It would seem with that type of reasoning, Optimist Clubs should be a slam-dunk for positive branding. People around the world should be saying, "I don't know why, but I like it." Our organization should be growing by proverbial leaps and bounds.
Unfortunately, Optimist Clubs and all service organizations struggle for members despite the good they do in their communities and around world. Perhaps they don't publicize their good deeds in a positive manner or maybe they don't publicize their events at all. Or maybe, just maybe, we fail to understand that the average consumer is just that: a consumer.
Consumers use things up. They don't have to grow green beans to have them in their pantry. They don't have to milk a cow in order to enjoy milk and cheese. Nor do they have to manufacture a computer or television in order to access the information and entertainment that they bring.
A service club asks you to give in order to receive. Give your time, your hard work, and even your money and you will create positive, uplifting activities and events for your community and the world. Your actions, your philanthropy, will create a positive brand that you will feel right to the core of your being.
So how do you turn the average consumer into someone who wants to foster good deeds and positive actions? You do so through your own unending service. We must lead by example and remind ourselves of the often forgotten lines of the Optimist Creed:
- To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud word, but in great deeds.
- To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side, so long as you are true to the best that is in you.
Only then will our brand, our optimism be felt around the world.
