Have a Strong Brand Foundation, Connect with Your Best Customers, and Provide Consistent Clarity Around What Makes Your Business Unique
Build a Lasting Presence
All of us can think of strong brands that pass the test of time. Brands like Disney, Coca-Cola, and Ikea. They stay in people’s minds and in their hearts because they mean something to a group of people. They make people feel like they belong to something important and they each stand for something unique.
It’s not about their logo or looking good. And it’s not about creating authority, being competitive, or being the best.
It’s about something deeper than that; the whole experience they create.
- A brand experience is about how clients feel when they work with a business.
- A brand experience is about how customers feel when they hold a cherished product in their hands.
- A brand experience is about how a brand is defined by its culture, both internally and externally.
- And many more intangibles.
How do the best brands do it?
“the essence of what makes them unique remains”
Furthermore, the world’s most beloved brands work hard to find clarity and consistently adapt and reinforce their brand over time, even as the world changes. They may change their products and services, but the essence of what makes them unique remains.
In order to do this, they assign abundant resources into building guidelines and a strong culture and reinforcing those guidelines with identity guides, brand books, environment design and extensive literature.
These items can be out of reach for small business owners who don’t have the budget to hire a big agency on Madison Avenue. But that doesn’t mean they can’t partake in all the same benefits the big brands do.
What Is the Identity Storybook Service?
“small is truly the new big”
The Identity Storybook service is an experiential journey and process of discovery that uncovers what makes your brand outstanding and uniquely, YOU.
We believe that you, as a small business owner, deserve the opportunity to have support and all of the same benefits that a strong brand brings. Small is truly the new big.
Your Identity Storybook will include:
- Guidance to help you make decisions about your business’s future and to keep you on track with your goals.
- Visual guidelines that help you keep your identity experience consistent and on-target.
- Reminders of what you stand for and what it means to others, including your own inner circle (employees, contractors, and friends).
- Details about exactly whom your right people are, so you always remember and easily cater to the people who you’re creating for.
- Meaningful visuals that inspire and motivate you so you can look at them when you need them most.
- A professionally printed version of your identity story, placed inside a small 3-ring binder so that you can add notes, ideas, and materials as you move along on your business journey.
meaningful visuals that inspire and motivate you so you can look at them when you need them most
What Makes the Identity Discovery Process Worthwhile
[info_list position=”left” style=”circle no_bg” icon_border_style=”dotted” icon_border_size=”1″ border_color=”#91888d” connector_animation=”fadeInUp” connector_color=”#b3a8ae” icon_bg_color=”#ffffff” icon_color=”#91888d” font_size_icon=”12″ el_class=”info-bullets”][info_list_item list_title=”Total Alignment” icon_type=”selector”]What would it feel like to have your business’s identity in perfect alignment with your personality, your goals, your values, and your beliefs? It’s more than authenticity – it’s about waking up every day with the feeling in your bones that your business is congruent with who you are and what you offer the world.[/info_list_item][info_list_item list_title=”Better Communication and Understanding” icon_type=”selector”]When everyone understands what your brand represents, it makes communication with your team much clearer and your projects run more smoothly. You won’t have to worry again about if your designer, your copywriter, your employees really get it. That, in turn, frees you to do your best work and allows your partners to do theirs.[/info_list_item][info_list_item list_title=”Consistency” icon_type=”selector”]One of the leading causes of business failure is lack of brand consistency and messaging. When you don’t have clear guidelines, it’s easy to get distracted by the next new thing or to forget why you started on this journey in the first place. With clear guidelines in place, it’s much easier to be consistent through time and across channels. You no longer have to worry about what to put every time you want to make a new Facebook status update or send a newsletter to your people. And you can keep your brand on course for many years to come.[/info_list_item][info_list_item list_title=”Clarity” icon_type=”selector”]Becoming clear about what you uniquely offer to the world is challenging. Without some gentle guidance and outside perspective, it can take years. We just don’t see ourselves the way others do and sometimes others don’t see us the way we see ourselves. Our brand discovery process will help you introspectively uncover what’s most important and we will be on hand to help guide you throughout the whole process.
