Category Archives: commentary

Last Post 2009: The Beacon Principles

Well I thought I would slide one last post under the door before saying goodbye to 2009.  It’s been a hectic year, but in some ways a great one for solidifying thoughts, testing theories, falling flat on my face, dusting off and most importantly meeting some amazing people.  People, in my view, are beacons.  They may not always be switched on, but when they are they can do amazing things.  They guide, they warn, they show the way.  Sometimes they’re in lonely places, but that’s part of the price when your job is to shine.

Look at another beacon, a lighthouse: It stands out from the shoreline, jutting up from the rocks, clearly different from the surrounding landscape. It’s context gives it meaning – put the same building in a city skyline and it becomes lost and unable to function. Move it to the middle of a field and it loses purpose.  And what is that brilliant beam that emanates from the beacon? It is focused energy – energy with purpose, a purpose clearly understood by all, but for some an absolute necessity.

Understand the beacon principles and you understand the essential questions you need to ask yourself to build your brand:

1) How are you different? Difference is the soul of branding.  Where you’re different your competitor can’t touch you. Different is what makes you memorable and can even make you indispensable!

2) What’s your context? Context is what gives meaning to your difference. Context is understanding that your difference might be irrelevant to some, but essential to others. Identify the core market, the defining context that makes you essential!

3) What’s your focus? Focus has two faces: where you put your energy and where you put your audience’s attention. Emphasize your strengths and be conscious of the expectations you set – they are the criteria by which your brand will be judged.  Do what you’re good at and get help with the rest. Start a fire by hyper-focusing your energy – once you have ignition you can spread the flame, but you’ll never catch fire if you don’t begin with focus.

As you tuck 2009 to bed and begin to the live the excitement and promise of a new year, I hope you will ask yourself the beacon questions: How am I different? What’s my context? What’s my focus? I hope you will be a guide.

I know you will shine.

Happy 2010 everybody!

Also posted in branding, Branding Thoughts, love, mad scribblings, personal branding, Thought for the day | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

Social Media Marketing and Lemonade Stands

Ice cold lemonadeI get called “Big D” sometimes and I like to flatter myself that it is because I like to think big, however, I can’t pretend that my 270 pound, “more of me to love” frame might not have a little to do with that nickname.  So big guy, what’s your point? Well as an XXL type I’ve learned to distrust the one-size-fits-all approach in clothing and frankly, just about everything else.

I think there is one-size-fits-all epidemic in social media marketing.  There are too many experts and enthusiasts pitching solutions without regard to your business needs. I’ve got nothing against e-books, teleseminars, and online courses, but I get nervous when someone is advising that you do what they do and then point to things like numbers of Twitter followers or extensive lists of “friends” as proof of their effectiveness.  Truth is they might very well be effective at what THEY do, but unless you do what they do it may be a moot point.  Worse it can sometimes be harmful to approach your market with tactics that are out of alignment with you brand, products and services.

The point is different businesses work different ways, and the marketing that makes a success of one might make a flop of another.  Here in Atlanta it can get hot – it’s in the 60s in December today, and in July… forget about it! When it’s hot a big guy like me likes to have a little lemonade to cool off. Atlanta is a great town for a lemonade stand. Pick a busy corner, put up your stand, set your price and keep your inventory in step with demand.  The marketing approach is simple, easy to break down into component steps and therefore a very reproducible model.  You could extend it to fruit punch or sweet iced tea, however it is a lousy platform for selling enterprise software.  It’s hard to pitch 3 months of integration while sweating in the open air.  It flops for selling shoes – not enough shelves, too hard to relocate with changes in traffic patterns.  You get the idea.

If you’re enticed to jump in on the program of a social media marketer ask yourself if the one-size-fits-all formula they are promoting applies well to the services you provide. Are you in a similar price range? Are you prepared to apply all of their tactics? Are your purchase decisions made on an equivalent timetable? Are the ongoing relationships with your customers and prospects the same type of relationships that they are cultivating? Are their multi-level approvals/buy-in required to get the win?  Or can you just mix up a cold batch of product and sell it by the glass?

If the answers to these questions don’t line up well with the formula being offered, then you may be buying into magic beans – strained trust, wasted time and brand damage, not a recipe for effective marketing.

Also posted in branding, Branding Thoughts, social media, Thought for the day, trust | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Enjoying the park

Today I decided to try something new… My first al fresco blog post. We’ve had such lovely weather lately in Atlanta that I couldn’t bear to stay cooped up inside. Thank goodness for smartphones (although my thumbspeed is fairly abysmal).

