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I have the pleasure of meeting with a group of incredible people on Tuesday mornings every week. We are a pretty eclectic bunch from business owners to independent contractors to the marketing coordinator for a local firm. Our conversations revolve around the creative/innovative ideas that cause us to wonder.

Today we were talking and as things so happened my business came up. I was sharing with the group that my business has evolved since its inception about nine months ago from a “blogging and social media” company to one in which I work to help companies identify themselves and who they want to be as a company and then help them build (I used the word brand) themselves according to who they have identified themselves to be.

The word “branding” stuck out in a negative way with the group, because it represented to them something contrary to what they know my business to be. That led to the group assessing my new tagline “Teaching the art of business and the business of success!” (I thought it was pretty cool!) However the group pointed out (correctly I might add) that the new tag line had broadened the perceived scope of my business rather than narrowing it as I had intended.

About an hour later I got an email from Maxine. She said that she had been thinking about the conversation and had come up with the phrase, “Know yourself, show yourself!” I read it and the lights came on. I was so struck by the possibilities (because this is really the core of what I do) that I drove by her office to tell her so.

I am telling you this story because most of us who are in the Boomer generation are looking at second careers and really want this one to be about who we are, what makes us happy, and how we can impact the world around us. For us to meet these very general goals and to live the second half of our lives in powerful ways, we need to follow Maxine’s advice (and now my new, new tagline): “Know yourself, show yourself.”

If, in the development of a second career we can’t enjoy every day, then we might as well stay where we are doing what we have been doing. But if we are going to build a second career, we need to build it around who we are at our core. Once we have made those decisions, we need to develop our on and offline marketing strategies to show us in the light of our core being.

Thanks again to my Local Ten group for helping me see things clearly and for Maxine in particular for stating my essence as seen through her eyes! You are all awesome and I am privileged to be able to share creative and innovative thoughts with you!

In what ways does your “second career business” show off who you are? What have you done to come to know yourself? How are you molding what you know into what people see?

PS – The cartoon doesn’t really have anything to do with this article, unless of course my second career becomes a great success. Then it will be filled with meaning! (Love you Gramma!)