Photo credit: Malcolm Lightbody
After sharing my thoughts on ‘Where Next for Business?’, the session held by the Royal Society of Arts with Unilever’s CEO Alan Jope, I’d like to share with you where I got to with the future of my own business.
You will have often heard me saying that as our business is an extension of ourselves, and as change is the only constant, our business is bound to continually evolve.
Not only as you adapt to the ever changing needs of your clients, but as it reflects the changes that have occurred within you.
Sometimes the changes are small, like the gradual ease that comes with regularly practising to hone a new skill - like writing a blog, or doing a live on Facebook or LinkedIn.
These changes might be imperceptible to people who often engage with you, yet they will be noticed by those who connect with you less frequently.
Other times the changes are more noticeable - like when you create and launch a new offer or service for your existing clients.
And then there are periods of even more significant changes.
These changes mark an inflexion point in the trajectory of your business.
They are the result of deeper thinking, they often happen after times of pause and reflection, when you question and explore, when you peel another layer to reach the core.
This is the type of moments I found myself in the past few weeks.
After 4 years of extolling the virtues of authentic branding, I felt the need to pause and address the niggles and hunches that had crept up.
So what have I found out?
To start with, that explaining the concept of branding and what an authentic brand is, demands more time and patience than I once anticipated.
Whilst busy business owners and solopreneurs easily accept that a brand is far more than a logo, it’s harder for them to go deeper and invest time, attention, energy and money in their brand. I take my part of responsibility in this, as the onus is on me to successfully demonstrate to people that the brand contributes to one’s business fortunes as much as strategy, mindset and customer understanding.
But the most interesting aspect I came across when working with my clients, whether in groups or individual sessions, was that we often forget that not everyone is talented and skilled in the way we are: what comes naturally to us can be really testing, even sometimes almost impossible for others - and vice versa.
We are so used to be with ourselves, that we take ourselves for granted.
Actually just a few have had the chance, the willingness, or even the courage to practise self awareness - to lift the lid and have a proper look at what’s in there…
The norming forces of society must be taken into account too: after years and years of conditioning so that you fit a certain mould, so that you co-exist alongside your peers, so that you belong to this group, that team, or your community, it’s easy to see why we may struggle to understand who we really are.
And what I’ve enjoyed the most in the first years of holisto® is that journey of self (re)discovery I’ve taken my clients on.
I really get a thrill from helping people recognise this simple yet universal truth: there’s no one else like you out there, you are truly unique.
The celebration of everyone’s genuine uniqueness has been the founding principle of my business, and the golden thread I’ve used in helping my clients grow and nurture their authentic brand.
What I’ve realised in the past few weeks is that I can lean on this universal truth to go further than helping with brand building.
There is so much that can change for the better in people’s lives and the life of others if they allow themselves to be who they really are.
When people go past the years of conditioning, when they take the plunge and start embracing their natural gifts, they give themselves permission to shine their own light.
They finally find happiness, success and fulfilment by being who they are and doing something that fits them, as they draw on their natural gifts and talents.
So, that’s where I’m taking holisto® in the weeks and months to come.
I will still employ the tools I’ve used to create authentic brands, but I wish to widen my services to help more people discover their authentic self.
I will carry on being the mirror that reflects back on to my clients who they really are.
This is the legacy that I aspire to leave:
Know Who You Are. Live a fulfilling life by embracing your natural gifts.
My motto is: who you are drives what you do, not the other way round.
You don’t become happy or successful by having this job, or following that career path.
You find happiness, success and fulfilment by being true to yourself, by doing something that fits you, that draws on your natural gifts and talents.
Whilst I still offer my authentic branding services to business owners, I can see two other groups of people that could benefit from working with me:
People who are stuck in a job that drains them instead of being fulfilled. They know deep down that it’s not working for them, but they haven’t figured out what would be a better option for them. They feel like a hamster in a wheel, dragging themselves from Monday to Friday in the hope of a little bit of fun and happiness at the weekend. Until it all starts again the following week…
Young people who are not sure which career path to take. Nothing jumps at them, they haven’t had a dream of becoming this or that when they were little. They’re thinking of a path because their friends are taking it, or because their parents or their teachers told them it would be a great career. But their heart is not in it.
The tools that I’ve been using with my clients through the holisto® branding method will help these people uncover their personality, their values/character strengths, their personal archetype. I’m also planning to offer complementary modalities that will boost their spirituality, in order to facilitate the reconnection to their own and true self.
Well , that’s where I’ve got to so far.
I’d love to know what your initial impressions are, ping me an email at hello@holisto.uk, or let’s grab a cuppa and have a chat!
And before I go, I wanted to send a heartfelt thank you to the amazing ladies who’ve supported me over the course of my deep enquiry.
In order of appearance, Eva Lukacs and Alicia Lukacs-Hall, Gill Kearney, Katie Spreadbury, Rai Richardson and last but not least Marina Fernandez Julian 💚🙏🏻💚