Brady Media Group

Ayn Rand is selling more books today than anytime during her career.
And she died 27 years ago.

In her seminal work, Atlas Shrugged, the protagonist John Galt leads a strike of society’s most productive engineers, architects, scientists and artists. And the concept is evidently gaining ground in this recession. Hmmmm. Why?

The industrial leaders of Atlas Shrugged “Go Galt” in a revolt against the increasingly oppressive policies of what Rand terms the bureacratic “parasites” of socialism. It’s sort of a passive-aggressive protest against an insatiable and unchecked federal bureacracy. Galt encourages the American intelligentsia to join him in a hidden Colorado commune and let the national economy collapse upon itself without them. Which it does in her science fiction / mystery / romance / political tome (Beware: it’s about 1100 pages).

It’s a little wordy and the characters are flat, but still it’s a fun, intoxicating read.

Rand wrote the melodramatic novel as her magnum opus and the definitive statement on her political philosophy of Objectivism. It’s all about the rugged and profound supremacy of the independent human mind and the importance of reason. She argues that selfishness is a virtue, organized religion is irrational dogma and that violent, unregulated capitalism is the best hope for human society.

Obviously, she had her critics. But why would such a book be more popular now than ever? What triggers it’s resurgent appeal?

Economists (and Amazon.com) will tell you that sales of Atlas Shrugged mushroom every time the US economy dips. And now there is a national movement to “Go Galt” as a revolt (if only metaphorical) against the recent government bailouts and expanding beauracracies of the current administration.
OK. Sounds appealing to us little guys who aren’t on the receiving end of a billion-dollar handout. But do I really want to live in Colorado?

And what of Sarah Palin?
She evidently liked the idea of “Going Rogue” within the GOP so much that she used the term to title of her new memoir. It’s received lukewarm reviews for it’s apparent attempts to settle the score on several points that left her bitter and battered after her tumultuous addition to the McCain ticket last year.

They lost, by the way.
Then she resigned her gubernatorial seat in Alaska.
Then she took on David Letterman in a PR battle over the late-night host’s disparaging remarks about her family. Now she’s evidently considering another political race in 2010 or beyond. (Get ready, Tina Feye!!)

And yet, Palin’s “rogue” appeal cannot be denied. The book has quickly become one of the top-selling non-fiction books ever. And red-state crowds packed every book signing she attended. In Plano, the line of fans wrapped around Legacy bookstore for hours before she arrived.

And then of course, there is the whole manifest destiny concept and westward expansion and the “rugged individualism” that drove American pioneers into California. Horatio Alger and the American Dream.

I think there’s a connection.

When times are tough, we like the idea of the strong, confident individual who can reject the trapping of society or conventional life, make his or her way through the wilderness and emerge victorious on the other side of the mountain.

We enjoy the story of the protagonist who stumbled, or objected to the shelter of society on principle, or who fell from grace, endured purgatory, and then re-invented himself on the other side.

Think Job, Scrooge, Humphrey Bogart as Rick in Casablanca, even Darth Vadar. All guys who started out on the right path, then stumbled, then corrected course and ended up heroic.

That’s the story we love.

It’s the entrepreneurial story, too. More entrepreneurs are birthed in a recession than at any other time. More people who want to throw off the trappings of a monolithic employer and re-draw the map of their own careers. Me included.

A recent cover story in Entrepreneur magazine proclaims 2010 as the “Year of the Entrepreneur” and I believe it. I see more people starting a small enterprise on the side with the hope and intent of seeing it flourish – and then become an exit strategy.

No need to retreat to a Colorodo mountainside and expect the GDP to take a calamatous fall because of your new venture. No need to abdicate entirely. No need to consider it a revolt. But instead a renewal. As we all now, most employers and corporate taxpayers in America are small businesses. We are the backbone of the US economy. The engine. The workhorse.

And I highly intend to see more and more people understand in 2010 that there is a life beyond the 9-to-5.
In fact, prosperity usually follows people who have (1) a good idea for a product or service, and (2) the perserance to deliver it. It’s not easy. And it’s not for the easily-nauseated. Taxes – yikes. Healthcare – wow. And the future regulatory environment is uncertain – at best.

