The process is as illuminating for founders as it is for potential investors, as elevator pitches and ideas in the ether take shape into something real.

Has this happened to you? You make a surprise connection in an unexpected place (the elevator, combing through Sephora, an intimate dinner party), and someone says, “Tell me about your brand.”

Your audience is smart. Automating your brand identity, voice, or messaging will result in the loss of meaning. So how, when everything is changing so fast, can you maintain your brand’s grasp on humanness?

“Talking about real people and real impact is the way to bring business stories alive.”

Crafting a succinct and direct yet nuanced Reason to Believe can seem like an insurmountable hill to climb.

Building and maintaining a successful brand requires a particular alchemy.

What’s the secret to effectively embedding differentiation into your positioning and messaging strategy?

What is feeling too rigid about your messaging?

This moment requires sharper-than-ever messaging strategy.

“I try to give readers a sense of the movement and the liveliness of a place through the people. People are the environment.”

“The truth is there is a grace to doing this job well. It often involves swallowing your pride and putting the artist's best interest first, always.”

"I want to show a community coming together to fight for an important mission."

“I try to remind people if you're not having any fun in a branding project you're probably doing it wrong.”

“Honesty allows you to take risks and do interesting things, especially when moving into larger-than-life spaces.”

“I think of myself as an advocate and a liaison. My consumer needs to feel like she's been heard when she walks down the beauty aisle.”

As Margaret Atwood says, “A word after a word after a word is power.” Never forget that, and never underestimate it.

Erica is an energy life coach and former beauty executive who’s spent her career working to improve minds, bodies, faces, and souls.

“I would love to teach a class all about finding inspiration in life … taking it beyond the brief and pushing it into other worlds.”