Are You Adrift?

I’ve read Adrift, by Steven Callahan six times. In 1981, Callahan survived 76 days alone at sea in a six foot inflatable raft after his 21’ sloop was struck by a whale and sank in the middle of the Atlantic.

Before it sank, Steven was able to retrieve a few survival supplies including a small spear gun and a second-hand solar still that produced fresh water from condensation.

But in the brutal sun the solar still deteriorated to bits. The spear gun broke. He accidentally punctured his raft and spent days rigging a plug to keep it inflated. Nine ships passed him by, oblivious to his flares and signals.

I think what lead me to read Adrift six times is Steve’s persistence. When he was hit with a problem, he got busy. Failure was truly not an option. He survived because he just would not give up.

When we build a business, we set off expecting fair winds to guide us to lands of plenty. But the sea of competition is cruel. Brands can break, strategies can wear thin. Marketing holes need to be plugged, opportunities can pass us by.

But we must be persistent. Determined to survive. When adversity strikes, get busy. Because giving up is not an option.

How To Set Up A Kick-Ass Mastermind Group

Mastermind groups are designed to be the best growth hacking tools around. My experience with masterminds has been incredible. I've been in three masterminds over the last four years and I have found them to be powerful tools for growing my business. They have added jet fuel to my growth as an entrepreneur. 

Masterminds have helped me move from running a YouTube channel with my siblings and wife as subscribers to having over 180k dedicated followers and a catalog of branding videos with over 3.5M views. They helped me grow my email list of zero to 15k - now I’m publishing an industry-recognized newsletter, brand•muse, for over 3 years. I was named by the entrepreneurship guru Chris Ducker as "Youpreneur of the Year" last year in London. I could never have done all this on my own. 

You can leverage the power of the group to step up your business too.

The agendas in a mastermind setting are highly organized and the roles are very clear, so each member can get the most out of each meeting. The roles and agenda can seem rigid and complicated, but it’s really very simple to get started with a mastermind group. You just need to know the basics.

So what are the basics?

Step 1: Find An Existing Mastermind Group Or Create Your Own?

You can find a group that’s right for you by looking at your LinkedIn Groups or Facebook special interest groups. Also, research relevant professional organizations. For example, designers might search the AIGA for suggestions on masterminds they could join. Or in other industries, when you attend conferences, trade shows, or events, ask if anyone is involved in a mastermind. This is an easy way to get introduced to an existing group. 

You can also consider larger-scale paid mastermind communities. Many communities charge an annual fee to join a group as small as 5 people or as large as 400 or more. The advantage of these groups is that they are led by a facilitator who has an area of expertise that is particularly helpful to the group. 

Once you get going with a paid mastermind, you can form a breakout group; curate your own advisory board of like-minded people. I did exactly that (started with Chris Ducker’s Youpreneur group, then formed breakout groups including other Youpreneur members) and it worked very well for me. 

If you can’t find an existing group that’s right for you, start your own. 

Begin with your professional network first. Reach out on social media, especially Linkedin, to survey your network connections. If you belong to any specialized Facebook groups (e.g. one for creative professionals, business owners in your category, a resource-sharing group, etc.), start there. Poll the group to see if there is interest. Email past coworkers or classmates to gauge their interest. 

Step Two: Who Are The Right People For Your Mastermind Group?

It’s human nature to go with what you know, but stepping out of your comfort zone right from the start can really pay off. A great tip is to resist the urge to pick members who you know very well; your strong professional ties. “Weak ties,” or connections you keep in touch with once or twice a year are likely to be better mastermind partners. They can more easily help you expand your sphere of influence and widen your horizons with fresh resources, ideas, and connections. 

Be sure to choose some people who are in your industry so you can share ideas, ask them for feedback on your work, and see how they're progressing in their work. It’s also great to have entrepreneurs in other industries or categories who are doing the same kind of marketing and branding activities. Those in other industries will add even more scope on your problem-solving. A graphic designer for packaged goods, for example, will have experience that will benefit others in a mastermind for publishing designers. This will add different and valuable perspectives, and bring a particular level of expertise and application of that knowledge to the group. 

The people in your group will need to be ambitious, engaged, and driven. They need to be serious about what they're doing because you will be asking them to make an earnest commitment to attend and actively participate in meetings over a long time. The long timeline, about 6 months to start, helps you develop relationships within a mastermind group. These relationships directly relate to achieving your goals; the support you get from your group is going to help you accomplish your mission.

I suggest keeping the group size to 8 to 10. This size will give you enough time to share a variety of brainstorming ideas and input from everyone while allowing enough time to discuss and react to ideas.

Step Three: Where Will You Meet?

You can meet in person or online. If your group decides to meet in person, there are many options. You could rent a conference room in a co-working space or hotel, or you can meet in someone's conference room in their office. You can even meet if it's convenient in someone's home. 

More often than not masterminds happen in the virtual world. Zoom conferences or Google Hangouts or group Skype calls. This makes it easy for participants to be across the country or even across the globe. Developing international business relationships and getting international perspectives are a significant added benefit of masterminds that use virtual meeting technology.

Step Four: What Are The Key Roles And Formats In A Mastermind?

Generally, there's a leader or a facilitator who starts the meeting. This can be the same person every week or you can switch periodically. The timekeeper is watching the clock to make sure everyone is sticking to the agenda and nothing runs too long. A good timekeeper will make sure everyone gets their turn and the meeting ends on time. This role can rotate as well.

