Brand is not a four-letter word.

I’ll never forget those early days of my business, when I used to get dressed up — smart jeans and a nice top dressed up, I’ve never been a suit-wearer — and head off to breakfast networking meetings. I never loved those events. But somewhere I heard that’s what I had to do to get started so as any good newbie does I followed the rules.

Inevitably the moment of introductions came. And while I wasn’t all that comfortable standing up and talking to people in those new days of business, what really made me shiver was the gut reaction I got from the room when I uttered the words…

“I’m a designer”

or worse “I’m a brand designer” it was as if I’d thrown my steaming mug of coffee right in their face. I think they’d have preferred that!

Somewhere along the way design, and brand design, became a dirty word. A word that confused people, a word that sparked negative associations of business interactions with people who did some sort of art degree and decided to try their hand at creating pretty stuff for your business.

It’s no wonder the term ‘brand’ is on most business owners’ shit list!

Too many designers fall into the world of brand design and offer design services wrapped up in promises of brand building greatness without knowing the strategy that goes into creating something that helps strengthen and launch a brand into something great.

Despite the gut-wrenching backlash the term gets, branding is more important today than it’s ever been before. And it’ll only continue to be more important as the world looks for more ways to connect people.

Your brand is not only a place to connect your product or service with people who want to consume it. It’s a place where people connect with people.

Where what your brand stands for connects with what your customers stand for.

A brand that doesn’t blindly follow someone’s outdated rules of business, it makes its own rules, starts its own movement, and changes the world.

Tell me, what’s the movement you’re starting with your brand? And what, if any, outdated rules are you leaving behind in business?

Comment below, I’d love to hear from you…