Flash forward and most of us have spent decades working hard to be different so we can keep relevant. But fact is people rarely pay good money for different. But they’ll pay for unique. Different is scary. Unique is intriguing. Branding is about being relevant and unique.

To remember what makes you unique, here’s a strategy for going back to your brand beginnings:

l. Find an old picture of yourself preferably from grammar school the latest. Can you remember who you were then? Were you joyful? Were you exceedingly curious, creative or a daydreamer? Did you trust yourself and your wisdom? Were you kind? The class clown? Did you secretly believe you were plopped down onto the wrong planet?

If you look at where you are today then back at your kid picture, you may realize your intriguing and relevant qualities today are many of the ones you had when you were eight- the good and the bad. Makes no difference.

I have a client who started her first company making fun, luxury quality Italian leather handbags with stunning designs. The fact that she had never made a handbag before was not her biggest brand problem. It was she didn’t know how to compete with big name handbag lines that had a consistent identity season to season. My client wasn’t good with consistent. She feared she was “too unpredictable.” She had been criticized for that forever. I helped her realize her “bad trait” could be her excellent news. It was and it in fact inspired her entire brand. Each season she produced entirely new looking designs that were, as her tagline said “predictably unpredictable.” Women could emotionally relate and couldn’t wait to see and own what came out next. In five years her brand became an industry icon and earned more money and joy than she ever imagined.

Use what you were born with. Don’t throw your branding out with the bathwater. Over the years I’ve been a consultant to some of the largest brands in the world and amazing small businesses. I have also listened to and spoken before 125,000 kids. I know how to bring out the kid in you. That’s something I was born to do. How about you?

Please contact me and let’s take your brand to the next level.

Let the good times roll.

Leah@LeahKomaiko.com

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copyright unpublished 2012