Learn How to Build Your Brand From Rock B(r)ands

November 7, 2008 at 10:55 pm | In Book Reviews, Interview, People, Personal Branding, Success Strategies | 2 Comments

Today, I spoke with Dayna Steele, who used to be a famous radio show host, and now she’s a writer, author and speaker.  She’s learned a lot about building powerful brands through her interactions with some of the loudest and greatest rock bands in the world, such as Van Halen.  In this interview, she reviews some tips for you, as you develop your brand moving forward.

Dayna, can you go over some famous rock bands and how they’ve successfully branded themselves?

The Rolling Stones have the tongue, KISS has the makeup, Van Halen has the logo/guitar sound. Bands have always been smart about branding – that’s what the t-shirt booth is for!

Why is a great product or service not enough? Why is branding needed?

Many products and services are good but not memorable. You want to stand out in a crowd. There are many brands of tissue but don’t we always say Kleenex? There are many soft drinks but don’t we always say I need a coke? Gelatin is a big favorite at cafeterias but we look for Jell-O.

Why is it a great strategy to give away promotional products (one’s that reflect your brand)? Or to at least have a business card.

The more you can do to mark the brand in someone’s mind, the better. We gave away Space Pens (like on Seinfeld) at The Space Store. Expensive but had our logo and summed up what we did – we sold space items.

In your book, you talk about finding your fans. What methods do you have in finding your audience, both online and offline?


Read, ask, research. Read your trade papers, research all you can online. Who’s writing a blog? Who’s commenting? Google your product and other like products or services. What press is writing about your product or service? Introduce yourself, get a quote I the next article – then new fans can find you. Free publicity is always good! Ask how people found you. Go to events, trade shows, conventions, performances – anything that has something to do with your product or service and ask what people like and how they found out about it. This is not the time to be shy.

What are some ways to protect your brand?

Google yourself, your product, your name, your company at least once a week. That’s a great, fast way to find out what’s being said, what’s being used. Depending on what you do, file the proper legal papers. A trademark, a copyright, incorporate – again, you have to do the leg work. Find a decently priced lawyer and ask for one hour of their time, no more. Tell them what you do and what you need to protect. Or try Legalzoom.com. Great pricing and advice there.

You’ve been on the radio for much of your career. How does radio help build brands?

Repetition that reaches the masses. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I played Stairway to Heaven and Freebird.

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Dayna Steele is a popular speaker and the author of Rock To The Top: What I Learned about Success from the World’s Greatest Rock Stars. Dayna is best known as Houston’s First Lady of Radio ruled the rock airwaves for almost two decades. Honored by Billboard Magazine as Local Radio Personality of the Year in 1996, Steele was also included in Talkers Magazine’s 100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts. Steele spent years traveling the globe and interviewing countless bands and rock stars like Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ozzy Osbourne, David Bowie, Bono and Sammy Hagar.

What Sacrifices Have You Made For Your Personal Brand Lately?

November 7, 2008 at 12:49 pm | In Misc, Personal Branding | 2 Comments

Tonight, I went to dinner with a few good friends, such as Ryan Healy of BrazenCareerist.com fame, as well as my first and retired editor of Personal Branding Magazine, Rebecca “Modite” Thorman, and the ever popular Carla Blumenthal. Right now I’m sitting in my chair half asleep, speaking to this girl interest, who just passed out in her couch, after having an equally long day. Everyday my friends and family say “Dan, you really should get some sleep, quit this blogging stuff.” Of course, I don’t listen to them or I would have been asleep hours ago.

My current workload

What a lot of people don’t know is exactly how busy I am. Aside from blogging 10 times per week, I publish a magazine, podcast series, make presentations to schools and companies, write articles for magazines, talk to the press, do some consulting, am on the board of advisers for a startup company, judge awards, and I just finished a 256 page book that took me over a year to write and edit. I’m constantly networking, interviewing successful leaders and commenting on blogs. When it comes to social networking, I allocate most of my time to the network that gives the highest ROR (return on relationship), which is Twitter.

Now if you think that would keep me busy, then realize that I spend another 50-60 hours a week doing social media for EMC, which includes social media press releases, newsrooms, community building, social network and blog strategy and more.

What I’ve sacrificed

When it comes to social media, you trade your time, and some money, for results over the long-term. I’ve had to turn down dates with girls, parties with friends, and time spent with family. I’m also fairly certain that this workload has impacted my health because I don’t get much sleep and since I haven’t written a “to-do-list” in 6 years, my brain has been brutally punished as a result. I’ve managed everything in my head. Luckily, I started my first to-do-list this week!

I’m not saying I never go out, but it’s certainly not as often as it was a few years ago.  If I were to go out on a Friday or Saturday night to a bar and stay up till 2AM, it would impact my productivity the next day.  Also, I would wake up close to noon.  Time is so precious now, so I have to be more careful where I spend it.  I’ll be going out this weekend because my best friend is home from Texas, and is leaving for Italy on Sunday.  Your time is important, so spend it carefully!

