Steve Martin: Renaissance Brand Man

These days everybody’s talking about your brand. How important it is to have a ‘brand’, how you must know your niche and how you’ve got to have a point of difference. You’ve gotta have a brand. A singular, simple to sell B.R.A.N.D.

But someone forgot to tell Steve Martin.

That guy does a bit of everything. Steve Martin is ‘The Renaissance Brand Man’. From a successful stand-up he morphed into a world-famous movie actor while all the while never giving up the banjo.

Steve Martin is a writer too. He’s written plays, books, screenplays and about a squillion Tweets—way before most people his age had even figured out how to LOL.

You gotta love a guy who’s so multi-talented, disciplined and productive, haven’t you? Maybe not. Not if you’re the jealous type, anyway.

Personally, I love Steve Martin.

But being someone who has always expressed himself (and my feminine, inner-‘herself’) across various disciplines of artistic endeavour (not all of them involving as much discipline as good ol’ Steve) this branding business—this marketing need to simplify my offerings—has been a constant challenge for me.

I write (novels, songs, blogs and more), I sing and I act; I love it all. But I’m still struggling with something as simple as whether my main website should be ‘Benjamin Grant Mitchell’ or ‘B.G.Mitchell’ (because that is easier for people on Twitter, and has the added bonus of evoking J.K. Rowling and J.D. Salinger; ahh the mystery of a sexless initial). What is my brand? What is my B.R.A.N.D.?

Steve doesn’t seem to have this problem. Steve seems to have it all figured out.

‘Steve’ is an everyman name; ‘Martin’ is easy to remember. Together Steve Martin does whatever he loves and then puts it out there to let the world worry about what pigeon hole to stuff it and him in. Perhaps he does calculate his moves a bit more than I think but my point is, Steve lets it all hang out. Whether people take him seriously or not. Whether they laugh or not. Whether they tap their feet to his picking or scratch their chins to his philosophical pontifications.

“Here you go, check this out!”

I like to do lots of things. I like to write, to sing, to tell jokes and to act. I like to draw too and I try not to let the fact I’m not very good at it stop me sketching the odd (very odd?) doodle or damble.

Dang, a man’s creative output should not be limited by narrow boundaries of what fits your brand!

Over the years, inspired by my constant need for graphic design (CD covers, flyers for gigs, posters for plays and last year my first book cover) I’ve ignored my self-critical voice—the one that reminds me of my lack of formal training—and have added pixel manipulation to my palette of imagination realization colors.

Recently, when I saw all those ‘ironic profession’ jpegs flying around the Facebook I came up with one of my own for Steve Martin. It’s simple, maybe a bit funny but most importantly I had fun doing it. And so I wanted to share it.

Here.

What about you? Do you struggle with issues of brand? How do you market your multi-talents?

14 Comments
by B.G. Mitchell on April 21, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Blogging, Free Thinking, Funny, Humor, Independent Publishing, Writing Community
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Posted by B.G. Mitchell on April 21, 2012

http://bgmitchell.com/2012/04/21/steve-martin-renaissance-brand-man/

War is over if you want it.

War is over if you want it.

First spoken, written and advertised (!) in 1969 these simple, powerful and resonant words continue to inspire people all around the world. Yoko Ono gives them away. You can download a poster with these words in almost any language HERE at Yoko’s website. She encourages you to use these words and go forth and spread the message any way you like.

War is over if you want it.

Yoko Ono and John Lennon put these words into song many years ago. Yoko’s still singing. These days she uses the web and social media to share her music and though the media may change the message stays the same:

War is over if you want it.

I feel a bit vulnerable/silly/hippy saying it but I kind of feel everything I do is in some way an effort towards creating or finding peace. Unlike the beauty contestant though, I’ve probably given up on campaigning for ‘World Peace’. I think my focus is better put on myself rather than others; what can I do to be less hypocritical, judgemental or aggressive (passive counts) in my personal life, in my everyday exchanges and in my own family. As such, these days I wage a mostly silent campaign, one I hope can one day end the conflict between opposing forces each are sure are right, two forces in near constant battle, two forces within me. Today I’ll remind myself again:

War is over if you want it.

