What do you want to be known for?
How your intended legacy unlocks your branding
Mindset Mastery is a weekly newsletter about the psychology of self-employment from Jenni Gritters. If you’d like to support my work, please become a paid subscriber for $5/ month!
This month, my membership program for freelancers, SUSTAIN, is focused on building an authentic brand. We have *so* many dope sessions, resources and guest speakers lined up, plus you get access to group coaching and a library of resources to teach you how to build a sustainable business. If you need a website refresh and want to be able to talk about yourself without feeling cringy, this one’s for you.
The other day my husband and I were playing a game, Where Should We Begin?, created by psychologist Esther Perel, and a question came up:
What do you want to be known for?
I sat with the question for longer than I usually would. My knee-jerk reaction was that I want to be known for being inspiring. My next thought was that really, all I care about is that people think I’m kind.
But then I landed on something that felt truer, reflected to me by a friend a few weeks ago. She said: “Jenni, out of anyone I know, you most believe that there’s something ideal, and that people can get closer to that ideal. When I’m around you, I start to believe that I can have something better, too.”
It was a huge compliment, and it felt deeply true. I do believe, at my core, that we can ALL have something better if we work for it with intention and bravery.
This is especially important because I grew up believing the opposite: that the human experience was, for the most part, suffering. This was a belief held by my family of origin and by the religious worldview I was born into, which said: People are flawed. You must always be fixing yourself.
I was constantly sick as a kid, almost always in some sort of discomforting situation. But as I left my home, traveled the world throughout college, and finally settled in a new city on the other side of the continent from where I grew up, I started to see something I’d missed: My agency.
Again and again, I witnessed myself changing a bad situation and making it better. Slowly, my brain started to believe that change is possible. Ideal is closer than we think, and we can get there through tiny actions.
The life I have now is the ideal I once dreamed of: A house in the woods, a multi-6 figure business, two kids and a fun marriage. It’s not all perfect, of course— not even close. But I genuinely, deeply believe that there is hope for us all to have something better, to have what we crave.
I believe ideal exists.
I believe ideal is attainable.
And that’s what I want to be known for: Hope.
When you spend time with me online, in person, via my words in this newsletter, I want you to know that I believe in your dreams. I will never, ever tell you that you can’t have what you want— because I believe you have the power to change your circumstances time and time again to meet your own needs.
My professional branding is tied to this belief. As I work to redo my website, I’ve been thinking about the concept of hope and how I can integrate it into my photos, my color palette, my typography choices, my web copy. I think often about how I can use this newsletter as a mechanism to say:
I have hope in myself, in you, in our world.
Why? Because Hope is contagious.
This month, in my membership program, SUSTAIN, we’re digging into how to bring these authentic perspectives front and center into our branding. I want people to know what’s unique about you. I want them to know what you care about, how you operate, and what matters most about your approach to work. If you’re itching for authenticity, you know where to find us.
And in the meantime, I want you to think about that question, too: What do you want to be known for?
xo,
Jenni
Curious about my background? I’m a writer and business coach based in Central Oregon. I have two small children and I work part-time so I can spend a lot of time with them. Lately, I’ve been obsessed with non-linear business building and teaching people how to build successful businesses that support their human needs first. Check out my coaching offerings here, follow me on Twitter & Instagram, or download my free business plan for creatives!