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By: Nick Nanton & JW Dicks

How Writing Your Own Book Makes You the Center of Conversation

In “The Relationship Age,” it’s sometimes really difficult to be heard. Everyone else is texting and Facebooking, not to mention IM-ing and emailing, and sometimes it seems the longest you can get someone’s attention is for 140 characters or less.

Talking in Twitter-sized bites, however, doesn’t really help you get a lot of meaningful ideas across. For example, here’s how Honest Abe Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address would have gone if he had tried to Tweet it from an iPhone…

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the propositi

Never really was able to get even close to the point, was he? Hey, I even took out two commas, and I still couldn’t get to the end of “proposition.”

Lincoln wouldn’t have been the only one caught in mid-sentence. Here’s how far baseball great Lou Gehrig’s famous Yankee Stadium goodbye speech would have gotten through Twitter:

Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the

On the face of the what? The clock on the wall?

To be fair, let’s get away from the speeches – they always have way too much set-up anyway. Let’s try Tweeting the 23rd Psalm – that’s a little more direct:

The Lord is my shepherd – I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures – he leadeth me beside the still waters – he restore

Wow, that’s a letdown. We’re all set up to relax in the pasture and by the still waters…ready for the great, good thing that’s going to happen…and bam! We’re left bereft of restoration of whatever was going to be restored (in this case, your soul – kind of an important detail).

It’s kind of interesting to put the Twitter 140 character limit on all kinds of things – famous songs, poems, jokes, whatever – but I’m not doing this just to play a game. I’m also doing it to make a very important point: that is, today, in our constantly-communicating ADD society, it’s hard to really put your ideas out there in a meaningful way.

We see this in politics – the constant repetition of out-of-context sound bites that often trivialize a candidate’s viewpoint – and we see this in movies and TV shows, which keep being edited faster and faster in an attempt to retain a viewer’s interest. The pace of all of our social interaction keeps accelerating to faster and faster speeds that make it increasingly difficult to make anything stick beyond catch phrases and slick slogans.

So how do you have the kind of lengthy conversation you need to have in order to build your circle of influence and establish your name—to build a relationship with a potential client or customer? How do you communicate who you are and what you have to say in a way that has lasting impact and in a way that has a long marketing afterlife?

The answer lies in something basic that existed ‘way before’ our current electronic age – a book.

THE OLDEST FORM OF SOCIAL MEDIA

I quoted the Bible before – and that wasn’t a random choice. Books like the Bible were the original form of Social Media. Would Christianity have grown to the size it is today without having the Bible as a cornerstone of the religion – a book with all the religion’s philosophy contained in it that could easily be passed around? It would have been a lot more difficult, at the very least. And consider the fact that, in its time, the Bible was even interactive, as prophets and apostles of the time added on to it as events kept occurring.

Books have usually been the basis of any major movement – and that fact still holds true today. Major motivational speakers like Anthony Robbins and Jack Canfield depend on regular book releases to continue to grow their base. And superstars in sports, politics and entertainment make it a point to get a book out, even though it’s usually ghostwritten, to expand their ‘brand’ and put out their side of the story, without a reporter or interviewer beside them ready to instantly poke holes in it.

That’s why I say books are the oldest form of social media. Social media is anything that starts a conversation and builds a relationship – and for hundreds of years, books have prompted millions of hours of discussion, have created relationships between writer and reader, and still do. That’s why thousands of people participate in social book groups all around the world – there’s even this woman named Oprah who happens to have a very famous book club of her own, don’t know if you’ve heard of her…

At the same time, authors are also seen as unique and smart. It’s a hard, time-consuming task to finish a tome of your own – especially when most of us really don’t like to write. It just feels like leftover homework from English class in high school. That’s why most people would never think of attempting to write a book – and anyone who actually does finish one, let alone have it published, is instantly held in higher regard.

And that’s always a good thing.

HOW A BOOK BOLSTERS YOUR BRAND

Let’s return to what we talked about at the beginning of this chapter – how hard it is to impart your ideas to an audience when everyone is chattering away in tiny texts and status updates on their electronic gadgets.

A book is the ideal base for you to have the conversation you want to have with people. It gives you the opportunity to craft your message and have it delivered without any interruptions. When somebody reads your book, you get to go inside their head for hours and hours, so you can make your case in the most impactful way possible – and again, no one’s there to argue against you, except the reader. You’re no longer just a sound bite or a one-liner – you’re someone who has a fully realized vision of how something should work—you now have a “platform.” And again, that brings you instant respect.

Of course, the argument to all that is…who has time to read anymore? People don’t want to be bogged down with a book, they want to watch what they have recorded on their DVRs, play videogames or hang out on their favorite websites, however they like to spend their leisure time.

Well, this is the best part. It doesn’t matter if people read your book or not.

Some will, some won’t…but keep in mind that I said the book was the ideal base for your conversation with people. But it’s certainly not the be-all and end-all. As a matter of fact it’s really only the starting step to a whole world of marketing opportunities.

I always like to use Donald Trump as an example of a guy who knows what to do with a book. The Donald puts out a new book one, two, sometimes even three times a year. He certainly doesn’t need to for the money – no, he does it for his brand.

Think about it – when you see him on Larry King Live or The View or a late night talk show, it’s usually because he’s got a new book out. It gives the show a reason to book him, it gives him something new to talk about and it continually refreshes his brand. He will also then usually spin off other products from the book… a motivational CD, an online sales course, speaking engagements, etc.

His main business may be property development, but Donald Trump does the best at selling Donald Trump – and he uses his books as the platform to do it. If he just came on talk shows and discussed his latest condo project…well, let’s just say he’s sharp enough not to be dull.

THE POWER OF THE BOOK PLATFORM

Of course, there aren’t many Donald Trumps out there – and odds are you’re not going to get yourself booked on Larry King (at least not right away!) simply because you’re not that kind of media celebrity. Again, this is not a problem.

So how do you leverage a book that you’ve written and published?

There are literally thousands of ways to do it – to endlessly reuse, reformat and recycle the content you’ve created – but let’s break it down into three stages:

1) YOUR PRE-LAUNCH SEQUENCE

When a big movie is coming out, the studios want to make sure you and everybody else in the world knows about it. You want to treat your book the way a studio would treat the next “Transformers” sequel, and spread the word every way you can.

Begin by creating a website about the book before it comes out – offer a free portion of the book (a “sneak peek”) through an opt-in box that will allow you to capture leads. You can even feature a “countdown” to the publication date and time to generate more excitement. Create Tweets and Facebook posts about the preparations you’re doing for the book’s release – create an air of anticipation.

When the website is up, put out a press release announcing you’ve got a publishing deal, making sure you have links back to your website. Syndicate the press release and post it on all the social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Also consider doing a podcast by having a friend interview you about the book and put it up for download on iTunes.

2)PUBLICATION PUBLICITY

Once your book is published, you can now use it to your advantage to get your own media bookings. Again, a real author gets attention – and you should at least be able to ‘nab’ some local air time.

Send out copies of your book to local radio and TV stations, as well as print publications, and offer to be interviewed. Also put in a listing in Radio-TV Interview Report (find out more at RTIR.com) to make yourself available for national interviews. You can also mail copies to your top clients, send them out to get yourself booked for speaking engagements at business and civic events, and host a book signing event at a local book store.

Consider continuing to produce podcasts for distribution through iTunes with a theme of something like “Beyond the Book,” offering additional/updated information and conversation about topics you cover in the book.

Finally, remember to distribute blogs and articles online based on your book. You can use excerpts from your book for the articles and write about the experience of being a published author on your blog. Spin off as much content as you can to establish yourself as an authority in your field.

3)LENGTHENING THE AFTERLIFE

Now that you’re an author, it should become an important part of your professional profile. Make sure it’s added to your official bio and put the name of the book and a link to it in your email signature.

You can also break down a chapter and make it into an ongoing free special report, available on your website through an opt-in box. Definitely rework the material into speeches or seminar material for your personal or recorded appearances.

Your office should also reflect your author status. Put a framed copy of the cover of your book on the wall in your reception area or office – it’s easy to do through canvaspop.com. Also, leave copies of your book on the coffee table in your office with “Take Me” stickers on the front. You should also donate copies to the local libraries in your area. Make sure your contact information is contained in these copies – either put a business card in the book, or have your info stamped on the back page.

Those are just a few of the ways you can continue the conversation you start with a book. The book is the vehicle to get you in the door – for interviews, for speaking engagements, for online content and for every other kind of publicity opportunity you can work. And you work it as much as possible so that people will begin to hear your name in different venues – and always in an authoritative, knowledgeable context.

At our Celebrity Branding Agency®, we help our clients do all this and more – and we add another, very powerful step. We’ve created a foolproof way to make our authors’ books best-sellers in certain Amazon categories. We then honor them by getting them inducted into the National Academy of Best-Selling Authors™ – and send out another round of press releases noting their honor and best-selling status, which opens up more major marketing opportunities – still from the same book.

A book establishes you as an authority in your field. It gives you credibility and influence – and it also gives you the launching pad for an incredible marketing ride. The opportunity to have lengthy, persuasive conversations are rare in The Relationship Age – but a book allows you to have that opportunity and maximize it over and over to your advantage.

A book stands out. You stand out. And that’s the essential element to any marketing triumph.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

By JW Dicks

As a small business owner or entrepreneur, the ability to find new ways to market yourself and develop your personal brand, can be the catalyst to unlimited success.

About 2 years ago, I became a proud grandfather! Other than the obvious joys that this brings into my life, I have also been reintroduced to one of America’s national treasures: Sesame Street. Yes, Sesame Street.

This American children’s television series premiered on November 10, 1969 and is still a daily fixture in homes all across the country. Sesame Street is one of the longest running children’s programs in television history. I can remember my girls watching this show when they were young, and now my granddaughter finds the show completely amusing!

Why am I writing about Sesame Street today? Because we can all learn a valuable lesson about personal branding from this quintessential American brand.

How has Sesame Street lasted so long? Two main reasons come to mind. First, their content – educating young children through a quickly paced fun format – is top notch and something that most parents welcome into their home. The producers of this show have created a formula that works – it educates effectively while successfully keeping the attention of the young ones. If you’ve ever tried to hold the attention of 3-year-old for more than 15 minutes, then you know why this is such a big deal!

The second reason that this brand has been able to enjoy incredible longevity is through its creative and unique characters. Much like Disney, Sesame Street has developed their brand through the use of fun and interesting personalities. In the seventies and eighties, it was hard to find anything involving Sesame Street that didn’t feature the loveable character Big Bird. From movies to lunchboxes, Big Bird was the superstar of children’s television.

Then something (or someone) interesting happened. Elmo.

In the last 15 years or so, Elmo, the little red 3½-year-old Muppet who often refers to himself in the third person, has become the new face of Sesame Street. Big Bird has not gone away – but he is no longer the focus. You would now be hard pressed to find any promotional materials or product line for Sesame Street that doesn’t have Elmo’s smiling face in the forefront. Elmo has starred in two full-length motion pictures and has appeared on The West Wing, Emeril Live and The View, among many others. He’s an international superstar!

There’s nothing wrong with Big Bird, of course. He is still one of the main characters on the show. But Elmo has clearly become the new focus of the show. The core purpose and theme of the show (and their brand) has not changed at all – it has merely shifted focus.

So what can we learn about personal branding from this change in focus?

Sesame Street is a business just like any of ours. Even when we think that we have developed the perfect personal brand, there may always be an opportunity to change the focus of that brand. I’m not advocating changing the things that have made your business brand a success, just finding a way to re-focus your brand to a new audience that will not alienate those who have come to trust and respect your brand the way it is.

Is your personal brand built on being wholesome? Traditional or cutting edge? Is your brand and reputation built on customer service? Reliability?

These things do not need to change (and shouldn’t for that matter.) These traits are ones that will be relevant to generation after generation. However, the next time you are thinking about how your personal brand can last for generations, think about what each generation finds the most appealing.

Try to think of ways you can re-focus your personal brand that appeals to the new generation – without sacrificing the traits that made your brand the success that it is!

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

by J. W. Dicks, Esq. & Nick Nanton, Esq.

Akira Mori, president and chief executive officer of Mori Trust Company, Limited, said, “Past success stories are generally not applicable to new situations. We must continually reinvent ourselves, responding to changing times with innovative new business models.”

Nothing could ring truer in this New Economy where seemingly every attempt to draw on past success strategies is met with less than stellar performances. The reason for that result is that economic change, while appearing to be the same, is always based on a different set of circumstances than ever before; the flaw is to assume “a recession is a recession just like the last one” and that the results are the same each time. They are not.

Our current economic crisis is the modern-day economic equivalent of the “perfect storm” in which multiple disparate factors collide to create something different, something unexpected, something that doesn’t react very well to the old traditional forms of economic stimulus.

The reason for the slow recovery of the economy is because we are not just seeing an economic crisis, we are seeing a fundamental shift in the nature of how business works; and the recovery, when it happens, will not come from the same old stimulus methods but instead will sprout from a more fundamental change of the very nature of business growth. For the economy to return to a healthy status and for business to resume the mode of successful commerce, the consumer must be listened to and catered to like never before. Today’s consumers are no longer bound by the offerings of their neighborhood store. What the consumer wants may be thousands of miles away but must be deliverable tomorrow on the buyer’s doorstep without the frustration or cost of time and travel.

Jack Welch, chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981-2001, faced facts when he said, “The Internet is the Viagra of big business.” Just like that, the guy who increased GE’s market value from $14 billion to more than $410 billion—and was named “Manager of the Century” by Fortune in 1999—recognized that where he had taken GE in the past was no longer the route for the future.

The reality is, the Internet has changed the fundamental nature of competition and doing business. And although it has teased us for many years with its false promises and failed attempts at success, including its own industry meltdown and economic crash, that fall was just the foundation being laid for what has emerged in what now seems like the blink of an eye. New ways of building and delivering online products and services have emerged and, whether you know it or not, instantly your competition has increased exponentially. Your established competitors are now joined by new companies, fresh innovations and ideas, and ever-improving processes and products.

This is the real crisis that faces most businesses today, and unfortunately most haven’t even realized it yet. Instead of trying to rapidly adapt, they are desperately clinging to old ways of running a business that won’t work in the New Economy. And it isn’t event the issue of bricks and mortar that was the center of cocktail discussions prior to the dot-com crash; it is a case of “best practices” for the industry or sector you are in.

For example, if you are in the haircut business, bricks and mortar will still prevail because you need to physically go to a location to get the service performed. But if there is any opportunity for you to do your business or service in the virtual world, the preference for most consumers will be towards that—unless they can somehow otherwise be enticed by an element of experience or entertainment.

When it comes to reaching consumers today, it’s clear that you can’t just go on doing “same old, same old” and hope for the best.

The wired world is a universe in constant flux. Bill Gates once called the new Internet era “an environment of constant change” and, more incisively, “punctuated chaos.” As all financial players are digitally connected, any downturn or upturn in a major market creates overnight reverberations in other markets. The digital world is demanding that companies react to change, but the good news is that it includes the tools they can use to stay ahead of the curve. The key is connecting your business strategy with a streamlined response.

So how is business to survive? By understanding the fact that as business climates change, the methods of marketing for those businesses are also “upside down” and in need of change if success is what you are after. Where, normally, you would think global economies would mean larger markets, in reality, for small companies, entrepreneurs, and professionals, the opposite is true because they simply do not have the economic firepower to try and reach everyone or satisfy everybody. In fact, the media has become so fractured it is almost impossible to reach the masses.

Therefore, to be successful in the New Economy, you must think in terms of specialties or niches within broad markets where you can be a difference maker. In fact, the more narrow your focus, the more power you can yield within that niche; and based on this fact, your financial leverage can be multiplied.

A Change of Focus

Instead of the reliance on mass media, your focus needs to be on “targeted media.” Businesses haven’t stopped using traditional media to get the word out, and indeed, it’s often an effective launch point for an ad campaign if you can control the cost and monitor your return on investment (ROI). Clearly, however, the gulf between traditional advertising and online advertising has widened over the past few years as audiences fragment and the Web grows to provide a new media approach.

Mass media of the last century offered a relatively simple structure, with large audiences congregated at a few outlets for a few kinds of programs. But the Internet provides seemingly infinite choices, and it appears difficult to capture the attention of an individual user when that person has split him or herself among a number of destinations for very brief periods of time. One of the biggest challenges for marketers is understanding this self-fragmentation and how to overcome it.

Reaching the individual who is your target customer first requires your understanding of who your target consumer is, and then your application of market segmentation, the process of pulling apart the entire market as a whole and separating it into manageable, disparate units based on demographics. The market segmentation process includes:

1. Determining the characteristics of your target market, then separating these segments in the market based on these characteristics.

2. Analyzing whether the market segments are large enough to support your product or service. If not, you must return to step one (or review its product to see if it’s viable).

3. Once you’ve chosen a target market that has the size to produce your needed sales levels, you can develop your marketing strategy to target that specific market. Your focus is smaller, but you are reaching the specific buyers you want.

After creating this group of prospects, you must develop your market’s buying metrics to learn how many prospects it takes to produce a sale, what your conversion ratio is, and how that affects your bottom line.

Shotgun vs. Specialists

So how does this apply to today’s online realities? In the past, advertisers had only one choice—they took the shotgun approach, scattered themselves to every mass media outlet they could afford, and hoped a percentage of those people might pay attention. It was about trying to be all things to all people. It was spending money on local newspaper ads, cable television spots, etc., and hoping potential customers would catch a glimpse of them as they turned the page.

It’s the equivalent of the long-ago era of the general practitioner whom everyone would go to no matter what his or her medical condition. Just as patients now go to specialists who can help them treat their specific injuries and illnesses, consumers have become selective about where they go to get their goods and services. Online it looks something like this: health conscious individuals who might have subscribed to a general magazine on health are now signing up for blogs, newsletters, podcasts, user groups, e-mail lists, membership sites, and more to address their exercise regimen, a preventative medicine program that suits their lifestyle, their specific heart condition, their type of diabetes, etc. More and more people are taking advantage of outlets with increasingly specialized information.

With so much out there floating around and vying for consumer attention, today’s savvy marketers are likewise getting more specific in order to forge a competitive advantage. They’re identifying who their potential customers are, cultivating these relationships, and in many cases even charging them for the privileges of membership. Let’s say you have a dance studio in town that offers salsa lessons. In the past, you’d put a medium-size print ad in the local paper, maybe shoot a local TV commercial, and hope for the best. Now, you can create a sizzling, colorful Web site with step-by-step instructions and high-energy videos of those lessons that “students” can pay an online subscription fee to see. Seeing is believing. Even if folks never step into your studio for the real deal, you get them to subscribe to your service to learn how to dance from home.

It can work the same in the sports world. If you give golf lessons in real life, you have to hope people see those local classified ads, right? But if you give golf lessons online and charge a fee to help your students’ progress, you’ve taken the world in your hands without paying any attention to geographical boundaries. You can now teach at any level you want, whether that market exists in your locale or not! Someone might buy an issue of Car and Driver for five bucks, but fans who want to go behind the scenes and into the pits of NASCAR can probably find a better outlet, which they’re willing to pay more for, to really get them into the action and on the inside of the sport they are ravenous fans of. The list of industries and examples goes on and on!

A lot of these opportunities lend themselves to a virtual delivery with cutting-edge technologies, but some of this ongoing flow of information extends to tangible media as well. There has been a resurgence, for example, of paper newsletters and, although still virtual, teleseminars as well, neither of which are considered new technology. Most of these models of selling information, or ideas, offer the basics for free up front, but if they want what you’ve got to offer, and you promise to go deeper, they’ll be happy to pay for the privilege of regular updates and insider opportunities.

The key to setting the world (or at least your bank account and profit margins) on fire in this world of new media is niche-ing down your market to create value in the people you’ve niched into. By building your audience, you build your value, and that in turn increases your roster of consumers who will be willing to pay top dollar for the incredible things you offer. Remember—the power is all in the presentation to the right audience.

So, when thinking about growing your business during the current economic shift, think big; but then make sure you think small with regards to what niche you can ultimately serve to prosper the most. After you figure that out, if you take the time to determine the best format or combination of formats to deliver your products and services to your audience, you will find a formula that is wildly profitable!

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

By Nick Nanton, Esq.

It is often joked that the most common words heard in a lawyer’s office are “it depends.”

Being a lawyer, I do find this quite amusing. It’s very true. In law school, we were taught to always think about the different paths that clients can take to leverage the situation they may be in – and offer as many options as possible. It’s funny if you think about it, Lawyers are some of the only people in the world expected to understand how grey something looks and then present it as if it’s black and white. Chew on that!

Why do people hire lawyers in the first place? They need to know what their options are. More importantly, they are seeking their professional advice on which option to choose. It is no different when you apply this to businesses. Why do people seek out your services? They need problems solved.

As a branding agent, I often ask clients, “Do you have enough knowledge in your field to be able to say ‘it depends’ when a client or customer asks for your advice? More importantly, do you have enough knowledge to be able to inform that client which option is the best for them?” Here is an example:

A few months back, my wife needed to get new tires for her mountain bike. I would say that I know a few things about a few things, but mountain bike tires are not on that list! When I went to the store, I told the salesperson that we needed some new tires for the bike and asked what he recommended. His answer? “Well, it depends.” Slightly annoyed, I said, “Okay, depends on what?” The man started asking me where my wife usually rides the bike, what kind of surfaces were the most common for her to ride, how often she rides, etc. These are things that hadn’t even crossed my mind. I gave him as much information as I could, and he was able to show me 3 or 4 different brands, different price ranges, warranty options and so on.

