The mindset that allows me to express my creativity
If there is one thing I’ve learnt over the last two decades, it’s this:
Most people do not need to spend thousands on branding.
You’ve heard me mention the MVB (Minimum Viable Brand) a few times now, so I want to give you proper context. What it is. Who it’s for. And why I believe it’s a smarter way to start a brand.
This mindset hasn’t just changed how I approach client work. It’s become the way I build my own ideas too. Every course I’ve published. Every book I’ve written. Every process I’ve built. Every workshop, keynote, and framework.
All of it started scrappy. None of it arrived fully formed. None of it began as a finished product with perfect clarity. It all started as an MVB… a rough version shaped by real conversations, real problems, and real experiments.
I build small, I put it into the world, I listen carefully, I adjust, I let it evolve. That’s the pattern. And the fact of the matter is, there is never really a final, perfect version of anything. Especially not a brand.
Most ideas don’t fail because they’re bad. They fail because they never leave the notebook.
The Truth About Early Stage Branding
Many people can’t afford design studios or pro freelancers at the beginning. That’s not a criticism, it’s just reality. Good design takes time, experience, and craft, and that work deserves to be paid for. But early stage ideas very rarely arrive with big budgets attached to them. They arrive with bucketloads of energy, uncertainty, and a lot of unanswered questions.
And it’s not just founders who struggle. Creatives do too. Designers, writers, developers, makers, tinkerers. People with skills and ambition and half formed ideas sitting in their heads. They don’t lack drive or creativity. They lack a clear way to turn thought into action.
The ideas that have made it out of my head tend to grow. The ones that don’t either disappeared (or are still sitting there).
Over the last five years especially, I’ve stayed close to both sides of my work. Continuing to work hands-on with clients, while also helping more and more creative people outside of traditional client setups.
And somewhere in that overlap, I noticed something. They came from different worlds, but the feeling was often the same. Creative people with the skills, but caught in their own heads. Clients with ideas and momentum, but not quite ready, financially or mentally, to go all in.
Different circumstances but same friction: ideas wanting to move, but getting caught at the starting line. Most people don’t need more hustle. They need a first step. And at the beginning, that first step isn’t dropping thousands on a full brand build out complete with strategy decks, systems, and ten year plans.
That’s where the idea of the Minimum Viable Brand came from.
What is the Minimum Viable Brand (MVB)?
The Minimum Viable Brand (MVB) is a small, focused foundation designed to help ideas move. It isn’t half a brand or a cheaper version of the real thing. It’s a starter brand built for early momentum.
Instead of trying to design everything upfront, the MVB gives you just enough structure to show up, communicate clearly, and test your idea in the real world. Think simple visuals, a clear message, one place to launch, and a basic toolkit you can actually use. Nothing extra. Nothing ornamental. Just what’s needed to begin.
The purpose of an MVB is learning. It helps founders and creative humans validate their ideas, understand their audience, and build confidence before making bigger investments. As the idea grows, the brand grows with it. That’s when deeper strategy and design come into play.
The MVB simply creates a smarter starting point, reducing wasted time and money while giving ideas a chance to find their feet before anyone goes all in.
Who is the MVB perfect for?
The MVB is designed for people at the very beginning. The fucking start. It’s for anyone who wants to move forward without overcommitting too early. Whether you’re starting something new or reshaping something that already exists, the MVB gives you a practical way to begin with focus instead of panic.
It’s especially helpful for:
- Early stage founders with an idea but no clear roadmap
- Creatives with projects stuck in their heads and nowhere to put them
- Small teams testing a new product, service, or direction
- Freelancers building offers or personal brands
- Makers and builders who want to validate before they scale
- Anyone with limited budget but big belief
- People who need a little momentum
The MVB meets people where they are and gives them a usable starting point so they can learn fast, build confidence, and grow from evidence rather than guesswork.
The MVB Process: How to Build a Minimum Viable Brand
Step 1: Clarity before creativity
Building an MVB starts with clarity. Before you design anything, you shape the idea using my decision-making framework: The Five Idea Keys™.
The Five Idea Keys help you get what’s in your head out of your head and into action.
- Red Key = Spark (Why you exist)
- Blue Key = Person (Who you serve)
- Green Key = Place (Where you belong)
- Yellow Key = Energy (How you show up)
- Black Key = Offer (What you deliver)
This is the decision-making layer. Once that’s clear, design becomes sharper and simpler.
Step 2: Build the MVB Toolkit
From there, you assemble the MVB toolkit, the smallest possible set of assets that allow the idea to function in the real world.
That might include:
- A simple logo
- A focused colour palette
- A basic type system
- A short messaging guide
- One primary place to launch (landing page, PDF, social profile, etc.)
The point here is restraint. Everything in the toolkit must be usable immediately. Nothing is decorative. It’s built to communicate, not impress.
Step 3: Sell It to a Stranger
Then comes the part most people avoid: you sell it to a first stranger. Not your mate, not your mum. A real person with real money. You put the idea in front of someone who doesn’t owe you encouragement and see what happens. That’s where validation begins.
You listen carefully to objections, questions, and confusion. You refine the offer. You adjust the messaging. You tweak the positioning.
The MVB isn’t about launching once and hoping. It’s about continuous learning. Each interaction sharpens the idea. Each sale builds proof. And with every cycle of testing and improving, the brand becomes stronger, clearer, and more investable.
Why the Minimum Viable Brand Matters
The MVB matters more than ever because it pulls people out of panic and back into progress. In a world shaped by speed and uncertainty, it gives anyone with an idea a practical way to start small, test in the real world, and build trust through action instead of waiting for perfect branding or permission.
An MVB is the antidote to panic branding. It stops people choosing random colours, default templates, and moulding themselves into the sea of sameness. It helps people move forward, put ideas into motion, and learn what actually works.
And that matters, because turning ideas into something real is often what creates momentum, opens doors, and supports people, their businesses, and their future.
And the best thing about the MVB mindset? A small investment of effort gives your idea structure, so you don’t have to keep starting from scratch. As they say in Modern Family, “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.” Slow down just enough to shape the idea properly… then move fast without chaos.
And here’s the bigger picture: If we truly want the creative and design industries to thrive, more ideas need to exist in the world. Ideas have to start. They have to become brands.
When that happens, they need designers, strategists, writers, developers, and all the people who help shape and grow them. If ideas stay stuck in notebooks or never make it past the first step, they can’t support the creative economy. The Minimum Viable Brand helps remove that friction. It gives more people a way to begin.
And when more ideas are allowed to start, more opportunities follow for everyone.
Final Thoughts
I’ll be sharing more and more about the Minimum Viable Brand (MVB) and the Five Idea Keys™ in the months ahead, my friends… stay tuned.
James
The Peoples Branding Mentor
WANT MORE LIKE THIS? JOIN THE MBJ NEWSLETTER!
If you want more ideas on creativity, branding, reputation, and the realities of building a meaningful creative career, you’ll love the MBJ Newsletter.
