Ever felt like something was off in your personal brand?

Have you ever felt like something was OFF in your personal brand?

Like there was an important part of you you weren’t FULLY expressing?

One of the many New Years conversations I’m having with myself and the universe is how to incorporate my obsession with nature, the outdoors and adventure into my business.

It’s not something that’s formulated or flushed out, just something I’m genuinely excited and curious about exploring.

For me as a multi-passionate creative entrepreneur and founder of two personal brands, something feels really off when I’m expressing just a couple facets.

When I first started business about 3+ years ago, I was told to narrow down what I wanted to do to one thing. 

You may have heard something similar...

Not knowing any better, and then trusting what others said over myself, I chose branding and building websites as a business model since I had so much experience. 

But the design projects I took on weren’t feeding my SOUL and I was struggling to fake interest.

Meanwhile, there was a side of me that has always been secretly obsessed with habits, productivity and personal development, which all started with reading Chicken Soup for the Soul when I was a pre-teen.

But I was too scared to share this part of me. It didn’t feel safe.

In my twenties, I started reading a local coach’s column on the regular featured in a free women’s magazine. Luckily, she needed a designer and I needed a coach, so we traded services.

Working with her changed my life and career for the better.

I thought, “Her job is the bomb! She gets to help people and she travels when she wants to…. Damn.”

But I could never do that...

She was my hero. 

She showed me via example there was another way. 

She planted possibility seeds (coaching term alert) that continue to sprout To. This. Day.

For the first time, I felt the power of being coached!

But it wasn’t until I was about 32 I admitted it to myself that I really wanted to be a coach myself to have the tools to help people on a deeper level.

Up until this point, I was a professional creative, workin’ my way up the corporate ladder and had pretty much ignored this part of me. 

In 2017 I got brave enough to to go through IPEC coach-training, a year long intensive that produces top-notch coaches.

About 5 people total knew what I was going through: My BFF, husband and sisters, which shows you how scared I was to tell anyone!

I then whispered to the world, “I’m a coach!” 

But my energy was alll hesitant.

At the recommendation of another coach, I removed all mention of my design website (like you do), so I could step into my identity as a coach.

Something felt WAY off.

My creative side revolted. 

WTF! You can’t NOT be a creative. 

Looking back, it’s ridiculous that I I tried to mask a part of me that is so prominent.

And then I had an epiphany, which was simply the TRUTH. I was both.

I was a BOTH a coach who was enamored with personal-development and self-growth AND a super strategic creative who just as equally geeked-out on design, editing, strategy and marketing.

No wonder I lasted in corporate and agency environments for so long. My brain LOVES strategy, design and is a problem-solving machine.

In addition to my strategy brain, I have a big-ol’ heart! And an old, sensitive soul that needs to be tended, stimulated and nourished by offering it life-giving situations and environments. 

Like being in nature. Traveling alone. Adventuring. Soaking in blue sky. Reading spiritual texts and immersing myself in magical universal laws.  

Damn it. I am ALL of these things.

Claiming each facet felt expansive – a simple way to know if it’s true or not.

It also made sense why within the current coaching program I decided to work with creatives in a way that’s equal parts strategy and energy. I’ve been right where they are, know their struggles (because I’ve lived them) and we speak the same language. 

And I’ve learned from experience, the most effective way to go after your dreams is to be in alignment with your truth.

It‘s THE differentiating factor to long term, sustainable growth versus hustling!

So now, once again, I feel like there’s this part of me that I’m not expressing.

Being in nature, travel and adventure has always been a priority, but you wouldn’t know it from my social media feeds.

The identity balance is off once-again and needs some tweaking.

So one of my intentions for the next decade is to move this nature and adventure loving up on the priority list. 

AND to get in the habit of sharing what I’m up to with the intention that it doesn’t take over the present moment too much. 

Hell, that’s why I’m in nature to get away from. 

Once again, I’ll be looking for that balance.

As entrepreneurs, we’ll always be tweaking to find what works.

I’m going to take inspiration my friend and colleague, the brilliant Hailey Starr, who does SUCH a good job of sharing her experiences in nature consistently.

Cheers to us boldly claiming and loving all parts of us in the 2020s.