Brand Is Out, You Are In -- Who Are You?

So I get it. We don't like the word brand. It sounds like we are selling ourselves. No one likes that. Nope. We don't like it.

Meanwhile, it is a big part of our world. Buying. Selling.

I'm from California, so I get to say exchanging energies or better yet, seeing sales as the exchange of love, service. Dare I say hope?

Meanwhile, my true philosophy lies in something I've been taught across the last 14 years: "Attraction, not promotion." In short, be so attractive that people can't resist wanting to be near you. Sounds cool, eh? I don't mean the classic, romantic sort of attraction, but the soulful, interesting, interested, cool cat, "I want to talk to that person again soon!" meaningful attraction.

I believe in my heart that every day my job on the planet is to show up in the best shape I can and then share my gifts --- to receive, risk, dare, go for it, dive through the wave, live my courage, know, trust, team, test my character, speak up, stay silent, and as Mr. Roosevelt invites, "...to dare mighty things."

Every day we get a chance to set our intention for this one day. What's yours?

We get to be reborn, if you will.

We get to accept ourselves --- flaws and all.

We get to see the sunrise over water's edge, trees horizon.

We get to invite ourselves to life. Fully. Meaningfully. Mindfully. Joyfully.

We get to dream.

As we do, we get to notice:

• Who we are as we walk through a room?
• What effect might we have on a room? A person? A group of people? A company?
• What's our wake look and feel like?
• Are we standing up straight? Can we find that extra vertebrae?
• Are we leaning in one direction? Another?
• What color are your colleagues' eyes?
• What do you sense they are feeling?
• How are you feeling?
• What is your desired end result of this interaction?

Back to you.

Your next meeting. Your last meeting. Did you nail it? Were you prepared? Did you surrender the outcome, but do the footwork so well you cruised right through it with a "POW"?! (Think Batman/Robin POW. Why not?!). As we say on the volleyball court, "Did you crush it, baby?"

Did your ego get out ahead of you? Were you right sized to the moment, the day, the purpose of this one event? Was your energy clean? Was your pride (anger, arrogance, hurt) getting the upper hand on something? What was your best intention? Did you live up to it?

Did you truly listen? Were you so intent on sharing your unique expertise that you rushed ahead of all who tried to connect with you? Did you meet people where they were or put them into a place of your own wishful making?

How did you look at what was in the best interest of the group? Where did you risk your job for the best interest of the organization? How are you stretching into your taller / smaller self, right-sizing yourself to the day, the moment, the world in which you're fortunate to live? Where are your feet? Are your head and heart accompanying them?

Are you living your true purpose so that your brand, your you, is a natural outpouring of your heart's knowing? Yes, of your mind's purposeful results, of your commitment to elevating yourself and all those who are privileged to know you?

Life is in session!

Go for it. Nothing to lose right?

And besides, what else are we doing?

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure...then to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt