I’m very excited to share with you a chapter-in-progress from the new book tentatively titled Rock Your Career.

The book is similar to Brand Like a Rock Star in that it examines the strategies of rock legends, but instead this time it applies them to your personal brand and career development. The goal of the book is to help you build a powerful personal brand, directly leading to more happiness, success, and reward in your career.

Here is a link to the chapter called “Give a Little Bit”: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?pbcc6e9sacxct7m

Each chapter shares a story from rock history, followed with real world examples of this concept at work, and wraps up with a five song playlist based on the band or topic discussed.

I would love to hear your feedback.

You can email steve@brandlikearockstar.com and let me know what you think.

This summer will be spent editing, with a goal to have the book published late this year or early next.

Thanks for the support… for reading, sharing, discussing, and providing your valued input.

Sincerely,

Steve

I get the question a lot.

Which is the most well-branded band in rock ‘n’ roll history?

And as often as I get the question, I don’t always have an easy answer. So many bands have branded themselves successfully! But there are three bands that, in my opinion, have created the most powerful brands in rock history.

These are three bands whose brands transcend their music.

KISS

No band has mastered the art of merchandising like KISS. No band has turned their music into an financial empire like KISS. Few bands have created such a powerful following as KISS did with the KISS Army. Their drive to monetize their music has turned many people off over the years, but it has made the band millions.

JIMMY BUFFETT

The beauty of Buffett is that he turned one little catchy song into a profit machine. “Margaritaville” has become synonymous with the beach bum lifestyle, and fans flock to his restaurants, casinos, and hotels to experience it. They pick up his Landshark Lager beer and wear his clothing line to celebrate the idea of life on the beach. His annual tours have become destination vacations for his Parrothead followers.

GRATEFUL DEAD

Without the benefit of mainstream exposure, the Grateful Dead created their cult by giving away their music, actively engaging their Deadhead fan following, and touring relentlessly. The Grateful Dead made a ridiculously disproportionate amount of money considering the minimal radio airplay and exposure they received, and their brand continues to live on nearly two decades after Jerry Garcia passed away.

What do you think?

Which rock band has created the most powerful business brand?

Download the Kindle version or order the paperback of Brand Like a Rock Star with just one click here, and start building a stronger and more profitable business using the core marketing strategies of rock legends like AC/DC, U2, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and many others… including the three well-branded artists mentioned in this piece.

Can I ask you one little favor?

If you find the Brand Like a Rock Star blog useful and interesting, I would be extremely grateful if you would take 10 seconds and share it with someone in your circle who might also enjoy it. Tweet it, Facebook it, or email it. Do what makes you happy. Thanks!

Few professions rely on having a strong and unique personal brand quite like real estate sales.

And for some reason, few professions play a giant game of Follow The Leader quite like real estate sales.

They all advertise in the same places. All of their ads look exactly the same. The wording of their ads and listings is nearly identical. Even their for sale signs and open house signs are cookie-cutter.

One of the rock star branding secrets is finding and celebrating your unique identity. I’ve wasted plenty of ink and hot air promoting the notion that, while quality is important, being unique is more important than try to be better than your competitors are.

KISS was a struggling bar band going nowhere fast until they put on make-up and started blowing stuff up on stage. Within two years they were one of the biggest acts on the planet, and unlike any act the planet had ever seen before.

Elton John wore wild costumes and played the piano like a madman. Even with Elton’s immense talent, it would have been far more difficult to get noticed without the crazy glasses and getups that made him so unique.

The Grateful Dead turned average songs into magical 20 minute jam sessions, and they invited fans to record their live shows… mistakes and all. The Dead made an art form out of doing things differently.

Rock stars have proven over and over again that being unique is absolutely critical to success. So why 99% of all real estate agents do the exact same things?

