Your Invisible Brand
How the Brands You Use and Surround Yourself With Impact YOUR Brand (and Your
Chances for Success!)
PLUS… Rich & Andrea’s Publisher’s Page Essay… Is This Thing On? 10 Mistakes Professional Speakers Make… What We Believe… Million Dollar Brand Rolodex®… And ‘What We Believe’ (about Books!)…
‘MILLION DOLLAR BRAND’ Magazine
If You See It, They Will… Applaud? by Richard Fenton Publisher, Million Dollar Brand
I’m forty-five minutes into my hour keynote presentation and just as I am about to move into my next-tofinal point… you guessed it; I have no idea what the next point is (never mind the fact that I have given this program hundreds of times before).
I stop. I smile. I freeze.
So, after 15 seconds of unbearable silence (which feels a lot longer in dog years), watching the audience squirm in their seats, I said the first thing that did come to my frozen mind: “Well, it’s quite obvious that I have no idea of what I’m supposed to say next.” And then the most amazing thing happened: the audience started to applaud. To this day, I still consider it to be not just one of the defining moments of my career… but of my life. Because the two lessons I learned in that moment still serve me to this day: 1. The worst moments of your life might turn out to be your best. 2. The audience is with you—they are on your side—they want you to be great; they want you to succeed. -MDB
And as I look out at the audience, my ‘don’t forget anything’ thought has turned into ‘your life is over.’ Now, in the big scheme of things, with all the possible things that can happen to a person (accidents, illness, loss of a loved one, etc.), losing your place in the middle of a keynote will be remembered as a minor ‘hiccup’ when the story of your life is written. But in that moment, when you’re standing there with so much on the line…
Andrea Waltz & Richard Fenton, Publishers/Editors www.MillionDollarBrand.com
Copyright © 2012 by Courage Crafters, Inc. All rights reserved. To CONTRIBUTE CONTENT please click here. For information on becoming a JV/AFFILIATE PARTNER please click here. For everything else, please see Links on Page 14
Disclaimer Statement: Our definition of a ‘Million Dollar Brand’ is any brand that has generated one million dollars (or more) in gross revenue. Additionally, while this publication is made FREE to subscribers, please be aware that we do maintain affiliate relationships with many of the advertisers and content contributors contained within, from which we may receive monetary compensation. However, we only recommend products that we've either personally checked out ourselves, or that come from people we know and trust. With this said, neither we as publishers, nor Courage Crafters, Inc., are responsible for the success or failure of any investment and/or purchase decision any subscribe elects to engage in with affiliates Or advertisers.
It is early October, 1998, and I am standing back stage at the first ‘big’ presentation of my budding speaking career. It is not that the audience is big; there are about 800 people in the room, which is large if you’re used to speaking at Chamber of Commerce mixers, but small if you’re Colin Powell. It is the potential of future business from this particular client that is big, and that potential has taken on a life of its own in my mind. In other words, it is a program I must not screw up.
Well, you get the idea.
is published weekly by Courage Crafters, Inc., specifically for professional speakers, trainers, authors, coaches and infopreneurs.
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Features 3
This Week’s Publishers Page with Richard Fenton & Andrea Waltz
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Your Invisible Brand
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Your In
How the Brands You Use and Surroun In the August 31, 1997 edition of Fast Company, a groundbreaking article by Tom Peters appeared. It was called, ‘The Brand Called You.’ And in his trademark, to-the-point style, Peters’ declared…
“It's a new
(and Your Chanc
And the point is this: The brands we buy, use, consume and surround ourselves with don’t only brand new world.” have an impact on others; the brands we buy, use, consume and surround ourselves by Million Dollar Brand Publishers with change us as well.
