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A year ago today, our house was still pretty bare-bones.

The walls had no insulation, the old windows were still in place, and we were down to the studs. I'm not even sure if the electrical was done.

We were still months away from installing drywall.

You know what's funny? I probably wouldn't remember half of these details if I didn't have progress pics. I like to think of them as my “mental health support pics.”

I took the first photo of our house on January 2nd, 2022.

Catie of January 2022 thought that this house would be done in six months (shout out to Kyle’s dad for that one).

Fast forward two years and eight months later, and… we are still far from being done.

This house has been a lot more work than we initially thought it would be. As someone who lives in it and deals with it on a daily basis, it can be really easy to lose perspective and feel like we aren’t making any progress.

So whenever I start to feel the doom and gloom of the “we are never going to finish this house” spiral set in, I've created a habit of looking back six months to a year on my phone and finding a snapshot of the house from that time.

It's just what I need to bring myself back to earth and be reminded of how far we have come.

As someone building a brand, I know you can relate Reader.

It takes time for your brand's vision to become a reality, and in the meantime, it can feel like you are getting nowhere.

In fact, there will be moments when you have to fight for that vision and remind yourself of where you’ve been.

You might not (in fact, you probably won’t) see the returns on your brand and marketing efforts on a month-to-month basis, but if you look back six months or a year, you will.

Most of the platforms we work on have analytics and data. But how many of us make the most of it?

Hiiii, not me.

I haven't consistently tracked data for a while, but my mental-health-support progress pics made me realize how helpful it would be to do something similar for my brand.

Working with CJ Alum’s Remy and Vanessa from rāv collective are the literal GOATS when it comes to tracking data and making data-driven decisions for their brand. Remy is a spreadsheet goddess, and their monthly content reviews inspired me to do the same.

I’m more of a Notion gal, so this week, I'm set out to create a template that creates a brand snapshot of each month. So that 6 months or a year from now - I can look back and see how far I've come.

In this week's newsletter, I’ll explain how you can create your own monthly brand snapshot in 30 minutes or less. And who would I be if I didn’t give you a copy of the template?

Keep Reading For Newsletter Highlights

• 📸 How to create a monthly brand snapshot in 30 minutes or less
• 📝 FREE Notion Template w/ bonus journaling prompts for your morning pages
• 🔎 Sneak-peek at my next offer

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How to create a monthly brand snapshot in 30 minutes or less (and yes, I timed myself doing this)

Step one: Review your top-performing content pieces on each platform you were active on this month, note the data and anything else about that piece of content that you think made it successful.

Here’s an example of the content you could take snapshots of:

• Top performing Reel
• Top performing carousel
• Email with the top open rate
• Email with the highest click rate
• Highest performing newsletter
• Highest performing blog
• Highest performing thread
• Engagement rate
• Avg. comments

Step two: Audience pulse check. Review recent comments direct messages, and meeting notes - List any recurring themes or questions from the audience.

I keep track of all my meeting notes in a notion database (big surprise I know)and then used Notion AI to ask “Please review all my meeting notes from the month of august and notice and recurring themes or questions”. Literal magic.

Step Three: Monthly Review: Tally up some brand data totals for the month. Here’s what I tracked for some inspiration.

01. New Leads 02. New subscribers 03. Accounts reached 04. Accounts engaged

05. Total followers 06. Posts 07. Reels

08. Stories 09. Emails 10. Blogs 11. Threads

Step Four: Copy and paste the previous month's snapshot content

Ask AI "based on everything on this page and last month's goals - where did I see the most success in growing my brand this month?"

Step Five: Action Plan. This is where Notion AI comes in handy again. On my monthly snapshot page, I used Notion AI and the following prompt: “My goal is to post on Instagram three times a week, and I am focusing on audience growth and nurturing right now. Based on everything on this page, can you help me create an action plan for the next month?”

You could tweak this prompt based on your own goals to come up with your own action plan.

Step Six: Goal Setting. Next - I used AI again and the following prompt: “Based on everthing on this page can you help me set some measurable goals for the next month”. These were pretty spot on & I only needed to tweak them a little.

For the monthly snapshot template (currently only available to my subscribers) click the link below + you’ll get three monthly reflection questions for your morning pages.

FREE MONTHLY SNAPSHOT NOTION TEMPLATE

a note catie BEHIND THE OFFER Remember how, in last week's Blog, we talked about different ways to diversify your revenue streams and make a splash during the Q4 sales season? Well, I’ve got a little something cooking up behind the scenes—a monthly subscription that helps you build and manage your brand consistently, efficiently, and authentically. If you loved this week's newsletter's Notion, AI, and practical tip vibes, you will love this subscription. You'll receive one email a month packed with actionable branding tools, templates, and tutorials that help you build and scale your brand behind the scenes, one day at a time. The vibes will include: • Design tips and tricks for brand enhancement • Tech tutorials for efficient website management • Brand strategy insights and implementation guidance • AI prompts tailored for brand development and content creation • Time-saving hacks for busy entrepreneurs • Exclusive, customizable Notion templates for brand management • Ideas to streamline content creation workflow • Monthly brand-building focus with actionable steps • Option to request specific content and influence future toolkit topics Join the waitlist at the link below to get 20% off the first three months & be the first to be notified when enrollment is open. JOIN THE WAITLIST

dig deeper FREE BRAND AUDIT MINI-COURSE: Learn how to audit your brand's audience, content & impact GET THE FREE MINI COURSE

build your brand with cedar june:

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Share your thoughts, feedback, or even suggestions for future topics. I value your input and can't wait to hear from you. Please email me at catie@cedarjunestudio.com, and let's keep the conversation going!

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