Announcer: The Positive World Radio Network is pleased to present OneClick Society with your host, Lori Taylor. One Click Society is a radioshow designed to help listeners find success in a world that is now soaringahead at the speed of broadband. Each week, Lori Taylor, one of the world'spremiere copywriters and direct response marketers, discusses our rapidlychanging world with some of today's leading minds.

As Lori loves to tell her clients: "You bring the rain, we'llmake it pour!" Well, bring your umbrellas, because with apassion for contribution and a belief in paying it forward, Loriis eager to fall in love with her new listeners. Whether you'rea fellow marketer, entrepreneur, or lifelong learner curious tohear where the future is headed right from the mouths of thosewho are making it happen, One Click Society will inform,inspire, and enthrall you each and every week.

Here's the host of One Click Society, Lori Taylor.

Lori: Hi, it's Lori Taylor and you're with us today on One Click Society:Seize the Minute. I'm here with Mars Dorian today. I'm reallyexcited to have him as a guest, because as you know, if you'vebeen following the show, I've had some pretty impressive peopleon here with long backgrounds and they kind of take you backinto how they made it and what they did differently. But what Ilove about Mars is that he's considered a newcomer compared tosome of the people I've had on here. He started his blog thisFebruary actually, and he's already made huge progress online.SocialMouths, which is someone I follow and respect, actuallyput him on the list of 15 Blogs to Follow If You Want to KickAss Online. That's actually how I found Mars. He's achievedbeing listed in AllTop's marketing section, which is no easything to do early. So he's got great content.

One of the things is he's in some really good company on a listfrom Jade Craven which is their 50 Netsetters list. It's isreally impressive. The reason I share all of this is not toembarrass Mars, although I don't think he's embarrassed. I thinkhe's enjoying every minute. But just to tell you that you reallycan do it, and I think one of the reasons, and it's my ownpersonal opinion, that Mars has been successful early on is

because he has a very strong voice. He's very clear on what he'sdoing to be successful online, and his mission is clear. It'sgreat. I don't think he confuses his readers. I think what yousee is what you get, and that's really what people vibratetowards and want to have when they're trying to form a newconnection.

So I want to start off this show by welcoming Mars. He's callingin from Germany. He has a really cool German accent, so that'sfun. I want to start by letting you tell us a little bit aboutyourself, Mars, if you don't mind and fill in any gaps I mayhave left in your introduction.

Mars: Well, first of all, thanks so much. What an epic intro. For a minuteI thought, about whom is she talking about?

Lori: It was you.

Mars: I'm Mars Dorian. I'm from Germany, and currently I am a freelancerand brand consultant both off and online. I want to build a hugeonline presence where I consult people on building an awesome,amazing brand and help people spread their message about theirsmall business. That's what I do offline as well. I just want togo totally online with it.

Lori: That's fantastic. I love watching your content. You said in one ofyour early posts on reinventing yourself you had a post back, Ithink it was in July, "Spread Your Influence by ReinventingYourself." You said that your online persona is an idealizedversion of you. So I have a few questions around that. Numberone, is Mars Dorian a made up name, or did you have the coolestparents ever?

Mars: Well, I do have the coolest parents ever, but the name is I would say90% real and 10% different. My name is . . . in German you wouldpronounce it Marius Dorian, but a lot of people have problemswith that, so I just turned to a nickname and just left out "i"and "u" and that led to Mars Dorian. So it's pretty close.

Lori: It's good for tweeting too. It's all about truncating your name soyou can say more. I would like to hear, you said it was an

idealized version of you. So how is the actual you differentfrom the online you?

Mars: Actually, nowadays it isn't. If you take the way you are right nowand you promote that, then it's not as inspiring andmotivational as it could be because we still carry a lot ofgarbage from society, right? You don't live to your fullestpotential. I always say that instead of being yourself, becomethe person you want to be, like your ideal version in your mind,and then work towards that with everything you do. Never say toyourself, "I'm just this way or this way." Find your idealversion and say, "What would this version of me do in thissituation?" And then you act like this.

Lori: Oh, I love that you said that because I totally get what you'resaying. From someone who has been in sales offline for 20 years,and most people can't say that and I have, I've called on . . .I could name drop a bunch of names which would be boring. I'veworked with big, big personalities. I've done business dealswith Tony Robbins and called on all the big guys at ESPN anddone that. But I started doing some webinars for a client andone of my partners is like, "Well, do you want me to do thewebinar because I've done so many of them?" And I looked at himand I said, "My entire life has been a webinar. Only thedifference is I can get thrown off track because I can see thepeople's faces or they might be texting on their phone and it'sa distraction." And what I love about the Internet is theillusion that everyone's listening. You don't have to changeyour approach. You can just be who you are and then put it outthere and see how people respond. I really like that part of theonline world.

I was going to ask you, when you were doing this, did you have astrategy when you were first starting out, or were you just kindof feeling your way through it? Did you just say, "I'm going todo this, and this is how it's going to work?" Or did you have tokind of feel what would work?

Mars: Well, in the beginning, I was really lost. I was really lost in thejungle. I had so many crazy ideas in my head, so many passionateideas, but it took me a few months to find my real brand in

terms of the person that I want to be. It's really hard to writethe way that you are in real life, right? For me, it's very easyif I talk to a person to show what I'm all about, to beauthentic. But when it comes to writing, because I'm not thegreatest writer in the world, it took me a while to actuallymake that transition. That's what I did over a couple of months,and I just thought about what part of yourself do you want toshow the world. What is the thing that you want to represent?And then I worked towards that goal.

