The Brand You Podcast with Mike Kim

In this episode I’ll be talking about 3 Necessary Things I’ve Learned About Endings. TIP OF THE WEEK:  Set your phone or web browser (simply Google "timer") and set it to 15 minute intervals. You'll be surprised at how much it can help your productivity and efficiency. For a full post on this, read A Must Try Time Management Tactic. Like it or not, endings are a part of life. Life has seasons, stages, and phases. You can’t have beginnings without endings. I'm glad I have one more beginning than I do an ending. 1. Endings are Necessary Last year my wife grew her first tomato plant. I learned a number of things about why pruning is so important. 2. Know What Season You're In What season are you in? Do you need to sow? Do you need to nurture? Are you harvesting? Or are you in the winter? We must be proactive about endings. Most of us end things only 1. when it's absolutely necessary because we're on the verge of burnout or 2. when the decision is made for us. Understanding the season we are in will help us embrace the right endings. Spring: gather seeds which fields to work actual sowing and planting protect seedlings Summer: direct resources to make sure crops are growing water, fertilize, prune support plants until they stand on their own prevent disease and keep insects and pests away Fall: harvest time hurry to get crops in before damaged by rain or winter harvest with efficiency harvest with care Winter: get finances in order repair equipment prepare fields review successes and failures, plan for next season 3. Over-relying on a strength makes it a weakness. Earlier in life, my concentration was in art. I won some awards and thought about being a comic book artist. When I discovered music, I put art on the back burner. Music was a strength and opened many doors for me. But I realized about two years ago that I had to prune music from being first place in my life to grow further. Though art and music were bearing good fruit, they weren’t the fullness of what I am called to do. Question: Are you hanging on to a habit, strategy, career, or relationship whose season has passed? Episode Resources: Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud Subscribe: Feedback: If you have an idea for a podcast or a question about an upcoming episode, visit mikekim.tv/question. Also, if you enjoyed the show, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That would help tremendously in getting the word out!

In this episode I’ll be talking about how to launch your blog with maximum impact. There are four things to do, and they should be done in order: Build Your Platform Build Your Audience Launch Your Blog Sell Your Products & Services TIP OF THE WEEK: Get a GLTD - generic top-level domain like .guru or .photo. For full coverage visit DJ Chuang's blog here. Thanks to John Kramp for leaving a review! John's podcast:  Your Leadership Story John's blog:  theriverstonegroup.com Episode Resources: Setup your blog at mikekim.tv/wordpress The Millionaire Messenger by Brendan Burchard Platform: Get Noticed In A Noisy World by Michael Hyatt Blog Post:  Why You--Yes, YOU--Should Launch A Blog Subscribe: Feedback: If you have an idea for a podcast or a question about an upcoming episode, visit mikekim.tv/question. Also, if you enjoyed the show, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That would help tremendously in getting the word out!