Furthermore, gaining your own clarity about your brand and doing meaningful work is priceless, but only if you are able to extend that clarity to your right customers as well. With a clear brand, it’s much easier for others to understand you.[/info_list_item][info_list_item list_title=”Strategy Becomes More Simple and Straightforward” icon_type=”selector”]Have you ever been lost in a myriad of advice, formulas, processes, methodologies, business models, and other different strategies? There’s so much information out there that it can be overwhelming figuring out what applies to your business and what doesn’t. With a clear identity story, doing strategy becomes easy. It’s not about being a logical thinker, but instead knowing where you want to go and building your own strategy around how to get there. SO much easier.[/info_list_item][info_list_item list_title=”Easily Adapt to Change” icon_type=”selector”]We all know that the world is changing at an increasing rate. It often feels like we’re either just catching up or the train already passed us by. Most of the time, knowing the latest technology and riding on the latest trend is not important. Knowing your WHY and WHO you are is much more important than HOW. How’s can always be figured out later.[/info_list_item][info_list_item list_title=”Gain New Customers that Like and Trust You” icon_type=”selector”]People are attracted to others that are like themselves. It’s human nature. We all want to be surrounded by people with common values and goals. Having a clear Identity helps your right customers find you more easily and work with you.[/info_list_item][info_list_item list_title=”Understand Your Customers” icon_type=”selector”]Speaking of being surrounded by right people, wouldn’t it be great to have customers that you just click with? It can be difficult to know exactly who those people are, however. Your Identity Storybook will identify those customers so you can better understand them, cater to them, and meet their needs. Pretty much a win for everyone, if you ask us![/info_list_item][info_list_item list_title=”Know What’s Truly Most Important” icon_type=”selector”]It can be a challenge to figure out what part of your Identity to focus on. After all, humans are complex creatures. With a clear brand story, you will know exactly which attributes are most important to show to the world and which can be secondary.[/info_list_item][info_list_item list_title=”Grow Organically” icon_type=”selector”]They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, we believe it takes a village to grow a brand too! Having other people rooting for your business and advocating on your behalf is the best way to grow your baby into a strong and healthy adult. A strong brand makes it easier for them.[/info_list_item][/info_list]
visual guidelines that help you keep your identity experience consistent and on-target.
Is An Identity Storybook Right for Your Business?
The Identity Storybook service is not for everyone. It’s a fun and exciting journey, but it also takes some serious internal reflection. Reaching deep inside to find the truth within ourselves and our identity can be challenging. We’ll guide you and give you insight along the way, but you must be ready for some major shifting to take place.
If you’re in need of more of a “set it and forget it” type of service, this probably isn’t the best bet for you.
It’s also important to focus on some practical realities. If your business fits any of these situations, this service has a strong possibility of being of best value for you:
- You’re an entrepreneur or solopreneur that’s starting a new business and needs clarity and direction about which direction to head in and how to present your business.
- You’re an entrepreneur or solopreneur that may already have been in business for a while, but you need to take your brand or business in a different direction than you have been so far. (Ah, reinvention, isn’t it beautiful?)
- You own a small business and need to build a strong and vibrant community of advocates and good people.
- You aren’t making enough income to sustain a healthy business or you’re working too much to make ends meet. You feel like you’re just spinning wheels and you’re not sure why.
- You’re having too many difficulties with your current clients or customers and feel a lot of personality or values mismatch in that area.
- You have a great product or service, but you haven’t been able to figure out how to position it in the world.
What to Expect During the Process
“we want to see you fly!”
We get it, you might be feeling like this is all big and scary. Knowing what’s going to happen always helps a little though, doesn’t it?
Here’s what you can expect:
- Kind and gentle, but persistent guidance. We give gentle pushes along the way because we know how amazing you are and want to see you fly!
