My brand needs to be me. Not who I’m trying to be. I have been making myself crazy trying to figure out my target market, to whom I tailor my message. And then I thought about musicians and songs. The singers that write their own songs and sing from their souls, I can’t imagine that they picture their target market first and then create the song. I imagine they open their soul and pour it onto paper. Let the followers find them. Can’t I do that with my writing? With my branding? It’s what I want to do. It makes my soul sing. Can’t I just express what has been locked inside my heart for so long? Regardless of who likes it?

I feel so free when I answer “yes” to that. In fact, I realize my entire story, my memoir, is about my journey to find peace; my journey to find my Self. So why do I keep getting myself in situations as I ponder the marketing of my book that lead me away from myself and make me more mainstream? That shatter my sense of peace? So, for my branding, can’t I just be me?  For my target market, can’t it just be the people who end up finding me and resonating with my message? Can’t I do this backwards? Write my story, stay true to myself, and allow the target market to announce itself?

As women, we are bombarded by messaging that tells us how to be. It becomes so difficult to figure out what is authentic within ourselves. As we get older, it becomes more difficult because we are told by the media that we are no longer attractive–that we have to look 20 to be attractive–and that women have no other value besides beauty. I am so tired of trying to be something besides myself to fit in. I am 44 years old for f*cks sake. I have been through hell and back. I know who I am. And it is only when I compromise that knowing that I feel lost.  

Photo Credit: In Her Image Photography