En Route Workshop

En Route Workshop Creative Direction + Strategic Design for
High-End Service Providers and Creative Entrepreneurs

Through our signature Brand Clarity process, we dig deep to uncover the heart and soul of your brand, and then bring it to life through design and messaging. We provide knowledge, services, and tools that empower you to do the work you want to do so that you can live the life you want to live. Schedule a discovery call to see how we can work together: https://calendly.com/courtneyeliseo/discoverycall

FREE RESOURCE 🍾⁠⁠Defining your brand's unique personality is an essential step in creating a brand that effortlessly att...
09/20/2023

FREE RESOURCE 🍾⁠
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Defining your brand's unique personality is an essential step in creating a brand that effortlessly attracts your ideal clients.⁠
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When we work together on your brand's creative direction and design, this is one of the first exercises we tackle.⁠
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And now, by giving you FREE access to this Notion worksheet, the power is in your hands to go through the process on your own.⁠
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This is for you if you are a person who prefers to DIY their branding, doesn't have the budget for a full-fledged brand design project, or just wants to get a jump on the process.⁠
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Check the link in my bio to get access or DM me UNLOCK and I'll send you the link.⁠
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P.S. I know Notion is not familiar to everyone. This doc is very user-friendly and straightforward, but if you do want or need some extra help, there are links included to tutorials that will help you get started. ⁠
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🙋‍♀️ Creative direction & Strategic Design for High-end Service Pros⁠
🌊 Build your Brand with ease.⁠
🌈 Follow for more brand-building tips.⁠
✈️ Booking now: The Audience Alignment Road Map ⁠
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Now, I don't necessarily *hate* country music, but I definitely wouldn’t consider myself a true fan.⁠⁠So on both visits ...
09/19/2023

Now, I don't necessarily *hate* country music, but I definitely wouldn’t consider myself a true fan.⁠
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So on both visits to this salon, I've felt somewhat out of place.⁠
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But I guarantee you there are many people who would be THRILLED to find a salon that marries nails and country music, two specific things they love.⁠
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I’m clearly not their target audience.⁠
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And if their brand had fully embraced this identity I would have known that before I ever set foot in the space.⁠
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But for the people who are?⁠
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This salon would have a MUCH easier time attracting those particular ideal clients.⁠
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And as long as their services are reliably great, they will come back again and again and never want to go anywhere else.⁠
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Making small shifts to align your brand with your audience can add up to a BIG impact no matter what business you run or where you are in its lifecycle.⁠
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P.S. These are just initial ideas, but what do you think? Any country fans out there that want to throw in their two cents?? 🤠⁠
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👋 I'm Courtney Eliseo.⁠
🖼️ Creative direction & strategic design for high-end service ⁠
🌈 Follow for more content like this.⁠
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📌 NOW BOOKING: The Audience Alignment Road Map⁠
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7 spots are open in October — take $100 OFF through Friday, 9/22.⁠
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Click the link in bio or DM me ROADMAP and I’ll send it directly to you.⁠
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If you’re at all resisting your identity as a premium brand, know this:⁠⁠Premium does *not* have to equal pretentious.⁠⁠...
07/20/2023

If you’re at all resisting your identity as a premium brand, know this:⁠
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Premium does *not* have to equal pretentious.⁠
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Premium can equal:⁠
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✹ Lively⁠
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✹ Gothic⁠
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✹ Romantic⁠
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✹ Earthy⁠
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✹ Inviting⁠
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✹ Cozy⁠
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✹ Understated⁠
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Or literally anything else.⁠
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We can make *any* brand personality *feel* premium so that your potential⁠
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You can be exactly who you are. ⁠
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We just have to build your look and feel around that.⁠
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Curious about what this can look like for you? DM me and let’s chat. 💌⁠
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P.S. I made all of these still life images in Midjourney. It is THE most fun creative thing I have done in a long time. Have you tried it out yet??
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You may think you know the right answer to what your brand should look and feel like.⁠⁠But if you’re operating off that ...
07/18/2023

You may think you know the right answer to what your brand should look and feel like.⁠
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But if you’re operating off that belief, you’re selling yourself (and your business) short.⁠
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It’s easy to get attached to an idea, make assumptions without exploring all of the possibilities, and push full steam ahead to see it through.⁠
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Are you guilty of this??⁠
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Never thought I’d say this, but me too! 🙋‍♀️⁠
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As I’m working on my own brand refresh, out in the open for the first time ever, I’ve started to notice where I’m making assumptions about how it will unfold.⁠
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But by following the same process I take when I build brands for other people, I’m getting surprising results — ones that are SO much better than where I would have landed had I cut corners and rushed through the steps.⁠
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If you want to shift how you’re working on your own brand, one quick way to start is by using my free Notion worksheet: Unlock Your Brand’s Personality.⁠
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Comment Unlock below and I’ll DM you the link!⁠

