brand stories 01: with the travelling actor

Hear how Jamie created a brand on his own terms to support his multi-passions and thirst for adventure!

Welcome to the Brand Stories series! Brand Stories go behind the brand where I chat to some of the inspiring business owners and brands on the story behind their brand. I hope you too can be inspired to hear how they built their own authentic brands, the blockages and hurdles they have overcome and how the creation of a brand worked!

Hear the first brand story and behind the brand with Creative Wilderness and The Travelling Actor. Jamie recorded this during one of his #vanlife stops in Cornwall so the video connection isn’t the best but you can hear everything clearly!

A few of the topics we discuss…

• How branding can be confusing and as an actor knowing your brand seemed important but also confusing!
• Why branding can feel like a big investment
• How going through the branding process helped Jamie get clear on his mission
• Is branding just for big businesses?• How has Jamie used the new brand to grow his business
• The brand building process
• Creating a website to showcase multi-passions and attract the right type of people
• #vanlife and love of adventure

Watch Jamie’s inspiring brand story below (audio version too if you’d prefer to listen!)

 

PREFER LISTENING? AUDIO VERSION BELOW…

Brand story 01: WITH THE TRAVELLING ACTOR

by Creative Wilderness & Jamie Morgan

brand story transcript

 

Charlotte Creative Wilderness
Hi, Jamie, I’m really excited to hear about how you got on with our branding process. So first of all, Jamie, tell whoever’s watching a little bit more about you and what you do and your amazing new brand.

Jamie Morgan: The Travelling Actor
Oh, it’s quite a complicated one, I suppose. It’s, well, primarily, I’m an actor, that’s kind of always what I’ve done. But I wanted to create a platform where I could share all of my passions and sort of tie them together. And in my head, they all vaguely linked. But I needed somebody to streamline everything into into, into a visual platform. And when I reached out to you, all of these ideas were sort of a jumble in my head, I knew what I wanted to do. But to explain it to somebody, it was quite complicated. I, my idea was very different to the to the norm. I get when I say the norm, I mean for most actors, but I wanted to show all of my passions and not just that, that one.

I really believed in the ideas that I had in my head, but I couldn’t quite articulate them. So when I reached out to you, I said, Look, if I’m going to approach people with my ideas, I need them to be simple. You know, I can’t keep trying to explain what it is even telling you. Now, it’s quite difficult to say, Well, I’m an actor, but I’m also trying to do some coaching and also some podcasting, and also some travel blogs. And it’s, you know, they all do tied together. And you can see that through your through your design now, but to explain to somebody what somebody might be like, so what are you what are you doing?

I wanted to find somebody that was, was ethical, more than anything, when you type in a lot of website designers or branding people that it comes up a lot of agencies, and I really didn’t want that because I didn’t want to just be another person. But they were another client that was one of many, many and, and the care attention didn’t go into it, or somebody that didn’t understand what I what I needed. And when I found you and I also saw that you had a van and I was obviously building my van at the time.

Ethics are a huge part of what you do. And I was like this is this is the person. And not only that, when I reached out to you, you got so excited about the idea and you understood it and you came back with so many initial suggestions. It was just it was just to me. So yeah, that that’s kind of that’s kind of the way that that I found you. Um, yeah, I guess that was a few months ago now. But so it’s all been wonderful.

Charlotte Creative Wilderness
I think some people think branding is for a big business, but you were quite keen on creating a strong brand from the start. Was there anything, before we started working together? Why you thought you needed to have a strong brand? Were you a bit confused about branding at the start? Or did you have quite a good understanding of it?

Jamie Morgan: The Travelling Actor
No, I, as I was trying to piece all this together, I read a book. I think it’s an audio book, actually on branding. And I worked through it for myself. And I understood that in order to communicate everything that I wanted to show the world, or the one or two people that I needed to, I needed it to more than anything represent me. And like say I am a small business, it’s just it is just me, I’m not, you know, part of the big company or anything, I’m a self employed actor. So I needed it to be a representation of who I am. And not this big kind of corporate website or anything like that I needed to be personal.

I think I branding still is a confusing thing for people I think, I think particularly actually with with actors at drama school and things like that, for people that have gone down that route. People say you know, you’re a brand, you should know what, who you are, and all this kind of stuff. And that always leaves people are confused, because people are well, who am I? Who am I? What am I trying to show the world by I really believe that everything that I’ve picked to be on this website and the route that I’m taking myself down is a real reflection of me and now I look at the website that you’ve created.

I see me and the people that I’ve shown it to we’re like well this website is great, I know what I’m getting. So now when I do approach, casting director or producer or more going down the travel route or whatever it might be I know that when I present this website, they are experiencing me. I don’t have to explain any more what I do is there in in black and white. So yeah, branding is incredibly important. I now understand to give a visual representation of of who you are and what your business is.