Lori: I know you're about branding and all those things, but I always tellpeople for me on my blog I went from . . . I had some differentthings that I trademarked. You're probably like me. I can do alot of different things. When you've been in sales, you figureout how to adapt, and I can leverage different parts of me. Butwhen you're really in that room standing forward and saying,"This is what I stand for and this is what makes me special,"it's your own USP. It doesn't mean you can't do a lot of things,but this is the thing I do better than anybody. At least in myown mind that I can say, "This is the value of me."

What would you say that is for you? What's the one thing thatyou feel like you deliver . . . there's a lot of branding peopleout there, but what makes you feel like you put your stake inthe ground? Boom, this is what you get from me that's of value.

Mars: First of all, I don't believe in a niche anymore or the traditionalUSP. If you think like that, then you only think about yourcompetition. What I now do is I think way better than a USP or aniche is to show your belief and really clarify what you standfor in terms of what you think, what is really the mission youare actually on. And then clarify that as much as possible. Forme, that would mean using creativity to impact the worldawesomely, to get off your butt and do something, make somethinghappen, preferably creating your own business or spreading themessage around that. It's all about creativity and doing stuff.It's all on my "About" page. And once you clarify your belief,it's so much easier to find your right audience and the rightpeople, because now you don't have competition in terms of I'mmuch better than this person because I have this and this. Thisis useless. But if you show your belief, you're going to attract

the right people for you, the people who think, oh man, it'sjust like me. I think the same. I want to do the same. I cantotally relate to that. And if you find people that are ridingthe same wavelength, then it's just beneficial and you get yourright audience and that's where your business really flourishes.

Lori: I love that, and don't misunderstand my position on USP. I hope myteam is listening to this or they're going to listen. I'm goingto make them listen to what you just said, because when I waswith my coach and I have my different mentors, one guy was like,"You're an idea machine. You need to be about that." And thensomeone else was like, "Oh, but no one's better, you have fivekids, at time management. We could own that niche from an SEOperspective." And then someone else is like, "Oh, you've beendoing direct response for so long. You could talk about that andtalk about direct response 2.0." And I hear all these things,but for me to brand myself, I could never be a person that wasjust one of those things. It's just not who I am. So I kind oftook it a step further and said, "I'm good at all the thingsthat they just said because I believe in seizing the minute."That's what I said, One Click Society. That's where we are rightnow, and how do you seize the minute? That way I can take apiece of me and talk about a variety of topics to people who aretrying to make it online or trying to change, rebrand their lifereally. Not working for The Man or working for themselves.

I love that you said that, and that's one of the things thatappealed to me about you because I felt like you had a strongstance on that and you're very versatile with the things thatyou talk about. You're not Rainman just talking about the samething, how-to, how-to, how-to. You're about do it. And I likethat. I was wondering what do you think about the term "guru"and all these self-proclaimed gurus in a space that's relativelyyoung. I don't think there's any person who's seen as a gururight now. I mean, they haven't been doing it long enough,because it hasn't existed long enough to be an actual guru. ButI'm just wondering what your take is on that term and how youfeel about someone calling you a guru?

Mars: Actually, I think it's useless because it's just like . . . I'm verycareful with that. I would never give myself some big name. I

see a lot of profiles on social media and people call themselves"visionary changemaker." They're using really big words likeguru and stuff like that. You've got to be really careful. Ifyou use those words, then it just shows that you're none ofthose things. If you have to write on your profile that you're avisionary, it means you're not a visionary. A visionary doesn'tsay he's a visionary. That's what people say about this person.If other people use those words, then it's awesome. But if youuse it for yourself, it just shows . . . it just feels pathetic,because you want to have people spread the message and usingthose kind of words if you're worthy, but I would never use thatas my own language. I do my action, that's what I do, andwhatever you say about it, it's your thing.

Lori: I love that. I recently just wrote a post about that for a blogcalled Pick the Brain, and my post was "Know Your True Value"and understand who you were and talking about if you findyourself constantly telling people that you're good atsomething, you need to ask yourself why. Why are you feeling theneed to tell them? I wouldn't tell you I have blonde hairbecause that would make you feel like an idiot and that I waspatronizing you because I have blonde hair. I would be like, "Ihave blonde hair." You would be like, '"Yeah, that's stating theobvious." My sister would call me "Captain Obvious." But then Ialso put in that same post there's certain things that we doknow about ourselves. I know I'm one of the most loyal andgenerous people. I don't go around talking about it to myfriends or anyone else because that is who I am. I'm alsoincredibly impatient. On the other side of the coin, there arethings that aren't great about me, so it's kind of like justbeing who you are and it's organic.

That's why I ask you about what you think about how social mediais evolving, because it started out as such an organic process.It really did. But as the more savvy marketers get online andthe bigger brands with bigger budgets get there and Internetmarketers figure out how to use it for evil . . . no, notreally. But as that happens, it's kind of evolving andtransforming it. So I was curious how you feel about socialmedia and how you think it might be transforming branding in thecoming years?

