Branding is systems thinking – making many parts that work together to create a perceptible whole. My clients come to me when they are scattered and running into confusion. Their potential clients may be going to their website and getting the wrong impression – thinking that they offer a different type of service than they actually offer. Or, upstream of that, they might not even know how to define or talk about how they bring value, even though they know that they do. What we call a “brand” encompasses all the ways that your business or organization is represented and experienced by your clients, potential clients and referral partners.

The Beatles came from a place full of music and they built on those sounds, incorporating American pop, Western and Indian classical music, and listening across contents to California in an ongoing creative competition with the Beach Boys. Their story is a story of the cultural explosion of the mid-twentieth century. Their songs also speak to the importance of place and how the most humble patches of land can connect to the whole world.

Places and land use choices shape our lives. It’s not abstract. Any kid can see it and feel it. Acknowledging and learning how to communicate the power of place is a crucial task for anyone who works in land development, conservation, agriculture, climate adaptation, planning or urban design. I believe it is a skill our culture needs more of to get ourselves into right relationship with the systems of our life world.

I’m passionate about branding land-based projects and organizations not only because our most important task as a society is halting and reversing climate change, but because places are inherently real and storied. When it comes to places, you don’t have to make things up, you just have to tap in and “touch grass.”

What does a historic refuge for the LGBTQ+ have to do with a crunchy passive solar community on the opposite coast? The intention to let go of nostalgia to build a new kind of future in right relationship with land and people.

We are conditioned to believe that marketing genius arises from mastering inscrutable algorithms and spending big retainers, but for small service businesses and nonprofits, I believe that the true secret to successful marketing is consistency, clarity and genuine connection. Your next ideal client or financial backer is probably someone you know, or someone they know. 

For those who feel stuck, awakening to the reality of change will be invigorating. For those who like how things are right now, the inevitability of change can bring up fear and grasping. Most of us experience a little of both.

When we see ourselves clearly, that’s love. When we see the impact of our work clearly, that’s also love. When we are generous enough to share our skills and knowledge in services to others, it is also a form of love.

I believe that collective change happens mostly because we believe that said change is inevitable. As management consultant Peter Drucker said, “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Without intention, commitment and support, transformation happens at the pace of cultural change - sometimes quickly due to catalyzing events, sometimes incrementally and with great resistance.

10 Branding Essentials - Find out your branding superpowers and deficits.

Most products and services have been marketed based on an underlying story that we are at best incomplete and at worst, downright dirty, ugly and alone. As an entrepreneur in the branding and communication design space, I think a lot about the assumptions that underlie messages and visual design. I am as vulnerable to fear-based marketing as anyone else, but I also believe that we can enroll each other to take action by cultivating mentorship, compassion and vision.