Brand Identity: Indie Shopography

The story of Emily's rebrand starts many years ago when we were just two gals reading each others blogs about life. When we met at Alt Summit we became real life friends and eventually moved on to become partners in business. "Indie Shopography" may sound familiar because it's the name of the workshop we tried to launch together to help creative entrepreneurs get branded and get online. The workshop never happened but we learned so much from it that it was anything but a failure.

Emily then hired Braid to help her rebrand - which means we developed a logo (by hand - inspired by her tattoo on the left), positioning statement, brand story, and stationery for her. But beyond that we helped her shape up her content and set a focused vision for her business moving forward.

You see, Emily was all over the place - she had gone from being a jewelry designer under the name Emmarie to a web developer turned teacher and guide with launching her ECourses and workshops. She had two websites and a personal blog and didn't know how to make sense of all her ideas and direction anymore. Emily went from jewelry designer turned web developer to an expert and a guide. By owning her position as someone who helps get creatives (and their goods) online she reigned in the confusion and started getting hired by her dream clients to do what she loves.

Here are some ways Emily shaped up her business, brand and content:  
1. A Name Change: Indie Shopography was originally just the name of Emily's workshop but we felt it better described what she really wanted to do with her business. We don't always recommend changing your name especially if you have lots of brand equity in the name you've got. But we do recommend not having multiple businesses & blogs under different names & brands. This causes confusion, can water down your offerings and dilute your brand.
2. Blending the Personal with the Professional: Emily wanted to ditch her personal blog altogether but has now struck the balance between mixing the more personal content in with the professional advice and tips she offers as a resource to creatives.  
3. Positioning Herself as an Expert: Lots of people we work with are shy to admit that they're pretty badass at one thing (or hesitant to pick one because they're kind of badass at a lot of things). But when it comes to getting hired to do what you're best at you have to concisely tell people what you're best at and for who.  
4. Keeping it Consistent: Emily has not only implemented her new brand identity on her website and stationery but has also been consistent with her messaging and positioning. From her "About Me" to her sidebar touts to her social media platforms everything says the same thing about who she is and what she does.

You can read more from Emily on how we helped her shape up her content here.

(And here are a couple content quick-fixes for your own blog / brand on the Braid blog today.) 

We then turned around and hired Emily to help us develop our own ECourse. Not only has she been a total expert when it comes to the actual site development, she has also been a true guide when it comes to helping us implement and launch our ideas into something that makes sense.

If you're interested in shaping up your content but can't hire Braid for a one-on-one engagement consider taking our ECourse: Shape Up Your Content: Tame Your Ideas and Tell People How To Buy You. The course will be in-session from Monday September 24 - 30th. You have until this Sunday,  Sept. 23rd to enroll. Use the code BRAIDFRIENDSEPT2012 to get the discounted tuition of $50.