Born Branded

Here I sit. The last day of 2006, 7:30-something in the morning with my Diet Pepsi and laptop. Having told all my colleagues and many clients, that I was launching a blog this year, it seems to me that today would be a good day to start. After all, tomorrow will be another year.

So what has taken so long? I’m in the business of being evangelical about using technology to build brands and personal platforms. I push traditional publishers and entrepreneurs to their “techno-edges” to create brand extensions to build their businesses. I work with publishers to build their e-media business, launch Digital Editions, create digital brand extensions and reach bigger and better audiences with technology. I work with entrepreneurs to get clear on their personal brand, build a platform and use traditional methods and especially technology to get them seen and heard as experts in their field (and a blog is a great tool for that). So why did it take me so blippin’ long to start my own blog?

Not that everyone needs to go through this process, but mine was: It’s not going to be easy. Who will I be? What will I talk about? What will they say? How will I sound? Like many entrepreneurs, I have a few businesses. They are all very strategically related in my mind, but how could I cover them in one blog? Or do I need to? (Such new dilemmas we have in these technology-driven, community-building, need-it-now, text me, google-it days, eh?)

Well, I got past all that very suddenly the other day when I took a short walk (no technology required) toward the end of my work day (a great habit that always frees my brain and creativity to think bigger and clearer). I came back and announced to my colleague Laura, “I’m an e-media-vangelist!”

“I like that!” she said. Since Laura knows how I work and even more how I think, this was just another routine brain announcement from me that she knows well. “It really captures who you are!” “Yes,” I said, “It feels just right. So I think I’m ready to launch my blog.” “Finally,” she said, with that big, supportive and believing smile she always gives. Laura has had her own blog http://lauralallone.typepad.com/ for years and has been a constant, yet patient inspirer to me on the topic.

So being an e-media-vangelist brings it all together for me. (Now I just need to decide how to spell it, once and for all.) But why an e-media-vangelist?

In my late teens, I was heavily influenced by evangelical speakers. I loved to watch them speak their passion, take and make their stand and lead people to make important decisions. I watched how they were able to move people to action. They helped people get inspired, then brave enough to make a choice and even a commitment. And, yes, there was a brief moment at 22, when I considered becoming a traditional evangelist, and thankfully that was short-lived. But the intrigue around what an evangelist can evoke, in people, didn’t. Evangelists are passionate about possibilities. I am passionate about using e-media and other technological advances to build brand extensions, publish and promote. There are many possibilities.

If I can’t be passionate in my work and life, then I might as well pick up dog poop (hey, I do that anyway!). Passion is what drives the people I mostly work with: entrepreneurial-minded people. They are passionate about what they publish, do, provide, sell, say or promote. My clients are publishers, coaches, speakers, authors, executives, marketers, psychologists, therapists, real estate professionals, financial planners and a variety of others that like to kick-butt in everything they do.

I work with companies, businesses and entrepreneurs that like to get excited about their next opportunity and are ready to make the choices that need to be made. Right now, I have an editor-client that can’t wait to launch her new e-newsletter and blog. I’ve got an executive consultant client that is getting clear on her brand, excited about her first e-book and upcoming website launch. I’ve got another traditional publishing client that is making huge strides with their Digital Edition launches while building readership and saving money and trees.

That’s where the fun is…that’s when I get to be an e-media-vangelist.

So there you have it, a blog post. “That was easy!” as our big, red Staples office button often says. It was. Happy New Year! Make it an easy one.