Richard Fenton & Andrea Waltz To quote the article:
“That cross-trainer you're wearing – one look at the distinctive swoosh on the side tells everyone who's got you branded. That travel coffee mug you're carrying – ah, you're a Starbucks woman… the blue jeans with the prominent Levi's rivets, the watch with the hey-this-certifies-I-made-it icon on the face, your fountain pen with the maker's symbol crafted into the end... you're branded, branded, branded, branded!” The main point of Peters’ article wasn’t about the importance of branding to large companies; that was incontrovertible and had already been established. The purpose of the article was to suggest that in the ‘age of the individual’ (translation: ‘selfish babyboomer’), we each had to be our own brands. Even further, Peters suggested that people begin to think of themselves as ‘the CEOs of Me, Inc.’ It’s been over 15 years since that article hit newsstands, and one can’t help but think how right on Peters was. Peters went on to suggest it was time for all of us to take a lesson from the big brands regarding the need to stand out and create an image in the marketplace to distinguish us from the crowd. But there is something else, another point that Tom Peters wasn’t specifically making, but can be gleaned as an off-shoot of his message; a nuanced point, to be sure, but maybe just as profound and critical, especially for those of us who make our living in the world of professional speaking, writing, coaching and creation of info-products.
Put another way: Brands don’t only tell others who we are (or who we think we are), they also tell us who we think we are. And in that way – for better or for worse – we are indeed changed, and the changed us now thinks, acts, speaks, writes and communicates differently than we would have otherwise. So, why does this matter? First, consider that as American consumers we are exposed to between 3,000-10,000 images a day, most of which we’re not even consciously aware. But the images that matter most are the ones we consciously elect to surround ourselves with; the brands we eat, drink, wear, drive and hang on our walls.
nvisible Brand
nd Yourself with Impact YOUR Brand
ces for Success!)
These are the brands that have the greatest imprint on our minds and eventually permeate our very beings. And, over time, they become us, and we become them!
It’s true! Everything you surround yourself with – what you put on your body, in your body, around your body, and anything within sight (and some things that are out-of-sight, in fact) – become part of a new, different you. And that new you will think different thoughts, feel different feelings, and exhibit different behaviors… and the products and services you create will be different, too. • The coffee you drink… • Your office surroundings… • The pen you use… • The chair you sit in at your desk… …and on and on and on. Each has an impact on who you
are, what you do, and what you create and deliver to your clients. To be clear, this isn’t our theory; this is proven fact. Research has shown that opting for supermarket generics or dollar store bargains to improve your finances in the short-term might actually be selfdefeating in the long-run. Because, according to the study, using generics in place of brand name merchandise can lower your self-esteem, leading you to feel less worthy of earning a high salary (or, in the case of speakers and authors, a high speaking fee or book advance.) For example: Researchers Wen-Bin Chiou and YingHsien Cha had a group of job applicants create resumes on identical Mac computers. The catch is, half of the computers had Apple-brand keyboards, and the other half had generic variety keyboards. The participants who wrote their resumes on the keyboards with the Apple logos on them had salary expectations that were almost 11% higher than the group who used the generic accessories. Translating the example above into an actual dollars, the speaker/trainer/author with a $100,000 per year annual income would have to cut their consumption of name brand products to the tune of $11,000, otherwise all scrimping and frugality was for naught. So, while generic products are virtually identical to their name-brand equivalents, the impact they have on our self-image – and the quality of our work-product and eventual our incomes – may not be. Another study found that a man wearing a shirt with a designer logo was perceived by people to be more qualified and more deserving of a higher salary than the exact same man in the exact same shirt without the logo. Of course, this is nothing compared to the effect a brand can have on your own perception of yourself. Case-in-point: Duke University's 2008 study with 300 students where they flashed – for just 1/30th of a second – (continued on Page 8)
The Invisible Brand
(continued)
