I had a long conversation with one of my nephews, Mike, this evening.  He had a lot to report, including record sales this week at the restaurant he co-founded with his brother Chris.  The topic turned to one of my favorites, which is “personal brand.”  I’m acting as a part-time mentor for Mike, and I want him to start focusing more on his personal brand.  By that I mean he should begin to take an active role in determining what people think of when they think of Mike. 

One of the suggestions that I made was to consider starting his own blog to begin creating his personal brand, independent of his restaurant’s brand.   He could start it on the restaurant business.  I did a quick Google Blog search and came up with several interesting sites.  But then I asked Mike what he was really passionate about.  Mike is really passionate about cooking.  Certainly his restaurant, Black and Brew, gives him an opportunity to experiment some.  And he tells me they have been changing a number of things in their second year of operations.  These include evolving the drink and food items to appeal to a mixed, more-mature crowd, meaning, not only the local college students, but also the 25 – 45 year old age group.  This change enabled them to avoid the after-college-is-out sales drop they experienced last year.   On the culinary side, it is still a largely sandwich and soups place, however.

Mike then went on to tell me that he is being given the opportunity to apprentice at the only 5-star restaurant in Lakeland, Florida.  He seemed really excited. That then lead to a discussion around raising his profile and building his brand around cooking.  So over the next few weeks, Mike is going to investigate the possibility of creating a blog around cooking.  I don’t know how many restaurant founders and chefs have done this, but I would love to get your comments and suggested links.  Once he has established a blog, if he actually finds the time to do it, he can also link to his restaurant’s website, investigate the possibility of creating affiliate marketing programs for restaurant-quality cooking utensils, ingredients such as quality spices, and any number of other products associated with his passion, cooking.  For that, I hope he turns to his Uncle Ken, who is a leading expert on affiliate marketing.

This all leads me to how companies, even very traditional and established companies, are beginning to use the internet in non-traditional and certainly non-established ways.  Witness this non-traditional Mr. T video clip used by HDS to create buzz and drive home a differentiating design point.  This clip is the second in a continuing series.  The first one got more than 77,000 views.   I also had the pleasure of visiting with an IBM marketing executive recently.  On her desk was a how-to book on Second Life.  Once I’ve mastered this blogging thing, I’ll go check out Second Life.  This obviously-hipper-than-me marketing exec, Kristie, had just finished running a major training program, all from the comfort of the Second Life virtual world.  What better way to drive home the value of virtualization, one of Kristie’s favorite topics, than to leverage a virtual world!  Sorry if the reference is too obtuse for some of you, but to those of us who have been ensconced in the storage world for the past 20 years, it’s pretty funny and filled with irony.  And it’s not as obtuse as some of the math-humor I still remember from my college days: 

What’s the integral of 1/(cabin) d(cabin)?

Log(cabin).