By Chris Klonoski

When I checked our editorial calendar to find the topic we had planned for the Root + River March newsletter, I found a notation that stopped me: the messy middle. It is one of my favorite phrases, equal parts consolation and permission slip, a reminder that almost all of it is the messy middle. The beginning and the end are the easy parts to romanticize. Everything in between is where the actual work lives.

So what does the messy middle mean for your brand? 

It means that if you have a construct, a plan, and a structure, everything else has the glorious benefit of being fluid. The plan is not the prison. It is the thing that sets you free. 

Inward: The case for a plan 

It’s about balance.

Planning can feel like a challenge to your creativity, or maybe to your identity as someone who stays nimble, reads the room, and moves on instinct. But a plan is not the enemy of spontaneity. It is what makes spontaneity functional. 

Think about what a solid editorial calendar, shoot schedule, or content framework actually gives you: 

1. It builds a skeleton that reflects how you see your brand reaching your customers, constructed during a moment when you have the headspace to see the larger picture. It accounts for your goals, your company’s evolution, and how you want to show up over time, not just this week. 

2. It gives you grace during the moments when you are creatively depleted, personally exhausted, or just having a hard month. The plan holds the structure, so you don’t have to manufacture it from scratch when you have nothing left.  

3. It guarantees that you are communicating consistently and intentionally with your customers, your partners, your team, and into the larger conversation happening in your industry. Silence is never neutral. Your audience notices.  

Allowing yourself to think a new thought, grow, and expand within your process is what keeps your brand alive and honest. The plan makes room for that. Without it, every decision starts from zero.

It’s about healthy reaction. (When to disrupt yourself.) 

Expressing your brand or adjusting your sales approach shouldn’t be based on a trend for trend’s sake. But trends, when they are genuinely suited to and authentic to your brand, can provide a real burst of energy and creativity. 

Here is a recent example worth paying attention to. McDonald’s released a video of their CEO eating a Big Arch burger. The delivery was awkward, the enthusiasm was faked, and the internet noticed immediately. What followed was a wave of spoofs, commentary, and a genuine cultural moment, including people submitting their CEOs they would most like to watch eat their own company’s product. The IKEA CEO assembling a piece of their furniture was a common request.

Inside that still-relevant window, a brand with a strong product and a team that believes in it had an opening. A version of that video, done quickly and with genuine personality, is worth disrupting your editorial calendar for. The point is not to chase every moment. The point is to recognize the ones that actually fit you, and then move fast when they do.  

The same logic applies when your offerings change, when a team member brings a fresh perspective, or when something shifts internally that is worth sharing outward. Your brand is a living thing. The plan gives you a home base to return to, not a script you are required to follow. 

Outward 

It’s about consistency.

We advise our clients that maintaining cadence is one of their primary rules. Let your customers know they can rely on you to communicate, and be consistent about how and where you do it. If LinkedIn is your primary channel, stay true to it. If you are selling on Instagram or Facebook, show up there regularly. If you send a newsletter, do not skip a month. Consistency is legitimacy. 

It also builds something more valuable than reach. Consistency builds trust, and trust is what gives you room to try new things, make adjustments, and recover from mistakes. You will make them. We all do. An audience that trusts you will stay with you.

It’s about communication. 

I always tell my kids it’s not what you say, it’s what is heard. The same principle applies here. Are you speaking to your clients and customers in a way they will understand, and in the places they will actually find you? 

During our Root Sessions, we spend a significant amount of time exploring who you are and who your audience is. Those two sides of the same coin are the foundation for every message and every method we build together. Knowing both is what makes communication land instead of just existing. 

Here is what I want you to take from this: the messy middle is not a problem to solve. It is the space where your brand actually develops. The plan gives you the structure to move through it without losing yourself. Healthy reaction keeps you current without chasing every shiny thing. Consistency keeps your audience with you through it all. 

Build the skeleton. Permit yourself to color outside the lines. Show up reliably. And when the moment is right, disrupt yourself on purpose. 

That is not brand chaos. That is a brand that is paying attention. 

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