Building My Brand - Building Your Brand
6:00:00 AM
I've been staring at a blinking cursor for a while now, trying to find some inspiration. I usually stick to my Sunday evening/Tuesday Morning/Thursday morning schedule of posts. I even have a couple of projects that I am loving that I am going to share with you when they are completely finished. They are *almost* there!
So instead, I'll do a non-pinteresty, SEO-free, thought dump. I guess I'm still processing Haven and my vacation and coming back to the "real world".
When I was wrapping up my whirlwind Haven experience, I decided to check out the Blog to Brand session. It was the last session before the closing ceremony, and I knew that my brain couldn't handle the SEO class. Besides, I follow both Jenna from Rain on a Tin Roof and Karianne from Thistlewood Farms. They are both very fun, very authentic people on their blogs—in very different ways. Although I wasn't familiar with Laura from Finding Home Farms, I knew that this would be a fun session. What I didn't expect was a lesson on how much I devalue myself.
There was all kinds of information on branding and consistency and how important to be true to who you are.
And Laura said that if you're having trouble figuring out who you are, first define who you aren't. It's easier. That's what I'm working on first.
And Jenna said to embrace who you are. Fly your own freak flag (it's her tagline, by the way, which I love—I've always said that if you don't admit you're at least a little weird, you're lying to yourself.
And Karianne amazed us with her strategies for earning, and really showed me how much I undervalue myself when approaching brands.
And after it all, I introduced myself to Karianne. I had wanted to do so all weekend, but that girl loves to talk, and was talking animatedly to someone every time I saw her. I told you last week that she reads my blog. What I didn't tell you was that I cried when she told me that. She is a twin mom, an amazing designer, an amazing writer with a voice that makes you feel like you're chatting over coffee in her adorable home. She's a story teller.
And she tells everyone she meets that they are rock stars.
To find out Karianne reads my blog—it was awesome. But you know what...I'm not her. And that's ok. I still love her. But what makes us different is so important. I have my own brand. We all do. Whatever we are good at, whoever you are--that's our brand, if we embrace it. And I've been undervaluing that brand.
So I'm going to embrace my love of architecture, and ruined old columns. I'm going to embrace my struggle balance of career and motherhood. Finding your brand is the basic structure of what you do. It's the architecture of what you do....You see what I did there? :-)
Enjoy the mind dump folks! I hope it helps encourage you to embrace your brand.
I love to party! Sometimes I link up my posts to Serenity Now, Organizing Junkie, Tidy Mom and these link parties! You should come party with me and check out some awesome new bloggers!
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