Growing a Regenerative Brand 

Central to our branding and leadership coaching approach is an energetic, fractal approach that is attuned to seasons and cycles and responsive to Earth’s four elements: air, water, earth, and fire. This way of understanding helps us to see the dynamic forces that story the living world. 

Many cosmogonies or creation myths reveal how complex life was born from the four elements. In Norse mythology, the cosmos was born out of the polarity between Muspelheim, the Southern realm of fire, and Nilfheim, the Northern realm of ice. In the Haudenosaunee creation myth, the Great Spirit told his daughter, Sky Woman, to descend through a hole in the sky into the Lower World of darkness, covered by water and clouds. Seeing her fall from the sky, the water animals below “summoned a great turtle and patted the earth upon its back. At once, the turtle grew and grew, as did the amount of earth. This earth became North America, a great island.” 

Before we explore the way the four elements manifest in brands, let’s look at how they help us tune into our inner energies and work our work upward and outward. 

A helpful starting point is the question: what aspects of myself need nurturing? Perhaps I have been extremely outward-oriented, partaking in climate demos, campaigning relentlessly on social media, or focused on tending to conflict in my community. This is the realm of fire. While essential, any fire risks burning out. Consequently, it’s worth asking, for example, what is the state of my water element, the source of my intuition and emotional life? Or, from the perspective of earth, what do I need to be stable and grounded amidst instability and increased pressure? Air, on the other hand, might ask: In which ways may I be clinging to expired stories, outgrown self-identities, or old ideas of what is mine to do? 

This type of Essential Energy thinking helps us understand and restore inner balance, so we are better able to do this work on the level of our organizations, communities, and entire bioregions. After all, our individual energy transpires to higher-order systems, such as our organizations, communities, and society. When you look all around you, it becomes apparent how the four elements manifest in brands/organizations that operate on a capitalist model. 

For example, I worked with tech startups for 5 years. It’s a world that’s both deeply exciting and yet also unsustainable for founders, its talent, and the wider living world. It is clear just how much the emphasis is myopically on fire: “disrupt and break fast”, continuous growth, high pressure, all with a view to exiting as quickly as possible. The pace is high, jumping from one product release to the next, running between investor pitches. Employees burn out and quit early. Collective energy drains but isn’t regenerated.

Air, on the other hand, is the realm of the mind, of ideas, and communication. In the startup world, the drive for innovation is strong. The messaging is often simplified, focused on capturing attention fast, and persuading audiences into a buying decision. Earth is the element of embodiment, stability, accountability, and boundaries. In an organization that lacks Earth energy, speech becomes disconnected from practice, action from place, and operations from values and limits. Many startups have a strong focus on purpose at the start, but it dwindles as they raise more venture capital. One reason is that the vast majority of investors still put growth above all else. When it comes down to it, most of these companies will favor growth because of the structural imperative of operating in a highly competitive, winner-takes-it-all system. Accountability towards environmental considerations or life-sustaining values becomes imperiled. The balance between elements is off. 

And while regenerative pioneers are quick to judge the unsustainability of the startup logic, they often replicate the same patterns or put similar, unrealistic expectations on themselves and others. As for the air element, and messaging specifically, while tech startups tend to oversimplify and focus entirely on persuasion, regenerative businesses are often unable to convey the complexity of what they do and why they are doing it in language the average person can understand — stuck in theory and not enough pragmatism. Even when you are in the business of ideas or epistemic innovation, without sufficient praxis or ground to stand on, you will be perceived as unstable, insufficiently grounded in consensus reality.

A regenerative brand always returns to the question of balance, and what best serves the vitality of the whole. It creates space for action and for rest, for sprints and for times of reflection and integration. It reflects on how each element manifests in structure, positioning, and how it communicates about itself. In the table below, we have listed the four elements, with two questions for each to help you reflect on your brand story and perception. 

If you would like to learn how a regenerative approach to branding can help grow your business, join 120+ fellow change makers for our free webinar “Worlding Your Brand” on May 12.  Register here.