While this contest was a way to get the word out about my new service with Kirsten Inc, it ended up being a great way to get to know some really cool businesses.

After reading all the entries, it was clear all of you are passionate about your businesses.  It was also clear that your biggest obstacle was not knowing how to get started working on your brand.

I wish all of you could win, unfortunately we had to pick just one business to receive a free r&r.

Now on to the winner.

Kirsten and I reviewed your submissions against a criteria that would help us choose a business that is ready to do big things with its brand.

In the end, our winner is someone we’re confident we can help and will have a great time working with.

And the winner is…

Matthew Baily from Live Limitless

Matthew wins a free r&r ($2800 value).  This brand and messaging overhaul that includes:

• Comprehensive branding guide
• Marketing Action Plan
• 3 Pages of New Website Copy
• 1 hour Follow Up Strategy Session

Congrats Matthew! We can’t wait to get started with you.

Runners Up: Free 1 hour strategy session ($199 value)

There were so many great entries that I had to make some shout outs!

Bradley Burch of Urban Mercantile

Nova Golderg of NovaGolderg.com

Congrats Bradley and Nova!  Each of you wins a private one-on-one strategy call with me.  I‘m excited to dig deeper into your brands!

Honorable Mentions:

Because so many of you are so passionate about what you are doing, here are some honorable mentions:

• Brandon Moore Surreel Studios
• Meghan Incorvaia of Weddings By Willy & Meghan
• Linda Imlay of In Our Lifetime
• Stephanie Flynn of One Love International

Thank you again to everyone that participated and helped us spread the word.  Kirsten and I hope that all of the businesses that entered Show The Love will follow our blog for free tips & tricks to grow your brand. 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The post And The Winner Is… appeared first on Brennan Brand Strategy.

• Do you experience Website Shame?
• Do you dread giving your url to potential clients?
• Do you struggle to explain what you do and why people should care?

We’ve got one sweet valentine surprise for you!  In honor of the official launch of our new package Refine + Revive, Kirsten Shaw and I are are giving away a weeklong brand and website overhaul to one deserving reader.

WHAT YOU GET

This Valentine’s Day Kirsten Shaw and I are showing the love by giving away a weeklong brand and website overhaul to one deserving reader. That’s a box of chocolates worth $2,800, my dear.  

Now it’s your turn. Show us the love by enterering to win a free r&r.  The giveaway includes:

• Comprehensive branding guide
• Marketing Action Plan
• 3 Pages of New Website Copy
• 1 hour Follow Up Strategy Session

Instant gratification. Immediate clarity. Beautifully polished writing.

HOW TO ENTER

To enter, tell us why you and your business by filling out this form.

Tell us why you and your business should be chosen for a branding/messaging overhaul.  Think outside the box. Get creative. Show us your passion for your business.

Candidates will be judged on a) passion for your business b) readiness for change c) willingness to put work into your brand and marketing.

SHOW THE LOVE
r&r giveaway
Feb 4 – Feb 14, 2013

Submissions close Monday, February 11th 12am PST. The winner will be announced on Thursday, February 14th right here on my blog.

Questions? Thoughts? Jumping for joy and need someone to tell about it? Drop us a line.

Best of luck from your sweetest valentines, Erin Brennan & Kirsten Shaw

The post Enter To Win A Free Brand + Website Overhaul appeared first on Brennan Brand Strategy.

Last night I had a great conversation with a super-smart, strongly opinionated Marketing guy with a background in branding.  I love having these conversations!

We were on the same page for most of the conversation, but we couldn’t seem to agree on when is the right time to invest in branding:

• His stance was that while branding was important, it was something you do once you are more established.
• I think branding is the most crucial step to growing your business and think it should play an important role from the get-go (admittingly, I’m a little biased).

Once I got home, I realized this is a common mindset that a lot of business owners share.  They invest in their marketing before their branding, so when I start working with them we have a lot of clean up to do.