In my peace efforts—in my quest to find a balance between my inner impulse to create (breathe life) and a reptilian instinct to destroy (criticize/attack/kill)—I use the ‘weapon’ I’ve had most success with: words. I write every day. And when I write I find, as another writer did—and so eloquently put it, “my mind is no longer a nest of scorpions”, Edward St Aubyn.

Writing allows me to express—when I do it well—the internal conflicts manifested as external reality, the infinite loop of thought-word-action-experience I believe spiritual masters of every religion have been addressing when they’ve been reported as saying things like:

“The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke, Jesus, Tolstoy)

“With our thoughts we make the world.” (Buddha)

“War is over if you want it.” (John and Yoko)

But then there are others who say war is part of life, death is part of life, violence is part of life. Maybe they are right? Maybe death does give life meaning and maybe violence gives peace its power?

Or maybe not?

Maybe as a race we are still learning? Maybe humanity is simply still evolving and part of that evolution involves going through this period (Kali Yuga?) when as a group—as a planet—we manifest the experience of ‘MIGHT is right’, ‘only the STRONG survive’ and, as George Orwell said in his prophetic work, 1984, ‘war IS peace’.

War is peace? They’re kidding aren’t they?

So for now, maybe a majority of planet Earth’s humanity will accept this media supported, cruel inversion that convinces righteous folk everywhere that some people deserve to die so others can offer those deaths as a sacrifice to the one true God. But perhaps it won’t always be like this? Perhaps not forever will we believe the lie that killing innocent people for oil or real estate is in anyway peaceful.

War is over if you want it.

Peace.

* How about you? Do you think war is a natural expression of man’s need to dominate others in order to feel safe? Or is there another way? A peaceful way?

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by B.G. Mitchell on April 19, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Free Thinking, Funny, Inspiration, Novel, Quotes, Spirituality n' Stuff
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Posted by B.G. Mitchell on April 19, 2012

http://bgmitchell.com/2012/04/19/war-is-over-if-you-want-it/

How Free eBooks Are Like Watching a Movie on TV

(Or ‘How Giving Away Your eBook Can Make You Money’)

Last year, after deciding to publish my debut novel independently, I learned from experience how there are many decisions to make when publishing a book. From finding an editor to choosing your final book-jacket design, every stage from manuscript to barcoded shop-stocked finished product required a choice—and taking action on that choice. Of all the choices I made there was one I deliberated on more than almost any other: how much to charge for my ebook version?

“I don’t know?” I said to myself. “If you want people to buy the paperback version you better not make the digital version too low though.”

So, ignoring the logic that I myself probably wouldn’t pay the same price for a digital copy as I would for a paperback (or hardback) copy I initially put my novel on Amazon for the same retail price as the paperback, $29.99. After about three seconds I realized it was a bit silly (dumb; stupid; greedy) to expect people to pay the same as they would for the physical copy so I dropped the price to $19.99. Then, after about eight months of 1-10 sales per month I dropped it even further, to $9.99.

Can you guess where this is going?

That’s right. Last week I put the price down again, this time to $2.99.

Since getting into the eBook game I’ve been flying by the seat of my own pants. I was, therefore, understandably excited when I read a post by Seth Godin on the subject of eBook pricing that made instant and complete sense to me. In his post (HERE) Seth basically points out a new model for pricing eBooks, one that has you STARTING off your book at $0.00 and moving incrementally up before hitting a peak of $15.00, then eventually settling back around $7.00.

But as much sense as Seth’s argument made to me, when it came to me actually giving my blood, sweat and tears-in-the-form-of-my-novel away for free, I still dragged my feet. Until yesterday. Yesterday I had an epiphany which came to me in the form of a question I asked myself:

Have you ever watched a movie on TV?

“Of course I have, Ben. What is this a ‘dumb question of the day’ post?”