Let’s get hypothetical and say you are a real estate agent tasked with selling yet another average 3 bedroom/2 bathroom home on a street of similar nondescript middle-class 3bd/2bth homes.  Your first job is to find something special about this particular home. Let’s say that this home has a perfectly manicured lawn. Perfectly. Otherwise, it is exactly like every other home on the street.

A lawn this perfectly green isn’t really a lawn at all. It is the stadium where brothers throw game-winning touchdowns to each other. It is the ballpark where a son throws a strike into a father’s waiting glove. It is a festival of fall leaves to jump in and an assembly line of freshly made snow angels in the winter. It is where families create the memories that families are made of. Your home overlooking this playground has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, plenty of space for the kids and their friends, and of course a garage to store the many footballs, baseballs, and rakes you’ll be needing.

I can guarantee you that nearly every real estate ad will talk about the things that make this house just like the other homes on the street… the bedrooms and bathrooms and kitchen and living room. The blah blah blah.

Very few would have the guts to talk about what makes this house unique.

In every business, you win when you stop playing Follow The Leader. Instead, start creating ads that could only be for your business, in your town, on this day. Make your voice unique and let it stand out from the crowd.

PS - You should probably buy a copy of Brand Like A Rock Star so you can learn how to build a better brand and stronger business.

PPS – Check out this cool and totally unsolicited review of Brand Like A Rock Star by Mike Michalowicz, author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur and a new book called The Pumpkin Project. Mike is not afraid to be different, and in a world of business start up voices, his is unique and loud (and proud).

The Grateful Dead invited fans to tape their concerts. It was unheard in the music industry at the time, and still today is considered a crime. But they did it anyway. In fact, they created special areas for “tapers” to get the best audio, often directly from the sound board.

They asked but one simple thing in return: don’t sell the recordings for money. Share them with your friends, distribute them for free, but don’t make any profit from it. How did that work out for them? Well, they went on to become one of rock’s most profitable touring acts. And they did it without the benefit of hit songs being played on the radio.

The Grateful Dead gave away their music, and in the process built one of the largest, most passionte, and most dedicated fan bases in music history.

What will you give away today?

You could give away your advice. Your expertise could change someone’s life today.

You could give away your honesty. Maybe your customer is better off buying the competitor’s product.

You could give away some product. After all, a free sample is an invitation to try some more.

You could give away your time. Your money. Your kindness. Your consideration. Your thoughts.

Go ahead and give something away. Ask nothing in return. Expect nothing in return. Be patient… and your returns will come, eventually.

Like The Beatles sang, “and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make“.

I’d like to give you Chapter One of my book Brand Like A Rock Star absolutely free. You can download it here.

I’d also like to give you a book called Brand Like A Rock Star: The Musical Companion. Yes, it’s also free. You can download it here. It is the #1 most downloaded product management book in the Amazon Kindle store.

If you’d like to take the leap and buy the book, go for it. You can have it paperback or digital download here. It isn’t free, but at $14.95 in paperback and $9.99 in digital download, it’s damn close.

Like many people, I spent much of the past weekend being inundated with media hype over Hurricane Irene.

Why are hurricanes given names?

It’s the same reason Lady Gaga calls her fans Little Monsters… the same reason Jimmy Buffett fans are called Parrotheads and Grateful Dead fans are Deadheads… the same reason millions of fans enlisted in the KISS Army.

By assigning names to things, it is easier to build awareness and to create tribes.

In the case of hurricanes, giving them human names makes them easier to remember and report on, and it increases community preparedness, according to the World Meteorlogical Organization.

Fast food burgers are given names… Big Mac. Whopper. Baconator.

Cars are given names… Mustang. Charger. Corvette.

Names can quickly change perceptions. Very few people ate Chinese Gooseberries until the 1960s, when New Zealand renamed them Kiwifruit after their national bird. Kiwifruit suddenly took off.

Names can quickly establish identities. In 1973, the newly independent citizens of British Honduras embraced the nation’s new name, Belize.

