A look back at the essence that doesn’t change
It was December 5, 2005. I was at the Trade Registry, registering Brandfusion, shaking both literally and figuratively in those endless lines inside that grey building. I was 37, with ten years of experience in brand communication and marketing, years in which I had connected directly with the notion of brand and its mechanisms.
I still remember the clerk’s look—intrusive, probing—moving from bottom to top as if saying without words: “What kind of odd company is this supposed to be?”
In that moment I wondered whether it was truly the right time for my idea. Whether Romania in 2005 was a place where companies not only understood what branding meant, but also had the desire and the genuine drive to act on it.
And right then I heard my inner voice, the one that always told me to trust my intuition. It told me that this path was beginning exactly as it should: by asking questions, observing, understanding, and discovering my own way of seeing the world of brands.
If I went back there, I would recognize myself immediately in the way I observed
Since then I’ve learned to pay attention to people—what they say and especially what they avoid saying, the small details that reveal an organization’s dynamics, the nuances in their voice that expose truths words still avoid.
That was the seed. The rest came with time.
Two decades followed in which reality shaped me more deeply than any book. Long discussions, tough interviews, as if I were a psychologist gradually absorbing the client’s business life. High-pulse presentations, fearing that something simple would be seen as not sophisticated enough. International recognition. Beloved projects left in a folder even though they deserved to go out into the world.
All of this sharpened my instincts and built a professional sensitivity that today serves as my compass.
First discussions are never about what is said
I’d love to say that after so many years, first conversations with clients become clear right away. The truth is they don’t. Human nature keeps many resistances: the wish not to seem vulnerable, the fear of admitting what isn’t working, the reflex to ask for surface-level solutions.
“We want a new logo.”
“We need a communication plan.”
“We need the company profile.”
Under these requests there is always something else: an aspiration, an unease, a blockage, a deeper need that doesn’t carry the name of logo, message, or website.
Today, after 20 years, I know the real questions are different:
How can I make better use of my brand?
How do I turn it into a real growth tool?
How do I break out of a blockage through clarity?
How can the organization regain its inner strength?
Twenty years ago, I only sensed these questions. Today I recognize them easily.
What I didn’t see then but see clearly now
That branding is, above all, a story about people: their fears, their dreams, their desire to leave something better behind.
And yes, I get emotionally involved more than I ever imagined in 2005. Sometimes I believe in clients’ potential more than they believe in themselves. And when I see untapped opportunities, I feel a quiet but real disappointment, because I know how far they could have gone.
A question that didn’t exist in 2005, but existed in me
This journey left me with an essential question—one I wouldn’t have known how to articulate back then, but that was already defining me instinctively:
How can I transfer more?
More of what I’ve learned.
More of what I’ve seen.
More of what I know is possible.
More of the energy of my belief in meaningful brand transformation.
This is the continuity
Between who I was then and who I am now.
Between the timid Brandfusion at the counter and the mature Brandfusion of today.
Between the trembling beginning and the 20 years of experience, humanity, and understanding.
If I went back to 2005, I would recognize one constant:
The need for meaning.
Meaning in projects.
Meaning in decisions.
Meaning in the life of brands and in the life of my brave team, who build and put soul into every change.
And that, despite all the years, has never changed.
