A Better Brand Story
I have created or maintained brand identities for many clients throughout the years – evaluating the brand’s purpose and core values against the creative output. I look at the start of the year as an opportunity to reposition myself – to work on my own personal brand identity.
I’ve analyzed, scrutinized, and compared my 2018 against other brands. I’ve weighed my own strengths and weaknesses against the progress (or no progress) that I achieved in the last twelve months.
We’ve got a lifetime of campaigns that we run ourselves. We might test these campaigns before we take them to market. Maybe sometimes we don’t have the time to re-evaluate and we are forced to make the best decision and move forward. In this process we are learning, changing, growing along the way; completing another chapter to our beautiful and unique story.
Redefining the Personal Brand Identity;
A careful self-love strategy nourished by existing brand purpose and attributes.
The behaviors of our brands and the personal brand challenges in life that we have to roll with or adapt to require evaluation and redefinition. It can be an overwhelming and exciting exercise.
Since 2014 I have been "anti-resolution," finding that there was much too much coming at me that it was unfair for me to tackle a resolution no matter what it was. Like the mom who wrote on Momstrosity, I simply needed to SURVIVE. That is why I grew to love the following thought:
“If you focus on results you will never change.
If you focus on change you will get results.”
I concentrated on that one word: CHANGE. I knew there was a lot that I needed to change, but I didn’t know where to start. I decided that if I chose a word to insert there, I could focus on that word to get my results.
I am a Doodler...constantly doodling letters and words, doodling on words, around words...and while doing this, I was thinking about that word and how it would fit together to tell the story of my life. I decided to choose a word for my year. My 2015 word was BEGIN.
We do not often give ourselves credit for our accomplishments, no matter how large or small. That May (a few short months after I had selected my word), I ran my best 10-mile race ever. While I was running, I was checking in. I felt great! I had focused. I had trained. I was mentally and physically strong, and I had my dad’s angel wings lifting me through to the finish. For the first time in my life, I was pleased with myself and that’s the moment I began to invest in self-love.
A brand is not built over night, the brand is built with time.
Five years ago, I was married with three children and working freelance from home during nap-times, cartoon-time and after bedtime. I had positioned myself as a stay-at-home mom, not a graphic designer. My brand purpose was to raise the best three children possible and if they were ever disrespectful, tantrum-throwing brats to their family, or in public, then I had failed at my purpose.
I truly loved making a home for our family. I enjoyed hours at the parks, activities and vacations. I loved cooking and entertaining. And I absolutely loved when Daddy walked in the door and we could tell him about the events of our day.
A lot happened in ten years. In between one and two children, I helped my mother and father as best as I could while he gave cancer a good fight and ultimately let it win. It was so hard losing a parent. Running was what I loved but I didn’t have the time. Surprise—There was a third baby. Birthday parties became my creative outlet. Nights out with girlfriends became fewer and farther apart. I honestly hated to get ready for a night out when I had been in sweats all day. By evening I was exhausted and had nothing to talk about. Date nights were just hard. When reality brought down the glass house and it seemingly shattered before me, the first thing I did was call a therapist. I knew I needed someone that could help me sort out where I went, where I was going and what I was here to do on this earth.
I once read something like this in a Glennon Doyle post:
Sometimes you are broken. And you can pick yourself up, gather the pieces and put them back together but you’re never really the same.
I think that’s what has happened to me. I survived that period of time. I chose the right words to get me through some really big personal brand campaigns.
Then, 2018 sucked the life out of me. A lot happened. I was divorced. We sold our home of 12 years and my kids and I moved. My word was IGNITE, but by December and January I was drained of energy. I would coast on fumes into 2019.
I saw that I had been broken and put back together. Differently. And that year, while so long, seemed to go so fast. It was temporary, but still provided a ton of growth and change.
It is only natural that I doodle my word on paper or canvas, but this year I want it tattooed on my arm as a reminder—only temporarily—to symbolize that, this too, shall pass. I learned a lot during my personal storm and now, I want to be BETTER.
“If I focus on results, I will never be better.
If I focus on being better, I will get results.”
All these words put together are my brand story. I really wish I had adopted a word well before 2015, just to see how my brand story would read today. I am inspired by the possibilities of a word and I want to share that with you.
It is necessary to redefine the possibilities.
Think about your word for the year, and if you had that temporarily tattooed on your arm, could it help you put things into perspective? Could it help you remember that these periods of time we go through are temporary? If we are brave, we can survive. And there is always good reason to be better.
It is all part of what makes us who we are; complex, magical, resilient, strong – the incredible story of a personal brand.
Let’s take on 2019 feeling inspired.