Myers Briggs Personality test
To help you understand me and my endeavors, I am a huge fan of learning about myself, and what my strength and weaknesses are. i was listening to the audio book Quitter by Jon Acuff, and he mention a section about following our dreams. Asking “what do i want do do in my life?” is such an overwhelming question – and the possibilities are endless, and intimidating. Instead, ask “what have i accomplished? and what am i passionate about?” – I say take your time to try to recover your dream in life. And to assist you, i definitely would recommend googling “myers briggs personality test” and try to find out which of the 16 personality types you are. i found mines, and i couldn’t be more excited. it really hit a cord with me, and awesomely enough, i just revised my ABOUT section of the website just a few days before i stumbled upon this test. check it out, and see what time trying to do.
“Like the other Idealists, Champions are rather rare, say three or four percent of the population, but even more than the others they consider intense emotional experiences as being vital to a full life. Champions have a wide range and variety of emotions, and a great passion for novelty. They see life as an exciting drama, pregnant with possibilities for both good and evil, and they want to experience all the meaningful events and fascinating people in the world. The most outgoing of the Idealists, Champions often can’t wait to tell others of their extraordinary experiences. Champions can be tireless in talking with others, like fountains that bubble and splash, spilling over their own words to get it all out. And usually this is not simple storytelling; Champions often speak (or write) in the hope of revealing some truth about human experience, or of motivating others with their powerful convictions. Their strong drive to speak out on issues and events, along with their boundless enthusiasm and natural talent with language, makes them the most vivacious and inspiring of all the types.
Fiercely individualistic, Champions strive toward a kind of personal authenticity, and this intention always to be themselves is usually quite attractive to others. At the same time, Champions have outstanding intuitive powers and can tell what is going on inside of others, reading hidden emotions and giving special significance to words or actions. In fact, Champions are constantly scanning the social environment, and no intriguing character or silent motive is likely to escape their attention. Far more than the other Idealists, Champions are keen and probing observers of the people around them, and are capable of intense concentration on another individual. Their attention is rarely passive or casual. On the contrary, Champions tend to be extra sensitive and alert, always ready for emergencies, always on the lookout for what’s possible.
Champions are good with people and usually have a wide range of personal relationships. They are warm and full of energy with their friends. They are likable and at ease with colleagues, and handle their employees or students with great skill. They are good in public and on the telephone, and are so spontaneous and dramatic that others love to be in their company. Champions are positive, exuberant people, and often their confidence in the goodness of life and of human nature makes good things happen.”
Never Flinch At Failure
Excerpt from The Essential Wooden: A Lifetime of Lessons on Leaders and Leadership – Coach John Wooden (UCLA Bruins 1948-1975)
“I was taught not to fear making a mistake if it was the right kind of mistake. My college coach at Purdue, Ward Lambert, often told us that the team that makes the most mistakes usually wins.
His point? If you’re not making some mistakes, you’re not doing anything — not trying to make things happen. And to win basketball games, you have to make something happen. Just like anywhere else.
Coach Lambert taught me to act, initiate, and be bold in execution rather than hang back in fear of failure. Mistakes are part of winning — not dumb mistakes or those caused by haste and sloppiness but mistakes made by intelligent and thoughtful individuals attempting to make something happen. There was never criticism for an intelligent mistake.”
I got punk’d to wake up
with a obvious act of dominance, he backs into me as if he hadn’t seen me walking behind him. i dont know if the reason is because his female interest is by his side and the alpha male emerged instinctively, all that i know is he went out of his way to “accidentally on purpose” shoulder check me as he was turning.
“AYE, Watch out man!!” i blurted – frustrated because i knew what he was doing. Then he turns to me and glares with intent focus like how a UFC fighter looks when the bell rings and its time to get it on
“WHAT?! WHAT YOU SAY?!” an apparent rhetorical question, because he knew exactly what i said – he just wanted to see if i was brave enough to say it again. i didn’t.
Instantly he grab me by the t-shirt collar and pins me against the wall. Now my heart is racing because i am all to familiar with this type of situation. as he continues to yell at me, i can no longer decipher the words. it all sounds like loud aggressive grunts, and im expecting a punch to the face at any moment.
racing through my mind is “should i hit him before he hits me?” – i want to say that i feel pretty confident in my striking abilities – i’ve watch enough WWE in my lifetime. but this guy was a few inches taller, and a few biceps bigger that i was. enough to make me doubt that even my hardest punch would even make his head turn slightly.
being lost in these thought and my indecisiveness, i suddenly realize that i was on the ground, him on top still on holding my shirt collar. this time, i was tremendously immobile. my torso and right arm pinned down, though my stronger more agile left hand was still free to get me out of this situation.
he leads over and mutters a view more indecipherable grunts to another rhetorical question that i couldn’t begin to answer. then i finally realize, that i needed all of my strength and belief to get me up.