The most valuable thing that he told me that day was “If I were you, I’d go with these,” pointing to a moderately priced set of tires. He then proceeded to tell me exactly why he would choose that brand of tire, at that price, etc. I had just found my go-to expert on mountain bike tires! I was impressed with his knowledge, but even more impressed that he had a solution for my problem. He had enough confidence in his knowledge of the products that he was comfortable telling me “it depends” and then offering his advice.

This trip to the store got me thinking about many of the clients of our branding agency. Many of our clients are experts in their field and are offering their expertise on their particular niche to those who don’t have the same amount of education and training, etc. Many of them have used personal branding to brand themselves as the go-to expert in their field.

As many of us get comfortable in our line of work, surrounding ourselves with people who have similar interests, and who work in the same industry – we sometimes forget that there are so many people out there that don’t know anything about the intricacies of what we do – even the things that we think are common knowledge. When people seek your advice, they are looking for you to cut through the clutter and solve whatever problem they may have.

As hard as we try, we can never know everything about everything. We need experts! From mountain bike experts and personal branding experts, to mortgage loan experts and business marketing experts – there are experts everywhere! There are those who spend their career perfecting a skill so others can go to them for solutions in that area.

Do you have the knowledge in your line of work to be able to say “It Depends” and do you have the confidence in that knowledge to provide the right solution?

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

By J.W. Dicks Esq., & Nick Nanton Esq.

I (Nick) was sitting in a sushi bar in Los Angeles, thousands of miles away from my hometown of Orlando, FL. Having found a table, I asked the waiter to assemble my usual selections which included one order of Maguro, one order of Yellowtail, and one Steamed Shrimp, Cucumber and Cream cheese roll with a drizzle of eel sauce (the Nick Roll, as my friends have come to call it), and then I began to do what I do most of the time when I’m alone – I took out my iPhone to occupy myself.

I checked emails, read and posted a few tweets, and checked my newsfeed on Facebook to see what my friends were up to. I also engaged in a newer activity, “checking in” via geotargeted apps and games like Loopt and Foursquare (If you don’t know what these are, you should! Just Google them!). This particular meal was during a period of time several months ago, before Foursquare had been brought to the iPhone, so I checked-in via Loopt. Much to my surprise, I noticed that a friend that I went to law school with and who also lives in Orlando, had also checked in on Loopt and was just a few miles away from me in Los Angeles. I immediately sent him a text to say ‘hi!’ and to tell him I was just a few miles away. This prompted us to try and coordinate a chance to meet; the meeting would be for the sake of novelty, if nothing else.

This occurrence prompted us to take stock of what many of us do to bide our time (check-in, tweet, post on Facebook), and how it was not only becoming second nature, but what that means for the way we are going to conduct business in the future. Based on these hyper-connected, entertaining, and informative ways of passing information from person to person, we are really leaving behind a trail of everything we’ve ever done, everywhere we’ve ever gone, every opinion we’ve ever had, and, thanks to some less than scrupulous folks who tend to overshare and take pictures with their phones, everything we’ve ever eaten. You might be wondering where this trend is headed and what it all means.

Well, in the context of “The New Economy”, this trail is essentially a “Personal Brand Map”. It’s a record of our thoughts, feelings, and experiences, all mapped out in chronological order, from which anyone in our networks (or increasingly, even someone who we haven’t allowed in our networks yet) can review and form an opinion about us.

In the New Economy, some might say that our Personal Brands are increasingly important. We’d go further, saying they’re all we’ve got left.

Think about it. The internet and technology have brought about the following changes:

•Removed the barriers of information flow, allowing us to find anything we want, anytime we want it.

•Made transparency a way of life, allowing the general public to piece together a story even if you aren’t telling it yourself – you can’t hide most things anymore even if you wanted to!

•Leveled the playing field by giving everyone on Earth an instant platform to publish anything you can think of, including thoughts, muses, obsessions, hobbies, photos, videos, business ideas, invitations to social events, collaborative efforts, and more.

We’ve seen this technology bring about the rise of the Personal Brand, while we have simultaneously witnessed the downfall of the institutions that we grew up believing in. This is a total game changer.

We’ve seen the banking industry fail us through credit crises and mortgage meltdowns. We’ve seen over-inflated real estate prices which are due, in large part, to the previous bottleneck on real-time information flow. In the past, we’d have to wait for all the data from real estate sales to drip down from title companies and city and county records in order to get a gauge on what was happening. Even worse, we might have to go to a physical location to view the records. Now you can find that all online, from anywhere in the world, with the click of a mouse. Simply revolutionary!

We’ve witnessed many a corporate meltdown due to lowered barriers to entry. For instance, it is now a very acceptable practice for any business person to schedule a meeting at a Panera Bread or Starbucks location. No formal office is needed, just a place to meet. We’ve also seen the increase in shared spaces replacing the more traditional executive suites and even some less traditional solutions like existing businesses renting out offices that aren’t being used to new businesses. We have seen increased international competition from countries like China and India, who are in a venerable race to bring their high-talent, low-cost human capital to America, with no plane tickets needed, using nothing but Skype and email. And, finally, we’ve witnessed those willing to compete and incur lower overhead in order to gain market share that previously would have seemed untouchable. This accumulation of corporate meltdowns has left many unemployed and without the pensions, retirements, or the security we always thought would be there.

This is a major shake up. In spite of the fact that many are calling it a “lost decade” (2000-2009), we instead look back and see a time of painful discovery and major shifts in the way information is shared, received, and processed. No longer do we look to journalists in last Friday’s newspaper to determine what movies we want to watch or what restaurants we should try out; rather, we look to social networks to see what our friends think and where they are right now.

There has been a shift of power. Power is now at our fingertips – in the hands of the many, not in the hands of the few.

So, how do all of these powerful cultural and economic shifts affect you? You, as an individual, have become your own brand, whether you like it or not. You can control your brand to your own advantage or you can let your personal brand be run by others who comment on what you are doing. In fact, whether you choose to document your life and your business or not, chances are someone around you is going to document it for you. You don’t have to post photos of yourself on Facebook or videos of yourself on YouTube for such photos and videos to end up there. You don’t have to post your thoughts on a particular concept or issue online, for them to end up on Twitter, as those around you are doing it for you whether you like it or not. So, the real choice you need to make (before someone does it for you), is to control your personal brand.

The good news is, if you learn how to effectively control your brand, you can also control your life in ways that were never before possible.

Think about it this way: in the past, if you were a superstar employee, you still got paid what your employer thought you were worth. Now, you can take your brand as a superstar employee to the internet, sharing your knowledge and building a following of people who are interested in your ideas and the projects you are working on. You can become an “internal evangelist” and a thought leader for your industry – all while working for someone else. This buzz about you in turn raises your profile and credibility, which then gives rise to the notion that no longer will you be an employee with limited options. You will now be a free agent operating no differently than the sports stars who are able to offer their skill(s) to the highest bidder.

This new ‘free agent’ marketplace is already occurring in limited scope through the use of social media sites like LinkedIn that are dedicated to connecting people for business, as well as through sites like Facebook that allow you to share text, video, audio, and even create custom apps to let people know what you do. Not to mention, we are just now in the early stages of internet platforms and tools to make those kinds of connections work to your advantage. The future will give rise to more of what one of our clients, Chuck Boyce, calls the “Independent Executive”. This label applies to someone who takes their knowledge from previous employment and sets out to create their own destiny, lifestyle, and income on their own terms. This philosophy takes personal branding to the next level, because it is not just important for the professional or the entrepreneur, but it is now very important for employees who are happy to work in someone else’s environment but who want to be recognized, both financially and emotionally, for their very real contributions.

In the past, an unhappy employee had limited choices:

•Do nothing but complain (with increasing disgruntlement)
•Quit and go look for a new job (which has no guarantee of being any different)
•Beg the boss for a change in circumstances (power, money, responsibility) without having any real say in the process

Now, in the new “Branded Economy”, you are all allowed to play the role you want in building your brand and building your value. If you don’t take control, you will risk becoming irrelevant and relegated to the position of a cog in someone else’s wheel. You will be at the mercy of a third party whose self-interest will always outweigh your own – just like the players in the sitcom The Office and the comic strip “Dilbert”.

Now that the game has changed, what will you do to control your own destiny? As we have gotten known for telling our clients, we’ll now tell you the same: You have the choice, to Brand or Die!

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

by Nick Nanton, Esq.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
– Lao Tzu

I am willing to bet that almost every single one of you reading this article has read the above quote – or had it quoted to you – in the course of your life. You’re starting college and it’s rough – somebody tells you about that first step. You’re having trouble getting a new business off the ground – somebody tells you about the first step. Whenever you’re at the initial stage of anything – you hear about ‘that thousand miles’ and ‘that first step’.

And to be fair, you can’t argue with it – it’s true. That ‘thousand mile journey’ starts with that first step.

What people don’t discuss, however, is the 4634th step. Or the 5489th step. When you’re so far from the beginning that you’re in danger of forgetting where you’re going – and when you’re still so far from the end, you think you’ll never make it there.

When you’re in the middle of the grind – when it feels like the pay-off will never come – and when you may be so tired you don’t think there ever will be a pay-off – that’s when it can be incredibly difficult (maybe the most difficult) to take the next step.

I firmly believe that when you get to that tough slog where it just feels ‘like you’re grinding it out for no reason’, that’s actually when you’re in the middle of the real hard work that’s going to ultimately validate your efforts. This is when it’s most important to follow through on the process and systems you’ve set up – and not forget what got you as far as you already are. That’s when you need to power through with your process and get what you originally wanted with it.

But let’s not start with the 5489th step. Let’s take Lao Tzu’s advice and start with the first.

THE FIRST STEP AND WHY IT’S CRUCIAL

Someone who I recently learned of, and am enamored with, has become an inspiration to me and a whole lot of other people, …former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. He always had an interesting first step for his players at his ‘first talk’ of the season. It probably wasn’t so interesting for the seniors to hear the exact same ‘first talk’ they heard when they were freshman – but Wooden was a man who believed in the proper process, which is one big reason he was voted “Coach of the Century” by ESPN.

That first talk of the season was not about the goals for the team, who the captains would be, or any of the usual rally cries of a typical coach, nope, it was all about Wooden demonstrating, in meticulous detail, how the players should properly put on their socks and their shoes. Yes, he would actually show them how to do it. And yes, you usually don’t get that kind of instruction after you’re two or three years old – especially from one of the best college coaches of all time. Frankly, most coaches at any level above elementary school would think it was too trivial to deal with – and college boys should know how to dress themselves!

Wooden, however, knew that most good players ended up on the bench because they ended up with blisters from gameplay. And he knew most of those blisters could be prevented if players would simply take the time and put on their socks and shoes correctly.

Hence the lecture every year – even to the players who had already heard it!! It was a vital first step to Wooden’s process – and do you really argue with a guy who ended up with an over-80% win record? …who won ten national championships? …who is regarded as America’s ‘winningest’ coach? I certainly wouldn’t!

By building from that base, Wooden created teams that knew basketball inside and out. He gave them a process that enabled them to do their very best – and turned him into a legendary coach.

It’s what all of us need to do in our individual businesses. Your first steps, in any venture, should be about finding out what works, from the bottom up. ‘Fine-tuning’ will obviously come as you continue along the way, but if you nail down the process that works for you personally, it’s a template that can take you to where you want to go — if you learn the basics, remember them and continue to implement them.

Some aspects of that process are generic – they’re essential to anyone trying to do what you’re doing. Others are personal – making use of your specific talents and what works best for you. Out of all of it, however, you build your own unique process by seeing what’s effective and what isn’t. Once you have it all put together, you drill that process into your brain at every given opportunity. And you never forget why you use the process you use – because it works …for you. Not for the guy down the street, or somebody two office doors down from yours… for YOU!!!!

And it has to be the process that’s going to serve you all the way down the line. I have to hand it to my four year-old son Brock’s T-ball coach, Coach Will, because he showed me this power principle in action and how it’s relevant at any age.

The kid that was playing pitcher (no, really, in T-ball they have one, they just don’t actually pitch!) in the game ran from the pitcher’s mound to run down another kid running to home plate – and pulled it off. He got the out. But the coach told the pitcher that’s not what he wanted to see. That’s not how the game is played. It’ll work out in T-ball, but that play won’t work when the kids get a little older, and a little faster. He said, “You might get an out this year with that play, but we’re not here to get outs, we’re here to learn how to play baseball.” Wow! Now that’s what I’m talking about! Coach Will wanted them to learn how to play the right way for the long run – now what worked just for now – so as they moved on, they could power through with the proper process.

With any first steps, you should be doing the same thing – finding out how whatever “game” you’re learning works, and how best to play it – whether it’s the game of life, the game of business, or a true game. The principle is the same.

THE FIRST STEP AND WHY IT’S OVERRATED

No, I’m not getting into an argument with myself, it’s true…first steps are absolutely crucial and also amazingly easy!

First of all, people are always incredibly encouraging when you start something new (unless they know you well enough to sense you’re heading for disaster). It’s exciting to them and they live vicariously through you trying something for the first time. Why? Because you have to do all the hard work and all they have to do is watch!

Seriously, how many quotes and advice do you see on beginning something, whether it’s a business or a relationship or just a workout regimen? Whereas, when you’re in the middle of something and whining about it – well, everybody’s in the middle of something and whining about it. And they’d rather listen to themselves whine than listen to you do it!

The first step also often means you’re not putting that much at stake. There’s not a lot invested in it emotionally, physically or financially yet. It’s basically setting a goal and beginning to figure out how you can achieve that goal.

Taking that first step usually means:

•You’re beginning something you want to get done.
•You haven’t faced serious opposition to your goal.
•You’ve psyched yourself up to get going – so you’re ‘pumped’ to see it through.
•Nobody expects a lot from you – because you’re just beginning to find out how it’s done.

In other words, sure, you’re nervous – but you’re okay to start that long ‘thousand mile’ journey, whatever it is. It’s not so bad. You’re choosing to do it. And nobody will be too hard on you about it.

The first step is also generally not that complicated. Remember what the first day of school or a class was like? It was the teacher telling you what you were going to be doing the rest of the semester or year and that’s about it. You didn’t have to worry, at that point, about having homework done or passing any tests. You were just there – trying to stay awake until the bell rang. Hey, even with Coach Wooden, all they had to do was figure out how to put on their socks and shoes the first time he talked to them! Most of us can handle that kind of pressure.

And one last thing about the first step not really being all that bad – you can totally ‘bail’ before the second step. Seriously, most things won’t have horrible consequences if you bail early (guys, this is not an excuse the day after that bachelor party, don’t even think about it!). Maybe you say to yourself, “Hey, I want to learn Mandarin Chinese (I use this example in honor of Lao Tzu).” You take that first step – maybe you get an introduction to a beginner’s Mandarin Chinese book – and then the bolt of lightning hits your brain….“Hey! This is hard! I’d rather spend the effort on __________ (fill in the blank with your next goal).”

What did you lose? …that $9.99 you spent on the book? …and those ten minutes it took you to realize it was hard enough for you to learn English? …let alone this.

Taking one step on the thousand mile journey and changing your mind? No big deal. Getting five hundred miles down the road and changing your mind? Enormous deal. That’s why you can’t…

DON’T JUST MUDDLE THROUGH THE MIDDLE

So let’s talk about being five hundred miles down that thousand mile road. That’s what I like to call the unsung hero of heroic struggles – the middle.

They say the closer you get to the summit, the harder it is to reach it. I’ve chosen to consciously disagree, and you can too with the right mindset – and I talked about this a little at the beginning of this chapter. When you’re so far along, you forgot why you started – but you’re not far enough to see where you’re going – it’s easy to feel like you’re stumbling around in the dark, going through the motions, and completely not getting anywhere.

And that’s where you have to power through with your process. That’s where you have to put your socks and shoes on correctly and keep doing what you’re doing, if you’ve proven to yourself that it works. You may need some adjustments – that’s normal, because the world is always changing – but in general, you have to ‘keep on keeping on’.

I’m speaking from personal experience on that point. For example, a big part of our business involves me speaking at different events all across the country. They are great because they usually generate a lot of interest in our business and we get to build a list of prospects who were interested enough to come out and hear me, and give us their contact information to stay in touch – so it’s almost always a good decision to accept invitations to speak at events. It’s something I’ve learned works for us and it’s definitely a big part of my process.

Well, I was invited to speak at what was billed as a major seminar event in California – and I was told there might be a lot of influential people there that would be interested in doing business, and many of them had very large fan bases (sounds good, but believe me, I’ve heard it before and the delivery of those elements is usually far less than what has been promised). So I thought about it. It was a big commitment (a week in California, away from my family in Orlando), and a big financial commitment (not that it was overly expensive for the trip, but because of my marketing budget at the time, I had to choose between this trip and a new marketing campaign I really wanted to launch).

The California trip, more and more, just felt like a big hassle to me, and an inconvenient one at that. I was ready to skip it, when I remembered that this kind of thing – speaking at places where I could widen my circle of influence and boost my network – was really a vital way that we grow our business. So, I agreed to it.

When I got there, I was amazed at the number of top-tier speakers and writers that were in attendance – it was a room of about 100 people who were all seven figure speakers and authors. I won’t drop names, but I would be willing to bet you’d know at least half of the people in the room. We’re talking about men and women who literally fill STADIUMS with rabid fans wanting to hear them speak, and others who had collectively sold over 100 MILLION books! It was insane! Don’t get me wrong, the seminar was hard work – sessions night and day – but out of that came lots of things, including an invitation to speak at another event which proved to be a huge windfall, and there are many other opportunities still being fleshed out, all because I didn’t forget my basic principles, even when I was reluctant, and I powered through with my process.

PROP-UP YOUR PROCESS WITH PRINCIPLES

When I was thinking about whether or not to accept that speaking engagement, I didn’t think about making important new contacts or generating more business. I concentrated on the expense, the work and the inconvenience. Obviously, big mistake on my part.
Fortunately, I got back on my thousand-mile road because I remembered that the process didn’t exist for its own sake – the process brought results!!!

And that’s what we all have to remember. We must continually perfect the process – and sticking to that process is more important than anything else…because the process gets us to the goal line.

When Coach Wooden gave his annual “socks and shoes speech,” some older players would start to feel insulted that he was still teaching the ins and outs of footwear. They didn’t want to listen to it all over again.

But consider this – do you think Coach Wooden really wanted to tell players how to put on their socks and shoes every single year?

Don’t you think maybe one season, he said to himself, “Maybe I don’t have to do this anymore. Maybe these college kids can figure this out for themselves.” I’m willing to wager he did – and that he also went back to doing it because he once again realized that this was his process, it worked and he should stick to it. …and because it was also important to his players’ process.

After the newness of whatever you’re in the middle of wears off, it’s tempting to forget all the building blocks that got you there. It’s easy to be distracted by turn-offs on the thousand mile road and take another route …that will take you somewhere you really don’t want to go.

Both behaviors are dangerous to your business. Sticking to your the principles that you used to develop your process helps you avoid them. Maybe you have a choice between a lunch with somebody you like but isn’t going to do much for your operation – and somebody else you don’t know that well but could do an awful lot for you. You’re better off seizing the second opportunity, even though you’ll have to invest some time and energy in getting to know this person and selling them on you and your business.

Making productive choices that will further your process means you’ll keep getting the results you want. And, hey, you can always have lunch with the other friend on a day when there isn’t a conflict.

When the pay-off isn’t necessarily in sight, you simply have to trust that what you’re doing will work – and that your process will, in fact, see you through to the other side.

I will leave you with some very wise words from Coach Wooden: “Don’t be too concerned with regard to things over which you have no control, because that will eventually have an adverse effect on things over which you have control.”

You have control over what you do and how you do it. You can’t control the outside factors. Even if you’ve made your process the most powerful it can be, it still won’t work every single time. But if you fixate on the things that could go against you, you’ll have a hard time achieving what you want to achieve.

Life is all about making the odds work in your favor – and having a process that will allow you to power through to the end of whatever road you’re on – means that chances are you’ll get what you’re after.

So pull on those socks and lace up those shoes the right way – so you can win the game!

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

By: Nick Nanton, Esq. & J.W. Dicks, Esq.

I entered the huge chain bookstore, hoping my guilty expression wouldn’t give me away. Then I furtively disappeared between two large shelves of books in the back, making sure no store employees were looking at me.

I eyed the area around me one more time – no one in sight.

And then I pulled the brand new copy of my latest book out from under my jacket…headed to the nearest open cashier…smiled to myself as she scanned the book’s ISBN bar…and I paid $21.95 for a book. A book I already owned.

My name is Nick Nanton…and I am a reverse shoplifter.

Why am I committing a crime against myself? I’ll explain a little later…but first, I want to tell you that this may be one of the most controversial chapters in this book… And not because I’m moving around in bookstores in a clandestine manner.

It’s because I’m about to advocate something that I believe delivers one of the biggest ROIs of anything out there today. But it’s also something that many people regard as being as dead as the dodo.

What am I talking about?

Well, I’m talking about what you’re reading right this minute.

A book.

A book can be an amazing platform for your business – it’s got prestige, it’s got impact and, most importantly, you can market yourself and your business through it in a ‘whole bunch’ of different ways. Because, to be honest, it doesn’t do you any good to write a book and then just put it on your shelf next to that dusty dictionary. It only makes a huge difference when you use your book proactively to expand your circle of influence, build your reputation and impress current and prospective clients.