In today's episode, we discuss 3 Crucial Things to Consider When Creating A Business Logo 3 parts to a logo: company name slogan icon The obvious purpose of a logo is to make your brand easy to identify. Company Name: easily remembered, easily referred, and easily found. When it comes to a brand’s name, you can generally go one of two ways: a name that means something or a name that you shape to mean something. A name that means something would be Williams Construction Company, or Prudential Life Insurance. The whole business name tells you what it is and who it’s for. These kind of brand names are straightforward and obvious. The advantage: quick & easy to recognize and build up. The disadvantage: boring, easy to forget. The other kind of name is one you shape to mean something. For example, Nike, Amazon, Apple. These are words (with exception of Nike) that mean something, but through targeted marketing and product development mean something very different from what those words mean. Bottom line: credibility doesn’t come from a brand’s name. Credibility comes from performance and reputation. You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do. - Henry Ford Slogan: tell people what you do and who you do it for. Most copywriters will recommend you keep it to nine words. "Quality Is Our Recipe" - Wendy’s "I’m Lovin’ It" - McDonald’s "Like a Good Neighbor / Discount Daaable Check" - State Farm "The Ultimate Driving Machine" - BMW "Think Different" - Apple "Moving at the Speed of Business" - UPS "The Best a Man Can Get" - Gillette Icon: shows your personal STYLE; appeals to emotions and creates affinity Not all logos have icons. Some are text-based, like DKNY, FedEx. Some icons are…well, iconic. Nike’s swoosh. Apple’s apple. McDonald’s golden arches. Some depend on both, like TurboTax. Consider these regarding your icon: Does it mean something standalone, or does it need the typeface to bring it meaning? Does it look good small? If it only looks good big, it may be too complex. Does it work on backgrounds? For example, if you have white letters on a black square but want to put that on a picture, you need to have a black square on all your pictures. If you make it white, then your letters will be hard to read. Don’t use photos. They don’t reproduce well. There are two basic font types: serif (tails, curly Q’s) like Times New Roman or Garamond. Sans-serif are the streamlined typeface. Arial and Helvetica are probably the most famous sans-serif fonts. Color helps appeal to emotions: white - purity / clean / space because adds no visual weight black - luxury / power / strength yellow - happiness / optimism (think the smily face) blue - leadership / trust / loyalty purple - royalty green - nature or growth brown - earthy orange - fun, ambition red - attention / warning Listener Question: Daniel asked, "What do you do when your product costs more than the rest and people aren't as concerned with quality?" Episode Resources: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini Subscribe: Feedback: If you have an idea for a podcast or a question about an upcoming episode, visit mikekim.tv/question. Also, if you enjoyed the show, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That would help tremendously in getting the word out!

There can be a large difference between pricing products and services. Products are easier to understand. Services can be a bit more vague, intangible, and subjective. Here are three musts if you want to sell expensive services: 1. Answer uncomfortable questions. Great copy creates a "velvet slide" that creates a smooth path leading from initial interest to final sale. Copy cannot create desire for a product. It can only take the hopes, dreams, fears, and desires that already exist in the hearts of millions of people, and focus those already-existing desires onto a particular product. This is the copywriter’s task: not to create this mass desire—but to channel and direct it. —Eugene Schwartz Does my child really need prep? How do you prepare my child for admissions? What happens during the course of the prep day? How long should my child attend? (full body copy at mekreview.com/mcvsd) 2. Give people the gift of going second. The more personal and expensive a service is, the more people make decisions based on word-of-mouth. 3. Cook up bonus sandwiches. Some bonuses are lower than the service value, some are higher. Sandwich the service between these bonuses. Episode Resources: Jason Clement, designer of my blog (and many other amazing sites) Eugene Schwartz, Breakthrough Advertising Derek Halpern, Social Triggers Thanks for the reviews! Jared Easley, Starve the Doubts Podcast  Jeff Stephens, Crazy Dad Life Podcast  Subscribe: Feedback: If you have an idea for a podcast or a question about an upcoming episode, email mike@mikekim.tv. Also, if you enjoyed the show, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That would help tremendously in getting the word out!

The great poet and educator Henry Wadsworth Longfellow noted, “we judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.” You can’t always control ROI, or open rates, click through rates, conversions…but what you CAN control is your narrative. The way to do that is to find the thread that ties your story together. This narrative is not about you, it's about the value you bring. Start with 3 words. Do a 360 Review. Enlist your validators. Define your values. Assess your skills. Use your experiences to craft your narrative. Piscataway is the perfect location for this endearing, somewhat disheveled coal-fired pizza joint, where our expertly handcrafted pizzas and foaming craft beer exceed all expectations. Take in our thrift-store décor—you’ll hardly believe you’ll soon be locking forks with your friends over a dish of crispy, addictive deep-fried (yes, deep-fried) brussels sprouts, shot through with mustard, strewed with walnuts, sweetened with raisins—and served with style on a quaint leaf-shaped plate. Wash this down with deep, dark Barnacle brown ale from the Barrier Brewing Company, and you’ll find our cuisine is a force to be reckoned with. Episode Resources: Cliff Ravenscraft's Podcasting A-Z course My narrative at mikekim.tv/about Screencast: How to Launch a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog in Under 7 Minutes Subscribe: Feedback: If you have an idea for a podcast or a question about an upcoming episode, email mike@mikekim.tv. Also, if you enjoyed the show, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That would help tremendously in getting the word out! Question: What experiences and skills do you have that can add value to others?