Your Brand Shouldn’t Introduce Yesterday’s Version of You

[00:00] Last time we talked about what happens when you know something is true about your work, but you haven't fully owned it yet. Well, there's another version of that gap I see all the time. You've grown, but your brand is still introducing yesterday's version of you. So imagine someone discovers you online today.

[00:27] Maybe they land on your website or find you on LinkedIn or hear your name from someone they trust and go look you up. Then imagine the two of you meet for coffee tomorrow. Here's the question. Would the person sitting across from them match the person your brand introduced them to yesterday? Because sometimes your brand isn't necessarily wrong.

[00:48] Your website may still look good and your bio may technically still be accurate. The work you're known for may still be work you do. It's just not the whole story anymore. You've grown. Your thinking has deepened. Maybe the work you're capable of doing has changed. But the version of you people are meeting online hasn't quite caught up yet.

[01:09] And that creates a really interesting problem. How can people recognize who you've become if your brand is still introducing who you used to be? For a long time, I'm not sure mine had caught up either. I'm Terri Podlinski, founder of Brand with Bravery, and this is Brand Potential Unlocked, where who you've become meets how the world sees you.

[01:32] And today we're talking about what happens when those two things no longer match. This one is personal for me because I know what it feels like to live in that gap. For me, it was a little more complicated than simply having an outdated website or messaging. My business had grown across several different kinds of work.

[01:49] I had longtime corporate and event clients doing work I genuinely enjoyed and still do. And alongside that, I had developed a much deeper strategic side of my work, helping people get clear about things like what made their work valuable, what they wanted to be known for, and how to represent that more accurately.

[02:10] So the problem wasn that one version of me needed to disappear The problem was that my public brand was only telling part of the story People could easily put me in the graphic designer or website designer box and I was those things But that description left out a huge part of what I was actually bringing to the table.

[02:31] The strategy, the questions, the pattern recognition, and the ability to help someone makes sense of what was valuable and what deserved to lead. And that's an important distinction. Sometimes your brand introduces yesterday's version of you, not because yesterday was wrong. She's just no longer the whole story.

[02:51] And that's what makes these transitions so difficult. I remember meeting a lovely woman at a networking event years ago. We exchanged business cards, and when I looked at hers, I noticed that the headshot on the card was clearly from a much earlier season of her life, like probably 20 years earlier. And at first I just thought, oh my goodness, she really needs to update her photo.

[03:14] Why wouldn't she make it current so it actually looks like her? But as I got to know her a little, I realized it was bigger than that. When she talked about her work, she kept going back to a period about 20 years earlier where she'd been very successful. Those were the stories she told. That was the version of herself she seemed most confident talking about.

[03:36] And at the same time, she was struggling to figure out where she fit in the marketplace now. And I remember thinking how perfectly those two things went together. Her business card wasn't the real problem. It was just a clue. Her public identity was still introducing a version of her that had been true and successful years earlier, but she hadn't figured out how to articulate who she was now.

[04:04] And I think that happens more often than we realize. Yesterday has evidence. She has the resume. She has the success stories. She knows how to talk about that person. Other people know what to call her. They understand what she does. There may be years of proof and validation attached to that version of her. The version you becoming now may be just as real but she may not have that same body of proof just yet I actually ran into a smaller version of this recently with a long client We were creating a new marketing piece and she wanted to use an older photo of herself There was nothing wrong with the photo.

[04:44] It was a great photo. But it made me think again about how naturally we reach for an earlier version of ourselves when that version feels familiar, proven, or simply easier to put forward. Especially if we really like the way we look in an older her photograph, right? And again, this isn't really about photographs or aging.

[05:04] Sometimes the version of ourselves we're holding on to isn't necessarily younger. She's just easier to explain. She may have had that impressive title, the established career, the credentials everybody recognized, maybe even a business model you could explain in one sentence. and that can make yesterday's identity feel pretty safe.

[05:28] And there's a strange season that happens when you know you've grown, but the world doesn't know it yet. Can we just acknowledge how weird that season is? Because the part of you you're beginning to bring forward may require belief before it has recognition. Other people may not see it yet, but here's the trap. We can start waiting for the world to recognize something we haven't been willing to show them.

[05:52] and they can't recognize what we haven't given them the opportunity to see. That may mean changing the way you describe your work, or pursuing opportunities you wouldn't have pursued before, or even walking into rooms where nobody knows the old version of you at all. And yes, that can feel vulnerable, because sometimes the first person who has to recognize and be willing to claim what has changed is you.

[06:19] I've actually lived this. Years ago, I participated in a year-long group program led by two men who profoundly changed the way I thought about my work. One of the biggest things they taught me was how to go much deeper with clients through a discovery process before I ever touched design or copy. And I immediately saw what it could change.

[06:40] Not just the quality of my work, but the value I could create, the level at which I could serve, and the kinds of problems I could help solve. Something shifted in me I knew I had changed and the kinds of projects I took on changed My clients were blown away And later I wrote those two men a thank you letter There was one sentence in that letter that I've never forgotten.

[07:05] I wrote, there's a new girl in town, and I can't wait for the world to meet her. I could see that something had changed in me and in the way I did my work. My clients were experiencing the difference. But beyond that, the world hadn't really met her yet. There wasn't a new website introducing her.

[07:24] There wasn't a new positioning statement explaining her. But I believed she was there. And I wanted the world to meet her. I didn't have the language then for what was happening. But I do now. The new girl wasn't replacing the old one. She was still me. There was just more there now. Something deeper had developed.

[07:45] and I wanted the way I showed up to reflect it. That's what I mean when I talk about faithful representation. The goal isn't to continually manufacture a newer, shinier, more impressive version of ourselves. And it isn't to dismiss who we used to be. Yesterday's version of you was real. She was valuable.

[08:06] She got you here. But she doesn't have to keep representing who you've become. Branding isn't about inventing a new version of yourself. It's about making sure the version people meet actually reflects who you've become and the work you're here to do now. So here's the question I'd leave you with today.

[08:28] Where is yesterday's version of you still doing today's introductions? It may be your website or the way you describe what you do. Or it may be something more personal. an old way of seeing yourself that's still influencing what you believe you're allowed to do now you don't have to reject who you were you may simply need to stop letting an earlier version of you tell the whole story thanks for being here i'm terry podlinsky and this is brand potential unlocked where who you've become meets how the world sees you and until next time believe what's true and be brave enough to let it be seen you

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