Photo by Miguel Saavedra

Bruce Springsteen is the working-class boy who was born to run from the fading factories of New Jersey.

Journey is the band who lost their lead singer, then discovered a perfect sound-alike on YouTube and made him a star.

Lady Gaga is the eccentric art student from New York who combines her love of music with her love of art and fashion.

Led Zeppelin is the band Jimmy Page formed in order to play some gigs that he was hired for, and Keith Moon of The Who told him the band would go over like a “lead zeppelin”.

Every great brand begins with a great story.

I’m a personal fan of Zacapa rum, a brand that tells a truly fantastic story. Their story is “altitude”.

Zacapa rums are aged in what the company calls “the house above the clouds”, 7544 feet above sea level in the mountains of Guatemala. No other rum in the world is aged at such high altitude, where the air is thin, cool, and clean.

Does high-altitude aging make for a better rum? I haven’t got a clue. But it’s a damn good story.

When I meet other rum lovers, I tell them the Zacapa story.

Your brand’s story (and your personal brand’s story) is a talking point. It is a conversation starter. It is word-of-mouth gasoline to set your brand on fire.

Brands without a story are just products.

Take a tour of the Zacapa rum website and see how their high-altitude story is central to everything they do.

Uncover your story | Share your story | Celebrate your story

Follow-up reading:

1. The Bruce Springsteen story

2. How to use storytelling in your advertising to create a “dramatic arc”

3. Part of Bob Dylan’s story is how he borrows from others.

Discover the stories behind some of the greatest rock bands in history, and see how you can put their lessons to work in your business right away. Order your copy of Brand Like A Rock Star in paperback or digital download, with one click right here.

Last night at Coldstone Creamery, I watched someone pass up the chance to be a Rock Star.

She was the Assistant Manager, according to her name tag, and on a Sunday evening I assumed she was be the person in charge. She wasn’t actively working, she was supervising a new trainee.

My 14 year-old son ordered a “Love it” sized chocolate fudge ice cream with Oreo cookie toppings, and the new trainee went about making it with the Assistant Manager diligently watching over her shoulder.

As she placed the Oreo cookie toppings on, the Assistant Manager jumped in.

“We only put one cookie on the Love It size,” she informed the trainee. It appeared the trainee had accidentally placed an extra chunk of cookie on my son’s order.

The trainee froze, not knowing what to do.

“Take it off,” the Assistant Manager barked, and pointed at the offending Oreo cookie. “Just throw it out.”

The trainee did as she was ordered, and my son received his by-the-book Love It sized bowl of ice cream with the requisite number of Oreo cookie chunks. I didn’t say a word. I didn’t need to. When we got back in the car, it was my son who brought it up.

“I didn’t like that Assistant Manager back there,” he said. “Wouldn’t it have been better to just give me the extra cookie instead of throwing it in the trash?”

He was right.

A Rock Star could have given the customer the little bonus and spoken to the trainee about it quietly afterwords.

A Rock Star could have laughed and said “my new trainee is giving you a little extra” and simply let it go.

The thing is, the Assistant Manager did nothing wrong. She did things by the book. She followed the rules.

Rock Stars look at “the book” and “the rules” as guidelines.

Legendary guitarists play their solos slightly differently all the time, experimenting and having a blast doing it. Sometimes they give the customer more than they expected, because that’s what serving their fans is all about.

Bob Dylan plays his songs different nearly every night, because Bob Dylan makes up the rules as he goes along. His fans pay good money to see him rewrite his rule book every night.

Springsteen changes his set list to suit the city, stadium, date, or crowd. He always gives fans more than they paid for.

When you do things by-the-book, you do them the same way everyone else does. You are, therefore, totally 100% replaceable.

That’s the reality.

When you do things by-the-book, you make yourself redundant and expendable.

Rock Stars do things their own way, unlike anyone else. That’s what makes them special.

Are you going to be a Rock Star at what you do? Or are you going to play it safe, by-the-book, and pray a Rock Star doesn’t come along and take your job?

For what it’s worth, Coldstone Creamery, I’m a fan of yours. But when you offend a candy-loving 14 year-old, you’ve got a customer service problem.

