“What’s your brand?”
“Your brand sets you apart from everyone else.”
“A brand should evoke an emotion.”
“Your brand is your value prop.”
“Promote your personal brand!”
“Mommy, how do they get those numbers on cows like that? Does it hurt?”1
I think I suck at branding.
I understand what a brand is in the general sense, and even in the more specific senses the above questions suggest. Creating a brand is a whole ‘nother beast. And like most things I try to wrangle in my current phase of life, I feel inadequate to produce a quality brand despite all my overthinking it.
When I “launched” my copywriting business, I pivoted at least three times, from using my nickname, to using my last name, to using my niche in the name. After all that I’m now debating whether to do copywriting at all. I own a shit-ton of domain names and a dormant Canva collection of amateur logos, for a business I’m not (for the time being) actively pursuing.
Now we have my Substack, something that doesn’t require a brand, but definitely encourages it, especially if the Substack is going to be monetized, productized, legitimized, lobotomized…. Wait, can that happen?2
I told myself to do better this time, to overthink less. Oxymoron? Truth? I didn’t officially timebox my decision-making process but I was conscious of how long or deep I was rabbit-holing, resisting the urge to dwell as if it was a warm cookie fresh out of the oven and I was fasting ahead of bloodwork. I see you/don’t see you, cookie!
I did well! I settled on a walking theme, named the newsletter, and even quickly crafted and updated my logo just last week. Knocking these out fast were big wins for someone who prefers to get carried way.
Then I had a conversation with the so-real-he’s-funny
, who kindly provided insight and feedback, and gracefully absorbed my humble I’m-a-unicorn-sorta-mid-life-crisis-new-substacker-writer-person-genius proclamation of why I’m doing this.He then gave me permission: To be myself.
He didn’t know he did this. He was merely doing his thing — he shared his story and approach, he scanned what I had released to the Substack universe, and he encouraged me to put more unicorn and mid-life crisis in my “short description”. Alex didn’t specifically say that, but he did specifically say to be more specific. Walking, striding, ranting, wailing…all that was fine, but how am I gonna walk, stride, rant, or wail that’s like no one else?
What’s my gosh darn brand?
He then asked what was behind my long-time email moniker — residentoddball — and suggested I try that. A mostly positive mix of emotions bubbled up in me, including validation, quirkiness, and even confidence. Yeah! I thought. This newsletter is supposed to be about me and what I wanna write, after all. I should use that!
Sigh. Another brand change. Maybe.
I’ve been feeling good about my small victories — writing more consistently, being a solid week ahead of schedule on creating posts, and starting a meager backlog of content. Just yesterday, I finished up a draft of my next post, a tale of our recent state fair experience. I also felt ok I was getting better at overthinking less.
Kinda.
I overthink all the time. Last Christmas, my bestie bought me socks that said so. I think a lot of us overthink, as I hear more and more folks say they do. Or maybe it’s just become a meaningless crutch phrase, like a tick, or an “um”, or an “at the end of the day”…that thing we tack on to fill space. Or let ourselves off the hook.
But I digress. See? Overthinking. Right. THERE.
I’ve been reassuring myself that I’ve been making progress. Yet I still so easily get tangled up in the “should I?”, “what if…”, and “but what about…?” analysis paralysis cobwebs. I should be promoting the last post, preparing to publish the state fair post, and working on content for the post after that. Which could be this post. But now I want to post this first. Which I could do. I actually want to post it today, but I just posted last week’s post yesterday, so if I post this too then I’m spamming the inboxes of the 15 legit subscribers I have. Who probably don’t read these anyway but maybe you do and now I’ve annoyed you.
Do you? Have I?
In the smartest crevices of my brain, on the other side of the cobwebs, I know these are kinks that work themselves out by doing. The more I do, the more I learn, which is the best kind of learning, and it will eventually take shape. It’s that kid-like impulse my daughter exemplifies daily and the art of wonder that showed up in my Substack feed this morning. But I’m impatient and less confident. I don’t recall Alex’s exact words, or if it was in our conversation or in one of his latest posts, but he mentioned (I think) needing to resist the things that make it so easy to not want to write. That struggle is real and constant.
So I ask you, my dear audience…
…YOU who has generously read this far into this post:
Re-brand, or don’t re-brand? Overthinking me asks, “Is it even RE-branding, if you haven’t really branded well in the first place?” Annoyed me hisses, “SSSHHHHHH!!!”
Am I striding? Or am I the resident oddball I’ve always been? Is this a newsletter about a walking oddball? (That’d be one hell of a logo.)
Experts and peer groups would tell me none of it matters. They told me that in copywriting classes. And to a certain extent I believe it. Ultimately, a brand reveals itself in real time, because the brand is the relationship. Sure, it’s the shiny object in a sea of sequins, and I’d probably get more attention if my shiny object wooed you with the smell of teen spirit. But as I discussed with Alex, if you like my ramblings and wanderings about state fairs, piano players, endurance, and mid-life crisis self-therapy, you probably don’t remember or care that I enticed you with a complimentary disco ball soaked in Nirvana (or nirvana).
So yeah, brand matters and it doesn’t. But I’m an “integrator” who thrives on consensus, and I claimed this newsletter would be built on community, walking in stride together on this Substack journey. So, I ask you:
What resonates with you? Oddballs, strides, shoe polish?
What do you read, that when you read it, you get that feely-feel of Oh, I’d like to have coffee with them and chat more?
Why do you read the posts you read? I ask assuming many (myself included) subscribe to way more content than we actually consume.
At the end of the day3 as I overthink this, I may or may not rebrand, whether I get feedback from y’all or not. The discussion is still worthy regardless, because I truly do love to connect with people and what they care about. Please, lend me your perspectives!
Thanks so much for reading and sharing with me.
A question my daughter raised as we walked through the cattle barn at the State Fair of Texas, when she noticed the branding on the cow butts. I explained it as best I could, and then mind-wandered through the idea of brands being something others put on us, reducing us to a seemingly one-dimensional image. Like, what is the cow’s “relationship” to the hot metal that burns its skin? Do we brand ourselves or let others brand us this way? Hmmmm….
It used to, unfortunately for some.
See what I did there?
Resident oddball, yes, I love it. Do it. And I too subscribe to far more stacks than I can possibly read!
I guess a lot of us are grappling with these kinds of issues. For what it's worth, I like the logo. It vaguely reminds me of a Japanese character. As for branding, for me it's about how you behave and the values you display. I don't think you can rebrand yourself into a different place. I think you have to move/be there first. Finally, what makes me want to read a post is either the content being of interest or the execution (usually the writing) being full of verve. It doesn't have to be both. I hope that helps.