FUN FACT: Despite being the Founder of a Design Agency, I, ironically, neglected my own personal website for Y E A R S. It was an actual mess. With different typefaces, mismatched imagery, and poor copy..It was far from anything I was proud of. When asked if I had a personal website, separate from Utendahl Creative, I would neither, confirm nor deny, often deflecting to another question...Even though the answer to their question was highly google-able.
Why? Why wouldn't I just invest in my own branding? For a while, I didn't fully understand my own behavior. It stemmed from a myriad of reasons, one that I learned MANY Founders shared...My choice to disregard my own branding, was rooted in the idea that investing in oneself as a CEO felt self-promotional...selfish....a waste of time and resources...obnoxious..all the above. I spoke with Founder after Founder, and all of us neglected our personal branding, in swap of “complete devotion to our businesses.”
Time after time, I felt myself getting frustrated by my own behavior, and the responses of my peers. We work SO hard, are confident, enjoy what we do, and yet have adopted this bizarre sense of shame around our individual identity and the materials that would showcase our years of work.
I spent most of last year, interrogating this concept. I quickly realized it stemmed from something taught, learned and adopted....That I was my business and therefore the Utendahl Creative website would suffice...That's entirely not true. Its BS.
Investing in yourself, IS investing in your business, and more importantly, its a reminder that you are NOT your business. You are your OWN person...first.
In August 2023, I vowed to get my personal site together by EOY. I hired the one and only Liane from Beautifuli Digital & Gillian Fink, and began treating my own website like any client. The result has given me the utmost relief.
For anyone stuck in the mud of listening to “what you should do,” as a Founder. The best advice I can give us to entirely disregard that nonsense, and to remember your identity is not defined by what you Founded.
Invest in yourself..all parts of you. Its worth it.
Proudly showcasing the NEW: www.madisonutendahl.com
— Never Not Making — Former | Grey • AKQA • W+K • Fallon • BBH • Leagas Delaney
5moIronically, one of the biggest challenges I found with in-house agencies is overcoming their own inability to embrace change and uncertainty to achieve better work for themselves. Particularly if the in-house agency already exists before you get there. The successful creative models I always quote are Olivetti and Benetton. I've found a better way is to build everything bespoke, from the marketing process, right through to advertising. It's madness for companies to attempt in-housing with a cookie cutter solution.