Mars: I love it. I really love the fact that you don't need to pay foradvertisement anymore, that you could just spread your messageon those channels, be it Facebook or Twitter. Of course, thereare always going to be people who misuse it, but I wouldn'tworry about that. I would worry more about how you can leveragethat to build your right audience and to really make aconnection. That's why I take a lot of care with my messages andwhat I share and what I show to my people, to my followers andstuff like that. It's amazing. I'm almost online 24/7 and thepotential to reach every place on the planet with your messageis just blowing my mind like a rocket.

Lori: It can be overwhelming too because you kind of get caught up in thefunnel and you're like, "I want to do that." I was going to sayyou should do video blogging because you're handsome and you'refunny and you've got a lot of inflection in your voice. Noteveryone is perfect for video. There are people who are actuallybetter writers than they are necessarily verbal communicators.But you're a great verbal communicator. So when we come backafter our break, I'd like to hear over the last year somethingthat you tried and failed miserably at. So think hard. And thensomething that you're going to do in 2011, that's a differentapproach just because you want to. So after our break, we willhear your incredible answers.

Mars: All right.

Announcer: You're listening to One Click Society with your host, LoriTaylor. Lori would love to hear from you. So, if you'd like toleave a question or make a comment, just scroll to the bottom ofthe page you're listening to. You can also follow Lori onFacebook at www.Facebook.com/Loriraylene . That'swww.Facebook.com/Loriraylene. Now, let's get back to Lori andher guest.

Lori: Hi, everyone. You're back with Lori Taylor at One Click Society, andwe are seizing the minute right now with Mars Dorian. We'rehaving a great time. I had challenged him at the end to revealhis biggest failure and then also share with us a success thathe wants to go after in 2011. He strikes me as someone who doesthings differently and never satisfied, so I'd love to hear what

type of improvements he believes he can make online and for hisown brand. So are you going to tell us your biggest failure,Mars? You've got to have one. Even if you have to lie.

Mars: Just one? I have like many, but the biggest one . . . no, because Ilove trial and error or crash and burn. Just doing your thing.But one of the biggest things in the beginning I kind of copieda lot of people because I was still trying to find my voice. Iwas kind of like compromising my style. I would censor myself. Iwould compare myself to other successful people and just copysome of their writing. When I did a guest post on other blogs, Itried to flavor my writing style with their styles in order toadjust my writing to it. It kind of felt like selling out, andthat's why I pretty much stopped guest posting anyways because Idon't like to compromise with my style. That's pretty much thebiggest thing. You try to be someone else and copy someoneelse's style because it's successful and you pretty much leaveout your awesomeness. You're compromising. That was like in thefirst few three or four months. That was terrible. I wanted toslap myself for that.

Lori: I have to tell you, Mars, I've been having not my best week. It'sokay because I know from your worst weeks come your biggestsuccesses. I don't know the rest of the people listening, but Ijust want to let you know that you're motivating the hell out ofme right now. I love your awesomeness. I love the way you useyour words and your inflections. That's just a side note, but Ilove that. Just to clarify that, a lot of people do do that, theguest posting. In fact, I've done that. I've written some postsat Social Media Examiner, which is a great blog. It's a greathow-to blog. Michael Selzner's brilliant but he has a definitestyle and he's very . . . not inflexible in a bad way. It'sactually in a good way. He actually has definite boundaries thatyou have to write within, and everyone writes within them. ThenI have writing I do at Pick the Brain, which is a personaldevelopment blog and it's a very good blog, but even then Iwater my voice down a little bit. So I understand how peopledon't do it on purpose. It's not like you're trying to copyanyone necessarily. It's that you're in their home. You'retalking to their audience. You don't want to make them look bad.It's just awkward because you're not at your own place. But alot of people do do guest posting, because that's how you get

good links and that's how you put yourself out there. If you hadto do it all over again, would you not do guest post at all, orwould you just choose to do your guest post style differently?

Mars: Actually, I wouldn't do it anymore just because it's not my style. Idon't say it's bad in itself. I know a lot of successfulbloggers who actually do it and they're having great successwith it. But it just doesn't feel right for me. Even if it's abig blog, once I get the feeling that I have to compromise on myword choice and on my style, then it just feels like selling outand I don't want to do that. I'm very picky about that, andunless you find a blog that accepts your voice 150% the way itis, then I don't have a problem with that. But I haven't foundthat yet, as you said because every big blog has its own kind ofbranding and they want people to be a part of that, right?That's okay, you know. That's there, but I just don't belong inthat.

Lori: I think that's good advice for some of the readers who are newbies orthey are starting out, because I actually took the time to write. . . I actually started by writing. It was a writing assignmentI had for a client, and it just turned out it was in my voice.It wasn't in theirs. And I'm good at that. I've been doingcopywriting for 20 years. And it wasn't going to work for them.So I was like, "Well, I'm going to put this in my blog." Andthen I thought and I gave it to my editor and he's like, "Thisis a really good piece. I think you need to try and put thissomewhere to launch your blog." So Jonathan Fields, who Itotally respect, he doesn't really usually let people do guestposts, so I just sent him the post. I mean, it was done, it wasedited. And he loved it and so he's posting it. So I think forpeople listening sometimes it's about just letting it come out.If your whole point is to get more exposure and using a greatpiece of content to do that, it's finding, like you said, evenif you have to dig, finding a blog that potentially would seethat and go, "Wow. That totally is great." Instead of writingsomething for them that's not really coming from your soul.You're kind of forcing it. It's like let it come out. And thenif you can't find a home for it, like you said, just go for iton your own blog and consistently produce the content.

