Author: Jenna Kutcher

Welcome to Creator Columns, where we bring expert HubSpot Creator voices to the Blogs that inspire and help you grow better.

I never wanted a business that only looked good from the outside. Creating only to satisfy the eyes of onlookers, audiences, and critics would be, and will always be, a waste of my time.

Over a decade ago, I walked away from a dull, corporate job because it felt like a trap — a suffocating environment designed to put me on a creatively draining conveyor belt headed for “Welcome to 65 and retirement!”

Frankly, that wasn’t for me. I became an entrepreneur so that I could build a business that is a free-flowing, evolving extension of who I am, rather than morphing it to fit what I think the industry wants it to be.

For most of my career, I’ve been a “figure it out” sort of girl. I’ve DIY-ed my way to success, including creating my own logos and coding my old websites. So, when I realized the visual aspects of my business didn’t necessarily align with the heart of it, I paused, evaluated, and made a shift.

In the process, I learned the vital difference between visual and emotional branding. This evolution took time because, with my background in photography, I am a very visually-inspired person!

Eventually, I learned how to harness my obsession with pretty logos, fun fonts, and gorgeous aesthetics and integrate the deeper work of cultivating a brand that creates meaningful connections with my audience. When connection is your brand’s primary goal, it drives real (and better) results.

Your brand needs your heart and soul. Whether it’s a small side gig or your full-time work, your branding (visuals and messaging alike) can and should be the bridge between you and your audience.

Without emotionally driven branding, you’re having to bridge the gap yourself — and likely exhausting yourself in the process.

So, let’s walk through my experience in learning not only the difference between visual and emotional branding but also how I made the change in my business for the long haul.

The Difference Between Visual and Emotional Branding

I know “branding” encapsulates a lot of aspects of what you do — it’s basically the identity of your business. When you create a brand, you’re likely creating a series of logos, color stories, typography, and other visual design elements.

The visual aspects of your brand matter because they’re how your customers recognize you and differentiate you from everyone else. You can use these elements to appeal to your audience’s aesthetic, saying, “Hey, you and I probably like the same things!”

Based on design, like the appeal of a book cover, your audience will generally gravitate toward you. This is the first impression.

However, your brand’s impression doesn’t stop at the visuals. This is merely a quick glimpse, a drive-by. You want more than just a shallow connection because this can be replicated (or faked) by anyone.

We’ve all unwrapped (literally or figuratively) something only to find that what’s underneath is not what the advertisement sold to us. You can be shiny, but you want emotional depth.

That’s how you build long-term loyalty and connection in a crowded marketplace.

Most people think branding stops with the visuals, but I’d argue that’s only where it starts. A true brand is the personality behind your offers — going way beyond a font or palette.

Emotional branding allows your brand to show up with feeling, not just an appealing look. Creating an emotional brand can drive deeper bonds with your customers as you show your shared values, beliefs, and emotional experiences. Social media made this way more possible.

In fact, as brands and businesses began to show up on social media, the audience demanded a deeper connection from them. Since that day, brands have needed to become good storytellers.

Emotional branding may be about sharing yourself.

I remember the marked change that happened in my photography career when I transitioned from sharing solely client images to sharing myself.

I shared myself editing with my dogs lying over my feet, the reality of what being an entrepreneur looked like, I shared as I decorated my first home with thrift store finds, and the puppies we fostered.

I was showing who I was and ultimately what I loved and that resulted in my clients seeing an image of someone who felt like a friend. It wasn’t just about how I edited my photos; now they could see who edited the photos. They could envision me in my life, chasing dogs, or hanging pictures on the wall.

I went from a business to a brand, a personality. They wanted me there with them on their special days, not solely the results I would deliver to them. Because I understood that pretty much above all else, on a wedding day, you want good people bringing the good vibes.

And that’s exactly who I was and what I was delivering!

People want to be able to interact (or relate) with their favorite brands. Here are some easily recognizable companies that rely on emotional connections to their brand:

• Nike: Inspiring customers to achieve their personal best.
• Apple: Fostering a sense of innovation and belonging.
• Coca-Cola: Associating the brand with happiness and togetherness.

