89 | You Don't Need a Rebrand. You Need This

SPEAKER_00: The dreaded rebrand. You've been thinking about it for six months. New color, new website, new brand name, maybe. You've had the mood boards, the secret Pinterest boards, you have the whole thing.

But nothing has happened because somewhere in your gut you know that it won't solve the actual problem. And my love, let me tell you, your gut is right. Let me show you why and how to move past it. Hello, my love.

Welcome to Brand Confidence for Creatives. Are you feeling stuck in a cycle of overthinking, trying to build your brand? I'm Eugenia, but you can call me E. I'm a marketing and brand coach, and I spent years stuck in the cycle of researching, hesitating, and hiding until I got clear on my voice and my message.

In this podcast, I'll guide you through the strategies you need to get clear on what you want to say, build a personal brand, and create consistent magnetic marketing. If you ever thought, I know I have something to say, I just don't know how to say it, you are in the right place. So grab your coffee and let's dive in. Before we get into today's episode, let me tell you about something I just opened up.

It's called the Big Brand Moment, and it's a 12-week one-on-one program where we take the Authorio project you've been postponing. It can be, yes, a rebrand, it can be your podcast, a new visibility platform, and we actually built it together. From the strategy to the execution plan to the kickoff. So that thing that has been living in your head, in your notes, in your someday folder, it comes to life.

And here's the thing, I'm opening this at a founding price. Meaning the investment you make right now is the lowest it will ever be. And I'm only taking five people at this price. That's five only.

So this is not a I'll think about it and circle back in a few months situation. If you've been listening to this show for a while, you already know what I believe. That you already have what it takes, that you only need the instructor, the strategy, and someone who can see your brand the way that you cannot see yourself yet and move it forward. If that's you, let's talk.

There's no commitment in the call, it is a conversation. I just want to understand you, your vision, and I want us to figure out if we're with the right fit to make this happen together, which is so exciting. The link to book the call is in the show notes, and I'm so excited to meet you. Okay, now let's get into this episode.

I just finished reading Strangers by Belle Burden. It is such a good book. It is a memoir about her divorce, and I cannot put it down. She's such a beautiful writer, and I love that she acknowledges her own bias because she's the one writing about her divorce, and that made me trust her more because I know that she was being as fair as she could while still saying, like, this is how I lived it.

So she's so upfront about what the book is. This is not a history piece, this is not a legal document, says this is not like the most objective account. This is her perspective, her feelings, how she lived through something. So I finished the book, and obviously I went and Googled her because I wanted to find interviews, I wanted to hear her speak, I wanted to like learn more.

And what I found, like top page, stopped me. Because people had pulled her divorce court documents and were picking apart her finances. They were calling her a liar. People on Reddit saying that she was a scorned woman seeking attention.

And the thing is, she actually talks about this in the book. She talks about the way a woman who shares her story publicly gets dissected. She knew this was coming and she didn't anyway. It was important to her.

So I marinated on this idea, and then I came back to the episode I was working on, which is this episode, and at that point it was just loose notes. I wasn't really sure where I wanted to take the episode. But after just finishing the book and finding what I found online, something clicked for me. Because that's the risk, isn't it?

And I'm not talking about writing a memoir, I'm talking about your brand, of showing up more publicly, more boldly, in any capacity. There is a real cost to being seen as a at a bigger level. And I think a lot of you and the founders and experts I work with feel that, even if they've never said it out loud. Anyway, I want to talk about that today because I think it's connected to something a lot of you have been sitting on for a while.

And it comes to this big project of rebranding and circling this rebrand conversation for way too long. And you may think that your your brand, as aesthetically, holds this mystical power about the conversation between what appears on paper and the way your industry and your clients perceive you. But let me tell you, the urge to rebrand is almost never about the brand. The discomfort with your brand is a sign pointing to something else.

So if you know how to read that sign, it will tell you exactly where your next step should be. So the first thing that the urge to rebrand is actually telling you is that you've grown and that your online presence hasn't caught up to who you are today. You might not necessarily have the full articulation of that growth, but you open your website and it just doesn't feel like you anymore. Like the bio, the photos, the way that you've described what you do, it all belongs to a version of you from two, three, five years ago.

Because since then, you've taken on bigger clients, you've gotten clearer on your methodology, your thinking has evolved, and none of that is showing up online. So your brain goes straight into like, okay, I need to rebrand because visually, like you look at it and something feels wrong. But here's the thing: what's off, it's not the design per se. You've changed who you are, and that's why the look doesn't feel aligned, and that's why it feels off.

