The Millionaires Secret. Revealed.

By way of Kyle Lacy’s blog I discovered Gary Vanerchuk – which I must say, even from a brief encounter, I WILL be learning more, is a Pioneer of the new Generation. No doubt. BUT he (Gary V) said something that affirmed something that a Millionaire told me once. This Guy – Kozel Boren of Gulf Industries told me – he said… 

“Vincent… The greatest thing I ever learned, was the art of buying and selling degree’s…” 

Whoa – NOW that was revolutionary. In a piece that Gary V did on the show Big Idea – he talks about the importance of investing big into your talent. Your people. and it was like a “Ah Ha” moment as it came together for me… Gary – like many other really wealthy people value their people in a way, and invest in them in a way – that brings on eminent success. 

Just had to throw that out there…

How Many Conversations Does it Take to Get to the Center of a Brand?

“I can remember as a kid growing up watching the commercial with the owl licking the lollipop saying… How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop…” 

Now here I am over 25 years later wondering… “How Many Conversations Does it Take to Get to the Center of a Brand???”… And what’s even all the more intriguing is, the idea that some big companies out there are absolutely oblivious to the idea that people are authentically trying to figure this out! 

How many does it take? Do you want me to tell you?

One. 

Yep. One. All it takes is one conversation, over 15 networks and over 5,000 people (maybe a few more or less) talking about your brand for the new wave of “Web Savvy Pioneer” to get to the “center” of a brand. What’s scary about this idea is that what’s discovered at the center just MIGHT not be your best characteristic. It might be that thing that you may have thought was hidden in the Boardroom under one of those yellow tablets of paper that you get from the drugstore on your way to the office – because you know you are going to have that all important “downsizing” meeting that EVERYONE is dreading… Why did I pick “Downsizing”? Because see… THIS is where your brand can unravel in the matter of minutes – where before you could go on, invisible to the world YET highly visible to those affected… Let me dig a bit with you… Trust me, I am not losing my mind. This will help your thought process. 

Take Jack. Jack is a pretty loyal Team Player at your Brand Site (company) and he is a “Die Hard Brand Fan” of yours. Jack attends EVERY company function and does EVERYTHING to a level of Excellence. JACK IS INDEED T R U S T E D by everyone around him, his word is GOLDEN. He is in modern terms – “The Man”. One characteristic about Jack that is working in his favor – is that he is totally “Social”. This guy, at 25 years old knows half of the planet. His Blog is KILLER and everyone admires his drive, and loyalty to his Brand… YOUR COMPANY is second to none.

For the sake of time… Let’s fast forward… 

It’s 9am on August 26, 2008 and your Company is facing some real stuff. Budgets are upside down and things are bleek at best. You know you will have to let go of some of the team – and it’s NOT because you want too – BUT because you HAVE to. You know that you are going to have to cut in order to survive. SO this is where that trip to the Drugstore comes in – THIS is where the yellow pads of paper come into play – SO play attention… 

You arrive at the office (as normal) with some pretty heavy burdens on your shoulders. You make the announcement to the Receptionist (who too is quite the Social Butterfly, and has one of the hottest MySpace pages EVER) that you need everyone to meet in the Boardroom at 10am… 

At 10am you feel like your life is coming to an end… And the meeting starts. So here you are. You and your team, and little to their knowledge - some of them will not make it out this room with their jobs. The meeting starts… Let’s fast forward… because this part is grim. 

It’s 11am and the meeting is over. People are packing up their desk – and among them is Jack and the Receptionist. Jack – is totally dismayed, discouraged and quite honestly a bit confused. The Receptionist is totally blown away because she called the meeting that ultimately took her income away. See where I am going with this? Let’s make it clear… 

Jack goes home and fires up his MacBook Pro (the one he is worrying about making the payments for now) and pulls open his only tool for comfort right now… His Ping.fm account. He pulls this tool out because in an instant he can broadcast to over 15 of his Social Networks with just one click. He starts off with… 

“My company did something really sucky to me today…” 

From there over 1200 of his Twitter friends know that something is up – Jack is NEVER negative, and 500 Rejaw friends, and 1000 Mashable friends, and ummmm… Get the picture? Next post… 

“My company XYZ Favorite Brand fired me with no warning…” 

Whoa – the plot thickens right? Because now people are really listening and chiming in… Someone who was not hired by your company comes back via their Ping.fm account and says something like… 

“Yeah!! XYZ Favorite Brand discriminated against me and did not even give me a chance!!!” 