Look at the super-successful people who put out books on a regular basis – people like Donald Trump. He doesn’t need to write books to prove himself any more – he can make as much money doing a couple of speeches here and there. No, he – and mega-motivational stars like Tony Robbins and Jack Canfield – create books for the above reasons. It’s not about getting paid for the book – it’s about growing their brands.

Just look at what happens when “the Donald” writes a book. Suddenly you see him everywhere – Larry King, Fox News, even The View. It gives him a whole new set of talking points and a reason to put himself out there. He knows that the ROI on a book is unlimited – as long as you realize it’s not just a book, it’s a gigantic marketing tool. That’s why it’s something I advise all my clients to do.

I’m going to detail in this chapter just how you can make your book go to work for you in a variety of ways. First of all, let’s talk about the book itself.

MAKING YOUR BOOK HAPPEN

The first thing you should do is be realistic. You’re probably not creating a New York Times Bestseller here – that’s not even what you’re really after. You make money from having a book – not from book sales. This is meant as a marketing tool to sell yourself and your business. Put your book together with that in mind.

As with any marketing tool, you want your book to be an attention-getter. That starts with the title – finding a way to put the concept of the book in a short, ‘punchy’ and powerful statement that taps into something people want to know.

Simple is very important. Has there ever been a better title than “The Secret?” Well, there haven’t been many better-selling titles, anyway. At the same time, it’s a gutsy title – because without the multi-million ad campaign for the book, its generic title could have left it lost in the shuffle. Since you’re mostly going to be sharing this book with clients and prospects, and not trying to sell it to the general public to a great extent, you can get away with that kind of approach.

Of course, you’re thinking, the title is the easy part – what about the content? Well, that might be easier than you think as well. Do you give seminars or create instructional materials? Have you given speeches about your business? That’s content – content you had to think about and structure accordingly. By getting these materials transcribed, you could already have the bare bones of your book content.

What happens next depends on your available time and your level of confidence. Let’s start with time – most entrepreneurs and business people just don’t have enough hours in the day to run their businesses and their lives, let alone try to write a book. It’s time-consuming and requires a lot of thought. Many who try it simply give up and don’t finish.

Then there’s the confidence factor – you may be intimidated by the thought of even trying to write a book. Most people don’t even like to write a short blog – and then there are those wouldn’t be ‘caught dead’ even trying to put together the 140 characters or less that go into a “tweet.”

That’s why most business people will use a ghostwriter to get their book down on paper. You can find excellent ghostwriters on Elance.com (where they’ll bid for the chance to work on your book), or you can ask business associates if they’ve worked with someone they like and trust.

It’s easy to work with a ghostwriter – you either give them the kind of transcripts we talked about earlier or you can talk through the main points of the book with them. The important thing is to end up with something that you can feel good about. If you’re going to use a book as a marketing platform, you want to make sure it’s professional, informational, and represents you and your business in the best possible light.

THE THREE STAGES OF MARKETING YOUR BOOK

Once you have your book finished and published, it’s time to really go to work. You can maximize your marketing punch not only when your book is published, but also before and after. Again, authoring a book is impressive – so make the most of it!

1) MAKE PRE-LAUNCH A PRIORITY

You definitely want people to know your book is coming out in advance. Begin by creating a website about the book before it comes out – offer a free portion of the book (a “sneak peek”) through an ‘opt-in’ box that will allow you to capture leads. You can even feature a “countdown” to the publication date and time to generate more excitement.

When the website is up, put out a press release announcing you’ve got a publishing deal, making sure you have links back to your website. Syndicate the press release and post it on all the social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Also consider doing a podcast by having a friend interview you about the book and put it up for download on iTunes.

2)GENERATE PUBLICATION PUBLICITY

Once your book is published, you can now use it to your advantage to get booked just like Donald Trump does. You probably won’t make it to “Larry King Live,” but you have a ‘good shot’ at some local air time at the very least.

Next, send out copies of your book to local radio and TV stations, as well as print publications, and offer to be interviewed. Also put in a listing in Radio-TV Interview Report (find out more at RITR.com) to make yourself available for national interviews. You can also mail copies to your top clients, send them out to get yourself booked for speaking engagements at business and civic events, and host a book signing event at a local book store.

You can also continue to produce podcasts for distribution through iTunes with a theme of something like …“Beyond the Book,” offering additional/updated information and conversation about topics you cover in the book.

And remember my “reverse shoplifting” at the beginning of this chapter? Here’s why you should consider taking a copy of your book into a bookstore – and buying it there!
As long as your book has a legitimate ISBN number and is available from a major distributor, two things we always do for our clients’ books, the bookstore clerk will simply scan the book’s barcode, a price will come up and you can purchase it, even though the store never stocked it in the first place. Best of all, the bookstore’s computer system will register that somebody bought your book and that they’re now out of stock – meaning they just might order more copies of your book to sell on their own!

3)CREATE A LONG AFTERLIFE

Now that you’re an author, it should become an important part of your professional profile. Make sure it’s added to your official bio and possibly even put the name of the book in your email signature for a limited time.

You can also break down a chapter and make it into a free ‘special report’, available on your website through an ‘opt-in’ box. Other chapters can be turned into online articles that you can syndicate, or you can rework the material into speeches or seminar material for your personal or recorded appearances.

Your office should also reflect your author status. Put a framed copy of the cover of your book on the wall in your reception area or office – it’s easy to do through canvaspop.com. Also, leave copies of your book on the coffee table in your office with “Take Me” stickers on the front. You should also donate copies to the local libraries in your area. Make sure your contact information is contained in these copies – either put a business card in the book, or have your info stamped on the back page.

At our Celebrity Branding Agency®, we take this process through another, very powerful step. We’ve created a foolproof way to make our authors’ books best-sellers in certain Amazon categories. We then honor them by placing them in our National Academy of Best-Selling Authors™ – and send out another round of press releases noting their honor and best-selling status, which opens up a whole world of marketing opportunities for the same book.

They say print is dead, but, thanks to Kindle, iPad and other electronic devices, it’s not really. It’s just migrated to LCD screens. The fact is that nothing conveys authority and credibility more than having a published book with your name on it. Publishing a book and marketing it correctly puts you and your business up more than ‘a few notches’ against the competition – and isn’t that what it’s all about?

And, best of all….reverse shoplifting is NOT against the law!

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

By Nick Nanton, Esq.

“Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself.” ~ Richard Bach

What really ignites our passion for our business?

What fires up our ambition and causes us to make crucial decisions about what career paths we want to follow – and what level of success we want to attain?

Well, in many, many cases, it’s people who initially inspire and motivate us in what we want to do with our lives – and how we want to do it.

People like Donald Trump. Richard Branson. Oprah Winfrey. These are people who dominate their particular arena with their personalities, people who completely own their success, people who cause others to approach them with multi-million or even multi-billion dollar deals, just because they know that having these superstars’ names attached to a project or company will almost guarantee success.

When you become aware of these kinds of people and you’re at just the right moment of your life, it’s like being hit by a lightning bolt. And you think, “Whoa! This person is the ultimate. I want to be exactly like them.”

For the first time, perhaps, you clearly see what you want your future to be – a future where, if you do what these super-successful people do, you end up with the same incredible opportunities and influence that they have.

And that’s where it can get a little dangerous.

While it’s awesome to be inspired by amazing achievers who have literally changed the face of the business world, there is a risk of becoming….well, too inspired.

To me, imitation is the highest form of flattery…and one of the biggest traps you can fall into.

THE SONG SHOULDN’T REMAIN THE SAME

There’s a difference between emulating someone you want to be like – and just plain imitating them. In the first instance, you take their best qualities and adapt them to who you are. In the second instance, you actually try to do everything exactly the way they do it – even though you can’t possibly do it as well as they do.

Because you are not them!

You see, there’s a reason Elvis impersonators don’t become known by their own names. Nobody wants them to be who they really are – no, their fans only want them to pretend to be Elvis. Of course, they could never actually be Elvis – they can only bring back great memories of The King of Rock N’ Roll.

Elvis may have inspired these musicians to begin with. And these musicians undoubtedly have to have some talent to pull off a credible Elvis impersonation. But because they only present themselves as a shadow of someone famous, rather than developing their own unique personality, they’re trapped. And if they ever want to become a singer that actually reflects their own personality, they usually have to start from scratch.

You can always enjoy an outright tribute act to a great performer. However, if they have the musical chops, they can bring back some awesome memories. But when you’re perceived as ripping off a beloved icon, that’s another story. And, since I am involved in the music business, I’d like to offer another musical example that illustrates just that scenario.

Anybody remember a rock band named “The Knack”? In 1979, their first album yielded a huge worldwide number one hit, “My Sharona,” which you still hear played today. It didn’t sound like anything else at the time – so you would think these guys had it made, right?

Wrong. The band itself ended up enraging rock fans and music critics at the time – because their first album cover art was a copy of the first Beatles’ album – down to the band’s haircuts. Now, if it had been some kind of clever ‘spin’ on the Beatles’ album cover, they probably could have gotten away with it – but instead, it was almost a replica of the real deal. This resulted in a huge backlash that doomed their next effort and turned them into a footnote in rock history.

The sad fact is, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can use the people who inspire you in a way that helps you succeed as an individual. Billy Joel has been a top act since 1973 – and there’s a good reason for his singular success. In a recent interview, he talked about how he used his inspirations growing up. “I’m a product of what I heard while I was growing up, said Joel. “I synthesize my take on Ray Charles or the Beatles. That’s where I’m coming from.”

Note that he never made a point of singing his musical idols’ songs. Or dressing up like them. Or duplicating their artwork. No, what he did was incorporate their techniques and their kind of showmanship into what he was doing – so he developed his own, strong personal identity that paid off for him. That’s how he became an authentic musical success.

And by doing so, he avoided being trapped by the shadows of the greats – and he also avoided a huge backlash by not ripping off those legends either. Nobody thinks of Billy Joel as being anyone other than Billy Joel. And yet, the man openly admits liberally borrowing from the musical influences of his youth. By developing his own sound, however, and staying true to himself, he created his own indelible stamp that still resonates after three decades in the music business.

THE DAN KENNEDY TRAP

What works in the music business works in any business. Because it’s still, ultimately, all about business. The best thing any business person can do is create their own strong, authentic personality that carries through their company’s image and PR. You can always make a few bucks by slavishly imitating those more successful than you – but you can never truly earn respect or huge profits unless you create and develop your own individual template for achievement.

One of my big inspirations in the business world is master marketer Dan Kennedy. That’s why I’m proud to be a business partner of his in Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® (www.KennedysBarberClub.com – if you’re curious!) Now, if you know anything about Dan, you understand that he is a very unique personality. He drives professionally in about 100 harness races a year, purposely avoids and disparages slick-looking modern advertising, and is impossible to reach by phone. Yes, in the year 2010, the only way you can communicate with Dan Kennedy is… by fax.

In other words, he pretty much breaks every business rule there is in the world and makes it work for him – because he is very much his own person. And yes, I follow many of his precepts – but only in terms of what I want to project about myself, my business and my image. By absorbing his ideas through my own filter, I’m still Nick Nanton – and I don’t end up being seen as Dan Kennedy Jr.. Trust me – I have zero interest in trying harness racing!

Many of the business people that I work with and I meet through what we affectionately call “Planet Dan” (this is the network of businesspeople who attend Dan’s seminars, read his books and generally are fans of his teachings) – go through what I call “the 4 Stages of Kennedy”. I think this progression is incredibly similar to anyone else’s who suddenly stumbles upon a personality that they desperately want to mimic in their professional life.

Stage 1 is simply…”Dan Kennedy is insane!” When someone first sees Dan’s “No B.S.”, punch-to-the-head style of copywriting, looks over Dan’s rough, unpolished marketing materials and finds out that….wait, this guy only takes faxes???…., they immediately think Dan’s a psycho, I’m a psycho for promoting Dan and everybody in our Glazer-Kennedy marketing group is drinking something they shouldn’t be. But something lures them in…

….and then comes Stage 2…”Dan Kennedy is God!” The person suddenly understands how effective Dan’s approaches are, how he’s attracted all these followers with his incredible, instinctive marketing talents and how his methods can make money for any viable business. Their mind is completely blown and they have the burning fever of the recently-converted. And yes, now the convert seems like he’s ‘drinking the kool-aid’ too!

That fever takes a long while to cool down, because Stage 3 ends up being, “I will BE Dan Kennedy!” Instead of becoming an Elvis impersonator, the person decides to become a Dan Kennedy impersonator (one advantage is you don’t need a sequined jumpsuit to be the latter). So he begins modeling his entire modus operandi on Dan’s. Being only in touch by fax? Amazing idea! Telling people what to do and how to do it without pulling any punches? Outstanding! Hey, who knows where the best place is to learn harness racing?

And then brutal reality comes knocking on this guy’s door. He realizes Dan Kennedy can get away with a lot of his quirks because he’s been regarded as a marketing genius for decades; Dan’s earned his “street cred”, so he knows he can do as he ‘darn well’ pleases. Our Dan Kennedy newbie, on the other hand, is usually in the beginning steps of establishing himself and his business. He finds out he can’t afford to solely use a fax machine instead of a cell phone, nor does he really want to. He actually enjoys communicating with customers, prospects…and even friends, on a regular basis!

(Oh, and he stinks at harness racing.)

So, if he’s smart, he now progresses to Stage 4 – “I’m just going to LEARN everything I can from Dan Kennedy.” That means personally adapting and integrating Dan’s rules and techniques – but still remaining who you are.

Just as Billy Joel integrated the work of the greats who inspired him into his own authentic music, our new Dan Kennedy disciple has learned to likewise funnel the Dan Kennedy marketing magic through his own filter. And nobody looks down on him as if he’s just a pale copy of the real Dan Kennedy.

MAKE YOUR OWN KIND OF MUSIC

Obviously, Stage 4 is what you want to shoot for whenever an impressive person inspires you. But how do you avoid merely imitating the greats – when what you should be doing is integrating what they have to offer into your own persona?

First and foremost, you have to figure out who you are and what you want. You, your personality and your passions are the foundation for your growth and development, both as a human being and as a business person. “To thine own self be true,” goes the Shakespearean maxim and that still holds true 500 years later. I won’t be around in another 500 years, unless science has some really amazing breakthroughs, but I expect that thought to still be quoted then.

Second, break down what works for you and what doesn’t; where you need either a complete change of direction or where you just need to make adjustments to improve your results. To realize your ambitions, this is essential.

Finally, decide how to add needed value to who you are and what you do. This is where you should search for the proper coaches, mentors and role models who have already achieved what you want to achieve. Analyze how they made that magic happen – then see how their different methodologies apply to what you do, how you do it and the areas where you need to make adjustments.

The big lesson here? Never try to play someone else’s game. Instead, fit theirs into your own.

That’s how I help my clients achieve celebrity status in their fields. Obviously, they have to offer something different to stand out – and, to properly brand them, we employ proven strategies used by some of the most successful business people of all time. But we use those strategies to support and promote who our clients are, not to make them into something they’re not.

When you integrate instead of imitate, you eliminate a lot of self-imposed limitations and open up a world of possibilities. So don’t be an Elvis impersonator. It’s always better to be your own King…and that’s how you can ignite your business and transform your world, as well as the worlds of so many more people who you’ll now be able to help – because they see you as the real deal, not merely an impersonator.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

With one fell swoop Facebook has potentially changed personal branding, again. Facebook users are no longer “fans” of company fan pages; they now “like” a page. But while the insignificant change feels a little funny to say (are we likers now?), the much more important change has the opportunity to more deeply link your message to users on Facebook.

Different from the fleeting Facebook “share” or Twitter “Tweet,” the new “Like” button leaves a lasting “Like” on the page. And for Facebook users who are logged in, they can actually see how many people like that page and pictures of any friends who like it. It’s really kind of cool.

Further exciting our branding agency is the ability to use Open Graph protocol with meta tags to enable users to establish lasting connections to your pages. What does this mean? This means that if your website falls under one of Facebook’s categories such as movies, sports teams, celebrities or restaurants, then your pages show up in more places on Facebook and you gain the ability to publish stories to connected users. Interesting…

So if you like the idea, how do you ad a “Like” button to your page. With a simple widget, of course. Gotta love how user-friendly Facebook likes to make things (pun intended). In addition to the “Like” button, Facebook developers have recently made several social plug-ins available and you can find them all here, but no doubt the one we will start seeing the most will be the “Like” button. To add the “Like” button to your site, all you have to do is grab the code, add to your site and voila – you have your own “Like” button.

The iframe code will look something like this (but with your URL):

< iframesrc="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fcelebritybrandingagency.com%2F&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:px"> < /iframe>

“Like” is the new branding strategy on the block, and now is the time to add it to your site. Social media is the game you want to be ahead of the curve on, so ride the wave my friends and let your readers “Like” your work.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

Some of you will laugh at the very thought of direct mail, but I can assure you, it’s a great source of connecting with prospects and existing customers alike. Particularly in our overly-junked-up-email world where people tend to pillage their inboxes and delete anything that doesn’t require a personal response. People respond completely differently to direct mail, that arrives on their doorstep, than they do many other forms of media. Direct mail can be as basic as a postcard or a letter on letterhead, or as complex as a full “shock and awe” box that has lots of stuff in it that gets your prospect really engaged like CDs, DVDs, MP3 players, books, magazines and just about anything you can fit in the box as we learned when we put a straight razor (sans blade), a shaving brush and more in our boxes that we mail out for our www.KennedysBarberClub.com franchises that we sell.

I sent out about 18,000 direct mail pieces last month, and I re-learned a few lessons, just like I always do. Maybe I can save you a few dollars, and a few lessons by sharing some of the most important things I’ve learned over the years about direct mail. And most importantly, if you’re not doing any direct mail, now is the time to start! Almost everyone else has backed off of it due to cost, and now you can swoop into people’s mailboxes and take new customers!

Below is a list of 10 very important things you should pay attention to when sending out direct mail:

10. Differentiate Your Marketing Piece – if it looks like everything else, it’ll get handled like everything else (put in the trash)

9. Your Mailing Should Have a Single Purpose – don’t ask your reader to do too much, they simply won’t. If you ask them to download a report, then go to a different website, then call your 800 number, then…. get the point? One thing. Really. One thing is all you should ask them to do.

8. Provide Several Ways for Prospects to Respond – Give them every conceivable way you can think of to reach you. Phone, email, fax, carrier pigeon– whatever it takes! The worst thing that can happen is that your mailing piece gets your prospect all hot and bothered, but at the time they want to respond, they can’t. For instance, what if they are reading your mailing piece but have to run out the door to a meeting. If you only give them a website, then they’ll have to wait until they return (which will probably never happen). If you give them a phone number to call, they’ll have the opportunity to call you while they’re running out the door on their way to their next meeting. Seriously think this through, mailing is expensive, particularly with stamps costing almost 50 cents each, you don’t want to blow any opportunity you get for someone to respond. (and YES many people have tested it and time and time again LIVE stamps outperforms metered mail or bulk mail. Buy crazy looking themed stamps, and put as many as you can to get to your postage amount. 2-4 stamps, crooked (seriously), makes it look like you really wanted this piece to get out to the person opening it.)

7. Measure the right metrics – ROI is all that matters. It doesn’t matter what percentage of people respond, or how much the mailing cost you to send out. The only thing that matters is if you made money in the end or got new leads to work (whatever your goal from the piece is).

6. Test, Test, Test, Test…. – you get the picture. Simple things like how many people are in a photo, whether they are male or female, old or young can change the response of a piece. There is no magic answer, just test.

5. One Mailing is NOT Marketing – one mailing is a test. On average it will take you 7-9 times to get a prospect’s attention. Don’t mail the first piece, get no response and then give up. Whatever the response on your first piece, it will usually increase exponentially on each additional piece.

4. Include a “Call to Action” – You’ve got to tell people what to do when they read. Don’t just tell them all about your products and services, you’ve got to give them written instruction on what to do next. For example: Call us today for a free consultation and a complimentary $50 gift card just for inquiring! Or something that tells them exactly what to do. If you don’t tell your prospects what to do, they won’t do anything and they’ll move onto the next piece of mail in the pile.

3. Keep a Recognizable Element to All Marketing Pieces – if you’re going to all the trouble to mail people multiple times, make it known that you’re the same person or company that’s been trying to reach them, and that you continue to try. If you send out 7 – 9 pieces that don’t have a common element, you will not have as good of a chance at being recognized. Think about it, wouldn’t it peak your interest if you saw the same logo, photo or slogan in your mail box 5 or 6 times in a short period of time?

2. Personalization – How many mailing pieces do you read that say “Dear Valued Prospect/Customer/Client.” Right, none. Don’t be lazy, don’t be cheap, personalize as much as you can. You can certainly personalize letters, and now even graphic postcards are becoming easy to personalize. If you need a source for this, let me know. Also, I’ve been testing Personalized URL’s or “purls” for short, that contain the prosect’s name in the web address, for example: www.DOMAINHERE.com/John.Doe and then I send it to John Doe. The good news here, is with any proper Purl system, whether John Doe contacts you once he reaches your site or not, because he entered in his unique url, you get a record of his visit. So, even if he’s shy and doesn’t respond, you know he was interested enough to visit the site and then you can take a few more shots at him with follow up letters. This is a great strategy to pare down a list. Suppose you have a starting list of 2000 people. If 3% of the people come to the Purl page, that would be 60 people. It’s a lot cheaper to pound away at 60 prospects that have indicated they are interested, than it is to keep mailing to 2000 people who you have no idea are interested or not.

