THE iD EXPERIENCE
Identity BEFORE Branding
A journey that’s experiential in nature and transformative in results.
Begin your journey to Iconic
While others rely on personality tests, archetypes, and templates…
We witness and listen
I’VE FOUND THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF BRANDING
Most agencies and strategists start with colors, fonts, and logos. We start with YOU!
Applied Branding: Where professionals work with templates, archetypes, and generic personality tests to “apply” a brand to an individual or company. The expectation of both clients and service providers are fast turnarounds and cheap deliverables. Yet, like a wet face mask, eventually it slips off and needs to be disposed.
Identified Branding: A highly customized approach that “identifies” the iconic essence of an individual or company and infuses it into every detail of their life and work.
It’s client-defined, personified, and strategically designed. The understanding behind this approach is: it takes time, it’s an investment, and results in intoxicating clarity and iconic authority.
While I crafted this terminology, I pride myself in taking the identified approach.
Designing brands that are legacy worthy, evolve, and grow with you
rather than restrict you and require constant rebranding.
Persona Perspective
The “Secret Sauce” of my identity work.
Through deep conversation and a visualization exercise we introduce you to your iconic essence and the soul of your business and brand.
Allowing “it” to tell us what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.
We give it a name, voice, permission, and most importantly the ability to consult us on how to best:
Positioning your authority
Differentiate you from the competition
Attract your ideal clientele
Deliver your service(s)
Design an identity infused brand
and Scale your business in ways most authentic to you.
I call this magical unveiling your “Iconic Persona.” It’s the part of the journey Thomas Hydes says gives you “intoxicating clarity.” While you might not know you need this, it’s the inner awakening ~ special flavoring, that has you saying “Oh wow ~ That’s good!”
My approach is intuitive:
✨ A freak-factor ability to see your ultimate potential and next-level success.
✨ The ability to listen and witness you. Saying things like:
“I hear you but tell me what you REALLY want…?”
“What are you actually inspired by right now?”
“Is this your way of doing XYZ or the industry’s way?”
✨An intuitive knowing, design eye, and years of experience infusing identity into brands, design, personal style, and lifestyles.
✨ An honest, transparent, and unapologetic attitude to guide you every step of the way.
The Journey
Customized and personalized just for you.
Read how each phase of the process will help to support you from intention to integration.
Basically, without any pain or suffering, if we were to put you into a blender and juice you… what would come out!?
✨ An afternoon tea or Tequila?
✨ A smooth espresso or dirty martini?
Whatever your essence might be… we extract that and infuse it into every details of your life and work ~ flavoring it to perfection.
This is luxury branding that embodies your iconic essence.
Cheers!
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The first step of the journey is DISCOVERY ~ a deep dive, informational interview, into the essence of you, your company, and what makes your brand iconic.
✨ Recall Your Initial Inspiration: Documenting your “origin story” and the deeper calling that inspired your business and brand in the first place.
✨ Differentiate Yourself: Assess your competitors, recognize your unique positioning, and define the ultimate attraction factors for your ideal clientele.
✨ Leverage my 70/30 Rule: Balancing your ultimate vision and where you want to be with where you are today. Mapping out the intricacies to get you from here to there.
✨ Profile Your Ideal Client: Identify their characteristics, challenges, strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, wants and needs.
✨ Design Your Customer Journey: Map out the experience of before-during-after working with you. Infuse on-brand “wow-factors” and experiential details to elevate every touchpoint.
✨ Review Your Services & Capabilities: What is it that you are offering, what are you capable of, and how can we best design a brand to support your genius work.
✨ Identify Your Iconic Persona: Meet your iconic persona. Realize intoxicating clarity and soul reborn. Tap into that next-level version of you and see with clarity the path ahead.
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Look a brand without strategy is just decoration. The next step of the journey is STRATEGY, establishing your guiding principles.
Through a detailed review of all the facts and information gathered in the Discovery Phase, I begin to identify the core values within the business and brand. Those repetitive themes and energetically charged elements unique to the business. What act and feel like the pulse of the business. Together we refine them into statements that encompass your ultimate battle cry and follow the statement “I/We are committed to…” During this process we also refine your vision and mission statements.
