The Importance of Identity
To hone a blade means to bring it to a precise, centered point. Sharpness is important, but that precision is more important. If you’ve got a sharp blade, but it’s not even, your cuts will suffer. But, if both are on point (pun intended 100%), the end result is cleaner, smoother, and more focused.
Now think about your brand. If your identity veers to one side or another, everything you do, or say, is going to veer, too. Your lack of focus breeds a lack of understanding from the people you want to care about your product/service/brand/cause. Want people to care? Be consistently focused on who you are and what you’re about.
So HOW do you hone a blade? There’s got to be a tool and a process. A way to test and correct the point until it’s just right. It’s not just about creating a sharp edge, but also removing excess material and shaping everything that surrounds it. We’ve got to remember, a knife has a lot more parts than just the edge of the blade. When it comes to our identities, internally removing the things that cause us to be unbalanced is as important as focusing on being outwardly sharp.
The good news is that the process isn’t complicated. It’s a matter of establishing (or refining) the things that are most important to you, your beliefs and values, your mission and purpose. We’ve all made reference to how we feel something in our hearts. Figure out those feels in your ‘heart’, and use them as a filter for your brand. If something “doesn’t feel right” then don’t do it, don’t post it, don’t share it, don’t spend money on it, don’t sell it. Everything your brand does should precisely represent the heart of your brand. Your identity is NOT the outward expression...but everything you send out into the world should be created in the image of who you are. This only works if you (and everyone in your organization) know exactly who you are as a brand.
This is my work, to help people, businesses and organizations prioritize their priorities and deliver more centered, focused, and meaningful experiences for their audiences through branding and content.
Curious about what this would look like for you?