Most mastermind meetings start with 5 or 10 minutes of "quick wins;" everyone briefly shares their successes since the last meeting. This gets the group focused and realigned with each person’s current goals. 

Next is the "hot seat," which takes up most of the meeting time. The member on the hot seat gets to put a spotlight on their business issues. They can present a business problem, workshop an idea, or surface a particular topic that everyone will share about and offer ideas around. 

The last 5 or 10 minutes of the meeting each member states the goals they will accomplish before the next meeting.

Take it slow

If masterminds are so great (and they are) you may be tempted to join more than one. I suggest taking it slowly and try only one to start. It takes a lot of commitment and focus to be part of a mastermind and it may be difficult to develop deep relationships with a broad group of people too quickly. Start with one and if you feel like you have the bandwidth or you really need a wider range of input, then get involved in another one after a few months. 

Tangible results

I have met people who are supportive, driven and highly talented. Their perspectives have helped me go farther and faster in my business - perspectives I never would have known any other way. Masterminds have introduced me to more specialists, including writers, coaches, software developers, strategists, and researchers. I've broadened my network significantly which has led to new business opportunities. 

Even though business building is not the focus of a mastermind, I have found that masterminds have been the most powerful thing in my business hands down since I have started my entrepreneurial journey. My interactions and participation in masterminds have accounted for an estimated 20% of my new clients over the last 3 years. What would you do to create a 20% bump in sales with an investment of a couple of hours a week? 

Sounds like a good deal, right? Believe me, it is. 

I encourage you to start your journey today.

Something To Crow About

I just came back from Kauai, Hawaii where Beth and I celebrated our anniversary. It was a spectacular trip full of scuba diving, a helicopter ride around the Na Pali Coast, eating seafood…and looking at chickens.

We were looking at chickens because, well, there are a LOT of chickens on Kauai. I mean they are ev-er-y-where. Go to the beach? Chickens. Go out to eat? Chickens. The Scenic Look Out at 3600 ft. in Waimea Canyon Park? Yup, chickens.

Kauai is largely rural and chickens had always been part of farm life. But hurricanes Iwa in 1982 and Iniki in 1992 destroyed thousands of coops and set the birds free. There aren’t any mongoose on Kauai like there are on the other islands, so without predators the population exploded.

And these aren’t ordinary white hens. These are spectacular birds. The roosters have amazing plumage. Reds, oranges, greens, turquoise, iridescent purples.

Instead of despairing about the feathery infestation, Kauaians embraced it. They recognized that the chickens made Kauai unique. Memorable. They put them on T-shirts, coffee mugs, signs, bags of chips. Kauai decided to own the chicken.

So take a look at your brand. What do you have that is a little out of the ordinary? A little unexpected? Celebrate it. Own it.

Crow about it.

Top 5 Reasons To Join A Mastermind Group

Masterminds are an incredibly powerful business accelerator tool. I’ve been a member of several masterminds during the last four years and am constantly amazed by how much they have helped my business grow. I’ve gone from zero to a thriving branding consultancy with an international roster of clients across a range of categories including healthcare, medical technology, health and beauty, fashion, architecture and lifestyle startups.

The upward trajectory I’ve experienced as a result of a mastermind is not unique to me. Historic icons like Franklin Roosevelt, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison each had mastermind groups helping them achieve their goals, and many modern-day CEOs and entrepreneurs are using them too. In the age of growth hacking and business incubators, mastermind groups are among the best tools for business advancement.

What is a mastermind group?

Simply put, a mastermind is a group of people who help one another sharpen their business and personal skills. These peer-to-peer groups are a forum for members who solve their business challenges by:

• Brainstorming

• Sharing personal experience and resources

• Educating each other

The members support each other in reaching their business goals by:

• Creating a system of accountability

• Inspiring and challenging each other to push their limits

• Cultivating networking opportunities

Napoleon Hill, known as the father of masterminds, wrote, “No mind is complete by itself. It needs contact and association with other minds to grow and expand.” That growth and expansion are exactly what most entrepreneurs and designers need to achieve exponential results. Meeting with a mastermind group helps you consistently tap into this power.

How Do Mastermind Groups Accelerate Business Growth?

Hill, who wrote the famous Think And Grow Rich, introduced the idea of masterminds in his Master Keys To Success principles. In the 1960’s Master Keys To Success became a multi-part television series. In this episode, he explains:

“[In a mastermind] you may borrow and use the education, the experience, the influence, and perhaps the capital of other people in carrying out your own plans in life. It is the principle through which you can accomplish in one year more than you could accomplish without it in a lifetime if you depended entirely on your own efforts for success.” (excerpt from The Success Alliance)

This is very true. Using or “borrowing” the education and experience of the others in your group is the “secret sauce” of a mastermind. Getting the perspectives, opinions and input from everyone in the group gives you the extra confidence and courage to make decisions faster, see results sooner, and achieve your goals more quickly.

It has been true for me; I have accomplished more with my mastermind groups than I could have on my own. I started a YouTube channel that now has over 180k subscribers, publish an industry-leading newsletter to 15k subscribers and I’ve appeared as a featured guest on 30+ podcasts and virtual conferences. I could not have done even half that without my mastermind groups.