I'd like to know your strategy when you were building your blog.My big thing for people is yes, you could post every day and ifit's great content every day, that's really great. But mostpeople don't have time for five fantastic articles, and so I saytry to write at least just one. Focus in the beginning on justbeing solid in the content you do put out. Nail the thing thatyou do put out, and if it's once a week, it's once a week untilyou get better at your rhythm. I'm curious when you werebuilding your presence, did you have a strategy of what kind ofcontent you were doing and how often you did it?

Mars: In the beginning I thought that you had to put up content everysingle day. I was working really hard on that. I worked so much,but I didn't really have a strategy because I wasn't 100% sureabout my brand yet so I tried a lot of different things.Nowadays, I write twice a week. This week I don't because it'sChristmas and I have some other stuff going on. But it justtakes time to really find your own rhythm and to find thatbecause everything works. If you post every single day, you canbe super successful, but I know a couple of those that do it andthey're doing a marvellous job. But I also know people who postthree to four times a month and they're also super successful.So anything goes. Whatever feels right for you is the rightthing to do.

Lori: What is your typical workday? I know it's the holidays right now. Butwhat is your typical workday like? Are there any particularhabits which you feel help you succeed personally, or do youhave structure in your day? How do you manage your time?

Mars: What I do is I always live my life like a video game pretty much.What I do is that I structure my day . . . I don't know if youknow the book "The Now Habit." Procrastinate a lot. This persontells me that you should structure you day in 30 minute chunks,and after that you do a 5 minute break and then you start a newone and at the end of the day, you count your productive 30minute chunks. That's what I do, right? I treat it like a videogame. How many minutes am I going to achieve today? Sometimesit's five, sometimes it's eight, and then I give myself creditat the end if I beat a high score because I always write downthe points for everything I do, and then I treat myself well bygoing out and eating Chinese food or stuff like that. I always

think like another 30 minutes and another 30 minutes. Reallyputting a time limit on everything I do, which really helps meproduce more quality stuff and then putting up a high score andtreating my life like that.

Lori: Did you say "The Now Habit"? Was that the name of the book? Let meget this straight because I love this. This is the first I'veheard. No, I haven't read that, which is odd because I'm apersonal development freak. So you're saying if you're planningyour day and let's just say you were working on an e-book. I'mmaking this up right now. You're working on some drawing orsomething you were doing and obviously it's going to take youlonger than 30 minutes. But what you're saying is you'lldedicate a chunk of time. For 30 minutes, I'm going to work onmy e-book and then I'm going to take a break. And then in yournext 30 minutes would you come back to that original task, orwould you go ahead and choose a different task?

Mars: I plan in advance. So in your case, when writing an e-book, I wouldsay, "All right. Today, I want to spend four or five units onthat." One unit for me equals 30 minutes, so five units meanstwo and half hours. So that's how I pretty much structure mytime. It's so helpful. I always say, if I write a post or anarticle or something else, I always time myself. I say, "I wantto spend two units on that, maybe four units on that." That'show I get a lot of stuff done because I'm very conscious aboutthat, and the time pressure helps you really concentrate on yourtask and not getting distracted by social media and stuff likethat.

Lori: I love this. I'm going to get this book. I hope everyone else doestoo. This is awesome. And so you say you plan this? What do youdo? Do you plan your week, or do you plan your day? Like somepeople do it on Sundays for the week. I'm only asking thesequestions because you have got a lot of success in a relativelyshort amount of time, and I think we just inadvertently gotrevealed why. Because I don't think most people are thatstructured with the way they plan their creative time. They getinto their "creative process," which sometimes involves goingand buying paint instead of actually painting. So I'm justcurious. How do you plan that? Do you do it weekly or daily? Areyou a weekly planner and then you adjust accordingly, or do you

do it daily, in the morning you just plan what you're going todo?

Mars: Every Sunday I just have a basic goal for the week, like what I wantto accomplish in this week. Then before I go to sleep everysingle day, I plan roughly my units. So for tomorrow, I wouldsay I have two client calls, so basically that's going to takelike two hours, so that's four units. Then I say I want to writea little bit on my new e-book, so I'm going to spend two orthree units on that. I do that the day before, but I'm not superstrict with it. It's all about turning it into a fun process. Ijust plan it out in my head. Sometimes I write it down, and thenwhen I start the day, I know what to do and at the end I givemyself points and I just list all my units. Like in a video gamewhere you pretty much score your success. It works brilliantlyfor me.

Lori: I just think it's great. When you were developing what you're goingto do next year, what would be something that you want to domaybe differently than you did this year? What's a new frontierfor you?

Mars: Well, I have huge plans. I really want to bring it to the next level.I'm really going berserk for that. I'm going to redefine thevisual aspect of my brand, and that means everything that has todo with design. Right now, it's cool design but I don't reallyhave brand colors. I'm working on the visual aspect to reallyclarify my brand so that whenever people see something from me,be it a Facebook fan page or a Twitter background, they know100% that it's me just by seeing those colors. That's what I'mdoing visually. I'm super clarifying it so that I become aseasily recognizable as Coca-Cola or some other brand. So that'son the visual aspect.

On the doing part, I'm going to be way more multi-media. I'mgoing to do more videos. I kind of stopped now because I don'thave that much light anymore. I'm going to turn it into a littleshow as well. I'm thinking about doing a podcast. I'm not sureabout that. Just making it more multi-media and really gettingthe message even stronger out and really building a multi-mediablog that is 100% me, that shows my mission and the actions I

take and really transforming that into a kick ass experiencethat hopefully blows people away like a rocket.

