Slick as snot marketing got you down? Clear the air with Charisma!

I just discovered Michael D. Pollock's smallbusinessbranding.com.

Targeted at what he calls the "solopreneur," it's a wonderful collection of thoughts and insights celebrating the oh- boy-howdiness of a well-conceived tiny business.

Our world views would play nicely together during circle time. The link above travels to a well-researched riff deconstructing the vagaries of charm and charisma along with some pointers on cultivating your particular own brand of it.

One of life's little thrills is happening upon a like mind. Michael's article about charisma echoed a refrain or two from my one of my recent diatribes, "I am not, nor will I ever be, Rumplestiltskin."

In short, it's a call to drop the business guise in favor of the truth. The authentic self is inherently more attractive, rewarding, and just plain useful, than even your most brilliantly conceived made-for-tv-movie of you. Yes. Even in business that concerns important people in positions of authority. Even then. Maybe even especially then.

Since I've been writing this blog, I've spent a lot of time with other people's bloggy thoughts. And I gotta tell you, the emerging picture is pleasingly refreshing. Cutthroat, big-agency, killer-instinct creative-types have stopped their slouch toward Bethlehem, performed a bit of personal feng shui, and gotten down to the bones of what matters. The cynicism that for so long masqueraded as weary wisdom has been rejected. It's no longer cool to be cool in the cold old way.

Every tectonic upheaval has to begin somewhere. Just like a few of these well-spoken visionaries hunkered over keyboards, dressed for success in varying stages of dishevelment, tapping out the manifestos of a revolution where no guns are fired, but heads will roll because, as karma reminds us, what goes around, comes around.

In a related note, I've been having a weird, deja-vu-ish feeling lately. It's been pleasant in a quiet way, reminding me of the smell of sugar cookies from my granny's kitchen. I've had the hardest time nailing it down.

But I've finally figured it out. It's hope. Now, that's a revolution in the making.