Celebritize Yourself – The Three Step Method to Increase Your Visibility and Explode Your Business
By Edie Tolchin
Surely almost everyone who reads Inventors Digest has dreamed of being a celebrity – of fame and fortune – at some point during the development of their inventions. Whether as a child you were making Oscar acceptance speeches in front of your dolls, or recently reflected what type of celebration you’ll plan when your product reaches the milestone of having sold a million units – this book is for you.
Celebritize Yourself – The Three Step Method to Increase Your Visibility and Explode Your Business, the brainchild of Marsha Friedman, is the complete how-to guide for getting yourself out there and creating a niche for yourself while playing with the big kids and seeking the big bucks.
Friedman is CEO of EMS Incorporated, a PR firm she’s managed for the past twenty years. Representing diverse corporations and private clients in a variety of fields, Ms. Friedman has worked with the likes of Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., Sergeant’s Pet Care Products, and Motown’s famous group, The Temptations.
Celebritize Yourself is filled with numerous inspirational blurbs – or true pearls of wisdom, if you will – in the form of words of encouragement, throughout each chapter to help summarize, in a few sentences, what you’ve just read in preceding paragraphs, such as “Celebritize Yourself Fact: “Transitioning from civilian to author acts as training wheels for your new celebrity.”
Without revealing too much of the book, Friedman promotes a three-step method for achieving celebrity: “Step 1: Write! Step 2: Speak! Step 3: Sell!”
The emphasis is on promoting yourself via TV, talk radio shows, and by using magazines and newspapers to your advantage – using the media to market your specialty. And, the one thing you must do before you become a celebrity is to write a book. You need to show that you are an expert in your field or with your invention. Friedman takes you through all the steps necessary to make an educated choice on what to write, how to write and of course, when to write. When the book’s done, then you have to promote it, whether via radio, television, newspapers or magazines. Now you have to prove it. This book helps you sell yourself – or your brand – or your invention.
http://www.marshafriedman.com – http://www.celebritizeyourself.com
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Q&A with Edie G. Tolchin and Marsha Friedman:
Edie G. Tolchin: Please tell us a little about yourself and your background – and what made you decide to write this book.
Marsha Friedman: I’ve been in public relations for more than 20 years, working first in the financial industry and then moving into my own agency where I’ve helped promote just about every kind of business known to man, including mass consumer products (with Bristol Myers), natural health products, Web sites, books and even movie producers (with current client Michael E. Uslan, executive producer of the Batman franchise of films). Friends and clients had been after me for years to write a book, but I didn’t because I didn’t feel I had anything new to contribute. But over the last few years, I saw this phenomenon of experts from a wide range of fields using their expertise to become celebrities in the mainstream, and I saw how much of what I did for my clients played into that trend. Now, I had something to say.
EGT: The majority of our readers are innovators in one way or another. So, how is your book relevant to inventors looking to become successful with the next, greatest ‘widget’?
MF: Truth is perception, and the heart and soul of public relations is the ability to communicate your message in a variety of forums so that the audience not only understands your vision, but subscribes to it and is inspired by it. Invariably, those who invent can show their passion, but may have a difficulty in articulating it. My book spells out a strategy and a variety of methods that can help them find their way, so they can marry their passion to their message and find a way to get people on board with their ideas. In the process, they will be building their “brand” as a credible inventor.
EGT: If an inventor is looking to ‘celebritize’ – but only has one invention – are you really saying that this novice inventor must write a book (as in your Step 1)? How can they find a niche even with just one invention or without writing a book?
MF: There is an old lesson a journalist once taught me – the difference between telling a story and showing a story. A reporter writes “It was a terrible fire.” Okay, he’s telling me a story, and I guess I’ll take his word for it. Or, he could write in a way that “shows” me the story, “The flames shot 30 feet into the air, breaking every window in a three-block radius. The heat forced an evacuation of a five-block area and it took three pumpers to put the fire out.” Wow – that was a terrible fire. The moral of that story? It doesn’t matter the number of inventions an inventor might have. The only thing that matters is that inventor’s passion, and how they relate their story to others. I recently represented a podiatrist who came up with a simple footpad to help relieve pain from Morton’s Toe, a rather common foot ailment. He didn’t even want to manufacture the pad, but rather, he showed people how to buy a $2 over the counter foot pad and cut it into the exact pieces and shape necessary to treat the problem. And he wrote a book about it. The point of the book isn’t to sell books, but rather, to brand yourself and help get attention for the thing you really want to sell – you.
I sense the other part of this question has to do with making the effort to write a book to show your story. Well, how badly do you want it? If it’s not worth writing a book to get your idea in front of the people who could buy it, help you sell it, or market it, then perhaps it might be time to go back to the day job. Those with passion for what they are doing won’t be daunted by the task of writing their passions down for everyone to see.
EGT: Any final advice for our readers? Why should they buy your book?
MF: I want people to understand that the term “celebrity” is not just reserved for movie stars anymore. People from all walks of life have risen up to become media darlings. Rachael Ray worked the candy counter at Macy’s. Martha Stewart wasn’t born a mogul – she had to work her way up to do it. The “Dog Whisperer” was a family vet who had been working in his neighborhood with animals since he was 13. All of these people have something in common with everyone who reads my book – at one point in time, they weren’t celebrities, either.
