1. Provide a livable income for minimal output: this would ensure that everyone always has a job - regardless of productivity or profitability.
2. Create a sense of entitlement:  change the language from "I earned" to "I deserve"; embed this thinking in your training programs and new employee recruiting.
3. Subsidize destructive behavior: as part of your benefits package, provide free cake to everyone.
4. Remove accountability: remove systems that measure performance and make sure to have zero standards.
5. Ostracize the successful: if someone performs better than others, be sure to spread the results of their success around. If they won't comply, remind them of the importance of sacrifice.

Is your brand Oatmeal or Bacon?  Find out here.

1. Get Fit.  Losing weight and getting fit is an outward sign of inward discipline.  From a first-impression standpoint, people will notice.  More importantly, you will notice.  It will give you more self-confidence and more endurance.  You will be able to work with a clearer head and work longer hours when necessary. 

   Don't over-think this.  Getting fit is a matter of math (burn more calories than you consume), education (learn what to put in to your body and what exercises to do), and discipline (have a plan and stick to it).  If you need help in any of these areas, I strongly recommend hiring a personal trainer - especially one with a sports conditioning background.  Remember, this isn't about vanity - it's about performance.  I also highly recommend the book The Power of Full Engagement.  This is a fitness/performance book written specifically for executives and professionals.

2. Get Your Crap Together.  It might be time for an honest conversation with yourself.  Specifically, this is an honest conversation is about your weaknesses.  Every elite person I know is very aware of their weaknesses.  They have a system for dealing with them - and often are able to channel these weaknesses, turning them in to strengths.  Being aware of and dealing with weaknesses keeps you humble and centered.  The list can be long: our past, bad habits, emotional issues, mental health, financial issues, family drama, relationships, etc.  By dealing with these issues, you are doing what few people are willing to do - which makes getting your crap together a competitive advantage.   My friend and mentor Ron Price wrote an excellent book on this subject called Treasure Inside.  Buy it here. 

3. Remodel Yourself.  This can be summarized as:  buy some new clothes and get a new hair cut.  The cool thing is that if you get in shape and deal with your internal weaknesses (1 and 2 above), you will WANT to look different.  As I have said many times, I don't give style advice to women (at least not proactively!), but here are some tips for my fellow dudes:
    
   1. Don't let your wife/girlfriend pick your clothes for you.  Be a man and do this yourself. Instead, pick up an issue of Men's Health.  Each issue is chock full of ideas for creating a good style.
   2. When it comes to clothes, don't be afraid to find your own style.  If you don't know where to start, stick with classics (Think Frank Sinatra).
   3. Buy suits and sport coats that will last at least 3 years.  This means darker colors and non-trendy cuts.  It also means higher quality, so that it will last.  I recommend Men's Warehouse for suits.  They can help you find the perfect colors and cuts for you.
   4. Once you have the above, you can compliment it with more stylish items such as shirts, shoes, ties, watches, etc.  With the exception of timeless styles, ties and shoes should not be worn beyond a year.  
   5. Some don'ts ... with a few exceptions, don't wear slip-ons with a suit; don't wear button-down collar shirts with a suit; don't wear your tie too long or too short; don't wear pleats. And the biggest Don't of all: don't dress like you are trying too hard or not trying at all!
   6. Find a hair stylist that tells you what kind of hair style looks good on you.  A tip within a tip: find a celebrity dude with a similar hair line as yours to be your Haircut Lab Rat.  He has the bank account to hire expensive hair stylists.  Then show his picture with the hair style you like to your stylist. 
4. Improve Your Communication Skills.  Mediocre personal brands are poor communicators.  Even decent personal brands are good at either speaking or writing.  Elite personal brands are awesome at both.  The great myth is that speaking and writing are some sort of inherent skill.  While you may have a disposition to one over the other, both are learned skills.  As such, they take repetition, practice, and discipline.  So ... find a topic you are passionate about and write and speak on it.  The writing part is easy: start a blog.  Speaking opportunities are fairly easy too.  Civic and business groups, schools, and non-profits are always looking for speakers.  Just make sure your topic is relevant and useful.  If you need help with your speaking skills, join Toastmasters.  It is a boot camp for speaking - and also a great networking opportunity.
5. Expand Your Mind.   Consider this ... if something has mass appeal, it is rarely elite.  By its very nature, mass appeal requires the dilution of awesomeness.  So every day we are fed mediocrity in education, news, advertising, car, music, movies, books, restaurants, etc.  Almost all of this encourages everyone to be average; to blend in.  And, ironically, if you don't blend in, you aren't hip or cool.  Here are some mind-expanding habits I see from elite people I know:
   1. They are readers.  More specifically, they are Learners and books are a great way to learn.

   2. They are "local-vores".  This means they eat locally.  They get to know local restaurant owners and chefs; which expands their knowledge of food and culture.

   3. They are independent thinkers.  They have multiple sources of news and information and research and fact-check what they are told.

   4. They are quotable.  They have original ideas that people want to write down (or re-tweet).

   5. They are not Over-Promoters.  They tend to be quiet and often un-assuming. 

   6. They are happy.  They smile, laugh, and have deep, meaningful relationships.

1. If you have talent, originality, and discipline you don't need the rest of the world to define you.
2. Honesty, humility, and kindness are the most elite of traits.
3. Nothing worth doing can be accomplished without commitment and enthusiasm.  

