Start Small...

We were chatting with an Intellectual Properties and Trademark Lawyer the other day. He specializes in doing licensing deals for entertainment brands. He's worked on some very large accounts, having started on some of them, when they were very small accounts.

As we chatted about BRAIN EATIN' ZOMBIE BABIES, he told me about a game that he plays: When a new project crosses his desk, he keeps notes about which ones he thinks will win - that is, which would become big successes - and which ones would fail. And he was honest about it: He was often wrong. He's been in the business a long time, so he goes waaaay back:

The Pet Rock - He figured this to be a loser. The creator of the Pet Rock actually made an awful lot of money.

Cabbage Patch Kids - He thought Xavier Roberts was crazy. No one would ever buy these ugly dolls.

He ran down a long list of properties where he'd been wrong. And a long list of properties where he'd been right. It worked out to be about even. Again proving William Goldman's rule: NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING.

So what advice did he give me? With the internet and social networking as they are today, the opportunities for an individual to build a brand have never been better. If you're lucky, it doesn't cost a lot of money and it doesn't take a lot of time. There are a lot of people who create memes, but its accidental, so they don't know what to do with them - or don't have a plan in place until its too late.

Be ready. Work at it. Start small and work to grow it as you would any business.