Order Brand Like A Rock Star today and elevate your business, personal brand, and customer service to Rock Star levels. Learn the core strategies that made legends like AC/DC, U2, The Beatles, and the Grateful Dead famous, and how to put them to work in your business right away.

I spent two weeks in the Caribbean over the holidays, listening to a lot of reggae music. My personal favorite is Bob Marley.

Bob Marley came from nothing.

He was born in total poverty in the village called Nine Mile up in the hills of Jamaica, and raised in the Trench Town district of Kingston.

In the 1970s, as Marley’s popularity soared, Trench Town became an all-out war zone sparked by divisive politics, drugs, and corruption.

Yet despite violence and poverty, Trench Town produced some of the greatest music Jamaica has ever known. Not only did Bob Marley emerge from the famous “government yards in Trench Town”, but so did many of his “Wailers”, including Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer. To this day Trench Town is famous as the birthplace of rocksteady and reggae music.

Despite coming from absolutely nothing, Bob Marley became a music legend, cultural icon, and modern-day philosopher.

So many great rock stars came from poverty-striken and broken homes, includingElvis, Springsteen, Jay-Z, and Hendrix.

You don’t need power, money, political pull, job security, or corporate influence to be a rock star.

Being a rock star is a choice.

You can chose to create something truly memorable, something game changing, something meaningful… or you can chose to be average and watch the world go by.

Bob Marley chose to speak from his heart and make music that reflected his personal feelings, his religious beliefs, and his cultural heritage. He chose to change the lives of people around him in a positive and powerful way.

If you decide to sit and wait for the right time, circumstance, financial situation, and political climate to “rock”, you’ll be waiting a long, long time.

I think you should choose to rock instead.

Forget about your circumstances and forget about your excuses. Wake up and start rockin’.

With one click right here you can order Brand Like A Rock Star: Lessons From Rock ‘n’ Roll To Make Your Business Rich and Famous. It is a step by step guide to creating a powerful brand that rocks using the core marketing strategies of the bands and singers you love.

George Travis has been the tour director for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band for nearly three decades.

His job is to keep the thing rolling, no matter the cost. Coordinating thousands of people in hundreds of cities around the globe every year, George gets them working in sync to make sure that your $100 investment in a Springsteen ticket is a worthwhile investment.

For years, he’s a had a routine that we can all learn from.

When a new member joins the crew, or when a grizzled veteran appears complacent or disinterested, George grabs them in the middle of the concert and walks with them to the very back of the arena. From there, he shows them twenty thousand fans who have paid hard-earned money to see their favorite musician perform.

Together they gaze out at arena full of fans.

Someone here will get engaged tonight. 

A group of friends who haven’t seen each other in years will reunite tonight.

For many of these people, they’ll never get a chance to see Springsteen again in their lives.

Someone here might die tomorrow.

What memory will you leave them with?

Every customer matters. Every interaction matters. Nothing can be taken for granted.

Before 2013 arrives and you toast the arrival of the New Year, take a moment to gaze out at your arena full of fans… the people who matter to you and who count on you not to let them down.

What will you do in 2013 to rise above their expectations?

What will you do in 2013 to make their experience with you life-changing?

The power is in your hands. Use it wisely. Take your job as seriously as George Travis takes his.

Happy New Year. Be a Rock Star in 2013.

Thank you for all of the support in 2012. The Brand Like A Rock Star project has been so amazing, educational, and fun. Book #2 is coming along nicely and should be published before 2013 ends. I look forward to sharing it with you!

With one click here, you can order a paperback or digital download of Brand Like A Rock Star. They only have ten copies in stock as of today, but more are on order. Grab one, and I guarantee it will change the way you look at branding, marketing, and advertising, and it will help you get 2013 off to a rockin’ start.

I’ve referenced the new book Pendulum by Roy H. Williams and Michael R. Drew a few times before on this blog.

Their premise is game-changing for business communications. They theorize that western society moves in a pendulum over the course of 40 years, cycling between a civic-minded society on one side (a “we” cycle”) and an individual-minded society on the other side (a “me” cycle). In a “we” cycle, we value the greater good over the needs of the individual. Conversely, in a “me” cycle we value the desires of the individual over the common good. These values are reflected not so much in politics or economic cycles, but in popular culture, like music, movies, and books.

