Building something utterly human was no small feat. I mean, I woke up one morning and decided to transition from being a personal brand to building a whole company, and writing this right now, I cannot believe that I pulled it off. It took a lot of time, energy, money, and tears (plenty of tears) to get here.
The decision to move from a personal brand to an entire business started one day in the middle of a journaling session. I mean, I have built a lot of things in my life—some worked, some did not—but most of them have been personal brands. My greatest fear was, “What if I can’t pull off building a company?” But I realized that if I can tell people that they can do hard things, I would need to strengthen my convictions on that even further by doing a very hard thing too.
THE MAKING
It started with figuring out who my ideal audience was. The possibilities were ENDLESS. Like, “Hello, it’s utterly human—human beings are my target. What else do you want from meeee?” I knew I had to narrow it down, but I have a big heart, so it was hard, so hard. It’s so hard having a big heart, but alas, I found a workaround. I settled on creators who color outside the lines because ideally, we should all be creators who color outside the lines.
Then I got to work crafting a strategy. I had only one goal at this stage, and that was to break as many rules as possible. I wanted to cause chaos and mayhem in the brand strategy world. I wanted a traditional brand strategist to take one look at it and go, “ARE YOU MAD?” And I’d like to think I did a pretty good job at that. From the kind of values I chose to the attributes and even the point of view of the brand, it was intentionally crafted to make a very firm statement that you can spot from a mile away. I wanted to craft a brand that even the people who interact with it (you) can almost accurately talk about it. And if you see a design, content, or copy without the Utterly Human name attached, you’d know it’s ours.
Then it got to figuring out what kind of products to make. This one took a LOT of time to just ideate because I didn’t want to make products just for the sake of making them; I wanted them to be intentionally made (one of our core values is intentionality). While at the time of the launch, we only have one paid product launched, what’s coming is just mind-blowing (not to brag). Our first product is our self-exploration journal because it is deeply rooted in the heart of Utterly Human to explore your humanity without shame and in truth before you even begin to create anything. To be soul-led requires self-intimacy, and the first product is an incredible guide for that.
The next part is the part everyone sees: the creative direction. The photos, fonts, colors, graphics. This is the exciting part until you are trying to decide WHICH SHADE OF WHITE IS BETTER, lmao. Can you tell that every single part of this process presented me with many issues, lol? Nonetheless, I did enjoy this part. I loved picking colors and seeing what goes where and when. I loved curating the aesthetic and making 6 versions of one logo in 5 colors only to scrap everything and start again (heavy sarcasm). I wanted Utterly Human’s aesthetic to be bold. In my previous design creations, I have leaned heavily on the minimalist and neutral side, and this time I took a sharp swerve by adding a stunning orange and blue color, and I couldn’t be happier about how it turned out.
After that was done, it was time to write the copy. If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that I WAS WRITING COPY FOR YEARSSSSS. I wanted to carefully choose my words; I wanted the heart of Utterly Human to reflect in the copy. I didn’t want it to just be buzzwords that sounded cool and could turn a profit. It involved writing and editing and tweaking, figuring out how to say things in fewer words. I wanted to write copy that calls people in rather than talks at them. It was a labor of love, and I’m happy with the way it turned out.
Then it was time to make the website. If I had a dollar for every time I cried through this process, I’d have a bajillion dollazzzz. Look, it took WORK. Everything you see took WORK. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I tried like 5 different codes to just move one thing to the left. I am, however, grateful for the fact that I have spent my life learning, and I was able to do this for myself by myself. Did I cry? Yes. Did I watch a million Indian guys fix several broken codes? Also yes. But I am happy with the way it turned out. There will be a few more tweaks as time goes on because perfection is a myth, but shout out to the Indian men on YouTube!
Building this brand took a lot more from me than I expected, but it taught me way more than it took. It is literally soul work, and I am infinitely grateful to you for being here. Thank you for supporting me, thank you for making my dreams a reality every single day by interacting with this brand.
A million hugs,
Boluwatife Adesoye
Head Human
