I love comparing fitness to marketing because the parallels are damn near identical. You can’t expect abs after a few crunches, and you sure as hell can’t expect dream clients to come banging down your door after one well-crafted post.
Building brand momentum works exactly like building muscle. The results you’re craving won’t come from sprints but from showing up, week after week, with a foundation that actually supports the life (and business) you’re trying to build.
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In the Beginning, You Have to Go Hard
When I first committed to feeling better with myself, I wasn’t messing around.
I was doing four, five, maybe even six days a week of intense workouts. I was riding my Peloton every single day. And then after those rides, I’d drive to the mountain near my house, run up it as fast as I could before the sunset, and then come back down.
And this was after working my full-time nine-to-five. Then I’d come home and work on my business because I was still side hustling at that point.
Around this same time, I also committed to getting sober. (The sobriety took a little longer to kick in, but we got there. I’m almost two years sober now!)
Basically, it was an entire lifestyle shift. And it was hard. Like, it wasn’t magical fairy dust. I didn’t just wake up one day and decide to do things better, and then everything clicked. I pushed myself every damn day, both mentally and physically.
But now, almost three years later, this all feels easy and natural.
Some weeks now, I’ll just do a single Sunday run to keep my streak alive. And that’s enough for me. I don’t need to go crazy anymore because I built the momentum originally.
And this is where it comes back to you and your brand…
Anyone can start something, and most people do, but very few keep showing up once it stops feeling new or exciting.
And this is exactly what it’s like to build your brand.
At first, you have to find your footing. You have to do the legwork. You have to go deep within yourself and find the real reasons as to why you’re doing this.
Making money? Cool. That’s not really what’s gonna fuel you to keep going every single day. That will fizzle out. That won’t feel shiny and new anymore.
So you have to figure out what works, what doesn’t, and why you’re doing it in the first place.
Just like on my health journey, you need a foundation before you can build that momentum.
What Do You Want Your Brand to Be Known For?
When people think of your brand and your business, what comes to mind?
If they’re just like, “Oh, they do XYZ service,” okay, great. So do 9 million other people.
What makes you different?
What makes you the reason they come to you versus somebody who’s cheaper, faster, stronger, whatever?
Why do they choose you? What makes your service so uniquely different than anybody else’s?
There are so many social media marketers. So many photographers. So many people in the creative world. So many bookkeepers, accountants, and financial advisors.
Why do your clients pick you?
Figure that out. Because I’m sure it’s not ease or price. I’m sure there’s a deeper reason.
And once you know what that is, you need to communicate it everywhere: in your content, on your website, in your email signature, in your sales materials, at networking events. Because if you’re not clear on what makes you different, how the hell is your audience supposed to figure it out?
(They won’t. They’ll just keep scrolling until they find someone who is clear.)
You Need a Plan, And Then You Need to Stick to It
Once you know where you want your brand to go, you have to reverse-engineer how you’re gonna get there.
Let’s bring it back to the health analogy. I knew I wanted to:
- Lose weight
- Stop drinking
- Get my mental health in check
So what did I do?
First, I started moving my body once a week. Then I was like, okay, if I’m moving my body once a week, I need to be nourishing my body. So I started eating a little bit better. And then I cut out alcohol.
Those were the three things I knew I needed to do consistently because they would get me to my end goal.
In the early days, you’ll probably need to do more than feels comfortable.
You’re going to have to build attraction. You’re going to have to test, refine, and repeat.
In the exercise analogy, in the beginning it was just a matter of: move. Okay, you’re going for a run for the first time? Run for as long as you can (even if it’s just a minute).
But then next week, if you’ve already proven to yourself you can do a quarter of a mile, now you’re gonna do a half mile.
Do that for yourself with your content. If you’re posting three times a week and it’s getting easy to the point where it feels habitual, now you can post four times a week. Now you can post five times a week. Whatever gets you to your goal.
Once you start building that momentum and you do that heavy lifting and you get all the systems into place, you can start shifting into maintenance mode.
Maintenance Mode Is the Goal
In the beginning, it is a lot of work.
That’s when you’re probably gonna invest in something like my brand strategy offer, The Groundwork. And it’s gonna be intense. We’re gonna dig deep in your mind, dig deep in your archive, and figure out: Where are we going? Where are we headed? What’s going on here?
There’s a lot of front-loaded work.
But then once you have that plan, it’s just like, okay, I’m gonna follow this plan and I’m going to do it. And as you keep doing it, you might say, “Okay, this is getting easier,” or, “This needs to be tweaked.” So instead of starting from scratch, you’re just making little adjustments.
When I help my clients with their marketing and their branding, I don’t hand them a flashy, nice, pretty 30-day trend calendar and call it a strategy.
I build them a system that they can live in long term.
Sure, you might have to pivot along the way because the world changes, you evolve as a business owner, all these things. But whether we’re working together on a project basis or as a retainer client, no matter when our time together ends, you’re going to be set up with an archive of incredible brand-building content that you can repurpose, reuse, pivot, and tweak as needed.
Social media is social media. It can go away tomorrow. But your brand is what roots you in place and allows you to adapt to any format, any media, any platform. So you can shout your message anywhere.
You Don’t Need to Go 100 MPH Forever
I am not somebody who posts on social media every single day. But I’m still booked out. I’m still getting new inquiries. People are still finding me and liking what they see.
Why?
Because I’ve built a mountain of content behind me. I don’t need to post every single day or chase because I’m attracting.
And that’s what I want to do for you.
Instead of going 100 miles per hour and thinking, “Oh my God, I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to do this,” just say: I’m making this small decision. Moving my body once a week. Posting three times a week. Whatever it is that you can maintain consistently.
And then just commit!
Because the second you stop waiting for it to get easier and you just lock in on “This is the end goal I’m chasing”?
You’re gonna get there before you know it.
Promise you that!
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