You don't choose whether or not you have a brand. You are a brand. I'm a brand. I also have a couple names that can be viewed as brands, BUT here's where most folks get confused. The brand is not the name or the logo or any of those tangible things.

No, your brand is the likelihood of people to do business with you. How you conduct yourself is part of your brand.

"Brand Advertising" usually refers to ads to raise awareness that don't ask for a sale. While being heard of makes a new prospect more likely to do business with you. This is usually a tremendous waste of money. Few, oh so few examples, of image advertising = profit. Most of those examples are in fashion where there is a 30-60X mark up. People are buying the image.

However, I am grateful for free publicity. Most successful marketers I know are appreciative of free publicity that is neutral or better.

Me? I'm gruff and I occasionally swear and if I see something touching on TV I cry. To some, my behavior is too weird to do business with. That's basically why I left corporateland. But I've always had work freelancing. Why? Because I have a reputation for helping people make more money. Sometimes substantial amounts of money.

I am humbled by successful online marketers. They tend to be gracious and have integrity and have made their own money. They were smart like that. Up until recently I was dumb along those lines. I finally realized the $180,000+bonuses salary/stock options and racket was an abusive relationship. I was working 80 hour weeks make others millions while they boasted about our military victories with words like "take that!" wow. If you talk pro-war in front of me I'll probably walk away. Talking pro-war just turns my stomach. I see the need for military, but celebrating destruction of people is sick. No, seriously, I think civilian war hawks who cheer at battles are really demented folks.

I'll stand by my record. Remember the Yo-Yo fad of 1997 that became a craze in 1998/9? Yeah? Well that was over a quarter of a billion dollars I helped strategize. I was lucky to get to work on a project that took off. And, they were lucky to have me. And I'll leverage my experiences like that for all they're worth.

Why am I talking about all this? Because I received an email from J with whom I shared two conversations at Big Seminar. J said it was rude how I was name dropping on this blog. I told J I would not mention his name but reply here...I've emailed with everybody I mention here and they are cool with my use of their name. Everybody but Russell Brunson. I don't know if he's cool with this. But everybody else thinks this is fun, healthy and odd. These successful people don't mind having their name mentioned. Yes, this may be an odd blog, but the main thrust is about health.

Of course I throw around the names of folks you might know...you're familiar with their names and I'm attempting to make myself seem safe and accessible through my connections with them. Besides, I owe more to Mark Joyner than I can fit right here. I admire Tellman and Kevin tremendously. I sincerely hope I offend nobody I reference in this blog. If I do, please email and I'll remove your name immediately.

I love publicity. Even bad publicity. It helps sales. <- That one sold 80 books of mine.