Apple’s logo and also IBM’s logo. The students were then challenged to come up with creative uses for a brick. Though the two logos were flashed so quickly they could not be consciously detected, the Appleparticipants came up with considerably more creative ideas, demonstrating that even a subliminal brand suggestion has a powerful effect on your mind. In yet another experiment, Chiou and Cha had young single men make calls to women who the service’s database claimed were a perfect ‘romantic’ match. But before the call they were told the phone's batteries were low and needed to be replaced; the test came into play when half of the men were given low-cost ‘generic drugstore’ batteries, and the balance of the man were given Duracell batteries. After the calls had been made, the men were asked to rank not what they thought of the women, but how much they think they had impressed the women! The men who used the namebrand Duracell batteries gave themselves an average of 4.56 on a scale of 1-7, while the generic battery users only gave themselves 3.70. Want more? In another groundbreaking study, researchers gave 80 female students $300 designer sunglasses to wear; the catch was that half of the group was told their sunglasses were ‘counterfeit knock-offs’ while the rest were told nothing of the sort. The students were then videotaped doing various tasks, and then required to report their performance, and you guessed it: The "counterfeit" students were 137% more likely to lie. Unfortunately, 42% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, and ever since the ‘tough economy’ took hold, thriftiness has been embraced as a virtue with brand name products getting put in the cross-hairs, part of the ‘excess fat’ we tend to cut first. As Julia Roberts said to the sales associate in Pretty Woman: “Big mistake.” In his book Damn Good Advice, author George Lois (the original Mad Man) said: “Make your surroundings a metaphor for who you are.” We’d take it one step further and say: “Make your surroundings a metaphor for who you want to be.” After all, as Tom Peters tried to tell us 15 years ago: “You are a brand… and your brands are you.” (continued on Page 9)
Yes, the generic storeversion laundry soap is just as good at cleaning your clothes as Tide… but Tide is better for your mind. The cheap knock-off printer from Staples prints just fine… but the imprint it makes on your mind is not nearly as powerful and positive as the HP Printer that was only $30 more. And don’t even get us started on the question of why anyone would pass on buying the Charmin to save .33 cents, and then endure the torture of scratchy toilet paper!
The Invisible Brand And that plain-white ceramic coffee mug you got from the .99 Cent Only store, certainly it doesn’t matter what coffee mug you drink from at home, right? After all, who’s looking? The answer is: you are. If you truly want to create exceptional products & services for your customers… thus defining your own brand… you must surround yourself with exceptional brands that inspire you and represent the person you want to become. Think of it this way:
(continued)
airport, and a pool)… was the view. Why? Because we knew that having an inspiring view from our office would be reflected in our outlook, our self-confidence, and in the quality of everything we create. Was the place we chose more expensive? Heck, yeah. Could we have gotten a cheaper place without the view? Yep. Would saving a measly few hundred dollars a month been worth it? No way. But what if you simply can’t afford to invest in high
Old Thinking: “I buy brands I like” New Thinking: “I buy brands I want to be like.” Of course, there is an obvious ‘chicken and egg’ conundrum at work here. Most of us usually wait until our business is successful to invest in better brands, yet it is in the act of investing in quality brands that we become changed enough to achieve the level of success we’re seeking. Don’t buy brands to match your current personality and income; invest in brands that reflect your future personality and ideal self. As such, we contend that the $140 investment we made last week in Richard’s new, purple-and-gold-paisley Robert Talbot ‘Best of Class’ necktie will be returned to our business many times over, as will the sizeable investment we are about to make for the Louis Vuitton handbag Andrea has her eye on. Because these ‘expensive’ brand-name purchases, in the long run, are cheap compared to the lower-cost alternatives we might choose instead. And not because of what others will think of us, but because of what we will think about ourselves. (Side Story: This is too funny not to tell! Several years ago, before being enlightened, we were shopping in the Houston Galleria mall and I (Richard) went to the Louis Vuitton counter at Saks to surprise Andrea by buying her a purse. I pointed one out and asked what it cost. The sales associate stated flatly: $ 1,550. Caught off guard I responded: “I guess my wife is more of a Coach person,” at which point the sales associate reached out, patted my hand in sympathy and said: “No problem, sir – we’ve all been there.”) On a somewhat larger scale, when we chose our current apartment which is on the 22nd floor in a downtown Orlando high-rise, our primary consideration (besides safety, location near a major
