Throwing Out Your Life’s Work to be Unapologetically You

Have you ever had that moment where you have been working on something furiously for months (or even years), only to step back moments before releasing it to the world and realise it all feels wrong? And isn’t you?

I do, intimately. And here’s why:

Over the last six months, I have been completely rebuilding the Andi Co. brand, including embedding a full marketing team and creating a whole new suite of digital offers to launch next month.

Everything was ready to go, but just as I was about to hit the launch button, I realised something was wrong.

It wasn’t imposter syndrome or fear that I was feeling – I know that feeling well. This was different.

Instead of feeling excited to launch the world-class stuff we had created, all I felt was misalignment.

Somehow, in the journey of amplifying my presence in the online space, I had slowly and subtly stripped my essence out of my brand and replaced it with “best-practice marketing”. I had unconsciously taken on the style of other successful masters in my field. And I had lost me.

This was a huge awakening.

So right then and there, I bravely decided to scrap it all.

The brand elements, the funnels, the blog posts, podcast episodes, the offers, the “effective marketing” strategies - even my current marketing team and contracts. I decided to let it all go.

Why? Because I knew if I launched it and it wasn’t aligned, eventually I wouldn't be able to maintain it. I would end up in a frequency that wasn’t truly mine.

The decision was completely liberating.

Whilst following best-practice and the crowd can give us a sense of success and comfort in the short term – it’s not real. Contorting ourselves takes a lot of energy - energy that could be used to create something really incredible.

The morning after I made the decision to let all of the work go, I sat down with a notebook and wrote down this question:

"What is it that I really want to create? Not what I think I deserve to create, can create or should create – but what I actually want to create?"

The answer came through lightning fast:

"To create art with my expression and my life."

I realised, in the pursuit of creating a successful business, my expression had become focused on “marketing myself”. My content had become exhibitionist and teaching-focussed, rather than an expression of me.

I didn’t want to run a usual online coaching business. I wanted to create art in the formats that spoke to me – whether that be writing, speaking, physically creating or performing. I wanted to do something wildly and uniquely me, that worked with my energy and harnessed my senses and abilities. And I deeply wanted to restructure my life to be in the energy of creation and service - even if it meant being unconventional, anti-best practice or wildly unexpected.

This realisation was profound.

Within a few days, I had rebuilt the whole brand. A new style. New offers. New strategies. All based on who I really want to be. My blog is now a vessel for my downloads, instead of CTAs. My website now shares my ideas and frequency, not just offers. And my Instagram is my platform for sharing snippets of my art, ideas and inspiration, rather than just algorithm-effective marketing content (this was previously a huge misalignment for me, which showed).

Instead of feeling like I’m going through the motions in business, I now feel excited for what is coming.

I am lead by one question: "What do I want to create today?"

And I trust that whatever comes from that will be exactly what is needed.

I know on first read this may seem unconventional and a risky strategy for business, but here is what I know to be true: some of the most incredible and innovative brands and individuals came to be because they did things differently. They carved their own path.

The biggest hurdle is giving yourself permission to do it..

But trust me it’s worth it.

When you trust yourself enough to be you, and express yourself through your work and your life in only the way you can, you step into a whole new level of creation and magnetism. You create art with your life that the universe reciprocates with even more ideas and abundance. And you add frequency into the world that changes everything.

It's time now to be unapologetically you.

- Andi xo