Doubt stands down
when purpose stands up
What does my essence have to do with marketing or my brand?
I would venture to say…E V E R Y T H I N G
Beverly Boston wrote this to me recently:
We became [FaceBook] friends a little while ago Rebecca. I have been noticing that you are following your dreams. You aren’t just talking about it, you’re doing it. I can tell that you are plotting your course, and choosing like minded people who are helping you along the way. You are breathing some life into it, fanning the flames, taking risks and going for what you want. I will love to continue to watch how you show up in the world and soar even higher. Stay great!
soaring...free to be me on purpose
I have stepped into my purpose, embraced my essence and it must be showing (BRANDING), as people have been commenting on it more than ever before. If you ever have time to read the about me page it will tell you the long story of how Cre8tive Compass (C8C) is the culmination of my life’s work…bringing everything I have done in my career under one umbrella to create my legacy of “showing people who color outside the lines how to make a living doing what they love!”
To say that there were no doubts would be fiction…
To say I have always presented the real me would be fiction…
To say I stay on track all the time would be fiction…
I am going to get raw today…and it will be more than a minute…For many years I showed up in the world as the person I believed everyone wanted me to be, actually the person I thought everyone wanted me to be…Strong, Smart, Successful, Savvy! And I had experienced some wildly successful times within that persona…and it also brought me to my knees. It did not make me happy or fulfilled…it drained me of who I really am. And it took many years to figure this out…being my persona was not sustainable!!!
And this persona brought lots of baggage chock full of doubts. Even more sad, if one persona didn’t work I would try on another and another searching manically for the one that would work. This process was painful…like peeling an onion…layer by layer. The superficial outer layers almost fell away, but as I ventured closer to my core, peeling away tightly stuck layers of raw emotion…of societal conditioning…of self-created illusion they became harder and harder to pry off. It is a metaphor for my journey…a journey that revealed my essence and my light!
At first I was afraid and doubtful that anyone would want to know this me…very spiritual, striving to be centered yet, more often than not, sprinkled with the delightful spontaneity of child-like creativity.
One day I realized that I had done the work, walked through the fire and found my purpose…and all doubt fell away. I claimed my place at the bountiful table called life and it felt delicious. And my marketing began to work.
Remember when I told you I had the Smart, Successful, Savvy parts of me worked out early on…yet the last piece of the puzzle…the one that set me apart and makes me ME…is my Sassy Me…
I am a recovering renaissance woman big time…The me that possesses the fickle mind of a creative who is too curious to pin myself down to any one genre for too long…i paint, i write, i dance, i draw, i sew, i knit, i bead, i am a Boomer Geek Girl at heart plus i love every moment of every day…yet I was afraid to show this side of me to the world for fear they would think I was crazy!!!
With joy I tell you that I have learned to live from the heart-centered essence of who I am (perhaps it’s age or by the grace of God) and I vow to always live my life by my own design from this moment forward. And this my friends is called the BRAND of ME!!!
Working from the essence of Who I AM made everything effortless...my life, my business, my marketing, MY BRAND…even my artwork! Because it is honest, believable and sustainable! AND IT WORKS!!!
I share this so you might recognize parts of YOU that you keep hidden that are supposed to shine. Your essence is your brand…always remember that!!!
Your brand is so much more than a color scheme or a logo!
So tell me about your essence and how i can help you….
blessings, r
ps.. a great article on this subject by Damien Franco called Ordinary Artist on his blog Ordinary Artist…Learning to Accept Myself
Hi, Rebecca —
Thank you so much for this post. It really resonated with me and my own journey. In my first business — an indie retail shop — I very much operated from behind a carefully constructed persona: the ultimate Shopgirl, the dreamy bon vivant, the wistful and whimsical Proprietor living the life of her dreams. Parts of this were drawn from the real me and where I was emotionally at different points in my entrepreneurial journey, but as I learned, grew, and evolved personally, I found that this persona felt like so much less than ME. It actually became completely uncomfortable! I had to close my store to fully shed this well-branded skin. With my new venture, Abby Kerr Ink, I am 150% determined to reveal only what is true for me and true TO me. No more guises. I don’t want anything less for the people I write for and work for.
I admire your journey and your expression of it and thank you for this place where artists and creatives can come into their own, creatively and entrepreneurially. We all gain so much by being able to share our journeys.
— Abby
abby…i remember your shop girl journey…and so many of us wanted to be you, which may have added to the stress your felt. i, too, have had many iterations of the real me without ever exposing the all of me…for i never felt i was good enough… then i found out that everybody has a problem with being enough!!! and that freed me to fly and become the me i was born to be…and that, my friend, is enough!!!
hugs, r