Think back to your favorite activity as a kid.
It may have been creating stories for Barbie and Ken, or building skyscrapers with Legos. Maybe it was playing school with your teddy bears or drawing images that crossed your mind.
As children, our creativity was encouraged, but over the years some of us began to dim our imagination and originality. We found it easier and more convenient to blend in than to stand out. This is what brand marketing strategist and 2x Amazon best-selling author Audria Richmond considers being cloned.
Through her platforms, she encourages people to develop an UnCloned Life, which essentially means to live with "the essence of freedom, expression, and humanity." Audria continued:
"Here, we just live however we damn well please."
Tapping into your creativity is a key component of living your best life. Here's five ways to do that:
Change The Way You Think
"Creativity is not only for kids, who are exploring the world, or for artists who are trying to interpret the world. Everyone is creative," says Audria. "Everyday, we're creative in deciding what to wear, how to style our hair, how colors go together. It's all a form of creativity. We've limited and put creativity in a box, as if only certain people can access it."
It's also important to know that creativity can't be forced. It doesn't always come to us when we want it to, but the more we integrate it into our lives, we can build it like a muscle.
We all are creative -- we just have to toss logic out the window sometimes and find ways to let our imaginative spirit shine.
How do you express your creativity? Share in the comments below!
- TED - 5 tips for living a more creative life: ›
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- How to Tap Into Your Creativity – Thrive Global – Medium ›
- A 3-Step Formula to Tap Into Your Creativity (and Solve Any Problem) ›
- 12 Ways to Tap Into Your Own Creativity | Mikayla Holmes ›
- 5 Rituals To Get Centered And Unlock Your Creative Side | Holstee ›
- David Lynch's Secrets For Tapping Into Your Deepest Creativity ... ›
- 6 Ways to Tap Into Your Creative Self | SUCCESS ›
- 13 surefire ways to tap into your creativity ›
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While an evolution is a natural progression that happens as businesses grow, a rebrand is a total change. Lola tells xoNecole, "A total rebrand is necessary when a business’s current reputation/what it’s known for is at odds with the business’s vision or direction.
"For example, if you’ve fundamentally changed what your product is and does, it’s likely that your brand is out of alignment with the business. Or, if you find your company is developing a reputation that doesn’t serve it, it might be time to pump the brakes and figure out what needs to change.
She continues, "Sometimes you’ll see companies (especially startups) announce a name change that comes with updated messaging, visuals, etc. That usually means their vision has changed or expanded, and their previous branding was too narrow/couldn’t encompass everything they planned to do."
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The Brand Doula was born in 2019, and its focus is on putting "the experiences, goals, and needs of women of color founders first," as well as brands with "culture-shifting missions."
According to Lola, culture-shifting is "the act of influencing dominant behavior, beliefs, or experiences in a community or group (ideally, for the better)."
"At The Brand Doula, we work with companies and leaders that set out to challenge the status quo in their industries and communities. They’re here to make an impact that sends ripples across the market," she says.
"We help the problem solvers of the world — the ones who aren't satisfied with 'this is how it's always been' and instead ask 'how could this be better?' Our clients build for impact, reimagining tools, systems, and ways of living to move cultures forward."
The Brand Doula has worked with many brands, including Too Collective, to assist with their collaboration with Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty and Balanced Black Girl for a "refresh," aka rebrand. For businesses looking to rebrand, Lola shares four essential steps.
1. Do an audit of your current brand experience — what’s still relevant and what needs to change? Reflect on why you’re doing the rebrand in the first place and what success would look like after relaunching.
2. Tackle the overall strategy first — before you start redesigning logos and websites, align on a new vision for your brand. How do you want your company to be positioned moving forward? Has your audience changed at all? Will your company have a fresh personality and voice?
3. Bring your audience along the journey — there’s no need to move in secret. Inviting your current audience into the journey can actually help them feel more connected to and invested in your story, enough to stick around as changes are being made.
4. Keep business moving — one of my biggest pet peeves is when companies take down their websites as soon as they have the idea to rebrand, then have a Coming Soon page up for months! You lose a lot of momentum and interest by doing that. If you’re still in business and generating income, continue to operate while you work on your rebrand behind the scenes. You don’t want to cut existing customers off out of the blue, and you also don’t want so much downtime that folks forget your business exists or start looking for other solutions.
While determining whether the rebrand was successful may take a few months, Lola says a clear sign that it is unsuccessful is negative feedback from your target audience. "Customers are typically more vocal about what they don’t like more than what they do like," she says.
But some good signs to look out for are improvements in engagement with your marketing, positive reviews, press and increase in retention, and overall feeling aligned with the new branding.
For more information about Lola and The Brand Doula, visit her website, thebranddoula.com.
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