2ND EDITION | ISSUE #158

The moment I dozed off into a lucid dream, the buzzing started again and I jerked awake—pausing to consider hitting snooze for a third time this morning.

But before I could convince myself otherwise, I rolled myself out of bed, stumbled to the kitchen, and proceeded to spill coffee grounds everywhere in an effort to brew myself an entire French press of ambition.

Yet the morning still had an upbeat undertone, like the clickity-clack of Dolly's nails in the opening lines of 9-5.

Because today was day two of "waking up before the sun until I get my website done."

And honestly? I'm not surprised it's working.

You and I both know that half the battle is actually making the time.

It's only natural—and dare I say part of the process—to get a little stuck in the messy middle of your brand's latest pivot.

We're cyclical beings, after all.

Which is exactly why I started having CCO (chief creative officer) weeks in 2025. The idea was simple: I was constantly pushing my own brand to the back burner, the bottom of the list. And if I was going to reposition it, I was going to have to make time for it.

• But on a deeper level, the CCO week could work for you if you are someone who works best when in hyperfocus. If once you get "into" a project, you don't want to put it down.
• If you are someone who can easily get bored and feel creatively drained when I don't have time to work on my own projects.

In my brand, the CCO week was checking all of these boxes—up until Q3 when, despite my best efforts, I just couldn't make it happen.

And if you've been reading my newsletters each week, you know that I've felt the effect of that.

Four days of road-tripping didn't quite fix it.

So on Sunday, I sat down with my journal to figure out just wtf I was going to do about it.

Because as someone who makes a living as a creative, staying stuck & uninspired is just NOT an option.

I asked myself a simple question. A question I go back to time and time again.

What has worked well in the past?

And I was reminded of the last time I built myself a website and all of the early mornings I put in.

the science behind early morning brand work (for a slow morning girlie)

I know, I know.

Despite being someone who would rather ease into the day with coffee and contemplation, there is just something about those early morning hours—waking up before the sun comes up or anyone expects me to talk to them—that really works well for deep creative work for me.

But it's not just a "me thing."

There's actual science behind why those pre-dawn hours are creative gold.

Sleep inertia and dream-linked creativity

Right after waking, your brain is still partially in a state known as sleep inertia, between sleep and full wakefulness. Research by MIT and Harvard Medical School shows that this transitional phase enhances creativity because the brain remains in a "looser" associative mode, making unexpected connections across ideas—similar to the dream state itself. This is when your mind can access fresh insights before rational filters fully return.

Reduced inner criticism and distractions

In the morning, the analytical parts of the brain—like the prefrontal cortex regions responsible for editing and self-criticism—tend to "wake up" more slowly. This means your internal critic is quieter, allowing freer thought and creative experimentation with less negative self-talk and second-guessing.

Rested mind and renewed connections

Sleep consolidates memories and promotes new neural connections, so waking up carries forward those networks into conscious awareness. The prefrontal cortex is particularly active right after sleep, supporting problem-solving and inventive reasoning while the mind is most refreshed.

This is why many thinkers and writers—like Hemingway and Joan Miró—worked soon after daybreak to harness those subconscious threads.

Alignment with circadian rhythm

Depending on your chronotype, cognitive performance tends to peak earlier in the day. Studies confirm that early chronotypes perform better on creative tasks in the morning, while evening types often find their best insight work when groggier, such as early after waking.

Working during this low-focus, high-association window enables what psychologists call "diffuse thinking," ideal for creative ideation.

Psychological momentum and willpower

Willpower and mental energy are highest after rest. Tackling creative or high-focus work early leverages that fresh motivation before decision fatigue and interruptions accumulate throughout the day.

Structuring deep work before 9 a.m. also builds consistent creative momentum and guards that time from competing priorities.

The reality check

Waking up before the sun to work on my website every day also challenges me to put my brand first and make time for my brand—even if I only have an hour a day.

The reality is, everyone loves the idea of having an entire week completely for their brand projects, website rebuild, latest offer development. It sounds downright dreamy.

But if you can't make that happen by the end of the year, you can still make time for your brand, even if you only have the first hour of your day to work with.

And I am going to show you exactly how in my new free challenge, the CCO week.

Our first LIVE round of the CCO week kicks off Monday, November 10th, but you'll get 5 prep emails about how to make the most of your time during the CCO week from yours truly.

Then, during the CCO week (from Monday, November 10th to Tuesday the 19th to give you 5–7 days to work with), you'll get daily emails from me with tips on how to make more time for your brand even if you only have an hour each day (plus what to do if you have 3 hours or the whole workday).

Need to make some time for your brand before the end of the year? This is the perfect opportunity.

Speaking of making time...

