It was January 2009 and in a matter of months, I lost my main big-brand clients due to budget cuts. I happened to be the main breadwinner, we had a 2-year-old, and I was pregnant.
It was not an easy time.
But there’s a saying that “Babies are born with a loaf of bread under their arm”, and that turned out to be true in our case at least. First of all, I had a very lucky break of teaming up with a brand strategist in the tech industry.
There, we worked with amazing consultancies hiding their brilliance behind jargon and acronyms.
Clear messaging that zeroed in on their clients’ problems made a whole world of tangible difference to their businesses.
And their business made a whole lot of difference to my world!
That’s when I realised the value of brand messaging - and fell in love with it.
Then another miracle happened. Dom and I had the opportunity to house-sit in the countryside, for free, for 18 months -hallelujah! It meant I could take an extended maternity leave without pressure and think about what I really wanted to be doing.
I decided to focus on more meaningful brand storytelling and messaging work.
So I came back, and I doubled down on learning strategic and storytelling skills. I learned by continuing to team up with smart strategists and agencies. I’ve worked with some of the best, and I still do.
I also took a lot of creative risks that tanked, tried and abandoned shitty frameworks and kept others I still treasure now.
So, in these once again ‘unprecedented times’, if you’re looking down the barrel of a scary but necessary pivot, just go for it.
The economy will bounce back (because that’s what it does), and business may not look the same, but the things you’re learning in the process of both trusting and pushing yourself will pay off long term. Take it from me.
