How to know if your brand sucks or not

As my "Brand Barbarian" book readers (that will be on sale next month) know: One of the marks of a superb 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) it's 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. Not to mention polarizing religious figures like Jesus Christ. Or polarizing politicians like Trump. Or polarizing media addicts like Dr. Fauci. Or polarizing organizations like Black Lives Matter. And the list goes on. People either love them or hate them — with zero indifference. Very polarizing brands indeed. 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. Speaking of which: The upcoming July “Email Players” issue shows you a secret way to become inherently polarizing, irresistible (to friend or foe), and if you do it right... quite successful at whatever it is you sell across the fruited plains each day. Here’s the link: Ben Settle Copyright © 2021 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this email may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Settle, LLC. PO Box 1056 Gold Beach Oregon 97444 USA To unsubscribe or change subscriber options, visit: