What learning French has taught me about branding

I've been learning French for what feels like ages. Recently, I realized a few aspects of language learning that can be lessons for all areas of life. But of course, in this case, I'll tie it back to branding. C'est parti !

Practice out loud, in "the real world"

I've been wanting to take my French learning seriously as an adult and having limited time, I've purchased a handful of online courses that I could learn from on my own schedule. But I notice that I tend to do more note-taking and memorizing than actively practicing.

At some point, I bought a dual-language copy of The Little Prince so I could read out loud and practice my pronunciation. Let me tell you, it was humbling! My mouth wasn't used to forming some of these words and sounds, and while in my head they sound great, out loud, they felt foreign and I kept stumbling as I spoke.

If I'm not pairing what I know with taking action, then it's just knowledge that will eventually fizzle away.

How this applies to branding: Often we set time aside to figure our business out. We fill out a bunch of worksheets, we fix up our logo, we tinker with the minutiae of our offer... these are super important to get clear on. As you know, I believe in starting with a solid foundation. But you have to also start practicing out loud, in the real world. This looks like talking to friends and family about what you do. Taking on clients so that you can streamline your services and ensure you have a smooth process in place. Take your messaging out for a spin. Are your ideal clients understanding what you mean? Don't just figure out things alone in a void to get everything perfect without ever sharing it with the world.

...So I signed up with a French tutor on iTalki and came upon another great lesson.

Be gentle with yourself, it's ok to stumble

I was nervous during my first lesson. I felt like in my head I was practically bilingual, but out loud it was quite another story 😅. I knew I was there to learn, but I also had this urge to have it all figured out and get it all right from the start.

The more I was able to surrender to learning vs avoiding mistakes, the more I could in fact learn. I wasn't constantly criticizing myself for getting something wrong. I actually felt grateful to have someone who was patient and gentle as she explained new concepts.

How this applies to branding: Iteration is key – Do the thing. Assess. Tweak. Repeat. In an ideal world, we would have everything figured out from the get-go but that is only based on an assumption. Consider every client as a learning experience. What went well? What did I learn? Yes, you can look at what "went wrong" but more so with an eye for improving than beating yourself up. Be gentle with yourself.

...As I brushed away the judgment of how well (or not) I was doing during my lessons, new opportunities to learn came to the surface.

Focus on the things that light you up

Because I have enough vocabulary under my belt, my French sessions are more about having a conversation and seeing where the gaps are in my learning. I've discovered some terms that I use in my daily life, which hadn't yet been taught in any of my online courses. We've talked about the way I might translate those to French and what the more colloquial ways of saying things I learned back in college are.

It's not enough to learn what courses are teaching me, I have to figure out what those things are that I am most likely to want to talk about so that I can learn to express those things in French. It wasn't until I started having more live conversations that I was able to see what concepts I needed to learn in order to have the conversations that I enjoyed.

How this applies to branding: Whether you hire someone like me to help guide your branding & messaging or whether you do it on your own, it's important to start to have conversations about the things that matter to you. What is your unique point of view? I find that having conversations with others, both in your field and those who know little of it, will help strengthen your views. It often takes someone asking you questions to make you think a little more about a subject. And in those deeper conversations, is where you start to form your unique point of view.

À la prochaine, bisous !

Ps. If you’re not quite ready to work together on your brand, you can start out with The Aligned Brand Roadmap to help start you out in the right direction.