- Lots of enthusiasm, energy, and play. We believe working joyfully makes things flow and magic happen.
- Thoughtfulness, love, and care. We’re well-known for thinking up solutions for our clients in the shower, while laying in bed trying to fall asleep, while we’re having dinner…. It’s just to say, we care about our clients like if they are family and want to see them succeed.
- Lots of questions and communicating, sometimes by messaging, sometimes by phone, and sometimes by video. Whatever route we need to take to make sure you are heard and we’re all getting to the core of things, we’ll take.
it’s a fun journey, but it also takes some serious internal reflection.
Here’s What Happens
We give complete focus to each and every of our clients who contracts us for the Identity Storybook service. In order to do that, the process is outlined on a strict and intensive schedule. Once we’ve booked you in, it’s very important that you are able to set aside the time and space you’ll need for it. The whole process takes 8 weeks from beginning to end.
Here’s what will happen:
it became clear that we could help others find their path too
Our Own Identity Story
We’ve owned various businesses together over the past 13 years. We ran a very popular music entertainment site, have done illustration and art, done photography for events, ran a web and graphic design studio, made various types of products, and have helped hundreds of clients build strong strategies and brands since 2002.
However, we initially struggled with finding our own identity. Things that seemed so clear when we viewed our clients were difficult for us to find in ourselves. We reinvented ourselves many times, but it wouldn’t take long until we felt bored and stifled by the restrictions we set for ourselves and wanted to break out and feel something new.
After helping clients through these same types of struggles, we realized we could develop a more in-depth and authentic process for ourselves and in turn, work with others to do the same. When we first conceived the idea of the first identity storybook service more than 3 years ago, we knew that it could be amazing only if we could get to the root of what makes an identity strong and meaningful.
While finding our own path through study and deep introspection, it became clear that we could use this same method of discovery for others and help them find their path too. Once we began sharing this process privately with others, several clients quickly jumped on board too.
And so, the Identity Storybook service was born.
Frequently Asked Questions
?
[vc_toggle title=”So, is this like branding that you would hire a designer for?” open=”false”]Not exactly. We go much beyond that and dive deep into your brand and what it means. The best way to describe it is that we’ll be creating an experience together, with some visuals included if they support the experience as a whole.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”Is logo or web design included?” open=”false” style=”default” color=”Default” size=”md”]Yes. Please visit our services page to learn more about what’s included with this service and other details.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”Can I only hire you for logo design, website design, or another one of your services?” open=”false” style=”default” color=”Default” size=”md”]Yes. Please visit our services page to learn more about all of our services.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”How is this different than other brand strategy services?” open=”false” style=”default” color=”Default” size=”md”]In essence, in both depth and breadth. We go deeper and wider to find things that are unique to the core of each business that don’t easily change with time or trends. Things like values, culture, beliefs, and unique character. Then, we pull out the best from the business and present it in a way that attracts that business’s most perfect customer.
[ultimate_modal icon_type=”none” modal_contain=”ult-html” modal_on=”ult-button” onload_delay=”2″ btn_size=”lg” btn_bg_color=”#e70035″ btn_txt_color=”#ffffff” modal_on_align=”center” btn_text=”Start Your Identity Discovery Journey with Us Now” txt_color=”#f60f60″ modal_size=”medium” modal_style=”overlay-show-boxes” overlay_bg_color=”#333333″ overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ header_text_color=”#333333″ modal_border_width=”2″ modal_border_color=”#333333″ modal_border_radius=”0″ modal_title=”Let’s Start a Revolution Together!”]Fill in your information below to get in touch. We’ll be back to you within 1 business day to arrange a time to chat.
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Many of our clients have told us that their storybook becomes even more useful and meaningful to them as time goes on. It’s definitely not a set it and forget it type of thing.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”What Does It Cost?” open=”false” style=”default” color=”Default” size=”md”]Please visit our services page to learn more about costs, timelines, and other details.[/vc_toggle][vc_separator color=”grey”]
Ready to Go on Your New Brand Discovery Journey?