Telling Your Story to Build Your Brand with Amanda Russell
The most popular blog post I've ever written is called Don't Lose Your S***: How to Survive Summer as a Work-at-Home Mom.
I wrote it in May. It's specifically about summer. And yet, I get hits on it every single week. Every single week. Even in February, when summer is months away and no one is googling "summer survival tips."
So what are they searching for? What are they actually looking for when they land on that post?
They're looking for permission to admit they're struggling. They're looking for someone to tell them it's okay that they don't have it all figured out. They're looking for validation that sometimes (a lot of times) we're all just trying not to lose our shit.
And that right there? That should tell you everything you need to know about what people actually want from your marketing, your content, and your brand.
I'm Amanda Russell, owner of Chaos Coordination and host of The Chaotic Middle podcast. I'm a writer and content strategist who helps small businesses tell their stories and build their brands. And the one thing I've learned after doing this since 2019, after working with clients across industries, after interviewing incredible humans for this podcast, is this:
Everyone is just trying their best. No one has it all together. And the businesses that admit it? They're the ones that win.
The Most Popular Blog Post I've Ever Written (And What It Taught Me)
Let's talk about that blog post again, because it's honestly the perfect case study for what I'm about to tell you.
Don't Lose Your S***: How to Survive Summer as a Work-at-Home Mom was written for me. I needed it. I was staring down summer break with three kids – a 12-year-old, a 10-year-old, and an 8-year-old – and I work from home running my own business. Summer is chaos. Summer is the messy middle on steroids.
So I wrote the blog post to remind myself that I could do it. That it was okay if things got messy. That survival was the goal, not perfection.
And then I published it. And it hit a nerve.
Every week, without fail, that post gets traffic. Not just in May when I published it. Not just in June or July when parents are desperately googling "how to survive summer with kids." But in February. In October. In December.
Because here's the thing: people aren't just searching for summer survival tips. They're searching for survival tips, period. They're searching for someone to tell them, "Hey, you're not alone. You're not failing. We're all just trying not to lose our shit here."
And that admission – that raw, honest, slightly profane admission – is what resonates.
It's not the perfectly curated 5 Tips for a Productive Summer post. It's not the How I Balanced Work and Kids All Summer Long humble-brag. It's the "Listen, sometimes it's a mess and that's okay" honesty that people actually need.
That's the lesson. That's what that blog post taught me about content, about marketing, about business, and about life:
No one has it together. Everyone is just trying not to lose their shit. And when you admit that? You give everyone else permission to be human, too.
One Person's Admission Is Your Permission
I had a conversation with Katie Kastner, my first podcast guest, after we stopped recording. (Of course, the good stuff always comes after you hit stop, right?)
She said something that has stuck with me ever since: "One person's admission is your permission."
Sit with that for a minute.
When you admit that you're struggling, that you don't have all the answers, that sometimes you're just winging it – you're not being unprofessional. You're not being weak. You're giving someone else permission to feel the same way.
Your admission becomes their permission.
Permission to give themselves grace. Permission to stop pretending they have it all figured out. Permission to be messy and human and imperfect.
And in a business context? That permission builds trust. It builds connection. It builds community.
Think about it: when you scroll through Instagram or LinkedIn or wherever, what catches your eye? The perfectly curated "I woke up at 5 AM, meditated, worked out, made a green smoothie, and closed three deals before 9 AM" posts? Or the "I woke up late, spilled coffee on myself, forgot about a meeting, and had to apologize to a client but we laughed about it and moved forward" posts?
The second one, right? Because it's real. Because it's relatable. Because it gives you permission to be human, too.
Me making that admission that, hey, sometimes I fuck it up, too, gives you the permission to give yourself some grace.
And that's powerful. That's the kind of marketing that actually works. Not because it's perfectly polished, but because it's perfectly human.
Why Humanizing Your Brand Is the Best Marketing Strategy
Here's what I tell every single one of my clients, no matter what industry they're in:
There's a significant piece of something that's missing in the world and in marketing and just in general, and it's that people want to hear real-life stories. People want to hear actual real, not curated bullshit.
We've spent so long, both in business and in personal life, curating these perfect online personas. The perfect feed. The perfect website. The perfect brand voice that never slips, never struggles, never admits difficulty.
And you know what? People are exhausted by it.
They're tired of the facade. They're tired of feeling like everyone else has it figured out except them. They're tired of the comparison trap that comes from scrolling through endless perfectly curated content.
What they want now is the behind-the-scenes stuff. The messy middle. The admission that sometimes things are hard.
Now, I know what you're thinking: "But Amanda, I run a law firm / accounting practice / consulting business / [insert professional industry here]. I can't just post about losing my shit."
