if you are somebody who's in your late 30s early 40s early 50s who has either undergone a big career shift later in life after your 20s stay tuned so this is not even my first career shift I actually had shifted my career in my late 20s from being a fashion buyer living and working in New York City to becoming a makeup artist on video Photo Productions also in New York City I did that in my late 20s I changed my career again in my early 30s I became a coach a life coach first and a business coach then I shifted my career again and I started working like full-time for for a marketing agency running their done with you program and I'm still doing that today and I absolutely love that job but I recently have gotten the itch to start a new venture to start a new business and that business will be brand strategy so if you don't know what brand strategy is because truth be told I had really no real definition around brand strategy is like I had an idea about what brand strategist did but I ended up going into a training program for people who are either brand strategists now or want to be brand strategists and I realized that I had been doing this thing brand strategy for my coaching clients when I was as a coach and had my own business and even in the company that I'm working with right now I had been doing this thing in an informal way in a more like micro sort of way but going through this training program and learning about what effects building a brand strategy for people can have on their business has been mind-blowing I'm like literally Blown Away by the possibility of what somebody's business or how somebody's business could change if they implemented or had a brand strategist come in and build out a full strategy for them so as I'm discovering things about brand strategy I am I'm discovering that my current skill sets as a coach or somebody who's worked has been working in marketing has been working with social media has been working working with Brands and I've been working with Brands since 2009 right like I started working with Brands when I was working in advertising and commercials as a makeup artist so my understanding of what brands were up until this point is was mostly concentrated or focused on this athetic appearance of Brands meaning like how they presented themselves aesthetically in their advertising right so as I learn about brand strategy and as I learn about what gives businesses this Edge from having a brand strategy a solid brand strategy to base all their decisions and their marketing and their product design and all of that off of I'm seeing that the part of branding and advertising that I had worked in was was just this really outer shell this facade piece of the puzzle and there was for a lot of these big Brands right brand strategists building out this Foundation this back bound bone this core of the business to give the business this identity this core identity to lean on as they moved forward through years of this business like growing and changing and expanding for instance like some of the brands that I had worked with as a makeup artist are Maybelline L'Oreal Gap Amazon Smashbox what else laam mer skin care bioio hair Pantene Hanes like a ton of fashion and Beauty companies where they already have had the strategy in place so what I was doing as a makeup artist right because I could never come in and be like hey I think that I'm going to give your model say I was talking to laam mer and I was doing like a skincare ad campaign whatever I could never come in and be like I think that we should start out with a really dark smokey eye and like big like voluminous hair it wasn't it's not on brand right like you never see women are the models for that brand portrayed in a really Glam way it's all about the skin that company and it's all about this elevated aesthetic so when I say elevated like aspirational it is a very expensive product so everything we did on that end like when all of the creative briefs were already done and the marketing strategy had already built been built and we were on the shoot day right as a makeup artist at the end of the line of strategizing and coming up with the ideas for these campaigns like I was following whatever their creative briefs were and I was keeping on brand with what they wanted right and I Now understand actually creative Direction on a deeper level and I understand what it even means to be on brand in a deeper way because being on brand doesn't just mean that you're showing up aesthetically and the way that has been decided by the brand identity designer or anybody else right it means that the age of the model the movements that the model is doing if it's in video or even in photo like the poses right they're coming from this understanding of the relationship between the brand Persona and the client or customer Persona and so this Comm communication that we were doing through building a visual like advertisement either video or through photo had to be communicating that message in a cohesive way and that's what would make what we were creating either on brand or not unbrand and so in this part of my career where I'm not the makeup artist I'm not the enduser of a creative brief right I I want to be part of that team that that gets to the very core of a brand and help and I want to be a part of that team that helps to build this very sturdy foundation for which to build everything off of to help that brand hit its 10year goal to to build a very deep and connected Mission Vision and purpose so that the brand is communicating who it is from its core through this very stable and honest I'm going to use the word authentic but in a very authentic way right because to me what's important is that what I'm doing in my career and in in any business that I either work in or build myself the most important thing is that I am communicating truth and on hesty and I have had my fair share of putting on facades to sell a product a service whatever right I have had my fair share of being involved with a part where we are building an aesthetic that is appealing to a customer or a client to make them want to spend their money with that particular business and I am just going to say I'm beyond it now and I don't mean that I'm better than it what I mean is that I'm no longer interested in just making a pretty picture I'm interested in helping the core honest truthful true identity of Brands especially purpose-driven Brands especially brands that have a mission to help humanity and the environment and the relationship from person a person flourish grow and Thrive like I have a deep felt sense that this is what my purpose is right I do enjoy that part of brands that are aesthetic that communicate through beauty that communicate through imagery and the visual aspect but even more so if I can help Brands where the founders are people who care deeply about the cause that are contributing to if I can help marketing managers and like visual marketers digital marketers who are working with brands that have this real deep Mission Vision purpose this real like desire to help Community Society people Humanity the environment then I can't imagine that there would be anything more fulfilling to me right now at this point in my life than that so to wrap this all up the reason I have made so many career jumps might be because of my ADHD who knows I am a multi-passionate like very interested in learning new thing type of person but regardless of the reason that I've changed my careers over the years I am always on a trajectory whether I'm leaving a career or entering into a new one of getting more and more self-aware real with what I actually truly want and going after what it is that I feel the most deep connection with at the time that I'm making the choice to transition into something new so if you are in like I said your late 30s 40s 50s 60s wherever you are in this timeline of career and business trajectory how are you feeling are you someone who is making a transition at this point in your life are you terrified to actually do it let me know in the comments are you somebody who's had the same job your entire life and you love it or you want to make a switch let's chat about it because I am fascinated about this topic and I am one of my only friends or people in my life like I have a core group of friends right and the majority of them have been in the same careers or at least Industries for the majority of their careers so I want to know if this is you or if you're more like me and you've shifted your career several times let me know in the comments and let's get into it so if this type of if this type of content is interesting to you and you want to hear more about what I'm doing in this new career this new business or just talking about transitions in life later in life then please let me know I'm happy to make more content on it and please consider liking and subscribing and I'll look forward to speaking with you soon