While these companies are massive, global superbrands, I think we can pull a lesson or two from how they show up: they tell us a story about who they are.

They’re not just flaunting what they do, but they want us to feel good about associating with them. They create a space for a customer to enter, belong, and connect to a message, rather than just use a product or hire a service.

The difference can feel subtle, but shifting can make a (literal) world of difference.

How I Shifted to Emotional Branding

The shift started in my gut at first. I realized I’ve never felt a pull to show up as perfect, polished, or shiny. I craved more realness so that manifested in what and how I created.

From there, I examined how my audience across multiple social media platforms responded to my brand. I watched what questions I got asked over and over again — were they curious about my life, my relationships, my work, my processes?

The messages, replies, blog comments, email inquiries, client testimonials, and even podcast reviews helped me piece together the stories I was telling and the way my audience was perceiving me.

I took time to make sure that aligned with how I wanted them to perceive me. Did it align with my vision for my business and brand?

My business is me, so I want to make sure people remember that I am a real, living human who has a perspective I love to share.

What I am selling isn’t some regurgitation of what anyone could search for on Google. It’s processes that are learned, lived, and pieced together by me. That’s a major selling point and differentiator.

You could easily learn business from a million different places and people, but you can only learn my methods from ME in ONE place: my digital courses. So, I needed to make sure that the me-element is consistently visible and unmistakable in how I present my brand online.

It’s not about the name (or even the premise) of the course as much as it’s about knowing you’re going to sit down and learn from me. People want that kind of connection.

When I read the testimonials, this is extremely evident. My students rave about the course by saying things like “Learning from Jenna changed my business!” What you don’t hear is “This course changed my business” or “I loved the ads I saw for this course!” Ha, of course not, but you see the difference.

My digital course landing pages still present a results-oriented purpose to my potential students, but the brand itself is driving a connection between myself and my customers.

The way we approach copywriting, page layout, color choices, and our main offer’s primary selling points stems from the desire to make sure our customers feel seen, understood, and guided. I want them to feel a sweet relief when they read my sales pages because I build my offers to be entire solutions.

They’re complete, they’re effective, and they’re created to actually help and simplify. I want my customer to feel like I’ve met their gaze and to know without a doubt that I really do understand their needs because I used to stand where they are now.

The Impact of My Evolved Brand on My Business

Shifting to an emotional brand has led to more buy-in on the front end as my audience is excited about my offers before I even drop them. I no longer have to put all my energy into hoping an ad or announcement alone catches their eye.

Algorithms, unfortunately, don’t work like that. Warm leads going into a paid offer is far better than “Oh, I didn’t know you were working on anything!” Or “You hardly show up in my feed anymore!”

More interaction with your customers means more access to knowing what they want and need from you. Feedback is a critical part of connection. It can help you measure success and optimize your business as you go, rather than veering way off course and having to make big, sweeping changes down the road.

I am seeing a better connection to what I am all about. The questions I get about my life are evidence of that, too. I get fewer questions about what I do and more questions about how people can get involved or learn more from me.

I feel seen and understood by much of my audience which means I get to spend better, more meaningful time engaging with them, rather than explaining who I am or repeating myself.

The profit shift looks like less time and money spent on screaming about offers online (i.e. less ad spend in the wrong places, less external apps and tools needed to get the word out there).

Instead, I have customers who have emotional buy-in to my offers, my experiences, and new creative endeavors I will do in the future. They feel that my brand is being led and shaped by their needs and see it evolve with them, which means they want to stick with it!

And ultimately, I feel aligned with my brand. That’s a vital piece of the puzzle. You need to feel confident about how your business shows up online. You know when you feel good when you walk out your front door and when you don’t quite feel like yourself, right?

We all know the difference between that feeling of “Yeah, I like me!” and “Oh, please don’t perceive me today.” I wanted to have that “I like me!” feeling flood my mind every time I post a blog, publish a podcast episode, or link up my audience to a new offer. I want to know I’m showing up as clearly me.

