It’s all in the preparation

One of the things we love to do is spend the day in the woods. There’s a fortnightly event that we go to now (we’re on our third visit, I don’t think we’re gonna miss many of them) and my son loves it. He’s in the woods, he has space to move about, he has SO MUCH stuff to do because this is a place where you can’t be bored – it’s amazing.

And us parents have the best time too, we light a fire and cook lunch and chat.

We have bacon and sausage sandwiches with mushrooms and tomatoes. Followed by toasting marshmallows. There’s tea. It’s relaxing. My friend said that for me it’s like a camping fix without the camping. That’s exactly right. She knows me well 😉

While we’re there, there’s a demonstration on how to light a fire – Mark who runs it says the secret to a good fire is all in the preparation. Which it is. You need your sticks and your cotton wool pads and your fire stick and there’s a whole system to follow. I still need to work on this I think.

We were SO prepared on Saturday with our piles of differently sized sticks all ready for when we needed them, our stack of cotton pads and the food all ready to cook. When you’re going to cook in the woods you need to bring everything with you because you can’t just pop into the kitchen for that utensil you forgot.

Many things in life work well with great preparation – and your brand is one of them.

Taking a bit of time upfront to get prepared makes such a difference.

A bit of time to work on your strategy. To think about what matters. To think about who matters. To focus on those things which are going to keep you on track and help to guide your decisions.

A bit of time to work on your visuals. To create a visual language for your business which helps you to stand out and be seen, to align with your strategy, to give your audience something to recognise.

A bit of time thinking about how to tie the two together to make sure your brand is strong and on track with your strategy, so that your audience remember you, connect with you and feel drawn to buy from you. Planning the actions you’re going to take to get your message out. Figuring out the whens, whats and hows.

This is exactly what you can do in my Confident Consistency course if you’re sick of feeling inconsistent, mis-matched, messy or forgettable. Click here.

Once you’ve spent some time really getting to grips with your brand, everything else becomes much easier. You have a map to guide you on your Brand Adventure and pull you back when you wander off the wrong way as we all inevitably do sometimes..

Preparation removes guesswork. It means you don’t have to leave the fire burning while you wander off for more wood because you have it all in hand. It means you know what you’re planning to do and you’re ready for it. It means that you can press forwards to meet your goals because you know where you’re going. It means you can just enjoy yourself. You’ve already done the hard bit.

Preparation saves time. Once you’ve made those decisions you’re not going to waste time later deciding on the best course of action. You won’t need to contemplate your purpose, your thoughts, your possibilities on the journey to reach your goals. No waiting about or researching to decide. You already did that part.

With a bit of preparation your brand will burn brightly like the fire we cook our lunch on.

Which was videoed and shared online – further proving my point 😉

The better the preparation, the better the brand.

Amy Purdie, The Brand Explorer takes you on an Adventure to discover what your brand is all about, helping you with your brand strategy, brand visuals and content ideas. You can join Amy’s Brand Success Club or join her in your very own Private Brand Adventure.

Amy has been enjoying designing logos, brand identities, illustration, print work and websites – since 2007 fuelled mainly by tea and chocolate.