Lori: I love that for you. You're actually going to practice what youpreach. Getting your colors and your branding? I'm sure that'sone of the first things you probably focus on. If you're likeme, I tend to do better for others than I do for myself. If Ipracticed what I make my brands do for their marketing I'dprobably be a little further along. I don't take my own to-dolist as seriously as I take theirs, which is going to besomething I am going to address in 2011. Be more clear on whatI'm actually trying to accomplish. More work for hire is not onthe list. I want to take a short break, but when we come back Iwould like to hear a little more . . . one thing I haven't askedyou and I'd like to know is how you got here. What was lifebefore Internet for you? It seems to me there's always a tippingpoint for someone that just makes them take the jump, and I'mcurious what leverage the universe got on you to get you on thepath that you're on now, which seems to be very close to yourheart. We'll talk about that after the break.

Announcer: This is PWRN, the world's most authoritative source for thetruth.

Lori: Hi, this is Lori Taylor and you're listening to One Click Society:Seize the Minute. Mars and I are having a pretty fun discussionon the ins and outs of building your brand online, followingyour dreams, knowing what you stand for, sharing your passionswith everyone else, and developing, as Mars put it, "a kickasspresence online that's a wonderful user experience foreveryone." I'm curious, Mars, to hear about life before February2010, and what was what I call the leverage that got you to say,"You know what? This is what I want to do, and this is how I'mgoing to do it." I'd like to hear a little bit about yourjourney if you don't mind sharing that.

Mars: Yeah, no worries. It's a pleasure. Right after school, I traveled thewhole planet. I was interested in different cultures. I traveledto Japan, Australia, Mexico, and the States and all acrossEurope. I even lived in most of those countries for at least sixmonths. That went on for two or three years, the total journey.It was super exciting and lots travel but lots of excitement as

well. When I came back, I was so passionate about using mycreativity to build a business, but I didn't really know how todo it. So I went for a menial job working for a boss that Ihated more than anything else. And within a year, I thought,"I've got to get out of this. I'm so passionate and I have somuch creativity. I've got to do something on my own."

Then as of summer of 2009, I took all my experience in marketingand design because that's what I did when I was in school. Iused to be a comic artist and designer and I did a lot offreelancing. I went back to that, and I thought I want to buildmy own career now. It was a pretty rough start because I didn'treally enjoy doing that in Berlin, because I always loved towork with people from all over the world. So I started buildingmy freelance career, but it wasn't that fun.

One day I got invited to a talk from an American person who wasan independent film maker. He was giving a lecture about doingyour own independent movie just by building an online presenceand by using your blog and turning that into a business. When Iheard that I thought, "What a crazy idea. This guy isridiculous." But after two hours, when I left that speech, itkind of made me think. I thought, "That's actually a pretty coolidea. You don't have any middle man. You can reach the wholeplanet with your message and do everything on your own and youcan build something epic with that." That got me so fired upthat about a year ago I started thinking about building my ownpresence. I had a lot of doubt and I thought it's not possible.A lot of my people said, "You shouldn't do it. It doesn't work.It's a crazy idea." So I procrastinated a lot, a lot. But then,finally in December, I thought, "To hell with it. I'm going todo it. I think it's my destiny." I started designing my blog,starting learning anything about CSS and stuff like that, andthen I launched my blog in late February.

Lori: I'm curious. We all have to live. I saw that you have a few productson your blog, but what are your plans for monetization? I knowyou've been building your crowd, but what are your plans formaking money from your online presence? Is it client work?

Mars: Right now, it's client work and I offer consulting in the offlineworld as well, like small business consulting from German peoplewho live here who actually read my blog in English. That's wheremost of my money comes from and it's really fun. But my maingoal is to turn my whole online presence into a full-timebusiness. Right now, I'm doing online consulting as well, andthose affiliate products that come from my friends that I thinkdo amazing work, so I share it on my blog. That's where some ofthat money comes from too. In the future, I plan on pretty muchturning the whole sentence, "The world needs you," into a branditself where I'm even going to sell T-shirts, doing digitalproducts and spreading your influence and branding and making awhole package out of that. I'm even going to start with someother merchandise. Pretty much becoming a one-man brand armywith that, with all the design, the message behind that. Reallymaking it compelling and offering tons of different productsthat are associated with that, be it a T-shirt, consulting, ordigital goods.

Lori: That's great. It's interesting to hear you say that, because I amactually good friends and in a couple masterminds with somereally big names, Internet marketers, and they're probably someof the best in the business for info products. One of them, Iwon't mention his name because I don't have permission to revealthis because it was a private conversation, but one of hiscomments to the group and to me was he probably is considered anInternet marketing guru. Self-coined but people who are gettinginto the space want to be like him when they grow up. He said ifthat was his only business, he would blow his brains out. Likeliterally that was his comment. "I would blow my brains out." Hesaid, because selling products, like what you're talking about,T-shirts or physical products like he's doing some chinaimporting, he said once you figure out how to sell informationonline, just understanding who the people are that are attractedto your brand and what type of things they want, not necessarilyneed but they want that you can bring to them that are notnecessarily hope in a box; how to become better at SEO, how tobecome better at affiliate marketing, but are more about sellingto them actual physical products that they would just want tobuy. A cool pen, something they would want. You're the firstperson that I've asked that question to that went down thatpath, which I find curious and interesting because I actually

wouldn't believe that.

