Living and breathing your brand - every decision you make and action you take - requires you to put aside your ego (both kinds), and understand your customer as wholly individual, real-life humans, with an entirely different reality than your own. It requires active engagement: studying them, listening to them, and understanding how your brand interacts with them as they are, or gets them to who they aim to be.  When you create professionally, you walk a fine line between self-expression, or what you like, and that of the end user. In other words, letting go of the instinct to project ourselves onto our work forces us to create from a place of empathy. 

Ever since Narcissus was really feeling himself and went for a little swim, we’ve had a confusing relationship with the ego. Too much is frowned upon, while too little is likewise unhealthy. But we’re not really talking about that kind of ego. Going out on a limb, many of us probably don’t have the kind of arrogance that rivals our aforementioned greek friend - but we all have an ego. The ego we’re talking about is your sense of self, your identity, your “you”. 

Ego and empathy are often rivaling factors, not just because an overinflated sense of self (that kind of ego) is like seeing yourself through a powerful pair of rose-colored glasses - that is, unable to see yourself as anything else but the hero of your own story - and leaves little room for understanding that the world doesn’t revolve around you, but also because empathy is by its nature, is one step removed from our selves. It means setting aside our self - our own experiences, motivations, and reactions (the other ego), and recognizing the experiences, motivations, and reactions of others as different beings. It means taking off the rose-colored glasses we all wear (some more darkly-tinted than others) and seeing ourselves, the world around us, and our relationship with it, clearly. It’s not walking in their shoes, but understanding the path they take is different than your own. 

The thing about rose-colored glasses is that they don't just skew your vision of yourself, they distort your ability to view reality, situations, and relationships - because those tined lenses make red flags just look like flags. Living and breathing your brand - every decision you make and action you take - requires you to put aside your ego (both kinds), and understand your customer as wholly individual, real-life humans, with an entirely different reality than your own. It requires active engagement: studying them, listening to them, and understanding how your brand interacts with them as they are, or gets them to who they aim to be. When you create professionally, you walk a fine line between self-expression, or what you like, and that of the end user. In other words, letting go of the instinct to project ourselves onto our work forces us to create from a place of empathy. 

Our culture of social sharing (and egocentrism) means there’s more opportunities than ever to study your potential customers - or at least how they want to be seen and understood. Hell, if he were alive today, our old friend Narcissus would be well, dry, and likely a top-tier influencer.

What Do We Do With This? 🤔💭

1. Take your preferences and needs out of the equation.

2. Jump into your customer's lives. Watch what they watch; browse what they browse.

3. Passion is important, but take care not to turn it into projection by reminding yourself of the differences between yourself and your customer.

👋 Join the conversation on Twitter / on Instagram :)