I’ve started reaching out to businesses I don’t know.
Not because they’ve asked me to, and generally not because there’s anything obviously wrong. It’s usually the opposite. I’ve seen something I like, gone down a bit of a rabbit hole, and ended up thinking there’s more here than the brand is currently letting people see.
I realised recently that this is probably why I’ve never really thought of it as cold outreach. I’m not sitting there with a spreadsheet trying to find people to sell branding to. I tend to reach out because something has caught my attention and, once I’ve noticed the opportunity, I find it quite hard to unsee it.
I think that comes from doing this for as long as I have.
You become quite tuned into businesses. The atmosphere of a place, the way somebody talks about what they’re building, how much care has clearly gone into the product or experience, even the type of people it attracts. Sometimes you can feel the brand before you’ve even properly looked at the branding.
Then you go to the website or Instagram and there’s a disconnect.
Nothing is necessarily terrible. In fact, quite often it’s perfectly fine. It just doesn’t have the same personality, confidence or energy as the actual business.
Those are the ones I find interesting.
I’ve joked recently that I’m becoming a bit of a Brand Inspector, which probably makes me sound like I’m wandering around Los Angeles with a clipboard issuing citations for bad kerning.
I’m not.
It’s more that I notice the gaps.
A founder might be incredibly charismatic in person, but the business sounds like everybody else online. A restaurant might have an amazing atmosphere, but its identity gives you absolutely no sense of it. There might be a really good story sitting underneath everything that nobody has properly pulled forward yet.
And sometimes the frustrating part is that they’re already so close.
It might not need some enormous rebrand or dramatic reinvention. It could be one shift in positioning, a clearer story, better art direction, or simply giving the brand permission to behave a bit more like the business already does.
That’s usually what makes me want to get in touch.
There’s also probably a slightly protective instinct in there. If I think somebody has built something genuinely good, I want the outside world to understand why it’s good too. I hate seeing a strong business accidentally make itself look more ordinary than it is.
Of course, there is a terrible way of approaching somebody about this.
“Hi, your branding is generic and I can fix it.”
I’m amazed anyone thinks that would work.
Branding is personal. Even when somebody knows it needs work, it still represents decisions they’ve made, money they’ve spent and something they’re proud of. I’m not interested in turning up and telling them everything is wrong.
What I’m actually saying is: I can see what you’ve built, and I think there’s an opportunity for the brand to show more of it.
That tends to land very differently.
And yes, I know there’s an argument that reaching out first somehow lowers your authority. I’ve never really bought that. If I see a business I’d genuinely like to work with, I’d rather say hello than sit around hoping they somehow discover me.
The interesting thing is that you get a pretty immediate sense of whether there’s a fit.
Some people hear criticism.
Other people hear, “You get it.”
Those are usually the conversations worth having.
So I suspect the Brand Inspector thing is going to stick.
Not because I’m particularly interested in finding bad branding. There’s plenty of that around and most of it doesn’t interest me at all.
I’m much more interested in the businesses where you can already see something good trying to get out.