Disheveled Musings: Building the brand

You'd think I'd know better but earlier this year I made, what some would regard as the most fundamental mistake in marketing. With the release of my new book (Indelible Adventures) why on earth would you stop publishing to a well-known and popular brand? The one, by the way that you’ve spent two years building and had over 35,000 people read? So tell me why again?

Vexing isn't it? Especially to me since I made the mistake and that my day job is firmly centered in Sales & Marketing. Well, the answer was simple…at the time. ☺

Initially I wanted to create something new and fresh that would include a lot more of my photographs with the possible future aim of publishing a coffee table book that incorporated both my stories and photos. Ta-da!

I suppose at the time it was more of a calculated bet, given the breadth of my readership the hope was that I could morph my blog into a different format that included both visual images and the written word.

To be honest its only been partially successful in that I haven't really been including enough of my photographs into the new blog, nor have I developed the ongoing and loyal readership that I've had for my past blogs, especially the “Indelible Adventures” series. So it’s a bit of a rebuild effort.

In fact, as I look back at this year so far I haven't made much headway on my other area that I wanted to focus on either. As I mentioned in an earlier blog I want to begin my career in motivational speaking this year, although I did speak recently at my daughter’s school to her and her grade 7 cohort.

My talk was titled the “Reluctant Writer” in which I spoke for 30 minutes about my reason and motivation for becoming a writer (my topic was at the schools request). It went well, but getting the next gig is proving more difficult than I first imagined, especially since over the years I've done quite a bit of public and motivational speaking in my past roles.

After recently meeting with Kelly MacDonald-Hill, Partner and Senior Vice President at Speakers Spotlight she outlined my competition in this arena. Basically I'm competing against a swath of Olympians, well-known authors and well established speakers. She encouraged me to define and develop an area of focus that differentiates me from others speakers. Ever since meeting Kelly I've been mulling over what differentiates me, not as easy as I thought, not by a long way.

My mind keeps coming back to the word “resilience” and how this simple word has been central to my life. Many would say that this in unto itself is not that motivational nor is it topical, but let me tell you when you’re looking for a compass in your life and the only thing you can depend on is yourself you tend to become very familiar with how this word can seep into your mental fiber and drive you forward.

There were many days during my childhood, that even though I couldn't articulate the concept of resilience, I lived it. Enduring deep shame as the child of a poor family, whom other kids weren't allowed or strongly discouraged from playing or associating with it ensured that I had a very healthy sense of self and where I stood in the local pecking order…ah, yes that would be at the very bottom.

Dealing with this sense of shame, for better or for worse has endowed me with a mental and emotional toughness that to some may seem cold or even a little clinical.

For many years the only person I felt I could rely on was me. I struggle with trust even today and often seek the solace of my own company rather than rely on those around me for help or friendship.

When you’re in this mode from an early age you either build a tough and almost impenetrable exterior just to survive emotionally or you retreat into other forms of escape – perhaps drugs, crime or other destructive ways to cope.

Fortunately that wasn't for me, nope I knew the type of life I wanted to create for myself even though I had no idea how to actually engineer it I figured that if I believed in myself and was willing to do things others weren’t that I might have a chance. My mantra was “if this is the worst thing I have to do in my life then I can survive anything”. All I knew is that I could only go up as I'd already been at the bottom or pretty darn close to it.

To this day I'm amazed at my inner strength and resilience, my ability to stay strong and my innate proclivity for constantly reinventing myself. Although not consciously thinking about it day-to-day it’s formed a central theme to my life and has been the cornerstone of my success in life.

Is it lonely? Absolutely, I tend to push people away from me, and run from those who want me (well except for Zach & Sami that is) in their lives. My reasoning, albeit flawed, (yes, I know that I'm completely irrational on this one) is unable to believe that anyone in their right mind would want to have me to be a part of their life. Sorry, did I tell you that I'm a therapist’s gold mine? I’m sure Jung and Freud would have a field day working on me… I guess that’s why I struggle with sitting still, always on the lookout for my next adventure and relentlessly moving forward.

Given the circuitous journey that I've travelled in my life I'm successful just being here and telling you my story. ☺

This weeks photos - courtesy of my recent explorations to Palm Desert, California (so beautiful!)