how to change the world with your brand

So you’re on a mission to learn how to change the world with your brand, and I’m ABSOLUTELY HERE FOR THAT. The limitless capacity for impact is the number 1 reason I’m so relentlessly passionate about helping entrepreneurs build effective brands.

And on one hand – hell yes because it’s true, okay?! On the other hand holy shit whyyyyyyyy am I talking about impact so much?? Isn’t the idea of changing the world kind of overused and cheesy and cliché? I mean is changing the world even actually possible for regular, ordinary, small business people like us?

And yeah, maybe it is cheesy. But it’s also honest. Entrepreneurs like you and me don’t just want to make money with our work – we want to make a difference.

And we’ve decided (usually after stumbling through multiple jobs that never allowed us to fully discover who we are or what we’re capable of) that the best way to make a difference in this weird, wild world is to use our skills, knowledge, and expertise to their absolute maximum potential. Not by showing up from 9-5 and trading time for cash, but by showing up for our own personal missions and deciding what kind of value we want to offer.

And since you’re here right now reading my words on this blog post, I don’t think I need to further explain to you why impact is important in branding. You already have a gut feeling that it is, or you wouldn’t be here. So the question isn’t really why – it’s how.

HOW do you change the world with your brand?

Earth is messy and complicated. We don’t understand most of what it means to be human, what it means to exist in this infinite universe, and we couldn’t possibly expect to in a lifetime. Political landscapes and societies and cultures and social interactions are constantly changing. It’s all interconnected on levels we’ll never fully comprehend. Finding the solution to one problem creates three more problems.

So how does one little business owner selling handmade necklaces on Etsy actually make a difference? How does one newbie web designer make a difference? And what if you don’t have a huge audience? What if you’re in a luxury industry? What if the thing you sell isn’t necessary to the survival of humankind? What if most days you don’t even really know what the hell you’re doing, you just kind of wing it based on what feels right and so far it’s worked?

Here’s the truth: you can’t change the world by changing the world.

You’ll change the world by changing minds. By changing lives. By helping solve one problem at a time. By fighting one injustice at a time. By bringing awareness to one cause at a time. By inspiring others to take action to change their own lives, their own relationships, their own communities.

You’ll change the world by sharing your ideas. How to spend your time more effectively. How to make more empowered choices. How to improve critical thinking. How to be a more compassionate friend. How to be a more responsible member of society. How to recycle laptop batteries. What to do when a swarm of honeybees has taken over your shed. When to check the oil level in your car. Why you should research the facts of news stories before re-sharing them. Where to buy conflict-free jewelry. The fact that “organic” doesn’t mean “healthy.” The etiquette for Interstate driving. The secrets to building an effective brand.

In other words? You change the world with the ripple effect.

There’s no way of knowing the full extent of your ripple effect, but you have to try. As an entrepreneur, you have a platform. You have an audience. You have a community. You have influence. You have power. And therefore you have a duty to responsibly share your knowledge and talents and skills and wisdom with us.

One person can’t change the world. As individuals we can’t possibly solve every single problem, but we can start with one problem at a time. And if every human focused on one problem at a time? That’s 8 billion problem-solvers hard at work.

We don’t change the world by changing the world.

We change the world by changing ourselves, and then sharing what we learned with each other.