The Business Lesson to be Learned from Lafanda Quee

Yesterday, a friend mentioned to me that they never check their “Other” folder on Facebook messenger, because all that is in there is random marriage proposals from foreign men. Laughing, I went to my “Other” folder on Facebook, with the plans to do some screen caps of what I found and … well, to be honest? To mock them on Facebook. Because seriously? Do those proposals ever work? Why do they send them?!?

Unfortunately the senders of all my marriage proposals have had their accounts suspended, so I couldn’t see their messages of love and devotion. What I could see though was a message from a man who wrote me back in May. Just a short note – “I think this person is using your photo for their profile.”

This was how I discovered Lafanda Quee.

As you can see, Lafanda & I have one thing in common – we look exactly the same.

Otherwise, we’re really not that similar. I’m not from Colorado. I don’t live in Las Vegas. I didn’t attend Brigham Young University and then go on to work at Hooters and now at a Strip Club. I wouldn’t describe my relationship as “It’s Complicated.”

I am still laughing about it, and my husband Mike & I keep making jokes about my new Lafanda Quee name. I posted about it on Facebook, and since then 95 people have liked the post and there are so far 78 comments.

I declared that I’m like Beyonce. She is Sasha Fierce? I am Lafanda Quee!

The Business Lesson

Our image is a part of our personal brand. How you look is how I know who you are. Avatars on social media have only reinforced this for all of us. When you meet someone, do you ever think to yourself, “Wow, you look NOTHING like you do on Facebook?” How about when you go to a conference and you don’t recognize someone because their avatar is normally a photo of their kids or their dog? I’m such a visual person, I recognize people’s faces before I recall their names.

Lafanda Quee? She stole my face.

While that is a representation of me online, just because she stole my face doesn’t mean she can be me.

Lafanda Quee can not compete with me. I’m more than just that photograph. Is it a part of me? Absolutely. It doesn’t bring everything to the table that I bring though!

When you’re a solopreneur, a small business owner, with a brand that is built around YOU? No one can take that from you. << Tweet this! >>

If your business is built around who you are? You never have competition. No one has your appearance, your style, your swagger, your personality, your stories, your experience, your knowledge. No one, no matter how hard they try, can be BRAND YOU. If you market that? What makes you BRAND YOU? You’re untouchable.

Don’t Let Lafanda Take Over Your Market

If your business is built around your logo, pricing, a style of editing your photographs, a way of posing your clients, how quickly you turnaround products, or the albums that you use? Anyone can copy those things. Anyone. You could have your own Lafanda Quee on your hands, trying to look just like you.

All of these things are important to your clients, but they are slippery. They can never truly be exclusively yours.

Lafanda may look like me, but obviously my Ideal Client Avatar would never connect with her. No matter what she takes, she is not me.

Which do you market? Are you building a #BrandYOU business? One where people love you for who you are and that is a part of why they want to work with you – whether they realize it or not? Or is Lafanda going to come along some day, copy everything you’ve done, and steal your clients away?