There’s nothing more exciting than starting a rebrand or brand refresh. But before you dive into colour palette inspiration and mood boards, hold up for a hot second. As much as we all want to jump straight to the pretty stuff, there are a few critical things you’ll need to think through and prepare for BEFORE you hire a brand or website designer.

Ever wanted to give your website a bit of a facelift? Not a full rebrand, or even a refresh, where you’re making changes to your brand’s look and feel. More like… a relaxing day at the spa, where you come out rejuvenated and a little more glow-y at the end.

Even if your brand is working for you and you don’t need to make any major changes to the identity, there are still good reasons from a brand perspective to regularly update your website. It’s about enhancing your brand experience — the way your customers interact with your brand (often for the first time) when they arrive at your digital home.

By investing in brand strategy, you’re bringing in valuable outside perspective and expertise to help you get to where you want to go faster — an experienced partner and advisor who can help you connect your vision and goals for your business to the way you communicate and operate in your day to day. You’ll end up with an infusion of clarity, focus, and inspiration that become rocket fuel for taking action and propelling your business forward.

BUT brand strategy is also a big investment — and it can be hard to know when the time is right to take the leap. Here are a few scenarios where working with a brand strategist could mean big payoff for your business.

Brand strategy acts as the bridge between your overall business strategy, the way you deliver your products and services, and your marketing activities. It’s about making sure that there’s a clear, strong, and purposeful connection between your high-level vision and goals for your business with the way you show up, connect, and take action in your day-to-day.

When it comes down to it, a brand strategist should be all about two things: clarity and action.

Hot coffee mug cradled in your hands, you’ve pulled your chair up to your desk, (or your laptop and blanket onto your couch!) and one look at your to-do list tells you that it’s crunch time – time to knock out some serious work.

So how do you stay focused and use that precious commodity of time as best as you can?

Today I wanted to share a few tools and strategies that I use and recommend when I need to banish the distractions and just focus on my work. If distraction or overwhelm feel like a constant battle for you when it comes to moving the needle in your business or using your time more efficiently, I hope there are some ideas here that will help!

Distraction sucks. You know and I know that it keeps us from a more productive work life, but it’s SO hard to fight! How do you choose focus consistently, when distraction is so easy?

Last time we talked about the two major things you need to have in place in order to focus effectively: clearly defined goals and a clearly defined “No” list. Today is about doing the work. How do you stay focused in the moment-by-moment, day-by-day reality of getting things done?

The internet is a noisy place, and if you’re anything like me, it’s easy to get distracted.

The problem is this: there are still a limited number of minutes and hours that you can actually dedicate each day to moving the ball forward and building your own little creative empire. The only way to make the most of the time you have is to FOCUS.

One of the hardest things about copywriting is the sheer amount of stuff you need to accomplish through your writing. You’re relying on your content for a lot of things!

So today I thought I would go through five questions that copywriters and communications pros ask themselves when they’re creating content. Asking yourself these questions when you sit down to create your own content will make sure that your writing doesn’t just sound good, but that it’s actually helping you achieve your goals, strengthen your brand, and build your relationship with the audience you’re serving.

For a lot of creatives who go through the process of building a new website, the exciting part is seeing the design come together and this bright, shiny, new website appear. The hard part is putting together the content that will fill that gorgeous website with valuable content – the kind that will convince curious readers to stick around and click around.

We all want to publish strong content that delights our readers and convinces them to take action. Having someone else review your drafts can be a helpful way to get a fresh perspective on your content before you publish it and identify any rough spots that could use a little polishing. But what if you don’t have the budget to hire an editor, or the time to have a friend read over your draft? If you’ve ever felt unsure about how to edit your own content, this is for you.

Have you ever tried to explain something about your work to someone, only to have them look at you with a blank stare? You try again, putting it a different way… still nothing.

It’s frustrating, right? What seems so simple to you feels impossible to communicate or express clearly.

But did you know there’s a name for it? It’s called the Curse of Knowledge. This post talks about how exactly it's causing you grief, and 4 things you can do to get rid of it.