One of the marks of a superb marketer and personal brand is how little indifference there is towards you. If people think about you and think either “I can’t STAND that bastard!” or “I LOVE that person!” you are doing it right.
If they are indifferent to you, (don’t react at all) you’re dead in the water.
My favorite personal branding expert Peter Montoya once told Dan Kennedy in an interview:
“The most polarizing brands attract the most wealth.”
Think about any major religion.
Any major political party.
Any giant industry (big pharma, big government, big media, big oil, etc) people either love and defend them or hate and attack.
Ronald Reagan.
Bill Clinton.
Hillary Clinton.
Obama.
Trump.
Dennis Rodman.
The Kardashians.
Jesus Christ.
And the list goes on.
People either love them or hate them — all very polarizing brands.
And, they’re profitable brands that attract/attracted a ton of money, press, attention, followers, etc. All of which is why I declareth that, if you fear being polarizing you will be holding yourself back and leaving so much of the green stuff on the table it’s borderline criminal. On the other hand, if you embrace it, own it, and go with it (as long as you do it in honesty, not fake it declaring you “give zero fugks” or whatever the trendy flakebook one-liner is these days when you clearly do care what people think) you might be surprised how much more profitable your business gets.
And, yes, email lets you play this like a fiddle.
Enter the August “Email Players” issue.
I show you an example of an extremely polarizing brand, a guy who people either loved or hated with a passion — and who not only attracted a huge audience (and gaggle of enemies), but his entire “business model” was so simple most people clinging to their complicated “funnels!” that have more circles than an MLM presentation would scoff.
It’s the model I patterned my business off of in many ways.
And, I’d take the Pepsi challenge laying it next to any of the complicated ones out there.
I’m sending it to the printer soon.
Subscribe here to get it in time, while you still can:
Ben Settle