So fixing it doesn't happen by choosing a new color palette. It happens by taking the time to define first and foremost who you are right now. If you don't start there, you can hire the best designer in the world, and you will still walk away with feeling like something's missing because what's missing isn't visual. It is the clarity underneath the visual.

Until that is defined, no rebrand will ever feel finished. And the second thing that the Earch to Rebrand is telling you, and this one is a little bit harder to hear, is that the rebrand has become a safe or the or the rebrand planning has become a safe place to wait. And what you're waiting for, if you're honest, isn't the perfect color palette. You are waiting to feel ready to claim this bigger, more public version of yourself, a new level of visibility, because you know that showing up at that level more boldly, more publicly, that comes with a real fear that if something looks off and if the bio isn't quite right, or if the positioning feels inconsistent, you fear that it will contradict the reputation you've spent years building with dedication the right way, with love carefully through relationships, through results.

So you're not about to risk it by something online not looking right or looking not as polished as you know your work is. So you stay in the planning process, you refine, because as long as the rebrand isn't done, then you don't have to show up at the size that you know you're ready for, right? And whatever you're doing right now is not necessarily broken, like is it has gotten you to where you are at right now, hasn't it? So the rebrand becomes this armor, it becomes this thing to hide behind while it looks like you are moving forward because you are planning, you are getting inspiration.

But here's what I want you to hear that gap between who you are in real life and what people find when they look you up, that gap already exists right now, today. The armor that you're building or that you think you are using to be protected, that's not really protecting your reputation. It's just keeping you from closing something that's already open. And that feeling of being ready doesn't come when you have a perfectly mocked up brand and everything makes sense on paper.

That feeling comes after. Like it comes after the reps, it comes with getting used to this new level of exposure, it comes with getting bold about your ideas and what only you can do. Because no amount of redesigning is ever going to get you there first. So if a rebrand isn't the answer, what is the answer?

You need to sit down and create an actual document that becomes your compass. This document needs to articulate who you are right now at this level in this season, what you're leaving behind, this old version of yourself that has been presenting itself smaller than what you know you can actually deliver. This document needs to include who you serve, what you actually do, what makes you different. This document needs to be written in a language that sounds like you.

Like you need to free-flow with it. Let it be imperfect. We don't need super polish right now. We need your truth and your vision.

And of course, after you're done, you can do an editing round. But here's why this compass has to come first before you do anything else, before you get in touch with any designer, before you create a new board on Pinterest. Every visual decision that you make, every platform choice, every piece of content that you'll create, all of it flows from this. When the compass exists, nothing feels arbitrary anymore.

Like someone's suggestion that you don't think it's wrong, but doesn't really resonate with you. Everything feels intentional. You're not guessing at what to post or how to describe yourself or whether this logo feels right or not. You now have something that's true, that's underneath it all, and it's reflecting that truth.

Without it, you can rebrand forever and still feel love because you are decorating a foundation that hasn't truly been set in you. So once the compass is in place, the next step isn't to redo the whole thing. The next step is to choose one thing, one asset. Maybe a podcast, maybe an actual rebrand with a new website, maybe reposition your Instagram.

Something that puts you in the world at the level you're actually operating at. You don't need a full overhaul. And please let me stop you there. You don't need a full like laundry list that will take you another whole year, or a content strategy for six platforms that is going to take you hours of your week to create for and put together.

You need one thing built on a clear foundation, executed with a plan that's simple enough to get done and clear enough so you can get there without getting lost in the little details. That's it. That's the whole job. And I promise you, this is a much smaller, much more, much more specific job than what you're probably making it in your head.

And by the way, this is exactly what we work through inside the big run moment. So if you already heard about it, you know what I mean. The link to Book A Call to learn more is in the show notes. But here's what I want you to walk away with today.

This was never as big as it felt. You don't need a reinvention, you don't need to start over, you don't need to wait until everything is perfect and aligned and ready. You just need to get clear on who you are right now and put one true thing into the world that reflects it. And maybe then the next one.

But put one out first. That's the whole thing. I'm excited to see what you build. As always, I believe in you.

I'm really rooting for you. See you back here soon. Un beso. I hope you enjoyed today's episode.

If you loved it, don't keep it to yourself. Send it to a friend who's also trying to grow the brand without losing themselves in the process. And if you want to make my day, drop a quick review on Apple Podcasts. Seriously, it means the world to me.

And I know that this show is helping you show up with confidence and clarity. See you back here soon for the next episode. Un beso.