From Personal Purpose to Lasting Impact: 5 Steps to Build a Brand That Matters
Christina Bouglass
Supporting Leaders & Founders to Build & Grow Their Brands For Positive Impact | Brand Building Expert |Marketing Lecturer at HEG | TEDx Speaker | Trained in Sustainable Marketing | Founder of The Butterfly Movements ??
As the world undergoes another seismic shift under the new political landscape, many of us may be feeling lost (again!). The search for more meaning in our lives and our work becomes more present. Despite ticking all the external boxes for success, deep down, somewhere we can’t quite pinpoint, a deeper sense of dissatisfaction lingers.
An underlying search for more meaning, more fulfilment, more impact starts tugging at our heart strings.
I know this feeling all too well.
Three years ago, I walked away from a successful 20-year long career in the corporate world.
All those years, I thought I was ticking the boxes for success: I was getting great ratings, salary increases and promotions. I was flying around the world, meeting celebrities, going to big shoots and events. On the outside, I had it all.
Then, during the Covid lockdown, my company underwent a toxic takeover by a private equity firm.
From one day to the next, everything I had been working towards came crumbling down. The brands I loved, the people I cared about became nothing more than numbers on an excel chart that needed to deliver more growth and more profit.
It felt like my entire identity and self-worth had been ripped away from me overnight and the lack of values and purpose in my work led me straight to burnout.
It wasn’t until I made the bold decision to step away from that world that I discovered my true purpose: to redefine marketing and brand-building to create a positive impact.
But it wasn’t just a question of waking up one day with that realisation. It took a lot of inner work to get there.
As I’ve shared my journey, I have spoken to many leaders and founders who feel the same way. Many of us have lived through a similar moment of crisis when we realise that just making more money isn’t enough. We start searching for more meaning and purpose, wanting our work to stand for something, to create positive change.
Here’s the good news! Your personal purpose can be the foundation of a brand that truly makes a difference.
In this article, we’ll explore the five transformative steps that can take you from that sense of dissatisfaction to creating a brand that makes a meaningful impact.
Step 0: The Status Quo - “Cruising”
For many years, I didn’t question my path. My career was going really well, the salary was great and I had no reason to change anything. On the surface, everything was perfect, I was cruising along.
The first signal that something was not quite right was when I returned to work after a difficult second pregnancy. I felt guilty all around: a terrible mother, leaving my kids in the care of others all day and an underperforming executive, having to rush out of the office every day at 5.40 pm on the dot to make it back before the crèche closed.
I remember driving into the office every day and giving myself a pep talk, validating my choices: good salary, great brand, lovely team. What more could I want?
It was like living on autopilot, constantly rushing from one role to another: executive, mom, wife. Repeat.
Reflection: Are you simply acting within the confines of an expected system without questioning your true purpose?
Step 1: The Calling - “Stirring”
At some point, I felt the pull towards needing something more. I enrolled in an online course on essential oils and listened to it every day on my way to work. Looking back, I realise this was the first pull towards something sensorial, to connect me back to my own senses.
When I was on holiday, I dreamt of giving up my job, moving to Morocco and opening a spa. Again, that need for something more sensorial.?
I started hearing whispers. Where are you going from here? Are you really going to market shampoo for the rest of your life? But I shoved them aside. Good salary, great brand, lovely team. What more could I want?
But there was a stirring inside me, pulling me toward something different. A growing discomfort was emerging and I started questioning my work’s alignment with my deeper values.
I was feeling more and more friction with the world I was in: brands that communicated lots of nice ideas but lacked any true purpose, innovation that simply aimed at pushing more consumption by jumping on the latest trends and a system focused solely on short-term wins rather than long-term impact. I had always tried to push the boundaries and do things differently, but there were boxes you couldn’t escape in the corporate world.
Action Tip:?Start paying attention to the moments that make you feel most alive or frustrated. These could be clues pointing you toward your calling.
Step 2: The Tipping Point - “Crisis”
Then Covid hit. My 40th birthday was the first day of lockdown in Switzerland. I woke up to a new reality and just a few months later, my company hit crisis mode and sold the business off to a private equity firm.
That was the tipping point for me. The point of no return.
The brand strategies I had worked on for the past 7 years were simply pushed aside, as short term sales growth was the only goal.
I did start by fighting back. Trying to defend the equity and strategies that supported my brand. But it was pointless. I fought until I couldn’t anymore. And then I numbed out.
I remember literally putting my computer on mute in the midst of a zoom call - and that was it.
As the weeks went by, my body started reacting. If my mind kept pushing away the whispers, my body was going to make me pay attention! It took weight loss, several infections, sleeplessness and then a complete break down (hyperventilating on my kitchen floor) before I accepeted that I was in burnout.
