Your Brand Is the Things You Refuse to Do
Stop listing what you're good at. Start listing what you won't do.
Most people are told to “niche down.”
List your skills.
Define your expertise.
Explain what you’re good at.
That’s fine.
It’s also weak.
Your brand isn’t built by what you say yes to.
It’s built by what you refuse.
Refusal creates shape.
Boundaries create gravity.
Anyone can claim expertise.
Few are willing to draw lines.
A refusal list does something an expertise list never will.
It filters fast.
The wrong clients leave.
The wrong readers scroll past.
The wrong collaborators never reach out.
Good.
This isn’t about being difficult.
It’s about being clear.
Punk understood this.
So did early hackers.
So did Bourdain.
They weren’t trying to attract everyone.
They were trying to repel the right people.
Here’s what a real brand sounds like:
I don’t chase trends I don’t respect.
I don’t optimize for people I wouldn’t want to work with.
I don’t rush work that needs time to be honest.
I don’t explain myself to people who already decided no.
Those refusals do more positioning than any bio ever could.
CTRL Signals by JP Bristol
Clarity. Tenacity. Reinvention. Legacy.
My mentor taught me that back in the 1990s, and to this day, I tend to lean very heavily into making sure the people I don't want to work with at a higher level know.
It really is so much easier to focus on what you don't want.
Love it JP. Thanks for consistently posting great content and insights into our GenX brains.
JP this is good.