Everyone is going to have to create their own brand. Mine is Jonathonsciola.com. It’s my address on the web. You can have a twitter page, an email address, but how can I find you and how can I authenticate that it really is you? 
I suggest that you think about your personal brand. Who are you? What is your preferred offering? In this information explosion it is going to be as important for individuals to create and evolve their personal brand as it currently is for business.
There is a growing battle for your place online. Facebook wants to be your home. Google (Profiles) wants to be your home. Twitter wants to be your home. And there are a growing number of servies that want to make you “live” on their page:
http://flavors.me/
http://about.me/
Or register yourname.me at http://twit.hover.com/
Of course people like me are smart or lucky and we bought our “NAME” jonathonsciola.com and we control our own domain. But what about David Chen or John Smith or you? How do you buy your name, and create your own home online?
Business people tend to use Plaxo or Linked in, however there are arguments that Foursquare or Twitter are better “homes” than those networking sites.
My advice for now is that your email is your home, as all of the above services require one. So make sure you get your own email address from gmail or create your own like jonathon.sciola@jonathonsciola.com and enjoy
1. The rules (of business) have changed
2. (All) Marketing is now social
3. You must lead your flock (as in your customers are your tribe). Search my posts for “tribes”.
4. Every business is a niche business (no matter the size treat your customers as niche/cult followers.
5. Continually adopt new technologies – change will not stop. You must ride the wave or you will miss it. Denial is failure.
6. Think ahead – future is the market. Start to market to your customers using tomorrows methods or die.
7. Be the best (at what you do. Offer quality no matter what. Customers are smart). Love your tribe. Do what they want. Serve them. Give them what they want. Listen.
8. Reinvent. Constantly.
9. Don’t have a business model. (That doesn’t mean don’t plan. It means be flexible). Rather have your finger on the pulse of the heart of your niche tribe.
10. Break the rules. (Yes these rules). In other words be yourself or fail.
Recommended reading: What Would Google Do – by Jeff Jarvis
def. The condition of standing or adhering together, or being fixed in union, as the parts of a body; existence; firmness; coherence; solidity.
I can’t believe I haven’t written a post on consistency
At the end of the day the person who wins is the person who doesn’t quit.
I am convinced that the guy on Fortune 500 list, the man with the most beautiful wife, and the business with the highest market share is there because a better, more deserving and more qualified contender quit.
Consistency has everything to do with endurance: stickability.
1. Don’t start anything unless you intend to finish it
2. Give yourself at least 5-10 years to achieve serious goals
3. Don’t put off anything you can do today until tomorrow
4. Use momentum when it’s there
5. Review your goals daily
6. Start now and don’t stop
7. Never look back
Consistency then is creating a system that works, and sticking to it.
Drew Barrymore: “I pray to be like the ocean, with soft currents, maybe waves at times. More and more, I want the consistency rather than the highs and the lows.”
1. Apply for Awards. Local municipalities, large business and government all offer award categories for small business, large business, micro business, “best enviro business” and so on. This will generate PR, free media & credibility. 
Awards I’ve won:
http://web.bhtafe.edu.au/News/newsBusinessawards07.htm
http://www.nna.asn.au/news-events/news/2007-awards
http://flexicar.wordpress.com/category/flexicars/
2. Join a small business network. Most councils will offer a business network or join BHI. This is a place to unapologetically promote your business, learn and network. It works. Especially for word of mouth.
Melbourne try http://www.bhtafe.edu.au/bec
3. Business cards. Don’t forget, “whoever throws the most spagetti to the wall get more to stick“
4. Submit URL: This is completely free and it works. Submit your www-dot-com to Yahoo. Google. Bing. (Just dont fall for the free-muim crap.
http://www.google.co.uk/addurl/ http://www.submitexpress.com/
Submit URL to Google
6. Greeting cards. Send your clients cards/ecards every month of the year. January = Happy NY. February = Valentines, and so on. It sounds corny but it works. “People are down on what they’re not up on” – phil pringle.
7. Submit your business to online business directories such as Truelocal
http://www.truelocal.com.au/
8. MUST DO: Submit to Google Maps! People driving and walking on the phones will find a business that is listed on Google Maps. Google Maps
9. Blogging: Write about your business. Set up a free blog at www.wordpress.com in 2 minutes. More writing, more findings.
10. Twitter: Stay up to date with your industry by following. Keep your clients up to date as well.
www.twitter.com/jonathonsciola
Contact Jonathon for your first consultation. Can be over skype.
The church has the best ‘product’ on offer: eternal life, and it’s free.
