You've been called a dangerous strategist. Why is that?
Most marketing consultants start with the way things are, and try to find an appropriate message. Very often I'll recommend a slight alteration in the function of the business, perhaps in the way they interact with customers, and advertise that. We call it business topology – applying the techniques of one industry to another non-related industry. Sometimes these ideas are considered radical or edgy.  If it scares you, imagine what it's going to do to your competator.  Those ideas can get you a bit of a reputation.  I try to come up with ideas that change the business landscape...changing the color of your business card won't do that. 

And yet, your messaging is highly memorable.
Ask people, "What makes you most angry about this business category? Really? Would you be interested in learning about a company that doesn't do that?"  Alter your business slightly to offer a solution. When you say “We don't do that thing you hate,” it's much easier to get attention. Those 50-foot inflatable gorillas are desperate attempts to get attention by people who have nothing to say.

So, in effect, you take the competitor's behavior into your strategy?
Of course. No business operates in a vacuum If you change something about your business, make it diametrically opposed to your competitor's core business to keep him from making the same change. If a competitor is “the home of the six dollar haircut,” my client becomes the place which "fixes six dollar haircuts."

Your topic for the Boom Your Business seminar is "The Pendulum." What's that?
It's a presentation that Roy Williams developed from Strauss and Howe's book, Generations. The Pendulum describes predictable social changes. Its use goes far beyond marketing. Its fun information about the way we all look at the world.  If you know what you're looking for, you'll begin to see the patterns in human behavior. I love that “Ah HA” moment when the patterns become obvious.

Everybody thinks they have a book in them. Do you?
Yes, and my book on marketing strategy is actually working it's way out. I'm in the process of editing the rough draft, and hope to have it completed later this fall.
 

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