Update on Changes to Wonderful Life Farm

Starting a new business is a tremendous amount of work. But reinventing one might be even more work! As many of you know, I'm planning BIG changes for Wonderful Life Farm coming in spring of 2020. I thought it was time that I give you a bit of an update on what's been developing. I've spent the first few months of the year figuring out my "why" and doing all the in-my-head stuff...lots of silent days processing all my thoughts and making sure this was a good direction for me, my business, and our family. 

And just when I thought I'd be completely overwhelmed with the enormity of the task before me, I was chosen to be interviewed in a mentoring episode of Josephine Brooks' podcast, "On the Make". Josephine is a productivity mentor for side-hustlers, and I'm completely hooked on her podcasts! And did I ever need her help! She helped me sort through all the tasks, develop areas of focus, and figure out how to break the whole job into manageable chunks. If you'd like to listen to the episode, click here. I will warn you that the day I was interviewed was day three of the cold that turned into pneumonia, and I sound dreadful (but only half as bad as I felt!). I'm grateful that you can't hear me sipping hot tea in the background to keep my voice alive. 

Photo credit here.

Josephine has a great system that utilizes one of her 12-week wall planners. On it, you focus on three areas to grow your business over a span of three months. Then you break each area into tasks divided up and spread out over those months. After talking with her, I spread the planner out on the kitchen table with my list of tasks and set to work filling it in. It now hangs on the bulletin board in my sewing room, where I am gleefully crossing things off as the weeks go by! Currently, my three focus areas are: 1.) travel and sewing for my current Etsy shop, 2.) branding and blog redesign, and 3.) all the learning things (content planning, SEO, Lightroom, and on and on.)

I've also spent an enormous amount of time and thought on my branding. What is branding? According to Fiona Humberstone, the Brand Stylist, "Branding is everything people expect, experience, and remember about your business." It involves everything from the colors you use, to the fonts you choose, to packaging, to how your website looks (big changes coming to this one!), to your photographs, and more. Using Fiona's two books, How to Style Your Brand and Brand Brilliance, as my guides, I've been completely immersed in building the identity for my new brand. And, I have to say, I found it to be one of the most creatively challenging endeavors I've tackled in years. It made me want to pull my hair out and made me euphorically happy...sometimes all in one day! 

When I was satisfied with my work on the branding, I created a branding guide and a mood board. I am absolutely thrilled with my mood board and how it perfectly expresses my brand! And the branding guide is now in the hands of the talented graphic designer I've hired to design a logo!

That's a little sneak peek at what's been happening behind the scenes here at Wonderful Life Farm. Here are some useful links, if you are creating or recreating your own business:

- to read more about my journey, click here

- Josephine Brooks, productivity mentor to side-hustlers.

- Josephine Brooks' 12-week wall planner

- Josephine Brooks' podcast, "On the Make"

- Fiona Humberstone, The Brand Stylist

- How to Style Your Brand by Fiona Humberstone

- Brand Brilliance by Fiona Humberstone