The Person to See

Shaq-A-Claus To The Rescue Again

I admire Shaq.  He's never been in trouble with drugs, the law or the league.  He is also a personal brand management master.

He's so smart.  All his self promotion efforts seem to always involve helping others.  His latest venture involves helping homeowners who are in danger of losing their house due to foreclosure.  In his words Shaq "...wants to buy delinquent homeowners' homes and than resell them back to these same folks at affordable interest rates."

Good for you Shaq.  You are the perfect example of the power of the free market.  We need more Shaq's and less government.

Pesonal Branding Finds Universal Appeal

I just got back from doing a workshop on personal branding in Bucharest, Romania and I'm delighted to report that the discipline of personal branding has as much appeal to Eastern Europeans as it does to Americans.

I found the Romanians to be very bright, incredibly well schooled in the English language and hungry to learn.  There was a total absence of professional arrogance even though the average age of the participants was mid to late 20's and the average yearly income was well over 200k/ person.

So Do You Think This Is A Good Idea?

A client of mine was sharing with me the story of his Company's CEO's Christmas present to all of the brokers in the Company.  The CEO sent out a beautiful white box and inside was a bobble head doll of the CEO with his foot on a globe of the world.

Now here's the good part.  The CEO is actually the CEO of a company that bought the company my client works for. That's right, the CEO of the company essentially said to the people who he took over, "Just so there is no misunderstanding I am the king of the world."  Way to get off on the right foot bro.

Now tell me again who on his team thought this was a good idea?  Probably no one but he has in all likely surrounded himself with a bunch of sycophants.

I'm telling you, be sure to surround yourself with a couple of trusted advisers who are not afraid to tell you the truth.  Especially as you become more and more successful. Your personal brand credibility depends upon it.

Have You Heard Of Avtar?

Avtar is actually Avtar Bains, the number one broker at Colliers International.  In 1985 he made $984 total.  Today he routinely makes $7 million dollars annually.  So how did he do this?

I asked him this very question and his response was twofold: (1) He came in earlier than everyone else (without fail he is at his desk everyday by 6:00am) and (2) He made it his business to brand himself as the guy who provided his target audience with inside information.

Avtar began by calling the pension fund advisors who were looking for places to invest their money and telling them about cutting edge market knowledge in Vancouver.  Because Vancouver is three hours ahead of Toronto, Avtar would leave voice-mail messages everyday with each fund adviser which always contained a "Did you know" or "Have you heard" component.

In one year Avtar also made 23 airplane trips from Vancouver to Toronto (three hours each way) for purposes of making the rounds and dropping off some "Did you know" information in person to those same pension fund advisors with whom he had left messages.

Over time Avtar went from "What's an Avtar" to the go to guy for pension fund advisers when they needed to know where to invest their money in real estate.  Today, in addition to making millions, Avtar co-invests with many of the same fund managers who he had left messages for in 1985.

What kind of special inside information can you provide your target audience on a regualar basis that makes them look forward to taking your call?