Talking about your offline income, that's how I monetize rightnow is my work for hire that I've been doing for years, but whathas been your biggest branding success? In your own worldonline, you're the new guy in the crowd. But offline, youprobably have established customers and things like that. Whathas been one of your biggest branding successes that you've hadoutside of your own blog?

Mars: Because my parents are artists, I have a lot of artists actuallyrebrand themselves so that they stand more out because it's sucha crowded field. I recently had a small business run by twopeople, two gay people, they're doing an awesome business. It iscalled Friendly Society. It's pretty much like an offline smallshop that is very artsy. They sell clothes. They have their ownclothing line. Then they do T-shirts, everything pretty much,and they import stuff from Thailand. I helped them build amessage that makes it more compelling to buy from them becausethey're still having . . . even though they're awesome, they'restill having a hard time getting more and more customers or truefans. That's what I'm helping them with by telling them somestrategies on how to present themselves on their website andeverything they do. It's getting really better for them now, andit's going to be amazing if we keep working together. That'ssomething that really is awesome and you can see that youradvice actually helps people with both life and business. That'smy recent success.

Lori: Do you think that's something that you excel at? I think that you'vedone just an amazing job at inventing yourself online, if youwill. Putting yourself out there in a way that's tangible. I saythere are three steps. Emotional IQ people talked about for awhile. It kind of died, but you have your IQ, your emotional IQ,but there's also that CQ. My friend is working on a book called,"Communication Quotient," which is no matter how high your IQ isor even your emotional IQ is, if you can't translate yourself ina way that has meaning for the people that you're communicatingwith, that you're trying to reach an outcome with, then itdoesn't matter. The other two don't matter. You've got to havethe bridge. It sounds to me like you excel at maybe pulling out

the magic and awesomeness from other people, like having themreally pinpoint what makes them special. When I say special, Idon't mean they have better T-shirts than someone else oranything like that. I mean what's their spark in life? Are theyfunny? Are they informational? Are they someone that people justgo to for information? It sounds like that's part of yourprocess is really helping people. Is that true?

Mars: Every week I get mail from people who say, "You really got me off mybutt. I started my first business,"' or I'm finally doing thisand that. What it really boils down to is that I inspire people.I'm very energetic by nature, and the way I write people just .. . I'm like dynamite under your butt and ready to explode, soyou jump in the air and say, "God damn, I've got to do somethingright now." That's the effect I have on people, and when I speakand when I write I really inspire people to make things happenand to do their own stuff. Get creative, build their ownbusiness, just do something, make something happen. That's themessage I put out and I love to do that.

Lori: I think you're good at it. I'm usually a person that motivates otherpeople and you're over here making me think, "I've just got tocommit to this." I'm committing to my blog in 2011 and doingthis radio show was part of that, just getting me in my rhythmand flow and putting out things. I just love talking to you. Ithink you probably excel at this, and this is something thatmore people should realize what they do well and do more of it.So many people focus on, "I'm not very good at time management.I need to get better at that." And then they leave their trueskill set and their true gift trying to, like you said, be likesomeone else. Instead of saying, "I'm not that good at that, butI'm really good at this." I think that's really key. I know thatyour parents are artists, but aren't you an artist as well?Don't you draw cartoons or . . .

Mars: I used to be a comic artist and freelance designer. I taughteverything myself, and during school that's how I made my money,doing cartoons for newspapers and stuff like that. It's awesomeif you have that kind of knowledge. I use it pretty much tobuild my own stuff. I don't need a designer or a web programmerto do my online stuff. I do everything myself.

Lori: I think it's great. I was looking at some of your stuff and I'malways the idea person and I like, "Gosh he should . . ." One ofthe things you're talking about creating products and I knowyou'll do T-shirts and stuff, but just some of the things thatget passed around a lot are funny cartoons. Just a funny takeand a drawing and people love to share that. I could see youdoing really well in that what I call "infographic space." Justtaking a visual concept of what you're trying to say and justmaking it hit home with one or two lines would probably bereally powerful for your blog.

Mars: Yeah. It's actually part of my goal is to be even more visual. I amgoing to use, for my really big epic post, I'm actually going tocreate an image that really shows what I'm talking about. Thecurrent e-book I'm creating is very visual as well. I think it'sso essential because most blogs they still suck in a visual way.The content is awesome, but it's so ugly it makes blind kidscry. That's what I'm going to change. Since I have theknowledge, I'm going to make it happen and I want to inspirepeople to do the same. The visual aspect of your brand is justas important to deliver your message.

Lori: It's so funny that you just said that. We have to get ready to take abreak. My friend Sean Platt has a blog called Ghostwriter Dad;he's brilliant. He's a wonderful writer. I showed him a clientwebsite that I pretty much hated. It was all red and angry andit was awful. He sent me an e-mail and said, "My eyes just askedme for an apology." I thought you'd like that.

We're going to go ahead and take a quick break here and comeback. When we come back, I would like to hear what kinds . . .people talk about branding and I loved hearing what you saidabout the USP and that's kind of old school. Maybe tell everyone. . . I think that's the biggest thing when people are goingonline is figuring out who they are. But what kind of problemscan good branding cure? You mentioned working with your people,that are your couple that are doing their business. I'm justcurious what kind of problems can you solve for them by doingsome really good branding. We'll talk about that after thebreak.

