Justin Lamb – Podcast Host, Writer, Musician

While I rarely made the effort to update the previous JustinLambMusic.com, I never thought I’d let it disappear. Alas, I did and I was left having to build something new from scratch. This has turned into quite a challenging and unique task. When I first discovered that I let my previous content lapse before I could move it over to WordPress, I hired a web designer to build the site for me. In my consultation with her, she asked what my brand was. This question had me spiraling, looking for an answer. I knew an aesthetic I wanted, but I didn’t know what my brand was. Are people supposed to know what their brand is? What even is a brand? So with these questions circling my mind, I did what any resourceful person would do: I went to Facebook to ask my followers what my brand was.

There were many entertaining answers to this question from a population of people that have become my go-to source of storytelling and opinions. Some answers were funny. Some were humbling and generous. One answer stood above them all, though, and it came in the form of an email. A friend of mine that had previously done communications and branding for a major University had branched out as a consultant and wanted to use me and my inquisitive branding debacle as a guinea pig to her new approach to branding. With excitement and fear, cause I still wasn’t sure what branding was, I signed up and was in a Zoom meeting in no time.

Through thoughtful questions, some journal prompts, and an investigative look into my web presence, it was determined that I was all over the place. I knew I wanted to narrow down my primary focus to the creative endeavor that meant the most to me, my podcast Friend Request, but right now I was spending time all over the board, covering everything from music to writing to sobriety and non-alcoholic beers. If you Googled me, you would find a lot of rubbish and nothing that I felt truly defined me and who I wanted to be portrayed at. Through all of this introspection and with the help of a professional brand expert, I was able to make a shift.

So all of this is to tell you, this is how I came to make my new site. Oh, also, I did it myself because the web designer was too busy or didn’t prioritize correctly. Either way, I made it and I am still tweaking it, but if my brand is the statement you read on the right, what am I missing? Where am i spending too much energy when I could be focusing on something more pertinent? I know I want the podcast side to be more, but what else is there other than the podcast, itself? These are things to think about. Welcome! Read, comment, hang out. I’m happy to have you!