My most important lesson of 2023 (+ Our new brand!)

This year, I learned a really important lesson as a leader and CEO: When we are really close to things, we can't see them as well or as clearly as others can. We need support from people on the outside to help us clarify our own dreams and ideas so that we can bring them to life.

This lesson came from the branding work we’ve been doing all year. At the beginning of 2023, we hired a wonderful company called Video Narrative to help us crystallize our new brand, now that we’re more than two years out from the Student Maid transition.

Why did it take two years to officially rebrand after transitioning from Student Maid? Because my ego got in the way. Up until this year, I had the mentality that crystalizing our brand wasn’t something we needed to spend money on because we could figure it out ourselves. Who could possibly know our company as well as we do? And as the Chief of Vision, isn’t that my job? To be able to communicate who we are to the world?

Well, there wouldn’t be a blog post about this if there wasn’t a big screwup and learning on my part.

The team and I really struggled to communicate who we are, what we do, and why we do it. When it came to social media, we struggled with knowing what type of content to post. The team would often point out that they felt our messaging was confusing: One day, we're talking about this topic, and the next, we're talking about a completely different one.

We noticed that it was especially challenging when we would meet new people or try to explain our work to our friends and family—and in my case, when I sat next to someone on a plane. We all dreaded the question, “What do you?” because we didn’t know how to answer it. We do so many things, and it was hard to distill it into a few words.

But even still, I told myself that we would eventually figure out how to communicate it and that we would get there on our own. I thought we needed more time, more space to think about it, and more conversations.

The team wasn’t having it. They saw the lack of clarity in our brand as the thing that was holding us back the most, so they lovingly challenged me and pushed me. If we wanted to make the biggest impact possible, then we would have to make our brand crystal-clear . . . and they insisted that we needed help from someone outside our company.

Together, we decided to take the leap and start looking for an external partner. I wasn’t expecting much out of it at the time, but I was willing to take the risk and invest our time and resources because I thought that at the very least, it would be a great learning experience for us.

On a recommendation from someone we trust, we found Video Narrative. We were particularly intrigued by them because they only work with speakers. The team had multiple interviews with them—one that included me as well—and we decided to give it a try, hoping for the best.

When I think back to the first couple of months of working together, it felt really vulnerable. It was like letting this whole team of people who we really didn’t know inside the deepest depths of our business. It felt scary at times to be in a position where I wasn’t leading the charge, and I didn’t like the feeling of our future brand being in someone else’s hands.

The process wasn’t just challenging for me; it was challenging for all of us. Each time we met with the Video Narrative team, we had to confront big, tough questions: Why do we do what we do? Why does it matter? Why should people care? What kind of impact do we want to have on the world? Who do we want to be? Who do we not want to be?

They asked us to do a “listening tour,” which ended up being one of the most meaningful and impactful parts of the project. We had to ask our clients why they hired us in the first place, what value they thought we offered, and what they thought we do better than anyone. We had videographers follow me from speech to speech for a year, capturing our work and interviewing people in the audience about what they liked and why they showed up. The feedback that we gained from our year of listening was invaluable.

Between our amazing clients, our team discussions, and the support of the Video Narrative team, we finally landed in the place that feels 100% right.

AND I’M SO EXCITED TO SHARE IT WITH YOU!

Are you ready?!

Without further ado, I am so proud to introduce the culmination of our work . . .

We exist to ignite human leadership.

And the way we do that is through keynotes and leadership programs that build trust, belonging, and wildly engaged cultures.

That’s it ??

It’s simple. And to us, it’s perfect. What’s so funny about it is that obviously, we’ve been using the phrase “human leadership” for a while now. We even have a program called The Human Leadership Program. But we’d never thought about our whole brand being about igniting human leadership.

And that’s the point. Sometimes we can’t see things that are so close to us, especially when we care a lot about that thing. Oftentimes, we need to let go of our egos, invite others in to help, and trust the process. Looking back, not only was it the best learning experience for me as a leader, it was also one of the best decisions we’ve ever made for the future of our company. (I love it when my team leads me. They are always right.)

When we started the year, I wasn’t sure if I would ever be able to write this post and say that taking the risk was worth it, but it was.

In case you missed it, we launched a video that shows the world what we are all about. We’d love to know what you think after watching, and if it inspires you, it would mean the world to us if you shared it:

And our new website will also be live very soon! Stay tuned.

But the most important thing of all . . . Thank you for being a part of our community and for helping us ignite human leadership here. Thank you for believing in us. Thank you for coming on this journey with us. There is so much more to come!

Until then . . . it’s break time. Starting next week, our team is on break until January 8th, 2024. In addition to our Break Weeks at the end of each quarter, we take off three weeks at the end of each year so that we can come back in the new year feeling refreshed, recharged, and reinspired. All blogs and social posts you’ll see over the next few weeks were all prepared ahead of time, so please know that if you reply, we will respond in January! (If you are unfamiliar with Break Week, it’s something we do to hold ourselves accountable to actually taking time off as a team. You can read more about how Break Week started here !)

We can’t wait to do 2024 with you!

Wishing the best holiday season to you and yours. And if this time of year is tough for you, please know you’re in our thoughts, and we’re glad you’re here ?? See you NEXT YEAR!

Big hugs,

Kristen