The 5 Benefits of Mastermind Groups for Entrepreneurs and Designers

Here are some of the benefits I’ve experienced from my mastermind groups:

1. Community: One of the hard parts of being an entrepreneur is the “mental load” of being the chief decision-maker. The group helps lessen that weight. It takes the edge off of the isolation most entrepreneurs experience.

2. Accelerated learning: You learn from others’ knowledge and experience. The mastermind is a confidential space that allows you to ask questions, experiment, and discuss challenges specific to your business.

3. Building a network of business partners: Develop trusted relationships and increase your connections across a broad range of industries.

4. Inspiration and motivation: Hearing what others are doing will push you to do more in your business. Learning about the wins and even failures of others will spur you on. You’ll share in their successes because you’ll have offered them advice, held them accountable and cheered them on. Being a part of others’ success boosts your confidence; something that takes a beating as an entrepreneur.

5. Goals & Accountability: Goals setting on steroids. You’ll see how others set and accomplish goals. Share goals with each other and hold each other accountable so everyone gets more important work done. Studies have shown that people perform better when others are watching (Johns Hopkins University, 2018). A small audience, such as a mastermind, may be just the thing to kick your business growth into high gear.

I created a video called “The 5 Powers of Mastermind Groups,” where I discuss these benefits in more detail.

Where will the power of the group take you?

The only way to know is to join a mastermind and find out. I am certain you will feel the compounding effect of having 4 or more brains working on your business, more meaningful professional connections, and accountability. Don’t wait another minute.

Like Bears To Honey

In northern Turkey, the Trabzon-Sürmene province is known for their honey. People love their honey.

But İbrahim Sedef, an agricultural engineer and beekeeper had a problem. There are bears in Trabzon-Sürmene. Big bears. Bears that just happen to love honey too. And they were destroying his hives to get it.

The bears kept eluding all of Sedef’s methods of protecting his hives. He assumed he could lure them to relocation traps with tasty food scraps. But it wasn’t working.

He needed to learn more about what really motivated them.

So every night he set out trays of the full range of honeys he produces. Then he set up a night vision camera and videoed the bears for 4 months.

The bears consistently made a bee-line for the premium Anzer honey that sells for $171 a kilo. Then they moved on to the chestnut, then flower and finally pine-wood honey. They wouldn’t touch the cherry jam made with corn-syrup.

Who knew bears had such discerning palates?

As marketers and branding people, when we need actionable insights for our clients, user research helps us dispel assumptions that might be incorrect. It helps us understand true preference and motivation.

So we can help them attract customers. Like bears to honey.

Want To Be Likable? Do This.

I recently came across a list of words that give a name to emotions that are hard to explain. My favorite one was “anecdoche”.

Anecdoche (n.) [ah-nek-duh-kee] is a conversation in which everyone is talking but nobody is listening.

I was immediately reminded of a scientific study I’d read about.

In the experiment, they sent two people into a networking type of gathering. Person #1 was instructed not to talk about themselves at all. They were instructed to only ask questions about the person they were conversing with.

Person #2, on the other hand, was allowed to share what they did, how they liked their job, their industry, the clients they were working with.

When the participants who had conversations with these two people were interviewed afterwards, something strange happened.

When asked which of the two people was the most interesting, accomplished and likable, they invariable chose Person #1. The person who only asked questions — the one who had not actually shared anything about themselves at all. 

When you ask questions and show genuine interest in someone it actually makes you seem more interesting, accomplished and likable.

At this point, I’d usually ask: So how can you use this method in your business? 

But instead I’ll just say: Stop having freakin’ anecdoches with your clients.

The Un-Instagrammable

I went on a short trip to a place called Neahtawanta near Traverse City, Michigan last week. It’s a small private enclave of cottages that dates back to the 1890’s. I spent summers there when I was growing up. It holds a lot of fond memories for me.

In “Neah” there is a wooden pavilion on the beach where families gather to cook out, have cocktails and watch the sunset. For over 50 years there was a scrawny evergreen tree that grew at the edge of the water. It had a distinct asymmetrical shape. Like a larger version of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. Not your Instagrammable type of a tree.

But it stood out from thousands of other trees in its character, its shape, its sheer tenacity to weather the brutal Michigan winters on the shore of the lake over the decades.

This year, one of the association members decided to design a logo for Neah that she could print and embroider on T-shirts and hats for the other cottage owners and she needed an icon.

This one little tree said “Neah” better than anything else.

When you are creating a brand, you look for the iconic. The memorable. The indelible. The unique.

The un-Instagrammable.

Shiny Objects

A little girl in Seattle named Gabi Mann has a collection of beautiful trinkets. A shiny earring, a green glass bead, a silver charm with the word “best” engraved on it. But, Gabi didn’t collect these treasures herself. They were given to her.

She didn’t get them from her friends. Gabi was given them as gifts…by crows.

It seems Gabi was in the habit of feeding the crows in her neighborhood. Every day for years she put out peanuts, seeds, tasty crow-appropriate treats in a metal bowl in her back yard. But then a funny thing happened. The crows started leaving her presents. A sparkly paper clip, a bright red piece of plastic. “Quid pro crow” as it were.

When you give to your community with no expectation of return something wonderful happens. I like to call it “subliminal reciprocity”. You help people and over time they just naturally want to help you, too.

That’s how content marketing works. You give people value, something that will inspire them, provides them with knowledge that helps them succeed, that will nourish their business. Before you know it, they will want to return the favor. Entertain a request you make. Maybe even refer some new clients to you.

You know, in a quid pro crow kind of way.

