#5stories1brand Story No 4 - Back to the Future

This is the fourth of five stories that describe my journey to building my business. You can check out parts 1, 2 and 3 before or after reading this one.

My last story ended as I embraced my future as an entrepreneur. I made a commitment to myself to build my brand, and I knew that at some point in my life I would run a successful, self-sustaining business founded on my values and beliefs and driven by my passion and commitment to social change. I wanted to create a legacy for my children. But where did I begin?

As the idea for my legacy business crystalised in my mind, I knew that logic alone would not help me to achieve my dream. Being an entrepreneur requires a certain level of madness and optimism and lots of intuition. So, to help me build the plan to deliver my brand, I had to “trust my gut.”

One of the first things that I needed to consult my gut on was the colour palette for my logo and brand. I spoke to a branding consultant who advised me to look at what the meanings of colours to help me decide. To be honest, that confused me more. Instinctively I wanted purple and orange. I love that combination. I wasn’t sure why, but I loved the combination.

When I talked to my graphic designer, I said I wanted those colours, but I also chose other colours to see if it was a matter of me not being able to visualise anything different but even when I saw the other colours on my logo they felt wrong. I knew what I wanted.

Months after I finalised my logo I was reflecting on some early childhood memories, and it struck me that when I was 5, I had written a book called “about me” and sold it to various family members and the colours I had used to decorate my book were orange and purple. It was a sign. Purple and orange would be my colours. To appease my branding consultant, I checked the colours and found out that purple supposedly signifies royalty, creativity and luxury and orange signifies playfulness, vitality, and friendliness. Of those words, I believe that the creative purple and friendly orange best describe my new brand. Let's see what you think next week when I formally launch it!

About the author

Roianne Nedd is a Diversity and Inclusion expert, Coach and Author. She has dedicated her professional career to improving inclusion in both private sectors and public-sector organisations with a particular emphasis on intersectional feminism, unconscious bias, and leadership.

Roianne’s mission in life is to amplify the voices of others to help them find their purpose, unleash their passion and maximise their potential. Both her coaching practice and her soon to be launched D&I Consultancy place people at the heart of her products and services. She is also the proud author of seven books including two self-help books as part of The Cracked Cocoon series. Her much anticipated 8th book, The Trusted Black Girl – A practical guide to unlocking the potential of Black Women in the UK Workplace will be launched on 11 October 2018 in London.