I love stories about inventive ideas like this one…

About a month ago, this guy in Washington State dressed a green plastic skeleton in a white sweatshirt and stuck it in the passenger seat of his Mazda, just so he could drive “legally” in the carpool lane.

He might’ve gotten away with his scheme, too, ’cept he got pulled over by a state patrolman for speeding 82 mph and making a series of crazyass lane changes.

What a numbskull.

Reminds me of people who carefully research a market, develop a brilliant business concept, launch it, then blow the whole kit and kaboodle with a simple boneheaded slip-up.

And the slip-up is almost always something that could’ve been avoided simply.

One of the biggest business gaffes — and surely the most easily sidestepped — is letting your reputation or personal brand grow “organically” through inattention and (gulp) the mistaken opinions of others.

Great branding is critical to success. In fact, my friend Bolaji O told me recently that branding was the “missing piece” of his online business “puzzle.”

You know, by taking just a handful of clear-cut steps, anybody can harness the power of personal branding.

Don’t be a dim blub like the guy with the plastic skeleton in his car.

His blunder only cost him a $454 fine.

Bungling your business brand can cost you a helluva lot more.

http://tinyurl.com/7afrpe6

Didja see that list of “The 10 Most Hated Companies in America” last week?

The folks at 24/7 Wall St., the internet financial news service, looked at things like companies’ negative press, ROI, and customer satisfaction, and came up with the list.

The “usual suspects” are all there, of course: Bank of America, American Airlines, AT&T, Goldman Sachs…

No big surprises.

Then there’re a few “newbies” on the list who really screwed up royal in 2011.

One of ’em is Netflix. It pulled a real boner with a new pricing policy that prompted mucho customer rage and knocked its stock from an all-time high of $305 down to just 90 bucks in less than six months.

Another is Best Buy. They failed in their we’ll-deliver-by-Christmas promise to customers. Worse, they didn’t even mention there was a problem until just two days before the holiday.

Ack!

I think what’s most shocking is how easily Netflix and Best Buy could have averted these disasters — or at least lessened the impact on their bottom lines.

What it really comes down to is honesty and transparency with customers.

Don’t hike your prices an astronomical 60% without reasonable explanation or warning.

Don’t promise what you can’t deliver, then make up lame excuses for your blunders.

You’d think this kinda stuff would be a no-brainer.

Guess not.

The lesson here for all of us solopreneurs and coffee house kingpins is to listen, listen, listen, then deliver the greatest value possible.

Simple, huh?

I’m a middle-aged geek. And I gobble up those hardcover collections of classic comic book reprints like I do peanut M&M’s.

I’ve got a bookshelf filled with Doctor Strange, Batman, Spider-Man, Fighting American, and a whole lot more.

In fact, the most treasured Christmas gift I got this past year was the third volume of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. reprints from the late 1960s.

Fanfriggintastic stuff.

So anyway, I was digging through some very old Spider-Man stories yesterday afternoon, and I remembered how much value used to get squeezed into just a few pages of comic book way back when.

In just 20 pages, Peter Parker’d share breakfast with Aunt May, argue with his gal pal, sell photos to the Daily Bugle, and duke it out with the Lizard not once but two or three times!

Each issue — which then cost only 12 pennies — was epic!

These days, you’ve gotta buy at least four Spidey comics, at three or four bucks a throw, to read a single complete story!

I’m not sure why this is. Maybe it’s sloppy storytelling. Maybe graphic art styles have changed radically.

But fact is, you’re really not getting much bang for your buck anymore. No wonder the comic book industry is struggling.

What are you offering your customers?

Are they getting more value than they pay for?

Or are they getting “just enough”?

If they’re getting more than they pay for, you’ll see them over and over again.

If you’re delivering “just enough,” well…

Just some food for thought.

I’ve become addicted to James Altucher’s blog. Can’t help but love his optimistic spin on pessimistic times. You really oughta look for his books on Amazon.

