At the end of last year, I was feeling extremely dreadful & lost. While my brand coaching biz was going well financially, it was sucking the life out of my soul. I did not enjoy it as much & it started to feel like I swapped my day job for another one- only now its way longer hours & more work- why did I do this?

I also realized that offering DIY/DWY services were due to a scarcity trigger as I felt a DFY service would cost waaaay more & people would be more inclined to opt-in for that- and that's what happened, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, surprise!

Each time I'd speak to a client & advise them on their branding, systems or marketing, a little voice in my head would go like, "oooh, wouldn't it be fun if we did it for them." And I'd hush the voice down but when I couldn't I'd end up doing it for the client as a complimentary service, causing myself to take on waaay too much which would cause me to miss deadlines, over promise under deliver, & eventually crash & burn.

So finally, I told myself to stop. And I did. This was around the time Clubhouse took off and we all found ourselves glued to the mics of our phones, chatting away, meeting new people & sharing ideas.

It was during this time I mingled with other people, people who werent just coaches, people who were service providers providing done-for-you offerings & I realized that I had been living in such a compact bubble that I forgot that service providers exist & not only that, they make money also?!

What a concept!

Thus began my journey of deconditioning myself.

At first it felt like it'd never happen. I kept going back to my former coaching self. The offers I kept coming up w/ very similar to the ones before, the messaging was errily similar as well & it started to all get super frustrating.

I told myself to pause. To focus on my environment first.

I went through a massive unfollow spree, any accounts that did not align with my newer, higher self had to go. I also started following accounts that did. And slowly I started to feel a shift.

I knew I wanted to go back to DFY brand development business model, I also knew I did not want to be a solopreneur. And so... I asked for help. Got myself a coach who knew how to build an agency not just a freelance business. I also wanted a partner who'd be on the same journey so I asked Taylor if she'd be down & she said yessss!

So we started doing the damn thing. We started our branding atelier

We worked and worked to come up with the perfect offers, to cultivate the perfect atelier. We researched, walked our talk. Experimented. Failed. Tried & again. And slowly it all started to come together.

In fact, before we could even launch, we signed a client?!

And a little later, another one?

Before we knew it we were booked out and it felt surreal.

However, being in demand can be both a gift & a curse especially if you're super knew.

Fast growth always comes at a price & it did cost us.

We took on the client work but lagged on our own marketing & establishing our atelier properly. We started overworking & our timelines started stretching. We decided to prioritize client work first & then deal with everything else. However, once the client work came to an end & we were able to take a breather, we just looked at each other and went, "now what?!"

During the magnificent circus show we ran, we ended up losing ourselves. I did not know what exactly my personal brand was & up on sharing that w/ Taylor, she told me she felt the same. We also didn't know where to go from here in terms of the studio as the slower season made us feel like we did something wrong.

Back to teh drawing board we went & started properly strategizing our growth plan & operations. This time, it was backed by data so we felt more confident & had a roadmap to follow.

Fiiinally, we were able to do so which is what this announcement is all about.

So much has happened, so much has changed that I felt I needed to do this video to not only keep you in the loop but to also clearly define my plan to myself as well- does anyone else do that? No? Just me? Cool!

Now that the atelier was good & has established systems, I was able to focus on me. I am a massive multipassionate human so ideas flood in every night before I go to bed which makes it a tad bit overwhelming & confusing as to what to focus. So after a bunch of brainstorming sessions with myself & my creative assistant we nailed it doooown.

I want myself to be a personal brand, to showcase who I am inside and outside the atelier. A personal brand that allows me to be multifaceted but w/o the confusion that can arise.

So what to expect?

My personal brand will showcase more of my personal life, passion projects & thought leadership when it comes to building an aligned brand & integrating work/life harmony. I will be more presenr on Youtube & my blog while my Instagram channel will be more for nurturing connections through my more poetic & artistic posts.

I no longer wish to confine myself to one channel & 2200 character captions. I want to expand & express myself through different mediums of my voice.

And with that, I want to announce the launch of my website and blog, fatimazehra.co which is also reflected in my new social handles, fatimazehraco. My blog is going to be my new digital home where I get to share everything with you as well as offer more magic making goods to help you embark and thrive on your journey to becoming yourself.

To stay in the loop for all the magical things to come, make sure to subscribe to this channel & follow along on the blog- there is so much that I can't wait to share with you!

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