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Midjourney: colorful wildflower edition.⁠⁠Here are some of the results of playing with Midjourney recently. (If you foll...
07/17/2023

Midjourney: colorful wildflower edition.⁠
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Here are some of the results of playing with Midjourney recently. (If you follow my stories at all I'm sure you're not surprised by the subject matter.)⁠
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Which one's you're fave? 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5? ⁠
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It's a tie between 2 and 5 for me. 🌸⁠
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Getting your tone right is essential to ensuring that your brand is cohesive, consistent, and ultimately drawing in the ...
07/14/2023

Getting your tone right is essential to ensuring that your brand is cohesive, consistent, and ultimately drawing in the right people.⁠
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If it’s time to make some tweaks — or start from scratch — here’s a simple approach that may help:⁠
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Reflect & Brainstorm: Your first task is to brainstorm all of the descriptive words that come to mind when you reflect on the following questions. Note any words that come to mind. You’ll edit in the next step.⁠
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→ How do you want your customers to feel when they interact with your brand?⁠
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→ How do you want your ideal customers to describe their experience?⁠
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→ How would you describe your business as if it were a person? What adjectives would you use to characterize its personality?⁠
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TWO⁠
Cull & Finalize: Now that you have a big list to work with, you’ll need to narrow it down to the most essential words. Here are a few tips for this part of the process:⁠
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→ Stick to 3–5 words. 2 is definitively too few; 6 is too many.⁠
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→ Avoid generic words like “professional.” You don’t want your tone to include any words that could apply to almost every other brand.⁠
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→ Be as specific as possible. Two words that technically mean the same thing may have slightly different connotations. For example, “generous” lands a bit differently than “charitable.”⁠
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→ Make sure that all of your key differentiators are highlighted. For example, if you’re a tutoring company that caters to students with learning disabilities and also donates 20% of profits to charitable organizations, maybe your tone is educational, inclusive, altruistic, and accommodating. Leaving out “altruistic,” while not necessarily incorrect, would mean that you’re not telling the whole story.⁠
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In the end, your brand's tone should be a succinct list of unique words that, together, encompass the essence of your brand’s character.⁠
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Of course, this is just one step in the brand clarity process, but getting this bit right will go a long way.⁠
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📷️ via

I am a person that NEEDs systems for everything — from how I plan my days to how I fold the laundry and everything in be...
07/13/2023

I am a person that NEEDs systems for everything — from how I plan my days to how I fold the laundry and everything in between. ⁠
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My recent ADHD diagnosis confirms precisely why that's always been the case. ⁠
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But you don't have to have a squiggly brain to need systems — everyone can benefit from them.⁠
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And when it comes to your brand, having systems in place (especially when they're done *for* you) can have a massive impact on how effective your branding actually is.⁠
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Which is the whole point of having a strategic brand anyway...⁠
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Because if it's not doing its job — and empowering you to do *your* job, then what is the point??⁠
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The right systems can ensure that you:⁠
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✹ Are sharing your brand consistently wherever you show up,⁠
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✹ Are showing up more confidently, more often,⁠
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✹ Are attracting the right people consistently,⁠
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✹ Are establishing trust with the people already in your sphere,⁠
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Systems can take what's already working up a few notches and transform what isn't into much less of a drain on your resources.⁠
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Tell me in the comments — what system has been the biggest game-changer for your brand or your business?? ⁠
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Your brand’s tone is one of the most — if not *the* most — essential pieces of your branding puzzle.⁠⁠When you get your ...
07/12/2023

