Of course, as of today, we know him as Mr. President. But about a year and a half ago, when he came to McAllister Square Mall, here in Greenville, Barack Obama was just an interesting idea. Today, he drew a couple million. That day it was a couple thousand. Of course, he could make a speech even back then.

A couple of months ago, I wrote a bank marketing trade publication article about brand personalities. In it, I talked about the five standard personalities (into which every brand falls, so far): sophistication, competence, ruggedness, sincerity, and excitement. It has always been my position that an organization's brand personality was inherent (generally beyond the control of the organization itself), and that your personality is not inherently better or worse than any other personality. In short, the best thing you can do is discover your personality and then express it authentically. I still stand by this. But recently, I began to…

I was away for a couple of weeks, doing the annual tour into the frigid north. We got to visit my family, Anne's family, and some perfect strangers in Lewisburg, West Virginia. All three were very enjoyable experiences. My brother has a very cool coffee shop, Ladybug Coffee and Galleries, to which I would love to show you a link. But it's very word of mouth, so there isn't a link as far as I know. Still, we spent several hours there on Christmas eve and Christmas day. Drinking awesome coffee, prepared by my master barista nephew Mark. Got to…