But still – I am certain.
This entrepreneurial venture is the future for me. And I’ll bet a lot more people agree and join the E-team this year.

Just watch.

The Flying D

The Rocking J

J-Bar-C

Diamond V

These are all actual cattle brands common in Central Texas about a century ago. I know because I have a piece of cattle ranching history hanging in my home office. It’s an eight-foot section of a wooden barn door from a blacksmith shop in Georgetown, Texas. I grew up in Georgetown. So did my father and grandfather. The blacksmith shop holds a hallowed place in Brady family history. But that’s another story. The point is, the brand was a cherished symbol for cattle ranchers because it represented their livelihood. Their ranch. Their business empire, large or small. The blacksmith would create the brand, then heat it in his forge and test it out on his barn door before delivering the finished product to the rancher. It may have been an early form of content marekting. Regardless, he knew it mattered.

And the same can be said of a brand today. Your brand is your identity in the marketplace. Your positioning icon. Your statement. Your virtual testimonial. The content that markets FOR you. It is your flag. Beacon. Bullhorn. It is the invisible reputation that exists in perpetuity for your business, in any industry.

So if I were to ask a dozen of your colleagues, customers and competitors about YOUR brand, what would be the response? Would there be a single overall theme? An overriding impression that transcends a tag line or commercial? In essence, once a customer or client has done business with you, what would he or she tell a friend? Would it be positive? Would it be enough to solicit more business?

If the answer is not a resounding “yes”, then you have some work to do.

And my advice is, of course, to OWN your brand. What does that mean? Take charge of the message. Get involved in the delivery of the customer experience.

No, it may not help the bottom line initially. And yes, I know there are still a myriad other things for a business-owner to be managing / supervising and leading. But I would argue that they all pale in comparison to the power of the brand. Your brand is what fosters word of mouth. Your brand precedes your sales call. Your brand is out marketing for you while you are home in bed.

And it’s easier now than ever to supervise brand building.
The tools today should include some mix of PR, organic (in-house) media, social media and (perhaps) advertising. The platforms are more accessible now than ever. More user-friendly and more transparent. They evolve daily. But It’s critical to pay attention.

Just think of the power of an established brand:

Nike.

John Deere.

Lexus.

Crest.

Apple.

Levi Strauss.

And of course I could go on for several paragraphs, but you get the idea. These are companies that have built mega-brands over several generations.

Coca-cola currently has the powerful global brand – valued at $68B.
IBM’s a close second at $60B, then Microsoft at $56B, according to a recent study by Interbrand.

Of course, most of us are not in the same ballpark, league or timezone as these big boys. But ask one of the C-Types at Coca-Cola about the power of brand management and see what kind of response you get. Overwhelming.

And we want to give you the tools to get after it, if you’re not already. Myself, Jeff Crilley and Mike Newhouse have a FULL-DAY branding, marketing, PR and publicity seminar scheduled for Saturday, December 12th in the Aloft Hotel, Downtown Dallas. It’s called our MEDIA MASTERMIND SEMINAR and it’s for any business-owner, large or small, who wants to earn more money, plain and simple. We believe you will do it best by “expanding the brand” using our kind of hands-on approach to the brave new world of new media. And we will help lead the charge. ONWARD, SELF-APPOINTED BRAND MANAGERS!

We will be spending all day explaining the power of brand management: first, by way of developing your own positive publicity campaign. Jeff Crilley will be providing the nuts-and-bolts of media coverage and how to make yourself a media darling. Then I will explain the value of organic media – something I’ve described more than once in this blog – and why your website should be the focal point and entry point for your brand. And then Mike Newhouse will lead us through his Social Media Bootcamp by explaing how to leverage Facebook and Twitter for the maximum gain.

We still have a few seats left. Sign up at this website – www.bradymediagroup.com

It was the last thing I expected – and one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make.