1. Focus on how much money you will spend.  At some point, marketing became equated with spending money.  Of course, you need a budget - but focus on investing in results, not just spending a budget.  I recommend a "zero sum" approach.  Start with desired outcomes, then establish how much you need to spend to reach those goals.  Keep in mind that word-of-mouth is always free.

2. Create a punch list of tactics.  Of course, you need a plan for what you are going to do.  However, a "check box" mentality distracts from the true task at hand - producing results.  This will prevent you from measuring progress by what you've done instead of what you produced.  

3. Establish a target demographic.  Demographic-based target audiences are a relic of media placement.  Unless you are selling to shut-ins and geriatrics, demographic models have mostly been fragmented.  Instead, focus on the psychographic profile of your ideal audience.  How do they think?  What do they believe?  What are their drivers?

4. Don't worry about a message.   Marketing is all about saturation, right?  It doesn't matter what your message is.  Just get a slogan, a jingle and get your brand in front of enough people and it will produce sales results.  Unfortunately, this happens enough times to perpetuate this myth.  For those of you that don't believe that "luck" should be part of a marketing plan, your message is the single most important part of your plan.  Simply put, your message is what you would say to your ideal audience that establishes an emotional connection and creates the desired behavior.  Simple, right? 

5. Don't worry about quality. This bad marketing plan mistake is partially related to #2 and #4.  The focus on punch lists and saturation often leave a lack of funding on producing quality marketing materials and advertising.  A poorly shot TV ad, a poorly written radio ad, a poorly designed print piece, a poorly designed web site, etc are evidence of a poorly thought-out marketing plan.

6. Write your plan for the entire year.  Frankly, we shouldn't have annual marketing plan.  It locks you in to a plan that has minimal flexibility.  One year in a brand is a long time.  New opportunities will arise, new threats will emerge, and markets/trends will shift.  And you will be stuck in Q3 of your plan using old data and old ideas.  Instead, focus on a strategic plan for the year with 4 - 5 measurable outcomes (i.e. revenue per customer) - then use quarterly marketing plans for the execution side of the plan.

7. Don't establish benchmarks or outcomes.  I've used the term outcomes, benchmarks, measurables, and results enough times to sound like a real consultant.  Without them, you don't have a plan.  
   

1. The Buy Local movement will grow.  American Express's very well-executed "Small Business Saturday" campaign is just the tip of the iceberg for this trend.  Thanks to awareness campaigns, word-of-mouth, and the continued flat economy, buying local will be even hotter in 2012.  The lesson for locally-owned businesses is to not suck at branding.  This starts by actively participating in the Buy Local movement.  It also means investing in first impressions: logo, signage, web, etc.  People want to buy local, but they don't want to buy local crap.

2. "Indie" brands will stay hot.  Similar to the Buy Local movement, Indie brands are hot right now.  Indie brands are more about un-establishment rather than anti-establishment.  This means they are edgy and different, but still have some mass appeal.  These are small record labels, regional chains (i.e. Dutch Brothers), small clothing lines, etc.  The #1 goal for Indie brands (besides having great products) is to have a findable and usable web site - and making sure it is integrated with your social media efforts.  

3. Mobile web will (almost) reach small businesses.  Since the web is people-driven, it will evolve as people change their habits, new technologies emerge, etc.  One example is the rise of mobile web that has been fueled by smart phones, 4G, and greater access to wifi.  For smaller businesses, this means making sure your web site is mobile-enabled - and making sure that you have a good presence on Google Maps.  By mid to late 2012, I also think you will see more small business related mobile apps.  As the cost of app development drops, savvy small businesses will start do use apps to promote their brands and sell products.

4. Integration is in.  This trend has emerged in larger brands the last few years.  In short, it means integrating your visual identity, message, offerings, etc through all mediums.  This is not a new concept. However, the fragmentation of old media and the emergence of all the new media platforms, it is certainly more difficult.  For small business owners, this means making sure that all of your marketing vendors are talking to each other.  This traditionally hasn't happened, so be prepared for drama and push-back from each of them.  Or get them all in a room and post the video on YouTube!   The bottom-line: by not integrating your brand across all mediums, you will dilute your brand, confuse your audience, and look like an amateur.

5. Interaction will be a requirement. Other than small pockets within certain demographics, the idea of "passive" branding is pretty much dead.  Passive branding is part of the old thinking about saturation - that enough people see your billboard or see/hear your ad, then it creates brand awareness.  And brand awareness leads to sells. In the words of Keyshawn Johnson, "C'mon Man!" The business owner in you wishes it works this way, but the consumer in you knows it doesn't.  If you are going to do outbound marketing (radio, TV, billboard, print, direct mail, PPC, etc), you have to give something for people to DO!  This is why QR codes are hot right now.  I'm not sure this trend will continue, because 90% of where the scan takes you is boring or poorly executed.  However, the idea of getting your audience to do something is on the right track.  The same rule applies to e-mail marketing, text marketing, social media advertising, etc. - using these tools is not enough.  There has to be interaction - or at a minimum, a call to action or offer.

Is your brand Oatmeal or Bacon?  Find out here.