As a designer for over 10+ years, I’m always looking for fresh perspectives on the branding process. This year, as I was deep in my annual Passover cleaning ritual, it hit me: this intensive home cleansing practice offers powerful parallels to what many brands desperately need.
Pesach cleaning isn’t just spring cleaning—it’s a full-on, focused, deep reset. And as I scrubbed away the chametz (leavened products) from every corner of my home, I realized that this ancient tradition contains wisdom that applies perfectly to modern brand clarity. In this post, I’ll show you how decluttering your home and decluttering your brand actually follow the same core principles, and how you can apply these lessons to create consistency, clarity, and connection across all your platforms.
Start with Intention: What Are You Preparing For?
In Passover tradition, we clean with a specific purpose: to prepare our homes for a celebration of freedom. This isn’t about making things look nice—it’s about creating a space where transformation can happen.
When I work with clients on their brands, I ask them to start with the same level of intention. What freedom are you seeking in your business? What transformation do you want to create for your clients? What kind of client are you preparing to serve?
Too often, businesses approach branding as a surface-level exercise in aesthetics, without clarifying their deeper purpose. Just as Pesach cleaning is guided by spiritual significance, your brand clarity work should be guided by your core mission.
Exercise: Write down what “freedom” looks like for your business. Is it the freedom to work with ideal clients? Freedom to charge what you’re worth? Freedom to make the impact you know you can make? Let this vision guide your brand decluttering process.
Find the Chametz: What’s Stale, Outdated, or Messy?
During Passover preparation, we search for chametz—anything leavened that needs to be removed. We look in every crack and crevice, because even a small crumb can compromise the integrity of the space.
Your brand likely has its own version of chametz hiding in various corners:
- Stale offerings that no longer reflect your best work or current expertise
- Mismatched visual elements across different platforms (different logos, colors, or fonts)
- Outdated copy that doesn’t capture your current voice or value proposition
- Confused messaging where you’re trying to speak to everyone and thus reaching no one
- Cluttered service menus that overwhelm rather than clarify
Just like finding chametz, this process requires honest scrutiny. We need to shine a light in those dusty corners of our business that we’ve been avoiding.
I recently helped a wellness coach who had accumulated seven different service packages over three years, some of which contradicted others. When we examined each offering critically, she realized that three of them no longer aligned with her expertise or ideal clients. By removing those “chametz” offerings, her brand message immediately became clearer.
Exercise: Take inventory of all your brand platforms: website, social profiles, email templates, service listings, and marketing materials. Flag anything that feels outdated, misaligned, or confusing. Be ruthless—if it doesn’t contribute to clarity, it’s chametz.
Do the Deep Work: Go Beyond Surface-Level Tweaks
Passover cleaning goes beyond the usual dusting and vacuuming. We move furniture, scrub behind appliances, and clean places that never see the light of day. It’s uncomfortable, sometimes frustrating work.
Similarly, real brand clarity requires going deeper than just updating your logo or refreshing your website colors. The deep work involves questioning fundamental aspects of your business:
- Who are you truly meant to serve? (Not who can you serve, but who lights you up?)
- What transformation do you uniquely provide? (Beyond features and benefits)
- What’s the consistent thread that runs through all your best work?
- What aspects of your business no longer serve you but you’ve kept out of habit or fear?
One client I worked with, a financial consultant, had been promoting himself as a “Jack of all trades” who could help any business with financial challenges. When we did the deep work, he realized his true passion and expertise lay in helping creative entrepreneurs understand their numbers. This insight didn’t just change his marketing—it transformed his entire business model, client experience, and personal fulfillment.
The deep work is uncomfortable because it often reveals inconsistencies between what we say we want and what we’ve actually created. But like Pesach cleaning, the temporary discomfort leads to lasting freedom.
Exercise: Block out two hours of uninterrupted time for deep reflection. Answer the questions above, and ask yourself: “If I were starting my business today, with all I know now, what would I create?” Compare your answer to your current brand and note the gaps.