To save everyone a little future time, effort, and money, I thought I would clear up some things …

5 Common Branding Conerns

1.     Brand … A Dirty 4 Letter Word

Branding is a loaded word, in particular with tech companies and startups (or at least that has been my experience).  Yet they are often the ones who need branding the most!

Marketing is a way to communicate your brand but if you don’t know what your brand is, your message is ineffective.

Just last week I was working with a tech startup.  About halfway through the conversation he said, “So I guess I should have started working with you a year ago.”

He wanted to get his business model in line, work out the kinks, and THEN focus on his brand.  What he didn’t realize was that by working on his brand it would help work out all the kinks – from product, to process, client experience to cold calls, and ultimately his bottom line.

Branding is more than just messaging and logos.  It is who you are. 

What you do with that information ultimately decides whether you are successful or not.

2.     Lights … Camera … Action

Branding without action is pointless (and this is where my colleague and I started to agree again).  The time and effort it took to make your fancy style guide does you no good if it sits on a shelf collecting dust.

In and of itself, branding is not an action step.  What you do with your branding is what matters.

Having a hammer doesn’t build you a house unless you actually use it.  That may seem a like an odd analogy, but people don’t try to build houses without hammers (and other necessary tools).  Why are you trying to build a business without branding?

Let’s look at my tech startup client again, the concepts we created shaped and changed the way he was going to implement his product.  It changed his user interface, web design, outreach to VCs, and sales.

If my client wouldn’t have applied the concepts we created with specific action items, all he would have was a stack of expensive paper.

It doesn’t matter if you have the best tools money can buy, if your bright shiny tool box is in the garage gathering dust they do you no good.  Your brand is no different.

Your brand isn’t about the mission statement, the tone, the colors and cool typefaces.  Branding is how you think about your business.

It is how you communicate who you are, and will serve as the foundation for every choice you make about your business.

3.     Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life (and business)

Some people are naturally good at branding. They unknowingly make “on-brand” choices.  They understand tone, personality, consistency, visibility, & position even if they don’t realize it.

This works great as long as you don’t have other people working with you.  The other problem is that these branding savants are exceptions.  Most people need outside help.

Not because they can’t figure out what colors they like or how they want to sound.  They need outside help because branding is how you think about your business and how you communicate who you are.

Learning how to leverage your branding is learning how to change your thinking.  It is a new approach to decision making.

It gives you the filters and process to create consistent and impactful choices that grow your business. 

Branding is starting to sound pretty important isn’t it?

4.     Branding By Any Other Name Is Still Branding

Shakespeare nailed it.  A lot of companies are doing branding, they just don’t know it.

Whether you do it on purpose or not, you are still branding.  Every action, interaction, phone call, click of the mouse, and email are branding your business to your customers.

You only get one chance to make a first impression and unless your customers are emotionally connected to your business (aka loyal to your brand) they won’t be very forgiving of your mistakes.

A client that is invested in your brand will be more likely to see you through the ups and downs.  This means if you don’t invest in building your brand, your clients will go to your competitors if they offer a new product/service, a lower price, or better customer service.

A lot of companies are doing brand building activities to grow their business but not calling it branding.  This is great (because at least they are doing the work) however energetically ineffective.  You will end up working harder not smarter.

By understanding how to invest in your brand you can make more strategic choices, create efficiency, and grow your business smartly.

5.     Branding Is All Warm & Fuzzy … We Mean Business

When your brand doesn’t align with your business, you create misunderstanding, miscommunication and mistrust with your clients. And clients don’t buy from a business they misunderstand or mistrust.

The good news is that the answer is simple: invest in your brand.

I’ve seen countless small businesses skip the branding stage to save time or money. They end up losing money, clients, or both because their message isn’t getting heard or isn’t getting heard the way they want it to.

Save yourself time & money, effort & energy.  Create a brand that works for you and grows your bottom line.

The post 5 Common Branding Concerns appeared first on Brennan Brand Strategy.

Photo Credit: pinterest.com/pin/140667188331416634/

We’re distracted.  Disconnected.
Overbooked and overworked.

Collectively, we have decided that we will avoid pain, at all costs.  But what if pain is there for a reason?