1. Don’t rely on one marketing Method – Direct mail is a great COMPONENT, not the single solution. The same can be said for Websites, SEO and Pay Per Click, Email, Ezines, Display Ads etc. Use multiple media and track their responses separately. If you want the easy way to do this, assign different 800 numbers to each piece of media (1 for the website, 1 for the postcard, 1 for the phone book ad, 1 for each magazine or newspaper ad that you place, etc) then check out my good friend The ROI Guy at www.YourROIguy.com – tell him I sent you. Richard will take care of you!

Feel free to let me know your thoughts as well as if you have any tips I might have left out by commenting below.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

Peter Shankman built his business, HelpAReporterOut.com (“HARO” for short) first by creating a fan page on Facebook, this is basically like starting a group. The concept was that Peter knew lots of reporters, and he wanted to “help them out” by providing good expert sources for journalists to help them write their articles. Well, the list grew virally because a lot of smart businesspeople realized that this was a great resource to get some media coverage and free PR. And because Peter started the group on Facebook, it was easy to make it viral because friends could invite friends, and people who were browsing the profile of a member of the group, could see that they were a member of the group and check the group out for themselves.

Peter quickly outgrew the 5,000 fan limit on Facebook (which has since been raised) and moved his group to an email list where he sends emails three times a day with the “queries” from the journalists in them. He then utilized Twitter, to build his list even more. Peter sends out short messages on Twitter, called “tweets,” that go out to all of his followers. It’s an instant way for him to get the journalists’ queries out to his subscribers.

At the time of writing this article Peter has more than 40,000 “followers” on Twitter and more than 60,000 people on his mailing list. And he monetizes the list by selling ad space on his emails that go out three times daily, five days a week. If you do the math, you can see how profitable this business is for him and he built the business all on the back of social media.

Another great example of a business using social media is Blendtec. Blendtec makes commercial-strength blenders for consumers and started a YouTube video series called, “Will it blend?” where it shows you the strength of its blenders by blending things that you would think would break most blenders. Of course, the blender makes light work of everything it shows, but it does show some impressive stuff. One of its bigger videos was when it blended an iPhone when it first came out and was hard to get. It reportedly had more than 100,000 views in less than a week, and has now gotten more than 3.3 million views! A blender! And, Blendtec reportedly increased its sales five-fold in that same week. Now, its a real competitor in the consumer space for blenders, all because of social media.

In a totally unique business model, KOGI BBQ in Los Angeles is a mobile restaurant with multiple trucks serving, get this, a fusion of Korean and Mexican food. If there aren’t enough strange statements in that first sentence to make you cross-eyed, then I give up! Well, in any event, people love the food. It was very popular outside of nightclubs and other hot spots, however, there are many challenges to running a restaurant on wheels, namely, it’s not in a fixed location! So, the owners use Twitter to let patrons know where they are located and to offer specials. Talk about an instant way to generate more business! If business is slow, they can just send out a Tweet to drive more people to them!

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

Facebook.com – Named after the photo books that are given out at some universities and prep schools to incoming students and faculty to help them get to know each other, Facebook started as a way for classmates to connect at Harvard but eventually expanded to include anyone over the age of 13. Facebook is a great way to connect with people who have similar interests, to see what old friends and acquaintances are up to and to learn more about the personal lives of your business contacts and to let them know about you. The personal connection you can give and get on Facebook adds some more of the personality that helps you become more than just a person to a client, but a “friend.”

YouTube.com – A video sharing site now owned by Google, this site is nothing short of a behemoth. Not only does it let users upload video content, you can also post video responses to messages, create your own “channel,” browse and comment on other users’ videos, subscribe to learn when your favorite users add new videos and even embed videos you upload or find from others onto your own website. YouTube revolutionized how easy it is for anyone to add video to the Internet and share it with others. Recently, it was announced that YouTube users are uploading more than 20 hours of video per minute — that’s a LOT of video! And, now that Google owns it, it has really ramped up its efforts to start analyzing what is said in videos and counting it as very relevant in the Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) process, so it’s becoming more valuable every day.

Twitter.com – Twitter is the new kid in town. It’s known as a “micro-blog” that allows you to share “what you are doing now” in 140 characters or less. It sounds silly, but it’s actually very valuable and very addictive! On twitter you can “follow” people and other people can become your “followers.” The short, 140-character messages can be sent to your mobile phone, or you can view all of the messages of people you follow on your Twitter page. Many users share links to interesting things they find online, and then they get “retweeted” by others, which exposes the original message writer to the networks of others who retweet the message. This makes your presence viral and helps you gather more “followers.” It sounds like gibberish, I know, but go back and re-read this paragraph again and you’ll start to understand. Even better, go open an account – it’s free!

Digg.com – This is what is known as a “social bookmarking” site. As people searching the Internet find articles, news, videos or anything else of interest, they “Digg” it, which basically means they like it and “recommend” it to others. The more times an article, blog, etc is “Dugg,” the higher it climbs on Digg’s list and gets more and more exposure. Google and the other search engines give very high value to content on Digg because it has received a virtual “vote of confidence” from people viewing content online. While the mathematical formulas that the search engines use to rank content are getting better everyday, they still look to users to get the most accurate results to serve up to web surfers.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past five years, you’ve no doubt heard the term “social media.” At its core social media is a platform for creating relationships. And if you haven’t heard me say it already, People buy People, not products and services. What I mean by that is that when a buyer makes the decision to buy, it’s based on the person who sells it to them more than on the actual product or service they are buying. Stop and think about it if you don’t understand, because this is a crucial point in analyzing how and why social media can help you grow your business.

Why do the biggest companies in the world hire celebrities to endorse their products? Because People Buy People, and it’s much easier for a consumer to form a relationship with a living breathing person (in this case a celebrity endorser) than for a consumer to fall in love with the form or function of a particular product or service.

So, back to social media — it is a platform that allows you to generate your own content that connects you with a whole new world of prospects who you can then take on the journey of knowing, liking, trusting you and ultimately doing some business with you.

As in any typical social setting, you can’t be “that guy/gal” who is known for being “a hard sell” or “pushy.” Think of the online social media outlets as huge cocktail parties. You wouldn’t walk into a cocktail party and start screaming, “Cheap Mortgages, right here! Come on over to the sofa and I’ll write up your paperwork, right here on the spot!” Would you?! If you would… well, let’s keep moving.

So the key is to join the conversation that people are already having and find a way to make yourself (and your products and services) relevant. Ultimately, what you want to do is join the conversation on the social networks and find ways to interact with people about things they are already interested in. I know this sounds like it will take forever, and now you have to worry about not saying the wrong thing, etc. I get it, but here’s the key to social media: you can form relationships with huge groups of people all at the same time. No one said you have to talk to each person on a social network individually. This is where the real power of online social networking comes in.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

Old is new again!

Back in the “old days” most things were bought on cash but if you didn’t have the cash to buy, retailers came up with a system called a lay-a-way plan. The retailer held the goods and you made payment to them. When you were done paying the full price you got your furniture, dishwasher or whatever. Christmas lay-a-way assured gifts for the kids.

Over the years, the plan morphed into giving you the furniture at the point of purchase and making payments. Then someone got the bright idea to charge interest and once that took off credit cards began. Soon, merchants were making more on their financing charges than the sale of goods (GE Capital) and the world of credit was born perhaps to all our chagrin.

History has a way of repeating itself and during this economic downturn the lay-a-way plan has made a comeback in various forms and from unusual sources. Who would have ever thought a Music Festival would be sold that way.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California offered a Lay-a-way plan this year for the first time in their ten year history. Customers had the option of buying their tickets over several months by putting 10% down and the balance over two additional months, with the final payment due prior to the event.

The payment plan was adopted because other festivals have had to cancel their events this year due to sluggish sales. The plan has been working. The organizer was quoted as saying, “without the lay-a-way option we wouldn’t have done so well”. Like any good idea it is also already being adopted at other festivals in Tennessee, New Jersey, and Arizona.

The NFL also now uses a similar payment plan for their season tickets. You start paying right after the season and get paid up before the new season begins.

We use a lay-a-way option in our own business. The Ultimate Celebrity Branding Experience™ payments are spread out over 12 months; franchise legal work and business consulting are all extended over at least 12 months instead of charging the full fee or requiring the total to be put on a credit card and the client getting killed by interest. We are convinced it has made a tremendous difference in everything we do and why our business is growing rapidly even in this economy.

We aren’t alone and several of our clients including Orthodontist, Donna Galante and Paul Cater (www.CGBraces.com) have added monthly payment programs to their standard pricing. Clearly others should consider doing the same no matter what your business.

If you adopt a variation of the lay-a-way plan in your practice we encourage you not to add interest. All of us are very serious about our dislike of interest payments right now, and we all would love to avoid paying it when we can. You will make more sales by not charging interest and that alone will increase your bottom line.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

Co-Authors Of ‘Celebrity Branding You’ And Founders of ‘America’s PremierExperts™’ Tap Into The New Model Of Our Celeb-Driven Media Culture To Make Business People ‘Stars’ And Drive Mass Awareness Of Their Products and Services.

By Jonathan Widran

Every summer, thousands of young men and women around the U.S. travel great distances and brave the odds in the hopes of becoming the next American Idol. The show, watched by over 30 million viewers a week, taps into our greatest collective fantasy that is truly the 2000s version of the American Dream: that ordinary people like us can outlast the competition and become stars.

You may not be able to sing like Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood, but no worries. Maybe you’re not hot enough to be America’s Next Top Model—so what? If you’re a doctor, lawyer, dentist, orthodontist, fitness guru, portrait photographer, real estate or financial whiz, corporate CEO or even a small businessperson and you’ve got the goods, you’re just one step away from being a business celebrity thanks to the new “Kings of Hollywood,” J.W. Dicks, Esq. and Nick Nanton, Esq.

Florida based attorneys by trade, Dicks and Nanton, principals in Dicks, Nanton & Glass Celebrity Branding Agency™, co-authors of the bestselling book Celebrity Branding YOU™ and co-producers of the TV enterprise America’s PremierExperts, are dedicated to developing the Celebrity Branding® potential of small business owners, professionals, authors, speakers, corporate CEOs and more.

Perfectly tapping into the distinctly 2000s era zeitgeist—maybe it all started with Season One of “Survivor” in 2000–that embraces the notion that regular Joes (or “Joe The Plumbers”) can become media icons, the charismatic duo creates, as Nanton puts it, “niche busters, not blockbusters.” They accomplish this by discovering what’s unique and fascinating about their many clients and prepping them to become celebrity experts in their niche.

Breaking fertile new ground in the realm of global minded business development, Dicks and Nanton meld the traditional outlets of print and television and the burgeoning world of online social media to create momentum, start a buzz and drive attention to their clients.

Celebrity Branding You™ may not be “Sunset Boulevard,” but in their world, everyone’s a potential Norma Desmond, ready for Mr. De Mille to give them their close up. The upshot, of course, being that the world will embrace you and forget all about your competition.

“We believe that people would rather do business with folks they know, like and have confidence in,” says Nanton. “They want to believe they’re dealing with the ‘best in the business.’ To convey that feeling to your potential customers, we Celebrity Brand You as the expert in your field, and once we’ve done this, we can leverage your Celebrity Expert Status to create product and service lines that you endorse to create additional income streams for your business.

“We’re taking the control of who becomes a celebrity out of Hollywood’s hands by bringing the town’s classic star-making machinery to people whose talents lie outside show biz,” Dicks adds. “The truth is, typical Americans today don’t want Hollywood shoving celebrities down their throat. They’re more discerning and want to determine for themselves who they want to hear from. Nick. and I find people that society needs to know about and we use a mixture of classic and cutting edge strategies to help them achieve credibility, status and visibility in their niche. In our book, we lay out the five stages of the Celebrity Branding® process: finding your niche, creating your brand, developing your Celebrity Expert Status, Rollout-Expanding Your Celebrity Branded Business and Selling Your Business and Creating ‘Legacy Dollars.’ Whether you run a single person business or a multi-million dollar operation, we offer you the opportunity to create a unique brand that cannot be duplicated.”

The first step in the branding process involves gaining credibility through mainstream media outlets. This past year, Dicks & Nanton took a group of diverse clients on a whirlwind tri-city tour. In Orlando, where many of today’s biggest stars got their starts, they were photographed professionally by Brook Pifer, the Rockstar Photographer® who is known for her work with various American Idols and Grammy Award winners. The groups’ next stop was Hollywood, where they shot segments for the Celebrity Lawyers’ TV show “America’s PremierExperts™”; the show airs at various times on different NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox affiliates around the U.S.

In conjunction with this show, these experts joined many others whose information and businesses are part of an extensive database on the corollary website associated with the show www.AmericasPremierExperts.com, which is which is quickly becoming a goto directory of experts for major media outlets as well as consumers seeking the input of those who possess expertise in a certain arena.

The last stop on the tour is New York, where they visit with national book publishers and radio and TV producers. In addition to forging the groundwork by which each client/expert will contribute one chapter to a new book, each client was interviewed by a nationally renowned journalist for a regional feature in USA Today and also for appearances in the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek. Over the course of the 12 months, these clients edged closer to their dreams becoming reality—sound familiar? Who needs Simon Cowell when you’ve got Dicks and Nanton steering the boat?

The next step for these and other clients is taking their newfound regional and national exposure and growing celebrity status and applying it to the ever-growing network of hundreds of social media outlets that are becoming the springboard for celebrities of all types. From there, the Celebrity Lawyers target outlets related to the client’s particular business, profession or expertise to circulate press releases, newsletters, magazines, etc. and work individually to create personality driven websites. These sites, also known as CelebritySites™, help create a personal bond with the consumer, convert the visitors into prospects and ultimately make more money for the clients.

“The secret formula is taking the credits we help them get in mass media and inserting them into targeted media,” says Nanton, “which puts the business celebrity in front of consumers who are hungry for what they offer and turns them from ‘unwelcome pest’ to ‘welcome guest in the eyes of their prospects.’”

Dicks and Nanton each bring a unique set of personal and professional experiences to the Celebrity Branding® table. Dicks has spent his entire 35 year career building successful businesses for himself and his clients, bringing his golden touch to the marketing and sales of over $500 million of products and services. He is the senior partner of Dicks & Nanton P.A.: The Business Growth Lawyers™, representing clients in the growth of their business using franchises, area exclusive licensing, coaching, idea licensing, info-marketing, joint ventures, syndications and explosion marketing to accomplish their goals.

Dicks has worked with a diverse set of clients ranging from an Inc. 500 fastest growing company with sales over $250 Million, to public companies and down to a small start up that made fishing lures. In addition to coaching and consulting with clients nationwide, he is also a successful entrepreneur. He has built his own businesses, with annual sales over $35 Million, developed real estate in excess of $200 Million and both created, and sold intellectual property rights for multiple millions of dollars.

Known as “The Celebrity Lawyer” for his role in promoting, marketing and creating Celebrity Experts across such diversified fields as entertainment, health and fitness, law, medicine, personal development, finance, and real estate, Nanton represents many top Celebrity Experts and serves as the Producer of America’s PremierExperts™ television show. He also produces The Next Big Thing™ radio show, designed to recognize the top Celebrity Experts and bring their solutions to consumers and media outlets alike.

Nanton has been named “Best of the Bar” and has even been referred to as “One of Orlando’s Top 10 Young and Powerful.” Prior to becoming an attorney, he spent more than a decade immersed in the entertainment industry. As an award-winning songwriter and television producer, he has worked on projects and negotiated deals from large-scale events to reality television shows—involving celebrities from a wide array of genres including President George H.W. Bush, Bill Cosby, Don Shula of the Miami Dolphins, Legendary College Basketball Coach Bobby Knight and Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Famer Stan Lynch of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers fame, among others.

Prior to founding the Dicks & Nanton companies, Nanton served as CEO of Cinemark Music Group LLC, a subsidiary of Cinemark USA, Inc., one of the largest motion picture exhibitors in North America with 3,288 screens in 33 States and internationally.

“The first step in the process of Celebrity Branding You™ is an initial consultation to learn about a potential client’s business, where they are currently, where they would like to be in the future, and to see if they’ve got what it takes” says Nanton. “We’ll give them enough of an overview that they’ll be able to see their business in a fresh light with new and exciting possibilities. With the leverage we provide them, they have the tools to reach so many more people. It’s very satisfying for JW and I to know that through our efforts, we are helping them make a difference in millions of consumers’ lives.”

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

I always love the New Year. For me, late December and early January have always been a time of intense planning. What changes should I make for the New Year? What are my income goals, and how do I plan to get there? These questions have always been part of my annual business analysis.

Once I have set my goals for the year, I review action ideas that I’ve used in the past and that I know will work. In this month’s issue is a series of quick-action ideas that I think might help your business. I have listed 41. You may be able to use all of them, but you need only one to make a difference in what you’re doing. The action ideas are not in any particular order, so consider each of them the same. It may be the first or the last you find most helpful, but consider them all your business New Year Resolutions!

1.Add a ‘call to action’ in all your advertisements. Give people a specific reason to call you now; give them a toll-free number to do it with, and specifically tell them to “act now.”

2.Review your old customer records. Write a specific letter to each of them offering a special discount if they will do business with you today.

3.Get testimonials from your customers. Use them in all your promotions. Third-party testimonials are considered the most powerful form of advertising.

4.Establish your own referral network. Get a group of business people together that are non-competing and pledge referrals to each other. Meet once per month to thank each other and give ideas of the type of customers and clients you may be looking for. Commitment if the key for each participant.

5.Become the expert in your business. Write a book, report, article, newspaper column, or seminar about your topic and publish it yourself to get it circulating. When you circulate your best ideas, good things happen.

6.Develop at least one add-on or “up-sell” to your main product. Always offer the add-on every time the main product is offered. It should be low cost, and high profit. Start now and it will help you make up any recession fall-off in your business.

7.Make it more convenient for your customer to do business with you. Increase your hours, add a toll-free number, accept credit cards, etc.

8.Raise your prices. Don’t be afraid to raise your rates sometimes. As an alternative, consider raising your rates for new clients, but discounting them for your current customers.

9.Do a cost audit of your business. Consider alternatives to every vendor or supplier you have. For example, competitively price your long-distance carrier. Compare UPS to Federal Express. Eliminate waste. A dollar saved goes right to the bottom line profit.

10.Consider buying “shareware” computer programs. Before you buy name brands, just as in the case of prescription drugs, generic software is much cheaper and will often do an equal job.

11.Trade high interest rate credit cards for low interest rate cards. If you pay off your balance every month, get a no fee card.

12.Before adding a new employee, try a temporary. See if the increased work is short term. Outsourcing jobs is a growing trend for all businesses.

13.Become tax smart. Learn all of the business deductions and be creative in how you can reduce your taxes. Deductions save you the percentage of your tax bracket. Tax credits save you dollar for dollar.

14.Incorporate your business. If you are a sole proprietorship or partnership, liability protection is extremely important in this day of never-ending lawsuits.

15.Set up a monthly automatic investment. Don’t put off your long-range planning. Set aside 10% of everything you make for investing in your future. The investment could be for more marketing.

16.Arrange for a discount with your suppliers if you are able to pay on invoice. If you are having cash flow problems, reverse the procedure and ask for 90 days same as cash.

17.Buy your office supplies from major wholesalers. Use Office Depot, Price and Costco, and don’t let individual employees order their own supplies. Adopt a set list of products a new employee can have and exclude anything else.

18.Get a separate credit card for your business. All interest paid on that card can easily be determined as deductible.

19.Join the National Association for your business. Attend the national convention. This will keep you informed of the latest ideas in your industry. Also take advantage of discounts they arrange with vendors.

20.Buy a book on time management. Incorporate at least one time-saving idea into your daily life.

21.Consider bartering your services. Be liberal. The barter, even if worthless, may lead to a new client. You should also consider offering your services to non profits; it would be a way of meeting a new group of potential clients.

22.Raise your insurance deductible. There is a big premium difference between $250 and $1,000. Weigh the annual difference and consider self-insurance for the higher deductible.

23.Update your business plan with changes for the New Year. If you have never done one, now is a good time to organize your thoughts and plan your direction.

24.As long as you’re updating plans, review your specific marketing ideas and objectives for this year. Don’t just spend money on whatever comes along; plan your expenditures. Use only advertising that allows you to back your reason. If you don’t know your reason, you’re wasting money.

25.In 25 words or less, write out your Unique Selling Proposition. What is it that makes you better than your competitors? Make sure your customers know what it is.

26.Use free advertising by getting publicity. Do press release on newsworthy events. Create a scholarship for high school. Donate time and money to your local charity. In a nutshell, get involved and let people know it.

27.Consider joint ventures with other companies. You can piggy back on their business; be quick and ready to pay for referrals where payment is legally allowed.

28.Survey your customer or hire an outside company to do so. Find out what they really think. What they like and don’t like. Make changes which heed their advice.

29.Send thank-you notes for anything and everything done for you. Do it because it is the right thing to do, not just because it will help your business.

30.Do a profile on your customers. So that you can be a target market your advertising and promotions. Once you know your customers’ demographics, you can go after them more effectively and increase results from your marketing dollar.