Your Mind, Blown

My friend Adam got a Tesla. An $80,000 Tesla, to be exact. He ordered every bell and whistle. He said, “I went down the list of options and just checked every box”.

After we had dinner Saturday, Adam asked if I wanted to drive it. I can’t say I was dying to. But O.K., let's see your new toy.

Out on the street, Adam pulled out his phone, hit a button and the car drove itself over to us. Then I stepped into and literally drove the future.

Tooling down the road at 40mph Adam says, “Take your hands off the wheel and foot off the pedal”. It was freaky. Not only can it drive itself, it can pass cars and change lanes completely on its own.

When you read that a car goes from 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds that’s impressive. But then it also goes from 20 to 60 in 2 seconds. Two. Until you press a pedal and feel a car do that, you can never truly understand. I mean - Holy. Shit.

Have you ever had an experience with a product that made you reevaluate the very conception you’ve always had of particular thing? This Tesla did that.

How can you Tesla-ize what you do?

The Gumball Rally

There’s a movie from the ’70s called The Gumball Rally where a wacky cast of characters participate in an automobile race from from the East coast to the West coast.

One character enlists the help of a professional Italian racer to drive his car. The first thing the Italian does when he gets in the car is to reach up and rip off the rear-view mirror and toss it aside. Shocked, the owner asks, “Why’d you do that?”

The Italian answers “When you are in a race, it doesn’t matter what’s behind you. What matters is what’s ahead.”

Last week one of my coaching clients was upset. His competition was copying him. They were stealing his ideas! What should he do?

I told him that it’s impossible to keep people from knocking you off. Consider it a compliment. You are the leader and they are on your heels. The only thing you can do is to keep coming up with great work. Better work. Innovate and push forward.

There will always be people who are trying to catch up to you. You can’t waste your time looking in the rear-view mirror.

What matters is what’s ahead.

A Note From A Goat

For as long as I can remember I’ve loved soap. Not store-bought soap, the good stuff. Hand-made artisan soap. My wife calls me a “soap-hound”.

I was at a craft festival in Woodstock when I happened upon Sweet Rama’s Soaps. The owner explained that their products were made from milk from their own goats. Hand-milked by her children.

So, I bought a few bars. Fresh Cut Grass, Juniper and Sage, Citrus and Basil and few others. The soap was amazing. A few months later, when I ran out, I decided to order some more from their website.

When my order came, at the bottom of the box was personal note with X’s and O’s written on the back of a photograph from Midgie, Stella and Puck thanking me for my purchase.

But Midgie isn’t the owner. Midgie is a goat. And Stella and Puck are her kids.

In marketing, “customer lifetime value” is a term used for the prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer.

My customer lifetime value to Sweet Rama’s was drastically increased by a note from a goat.

What personal touch can you put on your customer experience that can have the same effect?

Can You Feel?

Dominique Apollon is 45 years old. But he almost started crying as he put on his band-aid.

It wasn’t because his cut hurt really bad. Although it probably did. He was almost brought to tears because his bandage was brown. Because Dominique is brown, too.

After he pulled himself together, he took a picture of the bandage on his hand and posted it on Twitter. It got re-tweeted over 100k times and picked up by major media channels.

People really felt it.

Tru-Colour Bandages, the company that made the bandage that Dominique was wearing was started by a man who was discouraged when he couldn’t find a band-aid that matched his African American son’s skin tone. 

But the power of the Tru-Colour brand isn’t that it stops cuts from bleeding better than other bandages. Or that it sticks better and doesn't come off when it gets wet. 

The power is in how it makes people feel about themselves. As Dominique put it, “I really just felt like I belonged, like I was welcomed, like I was valued.”

What can you do to assure you are delivering a product, a service, or an experience with that kind of benefit?

Something people really feel.

Brand Yourself Or Die: 8 Steps To Career Longevity

Remember when you could land a job and camp out at the same desk for 15 or 20 years? Those days are not just fading, they’re gone. People are getting more freedom and flexibility in their lives by giving up the serial desk job and working remotely for many different companies at one time. Apps like Uber, TaskRabbit, Fiverr and hundreds of others are redefining how we work. New technology is changing our economy and the way we are doing business. Adapt or die.

Ok, “adapt or die” may be a little strong, but the truth is that we are moving from an era of full-time employment into an era of independent contractors. It has been happening gradually, so you may not have noticed it at all, but it is in full swing:

●      In 2006, independent and contingent workers—contractors, temps, and the self-employed—stood at 42.6 million, or about 30% of the workforce. That’s more than 60 million people. (The last time the government counted contingent workers was in 2006, so updated numbers are not available)

●      According to a 2014 study commissioned by the Freelancers Union, 53 million Americans are independent workers -- about 34 percent of the total workforce. This number is expected to balloon to 50 percent by 2020.

A Personal Brand: Your Job Insurance Policy

Even if you are a full-time employee and have great job security, the way people perceive your work is changing as a result of this macro-socio-economic shift. More and more companies are divesting themselves of full-time employees because of the high benefits cost. It gives them more flexibility, but it gives the freelancer or contract worker less security. So controlling your career trajectory is more critical now than ever before.