Hold your horses, Mitchell. There’s more to this question…

Have you ever watched a movie on TV you had wanted to see at the cinema but for whatever reason missed catching on the big screen?

“Umm, let me see—YES! Who hasn’t! That’s dumb question number two, boyo. Sometimes a little thing called ‘life’ gets in the way of my plans to see every blockbuster I’d like to down my local multiplex.”

Yes, well then, crabby alter-ego-self, since you, me and probably everyone who has ever sat in the dark under the light of a towering silver screen has, at many other ‘some points’, watched a new movie on the old idiot box we have also shared in a growing modern trend:

Free Entertainment.

What I’m talking about is the increasingly common (it seems to me—and I’m sure there’s stats somewhere to back up my ‘seems to me’) expectation we should be able to get our entertainment for free. We want laughs, tears and moving moments for nadda. Zilcho.

Not one pretty penny.

The television has taught us if we wait long enough almost everything worth watching (and a lot not) will come around for free. What’s more these days you don’t even have to wait. You can, if you’re so inclined, download illegal versions of movies that are STILL AT the cinemas.

Now, I’m not advocating ripping anyone off, and I’ve never used any of those Torrent-y things personally, but I hear you can get million-dollar blockbuster movies (and latest release albums) for free, if you want to buck (‘buck’—very funny, Ben) the system.

Why, therefore, should books be any different?

They’re not. Because it’s not just movies and music many are getting for nothing, if you do even a little bit of digging around on the internet you can come up with a whole bunch of books without sending any moola the author, publisher or book retailers way.

Cool.

But is it? Is it really cool that readers are increasingly expecting to get my creative genius for free? As an author shouldn’t I be encouraging possible purchasers to, well, purchase? Isn’t it in my interest to DIS-courage piracy and devaluation of any and all artists work? In a word, yes. Yes, I want people to BUY my work and NO I don’t want my work to be ripped off.

But this is where the movie on the television experience comes back in.

When it comes to eBooks and giving them away for FREE (for a limited period) I think it’s just like watching a movie I really wanted to see—and would have been happy to pay for at the cinema but didn’t get around to—on television instead for free. Because, if I like the movie I may just become a fan for life. Then, when I talk about the movie with others who may not have even heard of it I become a salesman, genuinely energised and enthusiastic. Though I saw the movie for free my ‘word of mouth’ transfers my interest; I have subsequently created interest in another where there was none before. Then my friend might just go down to the local video store and hire the DVD. If I really rave about it my friend might even BUY the DVD.

And finally the writers of that movie will get their share of income.

My feeling is the same thing is happening with ebooks and books. Recently I downloaded a couple of free eBooks, read and enjoyed them, and am now going to purchase a paperback version of at least one of those freebies. I bet other readers have similar stories too (feel free to comment)?

So now, unlike when I first published my eBook (and paperback) last year, thanks to my own experience and other’s advice I think I ‘get’ the whole ebook pricing thing a lot better. As such I’m about to apply some of Seth Godin’s eBook pricing principles, along with some great hints from David Gaughran’s posts (THIS ONE is about why giving away free books is a good thing; THIS ONE is about the importance of popularity on Amazon) and jump in with a FREE eBook promo on my novel, The Last Great Day.

For FIVE days only from Saturday 24th March to Wednesday 28th March you can have my novel for nothing. So if there’s no movie worth watching on TV tonight (and if you want to make sure you read the book of The Last Great Day before you see the movie) go download your copy and enjoy.

On me.

It’s free!

Here is the linked eFlyer for The Last Great Day ‘Early Easter Ebook Promotion‘.

One family's journey from a doomsday cult to freedom.

6 Comments
by B.G. Mitchell on March 23, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Independent Publishing, Novel, Writing Community
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Posted by B.G. Mitchell on March 23, 2012

http://bgmitchell.com/2012/03/23/how-free-ebooks-are-like-watching-a-movie-on-tv/

Who Else Wants One Million Dollars?

Today I’d like to give you one million dollars.

