3 Brand Resolutions for 2026 

I’m about to admit something embarrassing.

The other week, at our last Women of the West event, someone asked me what I do. Simple question, right? I’ve been running Kate Hall Creative for years. I TEACH brand messaging for a living.

And I completely butchered my own elevator pitch.

Started with brand strategy, veered into AI training, mentioned something about websites, threw in brand audits, and by the end I’m pretty sure I mentioned three different price points and confused the hell out of this poor woman.

She smiled politely and said “That sounds… comprehensive.”

Translation: “I have no fucking idea what you actually do.”

The kicker? I literally have a brand messaging framework. I created an entire bot to help OTHER people nail this exact thing. But in that moment, trying to explain everything I do, my ADHD brain felt the need to over complicate the whole bloody message..

Which brings me to the point of this post.

We ALL struggle with our brand message. Every single one of us. Even those of us who do this for a living.

So instead of adding “finally get my shit together” to your 2026 resolutions (we both know that’s not specific enough to actually happen), here are the only 3 brand resolutions you actually need.

And yes, I need them too.

1. Stop Trying to Say Everything to Everyone

Here’s what I realised after my WOW word vomit moment: I was trying to communicate everything I’ve ever done instead of the ONE thing that matters to that specific person.

Classic ADHD brain, right? The overexplaining. The need to provide ALL the context. The panic that if I don’t mention everything RIGHT NOW, I’ll miss my chance forever. As if this is the only conversation I’ll ever have with this human.

She was a startup founder. She needed to know I help women create brand foundations so their marketing actually works. That’s it. Not my entire service menu.

But here’s what we do instead (especially those of us with brains that think everything is connected to everything else) – we think if we don’t mention EVERYTHING, we’ll miss opportunities. So we sound like this:

“I’m a business coach and consultant who helps with strategy but also mindset and I do 1:1s and group programmes and workshops and I have a course and I’m launching a membership and I also do VIP days and…”

Stop it.

The woman who needs your help with pricing doesn’t need to know about your meditation workshops. The client who wants your VIP day doesn’t care about your group programme.

Your resolution: Pick ONE thing to lead with. One clear thing you help with. Everything else is “additional services available.”

Here’s the truth I learned from WOW: Someone might follow you for 6 months and only know 20% of what you do. They’ll see the occasional post about your workshop and think “Oh, I didn’t know she did that too.”

That’s NORMAL. You’re not being inconsistent. They’re just busy humans who catch fragments of your message.

Stop trying to download your entire business into every conversation.

2. Document Your Actual Voice (Not Your Aspirational One)

Want to know something mortifying? In my early days I hired a copywriter who sent me back website copy that said “Kate empowers visionary fempreneurs to manifest their abundant business dreams.”

I wanted to set my laptop on fire.

Not because she was bad at her job, but because I’d filled out her brand questionnaire with who I thought I SHOULD be instead of who I actually am.

I’d written that my brand was “professional but approachable” (kill me now) and that I wanted to “inspire and empower” (I’d rather eat glass).

Here’s who I actually am: Someone who says “fuck” in business posts. Who thinks “fempreneurs” is a linguistical crime. Who’d rather be useful than inspirational.

But I’d never documented my ACTUAL voice. So this poor copywriter was working from Pinterest-board Kate instead of real Kate.

Your resolution: Record yourself talking about your work for 5 minutes. Transcribe it. THAT’S your brand voice. Not the formal email version. Not your LinkedIn persona. The way you actually talk when you’re passionate about something.

My actual voice includes:

• “That’s bullshit” (not “that’s concerning”)
• “Word vomit” (my favourite thing to do with other ADHDers)
• “I’d rather stab myself in the eye” (my response to corporate speak)
• British spelling but Australian frankness and a sprinkle of sarcasm

Document your real voice. The one that comes out after your second coffee when you’re ranting about something you actually care about.

3. Commit to Boring Consistency (Even When You Bore Yourself)

This is the one I’m personally shit at.

I get bored of my own message after saying it three times. Classic ADHD brain – constantly seeking novelty, assuming everyone else is as tired of the topic as I am. Meanwhile, the reality is someone needs to hear something seven times before they even notice it, and about twenty times before they act on it.

Last week I posted about my Brand Blueprint Builder launch. Felt like I was being annoying. Mentioned it everywhere. Guess what? When I ran into a client on the weekend, she said “Oh, are you working on something new?”

She follows me on Instagram. She’s on my email list. She’d missed ALL OF IT.

We think we’re being repetitive when we’re barely being noticed.

But here’s why I hate consistency: It feels boring. It feels like I’m that person at a party telling the same story. So I change things up, try new angles, pivot the message slightly… and end up confusing everyone.

Your resolution: Pick 3 core messages for Q1. Only three. Say them 50 different ways.

Mine for Q1:

1. You can’t fix brand confusion with better prompts
2. I’m making professional brand foundations ACCESSIBLE for everyone, no matter their budget
3. Your AI sounds like shit because your brand voice doesn’t exist

That’s it. Every piece of content will ladder back to these three things. Even when I’m so bored I want to talk about something else.

Because – and this is what WOW taught me – someone will see my 47th post about brand foundations and think “Oh, I didn’t know you helped with that.”

Ok you might also find me harping on about ADHD as well but mostly it will be about those three things!

The Thing Nobody Tells You

Your brand isn’t actually for you or your friends.

It’s for the person who’s half-paying attention while their kid asks for snacks and their phone is on 3% battery and they’ve got 47 unread emails.

It’s for the woman who follows 500 accounts and sees your stuff once a fortnight if the algorithm feels generous.

It’s for the founder who’s so overwhelmed that even though she KNOWS she needs help, she can’t remember who does what.

Your brand needs to be simple enough, clear enough, and consistent enough that these distracted, overwhelmed, busy humans can understand what you do in the 2.3 seconds they give you.

That’s it. That’s the whole game.

Not a rebrand. Not new colours. Not a prettier Instagram template.

Just clarity, reality, and repetition.

And Here’s the Actionable Steps

Because I don’t do fluffy inspiration without practical application:

This week:

1. Write down the ONE thing you help with most
2. Record yourself explaining it to a friend
3. Transcribe that recording

This month:

1. Pick your 3 core messages for Q1
2. Put them somewhere you’ll see them daily
3. Create 12 pieces of content from those 3 messages (4 each)

Next quarter:

1. Say those same 3 things until you want to scream
2. Then say them 20 more times
3. Track how many people say “I didn’t know you did that”

That’s it. No vision boarding. No brand photoshoot. No new website.

Just clear, real, and repeated until people actually hear you.

Because if someone who teaches brand messaging for a living can stuff up their own elevator pitch, we all need these reminders.

Stop trying to be everything to everyone. Document your real voice. Repeat yourself until you can’t stand it.

Then repeat yourself some more.

P.S. If you’re thinking “But Kate, I need actual brand foundations first” – you’re right. That’s what Brand Blueprint Builder is for. January 1st. Under $500. Because I I’m making Brand Strategy accessible to EVERYONE. See what I did there? Core message #2. I’ll say it 49 more times next quarter. You’ve been warned.