What happened when I finally took my own advice and let go of the reins.
I've spent years telling clients to trust the process, get out of their own heads, and let someone else see the thing they're too close to see. Then I had to do the exact same thing with my own brand.
The Problem With Building Something You're Too Close To
That might seem a little surprising considering I own a branding agency. But here we are. The decision to hire someone else to design my new branding taught me more about my clients, and about the work I do, than I expected.
I know exactly how this story usually goes. You start a business because you have an idea you're genuinely excited about. You build the thing. You become the expert. You figure out the offers, the systems, the sales, the marketing, the website, the social media, and the thousand tiny decisions that come with being the person in charge.
Eventually, your brand becomes so intertwined with you that it's almost impossible to see it objectively. You know every version it's ever been. You remember why you picked that color three years ago. You know what that font was supposed to communicate. You can explain every little decision because, well, you made all of them.
That's exactly the problem. You're too close to it.
I've watched this happen with client after client. Someone comes to me with a brand they've been sitting on for months, sometimes years, because they can't decide what it should look like, how it should sound, or what they should even be saying.
They have 47 screenshots saved in a Pinterest board, three versions of their homepage, a Google Doc called "brand messaging FINAL final 2," and approximately seventeen opinions from friends, family, business besties, and the person they met at a networking event who "does a little Canva."
Meanwhile, I'm sitting there thinking, "You don't need more opinions. You need some distance."
I Became My Own Client
Then, of course, I became my own client. (The irony wasn't lost on me.)
One of the things I believe most deeply about branding is that you are not your brand. Your brand is the experience other people have when they encounter you. It's the feeling they get, the things they remember, and the words they use to describe you when you're not in the room.
While you are an incredibly important part of that equation, you can't always be the person responsible for objectively translating all of it. Especially when you're the founder. Especially when you've been staring at the same thing for years. Especially when you've built it from the inside out.
That's why I hired someone else.
Not that I didn't know how to brand Moxie Made — I did. I know how to build a brand strategy, how to create visual direction, how to write messaging, and how to make all of those pieces work together. BUT knowing how to do something doesn't mean you should always be the one doing it, and sometimes the expert needs an expert.
There's another layer to this that I've been thinking about a lot lately too… My purpose has always been rooted in helping people see the magic in themselves and their businesses, and then helping them communicate that magic in a way other people can actually see, too. That's the work.
Somewhere along the way, I realized I was spending so much of my energy doing that for everyone else that I hadn't really given myself the same permission.
I was helping other people get clear while staying tangled on my own. I was helping other people step into their next chapter while keeping parts of mine parked in the previous one. I was telling people to stop overthinking while absolutely, positively overthinking.
The irony was almost impressive.
Enter Amber of Mandowla Creative
So I handed it over — to Amber of Mandowla Creative, a graphic designer I've long admired (and a seriously talented one). It's an important distinction: Amber has skillsets I don't. That's actually very "on brand" for Moxie — we love bringing in other designers who are the right fit for a project, partly because the collaboration itself is just fun. So when it came time to rebrand Moxie Made, that's exactly what I decided to do for myself, too.
It was about 6AM, I was spiraling in bed and I rolled over, decided I was DONE spiraling over my own visual branding, opened my Instagram app and who did I see first thing? Amber. So I sent a voice message into her DMs and the rest is history.
What Changed When I Let Go
Something really interesting happened once I stopped being responsible for every single decision. I could actually see my brand differently.
I could react to it instead of rationalizing it. I could say, "That's so me," or, "Wait, that's not me at all." I could notice what felt exciting. I could notice what felt outdated. I could finally experience my brand the way my clients experience theirs: from the outside looking in.
That perspective is priceless.
Your brand shouldn't just be a reflection of where you've been. It should give people a glimpse of where you're going.
That's what this new Moxie Made brand feels like to me. It's still me. Still Moxie. Still the same purpose underneath it all. It feels like the version of Moxie Made that exists now.
A rebrand isn't always about changing who you are. Sometimes it's about finally letting the outside catch up to who you've already become.
What This Taught Me About My Clients
Now I understand my clients even more.
I already knew that handing your brand over to someone else requires trust. Experiencing it from the other side gave me a whole new appreciation for just how vulnerable that can feel.
When you hire someone to work on your brand, you're not handing them a logo. You're handing them something you've built. Something that represents your reputation, your story, your work, your people, and your future.
You're letting someone poke around inside your brain and pull out the things you might not even realize are there. That's a lot of trust.
The best branding process should honor that. It shouldn't feel like someone swooping in and telling you what your business should look like. It should feel like someone helping you see what was already there.
That's the difference — We're not creating your brand for you; we're helping you recognize it.
Sometimes that requires someone outside of you to hold the mirror.
The Bigger Lesson
Which brings me to the biggest lesson I took away from this whole experience: you don't have to do everything yourself just because you can.
You can know how to build your own website and still hire a web designer. You can know how to write and still hire a copywriter. You can understand branding and still hire a brand designer. You can be really, really good at what you do and still need someone else to help you see it clearly.
That's not a weakness. That's not outsourcing something you "should" be able to handle yourself. That's knowing when being inside the thing is keeping you from seeing the thing.
I think that's one of the most powerful forms of growth there is.
So yes, I hired someone else to design my brand. The branding agency owner hired a brand designer, and I'm really glad I did.
This new Moxie Made brand isn't just a new look. It's a reminder of the same lesson I try to give my clients every day: you don't need to become someone else to build something better. You just might need someone else to help you see what's already there.
Sometimes, the person who needs that reminder most is the one giving it to everyone else.
We'll be rolling out the new Moxie Made branding over the next few months — stay tuned!
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