In order for your marketing to connect with people and inspire actions, your message needs to reflect the values of your customer. That means you need to understand where we are on the 40-year pendulum ride.

Read Pendulum and understand it. You won’t regret it.

The career of one of America’s greatest musical minds reflects the swinging of the pendulum. Follow along, because this gets spooky.

Bruce Springsteen’s breakthrough came in 1975 with the song “Born To Run”. Eight years before the pinnacle of a “me” cycle, Springsteen was riding the new wave of individualism, singing about breaking away from the confines of growing up in Freehold, New Jersey and escaping off into the night with the girl of his dreams. The song captured the imagination of the growing “me” generation and made Bruce famous.

“The highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive
Everybody’s out on the run tonight but there’s no place left to hide
Together Wendy, we’ll live with the sadness
I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul
Someday girl I don’t know when we’re going to get to that place
Where we really want to go and we’ll walk in the sun
But until then tramps like us, baby we were born to run“

But Bruce’s reflection of the “me” cycle was just beginning. Five years later he would release “Hungry Heart”, an anthem for those on a personal quest to satisfy their individual soul.

“Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack
I went out for a ride and I never went back
Like a river that don’t know where it’s flowing
I took a wrong turn and I just kept going

Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody’s got a hungry heart”

Voted as best song of the year by Rolling Stone magazine, “Hungry Heart” celebrates leaving behind a wife and kids in order to head out on a personal quest to find meaning in one’s life. Individual enough for ya’?

Remember, in 1980 we were three years away from the pinnacle of a “me” cycle. We were all looking to sooth our hungry hearts, even if it meant deserting your family.

As the “me” cycle reached it’s pinnacle in 1983, Springsteen reached a career pinnacle with the album, Born In The USA. The first single from that album was another direct expression of the individual. “Dancing In The Dark” was about a man frustrated by his situation and on a mission to connect with someone, even if only for a one night stand.

“I get up in the evening, and I ain’t got nothing to say
I come home in the morning, I go to bed feeling the same way
I ain’t nothing but tired, man I’m just tired and bored with myself
Hey there baby, I could use just a little help“

Springsteen’s marriage fell apart as he was working on the 1987 album Tunnel of Love. At the same time, society was four years into the shift away from the “me” peak of 1983. The values of the individual were fading, and some “alpha voices” were starting to speak a new more civic minded language. Was Springsteen one of the those alpha voices? The song “Brilliant Disguise” reveals a man who starts to question his wealth and his independence and senses that there is more out there than what he as acquired.

“I’m just a lonely pilgrim, I walk this world in wealth
I want to know if it’s you I don’t trust cause I damn sure don’t trust myself”

And this is where it gets really freaky. Springsteen nearly disappeared in the early 1990s. He broke up the E Street Band and moved to California with new wife Patti Scialfa. He returned in 1995, recording an acoustic album called The Ghost Of Tom Joad, based on the Steinbeck novel The Grapes of Wrath.

The Grapes of Wrath was the story of the Joad family from Oklahoma. Amidst the dust bowl of the Great Depression, the Joads and thousands of other Okies ventured west to California in search of a better life. The book, labeled by many as communist propaganda for its sympathetic treatment of the lower-class and negative attitude towards farm owners, came out in 1939… four years before the peak of a “we” cycle in 1943.

Wow. Springsteen’s musical channeling of Tom Joad in 1995 was an alpha voice speaking ahead of the swinging pendulum, telling us where society was headed in the decade to come.

But it gets even spookier.

The 2001 terrorist attacks on America were a galvanizing moment for the nation, and as the pendulum continued to move toward a civic “we” cycle, Springsteen once again reflected this. His 2002 album The Rising fostered the coming-together of the nation amidst a growing sense of civic mindedness. The song “The Rising” was a church-choir invitation to hold hands, commune, and make each other stronger together.

Come on up for the rising
Com on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight

From that same album, and equally civic-minded, was Springsteen’s tribute to his hometown, “My City of Ruins”.

