The Path from Creative Entrepreneur to Brand Consultant
I’ve noticed a pattern in the journey of creative entrepreneurs (including me!) who go from doing a constellation of creative gigs to consulting on bigger brand projects.
⚡️Disclaimer before you read on: We need creatives who have no interest in consulting, who love what they do, and find meaning and purpose in it. I’m not advocating for every creative to become a brand strategist or change what they’re doing. What I am doing is offering an observation of a pattern I’ve seen in those who’ve decided to make a change because their creative work is... well... not creative, anymore.
⚡️Second disclaimer: Results vary. This is not everyone’s story. Just a pattern I noticed based on a small data pool of over 130 coaching clients and 14+ years of being on this journey myself.
Typically, these creative professionals start a business, studio, or agency, offering any number of creative services:
Graphic design
Copywriting
Video editing
Illustration
Marketing
Web design
Fine art
Architecture
Photography
The list goes on!
As they grow their business, they end up running into these kinds of problems:
Only landing small projects (not the big, fun ones)
Endless revisions
Overdelivering while being underpaid
Getting into an unsustainable grind
Spread thin wearing too many hats
Having an unclear target to hit
Only being hired to execute on an idea, not coming up with overall direction
Not knowing whether or not the work they did had an impact on their client’s business
Overworking
They tend to dream about:
Charging more
Landing bigger projects
Having a more holistic service solution
Being involved in deciding what should be created versus just creating what they’re told should be created
Delivering more value
Getting paid more while working with less clients
Seeing their work make a measurable impact on their client’s business
Getting paid for their creative problem solving skills, not just making pretty things
More meaningful work
Spending more time thinking
Scaling their business
Then, they discover the wonderful world of brand strategy. 🤩
They decide that brand strategy is the next step in improving their creative process so that they can deliver more value and tackle bigger clients.
They learn a framework, then make the process their own.
✨ This is the best time for people to join the Brand Strategy Bootcamp — when they’re ready to jump out of the matrix of needing yet another framework.
Their process now looks like this:
Hired for a creative deliverable
Kickoff project with brand strategy
Execute on creative deliverable
Next, they test out brand strategy by adding it on as Phase 1 to their current creative process.
They quickly experience:
Less revisions
More informed creative direction
Bigger projects
Happier clients
Ability to easily charge more
Measurable results
Excitement of working on the overall direction of the brand and customer experience
Client’s saying things like “you get us”
Projects moving quickly
More opportunities
Feeling like a partner, not hired hands
Once they get a taste of what brand strategy can do, they start to think... Maybe I can sell brand strategy and consulting services separately, without any creative deliverable.
So they test out this new hypothesis by offering it to potential clients that seem like they might benefit from it.
Clients who might benefit from brand strategy include those who want to:
Get more customers
Attract a different type of customer
Know how to talk to said customer in a way that they’ll actually care
Stop wasting so much money on marketing
Charge premium prices
Be the go-to in their industry
Get their entire company on the same page when it comes to their brand direction
And the list goes on!
These types of clients benefit from brand strategy because brands can create an emotional connection between customers and businesses, just like relationships. And emotion is what drives purchasing decisions, customer loyalty, perception, etc.
They land their first brand strategy-only project and realize, maybe for the first time, that they are indeed getting paid for their creative problem solving skills and NOT a tangible, creative deliverable. 🧠⚡️
🧠 Mindset shift: They start to see themselves as consultants.
⚡️Extra bonus: They’re making more while working less.
They successfully went from beefing up their creative service with brand strategy, to now starting with brand strategy and letting the strategy determine what creative deliverables should be created based on the client’s goal.
Their process now looks like this:
Hired to solve a problem in order to reach a business outcome
Start with some form of audit, discovery, brand strategy, consulting etc
Outline a list of creative deliverables and initiatives based on the brand strategy that they may execute on, outsource, hire a team for, guide their client’s in-house team on, or refer to another agency to create.
Offer ongoing brand consulting to make sure that any new initiatives and projects are ‘on brand’ and to course-correct as needed.
Finally, they hit this fork in the road:
Do they continue to offer creative services? Or do they ditch what they thought was their first love for this new found, too-good-to-be true process of getting paid to create what they feel is much more meaningful and impactful work?
Either way, their work finally feels creative again.
It feels like they were meant to do this all along:
Find patterns in data
Research
Get to the root of why the business exists
Uncover goals
Align teams
Facilitate discussions and workshops
Create meaning
Write stories
Help clients think and make decisions
Make connections
Interview customers
Use their interest in psychology, human behavior, philosophy, and even linguistics in their work
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Where are you at in the journey to becoming a brand strategist? Does any part of this line up with your experience?
Cheers!
Melinda
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About the author:
Melinda Livsey is a brand strategist and online educator who helps creatives become confident brand strategists so they can make a bigger impact with their work. Find her hanging out on Instagram and say hello!