Blazing Pine is dead...long live Blazing Pine.
I’ve told this story before, but I’ll tell it again.
August 6th, 2023. My wife and I were out for dinner, with her brother and his wife, at the Bow Valley Ranche Restaurant on the edge of Calgary’s Fish Creek Park. It’s a beautiful spot. We had a table on the front porch with a view over the fields and the park beyond. One of those Alberta nights that seem to stretch out, daylight until 9.30pm. It was a perfect, warm evening. I remember a very good steak and a very good bottle of wine.
We had been talking about all kinds of things, big things, not polite dinner table chit-chat. At the time we were still living in the UK and quality time with my wife’s family was limited to our twice-yearly visits, so we really cherished these evenings out. The conversation turned to work, a topic that had had an intimate connection with our sense of place for over ten years: we had moved around the world for my job, never really choosing the location, but saying yes to the job and going where it took us. It had been an incredible, overwhelmingly positive experience, but we had known for some time that Calgary was where we wanted to end up one day.
And that decision felt like it was moving closer, for a number of reasons. One of the main ones was that I had simply started to feel like I needed a new direction. Obviously there was a lot behind that feeling, but to wrap it up in a single statement - I just needed a change. We were ready to stop following the job, and instead to make some decisions according to our own desires and intentions.
But still, there remained some hesitations. Safety. Comfort. Familiarity. A career and a reputation I had worked hard to build. Were we really ready to let all that go?
Over dessert, my sister-in-law asked me if my work was making me happy. No, I replied, without having to think too hard. Not anymore.
So if it’s not making you happy…stop doing it.
Doesn’t it drive you crazy when someone makes it sound so obvious like that?
To cut a long story short, that was the kindling for a fire that was lit within me to make this long-considered change happen.
And as it turned out, another fire was starting at the same time.
This is the actual tree on fire. Grainy photo. It was late.
On the way home, driving north up Crowchild Trail, we passed a single pine tree burning by the side of the highway.
And that became the inspiration for Blazing Pine.
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Remember in the 90s when everyone was putting a NOT at the end of every sentence?
If you don’t remember, or if you don’t believe me, it was the 1992 Word Of The Year.
It was popularised by the movie Wayne’s World, which showcased several examples:
“I’m having a really great time…NOT.”
“Pearl Jam are an awesome band…NOT.” (Love the movie, can’t agree with this however).
Anyway.
Rebrands always work. NOT.
For some solid recent examples, I refer you to Cracker Barrel (everyone hated it), Jaguar (everyone hated it), and Eddie Bauer (everyone hated it).
Recent rebrands. Winners, every one.
Total disasters, all three. Of course, there’s always the argument that the “failure” actually created a whole load of attention, and that’s all anyone is really trying to achieve - but you still want to feel good about the attention you’re receiving. Not like everyone hates you.
Now, I’m not a branding expert, and this isn’t an article about branding*.
But I am a small business owner, and I have a brand, I am deliberately trying to build it and grow its visibility and appeal, and therefore, branding is a thing I have to care about a little bit at least.
When I started this work in January last year, I had a name, a logo (shoutout to the brilliant Kseniia Durnieva, who I found on Upwork but who is worth a much bigger platform than that), and a website.
Like most small business owners, I did the website myself in an afternoon, and it was…fine.
Fast forward a year, and as I learn about what I’m doing and what I’m trying to achieve (yes it is that way round, at least with me), “fine” is no longer good enough. I wanted better than fine. But I had no idea what that meant, or how to achieve it.
What I did know was this:
The good thing about being a sole proprietor of a small business is that nobody’s paying too much attention to your brand.
The bad thing about being a sole proprietor of a small business is that nobody’s paying too much attention to your brand.
Looking at it this way, I figured there was almost no risk in making a few changes, and, if the goal was to grow the business, it wouldn’t hurt to fix up the branding (and that “fine” website).
Two things happened next. One, I went to The Gathering. I’ve written about this experience several times before (it was awesome), but what’s relevant here is it made me think very differently about what I was doing and how I was doing it, with one very obvious conclusion: I needed to do better.
The second thing that happened was I met (at The Gathering) Rhea Beierle, founder of Renegade Ideas. We were introduced by Caleb Clark of Hook + Ladder fame, and had a brief conversation at the end of the final day. She told me she was looking for some clarity in what to do next in her own career, and we agreed to speak a few days later in more detail.
I thought I had a potential client. So did she. And one of us was right: over the past few months Rhea has been working on a subtle rebrand for Blazing Pine.
I say subtle - some of the colours are not that subtle (my choices, not hers, for anyone who can’t live with bright orange). But the name and the logo survive. We’ve made a few enhancements to typefaces and designs and created a more consistent (and just generally better) look and feel to everything. We’ve tightened the message and the offering. And my “fine” website has been replaced by something I love a lot. It features more details on what I do, some downloadable content, and other useful stuff too.
The new look.
Rhea’s done an awesome job. She’s put up with my minimal attention span. Tolerated my flexible approach to deadlines. And found ways to make orange and army green work without making it look like I’m taking people duck hunting.
Same logo, new colours.
I’m really proud of the end result. Not because it looks great (it does) or because I love the colours (I do), but because it gives me a platform to create more useful things that will help my current and future clients with their own situations and plans and ambitions. And, as often as not, with their own personal brand.
That’s ultimately why I do what I do.
I wrote about personal brand recently, and why I think it’s important for everyone to work on.
I won’t repeat what I said there.
But I will use this piece as an invitation to think about whether it’s time for you to dust off your own brand guidelines or your own website, and see if they couldn’t use a little refresh.
And if you think you don’t have brand guidelines or a website…you do.
Brand guidelines are standards and norms that define how a brand appears in public.
It’s things like your reputation, your values, and your purpose.
See? You do have that.
And a website is simply where you tell the world about what you have done, what you can do, and how they can reach you.
You have that too.
It’s your LinkedIn profile. It’s your resume. It’s the introduction you make when you meet someone for the first time.
Everyone has one.
And we all need a little refresh from time to time.
Some of us need more than a refresh. We need the whole damn fire.
You don’t have to pick orange.
But you do have to pick something.
You can begin with the same question I did: is your situation still making you happy?
Then go find your own tree burning by the side of the road.
*ok it was a little bit about branding.