Do What You Do And Be Who You Are
I recently noticed a car window sticker that expressed the following: “Music Isn’t What I Do, It’s What I AM.”
I appreciate the sentiment about creative pursuits – and I also feel that the whole statement helps us tackle our happiness quotient as well as our business planning, as both areas rely upon embracing these distinctions in addition to blending them. A clear message about what a person does, or provides as a service, is just as important as how one feels inside. It’s OK to merge who we intrinsically are with what we love to do. It can help us brand ourselves.
Taken simply, the word “brand” makes me think of an old cattle ranch mark. Think “Flying W”. Representing both ownership and identity, a well-designed mark can become a ranch’s logo, and a legendary descriptor. Today, branding is a much more complex exercise, encompassing a broad set of parameters, including constant monitoring of topics such as perception in the marketplace and the media, and watching our ratings on Google.
Like an insomniac cat running around at 3:30 in the morning, it can all become a stampeding, furry beast, demanding bleary-eyed, in-the-moment attention. The good news is, small steps and a bit of work every day can help keep things in-check.
In my old Webster’s Ginormous Dictionary (which is old enough that it does not contain the word “ginormous” — but nowadays when you look it up, there’s a picture of MY back-breaking dictionary), I glean definitions about branding referencing “trademarking”, and “distinguishing characteristics.”
Disney, Apple, Coke and Starbucks are good studies, from logo to product to design and advertising. They have thoroughly-planned looks, attitudes, messages, and strategies. Even municipalities mind their brands: I pay attention to our local cultural entities’ activities, as what they do for Asheville has rippling effects on the rest of us.
Most folks I know deal with this topic on a smaller level, within a local sphere of influence. Despite our global outreach via the web, sometimes the focus on the ground is as tight as a several-block shopping zone. Repetition of your image and message across multiple channels of distribution helps consumers connect the dots and deem you and your story – and what you have to offer — as relevant.
That little group of words bundled into a “tagline”, describing what you proffer, buoying-up your logo or quintessential image, is a big part of individualized marketing. As an illustrator, I have to differentiate myself from huge numbers of artists, so I maintain a consistent emphasis on my “Inspirational, Editorial and Children’s” topics. Each drawing I create must fit into at least one of these categories (and some fit all three), and I unswervingly promote this distinction in all my activities.
One useful plan of attack to set oneself apart from the maddening crowd is to identify a true, driving passion. “Do what you love”, as the old saying goes. Asheville is full of entrepreneurs with genuine devotion who start new ventures based squarely on that Thing they’ve always wanted to do. For many, it’s a complete one-eighty from their past careers. For others, past and present dove-tail nicely, but it’s not a requirement.
While branding is a much bigger (ginormous, I tell you!) topic than my little overview here, there are some simple questions one can ask to get started: 1) Who am I? 2) What do I want to DO? 3) How are No’s 1 and 2 above different and/or the same for me? 4) What’s unique about me and what I offer? 5) What’s one step I can take today to make this a reality?
One suggestion is to jump into some business planning. Get your plans on paper. When that darn cat – metaphorically, or for real — wakes you up at 3:30 in the morning, work on your future for half an hour before falling back into bed.
You want to be a rocket scientist? I say “Why not?” There would be no other rocket scientist out there exactly like you. In ten years, you’ll either look back being glad you did it, or look back having not even tried, realizing you could have become at least a rocket scientist’s apprentice by now. Though we are neither entirely defined by who we are, nor by what we do — and sometimes the overlap of these two concepts is indistinguishable — investigating how these areas relate to our branding can help us tell each other who we really, really are.
Wishing you the best with all your endeavors!