Being able to show up through an emotional brand allows me to do that!

How to Keep Your Emotional Brand Evolving

1. Be willing to listen and learn as you go.

Yes, the internet changes all the time, but here’s what’s even more true: you are changing all the time. And if that is true, the same goes for your audience. Their needs, attitudes, lives, and circumstances are constantly shifting.

Unless you’re a rare sort of clairvoyant, the only way you’re going to know what their shifts are is by asking them. Leverage that newly strengthened connection between you and your audience by getting in the habit of keeping the conversation open.

Feedback will help you not only get information on what they want to see from you but that check-in will make your audience feel seen and known.

2. Schedule time to check in with your brand.

Instead of feeling the pressure to keep your brand in constant edit mode (that’s exhausting and unnecessary), schedule moments to check in with your brand.

Whether it’s annually or quarterly, carve out time to analyze how you feel about your brand. Assess the visuals; are they still representing who you are well? Read through your website copy and feel out the tone; is the voice still right? Review your social media posts and look for what’s been delivering results. What’s the common thread? Drop a feedback request to your audience and ask how they’re doing and what they want from you.

These check-ins might put a little homework on your list, but more often than not, you’ll get to walk away knowing your brand is doing exactly what it needs to do.

3. Focus on how you make people feel.

The visuals of your brand will always play a role but don’t get lost in the fonts or how flashy your videos are. Instead, focus on how you make people feel.

While I still get excited about color theory, fresh graphic design elements, and ways to make my website pages load quickly and flow well, I know how secondary those pieces are to my bottom line. Remember that those elements can’t go far without your vision and personality injected into them.

When your tagline feels like your mantra, then your audience won’t just have brand recognition. They’ll read your tagline, your social media posts, and your latest offers and see themselves in them, too. An emotional brand means that your mantra can become theirs.

Welcome to Creator Columns, where we bring expert HubSpot Creator voices to the Blogs that inspire and help you grow better.

Sometimes people start podcasts out of curiosity, the need to flex a creative muscle, or the drive to tell their story. But what happens after that initial experiment can be powerful: podcasting can create transformative business growth and consistent profit.

When people refer to podcasts as a ‘hobby’, they’re missing so much about what they can do for the entrepreneur, creative, side-hustler, storyteller, and ideator. In fact, podcasts generated over $2 billion in ad revenue in 2023 alone.

The power of podcasting is certainly not lost on me. What started with a nudge and a microphone from my older brother became an outlet for me during a very lonely season of entrepreneurship. It has also turned into the #1 thing I’m known for, The Goal Digger Podcast.

I pressed that ‘record’ button from the front seat of my car in my garage (so no one could hear the dogs barking in the house) and published my first few episodes. I felt like I was throwing a silly idea into the ether and hoping at least one person would listen to it. I didn’t even consider the ways it would help grow and support my business.

110+ million downloads over 800+ episodes later, I’ve witnessed just what consistent podcasting can really do.

Let’s dive into the journey of what it looks like to go from that initial spark of curiosity and the publishing of your first few episodes to building a 7-figure business with podcasting.

A quick spoiler here: This won’t require burnout. It also doesn’t mean you’ll have to shift who you are, what you do, or become a totally different human to see success.

Podcasting for Business Growth: How I Built a 7-Figure Business While Staying True to Myself

The Beginning of the Podcast Journey

Even though I was in the thick of running my photography business while getting my digital marketing business off the ground, I was apprehensive about starting a podcast. I joked about how no one wanted to hear my voice or learn from me!

But I couldn’t shake my curiosity. Then my brother gave me his old microphone and I felt like all my excuses had finally run out. What did I have to lose? So, I started scared.

I wouldn’t consider myself tech-savvy, so in those first few episodes, I ditched the pro microphone and used my iPhone headphones and my reliable Midwest phone voice, following a light outline I’d jotted down for myself with about six different rewrites. I was worried I would run out of things to say.

Even after I finished recording, I couldn’t bring myself to listen to it. I promised myself I would try. I didn’t want myself to get in the way of that.