The professional climate is increasingly unstable even compared to a just few decades ago. Now, in the marketing world, when agencies lose a client there are layoffs. When a company takes a downward turn, there are layoffs. An acquisition? A restructuring? Layoffs. Corporate unpredictability means you can’t be overly dependent on your employer for your personal identity or for managing your career. Having a personal branded presence that's strong and independent of an employer is really preparation for the inevitable. It will assure your survival and success in your career, whether that’s working for another company, agency or brand, or whether it's developing an independent freelance or consulting career.

Job? No Job? A Personal Brand Can Help

Developing a personal brand will help you take control of your own destiny.

Branding is a shortcut for people to get to know who you are, what you do well, and how you can help them. Since you can’t tell everyone everything about yourself, a brand does the hard work of getting your main points across. For example, we know that Tim Ferriss celebrates high performance, Ira Glass likes compelling stories, and Rachel Ray is all about kitchen confidence, all from their own personal branding. We don’t know those people personally, but we do know a good deal about them because of their personal brands.

If you have a full-time job, a personal branding presence shows your expertise in your field. It demonstrates to others that you are up to date on your industry, category, and career. It also has the added benefit of lending you more credibility in the job that you already have.

If you don’t have a job or are a contract worker, a personal brand will make you more attractive to recruiters or your next employer. LinkedIn, social profiles, and maybe even a YouTube channel will help demonstrate your skill. Developing content and writing articles about your work and industry will elevate you in search results and therefore easier for recruiters and potential employers to find. It will also make you desirable to an employer looking for the top talent in their industry because your brand is connecting the dots; broadcasting your expertise so they can easily understand how you can help solve their problems. The critical thinking you do about what you stand for and the independent actions you take affect how you show up in the professional world. It’s hard work, but it pays off.

While working on your personal brand, I guarantee you will encounter many ah-ha moments. These are moments of understanding about your own professional (and sometimes personal) development. Developing and maintaining your personal brand will help you discern which skills you have and those you may need to learn.

As you develop your professional profile, for example, you may see holes in your skillset, or an uneven distribution of knowledge in one area. You will want to address these so you can truly stand out among your peers. You may need additional skills and may want to go to more conferences or make more network connections. But also in these ah-ha moments you may happily realize you have even more experience to leverage than you thought.

Fear is OK

You may be thinking, "I'm afraid. I'm afraid of putting myself out there. Self-promotion was never my thing. Plus, it's a lot of work. What are people going to think of me? What's my employer going to think of me?"

You are probably overthinking it.

These are all legitimate fears that everyone has before they begin. In reality, your employer probably won’t even notice. You may be surprised to find that your friends or your peers are not going to really care that much either. In fact,  you're doing it for yourself. Your investment in your professional development shows a level of strength and interest in yourself and your career that I like to think of as professional self-care. Your friends, peers, and colleagues are more likely want to emulate you than criticize you.

Developing a Personal Brand is a Sign of Strength and Independence

Your personal brand is going to show that you have a life outside of your corporate umbrella and your employer will be less apt to take you for granted or feel that they have a controlling degree of leverage over you.

Fear sneaks up on you in unexpected ways when doing important work like this, especially in the form of excuses. One of the most common excuses? “I’m too (insert: old/young) to create a brand.”

I can guarantee you never are too old to start creating your personal brand. I began developing my own personal brand in 2014. Before that, I had lived entirely under agency and corporate umbrellas and had only a LinkedIn page and a meager personal portfolio site. Now, I have a 14k person email list, publish an industry-recognized newsletter, written over 80 articles and have a YouTube channel with 150 videos and 170k subscribers.  Going deeper into my brand development has reaped incredible benefits for my business. Over 60% of my new business for my agency comes exclusively from my personally branded content marketing.

Fear is natural, but don’t let it stop you from enhancing your career and stopping short of success.

Freedom is Inevitable

I like to reframe it and characterize fear as harness-able energy you can use to break through to the next level. You’ll find that your success is greatly enhanced by your ability to view fear in that way. The benefits of facing your fears, putting a stake in the ground and declaring your value are both subtle and profound. Here are just a few benefits that I think are important:

You will feel less physiologically enslaved. Having a personal brand that's independent of a job will make you feel freer so if job insecurity occurs down the line, you won’t feel like you are totally exposed and are taken by surprise without any idea of what to do next. You'll be more apt to feel that you have more control over your life and that you can more easily architect your next steps.

You’ll have more self-worth and confidence. You can get a level of emotional fulfillment and sense of personal identity from full-time employment. But when you have a presence outside of a full-time job and a strong commitment to that presence, your self-worth and confidence are independent of your employment status. And that's always valuable.

It will keep you sharp. Developing a brand persona keeps you on your toes. It forces you to stay up to date with your industry and core competencies as you develop your opinions, create your content and deliver your brand message. A personal brand is one of the best ways to stay motivated and strong 

It will work your creativity muscle. Challenging yourself to define and develop your own brand is a challenging project and whenever you face a challenge, you up your level of creativity. Consistently maintaining a personal brand, whether that's content, social media, website, branded assets, etc., will force you to consistently work that creativity muscle. This will keep you focused - on top of your category and on top of your career.

How To Create Your Personal Brand

I have organized a systematic, step-by-step way to approach building your brand. As someone who has created and developed hundreds of brands, I have been a student of brand building methodology for decades. I’ve succeeded at scaling some of the most effective branding processes used by global agencies and Fortune 100 clients so they can be leveraged by an individual in building their own personal brand. Each brand and its development is a little different, but if you follow these guidelines you’ll be well on your way to having a beautiful and exciting brand presence in no time.