There is no “trendy tagline” or “catch phrase;” this is the verbal distillation of your identity and iconic essence.
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Here, strategy meets design.
In the DESIGN phase, your identity begins to take shape through color, typography, symbolism, and texture. We (a hand selected dream team of experts and specialists) design and create the “creative building blocks” you will use to express your brand. Everything from the logo to the business cards to the website.
✨ Brand Design & Guidelines
✨ Print Material & Collateral
✨ Creative Direction
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Every person, project, business and brand is unique, as should the team supporting it be.
In the SUPPORT phase, I hand select and pull together a team of experts and specialists to help bring your vision to life and achieve the best results. Based on your budget, timeline, aesthetic and needs, I bring on board the team you need. From graphic designers, website developers, videographers, copywriters, marketers, you name it. I have an extended network of vetted creatives eager to jump into projects and collaborate with us.
We honor the creative process allowing for FSDs (First Shitty Drafts) and never settling for “good” but working till we hit great results. Final approvals are often “tattoo-worthy” designs.
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The final INTEGRATION phase transforms the branding process into a lifestyle.
Often retained as a Creative Director, I’ll guide you through infusing and using every creative detail we’ve designed for you. Ensuring your brand is reflected in every detail of your life and work. Directing, supporting, and overseeing other vendors and/or your team to stay authentically “on-brand.” This isn’t intended to be rigid rules, do’s & don’ts, this should feel more like training wheels to help you stay aligned until you are fully capable on your own. Temporary support to keep everything consistent, cohesive, and charismatic. No one should have to take a brand baby home alone without any support! We’ll be just a phone call or text away.
Forget the F-words: Free, Friend and Fiverr…
It’s time to go Designer!
Embark on your journey
We don’t have “clients,” We have:
Are established business owners looking to refine, refresh, or enhance their business and branding.
Women Owned (men are always welcome)
Service-Based
Mission-Driven
Identify as: Business Owners, Founders, Thought leader, Trailblazer, Industry Leader
In transition, transformation, or growth
Established and hitting milestones:
5th Year - Have a strong platform/view point they want to stand behind
10th Year - The Stale Chip, you’ll eat “it” but it’s not great.
15+ Years - Impact/Legacy/Acquisition. Profit is no longer in question, it’s more about the impact you can make in your local community or within a specific demographic.
Budget: $10-50,000
Charactersitcs:
Looking to refresh + enhance + expand their biz/brand
Consider this work an investment, not an “expense.”
Have a YOU-nique way of doing things
Often don’t market themselves, get business primarily through referral
Understand image matters and details matter most
Muses
Visionaries
Are newer to the business world, usually in the first 3 years in business.
Women (again, men are always welcome)
Service-Based
Strong vision for how you want things done
Identify as: Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners
Feeling: Fragmented, frustrated, overwhelmed
Using F-words: Free, Friend, Fiverr and disappointed with the results.
Budget: Under $10,000
Characteristics:
Lack experience: Assuming vs. Knowing
Need to get business off the ground
Need to get more clients and increase sales
Bootstrapping and doing everything themselves
Learning “good” vs “bad” clients and “good” vs “bad” money.
Refining your approach after every project and growing along side your business.
What you all have in common
You are ready to be seen, heard, unfiltered, and unapologetically yourself!
You don’t want the basic branding “package” ~ You want an identity transformation to help you navigate the world in a more authentic way.
You crave support and an experience that feels custom tailored to you, your business and your brand.
You likely love a good espresso martini and/or prefer a loose leaf tea.
No Packages. No Signature Offers.
I listen, I scope, I send you an invoice.
I don’t do generic, traditional, industry standard…
As I said, every person, project, business, and brand is unique and we treat you as such. We customize every project scope and supportive team to honor what you want and need. Scopes are designed with years of experience and knowledge for having done this many many times. We often provide more than you ask, as we KNOW what you’ll need. This is not a scam to upsell you, it’s actually done with the intention and integrity to look out for you. We take into account your budget, timeline, aesthetic, and personality to make sure we offer you the best service and experience we can.
*Full Transparency: For smaller budgets we may not be able to pamper you as much as we’d like… but no matter what your budget is, you’ll know the experience was tailored just for you!
Now let’s get to work.
