Summary of Business Lunch Podcast Episode: Richard Bransons Business Lunch with Roland Frasier
— Description —
Discover why Richard Branson has taken part in numerous crazy stunts and world record attempts From building a sexy and adventurous image for the Virgin brand to protecting his reputation and shifting the medias focus to his company, Bransons strategies have been driven by marketing, survival, and seizing free advertising opportunities Learn how stepping out of your comfort zone can lead to long-term success.
Richard Bransons Business Lunch with Roland Frasier
Key Takeaways
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Why has Richard Branson done so many crazy stunts and attempted to set world records?
- Originally it was for marketing reasons. The internet didn’t exist back in those days, so Richard had to think of unique ways to build a sexy and adventurous feel around the Virgin brand.
- “The more media you can get that you don’t pay for the better” – Richard Branson
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You’re only as good as your reputation
- You need to zealously protect your reputation
- Don’t do anything that would make it hard for you to sleep at night
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You want your company brand to be bigger than your personal brand
- Richard worked hard to shift the media’s attention from himself to his company. This way, if anything happened to him, his company would survive and still live on without him.
- “If you can get free advertising, you should get it” – Richard Branson
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Don’t be afraid to get out of your area of expertise
- If Richard didn’t enter the airline industry, he would have disappeared along with record stores
Intro
- Sir Richard Branson (@richardbranson) is an English business magnate, investor, and author. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields.
- Host: Roland Frasier (@RolandFrasier)
Crazy Stunts = Great PR
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Why has Richard done so many crazy stunts and attempted to set world records?
- Originally it was for marketing reasons. The internet didn’t exist back in those days, so Richard had to think of unique ways to build a sexy and adventurous feel around the Virgin brand.
- E.g: He would put a big logo on a boat or plane that was part of his world record attempt to cross the Atlantic ocean
- However, Richard later got addicted to setting world records and pushing to bounds of possibility
- “I just love trying to do things that never been done before” – Richard Branson
- Originally it was for marketing reasons. The internet didn’t exist back in those days, so Richard had to think of unique ways to build a sexy and adventurous feel around the Virgin brand.
Starting Virgin Records
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Richard was 16 when he started his record company Virgin Records
- The original name he thought of was Slip Disk Records
- He changed it to Virgin because a friend of his said he was a virgin in life and business
- The original name he thought of was Slip Disk Records
Advice For Building A Brand
- “The more media you can get that you don’t pay for the better” – Richard Branson
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You’re only as good as your reputation
- You need to zealously protect your reputation
- Don’t do anything that would make it hard for you to sleep at night
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You’re only as good as your people
- Richard wanted fresh ideas for every company he started so he would hire people outside of the industry and bring them in to change things up
- Virgin brands give people a second chance by hiring former inmates, many of whom Richard considers his best employees.
-
You want your company brand to be bigger than your personal brand
- Richard worked hard to shift the media’s attention from himself to his company. This way, if anything happened to him, his company would survive and still live on without him.
- “If you can get free advertising, you should get it” – Richard Branson
Venturing Into New Areas
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Don’t be afraid to get out of your area of expertise
- If Richard didn’t enter the airline industry, he would have disappeared along with record stores
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For the past few years, Richard has been focusing on the space industry with Virgin Galatic
- He started the company because he wanted to visit space and saw that NASA and other space agencies weren’t making much progress towards getting public civilians into space
- He’s also working on Virgin Hyperloop which is commercializing a high-speed technology concept called the Hyperloop, a variant of the vacuum train
Additional Notes
- If you want to change the world with your company, start by changing your local community. Then expand to your local city, then your country, and then when you have a global brand, you can work on tackling global issues.