One of the advantages of being an intuitive futurist with an unconventional education is that you can create the future without much interference. It helps if you are naturally rebellious and have a set of beach balls. I've been making up new words and phrases since I was a child, which is how I would eventually create the field of brand communication. Even I was surprised to find out it had already become a college major. You, yes, YOU, really can do the "impossible" when you believe in yourself. As Audrey Hepburn once said, 'It says it right there, I'm possible.'
People were so busy dismissing me as wife-material (it was the 80s ;-) that I didn't have the scrutiny of a gifted child. I was considered very average. That lack of respect for my intelligence allowed me to try different things and spend a lot of time daydreaming about what I would do when I finally got my foot in the door. No matter how many people thought it was impossible, I would do what I believed was right.
I got a world-class lesson in self-belief when I closed my first agency for a career experience I just knew was meant to be. I was given a chance to put an international fashion brand back on the map. It was a dream come true for a woman who grew up in state care!
The brand had not dressed anyone of note since Kim Basinger won the Oscar for LA Confidential. I also had a promise from the CEO of no interference for six months. Little did I know that not one person on the team I inherited believed it was possible. They even said that to my face. Within three months, I had turned over the entire team because they didn't believe in my skill or the brand. Well, nothing like a bit of encouragement!
I was alone. I'd closed my successful agency and let go of my clients. One large client ensured I spent years working with astronauts and the Johnson Space Center! I loved space! Was I mad? Apparently! I was also pissed. It took everything I had in me, and a lot I didn't know I had, to create marketing magic.
However, six months later, I had dressed every star of Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City, and Catherine Zeta-Jones wore the brand to pick up her Glamor Woman of the Year award.
That kind of crazy self-belief is how I ultimately came up with the field of brand communication. If my intuition saw a change in the business landscape, I would not hesitate to invent a way to speak to it. How else do people think words are created? Yes, people from all walks of life make them up! YOU are that powerful!
I could see future consumers would demand authentic communication about a brand. I could see that PR, which had surpassed marketing in cost-to-value, would become a pay-to-play business. That meant brands would need to become dynamic and consistent about how they communicated at every touch point.
So, I started talking to anyone who would listen to my concept for brand communication. There was nothing available on the topic online, so I had to create it from scratch. When I started another agency, people thought I was nuts for not calling it a PR company. However, I knew that the PR field would become almost entirely pay-to-play. So, we called it Dreamweaver Brand Communications, the first brand communication company in the world.
You can be anything you want to be! You can invent any word or industry you want! Do not let yourself, your career, or capabilities be limited by anyone!! If I had listened to the people around me, I would have never left Tennessee. I would never have gotten the chance to work with extraordinary icons of finance, tech, space, fashion. art, music, journalism, and entertainment. I would never have the remarkable experience that I cover in my book Unleash the Empress: Spiritual Health for Life Wealth. So, go be a rebel!
My guide to happiness, health, and life wealth, Unleash the Empress, arrives this holiday season. Visit the www.ShamanIsis.com homepage to learn more about the benefits of joining the book launch team.
Have a gorgeous weekend!
Love & Light,
Cynthia, Shaman Isis