AJ KUMAR

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Author: AJ Kumar

September 20, 2017

The Art of 3-Dimensional Winning

Being in business is all about finding a balance between offering something that aligns with your skills, and meeting the needs of your potential customers.

When you are able to build a business that finds the intersection between multiple purposes, you can be sure that it will not only be something that you enjoy running as an entrepreneur but will also be able to create a sustainable impact on the world around you.

You may remember when I talked about entrepreneurs being game changers in the post about Ready Entrepreneur One.  Well, I’m going to be expanding on that point in this post.  Because when you go into business, it’s not just about you making money, delivering your amazing products or services.  It also isn’t solely about your clients or customers either.

Striking the chord of balance is important, and when you are able to do that by following the information I’m going to share with you in this post, you will find that you have more purpose, more clarity, and a better sense of who/what your brand is all about. Read more →

September 15, 2017

How to Build a Media Company Like Oprah, Ellen, or Martha Stewart

Brand authority comes from getting great quality social proof, and making people pay attention to you.  All of the big name television hosts who are on the level of a first name basis with the entire world, are able to captivate a massive audience using their brand platform.

Since it’s inception, television has been the way that major personalities become major celebrities through leveraging this powerful platform.

And it’s all changing.

In today’s world, anyone can become the next Oprah using the power of their smartphone!

So what’s the secret to becoming the next global sensation?

Owning your market’s attention.

So if that’s the secret, then how do you do this effectively? Read more →

September 12, 2017

8 Steps to Branding Yourself as a Character

This is an exercise I do with the entrepreneurs that I coach.  And it’s one of the first things that I inadvertently did that got me started in business. Creating an image is time-consuming and it can be difficult.  But without a character your brand will suffer.

This article will help you to understand why you need to create a brand character, and by the end, you will actually have answered the questions to make your character a reality.

Why A Character?

Whenever we turn on our television, read a book, or fire up Netflix we are bombarded with characters. Real or otherwise, we find that we are able to relate to their human struggles.  Brands have forever been indebted to the powerful persuasion of characters because character is the convergence of marketing and entertainment.

At this stage in the game, the question is not why you should have a brand character, but more importantly, why you don’t? Read more →

July 24, 2017

Ready Player One, Ready Entrepreneur One

The world is changing.

We live and work in the digital age.  Everything that we do is based on the reality that we are globally connected via technology, at all times.  But what if all of that technological potential were really just an escape from reality, instead of something that helped to enhance it?

This is the premise for the bestselling book, Ready Player One, which has been picked up by Steven Spielberg and set to hit movie theaters next March. The trend of gaming has exciting new parallels for the world of digital entrepreneurship and how we can best use technology to help us create a better world.

Life in the digital age has become a game, and entrepreneurs are going to be the ones who get to change the world through its use.

In this book and soon to be movie, players live in a dystopian future, where everyone wants to escape to play a game called OASIS.  In the year 2045, people are ditching world problems to find hidden Easter eggs hidden inside the video game. Whoever finds them will inherit the massive fortune of the game’s creator, and be able to pull themselves out of the economic disparity that plagues the world of the characters we’ve read about and will soon be able to see on screen.  Before he died, the creator of OASIS Read more →

July 9, 2017

Why Every Entrepreneur is a Skydiver

I was out having a nice dinner with some friends while in San Francisco a couple weeks ago.

It was a much needed reprieve from the daily grind. I felt like I was turning into Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day, and needed a change of pace for a few days.

Recently, I’d also ended things with a girl I was seeing, which was a little tough, but good friends and good food can put everything back into the right perspective.

At dinner, everything was business as usual.  The gang was talking about the usual topics, but then we started talking about fear.  A girl seated next to me brought up skydiving as her biggest fear.  Having done it already I chimed in how awesome it was. She turned to me and asked, “yeah, but what’s the point?”

What’s the point!?

Seriously?  I looked at her unbelievingly for Read more →

June 19, 2017

Can You Really Make Money Blogging About Food?

Food blogging is one of the best ways to make money online, while leveraging something you are passionate about.

Whenever you are able to leverage your passions you can create a brand that is aligned with your highest calling. You know that feeling when you don’t feel fulfilled in your day job and all you want to do is run away and hide under your desk? On those days when you feel that way, can you imagine how amazing it would be to upgrade your job and take on the role of a full-time food blogger?

I mean who doesn’t like to eat really great food? And who doesn’t like to actually get paid to try new foods and write about their favorite foods?

Back when I was helping celebrity nutritionist Kimberly Snyder, I started getting a lot of other coaches and service provider clients who all worked as food bloggers in some capacity. While some of these people were personal trainers, or chefs, they all had one thing in common: Read more →

June 15, 2017

How to Value Your Attention as an Entrepreneur

“The effect you have on others is the most valuable currency you have.” Jim Carey

Attention is time, and time is currency.  And I would even argue that attention is the new currency.

Why?

Because we must use our time and attention to make money. The better you are at utilizing your attention, the more money you can make, and the more time you have to leverage. When you can focus better you can manage your time more effectively.  When it comes down to it, your attention is the most important deciding factor in your quality of life.

That’s why I place an extraordinarily high value on my attention as an entrepreneur.  When you are responsible for making hundreds of tiny decisions each and every day, it can become a little mind-numbing.  There’s a lot of thought that goes into being a good decision-maker, and a person who is able to capitalize on good decisions can move a lot faster than someone who gets stuck frequently.

In today’s world, everyone is competing and pulling at you for your attention, which makes it harder to choose.  There are so many options out there, that we can’t really decide what the best way to spend our time truly is.  Between checking social media, responding to an email ping, or following up to voicemail there are so many ways to distract ourselves from the current task at hand.

Attention also means who and what you are focusing on.  In the grand scheme of things, what you choose to focus on is extremely important to reaching your goals.

For example, if you Read more →

May 10, 2017

Branding The Moment: 7 Steps to Creating A Brand That Won’t Be Forgotten

Every great brand attempts to capture it’s own essence, or what I call it’s uniqueness. You probably know what I’m talking about, that one aspect that makes a brand stand out, and perform better than anyone else in the market.

But it goes beyond just creating a brand identity for marketability.

Brands are actually competing for your attention.

In fact, all brands are also competing with each other to find their own essence, but most fail to become known for a singular role.

Why? Read more →