It doesn’t so much matter what you do in business and life, as much as how you do it.

If your business is founded on a passion, you might just have a shot.

If your business is founded on getting rich, good luck to you.

Bob Marley didn’t make music with the end goal of getting rich, becoming famous, and turning into one of the rock era’s best-selling artists. If that was his mission, he would have stopped making quirky island music and started making pop music. After all, that’s what was selling in the 1970s… not reggae.

Bob Marley made music that came from his heart. It was part of his lifestyle. It was embedded in his religion. That intense passion was a cornerstone to his success. It was that passion that helped make him rich, famous, and one of the rock era’s best-selling artists.

Steve Jobs was passionate about design. He was passionate about making technology smaller, more intimate, and more human. That’s what drove him, not the urge to create the most profitable brand on earth.

Start with your passion, and your profits will come.

Enjoy this Bob Marley video. In it you can see, hear, and feel how the music wasn’t something he made… it was something he lived and breathed.

And after that, just for fun, groove to some “Passion” from Rod Stewart.

While you watch, click here to instantly order Brand Like A Rock Star for home delivery or digital download.

“And one more thing…”

It was almost a running joke at Apple product launches. After demonstrating everything a new product can do, Steve Jobs would inevitably, almost at the last minute, find one more amazing thing to show you about their new device. Even after his passing he is tempting us with one more thing, as his biography hints at a pending TV revolution from Apple.

Spinal Tap always went for “one more thing“.  They rolled a model of Stonehenge out on stage (albeit a miniature version), they shocked us with the cover of Smell The Glove, and of course they blew us away with their ability to turn their amps up to 11 in an era when everyone else’s only went to 10.

Walt Disney always went for one more thing. He was always searching for what he called “the weenie“… the one little extra bonus to draw you in, entice you, and leave you amazed.

Rock star brands find that one more thing that entices us, one more thing for us to fall in love with, and one more thing for us to tell our friends about.

One more thing is always something remarkable, and being remarkable is a vital key to being a rock star brand.

Finding one more thing worked for Steve Jobs and Spinal Tap. Pretty good odds it will work for your brand.

There are four other things Steve Jobs did brilliantly when it came to talking up his company’s products. Steve was a master of creating anticipation without relying on empty hype. Those four other things are detailed on page 127 of Brand Like a Rock Star. You can order the book here. 

You can download Chapter One for free here, and read it before you buy.

And one more thing… I’ve written a follow-up companion ebook to help you get the most out of Brand Like A Rock Star. The book is available for free in the Kindle store here. If you don’t have a Kindle, grab a pdf file of the ebook here, and get reading!

Steve Jobs has a history of stunning the world, but this time around it wasn’t a new tablet computer or smart phone that helped him do it. It was instead the shocking announcement that he was stepping down as CEO of the world’s most successful company.

Few business leaders cast as long a shadow as Steve Jobs. He is the human face of Apple. His status is cult-like. While Apple will no doubt carry on, it won’t be easy to replace a leader who is so deeply connected to the brand.

Could The Rolling Stones replace Mick Jagger? They wouldn’t even try.

U2 would never play a show again if Bono left.

The Who couldn’t replace Roger Daltry, even though I wouldn’t put it past them to try (based on their history of replacing mortally departed drummers and bassists).

In fact, when you think about it, remarkably few big-name bands have replaced high profile lead singers at the peak of their career and continued on with any measurable success.

Van Halen managed to successfully replace David Lee Roth with Sammy Hagar, but they’ve never been the same since Hagar’s first departure.

AC/DC did it when Bon Scott died and they recruited Brian Johnson, although Scott wasn’t a tremendously high profile frontman.

Alice in Chains appears to have pulled it off, replacing Layne Staley with William DuVall, and recording a successful comeback album in 2010.

Classic rock bands like Styx, Journey, Foreigner, and others continue to tour with new lead singers but each band is a shell of its former self.  Judas Priest tried and failed. So did Iron Maiden.

So will the new Apple be able to pull off a lead singer change the way Van Halen, AC/DC, and Alice in Chains did?  Or do they risk falling into the abyss of once-great classic rock bands who relentless pursue faded glory?

You can order the new book Brand Like a Rock Star now by clicking the link below. If you’re on the fence, download a chapter for free and sample it first.

“Steve Jones knows a thing or two. Listen and take notes.”

That’s what Gene Simmons of KISS said about Brand Like a Rock Star. Alice Cooper called it “the insight of a rock ‘n’ roll veteran.”

Quite often people ask me if those quotes are real. Of course they are. Gene and Alice were kind enough to read what I wrote and give it four thumbs up, and I’m extremely grateful. Besides, it would be unethical and illegal for me to fabricate quotes like that.

It was important for me to seek out endorsements that created anticipation for the book, not hype.

Anticipation is the pleasurable expectation of something to come in the future.

Hype is the exaggeration of something’s importance in order to get publicity.

Had Gene Simmons said “Steve’s book is better than anything Ries and Trout ever wrote”, I would have been flattered, but I couldn’t have used an endorsement like that. Ries and Trout set the standard for marketing books, and it would be insane for me to raise expectations to that level. That’s just hype.

Smart advertising avoids hype. Smart advertising creates anticipation. It has a magical way of making you feel like that product might actually be better than the ads portray it to be. Smart advertising uses honesty and frames the message in reality.

Axl Rose blew it with the Guns ‘N Roses album Chinese Democracy. It was quite a decent album, for the record. But nearly 20 years of hype about the album created expectations that could never be lived up to.

Hype is created by using unsubstantiated claims of greatness. It is normally full of cliches like “best ever” and “one time only” and “never before seen”. Hype works when you don’t care if you ever see the customer again. It works if you are competing entirely on price and price alone. But in terms of building a long-term viable brand, it most often fails.

“Death by hype” is the title of Chapter Ten of Brand Like a Rock Star. In it, we look at the Segway, the Star Wars trilogy, and five tricks you can learn from watching Steve Jobs build anticpation for Apple products. You can order the book here for just $14.95. I’m pretty sure you’ll like it.

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.

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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.