quality, name-brand merchandise? Duke researcher Gavan Fitzsimons suggests you tape a photo of the product you want next to your desk and look at it, allowing your mind to be creatively triggered by the image. Sound familiar? Can you spell ‘visionboard?’ There is a story we have long used in seminars and workshops about Florenz Ziegfeld and his famous Ziegfeld Follies. Performed in the 1920’s, the Ziegfeld Follies were extremely lavish Broadway shows which featured beautiful dancing girls in stunning (and, for the times, somewhat ‘scanty’) costumes. But the interesting thing about this story wasn’t the scanty costumes; it’s the fact that Ziegfeld also had the girls wear expensive pure silk underwear beneath their costumes. Then, one day Ziegfeld’s accountant came to him and exclaimed, “Do you realize you spend a fortune on silk undergarments for the girls? We can cut back on this expense, and the audience will never know!” Ziegfeld nodded in agreement, and replied: "You’re right, the audience will never know… but the girls will know!" Which brings up an interesting question: “Can expensive undergarments help you give a better speech? Or write a better book? Or provide more effective coaching? You bet you sweet name-brandcovered butt, they can! So, if your home and office and closet are crammed with cheap, generic crap, what are you supposed to do? Hide the stuff behind some branded goods? In a word… yes. -MDB
Is This T
10 Mistakes Beginning (a Speakers Make… and
Dear Reader: We had a great lead in written for this article, but decided to simply ‘jump in’…
Mistake #1: Going Over Your Allotted Time. If you’ve been hired to do a 60 minute program, plan for 52 minutes; if you end early, no one will notice, but if you go over by 37 seconds, everyone in the room will be checking their watches and wondering if they’re going to have enough time to get ready for the banquet. And if you do need to go over your time, be sure to get the audience’s permission first. Our suggested technique is to: A) Stop and look at your watch, and… B) Say: “I’m approaching the end of my allotted time, and I still have 1-2 very important things to share. Is it okay with you if I buy myself five extra minutes? We guarantee you, they will smile, nod and appreciate your courtesy and awareness… and they’ll stop checking their watches and squirming in their seats! Mistake #2:
Telling ‘OPS’ (Other People’s Stories)
Professional speakers who tell other people’s stories is A) Stupid… B) Unnecessary…. and C) Theft of Intellectual Property. Newsflash: If you’re over the age of 9, you’ve already got 53 stories to tell (probably more). So if you’re one of the people who whines and says, “But I don’t have any stories!”, the truth is
hing On?
and Many Professional)
What to Do Instead!
you’ve just been too lazy to ‘mine’ your own. And this goes for using ‘old’ and ‘overdone’ stories, too (‘You hearing us, Starfish?’)
Mistake #3:
Lack of Focus / Providing Too Much Content More is better, right? Actually, no; what, are you charging by the word? So stop trying to put everything you know into your presentation— it’s okay to leave them wanting more. Overwhelming the audience with TMI (that’s ‘Too Much Information for those of you who do not ‘text’ very often) does not make you look smart… it only makes you look like you didn’t plan. This includes reciting numbers which are impossible to follow; that’s why God made pretty graphs and charts that quickly gives the audience the point without having to do too much math in their heads. As a quick rule of thumb, just remember that every time your audience has to do mental calculation, you’ve reduced the value (future fee) of your program by at least $500. (continued on Page 12)
Is This Thing On? 10 Mistakes Spekers Make Mistake #4: Not Having a Plan
for Problems
You’ve got to have a plan for when things ‘go south’ during a presentation. This includes having ‘planned lines’ for equipment failures, hecklers, etc. For example, when your PowerPoint goes down (and it will), standing there like a potted plant and simply waiting for the problem to be corrected is simply unacceptable. Professionals are prepared for virtually anything and everything to go wrong, because it eventually does. Mistake #5: Using the Platform for
Personal Therapy
We once asked a fairly ‘big name’ professional speaker why he became a speaker, and his answer floored us: “I need to have people applaud for me to feel important and fulfilled.” Seriously? Who are you, Jerry Maguire? You became a speaker to feel complete? If you’re speaking to get some love from others you might want to reconsider your career choice. Mistake #6: Not Developing a
‘Relationship with the Audience To be successful as a professional speaker, you MUST develop a relationship with the audience; after all, what is the point of speaking if no one is listening? No, you don’t have to sleep with them, but you do have to ‘seduce them’ a bit, which is usually best achieved through the telling of personal stories. Trying to establish yourself with a ten minute ‘resume-recital’ does not a seduction make; even worse, it creates a chasm, not a connection. Yes, if you’re boring you’ll probably still get paid… but you won’t be invited back. Mistake #7: Providing Opinions that
Have Nothing to Do with Your Topic For example, it’s entirely true that audiences are more politically sensitive than ever. But if you’re Ann Coulter, so what? In fact, the more politically divisive a ‘political speaker’ is, the more audiences love (or hate) them. But if your topic is ‘leadership’ or ‘time management’, providing your personal positions politics or religion or pre-marital sex, the more likely you are to create a road-block to the acceptance of your message/content.
