“You ROCK, Lady!”

Not because of what you did – or didn’t – do this week. 
Not because of what you look like or who you rub shoulders with. 
Because you are enough. Just as you are. And what you bring to the table is exactly what someone else needs. 

I tell you this because this is what Gillian told me every day we worked together on her book resources. I know what a gift it is to be reminded of this simple truth. And I want you to receive the same gift.

So I'll say it again.

You ROCK!!

Last week you heard that there were 2 amazing women who were recent clients. You’ve already met Caryn. (Did you take her quiz?) 

Meet Gillian

Today I'm talking all about Gillian Goerzen of Super You. She’s a Fitness & Nutrition Coach, Personal Trainer, and one of the most positive, inspiring women I have the pleasure of knowing. Her compassionate, unique fitness approach has had a huge impact on changing this scrawny girl (me!) who would’ve never run 6 months ago into a gal who’s almost up to regular 5K jaunts. Yeah, she’s that kind of awesome!

November 1 was the much-anticipated release of her first book titled "The Elephant in the Gym: Your Body-positive Guide to Writing Your Own Health and Fitness Story”. Gillian had huge plans for this launch, which included a schwack of additional pdf resources for her readers. She’s a coach and encourager at heart and, as awesome as the book is, she knows that it might take a few practical tools for some of us to implement what we read. So when she asked if I'd design her resources, I couldn’t say “yes” fast enough!

Her first request was that they be “pretty”. Since I’ve known and followed Gillian for a while and she’s so brilliantly consistent with her brand, I knew what “pretty” meant to her – in her own words, “ALL THE NEON!!!” 

Of course, her second request was that they align with the look and feel of her book cover, which was already designed and in production. We quickly realized that the pdfs not only needed to fit with the book cover, but they also needed to tie into Super You and continue building her brand recognition. 

Bridging Brands

This became a perfect example of what I call “bridging brands.” Whether you’re launching a course or your first book or any project that may be a tangent of your core brand, there's often a brand gap to bridge between the new entity you’ve created and the rest of your business. You want it to look like it fits but still have a bit of its own personality. With a bit of strategy and intention, it can be a great opportunity to increase your brand awareness while still flexing a bit of your creative muscles and taking things in a slightly different direction. Take a look at how this works for Gillian.

Key Strategies

Here’s a quick rundown of some key strategies for bridging the brands of Super You and “The Elephant in the Gym” and, of course, making these resources pretty AND practical: 

• Keep her primary Super You colors and the clean sans serif fonts, while pulling in the watercolor, inky textures from the book.

• Don't make them too "color heavy". I find it so frustrating to get a pdf that I'm expected to print and use, only to find huge blocks of color that are going to suck up all my printer ink. That stuff’s expensive; be nice to your readers. (The only exception to this is the Handbook cover which doesn’t need to be printed.)

• One of the clever features is incorporating the inky textures right into the headline font. This is a carry-over feature from the book cover. Texture and color in a small space gives lots of bang for our buck and keeps the printer ink IN the printer!

• Load them up with hyperlinks. Some of the resources link to recommended websites, books, and even Gillian's own SuperYum recipes from her blog. Including clickable links within the pdf makes it easy for readers to be redirected.

• Custom icons make it more engaging and fun!

Because there were 7 different pdfs to design, I had 26 glorious pages to really play around and have fun with these! Here’s a little peek at a few of the pages.

How did Gillian feel about all this?

“Looking at these made me cry. You nailed it. This has truly been a labour of love and it’s so emotional to see it coming to life. Thank you for making it even more beautiful than I could have imagined!”

– Gillian Goerzen, Super You

Want to see more? 

You can access all the resources AND put them into action for YOU! They’re FREE for everyone who purchases a copy of “The Elephant in the Gym”. If you’ve followed me on social media this week, you may be tired of hearing this but, seriously, y’all. I’m not an affiliate; there’s no kick back to me other than seeing other women find a healthy lifestyle that works for them. You can follow Gillian on Facebook for more details.

Plus if you purchase a copy by Friday, November 9 and email your receipt to gillian@superyou.ca, you’ll be invited to join me and a whole community of amazing women ready to #unleashtheelephant in a private online group, with coaching and weekly video chats with Gillian for FREE! She’s never offered anything like this before and it’s gonna be awesome. Trust me – you want this woman in your corner! The group "runs" (not literally, unless that's your style) from November 12 to December 9. If you join us online, please send me an email or FB message so I can find you. I’d love to connect and cheer you on! (Did you know I was a cheerleader for 8 years? Not even kidding.)

With Gillian’s guidance and a supportive community, I just might keep running through the winter snow. Crazier things have happened! 

How about you? What could YOU do with a little guidance, support, a personal cheerleader, and some killer resources?

I bet you'd just keep rockin'!