Overwhelmed by all the choices you need to make to get your brand known - and ideally famous?
Help me now!The Problem
This business and branding thing is still kinda new – or REALLY new.
And it seems like there are a thousand ways to go to go from zero to branding hero, but everyone seems to have their own ideas as to where to start. Get a website! Design a logo! Start an email list! All the social media! Pinterest! But not too much Pinterest, because YouTube!
All that initial energy and motivation you started with seems to be diverting into the secret option d) Take a nap and pretend it’s all fine.
Look, starting a brand is super overwhelming, and what you’re feeling is totally normal. If you’re ready to make some massive headway, keep on reading…
Become a pro-brander
Go back to basics
What most people aren’t telling you when they’re yelling at you to open all the accounts, buy all the courses and watch all the things is what even IS branding anyway?
Branding is, at its very core, the message of your business, and the WAY you share that message with the world in order to align with your perfect, soulmate, sent-from-heaven clients.
Branding is NOT just logos, colours, websites or deciding between a standard or puzzle grid on Instagram (side note: puzzle grids are shit. Don’t do them).
That’s not to say that you need to ignore the visual side of your brand – hell no! But you need to understand that the visual stuff is the tip of the branding iceberg.
Your core message of why you do what you do is what you need to understand first.
So, how DO you get to your core message?
Ask. Yourself. WHY.
Why do you do what you do? And when you get an answer, ask, Why is that important?
It’s the difference between “I empower women” (Boring! Snoresville! Everyone’s scrolled past already!) and “I had an amazing high-powered job in finance, worked so hard that I burnt out and had a nervous breakdown, slowly built my life up again using origami, and now I support other women coming through that time in their life with local art meet-ups, because it’s a fucking isolating time and you need to be surrounded by people on that journey. I know that if I can manage it, others can too, and quicker bevcause there’s someone who has their back.” Way more emotive, right?
What’s the message you’re trying to send?
ONE ACTION YOU CAN TAKE IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS?
Spend 10 – 20 minutes and figure out your “why”. You can journal, video yourself, mind map, vision board – I don’t care, you know how you enjoy this process best. Ask yourself “Why do I do what I do?”, and when you get the answer, ask yourself “Why is that important to me?”. Keep asking why the answers are important to you until you come to the answer that makes you catch your breath with it’s truth. There’s your message.
Don't immediately employ designers, photographers, copywriters - in fact, don't employ anyone in branding services - at first!
In my days of being a web designer, I worked with a number of people who decided they wanted to start a business and their first port of call? Was me.
At first, I felt really good about this. Yay me, for being so in demand!
It quickly wore off. People who have no clear idea of their brand, their services or products, and ESPECIALLY people who have never even had a client are HORRIBLE CLIENTS TO HAVE.
Sorry, guys. You’re lovely people, but you’re terrible clients for a few reasons:
1. You expect the service provider to have the answers about your business and brand that YOU should know. “What services are you offering?” should not be met with, “Well, I’m not sure yet, but I might…”. “What pages do you want on your wesbite should not be met with, “Home page, about page, contact page – OOOH and a shop!”, because your web developer will cry. And punch you. (In case this is you, an online shop is a VERY significant development process). Sure, we can help you where you have a specific area, but we can’t create your business for you.
2. You have a tendency to get reallllllly picky about things that won’t actually make a difference. Honestly, moving a photo 3 pixels to the left won’t make someone want to buy from you more – showing up in places where your clients are and sharing your message, repeatedly, consistently WILL.
3. You make the fact we haven’t finished the designs/websites/photo editing/copy the REASON you can’t go out and get clients. Most successful businesses started WITHOUT these things, just one person asking lots of people if they want the service they offer until someone says yes. You don’t need a website, you need an email address, or a networking event, or a social media post – NOT EVEN A BUSINESS ONE, just a goddamn personal one! Sharing your message is the one thing you need to do OVER EVERYTHING. The visual stuff just makes it look prettier.
4. Your brand will change in 6 months, 9 months, a year, two years from now. If I can leave you with one piece of advice, it’s that the business you come up with today is NOT the same as the business you have in 6 months’ time, or a year’s time. Your services evolve, your style changes, and your visual brand will, too. Sinking thousands of pounds into branding services at the start, especially before you have clients is one of the biggest wastes of money you could make in your business.
ONE ACTION YOU CAN TAKE IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS?
You only need the basics to get started with your brand once you have your message. Understand where your ideal clients are hanging out, and go and hang out there – is this on social media? At a networking event? Can you email them and find out their needs? Write this down in a notepook to refer to when you feel overwhelmed by needing to do ALL THE THINGS. The basics of business and branding never change.
Starting imperfectly is the most important thing to do. And if you know that getting a website is important (e.g. you want to build an email list), then you can do this yourself really easily (YouTube is a GREAT resource for this) OR pay for a starter package from a provider like my very dear friend Jenn from Hell Yeah Tech
Let it be ok being ugly for now. You can upgrade it when you know that it’s acatully holding you back. There are plenty of amazing people making excellent trade online with ugly visual brands!
N.B. If you are planning on getting yourself “out there”, a decent headshot can be great for a social media profile, so look at my starter Uncorporate Portrait Sessions if you’re interested.
What next?
YOU GOT IT!
Looking for even more to up your branding game? Here’s how I can help you show up excel:
Anorak Cat Web Design branding photoshoot at the Mercury Hub in Clevedon
Rich and Amy from Anorak Cat, a boutique website design and branding agency based in Clevedon near Bristol, signed up with me as part of my Uncorporate Annual subscription package, and after a Zoom call to finalise the details for the shoot, I knew they'd be a great...