You Have Permission to Quit Brand Strategy
By Levina Kusumadjaja
When we watch Basketball games on TV, the broadcasting networks always skip the timeouts during the game. The referee blows the whistle and the players go to the sidelines to regroup with their coach and the rest of their team. The coach will wipe his or her coaching board, erase the previous game plan to brief the team with a new strategy, a new position, or even a word of encouragement.
Even though you watch basketball games because of the actual action in the game, these timeouts are crucial. In every game, each team has 7 chances to go back to this coaching board and the plays you see during the game come out because of the strategies drafted and agreed on that coaching board. Essentially, this coaching board is the team’s drawing board. It’s the place where they figure out how to adapt to the changes from the opponent and players from their own team, and to how the game is going. The board would have different things written on them for a team that was leading 20 points with 20 seconds left on the game, with a team that is 1-point behind with 5 seconds left on the game.
This coaching board is very similar to your life’s drawing board. How often do you go back to this drawing board? Just like how a team needs to constantly adapt as the game progresses, you also need to grow and change as your capacity and your audience evolve over time. Pivoting and making changes in your business isn’t a bad thing. Many believe that you can only do one thing and stick to that forever. That once you title yourself a brand strategist, or a graphic designer, or a teacher, then you will have to embody that role forever. But, who said so? Who told you that you can only do one thing and stick to it forever?
“Why do we view changing a lot as a bad thing? What unrealistic expectation do we put on ourselves that tells us we need to stick to one thing, and one thing only… forever?” - Melinda Livsey
As you grow, what you do will also evolve. The creative life means you keep coming back to the drawing board. There’s not just one thing that you need to do. There’s no sticking to that for the rest of your life. There’s no one title and that’s it. It was never about defining it once and for all, but it is about the journey. It is about seeing the process as something bigger than the destination.
As you learn brand strategy, your work, your role, and your passion will evolve along the way too. Your vision might stay the same, but the way to get there might change. Or, your vision might change, but the way to get there might stay the same. Maybe you started out as a web designer, and now after learning the whole brand strategy framework you want to try coaching 1-on-1. Maybe after coaching 1-on-1 then you decide you want to try teaching a bigger group now, so you move towards doing online group workshops and online courses. Is that wrong? Is it okay if you keep wanting to try something new every few years? YES, that is 100% okay.
“Pivoting, changing, and going back to the drawing board is not a bad thing. It’s called the creative life.” - Melinda Livsey
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!