The glass jar
Why founders struggle to brand their own business: from inside, you can’t see it the way customers do. And why a clear brand makes other decisions simpler.
Jon Founder, Cultmethod Rebranding 2 min read
Founders struggle to brand their own business because they’re always inside it, and from inside you can’t see it the way your customers do. It takes someone from outside to show you. Once you know your brand, every other business decision gets simpler.
You’re stuck inside a glass jar, trying to read the label.
If you get it wrong, the jar is crushed with you in it. If you get it right, lifelong success and fulfillment will come your way.
But as long as you are inside the glass jar, you have a snowball’s chance in hell of reading that label.
That’s your life as a business owner.
You are always inside your own business, which prevents you from viewing it from the perspective of your consumers.
Branding yourself is a Sisyphean task that can stop even the smartest, most creative person in their tracks.
You need outside help. Someone who can lift you out of your glass jar and help you see the bigger picture.
A while back, we worked with the founders of a high-tech company in the Netherlands. They had been struggling with their brand positioning and messaging for years.
After two working sessions with us, things “clicked,” and they were able to see their own business in a new light.
They described the process of branding as descending a large mountain:
You embark on the journey without help, and eventually reach a plateau that you think is the root of the mountain. But you don’t quite recognize where you are. The terrain is rocky. There are thick clouds everywhere. Where do you go from here?
Then you get help from a professional mountain-descender.
Together, you brave through the clouds, walk a long, winding path around the mountain. The clouds disperse. Finally, you are able to feel the green grass underneath your feet.
You discover that the plateau you were just on wasn’t the root of the mountain at all.
With a competent facilitator who’s gone through the process many times before, it is possible to finally get to the root of your branding.
Know thyself was carved at the entrance to Apollo’s temple at Delphi. In the longer list of 147 Delphic maxims, it comes before Know your opportunity, Exercise prudence, Be a seeker of wisdom, and Use your skill.1
You must know yourself before you can hope to make the right decisions with any confidence.
Once you know your brand (what your core values are, who you champion, how you do things, and what you do), all your other business decisions become simple.
Communicating with clarity and purpose simply becomes a matter of making your values intelligible to consumers. You know who you’re talking to, and you know what you need to say.
There is nothing corny about it anymore.
Evaluating business tactics becomes a simple matter of considering whether they are congruent with your values and how you do things. You can finally get off the never-ending hamster wheel of business and marketing trends.
Smooth sailing.
