Power by Numbers
Photo by Bekky Bekks on Unsplash
Quick back story: I’m 43 while I’m writing this and I didn’t go to college [officially] until I was 32 years old. However, with two [un]official decades under my belt building brands, scaling companies, and setting the foundation for humans to align with your product/service, it is striking how many things I missed along the way.
At first, “being creative” was the end all - be all for me. Creativity wasn’t something that was honored or supported growing up, so it took me a long time to settle into the idea that I am a creative. Even when it wasn’t something I appreciated about myself or knew how to embrace, I was helping business owners get out of their own way. Starting with my dad…a blue-collar guy doing his best to pave his own path and make his own money. When I was 16 years old I told him that how he presents himself and his business would directly impact the flow of business he’d experience. Spoiler alert - he didn’t listen.
Here are the lessons I’ve learned:
Don’t build by yourself: When you’re creating your company, don’t fall into the trap that you think you should know everything about launching your business. It is impossible to wear all of the hats successfully. Lean on your network and resources to level up your launch. There are so many elements, pitfalls, and unknowns that show up in building a brand. There always has to be an exchange for your talent and expertise, especially if the exchange is the form of lost time.
Read the fine print: Every font, image, icon, picture, video, and sound you use to represent your brand will have fine print that is confusing at best. We have a phrase within The Brand Friendly that we communicate to our clients often, “Just because you bought it, doesn’t mean you own it”. If you’re an established company, our Brand Audit is an affordable solution to get an understanding of all licensable assets.
Lean into your strengths: You have them, superpowers that set you apart from other people in your company, but the pride to stretch your skills is like Kryptonite to Superman. Both myself and my co-founder lean heavily into our strengths and we keep each other accountable to this by asking, “Are you living in your genius?”. One of the tools we use and lean on is the Working Genius model of understanding the areas that breath life into you, areas you can sustain, and areas that suck the life right out of you.
As an entrepreneur myself, I have failed at all three of the above encouragements. My failures in these areas stretched me thin, wore me out, and depleted me to my core. The Brand Friendly has been created to truly be kind, helpful, and empowering in a world where those three things can be hard to find.
Be Friendly,
Dennis
