Deeper than just a Branding Project
It’s the umpteenth revision.
It’s the umpteenth email sent outside of working hours from that one client with yet another ‘urgent’ subject matter.
To say that it’s easy is a flat-out blasphemy. Of course it gets annoying and frustrating. Of course I’d begin to wonder why I do this in the first place. I’d start questioning my own process. Maybe I didn’t do the homework of getting to know my clients before saying ‘yes’ that I ended up working with people whose work philosophies and styles don’t align with mine. But they don’t really matter, do they? Because I’m still stuck in this project, with this client, with yet another revision.
Deep breaths…
Have you ever been in this situation before?
On great days, it’s easy to be grateful about the fact that I still have work to do. On other days, I fail to put myself in my client’s shoes. Empathy is not a natural thing.
If we are truly honest with ourselves, can we guarantee that we won’t be like our tough clients when we’re placed on the other side of the story? If we’re the one coming to a creative and brand strategist with our ‘baby’—a vision and dream that we’ve wanted to give birth to since ever. A business or idea where we place all the investment we’ve saved up for since the first day out of college.
It can feel like free fall.
Sometimes I forget what an honor it is as a strategist to work on someone’s brand and business.
Inviting a brand strategist or creative into the room means you are giving them room to dive into your vision, this very meaningful part of you, take this vision into places that you probably have never imagined before. You allow them to write a story and plaster real words that the brand probably has always had within but never voiced out. What was once just an idea now are given colors, shapes, and fonts. The brand and business owner didn’t create these things, the strategists and creatives did.
It’s especially hard on our clients when they’ve poured out all their energy, heart, and resources (literally) into the brand. It’s their precious ‘baby’ we’re talking about here. To them, everything is at stake. It’s like the brand’s success will make or break them. They care about it so much that they want to get it right. It is out of this passion and drive that they voice out their thoughts to us.
And if we really think about it, it’s not just us who dread revisions. For our clients, revisions won’t be their first choice.
Nobody signs up to receive a draft of how their brand is going to show up in the market and feel things not quite aligning to how they envision things to be. What they hope to happen is they’ll feel overjoyed and 100% on board with everything we’ve created. Even though they know feedback and revisions are a normal part of the process, nobody misses this part of the journey.
You see, we’re not just helping people launch their brands or build better businesses. We’re dealing with people’s dreams, callings, and life purposes.
Someone’s lending us a part of their heart and soul or giving us access to that so we can formulate strategies and create things they wouldn’t be able to on their own.
To do what?
To live a fulfilled life.
To fight for their families and loved ones.
To make a difference in people’s lives and the planet.
To give a voice to people groups and causes they are fighting for.
When it matters this much to them, trusting someone else with that thing is no small feat. It’s no wonder that entrepreneurs and clients get hung up on revisions.
Since when was it JUST a branding project? Never. It’s always much deeper than that.
Yes, there are clients that are maybe ‘red flags’ to us. And yes, there are clients that even though their vision comes from a good heart, their work philosophies don’t align with us. These clients might not be the best fit for us. But the big idea is this: It’s about perspective and empathy. Us wanting to see things from our client’s point of view and lean in to that.
Because it’s always deeper than just a branding project.
