~~I was recently asked a common question during a Q&A. “What is a brand?” Believe it or not, I get asked this question all the time, simply because the word “brand” carries with it many different definitions. Depending on what one does for a living, what they’ve heard, what they’ve learned, or how they perceive their own “brand” the word has different meanings to different people. Some common definitions of brand are: a logo; a company; a product; a jingle; a trademark. Others think branding is advertising and marketing.

One of the “realities” I’ve discovered through the years of business ownership, consulting and speaking, is that the customer or client rarely sees you as YOU see you. This is known as Perceptual Reality. In his book Magical Worlds of the Wizard of Ads, Roy H. Williams defines Perceptual Reality as our imagination. We spend a great deal of time there, and while there we create ideas and perceptions of ourselves that simply are not true or real.