Open up your mind and say, ahh...

We’ve gone through a strange change, from people not realizing that they need to be their own brand, to people not realizing how being the brand impacts the way they do business. It’s interesting, really. Tom Peters was the first person I recall talking about it, back in the Alan Webber days of FastCompany (The Brand Called You). Back then, we were all cubicle farmers and beige employees of the cog-world (okay, not true, but that’s what it felt like). But now, we’re getting the opposite, where people have all the tools to make a brand and do so, but don’t really know how to leverage that brand into anything resembling a business. So, in some ways, there’s been a bit of a see-saw. We used to have people that would prosper by turning their wonderfulness into a personal brand.

We Got There – Kinda

In a way, lots of us have found our way to the tools that allow us to try and build a brand. I meet finance professionals with blogs. I know videobloggers who have a day job doing research for the research and quantification sector. We have access to the tools. Not everyone’s getting themselves to the promised land by blogging, but the tools are there. We CAN try and build personal brands and that’s something.

But What About Business and Personal Branding?

The trick of being in a personal brand is that there’s a big difference between being known, being known for something, and also being able to turn that into business.

I’ve got a recognizable personal brand. It took years to build it. From that, it took years to figure out how best to make business from it. Because just being known doesn’t transform instantly into business.

I met Kathy Ireland a few months ago. She went from being a model into running a successful business with over $1 Billion in sales. Her speech at the Disney Social Media Moms event made no bones about the fact that it was hard going from being known for being beautiful into being respected for her business acumen. She told lots of stories about times when she and her business partner slept on the chairs in an airport to save money between business flights. The end point: no one just hands you money and business because they know you.

Your first takeaway: make sure you’re progressing from being known into being known for something you’ve done, and then work at finding a way to build a business from that. Your second takeaway: no one wants to hand you money just because people know who you are.

It’s Still Not About You

Being a personal brand isn’t all that useful to anyone else, if it’s just about you. It just doesn’t get people as fired up to be “supporters of Chris,” for instance. But instead, if you’re “human business workers,” all committed to improving relationship-minded sustainable human business practices, well, then I’ve got the sense that we’ll do a lot more.

As a personal brand, it’s really important to talk about everyone else as much as you can. It’s just too boring and unhelpful to tell everyone about you. It’s okay to “model the change you want to be,” or even let people learn from the lessons you’ve suffered through, but make sure you bring it back to them, and be helpful. It’s about the community you can touch and help succeed.

Be a Value Brand, Not a Name

I just had a great stay at the Renaissance Hotel in Las Vegas a few days back. Every single staffer treated me like I was a friend, and like they were so happy I was part of their experience. They gave me such value. They had advice for where I could go. They knew some ins and outs I needed to know. It was pure value for me as a frequent traveler.

I try to be a value brand. I try to give everyone so much more than what I ask for, that you think, “wow, I really DO want to help Chris promote Invisible People, because he’s given me lots of actionable business ideas over the years.” That’s my angle, and it’s working really damned well. Be a value.

Story Story Story

Connect folks to the story that brings them passion. I wrote about a charter school I visited, and learned tons about people’s take on education in the US (and abroad). That’s a story I could bring via my brand, but then let go so that it found the people who are passionate about such matters. See? I become the elbow of every “deal,” where in this case, stories of meanings become the deal.

You can do that. Don’t make the brand about you. Make it about the stories you can tell, adding your value and insight and passion, and then build on that. (This is where the business comes from, you know.)

Think Community Every Day

As a personal brand, it’s not YOUR community, but it’s a loosely joined group of people who feel affinity for some of your ideas or for the space you represent. In a way, I’m saying, “make sure you realize that it’s never your community; it’s a place you’re privileged to access.” People who throw “MY” around before the word “community” are often surprised when that community doesn’t march in the same order that you intend. Surprise! The trick of this is that you have to recognize that you’re in service of the community, not the other way around. You’re possibly a leader, or at least someone that’s known, but that doesn’t make you the important part of the equation. With me?

Brands Need Refreshing

Never rest on your laurels. Madonna never did. She changed up her game every year. Soda pop companies tidy up their brand all the time. Now, think of a few brands that don’t do that, who are still in the past. Where are they?

The same is true with your brand. You. Lord knows I work on my brand that way. You think I’m the social media guy? I’m building myself to be the human business guy. I used to be the podcamp guy. I used to be just a blogger. I’m always working on the angle of the brand. Now, it won’t be there for you yet, because I’m talking about my planning, not my current situation. But that’s the very point I’m making. This isn’t accidental, or it isn’t for people who use brand as part of their success.

Brand is Only ONE Asset

A brand is an asset. But it’s only ONE asset. You can’t feed your family on a personal brand. You have to deliver something of value. You have to have a product or a service or something else where you make the real money. The brand is just the powerful emotional flag that people can rally around. If you don’t have more assets, or aren’t developing the other assets, well… enjoy that flag.

What Else?

What else did I miss? What else can I help you with on this? How have you put this into service?

Twenty years ago, only big companies and TV stars worried about media channels.

Oprah was on TV, then she added radio. Two channels. Then a magazine.

Pepsi set out to dominate TV with their message, and billboards and vending machines. Newspapers, not so much. The media you chose to spread your message mattered. In fact, it could change what you made and how you made it. [Stop for a second and consider that... the media channel often drove the product and pricing and distribution].

Today, of course, everyone has access to a media channel. You can create a series of YouTube videos, or have a blog. You can be a big-time tweeter, or lead a significant tribe on Facebook.

