I was in a conference room waiting to meet with a client,
and I saw the magazine on the coffee table in the reception area.
In the late 90s, Debbie Millman was advising companies on branding.
She picked up an issue of Fast Company, and the cover stopped her in her tracks.
It was unlike anything she'd seen before.
It was this very dramatically designed cover, oranges and very powerful colors.
The cover looked like an ad for Tide Laundry Detergent with its big blue lettering, but...
Instead of saying Tide Laundry Detergent, it said A Brand Called You.
A Brand Called You.
As of this moment, you are going to think of yourself differently.
You're not an employee of General Motors.
You're not a staffer at General Mills.
You don't belong to any company for life and your chief affiliation isn't to any particular function.
You're not defined by your job title and you're not confined to your job description.
Starting today, you are a brand.
The cover story talked about this new construction of our corporate selves that was required in the modern marketplace.
And I was struck by this sort of brand thinking.
It seemed really sexy.
It seemed a way to leverage who you were in a bigger, more significant, more statuesque kind of way.
Since then, it's become a mantra.