From there, I started recording in my coat closet (a nice step up from the car), learning my own flow and comfort behind the microphone. I challenged myself to start asking for audience questions on my Instagram and inviting them to come subscribe to the show with growing confidence.

I sought out podcast guests and stayed consistent with my posting schedule. Eventually, I found a rhythm, building my show into what Goal Digger is today.

It can be hard to know where you start with your own podcast. I felt a little lost in all the details when I first started too. I stressed about nailing the right intro and sign-off for longer than I’d like to admit.

Instead of copying anyone else’s exact approach, what will help your podcast be something you like doing for 100 or 1000 episodes is to make sure it aligns with you. And remember, you can change everything as you learn and grow. You’ll evolve (I sure did), so don’t pressure yourself to get it right on episode one.

Staying Authentic in a Sea of Noise

One thing that has stayed fairly unchanged from the beginning for me was who I wanted to be as a podcaster. I was determined to be me. I didn’t want fluff or a show that felt like a time-waster. And I wanted my listeners to always know they were getting a genuine reflection of my personality and values. I have never shied away from the real talk.

I have loved online learning for a long time, so I envisioned every episode of my podcast as an opportunity for my listeners to learn. Charting out my episode outlines was a lot like planning a free masterclass every week. I wanted the experts on my show to shine and be seen for who they really are, too.

Eventually, I realized I wanted to share my own thoughts and insights, so I launched solo shows. I have expanded from sharing primarily about digital marketing and business to opening up about other aspects of my life, like seasons of navigating burnout, pivoting the business, motherhood, and loss.

I wanted to have a better connection with my listeners (since a podcast can feel one-sided almost always.) So, I launched a Facebook group for my podcast listeners called Goal Digger Insiders. That group is nearly 65,000 listeners strong.

My community comes together to not only talk about what they’re learning through the podcast, but they’re also a huge resource for each other. Through years of feedback and the usual internet playground of friends and critics, I learned how to find a balance between listening to what my audience wanted more of and staying true to my voice and vision.

Building a Podcasting Flow for Sustainable Business Success

As a busy entrepreneur, I knew I didn’t want podcasting to become a tangled, logistical mess. I craved a creative outlet, not a dreaded commitment every week.

Creating a process that fit into the flow of my week and worked well with my energy and schedule became a quick priority. I knew that juggling recording, scheduling guests, publishing episodes, social posting, and everything else could quickly burn me out.

While my podcast started with just me, I eventually added one team member. This helped me keep the system I built running, evolving, and feeling like a fun challenge for us through the seasons.

It’s only ever been just two people running it: me and my podcast producer who’s literally managing the entire show. It’s never been a big crew or a complicated production. I get to show up, talk into a mic, meet amazing people, and we get to share those episodes with the world. That was and still is the goal and that’s why I created a simple system for us to follow.

Podcasting for Business Growth and Evolution

While my core vision for Goal Digger hasn’t changed over time, almost everything else has. From our posting frequency to the kind of people I seek out as show guests to our branding, intro and outro, and the topics we cover!

Rather than big, sweeping changes, we adapt in small ways as we go. I don’t want to get stuck in a rut for so long that we fear change, so instead, we make it a habit to check in and make constant little tweaks to keep ourselves agile. On top of that, the small changes keep the work we’re doing feeling fresh and exciting!

Stay open to feedback, whether that’s internally with your team, from your listenership, or even your gut telling you something isn’t quite right. The way your show needs to evolve might not always be obvious or come from the latest podcasting stats. Your show might need to change in ways that are wholly unique to you. Maybe you’ll be the first person ever to do what you do in your podcast!

That’s exciting, but you won’t learn what that is if you don’t listen.

And in that process, don’t be afraid to try that new thing. Podcasting is and will always be primarily experimental. Trying new things is central to the kind of art form that podcasting is. If that new thing doesn't work, I would still count that as a success for trying, learning, and pivoting.

Avoiding Burnout and Maintaining Balance

Most of the 800+ episodes of Goal Digger were recorded in my messy closet. I didn’t hit episode 100 and invest in a studio or pressure myself to change just because ‘that’s what success looks like.’ I felt the success of my podcast through the data and impact on my listeners.