Do I to stick with my guns and my gut instinct? And turn down one of the most important and visible jobs in television? Do I go back to a city I’ve grown to love and admire? Or stay out on these choppy entrepreneurial waters, with sharks circling and uncertain weather ahead?

It was tough.

As Al Pacino remarked in Godfather 3, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back IN!”

It happened to me, too, friends.

Almost.

I had made the enormously difficult decision to leave TV news after 18 years. To step away from an industry and a profession that had treated me well, all things considered.

As most of you know, earlier this year I started a small media strategy, PR and content development firm. Brady Media Group. One former news anchor and his Outlook Contact list of talented freelance journalists, basically. And it’s worked out well! We do PR and media development from the unique perspective of seasoned journalists. Good stories deserve coverage. That’s what we do. And we’ve been doing gang-buster business – soliciting media coverage for our clients.

And better yet, I was finally in charge of my schedule. Dinners at home with the family and holidays off – what a concept! No more shackles tying me to spot news and the voracious 24-hour news cycle. I was suddenly on a steep learning curve to manage sales calls, invoicing and accounts receivable. Ugh. What’s up with the notorious “Net 30″, anyway?
Still, it’s been fun.

And then the call came.

The Big Boss at KENS 5 in San Antonio. A TV station I know and respect, a town I enjoy and a newsroom of friends. The Walter Cronkite of San Antonio was about to retire. Chris Marrou, my former competitor, had made the decision to step down and enjoy a well-deserved retirement.

And the management team at KENS wanted me to consider applying for the job. Frankly, it made sense. I spent 5 years anchoring the news in San Antonio at the rival station before moving north to Dallas. So I traveled to KENS and we talked. We discussed the news business and the challenges facing a legacy TV station like KENS. The road ahead and the evolving business model of local TV news. And my heart started pounding again with the thrill – the adrenaline rush – of a competitive news environment.

It’s just outright fun, OK? I have to admit that. Especially if your are surrounded by a stable of seasoned, talented, like-minded journalists. And I certainly would have been.

And yet – the difficulties within the local TV news industry remain unsolved. No one has cracked the code on an improved business model that offers advertisers what they most desire – a low cost, multi-media footprint reaching a bigger audience made up of key demographics. The technology question remains – how to deliver top-shelf content on-demand using whatever digital platform the viewer / consumer wants. And the whole content question is a mess – how do we deliver compelling, concise content that still appeals to a mass audience when the trend is for viewers to seek out more tailored (niche) media content?

These are profound, gut-wrenching questions for an industry that has quite frankly made a boat-load of cash using the very same model for the last 30 years.

Going back into TV news – even a plum job like the main anchor gig in the Alamo City – would have taken me right back into the eye of the storm – in an industry that is still staggering against the onslaught of online competitors. Sure, the TV news purists can argue that the aggregate audience for TV is still much larger than the aggregate audience for on-line video. But the tide is turning.

And the resources are shrinking. Newsrooms have cut staff and salaries across the board, and there is absolutely no sign of expansion. Every newsroom is learning to do more with less. Period. Fewer people earning less and working more.

And quite frankly, I’m excited about the future of Brady Media Group. I’m thrilled about the potential growth of my agency alongside that of my friend and colleague Jeff Crilley. He left TV news about a year before I did to launch Real News PR and we’ve been delivering extraordinary publicity to our clients using good, old-fashioned know-how. We know the news business. We know what gets traction and what does not. We’ve had a remarkably high succes rate soliciting positive press by pitching just the right story to just the right journalist. Crilley and I still feel as though we are ‘involved’ in the news business, even though we have stepped outside the conventional framework of big, institutional media.

And that’s where I decided to stay.

On the outside of the institutional media. Still pitching stories. Still working as a field producer & reporter – looking for news coverage opportunities. But from the outside looking in.

I was flattered to have been considered, and I know that KENS 5 will enjoy a long, prosperous future. But for this ‘old media’ guy, the die is cast and the ship has sailed. I’m looking forward to a long prosperous future in a new arena.