Anyway, every Thursday afternoon for an hour, James answers questions on Twitter, then summarizes and expands on ’em in a blog post next day.

Last week, somebody asked him about the best ways to meet new people.

Altucher suggested organizing a weekly dinner club, where everybody in your circle hosts and cooks for everybody else in rotation. And everyone has to invite somebody new to each dinner.

He also recommended taking dance lessons, preferably tango classes. “Your bodies close, you rotate through the other people in the class, you talk before and after, and over time you plan tango outings, etc.”

Both great ideas.

But James didn’t mention my favorite, extremely reliable method for hooking up with new people — hangin’ at my local coffee house. Shame on him, because I’ve never found anything else more effective.

http://tinyurl.com/7afrpe6

As I’ve related time and again, when I got bounced from my corporate gig years back, I grabbed a dusty paperback novel and plopped my rear-end down in the comfiest chair I could find at Bean Town, just two blocks over from my condo in the San Gabriel Valley.

In just a matter of days, I was chatting up the locals (including lots of business people) and expanding my range of influence.

Made money, too.

When Deb and I moved a couple hundred miles up the coast to our present digs, I just rinsed and repeated the process at Starbucks and whatever other coffee joint was handy.

And so far, I’ve been spared having to learn the tango.

Quite a few diehard Sherlockians are bitching about Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the new movie starring Robert Downey Jr. as the great detective.

Two years ago, of course, these same folks were grousing about the first movie in this franchise.

They complain that Downey’s too short, too hairy, too rumpled, and (egad!) too American to be Holmes.

They think there are too many explosions and there’s way too much gunplay.

In general, they grumble that this new Sherlock isn’t the sleuth they love from the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

And they’re right.

But that’s been the case with almost every movie or TV version of Holmes.

For example, the fondly remembered Basil Rathbone movies from the 1940s were set in (then) contemporary England during World War II, not in the beloved Victorian era.

More than 75 percent of the actors who’ve played Holmes have been much too old for the character as fashioned by his creator.

And until a few years ago, poor Watson was always portrayed as an inept fool, not the sharp, stalwart companion he really is.

But Sherlock’s survived all these variations, and revisions, and reworkings. Doyle’s original is as popular as ever.

How come?

Well, it’s because in creating the detective, Doyle built an unforgettable, rock-solid, powerful brand.

It’s a brand that’s still so dominant after more than a century that people can monkey with it forever and the “real thing” remains intact and untarnished.

Wouldn’t it be terrific if you and your business were branded as strongly?

It can happen. And you can make it happen pretty damn quickly as we rocket toward the start of a brand new year.

http://tinyurl.com/7afrpe6

Why not give it a try?

My newest product, Breakneck Branding, is live!

You can get the lowdown on it right here.

I think you’ll really like this one.

You and I both know that your personal brand is critical to your success. So the LAST thing you wanna do is risk having it grow “organically” through your own negligence or the false opinions of others.

I’ve gathered all the super-speed brand-building secrets you need into a no-B.S., 43-page report. Plus, I’ve added a 35-minute MP3 training audio that I recorded while drinking a dark beer in my backyard.

Does THAT brand me or what?

Best thing…

This thingamabob ain’t a pricey $97 product.

It’s probably cheaper than buying your kids a coupla Happy Meals.

Go for it.

Right this minute, I have 2,542 Facebook friends.

At the risk of causing hurt feelings, maybe that’s just too damn many.

(Don’t fret. If you’re among them, I won’t “unfriend” you suddenly — unless you really provoke me, of course.)

Thing is, Seth Godin got me re-thinking Facebook in a recent blog post about “social media noise.”

What he pointed out was that when we focus on only increasing our numbers, our soapbox may grow quickly but our audience loses its focus and responsiveness.

In social media, he said, more noise ain’t necessarily better noise.

