Branding Yourself at 10 MPH
- Written by Neil Patel on November 1st, 2007
- 8 Comments »
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Creating a strong personal brand through tactics such as blogging, volunteering, and speaking is a good idea, but creating a strong personal brand by following your dreams is a much better idea. A few weeks ago I got an email from Hunter Weeks that read:
Hi Neil,
I learned about you on Workbook Project. There was a link to one of your postings. I’m intrigued by your message and enjoyed reading a few of your posts. I feel I’m living and creating a path similar to that you prescribe.
I’ve got an interesting plan I’m unveiling in regards to distributing my first film - 10 MPH. We’ve already been very successful with distribution, but want to make it much more widely available. This product/idea/phase of life/work is merely a stepping stone of what’s to come. Currently, we’re getting ready to launch our next film - 10 Yards in a big festival next year.
One of your blog posts talked about branding yourself. I’m always thinking about branding in general and really think you gave some nice, simplified ideas for doing that.
Best Regards,
Hunter Weeks
Director
Hunter’s email was intriguing enough for me to actually check out his website. After doing so I learned that Hunter and his friend Josh Caldwell quit their cushy 9 to 5 job so that they could follow their dream, which was to get a sense of America and today’s American Dream. The way Hunter and Josh planned to accomplishing their dream was to travel across the U.S. (from Seattle to Boston), but instead of walking, driving, or flying, they decided to do this journey on a Segway.
Hunter and Josh did this journey with very little money and because of this they struggled. But this didn’t stop them from them reaching their dream, they kept at it and figured things out on a shoe string budget. They turned their weaknesses into strengths by leveraging the media, which allowed them to get press in outlets such Wired, LA Times, Washington Post, The Pheonix, CNet, Boston Globe, and the Denver Post. Instead of complaining and making excuses these two individuals accomplished their dream while becoming somewhat famous.
If you are not happy, hopefully Hunter and Josh’s story inspired you to create some change in your life and follow your dream. A good side effect of following your dream and creating an inspirational story is that you will get tons of PR.
On a final note, I would like to mention that it was a bad branding move for Segway Inc. not to give these two individuals free Segways. If it was my company and a few guys were asking for free Segways for their documentary that revolved around my product I would gladly have given them for free. They are expensive and there would have been a risk involved for Segway Inc., but they could have at least loaned them Segways or gave a discount instead of charging them the full price.
**RSS readers, if you can’t see the video within the post click here to watch it.
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 11:50 am and is filed under Fame. You can follow the blog through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Agreed on the lack of branding by Segway. Amazing how often big companies miss out on opportunities like this.
I met some guys this weekend at a Barcamp in LA and they were making a film. Similar story and they’ve collected quite a bit of cash while living up to a students dream.
Yea, problem is tons of companies are making mistakes like Segway on a regular basis… just look at Mentos and Coke.
I’m a new reader and am incredibly late in seeing this, but I can resist - Segway should have donated the Segways for these guys?? Please step away from the crack pipe!
You’re either incredibly naive with matters related to sponsorships/corporate donations or you’ve never been exposed to a company that actually tracks (quantifiably) the sales / revenue that result from something like this (more often than not - SQUAT!)
Ben
PS - better late than never…
I understand where you are coming from, but they got great press from it. It seems like they did sponsor it at the end, but ideally if they sponsored it from the get go, they would have got better press.
I know companies track sales, but sometimes you do things for branding, such as sponsorships. Because in the long run it will help increase sales.
Just like these guys I’m always approaching companies for free stuff, but I seem to have great luck. I enjoy getting free products then ranking for terms that the manufacturers couldn’t be bothered to. Usually this is because they have big company mentality is if we build it they will purchase. The smart people are always willing to give away equipment for a presell page and some links
That is a great story Neil. I wonder if they thought of wearing shirts that said “These Segways were NOT donated!” :/
First time reader of your blog, impressive and inspiring ofcourse!!
One thing for sure that segway didnt see the value proposition in giving out free segway to these guys . Again perhaps becoz lack of credential or not so convincing presentation of your idea. Agreed they are famous now , but again they were prolly not when the approached the segway .. few cents if I may say
Either way …Missed Opportunity for Segway
Not to mention that they dont hv 2 many competitors to begin with .. oh well
Yea, there could have been many reasons why Segway did not do it. It seems that they were smart enough to sponsor them once the video came out, which is better late than never.