Recently I had the opportunity to sign up for a two-day “Brand Mastermind” workshop with a fabulous designer known as G. The workshops had been launched in response to the changing needs for design work during the pandemic, and what an inspired launch!

There were 6 of us, all therapists of one kind or another, plus G. The first day G worked us hard on unraveling the nature of what we do. What makes us different from other therapists? What is our USP (unique selling point)? What values do we hold? What has brought us to be who we are today? How can we be noticeable to the kinds of clients we are best equipped to help? What are the ‘products’ we want to advertise (therapy, workshops, special offers etc)?

As therapists most of us are not used to advertising ourselves; we focus on the need of our clients. It wasn’t a comfortable day for most of us to be honest, but we were in a safe and encouraging group. As well as working on our own tasks, we were able to provoke and support one another, and G’s energy was infectious.

The tasks used parts of my brain that I didn’t even know existed and by the end of day one I was utterly exhausted. But we had homework overnight, to look at visual ideas, colour palettes, images that inspired us, ready for the magic of what was to come.

On the second day, G worked with each of us in turn, taking our ideas and our preparations to produce logos, styles, in fact a complete package of what we needed. Working via zoom, we were able to ‘sit-in’ on each other’s sessions, observing as brand after brand emerged, each one totally different in style and content. Officially we each had a timetabled hour, but in reality G spent themself on our behalf, and instead of closing the day soon after 4, we didn’t finish until gone 9 that evening. I will write another time about the process and meaning of my final brand but here it is.

G continues to offer “Branding Mastermind” workshops but wrapped in a slightly different package now. They also work freelance, so if you need a designer, I could recommend this one! https://gina.design/