We numb.  We distract.  We avoid.

When it gets hard or uncomfortable – when we are pushed to our limits and think we are going to break, we look for an escape.  A distraction.

We try to fill the emptiness with entertainment but denying our pain only prolongs it.

Notice how and what you are using to escape the pain:

• Maybe you are chronically busy or eternally optimistic.
• Maybe you never try or you self sabotage so you aren’t disappointed if things don’t work out.
• Maybe it’s booze, food, sex, exercise.

Whatever your escape is, don’t run away from the pain … face it.  Because avoiding pain is more like avoiding life.

We become people pleasing, pain avoiding, perfectionists (and for the record, I am guiltiest of all).

The more you pull away, the tighter the grip it has on you.  While it may be all consuming right now, the more you sit with the uncomfortable the less it will bother you.  Learn to acknowledge it so you can stop struggling.

Pain and pleasure are two sides of the same coin.  By avoiding one, we avoid both.

5 Steps To Better Pain Management

1. Surround yourself with good people. 
It has been said that you are the sum total of the 5 people you spend the most time with.  Choose those people wisely.  If need be, let them carry you until you are strong enough to walk on your own.  Surround yourself with people who will love you, support you, and push you to be more.

2. Give yourself a LIMITED pity party.
Allow yourself to kick and scream.  It hurts, let it.  Then put on your big girl pants and take a look at your pain.  If you need a day, take it.  Maybe you need a weekend, go for it.  But don’t stay there too long, ignoring your problem isn’t the answer.

3. Express yourself. 
Get it out.  Cry, write, call your best friend, run, sing, yell.  Whatever you are feeling is not only real, it is okay.  Feel it completely.  Emotionally things may be a roller coaster, don’t quit feeling – find your way to cope.

4. Be gentle with yourself. 
This is hard work.  Take the pressure to be okay off yourself.  Don’t judge yourself.  Don’t compare.  Show compassion when you want to judge yourself.  Show compassion when you want to blame others.  Be nice to yourself, you need it right now.

5. Don’t take things too seriously.
Things feel crazy right now, own your crazy.  Do your best to find the irony or humor in things.  Giggle … laugh so hard you snort … find a release.

The post Emotional Epidurals: why you shouldn’t numb the pain appeared first on Brennan Brand Strategy.

A big thank you to John Muldoon for asking me to guest post on his blog Monthly Experiments, a site dedicated to building a better lifestyle by taking on a new personal challenge every month.  

If you missed Part 1, check out From Burnout to Bakasana: 38 Days of Yoga.  If you missed Part 2, check out Progress Over Perfection: 27 Days of Yoga & Counting.

Here’s Part 3 of 3.

Journey of a Reluctant Yogi 

“You know you love yourself by the commitments you are willing to make and keep.”

Photo Credit: Libby Murfey

I set out to do 38 days of yoga.  I didn’t go to class everyday, but I did do 38 days of yoga.

Yoga isn’t about the awesome arms (which you get) or the cool clothes or the weird lingo.  Yoga isn’t even about getting to class.

It is about being present, being intentional, being aware.  At least that is what yoga is to me.

When I started this challenge I was militant and then I realized that was the opposite of what I was trying to accomplish.  Judgement is the opposite of yoga.   

Check out my guest post on Monthly Experiments to read about how I committed to 38 days of yoga … 38 days of self-love … 38 days to change.

The post Journey of a Reluctant Yogi appeared first on Brennan Brand Strategy.

A big thank you to John Muldoon for asking me to guest post on his blog Monthly Experiments, a site dedicated to building a better lifestyle by taking on a new personal challenge every month.  

If you missed Part 1, check out From Burnout to Bakasana: 38 Days of Yoga.  Here’s Part 2 of 3.

Progress Over Perfection: 27 Days of Yoga & Counting

Originally, I thought this challenge would be hard and things would get easier.  I was wrong.

It was a roller coaster of change and I had to come as I was each day as if it were my first class.

Confession: There were some days where getting to class just wasn’t possible.  Sure, I could have made it to the studio, but at what cost?