31.Hire an outside person to be a test prospect. See how your customers are actually treated. Find out what your sales people are truly promising your customers. The outside company can quickly give you the inside on your company.

32.Focus on making your business profitable over and above what you take out as a salary. Remember, there is more to being in business than simply making payroll. Don’t just create a job for yourself.

33.Consider a home equity loan to expand your business. Refinance as rates fall this year and pay it back with a better business.

34.Step up your collection process. Use credit cards to get money faster.

35.Add shipping and handling charges to any order. Everyone has them, and it has become common place. If you are absolutely against them, make sure you promote the fact that you don’t charge for shipping and handling.

36.Make your life directly related to your business so that everything you do becomes deductible. Vacation on business and dine with business clients.

37.Maximize your retirement contributions. Get control of the investing of those dollars yourself. Don’t miss out on the time value of money and the enormous advantage of tax-free compounding.

38.Consider asset protection with everything you do. Incorporate your business and use estate planning strategies — not just to save taxes, but to minimize the chance of losing everything in a lawsuit.

39.Keep immaculate business records. This will save your neck in government audits and lawsuits. Use internal memos to the file and confirm everything in writing. If it’s not worth writing, it’s not worth doing.

40.Update your life and health insurance cost. For an independent analysis and recommendation of the cheapest insurance use an insurance audit.

41.Develop Additional Profit Centers for YOUR Business.

If you studied the preceding list, I know that you will agree there were some powerful ideas contained in a few pages. I would hope that you would save the list to review again in the months ahead. I find that as I scan through a list of powerful ideas, others will formulate in my mind. Sometimes even better ideas because they are usually directly related to my business; and that process is, of course, what psychologists refer to as imaging, and it is a terrific way for individuals to brainstorm with themselves.

While editing my list for publication to you, it occurred to me (through imaging) that one of the best resolutions of all (#41) would be to add an additional profit center to your business no matter what that business is. After all, you already have overhead clicking away, so anything you do to “add-on” makes your profits grow exponentially. When you consider this strategy, keep an open mind and consider not only new profit centers related to your business, but that it may actually be an entirely new business. For instance, this year we took one of our companies’ core competencies website developments and spun it off into a separate company doing outside work. This new business-in-a-business added a new six-figure income stream with little added overhead.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

When the economy gets tough, some businesses cut back on marketing along with their other costs, thinking they can lie low and wait out the next opportunity. There are two mistakes with this kind of thinking to discuss, even before we get to the point of this article.

First, it is a mistake to think about marketing as a cost. It isn’t a cost if you know your numbers and you know how much money in new business you should reap from your marketing. This number is your return on investment (ROI). The money you spend on marketing is, and should be, an investment — not a cost.

Second, not all recessions are the same, so you can’t bet that waiting on the sidelines is a strategy that will even keep you in the game. Right now, you need to be making “real time” changes in your business that will let you take advantage of the opportunities you see — and there will be opportunities. Maybe just the fact that your competition finds the market tough is the opportunity you need to take their spot in the marketplace.

Let’s look at six more major business mistakes that people are making right now in their business and how you can overcome them.

1.FAILING TO TEST YOUR IDEAS

Great ideas are frequently born around the kitchen table. Unfortunately, so are bad ones. The real question is: How do you know the difference?

My experience has been that everyone (including me), thinks their ideas are best. Frequently, however, we are surprised to discover that the idea didn’t work. If people like the Coca-Cola Company can make a major marketing blunder, dropping “old” Coke for “new” Coke — or the entire American auto industry can market the wrong product at the wrong time, then all of us can make mistakes. The problem with business marketing mistakes is that they are expensive, as the tax payers are going to find out in the auto bailout.

Is there anything we can do in our own business? Absolutely! Test your ideas first. Test, you say? Test your ideas first? Yes, that’s what I’m suggesting. It is a little more work. It’s a little more time consuming. But guess what? It saves money, and it absolutely works.

Let’s say you have ten outside salesman. Each salesman calls on 20 people per day, and closes four sales. If you could change the presentation they make, and increase your sales by one sale per salesman, your sales would increase by 25%! The problem you face, however, is that a change could also result in lowering everyone’s production. Potentially this decision could be so big that it could actually put you out of business. The result of this predicament is failure to act.

Instead, test the new presentation. Take two of your best salesmen, and let them try the new presentation. Monitor the results. Does it work? If so, immediately change and adopt the new presentation throughout your organization. Use your best salesmen because if they can’t do it, then it is likely that the others can’t either.

Sales presentations aren’t the only things to test. Test your ads. Do they pull better in your local newspaper, or in other mediums, like local magazines? Which works better? Compare the costs per reader. Does the response rate improve if you add one additional color to the ad? If it helps, use it. If it doesn’t, now you know, and you also know how to save yourself some money.

Test your prices. This is one of the craziest things in business. Sometimes raising your price will actually improve sales. Okay, so you don’t believe me. Try it and see. Some things that wouldn’t sell for $19.00 sell better at $24.95, and sometimes even better at $149. Don’t ask me why exactly, but it has to do with the perception of value. Increasing the price doesn’t work all the time, just like decreasing the price doesn’t. The point is that you must test, and constantly re-test, to see which price works the best. The other point which is important to make on this particular topic is that once you have decided which price is correct, don’t let yourself be lulled into the thought that it should always stay the same price. At least once a year, re-test your prices to determine whether or not increasing or decreasing will have a better success rate than your current price.

It is far cheaper to test many ideas to find one that works

than it is to throw money at “hunches” you think are right.

2.RUNNING INSTITUTIONAL ADVERTISING INSTEAD OF DIRECT RESPONSE ADVERTISING.

Ninety-five percent of all advertising you see is institutional advertising. For those of you who aren’t sure, institutional advertising is the type that tells you how wonderful and terrific the company is that is putting on the advertisement, but fails to tell you much about products. More importantly, while institutional advertising may create a feel good response on the part of the person it is directed to, it does not create a direct response that offers the ability for the customer to act.

The result is wasted advertising dollars, except in loose terms of brand identity. Small advertisers can’t afford to lose money this way. Unfortunately, small advertisers frequently copy the large advertisers. They also frequently copy their bad mistakes, and try to use institutional advertising. Again, the result winds up the same. The small advertiser develops an ad which may bring some feel good response on the part of its viewer, but does not bring the type of response which results in a sale. If you are a small advertiser, you simply cannot afford to make this kind of mistake.

Direct response advertising is different. Its entire purpose is to elicit a direct response from the viewer. This means that the intention of the ad is to get the viewer to act at that particular moment and make a call, send in money, go to a website, order a free report, or use some method of responding directly to the ad. The difference between direct response advertising and institutional advertising is that direct response advertising produces direct results. Direct response advertising doesn’t waste its time with superficial information about the company, and its motivation for success. Instead, it talks about the product, what it will do for its consumer, and why they should specifically purchase the product with all of its benefits now. Direct response advertising answers the questions of who, what, where, when, why, and how. Then, it ends with a call to action on the part of the reader.

For those of you who may be reading this, and remaining skeptical, all I ask you do is utilize direct response with testing (point number one). Take a certain amount of your advertising budget, and leave it with the same type of advertisements you have been running. Take the other half, and utilize direct response advertising. After a three month period (which is a good test marketing run), you tell me which works the best. Clearly, you will discover that direct response advertising far out-pulls the institutional advertising in terms of return on investments (ROI), and you will be well on your way to increased sales.

Use institutional advertising only when you become an institution.

In the meantime, make money with direct response.

3.FAILURE TO CONVEY YOUR UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION (USP)

Every person, product and company has a “Unique Selling Proposition.” Maybe you are the fastest in your business. Maybe you provide the best service in your business. It could be that your product is the least expensive available in the market. Whatever the reason, you have a unique selling proposition, or you should create a specific one, to separate yourself from your competitors.

Once you discover what your USP is, you should feature it in every advertisement you place. If you are open 24-hours a day and no one else in the industry is, then make certain you promote that as unique to your store. While your USP may not be attractive to everyone, it will be attractive to a certain segment of people, and those people will be your buyers.

Developing your USP is a must. It is the integral part which separates you from your competition. Without hammering it to the marketplace on a daily basis, you become one of the numbers in the crowd.

Federal Express utilized the USP of getting a letter to an individual guaranteed by the next morning in an industry that had no reliability to it. It created a USP, and with it, went on to become a multi-billion dollar company. Apple computers took a unique method of utilizing icons and pictures to create a new method of using computers, which simplified what had previously been a complex array of letters and numbers. Carving out this niche, the “MAC” became the second leading computer system in the industry, and the iPod and iPhone are blockbuster sellers.

How is your business unique? What is the one feature that you offer that no one else offers to their customers? Why should a customer pick your company over any of the other companies offering a similar product or service? Discover this answer, and use it in all of your advertising and marketing materials. Hammer it home constantly, over and over in public.

Your unique selling proposition (USP) is the reason your

customers set you apart from the rest. If you don’t have

one (USP) they won’t set you apart.

4. FORGETTING THE BACK-END SALE

Most companies spend a great deal of money getting their customer in the front door. Once they do, and the customer purchases a product, the owner feels he has accomplished his goal and objective of making a sale. The sad truth is these companies and owners do not realize that they have only begun the sale, instead of ending the sale. Too often these companies stop selling at this point. Having captured the customer and sale, they neglect the most profitable part of the business: The Back-End Sale.

While making a sale in the front-end is unquestionably important, the key everyone should realize is that what has really taken place is that a long-term customer has just been generated. What happens with this customer now separates the truly successful businesses from those which remain moderately successful.

What should you expect from the follow-up business? A simple rule of thumb is that 20% of the people you get in the first sale will become high-end product customers. That means that these individuals are pleased with your company’s performance and will be willing to purchase more products, and more expensive ones. Let me give you an example: Let’s say that you are selling a $19.95 product. This is sold to 1,000 people through a direct response advertisement, such as the one we discussed in point number two. Of the 1,000 people who purchase the initial $19.95 product, at least 200 (20%) of those individuals will be immediate candidates for a product priced higher (anywhere from $499 to $1,000). You will note from the initial sale, that the total gross of 1,000 people at $19.95 produced $19,950.00 worth of income. If you are then able to take the 200 people representing 20%, and convert them to $1,000 purchasers, you would then produce a gross of $200,000 on the next immediate sale. Obviously, forgetting the Back-End Sale is extremely expensive.

Another point that needs to be made is that this is only from the initial and second sale. Now that you have captured these people as potential long-term customers, they should be placed in your database and constantly contacted to buy additional products. Again, from this experience, clients will continue to purchase additional products, some on the lower end and some on the higher end. The point is, they must be captured in a database and constantly communicated with and offered additional products. This is also true of the other 80% who will buy again but perhaps not as frequently.

The result of the example above is important for another point regarding advertising and sales in general. Frequently, advertising will be written-off if it produces only a volume of sales which break even. In other words, if the advertising campaign costs $2,000, and it produces $2,000 worth of income (even on a net income basis), the campaign will be written off as a failure because it only broke even. However, what you must remember is that some of those customers you just obtained will buy again and again. What most businesses miss is the opportunity to measure this advertising campaign based on anything other than the initial sale. This is another huge mistake. Remember, the post-sale success should be more profitable than the initial sale’s success.

The single most profitable product you have
is your back-end sale.

5. FAILURE TO CAPTURE THE NAMES AND ADDRESSES OF YOUR CUSTOMERS.

The single most important asset that any company has is the database of names and addresses of its customer base. Nevertheless, at least 80% of companies never maintain a database of their customers. Think about it. You spend thousands and thousands of dollars getting people in the door, and once you have separated these key customers from all of the other thousands of people who totally disregard your advertisement, they are neglected for future advertising. Instead, you continue along with your institutional advertising, trying to get more and more new customers. Try something new, concentrate on your customer base as you capture it instead, and gear at least a growing portion of your advertising dollars solely to these individuals. They are proven successful buyers, and as long as you provide the quality and quantity of the products that attracted them in the first place, they will continue to buy from you for years to come.

Once you have become one of those few companies that successfully capture the names and addresses of their customers, go a step further to find out specific information about that customer. What type of product do they like? What services are they most interested in? Once you classify these customers, you can now target advertising based on sales of products which will be most attractive to those customers.

Let’s take a clothing store and use it as an example. If a clothing store kept a database on me, they would find that I frequent the casual area of the store, and prefer Tommy Bahama shirts. If the store uses this information in a database, they can now do pinpoint marketing. Every time they have a sale on Tommy Bahama shirts, who should they send a post card to? Which advertising do you think would be more successful — an institutional ad in the newspaper about the store, or a direct contact with 1,000 people who you know like to buy Tommy Bahama shirts? I think you get my point.

The lifetime value of a repeat customer is
a company’s biggest asset.

6. STICK WITH MARKETING CAMPAIGNS THAT WORK

Want to know one of the biggest marketing mistakes made by most every company? They stop doing what works. I know it sounds crazy, but it happens over and over again. The company may have had an ad which has run for years. It worked every time. A new employee comes in who wants to show some new pizzazz, and says, “What we need to do is change our image. We need to drop the old ad for this clearer, fresher look.” Do I have to tell you what happens? Friends, if something works, let it ride. Better still, let it roll. Your goal is to find the best ad by testing until you know it works. Once you know for sure, you do a “roll-out.” This means you take as much money as you can, and leverage this winner until it stops producing. As long as it keeps hitting your numbers, keep pounding it out.

If upon occasion you want to test a new ad, keep the old one running as a control, and test the new one. If the new one works better than the old one you can either use the new one and roll it out with all your marketing dollars, or use both as long as they keep working.

Never forget what works and always expand on success.

THE FINAL MISTAKE

NOT PUTTING INTO PRACTICE – THESE IDEAS

Now you have them. Use these Golden Nuggets and they will make you money. Remember, while I can tell you what I know, I can’t do it for you.

Once you learn a rule that works, don’t forget to apply it.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

This year has flown by, but I’m happy to say that I accomplished many of my goals; and I hope you have too. I’ve met many of the greatest minds in business, and I’m very optimistic about what the future holds for all of us — based on the solutions for our personal and business lives that many of these great people are bringing to the market.

But, as always, when you see a lot of business ideas, and work with many types of people, the most obvious errors and mistakes that people can make also become glaringly obvious. The one I’m going to tell you about today is one that has been around forever, but you probably didn’t make the connection to how it applied to you.

Let me start with an example. We’ve all heard the sob story of a famous actor, musician, athlete, artist, etc., who has had blockbuster success, sold millions of something, and then ended up flat broke and can’t understand why. They often even go so far as to start suing those around them in hopes of uncovering some scandal and recouping some of their lost funds. Well, if it is scandal, then the victim is only partially to blame, but they still usually deserve some of the blame. If there is no scandal, then the victim is really only a victim of their own folly. They are most likely guilty of ThoughtSourcing.

What is ThoughtSourcing? It’s the function of outsourcing everything that crosses your path that requires some good old-fashioned thought; and possibly even some management of time and effort to execute on the decisions that you make based on that thought.

For example, what usually happens when the aforementioned artist/athlete/actor begins the ascent to stardom? As soon as they start making any money, they start changing everything they were doing. They stop practicing as hard, they stop handling their own business, and they start hiring people to handle every function that they don’t want to deal with. They start pushing off all business, financial and other important decisions, so that they can “just focus on the ______________” (insert the word music, game or art in the blank and you can complete the sentence for yourself).

Every rock star wants to just show up and play to thousands of screaming fans, get paid millions to do it, and then go back to crafting great songs.

Every artist wants to spend all of their time in the studio painting as inspiration hits them; and then for someone to run into the studio and offer them lots of money to take the artwork off their hands before someone else does.

Every athlete wants to focus on what it will feel like to win the big game.

The list goes on and on … and on. Then, at some point, the aforementioned “tortured soul” loses one or more sources of their income, along with those who were posing as their friends because they could latch on and party for free, and winds up in a catastrophic financial position, seemingly overnight. The problem? They were ThoughtSourcing.

What these people often fail to realize is that at some point things are going to change, and if the person who is most affected by the decisions made doesn’t stay actively involved in working to build a better, stronger, faster business on the back of their talent, then at some point the odds are that the well will run dry. It does take some thought and some strategy to stay at the top of your business, no matter if it’s an artistic or athletic endeavor, or a financial one.

I know, I know. But you’re not a ______________ (insert artist, athlete or rock star here). But most small business owners make the same mistakes. They build a successful business, “bootstrapping” their way to profitability and doing everything themselves. Then, when things start going great, they start hiring people or outsourcing most of their work. They start changing the formula that got them to profitability. Eventually, they start letting a little bit of customer service slide, they don’t keep their costs under control, and they realize how much “better” life would be if they had someone else running the operational portion of their business (because after all, operations are no fun anyway, right?), etc., etc., etc. And POOF! The tortured soul once again ends up stranded by themselves, and so broke that they can’t even afford their $10 mocha-choca-latte-grande-milkshake anymore.

I’m certainly not advocating that you do everything yourself and not to surround yourself with others who can help take some of the burden off of your back so you can be more productive at doing what you do best. No, I’m not saying that at all. All I’m saying is that you shouldn’t let it get to the point where you aren’t the one in control and making well thought out decisions anymore, because you’ve gotten a bit lazy. Don’t be a victim of outsourcing your thought. Don’t be the next victim of ThoughtSourcing.

Take a few minutes to think about what you can do to take control of the important areas in your business that affect your bottom line; make sure you’re the one taking the time to think about how you want them to be handled, and then execute accordingly. Take the time to do this, and I’m confident that 2009 will be a breakout year for you.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

Let me tell you how my kitchen reminded me of one of the most important business lessons you can learn. You see, my wife and I recently threw a birthday party for our youngest son, Bowen, for his first birthday. Call me crazy, but we had 80 people over to our new house – one that we just moved into about two months ago. But the even crazier part was that the sink in the kitchen was somebody’s idea of a cruel joke.

It seemed like the sink was about two inches deep at its deepest point. No matter what we did, it was useless for everything you would want to use a sink for. And of course, as we looked at the sink problem, we decided that there was also a counter top problem. The counter top was the wrong color and was keeping us from having the “warm” kitchen that we really wanted. So we decided we were going to fix the sink problem and the counter top problem at the same time. And it just so happened, that the very moment when neither of us could take this problem anymore, was the Sunday before the party, and the small army of 80 people were set to arrive in T-6 days. Panic set in.

I can do a lot of things, but plumbing and granite installation would certainly not be within my skill set, so I had to find a solution — QUICKLY. I can tell you that the only thing that calmed my boiling blood pressure was a few simple words from my good friend Brian. He said, “Don’t worry. I’ve got a friend in the business.”

So I called his friend first thing Monday morning and explained my dilemma. He laughed at my “compact” timeline, but with a little cajoling, I had him out at my house within an hour. He left with his head in his hands, but he agreed that he would do his best to help us solve our dilemma by Friday of that same week.

I use the story to illustrate the fact that when consumers have a point of pain, they go looking for a solution. And there is no greater solution than having or being referred to “a friend in the business.” These five simple words break down barriers that are normally in play when selecting a vendor, and ultimately lead the vendor to a point of less price resistance and less time closing the sale.

The ultimate goal should be to get your clients and prospects to feel like you are their friend in the business. The only way to do this is by constantly delivering quality solutions, on time, at the right price (notice I didn’t say the cheapest price) and by building a relationship. Without the second step, building the relationship, you’re not a “friend” in the business, you’re just another vendor and that isn’t nearly as valuable or profitable.

So how do you develop a relationship and become a friend in the business? You have to consistently keep in touch with your clients and prospects. Now, I know what you’re thinking — “I can hardly keep up with my own friends and family, how do you expect me to keep up with hundreds or even thousands of clients and prospects?” The solution is through a systematic approach to keeping in touch. While there are many ways to do this, here are a few of my favorites that you can start using immediately:

1.Develop a “snail mail” newsletter: Most businesses think that this is too expensive, or takes too much time and effort. But I can tell you from first-hand experience that the direct business and the referral business we get from delivering our message to the mail boxes of our clients and prospects each and every month, far outweighs the time, the effort or the expense. Think about it this way: would you rather have to pick up the phone and call every client and prospect on your list and repeat yourself over and over again or would you rather write your message one time, as concisely as possible, and be able to illustrate it in pictures or diagrams, without interruptions? Exactly. The newsletter allows you to carry on a one-way conversation with your clients that will take far less time and yield greater results, as long as you deliver it on a consistent basis, and craft your message in a way that feels like you are letting your clients into your world; allowing them to get to know you as a “friend.” A newsletter doesn’t have to be complicated or overly long, it could even be as simple as a letter that you write, but the point is that it consistently allows you to build the relationship.

