What you have is valuable

Photo: Mela by Patti Parker

I’ve been selling access to my brain since middle school.

Originally from Washington, DC, I ventured into seventh grade at an expensive private school in Prince George’s County, Maryland. At ten years old, I couldn't foresee how the hour-long commute between my elementary and middle schools would eventually feel like traversing worlds. Prince George’s County proudly boasts being one of the wealthiest Black counties in America. I, however, wasn't among those affluent students.

In grade school, I often found myself offering my homework or lunch hour to "help" classmates with their own work. Sharing additional English assignments or quick scans of my Biology homework before class wasn't uncommon. Sometimes, I'd do this in exchange for school lunch on popcorn shrimp days or a promise to pay my way into an upcoming school dance. (Why were we going to club as teenagers, chile?)

What I freely gave away back then has created a bit of a challenge for me in adulthood as I consider the value of my gifts.

I hesitate to say, "No one talks about [insert highly discussed topic here]," but I'm going to make an exception. Because in my experience, it’s true. No one talks about the challenge of learning to recognize and appropriately charge for the gifts you've been accustomed to giving away freely. Boundaries are learned, and value must be instilled. Without either, we're left navigating the waters of other people's opinions and vices, further distorting our perception of our own value.

Let me tell you this, though: what you have is valuable. Truly, it is. Even if you have yet to attach a price tag to it or fully believe in its worth for yourself.

No matter the talent. No matter the gift. If you leave here with nothing else today, my hope is that you leave either convinced or at least curious about your own inherent value. 

I've always been clever and fairly enterprising, but I'd be lying if I said I always recognized my own worth. (Yes, we're going there. Did I mention we get vulnerable here? Well, we do.)

Especially when it comes to my professional skillset. It's easy to relinquish your power to decide your worth over to those whom you perceive to be where you hope to be, have what you hope to have, or who live how you hope to live. Their perception becomes a (lowercase “g”) god to you, ruling and dictating your perception of yourself. 

Who or what has shaped your perception of your worth? Are you believing a lie or the truth about yourself? 

I want you to consider something you've been doing since middle school. Maybe you used to help classmates with their homework, and now you consult and teach people how to build strong brands. (Ok, Mela. That one’s about you.) Maybe you used to sell newspapers door-to-door, and now you manage and sell data to tech companies. Perhaps you used to mow lawns, and now you design gardens and handsome front yards.

Whatever it is and however long you've been doing it, know that what you have is worth a great deal and can impact the world greatly. Your perspective, your thought process, your approach to the work are all unique and specific to you. The way you plan projects and the way you build meaningful and strategic relationships may be different than your colleagues, but you approach the road less traveled with confidence and enthusiasm. Your background might be incredibly unfamiliar to everyone in your industry, and that is what makes you, you. 

If no one’s told you in a while, zoom in, screenshot, and update your mobile wallpaper. What you have is valuable. Actually, it is your character, your integrity, and your endurance that hold the most value of all. We won’t believe the lie that just because your value hasn't been fully recognized it isn't there.

If in reading this, you’ve realized you’ve got some work to do, that is okay. This is a journey, and we are on it together. Regardless of how faithful (or unfaithful) you are to travel down this road of recognizing your own worth, we'll press on toward this goal together.

While you’re here, I’d love for us to become friends. I’m Mela. Welcome to the Goald Brand, a blog where I'll share my story and brand expertise and offer any wisdom I have to help care for the depth of your soul. Think entrepreneurship, but make it healthy. Think brand building, but in the process, you’re made whole.

I’ll explain more about how I landed on “Goald Brand” as a name, but for now, I’ll thank you for spending a bit of your day with me. Maybe we both have been selling access to our brains since middle school. Maybe we both have been bartering services for resources for the last couple of decades. And all the skills we’ve honed since age ten have banded together to serve us well now. From doing other people’s homework for the promise of popcorn shrimp at lunch to building a world we want to see using the very same skillset. We’ve come a long way, friend.

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