I didn’t want to waste energy trying to make my show look successful when I’d rather funnel it into the episodes and conversations themselves. My energy is a valuable resource and I want to spend it where it really counts.

While I love my podcast, it is still just one facet of my business as a whole, so it truly cannot take up all of my time. That’s why creating a system is so important.

I set boundaries around how and when I would record my show. I prioritized rest while carving out focused time to batch-record our episodes. I look at one month at a time and lean into what feels exciting for me in that month so that our content feels fresh, alive, and relevant to the time the episodes are being aired.

Protecting my energy means I get to sit down and be in the right headspace every single time I hit the ‘record’ button. I feel present for my show guests and our conversations get to be genuine rather than rushed or jumbled. I am able to be mentally on track for my solo shows, which keeps me engaged. The more engaged I can be, the more confident I feel about every episode that goes live.

My passion for podcasting can be protected and fostered by good boundaries around my time and energy. I get to show up, pour out, and walk away knowing we’re creating something we’re proud of every time.

We’re not burdened or pressured by trying to do all the things, which is actually what has allowed me to turn my podcasting idea into a major, profit-driving branch of my business. Boundaries are what make room for success.

Monetizing Your Podcast: Thinking Beyond Sponsorships

It’s easy to assume that sponsorships are the main way podcasts can profit, especially since as listeners, we’re used to hearing a barrage of ads (depending on the podcast.)

Sponsors are important and effective but don’t have to be the only way a podcast can monetize. I’ve tested and tried several dozen ways of bringing in income through the podcast, and a handful have risen to the top as my trusted monetization strategies.

You can leverage your podcast into a multitude of profit-generating channels.

Talk about your own business offers (paid or free) to turn your listeners into buyers, or at least email subscribers you can sell to later.

You can use affiliate links and codes to generate income by talking about products and services you’ve tested and love.

You can launch a membership or Patreon community where you share unique content that your listeners and fans can’t get anywhere else.

When it comes to monetizing, I recommend weaving two or more of these methods together so that the effort that goes into every episode has a multi-level payoff for you in the long run.

As you build long-term consistency with your show, you’re not just keeping your listeners happy, but you’re establishing credibility, too. When other opportunities come knocking, you’ll have your podcast to help show what you’re really about.

Your expertise can literally speak for itself when you’ve been leveraging it for hundreds of episodes over multiple years.

Podcast Success Happens One Episode at a Time

Every time I sit down at my desk on a podcast recording day, I smile thinking about how I almost didn’t start this show. I laugh because I can’t believe I get to do this as a job. I’m relieved that this not only turned out to be a creative outlet for so many years but that it also became a chart-topping show.

It wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t publish episode 1. And then 2. And then 3. And it would’ve fizzled out long before I saw success if I hadn’t chosen to stay true to myself and my vision the whole way through!

While the road may look long, I can say that all these years of podcasting felt far too quick. I often feel like I blink and we’re another 100 episodes along, celebrating yet another milestone.

If you’re at the starting line (or merely in the curious phase) of your own podcast, remember to keep celebrating your own milestones. That might mean buying your first microphone, finishing your first episode, getting your first review, or having your first podcast guest.

Building your show to a 7-figure success or whatever ‘success’ authentically looks like for you takes time. It takes doing it scared sometimes. It takes commitment to the consistency. It takes protecting your boundaries, time, and energy so that you can keep moving forward.

It means being intentional with who you work with, how you plan your ‘system’ for podcasting, and how you evolve. And it takes getting smart with how you layer your monetization so that your podcast can fuel your business … or become your business.

Can I help you turn your podcasting curiosity or existing show into podcast success (with your own definition of success leading the way?)

Check out my free podcasting masterclass, Podcasting 101: How to Start, Record, and Profit from Your Show. In this free masterclass, I'll show you how to start, grow, and monetize your show — no fancy tech or massive audience needed — so you can turn your passion into a powerful platform!

Welcome to Creator Columns, where we bring expert HubSpot Creator voices to the Blogs that inspire and help you grow better.

