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laurafaritos · 4 months ago

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HDMS021. What I Learned About Branding from Harvard Business School

You ever try to market your creative work and feel like you're screaming into the void? Yeah. Me too. Until this week, I thought 'branding' was just about having a cute logo and a catchy Instagram bio. Turns out, I was very, very wrong.

I’m currently taking Harvard Business School’s Digital Marketing Strategy course, not because I have a corporate job, but because I am a self-employed creative trying to figure out how to make my projects financially sustainable. And the thing is, comedy school, film school, and media programs do not teach this stuff. No one sat me down and said, 'Here’s how you actually get people to care about your work—and buy tickets.

So, I’m taking you along for the ride. If you don’t have the time, money, or sheer desperation to take a Harvard course, I’ll break it down for you. In this post, we’re talking about branding—what it actually means, why your creative work needs a clear value proposition, and how I’m applying this knowledge to my own career.

Because here’s the truth: If people don’t understand why your work is valuable, they won’t engage with it. And if you’re a comedian, an artist, a writer—if you’re trying to build something from the ground up—understanding how to position yourself is the difference between struggling to sell tickets and having an audience that actively seeks you out.

So, let’s talk about what branding actually means, why it’s not just about aesthetics, and how Harvard Business School broke it down in a way that made my brain go, "Ohhhh, so THAT’S why I’ve been failing at this."

I. HARVARD RECAP: WHAT I ACTUALLY LEARNED ABOUT BRANDING

Branding isn’t just about a cool logo or matching colors. It’s about how people see you, remember you, and trust you—or don’t. Harvard broke it down into four big questions every brand (including personal brands) needs to answer:

Who are you talking to? (Target audience)

Why should they care? (Unique value)

Who are you up against? (Competitive set)

How do they know you’re legit? (Reason to believe)

And if you can’t answer those? You don’t have a brand.

1. WHO Are You Talking To?

If you try to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one.

This is where OOFOS, the shoe brand we studied, had to make a choice. Their shoes could help all kinds of people—runners, nurses, older folks with foot pain—but who should they focus on?

At first, they zeroed in on marathon runners. They thought, These are the people who will “get it” the fastest. But as time went on, they realized their biggest customers weren’t the runners—it was people who stood on their feet all day. Teachers. Nurses. Chefs. People who weren’t looking for “recovery shoes” but just needed something that didn’t make them want to cry after a long shift.

So they shifted their focus. Instead of trying to convince hardcore athletes to care, they started speaking to the people who already needed them.

This made me realize something about my own brand: I’ve spent years trying to make my work digestible for everyone, instead of embracing the people who already resonate with it.

I’m not just a comedian. I’m not just a producer. I’m a neurodivergent creative figuring out business, marketing, and self-employment in real-time. The people who will find that valuable aren’t the entire internet. They’re other creatives—especially neurodivergent ones—who never got a business class and are tired of being told they have to fit inside someone else’s system.

Those are the people I should be talking to.

2. WHY Should They Care?

Harvard introduced something called a value proposition. That’s just a fancy way of saying: What makes your thing special? Why should anyone pick you over the million other options out there?

Amazon’s value was clear from the start:

Shop from home instead of going to a store.

More options than any store could carry.

Lower prices because no physical locations.

OOFOS had to figure out their own. At first, they thought their selling point was "recovery shoes for athletes." But when they realized most of their customers weren’t athletes, they had to reframe. They weren’t just making comfy shoes. They were solving foot pain in a way that no other brand could. That became their value.

So what’s mine? What makes my work different from every other comedian, producer, or creator out there?

I used to think I had to be broadly appealing to be successful. Now I realize that’s the fastest way to be forgettable. What makes me stand out isn’t just that I do comedy or deep dives—it’s that I approach it through the lens of love, fear, and foreign places. It’s that I’m showing what it actually looks like to build something from scratch as a neurodivergent creator.

And if I own that instead of watering it down, the right people will care.

3. WHO Are You Competing With?

Whether you like it or not, people are going to compare you to something they already know.

OOFOS had to decide: were they just another comfort shoe like Crocs, or were they something else entirely? If they positioned themselves as just comfy shoes, they’d be up against massive brands like Nike and Adidas. But if they positioned themselves as recovery shoes, they’d stand alone.

This is something I never thought about for my own work.

For years, I’ve been trying to prove myself in the wrong category. I’ve been treating myself like a traditional comedian or a classic YouTuber or a textbook business educator—when in reality, I don’t fit into any of those neatly.

I’m not here to teach comedy. I’m not a marketing guru. I’m not a self-help influencer. I’m a comedian who produces my own shows, studies business in real-time, and shares what I learn while I figure it out.

If I stop trying to compete in categories I don’t belong to, and instead define my own lane, I don’t have to fight for space. The space is already mine.

4. HOW Do They Know You’re Legit?

You can’t just say your brand is great. You have to prove it.

Amazon proved it with millions of customer reviews and fast shipping. OOFOS proved it with real testimonials from people whose foot pain disappeared.

So how do I prove that what I’m doing is worth paying attention to?

For me, proof is:

My work exists. I produce real shows. I release real content.

People resonate. My audience is growing, and they come back for more.

I don’t just talk—I do. A lot of people share advice, but I share the process while I’m doing it.

The internet is full of people making big claims about what they can do. I’d rather let my work speak for itself.

