I was being interviewed on Inc. 500 CEO, Chris Hurn’s Small Business Success Strategies series, last week and he asked a question that I answer all too frequently in person, but I’m sure many of you have never heard my answer.
What he essentially asked me is, “How is Celebrity Branding® different from personality branding, and the long-standing concept of a personality driven business?”
While I can’t summarize everything that Celebrity Branding® includes in one short article, let me tell you one of the main differences. The main difference is in the magnitude of focus and commitment you give to your positioning. You can have personality in any brand. But Celebrity Branding® is taking your personality and making you the focus, not the back-story for your product or service. Once you make that switch, you develop a system of marketing that is centered on you as the celebrity expert, which separates you from your competition. No longer is your product or service a commodity that anyone can supply. To get what you are now offering, the client or customer must utilize you and your business.
Let me give you an example to illustrate the difference.
Let’s assume we’ve got two different financial planners that are in the same market. It doesn’t matter whether their customer base is local or national, what matters is that they compete for the same customers.
Financial Planner 1 has his photo on his business card, has ads featuring his image in several publications that his target audience reads, and his website also has his picture on it. This financial planner understands that “people buy people,” so he has put his picture on his materials so that people can identify who he is. This is personality branding.
Financial Planner 2 has some or all of the things that financial planner 1 has. These things are a great start, but she also realizes that the true value of Celebrity Branding® is to create devoted fans out of her prospects and clients. And she realizes that while having her photo on her marketing materials is a great start, ultimately she must connect with her audience in order to turn them into fans. She has to let her audience know who she is (and include some details about her “real” life outside of work, when appropriate), what her expertise is, why she’s an expert, that she’s constantly at the forefront of her industry, and just how she can help her prospects and clients. You can’t get any of this across with a photo alone! You’ve got to take the time to develop methods to communicate with your audience.
If you want to create true Celebrity Expert status, you’ve got to show your audience why they should listen to you. You’ve got to display your expertise to them and create a personal relationship in order for them to develop an affinity for you and what you do.
The difference is huge between the value of these two financial planners to their audiences. If you want to develop Celebrity Status, you’ve got to create a system for communicating with your clients and prospects. Clients should obviously get more of your time than prospects should, but the key here is to develop some methods of communicating with your entire audience that you can replicate through the use of systems.
Marketing systems for Celebrity Branding® involve multiple facets of “touch points” with your customers. Utilizing an email system that allows you to write one message and send it out in a manner that makes it look personalized to your list, instead of a generic blast, developing an ezine which contains specific content rich information about you and your business, physical newsletters that allow people to hold and feel your business in their hand, or a blog that allows you to keep in constant contact with your audience via multiple forms of social networking and social media are all examples of new ways to reach your client and create the relationship that both bonds and builds. It is this level of commitment and focus that allows you to take your brand to another level beyond even your closest competitor.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter what you include in your marketing system, the key is that you actually have a marketing system for building a relationship with your fan base. Additionally, the system should incorporate a method, or methods, to continually drive the relationship forward, whether you have the time to literally speak with every person or not. This is what we mean by Celebrity Branding®, and you can see that it is much more than people realize — which is why it is so powerful. Take a look at your current system for prospecting and follow up communication with customers and see how you can better optimize your system to create a Celebrity Brand, rather than just a personality driven business. As always, if we can help, you know where to find us.















Not only is Nick a great guy, he’s a great business partner as well. He’s the top agent for celebrity speakers like myself. He helps us get better known so that we can charge more money and charge it more often.
He’s also worked with great friends of mine like Dan Kennedy, Jeff Walker, Mari Smith and Ron LeGrand along with many, many more. What he does, is he helps you to maximize your brand and your income by making people see you as special, different and more valuable than your competitors. He’s also known for helping experts create a platform and elevating them to celebrity expert status in their fields.
We see people you’ve never heard of before that one year later they’re considered to be the ‘go to’ person on a particular subject. They get interviewed on radio, television, newspapers even though you’ve never heard of them before and it’s all done by Nick Nanton. He’s the best in the world at what he does and he’s one of the most high integrity guys myself and my team have ever worked with. If you’re looking for an agent to maximize your celebrity status, your business and your income Nick is your guy. Nick is our guy.
- Brian Tracy

“Hi this is Kimberlee Frank “The Real Estate Junkie” and I am writing to let you know how joining America’s PremierExperts® made a difference in my life. First off, I have shared the stage with a lot of people. However, it was always me having to impress my audience. Now, thanks to America’s PremierExperts®, I have a long list of credentials that allows me to get on any stage. The media coverage was out of this world. The friendship with Jack, Nick, and Lindsay is something that can not be replaced, we will always be connected. I have written many courses and wanted to write a book but never seemed to find time. With the help of America’s PremierExperts®, they made it happen and not in years but everything was done in just 12 months. I just wanted to say “Thanks”. I couldn’t have gotten this type of media coverage, book, and
I want to thank Nick and Jack for helping me make my dreams a reality. I came to them seeking advice for growing my business. Other people in the past have told me that my ideas and dreams for my business were unattainable. Jack and Nick teamed up with me to brand myself and have opened doors that, in the past, were closed. They have opened my mind to see all of the different ways to make my business successful and to take it to the next level. Thanks to them, today, I am in a position to achieve my business goals and am creating financial freedom for my family and my business partners.
Ronel Jumpp, CEO, Jumpp Investment Group LLC
When I met Nick and Jack, my business was called Total Census Solutions, which was relevant to the niche I first started in (Senior Housing), but to the rest of the world it was confusing and very forgettable. Just by reviewing my Bio, before we even had much time to speak, Nick and Jack shot back a bunch of ideas about how my business was really centered around getting people the maximum ROI in their advertising, and spun out The ROI Guy brand for me. In the past 2 years since they helped me reinvent my brand, my business has taken off! Now everywhere I go, people call me the ROI Guy, which is fun, however, the most important thing is they also know where to call when they need solutions for tracking their marketing campaigns and getting the greatest ROI! Oh yeah, and they also like to have a bit of fun too!
- Richard Seppala, The ROI Guy,
Jack & Nick have brought about more expansion in our business in the past three months than we thought possible. They got us to see the big picture while explaining everything along the way. Jack and Nick took the time to understand our business goals and tailored their approach to us. We wouldn’t trust our company with anyone else!
Jon Ruhff & Yeosh Bendayan – Push Button Productions LLC
“I mentioned to you while we were in Hollywood that the day before I came, I got a call from a producer who found me through a press release and my participation in America’s PremierExperts®. I had a phone interview and received an email inviting me out for an all expenses paid shoot for a TV show, where they want me to talk all about my business and what I do. I just wanted you to know how much I enjoy working with you all and think what you are doing is terrific. The fact is, what you guys are doing works. There is absolutely no way they would have found me, nor would I have this interview without you guys. The great thing is I can use whatever they produce in my arsenal now and hopefully get more interviews. So, again, thank you for everything—it works!!!”
–Jennifer Myers, Realtor, First Time Homebuyer Expert
