Book Review: Brand Against The Machine

As a lifetime entrepreneur, I have developed this insatiable desire to consume information. I love learning from other people who have found success in building their businesses. It seems to go in cycles, I read as much as I can and then take that information and apply it to my business, and then I read some more. Part of the learning process for me is sharing the information that I come across. Before joining First Foundation, I used my previous blog as an outlet to share information like this. I have decided to continue on the First Foundation Blog in hopes that it provides value not only to our business owner clients, but to our business partners as well.

I bought Brand Against the Machine on my Amazon Kindle a couple months after it was released in Oct of 2011. I had it read in 2 days and highlighted over 200 passages and made over 50 notes. If you read a lot of marketing and business books, chances are you have already picked up a copy of this one, however if you are new to this scene, John Morgan's Brand Against the Machine is exactly where you should start. John communicates in amazing bite sized chapters and provides information in a way that it makes sense and is easily applied to your business.

Video Review

I actually planned on recording a short audio or video clip where I went through some of my favorite quotes from the book, but as I spent some time doing research, I came across this video. This cat Keith Nerdin does an amazing job of sharing his favorite parts from the book - so rather than re-invent the wheel, I figured I would just post his Youtube Video. It may come across as a rabid endorsement, however I am not too far behind, this book is really this good!

Some of My Favorite Highlights

• Interrupting people over and over with your marketing message is the craziest way to do business I know.
  
• The future of branding is marketing with people and not at them.
  
• Having a strong brand beats the heck out of selling.
  
• Branding is fluid and constant. Branding isn't a logo or color scheme. It's not a one-time deal, either. Personal branding is extremely effective, and 99 percent of the strategies you can implement to build your brand are free.
  
• People connect with people, not a product or a faceless brand.
  
• THE NUMBER ONE GOAL OF YOUR MARKETING should be to establish and position yourself as an authority in your industry or field. Authority leads to easier sales, more opportunities.
  
• People get paid for who they are more than for what they do.
  

If you would like to discuss this book or anything else business development related, I would love to do a Google+ Hangout with you.

*** Have you read Brand Against the Mahcine? What did you think? Please consider sharing your thoughts or some of your favorite quotes in the comments section below!