I am most definitely a fan of “persuasion renegade” and memetic brand expert Ben Mack.

Sure, he’s controversial in a predictably unpredictable way. That’s one reason I like him so much. You’d have to be crazier than Richard Wilson not to pay attention when Ben talks about building your brand into a dominant market leader. After all, he’s sold a whole lot of frickin’ yo-yo’s and rollover minutes. No shit.

On Twitter tonight, Ben and I yacked a little about being the market leader and the commensurate power and influence being the “big dog” in your market gives you to shape and control the dynamics of that marketspace.

 

I certainly agree with Ben’s statement above. Being the dominant force in your market or niche IS unquestionably the penultimate marketing experience. Setting the pace and defining the “state of the art” in your own personal slice of the market is an awesome and worthy goal to aspire to.

I spent the better part of the last decade elevating to, operating at, or defending that position to the tune of 9 figures in sales revenue.

However, I know whereof I speak when I say that along with the power that being the “big dog” offers, there comes also a hideous and ugly beast.

That hidden monster lying in wait is the negative energy cycle of blowback.

Blowback is the often unforeseen consequence of being the one everyone is watching. Over and over again, you’ll see how we, as a species, love to idolize and worship only to later demonize and tear apart celebrities, “gurus”, popular products, brands, politicians, religions… The list goes on infinitely.

It’s the energy that just launched it’s OWN form of blowback against blowback.

Blowback happens whenever extraordinary success happens. It’s entirely predictable. People start to gripe, competitors sharpen their knives, the marketplace can quickly become ferocious.

Putting aside any feel-good rhetoric, there is a significant question you need to ask yourself:

Do you really want to go BIG? Doing so can sometimes be precisely the WRONG goal for your business.

I realize that this may seem antithetical and a weird question from a supposed marketing wiz, but stick with me here…

When you are BIG, you unavoidably become a TARGET.

If you are currently suffering under the delusion that kooks and crazies don’t matter… that jealous competitors are impotent and inconsequential… that “you’re not doing anything wrong” in your business or your marketing so you have no reason to worry about unjust justice… THINK AGAIN.

Confessionally I tell you, I have regrets about having “gone big” in the past. I can see clearly now that instead, going DEEPER and WIDER would have been the smarter play. Sure, going big generated millions and millions of dollars. BUT…

I realize that focusing less on growth and more on the depth of the offer and breadth of the audience would have been the smarter play in the long run. Mitigating the inevitable blowback in the marketplace as a big player is enormously costly in time, emotional energy and money.

So, as you build and grow your business and marketing, ask yourself… Do I want to be going BIG or do I want to be going DEEP and WIDE.

Here’s to submersion over subversion.

Brian

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