Young men on the corner
like scattered leaves
The boarded up windows
The hustlers and thieves
While my brother’s down on his knees

In the ensuing years, Springsteen became more politically active, performing on behalf of Democratic presidential candidates, Amnesty International, and other human interest causes. He recorded the anti-corporate album Devils and Dust in 2005 and followed that with a tribute album to Pete Seeger, one of the most popular folk artists of the 1940s… the last peak of a “we” cycle.

In 2007 came the album Magic with the song “Radio Nowhere”, a clear plea for greater social connectedness. Remember… we are now four years into the rise of civic “we” cycle and Bruce Springsteen is searching for “a million different voices speaking in tongues”.

I want a thousand guitars

I want pounding drums

I want a million different voices speaking in tongues

After campaigning on behalf of Barack Obama and recording the optimistic album Working on a Dream, Springsteen returned in 2012 with Wrecking Ball. Now, with society in full swing up towards the 2023 peak of a civic “we” cycle, Bruce is even more angry at corporate America and more inspired to bring us together for the common good. Witness the lyrics of “We Take Care of Our Own”:

From Chicago to New Orleans
From the muscle to the bone
From the shotgun shack to the Superdome
We yelled “help” but the cavalry stayed home
There ain’t no-one hearing the bugle blown
We take care of our own
Wherever this flag’s flown
We take care of our own

In “Wrecking Ball”, Bruce stands arm-in-arm with his Jersey neighbors, issuing a challenge to those who want to bring them down.

Now my home’s here in these Meadowlands where mosquitoes grow big as airplanes
Here where the blood is spilled, the arena’s filled, and giants played their games
So raise up your glasses and let me hear your voices call
Because tonight all the dead are here, so bring on your wrecking ball

A quick recap:

Springsteen emerged in the decade preceding the pinnacle of a “me” cycle. It peaked in 1983, just as Springsteen’s career reached it’s first peak with Born In The USA.

In the late 1980s he appeared to be confused about his place in the world, and in the early 1990s he faded away.

Just as the “me” cycle softened, Springsteen musically channeled the best-selling novel of the last “we” cycle, The Grapes of Wrath.

When the pendulum finally crossed the fulcrum and began to move toward a civic-minded “we” cycle, Bruce held hands with America on The Rising.

And now, with the pendulum just a decade away from the 2013 peak of a “we” cycle, he sings “We Take Care of Our Own” and reminds us that we are stronger together.

Not every song on every album reflects the pendulum in action. I’m looking at key songs from Bruce’s career and measuring the overall tone and texture of his music, and overlaying that with the evidence put forth by Roy Williams and Michael Drew.

But if you’ve ever wondered how Bruce Springsteen has been able to so adeptly tap into the psyche of America year after year, read Pendulum.

Without ever consciously knowing it, Springsteen absolutely intuitively understands it.

If you want your marketing to connect with people tomorrow and in years to come, you need to understand it as well.

Even as the economy slowly improves, business isn’t getting any easier. The consumer has more choices than ever, and when faced with so many choices every product starts to look the same. In that environment of confusion, they default to a buying decision on the one criteria they can easily understand… price.

That’s what customers do.

But fans are different. Fans are so engaged in your brand that the plethora of new choices doesn’t entice them, nor does the lure of saving a few bucks.

U2 fans didn’t skip the band’s 360-Tour last year and instead go see a cheaper cover band. U2 fans made the 360-Tour, conducted in a severely down economy, the most profitable concert tour in music history.

Bruce Springsteen managed to shatter numerous attendance records, including a crowd of 84,218 at Wrigley Field.

And when the Rolling Stones announce a full tour, you can bet that every show will sell out.

Yes, there are people who will skip the show because they can’t afford a $100+ ticket. But there will be 20,000 or 30,000 people in every city who will scrimp and save and somehow find the extra $100 so that they can see their favorite rock star live in concert.

Those people are fans. And your business needs more fans… and fewer customers.

Customers are shopping for the best price.

Fans are searching for the best experience.

Customers look at shopping like a sport and enjoy comparing prices and grinding people down.

Fans look at shopping like a chore and dread having to compare and grind.

Customers are looking for a salesperson so they can go home with their new bargain.

Fans prefer a friend they can trust to help them maximize their enjoyment.

Customers are loyal… until the store down the street offers a lower price. Then they’re gone.

