Branding is Sex; Who’s the Hero; ScaleUp Rock Stars; Scaling Up Abstract

"…insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Phone Addiction on Vacation? — this timely (Northern Hemisphere) HBR article tackles this ever-increasing challenge – can you set your phone aside while on vacation, and if not, what to do.

Branding is Sex — this is the title of Deb Gabor's excellent book on branding. You nail your brand and everything else is easier. And as the ever-popular marketing professor at NYU's Stern School of Business, Scott Galloway, has discovered, it's the brands that ultimately provide sex appeal win big. His 15-minute presentation titled "The Four Horseman" looks at Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google through this lens and predicts Apple to be the first trillion-dollar brand (they are now close at $819 billion yesterday). Watch the video – it's a classic on marketing/branding — then get Deb's book (SPro and book club members will get it next week).

Who is the Hero? — jump right to chapter 5 of Gabor's book titled "Who is the Hero?" and read it (then read the rest of the book – it's a quick read). The founder and brand dominatrix of Sol Marketing, Deb and her team have led brand strategy engagements for organizations ranging from international household names like Dell, Microsoft, and NBC Universal, to digital winners like Allrecipes, Cheezburger, HomeAway and RetailMeNot, and dozens of early-stage tech and digital media titans. In chapter 5 read how your main job is to make your customer feel like a hero, even an IT manager as she helped Dell figure out – or the person cooking dinner as she helped Allrecipes discover. Deb Gabor is keynoting our upcoming fall ScaleUp Summit in St. Louis Oct 17 – 18 – come learn directly from Deb and 9 other rock star biz gurus, then stay for the Scaling Up User Conference the next day, Oct 19.

Scaleup Rock Stars — it was Deb's book that spurred our notion that our new initiative ScaleUpU is all about making the leaders of mid-market firms the heroes of their cities and countries. I think of Phil Miner, who I invited on stage in San Antonio at our last ScaleUp Summit. He scaled his firm, Miner Corporation, to over $500 million and created thousands of jobs, yet not a single local city leader had ever heard of Phil or his firm until he made the news when he sold the company, making him one of the wealthier citizens in San Antonio! We want to change this!! Get the media to take notice of these unsung heroes of our economies and give them the recognition and support they deserve.

Are You Happy? — and is it a moral obligation to be happy? John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, who just sold to Amazon, thinks so. When John learned that his close friend (and co-author of his book) Raj Sisodia's daughter was going through a difficult period, he recorded a brief 4-minute message on happiness for her. Notes Raj:

Raj convinced John to let him post the message, which he did on Monday. John's message is a good reminder for all of us – happiness is a choice. "Don't worry, be happy."

Scaling Up Abstract — looking for a first class abstract of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0). Here is a quick summary blog piece I wrote for GetAbstracts – then grab the abstract of my book they wrote. All their abstracts are first class – and YPOers, you have a free subscription through your membership.

EXITING: Thinking about selling the business for $40 million or more? Want to get 25% to 200% more than you thought? Request the whitepaper from the Exit Strategies Summit at Harvard from Denise Richmond at (610) 299-6466 or email at [email protected]

TECHNOLOGY:

Create Accountability – Drive Execution
Click Here to Watch a video example.

Align is your cloud based business operating system designed to keep you on your path to executing your goals. See, in real time every person in your organization and how they are progressing on their priorities – alongside how they Align to the Company Priorities! Scale Up your Rockefeller Habits implementation with www.aligntoday.com – on your computer, tablet or phone. $5.00 per month gets you started.

Better Book Club — What's your team reading? Increase your books read per team member. Easy, Proven, and in the Cloud at http://www.BetterBookClub.com.

COACHING:

Have you ever wondered if working with a coach might accelerate your company's growth, exponentially? Do you have what it takes to move the dial from good to great? Click here to watch Gazelles International President Keith Cupp describes the four most important attributes of successful clients. Contact us at [email protected] for more information.

And if you're interested in becoming a world-class certified Gazelles International coach, please go to gicoaches.com/becomeacoach for more information. If you determine that we're a fit and wish to join our premier organization, we invite you to contact our Dir. of Coach Engagement at [email protected] or 877.217.2253 ext.700.