Check out my guest post on Monthly Experiments to read about how I committed to 38 days of yoga … 38 days of self-love … 38 days to change.

The post Progress Over Perfection: 27 Days of Yoga & Counting appeared first on Brennan Brand Strategy.

A friend of mine always asks me, “Are you looking at this from 5,000 ft or 50,000 ft?”

My answer is sadly normally 5,000 ft.  I find that when I am really frustrated at someone/something, the problem I can identify is rarely what is actually bothering me.

I find the same thing with my clients.  What they think the problem is with their business is rarely the problem, but a symptom of a different issue.

Looking at the big picture requires us to look past what we think we want/need so we can find what we actually want/need.  It requires us to listen past what we are asking for or complaining about.

Before you can change your thinking, you need to know where you are getting stuck.  

So how do you figure out what is really plaguing you?  Look deeper.  Learn to fall in love with the problem and focus on the process.

We are all guilty of doing the opposite.  Searching for the right answer, the right partner, the perfect dress, the right strategy to “fix” our problems.

Haven’t we all worked really hard for something we thought would solve all our problems, only to be disappointed when it didn’t.  ”I’ll be happy when…”  ”Things would be better if … “

It isn’t about what we are chasing after.  It is about what we are running from.

You are looking for love?  Maybe the answer is learning to love yourself.  You are striving for more (money, clients, etc)?  Maybe the answer is learning to be grateful for what you have.

If we are always looking for more without appreciating what we already have, we will just end up in the same place.  Wanting more.

Push on the bruise, look for the root cause, ask the hard questions, sit in the uncomfortable.

Creating a solution that lasts requires us to look past the symptoms and find for the cause of our problems.  The problem is that is really hard to do and takes more time and effort than just finding a solution to the immediate concern.

So how do you shift your perspective?

• Look at the big picture. Step back. Ask yourself “Am I looking at this from 5,000 ft or 50,000 ft?“
• Be specific.  Get clear on what is actually getting in the getting in your way. Chances are your problem isn’t really your problem.
• Take risks.  Put yourself out there, be generous with your heart and compassionate with yourself.  No one said this was going to be easy.
• Release control.  It is really all just an illusion anyway.
• Let go of the fear of the unknown.  This isn’t a guarantee of success, but chances are what you are doing now isn’t either.

Start asking yourself the hard questions:

• Are you being honest with yourself?  Would your friends have the same answer?
• Is this still serving you? How is it making you better?
• Are you being defensive?  Are you being passive?  Are you turning a blind eye?
• Who in your life is pushing you (in a good way)? Are you listening?
• What can you let go of that is holding you back?  Fear?  Control? Defensiveness? The need to be right?  Insecurity?

Let’s look at an example: No one is connecting with your business through social media  

• Instead of creating a killer social media strategy, sit in the uncomfortable.
• Instead of focusing on the problem, look at the question at 50,000 ft: are you connecting with anyone at all?
• Cause & Effect: Your internal culture will absolutely affect your client experience which in turn affects everything else.
  • If you connect with your internal team they will in turn connect with your clients who will intern connect with you online as well as offline.
• Instead of focusing a solution, ask the hard questions. Your employees and customers want to see your business succeed (or they would go to another company).
  • Ask them what they like/dislike.  
  • Ask them what they want to see change.  
  • Ask them what is and isn’t working.
• Take risks and don’t be afraid to let go of what isn’t serving you.  Are your current clients the right clients?  Maybe the problem isn’t your culture or your social media, maybe it is your current audience.
• Ask yourself why? Why do your clients need to connect with you on social media.  Social media isn’t a magic fix and it isn’t right for everyone.
  • Maybe you want your clients to connect via social media to create community … or you want to create more repeat business … or to increase brand visibility.
  • All of those outcomes require different strategies and approaches.  
  • All of those outcomes can also be accomplished outside of social media.  Get specific about what you really want.
• Your social media problem just became a culture problem.  Your social media strategy solution just became a branding solution.

The answers we are looking for are out there.

Be prepared, they may not be the answers we want to hear.

