Hailey, our Story Director, is joining us today and will take it from here. Such good words, grab a cup of coffee and settle in for the read. Life and business truly is a journey…

As 21^st century tech savvy, Instagramming, internet surfing, business building humans we are drawn to and thirst for instant gratification. We want the more and the better and we want it now. It is so ingrained into us that we forget that life is a journey – and a beautiful one at that. And it’s beautiful because more often than not we have to take the scenic route. Traveling a straight line from point A to B is rare. Our paths are interrupted by mountains, valleys and everything in between. While we are climbing the mountain, surveying the land, or going through a valley – the lure of instantly receiving what we desire commands our attention and not experiencing it can severely affect our attitude towards our current circumstance. But when we learn that the journey really is better than the destination, we can trust the process of reaching our goals, knowing that even the smallest step forward, though small, is still a step and is still progress.

Trusting the process not only develops resilience and courage, but teaches us about ourselves and the world around us as we establish a foundation and lifestyle that becomes immovable and unwavering. Something that paints this picture so clearly is the road to health and fitness. We want the fat dissolving pill without practicing the healthy habits, the five-minute workout that will give us a six pack, or the diet that drops 10 pounds in two weeks only to backtrack when we burn out. This approach to “looking our best” is not sustainable and we end up right back where we started with just a minor change in circumstance or mindset. Becoming healthy is a process and there are no quick fixes that actually last. It takes day-to-day discipline and focus. It takes picking yourself back up after failing, celebrating the little victories and knowing that taking each day at a time will eventually result in a more beautiful outcome than if our goals were just handed to us.

As a lot of you may know we launched STORY this past spring – a holistic branding and marketing service designed to intentionally and uniquely help business owners and creatives connect and communicate with their customers and clients. From the very beginning, our goal with STORY was to create something that solved our client’s branding problems and healed their pain points – but actually creating a tangible solution for them was easier said than done.

The creation of STORY was a process and a long and detailed process at that. It did not happen overnight and took years of experience to recognize a need and eventually develop a solution. Over that past year we spent hours and hours intentionally researching, creating, developing and strategizing STORY. We would sit in meetings that lasted entire days, brainstorming, learning, and developing. We created, then reworked, created, threw away, created some more and reworked again. It took us almost a year to finalize STORY and even after the launch we continuously refine our service to better serve our clients. 

The launch itself was a big moment for our team and brand. But this big moment did not define STORY – instead it was the summation of all the little (and what seemed like insignificant) ones. There were frustrating moments, moments of doubt and moments of failure. But there were also moments of celebration, moments of dreaming and moments of encouragement.

As we look back over the journey that brought us to where we are now, we can see all those little moments. We recognize that the mundane, the day-to-day, the insignificance actually mattered. It’s the constant chipping away at the rock, hitting the wood with an ax until it breaks, practicing the free throw for the thousandth time. Those are the moments that make us who we are today and allow the big moments to actually happen.

The launch of STORY has only reiterated to our team the importance of remembering that we never fully arrive even when we accomplish our goals. There is always more to be done, more to learn, new goals to reach, and another process and journey to embark on, which is why we need to learn to not only trust the process, but also enjoy it. If our hope and joy was hinged on the launch of STORY, we would have been severely disappointed. We can always do better, go faster, and travel farther.

This mentality of embracing, and enjoying the process is just as clear and evident for our clients, as it is for us. They come to us with a brand that they are either dissatisfied with our wanting to make better. Sometimes they have a picture of what they want and sometimes they don’t. But they do have goals and dreams even if they are foggy and unclear. Sometimes we want a quick fix rebrand – a spruced up website and a shiny new logo, hoping that with our new look our customers will come running. But a quick fix in branding and business, like dieting, is a recipe for disaster.

Because of this, we take our clients through a process of discovery and development.

They are asked the hard-to-answer questions and are encouraged to dig deep. As we create, rework and develop, we build, break, and build again. Sometimes the process is tedious, sometimes there are (what seem to be) impossible marketing mountains to climb, but with dedication and a one-foot in front of the other mentality, a brand that is true, real, and sustainable begins to come to life – a brand that will stand the test of time, that will not waiver under the wait of change because it is rooted in the heart of the business. It garners loyalty because it is real, trusted, and steady.

Developing a business and learning how to tell a compelling brand story is hard. It is the reason for late nights, early mornings, a little too much coffee and the occasional tension headache. But somehow we keep at it. We believe in what we do and that just maybe our idea can change someone’s life and maybe even change the world.

So our advice? Don’t give up on your dream. Keep running after your goals with joy and know that the mountains and the valleys you experience are developing something inside of you that cannot be learned through books, online courses, or mentors. Enjoy the process and embrace the journey because one day you will reach the top of the mountain or emerge from the valley – victorious, with new perspective, more skills and hopefully a new dream to see fulfilled.