Reframe the Space: What Do You Want People to Experience?
After the cleaning comes the beautiful part of Pesach preparation: setting the table, preparing special foods, and creating an environment for meaningful connection. The newly cleaned space isn’t left empty—it’s reframed for a specific experience.
Your brand deserves the same intentional reframing. Once you’ve cleared away what doesn’t belong, you can thoughtfully design what people experience when they encounter your business:
- Visual consistency that creates instant recognition
- Language that speaks directly to your ideal clients’ hearts and minds
- A customer journey that feels intuitive and welcoming
- Offerings structured to serve real needs rather than trying to be everything to everyone
I worked with a stationary designer who realized her portfolio was showcasing projects she no longer wanted to attract. After our brand clarity work, she completely reframed her online presence around the specific type of clients and projects that energized her. Within weeks, she noticed a significant shift in her inquiries—fewer “can you make my logo bigger?” clients and more aligned partnerships.
The reframing process isn’t about creating an illusion; it’s about ensuring that every element of your brand accurately reflects who you are, who you serve, and how you create value.
Exercise: For each area in your brand (website homepage, social media profiles, email communication), write down the exact feeling and understanding you want people to have when they encounter it. Then audit each element against this ideal experience.
Celebrate the Clarity: You’ve Created Space for Growth
The Pesach Seder that follows all the cleaning is a celebration—a recognition that the preparation was worthwhile because it created space for something meaningful.
After a thorough brand clarity process, you too should celebrate.
You’ve created:
- Space for the right clients to find and connect with you
- Clarity that allows you to communicate your value with confidence
- Consistency that builds trust across all platforms
- Focus that lets you pour energy into what truly matters
- Elevation that positions you properly in your market
One of my favorite client success stories involves a therapist who specialized in grief counseling but whose brand was generic and clinical. After our clarity work, she transformed her communication to speak directly to people navigating loss, using language that acknowledged their specific pain points and hopes. The response was immediate—clients began telling her “it feels like you’re speaking directly to me” and referrals increased dramatically.
This clarity doesn’t just benefit your marketing; it transforms your daily experience of your business. When you’re no longer trying to be everything to everyone, you reclaim the freedom to be exactly who you are for exactly who needs you.
Exercise: Document the clarity you’ve created through this process. What issues did you resolve? What difficult decisions did you make? How does your brand feel different now? This documentation will serve as a valuable reference when you’re tempted to add back the chametz.
From Cleaning to Clarity: Your Next Steps
The Pesach cleaning tradition happens annually for good reason—keeping spaces clear requires ongoing attention. Similarly, brand clarity isn’t a one-time project but a practice of continual growth.
As you move forward with your newly clarified brand, consider adding these:
- Quarterly brand reviews to catch any inconsistencies
- Clear criteria for new offerings to ensure they align with your core focus
- Regular content audits to maintain message consistency
- Feedback loops with ideal clients to confirm your clarity is coming through
Remember that clarity isn’t about limitation—it’s about liberation. When you remove what doesn’t belong, you create space for what does. When your brand communicates with crystal clarity, you attract the opportunities that are truly meant for you.
Pesach celebrates freedom and a clear brand offers the same: freedom from confusion, freedom from misalignment, and freedom to make the impact only you can make.
Ready for Your Brand’s Deep Clean?
If this resonates with you, perhaps your brand is due for its own version of Pesach.
I help solopreneurs and small businesses attract, elevate, and thrive by crafting strategic brand identities, user-friendly websites, and visually compelling marketing materials that create consistency, clarity, and connection across all platforms.
Let’s work together to find your brand’s chametz, do the deep work of clarification, and reframe your business to truly reflect your unique value. The freedom that follows is worth every moment of the process.
Ready to declutter your brand and step into a higher version of your business? Let’s talk.