficult questions to answer...but it can be done.

If you really want to rise above your competition and stand-out, you are going to have to rocket launch the level of trust people have in you.

People buy services based on their confidence in your ability to deliver what you say you can do, and they need evidence.

Trust is a funny thing though.

Arthur Ashe, triple Grand Slam Title winner once said, “Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time”.

But what if you don’t have time?

2016 has taken some real talent from the planet, but they have left lessons we can learn from to enhance our own personal brand.