In my head i could hear myself yelling “GET UP TONY!!! GET UP!!! GET UP!!! GET UP!!!” … “I KNOW ITS HARD BUT YOU HAVE TO GET UP!!! GET UP!!!!!”
then i woke up…. and all that was in my head was “GET UP!!! GET UP TONY – i know this is hard but you have to get up”. This time i wasn’t pertaining to the brute that was holding me down. it was the equally heavy force of sleepiness that i was fighting off.
it was all just a perfectly timed bad dream. i hear my 6:30am alarm go off at the exact same time. on any other early morning such as this, i would have easily stood up, reached for my iphone alarm clock, hit snooze, and nap for another 10 minutes. i would cycle through this routine every 10 mins until i finally get out of the bed at 10:45am, just enough time for me to freshen up and get to work by 12 noon. i vowed to reform my night owl ways and covert to over to early bird. no more late night 3am spurts of work, i need to become deliberate and concise with what i would like to accomplish, and i need to manage my time more efficiently. im running a business and working full time for goodness sakes. i should be able to manage some of my time.
i have failed countless times to wake up early but amazingly today, this dream forced me up.
Be-You Campaign story
As of now, you may have seen my project efforts for the Be-You Campaign. In short, it was a way to create exposure to the be squared brand by using high concept and high contact ideas. Think of it as a thoroughly involved, online street team project. Ill explained the details of it as you read on. First i want to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone that was apart of this. You guys understood the vision that i was trying to achieve, and jumped on board. Thank you for taking the time out to swing by and support the brand and message. I had a lot of fun with each one of you guys – especially those who came in groups. sometimes it was a little too much fun haha.
One of the best ways for you to really get what be squared is all about, is to understand the story behind the project. Alot of people have asked me how did i think of this concept. All i know is that i didn’t suddenly have a stroke of genius – it was a combination of things that left an impact with me, and one day i was able to understand the relationships between them and connect the dots.
Influence number 1: “Project: Beyoutiful”
The first precursor to the campaign was a project that i worked on a year prior to the campaign efforts. It was named “Project Beyoutiful” – and was a small scale YouTube video to bring exposure to my shirt design of the same name, and more importantly, to expose the message of be squared. I wanted to spread the belief that we are meant to be great, and to better ourselves everyday – and to first do that, we must take a look in the mirror and believe that we are worth it and see that we are confident enough to challenge the world outside. So i worked hard with my cousin Bulli, director of Jaya Production, to rent out a studio. Set with soft lighting, a dark backdrop, and “Just The Way You Are” by Bruno Mars playing in the background – It was a intimate video to shed light on our truths and ideas of real beauty. I tried my best to invite a diverse range of strong minded women to participate and share their ideas of beauty and to reenforce mental toughness to people who may be affected by their own negative ideas of their self worth.
I am tremendously proud of the project, and the production value of the video – though i was met with a few hiccups with my first be squared project. I learned early into “Project Beyoutiful” that not alot of people are comfortable with being video taped and interviewed. Many people were interested, and commemorated my efforts for thinking outside the box to promote my brand, though still they were too shy to participate. With the almost annoying amounts of contacting that i did – hitting up people over and over again to join this video project, i expected a much bigger turn out. Yet with the studio time being so inconvenient for many, and my approach to people still in need of refining – i had only a handful of girls that were able to make it.
Although it wasn’t as big as i would have liked it to be, i did get great feedback and support with the video. i had networking opportunities with the First Lady Movement, and set a foundation of what i wanted be squared to be about.
(on a side note, i made a second video blog trying to help me get through the feelings of failure when it seemed like the project was falling apart… also could be found on my YouTube Channel =)
Influence number 2: Cartoon Facebook profile pictures
However this viral happening came about, i was on board instantly!!! Afterwards there was alot of WHOO-BLAH about the origins – one stemming from child abuse awareness, and the second from a pedophile supporter group. Both of which are false by the way. It was simply a group of people who thought it would be kinda fun to reminisce about cartoons they watched as youths. They took it upon themselves to select these cartoons, may it be Angelica from the Rugrats, Sailor Mercury, Clifford the big red dog, Chip and/or Dale, Mr. Dink (Doug Funny’s neighbor), or Voltron – and post them up as their default profile picture on facebook. all of a sudden – it exploded.
i remember going on facebook that day and seeing all of the profile picture changes, and i really didn’t know what was going on, but i knew i wanted to be apart of it. this was a way for me to not only change my default picture of 3 months showing me in my tie/sweater vest combination – but i was able to pick a cartoon that would perfectly reflect me and hopefully trigger instant nostalgia to anyone that watched that same saturday morning cartoon. i soon selected Ronin Warriors, then Darkwing Duck, then finally Mighty Max: cartoons that made me feel a little exclusive because they were those one-off shows that people may have remembered but wouldn’t have jumped to them initially. And this small sense of importance, and nostalgia made me – just like everyone else – take the time to slow down my day a little and look at everyone else’s pictures. it was accidental genius!!!
