Most of us, whether we are accountants, lawyers or creative professionals, need an outlet, which inspires our creativity. For me it has always been writing. For others art, design, gardening, cooking and sewing are popular ways to tap into the right brain. Regardless of who you are or what you do for a living, creativity is paramount to a well-balanced and happy life. Furthermore, lack thereof has been linked to depression and anxiety.

So how do you find yours if you haven’t already? Some of the best resources today are online. Without committing to any one thing in particular, browse different sites and see what tickles your fancy. Then, if you find something that you’ve always wanted to try, take a class! A group environment is a great way to get motivated and stay inspired. Finally, don’t be shy – there’s no limit to how many hobbies you can explore. So try, try again!

Finally, when you do find something you love, share it! It wasn’t until I had the privilege of blogging for Motor that writing became so important to me. It is amazing the amount of gratification a simple post brings.

Share with us, what is your creative outlet?

I have a friend, we’ll call him Bob, and Bob’s worn a red hat everyday that I can remember. It’s kind of his ‘thing’. Doesn’t matter what he’s wearing or where he’s going, he always wears a red chapeau.  So we’ve all come to expect him to wear the hat. It fits him, he’s kinda like the hat – vibrant, fun, colorful and a little spicy. Without the hat, Bob just wouldn’t be Bob.

Then one day, Bob changed, and came in wearing a godforsaken black hat. We asked him what was wrong. We thought the worst! Had someone passed away? Was he leaving the country? What?!  He assured us that all was fine, he just needed a change; same Bob, different hat. We didn’t believe him. We knew something had to be wrong…Bob wouldn’t just not wear a red hat. His red hat was a part of him, a symbol of who he was. But there he was, in that black hat, trying to make us believe all was well.  We didn’t know what to do, our faith in Bob and that red hat was waining. He just wasn’t the same person. The black hat wasn’t Bob. I was confused.

Of course this is a very simple analogy to “brand”.  Bob’s brand became his red hat.  Imagine that your company, product or service has a red hat.  It’s the behavior you’ve exhibited while you’ve created your brand.  Your company has worn that hat every day. It stands for your brand, it envelops you, your employees, your offices and storefronts, your advertising and marketing efforts, everything. Your customers trust this hat, they love this hat, they know this hat.  Then you bring in a new marketing team their first impulse is to change it all, because after all, change is good  right?  They change how you are seen by your customers. They give you a black hat and what happens? Customers, partners and employees get concerned. They’re not familiar with this hat. They want to know what happened and why you changed. They’re concerned. But you tell them nothing is wrong and continue on in the black hat. Fear, uncertainty and doubt amounts to brand abandonment and with that comes mass exodus of sales.

Are you wearing a hat?  What color is it or haven’t you looked lately?  Don’t be a Bob.

What color hat are you? What color hat do your customers think you are? Do they match?

Can you guess which of the GM stable of brands appears on the Business Week list of top 100 global brands?

Give up?

Cadillac? Nope. Chevy then? Uh-uh. Buick? Gimme a break.

The answer, and hopefully it’s obvious by now, is none. A big fat zero. Which is just where they are right now – zero, back to square one. Even GM’s supposed “power brand”, Chevrolet, and the re-introduction of the Camaro, hasn’t helped. As a typical old-school, product driven organization, GM was more concerned with developing new product lines but never put the effort into developing the brands under which those product lines would fall.

As a result, no one knows what they’re buying into when they buy a GM product. Is it performance? Is is service? Is it reliability? Is it affordable design? No one knows. Well, maybe President Obama knows something we don’t know. He just bought the company.

Maybe he’s just hoping to snag a Camaro without the outrageous price tag…

Oh, and just to be fair, can you guess which of GM’s competitors appear on the list? All of them. The usual suspects: Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and Ferrari – the brands you’d expect because, well, they’re actually brands and you know what each of them stands for and the type of products, quality and service you’d expect from each. But also on the list are: Ford (just barely, but it’s there thanks to trucks), Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Hyundai and Volkswagen.

So where are you? Are you building a brand or are you building products?

Will Obama come to your rescue when your fate has been aligned with GMs? Doubtful.