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The Brand Provides The Key ... or You Have What It Takes!

Written by: Rahna Barthelmess

Article Overview: I have a gardening background, both from spending years as the Brand Manager for Miracle-Gro and from my master gardener mother, who continues to teach me all about how to coax loveliness from a bare patch of earth. She was talking about tomatoes, and it reminded me of a very important personal branding lesson.

The Brand Provides The Key ... or You Have What It Takes!

I have a gardening background, both from spending years as the Brand Manager for Miracle-Gro and from my master gardener mother, who continues to teach me all about how to coax loveliness from a bare patch of earth. She was talking about tomatoes, and it reminded me of a very important personal branding lesson.

You see, tomatoes get to a certain point in the ripening process called the "breaker stage," when the fruit begins to turn pink. At this point, it can be taken from off the vine, as no nutrients or essentials are being transferred from the main plant to the fruit. As my mother has explained to me, "The flavor, quality, and nutrition are complete within the fruit."

The same applies to people and to brands. You are complete and can ripen off the vine. Many of the executives I talk with struggle with self-confidence issues-even when they are in the midst of success! But here's what I have seen. Everyone has what it takes to achieve their goals, if only they will set a plan in place to achieve them!

People ask me why the Signature for Success program is different from other programs. It's different because it doesn't just teach theory; it makes people write down a specific plan for how they will express themselves, how they will achieve their goals. Whatever it is that you need to achieve your goals is already within you-whether it is the humility to ask for help from someone who has already travelled down the road you would like to travel, or the patience and persistence to get a meeting with that new client you have been trying to connect with. "The flavor, quality, and nutrition" are already within you.

The same applies to brands. The best new product opportunities and growth development activities come from the foundation of the brand itself. If we could see the signs of where the brand should (and shouldn't) grow, we would be able to easily expand the brand value by the millions. The seeds of greatness are already within the brand. It just needs proper management, strong marketing and courage to bring that expansion to fruition.

So where is your plan? How are you expressing your brand? What clues can you find in your current brand (whether it's a personal brand or a product/service brand) about how the brand could best be expanded? "The flavor, quality and nutrition are complete within the fruit (brand)." It's up to you to pluck the fruit and watch it ripen! If you'd like help developing your brand, give us a call. Happy harvesting!

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Article Tags: confidence issues, earth, flavor quality, humility, loveliness, master gardener, midst, miracle gro, nbsp, nutrients, nutrition, patience, persistence, product opportunities, self confidence, signature, signs, struggle, tomatoes, vine



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