Catch his main nugget of wisdom in the above video as he talks about a key ingredient still ever important in marketing in the new media age.

PS: I hope all my readers and subcribers comment, cause I want to know what you think of this video and the way the topic is presented in particular. Your feedback to this video would help me alot in the current research I’m doing . Even a one word comment is much appreciated.

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Numb.

One of the persons I looked up to, whom I had contact with for about 2 years in the same office, whose values I had treasured, who coached me on some fine points of being smart on the streets, whom I had shared many meals together, who motivated me when times were down, whom I practically saw everyday…

Is now a wanted man by the interpol. That’s international police. Worldwide search. Wanted.

If you’re in the business of mentoring, please. Take care of yourself too.

Your tribe is counting on you.

How do you know if what you’re saying to others about your business (or yourself) really matters? Here are four key questions you need to ask:

1. Is it valuable? 
2. Is it rare?
3. Is it hard to imitate?
4. Is there capacity to sustain the selling point?

If you’ve been following my writings for quite some time, you’d notice that I keep mentioning the personality-growth aspects. Put a unique personality to the test against the four questions above and you’d understand why leaders are killers: a strong personality is valuable as it’s able to capitlize on opportunities and neutralize threats, is rare to come by as you can for example copy the styles of execution but it’s really hard copying the styler himself, personalities are hard to imitate and personalities are able to garner leadership (and hence capacity - organization wise) to run the business in the long run.

Let me use my own case as an example. It is no secret that I am actively being branded as a Malay-Muslim Marketing Strategist, with the right qualifications. I am unique, but not for long. Somewhere someone out there has spotted me, seen my resume, and is following suit. 

Which is why I have to run. Here’s are some of my repositioning tactics for 2009:

• Continue my Arabic. The aim is still the same: to lecture marketing in Arabic.
• Certfication in human psychology. A marketing degree with a psychology background is asset.
• A new book: thicker, meaner, better. I’ll most probably use voice recognition software to “write” this book.

You cannot settle for too long. Similarly, I cannot keep branding my own self the way I have for the past 3 years. We cannot keep using the same concepts, same arguments.

It’s time to move on. Are you with me?

After the meal, I walked to the cashier located at the end of the stretch, and told him my table number (36 I think it was)…

“36… 36… oh, billing for 36 is on the other side….”

My head turned, spanned across the entire stretch of seats and lo and behold, there was another cashier right at the end. Apparently the one i was at were serving table numbers 1 to 30 (something like that), and the other one 31-60.

As I was about to turn and grudgingly walk to the other side with a sort of “you’ve got to be kidding me” kind of mood, one of the staff stopped me in my tracks and insisted that I need not travel to the other side. He told me that I could pay at the cashier I was near at, as he shouted to that cashier exactly what I had ordered and how much I had to pay. So I paid, and walked away.

From slight dissatisfaction to positive referral (hey, I’m blogging about the stall name here). The conversion was in a split second, the results lasting, all because of some quick street-smart thinking to go pass beureaucracy to prioritize customer positivity. 

This article was about easy billing, and how you should try your best to make the payment process (the most painful part for your customer but the happiest for you) as easy as possible. It’s painful enough to pay, even worse to pay difficult. But more than that, the above story highlights why a dose of street smarts is important in the running of your business; having the edge to bend the rules alittle to facilitate what’s important.

Kudos to that dude.

This brings me to the important topic for today. The thing is, I’ve seen many sites where the site itself is really fantastic; nice theme, cool animation, nice feel basically to the entire thing. You get a sense that the person behind this site (since it’s a yourname.com kind of site) must be something. So when the chance comes, and I finally meet the person, guess what…

Disappointing. He is nothing like his site. He doesn’t speak as well, motivate as well… hey, you start wondering if the site is really his.

If you’re building a site about yourself, it’s best to build your offline personality first. This should come even if you never decide to build a site in the first place. Having a personality helps because persons with personality are memorable. You want to be remembered not to be praised at, but to be helpful and easily accessible in the hearts and minds of others when they do need help on something.

So if you have a site, remember to build your offline personality too. Speak confidently and clearly, improve on your language pronunciation, dress well, display motivation.

With that, people will be more inclined to visit your site too. Your site should be based on a personality already there, and not on hollow ground.

It’s a beautful painting of the holy house set against a very serene setting. The minimalistic touch captures the mood, and the treatment of the white jemaah is exceptional. I’ll frame it up soon.

Do you like this painting too?

Never would I imagine reading this piece of news. Let me know what you think.

The article hits it in the nail when it comes to learning a new language. Think about how you know English, Malay or any other language. Yes, you might have learnt one or two quite naturally by speaking the language at home, while others you had to memorize your way tons of language rules and terms. But when you reduce them all to one single denominator, what do you get?

This is an important lesson for brand managers and those concerned with the brand strength of their products. Learn this art and your customers may sing yout product name as easy as you can read this sentence in English without much difficulty. So what is that one big secret?

Immersion.

• You run full page ads with the aim to remind people that you’re still number one
• You continue to maintain (and even renovate) that company pond, field, unnecessary gardening
• You explore costly technology (which you’re not sure really what it does anyway) instead of keeping talent

Times like these, it’s important to emphasize the People aspect of your marketing. Cut their salaries, reduce their bonuses, keep the trust…

The company garden can come later.