Knowing who you are and what you stand for is the most important question you should answer. You don't have to, but if you do, I guarantee it will change the way you live your life.
This week's post was inspired by a 4 minute video on brand building.
Josh makes very good points and asks great questions for anyone building their brand.
How are you going to weave your story into your brand?
Why should anyone listen to you? There is no definitive answer
Could you take a stance for whatever you are preaching? Where do you draw the line in the sand?
Your brand is not for everyone, you need to draw the line somewhere. If you stand for everything, you stand for nothing. What hill are you willing to die on? Even more importantly, why? I realized I never answered those questions so here it goes
What do I stand for?
All kids are born good, and if you continue to be the good person that you were born, you will have a good life filled with love and inner peace. Oh, and when you have love and inner peace, you will be motivated and make more money than you will need! What happens is people change somewhere along the way because of negative influences such as parents negative instilling wrong values, negative experiences in society (friends mistrust, bad relationships), horrible media narratives, wrong celebrity influences, etc.
Why do I believe that?
No child at 2,3 years old wants to rule the world. No child wants to be a billionaire who profits off other people. No child wants to do shady business practices and mistreat employees. Kids just want to sleep, eat, play, and poop.
What in my personal experience has shown me that to be true?
To know who we are, we need to go back to when we were little. For me, I was about 6 years old when my mom took me to the capital city, Skopje. We passed a homeless person on the street begging for money, and my mom noticed something was wrong. She said I was so upset until she gave me money to go back and give to the homeless person. Building Block #1 - Help others
At the same time, I would go to the store, buy 10 chocolate bars, eat 1, and give the other 9 away to my friends who didn't have the money (My mom was in the US, I was in Macedonia so I was techincally rich for the Macedonian kids). I never thought about why I did all those things but now I know I did it because it made me feel good. I was told countless time by others that some kids are taking advantage of me, but in a way if you think about it, I was taking advantage of them too. I was giving them food to make myself feel better. Building Block #2 - When you give, you receive even more.
Teen love! This escalated quickly I know but hold on!! I had many opportunities here to change who I am. From being a teenager who gets rejected by girls, I was told numerous times to stop being so open. Don't text her right away...Play hard to get... Ignore her first...Make her want you...One girl is for losers...Hook up life is the best...I can go on and on. Somewhere deep inside me I knew what I wanted, which was an honest relationship built on trust, not games. I wanted to be with the right girl for me. I had numerous failings including, living in Lake George NY for 3 months in the summer to support a girl I met, only for her to play many games with me and make me look like a fool. I went all in and got nothing. Maybe I needed to change?
Then in 2016, it all changed. I texted a girl right away, didn't play any games, committed to her right away, invited her to go with me to Macedonia for 3 months just 4 months after meeting her, and did all the things I was told by society not to do....and it was the best decision I ever made. She accepted who I'm, love me as much as I love her, we got married, have a beautiful baby boy and a baby girl on the way! And I couldn't be happier. Building Block #3 - Life will throw numerous chances at you to change who you are... stay the course, clear the hurdles, and keep going strong.
My Brand - What do I want to leave in the world?
This is what I want my brand to represent. I want to inspire as many people as possible to remember who they were as a child and to stick to that. Wake up the kid inside of you. You are such good people, don't let anyone or anything discourage you from that. I will do that by creating content for children using my characters and tell stories about kindness and positivity. I will continue to share my journey and help people with reaching their own goals. I'm going to be starting a new YouTube channel which was inspired by a game I used to play in my childhood (stay tuned!).
Bonus: #Proud. I want to give props to my friend Aurlien, who started his company to help CEOs build their own brands: https: /www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7062788525485649920/ . I've been watchign Aurelien grow as a content creator, and can't wait to see what he will accomplish with his company! Doesn't matter how the company does, Aurelien following his dreams is already a big win! The hardest thing to do is start, everything else is a bonus!
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