On the Mark Branding

Okay, so I’ve been planning my second blog post for just over two years. There I admit it. I could have positioned that span of time as a long-term blog strategy plan, but no one would buy that. Then, before I could stop myself, I realized I was updating my Facebook status about my blogging delay. “Why did I just do that?” I thought, as I watched my iPhone display “Updating.”And just as I was settling into a beautiful Sunday in LA, my former boss FB’d me to say “just write, don’t think.” Okay Jeff, here goes.

I can’t believe I’m not blogging more. I’m constantly pushing my entrepreneurial clients to blog, but I’m not doing it myself. Oh, believe me, I’ve got quite a few written in my head, and lots of ideas captured in OneNote, but they just don’t make it to the big screen (uh, my big monitor). So as I’m trying to start now, I see Facebook updates coming in, Catie is texting me about getting together this afternoon, and I see Lee has left me a voicemail about helping him with his next speech. What’s a guy to do? Continue to look for more excuses? (I’m really good at that!) Besides, if I actually get this done, it would also accomplish my 500-words-a-week writing goal, making my personal coach very happy.

What I’m really loving about social media is the authenticity that is emerging from it. With less time to say it right, spell it right or be witty on a dime, it creates an easy opportunity for people to be real. Long gone is formal communication and inauthenticity, and here to stay is real people talking real stuff. It’s so much easier to be ourselves. Besides, people want to experience, work with and hire people that are honest, upfront, authentic (I’ll be using that word a lot, so don’t complain) and real. They want to hire individuals that show up 100%. I happen to believe that most people are attracted to others that don’t hold anything back; that are full-out authentic…like, what you see/hear/experience, is what you get. Authenticity has become the top priority in branding, marketing, advertising messages and individual personal brands for many. Major corporations are rebranding and changing their advertising strategy to build trust more than ever. Direct mail and e-mail marketing campaigns now speak in plain, simple language, with a very personal approach. CEOs around the world have blogs, so that customers can get to know the real people, and just not the Big Blue logo.

I think that’s why I took so long to post again. I made-up that if I’m a business coach and mentor to solo-entrepreneurs, that work with them on their branding and marketing, that I’ve got to have all my stuff put together. It took me too long to launch my new website, because (aside from managing my perfectionism that said it had to be the ultimate site for entrepreneurs) I was trying to figure out how I would “be” on my site. Does my writing and bio come out formal, structured, perfectly written, corporate-feeling and polished (with the appropriate number of carefully-placed keywords no less)? Or can I just be Brad and write from the place of my true authentic self, in a casual, funny and witty way (no comments please) while hopefully engaging prospective clients or at least inspiring visitors to take some action toward their dreams. I did get done, but I must admit, that it took me three rounds of major rewriting to satisfy the “perfectionist”, the search engines and my brand that kept calling the real me forth. In the end, I launched feeling very authentic and satisfied. I don’t always have it together, but I’m learning that as long as I am authentic, my status is good.

So it looks like the excuses, the perfectionism and the fear of not doing it right didn’t get in the way to finish this post. Gotta go update my FB status, see Catie and call back Lee. Thanks Jeff.

Here I sit. The last day of 2006, 7:30-something in the morning with my Diet Pepsi and laptop. Having told all my colleagues and many clients, that I was launching a blog this year, it seems to me that today would be a good day to start. After all, tomorrow will be another year.

So what has taken so long? I’m in the business of being evangelical about using technology to build brands and personal platforms. I push traditional publishers and entrepreneurs to their “techno-edges” to create brand extensions to build their businesses. I work with publishers to build their e-media business, launch Digital Editions, create digital brand extensions and reach bigger and better audiences with technology. I work with entrepreneurs to get clear on their personal brand, build a platform and use traditional methods and especially technology to get them seen and heard as experts in their field (and a blog is a great tool for that). So why did it take me so blippin’ long to start my own blog?

Not that everyone needs to go through this process, but mine was: It’s not going to be easy. Who will I be? What will I talk about? What will they say? How will I sound? Like many entrepreneurs, I have a few businesses. They are all very strategically related in my mind, but how could I cover them in one blog? Or do I need to? (Such new dilemmas we have in these technology-driven, community-building, need-it-now, text me, google-it days, eh?)

Well, I got past all that very suddenly the other day when I took a short walk (no technology required) toward the end of my work day (a great habit that always frees my brain and creativity to think bigger and clearer). I came back and announced to my colleague Laura, “I’m an e-media-vangelist!”

“I like that!” she said. Since Laura knows how I work and even more how I think, this was just another routine brain announcement from me that she knows well. “It really captures who you are!” “Yes,” I said, “It feels just right. So I think I’m ready to launch my blog.” “Finally,” she said, with that big, supportive and believing smile she always gives. Laura has had her own blog http://lauralallone.typepad.com/ for years and has been a constant, yet patient inspirer to me on the topic.

So being an e-media-vangelist brings it all together for me. (Now I just need to decide how to spell it, once and for all.) But why an e-media-vangelist?

In my late teens, I was heavily influenced by evangelical speakers. I loved to watch them speak their passion, take and make their stand and lead people to make important decisions. I watched how they were able to move people to action. They helped people get inspired, then brave enough to make a choice and even a commitment. And, yes, there was a brief moment at 22, when I considered becoming a traditional evangelist, and thankfully that was short-lived. But the intrigue around what an evangelist can evoke, in people, didn’t. Evangelists are passionate about possibilities. I am passionate about using e-media and other technological advances to build brand extensions, publish and promote. There are many possibilities.

If I can’t be passionate in my work and life, then I might as well pick up dog poop (hey, I do that anyway!). Passion is what drives the people I mostly work with: entrepreneurial-minded people. They are passionate about what they publish, do, provide, sell, say or promote. My clients are publishers, coaches, speakers, authors, executives, marketers, psychologists, therapists, real estate professionals, financial planners and a variety of others that like to kick-butt in everything they do.

I work with companies, businesses and entrepreneurs that like to get excited about their next opportunity and are ready to make the choices that need to be made. Right now, I have an editor-client that can’t wait to launch her new e-newsletter and blog. I’ve got an executive consultant client that is getting clear on her brand, excited about her first e-book and upcoming website launch. I’ve got another traditional publishing client that is making huge strides with their Digital Edition launches while building readership and saving money and trees.

That’s where the fun is…that’s when I get to be an e-media-vangelist.

So there you have it, a blog post. “That was easy!” as our big, red Staples office button often says. It was. Happy New Year! Make it an easy one.