Your brand’s tone is one of the most — if not *the* most — essential pieces of your branding puzzle.⁠
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When you get your tone right, it sets the stage for a smooth design process and — most importantly — a result that truly reflects who you uniquely are.⁠
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So what do I mean by tone?⁠
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In a nutshell, your brand’s tone is the personality it projects to the world — a succinct list of descriptive words that touch on different aspects of your personality and come together as a whole in a brand new way.⁠
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Here’s why tone is so powerful:⁠
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⚡️ Tone is foundational in that it informs all of the branding work that follows, from messaging through all aspects of design.⁠
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⚡️ Tone directs the design process, by acting as a compass for evaluating how aligned our design and messaging work is with the direction we want your brand to take.⁠
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⚡️ Tone points us in a direction that completely circumvents trends, which sets us up to develop a brand that will serve you far into the future. ⁠
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⚡️ Tone positions your brand for a completely unique look and feel. If you get your tone right, it is highly unlikely that another brand will end up with the exact same tone as you. (In my decade + of doing this work, it has never once happened.)⁠
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⚡️ Tone provides consistency over time. This makes your audience feel safe, and know they’re in the right place. You could change up your graphics every month or every week or even every day, and as long as your tone is consistent, it could still *feel* like the same brand.⁠
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I’ll give you some tips about how to determine your brand’s tone later in the week, so stay tuned for that. ⁠
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In the meantime, here are a couple of questions to think through:⁠
❶ How would you describe the tone of your current brand? Can you pick a few adjectives to sum it up?⁠
❷ Does what you came up with align with how you *want* your brand to feel?⁠
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If you feel like sharing in the comments, I'd love to know where you landed!

What’s YOUR stress-free brand vision? ⁠⁠🔮 3-day work weeks? ⁠⁠🔮 Outsourcing all of your marketing production?⁠⁠🔮 Quarter...
07/06/2023

What’s YOUR stress-free brand vision? ⁠
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🔮 3-day work weeks? ⁠
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🔮 Outsourcing all of your marketing production?⁠
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🔮 Quarterly vacations? ⁠
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🔮 The freedom to attend your kid’s field trips?⁠
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🔮 Early retirement?⁠
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🔮 Sky’s the limit. ⁠
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You just need the right systems and support to get you off the ground. ✈️⁠
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A stress-free brand is within your reach! Get on the waitlist for when my new ⁠offers launch this summer. Link in bio ⁠
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Your Brand Promise is one of the most *essential* pieces of your brand’s messaging. ⁠⁠Getting it right, by making it cle...
07/05/2023

Your Brand Promise is one of the most *essential* pieces of your brand’s messaging. ⁠
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Getting it right, by making it clear, consistent, and compelling is key to growing your audience and building customer loyalty.⁠
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And sharing the same promise wherever you show up will facilitate the process of people self-identifying as an ideal client quickly and easily. ⁠
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Get started by using the three questions and examples I’ve given you here as a guide, and you’ll be well on your way.⁠
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P.S. I also gave these tips in my newsletter last week, along with a bunch of other inspiration and resources. It goes out every Thursday, and you can sign up here: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/6363f2189bbdd5d854602a3f

One of the things I'm learning from is the importance of clean (guilt-free) rest — intentional time given to yourself t...
06/30/2023

One of the things I'm learning from is the importance of clean (guilt-free) rest — intentional time given to yourself throughout the week to be completely free of any business-related tasks.⁠
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As a solo entrepreneur with major perfectionist tendencies, it is HARD for me to do, even though as a *textbook* Ta**us, I truly *love* to rest. ⁠
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So to get in the habit, I've been experimenting with adding little chunks of rest into my day that I would normally dismiss as impossible, unimportant, a luxury I can't afford.⁠
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Most days I've been giving myself the gift of a long lunch reading outside and when I do, wow, do I see the difference in how I feel — more grounded, more appreciative, and more motivated to do the important work I need to do.⁠
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I'm starting with that extra 30ish minutes, but eventually, I want to build up to a full day every week. ⁠
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I'm curious, how much clean rest do YOU give yourself during your work week? ⁠
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If you had an extra hour a day just for you, what would you do with it??

Running a business is hard. ⁠⁠A lot of the media loves to place an emphasis on all of the amazing things that come from ...
06/28/2023

Running a business is hard. ⁠
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A lot of the media loves to place an emphasis on all of the amazing things that come from being your own boss. Things like flexibility and freedom and the ability to make your own decisions. ⁠
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And those *are* amazing perks. BUT. ⁠
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Along with all of that good stuff comes the hard work required for you to actually *experience* those perks. It requires wearing many hats and making a zillion decisions a day and comes with (for me, anyway) a constant pressure to keep things going.⁠
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Can you relate?⁠
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With the work I do, my goal is to make your life *easier.* I want to provide you with systems and tools that will alleviate at least some of that pressure. ⁠
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If your brand is clear, at least that one part of your business can feel easy and seamless.⁠
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Curious about what that can look like? Book a Brand Alignment Call via the website (or DM me) and we'll chat.
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In the meantime, tell me, what's the one thing you're currently most challenged by in business ownership?⁠
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98127

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Thursday 10am - 6pm

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