What Bad Hair Days and Branding Have in Common

Let’s start with a story, shall we? Theme: the benefits of branding.

Last week, I was getting ready for the day. I had a discovery call with a potential client later that morning, so I made sure to actually do my hair and makeup and swapped my sweatshirt for a more presentable top.

I kept my sweatpants on though, because that’s the beauty of Zoom calls. They’ll never know.

Could I have left my sweatshirt on and kept my hair in a bun too? Probably. I mean, they know I work from home, right? Why does it matter how I look if my work is good?

Well, why do we dress up for job interviews? To make a good impression. If you show up to a job interview in baggy sweatpants and an XXL t-shirt you got at a high school football game 10 years ago, you probably won’t be getting a call back no matter how good of a candidate you are. 

And it’s not just for the sake of the interviewer’s opinion. It makes us feel more confident too. 

Think about when you’re having a bad hair day. It messes with your head a little bit, right? We’ve all been there. It makes you feel a little less confident when your hair just won’t cooperate. So, we end up hiding it with a hat, or feeling crappy about it the rest of the day.

But when your hair is falling in just the right way, your skin is glowing, and you’re wearing your favorite outfit that makes you feel like a million bucks? You walk into a room a little taller and smile a little bigger, because you KNOW you look dang good.

When you look put together, you FEEL put together, and the people around you can feel it too.

And guess what? The same is true with branding.

If your website feels a bit boring, your logo is “meh” at best, and “cohesive” is the LAST thing you would say about your visuals, it affects the way you talk and think about your business.

• “Just go to my Instagram!” (aka. My website is embarrassing, PLEASE don’t look at it.)

•  “You can just email me if you want to work together!” (aka. Yeah, I don’t have any online presence to speak of – just contact me and we can avoid the “marketing” stuff all together, kay?)

• “Oh, it’s just a little side thing.” (aka. I don’t feel legit enough to even call this a business, let alone promote it..)

When you’re not confident in the way you present your business, it shows. 

A lack of confidence affects the way you promote yourself, the way your audience perceives you, and the way YOU see yourself as a business owner. Until eventually, you stop wanting to show up at all.

If a lack of confidence can do all of that, just think about what an abundance of confidence can do.

• When you have a brand identity you’re in LOVE with, you’re more excited to promote your business!

• The more you promote your business, the more dream clients find you.

• The more dream clients find you, the more aligned projects you book. 

• More projects – more income. And you know what that can give you? Yep. More confidence.

THAT kind of confidence doesn’t appear out of nowhere. You can do all the “mindset work” you want, but it won’t change how your business is presented to the world or how your audience perceives it.

That’s the work of branding (it’s kind of the definition of the word!).

And it’s a game. changer.

The benefits of branding are endless, but confidence has to be my favorite of them all!

(Don’t just take it from me. I just had a call with a past client the other day who told me how having confidence in his brand identity changed the game for his photography business! Click here to watch a clip from that Zoom call and hear it in his own words!)

Cheering you on!