Podcast Fanatic to Podcast Host P&P is launching a new podcast For over a decade, I’ve been a podcast fanatic. I have learned business and life lessons. I’ve found community. I’ve been entertained and intrigued. In fact, one of my very first blog posts was about my favorite podcasts…I really need to update that post. Back in 2006, I was tuning in to Debbie Millman’s “Design Matters”. This was before the mainstream podcast popularity brought on by iPhones. Back then, I was daydreaming of a design career in NYC while working my day job in Eastern Kentucky. At that day…
Business
Fearless: 2021 Word of the Year
Facing Fear and Setting Intentions with my 2021 Word of the Year How does one go about setting an intention for a year that follows 2020? This question kept me frozen, looking for inspiration for weeks. I mean what’s the point, right? 2020 proved that life can take our intentions and toss them out the window. I have been in business since 2013, and was side-hustling hard for several years before that. To say I have been on a decade-long sprint is an understatement. So, at the end of December 2019, I declared FLOW as my focus for 2020. I…
One Step at a Time
My longing to be a real backpacker started about 7 years ago when I read Wild. Cheryl Strayed’s story of walking onto the Pacific Crest Trail as a spiritual journey spoke to my soul. Coincidentally, I read this book right when I had made the leap from side-hustle designer to full-time freelancer. I, too, had ventured out into the wild and felt equally unprepared for what laid ahead. I, too, could not imagine the twists and turns and lessons I would learn over the next several years. For the next 5 years I would quietly watch other women’s adventures on…
Show Up and Connect
Jessi here.
Like many of the organization leaders we work with, I do many things at P&P.
Make branding easier. Open up the office.
Explain SEO.> Lead the team.
Make the game plan. Make the coffee.
Run the numbers. Take out the trash.
I love them all– well, maybe not residential garbage duty, but almost all of them. As I stare down the last weeks of Q3 and rally the team to start Q4 strong, I am already thinking about 2021. I bet you are too.
The Journey to Find Our Inner Subaru
The Journey to Find Our Inner Subaru We’ve had a flurry of Brand Builder strategy sessions during the past few weeks. We started placing bets that at a certain section of each session, every organization will list Subaru as one of its favorite brands. I guess one could argue that we know our target client and our target client loves Subaru, but I would argue Subaru just gets holistic branding. Each time we ask, Why Subaru? The client response is varied, but always clear. It can be summed up like this: I just love what they stand for. Notice, they…
Being brave enough to be open
I thought I had it all figured out. And then my pastor threw me a curveball. (As any pastor worth his or her salt should do, I suppose.) It’s my third go at this word-of-the-year thing (see exhibits A and B), and I’d chosen mine for 2020 well before Jan. 1. It had played itself out before my eyes so many times. I’d seen it in my daughter as she sang her first solo in front of a crowd. In my teenage son, as he participated in a sport he hadn’t played since he was a little boy, unfazed by…
Getting Started with Google Analytics
We’ve been sharing Google Analytics tips with you on social lately, and today we wanted to bring it all together in one post. So, here it is (including a special bonus if you stay with us to the end)! Google Analytics is a seriously powerful tool for your website. It collects anonymous user data about your site’s visitors as they interact with pages and site content. Specifically, Google Analytics can tell you the exact visitor behavior on your site that leads a user to become a customer, completing what’s known as a conversion. You can analyze your Google Analytics data…
TEDxCorbin event reminds us that we, too, are grounded
I found it no coincidence as I drove away from Corbin that a lonely banjo and the haunting voice of Patty Loveless emerged from my speakers, adding complexity to my thoughts. In the deep, dark hills of eastern Kentucky That’s the place where I trace my bloodline Indeed, as I listened to the ideas worth sharing throughout the day at TEDxCorbin, I was reminded of my own story. Of seeing my dad’s coal-stained hands after a night shift working at the coal washing plant. Of admiring his and my mother’s tenacity to earn college degrees even after getting married and…
May our growth game be strong
She looked like she felt helpless. As I took my place in line at the Kroger Pharmacy window, I assumed the elderly lady in front of me was her companion — the older of the two holding one toddler, while the younger woman wrestled with another toddler in the cart basket. The elderly lady handed off the toddler she was carrying on her hip, then turned to me and said, “Lord, I don’t think I ever would’ve been able to take care of two at one time.” Ah, yes. Helpless was the look on that young woman’s face. Tired. Maybe…
Tame Brand Chaos with Brand Architecture
If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times — I love a good plan. It is the best way to make sure you arrive at your destination. That holds true for planning your life, your year, your week. You know what else it applies to? You guessed it. Your branding. Creating a brand blueprint is an important step in making sure your brand grows with your organization. As you review your three-, five- or 10-year strategic plan, do your brand and visual identity stand the test of time? How will it expand to represent new…