What it takes to build a brand you love
Last time I shared the news that Vision 20/20 has evolved into Happy MBA.
A new name.
A new look.
A new energy.
But behind every rebrand is a story. And ours has been months in the making.
One of the principles we teach in our program is to work out loud. To share your work, your struggles, your process.
This has 2 benefits:
clarity for you
connection to others
This is us walking the walk.
Most people think branding is about logos and colour palettes. And yes, those things matter.
But they're the last 10% of the work.
The real work happens long before you open a design file. It's the questions that make you uncomfortable:
Who are we now?
What do we actually stand for?
How do we want people to feel when they experience our work?
What are we willing to let go of?
These aren't marketing questions.
They're identity questions.
And they're hard.
For us, this wasn't just about updating a logo.
It was about creating something that could hold the work we want to do for the next decade.
Something versatile enough to grow with us.
Something that felt magnetic, energising, and distinctly us.
We’ve learnt the hard way that we’re our own worst clients.
We get too close to things.
We overthink.
We go round in circles.
So it matters who we bring in to help us see more clearly.
Judy Andrews is a designer, an author, and a guide for clarity.
But what really mattered to us wasn’t just her skill; it was how she worked with us and the relationship she’d built with us over time.
Her feedback wasn’t abstract or theoretical.
It was grounded in lived experience.
She’d been to Alptitude.
She’d been to Summercamp.
She’s just completed the program itself.
She’d seen how the work actually lands for people.
That meant she could spot patterns and connections we couldn’t see from the inside.
And it reminded us of something that’s really core to how we work, whether it’s our programs or our events:
We want to work with people who genuinely get what we’re trying to do and who are willing to step into the work with us rather than comment on it from the sidelines.
Judy didn't just design a brand for us.
She helped us get clear on what we needed it to do.
She asked the hard questions.
She pushed us to articulate things we'd been feeling but hadn't quite named.
And yes, there were earlier versions we liked but didn't love.
Judy knew.
We knew.
And she kept going until we got to something that made us all sit up and say: "That's it."
When you know, you know.
Reinventing your brand is vulnerable work.
You're essentially saying: "The old version doesn't fit anymore."
And that brings up all sorts of things:
What if people don't like it?
What if we're making a mistake?
What if this feels like too much change?
But here's what we've learned: if you're confident about something, you put it out there.
If you're not, you won't.
And we're confident about this.
Not because it's perfect. But because we love it.
And when you love your brand, you share it freely.
The simple exercise that unlocked a lot
One of the most useful parts of the whole process wasn’t about layouts or logos.
It was a day we set aside early on just to talk properly about the work.
During that session, Judy took us through a very simple exercise.
A piece of paper.
A line down the middle.
On one side: We are
On the other: We are not
We started writing words. Thinking out loud.
And then, more importantly, reacting to them.
Some words felt right straight away.
Others looked fine on the page but didn’t quite sit when we said them out loud.
That’s where it got interesting.
One of us would pause and say, “I’m not sure about that word,” and suddenly we were having a much more useful conversation.
Not about branding.
About meaning.
What are we actually trying to say?
How might someone else hear this?
Is this who we are now? Or who we used to be?
That back-and-forth helped us clarify who the work is really for, and who it isn’t. It also surfaced where we were trying to sound a certain way rather than speak plainly.
Which, ironically, is exactly the work we do with people on the program.
What we actually got out of it
A practical outcome of that exercise was that it gave us language we could actually use.
Not slogans.
Not marketing copy.
Just real words that sounded like us.
Those conversations became the raw material for the website copy.
Instead of trying to “write marketing”, we were simply refining what we already knew and felt.
That made writing (whether for social media, newsletters, or web copy) easier.
And more importantly, more us.
Three things we’re taking forward
If you’re building something of your own, here are three things this process reminded us of:
1. Amplify the essence
Get clear on what’s really there before you try to grow it.
2. Be the brand
Your brand is how you show up and how people experience you, not just what things look like.
3. Don’t force it
If something isn’t landing, pause. Clarity often comes with time and reflection, not pressure.
If you missed the conversation, we talked about all of this (and more) during this Friday Fireside with Judy.
It’s not a sales webinar.
It’s just a real, behind-the-scenes conversation about clarity, confidence, and building something that actually feels like you.
You can watch the recording here:
If you’re in a place where what you’re doing works, yet no longer feels right, you’re not stuck.
You might just be ready for the next version.
Happy MBA is a group coaching program for those at a turning point – solopreneurs, coaches and midlife professionals who have become disillusioned with their old way of working, and are now looking at what’s next.
With our supportive mentorship, powerful curriculum and a tight-knit cohort of like-minded peers, you'll imagine a future for you and your business that excites you – where you work smarter, not harder.
