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Five Steps to Build a Personal Brand Like Harry Houdini

Guest post by: George Torok

Article Overview: Harry Houdini died in 1926. Yet he is still remembered as the greatest escape artist of all time. Even David Copperfield doesn't come close in terms of brand and name recognition. That is the power of personal branding. Build a solid personal brand and it catapults you to success.

Five Steps to Build a Personal Brand Like Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini died in 1926. Yet he is still remembered as the greatest escape artist of all time. Even David Copperfield doesn't come close in terms of brand and name recognition. That is the power of personal branding. Build a solid personal brand and it catapults you to success. Build a really good personal brand and it survives your death. Will your brand survive 80 years after your death? More importantly, will your personal brand help you while you are alive? Just imagine how difficult it was to build a personal brand at the beginning of the 1900's. There was no Internet. Houdini didn't have a webpage or videos on YouTube. And he didn't have the money to buy expensive newspaper or radio advertisements. So how did Harry Houdini create and publicize his personal brand? What can you learn from his rags-to-riches story?

Be the First

Houdini created a new niche - the escape artist. When you are first in your niche you are the standard. He started with card tricks but there were already lots of magicians. So Eric Weiss (real name) created a new type of entertainer - the escape artist.

Be Bold

Houdini was bold. He issued challenges to prisons around the world challenging them to try to restrain him. He then visited the prisons that accepted his challenge and escaped from them. He was a showman. He dangled upside down from a crane over New York City while escaping from a strait jacket and chains. He looked for unique ways to be the news.

Be Provocative

Houdini was provocative. The publicity photo of him that was most often used shows his muscular body almost nude - draped in chains and locks. That photograph must have attracted women and interested men.

Be Creative

Houdini was creative. He started as a magician but differentiated himself as an escape artist. He invented new stunts and escapes. He made enemies. He challenged spiritualists that claimed they spoke to the dead.

Die mysteriously

You can't plan this one but it does contribute to the brand - but not always. Harry Houdini died under mysterious circumstances. He was an extremely fit man who died after a punch to the stomach. He had issued a challenge that he could take any punch to his stomach. Something went wrong and he died after an over-eager challenger punched him.

This method also worked to promote the personal brands of Elvis Presley and Bruce Lee. This is an effective way of enhancing the brand. But you don't need to do this to build your brand.

Harry Houdini did all this and he died in 1926 - long before anyone thought about the concept of personal branding. If you asked Houdini about branding he probably wouldn't have understood your question. But Houdini sure knew how to build his personal brand. What's important for you to know is that Houdini did not strive to build a brand. He worked to generate paying customers. All the publicity stunts he did were for the purpose of getting paying customers. Branding was a byproduct.

What can you learn from Harry Houdini, the world's greatest escape artist, about creating and sustaining your own personal brand?

Don't focus on building a brand. Instead develop relationships and get more customers. If you build a brand along the way - that's a nice byproduct.

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Article Tags: branding, marketing, personal marketing



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Re: Hi - Welcome Harry - what is your business?
Re: Should authors have a monopoly over their work? - [quote="BuzzAroundBooks":259l8osu] While authors maybe should have a monopoly over their work, I'm not sure that RDR Books is doing anything illegal. RDR Books isn't promoting that their "Harry Potter Lexicon" is an "Official" reference and customers can choose if they want to waste their money on an unofficial and possibly inaccurate compilation. For instance, on MuchMusic, they have this stupid program called "The Totally Untrue History of ...." where they spend 30 minutes telling lies about a music star's life history just for fun. However, a music celebrity who is featured on the show can't sue MuchMusic for slander or using their "image" without authorization because it's considered a "review" and they've advertised that their show is fake anyways. Either way, I wouldn't waste a penny on an official or unofficial Harry Potter Encyclopedia since I can get the information for free on the Web.[/quote:259l8osu] There are many many people who will buy it because it is about Harry Potter and they want a copy. If they didn't think it would sell they wouldn't have put the work into putting it together and getting it released. If your comment were true for the majority of people, then ebooks would sell much better - they are far less expensive (in most cases) than print books and you can access thousands online for free. Shri
Re: Hi - Hi am Harry Den.I am new in this forum. I am very happy to be here. I am enjoying my self here.I ll love to give you my advice. I hope all of you will accept my views.I ll be looking forward for your help when ever i ll need it. Thanks..to all of you...
Re: Great start, but no finish - My advise is FOCUS on your business. Focusing is the main factor to succeed on business. If you have a great idea, then follow it only, don't look anywhere else. It is especially essential in an online business. Because there are a lot of mind blowing sales letters promising millions dolllars or overnight success, people find it difficult to concentrate on one business and they lose their energy. Concept is simple. 1- Have a good idea; 2- Build your business on it; 3- Monetize your business; 4- Promote it; 5- Build list of responsive customers; 6- Maintain You Business. Focusing and not fearing from competition (instead you can learn from competitiors) are main tips of billionaires ,BTW. Orxan
Re: How to do Link Building? - Be diligent. Build blogs.Pay attention to the contents.


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