👋🏻 Peace out, self doubt. You're old news
There I was, full of so much hope and life as I opened that brand questionnaire in Google Drive. With three coffee’s worth of caffeine pulsing through my veins, I was gonna bust it out and finally get this stuff down on paper. - Oh the naivety. We were cruisin’ for awhile - busting through the easy stuff at the beginning. But then a roadblock sprung out of nowhere, kind of like those potholes that just appear in the road right in front of your car and upon hitting it you think - “oh no, this is it. My car is done for.” With every blink of the cursor, the pothole in question - What makes you different from everyone else? - had all the irrational thoughts bum-rushing my brain.
It results in an “uhhhhhhh, wellllll, uhhhhh”, instant memory loss about your entire life and what it contains and who you are and what you even did 5 minutes before that person pounced on you and ruined your life by saying hello and attempting getting to know you with that terrible question. – my dramatic retelling of this scenario may just be my introvert showing. To all of us who have suffered through mystery potholes, blinking cursors when we’re supposed to make claims about how we’re different when we don’t feel like it, and getting pounced on at networking events with vague questions about our existence – this is your moment to take a deep breath. We won’t unpack any of the trauma these moments may have spawned, but we will tackle a better way to go about overcoming that second scenario. Here’s what I believe: Defining your brand is more a work of excavation than invention. I’ve seen this trend in myself and countless others - we try opening our browser and upon downloading a questionnaire from your *brand questionnaire for creatives* Google search query go about defining our brand in an afternoon. And then we get frustrated when we hit roadblocks. With that, here are three ways you can find and collect the right truths and data about yourself, the work you do and the business you’ve built so you’re equipped to answer the question in question: ONE: Phone 3-5 trusted friends and straight up ask them what makes you different or what your strengths are. My friend Dennah often says, “What is ordinary to you is extraordinary to someone else.” - ie. oftentimes you don’t see what is remarkable or different about yourself or your work because it’s too close to home.
TWO: Circle back to client data. Scour testimonials, responses to final deliverables, text messages or DMs, social media posts they made about you. Oftentimes the best messages for our business originate from words out clients have said about us, not what we claim about ourselves. Which is great because if you loved that client, you’ll be using words that would ideally bring in the same kind of people who are looking for the same thing you gave them. THREE: Let an unbiased assessment literally tell you what you’re best at - my favorite is StrengthsFinder. It’s better than a personality test because it tells you your unique blend of strengths from their list of 34. This isn’t a free solution, however, I wholeheartedly believe that my investment in the assessment catapulted me into the confidence and right footing to pivot my business, re-position my brand photography approach, and launch a program that helps creatives unearth their brand - because all these things were rooted in the top 10 things I do best. And that’s what we want for you - accuracy and truth. Not whatever lies and irrational beliefs and safe copy+paste answers you’d default to without it. Now I’m sending you out, Reader. Put on your researcher hat and go mine for that data. Then the next time you sit down to define your brand - it’s with a cup full of data instead of one brimming with ideals. Catcha ya next week ✌🏻 Oh, and speaking of that program I mentioned in the third line item - it’s titled The Brand Plan. And I’m actually opening it back up for round two here soon. If it sounds like something you may be in need of in this season of your business - click that button and we'll automatically add you to the waitlist.
ICYMI🎉 The soft launch of my new website 🎉 Shoutout to mah girl, Kathy, for the [magicalll] editing she did on my copy + TONIC for the stellar template that created the site of my daydreams 👏🏻 Loving Lately> This light-medium roast coffee I've been using on espresso. > Maha Copy's IG feed full of quick fixes and word swaps for punchier copy Quote of the Week
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