Alrighty then, let's get down to business on how you can create an amazing brand in 2025 without breaking any bones.
Your journey is going suck. The silver lining, however, is that the "suck" is only temporary, while the reward of forging a brand from your own blood and tears (so many tears) is a badge of honor you will wear proudly for the rest of your life. Most people don't understand what it really means to build something from nothing, let alone execute on any ambitions beyond showing up for their 9-5 job.
I created Wagonboy Studio -and subsequently Wagonboy Express- as the antithesis to the sentiment of working underneath someone else's boot. Nobody in their right mind should have to work 40 hours a week to survive and ultimately feel unfulfilled at the end of the day. That's why, by virtue of finding this article, you are in the right place, on the right path, and making the right decisions. In this post, I want to share with you some hard facts, useful tips, and plenty of encouragement that will kick your ass and keep you chugging along my little choo choo train friend.
Where I Have Failed & Where You Will Succeed
No branding venture is every really failed, just left behind like your imaginary friend from grade school. Although, I suppose you technically did fail that entity. Anyway, I'll briefly share with you some of my "failed", abandoned, or "on-hold" projects and brands from over the years. You know, to really build some credibility here. That's a joke, but true at the same time, so you know I have lived my life in the trenches and am not here just making shit up.
Just A Glance At Some of My Dead Babies
Not dead, but again, just not "finished" or cared for.
- Portberry's Party - Super rad NFT collection + online board game
- Ducky Le Blu - First attempt at a clothing brand and utilizing drop-shipping
- Darkest Arts - Gaming company of which we could start a new list of games that are "on-hold"
Currently Thriving Brands
- Wagonboy Studio, Wagonboy Express, and all their glory - always continuing to grow and iterate
- Ghostfly - Clothing brand that you should certainly familiarize yourself with. Who knows, maybe there's a sweet sale going down as we sit here!
Some of you may succeed on your first try, especially if you find the passion for the right project. But, you'll need to develop and harness the business kills and gumption to learn, grow, and stick it out for months and years, possibly with little results until that eureka moment. In my case, it took deep explorations into different nooks and crannies of various industries ranging from physical print, to web development and design, to consulting and brand building. There are many twists, turns, and forks in the road, but hold strong and you'll find that patience turns to paydirt.
You Don't Know What A Brand Is
Most people think a brand equates to a fun logo, a website, and some clever marketing. While necessary, those assets are merely the feet of your brand monster. How the users "identify" with your brand depends on their previous interactions and what those meant to them, how they feel about it. Did they like your style and agree with your message or did your flavor of marketing not move them to learn more about your story?
Brand Story
First, and absolutely foremost, you need to understand the reasoning behind why you are building your brand. If you cannot articulate this to yourself, then you will not be able to convey this to your audience. This DOES NOT mean just making picking up and rolling with some sob story or simply explaining what your brand aspires to be. Your brand story is every bit of you, tied into something you love, and wrapped up with a pretty little bow that gets presented to you consumers. It is the unique combination of you and you and your skillset in the industry, and what that concoction brings to the table. Remember that, and you will be golden, Pony boy!
Brand Values & Mission Statement:
Think about a concise mission statement that defines the core values and guides your brand's actions and interactions. Write it down, think about, then rewrite it until it resonates with the shiny bells up in your belfry. These core values and mission statement are what will drive the train (choo choo) while you are checked out watching cartoons or have a temporary lack of creativity. It's ok, I space out all the time, and really just consider it part of my workflow now.
Find Your Audience:
Find your people! Do some research and see who is out there in the ether that could use your help or would love your product or style. Be as specific as you can and don't be afraid to explore different niches and groups of people - you will sometimes be surprised when finding your audience is not who you thought they were.
Value Proposition & Statement:
Develop a concise and impactful proposition statement that speaks volumes about your brand's mission, intentions, and goals. Regardless of your niche, the market is likely saturated, and your audience needs to understand and feel what makes our brand different. Focus on your consumers, wants, needs, and pain points. Provide actual value. Build it, and they will come!
Brand Personality & Voice:
Do you want to come off as warm and light-hearted, or abrasive with a dark sense of humor? Think about what the market is looking for and how you can leverage your own personality to create a unique flavor that they will be drooling over.
Visual Identity
First impressions can make or break your brand. Again, we are are talking about the feeling people get when they see your assets or think about your brand in general. Most people don't have the attention-span to sit back for 5-10 minutes and just visualize the possibilities for the face of their brand. It's a simple but powerful trick and one that separates the visionaries from the people who claim they have no creativity. You'll obviously need a logo, fonts, colors, etc.
But think deeper than that. How will my logo look across different collateral? How can I separate or simplify my wordmark from my main emblem? Do they speak for themselves? For each piece of the puzzze, when all is said and done, ask yourself "How can I make this better?" See, we are having fun now. All these tidbits are not something you are ever going to learn in school. Transitioning now.
Brand Bible
This is more for you psychos out there with mad ADD nothing else to do. Joking, this is a big step that will build the spine of your brand, supporting organization and facilitating the scaleability in the future. Your brand bible basically puts everything we discussed so far into place, but with the addition of real world examples, so your team and future newcomers understand the style of the company. You brand bible should include your mission statement and value prop(s), brand voice and personality, visual assets and how they convey the look and feel of the brand, and whatever else you can think of to solidify the identity of you brand. Think of it as the almighty PDF or webpage -or whatever- that is the DNA for your brand.
Audience Engagement
Unlike your brand bible, this one is fairly straightforward, but here's some quickies:
- Email Marketing - Find a cadence that works for your brand and engage with your customers. After all, they opted in because they want your news!
- Social Media - Be creative. This is the future brand building and will likely be your main source of traffic and discovery. Some brands thrive by utilizing Pinterest boards, others get millions of viewers by creating video content on YouTube or Intagrams, etc. etc. Find something that sticks and then redline your engine in that direction.
- Online Communities - Reddit officially sucks now, but Discord and other online community platforms are great ways to engage with your people.
- Digital Presence - Just be there, as every mom says. Create a killer website, link all your socials and platforms to all your other socials and platforms, and website. Your brand should be a giant content linking machine for itself. Never leave your users hanging - give them something to click on and more reasons to stick around.
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Evolution & Feedback Loops
There are plenty of ways to get feedback from your users. Take it all with a grain of salt, but remember, your brand is how your users feel about your product, project, company, whatever it is, so their feedback is incredibly important. You can have surveys on your website, ask users questions via email campaigns, social media polls, hell, call people on their old landlines if you want! As long as you have a continuous feedback loop, can roll with the punches, evolve with the markets, and move with the water in the sea, your brand will move mountains.
What Else Do You Need to Know?
People are going to shove their opinions down your throat. Toss the negative stuff to the side, take some of it constructively, iterate, and move on. Wrap your life around your brand and put more energy into it than anything you have in your entire life. Plant the seed and feed it steroids.
The Final Word
Just remember that everything is temporary - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Stay humble, execute your vision, and never stop. Fail fast and fail early, adjust, then do it again. Now you have the keys to starting your own brand in 2025 and no excuses to not start right now!