2.Send out an Ezine: While ezines (also known as e-mail newsletters) aren’t quite as effective as snail mail newsletters because they are often seen as an interruption and get deleted, or end up in the spam folder, they are still a great way to communicate with your audience. They are another point of contact with your clients that will allow you to tell your story and keep in touch. We send out an ezine that is very nice looking and it has pictures and graphics in it, and these are nice. But I will definitely say that my preference is for another type of ezine that we use. This second type is written like a personal email, with just text, that tells a short story about what’s happening in my life or business, and then allows me to relate it back to a business lesson that is valuable for my readers, along with an offer to contact me if I can be of any help. It’s modeled after a personal email and gets read as such, rather than lumped in the pile of emails that don’t need to be responded to, and therefore are first to get deleted. I find that the response from this type of ezine is much higher. There are many programs that will allow you to insert the name of your prospects into your emails so it looks personalized when it arrives in your prospects’ inboxes. My favorite, and the one we use is www.CelebrityBrandingCart.com

3.Develop Greeting Card Campaigns: We are always on the lookout for strategies that will allow us to stand out from the crowd, and not get us lumped in with every other business that is vying for our prospects’ attention. One of the ways we do this is by sending out greeting cards. As you might imagine, writing out thousands of greeting cards would be very time-consuming, if not impossible, to do in a timely fashion, so we use a very cool service that allows us to send greeting cards with any image we want on them, with a message that is personalized and written in our handwriting; but we only have to type the message once and it gets personalized and sent. They have digitized my handwriting and they insert the names we give them and then they print the cards one by one, stuff them in envelopes and then also use my handwriting font to print the address on the front of the envelope. They have thousands of designs and messages to choose from, or you can create your own. You can check out this service at www.CelebrityBrandingCards.com

There you have it: three simple ways that you can continue to establish rapport with your clients and prospects that will only take you a few hours each month. The key is to create a system that allows you to spend just a couple of hours creating one message that can be leveraged and personalized to keep in touch with your clients and prospects on a regular basis; so that you can spend your time delivering great quality products and services, on time, and continue to be a good “friend in the business.”

…Oh, yeah, and yes we did get our new sink and granite installed before the party. Everyone had a wonderful time, and as you can imagine, we now need a bigger house due to all of the presents Bowen got!

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

I talk about Business Vision often. Sometimes people think I am just seeing things that aren’t there, and shake their head. Unfortunately for them, I have learned that learning to look at your business objectively, and with a fresh eye, allows you to discover unique opportunities that you have been missing. Looking at other peoples’ businesses with the same open view allows you to ask the proverbial question, “What if?” Invariably, this question always leads to new possibilities, including working on someone else’s business for a fee or JV.

Business Vision came up today when I read a newspaper report about Michael Eisner buying Topps Co., the 60-year-old trading card company. Clearly, for years, this long-term successful company had continued to operate the way it had always operated and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. Now, Eisner walks in and looks at the company differently than the millions of other people who have seen it. Yes, he sees a trading card company, but what he also sees is a media company. In his view, the trading and sports card company had a different kind of business just waiting to be released from its confines. Using the new view, instead of just “Bazooka Joe” trading cards, how about a “Bazooka Joe” movie, followed by a “Bazooka Joe” web site, book, t-shirts and likely an entire amusement park or at least part of one (ala the Harry Potter Attraction going in at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida). [Note: These are my expansions of ideas based on his comments.] Note also that “Bazooka Joe” is only one of the hundreds of real and imaginary characters in the Topps Co. stable that give them a virtual library of talent and personalities from which to draw.

As always, let me now suggest that you bring this concept home and take a moment to step back and look at your own business, or even the business of someone else you like, and see what they aren’t doing that your vision of another profit center could add.

One more quick point from the Eisner announcement: his method of moving Topps into the position of a media company is web-based from the beginning. He envisions web movies, as well as many types of mobile entertainment. He sees new platforms to be generated, and is preparing to stake a beachhead now for the future in the long-term. To me this is more than Web 2.0, this is the next transformation from being tethered anywhere for sports, news or entertainment; and keeping this in mind in your own business will certainly have profitable overtones for your future.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

Sometimes we all fall into the trap of building a better mousetrap: a “thing” or a single “service” we hope people will beat a path to our door to discover. All too often, however, the result is that we spend lots of time, money and energy only to find the consumer really didn’t want our hot idea. This process although entrepreneurial, is a path to frustration and a pattern from which to break free.

An alternative route to growing a business is to build your idea upon a preexisting set of behavior events that the consumer is already engaged in, and innovate the experience in a way that is more satisfying.

Let me give you some examples:

Starbucks: Consumers already drank coffee when Starbucks came along. In fact, drinking coffee was part of our culture. What Starbucks did was step into the behavior of the consumer and altered the experience to be more satisfying. Instead of selling another coffee brand, they created an industry around the coffee and the experience. They not only sold coffee, they sold pastries and other items but more importantly, they sold the franchise that catapulted the company into a multimillion-dollar enterprise.

The iPod: Nice gadget yes, but instead of selling another device, Apple sold a system: a new method of doing something consumers did already; finding, evaluating, selecting, listening, storing and of course playing music. Instead of just a single product, they created a sub-industry that encompassed all of the experiences of music interaction.

Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club™: Kennedy’s is our venture into building onto what the consumer is already doing — getting a haircut. A small group of us joined “the club” to change the experience of getting a haircut from a perfunctory one, to a positive experience we actually looked forward to. The consumer client is going through the process anyway, so why not change the process so that it is now something relaxing, enjoyable and, hopefully, habit forming? It is no longer just getting a haircut — it is a way of living.

What groups of existing behavior can you build upon to change the experience in such a way that it eliminates the issue of price and time?

Think about these everyday behaviors:
Exercise/workout
Eating
Grooming/brushing teeth
Paying bills
House chores
Dating
Commuting
Medical attention
Dental
Legal
Buying a house
Investing
Insurance
Medicine
Grocery shopping
Worship

…and many, many more. If you can discover alternatives to all patterns of behavior (including sub-patterns), that save time, or create a more enjoyable experience for the consumer,, the experience will lead to a new business system that offers immense opportunity.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

Over the last few years, there is no denying that the online community has started harnessing the power of the Internet for more than just “surfing” the web to look for information. We have now started using it as a networking tool that allows us to connect with others to share ideas, opinions and videos of ourselves looking like fools. Okay, so hopefully we don’t have too many of those videos; but having some video online, and at the major video sharing sites, is a great search engine traffic strategy that we should all be employing.

One of the online tools that has been around for the longest, but is often neglected or overlooked, is that of message boards and email-based discussion groups. Yahoo and Google offer the two most popular email groups and they are free for anyone to set up. You can host your own group or you can join existing groups. There are groups for everything you can possibly think of; some are private and require the moderator of the group to approve you, and some you can get started with right away.

You can find these groups by going to the following URLs:
Yahoo – http://groups.yahoo.com/
Google – http://groups.google.com/

The way these groups are set up is that you are given an email address to which you can send a message if you want to send a message to an entire group. When you send a message to that address, everyone in the group gets it, and when they reply their response goes back to the whole group. On a side note, this has gotten more than one person I know into a bit of a trouble; because by habit you might think you are only responding to the person who sent the message, but since it was sent to the group, when you reply it automatically responds to the entire group! BE CAREFUL! It can be mighty embarrassing to send a private message to someone that ends up going to the whole group!

So, how can this help you build your celebrity status?

In most groups, there are many members who join to get information, but do not send messages. Let me give you an example: I am a member of a group for entertainment lawyers in the state of Florida. When I joined, I did what I would recommend that anyone should do when you are first joining an existing group — I watch how people post and respond for at least a few days to learn the tone of the group. After a month or two, I saw a message asking about a subject I know a lot about, so I responded to it. As time went on, I got involved in the discussion and I sent about 10 to 15 messages over the course of a few months.

As I was following the messages, it seemed like there were about 10 people who posted fairly regularly with about five others who would chime in every now and then. So by my estimation there were probably 20 to 30 people in the group.

Well, after about six months, I went to a convention where these entertainment lawyers gathered for an annual meeting. As usual, I met some new people and learned more about them, but something funny happened. When I introduced myself to people I had never met before, most of them said, “Oh, you’re Nick Nanton from the message board.” I would politely respond yes, but I had no idea how they knew that since I had never seen them send any messages. That’s when I asked the question.

I walked up to the person who moderated the group and asked him, “About how many people are in our online group? I keep meeting people who say they know me from the message board, but I have only sent a handful of messages and have never seen these people send anything.”

That’s when he responded “a little over 500 people.”

500 PEOPLE!

As you can see, I was drastically wrong in my calculation of 20 to 30 people in the group. There were actually hundreds, but only a few of us actually communicated through the group. And I have come to find out that this is fairly common in many groups. So, even though I had only sent a few messages, I had become a celebrity among the entire group. Everyone knew who I was, and before long I made a lot of new friends and was referred to a bunch of businesses because I was seen by the members of that group as an expert because of my prompt and accurate responses.

You really can find celebrity status in more places than you’d ever imagine; and sometimes, as in this instance, it smacked me in the face when I was completely oblivious! So go browse around online for groups of people that you would like to learn from, and that you think would be a good place for you to display your expertise and possibly even get some new business. Just remember the rules of the road! When you are in any new environment, watch how others behave first, before you start adding in your two cents!

Now, go out and join some groups!

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

The rise of “The 3rd Option” of Wealth Building

The Great Bull Market of the 1990s made us feel rich. The real estate boom boosted our hopes all over again and we all got caught up in the excitement. We borrowed against our assets like never before, and spent the equity we thought we had.

Today, the stock market has fallen back to where it was eight years ago, and the housing market is back to its more humble state of five years ago. Neither of these traditional wealth builders offer us fast hope to rebuild what we “thought’ we had, and the acid taste of frustration lingers.

None of this news is new, and the fall has happened before. And it will happen again. The solution to this financial pull back rests in … The 3rd Option.

The 3rd Option is the creation of value through enterprise. Building wealth by taking what you know and creating money from it. Ray Kroc did it when he bought the rights to expand the McDonalds concept. Bill Gates, Michael Dell and Steve Jobs all ignored their personal circumstances and used The 3rd Option. Most recently, Tom Anderson of MySpace and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook have created billions where there was nothing before.

We all know you do not need to make billions of dollars to change your life, but chances are you do need to break out of your own financial crunch. And the answer for you will be the same as it was for these entrepreneurs … it’s E-Time! Time for you to launch that idea you have had stewing away in the back of your head. Time for you to make something out of nothing, as entrepreneurs have done before you. Better yet, take an idea that is already working and it expand it the way Ray Kroc did with McDonalds.

How do you get started? There are many ways, but one of the easiest and best is to immerse yourself in what is going on. Go to business expos, conventions and Chamber of Commerce meetings to see what people are doing. Talk with the business owners at their exhibit tables and look for opportunities. Yes, some opportunities require money, but many businesses can be launched out of your own garage or spare bedroom. Open your eyes to new ideas and don’t shut out old ones. If you can sell, find the best product in the marketplace to sell and try to get options to buy into the company as well if you build value. If you are a computer geek and don’t know anything about selling , but you build web sites, offer that service to the salesman who won’t know a bit from a byte. Work with people. Stir the pot. The opportunities are endless and they await your discovery. This is not just ‘pie in the sky’ motivation; I believe it and see clients every day that show me their ideas and dreams that we help bring to life.

Yes, it’s E-Time and the opportunities are endless. Don’t wait another moment. Take advantage of The 3rd Option right now. The fortune at your feet is waiting for you to pick it up!

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

You’ve probably heard the buzz-terms “social media” and “social networking” more times than you care to count; although if you’re like most people, you still haven’t figured out what it means or how you can use it to increase your celebrity status, and, most importantly, your profits. You’ve also probably seen kids wandering around aimlessly with their cell phones, tapping away at their keys as they wander through the world — clueless about what is going on around them because they are so entrenched in their own little world of text messages.

Well, the good news is, it’s not that hard. The entire concept of Celebrity Branding® revolves around creating a relationship with your fan base, and continuing the conversation you want to have with them via multiple forms of media that allow you to control your message. The old standard method of doing this is with a hard copy newsletter sent to your prospects and clients; which is still one of my favorite methods. I would challenge you to find a better form of media, but we’ll debate that another day.

Social media allows you to take that same concept you can capitalize on with a newsletter, the concept of building a relationship and continuing your conversation with your fan base, but it takes out the constraints of physically publishing your thoughts (which is a double-edged sword, as it sometimes allows you to be a bit more sloppy about crafting your message. There is a mental barrier we have when writing something that is going to be put in print; we often spend more time crafting this type of message than we do when we draft an email or other communication that we perceive as having less value than printed material).

Wikipedia.com defines Social Media as:
…the use of electronic and Internet tools for the purpose of sharing and discussing information and experiences with other human beings. The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories and experiences.

It’s really not that scary, I promise. You’ve probably even seen a MySpace, Facebook or YouTube page in the past. These are great, but I want to take you a little further down the path to one of my favorite tools that hasn’t been around quite as long, and that makes use of some newer technology.

Twitter.com – Twitter is a “micro blog,” which means that it is intended for publishing short messages, not longer messages like you might see in a traditional blog, and was created to answer the question “What are you doing?” (Note: If you aren’t familiar with what a blog is, that’s okay too, but we don’t have space to cover it in this article. Go to Google, and type in “what is a blog” and you’ll find all you need to know. )

Twitter allows its users to send and read other users’ messages that are up to 140 characters in length (otherwise known as “tweets”). Users “follow” each other and can opt to receive updates from other users on their cell phones, or can just check in online to see what those in their network are doing. Users can also “Tweet” by texting messages to a phone number, or they can update their messages online at Twitter.com. While it sounds very narcissistic and shallow, and it certainly is for some users, savvy marketers have started using Twitter to expand and further entrench their fan bases in their way of thinking.

Tweets can contain something as simple as what you had for lunch or that you’re heading to the gym; or you can opt to tweet a link to a great article you read, to announce some great news or even to announce a contest you are holding. It sounds like it would be pretty silly, but give it a try and you’ll find out pretty quickly how addictive and productive it can be.

Twitter allows you to connect with your audience in short bursts. Some of the people who are worth following to learn a bit more are (I’m going to give you their usernames so you can find them on Twitter):

craigballantyne – Craig is a health and fitness expert based out of Toronto, Canada and is the founder of the Turbulence Training™ fitness system. Craig shows individuals how to get and stay in shape without having to go to the gym. He tweets about every meal he eats to give you some insight into how you can eat to stay healthy and also posts links to some of his workouts to you can follow along at home.

barefoot_exec – Carrie Wilkerson, The Barefoot Executive, offers tips and resources for working at home. Carrie shows you why working at home can be much more fulfilling than holding a regular job, and also shows you how to be as productive and profitable as possible.

skydiver – Peter Shankman is a PR Guru and founder of HelpAReporterOut.com, which is a resource to help you get cited as a source in major media outlets. He is one of the few people I know who can be funny in text, and he has some pretty amusing things happening in his life. He’s fun to watch and he sends out urgent queries from journalists via Twitter as well.

zappos – Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com, an internet-based shoe retailer who has built an online shoe store into a billion dollar franchise, based on his savvy marketing and his ability to give online shoppers what they want. Tony is always on the move and posts some pretty unique stuff. Recently Venus Williams was coming in for a tour of the Zappos headquarters and he let everyone tweet in messages to her that he read to her aloud.

nicknanton – I couldn’t help including just a touch of self promotion! I keep you up to date with the latest and greatest articles I’ve read, tips and tricks on Celebrity Branding®, and I also give you glimpses into my hectic everyday life. Sometimes I’m hanging out with rock stars, other times I’m trying to bathe my two kids and keep my iPhone out of the bathtub … you just never know, but that’s what makes it interesting!

There you have it — a few great resources to get you started using Twitter. As I said before, it sounds a bit strange, but once you start using it you’ll see how others are using it to continue the conversation with their fan base, breed loyalty, increase profits and meet new prospects.

So what are you waiting for? Go sign up right now at www.Twitter.com and send me a message so I can start following you too!

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

I must admit that I don’t watch the news often enough. It frustrates me and depresses me, all at the same time. But, I do walk by a television that is showing a news program often enough to see the constant predictions by the Chicken Littles of the world. They are all too ready to offer up the “news” that “the sky is falling.”

Now, before you run off and start actually believing that — especially in the context of your business — just stop, take a deep breath and relax. Money is moving just as fast as it ever has, you just need to be conscious of the fact that it may be moving differently than it was in the real estate boom of yesterday.

Below, you’ll find three easy steps that will help you recession-proof your business:
1.Become the ‘Celebrity Expert’ in your Business Niche
In any economy, especially in an economy where the buyers in your market have been trained to spend carefully, you have to compete for every last dollar that is being spent. Your buyers are likely distracted by their own issues that they are dealing with, so the last thing that you want is to lose a prospect or, worse yet, an existing customer due to factor you can control.

If you have taken the time to show that YOU, not the product or service that you offer, are the Celebrity Expert, the Guru, the Go-To provider in the marketplace, you will have a much better chance of staying busy — while your competitors are floundering. The reason for this is that many business strategies change during market shifts, and if your buyers remember your previous strategies and offerings better than they remember your ability to make great decisions and guide them in the right direction, then you can expect to sit around waiting for the telephone to ring until the market changes.

If, on the other hand, you have taken the time to display your expertise, and have promoted yourself rather than your “latest and greatest” product and service offering, your audience will always come to you, their trusted source, when they must get results. They would rather rely on a trusted advisor than on a product or service. People buy people; NEVER forget this — especially in a shifting market.

2.Ramp Up Your Marketing Efforts
In a changing market where assumptions and projections are no longer identical to what they were in previous periods, the first thing many businesses do is assume an overly-conservative marketing strategy. The first thing many a CFO says is “let’s slow down our marketing efforts.” BIG MISTAKE.

This could appear to be a lesson in contrarian-marketing, and while that does often work, this goes deeper than that. We’re not just trying to say “Yes” when those around us are saying “No,” but the same outcome ensues.

In a changing marketplace you actually have to market more consistently and creatively to get consumers to spend their dollars on your products and services. They are adopting a more fiscally conservative policy all around based on what they are seeing and hearing; so they have to be smacked in the face with your marketing message even more than usual in order to finally make the decision that what you are offering makes sense for them. If you slow down your marketing efforts, the final “sign” your buyer is looking for before they cross the line and buy may never come. As they say, “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” If you don’t appear when the student is ready, you’ll miss out on the chance to make the sale and bring in the revenues you deserve.

3.Be Agile
We often get caught up in offering the products and services that we want to offer, rather than looking for the missing ingredients in our buyers’ lives. It’s an easy trap to fall into, particularly if you’ve been doing what you’ve been doing for a prolonged period of time.

If you get stuck offering your products and services exactly as you have in the past, you may miss a great opportunity to fill a void. If there is a shift in market conditions and your profitability level drops, and you continue to offer your products and services the same way you were pre-shift, then you are turning a blind eye to the fact that your marketplace is no longer seeking (or willing to pay for) the solution of yesterday.

Oftentimes it only takes a slight tweak of your message to ease the pain your prospects are feeling, but you do have to take a moment to stop and realize that your “ointment” may no longer be packaged in a way that attracts customers, and that re-packaging could be the key to renewed profitability.

I know that the overwhelming message in the news is that “the sky is falling,” but if you’ll take the time to follow these three simple steps, I assure you that even while your prospects and clients are trying to avoid the impending doom, they’ll come to your bunker to avoid getting knocked down.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

Telling stories is not only one of the oldest forms of communication; it is also one of the most effective. Accepting this statement as true should help you see why creating a business story is a reliable way to connect, and to create a bond with your customer that helps you rise above your competition in their eyes.

Your business story should be real and personal. The more you can connect your story to your customer, the more it will help your business. This is why we often talk about the importance of finding a niche market with which you can identify. Telling your story to your niche market helps them identify with you. Sometimes the stories and the identification become so strong, that customers will not even consider going somewhere else for their business. Doing business with you at that point becomes more than buying a product, it is a relationship.

Using the power of storytelling is easy to see in the political arena, and we are being bombarded by it the closer we get to the Presidential election. Both Senator Obama and Senator McCain are masters at the art of telling their story. Obama’s is the classic story of the struggling hero who overcomes obstacles and finds himself on the hero’s quest. John McCain’s story rests more on his past successes, and the experiences of a hero who is now able to step in and solve the crises the country faces.

You and your company should learn from the lessons we are seeing in the political arena to create your story and sell it to your customers. By create I do not mean make it up, but show people who you are, what you have learned and how this relates to your business and your customers. I still remember Lee Iacocca’s personal appeal on television to get people to do business with his company. His challenge to the American car buyer was bold and simple, “If you find a better car . . . buy it!” Surely no one would make that kind of statement unless they were supremely confident in their product. Consumers bought the dare and it saved the company.

Other stories have been used to put a face and an image on a company. Disney did it twice; once with Walt himself, and later with Michael Eisner — both of whom came into your living room via television to tell you a story and create an image. They don’t call Walt Disney ‘Uncle Walt’ for nothing. It was done to create a particular image and it succeeded.

Although stories are unique to the company and individuals running them, they do follow themes. Examples are the “Mother” (Oprah), “General” (Iacocca, Jack Welch), “Statesman” (all former Presidents), “Wizard” (Steve Jobs), “Explorer” (Richard Branson), “Faithful Servant” (Al Gore), and “Wise Man” (Warren Buffet). Naturally, these themes rise and fall with the times — as heroes sometimes turn into villains then goats and back again to hero — ala Martha Stewart.

What is your story? What is the story of your company and your brand itself? How did it all come about and what is the connector to your market and customer base? The more you are able to answer these questions, and more importantly, the more you understand the importance of the story and constantly reinforce it, the stronger the bond you will build with your customer.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

It was great seeing many of you on the road while on my book tour this past month. I had a great time. I’ll be booking a few more dates coming up in the next month, so be on the lookout for the announcement!

