There's nothing quite like a Saturday morning farmer's market.
When it's just warm enough that you need to throw your sweatshirt around your waist.
A band playing at one end, milk jugs of cut flowers for $10 a pop.
And an array of summer pies and baked goods from the Amish stand.
When I tell you that this weekend's farmers market visit was top notch — I mean it.
The neighboring town I was visiting has become walkable enough since I was a kid that the farmers market visit extended into a full-on girls' morning, visiting bookstores, two coffee shops, a plant shop, and not one but two furniture stores (not to mention a thrift).
I'm talking brick and mortar, baby. Browse away — support small business. The kind of turn-of-the-century small town that Hallmark movies are quite literally made in.
Naturally, I found my long-lost older sister in one of these shops — and we immediately became best friends (her home address and phone number are currently sitting inside of my wallet, and I'm going to her farm to help her dig dahlia tubers in October). This woman has not one but two businesses. Each without an online presence.
With the exception of her logo on the sign, her brand was experiencing her store and interacting with her in person.
People like me walk in the door, are blown away by the atmosphere and the experience, and immediately start planning when they can come back. With friends. Even though I bought NOTHING from this woman.
Just talking to her. Just getting to quite literally step inside her world was all I needed to know this gal and I were on the same wavelength.
But if you don't have a physical space — where clients meet you in person, where people could just walk through the door to check it out…
You have no choice but to try to replicate that experience online.
And that is where your brand identity comes in.
Because a brand identity that feels like meeting you IRL helps build trust and connection with your audience — even when you aren't directly interacting with them.
But if you feel disconnected from your brand identity — from what people see when they walk through your digital door — how can you expect your brand to attract the kind of people it was built for?
5 signs your Brand Identity is holding you back (that have nothing to do with your logo)
The one thing every brand I’ve ever designed for has in common—some with brick-and-mortars, some who never interact with their clients in real life—is this: before we work together, they know their brand is a way better experience 1:1 or in person than it looks like online.
They don't know how to translate that experience into a brand. So their brand identity, and their lack of confidence or understanding in it, just ends up holding them back.
From creating content, launching that offer, committing to their next brand pivot.
Somehow not knowing what color to use ends up being the straw that broke the camel's back. Yet another decision.
Do any of these sound like you?
- You only have 4 brand colors you sometimes like to use (out of the 8 you technically “have”)— and you aren't sure which ones to keep, what works, what doesn't, what you need to make them “work” to actually like them, and how they relate to each other and your brand
→ You can learn how to do all of the above inside the CJ Brand Color Kit.
- Your colors and vibe don't carry over from your website to your newsletter to Instagram; you are constantly just looking for the closest thing instead of following a set of guidelines and building recognition and trust with your audience
→ Once you have your colors nailed down, you can learn how to create a set of guidelines for how your brand looks online inside the 2D Design Masterclass.
- You feel like your brand looks like everyone else in your industry and you just put this fake person together online. So you never want to show up on camera because you feel like it isn't the same person.
→ Inside the CJ Brand Color Kit, I have a whole section on building a moodboard around your personal aesthetic and where to look for inspiration outside of other people's brands.
- Designing content like carousels takes hours longer than it should because you're reinventing the wheel when it comes to your brand and making tons of design decisions instead of being able to plug and play content into a recipe of colors, fonts, and images that you know will work on Instagram.
→ We talk all about this in the 2D Design Masterclass.
- You avoid sending people to your website or Instagram (or they just don't exist) because you know that they don't sell or tell the same story that talking with you 1:1 will. This is the deepest part of the brand identity block that we work on inside of Brand Brushstrokes (waitlist open now for November & December spots) — building the visual story that is your brand.
The problem is that investing in your brand identity can feel frivolous.
Do you really need to spend thousands of dollars on colors and fonts? Do you need a bunch of logos?
The answer is no. It's the whole reason I created the Brand Color Kit & 2D Design Masterclass, because I wanted there to be accessible ways for my audience to start building and pivoting their brand identities without needing a bunch of logos or spending thousands.
I just don't think brand colors should be that serious.
But your brand identity as a whole.
If that is holding you back.
It has more value; it is more serious.
Because having a brand identity that feels like you = a permission slip to show up as more you in your brand. In an online world, that means a more memorable and human connection.
When your brand identity feels like you, represents you, and tells your story — people have the opportunity to connect with you without ever meeting you in person.
It's like having a really cool brick and mortar. Inside a screen.
