Monster the Energy Drink company and their parent company Hansen Beverages has stirred up quite the hornets nest on the Internet recently by sending out a slew of cease and desist letter/emails to businesses running products/services with similar names as their Monster Problem Energy Drink (link contains N.S.F.W. language, post by Allyn Hane). One of these businesses is the Rock Art Brewery.

In the above video about my take of the Monster Energy Drink fiasco I make a couple of points. Here they are in recap:

1. Monster is doing what businesses do every day and should be doing every day in order to stay relevant. If the shoes were flipped, Rock Art Brewery would be doing the same thing. This is evident by the fact they trademarked their beer to begin with.
2. Monster and other businesses like them trying to protect their brand are going about things the complete wrong way. Hitting people over the head with a 2×4 is not the best way to get your way. People will either roll over and die, stand up and fight or watch the fireworks that ensue by doing either of these things.
3. Monsters best bet at resolving the firestorm that has flared up around them is to get down and dirty and start righting the wrongs. The only way to do that is to treat people like human beings first, then hit them over the head with said 2×4 if an agreement can’t be reached. This approach would serve to limit huge amounts of bad press because you tried your best and that was the final outcome.

What can we learn from all of this craziness that is going and will continue to go on as long as people have super easy ways to communicate and spread ideas?

1. Continue to do what businesses do and protect your interests so long as you…
2. Treat people like humans and you’ll have less problems.
3. Explore other options to reach the same conclusion.
4. Tell people why you are doing what you’re doing.
5. Then sic the law dogs on your competitor.

Now I am no lawyer and I am not offering any legal advice on whether or not this method screws something up, but I am sure it would probably work much better for all in the end.

What did you think of that awesome intro? That was courtesy of Steve Sherron and his amazing video skills. Be sure to stop by and check him out on his video blog Blogger Lens.

I am not going to give you a list of crap to sell for your school or pet project, but I am going to give you the gift of instilling confidence in kids. Always support your kids and the kids of others!

At one point we were all kids and had to help “raise” money for our school or sports team. I was one of those ground pounding kids that sold stuff to any and everyone I could find. I didn’t always win the competition because my parents weren’t loaded and buying all of my fundraising wears, but I did always do well and sold to tons of different people.

Parents and administrators have the ability to help kids gain tons of self confidence by building the little block of success. Eventually, those little successes kids have along the way on the path to their adult lives will greatly help them in their ability to sell themselves and their products, services or whatever.

Help them to get off on the right foot by NOT sitting in the car while they go door to door and show them how to properly take charge and convey the value of what they have to offer. After one or two of these little successes they’ll get how things work and be able to sell ketchup Popsicles to ladies in white gloves. That is when you go and sit in the car and wait for them to finish. See how this works now?

Be there for your kid in the beginning and impart the knowledge and confidence they need in order to go out on their own and knock them out of the park. The coolest thing in the world is seeing a kid that still contains the blind confidence in their ability to do and be whatever they want. I love seeing that! It gets me excited about all of the possibilities that kid will have in the years to come, if they keep their ideas alive.

I am very optimistic guy. I can’t help it, but when I see a sad kid trying to sell stuff to raise money for their school and possibly winning an xBox or Wii for their hard work, I want to cry. There is so much better stuff they can be winning like confidence, little successes and bonding with their parent.

The video above is on my new viddler account www.viddler.com/therealjosh as I continue to move in that branding direction and expand it across the net. If you want to watch the video, here is the original post School Fundraising Ideas for Kids and Adults.

Hitting the Blogging wall is just like writer’s block, it happens. I am going to give you a few tips to move past the slump and increase your productivity.

1. Take a break. No, seriously, step away from the computer and do something that has nothing to do with your blog. I suggest at least 2 days away from your site and social networks. Humans have a terrible tendency to get tunnel vision while doing the same thing repeatedly. In order to free your mind and allow your thoughts and passion to build up again, you have to step away. I know that it’s hard to let your email go for a day or two, but honestly, if the world is going to end, you will hear about it before you get to your email.

2. Remind yourself why you started blogging in the first place. I started blogging about marketing and the ideas that surround it because I love to problem solve, and I also love to think outside the box. When I approach a problem, I like to look into what is really happening and see if there is a better way to go about it. I have no problems completely scrapping something and moving on if the idea is flawed to begin with. For whatever reasons you started blogging, go back and examine those reasons and see if you simply aren’t just off course. When we get in the habit of doing things we don’t love to do, we subconsciously find ways to sabotage them.

3. Set goals. Goals are a great way to give yourself focus and challenge you to accomplish things you would normally consider out of reach. I love goals and use them all the time to keep me on track (see. Goals are a great marketing tool). The way my brain works, it doesn’t take long before I am off in la la land wondering how I got there. Goals keep me grounded. I post goals for getting out of debt, benchmarks for our blogs, weight, trips, money, moving and just about anything else. Ty’s Blog recently did a post about goals and I couldn’t agree more. I am the number one advocate of goals when it comes to getting things done.

