What is Your Personal Brand?

The struggle is real. And what I mean by "struggle" is you should see my closet!! I recently started packing to move into my new home and realized, in doing so, that my closet is literally one-third of what I own. Ohmygoodness... How did this happen? Where did the tomboy who lived in oversized shirts go? When I look at older pictures of myself, I know it is me but I cannot seem to remember how I got here. Then it clicked; I am an artist and these are only a few of my mediums. I didn't always know I was an artist; I didn't realize just how creative I was. I liked to write and act and make people laugh, but until recently I did not link that to my creativeness. Clothes are fun. Shoes are amazing. Makeup is a blast. Hair is interesting. All of these things are an extension of who I am and how I feel. You can physically see who I am by how I express myself in my fashion.

I didn't always have a specific style; it has adapted over the years. The more confident I became as a woman, the more defined my personal image became. Think of it like this: we are all walking around marketing ourselves each day. If we don't know who we are yet, how can we market ourselves correctly? If we don't have confidence in ourselves, how can we promote our brand? We can't, it's that simple.

We live in a world where people take things at face value. Whether we want that to be different or not does not really matter; reality matters. How you present yourself to people is how they will see you. Fair enough. How you dress, walk, speak, etc. is your Personal Brand. Coke doesn't walk around acting like Fanta, so why should you misrepresent yourself? How do you feel about yourself? Who do you want to be? Envision your "Matrix Self" and become that! You have the power *cue He-Man track here* to adjust how people see you by adjusting how YOU feel about yourself.

When I am sick and don't feel well, I get up, take a shower, put on something cute & do my makeup. Making myself feel like I look better makes me physically feel better. Our brains are super strong and they are OURS. We control them!!! Can you believe that? I know, holy crap, right? We have the ability to be whatever we want to be. Turns out our parents were not lying after all. Do you want to be successful? Then dress for success. Do you want to be more dainty? Put on an adorable dress and curl your hair. Do you want to be respected? Walk tall and proud; command it.

Don't forget the most important thing of all: surround yourself with people who lift you up! I spent most of my life feeling ugly, like I would never matter, nor would I become successful. Then I adjusted my circle. I had people who taught me my value so I started to believe it myself. I no longer believe those things. I believe in me.

And sometimes you just need friends to send you things like this, so you can truly see it for yourself: