Innovation through chaos
The story of my personal rebranding
Now and again, I take more time to reflect on myself than I do on a daily basis. This was the case last month. Business had picked up considerably at the end of last year and my future was looking bright. Come April and suddenly my prospects were overcast. I responded immediately by actively approaching (prospective) clients and registering with agencies. Soon, I felt very confident that my hasty reaction would deliver the goods.
No such luck. One opportunity after another vanished before my eyes. And to add insult to injury, I was stung by wasps three times in the timespan of a few days. Those stings were my wake-up call. As often when I have a brush with the animal kingdom, I stop what I am doing to ask myself what Nature is telling me. Because I was very much in my mind at the time, the answer did not come readily. So, I decided to look up the symbolic meaning online.
“…learning from past mistakes…”
It turned out that a wasp sting can symbolize many things. There were three that resonated with the situation that I was in. The first was learning from past mistakes and moving towards a fresh start to bring about wonderful changes. The second was a boost in creativity and the third was about revitalizing the old. When I read this out loud to my girlfriend, she suggested taking some time off work to relax and do things that made me feel happy.
“…my business felt like the house of a house painter…”
I took her advice to heart. One of the things I did, was to spend more time listening to podcasts. One particular podcast inspired me to reflect on myself and my business. It did not take me long to realize why things were not working out as I had hoped. Years of hard work with little time to rest, relax and replenish had clouded my vision. And although the foundations and overall construction of my business felt as safe as houses, the exterior was in dire need of renovation. My business felt like the house of a house painter who was too busy painting other people’s houses to get round to painting his own.
So, I sat down on the couch one Monday morning with a cup of coffee and asked myself a bunch of questions that I sensed would lead me to my next step. The decisive question turned out to be: What am I NOT doing that I should be doing? The answer was that, unlike in 2009 when I started my copywriting business, I was not communicating succinctly to my target audience what value I was providing with my services. The texts on my website were wordy, vague and often irrelevant, and my blog posts were geared to my outlook on life and the process of my personal growth.
“My website and blog were not serving their purpose…”
I had to face the fact that my website and blog were not serving their purpose. No wonder I was not acquiring many new clients. Anyhow, I now knew what step to take. I needed to do for myself what I do for my clients. So, I gave myself the job of a personal rebranding. I started by answering three questions: What?, Who? and How? In other words, I had to create the concept of the value that I provide – my value proposition – redefine my brand and tell the story of my brand in a different way.
“…the clock in my mind was ticking steadily…”
Now I had a clear view of my objective, another question arose. The question of how to proceed. I am not the kind of bloke who spends much time on elaborate strategies and planning. Still, I felt the need to structure this job to prevent myself from making the same mistake of losing sight of my objective and subsequently veering off course. As easy as this may sound, this question got me worrying. On the one hand, I knew I had to take a fair bit of time to be thorough, while on the other hand, the clock in my mind was ticking steadily.
That was until I listened to another podcast one Saturday morning about dealing with chaos, in order to act on the desire to change things that need changing. It was a godsend. The clouds in my mind cleared, as did the chaos. What really drove the message home was the metaphor of a child who comes home from school and starts playing. The child is no longer distracted by adults telling it what to do. It is present in the moment and plays without restraint. It goes with its own flow and by doing so, creates whatever it wants.
“…working with my creative energy…”
The advice given in the podcast to us adults when faced with chaos, was to be that child again. Instantly, memories came to mind of one of my brothers and me when we were kids playing with LEGO. I remember very well that it was open-mindedness and curiosity that led me to learn and discover. I was playing because it made me feel happy. And I was working with my creative energy, instead of trying to force or manipulate it. It was what the podcaster described as innovation through chaos.
“…I allowed myself the liberty of acting irrationally…”
With my memories in mind and this message in my heart, I set off to carry out the renovation of my brand. To this end I allowed myself the liberty of acting irrationally and intuitively, in the same way I did when I was a little kid. That is why I did not start with the first step in the (re)branding process of forming the basis, which is writing a brand story. Instead, I did some serious editing of the website copy and replaced two of the photos of myself.
“…powerful brand storytelling…”
This had the same effect as writing the brand story would have had. Because, before I started editing the website copy, I reflected on what it is that I love and do best. The answer came in an instant: telling the story of people’s brands – brand storytelling. One thing led to another, the other being the formulation of my value proposition: Captivate your audience through powerful brand storytelling, from the heart, straight to the heart. As you can see, I have kept my tagline ‘Straight to the Heart’, as this captures the power of my storytelling.
Once I had completed editing the website copy, I wrote my new brand story. Next, to carry out my own storytelling, I needed a plan and lots of high-quality content. Content based on the brand story. A content strategy provides a framework for content creation and facilitates the consistent repetition of the brand story, so that my value proposition will find its way into the right people’s hearts.
“…captivate my own audience.”
This new strategy involves a new style of posting on my blog and on social media. These are closely interconnected and work together to provide valuable information and to connect with my target audience. Besides this, I will get my KAIROS on-demand courses rolling, have new books published and do more intensive networking. Ultimately, this rebranding will enable me to captivate my own audience.
Captivate your audience
Would you like to know more about my brand story and content strategy? Or would you like to find out what my services can help you to achieve? Contact me and tell me about what you are working on. I would love to captivate your audience through powerful brand storytelling.
Wim Beunderman
Straight to the Heart
Media
‘Eyes’ by Bniique on Pixabay
‘Wasp’ by Sabine18 on Pixabay
‘Paint’ by Tookapic on Pixabay
‘Coffee’ by Cocoparisienne on Pixabay
‘Waiting’ by JESHOOTS on Pixabay
‘Aerial’ by Kirildobrev on Pixabay
‘Lego’ by Efraimstochter on Pixabay
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