And you're right. Sort of.
The message needs to be adapted for your industry, for your brand voice, for your audience. Obviously. A divorce attorney probably shouldn't be posting "Don't Lose Your S*** During Your Divorce" (though honestly, that might work).
But the principle remains the same: repurpose that honesty in a way that works for your business to be able to say, this is the behind-the-scenes of what's going on.
Maybe for you, it's admitting that a case took longer than expected because of unforeseen complications. Maybe it's sharing that you implemented a new system in your business and it didn't work, so here's what you learned. Maybe it's being honest about the challenges in your industry right now and how you're navigating them with your clients.
The specifics will vary. But the core truth is universal: humanizing your brand, pulling back that curtain, revealing that hey, sometimes things are messy, it's a win all around.
It's a win for your marketing because it draws people in. It makes you memorable. It makes you relatable.
But it's also a win for building that community that's so often missing, especially in the online business space where we're all so fragmented.
And community? That's what people are looking for.
The Community We're Missing (And How Stories Fill the Gap)
I used to join networking groups. I'm really bad at networking. I'm really bad at promoting myself, if you can't tell from this rambling episode turned blog post.
But I'm excellent at promoting other people. I'm excellent at hearing their stories and getting excited about what they're doing and connecting them with other people who need to hear their story.
So I'd join these networking groups, and we'd get to the part where everyone shares their "big ask": what they need, what they're looking for, how the group can help them.
And I'd sit there thinking, "I don't really have a big ask. I just want to hear what you're doing. What's interesting to you? What lights you up? What are you building?"
Because here's the thing: I get so much energy from hearing other people's admissions and hearing other people's ideas.
That's why I started this podcast. Not to promote myself (though hey, if you need a writer, hit me up). But because I wanted to hear stories. Real stories. Messy stories. Stories about pivots and failures and successes and the chaotic middle of building something meaningful.
And I think that's what's missing for a lot of us, especially in the online business space. We're all so fragmented. We work from home, from co-working spaces, or from coffee shops. We don't have that water cooler conversation. We don't have that casual "Hey, how's it going? What are you working on?" connection.
And so we're all out here kind of doing our own thing, feeling isolated, wondering if we're doing it right, comparing ourselves to the curated highlights we see online.
We're missing community. We're missing those real, honest, messy conversations about what it's actually like to build a business, to be a working parent, to navigate the chaos.
And that's what storytelling through podcasts, blogs, social media, and other media can provide. It fills that gap. It creates connection. It builds community.
When I share my messy middle and you share yours, suddenly we're not alone anymore. Suddenly we're in this together.
And that? That's powerful.
My Own Chaotic Middle: From Corporate Paralegal to Business Owner
Let me tell you my own chaotic middle story, because I think it illustrates everything I've been talking about.
My husband and I have three kids. We had them in four and a half years. If you want to talk about chaotic middle, let's talk about that season of life.
I was working as a paralegal, first in corporate litigation law, then in estate and trust law. I went to school for it. I'm certified. I had been doing it for a decade. I was good at it. I learned so much from so many incredible people.
But then my youngest came along. And she (bless her beautiful chaotic soul) reframed everything I thought I knew.
She made it messy. She made it impossible to keep doing what I was doing. The job I had was inflexible. The hours were long. The demands were high. And suddenly I had three kids under five and a career that didn't fit my life anymore.
So I had to pivot. I had to embrace that chaotic middle moment of "I have no idea what I'm doing, but something has to change."
And I quit. I quit my job. I started Chaos Coordination. And I can tell you, as much as I enjoyed my career as a paralegal, as much as I learned and grew in that role, 4this chaotic middle period of my life where I run my own business and I get to talk with really amazing people all day long? This is my favorite.
Absolutely my favorite.
It's these days where I'm running to drop my son off at lacrosse practice or working from the lobby of my daughter's dance studio. It's running the youth lacrosse league (how I ended up running a youth sports league for a sport I've never played and know next to nothing about, I will never know, but here we are).
It's the messy, chaotic, unpredictable, beautiful middle of building something meaningful while also being present for my kids and living a life I actually enjoy.
And here's the kicker: I have done things in the past 7 years since I started this business that I never ever thought that I would do.
I've connected with people across the world about their businesses and their stories. I've written for industries I knew nothing about and learned so much in the process. I've launched a podcast (which, if you'd told 2019 Amanda that she'd be doing, she would have laughed in your face). I've built a team. I've built a brand. I've built a life.
And I would have missed out on all of that if I hadn't given in to my chaotic middle. If I hadn't embraced my chaos.
