"What are you known for?" asks Scott 'The Name Tag Guy'
Have you ever asked yourself:
- “What are you known for knowing?”
- “What word do you ‘own‘?”
- “What word can you google and you appear?”
These were the hard hitting questions posed at a recent AIM breakfast presentation by Scott “The Name Tag Guy” Ginsberg.
For Scott, the answer to those opening three questions is APPROACHABILITY. What is yours?
It made the audience ponder… what IS ours?
…..
Scott delivered an engaging presentation on making a name for yourself. Scott is well qualified to do so since he has made a career out of wearing a name-tag all day, every day. In fact the day we saw Scott, it was his 3,199th consecutive day wearing a name tag 24 hours a day.
When he first decided to leave his name tag on after a function it was a social experiment to see if people would become friendlier. When he discovered that he was instantly more approachable, he made a vow never to take it off! Since then he’s published 8 books, been on CNN, NBC, in Wall Street Journal, speaks to tens of thousands of people every year, earns a six figure income, is in Ripley’s Hall of Fame and yes he has his ‘Scott’ nametag tattooed on his chest. Amazingly he is only 29.
Essentially his presentation was on marketing yourself and your business.
The message that I took home was:
The best marketing is people hearing ABOUT YOU not hearing FROM YOU.
If people HEAR ABOUT you then:
(think personal referrals, email forwards, glowing endorsements, ‘you should speak to these guys’, ‘oh they do this’, ‘have you tried..?’, ‘I know this amazing place’… )
- there’s significant value
- it gives you a positive reputation
- it’s honest, genuine & transparent
- you enable people to buy!
Whereas if people HEAR FROM you then:
(think adverts, SPAM, direct mail, cold calls, sales pitches, ‘Hi I’m from…’, ‘can I interest you in’…)
- there is little value
- they feel ‘sold to’
To expand on Scott’s presentation, I’d like to illustrate his point by giving an example in the Internet world. I am a big fan of Google & it was recently voted the most trustworthy and valuable brand in the world worth over $100bn.
Source: Millward Brown (download 2009 Top 100 Most Valuable Brands – PDF – 5MB)
Now consider, how often to you hear FROM Google? Have you noticed any billboards, TV ads, junk (aka direct) mail, radio ads, cold calls, sporting team sponsorships or full page ads?
I haven’t.
But I have heard ABOUT Google from friends, colleauges, writers, bloggers, journalists, authors, TV presenters, radio announcers, celebrities, presidents, rock stars & raving fans.
Their enviable brand isn’t a result of spending oodles of money on advertising (ie. hearing FROM), it is from having a wonderful, remarkable & memorable company that people want to talk about (ie. hearing ABOUT).
Scott 'The Name Tag Guy' Ginsberg, Toby Jenkins, Mike 'MiniMovers' O'Hagan, Adam Franklin
Anyway back to Scott’s presentation.
Scott urged us to make a name for ourselves because:
“Nobody buys boring, nobody notices normal & nobody pays for average.”
Make the mundane memorable, have fans – not customers and make yourself & your business stand out!
He suggested start by defining your PHILOSOPHY. Write it down. This philosophy then forms the FRAMEWORK for everything you do. This framework becomes your UNIQUENESS. And finally this uniqueness becomes your MARKETING.
So how do you get your philosophy? Ask yourself, “If everbody did exactly as you said, what would the world look like?”
Scott finished by sharing a personal story of a drunken school ‘buddy’ teasing him one night, saying ‘all you do is wear a name tag, I could’ve done that… anybody could’ve done that!’
In response, Scott admitted “…yeah anybody could’ve worn a name tag all the time, but that’s not what it’s about. I have made a name for myself and made a career of it.”
Scott advocates being committed to your philosophy (although you don’t have to get a tattoo) and finished with a powerful reminder that:
IDEAS are FREE & EXECUTION is PRICELESS!
Here’s Scott on NBC.
Scott has a brilliant website called Hello, My Name is Scott, a Top 100 Business blog called Hello, My Name is Blog and an online TV channel NameTagTV dedicated to sales and marketing education.
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PS. This was my first Australian Institute of Management event and it was everything I was hoping for and more. Thanks to Nigel Heyn & Kate Newstead from IT Associates for taking Toby and me as their guests. If you’re considering attending an AIM event, I highly recommend it – the venue, food, guests & organisation of the event were excellent!
Web Design Brisbane: If you are interested in marketing yourself or your business online, call Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394.
