The 90 Day Brand Plan

Chapter 2LEAVE YOUR COMFORT ZONE

“Failure is success in progress.”

—Albert Einstein

Before going any further into how to begin building your personal brand, it's important that you understand that you don't have to have accomplished something remarkable to build one—you can start from nothing. I know this because I started from nothing. I hope this story of my beginning shatters any reluctance you feel and replaces it with relentless optimism.

I never viewed myself as someone exceptional. I didn't view myself as someone who had the “gift of the gab,” and I certainly didn't see myself as some kind of guru. What I did have however was the willingness to summon the courage to wander in a direction I'd never gone in before. I needed to leave my comfort zone, and I learned that I needed to get comfortable with leaving it, constantly.

I was tired of “playing it safe” and feeling that I needed to find the perfect plan for where I should begin. I decided to start seeking a healthy relationship with failure as a necessity to my journey and all the valuable lessons that came with it. I was willing to take complete responsibility for my life. Finally, I was willing to go all out with everything I had for 90 days as an experiment, with an open mind to see what was possible.

This is my story of how I went from basement to boardroom.

Finding My Basement

I checked the fuel gauge every ...