I would still be doing a job I did not like, that I did not find fulfillment in, that didn't offer me the opportunities that owning Chaos Coordination has.
So yeah. Embrace your chaotic middle. Sit in your mess. You never know what beauty might come out of it.
The Beauty That Comes From Sitting in Your Mess
Let me be clear about something: I love the chaotic middle. I love the messy moments. I love the unpredictability and the pivots and the "what if we tried this instead?" energy.
But I also live and die by my color-coordinated Google calendar. I love spreadsheets. I will fully admit it: I love a good spreadsheet.
Because here's the thing: you can absolutely embrace chaos and also coordinate it.
It's not about choosing between messy and organized. It's about integrating the two.
I actually talked with Amy Pierre-Russo, one of my podcast guests, about this. She talks about work-life harmony instead of work-life balance. And I think that framework applies to life in general.
It's not balance – that perfect 50/50 split where everything is equally weighted and nothing ever tips.
It's integration. It's how you can integrate your work and your life. How you can integrate the chaotic messy moments with the times when you do feel like you have your shit together.
If you can integrate those two – the chaos and the coordination, the messy and the organized, the "I have no idea what I'm doing" with the "I've got this" – that's where you find the beauty. That's where you find the fun. That's where the magic happens.
My admission? My chaotic middle of "I just quit my job, I have three kids, I have no idea how I'm going to make this work" has turned into something really beautiful. Something I'm really proud of.
And the same can be true for you.
If you can take your chaotic, messy middle and just sit in it for a little bit – embrace it, explore it, see what comes out of it – you might be surprised.
It could be something incredibly beautiful. It could be something really cool. It could be a complete pivot that changes your life.
Or, let's be honest, sometimes it's not beautiful. Sometimes it's shit. Sometimes you try something and it fails spectacularly.
But here's what my brother-in-law always says (and it drives my sister crazy, but it's true): You don't fail, you learn.
You never fail. You learn.
So embrace that messy middle wherever you are, that chaotic middle where you don't know what's next or you're not sure of the next step to take. Just remember: you never fail, you learn.
What can you learn from that? Where can you go next?
Messy Lesson of the Month: It's Okay to Sit in Your Mess
If there's one thing you take away from this stream-of-consciousness blog post, let it be this:
It's okay to sit in your mess.
It's okay to be in that chaotic middle part where you don't know what's next. Where you're just living to get through the day. Where you're trying not to lose your shit, and some days you succeed and some days you absolutely do not.
That's my messy lesson of the month for you: embrace that. Sit in it. Don't rush past it trying to get to the "perfect" part.
Because you never know what beauty will come out of it.
And sometimes, honestly? It's not beautiful. Sometimes it's shit that comes out of it. Sometimes you make choices that aren't the best, whether in your personal life or your business. Sometimes things fail.
But those are the lessons you have to learn. Those are the pivots that lead you somewhere better. Those are the admissions that give someone else permission to try too.
So wherever you are in your chaotic middle, whether it's your business, your career, your family, your life, embrace it.
Embrace those pivots. Embrace that messiness. Sit in it. Learn from it. Share it.
Because your admission might be someone else's permission. Your messy middle might be exactly what someone else needs to hear to give themselves grace, to take that leap, to try that thing they've been scared to try.
Here's What Actually Matters
I started this blog post—and this podcast, and this business—because I believe in the power of stories. Real stories. Messy stories. Stories that admit struggle and celebrate success and everything in between.
I believe that people want to hear real-life stories. People want actual real, not curated bullshit.
And I believe that when we share those stories, when we make those admissions, when we pull back the curtain, when we sit in our chaotic middle and invite others to sit with us, we create something beautiful.
We create community. We create connection. We create permission for others to be human, too.
So this is my admission: I don't have it all figured out. Some days I'm trying not to lose my shit. Some days I fail at that. I run a business I'm proud of, but it's messy. I'm a mom to three incredible kids, but it's chaotic. I live in the messy middle, and I've learned to love it here.
And if you're in your own chaotic middle right now, I hope this gives you permission.
Permission to be messy. Permission to admit when things are hard. Permission to sit in that chaos and see what beauty comes out of it.
Because I promise you: there's beauty there. You just have to be willing to sit in the mess long enough to find it.
Ready to Embrace Your Chaotic Middle?
If this resonated with you, I'd love to hear your story. What's your chaotic middle right now? What are you learning? What admission do you need to make?
Because the world needs more real stories. More messy admissions. More chaotic middle moments that remind us we're all just human, doing our best, trying not to lose our shit.
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Your mess might be someone else's permission. Let's sit in the chaos together.
