Fame – How to Build an Iconic Personal Brand
Author Q & A with Andrew Wood
What’s the essence of your new book Fame?
Becoming famous is no mere ego trip. It is the simplest most effective way to create exponential growth and demand for any professional skills, products or services. In every city in the world, there is already someone who is the most famous lawyer, Realtor, golf instructor, plastic surgeon, jeweler, artist, politician, builder, consultant, CEO or landscaper. The faster you make that someone you, the more business, money, opportunity, recognition, and invitations will come your way. Getting famous and building an iconic personal brand is not frivolous; it’s essential for maximizing your personal success.
Who is your audience?
If you look at any professional, a doctor, lawyer, golf pro, any kind of instructor, accountant, entertainer, it doesn’t matter the one thing they all hate to do is sell. If you become the most famous person in your industry, city or niche you don’t have to sell the business comes to you!
For those in the corporate environment, it’s all about promotions and opportunities, so the same rules apply, become noticed and you move up the ladder!
What gave you the idea for the book?
Chances are good you have heard of famous martial artists Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris. Chances are equally good you have never heard of me, Andrew Wood. I was never a great black-belt tournament fighter or in any Kung Fu movies, but in the 90s I was famous in the “business of martial arts.” That is to say, almost every one of the 15,000 instructors running commercial martial arts schools in the United States and Canada at the time knew my name. At one-point Chuck Norris even asked me to help market him!
Fast forward twenty plus years ahead and the same is true of me in the golf industry. The vast majority of the 28,000 golf professionals in the US know my name, along with several thousand golf course owners and club managers at more than 50,000 golf clubs around the world. In the golf business niche, I am famous.
That niche fame brings consulting business to me, sells my books and gets me speaking invitations all over the world. I make an excellent living on my own terms and often get invitations to stay and play for free at the world’s best resorts. There are hundreds and perhaps thousands of other people who do golf marketing. None of them are famous!
Where did you look for inspiration?
I have read a book a week, have done so since I was 12 years old. More than 50% of those books have been biographies of famous people, Churchill, Lincoln, Elvis, Branson, Disney, Jim Henson, Steve Jobs, Springsteen, Coronel Tom Parker, John Wayne, Patton, Reagan, Napoleon, Phil Knight, Tiger Woods, Icons of politics, entertainment, sports, business and war. They all did little things that made them more famous and built their personal brand. Like Tiger’s red Nike shirt on Sundays. Churchills V- for victory sign. Job’s passionate presentations. I learned little things from every biography I ever read about how to rise above the crowd and build your personal brand. This book puts them all together with my own personal experience into a fame formula. One you can apply to any profession to rapidly enhance your personal brand.
How many key areas do you address in the book?
In the book, I address 12 key areas to building an iconic personal brand starting with your creation myth. Those are the famous stories most of us know, Jobs creates a computer in his parent’s garage. Nike makes cool sneakers with a waffle iron. Ray Kroc’s meeting with the McDonald bothers or four mop-haired lads from Liverpool playing in the dingy nightclubs, of Hamburg. It’s the back story of your personal brand, the who, where, what and why which over time is massaged into a story that blends fact with fiction and becomes your creation myth. All great brands Ferrari, Apple, Starbucks, are built on this foundation.
What are some of the other keys?
Obviously, competence and confidence are essential as is charisma. Almost all famous people have an aura about them that attracts people an opportunity to them. Multiple factors go into charisma, but nearly all are duplicatable. Several of the chapters compliment this one, like the ones on creating your own unique look and having your own sounds and symbols. Perhaps the most important is the chapter on creating your own press. You take your story, hone your key message and get it out to the masses.
How do you do that?
I use all the traditional means, email, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube but I do it differently. I do a lot of content marketing, use lots of slideshows, video, and I do out of the box stuff and some edgy stuff that I don’t see anyone else doing. Then, of course, I put it all together in a complete campaign.
You choose an oversize format for the books with lots of pictures… why?
I wanted the book to stand out from the crowd, and I think many of the things I talk about like how to create a look, charisma and symbols need that visual connection to really resonate with the reader. The book is not only practical but very entertaining, and the pictures just add to that. I spent a great deal of time choosing them.
You produced a 50-minute video documentary on one of the chapters, why?
That was chapter five, how to create an iconic look, a very visual chapter that has tons of photos in the book. I thought it would be an excellent promotion for the book to do a video version of the book. I narrate it more or less verbatim while I intersperse video clips of Madonna, Lady Gaga, JFK, Tom Cruise, John Wayne, Churchill, Evel Knievel, and over 30 famous people.
How will this book help people build their personal brand?
The book will help anyone see the various aspects that go into becoming famous and show them how to start adding the elements into their personal branding efforts. A lot of the keys are simple things that most professional ignore but added together they become a powerful force for enhancing your brand quickly. Becoming famous used to take years with the tools available today you can do it in a matter of months. That fame attracts attention in any industry and a flood of new business follows. From there you can be more selective in who you decide to work with and raise your rates.
You have written over 40 books Andrew, how would you rate this one?
I always like to think that my latest book is my best since I hopefully know more now than when I wrote my last book. Also, my books are quite diverse, so it’s tough to compare. I really like Cunningly Clever Entrepreneur, I would stay that is a book anyone in business should read. Legendary Advice is a great quick read for those looking to get ahead. That said I really do think it’s my best to date, it’s certainly been my most ambitious project.
Where can people grab a copy and boost their personal brand?
The book is available at www.FameAttracts.com
… this is great ! …