Which brings me here. in late september 2011, i finally connected the dots.
- Project: Beyoutiful created a good support platform for the be squared message
- Most people aren’t big fans of being video recorded…
- …although i realized that they LOVE taking great pictures
- the cartoon facebook picture phenomenon made people feel important and evokes great fluffy childhood feeling and memories.
- the cartoon pictures gives a sense of individuality because no two pictures were trying to be alike
- facebook automatically shows new profile pictures, and captures attention without being super annoying, but also more importantly….
- …. it creates a sense of buzz when lots of people are doing it, and gets others to talk about it.
I thought it would be really awesome to create a campaign to utilize these key points. I had a great belief that this idea was going to stick. it was scary, and i knew it was going to take alot of work, networking, and tremendous amounts of people organizing – but i was up for the challenge. In mid October 2011, as i was setting the plans in motion, i knew i needed some capital quickly to fund the project. i needed to purchase a DSLR camera, a grey backdrop, studio lighting kit, and the initially cost of the shirts and print. What i ended up doing was pulling out a big loan against my 401k from my day job. This helped me jump start the project the way that i envisioned it. I had a very keen idea of what i wanted each aspect to look and feel like, and i was unwilling to compromise for anything less. As i proceed with the campaign, it started to click and i was really sure that this was going to work.
Instead of recording video interviews which people didn’t like, i would take studio quality pictures which people tend to LOVE. i would allow people to create their own “be” statements – short, sweet, to the point, and exclusive – meaning no overlapping statements. This gives the sense of individuality just like the cartoon profile picture, and people can be as creative as they wanted to be with their shirts. Then on January 1st 2012 – we all upload our campaign pictures up to our facebook all at the same time!!!!! I was able to utilize facebook’s profile picture update to quickly blitz the site and create a buzz with the initially question of “what the crap is going on with all these pictures?? Am i missing something??” followed up with “what the feezy is be squared??”. I envision that after the initially launch, people would react just this way – seeing multiple mutual friends with all the same profile picture then makes people want to know what is going on, and then people would come onto my facebook page and not only see who else was apart of it, but slow their lives down just a little bit to read the statements on each persons shirt…….. and guess what happens January 1st 2012???
I had a few friends over at my place the day of launch, and 7 all of them were on facebook (and hungover from new years eve). Some on their iphones, HTC Evo’s, ipads, and laptops – they were uploading their pictures, and looking through other peoples photos. Then they would get excited about and seeing who else just uploaded their campaign pictures to facebook. I was getting not stop notifications of people uploading their pictures, and then more notifications when people commented on them. i read a few stating something along the lines as “what is this?!” – and i thought to myself…. “perfect” haha. I also received a comment from my friend that was apart of campaign, and said that the best part “is seeing her friends upload pictures, that she had no idea they were also apart of the campaign”. There was a sense of energy that went on that day – and i can only assume that if my few friends that were right next to me were on facebook flipping through all of the pictures throughout the day – everyone else that was apart of the be-you campaign was doing the exact same thing. And those who weren’t apart of the campaign flipped through the same pictures and now know be squared. I dont think i could forget that day
The Be-You Campaign was a win/win/win:
- people who came for the photo shoots were able to get a be squared shirts for $5.
- those who did not participate still found out what be squared was by seeing those multiple friends that joined the campaign
- when wearing the campaign shirts, people feel special because no one else has the same shirt statement.
- and when they see others wearing the shirts, they instantly understand how they got it, and reinforces the message of be squared. plus, its a great conversation starter. YAY!!!
After all said an done, i’m really happy with the success of the Be-You Campaign. My stretch goals was 300 people to participate before the launch date on the first of the year – and i landed on 186 – which i don’t think is too shabby all. Still now, people are contacting me to be apart of the campaign – so that must mean that im doing something right. i felt like i only scratch the surface of what i can accomplish with be squared, and just like my own personal be-you campaign shirt states, this is “just the BEginning”
Bored + Stickers = ART???
I stole this idea from someone else. it looked cool – i had plenty of stickers, and free time to do this.
