I had the great pleasure of interviewing John Morgan, author of the new book Brand Against the Machine: How to Build Your Brand, Cut Through the Marketing Noise, and Stand Out from the Competition (Amazon affiliate link). I got to know John through Twitter, and he was gracious enough to send me a pre-release copy of the book.

As I admit in the video, I am only about halfway through the book (I suck at finding time to read). However, just like Rework (affiliate link again), you can pick this book up and grab awesome nuggets of information without having to wade through 20-page chapters. It’s written in my kind of style: short to-the-point chapters that don’t ramble on.

In this interview, John reveals the road traveled from teenager with confidence issues to author and public speaker, what it took to get a book deal, and why companies need to think of branding in a much different way.

Thank you John for giving me an hour of your Sunday, and for being so open and honest during this interview. I hope this book goes huge for you. Finally, thank you for the advice you gave me. I hope to repeat your great success.

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My employer Falk Harrison and I made this video that discusses the challenges companies face in transitioning time and effort to social media. Matt Bell did a very nice job with the cinematography. It’s amazing what a video starts to look like when you put the Flip Cam down.

And now a YouTube version for those of you on Apple mobile devices

(WARNING: the above video contains lots of foul language. You should not watch this video if such language offends you)

Apologies in advance, but I’m a brown-nosing Vayniac. I’ll get that out in the open right now. However, I have learned a ton from this guy, have watched dozens of his speeches, was sitting in the front row of this presentation, actually got mentioned in the speech between 33:00 and 33:30, and can tell you that this talk was one of his best ever. Watch this presentation.

I speculate that he really brought his A-Game because he was amongst peers. The room was filled with 1,000 (?) of the best entrepreneurs in the world, and that’s who he is. Even though most of the attendees are not doing social well, or not doing it at all, Gary and these folks still share much of the same DNA. They build businesses. I think Gary felt like he was talking to a different crowd here than one he might address at Big Omaha or SXSW, and that this required something different. All I can say is…. watch the whole thing, including the last question he takes during Q&A. He brought the house down!

And Gary, thanks for the hug afterwards.

RATHER AWESOME POSTSCRIPT

Thank you to both Gary Vaynerchuk and Robert Scoble (via Mike Stenger) for rebroadcasting this for me. Needless to say, my blog has seen some traffic in the past few days. By the way, I had a few people say I was lucky to get the attention of these guys. As Harvey Mackay recently said in his Chris Brogan interview, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” Basically, I do stuff. Lots of stuff. Some of it “hits the big time,” whatever that means. So….. Blog. Post. Comment. Reshare. Listen. Interview. Videotape. Write. Sit in the front row. Do stuff!

Yesterday’s blog post by Reed Hastings, one quietly posted on a Sunday, caused a mighty uproar by… Sunday. In fact, by the end of Monday, the post had almost 5,000 tweets, and 22,000 comments. That’s probably a world record – I’ve never been to a blog post where I was physically unable to read through all the comments!

People cannot believe that he apologized but didn’t give us anything back. People cannot believe that he’s truly splitting the services in two by creating Qwikster (the DVD-by-mail side of the business). People are incredulous!

Perhaps mistakes are being piled on top of mistakes, but remember and understand this – the fact is that no business has ever been able to levy a 60% increase on its loyal customers. Please, find me one.

It does not matter if this move made sense to Netflix’s management. It does not matter if their unsustainable business model forced them to do this. It does not matter that you can slice and dice this by just choosing one service for $7.99 (hey, that’s a 20% savings. Look what we did for you!)

Their loyal customers (SO loyal) did not see this coming, did not deserve this, and are vocally rejecting it. These customers are not a fickle bunch, forever changed by a free/freemium society fueled by free Gmail, Skype, Dropbox, etc. They were brand ambassadors, and a 60% increase (forget that it was only $6) was a big slap in the face. Netflix did not show them the love.

RATHER AWESOME POSTSCRIPT

Look at the lightbox popup window you get on Blockbuster.com today. Ouch!

Some social media people have an obsession with the numbers – Klout scores, rankings, number of followers, etc. While I have major respect for those services and your scores on them, what are you gaining from your high marks? If it is just the high marks and nothing more, I’m not sure you’re accomplishing anything. And number of followers is not nearly as relevant as your standing in the community, the effectiveness of your charitable efforts, the depth of the friendships you’re creating, and your ability to use your newly-created personal brand to get real stuff done in your personal and work life. How did I get so many followers? Step 1: not caring so much about that.

Today is a very significant day for me – a self-made anniversary that is finally here. I reached my goal, but in a roundabout way. Nevertheless, the result is the one I desired, and for that, I am truly happy. Watch the video below, and tell me what you think. Thanks again to, frankly, everyone in my social graph. I appreciate your friendship.