Enhance Your Brand 3

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Grooming, cleanliness, personal hygiene, dressence, beauty enhancements, are also components of enhancing your brand. To be clean, to smell good and look good are all processes that lead up to brand enhancement. Cleanliness and dressing up are therefore critical to brand enhancement.

Esther is described as lovely and beautiful - having a good figure and beautiful face (Esther Chapter 7 verse 9) yet when she entered for the search for a queen contest, she also partook of the prescribed beauty treatments for twelve months – six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and preparations for beautifying women (Esther Chapter 2 verses 3, 9 to 12, 15).

Ruth was Naomi’s daughter in-law. She came with Naomi from Moab and was gleaning to feed herself and her mother in-law. Naomi was concerned about the future of Ruth and decided to take advantage of a Jewish custom that benefited widows so Ruth could remarry within the family. So she advised Ruth on what to do.

All the while Ruth had been gleaning in the fields of Boaz, she was not properly groomed and dressed to attract the attention of Boaz in the way a potential bride should be. Therefore, Naomi instructed Ruth to shower and to be clean and free of grime, oils and sweat and dirt smells which cling and throw off  foul unpleasant smells that drive people away; apply cream that is oils to soften her skin and make her skin glow, attractive and appealing and people will want to touch and feel it; apply perfume for a more pleasant smell that will screen off any possible sweat smell after her walk to the threshing floor. Ruth was also advised to put on her best gown; dress well, dress up. Why? To enhance her brand as the best bride that Boaz could have. Already, Boaz was impressed by her devotion to Naomi as well as her care for Naomi. The additional beauty touches would be additional pleasant seasonings to an already delicious pudding.

Enhance Your Brand 2

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

The widow of the indebted son of the prophet was a very humble person. She acknowledged their family financial situation - it was very bad, they were in debt that was long overdue for repayment and the creditor had no intention of showing mercy. He would show up at any moment to take her two sons away for debt bondage. Recognizing that such an action would further compound her situation – widowhood and losing her two sons to the creditor she acted. She cried out to God, by going to the spokesperson of God, Elisha the prophet. She told him the truth, the whole truth. She was not economical with the truth. She did not color the truth. Elisha then advised her on what to do. Again, she humbled herself and went to all her neighbors and borrowed empty vessels. She despised the shame and borrowed empty vessels in large quantities as instructed by the prophet. Thereafter, she processed and packaged the seemingly little oil for sale and that ended and destroyed the yoke of poverty in their lives.

Humility enhanced the brand of this woman, her two sons and their family from that of an indebted family to an abundantly supplied family with more than enough financial resources to live on after paying off their debts.

Please, permit me to emphasize the significance of empty vessels. The prophet Elisha instructed the widow to borrow empty vessels in large numbers after she informed the prophet that all she had was a jar of oil. The question is why empty vessels in large numbers? The empty vessels would ensure a continuous flow of the oil – expanding and multiplying the oil. In like manner, institutionalization of the grace of God in your life will always ensure a steady flow of the grace, expanding and multiplying the unction of God in your life; creating further opportunities and platforms for expansion in your life.

Enhance Your Brand 1

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

A brand is the sum total of your true worth, capabilities and influence.  This includes your contacts – all the people you know that can support your brand. Your brand is wealth worth billions if only you know what to do with the brand.

The Presence of God is what you need to enhance your brand. To start with, you did not create your brand. God created you and your brand and He alone knows how you can enhance your brand. That is why you need His Presence in your life to enhance the brand. Besides, He designed that brand in you for a purpose and therefore knows best what you need to enhance that brand to suit the divine purpose for which He created that brand in you.

Jeremiah for instance was divinely designed as a prophet unto the nations and within the makeup of a prophet unto the nations are special characteristics required to function effectively in that brand. Jeremiah obviously had to develop and perfect those characteristics over time in order to be effective in that brand. To achieve this, Jeremiah had to depend on God completely to develop and perfect the characteristics that would enhance his brand as a prophet unto the nations.

Mind Your Business

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Know your sheep by name: carefully attend to your flocks; (Don’t take them for granted; possessions don’t last forever, you know) and then, when the crops are in and the harvest is stored in the barns, you can knit sweaters from lamb’s wool, and sell your goats for a profit; there will be plenty of milk and meat to last your family through the winter. Proverbs Chapter 27 verses 23 to 27, Message Translation

Pay attention to your fields, which is MIND YOUR BUSINESS. It is not the fields of other people that you pay attention to that will yield their strength to you. It is your fields that you mind and pay attention to that will yield their strength to you. Therefore, do not leave your fields fallow and unattended to while you mind the fields of other people. Mind your fields and pay attention to the details of your fields.  You can actually enhance your brand by minding your fields and paying attention to the details of your fields.

In Proverbs Chapter 12 verse 11, the Bible refers to the person who follows frivolity as a person devoid of understanding while a person who tills his or her land will have plenty of bread. This is further reiterated in Proverbs Chapter 28 verse 19 (plenty of bread for land tillers and poverty for those who follow frivolity).

Build and Enhance Your Capacity for Success

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Success does not fall on anyone like a bag of cherries. It is also not a catch phrase to be thrown around. Success comes by being engaged in divine purposes that over a period of time built and enhanced.

Every vision or idea is a function of capacity. That is to say that capacity precedes the implementation of every idea or vision. For every assignment, there must be relevant capacity from heaven to carry out the task. This is because visions are driven on the basis of capacity and not passion. Passion is not a substitute for capacity as a lack of capacity will show up in capacity gaps as you implement your ideas or vision without adequate capacity.

A person’s capacity acquired or received is a measure of a person’s gifted ability to perform a task or assignment. Therefore, always evaluate your capacity to midwife a vision or assignment to a successful end. Have sufficient capacity before embarking on implementation. If you discover that you lack capacity, or your capacity requires strengthened then be willing to put your vision on hold until you have sufficient capacity to midwife the vision. It is a misconception to think that capacity comes with the vision. The vision comes and then you receive the capacity to implement the vision by beginning a process of capacity acquisition through capacity building and strengthening activities based on your capacity evaluation. Please see Luke Chapter 14 verse 28.