I’ve been lucky in my life with a lot of kismet moments. You know, when you find yourself stumbling into something and by the time you look up and steady yourself, you realize you’re right where you didn’t know you wanted to be? In what seems like a recent re-do of my life, I’ve been opening myself to new spaces, new cultures and new projects to kick start my own Renaissance period. But I’m fantastically impatient. And exacting. Oh, okay, and maybe a bit compulsive, too. Hell, I might be a full-blown wreck. But what is becoming glaringly obvious is that sometimes I just need to go looking for the answer before I’ve even figured out the question. Last month I finally went to a Fascinate, Inc lecture. You’ve seen the whole motivational conference thing spoofed in a million films…the hotel ballroom full of gape-mouthed losers staring at the head-set wearing Speaker, who confidently tells them that, “Today is the day!” Sure, it’s cliché, but what the hell? I have three children and two ex-wives…I can sit through pretty much anything for a couple of hours! But this ended up not being like any piano recital at all! In fact, I admit to feeling renewed, jazzed and totally exposed. It was a bit like being the Emperor when he’s figured out that he has no clothes. Dare I use words or phrases like “empowered”, “intellectual leadership”, “communicate”, “motivated” and “focused”? I swear, it wasn’t a cult meeting, but I’m drinking the kool-aid. I feel like I learned things that I already knew, but were buried beneath all of the gunk in my brain. I got back in touch with my core vision, reacquainted myself with my true desires and activated my mojo to make it all happen. Sally Hogshead, the acclaimed ICON of advertising in America, the ever sexy, ever gorgeous, full of energy guiding poo-bah behind Fascinate, Inc.- www.sallyhogshead.com — has devised a way to look into your soul without the aid of crystal balls, hoodoo rituals dependant on chicken bones or slipping you a roofie. The gist is that everything has a sort of dynamic undercurrent that affects how we consume, how we present, how we make decisions. While the seminar is really aimed at uncovering strengths and weaknesses that are related to your career, it covered my personal life too. I am what I do. Everyone is a mish mash of seven triggers that guide your every thing. It’s a quiz, but not like the ones in Cosmo or Details. Technically, what I did is called a “Personality Brand assessment”; your grade is called your (F) score and it is weird. I’ve admitted to having wondered if other people see me the way that I see myself. I think that I am complicated and hard to decode. That’s because I am only now, in my forties, staring to get a handle on exactly who I really am. I was absolutely rattled to my core when my assessment results, and what they meant, came back to me. How could a quiz nail me to the wall? How could a little ol’ questionnaire lay out who I am on a platter and then serve it to me? I can’t explain the how, but I can promise that I felt spooked. And then I began thinking about the Personality Brand assessment beyond myself. If the test could tease me apart so well, could I use it as a tool to dissect others? Oh, my God! I’ve been retaking the test under the assumed mantle of the guy that bags my groceries, a girl I dated in college, family members, and prospective clients. That’s fun to do, and maybe it will help me get people to part with their money. But the most fun assumed identity I’ve done is taking the test as historical figures. We all know that I am in a “thing” with currency right now. A lot of notes and coins pay homage to public figures, heads of state and people of note. I get a little dizzy looking at the portraits of an older Queen Elizabeth I. She was credited as having restored the value to England’s devalued currency. In fact, her image was minted on coins in both sterling and gold. What a shame that she never appeared on a paper note…those lacey collars, tight red curls and tapestry backdrops seem made to be transferred to engraved images. In her early years there was every reason to believe that Elizabeth would slink into obscurity. The strikes against her ever causing much of a stir were many: she’d never be the son that Daddy wanted, then Momma died and the Pope had her re-classified as a bastard. Ouch. Oh, and Daddy had a string of wives he kept disposing of and so on. But Elizabeth didn’t become a royal footnote; she kicked ass! She has a whole era named after her. An era. Can you imagine? I had to get her (F) score, so I channeled the Queen. I know, I know. Now, I am not going to tell you exactly what The Queen scored…it’s confidential. Although, she has been dead for a few hundred years…sooo, okay. I’ll share. Elizabeth I’s primary triggers were power and prestige. Shocker. Not. This is a woman who headed a whole new Church; she was the first monarch to spice up the reign with some democracy. She was both humble and self-assured, with confidence that infected her country. Sure, there was that little scorched-earth thing in Ireland, but over all? Not bad. Not bad at all. And her dormant trigger? Mystique. That means that she had very little mystery. Having lived in the public torchlight her whole life, I can imagine that keeping things private wasn’t much of an option. She never got married and the assumption was that she kept herself chaste. That eliminates a lot of drama right there. But if she had married, I wonder how that would have played out. A Golden Anniversary, or a string of quickie Kardashian-style nuptials all ending with husbands and lovers losing their heads or shackled to the basement wall? Myself? Well, I flock to the drama, but my dormant trigger is also mystique. Maybe it hasn’t always been so, but it’s certainly true now. I lay it all out there. It’s just been easier to let my freak flag fly. The guesswork is eliminated and I have the confidence to make my wants and goals clear. And that kind of keeps me accountable. Maybe that’s why I have had my own fascination with Queen Elizabeth I. I thought it was just the romantic notion of living in a castle, riding in carriages and eating big turkey legs like at the Renaissance Fair. Now I know that it’s deeper and more visceral. Even through centuries and oceans, we have kinship. I think that we could have worked pretty well together. take the F-Score Test @ http://sallyhogshead.com/fscoreq1