Wanna Make Big-Ass Money With Tiny-Ass Change?

ATOMIC ELECTRON TRANSITION IN 2017!
 
"Hanh?", you say.
 
Yes. 
Atomic electron transition.
 
Atoms: very, very small. Almost nothing smaller.
 
Electrons: tiny little bits of energy. Also very small. Sub-atomic.
 
Transition: also known as change. A move. A shift. An alteration.
 
All bundled together? 
Atomic electron transition: tiny, energetic changes.
 
YAY, TINY ENERGETIC CHANGES!
 
You know what these tiny, energetic changes are often called?
 
Quantum leaps.
 
Really? 
But, everyone talks about the quantum leap as a huge, dramatic event.
 
An earth-shaking change.
 
It conjures up images.
Explosions! 
Animated thunderbolts! 
Scott Bakula being hurled back in time to solve an earth-shaking problem in under an hour!
 
Yet, quantum leap is nothing like huge.
 
A QUANTUM LEAP IS SO SMALL, YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE IT
 
Well, you can see it if you have the right equipment. 
You have to be a physicist and stand around in a dark laboratory dressed like Thomas Dolby wearing welding goggles as in the "Blinded By Science" video and hope you can escape from the Home For Deranged Scientists.
 
But anyway.
 
As a metaphor, "quantum leap" is overused and misunderstood.
 
As mistaken comparisons go, it's right up there with "steep learning curve." 
Contrary to popular usage, a  steep learning curve is a great thing. It means you're learning something quickly. 
A gentle learning curve indicates very little progress. 
But "steep" sounds difficult, so that's how it's used, with nobody besides you and me bothering to think about the ramifications of steepness.
 
All this to say, when it comes to brand, your business doesn't require dramatic shifts to make dramatic things happen.
 
Branding doesn't change the inside of your business. 
Branding merely changes how the world perceives what happens inside your business.
 
A BRAND MAKEOVER IS LIKE AN EPISODE OF WHAT NOT TO WEAR
 
It's like having Clinton and Stacy give you a new wardrobe.
 
You're still the same person on the inside. You've changed very little of your actual character.
 
But you have changed the way you present yourself to the outside world.
 
Instead of wearing soup-stained sweatpants and grubby rubber sandals to the supermarket, you wear linen slacks and Bruno Magli knockoffs, one day you get picked up by a dental floss tycoon, and you spend the rest of your life living in unbridled, zircon-encrusted luxury in Montana as a living parody of a Frank Zappa song.
 
Wearing better pants and shoes changes your life!
 
SO CAN  BRAND--WITHOUT ANY DRAMATIC, WHOLESALE EFFORT
 
Which really should be the way of any New Year's Resolution.
 
If you want to accomplish something huge, go for it.
 
But it should be done with simple, easy-to-implement changes.
 
If you have a popcorn store in Santa Fe, and you say, "For my New Year's resolution, I want to fly this popcorn store to Mars on January 3," you're going to have a hard time.
 
But what if you have a long-range, stepped-out plan for flying that popcorn store to Mars?
 
"On January 2, let's reach out to Elon Musk. He'll eventually want popcorn stores on Mars."
 
That's a chunked-down, more attainable goal.
 
Even more chunked-down and attainable? 
January 2: start drinking Tang. 
January 3: go on the dark web and buy Elon Musk's cell phone number 
January 4: Call Elon and ask what flavor popcorn likes. 
January 5: MapQuest a route to Mars that bypasses toll roads."
Etcetera.
 
PUTTING OFF YOUR BRAND RESOLUTION FOR 2017?
 
Join us in an atomic electron transition for the New Year.
 
Start making small but useful changes with the goal of evolving the whole.
 
Think of it as the butterfly effect for business.
 
A butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil?
Whoa! 
It leads to you becoming a brand-wielding dental-floss tycoon wearing designer sweatpants stained with 14-karat gold donut glaze to the supermarket.
 
It could happen.
 
IN THE MEANTIME...
 
Don't forget to submit your burning branding questions for 2017.
 
We answer as many as possible in the coming weeks, giving you mind-rattling insight into implementing those attainable atomic electron transitions in the coming year.
 
What do you want to know about small-business branding that's going to rock your world in the Brave New Era?
 
Do you want to know how to avoid mistaking the hot new platform for actual communication?
 
Do you want to know how to light people up?
 
Do you want to know how to better extend your brand into your marketing media?
 
Do you want to know why Rogue One isn't really Star Wars episode 7?
 
If you received this missive in an email, just hit "reply."
 
If you're reading this online, send your query-on-fire to [email protected]
 
Happy New Year!
As always,
Blaine Parker
Your Lean, Mean Creative Director in
Park City

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