Mark Brower is the owner and designated broker of Mark Brower Properties. He has over 20 years of experience in property management and investing, and lives in Mesa, Arizona. Mark is a Second Nature Triple Win Mentor.
Right around the time I turned 40, I took up distance running. I started with marathons, and then after about a year and a half I got bit by the bug: ultramarathons. Marathons are any race longer than a marathon, and are often 50 kilometers, 100 kilometers, or 100 miles. The things that ultrarunning has taught me have changed my life, both personally and professionally. So when I recently met with my fractional CMO to talk about brand positioning, there were some immediate connections in my mind.
We developed two key brand positioning statements through a process of really digging deep and uncovering who we are. The first was a rally cry. We didn’t initially set out with a goal of developing a rally cry, but when we stumbled upon it, it just clicked.
A rally cry is meant to be the north star for your team, reminding them why you do the work that you do. In a lot of ways, it’s a distillation of your core values.
The goal is to craft something motivational but concise. It should, as the name suggests, be something that people can rally around. Here’s mine:
This is what we came for.
This is something that I heard another runner say while he was running a 250-mile race. He was at a low point, something we all experience during long races. But through the pain and the struggle, that was his mindset.
I thought that was incredible.
We don’t run ultramarathons because it’s easy. We run because it forces us to push our limits. It drives us to reach new levels that we didn’t think were possible, and we do that through struggles.
Working in property management is the same way. We don’t do it because it’s easy, we do it because it can change people’s lives. That same belief that drives me to keep running when I’m struggling at mile 53 is exactly what drives me during the difficult times at work. When we push ourselves, we grow. That’s what my team is here to do.
The second element of our brand positioning project was a brand promise. Your brand promise is a clear statement to your customers that outlines what they can expect in terms of service, quality, and commitment. Here’s what we wrote:
We go beyond managing properties—we are a trusted partner enabling you to build wealth through real estate.
Our relationship with property owners isn’t a simple, transactional one. It has tremendous scope and magnitude, and a lot of people underestimate that. We’re coaches. We’re leaders. We’re advisors. And when we view that relationship as a journey, that’s when we can really add value.
Owning a business—whether that’s a property management company or a real estate investment company—pushes you to the limit. Along the way, you’re going to become a different version of yourself, one you may not have known you could be. But that change in mindset is what unlocks the wealth-building power of real estate.
That commitment and transformation is incredibly similar to my journey with ultrarunning, so it was just natural to use it as our brand promise.
When I sat down with my fractional CMO, Vince, to start drafting these brand elements, he pushed me to make them personal. He emphasized telling my story through my brand and making sure it’s completely unique.
What I ultimately ended up with sits right at the intersection of who Mark Brower is and what service Mark Brower Properties delivers. Plus—and this is maybe the most important part—what impact we have on people’s lives
Your rally cry and brand promise should embody who you are, and, more importantly, who you aspire to be. They should represent your highest calling. Ask yourself what you want to become and commit to that.
Your brand needs to come organically, from the inside, not the outside. You can’t craft a perfect brand in a lab. It just won’t resonate. People will be able to feel that it’s artificial.
In ultrarunning, you’ll hear a lot of runners say that they let the speed out. They don’t force it. They don’t push the speed out. They just allow it to happen, and it comes out freely.
You need to take the same approach to your brand. You can’t sit down in a conference room and overthink your way into a strong brand. It isn’t about what’s good for the marketplace. It’s about the truth, and the uniqueness of you and who you are.
So how do you find those pieces of you and your story that make up your brand? Ask the right questions. Look for the parts of yourself that are the most meaningful. What do you believe in? What do you want to achieve? What difference do you want your work to make in the world?
Start asking yourself those questions and you’ll start to get at the heart of what’s important to you and your company.
I truly believe that 80-90% of branding is embracing self-discovery and being open and vulnerable about your authentic self. Showing who you are at your core can be scary, but people will connect with it on a much deeper level than when you talk about the specific services you offer and how much you charge. It builds trust in an industry where trust is everything. You can’t make people care about what you say until they know you care about them. And how can they trust that you care about them if your real, authentic, vulnerable self isn’t showing up?
The scariest part about this all is acknowledging that your business and services aren’t for everybody. When you build a company that’s very specific to who you are, some people are going to decide that it’s not a great match. And that’s okay.
Leaning into that takes confidence and courage. It’s not an easy thing to do, especially if your business has been unbalanced, and focused on growth-at-all-costs in the past. But it’s essential to growing with purpose. You can’t please everyone all the time, and trying to do so doesn’t build a strong brand.
Often saying no to one prospect is more important as saying yes to another. When you develop the courage and strength to embrace that, you’ll be more effective at the work you do.
Remember, the more unique your brand is—and the more personal it is—the more it will resonate with people. When you’re developing a brand, you’re not positioning yourself against your competitors. You’re communicating who you are.
Your goal is to get so good at understanding and communicating your brand that it resonates when people see it.
The Rolling Stones didn’t do rock-and-roll. The Rolling Stones did The Rolling Stones. And that’s why they’re still selling out arenas 60 years later. There are other bands out there, but no one does what the Stones do as well as they do it.
When I’m running with a couple of my friends, we know we’re not going to win these races. Let’s face it, we’re older than a lot of the other competitors, and we’re enthusiasts, but not professionals. But we’ll often joke with each other that we can definitely come in first in the category of over 40, over 6 ft, with a certain shoe size, based in Mesa, AZ, etcetera. And we’ll just keep narrowing down the criteria until we’re the only ones in it, so we know we’ll finish first.
That’s what you want to achieve. If you do it right, no one can be who you are and do what you do. You will be number one in a category of one.
You can’t compare my company to anyone else, you can’t compare my fees to anyone else, because my brand makes me unique. What makes you unique?
Want to learn more about positioning your brand? Start with your core values. Watch this webinar that I recently did with Second Nature’s Andrew Smallwood on creating core values that matter.