When you have big numbers, Godin wrote, it may look like you’re winning, “but it’s actually a double-edged form of losing. First, you’re polluting a powerful space, turning signals into noise and bringing down the level of discourse for everyone. And second, you’re wasting your time when you could be building a tribe instead, could be earning permission, could be creating a channel where your voice is actually welcomed.”

His advice: “Relentlessly focus. Prune your message and your list and build a reputation that’s worth owning and an audience that cares.”

Makes sense to me. In fact, direct response giants like Gary Halbert and Dan Kennedy told me pretty much the same thing 15 or more years ago. I’d just put their counsel aside when I moved my business onto the internet.

Next time you start accepting friend and follower requests willy-nilly in your social media of choice, ask yourself…

Am I just creating more noise…or am I building a platform for creating better noise?

I just got an eyeful of a trailer for the Farrelly Brothers’ new Three Stooges movie, which opens in theaters next April.

All the “nyuk nyuk nyuks” are there from more than 50 years ago. And these three guys who stand in for the real Larry, Curly, and Moe do decent impressions of the originals.

But that’s just the problem, isn’t it?

Despite the traditional pokes in the eyes and jabs in the guts, and the fact that these guys all look, dress, and sound like the Stooges, it ain’t them.

It ain’t the real deal.

There’s a lesson here — for both business and life in general.

Stop copycatting.

Be genuine. Be yourself.

Your internet customers aren’t interested in seeing you do so-so imitations of Frank Kern or John Carlton or Jason Fladlien in your emails, blog posts, or sales pages.

Those guys have already got their personal brands nailed down.

And no matter how hard you try, Frank Kern will always do a better “Frank Kern” than you.

Step out and brand yourself as YOU.

Believe me, everybody will be happier. Even you.

See ya at the movies.

Seen the pictures and films from southern California this week?

Whatta madhouse!

Wind gusts of up to 123 mph have ripped through there, downing power lines, cracking concrete light poles, and shoving trees on top of houses and businesses. They’ve declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County and closed some schools.

Even where I live on the central coast — some 200 miles north of the L.A. area — winds occasionally clocked in at 60 mph on Wednesday night and into Thursday.

Hell, we’re used to the freakin’ quakes out here, but we only see windstorms like these maybe once in a decade or two.

One woman in Pasadena described the winds as roaring up her driveway like a herd of charging rhinos.

Of course, when I think of rhinos, it’s always positive — http://www.wallyconger.com/rhinotactics.

Hope things are a bit less stormy where you are…

My favorite characters have always been lone rangers.

And yeah, that includes the Lone Ranger himself.

Funny thing, though — the Lone Ranger seldom hits the trail alone, does he?

He hangs with his friend Tonto most of the time.

Same thing with most of the world’s other great fictional “loners.”

Sherlock Holmes — who doesn’t seem to like many people — consistently turns to Dr. Watson for help.

Batman may love the solitude of his bat cave and claim to prefer working alone, but he’s had four separate Robins assist him over the years.

Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, and Captain America have each starred in their own movies. Next summer, though, they’re pooling their efforts into the Avengers. (I’m dying to see the results of that, by the way.)

Sometimes, loners just have to look to others in order to accomplish their goals.

That’s sure the case in business.

Each one of my products has relied on the help offered by friends and associates, whether they’ve lent their skills directly or helped out with an endorsement.

Problem is, to reach out to others for help when you need it, you have to…well…reach out. Right?

And some of us aren’t the best reacher-outers.

Take Jay Boyer. He says that his wife often accuses him of being downright antisocial. But in the world of internet commerce, Jay’s been able to build personal relationships with dozens of highly successful internet marketers.

He’s even turned many of them into friends and business partners, and is operating an LLC business with one of them.

I’ve learned a lot from listening to Jay, and implementing his networking strategies has really put a fire under my own business.

You might wanna take a look at what Jay’s got to offer…

http://www.warriorplus.com/linkwso/qrhdjv/17708

What’s really nice is that it’ll cost you a LOT less than a ticket to next summer’s Avengers movie.