As you work to build a following around your business, product, or movement, think carefully about names.

Are you giving your products interesting names?

Are your names making it easier for people to remember your products?

Are you giving non-human items human names, like hurricanes, in order to transfer human qualities to them?

The name Brand Like a Rock Star was carefully chosen. It is memorable yet simple, and when people hear it for the first time they often think they’ve heard it many times before. You can pre-order Brand Like a Rock Star right now for just $14.95.

UPDATE: this post originally came out in May 2011, when Apple became the world’s most valuable brand. I updated it this week as Apple stock closed at new record heights and anticipation grew for the iPhone 5 release.

- – - – -

This week Apple was named the most valuable brand in the world, overtaking Google for the honor.

Is Apple the new Grateful Dead? While the Dead never became nearly as mainstream and financially valuable as Apple is today, the tech brand and jam band share some common traits. Consider these five pieces of evidence:

Rule Breakers

Apple broke the rules repeatedly. They did unorthodox things that other companies were afraid to do, essentially inventing the tablet computer and singlehandedly revolutionized the smart phone.

The Grateful Dead broke all the rules too. They did very unorthodox things, like advocating the taping and sharing their concerts – essentially file sharing a generation before Napster - and creating the concept of the jam-band, free from the constraints of a set list.

Fan Makers

Apple has a long history of building passionate advocates for it’s products, and letting those passionate fans sell their friends and family on Apple products. New Apple devotees are created every day.

Many of us were introduced to The Grateful Dead through an older brother or a high school friend. The Dead were a club, and once you became a member you saw it as your duty to share the tribe with the right type of people.

Visual Cues

Apple created visual cues to let others know you are “in” the tribe. The iconic glowing Apple logo on the back of the Mac is a perfect example. The sleek and distinct look of the iPad is one. The crazy iMac colors of the late 90s were another. When you see one of those visual cues, you know you are among your tribe.

The Grateful Dead did the same. The “Steal your face” logo first appeared in 1969. Other famous Dead visuals include the dancing bears, terrapins, skull and roses, and the jester. When you see “a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac”, you know you are among friends.

Ever Evolving

With each product release, Apple raises the bar. Each new iPhone and iPad innovates and sets a new standard. Product releases are highly anticipated events that get tremendous pre-release hype.

The Grateful Dead did the same. The band was never satisfied with their sound system, always improving it and building their legendary “wall of sound”. They worked with Alembic Inc. to research acoustics and create the best sound systems to deliver a superior product to their fans.

Legendary Leadership

Beyond Steve Jobs, Apple was always a great company full of creative people, but there is no doubt that Jobs provided leadership like no other. Their decade without him in the late 80s and early 90s is considered Apple’s darkest days. Upon his return in 1997, the company embarked on an incredible period of creativity that gave us the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. People often wonder what the Apple of the future will look like without him.

While The Grateful Dead was always a band that extended far beyond the leadership of Jerry Garcia, the band did not even attempt to continue after Garcia’s death. Garcia never saw himself as the band’s leader. They always tried to be a group of equals. But when Garcia died, the band was finished. Various members have continued as The Other Ones, The Dead, Further, Phil Lesh and Friends, Bob Weir and Rat Dog, and the Rhythm Devils.

The book Brand Like A Rock Star is on sale now.

And don’t forget to download the “Musical Compaion” to the book for just 99cents in the Amazon Kindle store. It is a media guide to help you navigate the careers of the various bands discussed in the book.

Book reviews aren’t really my thing. You visit here for inspiration on branding and marketing, not reviews of business books. But every now and then a cool book comes along that is rooted in our shared love of business and rock ‘n roll.

I think the last book I reviewed was the very strong Marketing Lessons From The Grateful Dead by David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan.

The latest is Come Together: The Business Wisdom of The Beatles by Richard Courtney and George Cassidy (Turner Publishing). This new book explores the business acumen of The Beatles and shares it in bite-sized chunks. Each of the short 100 chapters delves into a different aspect of the band and their music, and how it can relate to business today.