A habit that has woven itself through many facets of my life, like parenthood, my health, and entrepreneurship, is a consistent check-in I like to do with how I’m growing.

I often call it a ‘life inventory’ where I scoop up everything I’m working on, learning, and feeling, and ask myself about what’s going well and what needs to shift.

Inevitably, I spend a little bit of my check-in time wandering back down memory lane to the beginning stages of starting my business. With over a decade’s worth of experience, successes, trials, and a whole lot of teachable moments, it’s normal to wonder what I might’ve done differently if I knew then what I know now.

While I could wax poetic about all the things I wish I could share with my 20-something self, the advice I would give for starting my business is rather simple.

‘Keeping it simple’ might be the best way to summarize what I’ve learned about almost everything in life. So, take a step back with me to those early days while I share what I’d do first, without overthinking, if I was starting my business over today.

Maybe you’re looking for a fresh start in your business or a little insight from a seasoned entrepreneur as you start on your own business journey. I hope this advice helps not only give you that clearer starting line you’re looking for but also combats that pressure to start perfectly.

I know you want to mitigate risk and avoid as many pitfalls as possible. But the learning curve is part of the journey. In the meantime, let these five insights guide your vision and keep that process as light, fun, and adventurous as possible!

The First Things I’d Do If Starting My Business Over

1. Start an email list.

Starting an email list has to be my first piece of advice for you because I cannot count how often I’ve guided new business owners and entrepreneurs to do this over the years.

I learned how much easier growing a business can be when you don’t have to count on platforms you don’t own and can’t control to deliver your valuable messages to the people you’re creating for.

While social media is important it can also be a space where you waste time, money, and creative energy trying to engage your audience that lives on the other side of a strict, ever-changing social media algorithm.

My advice? Start an email list as soon as possible before any of those resources are spent in places that won’t deliver tangible results. A nurtured email list means you’re showing up in the inboxes of people who want to hear from you, buy from you, and stick around for your stories and growth.

On social media, they might tap that follow button, but from there, they might not see your content for weeks, months, or even years.

And unlike your social media pages, your email list isn’t one hacking incident away from being totally erased, it’s an asset that you own. That’s a powerful difference from what any other platform can offer you online.

As you create new offers (paid or free), you’re able to see if what you’re serving up is irresistible enough for people to want to exchange their email addresses for it. As a new business owner, this is an easy, free way to start gauging what your audience wants most from you.

2. Find a mentor.

Mentorship can feel like a big move for a new business owner … with an even bigger price tag. We crave answers and guidance in the beginning, but usually with a beginner budget, we tend to keep mentorship on the back burner.

I spent a little too much time piecing together my own plan out of stubbornness and feeling like I needed to earn all my advice.

But, as someone who eventually would become a mentor to many, I realized how much mentors want to give their advice to newbies! And not all mentorship needs to be one-on-one or costly. There are mentorship opportunities all around us if we know where to look.

First, look for free learning pathways. Tune into a podcast, like Goal Digger, my business and marketing podcast, where I share not only what I’m learning in business but open up conversations with amazing thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and visionaries to pull out their insight, too.

Plus, I even drop episodes that are live mentorship and coaching sessions with all kinds of people who are at their own starting lines or turning points in business.

Learning from other leaders who inspire you can also be as easy as taking a digital course. They can teach you through their course that can come at a more accessible price point while delivering their brilliance right to your screen.

Find someone who’s gone before you and is doing something similar to what you want to do or how you want to do it. Look for people who align with the kind of business owner you want to become. If they have a course, take it. If they have a book, read it. If they host live classes or have an online community, grab a seat.

Eventually, whenever you’re ready, you might even go out on a limb and ask them to mentor you in whatever capacity they can. You might just land your dream mentor!

3. Share your focus and goals.

This can be a tough part of starting a business because the pressure to be impressive or show off our success can keep us from showing the building process.

The journey doesn’t always look ‘pretty’, and it can be tempting to hide those parts (like when we clean up our entire house before the house cleaner comes over.)