Why I’ve made these sacrifices

I believe, wholeheartedly, that I was put on this earth to help millennials build strong personal brands and to encourage schools to teach marketing to everyone, not just marketing majors. I want to live in a world, where people are passionate about their jobs, to the point, where they are compensated and work becomes a hobby.

In order to help people, I must sacrifice my time for the good of the community. I’ve blogged on a cruise ship! I can’t even go to sleep tonight until I have a post written for you for tomorrow. Am I doing it for money? Nope, there is no advertising on this blog. I’m doing it because I have a mission in life and a cause worth fighting for. Together, we can change the world.

Sacrificial tweets

I asked a few Twitter friends what sacrifices they’ve made recently.

What sacrifices have you made for your personal brand lately?

A 16-Year-Old Entrepreneur Tells Us How to Make eMillions

November 7, 2008 at 3:47 am | In Book Reviews, Career Development, Interview, People, Personal Branding, Success Strategies, gen-y | Leave a Comment
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Today, I spoke with Stanley Tang, who is a 16-year-old rockstar entrepreneur.  He makes me wish I knew this personal branding stuff ten years ago.  Stanley is very ambitious and has earned a lot of respect for a young Gen-Y’er.  To be able to interview millionaire players for a book isn’t something most high schools students get involved with.  The interview below will inspire you to drop age and to pickup drive, to accomplish your dreams.

Stanley, what got you started in internet marketing? 

I first got into this whole concept of business when I picked up the book Rich Dad Poor Dad in 2005. That was when I first got interested and inspired, so I began to do more research on the internet. Then one day in 2006, I received a “spam” email in my inbox which said something like “How to make money online without spending a single dime” I opened it and it was basically a series of screen-capture videos going through the whole concept of Google Adsense. That was how I got into internet marketing.

What obstacles have you faced as a 15-year-old marketer living in Hong Kong?

Wow… tons of obstacles.

  • First off, the fact that you’re only 15 years old is a major obstacle.
  • There are many issues you have to deal with regarding stuff like Adsense, Paypal, Taxes etc, which you need parent consent.
  • Also, its difficult trying to make contacts and deal with all these adult entrepreneurs.  Many are reluctant to do business with you if they find out you’re actually just this teenager.
  • You’ve also got to take into the account of school stuff like homework, exams, courseworks etc.
  • The disadvantage of living in Hong Kong is that, firstly, you are half way across the world from the US (which is my main market) so there are differences in things like timezone etc.
  • It’s also pretty difficult to try and network with all these people offline as there are very few internet marketing seminars here in Hong Kong. (I’m actually turning 16 next week)

Your book has done quite well.  What book marketing strategies have you employed to make it so successful?

Thanks. So far, I’ve been trying to build up some buzz during the prelaunch phase by letting my subscribers and readers know about it via my email list and my blogs. I’ve created a specific blog over at emillionsblog.com which actually documents the exact steps I take to try and turn my book into a bestseller (sort of like a behind-the-scenes look at a bestselling book in the making). So the blog itself has already attracted a lot of attention.

I’ve also got in touch with the local press and media here in Hong Kong, trying to get interviews with those journalists. In fact, I recently got on to the frontpage of AppleDaily, which is the second largest newspaper in Hong Kong, so that brought me tons of exposure and buzz. I believe that the key to any buzz campaign is that you’ve got to have a story. In this case, it was a 15 year-old entrepreneur interviewing a bunch of internet millionaires and trying to inspire others and make a difference.

Can you talk about ShoeMoney’s success story and how people can model it?

Jeremy Schoemaker is a great role model when it comes to internet marketing. He was one of those people who never gave up and never settled for less. He was able to go from the corporate day job to unemployment then to internet millionaire status in less than 5 years which is absolutely incredible. You can read the interview I conducted with Shoemoney over at emillionsblog.com/interview-with-shoemoney-part-1.

Where do you see yourself going in the future, aside from making six figures and above?  What lasting presence do you want to leave on the world?

I definitely see myself doing bigger things and doing more than just internet marketing and creating information products. My dream is to hopefully one day be able to create a new technology start-up somewhere in Silicon Valley, create something of value and take it to a multi-billion dollar level, something like Google, Amazon, Apple etc. I feel right now it’s still too early to ask the question what presence I want to leave, but I definitely want to leave with some sort of impact and make a difference.

——

Stanley Tang is a 16-year-old entrepreneur, author and student from Hong Kong. He’s not a millionaire yet but he does expect to make a comfortable income online through things like information marketing, affiliate marketing and list building.  By July 2006, he made his first $100 and first $1000 by January 2007. Between January 2007 and December 2007, my “business” generated over 5-figures in sales (not bad for a 14 year old). And currently it’s on track to do 6-figures by the end of 2008. His current venture is his book
eMillions: Behind-The-Scenes Stories of 14 Successful Internet Millionaires.

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