If you happened to read my last post about How To Think Yourself Rich then this may not come as a complete surprise. If you haven’t had a chance to read that post I’ll sum it up here:

At least three wealth creation books I’ve enjoyed reading (Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D Wattles and The Little Money Bible by Stuart Wilde) share a common notion, namely how the subconscious mind is constantly influencing, shaping and creating our ‘reality’. And, when it comes to making more cash, visualizations, affirmations and positive expectation all contribute greatly towards manifesting money through informing the subconscious.

Another idea which seems to me to run through these, and most other, ‘self-help’ books is the idea that we should focus on what we GIVE—be it a service, knowledge or a product—rather than simply on what we WANT.  Since I’m on a bit of a self-reinvention kick at the moment I’ve been asking myself a question lately:

“How can I give more?”

As a writer I always put everything into whatever I write. Sometimes I may draft songs, blog posts or even novels with a certain ‘light’ touch but I always put my heart into what I write—at every stage. So maybe giving more for me simply means writing more?

In that case I just need to watch even less television (which shouldn’t be hard: the idiot box seems more idiot than ever lately) and get to work writing whenever I’m not changing our newborn’s nappy or feeding our gorgeous toddler.

Maybe I could also GIVE more by offering my writing services to the corporate world (for a price of course) and not staying safe and sound tucked away in my study imagining the only outlet for my creative writing skill is in my own stories, songs and blogs?

Why should I limit my writing, and my audience, in anyway?

And maybe I can GIVE more by sharing my non-writing skills too.

Since I took to this blogging caper I’ve had a lot of fun coming up with images for my posts. I love coming up with interesting pictorial representations to go along with my writing. In my last post I took a photo of $1000 cash then played with that simple image in my photo manipulation application to create even more (see pic of $10,000 at top).

I didn’t stop with $1000 (or $10,000) either. Inspired by that previous post about the power of our subconscious to affect and inform our conscious mind (and therefore choices, actions etc…) I came up with a few more money images, riffing away on the idea that a LOT of money is just a LITTLE money repeated.

The idea is if you start with $1000 and then keep collecting those (the $1000′s) before you know it you’ll have $10,000.

So, if you could do with $10,000 dropping into your lap maybe you’d like to print off the picture and put your mug in the middle (where the girl’s ‘blank’ face is). Perhaps it might help you VISUALIZE yourself receiving ten grand and help your subconscious ‘make it so’?

Or maybe you’d like to focus on a bit more, like $100,000 maybe? In which case this pic below might help, especially if you are currently focussed on having an abundance mentality, whether it be in order to manifest a new home, a new car or simply plenty of cash to pay the bills.

Then again if you’re comfortable setting your sights on the full cool mill’ here it is: $1,000,000 for YOU…

At this resolution a million bucks looks like a kinda’ nondescript pattern—a table cloth or wallpaper maybe? Perhaps that’s a helpful way to think about such a large figure of money? As I said before, a lot of anything is just a small amount of something replicated many times.

Dig?

And your first million bucks has already started to accumulate in your pocket or purse because, of course, it all starts with a single dollar.

And a single thought.

What do you think?

 

5 Comments
by B.G. Mitchell on February 24, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Affirmations, Inspiration, Spirituality n' Stuff
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Posted by B.G. Mitchell on February 24, 2012

http://bgmitchell.com/2012/02/24/who-else-wants-one-million-dollars/

How To Think Yourself Rich: The Science of Money Manifestation

“A large sum of cash has just dropped into my lap.”

Warm Soft Cash

Do you believe in the power of the subconscious mind? If so, do you ever use affirmations to send conscious messages to that part of your mind?

If your answer is “Yes” then you’ll probably already be repeatedly saying or writing out something like the opening line above the picture of one thousand dollars in warm, soft cash. Here it is again:

“A large sum of cash has just dropped into my lap.”

If you are doing abundance affirmations maybe you’re already seeing results too? Maybe more money than you’ve previously attracted is now starting to show up in your life?

“More money than ever before is now showing up in my life.”