Mistake #8: Not Being Funny Fact: If you can’t be funny, don’t be a speaker. Audiences want to laugh. Meeting Planners want to hire people
(continued)
who will make their audiences laugh. When Meeting Planners ask each other if they know any good speakers, they mean speakers who are funny. And being funny doesn’t mean telling jokes; it means being ‘organically funny’ with personal stories and anecdotes. If you’re not funny? Don’t be a speaker.
Mistake #9: Providing Too Much ‘Evidence’ As a speaker you must be able to prove and document everything you present, right? Uh, not so much. The fact is, trying to support every idea with solid data and/or imperially unimpeachable evidence makes you sound like a lawyer, not a professional speaker. If you’ve done an effective job of establishing your expertise via your bio and your introduction, over-doing the proof during the program really isn’t necessary.
Mistake #10: Starting Slow Audience members decide if a speaker is any good and worth listening to within the first 30 seconds of your presentation; by then, you’ve either reeled them in or pushed them away. Starting slow sounds like this: “Thank you so much for that wonderful reception. It’s a real pleasure to be here tonight. Let me start by thanking the International Association of Pig Blanket Manufacturers—and in particular, Bob Johnson—for inviting me to address you today. For my opening remarks, let me start by saying…” Dear Jesus, get to it! Don’t tell them you’re about to start… you’ve already started!! You’re getting paid to impact the audience, not put them to sleep. A quick start sounds like this: “In 1857 eight men were adrift in the Atlantic Ocean for 37 days… and they survived! They survived by…”
What’s NOT On Our List? Yes, we are entirely aware that we left the following ‘standard inclusions’ off the list: Projecting the Wrong Image (you can do your program in a toga if it’s good enough)…. Using PowerPoint (some of the best presentations we’ve ever witnessed have utilized PowerPoint)… Lack of Personalization (some of the best presentations we’ve seen had no personalization whatsoever)… and Speaking in a Monotone Voice, Being Late, etc., etc., etc… (if you need to be told basic advice like this, nothing we can offer is going to help!) -MDB
Looking for More Great Resources? The business profiled above is just one of the many product/service vendors we know of and highly recommend to others. To see a complete listing of hundreds of organizations ready and willing to help you grow your brand, check out the ‘Resource Section’ at:
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He said all men were created equal. He never said anything about brands.
Links to take you where you want to go‌‌
We Believe... #16… When it comes to books, size does matter… and the vast majority of business books are simply too damn long. Have we not learned anything from The One Minute Manager?
#17… (Speaking of Books) We had a great conversation recently with sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer and agree that ‘Ghost-Written’ books are total bullshit. If you don’t have the time to put your own thoughts on paper, we no longer have time to buy them (and, yes, we—and everybody else—knows who you are!)
#18… (Still Speaking of Books) Yes, we all love the look, feel and texture of ‘real books’ printed on ‘real paper’… and, once upon a time, we loved the way it felt to go to town for groceries on a dirt street in a horse-drawn carriage. Listen up: The finger of the future has officially ‘tipped’ the scale in favor of ‘digital books’ and you’d better develop a plan to succeed in that space… and quick!
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