Harder to grapple with is the idea that the media channel you choose changes who you are and what you do. Tom Peters gives a hundred or more speeches a year, around the world, for good money (and well earned). But this channel, this place where he can spread his message, determines what he does all day, impacts the pace of the work he does, informs all of his decisions.

Oprah lives a life that revolves around a daily TV show. Of course it would be difficult for her to write a book… that’s a life dictated by a different channel. And she’s a lapsed twitter user because it demands a different staffing and mindset than she has now.

This applies to non-celebs, to people with jobs, to entrepreneurs, to job seekers. We all spread our ideas, at least a little, and the medium you choose will change your ideas. If you only pay attention to the world when you need a new job (your channel is stamps and your message is your resume) you’ll spend your day differently than if you are leading a tribe, participating in organizations or giving local speeches all the time.

We’ve come a long way from a worker having just two channels (a resume and a few references) to having the choice of a dozen or more significant ways to spread her ideas. Choose or lose.

Since I spoke at Disney a few months back to the “social media moms” group ( Murray Newlands has a write-up), one thing has been on my mind more than anything else: people are hurting out there, economically. Financially, folks in the US (and probably everywhere) are doing a lot worse off than we used to be. Families are cutting into their savings to cover bills. Many people have been out of work for 18-24 months, instead of the typical few weeks that used to be the norm. It’s rough out there. I’ve been thinking a lot about escape velocity.

It’s Hard to Achieve Escape Velocity

My definition of “escape velocity” is “the ability to leave a situation that isn’t helpful or desired.” So, in lots of cases, this can be applied to the jobs people take. If you’re not happy where you are, but you need the money, that means you’re not able to reach escape velocity. (You can use this in lots of ways, such as having trouble with relationships, with a change in your habits – it’s the same mindset).

With financial matters, it’s really hard. Money tensions impact a lot of other things. If you hate your job but you need it, you’re kind of stuck. Or, in lots of cases, financial problems cause us to make “deals with the Devil.”

For instance, I once had to get out of a car loan in a hurry, and had to roll it into a new loan. That new loan was horrible, and I ate that bad decision for about four years. For a while, I also chose to be late on a mortgage payment here or there, in service of attending conferences, where I hoped to make connections that would bring in more money. My credit had (has?) some serious dents in it, but the strategy paid off after a few years (a few itchy-scary years, mind you).

Some Future Positioning

Over the next few months, there will be some changes to my business. (Nothing will change at New Marketing Labs, just to be clear.) I’m going to work on helping people understand how to make human business – and by this, I define “human business” as sustainable, relationship-minded business practices. I’m building a whole bunch of information to that effect, and I’m also retooling my outreach and coverage methods to ensure that we talk here about the various businesses that we think are doing a good job at “human business.”

Part of this will be to help families and smaller businesses achieve escape velocity. I want to help you understand how I found my way out of the trap, and I want to help you find ways to add a little more to your own efforts. It won’t be a very hard turn in the road. I don’t think you’ll run away from the site if you’re a marketer from a huge company. But instead, you’ll see even more that you can do for yourself along the way.

Does this make sense? Are you struggling with those challenges in some way or another? What do you think?

Photo credit Steve Jurvetson

I want to talk about your marketing mind, and why it’s important.

I just saw a really decent ad placement for Field Notes, a little writing pad that looks like everyone’s favorite Moleskine products. It was on my Twitterific for iPad app, up at the top. I liked the look of the ad. I liked the tag line they used. I clicked through and checked out the site and found that it was themed really nicely, and that it compelled me to want to buy some.

After I experienced all that, I stopped and asked myself why it worked so well.

The ad copy was simple and hit me in my emotions. From memory (a good test of whether the copy was effective), it said something like this: I don’t write down things to remember later; I write them down to remember them now. Whatever it was exactly, the thought was a personal thought, felt like a David Ogilvy mindset, and got me interested in the product.

The look of the product makes one nostalgic. Nostalgia often sells. We have this passion for paper in an iPad world. This worked, too. The site design matched the product exceptionally.

The call to action to order the product was simple and direct. ( I think Christopher S. Penn would maybe recommend the “buy” button be a better distinguishing color for a better call out, but otherwise, it was delicious.

The Marketing Mind

We go from this into the mode of asking, “So how can I learn from this and apply it to what I’m doing?”

In this exact case, the answers would look something like this:

• Make sure your ad look and feel matches the emotions intended to be stirred by the product.
• Use copy that hits our gut, not our analytics.
• Make your online presence an extension of your product’s promise.

We could add more, but you get the point.

The larger point, because this isn’t a post about a set of notepads, is that we all (not just marketers) need to keep our minds open to understanding the mechanics of how such things work. If we need to convince people to make a decision, what can we apply from the above to that cause? If we see something that appeals to us, how can we learn to emulate it for our own needs? If something appeals at first, but you catch on to the deception, how can you defend against it?

Even higher up, can you see the market? What’s the market for the above product? Maybe it’s trendy 30-somethings. Maybe it’s hipsters. But I think it’s more likely the perfect product to offer to those who have had enough of the over-screened world we live in. I think it’s an emotional appeal to paper and pen (or dare I say, pencil).

Keep your marketing mind. It will deliver so much to you, if you leave it running in the background more often. Oh, and make sure to try/execute something with such discoveries when you can. Collecting recipes is no longer part of the plan, remember?

How does your marketing mind work?