This post was going to be called “Give Yourself Permission.”
Then something weird happened with my browser window and the draft didn’t fully save.
When I opened it back up the title was truncated. It said simply, “Give Yourself.”
That’s some Holy Spirit/tech cooperation right there.
As I posted about in early February, I am in the process of creating an online class about Catholic branding. And ever since going public with that post I have been dealing with imposter syndrome to the nth degree. What do I really know about branding? I didn’t go to school for this. My company isn’t perfectly branded. I hit walls in my business that totally stump me on the regular. What of value could I have to share?
This is my mind, over and over, day after day. Questioning my rights to do the work I do, influence the people I serve, and serve the God I love. What right do I have?
I don’t have any right, because it’s not about rights, and I am writing this post to remind myself of that. My time as an entrepreneur has already taught me that, but it’s so hard to remember a lot of the time. It’s not about earning a place at the table. It’s not about becoming worthy of people’s time, money, or attention.
It’s about being who God gave you to be. So just give yourself.
When He created you, He gave you someone to be. He formed the personality that began to reveal itself to your caretakers even in the earliest days of your life. You don’t need permission to be that person because God already gave it to you. He literally made you that person.
God gave me a sharp mind, a passion for creating, a knack for help ideas grow, a burning desire to speak in public and a vocation that gives me the time, support, and space to do those things. I don’t know everything about branding. I don’t have all the answers. But in reflection I realize that my internal conflict has been a lot like a high school teacher feeling unqualified to teach math because they don’t have a PhD. There are degrees to everything, and there is value and virtue at levels below the stratosphere.
What I do know is that I love working with young and growing businesses because that’s where I can truly serve. I have years of experience in several different businesses and a lot of unique insight into the role of faith in authentic branding having run both secular and faith based businesses. I am passionate about helping people articulate what is that they want to build. I am passionate about helping people realize that vision. And I am passionate about getting those people in front of the clients and customers that will love them and their work as much as I do.
In a large part this post is my pep talk to myself, my public self permission to do what I know how to do even if I am not steward of some kind of magical knowledge inaccessible to all others without my help. I am not magic. I am not the most knowledgable branding expert in the world, and I am far from being even the most knowledgeable Catholic branding expert. I know this. But instead of letting this be my justification for doing nothing, I am choosing to embrace who I have been given to be and value what I do have to offer. I am choosing to give myself.
If you are looking to build a new or grow an existing Catholic brand, I can help. I am dying to help actually. There are few things that make me as excited as helping to incubate ideas. I will be there every step of the way: answering questions in the modules, hanging out on Facebook Live in the Facebook group once or twice each week, and offering one on one consultations as an add-on to the class. I am passionate about helping you succeed, and you can consider this post your pep talk also – you have things to give. I believe that so throughly that I want to actively invest in you as a way to beautifully invest in our church.
If you are not involved in a Catholic business, consider this your pep talk too. Wherever you’re at and whatever you are doing, give yourself in your work, your life, and your vocation. Don’t hold back gifts that aren’t polished. If it’s good and it’s in you, pursue it.
So for anyone interested, I am just weeks away from releasing “Branded Beauty: Branding for the New Evangelization.” The course will open in April at a huge discount and the first cohort will work through the modules together over the next two months, supporting each other in our Facebook group and working cooperatively to help our businesses grow together.
Here is the trailer for the course:
If you’d like to be notified when the course opens for enrollment, please drop your name and email below. You will be among the first given course spots (and list members will have access to an additional discount in the early days of sign up).
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I hope you find lots of beautiful ways to give yourself today. I can’t wait to keep working on mine.