After waking up before the sun to work on getting this website DONE, I move on with the rest of my morning routine.

And now that I've officially hit the "less than a year until my wedding" milestone, I'm upgrading my morning skincare routine.

And by upgrade, I mean doing something more than moisturizer and chapstick.

Which brings me to The Ordinary.

The Ordinary is a Canadian skincare brand known for revolutionizing the beauty industry through transparency, affordability, and science-driven formulations.

The brand's minimalist, ingredient-focused philosophy allows its customers to build personalized routines while understanding exactly what each product does. However, it also means that customers need some ingredient knowledge, as products are labeled by chemical names (e.g., "Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%") rather than marketing terms.

But this is all part of the positioning.

The Ordinary is a brand whose buyers are not only willing but want to know what ingredients their skin needs.

Instead of frilly names and fragrances and ingredients like "white lotus extract" that don't really mean anything, The Ordinary gets you exactly what you need.

All it took me was a few YouTube videos from dermatologists to figure out what vitamins and acids my skin could benefit from.

Then all I had to do was look for that ingredient on The Ordinary. Bam. Simple. Found what I need.

As a designer who considers herself a maximalist—someone who loves color & story—I took notice when I was immediately "adding to cart" from a brand with packaging and branding that was so… well, ordinary.

But it's because this brand has done such a clear job understanding:

• Exactly who their client is (aka me)
• Exactly what problem they have (feeling overwhelmed by the fluff and endless options in the skincare world)
• The kind of solution that they are looking for (something that is science-backed and will work the way they need it to)
• Plus not cost a ridiculous amount of money

From a branding position, they may be "ordinary," but from a positioning perspective, they are everything.

They even have an entire “periodic table” on their website where they are calling out the fluffly messaging in the beauty industry.

Here's what you can learn from their brand's emphasis on positioning.

After almost 5 years of helping solopreneurs pivot their brands in real time, I've learned that the number one thing that affects how well your brand converts is its positioning.

Brand positioning is also something that is widely misunderstood, vague, and downright confusing.

If you google it, you'll find something like this: "Brand positioning can be summarized as 'the act of designing a company's offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market'".

It ensures that when consumers think of a product category, your brand has a clear, memorable, and unique space in their minds.

But why? How do you change how your brand or offer is perceived? Especially if something about your offer or brand as a whole isn't quite working?

I don't think you need a brand positioning statement so much as what brand positioning really is & how it fits into the process of pivoting your brand.

Positioning is actually really simple: it is what makes you different from other people solving similar problems.

In a market full of overpriced skincare products with ingredients that are more fluff than substance, The Ordinary focused on the ingredients & kept prices low for accessibility.

If your positioning is specific enough and effective, it is easier to sell your stuff because you are better equipped to create effective messaging & content to sell said thing.

Positioning and strategy are easily confused because your brand's positioning is part of the strategy. The most important part when it comes to taking action.

Story, mission statements, values, understanding your audience—all important, but it's your brand's positioning, the specific things that make your brand, offer, process not just unique, but the specific solution that your person needs, that actually sell the thing.

Before you can create messaging that communicates what your offer or product is and why someone would want it, you have to understand just what the things are about it that you need to emphasize and communicate.

That's positioning.

Just like positioning is the foundation for effective messaging and copy, your brand's positioning should also be communicated through your brand's identity, naming, and user experience. Right off the bat, the name, the minimal black, white, and grey branding, and sans-serif fonts all communicate that the emphasis here is on the ingredients. Again—back to the brand's positioning. But I also wanted to feature The Ordinary's website design and user experience in today's design section as an example of how positioning supports and inspires your website's design and user experience. ​ When it comes to your own website and how you are navigating your audience to the solutions they are looking for—does it align with your brand's positioning?

The biggest misunderstanding when it comes to brand positioning is how much time it takes. You don't just write a brand positioning statement like: "For (target audience) who (statement of need), (brand) is a (category) that (key benefit), unlike (competitor), (brand) (differentiation)" and check "Brand Positioning" off your to-do list. It's something you come back to and refine over time. And it's something that needs to be communicated through your messaging, copy, website design, and content. The implementation piece is not just making the updates to how your brand talks about its offers and value + the design that backs it up, but also creating the content and repetition necessary to reposition your brand and change how your audience understands what you do as a whole, or an individual offer within your brand as a whole. In The Ordinary's case, they have a blog, guides, and my favorite—a hardcover ingredient book that you can actually buy to learn more about NOT their products, but the ingredients in them and how they work + what they do. Plus, they shift the products that they are featuring and marketing based on the time of year and what their clients are experiencing. With winter around the corner, they are publishing content about How to Build a Complete Lip Care Routine and selling The Winter Skin Set and "moisture for transitional weather" on its home page.