Last week, I put my word for 2021 into action and completed Level C’s Brand Strategist Masterclass 2. I haven’t mentioned my 2021 word here yet but it’s collaborate– something I used to do a lot more in previous roles than I do now as a solo entrepreneur. I used to work a lot on interdisciplinary teams – as a pscyhologist, when I was working in retail, when I was volunteering at the Brevard Zoo, and when I was working at DigiDonkey in Cocoa Village, and it is truly one of my favorite things to do. Boy do these Masterclasses offer a premium opportunity to get back to doing so while offering a whole new opportunity to learn challenging new skills as well!
Group 7 Ryanair Collaboration
Huge, thankful shoutout to my group 7 cohort for brainstorming and planning with me- the team experience was fantastic and inspiring – Angela Durant , Alice Pettey, Melissa Katz , Andy Ly , Shannon LaBare. All of us quite obviously had busy day to day schedules that we had to work around and there were no complaints at all- and interruptions from family, work and pets were handled with grace and understanding while creativity and -here’s that word again- collaboration flowed. We had the interesting position of being one of four groups (out of 10 total) that shared a business that we were working with- so we had another group we could compare and contrast our ideas with – making note of similarities and differences in how we approached the ideas and tasks of the project. For this former psychologist and budding brand strategist, that position is something that is still offering me new insight and food for thought.
Level C Brand Strategist
Thanks and admiration as well to Marty Neumeier and Andy Starr for bringing this knowledge to us and helping to build a new tribe I am immensely proud to call myself a part of (and within the first 100!) Having read many of Marty’s books to this point, being taught and hearing his feedback on projects is truly invaluable and finding out that Andy worked on branding for my very own undergraduate university were incredible highlights for an already exciting week. Zoom already makes it a small world, but finding out details like the ONU branding connection makes it just that much smaller!
Designing Your Ideal Customer
On a more personal note – hearing particularly positive feedback for nailing customer insight (Our “Tim” had a YouTube channel but was always behind the camera, making informative videos for his kids- this is a detail I simply knew about him, after our group made him real enough to me that I could simply see him in my mind) made the customer design day probably my favorite day. Keen eyes may recognize my layout touches on the presentation slides from that day in the slides above as well.
At this time, if I am vaccinated by November, I am very hopeful to continue my learning voyage with Brand Masterclass 3 Branding Architect in person in Philadelphia, but no matter what, I am eagerly, eagerly looking forward to what comes next!
Want to know more?
Interested in talking to me about strategy and designing your ideal customer for a better future for your company? Hit me up on social media or contact me and let’s chat!