Unfortunately many of us aren’t willing to change until we reach a breaking point. It might be burnout, losing a job or someone close to us that forces us to reevaluate everything. This phase is a real challenge - but it’s also the moment when you realize you can’t keep ignoring the misalignment between your values and your work.
When I hit my tipping point, it was clear: I couldn’t keep working in a system that didn’t reflect what I truly believed in.
Reflection:?What moments in your life have made you rethink your path? What is pushing you toward change right now?
Step 3: The Reconnection - “finding yourself”
Once I had stepped outside of the coprorate bubble, I didn’t know who I was anymore. I had spent 20 years cultivating an identity that no longer existed.
I was still in the depths of burnout and knew I needed some outside help. I started working with a coach and slowly started reconnecting to who I was underneath the labels and job titles. The first real breakthrough came when I felt a deep yearning to touch clay. Another calling towards something sensorial. I enrolled in a pottery class and remember driving home, feeling the first stirrings of butterflies in my belly. It was a feeling I could only vaguely remember.
Those pottery classes enabled me to feel something again. I started mediating and doing yoga (I know, it all sounds kind of cliché, but it really works!) and slowly, slowly, I remembered.
I remembered I loved writing and started a crazy project to write a book. I also remembered I loved marketing and building brands, I just didn’t want to do it for a world which aimed to push never-ending consumption anymore. I wanted to make a difference.
I mapped out everything that had frustrated me in my corporate role: the lack of true purpose in branding, the prioritization of short-term gains over long-term impact, the dilution of bold innovation or communication to appeal to mass audiences. It was in those frustrations that I found clarity: I wanted to reimagine how we use marketing to make a positive impact. And I would do that by helping leaders and founders build brands that truly serve society.
Writing Prompts to Help You Reflect:
Step 4: The Articulation - “defining your purpose”
Once you’ve reconnected with your true purpose and have a better idea on how you can bring it to life, the next step is being able to articulate it clearly.
Often, we rush into execution without taking the time to think through the strategy. We’re clear on why we are creating our brand, but we’re not able to articulate it in a conscise and enticing manner for others. Lacking the initial clarity?means we then struggle to pitch, to write our brand story or our website copy, and ultimately, we struggle to attract the right clients!
So take the time to do this exercise to get really clear on the impact you want to make in the world!
A transformative purpose has these key elements:
When I work with brands to help them define their purpose, I first give them a list of writing prompts to really flush out all their frustrations, beliefs and desires about the industry they work in.
We then use this framework to write the purpose:
In a world where...?[Insert your mission – the biggest frustration or problem you see with your industry ]?
We exist to...?[Insert your impact - explain how your brand uniquely solves this problem]?
So that...?[Insert your vision – describe the difference this impact will make in the world]
Example:?
Instead of simply saying: “I want to help women feel more confident about their bodies”, a purpose-driven brand such as Dove says:?“In a world where unattainable beauty standards make women feel worse about themselves, we exist to change the standards of the beauty industry, so that you both look and feel your best.”
Once you have articulated your purpose, you can make it snappier and even turn it into your brand tagline.
Dove’s tagline is “Let’s Change Beauty”. You can see how this perfectly brings its brand purpose to life.
For me, I articulated my purpose as “In a world numbed out by the chase for capitalist success, we?build?brands with a transformative purpose that?lead change, challenge the status quo and rally communities to create lasting impact for people and the planet.”? And the tagline became “Building Brands For A New World”.
Action Tip: Spend some time working on the writing prompts in step 4 and then use the above framework to articulate your purpose. You can also download my free purpose guide to support you.
Step 5: The Action - “walking the path”
Purpose without action is not a true purpose. Brands that communicate on purpose without any substance or impact are purpose-washing. To truly build a brand that makes an impact, you need to bring your purpose to life across all aspects of your brand.
You can use your brand purpose to:
From my own experience, I found that building my own brand required me to question everything: from the way I positioned my services to the language I use in marketing. My vision isn’t just to attract clients, but to be part of a movement of purpose-led leaders and founders who share the same vision of business as a force for good, and build brands that truly making a difference in the world.
What’s beautiful is when you start walking the path of your true purpose, new opportunities that you would never have imagined start materialising. Today, I have my own boutique consultancy, but I also teach part-time at a Geneva-based University and have been asked to create a new course on Purpose-Led Brands. This is not something I would ever have sought out but the impact it enables me to have is suddenly so much bigger!
Taking the Next Step: Bring Your Purpose to Life
If you’re ready to transform your personal purpose into a brand that truly makes an impact, consider my 6-week online program, Build Your Brand For Positive impact, a step-by-step approach to support you in building a brand that makes a positive impact.
To accelerate your impact, consider my 1-on-1 coaching packages for deeper strategy, execution, and accountability.
With love and purpose,
Christina
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