Your Brand Is More Than Just a Business: How to Make People Care

Your business is the thing you do, the product you make, the service you deliver, the system you’ve built that solves a problem. Your brand is something else entirely — and many people fail to understand the distinction.

Your brand is how others see and feel about you.

It’s the story about you that they repeat in their minds when they remember that you exist. It’s the emotional association that sticks with them once they’ve left your store, received their final deliverables from you, or scrolled past you website or IG feed.

Think of the brands you already know:

• Nike = intensity, athleticism, mental toughness, “just do it”

• Apple = simplicity, sophistication, clean design, high-end performance

• Whole Foods = health-conscious lifestyle, premium groceries, a sense of elevated wellness (or: fuck them, their groceries are way overpriced — a negative association is also part of branding!)

The big brands sell the exact same thing their competition sells — so what makes Whole Foods “better” (in some peoples’ minds) than Target?

It’s not about the product. It’s the identity they’re selling you.

And here’s the subtle part a lot of business owners miss: you’re building a brand whether you know it or not. The question you should ask yourself is whether you’re doing it on purpose.

So how do you build a brand that people actually care about?

Start by talking to your clients. Seriously. Ask them what feelings come up when they engage with your product or service:

• What excited them about working with you?

• What keeps them coming back?

• What moment in the experience stuck with them and why?

Listen for patterns. Look for the emotional thread running through those answers — and then lean into that.

This is how you build something that doesn’t just function well, but feels meaningful.

Build the story internally before you tell it to the world.

Your brand story isn’t just a marketing script — it’s a lens that guides how you actually do things.

Before you start posting about it on Instagram or putting it up on your website, ask yourself:

Are we actually doing this? Are we actually backing it up with action?

People aren’t dumb. No, seriously, they’re smarter than you probably think. And even if they aren’t that smart, choosing to see them as 10x smarter than you forces you to be real. People can smell when something’s off. We’re getting better and better each day at spotting fake AI content (and gosh, the consequences of being found out in this… you don’t want to go there). If you’re telling a story your business can’t live up to, your marketing will only create distance between you and your audience.

But if the story you’re telling is true, and your actions reinforce that story at every level — you become magnetic and unstoppable.

Your brand isn’t about being better. It’s about being different.

A lot of business owners obsess over doing it better than their competition — “better” price, “better” features, “better” service. But if that's your goal — better — then the way you do things will always be dictated by someone else’s success. Is that the truest approach for your brand?

Better is subjective. Better is temporary. I hope you’re getting sick of the word by now.

It’s easier to stick out by… sticking out. Being different. Carving out a way of showing up that only you can come up with. That’s what’s going to get others to tell your story for you. It’s admittedly more difficult than simply trying to be “better,” but once you find your own unique approach, there won’t be a single other brand on the planet able to do it better than you.