As I was traveling and speaking with business owners of all kinds (and I do mean all kinds of businesses!), it became very apparent to me that there was some confusion between the benefits of mass media and targeted media and how they can both help grow your business. Many pundits will tell you that you only need one or the other, but that’s simply a self-serving statement. Both types of media have their own very distinct benefits of which you should be aware. After having the same conversation over and over again with many people, I realized that you may have the same questions, so I decided I’d put my formula in this article for you to benefit from as well.

Let’s start by defining the two forms of media, and then we’ll get into what they’re both good for and not so good for. After that, I’ll reveal the secret formula for media success.

Mass media is a means of communication designed to reach and influence large numbers of people at the same time. Examples of this are: Newspapers, popular magazines, radio, television and, in some instances, very popular websites and blogs.

Targeted media is a means of communication designed to reach and influence specific recipients one at a time. Examples of this are: Direct mail, newsletters, e-mails and html newsletters.

Both of these types of media have their pros and cons. Like any other tool, the key is to know the strengths and weaknesses of each, and how you can use them to your benefit.

Mass Media
Mass media’s biggest benefit is that it is a huge source of credibility. If you see someone being interviewed on “Good Morning America,” “Larry King Live,” “Oprah,” or even your local news station, you automatically assume they are an expert. You instinctively assign them a great deal of credibility — because you, like everyone else, have great faith in the screening process it took to get the interviewee on television for you to watch. The credibility from mass media is “inherent,” i.e., it is built in.

The downside of mass media is that it usually takes a lot of money to get there. Usually to get some mass media attention, even more than really being an expert at something, you have to be paying the right people. The fastest way to get there is to hire a PR firm that has relationships with television executives and producers who can get your story in front of the people who can put you on the air. Now, if it were just this easy, it would work for everyone. The problem is that oftentimes the fee that you have to pay a PR firm in this arena is far more expensive than a small business owner can afford. And the other problem is that even the most well-intentioned PR firms cannot guarantee that they will get you any coverage. You could spend as much money as you have, and most of the time even more than that, and still not get the mass media coverage you are looking for. The “stars have to align” in order for your story to fit the agenda of the television show and the theme they are working on during the course of your promotion, and even then you have to hope that no natural disasters or O.J. Simpson arrests happen that will bump you out of line! It is important to note here that I’ve spent most of my time talking about television because it’s the crown prince of mass media, but equal attention should be paid to radio, newspapers and magazines because the same principles apply. The other media that is coming on strong is the Internet — and it will eventually overtake television, so you need to pay attention to it as well. If you can get coverage on one of the bigger Internet portals, news sites, blogs or podcasts, then you can also get many of the same benefits.

Targeted Media
Targeted media, on the other hand, is great because you can control your costs much more easily. You can determine how much you want to spend to reach the consumer you want to reach. It is also great for getting new clients and making money. The great copywriter John Carlton once said (loosely paraphrased), “The answer to every problem is a great sales letter.” I’m sure I don’t have the quote exactly right, but the point is that a great sales letter sent to the right list of targeted prospects, can mint money. Sales letters are often the source of millions of dollars in revenue for savvy marketers who know how to utilize them. This is the benefit of targeted media — you can control your message, control the media and use it for whatever purpose you’d like . . . and the most popular purpose is to make money.

The downside to targeted media is that it really lacks the credibility factor that comes along with mass media. How many times have you gotten a direct mail piece, e-mail advertisement or sales letter and halfway through reading it, you said to yourself “Who is this person and why should I believe them? Why should I listen to what they have to tell me?” It’s a very common occurrence and it is a hard barrier to overcome. That’s why you need the secret formula.

The Secret Formula for Media Success
The secret formula should be pretty obvious by now: You need BOTH! The right combination of mass media and targeted media gives you credibility, while allowing you to control your media and your targeted recipient, as well as your costs, for the ultimate response – a recipient who “votes with dollars.” I don’t care whether you run a for-profit company or a non-profit company, it takes dollars to make things happen, so it would be wise to learn how to make this combination work for you.

While this is undoubtedly the winning formula, it can still be very challenging to find an affordable, time-effective way to uncover the winning combination. Because we have witnessed this dilemma over and over again, Jack and I decided to look for a solution once and for all. It took us quite some time to find a solution that we knew would work and would be affordable for those who are serious about making media work for them. But we did find the answer and it is called the Ultimate Celebrity Branding Experience™. With this month’s newsletter, we have included a brochure for you to look over. If you’re looking for solutions for getting ahead in your business today, yes — even in this economy — we urge you to take a look at the enclosed brochure and contact us as soon as possible if you think it may be right for you. We realize this opportunity is not right for everyone, but if you’d like to discuss it further, please contact me at Nick@CelebrityBrandingYou.com or call me at 800-980-1626.

Stay tuned for next month’s article where I will reveal another secret that I have used to get in the New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Arizona Republic, The Chicago Tribune and more!

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

Despite the doom and gloom crap that you see in every US newspaper and TV news broadcast, there is an interesting counter-culture buzz that I think merits some real attention: New Business.

Every time there is upheaval in the economy, every time there is “blood in the street,” there is always a counter-opportunity to step in and fill in the gap. Please note the words: EVERY TIME!

What I mean by “filling in the gap” is that tough times create opportunities for you to change something that you are doing or to spot a new idea or trend that will offer you unusual rewards. When things are great, we are usually not as willing to upset the apple cart, so we sometimes miss out on great opportunities. When business is slower, we are more willing to take that little, extra risk, and that is often when good things happen. Let me give you an example.

One of my companies just finished sponsoring the Street of Dreams home showcase held in our area. For those who do not know, the Street of Dreams puts on an event featuring very large and very expensive mansions, built just for the show, in different parts of the country. The event is heavily publicized to get people out to see the $6,000,000 to $9,000,000 homes as well as all of the great ideas they contain. This year, one of the big concerns was how the housing crisis would affect the event and its turnout. The Street of Dreams Company was clearly concerned, seemingly rightly so.

What did they do about it?

Cancel the show? Not on your life. They raised ticket prices. Yes, the prices were not all that expensive anyway ($12.00 last year up to $15.00 this year) and you could argue that by raising prices they got a more qualified crowd to their event. All of that is true and positive. What was most interesting to me was that they made at least as much money this year as they had in previous years, and guess what will happen to ticket prices when the housing industry stabilizes and the size of the crowds come back? They will remain at the new higher level, of course, or go up even more. What was the result for the Street of Dreams producers by working through a difficult market? Higher profits for every future year in their business!

How can you make a change?

In the next few weeks, we will all be glued to the TV set as the world turns its attention to the Olympics. Go ahead and enjoy them, but let me encourage you to keep a business eye open for all of the profit potential that can come from goods, services, and new ideas that will be unveiled at the Olympics. Just this month, the cover of Fast Company Magazine was graced with the new swimsuits designed to make our athletes swim even faster. Do you think there will be an increased demand for the swimsuits and similar athletic enhancement products at a local level?

What will the vendors sell to the crowds to eat, drink, or take as souvenirs that you could import to sell or use to start a business? What new promotion will be featured that you can take advantage of? Even using the Olympics as a title in your ads or direct mail will increase readership during these next weeks, because that is the topic that will be on people’s minds– and stepping into their thought process is the way to get the greatest response from your message.

Many changes, new trends, and opportunities will come out of the Olympics, so be ready to get your “gold.”

New ideas are also present in the newspaper. Yes, newspapers are read less because of the web. But from my standpoint as a Trend Merchant, I look to the small, local stories for ideas, and I find a wealth of possibilities. Today as I write, the newspaper had a good story about a guy from London who came to the US and is opening the first Pinellas County Indoor Soccer Academy. Many people have tried to make money on soccer in the US and have not been successful. But will this idea work? Will the two partners be able to put together a business plan that can be replicated? If they can, they will not just have created a local opportunity; they will have a national one that can be franchised and sold across the US. Naturally, since I am in the franchise creation business, I have added this man and his partner to my list of people to go visit in order to explore opportunities for the future. This potential came from an idea found during the simple act of reading the paper to look for opportunities. Interestingly, this idea also provides the opportunity to talk with people who were willing to start a new business in a down economy. My kind of people.

Where will your Next Big Thing come from: your current business or a new idea?

Happy Searching!

JW Dicks

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

Once again, this year’s Presidential election will be centered around the economic state of Americans. The candidate that misses its importance won’t get elected. Yes, the war is a critical issue, and I’m not in any way denouncing the importance and honor of soldiers, but the war is not an impactful issue to consumers’ minds when compared to the pain we feel when hearing the click- click- click of the fuel pump reminding us of the sky-high price of gas. Frankly, the price wouldn’t be nearly as painful if we didn’t have that click- click- click reminder in our faces as our money steals out of our wallets; that audible measurement is very real.

This economic reality is significant to every business, because we are seeing the classic mistakes that are made by businesses every time the economy goes bad. First, people stop marketing. Yes, advertising and marketing of all types are being cut back in droves because people mistakenly think that they can save money for a few months on their marketing “line item,” and this is much easier to do than laying someone off. The unfortunate reality is that you don’t get a painful click-click- click reminder immediately when you stop marketing, but you will get it a few months down the road when the business that your marketing was bringing in STOPS. Now you really have a problem.

For those “fortunate” to have had bad marketing in the first place, they do get to save money, but that is a different issue entirely. If you have bad marketing, you have a different set of problems. However, if your marketing was working and every time you conducted a campaign you made a return on your investment that generated a profit, then cutting the marketing program is dumb.

Marketing campaigns are about one thing…creating a campaign that generates a direct response that you can test the result of and that, when tested, shows that you made money. When you have that type of marketing campaign, you should never stop it until it stops making you money. In fact, the more you can spend on that campaign, the more money you make; so, stopping a successful campaign in a bad economy is exactly the opposite of what you should do. This is why many companies fail when economies dip. It isn’t the only reason, but it is a common one.

If you don’t have a marketing campaign that you have tested and that always brings in reliable money, then let’s talk about it and get one going. It really is the single most important thing you can do for your business, both now and in the future. If you would like our help with this, please call us at 800-980-1626 to make an appointment today. We look forward to hearing from you.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

A Note from Nick & Jack: This month to celebrate the launch of our book, Celebrity Branding You™ we decided to include the first chapter of the book for you to review. Although we are giving it to you for free, please don’t think that is has no value and just throw it aside. Please use this chapter to get you started on the path to creating your celebrity status. We hope you enjoy it and welcome any feedback you may have!

The Truth About
Celebrity Branding®

Andy Warhol, the successful American painter, said, “In the future, everyone will get their 15 minutes of fame.” In truth, we Americans love our celebrities, and we are always creating new ones. This is becoming even more prevalent in our rapidly increasing “reality” culture of blockbuster television shows like “American Idol” and “Dancing with the Stars.” If you can become a celebrity, the world is yours, albeit hopefully for more than 15 minutes. American Idol has even promoted its celebrity judges to cult status and incredible incomes.

Simon Cowell earns a reported annual salary of more than $435 million just for the American and British version of the Idol TV show. That excludes everything he earns on the Idols themselves and their extremely successful recording contracts.

In our marketing and media agency, we have consistently seen the power of celebrity attachment to a product or service, and how it produces an increase in the acceptance and sale of the product or service a company is offering. Over the years, we have come to realize that the simple reason for this is that people would rather “buy people” than the inanimate object of a product. By using a celebrity personality in the form of an expert, it enhances the acceptance and increases the value of the product to the buyer. The buyer becomes more involved with the whole process as they begin to identify with the celebrity and everything they endorse.

Take a moment to think about some of your favorite products that are endorsed by celebrities. You have a positive impression of the product and the celebrity, don’t you? The positive impression and loyal feeling is a part of the magic of attaching a celebrity to a product.

Now, shift your vision so you can see YOURSELF as the Celebrity Expert, endorsing your own product or service. This is where the real breakthroughs of taking a proven idea and applying it to your own business to increase its revenue occur. By the way, while we would prefer you to be the Celebrity Expert for your own business, you don’t have to be. Many businesses have promoted a pastor, family member or loyal employee to this celebrity status for the business. So, if for some reason you don’t desire to be the “front person,” don’t miss out on the power that personality can bring your business.

How Can You Use This Knowledge to Help Your Product or Service Be More Successful?

Celebrity Branding® is not about becoming a “fake” celebrity. Celebrity Branding® is about discovering who you are and your expertise. As an expert in your field, Celebrity Branding® allows you to market yourself to your target market in an exciting way that produces a response that your prospect notices and then reacts to in the form of buying your product or service because you are the expert. The buyer believes in you and values your reputation. The more you can personally connect, the more value you create with your buying group.

You can increase your status from “expert,” because you are good at what you do, to “Celebrity Expert” when the world learns about you. We accelerate that process for our clients by getting the word out faster. We also help our clients structure their product or service in a way that is welcomed in the marketplace and generates the highest-perceived value.

Who Are You?

To become a celebrity brand, you must discover yourself in a unique and compelling way. You must understand who your client or customer really is and what they need from you. Without understanding this basic core of building your brand, the business structure you build will be hollow and unsustainable. Even after you are successful at building your celebrity brand, you must be flexible to change and adapt to your market. Some of the most successful celebrities of all time, like Cher and Madonna, have been the best at adapting and changing with the times by reinventing themselves while constantly delivering what their target audience wanted. They are successful to a great degree because they never lost focus on their market and always fulfilled the needs and desires of their customers.

While we can’t answer the, “Who are you?” question for you. We often help our clients find the answer by looking at the things that we all seem to gloss over when we attempt to look at ourselves objectively. Here are a few questions that will help you figure this out:

-What skills do you have that people find interesting?

-What led you to your current job status? Personal status? Financial status?

-When people refer business to you, what do they tell others about you? (If you don’t know the answer to this question, you should ask!)

-Why do your clients continually return to you and your products or services?

-What do you do when providing your product or service that is different than “what everyone else does?”

There are many more questions like this, but you get the idea. We concentrate on the things that most people gloss over and say, “That’s no big deal.” In fact, we are here to tell you that it is a big deal. You got to this exact point in your life based on a series of events, some memorable, some forgettable, some great and some not so great, but all of those events brought you to this moment in time and have had a lasting effect. No other individual in the world has the exact same story as you, so don’t hide who you are and where you come from. That’s what makes you unique! The key factor you need to pay attention to when “finding” your story is to allow an objective third party help you weed through the story, pull out the “fluff” and keep the “meat.”

We know firsthand how hard it is to be objective about your own work, so every time we write something, we always turn it over to a team of trusted colleagues, family and friends for their opinion. That is also what we are able to do for our clients; help them be objective.

What is Your Mission?

The next question the world wants answered, once they know who you are is, “What is your mission?” In other words, “How can you help me?” That’s really what it all boils down to. What is it that you do that makes life easier, better, more fun or profitable for your customers?

The easiest way to answer this question is by looking at an old marketing phrase, “Tell your prospects about benefits, not features.” To understand this concept, let’s look at a few examples:

Feature/ Benefit:

- Open 24 hours/Come in when it’s convenient for you!

- We offer many loan programs/We can help you find a loan with the right payment options for you!

- We handle corporate law/Let us handle your corporate paperwork so you can do what you do best, run your business and make more money.

You can see how telling someone about benefits can help them quickly identify, “What’s in it for me?” This breakthrough is necessary for a person to give you the opportunity to earn their business. By telling potential clients about benefits instead of features, you take the guess work out of trying to figure out how your product or service will benefit them; you simply tell them up front!

Who is Your Target Market?

After you learn who you are, you must discover your target market. If you do not understand who your market is, then you will likely go broke trying to reach them. The reason is that in today’s business world, marketing is one of the greatest expenses of any business. To keep this cost down, and more money in your pocket, you must be able to target your market as narrowly as possible so that the dollars you allocate to advertising yield the greatest return on investment (ROI).

In selecting your target market, pick a market that you feel passionate about. If you feel passionate about your business, it will be evident to your customer, and they will feel it too. This feeling will, in turn, breed confidence in you and your product or service. Tony Robbins, the great motivational speaker said, “Live your life with passion.” Most people simply don’t do this. Too often, business people get in a rut and feel trapped in their business. This feeling drains you in many ways and always leads to frustration and unhappiness because you are no longer living with passion.

You are not alone if you have this feeling of being in a rut. We have experienced it too at different times in our careers. We have also known doctors who are tired of working with sick patients and lawyers who cannot stand the thought of practicing law anymore. Often, this is a natural progression of life, but frequently it happens because people choose their area of specialty for the wrong reasons. Maybe it was for money. Maybe it was for a family member who always wanted a doctor in the family. Whatever the reason, time catches up with them. If that is you, then commit yourself to using this time to reinvent yourself and reenergize yourself to live with passion and serve a target market that makes you feel alive and enjoy what you do.

Ask yourself these questions:

•What groups of people use your product or service now?

•Which of these groups do you most enjoy working with?

•Do you feel motivated and energized when you think of providing your product or service to this group of people?

Once you answer these questions, you may well have found your target market. If you have not found the answer, then discuss it with a close friend who knows you best. Sometimes we all have trouble “seeing the forest for the trees,” especially when the answer is right under our nose. In this case, there is nothing better than a loyal, objective observer.

What Does Your Market Want or Need?

People react to buying messages for one of two reasons — to get pleasure or to avoid pain. Think about it. Pretty simple really, these are the two predominant forces in how we react to products or services. We want to buy a car because it gives us pleasure. We go to a doctor to get well and ease pain. If you are fortunate, your product or service can do both.

A health club, for example, might help you feel better and avoid pain. It can also help you look better and give you pleasure. To be the most successful in that field, you would be wise to help your clients understand what the benefits are, and as they are reaping the benefits, you should reinforce the benefits and the clients’ success. Rarely do business owners do this, but they should. If your clients aren’t being reinforced in a positive manner, they lose the passion in whatever it is you are providing for them — just like you would. Have you heard the question, “What have you done for me lately?” Enough said.

Do you reinforce the benefits you offer throughout all of your client communications? In chapters 8 and 9, we will go into the various ways that we suggest you stay in touch with your clients and prospects.

You will find that we believe in using all of the many forms of communication available today, both online and in person. Personal contact does not necessarily mean “face-to-face,” although that is often best. Today, more than ever, there are many options that are very close to the feel of personal communication but have a broader reach, such as communications by seminars, teleseminars, webinars and special events.

How Does Your Product or Service Fulfill Your Market’s Needs?

The next step in your client development process is to analyze how your service fills the needs of your market. What will it do for them? This answer needs to be conveyed in the form of the specific benefits they will receive.
If your market wants to look younger, then the benefit is that your product can do just that — make them look younger. Interestingly, the benefit must outweigh the cost (cost is a pain people want to avoid). So, if your product makes them look younger but costs more than what they get in terms of time, money or some other tangible benefit, your sales won’t be what you desire. The results (benefits) have to be worth the money invested or, even if you have the most compelling marketing in the world, your customers will not return to do business with you. This is an expensive lesson that no business can afford to learn the hard way.

Many of you likely sell a service that helps people make or save money. Our own book “Celebrity Branding You™” is an example of that type of product. If we ask people to buy a book for $25, and they make $25 using what they learn, will they be happy? Probably not, because the reader has also invested their time in reading the book. What if the information helps the reader to make 10 times the amount invested? Will that increase the satisfaction of their investment? Of course it would, and that is the balance point you have to find. Is the magic number five times invested capital? Ten times? Twenty times? There is no concrete answer, but whatever the number is that tips the scale for your market, once you find it, you will have a group of very happy clients beating a path to your door.

Remember, it does not have to be a monetary return; it can easily be a “quality of life” return. Often a person follows a favorite author from book to book. They buy not only because of the dollar investment return, but the quality of life enjoyment they get while reading the book. A key role in your job of developing your successful product or service is to find the “tipping point” on the balance beam your client walks on to begin to feel the value they receive is worth more than the cost. Then you must continue to put pressure on the value side of the bar.

If you are ready to take the next step in your Celebrity Branding® Journey, please give us a call and we’ll be glad to discuss it with you. We can be reached at 800-981-1403 or info@DicksNanton.com

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

As with all technology, there are positives and negatives. This is evident with the web as a new marketing source. Most products are becoming a fast commodity, even if they were not before. If you are interested in buying a chair, you can quickly search on Google, eBay, or any other major search engine, and you will instantly find all chairs of the kind that you are looking for. You will also know the appropriate price of that style of chair, give or take a few dollars.

This wonderful technology makes it much more difficult for a furniture store to compete in the marketplace. The chair may be selling for much less on the net, because the furniture store has a great deal more overhead to run the business.

In order to overcome the problem of being technologically put out of business, the furniture store will have to start selling the benefits of dealing with the store more than the benefits of buying the individual chair.

Imagine two sales clerks who are approached by a prospect looking for a new chair. Sales clerk number one takes the prospect over to the chair that they are interested in and begins to describe the chair and the price. Armed with information from the web, the prospect knows the prices that are available around the country as well as all the details about the chair. The salesman is in the difficult position of having to either match the online price or lose the sale.

Instead of spending time discussing the chair, salesman two discusses the store. The salesman describes the history of the store, the customer service philosophy of the owners, and how the store stands behind its product. When the prospect and salesman arrive at the demonstration of the chair, the customer now has additional factors to consider when comparing the e-store with the furniture store. For example, the prospect also considers the possibility of effortless returns or exchanges if problems develop after the customer takes the chair home.

