Brand Girl™

Seth Godin is a favorite of mine. I came to know of Seth and his work when hired (geez, over 10 years ago) to be part of the team that very successfully (ahem) launched Fast Company Magazine. It was a wonderful time for business (the new economy), and Bill Taylor and Alan Webber were on the scene first, both capturing and propelling the movement with its much touted rag. It was an equally wonderful time in marketing with visionaries like Seth and Tom Peters popping on the scene putting marketing and ad folks alike on their toes. It was a time when the phrase branding was unofficially coined and tossed around; and it was a time that creatives and account executives were finally lunching – together. To this day I still follow Seth and oddly enough (there are no accidents), I stumbled upon something he wrote that referenced the very thing I wrestled with when considering the launch of this blog. Where do you start?

Unless you’re a skimmer (and at times I’m), nobody likes to pick up a book and start in the middle, yet, with many blogs that’s exactly what happens. You enter mid-act. So no, I can’t fill in all the blanks. It would be impossible for me to recall in all its glorious detail all that went on that brought me to this day, to this blog – to Brand Girl.

(For a shorter read, you can omit the following rant:) [That she, ("she" being the idea) was originally inspired as a television or cable show. She the tv treatment was to be an experiment in "branded entertainment," the then new buzz in marketing, and well, I was to be a new buzz in entertainment. (Or so I thought.) I had envisioned her as a "Sex and the City meets South Park." She was to be animated, and delivered in shorts. Then after more musings and meetings with "those that know better," she moved to a traditional sitcom (a la "Sex and the City meets Archie Bunker"). Everyone loved my characters and wanted more, and most importantly, not once was I told to "stick to my day job." So I was encouraged, repeatedly to a) move to Los Angeles, b) take acting classes, and c) write... and write a book. Yes, I was told by one producer that you were no one until you had a book, well at least in LA. So in an attempt to become someone in LA, and up my odds of selling a show, she was wrapped into a book, and officially birthed and named Brand Girl. I then ran around with the Brand Girl book, and now, no one seemed interested in a sitcom, because now, (say it with me) reality tv had conquered the world. (Enter: Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.) And Brand Girl was so damn pretty: smart, sexy and instructive. I was told to save the sitcom for later, "what you need to do now, is to reposition and rewrite (ugh) Brand Girl as a self-help book and guru. She needs to be like a Dr. Phil meets the Advice Goddess."And let's not forget about the producer that's begging me (still to this day) to consider the one-woman shows citing success that rival those of a Vagina Monologues. The concept alone of performing material absorb way too many hours of self examination – talk about throwing a girl off her brand. (Did I on some innate scary level what to be a star? A quasi Oprah. GOOD LORD NO. Well, maybe. I would do it for George... ) Yes, it would be daunting to catalogue the merry-go-round that one encounters when shopping an entertainment project, wrapping up a perfectly-coifed life back east (or so I thought), and moving – extended stay or not – to LA. Now there's a book begging to be written. I would call it: "How to Avoid Being Lost in LA." (Publishers: take note of the self help angle. I'm learning.) And it would begin like this, "...one most factor in between six to nine months (yes almost a year) right off the bat for pure NYC detox. It's a very dark time and place. A coma-like stage where you walk around in denial, among the other homeless, muttering things (out-loud) like: what the hell did I do?, why am I dating C minus men? (he didn't work back east, why on earth would he work west), where's my gucci suit?, where's Bobby De Niro?, do you have a quarter? (who knew about the meters?), and hello, why am I in LA? YET, this is my reality.] (And this is the end of my rant.)

This blog attempts to capture all that transpires in the world of branding and the makings of a brand girl, and this ones personal struggle to retain and define her own identity (and life) within the realm of the BG brand, whether it be business, boys or living in LA.

And ironically enough, (again, there are no accidents), it was five years ago on this very day, when the world at large was heavily reminded that life is precious, and for some of us quite short. It was a time to examine and relearn all that was important. And on that very day, as I ran haphazardly in the dark clouds that suffocated lower manhattan, I swore, among other things that I would try life differently.

This is me, five years later, Kwas (a.k.a. Brand Girl, live wire and of late, “walking content”), finally doing life differently. Although I’m happy that I have done more than try, I still have to wonder (out-loud) why… LA?

I share the above openly and lovingly for your entertainment and geez, maybe I will actually inspire someone. But if any show comes out that remotely smells like a “Kwas, or a Sex and the City done All in the Family style” – animated, one woman or not, despite being lost in LA and scared of my Treo 700, you should know that there are two numbers that I know by heart. One would be my Moms, and the other, my lawyer.
xo