But what if there really were two paths? I want to be on the one that leads to awesome.”

- Kid President

I took a brief hiatus from my blog recently. I went AWOL from social media too (gasp!). I gave myself a time-out or did a Howard Hughes, as I like to call it. But my gig as a recluse did not include a penthouse or dropping $13 million to buy the casino housing the penthouse, to indulge this whim. 2012 was complicated. Actually, it was a year unlike any year I have ever experienced. There was disrupting activity happening around me. A counter-productive energy that I could not seem to affect no matter how hard I focused or diligently I worked. It was like I was caught in a high speed game of chicken with 2012, and my high performance vehicle was sputtering. I was perplexed.

So I retreated from my familiar pattern to spend time in reflection. I focused on people and things that mattered. I fed my creative soul. I stalked my kids on Facebook. I reconnected with friends I had neglected. I talked to strangers. I pondered running for President of the United States. I spent more time trying to be the person my dog wanted me to be. I hammered out business, marketing, and investment plans. I contemplated change.

When I resurfaced on Facebook recently, some people noticed that I had been away. One person, an old high school friend, wondered why I had stopped posting to my blog (thank you for noticing Sue, I love you man). I stopped because I lost something. I did not just misplace it like you do your car keys or your wallet. It was not like losing the television remote in a sea of couch cushions, wiener dogs and throw pillows, or your car in the IKEA parking lot. In a strange twist of fate I lost something very personal – my spirit of optimism. I liken losing it to discovering there is no Santa Claus, or that unicorns and fairies do not exist, or that Milli Vanilli lip synced all their songs. Losing it was traumatic because it is an innate and complex part of who I am. It is like rocket fuel for my life and work power thrusters. Optimism helps me see the world, my life, my work, and the people around me through candid and meaningful eyes. I do not want to imply that optimism is like some sort of magical power…but with it, all things are possible.

Everyone’s journey is like a fingerprint, it is uniquely our own. We influence or we are influenced – directly and indirectly by everyone we encounter and everything we experience. Over time we become the curators of our own remarkable expedition. So it is in this capacity, somewhere along the way, I adopted optimism as part of my personal brand. It has been a welcome companion. Basking in the greatest achievement or facing the most insurmountable challenge, it has been like an old friend compelling me on.

Not long ago I received a letter from someone very dear to me. In fact, if doppelgangers exist; assuming they can be the opposite sex and look nothing like you, I suspect that he is mine. In a rare moment of contemplation he explained being at a crossroads in life and asking himself, “What do you want to be when you grow up” all over again?  As I read his words a smile slowly spread across my face…optimism. Interrupted, yes, but not lost. I think what my friend is seeking, in this incidental do-over, is his absolute authentic self, his Space Jam.

To my friend I say, the second act is going to be so much better because it will not involve puberty, acne, planking or teenage angst. I also offer this pep talk. No, really “A Pep Talk”, by Kid President. Watch it above and please stay tuned for his closing tribute. This kid says it better than I ever could: “We were made to be awesome. It’s everybody’s duty to give the world a reason to dance. Create something that will make the world awesome.”

As for 2012, well breaking up is hard to do. But in the words of the colorful Cee Lo Green, ‘Forget You’. I would really like to print the title of the version available on iTunes. But this is after all, a respectable blog.

Now, get out into the world. Dance and be filled with optimism. Find your Space Jam.

Brands lose favor for too many reasons to list. They may be overshadowed by other brands. Brands stumble and fall from grace losing our trust. Sometimes, a brand gets left behind because its shepherd fell asleep under the comfortable shade of a tree and neglected the flock. Regardless of why it happens, when it happens it doesn’t have to spell instant death. It can crack the door for a good old-fashioned revival.

I love a comeback. Yet when you’re down not everyone wants to see you get back up. When I see someone go down for the count, I will them to get back up. I’m like Mickey Goldmill, Rocky Balboa’s trainer, lying on my stomach, face to face, slamming the palm of my hand against the floor to the rhythm of my voice yelling, “GET UP, GET UP!” I know it sounds corny, but I like seeing people turn things around…kind of do the impossible. And why wouldn’t I? Why not cheer on the underdog? I could be the underdog. There is this obscure thought lurking in the farthest outpost of my brain and it whispers, “If they can do it, so can you Gayla Ouellette, so can you!”

Charlie Sheen is the proverbial poster child for a brand gone majorly awry. Talk about sailing along with the wind to your back, then all of the sudden Ka-Blam – capsize. Here’s a guy who is handsome, talented, funny, and established, with the hottest sitcom on television. He’s even got a great head of hair. He’s at the top of his game, making oodles of cash. Whatever the magic formula is, it seems to be working like a charm. Then things suddenly, unexpectedly start to unravel, like a loose strand in a Berber carpet. If you’ve had Berber carpet then you know, what ever you do (cue megaphone), “Step away from the loose strand; what ever you do, DO NOT pull the loose strand.” It’s a continuous loop of filament and once you tug on it something that started off as seemingly minor now resembles the Sahara desert. All of a sudden Mr. Great Hair was jettisoned knee deep into the middle of the Charlie Sheen Sahara desert. I suppose most of the planet heard Charlie’s meltdown that followed. I think they heard it as far away as Mars. When the sand storm passed, Charlie admitted that although he was ranting to anyone within earshot, “I’m Winning,” well he wasn’t. There is something inherently appealing about Charlie’s ability to mock himself, his self-deprecating humor and ability to admit he messed up. This makes him endearingly human. And this friends, is precisely why I’m rooting for a Charlie Sheen comeback. He’s delightfully imperfect (and yes quirky), just like the rest of us.

