Quite often we look to certain celebrities, famous people or influential leaders as the source of inspiration or reason that we do things a certain way or support a certain cause. People like Oprah or Richard Branson for example. But now a book just released "The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived" takes a different look at this and has just listed The Marlboro Man, Big Brother (from Orwells… Read More »Are You Influential – Have You Lived?
Chances are you might well know Kevin Bacon – or at least someone you know, knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone who knows Kevin Bacon. This is the basis of many of the online social networks such as LinkedIn, its not who is your network that migth help someone but maybe someone they know etc etc. An article on the Electronic Recruitment Exchange this week… Read More »Do You Know Kevin Bacon?
Muhammad Ali has sold an 80% interest in the marketing rights to his name and likeness for $50 million last week. Whilst many current sports celebrities are able to strike similar deals – Tiger Woods being the most successful, this is a little more unusual and has only been accomplished by a few such as Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus. More amazing is the fact that although suffering from Parkinson's… Read More »The $ Value of a Name
The two Apprentice programs took an interesting twist this week. Firstly on Martha she asked the ineffective project leader of the losing team to leave and kept the disruptive loud mouth – makes for good TV? It probably did not help that the project manager was a District Attorney – not a group of people that Martha is likely to entertain for dinner any time soon! The next night Donald… Read More »What is worse for a team?
Martha Stewart is 64 today and has just been told she has to serve 3 more weeks house confinement due to a breach of her conditions (she went to an outside yoga class!) This has not stopped her however in re-building her brand – including the launch of two new TV shows – The Apprentice and also a daytime show Martha. For the 2nd show she is trying to find… Read More »Are You Martha Stewart? or Stuart?
In my latest newsletter I wrote about Lance Armstrongs Seven Personal Branding Tips , which prompted one of my biggest newsletter responses – both positive and negative! It was interesting to see that for every 5 positive comments there was one negative slight as to his 'clean image' or questioning his true ability based on the fact that he works with in a team environment versus the individual achievements of… Read More »Lance Armstrong – Is His Glass Half Full or Half Empty?
It would appear to P.Diddy that nothing is in a name – except change! According to reports this week P. Diddy (a.k.a. – Sean Combs, Puff Daddy and Puffy) is changing his name again because he is bored and wants a name to fit his new persona and style of music – which is now going to be rock and roll! Take his example and compare that to Madonna- who… Read More »Whats in a Name – 2 ?
It was interesting to see that the recent recommendation for the Supreme court in the US by President Bush was a John Roberts – which also happens to be the name of one of the White House correspondents who in his early career was a music reporter on City TV in Toronto! This might present some confusion for a time, whilst the appointment is hotly debated and may cause some… Read More »What’s in a name?
I heard on the radio today that a group of people are petitioning for the Nobel Prize to be awarded to Oprah quite possibly a very worthwhile recipient. I use Oprah as a great example of such a positive personal brand – everything that she does is 'on brand' for her – she exemplifies all the positive attributes that personify her personal brand. When you do what you do each… Read More »How Strong is Your Personal Brand?
Just finished watching the latest episode of The Apprentice, always good entertainment, especially the consistency of Donald Trumps personal brand – love him or hate him he is consistent! TV can be a terrible time and mind drain and an easy 'habit' to fall in to – nowadays there are probably just 3 or 4 programs a week that I will try to make a point of watching – the… Read More »Can You Simplify The Apprentice?