Announcer: You're listening to One Click Society with your host, LoriTaylor. Lori would love to hear from you. So, if you'd like toleave a question or make a comment, just scroll to the bottom ofthe page you're listening to. You can also follow Lori onFacebook at www.Facebook.com/Loriraylene. That'swww.Facebook.com/Loriraylene. Now, let's get back to Lori andher guest.

Lori: You're back here with Lori Taylor at One Click Society, and we'reseizing the minute with Mars Dorian. I have just pushed him in acorner, and I want him to answer a pretty big question actuallybut just from his point of view. When he's working with a clientand mostly recently the one he mentioned in our last segment hewas helping them create their brand so people could understandwho they were and what they stood for, what kind of problems dobad branding bring to you, and then how can you solve them bydoing good branding?

Mars: The number one problem actually is that most people are confused bothin life and in business. The clients I have that's pretty muchtheir main problem. They don't know how to build a reallyinteresting brand and how to spread the message because theydon't clarify the core of it. That's why I think that if you dothe branding right, you pretty much clarify what you're allabout. What you believe in, what you stand for. That's what I'mactually helping people with, finding that core message, theheart. Why do you do what you do? What is your mission and whatis your goal? Preferably in an emotional way not just like makemoney, blah, blah, blah. Boring stuff. I ask them, "What do youwant to accomplish, and how can you use that with all of yourpersonality? Everything that makes you unique. Like yourpassions, your fears, your little obsessions. Bringing that intoyour core message and using that." Because once you clarify yourcore message, then everything else in terms of branding becomeseasier. If you're the person who wants to inspire other people,and you really have it down, then you will know what kind ofcolors to use, probably warm colors. You will know how topresent yourself, how to write, because your message is reallyclear, and once you clarified that, everything else is just aflavor of what you do.

Lori: That's great. That's good advice. You actually talk in your blog

about being rather calculating in your word choices. Make sureyou choose your words wisely. You refer to your readers as your"digital crusaders." I love that. You use certain phrasesrepeatedly to create your own language. I'm just wondering forpeople listening, I'm a big believer in creating your own words.I think people really like coining phrases. But how importantare these word choices, and how do they play into your abilityto build your tribe? What do you think makes it sticky?

Mars: Some people say what I do is not authentic enough, because you shouldjust be the way you are and you shouldn't be so strategic aboutit. But I believe that if you really want to take it to a newlevel, you should be really crazy about all the details. Ireally have my own language and the way I use words, and if Ifind a way to make it more compelling, hell yeah, I'm going touse it. You should always have the point of view that everythingyou do, every message, every angry comment you make, every rantis part of your brand. I always think about how I present myselfonline. I'm doing it visually now with my new colors coming out.I do it with everything I do, all the writing and that stuff. Ithink it's so compelling, and people really catch up on that. Iget a lot of . . . when people retweet my stuff, that's thegreat benefit. I see them a lot of times using my words. Theysay, "Hello, crusader" or they use my words. I use "epic" a lot.I sometimes use "white magic" for something that's good, clean,magical, something that's awesome. And people use those kind ofwords. That's really like spreading your brand message evenfurther, and I love that.

Lori: I do too and I love what you said because it's not about beingcalculating in a way that's not congruent. It's more about, Icall it "calculated consciousness" is being aware of why people. . . you can't say I'm this guy, and I'm this free thinker andblah, blah, blah and then all of a sudden come out with somerigid way of speaking or rigid way of looking at something. Youkind of have to be really calculated about the consciousness ofyourself and be calculated with your content so that it makessense to people. Because I think the minute your digitalcrusaders, if you will, get confused, there's a lack of trustthen. They're like, "What is he doing? I thought I knew who thisguy was." For my people that are listening to this right now,and I'd like to get your weigh in on this, I would say that

people talk about me and I've got so many different interestsand so many different friends and when I do sales, depending onthe buyer, I will bring out different parts of my personality.What my CEO of my previous company said it was good for him towatch because the thing is I always maintained integrity. It'snot that I became a quiet person when I'm around a quiet person.I just went to the quieter side of me. That's all. It wasn'tlike I assumed their personality. I assumed my own, but I'mreally conscious of what their needs are.

So when you go out there and you start blogging, what point didyou notice that people were starting to engage back with you?Was there a moment that you hit that tipping point wheresomething you said or some message that you were finally wereable to get out there that they actually jumped on and took yourengagement level to the next level, really?

Mars: That pretty much happened at the time when I was 100% authenticonline. Authentic to me simply means that you do what youbelieve and you believe what you do. That's being authentic.Once you do that with everything you do, if you talk about yourpersonal stories or if you talk about another person, everythingyou do is 100% aligned with your belief, then people reallyrespond to that because a lot of people don't do that. They putout the words they think they should they use in order to pleasethe audience, and they use a lot of things just in order tobecome more popular. And you know it's a bit fake becausethey're not really doing it in the real world or it doesn't feelright. If you're 100% sure of what you want to do and youexpress it with every digital bit of your online presence, thenyou will find the right people, the people who will respond toyou that just say, "I love this guy." They will even think that,oh, he's just like me or I want to become that kind of person.That's who I want to hang out with. That's pretty much how youbuild that engaging audience.

