Stand Out By Saying What You Stand For

I want to pass on a timeless branding principle that freelancers can and should leverage, and to introduce it, I’ve pulled two excerpts from a certain internal meeting in 1997.

Please don’t write me off for citing the single most cliche person and company imaginable (Steve Jobs and Apple). Instead, allow me to set the scene:

• In 1985, Steve Jobs left Apple, the company he had founded with Steve Wozniak. Depending on who was telling the story, Jobs either resigned or was fired by the board of directors.
• By 1997 Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy. A CNN Money headline on March 13, 1997 summed up the situation in five words: “Apple running out of time.” To keep from losing more market share to bigger competitors like IBM and Microsoft, Apple needed to reinvent itself.
• Jobs returned to the company that year, joined the board in August, and replaced Gil Amelio as CEO in September. He began restructuring the company, and he worked with Jony Ive to refocus the product lines.
• Meanwhile, he chose TBWA\Chiat\Day out of 23 advertising agencies considered to help change public perception. The now iconic “Think different” campaign came from that collaboration.

Now, it’s really easy for you and I to look back decades later and see Apple’s turnaround as inevitable. This is the company that would go on to give us the iPod, iTunes, Apple Store, iOS, App Store, iMac, iPhone, and iPad. However, no one, not even Steve Jobs, could have foreseen at the time what would come on the heels of the “Think different” campaign:

• The company fixed lagging sales.
• Revenue went from 20% down year-over-year in 1997 to up, up, up.
• Apple has a $3 trillion market cap in 2025 and is one of the most valuable publicly traded company in the world, usually in the top three.

It’s important to remember that the “Think different” campaign could have been a bust. The entire turnaround strategy could have failed. Jobs’s beliefs about branding and marketing could have been dead wrong, and Apple would be a cautionary tale if we still talked about the company at all.

That very real possibility is what makes Jobs’s remarks during that internal meeting in 1997 so interesting. Apple was on the verge. They needed a new strategy. They made a bet on their values.

Anyone who cares at all about branding and marketing—which means you and me and any freelancer—should lean forward and pay close attention to the bet and the thinking behind it. What ideas and beliefs were circulating around Apple at the time? What was in the soil and air?

In that internal meeting on September 23, 1997, Jobs provided clues. Here’s the first excerpt:

“To me, marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. It’s a very noisy world. And we’re not gonna get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us.”

Hmm… A complicated, noisy world where people won’t remember much about you. Why does that sound familiar?

Here’s the second excerpt:

“We started working about eight weeks ago, and the question we asked [ourselves] was: Our customers want to know who Apple is and what it is that we stand for. Where do we fit in this world? What we’re about isn’t making boxes for people to get their jobs done – although we do that well, we do that better than almost anybody in some cases – but Apple is about something more than that. Apple’s core value is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. That’s what we believe.”

You can watch the video clip for yourself here, or read the transcript here. You’ll see the CEO, Jobs, CEO-ing in a black mock-t and dad shorts, which is enjoyable of itself, but don’t miss the principle and the opportunity here.

Your values and beliefs—that is, how you show up and what you stand for—will help you stand out in a noisy, complicated world. Or, they will cause you to disappear in a sea of sameness.

That’s it. That’s the lesson.

If we’re not careful, we spend the attention we do get talking about “making boxes for people to get their jobs done.” We point them to the functional benefits of our services and product.

Our freelance clients certainly want good outcomes, but if everyone with your same skill set talks about “award-winning design,” “expert keyword research,” or “high-quality content,” then where does that leave you? People won’t remember much about you. In the absence of more salient information, they compare your “features” to a competitors’. They don’t connect with your values, values that might have resonated deeply.

Here’s my advice:

1. Dig down to your core values. Not “business values” but your deeply held personal values. What are your nonnegotiables? What do you stand for?
2. Now think about the millions of other freelancers around the world with a skill set comparable to yours and then consider your would-be clients who are trying to find you in a sea of options. What do you want them to remember about you? Where do you fit in this world? What do you believe?
3. Weave your beliefs and values into your messaging and marketing. For example, I believe the best is yet to come. I say that (”The best is yet to come”) all the time: to my high-ticket coaching clients, to members of the Freelance Cake Community, and to consulting clients. More cynical and skeptical clients will roll their eyes at my optimism, which means I attract the ones who have a similar outlook.

We all overcomplicate brand building. If you’re a solopreneur, then your personal values ARE your brand values. There’s no corporate divide or separation. It’s authenticity and consistency, not linguistic acrobatics and visual pyrotechnics, that persuades. It’s substance, not flash.

There should be zero difference between the personal morals and ethics you profess and how you conduct business. In the Christian circles I’m a part of, we say there should be no difference between who you are on a Sunday and who you are on a Monday. (Of course, that doesn’t stop many people who share my faith from exploring the far reaches of hypocrisy, but that’s a conversation for another time.)

If your beliefs and values don’t shape and constrain how you show up in your business, then they’re not really beliefs and values. They’re fibs and fantasies.

When your beliefs and values are real, however, expect them to pop up at inconvenient times. Expect those crux moments when you have to do the right thing even when it hurts, even when no one is looking. And when you maintain that consistency for long enough, expect to attain something very precious indeed: a real brand, one that competitors can imitate but never truly duplicate.

A real brand is one of the best advantages you can have, as Apple has proven for several decades now. Competitors’ release products that offer more bang for the buck and are arguably better, but Apple fans don’t care. The choice for them is automatic. What explains this type of loyalty?

People are loyal to brands that reinforce their identity and values.

So what do you stand for?

Put your beliefs and values into your messaging, my friend.

That’s the best way to stand out as a freelancer is by saying what you stand for. People want to stand with you because of what you stand for.

When you’re ready, here are ways I can help you:

1. Free Money. A pricing and money mindset guide for freelance creatives. If you’re unsure about your freelance pricing, this is the book for you.
2. Morning Marketing Habit. This course will help you build an “always be marketing” practice, become less dependent on referrals, and proactively build the business you want with the clients you want. My own morning marketing habit has enabled me to consistently make 6 figures as a freelancer.
3. 1:1 Coaching. Gain clarity, confidence, and momentum in your freelance or consulting business.
4. Business Redesign (Group Coaching). Raise your effective hourly rate, delegate with confidence, and free up 40 hours a month.
5. Clarity Session. It’s hard to read the label when you’re inside the bottle. I've done well over 100 of these 1:1 sessions with founders, solopreneurs, and freelancers who wanted guidance, a second opinion, or help creating a plan.