The Secret to Your Growth as a Brand Strategist
By Levina Kusumadjaja
Have you ever used a GPS?
The purpose of a GPS is to help you get to places. It helps calculate the fastest, quickest, best way for you to move from where you are at now to a specific point of destination. A GPS isn’t there to decide where you should go, it just helps navigate the path for you to get there. That’s why for a GPS to work and fulfill its purpose, a GPS needs 2 things: a starting point and a destination. You can buy the world’s most advanced GPS equipped with all the latest navigation technology ever created, but it cannot do its job without a starting point and a destination.
This is very similar to your growth plans. You are excited and passionate about what you do and you want to grow as a brand strategist, but you don’t define what that growth looks like to you before actually putting effort into it. It is like starting your GPS without defining your starting point and your destination—the GPS won’t work. Asking the question “How can I grow as a brand strategist?” boils down to 2 things: where you are currently in your journey, and where you would like to go next. Without these 2 things clarified, you risk the danger of spreading yourself thin over long lists of to-do-list without growing in any area at all.
If you want to grow as a brand strategist, start by defining 2 things: where you are now and where you want to go.
Let’s imagine this. You get all excited to learn all getting 10k clients that you start enrolling in 4 different classes, ordering 10 different books from Amazon, and watching at least 3 Youtube videos on attracting clients every day. But these resources talk about the 10 different aspects of your business, while the biggest challenge you need to overcome now is your budgeting. So, you end up knowing a little bit about 5 different skillsets but still struggle with your budgeting. Instead of really focusing on the challenge you need to overcome now, you end up with information overload.
The secret to your growth as a brand strategist is to start with a goal.
If you come in to your growth process by clarifying your next step first, the process doesn’t seem as daunting. It’s like using a GPS, you can now weigh your options and decide which is the best route to get to where you want to go. That goal can be feeling confident in talking about prices in sales call, or streamlining the process in your business. It can even be as simple as having good time management so you can be more focused in your day-to-day.
Clarify the goal, set the success measures, and go from there.
It doesn’t matter how big or how small your goal is because it is not about the size of the goal, it is about defining what that goal is. Wanting to grow is amazing, and that is a big first step. Now, it’s up to you to choose which problem and roadblock you want to overcome first. It’s like choosing which adventure you want to go on first. Clarify the goal, set the success measures, and go from there. When you can clearly define what your next step looks like, now the GPS can finally work—you can now figure out what to do to grow right now.
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!