I grew up in a family with six kids. At one point, my parents had five kids under the age of five. My father, Ike, was a professional horse trainer/instructor, and my mother, Kathy, an executive for General Motors. Needless to say, our house, at times, felt like Grand Central Station.
To ease the strain of daily meal preparation and clean-up, dinners were often spent outside the home at local restaurants. Imagine the facial expressions of restaurant patrons as six little kids leaped through the front door and sat within close range!
Heidi, Jon, Amy, Jamie, Jeff
In an effort to keep us “occupied” until the food arrived at the table, Ike would play games with us like, “I’m thinking of something in the room, can you guess what it is?” or “Who can be the quietest?” At some point, our excitement would pass his threshold of reasonable. At that moment, Ike, who was seated at the head of the table, would look over both shoulders to scan his surroundings, lean into the table as if we were in a huddle, and in a loud whisper exclaim, “People are watching!” He would immediately regain composure and scan the restaurant to ensure no one had witnessed our [alleged] misbehaving.
From then on, reputation management–personal branding–has been a significant force in my life. Understanding that everything we say (and don’t say) and do (and don’t do) communicates something about us to those around us. In business, our personal brand can be the distinguishing characteristic that either seals the deal with a new customer/client or sends them to our competition.
Drawing real-life examples from some of our favorite personalities in entertainment, politics, and business, BAD for the BRAND™ provides commentary and advice on managing and promoting a strong, personal brand.
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Jonathan,
Your request for brand-damaging experiences strikes a chord, kind of like Seth Godin’s “This is broken” series. Here’s one for you.
For a couple of years, I’ve been a patient of Eternity Medicine Institute here in Las Vegas. This past year I didn’t pay their service fees because I negotiated a service tradeout with them. A few weeks ago they contacted me to announce that a new service year was beginning and it was time to pony up. The fee was $3000, which isn’t a bad number per se for what they do, but they wanted it all up front. I explained that I had a startup company and that being their bank and financing their firm was a bad use of capital. I offered to pay them $250/mo over the course of the year; they declined.
The alternative is a head-scratcher: A program of more limited scope of services at $200 or so per quarter, plus labs & meds (both pass-through charges, no markup). I pointed out that they were a) trading me down by 67%, and still not getting all their money up front as they insisted with the bigger program. Wouldn’t they rather have $3000/yr @ $250/mo than roughly $1000/yr at a couple of hundred per quarter? Apparently not.
So, their rigidity has produced the following business- and brand-damaging effects:
1) Reduced gross revenue by 2/3
2) Converted a former stark raving fan into a reluctant customer whose service package is compromised
3) Prevented my fiance from signing up
4) Changed my story from “you’ve gotta talk to these guys” to what I’m writing now.
You can’t make up this stuff.
Mike
Jonathan, I continue to be amazed at how you relate the real world to law firm marketing – or is it relating law firm marketing to the real world? Do I now need to offer you a commission everytime I refer to one of your topics?
Seriously, cudos for sharing your marketing and business development experience with our colleagues.
Regards, allan
Hi Jonathan,
This is an awesome website! I really enjoy how you draw from real life examples. Specifically, I too came from a family of six brothers and sisters and I can totally relate to your parents ways of trying to keep all of you occupied until the food arrived.
All the best,
Your Rainmaker Brother!