iforthought

IBranding- Part 1

Branding is the most important thing in a business... besides revenue. Your brand is what connects you with consumers and keeps them coming back for more. Discover what is valuable. Create value with your brand and herds of consumers will flock to it. People are dying to know what's coming next. Make something creative--with a piece of you in it-- and start to stretch your mind outside the box. Connect.

Lifestyle Mapping- Send In Your Mind Map

I am doing an open call for unique, and controversial if it pleases you, mind/life maps. Send your map to me via e-mail at iforthought@gmail.com. I will sort through them and I will start featuring a map every few days with some comments. Feel free to send a small summary of your map and your inspiration. Feel free to send the maps via a scanned image preferably.

The Ebay Dilemma: IBranding Yourself To The Masses

Ebay is a great place to start for online entrepreneurs. Here is  a place that allows you limitless traffic and an immediate source of potential clients. That is the pro and con using Ebay as a way to make money. You can easily become lost in the limitless amount of "junk" or "treasure". I find that many Ebay start-ups lose their creativity along the way. They end up settling for a product that is supplied by various people in the market. In order to make any profit one would have to go directly to a wholesaler-- forget drop-shippers-- and that can be extremely expensive and risky.

I find the best method to use on Ebay is to focus on branding. Here begins the process of what I like to call ibranding. Ibranding is the process of using what you have to create a brand seemingly out of nothing or "thin-air". 

This method can be achieved in a number of ways. Just look at Ebay as an opportunity for you to exert your creativity to the masses. Be different. Sell something that means a great deal to you, or an item that you can take pride in creating. There are so many other sellers teeming to sell the same products (aka iPods, TVs, Books, etc) and where do you fit in that equation?

If you are serious about doing what you love for a living leave the preconceptions at the door. Dare to be different. Don't listen to any one person, but do what your intuition tells you. Believe me it is there for a reason.

The Catalyst and Me: A Love Story

Some people are confused about when life begins. Some say life begins at birth, while others believe we never understand fully.

Lifestyle Mapping is the process of "debunking" these theories.

The term is unusual, but the idea is simple.

You control your lifestyle. You decide when this is that and that is this. You are the artist of your passions.

There is no creativity or inspiration in normalcy. One life.

I draw maps on everything. Usually I draw on any media I am in contact with. My objective with the blog, ultimately, is to inspire and help my readers find their "catalyst".

My idea of a catalyst is, " a moment in time where events fall in such a way to make one question their own life, and then decide to live". I challenge everyone to ask these questions:

• Am I happy?
• Do I feel Alive?
• Am I making use of this one life?

Finding this catalyst is no easy feat. Most people go their whole lives without knowing it, but this begins the journey to Lifestyle Mapping, and marks the beginning iFORthought.