Lori: I'm curious. You're leading me to a really great question. Thank youfor that. When you started out, you didn't really have anythingto lose because you were just doing your thing. You're likelet's see what works. How much of Mars can they tolerate? Howmuch do I want to give them? You have to make a lot of

decisions. I tell people when they're doing their blogs, if yourstrategy is to respond to every comment and that's why peopleare coming back, when you become Murray Smith and you have27,000 people at your fan page treating you like the FacebookHelp Desk, you have to have a strategy so that people don't feelignored while other people are getting answered. So I alwaystell people think about what the outcome could be of thatparticular strategy. But in your case, you didn't. You didn'thave anything to lose. But now, you've built an audience, youhave a brand, people who know you know who you are, know whatyou believe, they get it. Now right, you're on that beginningwave of success, but does self-doubt ever creep back into yourmind and then how do you counter it? That fear of I don't wantto do anything wrong. How are you handling that?

Mars: Actually, not that much anymore because I'm 100% the way I want to beonline. It's my wavelength. Sometimes I get people who write tome and say, "I don't like you,. Your word choice and your bloglooks like a comic dragged through a candy store being on acid,"or stuff like that. I love that because I'm pissing off thepeople that don't respond to what I'm doing. You should alwaysworry about the one message that you stand for. And no matterwhat you do, always do something that is aligned with that. Ifyou do that, there's no doubt. There are no problems because youdo what you believe, and if you screw up but you thought it wasthe right thing, then you're openly frank and you just explainwhat happened. I think it's the best way to live to just do yourthing and believe it and being always aligned with that. Thetrouble really just starts when you do things that don't reallywork out for you that you think you should be doing because itmakes you more popular. That's when the trouble starts. Ifyou're 100% yourself, the way you want to be, then you're off toa great start.

Lori: I'm curious because you brought up a good point because that was thefirst thing for me. I spent my life in the direct mail world.You put it out there and you judge your success by how muchmoney you bring in. Right now, it's funny there are some realhaters out there. You'll put out something just great, it's noteven controversial, it's just trying to help people. And youhave that one person who's like, "I hate my life. This postsucks. It's not going to help me." You feel bad, I feel bad for

them. For people like yourself who are extreme being who theyare, you don't dumb yourself down, you don't add milk to it, youare who you are, but you will attract some haters, becausepeople are threatened by that. There's a million reasons. How doyou tell someone who's going online, putting themselves outthere how to handle the haters? How do you do it and what's yourstrategy?

Mars: Nowadays, I feel really good when I get a hate mail once in a whilebecause it just shows that my brand is pretty clear and that I'mnot appealing to everyone, which is a really bad thing to do. Ofcourse, you want to make sure that not every mail you get is ahate mail. Unless you're a complete asshole, I think that's notgoing to happen. But if you get a lot of positive feedback,which I do, and some of it is really bad, then it just showsthat your emotional connection is with the right people andsurely you're going to piss off some other people that clearlysee the world a bit differently. In the beginning, it can behard. It can crush your ego to pieces. But I wouldn't worryabout that. Everybody has their own opinion. You never want toplease everyone. Just make sure that you find the people thatrelate to your thinking, to your cause. When you do that, youwill find those people. The more authentic, the more you diveinto that, the more opposition you're going to get. You shouldsee it as a part of your growth and success that happens.

Lori: That's beautiful. Jonathan Field said that in his case his tribereally takes care of it for him. Before he can even get to thecomment to either refute it or apologize or whatever, fivepeople from his tribe are already on it. They are, "Why are youacting like that?" They take care of it themselves. He has apretty good policy that he's leave a controversial comment, buthe won't leave a comment that's attacking anyone, even if it'shis tribe defending him, he would take that comment off becausehe doesn't want the negativity. He doesn't want to attract that.I think what you're saying is great, and I think it's probablyabout doing what you've done which is just knowing what youstand for and trying to stay positive and hold onto the littlesuccesses more than you hold onto the little failures. I really,really appreciate your time today, Mars. I was just curious.What is your book that you're going to be writing? Are youtelling the title? Is it a secret?

Mars: Right now, it's going to be like a free guide that I'm going to offeron my blog as an incentive for my e-mail list. It's going to beawesome both in terms of content and style. The next thing isI'm going to build my first premium multimedia product whichwill be about like building [inaudible 1:00:32] an amazingbrand, a captivating online presence. I haven't thought aboutthe title yet, but I'm doing the design and thinking now and Iknow it's going to be epic.

Lori: I'm sure. I'm looking forward to it, and I love the things you haveon your blog. Keep up the good work. Keep it coming, and I lookforward to engaging with you more and participating at your blogand just following what you're doing. I think it's going to be awild ride, and I love that we got to you early and we can say,"We knew you when you were just starting to get that surfboardup on the wave." So cheers to your success. Thank you so much.You've really uplifted my day, and I hope that people thatlistened got a lot out of this and just follow the same path youdid, which is you dream and use your heart to guide you. Sothank you so much, and thank you everyone today for seizing theminute with us with Mars Dorian. We're signing off of One ClickSociety.

Announcer: You've been listening to One Click Society with your host, LoriTaylor. Lori is happy to answer any of your questions. Simplyscroll down to the bottom of the page you're listening to. Don'tforget to follow Lori on Twitter at LoriRTaylor. That'sLoriRTaylor.

Join us again next week, and until then, remember there are moreeducational, empowering, and entertaining shows to be found onthe Positive World Radio Network. So, spin the radio dial andfind your favorite show. You're listening to PWRN, the new voicefor Planet Earth.