“It feels like a fantastic cherry on top of a sundae that’s been in the works for at least two years, and maybe a bit more.” – Katherine Lazaruk, LZRK Consulting Inc.
We asked Katherine Lazaruk of LZRK Consulting Inc: What have been the results of investing in your brand?
Lazaruk Consulting Inc. is the evolution of Katherine Lazaruk’s entrepreneurial journey – starting as an image consultant and evolving into a sought-out executive leadership and talent development professional. Along with a shift in service offerings and market positioning, the newly named company, Lazaruk Consulting Inc, required an entirely new visual identity. The primary objective for REX was to create a robust visual identity that felt true to Katherine, her personality, and her vision and help her create brand awareness of LZRK Consulting.
We asked Katherine what she felt the result of this project was. In this interview, she outlined 4 key areas where investing in her brand impacted not only her marketing but her overall business and life:
1. “I was able to grow into a stronger position as an industry leader.”
When I started out, I was only thinking of being an image consultant and used the company name to shore up my own fledgeling confidence in my ability. Over time, as my expertise and client base evolved, I’ve been able to grow with my clients, and finally, they called on me to make the shift.
My clients kept trying to find ways to explain what I “really” did for them, which, they said, was a lot more than “image consulting”. While I appreciated the props, I wasn’t fully ready to make a leap, largely because I didn’t want to leap away from something, as I’d always done, but wanted to wait until I had something clear to leap to.
After nearly two years of feeling uncomfortable with the old brand and exploring ideas for the new, here we are. This is the first time in my life that I’ve allowed myself to really dig in and allow something to take the time it needed, rather than being impatient and forcing the project before it was ready to bloom. It showed me that I could become all that I wanted to be but letting go was the way to get it.
2. “My brand became an accurate reflection of my vision and the impact I strive to make.”
The brand discovery process required me to get very serious about who I was and who I wanted to be in business. This meant not only taking a good look at the reality of my company and the messages I was promoting but taking a good look at myself and getting very honest about what impact I wanted to make in the world.
I’ve always been a fan of reflection, but this made me stop and think. I was going to make some choices about the words and the images I was using for marketing, and I had to make sure that every message was in full alignment. If I was going to lay claim to my work helping others “walk the walk, talk the talk and look the part”, I had better get it right for myself too. I had worked on my own visual signature, and it was time for my marketing materials to match.
3. “It made my bottom line look pretty good.”
Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve always believed in the value of investing in my brand, both personally and professionally. I would never have attained this level of success (award-winning or not) without the support of coaches, consultants, team members and savvy marketing mavens who, like me, ask the right questions at the right time to get things just right.
Every time I’ve put money towards investing in my brand, it’s come back many times over and then some, in profit margin, in revenue, cashflow, client success, productivity and all the markers that mean a business is doing well. The evidence proved that putting my money where my mouth is and doing what I coached others to do was worth every penny. Investing in my brand was worth it.
4. “It made me feel good; better than I had in a long, long time.”
So often we underrate the impact of feeling good. We fail to count all the productivity and passion that comes from making sure we feel good – about ourselves, about others and about the world we live in. What people don’t often tell you is that our brains do well when we celebrate making good choices; it makes us want to do better and motivates us to take the necessary steps towards whatever it is we’re working to achieve. Although it hasn’t all been rosy, it’s been better than I could have expected, and that’s all right. The awards are a lovely acknowledgement that together, my favourite marketing team and I did all right too.
REX + LZRK’s collaboration on her visual identity was awarded a Bronze Award at the Summit Creative Award Competition for Visual Identity Design, out of more than 4,500 submissions from 27 countries. Check out Katherine Lazaruk’s website here! lzrkconsulting.com
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