My first newsletter of April, Brand Entropy vs. Brand Harmony, encourages companies to do a little “spring cleaning” to keep their brand from becoming disorganized, confusing and unappealing to customers.
Entropy is the tendency for systems to move progressively from states of organization to states of disorganization– and your brand is not exempt from this powerful force.
Read the newsletter: Brand Entropy vs. Brand Harmony
When was the last time your company made a daring, bold decision that turned out to be wildly successful? Not that recently? Not ever?
But how likely is it that your company’s boring, middle-of-the-road decisions will ever turn out to be wildly successful? Probably never.
Steve’s newsletter challenges you to “Quiver in Your Boots” from time to time– only risky moves have the chance for great reward!
Read the newsletter: “Quiver in Your Boots”
And here’s a link to Apple’s famous “1984″ ad referenced in the newsletter.
As Shakespeare wrote in Twelfth Night, “some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
In our day and age of meritocracy, greatness usually comes only from achievement, not from birth or happenstance. So, we then have the question: “How do you achieve success?”
In today’s newsletter, To Achieve Success You Need To Create Success, I share a an insight I heard recently that sheds light on this question. On the surface, it’s simple, but, then again, sometimes the most important ideas are simple.
Read the newsletter: To Achieve Success You Need To Create Success
In 1997 my mentor/guru/client Tom Peters published a ground-breaking article in Fast Company titled The Brand Called You. Let’s take a new look at the concept of personal branding with today’s newsletter, Your Powerful Personal Brand.
What are you doing to reinvent, reinvigorate and renew your personal brand?
Ah, early January, and the whole year stretches out before us. Plenty of time to do the right things, plenty of time to do things right.
So, how do we get started? What should we do now to ensure that 2011 is a winning year?
This week’s newsletter, What should you do the first week of the year? explores this issue. Hint: If you want to know what to do at the beginning of the year, think about what you want the end of the year to look like.
So what are you focusing on today, the little questions or the big ones?
When you focus on the big questions, what is the most important one?
Read today’s newsletter, Who do we intend to be?, and tell me if you agree with me.
There are an infinite number of possible futures for you business. Choose one! Today’s newsletter, Choose Your Future, continues the them of “Invent Your Future” from the last few issues. Here’s an excerpt:
“Who do we intend to be?” is a question you should ask now and continue asking every day you are in business. Our ability to accomplish things has less to do with skills and abilities and more to do with the choices we make.
Choose to read Choose Your Future. It will help your business (and your career).
Steve took inspiration from the great transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson for today’s newsletter, Invent Your Future- Now.
Here’s an excerpt:
Circumstance affects our results, but we cannot let a blame of circumstance distract us from what we need to do. On the contrary, circumstance should inform what we do. Look out the window at the outside world, and study closely what is happening. Then, turn and look in the mirror and say to yourself, “Ok, now it’s time for action.”
Steve advocates we take charge of our futures and invent them (now!). So, what are you waiting for? Read the newsletter, and Invent Your Future- Now.
If you decided to focus on the top 5, 10 or 15 things that are most important to your business, would you know what they are?
Today’s newsletter, The Things That Matter, addresses this question. What is most important to your business’s future? How do you sort through thousands of issues to find the Things That Matter? How do you create your business’s “To-Don’t” list?
Have a look at the newsletter, and then please share your comments here.
Today’s newsletter, We have seen the enemy, and it is …, explores a truth that confronts most companies: We are a much bigger obstacle to our own success than any competitor or economic hardship ever could be.
Does your company get in its own way? Are there ways to fix this problem? Want to discuss it? Share your comments below!
"When Steve Yastrow writes, I pay close attention"
- Tom Peters
"I had to buy two copies. The first one is so dog-eared and underlined I couldn't read it any longer."
- Seth Godin
Microsoft's Retailspeak interview with Steve
Sign up for Steve’s blog
Read Steve's Free Ebook to start benefiting from profitable We relationships.
Encounters: The Building Blocks of We Relationships (Adobe PDF)
In addition to writing, I spend most of my work time helping companies unleash their potential by creating better connections with their customers. This happens through my speaking events and through Yastrow & Company consulting engagements, where my team and I help companies figure out who they intend to be in the future, and then engage the entire company in creating that future through strong "We" customer relationships.
Before starting Yastrow & Company in the mid-90s I was vice-president of resort marketing for Hyatt Hotels. My experiences in the hotel business showed me clearly that most marketing doesn’t happen in the marketing department. Customers are paying attention to all interactions with a company, not just the promises made in traditional "marketing communications."
For more information, see our About page.
