Category: change

What does is mean to “help brands be their best inner selves” once the brand positioning is set?

Your Brand Isn’t Just External — It Lives Inside, Too

There’s a powerful overlap between brand strategy, company culture, and team energy. Once a new brand positioning is in place, it’s only as effective as the people and systems that bring it to life.

A successful brand must operate on two fronts:

  • Externally, to attract and engage customers
  • Internally, to align, energize, and empower the team

Here are three slightly unconventional ways to foster creativity, clarity, and stronger internal culture—whether it’s just you, or you + many:

1. Host a “Terrible Ideas” Summit
When you’re up against a tough challenge, make space for the bad ideas first. This helps dismantle internal pressure, invites quieter voices into the room, and often surfaces early-stage sparks that—given time and support—evolve into something remarkable.

2. Throw a Framing Party
Every interaction sends a message. In structured environments, we rely on briefs and check-ins to stay aligned. But in our day-to-day moments, we often operate unconsciously—bringing stress, distraction, or unspoken emotion into the room.

A framing party is a simple reset. Before your next interaction, ask yourself:

  • What mindset am I walking in with?
  • What impact do I want to have?
  • What’s the story I’m telling with my presence?

That brief moment of awareness can dramatically shift how you show up—and how others respond.

3. Pause for Better Ideas
Great ideas don’t usually show up in brainstorms or meetings. They surface later—while driving, folding laundry, walking the dog.

The process looks like this:

  • Define the challenge
  • Get curious
  • Gather input—research, conversations, exploration
  • Then pause

That pause is essential. When your brain is full, rest lets it connect the dots in unexpected ways. It’s not magic—it’s neuroscience. Capture what comes, whether in a notebook, voice memo, napkin, or sticky note.

What practices have helped you or your team stay grounded, energized, and creative? We’d love to hear how you build culture from the inside out.

Yay change! Your DIY Brand Audit Starts Here.

Embracing Change: A Strategic Reset Guide

“Change is the only constant.”
So said Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher. His sandals may not be trending now, but his thinking still is. This guide is designed to help you embrace change and transform insights into a smarter, sharper marketing plan.

How to Use This Guide
We recommend carving out 45–90 minutes per day over 3 to 5 days. Gather your team—or just bring a coffee and your favorite thinking tool—and find a quiet space. Shut the door. Start where you are. Starting is the hardest part.

By the time you’re done, you’ll have a clearer picture of what’s working, what’s next, and how often you’ll want to repeat this kind of check-in.

P.S. When we guide clients through this process, it’s a multi-day experience of discovery, strategy, creative ideation, and planning. The magic comes from giving yourself time to pause, reflect, and rethink. This isn’t busywork—it’s the groundwork for bold ideas. Have fun.

1. Wins & Losses

  • What worked this year? Celebrate it.

  • What didn’t? Be honest. What did you learn?

  • Want to go deeper? Try a quick SWOT by defining:

    • Strengths
    • Weaknesses
    • Opportunities
    • Threats

2. Your Customer

  • How have your customers’ lives or challenges changed recently—this year, this quarter, this month?

  • What new pain points are they facing?

  • What are they asking for without saying it directly?

3. Your Value Proposition & Purpose

  • Which of the above problems do you solve—and how effectively?

  • Has anything shifted in your data, feedback, or offering that makes your value proposition stronger (or weaker)?

  • Where does your purpose intersect with your customer’s needs? That overlap is your sweet spot. Make sure it’s clear, concise, and integrated into your messaging.

4. Brand Landscape

  • Where do you stand now in the industry?

  • Have your competitors changed—added, merged, evolved?

  • How is your offering differentiated? Think beyond product—what’s your experience like? Your tone? Your ethos? Your metaphorical (or real) bouncy castle?

5. Messaging Plan

  • Have your competitors shifted their positioning? If so, how does it affect your space?

  • Build a list of messaging themes based on the customer problems you solve.

  • Assign each theme to the platforms you use (email, social, site, print, etc.).

  • Avoid copy-pasting the same message everywhere—tailor it per platform, even if the core theme remains consistent.

  • For each main theme, define 3–5 subpoints or stories. Use these to create platform-specific variations that all support the same narrative arc.

6. Voice & Storytelling

  • Is the way you speak to your customer still resonating?

  • Have shifts in culture, economics, or politics created new nuances in how you should communicate?

  • Are there opportunities to be more inclusive, empathetic, or imaginative in your language or imagery?

Last Thought
Yes, this is a lot. And yes, we love it.

This guide is just the start—each section can be a launchpad into deeper dives tailored to your team, your goals, and your growth. So suit up, dive in, and most of all: enjoy the process. This is where the next great version of your brand begins.

On being a horrible branding client.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “We learn something new everyday.” I agree. Today I have learned that I am a horrible client.

Why? Read on, dear friend.

When working with clients to build or rebuild brands, we start with a workshop to discover everything we can about where our client is now, where they want to be instead and why. This workshop has structure, but at the same time, it is a fluid exercise. We encourage clients to share anything and everything that comes to mind as we serve them small prompts, like Venus and Serena’s dad serving them balls, that they run for and hit repeatedly using a million different muscles. But never fear; we don’t make clients run, and no hand-eye coordination is necessary to attend our workshops.

Why do we have workshops and not worksheets? You ask because your time is precious and you never have enough.

