Welcome to the Brand Therapy Blog - have a seat, the Brand Therapist is in.
Empower Souls Studios (ESS) launched in 2021 as a media house that specializes in brand development & the world of content. Our work focuses on helping Black & POC founders get clear on their authenticity and intentionality when it comes branding. We've humanized the brand building experience by creating "Brand Therapy", allowing us to shift from being formulaic to interconnected in how we build.
Our mission is to help you own your own story in its true authenticity in any landscape.
Our vision is that all businesses be rooted in their originality from the inside, out.
So that's all the cute stuff that businesses have to use to get funding, but let's get to the tea. As a Black woman founder myself, lemme tell you that I started my 1st & 2nd media agency the WRONG WAY.
I was so fixated on my talent and making money that I never asked the essence question to branding, "why". And to be clear, I didn't even know what branding was to answer the question. Why did I want "For Us Media" and "See Us Studios" to exist? What was the story I was trying to tell. And with that story, who were the people that I am trying to reach. Over time, these question came up for me and the term "branding" connected. I started studying corporations like Nike and Apple. They had a distinct formula to reach their audience.
Then it clicked, Branding is the story you tell. Marketing is how you tell that story. I also realized that I wasn't alone in my approach to launching my business. Particularly, Black & POC founders lacked branding as well.
And so in 2020, I shut my 2nd business down and joined Strategize 1st - an incubation program that helped me develop a theory turned incubator called "Brand Therapy". And now in 2023, I am the Brand Therapist. My clients have called it various other things - marriage counseling for founders is my personal favorite. But the essence of Brand Therapy is to help you and your executive team get VERY CLEAR on the story of the business. Letting the inner world (the story) reflect the outer world (the marketing).
The Brand Therapy Blog is our journey together as we discover best practices in brand development and connection. I'm also versed in marketing and content creation...so it's possible that I will throw in some tings I've learned in those realms as well.
In oration,
Thee Brand Therapist
Christina Kenney