An Exercise in Humility

I have a funny story from the world of building a business and being humbled.  As I told you previously I decided to hop out of corporate last summer and be home with the boys.  Although I wanted to be home, I knew I wanted to work.  That has never been a question.  Although there are times when I would have appreciated months away from any responsibilities except home and family, I do like to work and had always wanted to work from home again but only doing what I felt would be important to me not just something to kill time and make a little bit of money.  If that was the case I would rather organize and redecorate my home.  

I was ready to begin doing what I loved and what I am passionate about.  So 2009 was my chance to begin this path.  A path I did not have time to start while working practically full time, 32 hours a week, balancing a family, friends, volunteer work, and having a husband in school full time, who also worked part-time.  So last summer, I began career coaching and working with my friend Meghan on Detours&OnRamps events.

As time freed up from Detours, this winter I began determining my business name and logo and hired a designer to help me with my website, which is still under construction.  The name has been picked and the logo designed.  I love them both.  But then I kept hearing about “personal branding”.  I kept saying, hum, “I wonder if I need this for my coaching business?”  I decided to hear more about it and attended a workshop given by Randi Bussin, who will be a keynote speaker at the May Detours event.  As part of this workshop I was entitled to go through an assessment process.  This process includes requesting feedback about how I am perceived, strengths, weaknesses, attributes, and skills by people close to me, who know me well, and from various places in my past and present life. 

The assessment kicked off about a week ago and it has been a humbling experience in various ways.  The goal of the assessment is to come away with what my perceived brand is from others as compared to how I view myself.  If it matches great.  If it doesn’t then I probably need to fix some things.  The assessment is anonymous so I do not know who responded or what their specific responses are but I can review the data as a whole through out the gathering process.  Although not all the data is in yet and I am not yet ready to have my 25 page branding report produced, I have been reviewing the results.

At times I think wow, that is so great that someone looks at me so positively.  At other times, I view the data and say “oh my gosh am I that bad of a person.”  The weaknesses always seem to get our most attention don’t they?  I need to remind myself that when really compared to the positive comments and feedback, the weaknesses are not many and aren’t anything I don’t already know about myself and are already, or constantly, working on.  But I want to know them and contain them.

I see this enlightenment as an amazing opportunity and am thankful for my friends, family, and colleagues for participating in this exercise.  I am looking forward to obtaining my customized 25 page personal branding report to see what “my brand” is.  I look forward to defining my brand, rollling out my website, business cards and such this spring. 

If you ever wondered what “personal branding” was go check out our keynote speaker’s site or come on May 4th and hear from her yourself.  Randi is one of many special and talented women who will share a piece of themselves and their knowledge with you.  I look forward to meeting you there.

-Lisa

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”

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