Charlotte Creative Wilderness
Have you changed how you feel about your business since the branding and the website? Or how do you feel at the moment, I suppose at the end of the project, compared to how you thought felt at the start of the project, if you can think back?

Jamie Morgan: The Travelling Actor
it was just a whole lot of confusion. And just I really, honestly, I just trusted my instincts on everything, and just hope for the best because I really didn’t really know where I was heading, whether it was going to work, or whether I’d get halfway down the line and go, Oh, you know what, this is just a terrible idea, or whatever. And now I look at what we’ve seen, we, I’ve done very little what you’ve created. And, you know, other sort of the talks that we’ve had, you know, one of the things that really excited me was was that you when you I think you understood what I was trying to do before I did, in a sense, I think I had splitted, all this stuff out to you. And and then you said, Well, you know, I get it. And I was like you get it?

I was like, Oh, great, because I don’t. But I think you knew, I think you could see what I was trying to trying to show you. And now I look at now with the process is finished. And I’m sat here with my beautiful new website. And I feel really proud of it. And I feel proud of kind of the journey I’ve been on to get to this point, because it’s been a huge journey. And then I look at this website, and I think, great, I’m really proud of this. This was the right decision. And yeah, thank you for that.

Charlotte Creative Wilderness
It’s been amazing. And it was a total collaboration not all down to me at all. It’s definitely definite population. And finally, I think sometimes people feel branding is quite an investment. And sometimes it’s quite an intangible thing in some ways. And so how did you feel initially about making that investment? And did you have any worries about it?

Jamie Morgan: The Travelling Actor
I know, nobody likes to spend money? Not really, me particularly, but it is an investment? And is it can, you know, I think you get what you pay for right? So there are ways that other ways around it, I look at some of the options that I was looking into months and months ago. And if I gone down that route, I really not having seen now what you’ve created, I would really regretted not making that investment. Because I you know, I initially approached you just for branding, right? So you created all of these wonderful logos and icons. And then I thought, well, I’m an idiot if I don’t invest in the website, because what am I going to do with all this, I’m going to try and create it for myself.

And it’s going to be nowhere near as good as what what you could create. And obviously, that involves passing with more money. But I think you have to think in the long term, right? In the short term, yes, that that money is going to leave your bank account and you might have a little cry. But if you think this website could last you for your entire career or whatever, or you know, certainly the next sort of five years perhaps and yes, you’re going to tweak it and make adjustments.

This is an investment and it is such a such a worthwhile investment. An important thing is I’d rather give my money to somebody that is understand what I’m trying to do and is also ethical and, and as passionate as passionate about what I’m trying to do as I am I think that’s the best important thing. And yeah, I think work with somebody that understand your brand and and also has that passion and drive don’t go down to kind of a corporate agency roots. I think what’s great about you is that you are equally as passionate and hardworking.

Charlotte Creative Wilderness
Thank you! Yeah, that’s something and oh, I had one more question. I feel like you’ve really, you know, taken to get creating the website. And I’ve just seen that you’ve tweaked stuff and it looks it looks really good. So do you feel like really, you can use this stuff quite easily? And how is it taking all that stuff and then actually implementing it is? Because you’re not a designer? Or you or anything like that? How does that all feel with all the assets and things?

Jamie Morgan: The Travelling Actor
No, definitely. I think I had I had created a website in the past and I looked at it and I just cringe and I think to what you do, but it’s the way you’ve formatted it and how clear it is. I feel confident that if I did want to change anything that I could just dip in and move things around slightly or you know, you’ve done an incredible job. Sometimes then you look at it and you think oh, the egotistical side comes out and go oh, I don’t quite like that picture now. All right, I want to just move it over there or your own tastes come into play a little bit.

I’ve since we finished I played around with a few things, just to make it kind of sit right in. I did added a few things, but it’s so simple. And so yeah, I feel, I feel really confident, sort of going forward that I’m able to adapt, or, you know, or come back to you and and say, Well, look, I like this. This is great. Now let’s let’s add this or, you know, or I need a new icon for this. I think it’s just the start of, you know, potentially more collaborations.

Charlotte Creative Wilderness
Wonderful. Thank you so much, Jamie. And I guess some some people might want to see this amazing website. So do you want to share your website address and your social media?

Jamie Morgan: The Travelling Actor
got to say it because it’s not it’s not officially out there now. But by the time this video goes, there probably will be so you can find me www.jamiemorgan.co. And the Instagram handle is at @travellingactor

Amazing. Thanks, Jamie.

 

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