The Joseph Founder's Log

If purpose is the entire reason for staying in business, mission is the more current, immediate target to reach a new level on your business' growth journey. Mission is the complete opposite of purpose because it is entirely attainable and it is so within a realistic time period. Wes gave me the right tools to find my mission and then evolve it many times over. He got me to read Scramble and Zag by Marty Neumeier which changed the value I placed on brand positioning. It made everything else seem irrelevant. Why? Because when you have a solid brand, you have a super power. A super power that enables you to never stop pursuing your dream. Everything else just requires you to learn it or experience it. Need to understand business? There are a million books, courses, and online resources. Want to perfect a skill like public speaking? Do it every single day until enough experience equates to mastery.  The actual will needed to do those things however? You can't simply wake up with i...

Before registering my company, I needed to know what my business was going to be. I knew it had to be related to writing and that I wanted to carry out two types of work: writing as a service for other businesses (retainer article/blog writing) and writing that I held ownership of (publishing). That distinction wasn't so clear at the time. In fact, only by opening my laptop today, was such an obvious separation made in this succinct way. There were no specific goals set or plan outlined to achieve them if there were. Everything was a learning experience at this point and I needed some direction. Thankfully, Christina Colmer McHugh, the lead for start up initiatives at the University of Hull, put me in contact with Wes Henstock.  Wes is the Founder of Confid3ntial and he taught me everything that matters when it comes to personal branding. I am going to break down the three statements that drive every action behind Pen Forge Collective and form the company's personal brand. Toda...