If, on the other hand, you don’t believe in the manifestation powers of your own mind and believe instead that some external force is responsible for your current situation maybe you would like to read a couple of books I’ve had the good fortune to stumble upon (even before StumbleUpon came along) and one I’ve only recently discovered.

They just might change your mind.

But before I tell you about those three great books I’d like to share a bit about me and money. I must first tell you I am only a student of money manifestation. While I have managed to manifest small and large sums ($200,000 in one pop my biggest expected unexpected pay-day to date) I’m still learning about the mind n’ money connection.

And maybe I will always be learning about how reality starts in the brain, deep inside, deep down; some place where imagination begins.

Now, before you worry this is a Disney sponsored post about how all your dreams can come true—don’t. While I do believe in the unlimited capacity of man to create I have also experienced first hand what limitation and limited thought manifests. Namely: not much fun.

But I have experienced some cool stuff too. And when I look back on all the good things that have ‘happened’ ‘to me’ (sorry, couldn’t resist bringing attention to the erroneous idea of humans as only passive receivers of life—instead of the transmitters or instigators of it all) I realize everything good started with a thought.

When I couldn’t yet play guitar and dreamt of doing so (and long before I could get my hands around a G-chord or my mind around a blues pentatonic scale) I IMAGINED myself on stage and performing to an appreciative audience.

Then one day my imagination came true.

When in high school I first had the idea it would be fun to be an actor on stage and screen, and long before I had the training or experience needed to get the big TV and theatre gigs, I began VISUALIZING myself performing and travelling the world.

Then one day my visualization became real.

And when my writing career evolved beyond writing songs and plays to include becoming a novelist I again tuned into the power of creating a picture of what my finished book would look like and how it would appear sitting on the shelf in the Number One Best-seller position to make that happen.

And for one day I did make it happen. My novel was the best-seller in one store for one day!

And it’s still selling…

But of course whether or not you consider my modest worldly success as ‘Success’ —with a big ’S’—depends on who you compare me (and—by default—yourself!) to. I agree there are many much more successful actors, singer-songwriters and novelists than myself but there are also many would-be actors, would-be singer-songwriters and would-be novelists who never got close to achieving their dreams.

At least some of my dreams have come true. Not all—not yet, but some. I guess I am somewhere in the middle. But I am ready to aim even higher now and get more focussed than ever before on manifesting my dream life.

As such I am once again returning to the most basic creative block of all: thought. And in thinking about my thoughts I have been helped by many wonderful books by authors living and dead. As I work on money manifestation I keep reading and practicing. That’s why I bought my second copy of Stuart Wilde’s great ‘money’ book, The Little Money Bible; it’s why I have highlighted many passages from The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D Wattles and it’s why I am currently reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

What I have learned so far is while each of these inspirational texts approaches wealth creation from slightly different angles they all share a basic philosophy which might be summed up thus:

Money is good. You deserve to have as much money as you are comfortable receiving but exactly how much you make depends on your willingness and ability to concentrate on GIVING to the world by doing something which you can put your whole heart into. Furthermore it is vital to guard against negative thoughts which only confuse your subconscious mind: visualize what you want, write out what you want, then GIVE MORE of yourself than you ever have before in attracting what you want. 

Simple. Yes?

I think so. But I’m still reading. And I’m still learning; still affirming abundance is natural.

:)

Stay tuned for an upcoming post where I’ll ‘give away’ ONE MILLION DOLLARS to everyone—and anyone—who wants it. Until then here are links to three great books on wealth creation:

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D Wattles

The Little Money Bible by Stuart Wilde

Have a lovely day!

x

HAVE YOU EVER RECEIVED AN UNEXPECTED WINDFALL? HAS A LARGE SUM OF CASH RECENTLY TURNED UP IN  YOUR LIFE? PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT.

7 Comments
by B.G. Mitchell on February 16, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Affirmations, Inspiration, Spirituality n' Stuff
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Posted by B.G. Mitchell on February 16, 2012

http://bgmitchell.com/2012/02/16/how-to-think-yourself-rich-the-science-of-money-manifestation/

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