The read is a fun chronological ride through The Beatles extraordinary career and does a nice job of both telling the story of the band, and sharing the business lessons derived from it.

For deep fans not much of the information is new, but the perspective of how it relates to modern day business is entirely fresh.

I enjoy the casual tone and obvious passion of the writers. These guys love The Beatles. Business wisdom is found in the actions, and sometimes inactions, of the band, as well as in songs and lyrics and anecdotes. Sometimes the business wisdom is sometimes very theoretical and other times very much immediately applicable.

As noted earlier, I definitely like how the book is chronological, allowing me to absorb the band’s story as well as the business wisdom. It made the book part history lesson and part business lesson. My only minor complaint is that the book would have benefited from more real-life examples from business in which these Beatles lessons were applied successfully. While the lessons themselves are great, often evidence that they can be successfully deployed is missing. It feels like the dots could have been connected in this regard.

No question that this book is a definite must-read for any Beatles fan, or for that matter any music fan in general. It is a fun book that gives you a new appreciation for the business side of The Beatles.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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I’ve been blogging about brands for two years. Regular readers know that my platform is lessons in business that can be learned from rock ‘n roll. All of these blog posts have become the formation for the book Brand Like A Rock Star which comes out October 1.

Over the past two years, I’ve also noticed some rock ‘n roll examples that can be applied to bloggers, and today blogging has become a business of its own.

For bloggers, it is tough keeping both quality and quantity up. It is sometimes discouraging thinking nobody is reading your material. Often you can go a long time without any feedback. It isn’t easy, but it is fun and rewarding… just like making music.

Here are five lessons bloggers can learn from the music industry:

1. Create. In Nashville (where country music isn’t just an art form, it’s an industry) songwriters get together in writing studios and simply write and write and write. Not all of it is gold, but from quantity comes quality. As a blogger, the more you write the more likely you are to create material that you are proud of. My hard drive is full of drafts that will probably never see the light of day.

2. Learn from the past. Hit songs have formulas. Jay Frank writes about it in his book Future Hit DNA. Smart songwriters analyse what connected in the past and use those lessons to create their next masterpiece. When blogging, look back at the posts that generated interest and reaction. What do they have in common? Examine your popular posts and use the results to create your next blog masterpiece.

3. Be consistent. Did you know that Brian Johnson of AC/DC is a huge fan of Rodgers and Hammerstein and the Broadway musical? In his spare time, Brian even started working on a musical version of Helen of Troy. Being as consistent as he is, he never attempts to bring those influences into AC/DC! AC/DC is consistent, song after song, album after album. When blogging, stick to your theme relentlessly. Fight the temptation to blog about things completely disconnected from what you usually discuss. If you have other interests, start another blog.

4. Promote. Music that doesn’t get promoted seldom gets heard. Becoming the next viral musical sensation on YouTube is a long shot. You need to promote your music to the fans who are likely to be interested in it. Likewise, when blogging you must commit to telling people about your latest post. Expecting the world to find it on their own is crazy. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are a great start, as is commenting on similarly themed blogs.

5. Be real and build relationships. Lady Gaga has an incredible network of “Little Monsters”. The Grateful Dead had “Deadheads and Jimmy Buffett has “Parrotheads”. Networks of fans help spread the word about music and create a built-in fan base in each city for concert ticket sales. When creating a blog, it helps to build up powerful networks of other bloggers and people who are interested in your blog’s theme. You can do that through honesty and integrity, not through spam or auto-replies. Comment honestly and intelligently on other posts. Have dialogue with those who comment on your blog. Interact and be part of a community, and in time your network will expand.

If you enjoyed this post and are passionate about music and business, please consider subscribing to Brand Like A Rock Star by email. I will never share your contact info. You can also subscribe by RSS feed using the button on the upper right portion of the page.

