Soulful Branding Live with Lulu

Grow your Instagram (and your bottom-line)

In the past 3 months I’ve grown my Instagram following by almost 1,000 people, to over 8,000 followers. 

This audience has been responsible for the majority of the revenue to my business – via various income streams – during this time. 

Thus, to me, these numbers are more than a vanity metric because I appreciate the measurable contribution this growth has made, to my bottom line.

How did I achieve this?

Very intentionally. 

In this post I’m sharing tried and tested approaches you can explore, to grow your Instagram.

Continue reading “Grow your Instagram (and your bottom-line)”

Soulful branding through crisis: 5 tips

Soulful branding through crisis is something that’s been on my mind. Today I’m sharing from my own experience and leaving you with 5 tips to consider, for your own personal or business brand.

I think it’s clear to us all that, from this time of COVID-19 onwards, business cannot continue as usual. 

There are all kinds of professional AND personal strains that this time has put on many of us. Financial concerns; worries around our employment and keeping our businesses afloat; added responsibilities with our children at home; and the trauma of losing a way of life that’s all we’ve ever known.

I don’t know about you but, I woke up the other day, exhausted!

Continue reading “Soulful branding through crisis: 5 tips”

Multi-passionate problems + a journey to less but better

Multi-passionate problems

Last year, my mentor gave me a real good dose of tough love. You know, the kind that you KNOW you need to hear but, you’re a crying mess nonetheless!

What brought this about?

As a person with so many interests, it’s hard for me to focus on just a few. Professionally, I do several things and even personally, I struggle with having a hobby because, there are at least 10 things I want to regularly be doing! 

It’s just impossible to sustain so much at a high and meaningful level. Add to the challenge of  also sustaining yourself – financially, physically, mentally etc.

Mastery can only come with focus. And focus has been my mission. Slowly but surely, I’ve been culling what I give my time to. But it’s hard! Emotions get in the way, distracting shiny objects get in the way and fear definitely gets in the way.

You might be over there wondering: “what does this have to do with soulful branding?”.

And may I add one more thing for you to question? The role of self-care in all of this. (It is after-all, self-love and self-care month, in our Afri-love is 10 celebrations!)

It took me a long time to write this episode because, even though I intuitively knew all these things are connected, I couldn’t quite articulate just how. Today, I will try.

Continue reading “Multi-passionate problems + a journey to less but better”

Planning for excellence: my experiments

I thoroughly enjoyed creating the first 8 episodes of Soulful Branding Live with Lulu for you, and I was so pleased with how well they were received! Thank you for watching, for commenting, for messaging me and for sharing them.

One thing I realised is, weekly wasn’t sustainable for me. I took some time at the end of last year to really think about my goals and priorities, for 2020 and beyond, and how my different activities fit in with that (or not!). 

This planning time was PRICELESS. I am such a planner. I looooove it – I get high off it. 

One of my best friends recently talked about loving my “dirty, [control freak], draws!” This is after I sent her a spreadsheet with an itinerary and costs for her upcoming visit. 

Yep, love this stuff.

If you’re a planner too, I know you feel me!

If the thought of planning gets you into a cold sweat or has you running for cover, I am determined to make a convert of you, today.

I want to hear you one day say: “planning is fun!” 😉 Continue reading “Planning for excellence: my experiments”

Loving on your brand touchpoints

The last Soulful Branding course of the year has kicked off and I’m in that mode where I’m revisiting and thinking about all the course content anew. 

I’m doing the exercises again myself because, they’re a great opportunity to review what’s working with my own brand, what can be improved and what needs to be let go.

In thinking about whether my brand is still expressing what I want it to, I have to look at all the materials that are an expression of my brand and all the spaces or platforms where my brand has a voice. All of these are opportunities to connect with my ideal clients and customers so, I need to ensure everything is in place to facilitate this engagement.

In this episode of Soulful Branding Live with Lulu, I share how you too can ensure that you’re properly loving on all your materials and platforms, also known as touchpoints. Continue reading “Loving on your brand touchpoints”

Finding your purpose

Last month, I attended one of the most beautiful and fun weddings I’ve been to. One of my besties got married and it was an opportunity to catch up with many old friends and acquaintances, and make new ones too.

I ended up having quite a few interesting conversations about purpose. This topic often came up in the context of talking about what we do professionally and me prodding into the why.

Some people hadn’t thought much about why they were doing what they were doing – beyond making a living. Some were curious as to how you even go about finding your purpose or discovering your why.

Good question! I thought. And an ideal topic for an episode of Soulful Branding Live with Lulu :).

Continue reading “Finding your purpose”

Fearless branding: it’s time to share your gifts with the world!

Being fearless is something that’s been coming up a lot lately and it applies to branding too! I’ve been getting a wonderful astrology kick from Instagram these days. I was reading a post from Spirit Daughter the other day and the following lines really resonated with me:

“Once you see how powerful you are, then it’s time to share your uniqueness with the world. Virgo Season is a time to feel your self-worth and understand that no one is you. Virgo rules the sixth house of service and teaches that true service is offering your magic to those around you. Often we take ourselves for granted, not being our own perfection. Virgo Season is a time to celebrate yourself and embrace your inner Goddess as you share her fearlessly with the world.” [Emphasis mine]

You can’t imagine how pumped I was reading this. It’s so in-sync with everything the Soulful Branding course is all about:

  • Stepping into your power – aka your uniqueness – and sharing it with the world
  • The service of offering your magic to the world. 

Reading it I knew I was on to my topic for this week’s episode of Soulful Branding Live with Lulu: fearless branding. 

Continue reading “Fearless branding: it’s time to share your gifts with the world!”

Visual brand identity development: getting started + Pinterest as a resource

I’ve worked on over 100 visual brand identity design projects in my career and, for me, one of the most exciting parts of the process is right at the start. 

Speaking of excitement, one of my guilty pleasures in life is time spent on Pinterest. There was a season where Friday nights would consist of me, on the couch, in my slanket (no shame!), with a cold ginger beer at hand, and Pinterest on my laptop. And I lovvvvvvvved it!

Luckily, I can often also justify Pinterest time during working hours and, today, I’m going to give you permission to do the same! 

Whether you’re working on branding for somebody else, whether you’re the one who’s looking for branding support or whether you’re working on your own branding – this post is for you. 

I’m going to share some crucial steps to take in the beginning of developing your visual brand identity, and how Pinterest can be a useful – and enjoyable – resource.

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The most important steps in branding or rebranding

I was watching an episode of Queer Eye the other day, featuring the founder of Disabled But Not Really. As usual, there were plenty of tears and I continued to think about the episode for a while.

The overriding message was all about accepting ourselves as we are – with all the things that make us “different” because these are what make us special!⠀

It was a reminder to self to embrace my quirks and let them shine. Reminding myself to not be self-conscious, not to dull myself down, not to mask who I am.⠀

I believe this is such an important message for our professional lives too! Not shying away from who we are, when it comes to branding ourselves or our businesses, is so powerful! ⠀

Continue reading “The most important steps in branding or rebranding”

37 life lessons from 37 years

Episode 3 of Soulful Branding Live with Lulu is all about life lessons. It’s my birthday today and, increasingly, the wiser I get, this time of the year calls for pause and reflection. 

8 years ago, I created a 29 lessons from 29 years list. Now, I’m carrying on from there and adding the profound life lessons I’ve learned since – AND how they each apply to soulful branding.

Continue reading “37 life lessons from 37 years”