When I read Seth’s manifesto on Gaping Void yesterday, it truly inspired me.

I’ve actually been wanting to finish my own manifesto for a while now. Thanks to Seth, this week I finally got around to it:

HELLO, my name is Manifesto

1. Friendly always wins. Because it’s easier. Because, shockingly, not enough people are friendly. And because our world needs it.

2. Consistency is far greater than rare moments of greatness. Don’t pick and choose the people with whom you are genuine. Maintain congruency of character.

3. Make the mundane memorable. Do something cool every day. Break the silence. Break people’s patterns. Turn strangers into friends. Turn friends into customers. Turn customers into FANS. Be unforgettable.

4. Fans, not customers. Customers, schmustomers. Fans are the people who “love your stuff,” will go to the ends of the earth to work with you, will tell all their friends about you, and don’t need to be sold. Obtain them, love them, stay in front of them.

5. Be That Guy. Even if you’re not a guy. Branding is about becoming somebody who reminds everybody of nobody else. It’s about owning a word in the mind of the people you serve. It’s about being unique, not different.

6. Networking works. Because you just never know. That’s why, simply put, you should talk to everybody. And not because you want to get referrals, make sales or pass out 147 business cards; but because you want to develop and maintain mutually valuable relationships. After all, you can’t spell networking without W-O-R-K.

7. Interaction, not interruption. Make direct contact with your customers and prospects. Build community. Stop trying to sell stuff to everybody. Don’t interrupt or annoy people, rather, interact with them. Customers are excited about interacting and participating with cool stuff, cool people and cool ideas that make them feel comfortable and respected.

8. Don’t sell; enable people to buy. Concentrate your marketing efforts on creating a sense of attraction, a sense of gravity; that magnetizes customers, prospects and fans toward your company through a process of delivering value via your brand. It’s not who you know; it’s who knows you.

9. People buy people first. Before your company, before your products, before your services, before your ideas, before your suggestions, before your work, they buy YOU first. So, put your values before vocation, beliefs before business, person before profession, individuality before industry. And remember, Since you must sell yourself before selling your product, you must sell yourself on yourself. So believe in yourself.

10. If you don’t make a name for yourself, someone will make one for you. You can participate in the creation of your profession reputation, but you can’t control it. And you no longer have just your name, you have your name – PLUS – what people say after it.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Do you have a manifesto?

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Email [email protected] with your manifesto (500 words or less). Submit no later than December 11, 2006, and I’ll post my favorites on this blog!

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Scott Ginsberg
Author/Speaker/That Guy with the Nametag
www.hellomynameisscott.com

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