If It Isn’t Broken, Don’t Fix It: The Truth About Trends, Strategy, and Personal Branding

As an advocate for people-first approaches in both life and business, I sometimes find it odd—yet beautiful—how the work we do inside our business connects so deeply with who we are.

Before I get into today’s blog, I just want to check the temperature.After spending a while in this space, I’ve realized that I’ve overlooked some really solid practices and principles in favor of chasing trends. Now, I’ve come full circle and concluded: when you become aware of the impact you’re making—stick with it.

There will always be trillions of ways to do business and advocate for your work, but trust me—after spending time in the trenches—if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.

That said, I’ve tested ideas that had the shelf life of a hairpin, and others that stretched on like an endless piece of string. Which brings me to this: what do you do when you become “problem aware”?

Here’s what I’ve noticed, in three stages:

• You intuitively know something is different.

• You feel the tension.

• You begin to explore.

  
  

As a personal brand advocate, I’ve found that what works best for my schedule is creating mini-topics and discussing them in different formats. The format depends on the platform, and yes—it took a while to cultivate that domino effect (something I learned from Rachel Pederson). But honestly? Creating endless content is exhausting.

So I pivoted. I chose one platform, reduced my content load, and started tracking results. It worked better for me than trying to juggle multiple channels. But because I don’t want to rely solely on platforms, I started building email lists. And before you build a list, you need conversations—real ways to test what people truly need.

None of these approaches are wrong.But being behind the scenes so much, my personal brand suffered. I wasn’t meeting people in person—and that’s where I shine.

So if you’re really great in one area of your work, and you’re starting to see personal brand advocacy as part of your business planning: nurture it.

Because while I’ve made some big behind-the-scenes shifts, one thing is true—I’m finding more VIP day clients through real conversations and networking than I ever did from overproducing content.

Have you ever found yourself drifting from what you know works in favour of what’s trending? What did you learn from coming back to centre?