September is the unofficial New Year’s 2.0, and after a much-needed August break (that I hope you took too, by the way), we’re all ready shake off the summer haze and get back into business mode with fresh energy, but without the pressure to hustle ourselves into the ground.
I’m sharing three actionable ways to reconnect with your brand, spark your creativity, and slide fun into your routine so showing up feels exciting again. And this is your invitation to bring more clarity, play and intentionality back into your brand, so you can stop leaving it for last in the to-do list & find the consistency you’ve been searching for.
Can we just acknowledge how satisfying it is when September 1st lands on a Monday? If every January and September could follow this pattern, this freak would be extremely happy.
To me, September has always felt like New Year's 2.0. I don't know if I'm still mentally in my school days or if this is my stationery obsession talking, but there's something about September that feels like a fresh start. And we can all agree that it should be the start of Q4, not October, right?
There's such a big shift from August to September. Routines naturally change when summer ends. Weather shifts, days get shorter, holidays wind down.
Clients come back from their own vacations and suddenly your inbox starts filling again, which is a good problem to have.
But even the vibe on social media changes. People naturally move from Aperol Spritz reels to back-to-business content because their reality has shifted.
Summer lends itself perfectly for those intentional (or sometimes unintentional) breaks. And right off the bat, I want to say two things about that:
If you didn't rest in August, that doesn't mean you somehow failed. And if you don't feel the urge to sprint to the end of the year right now, that doesn't mean you're behind either.
But coming back after a break, whether it's two weeks or two months or whatever your own reality has been this summer, always requires some level of adjustment. There's this pressure to perform better, to end the year with a bang, to prove to yourself and the outside world that your rest was somehow worth it, that you came back stronger because of it.
So you might be looking at your brand and your content thinking, oh, where do I even start?
By now your feed is probably flooded with posts about back-to-school energy, finishing the year strong, Q4 goal setting. And even though I love a good productivity session, working on your brand doesn't have to feel like such a chore.
So here are three simple ways to reset your brand and content rhythm this September without burning out.
If you're anything like me, you want to grab September and use it as an opportunity to return with something to say, with renewed energy. But your track record with showing your brand and marketing some love may not be as consistent as you'd like.
And look, I'm preaching to the choir here — this is also a message to myself.
The reason why consistently posting on social media keeps falling to the bottom of the to-do list, over and over again, is not because you're lazy.
You're just not clear. And that's okay. That's not a failure either.
But consistency with anything requires clarity and energy and fun. And if you don't know what you're saying, if you're exhausted by how you're saying it, or if you're bored out of your mind making the thing, of course you're going to end up ghosting your own brand.
So your first reset step is to remind yourself:
What's the one message I want people to remember when they think of me?
What energy is my brand here to bring?
What do I want my brand to make people feel right now?
And even if you've been quiet all throughout summer, don't try to overcompensate. Simply come back when you do have this clarity. Anchor yourself in your brand's essence — your values, your voice, your purpose — and then let that guide the next thing you share.
Once you've reconnected with the foundations, with what your brand and business are here to do, I want you to give yourself some space to play and be inspired.
That's going to require taking time out of your day to leisurely scroll through your saved posts, dive into your Pinterest boards, reread client testimonials. Bring some of that leisure from summer into September, and then look for patterns.
What's feeling exciting to you? If you knew you could not fail, what's a new thing you'd try? What would you do for the fun of it?
This means also not jumping the gun and not going straight to your content calendar or to Canva to start designing things. I want you to pause before going into autopilot. Otherwise, you'll just end up recreating the same templates and content you were tired of in the first place.
So this is your chance to experiment, to test a new format, to try your batching schedule differently, to shake up the visuals. Curate, and then come back with those fresh ideas.
Lastly, don't get too caught up in chasing trends or seeing what everyone else in your industry is doing or playing catch-up.
Remember that the whole point of social media is to market your brand, to have a way for more people to get to know you, trust you and ultimately buy from you. So your goal is to be recognisable. Your audience should be able to spot your content and your brand a mile away, no matter if you're posting daily, weekly, once a month (though I don't think the marketing girls would agree with me here).
And if that means waiting a few more weeks after your summer break, so be it.
Your audience doesn't suddenly forget you exist. This momentary silence doesn't erase your impact. In fact, if you've ever tried letting your stories disappear after 24 hours, you know that you get the most views when you don't post as often.
By being intentional with these pauses and reflection, you're making sure that when you do come back, you're doing it with a brand that sticks — when you have something to say and when you have renewed energy to create the kind of consistency that lasts.
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✦ Listen to the Brand Designer Gets (re)Branded Mini-Series in The Freak Show feed!
✦ THE COLOUR CIRCLE: Bring the Canva design you’ve been (over)fiddling with for hours
Over the last 5 years as a Brand & Marketing Designer, I’ve helped freaks like us design their unconventional brands so they can step onto the main stage & own their weird. Because if you wanted to be, look or sound like everyone else, you wouldn’t be where you are today. Now it’s your turn.
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