Not all brands go up in a fiery ball of flame. There are brands that manage to ride a wave for decades with few obstacles, and then slowly lose their intensity. Old Spice is a scent that personified a generation of American fathers and a staple on bathroom shelves across the country, in between the Anacin, Ultra-Brite and Breck shampoo. The problem was as our dads aged, so did the brand. After a run of nearly 60 years, Old Spice, well, it just got old. It made a clever comeback thanks to social media, the addition of new products, and the introduction of Old Spice Man…who for the record could be called ‘Super Fine, Shirtless, Not So Old, Old Spice Man’. Old Spice Man’s message for the ladies, “I’m the man your man could smell like.” A hugely popular series of online ads went viral and catapulted Old Spice into an entirely new market, the grandson’s of the first generation consumers. Long time brands Marvel comics and Jim Henson’s Muppets made show-stopping comebacks introducing a team of spandex clad Super Heroes and a frog and his eclectic show biz buddies to an entirely new demographic. Harley Davidson, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy in the early 80’s, pulled a brilliant coup d’état by focusing almost entirely on things that the competition couldn’t do. Employing the strategy “turn left when the competition turns right,” they masterfully weaved this theory into each of the four P’s of marketing: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, tossing in one more P for good measure, People – which I think was the most critical component in their success.

One comeback I’m following closely now is JCP, the 100-year old retailer formerly known as JC Penny. Rather than standing around the water cooler waiting for the recession to lift, like virtually every other retailer, they are taking bold action to claim the throne. After introducing a new pricing structure, they are changing their stores, who they talk to, and how they communicate. They are reshaping both the mindset of their customers and the people within their company. The JCP philosophy, “Our number-one competitor is ourselves. Our number-two competitor is everyone else.” In this economic climate it’s the most daring attempt at a revival I’ve seen any company undertake. Bravo!

Arguably the most famous comeback story of them all is Steve Jobs and Apple. In the mid 1980’s, the company co-founded by Jobs was a 2 billion dollar business with 4000 employees thanks to the Macintosh computer. In 1985, after losing a power struggle with the Apple board of directors, Steve Jobs was basically fired from his own company. Defeated, Jobs went on to build other brands. One was a little animation movie company now owned by Disney, called Pixar. While Jobs drowned his sorrows channeling creative energy into just about anything he could get his hands on, Apple floundered. In 1996, Apple purchased NeXT, a computer platform owned by Jobs, to serve as its new Mac operating system. The deal made Jobs an Apple advisor and returned him to his old haunt. As Apple continued its decline, Jobs once again took the reigns of the troubled company. Over the course of the next decade he oversaw the development of a bunch of random gizmo’s and gadgets that all had funny little i’s preceding their names…and well, the rest is history. The resurrection of Steve Jobs ‘the brand’ and the Apple brand is as legendary as comebacks get.

One more reason why I love a comeback? After all the chaos of the past four years I’m just plain hungry to accentuate the positive. I’m tired of being inundated with bad news when I switch on the TV, or launch a web browser. I’m weary of the perpetual struggle that’s nipping at our ankles like a puppy with razor sharp teeth. Companies are struggling and people are hurting. It doesn’t make me feel better about myself or my company to see others fail. I want to see people succeed because I’m selfish. It makes me feel good. And if that brand happens to be my competitor, well it only inspires me to work harder and become better.

Dolly Parton said it best, “I’m never going to be a Meryl Streep. But then, she’ll never be a Dolly Parton either. Be true to you!” Oh, did I mention that Dolly managed a comeback or two? So, here’s to all the underdogs – the Charlie’s, Dolly’s, Steve’s, Harley’s, Marvel’s, Apple’s, JCP’s, Old Spice Men, little green frogs, and pigs in evening gowns. Go you!

When I was a young girl, my family of modest means visited Disneyland a handful of times.  I recall early one morning we all piled into the family Ford Falcon station wagon and headed for Disneyland. My family and I were driving south bound on the 405 with my parents friends Ester and Knut, who were visiting from Canada.  I recall Knut gushing over the sheer awesomeness of the freeway with its expanse of five lanes of traffic rushing in either direction, as if it was the eighth wonder of the world.  I can not tell you much about what Disneyland was like on that day, except to say 1) It was more awesome than the Centinela Adobe, and 2) The E tickets were the ride tickets you coveted.

Back in those days your park admission came with a book of ride coupons with denominations of A through E, the higher the letter, the better the ride. B tickets, for example, earned you a ride on the Casey Junior Circus Train in Fantasyland. Which was alright I guess, if that was your thing.  But an E ticket…well an E ticket got you into the Haunted Mansion, a ride on the Monorail, or better yet, the Matterhorn! As a kid you generally held onto E tickets as if they were gold, as you rushed from one glorious ride to the next, anticipating which rides would earn you the greatest thrill in exchange for those precious tickets. While Disneyland evolved and eventually discontinued use of ticket books, the E Ticket or an E Ticket ride still assimilates to an unusually interesting, thrilling or premium experience. Or, you could just say, it rocked. (Continued next page)