9 Things You Need to Know About Rebranding Yourself and Your Business

Your business is stagnant.  You aren’t feeling as passionate as you once were.  Perhaps your customers are complaining or there is internal conflict.  You might feel stressed, anxious, or lacking in focus.

At this point, you tell yourself to work harder, that it will pass. 

It doesn’t.

Any indication of apathy in our life and in our careers, can be a great time for a rebrand.  Rebranding is a fresh start.  Great companies, athletes, celebrities, and even countries, rebrand consistently.  The musician who puts out a new album rebrands herself, or himself, every single time.  The athlete who becomes an actor, is doing a rebrand.  The company that launches a new product line, creates a new image, hires new peoples, and markets in a different way, goes through a rebrand.

Rebranding can breathe life into you and your work.  It can effectively torch stagnation.  It can fuel you to the next level.

Here are some examples of effective rebrands:

Companies That Staged Successful Rebrands

1. Google – Was called backrub initially.

2. Amazon – Went from selling books to everything.

3. Converse – Brand got ‘tired’ and went through a fresh rebrand.

4. Levis – Came back as a millennial cutoff short of choice.

5. Starbucks – Went from ‘Starbucks Tea and Coffee’ to simply, ‘Starbucks.’

6. Apple – Went from computers to music to the must-have phone.

Athletes That Rebranded Their Careers

1. The Rock – Wrestling to acting to producing

2. Tom Brady – Baseball to football to author.

3. John Cena – Wrestling to acting

4. Michael Jordan – Basketball to baseball to basketball.

5. Serena Williams – Star tennis player to venture capitalist.

Actors That Rebranded Their Careers

1. Ronald Reagan – Actor to president of the United States

2. Arnold Schwarzenegger– Bodybuilder to actor to governor

3. All of the Kardashians – Kim was a stylist and assistant to Paris Hilton. Now, she is a multi-preneur.

4. Jessica Alba – Actor to becoming a founder with The Honest Company.

5. Reese Witherspoon – Actor to producer.

6. Gwyneth Paltrow – Actor to lifestyle brand, Goop founder and CEO.

According to Forbes, there are 57 million U.S. workers in the Gig Economy.  That includes those who have a side hustle, think working as a teacher by day and a life coach at night, and those in the You Economy who have said ‘goodbye’ to tradition work in favor of choosing their own hours.

At my digital agency, Agency8, we have physicians who have side hustles in direct sales, dentists who are also life coaches, life coaches who are also selling physical products online, and a host of multi-preneurs who choose to be their own boss.  With every business, and every transition, comes a rebrand – a shift in how we see ourselves and how the world sees us.  As inspiring as a good rebrand is, there are some key aspects of rebranding that are essential before going out there and letting everyone know that you have changed careers, are looking for a different form of client, or have started a new business.

9 Things You Need to Know About Rebranding

1. Clearly Define What You Want – before launching into a full rebrand, ask yourself what you truly want your outcome to be.  I suggest exploring other people and companies in your space.  Look at their brand presence.  Pick what you would like to emulate.  Make a mood board of screen shots and store it on your Google Drive.  This is a great thing to give any people you hire to rebrand your site, pages, social media, etc.

2. Know Who You Want to Work With – part of your desire to rebrand might stem from an urge to work with a new type of customer.  Clearly identifying your ideal customer and aligning your updated brand with that customer is key.  If, for example, you have previously been focused on Gen X and want to attract Gen Z, you may have to update the look and feel of your online presence to be attractive to your new demographic.

3. Know Why You Want to Work With Them – we all love our customers however there are often a few that can be trying.  When you are clear on why you want to work with people, it will make the challenging times a lot easier.  The goal of any business is to create raving fans.  You are much more likely do this if you are clear on why you want to create solutions for your ideal customer.

4. Identify Your Brand Pillars – our brand pillars are the 5 things that represent who we are online.  These are passions, lifestyle pieces, and create an awareness about what you are all about.  God, travel, food, fitness, yoga, your family, friends, volunteering, photography, speaking, entrepreneurship – the list is endless.  As you go through your rebrand, identify your brand pillars and begin to post, share, and follow accordingly.

5. Revamp Your Social Media to Align – regardless if you are an individual or a company, your social media must reflect your new brand pillars.  Go back and clean up anything that is not in alignment with who you are.  A staggering number of people will look at your social media and it must depict your brand pillars.

6. Decide WHO You Need to Surround Yourself With – we have heard that like attracts like and this is true of branding.  As you go through your rebrand, identify people, and businesses, that represent your brand pillars.  Start to follow, like, comment, and share their content.  If you know these people personally, schedule time to do a video with them, interview them, take photos with them, and get into their stratosphere.  This will quickly shift the optics to your new brand.

7. Listen To and Watch Those in Your Space – if there is a business, or influencer, in your space, then start to pay attention to their content.  Look at their engagement, observe what times of day they post, consider the quality and quantity of what they are putting out and choose a similar path.

8. Take Classes – rebranding yourself might require learning new skills.  Taking online classes is a quick way to gain the necessary education to help with your goal outcome.  For example, when I was coming back to technology, and rebranding myself accordingly with this pillar, I enrolled in a course at MIT.  By doing this, I not only learned valuable information in a challenging format, I also was able to add this certificate to my bio and social media.  It shifted the optics on my brand.

9. Be Patient – shifting how people perceive you and your brand takes time.  One friend, a nurse practitioner, who was somewhat fit, decided to become a bikini competitor at age fifty-one.  It took her eighteen months to shift her brand and online, she is now known for being a fierce competitor and go-to authority for women fifty plus who want to get lean.  Rebranding may take weeks, months, or even a few years.  Many of the previously mentioned examples, especially the celebrities, have taken years to go from the cover of US Weekly to the cover of Forbes.  Be patient and know that the process is worth it.