Ask Irisel | Vol. 04: Becoming An Apex Brand

July 27, 2026•9 min read

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Hey!

You know the drill. It's the last Monday of the month, which means it's my favorite kind of issue: the one where you set the agenda and I answer your questions so you can create more money and more freedom doing what you love.

This is Ask Irisel, the monthly issue where I take the questions filling your mind and answer them the way I would with my private clients. If you've got a question that hasn't been covered yet, send it to me directly at iriselaesteria.com/askirisel. Every question in this article always starts with that quick 5min form.

Ask Irisel | Vol. 04: Becoming An Apex Brand

There are three questions I'm covering this month, and they all revolve around one thing: building your Apex Brand.

They all come back to the same gap: the distance between the brand you have right now and the one you can already see in your head. So if you're ready to close that gap, then let's get started with question 1.

Q1. From S: "Irisel! You mentioned something in the last codex where you talk about marketing around your strengths and not your weaknesses. OMG! Mindblown. I love the idea of marketing around my strengths, but now you've got me thinking... I don't know which parts of me are 'brand material' and which I should keep private. How do I tell the difference?"

S, I got this question from you a couple of weeks back and didn't have room to give it the attention it deserves, so I made sure to include your question at the top of today's article.

So here's what I want you to think about:

#1) What are the things you are absolutely confident about? The thing(s) you know, without a shadow of a doubt, are worth millions. That right there is one of your sets of strengths.

#2) Then:, what are the things that come ridiculously easy to you? The ones where your audience comes to you with a question, you answer it, and their mind is blown, their whole life shifts from that one conversation.

Those are your second set of strengths that most entrepreneurs never think about. When something comes too easily to us, we assume it can't be that valuable. That is not the truth.

Now that I've covered 2 of your core sets of strengths, now let's discuss what weaknesses you need to avoid in your brand.

The weaknesses we unconsciously try to market are usually the things we think we should be, or what we see society valuing, but they rub us the wrong way, they feel uncomfortable. A lot of the time we market around our insecurities because somewhere in us we think we need to convince our audience, or ourselves, that we're good enough in that area.

Here is how you can spot your weaknesses (so you aren't unconsciously marketing with them):

Look at your marketing, your content, your brand, and find the parts you create because you "feel like you should." The ones that feel heavy, like a "should," not a want. The ones that don't light you up even when they are done.

And to be clear, I am not talking about the hard things you finish and feel proud of. I'm talking about the ones that, when they are on display, make you go: ugh, I hope I never have to look at that ever again. That feeling is your blinking red light indicator that whatever that project/marketing/design/offer is, is not for you.

I hope that answers your question, S. It is a big topic, so if more comes up, drop it in the Ask Irisel form and I will circle back to it in a future issue.

Q2. From C: "How do you know when you need to burn it all down and start over? Versus how can you tell if your brand just needs some new energy fresh energy? Basically how can I tell if I need to pivot my business or if I'm on the right track?"

C, what a brilliant question.

I remember a few years back asking myself this same question, and the amount of times I've had clients come to me asking this question feeling like their business is on fire or feeling like it just literally has no momentum how much you try and push.

I am going to take you through a visualization and embodiment exercise that will help get you clear on this question. Let's begin.

C, I want you to get into the energy of your highest potential self.

Picture your current brand at its peak. Everything you're already doing, your marketing, your content, your visuals, all of it elevated to the highest version it could possibly become.

Once you're standing inside that highest version of your brand, ask yourself one question: when this brand reaches its full potential, will I be who I truly want to be? Is this the version of me I actually dream of becoming?

Here's how to tell the difference between the two:

A refresh feels like a natural evolution, like your current brand's highest level fully matches who you dream of becoming. It's just "not there yet" but it is on track to getting there.
A rebuild feels like you're trying to squish who you are into your current brand, and even when the brand is at it's peak, it still doesn't match who you dream of yourself becoming.

The tell is in that feeling. When you keep trying to stretch your current brand to match your vision and it feels forced, like it doesn't match your why or who you actually are anymore, like you're jamming a new identity into an old container you've already outgrown, that squished, forced feeling is your answer.

This conversation reminds me of a past client of mine from a few years back. She had a spiritual awakening and was ready to tear her entire business down. She felt this intense urge to burn it all down to the ground.

But when we got talking, I realized she'd already built a strong brand around business mentorship, with strong positioning, and a hot audience of dream clients that trusted her. The only thing missing was that she wasn't letting her spiritual side of her work flow throughout her brand.

What she needed was a refresh, that allowed the new parts of herself to shine. What she created so far was still in alignment to her dreams, she was just ready to weave in more energy/consciousness to her brand so she could evolve.

So before you burn anything down, run this simple embodiment test.

Ask yourself: is the highest version of my current business a match to who I dream of becoming? If yes, you're just ready for an evolution. If the highest level of your current brand does not match your dream vision of yourself, well then my dear, that means it's time for an entire rebuild.

Q3. From A: "Iris, I'm so frustrated. I've done my embodiment and mindset and manifestation work, and I can see my dream business so clearly in my mind. But when I look at what I've actually built so far, and how much further I still have to go, I get so discouraged that I struggle to stay embodied and let the doubts creep in. How do you keep embodying the brand you're becoming when your current brand/business looks nothing like it yet, especially with the pressure to just keep making money now?"

A, Girl I feel you.

Trust me when I say I completely understand how hard it is to continue to move forward holding the vision even when your current business doesn't match the brand you see in your future.

This is a common conversation when it comes to consciousness (ie: how to maintain inner alignment when physical reality doesn't match your desires) that it's honestly so surprising I don't see this conversation occur often when it comes to design, marketing, and branding.

To Start: Close your eyes and feel the energy of your highest potential. The version of you with no limitations, who has everything she wants, who has reached and impacted every person she was ever meant to reach. Let your influence rise all the way to its maximum, and then past it, past the ceiling your unconscious mind has been holding you under.

Now here's what I want you to do next: Hold that vision, even when your brand, your website, your content, your whole digital presence, looks nothing like it yet. Then build toward it slowly, on purpose.

Look at your business and start paying attention to all the small details that are already moving in the right direction: Go look at your Instagram and see how much your content has improved over time. Look at your writing, and notice how your vocabulary and your brand voice have grown. Look at your offers, and pay attention to the ones you've let go of to make space for the new ones.

Because here's the thing: the reason you feel so discouraged is because the dream business you've envisioned has a lot of moving parts. And when your vision is that big, it's so easy to get over-focused on everything you still have to do, rather than how much you're already moving in alignment.

So here's the shift: the more you can get genuinely excited about building and growing further, the more your enthusiasm outweighs your discouragement. The more you let yourself see how far you've already come, the more easily you fall into excitement about your next steps instead of dread about the distance left.

And underneath all of it, this is the part you absolutely have to remember: if what you're building isn't a match to the dream you actually want, you'll eventually stop being able to make money from it anyway. So building your real dream, even if it feels slow, is the way to actually make money that stays put in your bank account.

If you want my eyes directly on every thread of your brand instead of piecing it together alone, that's exactly what we do inside my 1:1 Brand Codex Intensive. Because the brand you can already see isn't going to build itself while you're busy chasing the next sale.

Have a question about becoming your Apex Brand?

If reading this stirred up a question in you, good. Send it on over to me at: iriselaesteria.com/askirisel.

Next Monday, we're heading into cosmic territory. I'm breaking down the Lion's Gate Portal and how to use this energy to expand your brand and step into your next level. Subscribe so it lands in your inbox the day it's live.