I have no grand observations for you today nor any grand ambitions to sprain my thumbs pecking out War and Peace 2.0. However I will lob this over the fence: I believe that being successful means being yourself and that in turn means you need to know a little bit about what makes yourself tick. Right now I can think of no measure of success greater than enjoying a beautiful afternoon in the park with Julie and our bunny (Mr. Bialy). No doubt I will be using a different yardstick tomorrow, but for today I have my full measure.

Also posted in Live event, mad scribblings, Other Interests | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Schnicks and Stones – High Velocity Interview

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THhjNMtA4gg]

Well I had some good fun yesterday visiting the High Velocity Radio show, which is part of the RadioX network.  Hosts Stone Payton and Todd Schnick really do a great job of making their guests feel welcome and giving them a chance to shine.  I had the good fortune to be on the bill with Grant Carter, CEO of Team Doctors, and Marna Friedman, owner of Mpressive Solutions and author of The Small Business that Could for Women.  We each had about 15 minutes at the mic and all got hit with Stone’s favorite zinger “Tell us about your biggest mistake.”  The whole show is almost an hour, but if you’re in a hurry there is a brief excerpt, which clocks in at 3 min. 44 sec., where I talk about how branding happens whether you intend to or not. I hope you can check it out 🙂

Also posted in branding, Branding Thoughts, friends, Live event, personal branding, social media | Tagged , , | Comments closed

The Portable Personal Brand

Is your personal brand portable? Is your message easy for others to carry and spread?

Sometimes we get too caught up in our own message – we labor over the words, trying to get the nuance just so; making sure we get the essential essence of our value proposition; delving into details; artistically articulating skills, services and strengths… only to find out that everybody else refers to you as “the guy with the funny hat”, or “you know, that lady who sells real estate”, or “the dude with the stale coffee breath”.  It happens.  But there is a lesson to be learned here: if you show up often enough people will remember you, but are they remembering you for what you want or for what they find convenient?

What if you could combine the two?

The portable personal brand is about getting known in that straightforward, easy to identify, easy to remember way, but also in a way that points people toward your value.  You can’t do this with  a complex message: “Oh you know Dave, he’s the guy that went to art school after getting a math degree, and went on to startup companies and then built a career in marketing, blah blah blah…” It is too much. I can’t remember it all and I lived it, how can I expect someone else to carry all that info?  And even if they could what would they do with it all?   But if I give myself a label, “the brand therapist”, and tell people one thing I can do, “help people brand themselves to get more business” then maybe, just maybe someone might remember that.  Maybe then, when someone meets a person with a murky message who is not getting results, they  will say “Oh you should talk to Dave, the brand therapist, he can help you”.

Simplicity is portability, but there is a trade-off:  there is more I can offer, but I have to leave it out otherwise it is distracting and cumbersome. There is certainly more you can offer than will fit in a sentence or two, but it is unreasonable to expect people to remember it all.  And if it isn’t simple it won’t function as a trigger.  When you network you will meet great people who are willing to help you, don’t you owe it to them to make that job easier?  Equip them to help you with a simple way to understand your value. Build a portable personal brand that makes it a reflex to relay people to you who need your help.

Also posted in branding, Branding Thoughts, mad scribblings, networking, personal branding, Thought for the day | Tagged , , | Comments closed

The Everest Question

There is a difference between getting great advice and getting the great advice that helps you get to where you want to go.  The key is to ask your Everest question.

So what’s the Everest question?  Let me explain.  I could walk up to you and say, “I’m 44 and I want to climb Mt. Everest, what should I focus on for the next couple of years?” and you’d probably be surprised, but after a pause you’d give me your best, well-reasoned, well-meant and practical advice. However, if instead I only asked, “I’m 44, what should I focus on for the next couple of years?” while I’m certain that I’d also get your best, well-reasoned, well-meant and practical advice – I’m equally certain that the subject of climbing Mt. Everest would simply never have come up.  Even hiking would have been a long shot. 😉

It is important for any business leader to seek counsel, but do yourself and your advisers a favor: if you have a burning desire, a vision, a big audacious goal that you simply have to reach, then don’t forget to include it when your asking for input.  And even though you respect the people you have gathered to give you guidance, don’t be shy about challenging them if their great advice isn’t moving you closer to your vision. They can’t help you climb your mountain if you don’t make it clear that the goal is to get to the top.

What’s your Everest question?

Also posted in mad scribblings, Thought for the day | Comments closed
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    Caitlín Mowbray"I adore your doodles... I swear looking at those bunnies lowers my blood pressure, calms my mind and makes me smarter. Who needs meditation when there are bunnies?"
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