One of the questions I most often get is “how do I apply the rock star principles to my business?”. So today lets looks at putting three of the Rock Star Principles into action in a field that I frequently speak to, real estate.

Real estate is a funny business because so few agents effectively brand themselves, yet a brand is incredibly vital to success. It is a business where those who can successfully build a brand can make a lot of money!

Rock Star Principle #1 – Be unique! KISS went from obscurity to stardom in one year by being unlike anything we had ever see before. Real estate agents, however, are notorious for all doing the same things. They all advertise in the same places and their ads all look the same. The Property Guys decided to finally shake things up. As subtle as this sounds, it gets them noticed in a major way… they simply have round signs instead of the usual real estate signs. Property Guys signs look like lollipops! Because of that, they get noticed.

Rock Star Principle #2 – Sell the experience, not the product! Jimmy Buffett sells middle aged dreamers like me the chance to be a carefree beach bum for a day. It isn’t just music that draws people to his concerts, it is the experience… the temporary escape from reality. In real estate nearly every single ad reads the same. There is an endless supply of “3 bedroom, 2 bathroom bungalows” on every street. Instead of selling houses, start selling the experience of a family playing in the yard, climbing the tree in the front yard, and decorating the living room for the holidays. Sell the experience, not just another house.

Rock Star Principle #3 – Build a loyal following. The Grateful Dead famously built up a massive network of “Dead Head” fans without ever having hits on the radio. They did it in a number of ways, one of which was by giving something back to their fans. They encouraged them to tape their concerts, they created special sections at their shows for people who wanted to dance instead of sit down, and they rewarded their fans with free gifts like new songs and behind-the-scenes news about the band. Real estate agents could be doing the same thing. They could create a list of trusted trades people so that new people to the neighborhood would know a good plumber or electrician. They could help set up neighborhood watch programs. They could host free seminars on home improvements or increasing your home’s value. All of these initiatives would have no immediate return, but would build up a loyal network of fans who will eventually need a new home.

Those are just three of the many Rock Star Principles put into real-world action in the real estate business. Later this week we will put three more principles into play in the very competitive and brand-centric restaurant field.

If you have any questions about these principles or would like to have me speak to your group or business, email steve@brandlikearockstar.com.  If you just want to comment, please leave your thoughts and insights below for the world to see.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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This week I received two e-mails that provide an example of why the music industry is in trouble.

The lawyers for the music industry, clearly using automated software to seek out people who might be violating their trademarks and copyrights, informed Google (owners of Blogger) and Mediafire (a company that hosts my e-book) that I was in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for embedding a video from YouTube.  I was also apparently breaking the law by offering “direct links to files for other users to download containing sound recordings”, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

The trouble is I don’t provide links to illegally download music through the blog or through the e-book.  The embedded YouTube video might be an issue, so instead of the embedded video I simply posted a link back to YouTube.  Problem solved.

But there’s a bigger problem.

That problem is that the music industry continues to spend millions of dollars each year trying to shut off the valve of free-flowing music, and only really serve to piss off the very people they want as customers.

By getting to the point where they are targeting me, they are now targeting people who simply observe the music industry and comment on it.  The message I’m getting is that I can’t even be interested in the music industry without getting into trouble with the law.

The music industry is pouring water into a bucket with a giant hole in the bottom.

Their profit margins are shrinking, and their legal costs are ballooning.

They continue to fight the reality that their business model is dead instead of changing the business model.

The Grateful Dead understood all of this stuff 40 years ago, and they were perpetually under the influence of various substances.  If stoned musicians can grasp the future, why is it so tough for lawyers and music industry executives?  What are they smoking?

I don’t have the answers for the music industry, but it seems to me that attempting to preserve the old business model is pointless.  The future for record companies is in music discovery, music promotion, live touring, merchandising, and music exploration.  It isn’t in protecting themselves from bloggers like me who are passionate about the music and the bands.

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