Your Brand is a Healing Mask
Listen, I’ve been at this branding thing for a while now… like 14 years. I’ve seen the backend of hundreds of businesses and helped build countless successful brands. It’s safe to say I’ve picked up a few interesting takes on building a brand along the way.
Today I’m sharing one of the most recent ones with you: The idea that Your Brand is a Healing Mask.
‘What the hell do I mean by that’, you ask?
You know when little kids get obsessed with a particular superhero and they wear their costume for days on end because it makes them feel like they are, indeed, that superhero? Your brand has the same effect.
When you have this polished, powerful, beautiful version of your business presented to the world through your brand, you get the same feelings that kid in the superhero costume does… Confidence. Safety. Expression. You feel fearless and powerful. You start to embody all of the attributes more fully that your brand represents.
You see, when we have a brand that feels like a natural extension of us, it can actually give us this boost of confidence that we didn’t even know we needed. It no longer feels so scary for us to show up on social media because we have this beautiful brand that is representing us. We feel safe to express ourselves more fully because there is this layer of protection that our brand is providing that doesn’t make it feel so vulnerable for us to show up behind.
And this isn’t about being deceptive, or faking it until you make it. This is about understanding the role that your brand can play for you emotionally. And this isn’t true for everyone. Some people don’t need their brand to put on as a mask. Some people are perfectly fine to go without it and free-wheel their expression. I would say the majority of us feel vulnerable AF to stand there with absolutely nothing on, expressing ourselves and waiting for the potential praise or criticism, though. And I know that society tells us that we ‘shouldn’t be worried about what other people think’ but we’re human beings who have hurts and wounds and traumas that get activated and triggered when we show up to express ourselves. Especially in an online world that can be extremely judgmental and cruel at times.
Wearing our brand as a healing mask allows us to slowly build up our resilience behind it. And to look stunning while doing it! To me, there is nothing wrong with using our brand in this way… dare I even say, really leaning into it? It’s no different than getting dressed and putting our makeup on every day. It’s an act of personal expression, of allowing ourselves to feel as confident as possible. We all deserve to feel that way in our business.
I’ve recently come to embrace the fact that I am a very appearance-driven person. Perhaps that is shallow and egotistical of me… but it’s also what I do for a living. I live and breathe appearances and design all day. It’s my job to make things beautiful. I’ve been trying to fight this aspect of myself for so long because from a spiritual perspective, I have been told that it’s my ‘ego’ and we are told that the ego is ‘bad’. But what if it’s also part of my gifts? What if it is part of what I am meant to do here, on this earth?
I don’t think adding more beauty or confidence in the world can be a bad thing. So I say go ahead and wear that branding mask proudly! And if you’d like to curate your mask together, book in for a Brand Consult Call and let’s chat.
