The Worst Book I Ever Read

Brandcrastination: A Memoir

I’m a little over the halfway mark with my Let’s Do Launch students and it’s that time of the course when people start sending me emails saying, “I’m behiiiiiiiiiiind. HELP ME, RKA! I’VE FALLEN AND I CAN’T GET UP!”

When I do this work 1:1 with clients – this is the also the part of the process where they fall off the horse. They disappear. They take unplanned vacations. They wonder, “SHOULD I RE-THINK MY WHOLE BUSINESS?” 

That’s why I like to unofficially say the branding, web design, and marketing strategy process is kiiiiiiinda like doing therapy on your business. 

As you draw ever nearer to getting VISIBLE with the new & improved version of your biz, things get uncomfortable. You’re making big, messy decisions and it’s SCARY. 

You imagine that everyone on the Internet (or just the mean girls from high school – I’m looking at YOU, DANIELLE K WITH THE JNCO JEANS) are going to stop what they’re doing to look at you and laugh. 

So, the ego starts to act up and try to push us back towards comfort. The gut reaction is to delay, to shirk final decisions, to say “I’m too busy and I’ll do it tomorrow.” Orrrrr to go back over the choices you made before, re-think your decisions, and get stuck in brandcrastination and perfectionism. There’s a healthy amount of fear creeping up whose job it is to keep us from progress. 

Because, as humans, we PREFER safety.

We PREFER to stay in the place we know and feel comfortable. Even if that place is UN-LAUNCHED.

We KNOWWWW what it feels like to be in the un-launched place. We’ve been there for a while, right? (Even if you already have a website, you’ve probably been putting off UPGRADING that website for these reasons, too.)

But that’s part of why you hire a designer or take a course like Let’s Do Launch.  

Because, deep down, you know that if it were up to you, you’d probably stay in that safe, comfortable, un-launched space for longer than you should. 

So you know you needed a butt kicking RKA (or someone like ‘er) in your life to keep you moving.

CONSIDER THIS YOUR FOOT TO THE REAR BUTT KICKING MOMENT. 

I am here to make you feel comfortable being uncomfortable.

I am here to remind you that LAUNCHED is the only space where you can take your brand from imperfect to perfect.

It WILL NOT HAPPEN in hypothesizing/planning/strategizing/perfecting mode. 

Because the perfection happens when your brand is out there TO BE INTERACTED WITH. Your CLIENTS, your AUDIENCE, and their engagement (or lack thereof) will point you forward.

You can’t do this work alone. You NEED your new brand to see the light of day to figure out your next move. 

So pleeeeease, trust me on this. 

IF YOU ARE STUCK WRITING BRANDCRASTINATION: A MEMOIR,LISTEN UP: 

  • Even if you don’t looooove your copy, I want you to launch it.
  • Even if you’re not sure of your offerings, I want you to launch it. 
  • Even if you’re not sure you’re ready to put yourself out there in this way, I still want you to launch it. 

There’s so much info about branding and marketing out there, the temptation can be to stay in learning mode. 

Another course…
Another coach…
Another person’s opinion…

But the truth is, the BEST PERSON to give you feedback on your launch is NOT a coach or that one really opinionated girl in your biz FB group…

IT’S YOUR AUDIENCE!

They have the answers that no one else has. They will point you in the direction of where you should double down and where you should stop investing time and money. 

Brandcrastination: A Memoir is not a feel good story. It ends in you staying small, never achieving what you are capable of because your ego tells you that you need to wait. 

Why not write:

LAUNCHED: A STORY OF REDEMPTION in which you, our beloved protagonist, put something out in the world and let your audience be your coach, pushing you towards the best version of your brand.

Rachael Kay Albers

Rachael Kay Albers is a creative director, business comedian, and brand strategist gone wild. She writes and performs about branding, pop culture, tech, and identity. When she’s not muckraking about marketing, Rachael runs RKA ink, a reinvention studio and branding agency for businesses that burn the rulebook. She's also on Instagram a lot.