Your Story Reveals Your Why

In the first post of The Soul Of Brand, I share how a theme from my childhood shaped my early career and inspired the core values of my first company.

I wasn’t a cool kid. I was curious, observant, creative, imaginative, verbal, empathetic. Often skeptical, occasionally sarcastic. But not cool. A lot of the things cool kids did I thought were performative and phony. And when I did genuinely think something was cool - usually having to do with a bold fashion choice - and I tried to copy it, it didn’t go so well for me.

Once, in 5th grade, I spotted one of the cool girls wearing a pair of Eastlands with the knotted laces. I hadn’t seen this before, and I thought it was a subculture trend that maybe I should try.

But I didn’t have Eastlands and we probably couldn’t afford them anyway. So I found a pair of Eastland laces, and tried pulling off the vibe with a pair of white Keds instead. Brown, boat shoe style rope laces in white Keds. I think I wore this with a long denim skirt and purple heart-shaped clip on earrings. In the 5th grade. To recess.

I casually walked behind the cool girl with the bonafide Eastlands in a low-pro, semi-stal…