One of my friends, Philip Tirone, is a master at creating deep emotional connections. In fact, that’s exactly what Elovon, his marketing company, does.  They help clients create strong bonds with their clients and potential clients.  Philip has managed to fill a marketing niche that had been previously void, not because someone told him how to do it, or because he read it in a book.  But, because he has worked hard and perfected his approach through a lot of trial and error and pure old-fashioned effort.  If he were a little younger, and playing football, his name might have been, "Rudy."

You see, Philip does not have the Rudy Syndrome.  On the contrary, he has worked harder than most people I know to gain an edge in a ridiculously competitive marketplace.  In honor of tonight's BCS National Championship Game in which Notre Dame will play for the college football title for first time since 1988, I want to share some advice Philip gave me.  It goes like this: “Throw the corporate look away.”

Here is the lesson he teaches to go along with that simple advice.

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A lot of business owners are trained to think that all their marketing and branding collateral should be glossy and polished. They think that true professionals should embrace the corporate look.

The truth, though, is that people do not connect with corporations.  People connect with people.

This doesn’t mean you should ditch the suits and jump into a pair of sweatpants when you go to your next meeting. It means that your marketing materials should be designed to be warm and personal.

For example, don't just send weekly emails to your customer list.  Everyone does that.  Get personal.  Tell them about you and what makes you human.  In Philip's case, he literally tells readers about his wife, the birth of his fourth child, his goals, and—most of all—his failures. He told his customers and potential customers about how he was practically illiterate going into college, and about how his income tanked one year.  This vulnerability helps his customers and potential customers know and trust him.

"Imagine the weight this carries later when I ask them to do something or buy something,” he said to me. “My customers and potential customers know me. They know that what I’m saying is authentic.”

Philip has an exercise that helps clients learn how to write using a personal and conversational tone. He asks them to look at the emails in their sent file and identify those sent to close friends and family members. Then he tells them to use these emails as a template for style, voice, and tone.

If your potential customers do not know who you are, they will be far less likely to buy from you. Let them know, and they will reward you.

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Thanks, Phil, for being an example of an entrepreneur who does not have the Rudy Syndrome. 

And, now, Go Irish!

As I tweeted on Christmas Eve: what a difference a year makes. Since we racked up an all-time high score of 90% on our 2012 predictions, we're feeling pretty smug at the moment.  But, we have no delusions of grandeur here.  We know our long-standing tradition of predicting the future is based on no science or fact whatsoever.  So, if next year's score is an all-time low, we wont be surprised.  With that overwhelming vote of confidence, here is what we see happening in 2013, in no particular order.

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1.  The madness that is the fiscal cliff negotiations will be replayed all over again at the end of February, when the Republicans will avoid any substantial revenue increases, which we need, and the Democrats will avoid any substantial spending cuts, which we need.  The net result will be the worst of each, rather that the best of both.

2.  Which brings us to prediction number two: Americans will continue to dislike Congress more and more, despite having sent virtually all members back for another term in the 2012 elections, something some people would acknowledge is the textbook definition of insanity.

3.  People will start refering to the year 2013 colloquially as "'13" or "thirteen," rather than "two-thousand thirteen" or "twenty-thirteen."  This will save thousands of wasted words, hours of airtime, Twitter characters, and newsprint as we finally let ourselves merge into the 21st Century, rather than holding onto the "year two-thousand" as if it happened ten minutes ago.

4.  NFL fans, owners, and players will stop pretending and finally acknowledge that professional football is only about making money and has nothing to do with putting together a winning team to which fans can become attached.

5.  The shine that wore off of Facebook after its less-than-stellar IPO will continue to tarnish as other more targeted social interaction opportunities continue to emerge in online communities, and advertisers acknowledge that the Facebook marketing model they didn't really understand doesn't really work.

6.  Americans, regardless of party-affiliation or political involvement, will begin to realize what an effective Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was, as her replacement begins to be scrutinized for failing to live up to the incredibly high standard she set.

7.  Business leaders from various industries will be recruited to run for office as Americans become less and less satisfied with the extremist positions taken by their elected officials, as well as their complete failure to represent the vast majority of the population who have center-right political views.  And, some of those business leaders will accept the challenge.

8.  Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, will move back to her home state of New Mexico to pursue the continuation of her extremely successful and politically astute career in the public sector, this time seeking national office.

9.  Charitable giving will trend toward educational charities rather than those focused on medical research and human welfare.

10.  And, evidence of global warming will continue to mount, regardless of the insistence by some that, despite all scientific evidence to the contrary, global warming is pure fiction.

That sums up our fifth annual look at ten predictions for the year ahead.  Help us keep score and be sure to tell us where you disagree.

But, mostly, we encourage you to spend every day committed to developing your skill on par with your talent. 

Happy New Year from The Rudy Syndrome!



 

As we approach the end of 2012, and reflect on the past 12 months, we have to take a deep breath and determine how we fared on our annual predictions. Any time there is a presidential election, things are necessarily more difficult to predict. But, before we start making excuses, let's see how we did. Who knows, maybe we'll beat our all time record of 80% recorded in 2011. << MORE >>

A month or two ago, with political polls showing widening gaps in favor of President Obama, Governor Romney's public approval ratings slipping, and political pundits claiming he had no chance of winning, presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, looked doomed to certain electoral defeat. If you asked me at that point (and, many people did), I said the following: "if the election were today, Governor Romney would lose. But, there is a way he can win, he simply has to establish a plan, and follow it."<< MORE >>

My good friend, David Horsager, is the foremost researcher and expert on trust in America. He wrote a book, The Trust Edge, which was so well-received, Simon & Schuster, one of the top five publishers in the country, re-released it on October 9th, as their lead business book of 2012. I cannot recommend it highly enough.<< MORE >>

Ever wonder what Rudy Reuttiger, inspiration for The Rudy Syndrome, has been doing since graduating from Notre Dame? Well, you're in luck. He has a new book out. And, as you may have guessed, we highly recommend it. << MORE >>

The Rudy Syndrome is not a disease. It is not even a real syndrome. The Rudy Syndrome is a state of mind. The Rudy Syndrome happens when people of whatever talent level fail to put in the effort to become the very best they can be. This blog is published for the purpose of focusing on how people can avoid The Rudy Syndrome.<< MORE >>

It's January 1, 2012, and it's time for our annual look at the future. Since we got our score up to 80% this year, we are feeling pretty good about our chances. So, here is what we think could happen in 2012, in our purely unscientific, objective opinion.<< MORE >>

With 2011 almost over, it is time for us to turn our attention to the long-standing tradition of scoring our prior year's predictions against what actually happened during the past year. Last year, we were down to 60% on 2010 predictions, as compared to 75% for 2009. So, let's see if we were able to get back to our winning ways.<< MORE >>

Go Daddy has been an active supporter of legislation that allows US businesses to address the theft of their intellectual property by foreign criminals, most recently the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). This legislation relies upon current US federal law. In recent weeks, it has become apparent that our support is no longer sustainable. It's critical that the Internet community is behind any legislative efforts to combat the theft of US property by foreign criminals. Unless and until the Internet community can get behind legislative language that accomplishes those goals, we must withdraw our support.<< MORE >>