It's October 2015 and I'm about to walk on stage at an event in central London. The room is full of people who run health and wellness businesses, and I've been asked to talk about how I built my Natural Juice Junkie brand.
I'm nervous. Not about speaking. I'm nervous about my opening line, because I've no idea how this room is going to take it.
I walk out and say it anyway. "A few people have told me my views on brand building are crap. They're right. So please write the word down the side of your notebook. C, R, A, P. I'll explain what it means."
Eighteen months later I'm reading back through that talk, and I realise the four letters work just as well for life as they do for brands. Maybe better.
C is for content
There are two words in English spelt C-O-N-T-E-N-T. One is the stuff we read, watch and listen to. The other means being at peace and happy.
They're connected by more than spelling. Everything you take in has a say in how you feel. A song can lift you for the whole day. Half an hour of bad news before bed can flatten you.
So be choosy about what you let in.
R is for rapport
Business is all about relationships, and so is life. We all need connection, and the people closest to us shape us whether we like it or not.
Jim Rohn said we're the average of the five people we spend the most time with. I don't know if five is the magic number. I do know I'm happier when I'm around happy people.
A is for authenticity
The brands that last are true to their word. Happy people don't pretend to be someone else either.
For a long time I tried so hard to fit in that I'd wear a different mask for every occasion. I'm sure that played a big part in the depression I lived with for more than ten years. When I started showing up as myself, everything got lighter. I wrote more about that in The road to peace begins within.
It's hard to be happy in life until you're happy being you.
P is for perseverance
When I was about 12 I heard a line on the Lenny Henry Show that never left me. The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.
Whether you're building a brand or building a happier life, it takes work, and it takes time. You plant the seed, you water it, and you keep watering it long before anything shows. I wrote about that side of it a few months later in The power of yet.
The letters that didn't date
I've given a lot of talks since that night in London. Most of what I said about juicing brands has dated. The four letters haven't, and they still work for business and for everything else.
First published March 2017.
