A long time ago… back before you were a business owner with all the stress and pressure and obligation… you were just a person with an idea. That little spark of an idea felt so big and so important that you changed the course of your whole life, just to bring it into the world.
I like to think of that big/little idea as an egg. Sitting on a leaf, out in the breeze. So much potential. So much life and excitement packed into something so small. The kind of thing that most people don’t even notice. But not you. You noticed. And one day that idea egg hatched! And out crawled an intrepid little caterpillar. That was your business, right at the start.
And off it went. That little caterpillar business crawled its way into the great big world. You learned so much. Sometimes it grew fast and sometimes it grew so slowly you weren’t even sure if it was actually going anywhere… but it was real. You created something in the world and it was REAL.
But caterpillars don’t stay caterpillars forever. And neither do people.
So here you are. All that knowledge, all that hands-on experience, all those big dreams and hopes and joy still inside of you, waiting to bust out and take on the whole world. But how?
Well that’s where I come in.
Do you know what really happens inside of a cocoon? Because it’s real-life magic. And it PERFECTLY describes what it feels like to work with me on branding. Think of my love and expertise as a giant cocoon. Hugging you. Embracing you in your darkest, most important moments. That’s where the transformation begins.
First, the caterpillar dissolves into goo. Which is weird and scary. You’ve been building your business for years and to think that the first step is to tear it all down is terrifying. But it’s so important. You don’t want to come out of your cocoon still half-caterpillar and I don’t want that for you either. So we talk about EVERYTHING. All the pain, all the stress, all the fear. All the joy, all the hope, all the passion. It’s all in there. This first step is help me figure out what really drives you, and what’s been holding you back.
Next, all that goo starts to reform into something new. Something stronger. Something more colorful, more brave, more capable. That’s us working together. Take my strength. Lean on me. This process of discovering yourself in a new, more honest way is hard and I am here with you the whole time. Because your brand isn’t a thing that exists outside of you. It lives inside of you. That’s what it is to be a business owner. We’re not here for the paycheck or the status, we’re here for the passion. We’re here because the thought of going back to working for someone else’s dream feels something like death. So we push forward. And build a new brand out of everything you’ve learned. A brand that is based around what you want from LIFE and all the balance and happiness that comes with that. A brand that is designed to feel like you feel, because authenticity is powerful and soul-filling and your clients will feel that with you. A brand that can take you into this next phase of your business-owning life with enough bravery and energy to fly.
And finally, the best part… Your new brand emerges into the world. Bigger, better, and more joy-driven than you ever imagined possible. Because that’s what empathetic brand building is for. It’s for happiness. Yes, the butterfly has pretty new patterns on its wings. Yes it has new legs, new eyes, new everything, really. But none of that can give it the urge and the inspiration to fly. That comes from inside.
Through the whole process of transformation, from the life that was first formed in that excitement-filled idea-egg, through the lessons learned on the long journey of the caterpillar, and in all the real-life magic that happens inside of the cocoon… the soul at the heart of the butterfly remains the same. That’s where you live. The most real, self-loving, passionate part of you. The thing that can keep you going even when this all gets hard (because being a business owner IS HARD). And even as the butterfly flies off into the big, wide world, equipped to travel further and in new, incredible ways… your joy, your happiness, is what carries it onward.
It's hard to put into words what it feels like to live into the process of empathetic brand building, but I like to think the butterfly knows.