They will involve more work than we want to do, they will take more time than we want to give them, but it is worth it.

The post What’s Your Problem? appeared first on Brennan Brand Strategy.

• missing you
• waiting to meet you
• disappointed or upset by you
• hungry
• falling in love
• overcoming heart break
• getting over defeat
• facing the hardest moment of their life
• celebrating with friends and family
• confused
• inspired
• choosing not to take the easy way out

• doing something for you, and you don’t even know it
• lying to themselves
• trying to tell you the truth, you just need to listen
• grateful for all they have
• wishing they had the one thing they really want
• learning to forgive
• alone
• doing their best
• fighting for what is right
• starting over
• doing something new
• taking time to reflect

Often times we get so caught up in what has happened or what is coming next that we miss what is happening right now.  Wherever you are today … be there. Know that this is where you are today and accept it.

Cherish your challenge.  Learn to love it.

Let this experience change you. It could be the best thing that ever happened to you if you let it. Stay here because if not tomorrow, someday soon you will be somewhere new.

The post Right Now … appeared first on Brennan Brand Strategy.

photo by Ian Wilson

We have the ability to choose exactly what we let into our lives, yet somehow this freedom feels more like restriction.

Why is making a choice so hard?

Because saying yes to one thing means saying no to countless others.

The F-word … F.E.A.R.

“Better the devil that you know than the devil that you don’t”

There is a fear of the unknown that comes with saying to goodbye to an option, and worse when an option says goodbye to us.  Walking away from one choice is scary because it means walking straight into the unknown.

We know we can’t have it all … So why does picking a direction seem so daunting? We can’t let our fear of the unknown keep us from making a choice.  

• Why do we hesitate to make plans with a friend? We know we want to spend time with them, but what if we change our mind and want to do something else?  What if a better offer comes along?  By hesitating to make a choice we run the risk of spending the evening alone because we were too afraid to commit to one direction.
• Why do we hesitate declining a new work opportunity that we know isn’t really right for us?  We know this new offer isn’t our best fit but it isn’t bad either.  What if something better never comes along?  What if we take the new offer and get stuck in something we don’t really want to do?  Don’t we want to wait for the best offer for us instead of settling for just okay.

When Good Just Isn’t Good Enough

“Good is the enemy of great.  And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great … Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.”  - Jim Collins

That good enough option is hard to walk away from so we are left paralyzed, unable to make a decision.  What if nothing better comes along?  What if I am being to picky, after all a good option isn’t bad.

Making a choice can mean getting exactly what you want.  It means saying yes to something you are excited about, something you have been waiting for, something you worked hard for.

It can also mean saying no to all the other possible outcomes you imagined “might” happen.  It can mean walking away from an option that was good for us, just not great for us.

Going Down The Rabbit Hole: Embracing the Unknown

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
“I don’t much care where -”
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
“… so long as I get somewhere.”
“Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.”  
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Personally I cringe just a little bit every time I hear the quote “When one door closes another one opens.”  While I agree whole-heartedly with the sentiment, I think it is perfectly fair (and necessary) to mourn the closing of a door.

Having said that, you should still get excited about what comes next, even if you don’t know what that it.  It is okay to not know where you are going or how you are going to get there.  When in doubt – keep moving.  Embrace your uncertainty instead of getting stuck.  

Let go of the story you are telling yourself.  Quit focusing on what maybe, could have, one day, possibly happened and get excited about what is happening in front of you right now.

You are not a victim of your circumstances.  Remember that somehow, someway you chose this:

• You said yes when you could have (maybe should have) said no.  
• You said no because you were too afraid to say yes.  
• Or maybe you are exactly where you want to be and loving the ride.

Either way, you played an active role to get here.  Find the power of your voice and let it change you, motivate you, or inspire you to make a choice.

You can have anything you want, you just can’t have everything.

By choosing to go one direction there is always the possibility you might miss out on something.  The irony is that by trying to do or be everything you actually accomplish nothing and lose everything.

The post Make A Choice appeared first on Brennan Brand Strategy.

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