But looking back, I regret those moments when I hid my learning process, waiting for everything to be ‘perfect,’ keeping me from growth because when is anything ever perfect? Letting people in on my journey is when my business completely shifted and growth started building in huge waves.

My audience responded to these seemingly messy or incomplete glimpses into my process with a resounding “This is so real!” We related on a whole new level and more people wanted to work with me, trust me as a client, and buy into my new offers.

Beyond ‘being relatable’, here’s why sharing your process and focus is so effective: you want your offers to make sense to the people you’re making them for. The only way they’re going to get the clearest picture of your offer is to let them in long before you finally share the ‘tada!’ moment.

Surprise drives way less results than anticipation. Show your people what you’re working on and allow them to support and champion you!

4. Get clear on your brand vision.

Starting your business is already a massively pride-worthy moment.

I was so proud to finally get out of my corporate, windowless office and launch into my career as a photographer and then as a digital marketer, but what I needed to get grounded with was my brand. Early on, I genuinely didn’t know the difference between my business and my brand.

An easy way to boil it down is that your business is simply your offer. It’s the solution you give your clients, the service you sell, the products you produce! But your brand is your personality behind every offer, service, and product. Sure, Audi makes cars, but how a person sells them makes all the difference, right?

From your social media, your website, your ads, your blogs, and everywhere else you show up online, your personality should be visible. Don’t hide behind your offers or think that they speak for themselves.

In fact, you’re their best advocate. Your excitement and confidence in what you’ve created is what resonates with your audience!

Your personality can show up long before you even have something to sell. Think about how you show up on social media.

• Do you know why you’re posting or creating?
• When you take a step back, is your brand vision clear with everything you post?
• Can you see your own unique perspective, flavor, and approach woven into your captions and images?

If you’re struggling here, I’ve coined a social content approach called the JK5 that might help keep your creative flow simple.

Every time you go to create a post, choose one from your five unique content pillars that guide your content creation and show your brand personality to your followers. It could be parenthood, pets, style, interior design, poetry, or anything that shows who YOU are!

If you want to learn more about the JK5 and your brand pillars, listen to this episode of my podcast!

5. Choose your tools wisely.

I learned this analogy through my experience as a photographer, juggling a variety of lenses in my camera bag. I felt this pressure when I was just starting out to have every single lens for every possible scenario.

As my business grew, I bought new lenses but learned that there were just a few that I would reach for over and over again. I didn’t need all the shiny tools right away, and in many cases, never needed them at all.

When you’re just starting your business, you’ll probably be inundated by all the options for the best tools and platforms out there. It’ll make your head spin.

But most of them aren’t necessary for what you need on day one. You don’t have to spend your time and money merely looking like a business when that could easily distract you from being able to do the real work.

Take a few steps back and analyze what your biggest needs are. Differentiate between the ‘nice to haves’ and the ‘need to haves’ to keep your growth moving forward.

A key to helping yourself know the difference is by looking at the tasks that are already on your to-do list vs the ones that you’re looking forward to doing in the future.

For instance, you might need to invest in accounting software before the bells and whistles for your website. In fact, I’ll fully admit that I didn’t have a real branded, designer-made logo until THIS year.

You can go farther than you ever imagined with much less than you think!

Honor Your Own Journey

Overall, the biggest surprise to me is that I don’t actually want to redo any of it.

As someone who takes so much joy in the learning process itself, it’s only through the hiccups, the guesses, the mistakes, and the early days that I was able to awaken the unrelenting life-long learner and educator in me.

My learning journey is the only reason I can have hindsight enough to meet people at their starting lines or messy middles and be able to help them skip some of the confusion. I love helping smooth out the starting lines.

You’re so much more capable of amazing things than you might know, so any chance I get to help people like you get there is a joy.

So, while these are in some ways insights born out of moments of ‘regret,’ I would say I have a much greater appreciation for them as transformative experiences.

Honor your own flubs and challenges along the way! They’ve not only helped YOU become who you are and the skills you carry, but they’re also a pathway for you to help others make it through the mess as we’re all out here just trying to figure it out as we go.