4. Don’t forget your notebook. I just ran a post about the uses and advantage of a notebook, here. I can’t say enough how handy all of those random thoughts and scribbles come when you are stuck for writing. I know all I have to do is open up that notebook and I could make a dozen blog posts from its contents. One of my favorite things my girlfriend Lindsay and I do is while driving we brainstorm blog ideas and topics. Last weekend when we went backpacking, we probably came up with 15 or so different blog posts to work on. When it comes time to sit down and write posts, they are practically done. All you have to do is find pictures and fill in the blanks like ad Libs.

5. Read other blogs. I use Google Reader and probably subscribe to 30 different blogs. Although not all of the blogs are in my niche, I care a lot about them. When I am stumped or feel like I just don’t know what to talk about, I can see the trends others are doing and follow suit. I will rarely blog about the same product or service others are talking about, but I will look at the marketing mechanism behind it and talk about that.

6. Build your network. I am sure I don’t have to tell you about the advantages of networking your blog, but just in case, I will. If there were a blogging 10 Commandments, number 1 would be networking. I am not saying to go out and pick up every new social networking site and widget that comes your way, but use the ones you are already a part of. I was a member of Digg and StumbleUpon long before I started blogging. Make sure you are well rounded in your networking approach such as being a member of forums, blogs you admire, Entrecard or the like. If there are people involved, that is where you need to be.

7. Build your relationships. This is a lot like building your network but with a twist. Networks like Digg and Stumbleupon are pretty impersonal and apart from throwing some love back and forward, they don’t really do much else. Instead, establish relationships with others that are like minded. Max from Zedomax.com gave me some great advice. He told me to visit a number of blogs consistently and participate on those blogs. I bookmarked about 50 blogs that I frequent about every other day. In just a couple days, I gained RSS subscribers, comments, traffic and started building lasting relationships. Now things are getting to the point where guest posts, sharing traffic, promoting, comments and even taking care of others blogs while on vacation are becoming the norm.

8. Listen to music or a motivational speaker. I love techno music and use it to energize me to action. I even wrote a post about it. Listening to techno music isn’t the only way to get motivated. Each person knows what one type of thing really gets the juices flowing, causing a new surge in productivity. For you, this might be a motivational speaker, a book, movie, play, sunny weather or something else. Tap into that power and motivate yourself to action.

9. Bring yourself into your posts. Believe it or not, people really like to get to know the author of what they are reading. This is why we love stories of triumph and conquest so much, because we can identify with the person. Don’t hesitate to talk about yourself and your experiences. People like knowing that there is a human being behind the blog and like to put themselves in his or her shoes. Share a little bit of yourself in each post. You won’t regret it.

10. Ask for input. This is probably one of the most overlooked things in the blogging world. If you are not sure what to do or what angle to take on a certain subject, feel free to ask readers. This accomplishes many things, including establishing a relationship with your readers, opening your eyes to different points of view (yes, people think differently), helping you solve problems or questions and making everyone get involved. Even if your readers aren’t getting involved in an open discussion, they are participating mentally, which will probably lead them to enjoy your blog more.

With all of that said, what would you like to see more of on the Unconventional Marketing Blog?

If you are like me, you probably have 2,000 ideas going through your head every day. They way we think, with one thought leading to another, gets a little distracting at time. This is especially true when you are working on a project or considering different options to a problem. Often, some really good thoughts come to us at the most inconvenient times. I will be driving down the road listening to talk radio and a blog post will come to mind. Great, a good idea for a blog post now that I am driving with no computer in sight. Typically, I will forget the idea in a matter of minutes, unless I really try to remember it. But life gets in the way and good thoughts get lost. There is a really simple solution to this problem. Use a notebook.

I recently started using these contraptions known as notebooks to keep track of ideas and to help remember things. Studies show that the combination of reading, writing and speaking help you remember far more than just doing one of those. This is why it is so hard to remember names with faces and dates with places. In order to always have blogging and marketing ideas, I have solicited the help of a cheap, little notebook. I have about 4 of them floating around my coat, apartment, Jeep and pants pockets on a given day. I recommend that if you are not writing things down right now, you should start.

Apart from remembering the things you write, you also have a record of your ideas in one spot. I will organize my notebook and clean out the old, irrelevant thoughts after a few days. Any of those notes I want to keep, I will deal with accordingly, by writing a post about them, filling or entering them into the computer. When I revisit some of these notes a few days later or even longer, I find some are worth throwing away.

The next best aspect to writing these notes down is the ability to forget about that thought and move on to what you were doing in the first place. For me, some of the best ideas come to mind at the worst possible time like during a really focused project. When you get the idea down on paper, it frees up your mind to continue doing what you were doing and worry about that idea later when you can give it more time. I hate when I lay down to sleep and an idea hits me, if I don’t do something about it, I will continue to sit in bed and think about it when I should be sleeping. Simply writing the idea down frees up the mind to allow it not to worry about thoughts and ideas.

Never forget the milk again. When you write down your grocery list and head to the store, you can be sure not to forget anything. Now if you didn’t write it down to begin with and forget it, then what more can you do? I also find when I make a list for going to the store and follow it, I purchase far less of the unneeded items and save money. Who would have known a .50 notebook saves you money? On top of saving money, I feel it also saves a lot of time. Morale of the story, buy a notebook. You will save money, time and remember killer blog posts when you need to .