What is it actually like to work on your brand strategy?

What is it ACTUALLY like to work on your brand strategy?

Well… Every brand strategy project is unique. It develops according to the needs of the business. It always provides incredible insight. It’s inspiring. Deep, human centered investigation turns your business inside out and helps it to evolve into something wonderfully harmonious for you and your audience. 

I recently finished a full brand strategy project with the wonderful Jen and Mike at Split Screen and here I share the biggest learnings that came from the process.

It’s a springboard for thought

Remember when you were a kid and the feeling of jumping on a trampoline? Uh! How fun was that? You felt like you could fly as each bounce propelled you higher and higher. Lacking responsibility but just enjoying flying and seeing the world from a new perspective with each bounce. Imagine having that freedom to bounce so high when it comes to finding new ideas for your business!

How many times have you felt bogged down when working on your business, lacking creative inspiration and motivation? I’ve been there many, many times and I’m guessing you have too. But I’ve always found the best way to shake off that sludgy feeling is to change the environment and change perspective. I let my soul find creativity in new places.

But sometimes getting into a new environment just isn’t enough.

So combine that new environment with someone to bounce off. (Remember when you added two people to a trampoline, what would happen to your bounces then?!) Having an extra person who is outside of your perspective can elevate your thoughts to places that you didn’t think were reachable.

Instead of sludging through uninspiring days and trying your best to keep your business moving forward, brand strategy can powerfully give you the springboard you need to explore new avenues and discover new opportunities. It enables you to be open minded about what opportunities are around you and how you can utilise them. 

No more staying stagnant and feeling those glum feelings around the lack of growth but more importantly giving yourself the opportunity to create an inspiring direction for your business. 

It’s therapy but for your business

It’s so easy to get stuck in the same motions and thought patterns when your business is struggling. It’s up to you to find a way to rewire those thoughts and be made aware of those actions that you keep repeating. I’m like this with writing. It doesn’t come naturally to me and I have to find new tips and tricks to get me out of a writing slump. 

If what you’re doing doesn’t feel good, you know about it, your body tells you. And if you ignore it, your body will find a way to tell you eventually. Translate this to your business. When you work in it or on it you’ll know what feels good and what doesn’t feel good. You’ll feel the misalignment. Quite often that’s at the mercy of higher business powers who dictate the way you must work. 

But being your own business owner you have the opportunity to reflect and change things. This doesn’t happen easily and taking the first step to address this can be nerve wracking. But once you empower yourself to make a change and get some external help for your business, your experience can be flipped!

Your thought patterns before were going round in circle after circle but after going through brand strategy they are released and set off on a new path of opportunity.

Consider it like therapy. It is a big word. But the experience is very similar. I’ve been told by clients that brand strategy is like therapy for their business. How incredible is that?

Realising that people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it. 

Here’s a little story… I was in a high street coffee chain recently and saw messaging on the walls about all the positive impact they as a corporation were making. And I couldn’t help but feel a little skeptical. I begin to think where was this messaging years ago?! Why are they only telling us this now? Are they really jumping on the sustainability train to be seen as relevant?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy they’re doing something that has a positive impact. Let’s remind ourselves of the amazing B-Corp businesses that are leading this way of working, the ones like Mindful Chef, Lush and Too Good To Go.

But for some other businesses the positive action they’re making feels a little like an afterthought.

Business should be structured around making a difference for people and the planet and then profit comes after.  Businesses who do this with transparency, become intriguing and inspiring. Their audience wants to know the story and why they do what they do. They want to know their mission. When they are aware of this it creates a deeper, stronger, more human connection.

You’re less likely to trust a business that doesn’t do this, which results in unloyal customers and slow growth. 

I much prefer having a human connection with the businesses I invest in. When a genuine and authentic connection is created it fills my heart and soul and makes my day more fulfilling. 

Next time you’re shopping make a mental note of what businesses you choose to invest in and why you’ve chosen them? Rather than just convenience, what about their mission inspires you to invest in them? Do you connect with their why and are you compelled to invest in them again after you’ve thought about this?

It’s a guided visionary experience.

Have you ever been on a guided tour of a beautiful city or fascinating tourist attraction? Think about how much you learnt and were made aware of that you would never have imagined before. All the intricate details you learnt about and the unexpected pathways you were taken down.  Now imagine going on the same tour but without the guide. It’s up to you to decide where you go and what you experience. A great thing to do if you are on a relaxing holiday with no agenda but not quite the same if you had a goal to cover as much as possible and develop your understanding during the process.

The wonderful thing about having a guide is you can ask them questions and find out new pieces of information that naturally intrigue and excite you. Without a guide you’re left guessing or doing the laboursome research yourself. 

Brand strategy is like going on a guided visionary experience. 

Many business owners attempt to take this tour on their own and often come out with missing pieces of information and scrambled together details that sort of make a final idea. Whereas when you work with a brand strategist you’re given a bespoke structure on what you need to focus on, from start to finish, to help you achieve your goals. It’s extremely personalised and totally human focused. 

A lot of the time as business owners we are guessing what we “should be” doing rather than working from a place of alignment and humanity. There are so many corporate, white, male-centric businesses books that tell us what we should be doing. Or even well-meaning but actually unhelpful friends or colleagues who seem to know exactly what you need to do. 

When really all you need to do is listen to yourself. The human at the centre of the business. You need to ask the right questions. The questions that resonate with you. That have meaning to you and the people you help.

Without the foundations of brand strategy you are more likely to follow someone elses goal or veer off track completely. When you work on your brand it gives you a super strong sense of direction and that’s exciting!

It gives you permission to make those decisions and grow. 

Do you remember learning to drive? I’ll let you in on a secret. During one of my driving lessons, without asking my instructor beforehand, I decided to break the manual car fully without pressing in the clutch. Just to see what happens… oops! Not a good idea! In hindsight, I should have asked him what would happen if I fully braked without pressing down the clutch. And then we would have calmly avoided the panicky emergency stop, made by my instructor and his pedals, before nearly banging into the car in front, and him shouting “What on earth are you doing!?”

You must have had a similar experience where you’ve made a rash decision and thought “oh, we’ll just see what happens..!” Seriously though, I hope we have both learnt to consult someone else first before making those types of decisions.

Making the wrong decision in business can be costly. And sometimes even worse is not making a decision! Working with a brand strategist is like having an instructor who helps you run your business your way. A good brand strategist will listen to you and encourage you to make decisions that benefit you and your business. 

Sometimes the smallest of decisions can stifle a business and brand. But with a solid structure and foundation, those small decisions will become obvious choices. Giving you time and energy to focus on other areas of your business. 

Not asking for help can leave you like a rabbit in the headlights. But as soon as you say your thoughts out loud to a supportive brand strategist they lose their scariness and making those decisions just makes so much sense.

Those are only some of the discoveries from our human centred brand strategy process. I think you’ll agree that all that I’ve mentioned above accumulates to one point.. that brand strategy gives you opportunities and options. The opportunities are inspiring and motivating, they fundamentally help your business to evolve naturally and beautifully. 

If you want to get started on your brand strategy I recommend looking at the bigger vision for your brand. You can start by downloading my free PDF workbook ‘Letter From Your Future Self’ where you’ll begin to create the vision your brand has been destined to become. 

Click here to download Letter From Your Future Self workbook for human centred brands

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