Um. Is anyone even talking about their brand anymore?
I know. This year has been surreal. (OMG, Bonnie, did you *just* comment on this year without saying “unprecedented times”?!?)
No matter how weird it gets, I do take a look at my metrics and that’s how I know that OH HECK YEAH brand is on the minds of many folks who land on my website every day. (Thanks, Google!)
And, even though I don’t offer brand coaching outright (members of Get in Gear for the Next Tier, of course, get all sorts of brand-building time with me), someone’s always up in my DMs asking for help with this essential element of marketing yourself.
Because we’re ALWAYS communicating our brand message to someone (yes, even when we’re not technically marketing, we’re living on-brand and teaching people what to expect of us by default), it’s pretty freakin’ important to get this stuff RIGHT.
So, I’m gonna hop on a livestream a few hours from now to share your 3 biggest branding mistakes! You can catch me at bonniegillespie.com/live at 12pm PST (translate that to your timezone here) and we’ll dig in on how to STOP making these mistakes right now! [REPLAY BELOW]
Yes, there will be a replay (I’ll post it here for ya). If you can make it live, yay for Q&A, right?
Here are Your 3 Biggest Branding Mistakes, and hopefully you’re only making one of them. 😉 (Don’t worry, if you’re making ANY of them, I can help you during the livestream!)
1. You don’t have a True North setpoint. (Don’t know your True North? Start here.)
2. You don’t have good data about what your buyers already think, feel, know about you. (Need to get started with a brand survey? Here’s how.)
3. You’re blocked from using your True North setpoint and your really good data to get more specific with EVERYTHING you put out into the world. (This, my friends, is the enoughness element. More on that during the livestream.)
I am so freakin’ stoked to chat with y’all about this because once you get THESE THREE ELEMENTS wrangled (rather than being mistakes you’re making), OMG, the world opens up for you in so many glorious ways. Bookings, meetings, opportunities, straight offers, cash in your hot little hand… FREEDOM to really know you’re doing the work you came here to do.
And man, if that’s not some next-tier fun I don’t know what is!
I’ll see you in a few hours, gorgeous. https://bonniegillespie.com/live is the place to be at Noon Pacific! Let’s jam! [REPLAY BELOW]
Meanwhile, which of these three feels like the stickiest for you? Comments are open just below and I’d love to see what’s feeling like the biggest of the blocks for you… and dig in to help you.
See you in a few!
All my love,
Enoughness is an inside job… and sometimes you need a guide to find your way there. Let Bonnie Gillespie get you started.
[REPLAY: Your 3 Biggest Branding Mistakes! Bonnie Gillespie Live]
Well, this is well timed as I got my selects back from my headshot session and of course, I hate every single one of them, and I think it’s because of elements of #3. This session I did the most prep work I’ve ever done in my life, got *ultra super specific*, and as a result, I have *ultra super specific* shots that I’m now worried are TOO specific. But also, (and hold on to your hats cuz here comes the vanity), I hate them because I see myself, and my age, and what I look like right now very very clearly, and my enoughness is running *just slightly* behind and needs to catch up. In other words, this is the first set of shots where I don’t feel like I look 10 years younger than I am, and what everyone else has also said, about my age presentation. So, it’s a bit jarring. Yup. Pure stinkin’ vanity. I so hope these shots work for me because right now I feel super fat, old, and unattractive. But like that one day in the 100 says, I should try and wipe my tears with hundred dollar bills and smile my wrinkled chubby face all the way to the bank right? Ha. See you tomorrow I can’t wait to glean some gems of wisdom! 🙂
I can only speak about my own 50+ness here, but definitely in the past couple of years, as hormones have shifted in ways that VISIBLY have changed my skin and my shape, I’ve had to get okay with (or MORE okay with) catching my image and having less-loving less-happy thoughts about that image. Ugh.
When I’m aligned, I can rightly blame the patriarchy, diet culture, youth-obsessed/image-obsessed capitalism and marketing we’re exposed to constantly, and know that ageism when it comes to women is something white supremacy and bigotry benefit from. I know that I am actively giving an FU to the system when I love myself exactly as I am.
But when I’m less aligned, I buy a new neck cream to reduce the appearance of something ads call “crepey skin” and consider wearing scarves. And then I get mad at myself for not unabashedly loving 50+ me, age-showing and all. 😉
Basically, I’m with you. And I LOVE the convo we’ve had elsewhere about the enoughness shining through and these images capturing that in a way the safety-anchored part of your brain will catch up to. Here’s to Expansive Capacity work starting already. 🙂 I love you!
As an actor I have always felt you should be able to play most things. I worry that choosing those 2 or 3 descriptive words will limit me too much and shut out all other possibilities. I wouldnt want to be pigeon holed though I guess selling “you” as most see you is the best way “in” so to speak.
Great observation, Lena. The work is actually more about getting so clear on your True North — and alllllllll the amazingness that lives up there (and along the road to it) — that it’s unquestionably worth learning how to move on up that road. 🙂
Feeling as if we have to say yes to ALL THE THINGS or even concerning ourselves with the idea that we have to figure out “the best way IN” as you put it is a scattered, low-tier, fear-based setpoint that lives in a space of LOW TRUST for that “future you” or “next-tier you” or “True North you” that you KNOW is ahead. 🙂
When you think about actors who ARE at their True North (or closer to it than you feel you are), wouldn’t you say that they have those few descriptive words that you’re worried will limit you? Why do you see next-tier life as limiting? That’s some of the bigger enoughness stuff to work on with that! Glad you’re doing this work!