Fans are engaged in a relationship, and their loyalty transcends a lower price down the street because they value the trust and honesty they’ve found in you.

If your business has customers, good for you. It’s a start. But watch your back. The moment your competitor has a sale, you’ll need to match him. It is a never-ending low-margin cycle. Lather, rinse, repeat. You can either settle into a life of price cutting, or you can begin to turn those customers into fans.

If your brand has fans, you’re rockin’. Give those fans everything you’ve got, like a sweaty and tired Springsteen playing a 3-hour show. Never stop pleasing and delighting your fans. Make it your personal mission to, in the words of Steve Jobs, “make their hearts sing”.

By studying the core strategies of rock stars like Bob Dylan, AC/DC, KISS, The Beatles, Lady Gaga, Eminem, and U2, you can learn how to build an army of dedicated fans instead of just a random collection of bargain-hungry customers. Click here to order Brand Like A Rock Star today and make it happen!

Ever notice how bands usually have their least successful albums when they experiment with new sounds? There’s a reason for it.

Why is this lesson lost on so many businesses? Why are so many businesses hell bent on being all things to all people?

I was talking to a photographer recently who runs his own business. He’s really, really good. Stunning work. But his business wasn’t growing very quickly. I asked him what he specializes in, and he said “pretty much everything from commercial stuff to weddings to family portraits to corporate photography.” Well, that makes him one of a thousand doing the same thing. It is hard to stand out in that crowd no matter how good you are.

But what if he only did corporate photography? What if he eliminated everything else and focused entirely on doing photography for annual reports, venture capital pitches, and corporate presentations? There is massive money there, and very few photographers that specialize only in that field.

In the short term, he would lose some business. But in that spare time, he could focus on marketing his specialized brand of corporate photography to big money corporations. My bet is that within months he would be making twice the money, doing half the work, and dealing with far more cooperative clients than bride-zillas and crying babies.

Here is how you can better apply the Bruce Springsteen theory to growing your business:

1. Find a specialized area of your business that you can do better than nearly anyone else… something you can be world class at, and ideally something none of your competitors are doing.

2. Find a specialized area of your business that can make you a lot of money. Let’s be honest, you are in business to make money.

3. Find a specialized area of your business that you are passionate about. You can’t be great at something you don’t care deeply about.

Examine where those three things overlap, and then abandon everything else you do. Use the extra time to focus on your new specialized focus. Spread the word about your unique area of expertise.

Recognize the concept? Read Jim Collins’ business classic Good To Great for more on what he calls the “Hedgehog Concept”.  Imagine three interlocking circles, and the triangle that they form in the middle where they three circles intersect is where branding brilliance happens. The whole book is legendary, but the Hedgehog Concept is especially powerful.

With a flurry of guitar notes and crashing cymbals, the last song comes to a stop. Twenty two thousand screaming fans are illuminated by powerful blinding white lights, revealing just how massive the arena really is. The lead singer of the band, exhausted after two hours of performing, grabs the microphone one last time.

“Thank you Cleveland!”

And the audience erupts once again.

That rock ‘n’ roll cliche is repeated night after night, city after city, in venues small and large.

Most artists, no matter how big they get, are genuinely thrilled that someone is willing to spend money and time to enjoy their music. And they are usually quite happy to show it.

True Rock Stars aren’t afraid to show their gratitude.

Rock Stars – in business, life, and music – show their honest gratitude.

Sure, there are exceptions to the rule. There are divas who derive their own self-worth from their ability to be jerks and still have people worship them. But in my nearly 30 years in the music business, I can safely say they are the minority (and they are usually the least deserving of such worship!).

Bruce Springsteen can’t say thank you enough when he plays. He takes the time to acknowledge the city he’s in, often putting a local spin or angle on his personal stories.

At the only Canadian stop on his 2011 summer your, Jimmy Buffett went out of his way to play a song by Canadian Gordon Lightfoot… just to say thanks to the country he was visiting.

Despite his star status, Garth Brooks is always genuine when he thanks his fans.

Lady Gaga calls herself “the luckiest girl on earth” because she has fans.

Gratitude. It goes a long way towards building a stronger bond between your business and your customers, or fans in the case of rock stars.

