In my former career as a marketer, I worked on brand concepts and development for corporate products and services. In my current career, I work with startups on investment readiness including branding, positioning, and go to market strategy. I have created brands and strategies for many businesses and coached teams of marketers and founders.
As I prepare to launch a new branding project, instead of feeling the solid ground of expertise under my feet, I feel like my toes are hanging over the edge of a precipice. I am about to jump off a cliff into the world of personal branding.
I’ve taken some leaps into the unknown on my way to this moment. I decided to transform my life to focus on purpose and left my corporate career to start a global business with my husband. I packed up my home and set out on a trip around the world to build the knowledge and network to shape our business. I undertook a Ph.D. in Life by my own design in impact investing and international development. And while all of this was publicly shared along the way through our business website and social channels, I had another project that I kept quiet.
Before I got my MBA, went into business, became a marketing professional, or a consultant, I studied English and creative writing for my undergrad. I wrote short stories and poetry in college and was able to publish a few short pieces. After college, my writing aspirations took a backseat as I struggled as a young single mom to parent and provide for my son. I set the poet aside and embraced the business student and professional until the pace of my career momentum made creative writing a distant memory.
When I made the transition from corporate career to purpose-driven entrepreneur and world traveler, I added a personal goal to write a book. I began working on a memoir weaving the journey of my life leading up to making this transition with stories of my trip written as I explored 20 countries over the course of 9 months.
My husband and I started our travels in China and spent much of our time in Southeast Asia, the regional focus for our business. We hiked to meet the sunrise in Ella, Sri Lanka and recuperated in the hot springs of Tbilisi, Georgia, we ate fiery cauldrons of soup in mall basements in Shanghai and shouted wishes from the top of Kuala Lumpur Tower overlooking the capital city of Malaysia.
After the trip, we established the clients and partnerships to grow our business and split our time between Seattle and Southeast Asia over the next year. At the 2 year anniversary of leaving my job, I finished my memoir.
That brings me back to the cliff. I recently signed a contract with a publisher, so my book will be reaching readers next year! The time has come to go public as a writer. I’m launching a website and blog to share my writing and establish my brand, and this time it’s personal.
If I had to apply some labels to myself, I might include entrepreneur, mom, feminist, purpose-driven, anti-racist, wife, and traveler. My interests are wide ranging including sustainability, entrepreneurship, travel, self-transformation, mindfulness, ecology, and neuroscience.
When I advise business leaders and marketers on brand development, I often provide the feedback to refine the strategy, make the positioning clear and concise. I would advise myself that these lists have too many topics.
But this is a signature element of my approach to life, exploring interconnection. I enjoy focusing on the linkages between varied topics and points of view and using systems thinking across fields. This is the secret sauce I used to develop my marketing expertise, strategy consulting work, global business, and will explore in my writing.
Jumping off the cliff with my personal brand is not going to be the kind of tidy, orchestrated brand launch I’ve overseen or executed before. It’s going to be complicated and messy, but to bring the conversation to a personal level it’s not meaningful without messiness.
My book delivers the messiness, along with the tales and tools of transforming my life and achieving some pretty audacious goals. I’m proud of the work I’ve created, but it still strikes fear in my heart to imagine sharing so much of myself.
“He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.“ Ralph Waldo Emerson
A personal brand is a living thing, it will evolve as I learn and grow. Launching a personal brand as an author and blogger is a commitment to sharing that evolution with you as it happens. From free fall to landing, while shouting with joy or with eyes filled with tears, it’s time to jump.