And this is where it gets really sad… Remember the Receptionist? Well she always felt that the opportunities for her at your company were slanted – just never said anything to you about it… When she get’s home (because she is subscribed to Jacks RSS feeds – this is how she keeps a pulse on what’s happening at your company in “real time”) reads jacks post, and tracks back to the “Discrimination post” posted by someone that was never even working for your company…. The Receptionist writes a Blog post (to relieve her stress) and she does it in MySpace (remember she has like the hottest MySpace page EVER) and she post a bulletin in MySpace that says… 

“THIS IS WHY CORP AMERICA SUCKS… READ MY BLOG…” 

Wow. I could go on… BUT if you are not already thinking… 

1. Corporate Training in Social Media 
2. Social Media Teams
3. Online Reputation Management
4. Conversation Tech’s

Then there is nothing I can personally say OR do that will get you to see the future of brand positioning, or plain good old fashioned brand integrity preservation. Nothing. So I ask again… 

“How Many Conversations Does it Take to Get to the Center of a Brand?”

The Future Company: Kyle Lacy

“Individualized, cunning, agile and most of all – conversational…” 

As I look deeper into what we have now “dubbed” Social Media – I am starting to see a whole new cast of Players that from the surface of things and from Internet Standard, Protocol, or even call it Societal Rules, seem to be only finite pieces to a much bigger puzzle that has been developing over the last decade. However; as I dig – I am truly starting to see the emergence of a totally new level of communication, interaction and most of all influence that I honestly feel will reinvent the model of how we “conduct business as usual”. I am writing this for The Future Company: Kyle Lacy – and the others like, that I have encountered over the past year in this exciting new space – the Conversation Space, or even better, The Human Web. The companies I am writing this for are cunning, agile and conversational in ways that Influencers will have to pay attention to or imminently fade away in a stream of information that will power commerce at every level. 

A couple of days ago – I let the cat out of the bag a bit, and wrote a post called “There is Nobody in the Lobby… An Intro to Social Media”. This post was the result of almost 12 months of observation at a “involved level” – and what I found was what I feel is the key to future enterprise at many different levels. What I found was the ingredients of a totally new approach to web design and development,  public relations, news syndication, and relevant enough – brand evangelism. What is totally inspiring, and a bit perplexing is that instead of seeing big companies get bigger – I am seeing big companies getting smaller, almost a “reverse growth process” that no longer depends on mass media – yet depends on “mass conversation” and THAT is a concept unto its self – Mass Conversation, that should be explored. 

Stick with me on this – and I promise to stop rambling However; let’s imagine this for a second… And before I write this I want to prelude it by saying: THIS IS FICTIONAL, NOT REAL, BUT IS PART OF YOUR FUTURE… 

Welcome to Mass Conversation a Kyle Lacy Company. Why Kyle Lacy? Well just like my finite discoveries over the last year (because there is so much more to learn) – what I am finding is that through the organic and REAL nature of the web – finding the Modern “Rock Stars” does not take American Idol – it takes you being connected to the CONVERSATION – Kyle Lacy is a Social Media Guy - that after I followed his footprint – would indeed be the perfect Candidate for this new venture we are about to embark on…. Easy enough? Let’s move forward… Mass Conversation (the company Kyle Lacy Pioneered) is the new face of Mass Marketing, Mass Communications, Mass Media – blah blah blah… Because in the expiring paradigm each of these modes of “Mass” were directed at us, and not WITH us. NOW THAT IS RELEVANT. Mass marketing was Mass Marketing TO The masses… No REAL feedback, “here take my marketing”. Mass Communications – Talked to a LOT of us… Not with us. Mass Media, had us all experiencing a LOT however; never REALLY asked for our input… But if I stop here, I think you get the picture. Let’s keep this rollin… 

Mass Conversation a Kyle Lacy Company. 
Tag Line: Let’s Talk™
Value Proposition: Opening a channel of multi-level conversation giving the consumer the power to influence global brands with their voice.

Is this far fetched? Of course not… Dell found this out the hard way with the infamous “Dell Hell” episode (sorry Dell, this will pass, trust me…), and many other major players are feeling the same backlash of conversation. Kyle Decided to trump the other “Mass” Guy’s by doing the one thing they were all afraid to do. Kyle let the people talk – instead of always talking to them. Kyle opened the door to brand building, and he made sure that when he aired commercials on behalf of HIS Clients, he made sure that the commercials included real people with real ideals about the brand, risky? YES!!! Relevant? Double YES! See… Kyle is the Future Company. And in our lifetime we will see Mass Conversation “refined”. We see it now in the form of Rejaw, Twitter, and the likes – But very soon we will see it all the more.

Maybe I will write a post called “The Mass Conversation Company” – perhaps not… See I feel that when someone, IF someone reads this post, just like I have learned so far, organically, the post will be written by the people who have something relevant to say…