#007: Reinventing My Wheel — ZAG Book Report

Hello, and welcome to the first book report-style article of the series.

In my last article, I declared that I wanted to start maximizing the efficiency of my time, and yours, by focusing on writing better content. I determined the best way to do that was to start reading all these books that have been sitting on my bookshelf for ages. After reading a few, I would start reporting on the books, one book at a time. A book report, if you will.

For the first report in the series, technically number 7 in the entire series, I thought it would be appropriate to read and write about Branding.

Here is a CMYKris original photo of the star of this article:

• Title: ZAG, The #1 Strategy of high-performance brands.
• Author: Marty Neumeier
• Date Published: 2007
• Category: Marketing and Management

Book Overview

If only I could download all the data of these books into my mind in seconds. Until that technology exists, I will do it the old-fashioned way and read the books, one page at a time.

First, for this content to be more interesting, I will not be summarizing books and reiterating information that someone else already wrote and that you can read yourself. Therefore, I will be throwing in quick relevant anecdotes about the book, and subsequently giving my opinion and recommendation. I don't want to create more content clutter on the internet. My main goal is to learn and grow as a professional, and if I commit to writing about what I read, it tremendously helps me remember the content. A win-win for everyone.

Now that those semantics are out of the way, I want to start building a cadence for the articles so that I can seamlessly continue the series into the future. I don't want to "overtype" and I want these articles to only be as long as needed. I don't want to spend too much time rabbling... wait that's happening right now.

Back to the book.

While reading ZAG, I realized that I was completely forgetting my own Graphic Design roots. What I got a Degree for. I did not go through the processes and methods laid out in the book for my Brand. I was just focusing on trying to make stunningly delightful visuals, and I neglected the story or the future of my business. I was only thinking 5 years out. If I wanted to be as successful as I dream, then I need to visualize my future even further; 25 years later when I will start thinking about retirement. This is also the first step in Neumeier's 17 Brand Checkpoints, which is to write your Brand's obituary and start at the end of your journey. I thought that was a fascinating way to think about a big dream or goal, what do you think will happen even further than that? What will happen to your Brand in 100 years? 1,000 years?

Additionally, I had an amazing epiphany while reading the book. Over the past two years, I have been struggling with the term "Business Owner." I didn't have enough focus (story of my life) on what I should be doing; I was overwhelmed with information. Thankfully, Neumeir's book gave me great focus on what I should be doing now. This whole time I thought I was building a company, but that is not true.

What I am building is a BRAND!

It was great learning all that goes into building any company from scratch, and now I have a whole new appreciation for those who have made it. However, that process did not align with my skillset, time available, and what I should be doing to make my money work for me. What I need to be doing is building my network and growing awareness of my Brand; telling my story, and talking to people. The more people that learn about me, and the more people I learn about, increases the chances of making a bigger impact on my community.

I have a lot to learn, but that is all a part of the process. I have remained persistent over the years always learning and improving myself, so I am confident that one day I will figure it out. Speaking of, up next are the ways that I did improve myself, and my Brand, after reading ZAG.

CMYK-Activities

Brand Deliverables Deck. I was so inspired to reinvent my brand that I took the time and effort to go through all 17 checkpoints laid out in the book and applied them to my business, CMYKris. What I came up with was a professional Brand Package and a plethora of deliverables on which to start building a solid foundation. For my own sake, I wrapped everything up into a nice deck that I can now use to share with others and start telling my story. Feel free to check it out and let me know what you think!

Here is the Presentation I put together — Brand Pitch Deck

I love making infographics. I love consuming data visually and also taking the time to build grids and visuals for others to consume. After reading ZAG, I was inspired to do just that.

I created a custom infographic for the 17 Brand Checkpoints laid out with a compelling graphic put together in the book. However, it felt awkward to me that such a powerful visual had to be broken up over 6 pages. Also, due to the nature of a physical book, the information in the gutters is hard to digest and leads to a battle of fingers vs. folds (see below).

While trying to share the super long graphic I ended up having to conduct some experiments regarding the best way to share this file. Here is what I came up with for now, hopefully, it works. This image is for reference, it is extremely long.

• Here is the Cloud Storage PDF Link

In hindsight, maybe I should have made each step a graphic and then created a simple carousel of images that I have seen others do here. Some foreshadowing for things to come in the future, perhaps.

As always, I am open to any feedback or criticism that you may have. I want to always be improving, and this whole Business Owner thing is still very new to me.

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Thank you for reading! I appreciate you.

I hope that you got something out of the time spent absorbing the content that I have provided today. If you want, feel free to share your thoughts and share these articles with your network! Any interaction with my posts helps me to continue building and pursuing my dreams.

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The Resource That 100% of People Have But Only 10% Utilize Properly.

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