#1 Current State

You need to start with a really clear picture of the current state of your personal brand. It’s a little like taking an inventory that will help you understand where you’re covered and where you need to develop. You need to know where you already have a presence, so ask yourself these simple questions:

●      Do you have a robust LinkedIn profile?

●      What social media platforms are you truly active on?

●      Do you have a website?

●      Do you develop content of any kind?

●      What is the extent of your network or audience?

●      Have you employed any visual design assets that identify you?

Your answers will give you a good understanding of your current state, your starting line, which will provide context for determining what you are missing and what you need to create.

#2 Your Future State

The future state of your personal brand may be a bit foggy when you first start out, and that’s okay. Like anything else, your professional and brand goals will evolve and change over time. But if you're ever going to get there, you have to start. Ask yourself these questions:

●      What do want to be?

●      What do you want to do?

●      What do you want to accomplish?

●      Who can you help?

Capture all your answers so you can plan how you will get there. Building out your future state can be a big undertaking and is way too much to cover in this article, but just getting your initial thoughts and ideas down is the end goal of this exercise. Begin with your most obvious goals and others will show up as your brand develops.

If you are having a hard time trying to find out where you want to go or discovering your passion, What Color Is My Parachute?  is a classic book that will walk you through the many ways your career can go. You can also check out my video on how to find your passion. 

#3 Skills

You’ll want to capture the current state of the skills you have so you can assess which skills you're going to need to get to your desired professional future state. Some questions:

●      Which software applications do you know? (e.g., MS Office Suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, other industry specific applications)

●      What specific skills do you have? (e.g., finance, customer service, account management, budgeting, media planning, promotional or sales/marketing experience. The list can go on and on.)

○      “Hard” Skills? (Technical Skills, physical skills)

○      “Soft” Skills? (People skills, communication, writing, negotiation, salesmanship)

Plan which new skills you can acquire now, and which ones you’ll learn at a later time. Mastering a new software program can feel like a big task, so I suggest breaking it down. Consider taking a class from reputable platforms like like Udemy, Lynda, Skillshare, Coursera or start where most projects begin: Google it. If you are really stuck, this article from Forbes can help you work through the rough spots.

#4 Grow Your Network

You can't do everything yourself, so you want to make sure that you know who’s in your network and who can help and teach you what you need to know. Start by getting your LinkedIn connections up to date; think of everyone you work with, socialize with and even enjoy recreational hobbies with (think: your basketball league or your kid’s soccer team parents). Once you’ve reviewed your network and have begun to consolidate them into LinkedIn, look for people who can assist you in getting to your future state.

●      Who you can you bring into a mastermind group?

●      Who can be a mentor?

●      Who can help you get an introduction to your top employer pick?

●      Who already does what it is you want to be doing?

●      Who could provide you an informational interview?

Figure out what you can do for yourself, but then also, who you might need to employ, or interact with in order to help with things that aren't necessarily within your skill set.

#5 Audience Definition

Your target audience is the group of people that will be interested in hearing what you and your brand have to say. To narrow this group down, ask:

●      Who are the people that can benefit from the information you have?

●      Who will be interested in your point of view and who will benefit from your knowledge and expertise?

These people are your target audience.

Once you know who your audience is, learn where they “hang out”. Think about how and where your audience consumes information, and that's the place you want to be. For example, you may be more comfortable in Snapchat or Twitter, but if your customer watches videos, is in the blogosphere, or in an industry Facebook Community or Group that's where you want to show up. Interact, join the conversation, ask questions, solicit feedback, build relationships, provide real value for free.

#6 Get In The Right Channels

Take another look at all the social media channels you listed in your initial “Current State” audit. Why have you chosen those channels? Is it because that’s where your audience is or because that's where you're more comfortable? Examine all your channels through the lens of your audience and weed out what doesn’t match up with their preferences.

Also, consider if all your chosen brand touchpoints or channels are supportable. Most people make the mistake of trying to be everywhere. They post on Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, Medium, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook, oh, and of course a blog. They drive themselves crazy trying to develop content or interact on way too many channels. They don't go deep enough to develop relationships and conversations within the channels where their customers show up. Think about how deep you can go into each of your chosen channels. Keep your list focused, your content interesting and your interactions truly engaging.

#7 Brand Design

From logo and color palette to messaging and graphics, these are the things people commonly think of when they think about brand design. Start with a good checklist so you can mark off the items you have and begin developing which assets (that’s design speak for different parts of your brand) you need.Do you have an identity? A color palette? Have you made choices around fonts or imagery or iconography? There's a broad range of elements that you need to have for your personal brand. Take stock, do an audit of what brand assets you have, and then you'll know exactly what it is that you're missing and what you may need to develop.

Start with this free pdf: “9 Design Elements Your Brand Absolutely Positively Needs”.  It is a very thorough list that will help you take a quick and easy audit so you can move ahead with certainty.

#8 Implementation

There's a saying, “You have to plan the work and then you have to work the plan.” It is true for putting together your brand. By going through this assessment, you have developed a valuable map of where you are and where you want to go. You know what you have and what you need. You know your target audience and how to deliver your brand. You have a clear idea of how to get to the next stage in your personal brand.

You have all the information you need.

I know, it’s a lot. But ignoring it is not an option. Don't be afraid to start. Get out there. The possibilities are endless, so try not to get overwhelmed. Just take one step at a time. If you put in consistent effort, you can get there. I guarantee you it's going to be an inspiring journey. Best of all, it‘s going to create in you a strong sense of security and control over your professional life.