We lead workshops either remotely or in-person to activate the collective energy of humans gathering and thinking together. In brand strategy, this is called collective effervescence. How often have you been in a meeting, discussing a project, and amid this loosely structured meeting, you have an idea? Would you have had that same idea on your own? At your desk? While filling out yet another form?

We think not.

We believe the world needs fewer forms and more human interaction.

More structure with a lot of space built-in for sharing, thinking together about specific ideas, dreams, goals, behaviors, data, learning, cultures and movements, history, the future, and results. When we think together, in a safe environment, we have one rule and one only. The rule improv uses for comedy is, “Never say no.” When someone shares something, you add your ideas, memories, or knowledge building on what was shared. This process diminishes the fear of failure and builds trust and collaboration, making it easier for people to be vulnerable and express ideas. The result is collective positivity and a safe space for sharing, creativity, and innovation.

So, why are we a bad client? Or why am I, Marni, a bad client? Because I hired someone to help us think about our brand. I have confidently and successfully done this for clients, but I am wrestling with the process for our brand. The first step was a worksheet to fill out. That worksheet is still blank. I haven’t done my homework, and in fact, I lost my it. Yikes. I need more help with branding than any of the clients at Seed Agency right now.

I am now going to go back to working on my worksheet. But if you feel like it’s time to think about how well your brand is connecting with your intended audience, let’s talk. I would rather help you than fill out this worksheet.

Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash

How to make a brand resilient? Embrace change.

Around here we think a lot about change. Working with clients to create new iterations of products and brands, we are up to our elbows daily in looking at the process, and whys, the challenges, ways to make it more palatable, ways to inspire embracing the difference between where a brand or a person is now and their ideal vision of themselves in the future.

Yet every day in our own lives, we find ourselves bracing against change, looking for small ways to avoid it because let’s be real, the idea of constant change is disturbing.

Small amounts of change can feel refreshing, like entering a newly painted room or taking a weekend trip to a place with a higher altitude, or more sunshine than you’re used to. So how do we balance the need for stability and the need to remain open to small shifts? Small shifts that enable us to stay plugged into the world around us, but not overwhelmed? Shifts that allow us to emerge and grow into our best selves without feeling like we’ve changed so much we’re unrecognizable?

I remember a few times in my twenties being asked to house, baby, or puppy sit. I’d say yes because the idea of stepping out of my own life for a few days or a week intrigued me. Sometimes I not only lived in someone else’s house, but I drove their cars – think baby seats and dog hair. Living in someone else’s house and driving their car was delightful. I was fully immersed, dwelling in another person’s home, reading their books, cooking with their pots, and trying their spices. One time it involved borrowing a shirt, (think babies who spit up) but mostly I stayed away from wearing their clothes. That seemed like a boundary line inappropriate to cross, unlike using their soap in the shower and their shampoo. Pretty much I was still me, but everything around me was theirs.

I loved it. Until I was ready to go home again.

Going home after one of those visits allowed me to see my world with new eyes. It helped me discern what I wanted to keep and create more of and what I was ready to part with.

So how does this apply to work? To brands? Clearly, a brand cannot try on the trappings of another brand for a weekend. Or can it?

When we work with clients on content planning, we look at the competition. We look at who the competition follows and who they are followed by. We look at their hashtags. We sift and sort and learn from what they are doing. We go back to what we are doing, shift where appropriate, test and measure results. We continue to make small changes, aligned with our brand core, and watch what transpires.

Regardless of whether we wish to evolve our brands, or ourselves, the world is evolving around both constantly. Eventually, if we want to keep playing, we must confront change and find a way to participate.

And when we do this, we first remind ourselves why we do this. We do this because it would be our avocation if it weren’t our vocation.

So before you feel overwhelmed by the idea of change, first allow yourself to feel the joy that comes from feeling plugged in, listened to, alive, and understood. Then marry this feeling of joy and connection to the process of evolving. And then take the first step to assess where you wish to go from here and what needs to happen first to get there.

And if you’d like a partner to walk through the process with you, to guide you, and encourage and inspire then we are right here.

Our Process + You = The Process

So… how do you work?

It’s a question we’re asked often at Seed Agency. And usually, we respond with a step-by-step breakdown—point A to point Z—of how we move through a project. It’s accurate. It’s effective. But lately, the question has lingered in my mind, like something unresolved.

Why does it feel like there’s more to say?

So I walked. I talked—with team members, clients past and present, even a particularly insightful neighbor. I may have also consumed too much coffee and a questionable number of chocolate bars. But the question stuck with me because it’s a little like asking, “How do you walk?”

Our process has been shaped by years of doing. It’s ingrained. Natural. We move through discovery, strategy, creative, and execution like we’ve done it a hundred times—because we have. But articulating it without slipping into industry jargon? That took a step back.

When we zoomed out—across industries, clients, and categories—a new metaphor emerged.

Our process is like a flexible framework: structured, intentional, and time-tested, but also adaptable. A stretchy net, built to hold the shape of whatever brand challenge we’re solving. Because every client is different. Every team dynamic, every problem, every opportunity—unique. That’s what keeps it interesting.

What doesn’t change is the outcome: Clarity. Connection. Value. We’ve helped reposition legacy brands, launch bold upstarts, and breathe new life into businesses ready to evolve. And through it all, we’re not just refining brands—we’re refining the process itself.

It keeps growing, just like we do.