Final Thoughts: Branding Is About Clarity, Not Aesthetics

At the end of the day, branding isn’t about having a cool logo or a perfectly curated color scheme. It’s about making sure people understand you, fast.

If people can’t explain what you do in one sentence, they won’t remember you. And if they don’t remember you, they won’t support you.

So before you worry about making things look good, ask yourself:

Who am I really talking to?

Why should they care?

Who am I actually competing with?

What proof do I have?

If you can answer those clearly, you’re not just a creator—you’re a brand people will actually pay attention to.

II. AUDHD & SELF-EMPLOYMENT: HOW I’M MAKING THIS WORK

One thing Harvard didn’t cover? How to apply all this when your brain doesn’t work like a neurotypical business major’s.

Branding, marketing, and self-employment all assume you can think linearly, set a plan, and execute it smoothly. But that’s not how it works when you have AuDHD (Autism + ADHD).

For me, running a brand means:

Intense hyperfocus followed by burnout. One week, I’m designing the perfect branding. The next, I’m hiding from emails.

Struggling with consistency. Branding loves repetition. My brain? Hates doing the same thing twice.

Being too niche for the algorithm, too broad for a single audience. My special interests don’t fit neatly into one box.

Overexplaining or under-explaining. Either I give way too much detail (like this Harvard recap) or I assume people magically understand what I’m doing.

So, how do I build a strong brand when the traditional way of doing things is literally built for a different kind of brain?

1. WORKING WITH, NOT AGAINST, MY BRAIN

Instead of trying to force myself to be a perfectly optimized entrepreneur, I’m figuring out how to make self-employment work with my AuDHD brain.

What that looks like:

Batching in hyperfocus mode. Instead of forcing myself to be “consistent,” I create in bulk when I’m hyperfocused and schedule things in advance.

Branding around my core themes. Instead of choosing one niche, I structured my brand around three pillars—love, fear, and foreign places—so I have flexibility without losing focus.

Creating self-contained content loops. Instead of trying to build engagement in a way that exhausts me, I make sure every post leads to another, so people can binge my work on their own terms.

Making my brand work like a special interest. If branding feels like a chore, I won’t do it. So I frame it as a puzzle—an ongoing experiment in how to make my work more sustainable.

By adapting branding to my brain, instead of trying to force my brain to work like a marketing textbook, I’m actually able to build something that lasts.

2. THE BIGGEST SHIFT: BRANDING AS A WARD, NOT A NET

For years, I thought branding was about attracting as many people as possible. But what I’ve finally realized? It’s just as much about repelling the wrong people.

Every time I’ve struggled to “build an audience,” it’s been because I was trying to appeal to people I had no business trying to appeal to. I spent years in comedy school and media programs learning how to make myself palatable to the general public—because if people don’t like you, your career tanks, right?

But here’s the truth: not everyone has to like me.

If someone finds my content “too much,” they aren’t my audience.

If someone doesn’t like my neurodivergent traits, they aren’t my audience.

If someone needs my comedy to be perfectly inoffensive and market-tested for the masses, they aren’t my audience.

Branding isn’t just about who you attract—it’s about who you keep out.

The people who find me overwhelming? They wouldn’t like my live shows anyway. The people who think I should be more “polished”? They’d hate my chaotic, deep-dive content style. The people who roll their eyes at the term “neurodivergent”? They wouldn’t resonate with my worldview.

Let them leave.

I don’t need everyone to love what I do. I just need the right people to love it enough to stick around.

SUCCESS AS A NEURODIVERGENT CREATIVE

Branding isn’t just about what looks good—it’s about what makes sense for how you work.

If traditional branding advice doesn’t fit your brain, then make your own rules.

If you can’t be consistent, be unforgettable.

If you can’t fit into a niche, build a world.

If you can’t appeal to everyone, make your brand a ward against the wrong people.

At the end of the day, success isn’t about being the most marketable person in the room. It’s about figuring out how to build something that actually works for you.

And that? That’s something no Harvard course is going to teach you.

III. TL;DR: BRANDING, SELF-EMPLOYMENT & NEURODIVERGENCE

Branding is NOT about being for everyone. It’s about attracting the right people and repelling the wrong ones.

Traditional branding advice assumes a neurotypical brain. If you have AuDHD, you need to build a system that works with, not against, how you function.

Consistency is hard? Be unforgettable instead. Hyperfocus in bursts, batch content, and let your brand evolve like a special interest.

Niche feels limiting? Build a world instead. My brand isn’t about one thing—it’s about love, fear, and foreign places. That gives me structure and flexibility.

Audience building isn’t about casting a wide net. It’s about creating a ward—a signal that attracts the right people while keeping the wrong ones out.

If someone doesn’t like my neurodivergent traits, they were never my audience. Let them go. The internet is big enough for both of us.

Success isn’t about being the most marketable—it’s about building something sustainable. If the rules don’t fit your brain, make your own.

Branding is a game. And I’m finally playing it on my own terms.

Follow me for more reflections! Tchau, tchau!!

#MarketingForCreatives #BrandingForNeurodivergents #AuDHD #SelfEmployedLife #ComedyBusiness #NeurodivergentEntrepreneur #CreativeEntrepreneur #StandUpComedy #MarketingLessons #BusinessForCreatives #ADHDBusiness #AutisticEntrepreneur #ComedianLife #MakingItWork

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