Hello, and welcome to the first of a series of posts on building your brand, one block at a time.

Naturally, we’re going to be covering the very first block today, without which nothing else would be possible: the Vision and the Mission.

More precisely, we’re going to talk about vision statements and Mission statements, and why they’re the essential foundation stone of your brand.

Before we move on, there’s one thing I have to address, and this applies especially to anybody who switched off a little when I mentioned ‘Mission statements’.

The majority of brands have vision and Mission statements—or, more accurately, they have lengthy, practically meaningless treatises crafted by committee, which they never look at once they’re finished. The only reason they created these vision and mission statements in the first place was because they felt they had to.

 That’s not what we want for you. Your vision and your Mission are...