The government. Who voted for Rudd or Libreral or Labour? We vote for vision. I’m going to place my trust in a national vision & brand. Australia and every country desperately needs a brand. To be the safest country in the world with the highest standard of living, free utilities & healthcare by 2050. The “lucky country” won’t cut it.
Finally YOU need a personal brand. In this Information Age we are bombarded with messages and we’re all getting lost. Brand yourself, cos if you don’t SOMEBODY else will!
Here’s a great video from a premium brand. Watch this then get the point.
see : twitter.com/punkbranding
It’s true: we’ve forgotten the fundamentals of business:
1. Demand & Supply
2. Customer Service
3. Quality
I believe the franchise revolution (Australia is the most franchised nation in the world with more franchises per capita than the USA) has resulted in the loss of true, genuine customer service. We have scripted our call centres, manual-ised our customer servant assistants, and systemised our offering. This has resulted in great benefits – profit for owners, consistency for customers and happiness for staff; however the unexpected result is a nation that has forgotten how to love people.
My award winning small business, “Jonno’s Car Wash” was unique in that I actually cared. When I cleaned your car I did it as if Jesus was driving it. As if Nelson Mandela was the customer. As if it were my X5 BMW (2.).
1. Demand & Supply:
We forgot that advertising (yes the ads you see on TV, hear on Radio and see online) are the result of OVER-SUPPLY. We have mastered the Industrial Revolution, the Manufacturing Process, the COGS and FMCG and Just In Time Inventory and thus, have 5,000 brands of coffee to choose from. The essence (excuse the pun!): If there was 1 brand of coffee there would be no advertising.
The result is you need to differentiate. Be a purple cow. Be a purple pastor 
!
2. Customer Service (See above)
3. Quality. Seriously, do I need to slap you? Live as Jesus lived. Walk as He walked. The sluggard does not get out of bed and the result is poverty (Proverbs). If you don’t shave you grow a beard. It’s that simple. If you do not offer a product or service 10% better (at least) than you competitors and at the same or lower price, then you will fail. For me, I offer a quality 200% better and sell it for 300% more – take Nudi Juice as an example.
I don’t care if you are Google or Richard Branson or GE if you do not obey the rules of the above you will fail. Definitely. What would Google do? Be different. Be yourself. Offer good quality at the right price; offer real customer service (like actually listen to your customers) and remember, you are not in control.
Return to your core. I am!
Are you coming with me?
World Franchise Council: http://www.worldfranchisecouncil.org/control/product?product_id=FC_AU (Australia’s Franchises account for 12% of GDP can you believe that?)
I’ve realised that Marketing is about people. It’s about maximising the relationships we have. We must market to our staff, our competitors, our suppliers and our customers. It’s about maximising opportunities, minimising threats, optimising systems and processes, research, planning and work.
The basis for advertising is that there is over-supply. Because there are too many shoes, Nike must advertise and differentiate so that people choose Nike shoes over the 10 million other brands. If there was greater demand than supply, such as for gold, there is no need to advertise. Marketing is different. Everyone must market, even individuals. I believe we all need to self-brand. There are opportunities, threats, processes and systems, work and planning required for all of life. And if you can get the people around you to want you to succeed, to help you then you are better off. We all need to market. We dont all need to advertise.
One rule I live by is: “If you don’t brand yourself, someone else will”. If Nike doesn’t say, “We’re the best shoe and we’re the coolest shoe” then you wouldn’t think that would you? You might say, “Nike are bad shoes, they fall apart, they are made in China,” then a listener – a person who you marketed to – would have an image or brand of Nike that is different from the one Nike has for you. You were branded by a complainer rather than Nike.
The church is the worst at this generally. We have the best product imaginable – eternal life, peace with God, abundance (and it’s free!) – yet we do not brand ourselves well, generally. The church is “after your money”, and “the church is irrelevant” and “The priests are child molesters” are common brands that have been placed on the church. Unfortunately the church is often inept at marketing themselves or seeing the potential problem (and on the other side, benefit) of not marketing.
We need to brand or market ourselves every day. If you dont, someone else will.
The Purple Pastor!
The fastest and easiest way to receive payments is online through Paypal. With over 150,000,000 accounts they must be doing something right! 
I am now receiving payments using Paypal. I believe people want to support me because my vocation is Christian ministry, helping people’s lives and building the church. Marketing is my “tent-making” to use a Biblical illustration and illusion to Paul the Apostle.
I believe people may want to bless me for blessing them. And God too!
Alternatives to Paypal
Google Checkout: Google Checkout
Benefits of Online Payments
- Quick, Easy, Safe, Reliable, Fast.
about.me/jonathonsciola
I am passionate about coffee; in particular quality. I also blog about business, productivity and technology
