As I was scrolling through my LinkedIn feed the other day I came across a video of a young boy learning how to do a standing backflip. His trainer parsed out the lesson into multiple single-step maneuvers, each one building on the previous, gradually guiding him towards the goal.

As I watched the boy slowly building his skill level which culminated in an unassisted standing backflip, it dawned on me that this process was a lot like the one I use while guiding my clients through the branding process.

It starts with “how is this going to work?”

When I meet a business owner for the first time, they know they need a brand but have no idea how it’s going to happen. It’s like standing on the gym mat and wondering, “how in the world am I going to pull off a backflip?”

The scenario is fairly common: an entrepreneur (we’ll call her Sarah) has a great idea for a business and dives right in creating her product or service and looking for clients. Three or four years down the road, Sarah wants to hire some help, ramp up her marketing to a professional level, and graduate from the GoDaddy website and Fiverr logo she cobbled together when she launched her business. After talking to some fellow entrepreneurs, Sarah realizes she has a business but she doesn’t have a brand.

That’s where I come in.

I’m the guide who will, step-by-step, help Sarah build her brand from the raw material she already has at hand.

it continues with “why am i here?”

I always begin my process with brand strategy, which is composed mainly of Sarah’s mission (why does your business exist?), her values (what does your business care about?) and her vision (where is your business going?). I guide her through a series of workshops that reveal the answers to those questions and we begin to formalize her mission statement, core values, and vision statement.

The dirty little secret of this process is that Sarah has all of the answers within her already but needs someone like me to draw them out and organize them into a form that can be communicated to prospective clients. I recently had a client refer to me as a “brand therapist.” I think that’s a fitting description but I’m not quite ready to throw my pirate persona overboard for a therapist.

The other components of the brand strategy are identifying Sarah’s audience, and discovering her brand personality and tone of voice. I’ve made many a freelance writer glad their client worked with me because it made it so much easier to write copy that fit the brand and communicate a compelling message to the right audience.

It rounds out with “how do I look?”

The brand identity is the part of the process where most clients want to start because it’s the “fun” visual part. But without the brand strategy to inform it, the brand identity doesn’t have much meaning. It might be pretty to look at but it’s lacking any real substance (fill in your favorite celebrity or pop star name here).

Also, Sarah’s brand identity is more than just a logo in a vacuum. It includes a color palette, font recommendations, imagery guidelines, and variations of the logo to accommodate many different use applications. Sarah will thank me when her sign vendor asks for a 2-color horizontal logo in vector format and she knows exactly what to send.

It ends when you stick the landing

Sarah’s original goals of hiring help, leveling up her marketing, and updating her website can all now be achieved because she has a solid brand for her business.

Her mission, vision, and core values will help in the hiring process, making sure candidates are aligned with Sarah’s business goals.

Sarah’s brand personality, tone, and visual guidelines will help her copywriter, photographer, social media marketer, and web designer stay on brand as they build out her marketing channels.

ready for your backflip?

If you’re ready to develop a brand for your business but, like Sarah, don’t know where to start let me be the guide to walk you through the process. We can start with a simple conversation.