The first step is always the hardest, but it's also the most satisfying. Once you take it, you're going to feel a tremendous amount of self-accomplishment. So look back over this list and get started today with #1. Take your “Current State” audit and after you do, make sure you take a moment and congratulate yourself. Every step that gets you closer to your new personal brand is a job well done.

Remember; be consistent and never quit.

Come and Get It: A Tale of Customer Motivation

The Chuck Wagon dog food commercials are an iconic piece of 20th century TV. A scruffy Benji-like pup was constantly chasing down a miniature chuck wagon in the quest to get his dinner.

My cousin’s ad agency was shooting a commercial that called for a farm scene where the dog was to chase the wagon through a flock of chickens. There was only one problem. Dogs won’t run through a flock of chickens. Why?

Because dogs know that if you run through a bunch of chickens odds are good you’re gonna get bunch of pissed-off pecks for your trouble. In the first 15 takes, the dog ran around the chickens.

Finally, to get the shot, they had to build a ramp, push the dog down it and toss a couple chickens in from the sides. Neither the dog, nor the chickens were very happy about it.

The moral of the story is that even though you may have an idea how you want your customer to behave, you just can’t force them to go where they don’t want to go. You have to know their motivation. It’s not to please you. You exist to please them.

And pushing them down a ramp isn’t going to make anyone very happy.

The Big Payoff: The ROI of Personal Branding

Personal branding is no longer a by-product of being rich and famous - for some, personal branding is a way to become rich and famous. The easy accessibility of website templates, stock photos, digital book publishing sites, and other marketing tools (not to mention social media) today has made personal branding ubiquitous. While the tools to create a personal brand are readily available, it takes a huge investment. It's truly a “long game” and takes patience, time, and focus to create a killer brand. In fact, there is so much work involved in creating and elevating a personal brand presence it could leave you wondering, “Why even bother creating and maintaining a personal brand?” Or even, “Is it worth it?”

Creating a personal brand is worth it, but it’s not always very clear exactly how it pays off. The ROI of personal branding can be tricky to quantify.

“Branding demands commitment; commitment to continual reinvention; striking chords with people to stir their emotions; and commitment to imagination. It is easy to be cynical about such things, much harder to be successful.”

– Sir Richard Branson

Most people think about ROI in terms of what they will get back on what they spend. ROI can be any result; sales, exposure, follows and likes, conversions, clicks to name just a few. Thinking about personal branding ROI in these terms is short-sighted. You can buy exposure through advertising, but the return on investment of personal branding is different because it's not based on promotion. Personal branding ROI is based on attraction. And the force of attraction depends on the strength of the brand.

Create a strong personal brand by consistently sharing what you know and how you learned it. It's as simple as that.

There's a Chinese proverb that says, "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime." It comes down to providing value by teaching others to succeed. Zig Ziglar had a famous quote, "You get everything you want out of life by helping others get everything they want out of life." Consistently share your expertise, experiences and knowledge, and provide value for others. Do this, and you are positioning yourself as someone worth knowing. You are building brand equity - in yourself.

When you build a personal brand, you spend time, money and effort to gain credibility, authenticity, and authority. The bonus is that you own your own destiny. Your future is not controlled by any other person, entity or company. That alone is a pretty spectacular payoff by anyone’s standards.

Personal branding is about magnetism.

As your personal brand grows, the force of attraction becomes more noticeable. Your brand begins to pull people in and become a powerful force that is almost magnetic. People will take notice and want to know more about you and experience your brand more often.

New business will seek you out as a result of this power of attraction. Instead of you having to go out and find new deals, new clients and new partners, opportunities will come to you. People will contact you because you are adding value to their lives. Showing that kind of generosity and heart will make people want to work with you, or for you. Brands and product companies will contact you to review their products or represent their brands. People will ask you to join them in professional communities and mastermind groups, in meet-ups. Your network will grow. People will seek you out on LinkedIn. They will start to see you as a thought leader. A strong personal brand can be the catalyst for these types of opportunities and more.

Positioning yourself as a thought leader also creates real leadership opportunities, such as serving on advisory boards or boards of directors. Because you are consistently putting your “answers” out there, people begin to see that you have something to valuable say and are exercising your authority to say it. Publications, blogs, podcasts, will start to reach out to you for contributions or appearances. At events and conferences, people will start to know who you are before you are even introduced.

You may be thinking, “I don’t need a personal brand. I have a secure job with a great company.” Don’t fool yourself, everyone needs a personal brand, even if you work for someone else. Why? Because now, companies are beginning to realize the value of employing people who have personal brands.

A personal brand is career insurance.

A company's message comes across as more human, more relatable, and more real when it's coming from someone people recognize, someone they feel is authentic or that they trust. A personal brand has a halo effect on your company. People with personal brands are more highly valued, which leads to less chance of layoffs and also the prospect of being more highly compensated. Always remember the extra bonus, which is that you own your own brand. So if a layoff or restructuring does come, you take it with you when you go. You aren’t left out in the cold without the professional identity that was tied to your employer.

A key part of a successful, powerful brand is the Personal Brand Magic Equation, which makes your brand even more compelling. The equation starts with the needs your target audience has and the questions they ask you. Combine that with your personal experience, and your knowledge that reveals those answers. That equals an authentic, unique brand that sustains the power of attraction over time.

“Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.”

– Malcolm Forbes

Always remember the “personal” part of personal branding. Be the human being that you are. Share your experiences and be authentic. Share meaningful content that makes a difference in people's lives and solves people's problems.

If you do that, everyone succeeds.

You're Gonna Love It...or maybe not

Having lived in New York City and San Francisco, two of the restaurant capitals of America, I thought I’d tasted, or at least heard of, most of the foods that grace our country. But when I moved to Cincinnati, I was introduced to a culinary experience that I had no idea existed. Skyline Chili.

First of all, to call Skyline Chili “chili” is a stretch. What it is is a thin, bean-less, virtually meatless, chili-flavored sauce that is spooned over a wad of spaghetti or a hot dog and topped with a massive pile of shredded cheddar cheese. Cincinnatians love it. Skyline Chili restaurants are always packed. Friends said, “You have to try it! You’re gonna love it!”. 

Well I did, and I didn’t.

I thought Skyline Chili was gross. I thought it was a midwestern chili-esque Franken-food mistake that had somehow escaped the kitchen and was bent on terrorizing the populace.

But Skyline Chili taught me something. It taught me that you can succeed even if you aren’t universally loved. You can be weird. You can be different. But as long as you find your super-fans and give them that one thing they crave, you can endure. 

Even if some people think it’s gross

Fake Shoes: Brand Perception is Reality

Recently a pop-up store in a Los Angeles mall had an opening party. Over 80 social media influencers flocked to the champagne and caviar reception at Palessi, a new luxury shoe retailer with an Italian flair, glass and lacquer displays, black clad associates and slinky house music.

Swept up by the experience, the attendees plunked down thousands of dollars for shoes they described breathlessly in social media posts as “elegant and sophisticated”. Facing a video camera, holding up a pair of sneakers, a woman said “I would pay $400 to $500 for these”. And then she did.

In any other mall, the sneakers she was holding cost $19.99. 

Palessi was a fake. The products were from Payless Shoes.

Contrary to popular belief the product isn’t primarily responsible for the value perception of a brand. It’s what is around the product that controls whether you think something should be expensive or cheap. 

Visual branding, sound, technology, physical environment, digital user experience, and human interaction are all levers that affect how products are perceived. And most importantly, what people are willing to pay for them.

Are your customers perceiving your brand the way you want them to? What other levers can you pull?

Why I Am A Cow

In 1996 a creative director at Hallmark named Gordon MacKenzie published a book entitled “Orbiting the Giant Hairball”. It describes the necessary, but prickly relationship between corporations and the creatives who work for them. The creatives need the corporation so they can make a living, and the corporations need the designers to constantly produce beautiful, innovative products and ideas.

One part of the book I’ve always loved is when MacKenzie writes, “Designers are like cows”.

The idea is that if you constantly keep a cow in the barn and milk it, eventually the flow of milk will stop. For a cow to continue to produce it needs to get out of the barn and walk around in the pasture, feel the sunshine, eat grass, drink from a stream. From the outside, it may not look like a productive activity, but then you realize: this is where the milk is really being made.

The “24/7 entrepreneurial hustle” mentality has buried itself in the collective business consciousness over the last few years. But as we start the new year it will serve us to remember we aren’t machines. 

Every creative, every entrepreneur, every one of us needs time in the pasture.

The Hot Duck: A Tale of Brand Differentiation

The ducks in Central Park in New York City have a cushy gig. They paddle around, they look cute, they create a picturesque tableau in the pond. The females are speckled brown, the males have handsome green heads. People like them, they bring their kids to see them, they feed them breadcrumbs. The situation worked for everybody.

But then he showed up. He being a Mandarin Duck who just dropped in one day and threw the whole operation into a tizzy. New Yorkers, habitual nicknamers, started calling him the “Hot Duck”.

Why hot? Mandarin Ducks are an explosion of spectacular colors and swooping patterns of feathers formed into a shape of a duck. They’re breathtaking.

Suddenly, there were crowds of people at the duck pond. Throngs of tourists with huge zoom lenses. Suddenly all that people could see or talk about was: That. One. Duck.

On display at the duck pond was the perfect embodiment of Rule #1 in branding: Stand out from your competition. Like Tesla, Virgin, Uber, you have rise above the sea of sameness and make a bold statement. Ruffle feathers. Redefine how people see your category.

You have to be the Hot Duck.

No Brand Is An Island

If I could have just one book when stranded on a desert island it would be One Man’s Wilderness by Richard Proenneke. Richard was a salt-of-the-earth guy who in 1968 built a log cabin in the Alaskan Wilderness with nothing but hand tools.

He then proceeded to live in it, alone, for over 30 years. 

What captures my imagination his is resourcefulness, his independence, his appreciation for the things that nature gives us. Including winters where the temperature reached -40˚. Um...no thank you.

Richard didn’t need much. But once in a while his bush-pilot “Babe” Alsworth would fly in his mail or a sack of dried beans. Not even Richard Proenneke could go it entirely alone.

His story reminds me of how many entrepreneurs I know who have built their businesses with their bare hands. Many of them still trying to do everything themselves, wearing all the hats, from go-fer to brand strategist.

But there comes a time in the growth of any business when it pays to reach out. To have a partner fly in the right tools to help you survive the cold winters that can freeze even the hardiest enterprise in its tracks. 

It’s time to find your “Babe”.