But what you might not realize, is that gratitude goes a long way towards make you stronger and more productive. According to Geoffrey James, gratitude is “the true secret of success”. You can read his piece on gratitude in Inc.com. Thank you, Geoffrey, for sharing those inspiring thoughts.

Thank you, for reading… for picking up Brand Like A Rock Star and for turning the little book I wrote into a marketing and entrepreneurial movement. I promise to never stop being thankful and amazed that someone has invested their time and money in what I have to say.

I am very, very grateful.

Being a rock star is hard work. But the rewards are huge.

James Brown was the hardest working man in show biz. You didn’t want front row seats at a James Brown show, unless you enjoyed being covered in the man’s sweat. He was relentless on stage, always striving to give his fans more than they paid for. When James Brown was done one of legendary marathon shows, the audience was as tired as the performer was.

That’s hard work.

Bruce Springsteen is famous for leaving every ounce of energy he has on stage for his fans, walking off the stage physically exhausted to an audience grateful for the chance to spend their money on a show like that.

That’s hard work.

The Beatles may have appeared as overnight sensations in America in 1964, but they had spent several years playing the seedy bars of Hamburg, Germany, perfecting their craft night after night.

That’s hard work.

We live in a world of instant gratification and perpetual short cuts… lottery tickets, miracle weight loss pills, and automated spam that can grab you a million Twitter followers overnight. They are false hopes.

Do not be fooled. Building your personal brand is hard work.

In his fantastic book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell speculated that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at nearly anything. That’s 417 days.

Fortunately, our hyper-connected world offers you more opportunity than ever to learn, network, grow, and put in your 10,000 hours.

Five Ways To Accelerate Your Personal Brand

1. Never stop reading. Books, blogs, tweets, posts, articles, and even newspapers. Read. Be a life-long student of what you do.

2. Network. Always be connecting and talking, sharing and collaborating.

3. Listen. We love to talk, but the best talkers are the ones who spend even more time listening. When you’re listening to others, work hard to really hear what they are communicating.

4. Eliminate wasted time. I wrote a book over the course of a year simply by eliminating time wasted watching TV. I spent nearly every down moment I had working on the book. It was amazing how fast things came together.

5. Always Over-deliver. Forget about hype. Instead of building expecatations, focus on over-delivering and leaving people in awe. Under-promising and over-delivering is awlays smarter than creating false expectations. Make it your mission to over-deliver at every opportunity.

6. And one bonus… Think a lot. It sounds really simple, but it is extremely powerful. Always be thinking. Analyse what you see. Contemplate what you hear. Examine truths. Fill your brain with crazy thoughts and ideas, and then get a good night’s rest. You’ll be amazed how the mind sorts it all out while you’re snoring.

Order Brand Like A Rock Star today and begin your brand building journey using the marketing strategies of rock and roll legends like U2, AC/DC, Bob Dylan, Guns N Roses, Bob Marley, The Grateful Dead, and many others. The digital version can be instantly download for under $10, or the paperback can be home delivered.

Some people have a knack for comedic timing. You know those people who know not just what to say, but precisely when to say it.

Bruce Springsteen has that knack when it comes to singing. He knows not just what song to sing, but exactly when to sing it.

Think about it. In 1984, when “greed is good” ruled and the possibilities were limitless, Bruce reminded a generation that amidst all of that prosperity, some people were getting left behind. In Born In The USA Bruce told us the story of a returning Vietnam veteran, coming home to a country turning its back on him, refusing to acknowledge the mess of an ugly war.

In the months after September 11, 2011, he gave us the gift of The Rising. No piece of music so perfectly captured our collective heartbeat the way Bruce did when he painfully sang about climbing the stairs of a burning World Trade Center from the point of view of an innocent New York firefighter just doing his job.

Today, with a fractured political landscape and a teetering economy that scares the sh*t out of us on a daily basis, Bruce hands us a wonderful new song called We Take Care Of Our Own (click on the link to listen). With shades of Born In The USA, Bruce reminds us to look out for those around us, from “Chicago to New Orleans… from the shotgun shack to the Superdome… wherever this flag is flown, we take of our own.”

Why is a Springsteen-like sense of timing important for your business?  

I don’t know. Maybe you should ask the cruise lines that placed these ads.