Field Notes on Pivoting Your Brand | Part 1 | The vibes are off??
Here we go! This is a new series I'm going to be sharing over the next few weeks where I dive way deeper into the journey of pivoting & re-branding your business.
This content will be different content to what I’ve already shared about the whole re-brand & pivot process, as I’ve got a lot more BTS shit like my design process, photoshoot guides, website mockups that never made it, and so much more.
Re-Branding or pivoting your business is a huge undertaking, and one that will take a long time if you want to do it properly. I’m pretty sure I set out on my ‘rebrand’ journey almost a year ago now, and I had zero clue where it was actually going to lead. When I started, I thought it would just be a simple website refresh… Lol. Nope. Not quite that simple.
This isn’t going to be a step-by-step ‘here’s exactly how to DIY your own re-brand’, because to be honest, in this format I’d rather just share what I’ve learned, along with some shit that could be helpful for you — so you can take what works for you, and leave the rest.
If there’s anything that you love throughout these emails, please let me know — you can just hit reply on these emails anytime! Also if you have any questions about the stuff I mention, let me know, I'll do my best to answer 'em.
Here’s the topics & how this series broken up —
Part 1 — The Vibes Are Off??
Part 2 — The Branding Deep-Dive
Part 3 — Mapping The Vision
Part 4 — The Website Overhaul
Part 5 — The Photography (And Photoshoot)
Part 6 — The Launch!
For the most part this series will have the same structure to each post/email, with them being split into two parts. Part 1 being my story/BTS thoughts/an inside look at my process, and then part 2 being more tangible takeaways that could apply to you & hopefully come in handy.
Quick side note — if you’re going through a similar move right now and the phrase ‘re-branding’ feels too big, or maybe too small, or it just doesn’t fit, call it whatever the fuck you want. It’s also why I called this series ‘Field Notes on Pivoting Your Brand’, instead of just something with the word ‘re-brand’… Call it an evolution… A re-alignment journey… Whatever you want. 😎
Okay, let’s get into it.
I’d be absolutely LYING MY ASS OFF if I told you I started out this whole pivoting journey by doing anything other than just deciding it was time to move my website from Squarespace 7.0 to 7.1.
That’s literally all it started as, towards the end of 2022. So I slowly but surely started designing my new site, for months I never actually dove into the strategy of what I was doing, because I didn’t think I needed to. I was confident-ish in what I was doing, so I just did what I do and started designing a new site.
Cut to, the start of this year when I was spending the summer in my homeland of New Zealand, and a few key things started to happen.
Key turning points for me in this journey of re-alignment —
Chatting with a coach (Madison Morrigan, highly recommend her!) and getting some outside perspective on my business. She really helped guide me back to what’s worked for me in the past, which illuminated a LOT that I wasn’t really able to see just by myself.
Realising that the Notion Templates, and The Stash were two very successful products that were 100% on-par with where I wanted to take my business. That being — making really cool, helpful, designy resources for other entrepreneurs. And honestly, a lot of the branding strategy/direction I built out for The Stash is also a part of my whole biz direction now too. Sometimes all it takes is a second to stop, look at what’s worked and what feels really good, and lean in to that even more.
Being reminded of the fact that you are your own niche. This Instagram post from Erin Outdoors was one of the small handful of things I clearly remember reading before it hit me that I wanted to re-brand my shit back to my own name. I’ve talked about this in the past too, I 100% agree with Erin and anyone else who talks about ‘niching’ in a much broader sense, I think the old school advice about being mega-specific about what you’re doing just doesn’t apply much anymore.
As I was slowly chipping away at building my new site, I could tell there was something that just wasn’t hitting 100%. Aka, the vibes were off. I didn’t know what it was, I knew my products and overall vibe & direction was solid, but I knew something wasn’t landing. I didn’t force it, I just slowly kept diving into new resources on Branding and following wherever my gut led me, and eventually it all landed when I realised I wanted to merge Good as Gold with my own personal brand again.
Realising I actually needed to dial-the-fuck-in on my Branding STRATEGY. I think when you're a designer its very easy to get caught up in the visuals right off the bat, and I sure as shit did on this project. It was only a couple months ago that I dove into the world of Branding from the perspective of my vision, my values, who I'm talking to, and all of that good shit. As soon as I did this, things really started to come together and it became super clear to me that I wanted to merge my two brands into one.
So, here’s a few things to consider for yourself —
Notice when things start to feel like they need to change. They might even seem like small, somewhat insignificant things, but when you notice a pattern on pieces of your brand or business you just can’t seem to get clarity on, write them all down in one place, and take a step back from it all. I think the ability to really zoom out and get a big picture perspective on what you’re doing can MAJORLY help. For example, another ‘clue’ that I didn’t even realise at the time was that I knew I wanted to do a new photoshoot, but I had zero fucking clue how I wanted it to come together (this was back when I was planning on re-branding as Good as Gold). It was majorly frustrating so I gave up and just figured I’d do it last… Those little things can start to point you towards a bigger shift than you might have been planning, but noticing ‘em is the first step!
It’s extremely helpful to get into a space where you can just write, stream of consciousness style, about literally anything that is coming up. This is where the real truth comes from. Use these questions as prompts, if you need some help getting started! For me this usually happens on my laptop because I can type faster than I can handwrite, haha. Whatever questions come up, whatever words come out, just let it happen. You might suprise yourself, even if you don’t know where your answers might lead.
Don’t force it. I’m so fucking glad I didn’t push harder in the wrong direction when I could tell the vibes were off, and this is a huge pointer I’d give to anyone else in the same position. To really do yourself and your business justice, you have to ride it out until you land on the right move for YOU. Just write down all of the thoughts swirling around in your head, dive into new resources that feel like they’re calling you, and stay open to whatever comes up.
If you feel like you could benefit from an outside perspective, find someone you vibe with that offers coaching in a format you’re 100% down with. As I mentioned, I really loved chatting with Madison Morrigan for a one-off session back in February, because I knew she was the kind of coach I was looking for, and it was awesome. So if there’s someone you know of or already follow that you think could help you in this arena, hit them up!
So, that’ll wrap up this first post in this series!
The next post is going to go into much more detail about the very messy BTS of this pivot, including the huge pro’s/con’s list I made, my hesitations, and all of the big branding deep-dive things that it took to get to the point of clarity and confidence that I was making the right move and not just getting distracted by a lil dose of shiny-object-syndrome… lol.
If you’re not already on my email list, get amongst it & join the squad!
