Branding

“Basketball Mike”. This came to mind when I was thinking of the opening sentence. The second thought on this though was that I never really thought about branding this, it just came about. The true brand.

So, I am taking upon this journey of branding, or at least thinking about it. I know that it is important or can be. Right now, there are a lot of “or”, and I need more of “and”. The reason for branding is not to monetize which was the first thought that popped into my head. Good thing that happened, now I know to quickly get rid of it. Although I do know that it is a byproduct of it.

Branding is to familiarize people with a product or person. With a product, Sweat & Vent, I totally understand it and will have to focus on how I want to brand it. I do not want it to be a depressing product, so I will not be posting depressing posts. Same thing with my personal brand, I do not want it to be a depressing brand, so I will not be posting depressing posts.

Here is the thing, that goes against what I believe in, which is to be real. So right now, I am on brand. I am in the happiness AND money boat. That was a revelational thought that came to me intertwined from two individuals that I have been learning from, Gary Vaynerchuk and Grant Cardone. Now it is easy to say Gary is Team Happiness and Grant is Team Money. Let me not forget though that Gary is very big on money and is adamant that there must be cash flow in the beginning and throughout the whole process of running a business. As much as Grant flashes money and speaks, behind this is the truth that he also speaks highly on the help that one can provide with money and the happiness one can receive and give. Both I agree with it.

Both are authentic.

So, there is my brand, authentic.

I cannot be doing it for the likes, for the money, for the happiness, etc. I can be doing it though for the brand. That is to be authentic.

Next question is, what is the authentic me? I should not have to ask that, and I should also have to ask that. The question more so will be, how can I help? With a focus on happiness and money.

If I have a focus on Happiness & Money, then my life will lead that path. My posts will be happy and make money. Now, they cannot literally do that directly, but ultimately, they will. If it is Happiness and Money that I am about.

Ideas are brewing and I just went down a three second philosophical time warp. The key is to be authentic. If you are thinking that I am writing more towards myself now than an audience, I am. Not sure if I will post this article. Most likely, it will be a blog on my Mike O’s You page.

The key takeaway though is this: when I sat down to write this, the energy was towards myself. Which IS a great thing. It is not selfish and is very selfless. That is what I sat down to do, to think about branding and the topic of it and how it equates to myself. That is the result that I received.

The brand is to write how I feel and be my authentic self. So, I challenge you to really dig deep in being and becoming the best and most authentic version of yourself.

This branding is champion.

Authentic.