Building my Brand - the Gray Factor

I gave myself a mental sabbatical today so I had a lot of time to think.

In trying to determine my talents, I thought I'd go way back and figure out the basics of who I am. That took me back to thinking about my siblings because we can learn a lot about ourselves from looking at our families.

I have two older brothers, did you all know that? On the surface, we have a few things in common that don't require much digging to see. We are all extremely family oriented, we're all pretty funny in our own way, we are all educated, and we all have some level of success in our chosen careers.

Even at first glance I thought that was about it, but then I decided to dig deeper.

My brothers and I are all artists in our own way. It took me a second to come to that conclusion but this goes to the little known facts about the Gray children. And they probably don't even know I remember some of the things that I do.

My oldest brother is a musician and has a beautiful singing voice. He also did some acting and performing in college. I remember him being a DJ, and I remember hearing an audio tape of him singing "The Closer I Get to You" during a college show.

My next oldest brother is an amazing artist. I still remember his drawings and paintings. Today I remembered him having a charcoal sketch pad and drawing pictures of family members and even our beloved pet during a trip to Texas. He drew my afro puffs and my pug nose just perfectly.

I am the writer. I have a passion for words and thoughts and feelings. And I love creating beautiful things. Although I cannot draw, I can visualize things and recreate them without much direction. I was very grateful for this skill helping my son with school projects and planning my wedding.

None of us made our career in these gifts. But they are still very much part of us.

We do have one thing in common that has fueled our career success. We are all extremely analytical. We can take the complex and break it down in bite sized pieces that can be understood by others. We think twice and speak once and because of that we are respected - because when we do speak, we speak with truth and clarity.

So in just recalling some wonderful family memories, I have pulled out a few of my skills.

I am a writer.
I am analytical, and can interpret the complex to make it simpler to understand.
I am able to create beautiful things once I have a vision.

That's a great start, I think.