The purpose of teaching the salesman to spend extra time with a customer to discuss the store’s long-term relationships with customers is to attempt to educate the buyer and create brand loyalty. Over time, brand loyalty and the desire to work with a store that stands behind their product can overcome many objections, including pricing. Price is always an important element, but in most cases and particularly over time, brand loyalty to a local store is stronger. The key is to make sure that the sale is made based on the store benefits and not the chair.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

It is no secret that we live in the age of information overload. No matter where we look, eat, sleep or breathe, we are bombarded with information. The problem is that our potential clients are too. So how do we cut through the clutter?

For starters, we have to build credibility with our audience and get them to begin looking for our messages, because they know that what we say has value. How do we do that? Let me show you.

Let’s take a look at a simple principle that I call the Ladder of Credibility, Power & Influence.

At the bottom of the ladder you have the Generalist.

The Generalist is anyone who has a general knowledge about the subject matter at hand. You can lump many people into this category, because a generalist is anyone with a working knowledge of the subject who has no specialized niche.

On the first rung of the ladder, there is the Expert.

The Expert specializes in and should ideally know everything about a narrow field. In our society, we value the opinion of the expert more than that of the generalist. If you don’t believe me, imagine that you have a brain tumor. Who would you call first: your family practice doctor or a brain specialist? That’s what I thought.

Towering above the Generalist and the Specialist, the Celebrity is at the second rung of the ladder.

I know it sounds a bit absurd, but studies show that in a marketing message, consumers will value what a celebrity has to say over pretty much any expert you can put in front of them. One example is the long-running infomercial for the acne medication, ProActiv®, which is a product of Guthy-Renker, one of the most successful direct marketing companies in the world. They pay celebrities, including Jessica Simpson, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Vanessa Williams and Serena Williams, to convince consumers that their product is the right solution to fight acne. They could afford any physician in the world for the amount that they have to pay these celebrities, but the celebrities outperform the experts all day long.

Last but not least, the Holy Grail top rung on the ladder of Credibility, Power & Influence is the Celebrity Expert.

Not many celebrities ever rise to the status of Celebrity Expert, but you can bet that when they do, their marketing planner is full! In order to reach this status, the celebrity has to find a way to communicate their knowledge of a subject to consumers. This can be done in many ways: by writing a book, sharing their knowledge with another celebrity like Larry King, or posting blogs on their website. There are many ways to do this; the point is that to reach this status, the celebrity has to do more than just be good at their chosen profession, e.g. acting, music, sports. Consumers value a celebrity expert over all other categories of people who deliver marketing messages. Some great examples of Celebrity Experts are Rachael Ray (Cooking), Martha Stewart (Domesticity), Donald Trump (Real Estate), Oprah (Self-Help), Robert Allen (Real Estate), Jay Abraham (Marketing), Dan Kennedy (Marketing), and there are many more. If you don’t know who all of these Celebrity Experts are, that’s ok! To their chosen niche, they are celebrities and experts on their subject matter.

The point here is that most people’s preconceived notions about who consumers listen to are wrong. If you are willing to put in a lot of time and effort, you too can reach Celebrity Expert status and turn your prospects into raving fans.

Additional Resource:
If you’d like to learn more about the steps you need to take to become a Celebrity Expert and see the view from the top of the ladder of Credibility, Power & Influence, check out some of the resources we have compiled for you at www.CelebrityBrandingYou.com

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

The best new ideas are often old ideas brought back to life. Sometimes the ideas are altered to fit particular circumstances but, many times, the application is altered to fit current circumstances.

Over twenty years ago, when I was in the financial services industry, I decided to alter our business from commission-based to charging a monthly fee based on a percentage of assets. This was a radical thought at the time because the brokerage business was based on commissions. The change was also difficult to execute because it took some time for monthly income (based on a lower rate) to catch up to handle current overhead. The change required confidence that the new monthly fees would last and we had to temporarily cut overhead at the same time.

Fortunately, it proved to be the best decision I ever made in business. Since that pivotal moment, I have never had a business that did not have a continuity component attached to it. Additionally, every business we consult with is taught the value of continuity and has it structured into their business plan.

Continuity income is simply income that is based on a monthly plan or membership program. If you have a continuity program, you can count on a certain income stream coming in each month whether you find a new client or not. This is not to say that you do not need to keep looking for new clients, because you do. Instead, it is a mechanism that produces income so that, should you have a bad month in finding new business, or should the economy falter, you still have money coming in regularly, allowing for time to make adjustments. If you do not have a continuity program in your business or profession at this time you have to get a certain amount of new customers or you are going to have serious problems in a short amount of time.

The ideal goal in a continuity program is for the continuity to first cover your monthly overhead. When you do that, all new business goes to profit and expansion. The next goal is to make money just on your continuity.

When we present the continuity factor to clients, some have an immediate “ahhh” experience. Others struggle with how the application could possibly be structured into their business. These clients frequently say the same thing: “But my business is different.” Trust us. It’s not. Let me give you some examples so you can see the applications of continuity in different businesses. Our goal is for you to consider how continuity can be applied to your business so you can enjoy its benefits.

A real estate broker in Iowa works exclusively with investors. He has a successful track record of finding good income-producing properties. He offers a tiered continuity program where investors pay different amounts each month for the opportunity to be higher up on his investor list in order to see new properties first. For $1,000 per month, you get to see them immediately. In addition, he must agree to work with you exclusively and give you a fee as a buyers’ broker when you buy the property. He also represents you when you sell the property. The continuity factor in his business takes the pressure off having to find something new in a particular month.

Frequently, continuity is designed around a marketing service or an ad campaign that a company has developed to consistently produce new clients. For example, a client we are working with has a commercial cleaning company. They have developed a very successful lead generation system. We are developing a monthly payment program based on providing leads to other cleaning companies in non-competitive areas that pay a fee for the exclusive rights to those proven marketing methods.

Our latest client is a pizza business, which our law firm is franchising. The pizza delivery company sells a monthly membership service that gives discounts and higher priority for phone orders based on membership levels.

And to blow your mind even more: We actually know of a funeral director that guarantees recovery for the family of a lost one and charges a continuity fee for counseling and grief services.

Continuity in your business will improve your income and your stress level. We encourage you to think about how continuity can be used in your business. If you want help, let us know.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

Who said that? We did. Someone else said it first, but that’s not important. What is important is your recognition that change is an integral part of life and if you don’t incorporate it into your business, sooner or later you will be left behind.

Now for those conservative minded readers who still wear bow ties and Brooks Brothers suits, we will gladly acknowledge that exceptions abound. Unfortunately, however, most of us do not have the luxury of waiting to see if the public will stick with our products. He who waits and makes a mistake gets left behind. Don’t believe me? Ask IBM, Sears, or the entire U.S. automobile industry. Change left them all in the dust.

To compound matters, change is rapidly becoming a trend force. By this expression, I mean that change is becoming an expected mode of operation for your customers. Want some examples? Ok, let’s take the fast food industry. Does the name itself tell you anything? Think about the successful ones—McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s. What do they have going that their copy-cat failure competition can’t latch on to? Change. Almost every week the big three have something new going on. You will see new products, new offers, new games. McDonald’s is totally changing the interior of every store in Europe to change its face overseas and create a more upscale environment. In addition, kid’s meal offerings change constantly along with local endorsements and sponsorships.

You have only to listen to the quote of Ray Kroc, the McDonald’s founder, in order to know their position. “We can invent it faster than others can copy it.”

Change is certainly not limited to fast foods either. I think one of the best examples of change can be seen at Apple. Now that Steve Jobs is back he is cranking out one winning product after another. He embraces change and makes it a part of the corporate culture.

WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN TO YOU?

It means that you should adopt change as part of your business. Not as an accident which happens, but actually part of your ongoing operation. Use change to let your customers know that you are a viable company constantly aware of the latest trends. How do you do it? Let’s look at some ideas.

1.New product or service. Borrowing from the fast-food industry, always be on the look out for anything new which can be added to your product line or service offering. Now note, and this is important, don’t worry whether or not this product will make money by itself. Sometimes you will do things simply to draw attention to your entire line of products and your business in general.

2.Be on the look out for a different way to serve your customer. Home delivery is an example. More and more companies are turning to this strategy and shopping online is so successful because the products come to you. No traffic and less stress. Can you think of another way?

3.Center promotions on holidays, local news events and fads. These events don’t have to relate to your product except that you tie it in that way. The more you can use these events, the more your company and product seem current.

Change is a powerful business force. It can wipe you out or it can make you an overnight success. This coming year, put the word change on every day of your calendar. Constantly be on the look out for the next promotion. If you do this, you will energize yourself, your employees, and most importantly, your customers.

Business Rule: Incorporate change as a part of your business philosophy, but don’t change what works.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

Big Cash For Big Information

Ever since the first gumshoe paid his favorite informant $20 for the name of the doll that shot Mr. Big three times in the head with his own .45, money has been the motivator for getting the right information from those who have it.

Leap forward a few decades and the biggest payday was recently made by Burt Rutan and Paul Allen who were paid $10,000,000 bucks by the X Prize Foundation when their private rocket made it into space. Sure the foundation also got an event out of the money in the form of a space flight, but make no bones about it, what they were really paying for was the information about how to get a man into space twice, with private money.

Such is the development of a growing trend to tap into minds of geeks and creative entrepreneurs everywhere to solve the riddles of today faster than normal progress might allow, by offering an ever-increasing flow of large amounts of money. In fact, the current X Prize Foundation contest dangles another $10,000,000 for the winner of a race between clean production-ready cars that exceed 100 MPG. The deadline is 2009 and 2010 and already there are 45 groups approved to at least qualify for the prize.

There are more:

$10,000,000 offered by Google and The X Prize Foundation for a private mission to the moon, travel 500 meters, and send data back to Earth.

$25,000,000 offered by Richard Branson to create a commercially feasible way to remove greenhouse gasses from Earth’s atmosphere.

$10,000,000 offered by the X Prize Foundation to an enterprise that can sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days at a cost of $10,000 per Genome.

$1,000,000 offered by Netflix to improve automated movie recommendations.

$1,000,000 offered by the Department of Defense to create a lightweight garment that provides 20 watts of electric juice for 96 hours.

$1,000,000 offered by the Clay Mathematics Institute to solve seven unsolved math problems.

$500,000 offered by NASA to build a machine that autonomously excavates simulated lunar rock during a timed event.

$300,000 offered by CAFÉ Foundation, NASA to build a small aircraft that is easy to operate as an automobile and has an 800 mile range.

$400,000 offered by NASA to build a glove that makes it easier for astronauts to manipulate objects.

These are just the start of the big money that will follow. Yet, think about it. What does Sir Richard risk with $25,000,000 if someone can give him a commercially feasible way to eliminate greenhouse gases from earth. How many hundreds of millions of dollars could he ultimately make from that prize?

How to apply the big Idea.

Our goal in these pages is not to just present Big Ideas but to present practical applications for our clients. Ask yourself what mystery exists in your industry? How can you use this concept of Cash for Information on a smaller scale in your own Backyard?

Could a doctor offer a $50,000 prize for a commercially feasible supplement to help his patients?

Could a pest control company offer a $25,000 prize for a new non-toxic way to eliminate pests?

Could a local hospital offer a $1,000,000 prize for a cure for Breast Cancer?

Could a Bank offer a $100,000 prize to solve a local public service problem?

The answers are yes and the other ideas are endless. Creating a prize particularly one with a noble cause to help others would create great buzz for the company. Not only would there be news articles on announcement of the concept, but updates on the progress as well as news coverage again at the end of the contest…particularly if there was a winner. If the Prize was also designed around a commercial application there would be ongoing press as well as real profits form producing the products generated from the discovery.

There are many real applications to this idea which you could use on a small or large scale. You can do good, make money, and get great PR. Not a bad triple punch

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

There’s no doubt that at some point in your career you’ve had a new product to sell, a new service you’re offering or some other piece of news that you knew would make a great story in a magazine or newspaper which could provide some great free marketing for you. The next thing that probably crossed your mind- how could you make that happen?

For most people, the problem is that they stop right there, at the “wondering” stage and just have no idea how to go from having a great story to tell to getting written up in a local or national publication. Well, not anymore! We’re going to take care of that problem right now by showing you how to get noticed by writers so you can open the door to free press.

Let’s look at this issue with an example that you are probably more familiar with first, then, we’ll tie it back into the subject at hand: getting free press. If you want to do business with someone, you usually have to connect with them several times and create a relationship of some kind, right? There aren’t many people left in this world who hear a message for the first time and bite right into it. There’s simply too much clutter flying around to take notice of everything, so most of us have to be reminded of the same message 7-9 times before we take notice of it. These writers are no different: so, what you have to do is try to find a way to start a conversation with them and build a relationship. It’s no different than you would do with any prospect in your business. So, let’s look at how you can introduce yourself and start a conversation.

Most publications publish the email address of the writers at the bottom of each column and oftentimes they even solicit a response. You will usually see a tagline that reads something like:

Questions or comments about this article? We’d love to hear from you! To let Jon know what you think of his article, email him at jon@JonDoeNews.com

How many people do you think actually take the time to email these authors? Right, not many. We even know some authors who wonder if anyone ever reads their columns! They’re dying to have somebody give them some feedback or correspond with them. They often just want someone to take notice of them, so this is where you can score some major points. Just take a few minutes to send the writer an email letting them know what you thought of their article. Just look at it as if they just started a conversation with you, laying out their entire point of view, and now they have paused and are waiting for you to give them an answer. It’s that simple. Even a short email that simply says, “hey, great article! I can’t wait to read some more of your work!” is a great start.

Most authors of major publications also have blogs in addition to their columns where they write on a more regular basis. And most of these blogs allow readers to post comments on the blog. So, run a Google® search for the author’s name or look in the publication to see if you can find a web address for their blog. If you find one, go to the blog address on your computer and bookmark it or subscribe to it by email or RSS (Really Simple Syndication – explaining this technology is beyond the scope of this article, but it’s a great technology that streams news and articles directly to you without you having to ever go back to the source to get it. Check it out, it’s great!). Be sure to check at least every few days to see what they are blogging about. Whenever you have something to say about their blog, you can post a comment. It’s the same concept as emailing them after you have read one of their columns, but, you don’t have to wait for the next publication to be printed, you can keep up-to-date and keep “the conversation” going whenever you like.

Once you have started some ongoing dialogue with a writer, and have started to build a relationship, don’t you think they might pay attention to you when you have a story for them? They sure will! Good luck and let us know about your success from using this strategy.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

This sounds really silly at first glance, but if you compared the relationships most companies have with their clients to the relationships of everyday life that don’t involve money, it’s hard not to cringe.

Seriously, think about it. Most companies don’t communicate with their clients for months on end, then, when the company really needs to “boost the bottom-line” they send out some bogus direct mail piece that essentially says, “Hey, how are ya? Why don’t you come see us so you can spend some money?” Is that the way you like to be treated?

Well, it’s certainly not the way we like to be treated, and this foul treatment can be avoided altogether if you just take a few simple steps.

1. Try to reach out to your customers, at minimum, on a monthly basis.

Whether it’s a newsletter, a phone call or any other means of communication, keep the lines of communication open with your clients.

2. Don’t just call or write when you have a self-serving agenda.

We all have that one friend that only calls when he needs to borrow the sugar or needs a favor. Don’t be the business that your clients feel the same way about. Only communicating when it benefits you is not the way to build trust. Continue to reach out to them even when you don’t have something to sell, remember, we’re trying to build a relationship here.

3. Communicate with your clients and treat them like real people no matter what advertising medium you are using.

This if my favorite. Do you yell the following to your best friend, “COME OVER TO MY HOUSE TODAY JIM, WE’VE GOT ROCK-BOTTOM PRICES!” Well, if you do, I’m glad we don’t speak on a regular basis, but realistically, this is no way to communicate. If you can communicate with your clients across mediums (television, radio, sales letters, direct mail, etc) using the same wording you would use when talking to an old friend, then it will likely connect with those who read it. When you take the time to communicate in this fashion, it shows that you have some personality, and people can instantly connect with you personally rather than the droves of other faceless radio announcers yelling at them to buy used cars. Just remember to take out the 4-letter-words and inside jokes!

There you have it; just a few simple steps that will help you create a longer-lasting and more profitable relationship with your clients. Hey, who knows, after a while you may even get invited to “meet the parents.”

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

The 1 Question you’ve probably never asked that could make your business insanely profitable.

When most new businesses go about setting their pricing model, they generally:

1. Look at what competitors are charging and set their price somewhere near that price point (usually below, which is most often a mistake)

2. Determine how much money they’d like to make over a particular time period, determine how many projects they can handle during this time period and calculate how much they need to charge to reach their desired income level

3. Undercut every company in America to get the “pipeline” flowing

What I’m about to tell you, because you’ve most likely never heard it before, may strike you as odd and it may even anger some of you.

All 3 of these methods are a waste of time!

There is really only one smart way to come up with a pricing model, and that is by asking this one simple question:

WHAT ARE MY TARGET CUSTOMERS WILLING TO PAY?

You see, by answering this one simple question, you are shifting your mind out of its “Me, I, Mine” mode into the mode that every forward-thinking business person should be in, “What do they want and how much are they willing to pay for it?”

To take a step back for a second, to realize how often we are in “I, Me, Mine” mode, lets take a look at the very nucleus of most businesses: deciding what products or services to offer. All too often, I see clients who have gone into business to provide a product or service that, for whatever reason, they really wanted to provide. Had these clients gone through the process of figuring out the demand for a particular product or service BEFORE they set out to provide it, some of them would be in much better (i.e. profitable) positions than they are now.

So, back to pricing, if you can determine what people are willing to pay for your product or service, you will be much further ahead than everyone else in your field. When you price yourself near your competition, or heaven forbid at a price point LOWER than your competition, you’re assuming that your competition was smart enough to research their price points. Well, I can assure you, in most cases you are giving your competition way too much credit.

Try testing alternative pricing methods on potential clients and keep raising prices until you hit severe resistance. However, do not forget to keep a running tally of overall revenue. Why? Because, as you raise your prices, at some point you will begin to see some drop off in clients who aren’t willing to pay, which may start to give you cold feet, but, what you must remember is that even if you lose some of those potential clients, the higher your price, the less clients you actually need to hire you to make the same amount of money.

Lets look at a quick example:

- If I provide auto-detailing services for $50.00 per car, and I get 100 new clients a month, I gross $5000.00 per month.

- If instead of charging $50.00 per car, I charge $75.00 per car, I can gross the same $5000.00 per month by detailing only 67 cars.

- Now, if I can get 50 people to pay $100.00 per car, then I now have to service only half of the clients that I had to at $50.00 per car, who I can undoubtedly give more attention to, and I can still make the same $5000.00 per month.

I don’t know about you, but the third option makes me smile a lot more than the first or even the second option.

So, before you make an arbitrary pricing decision, be sure to think it through. I’d be willing to bet that most of you aren’t charging nearly what the market will bare … trust me, or start raising your rates and see for yourself.

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles

If you’re looking to grow your business, then a BLOG is a great tool to add to your tool chest. In this article we will discuss BLOG basics and how you can use them in your business.

1. What’s a BLOG?

What’s a BLOG you ask? Well, let me tell you. According to Wikipedia.com:

A blog (short for web log) is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order [newest entries are at the top].

So, its really just an online journal or diary that is written by anyone who wants to tell the world what’s on their mind. (Side note: When I say “the world” I really mean it, so be careful what you write.)

Ok, so how can this help you grow your business? Great question. To understand the answer you have to know just a bit about how search engines work.

2. BLOGs and Search Engines

Search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and all the others use what they call “spiders.” Spiders are software programs that “crawl” the internet looking for new content, and rank it based on its contents and its relevance to a certain topic. This is all done by some very complex math, but the important thing you need to know is that if you write often and/or discuss topics that are getting searched online a lot (i.e. topics in the news), the search engines will consider your site “relevant” and if you include “key words” (popular search terms) in your content, that you know your potential customers are searching for, there is a much better chance that they will actually be able to find you.

So to recap, my 3 Principles of BLOGging for Search Engines are:

1) Write Often
2) Write Relevant
3) Write Using Key Words

3. What makes a good BLOG?

This is a rhetorical question. The only thing that really matters is the opinion of the audience you are trying to reach. So here are a few tips that will help you stay on track.

1. Know who you are writing for
a. If your audience is 13 year olds, writing about retiring next year probably isn’t going to get you a lot of return visitors

2. Keep it short and to the point
a. 100-300 words is all most people will have the time to read, so keep your articles short and to the point. Over time this will build a great deal of credibility with your readers.

3. Write actionable content
a. “How To’s” and “Top 10” lists are great. It gives your readers action steps they can take to use your content in their everyday lives. Think about ways to use these to point out how you are different from your competitors.

4. Don’t be afraid to tell some of your secrets.
a. People love to hear about how to make something happen, then they love to pay someone else to do it. Let’s be honest, even though you just told me how I can edit my html code on my website to make it stick out like neon lights in a search engine, that doesn’t mean I want to do it myself. Just give me a way to contact you to hire you. After all, you just showed me that you are the expert.

5. Allow Comments
a. Consider allowing people to post comments about your BLOG. In fact, you should be the first one to post a comment after each blog, pose a question or comment to simply getting a discussion started. If visitors are interacting and writing comments about your BLOG, they are actually adding relevant content that the search engines are going to like.

Well, there you have it, BLOG basics. If you would like help you creating a BLOG that will grow your business, don’t hesitate to contact us:

Dedicated to Growing Your Business,

Jack & Nick
Dicks Nanton Agency LLC
www.DicksNantonAgency.com
800-981-1403

Source: Celebrity Branding Agency » Articles