Remember the games where children would place a geometrically-shaped wooden block into the corresponding opening that was the same shape and size as the block? Well, I felt that I was trying to fit a square wooden block into a star shaped hole. It was unnatural and quite uncomfortable for me. I found that when I was trying to be something that I was not or trying to conform to the “norm” I found myself in a major struggle. Trying to force something that you’re not hard wired to do can be painstakingly and unbelievably challenging. It throws everything off kilter. Over the past year and a half, I decided to do the opposite of just that. I realized that I had to stop this internal battle of fighting against my brand’s essence because it was hindering both the brand and business. It was only when I began accepting myself and leveraging the way that I was hard wired that my brand took a huge leap forward. You may have been trying to fight against the values and identity of your brand by listening to and following all of the formulas that gurus are telling you that you need, but I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to fight against your personal hard wiring. Learn to accept it and use it to your advantage.
It was in 2015 that I really became burned out. That summer, I dropped my son off to college in Paris, France. That trip was a reminder to me that I wanted to help others through sharing knowledge and philanthropy, to reach others on a deeper more meaningful level, to have and live a life of freedom to travel (and eat!), and to have the ability to spend more time with my family. I no longer had the desire or energy to help people with superficial, surface-level needs but rather assist them in transforming their brands and their businesses by going narrow and deep rather than wide and shallow. I knew that it was not going to happen with the same business model that I had at the time, so I knew something had to change.
Until the next post, B <.
Principal / Creative Director
The Brand Naked Agency™
