Scott is a true personality in his own right, quitting his day job as a lawyer to start a business he was passionate about … selling “gear management clothing” and creating his own brand with ScotteVest. His products and his story have been featured in media worldwide including The New York Times, Wired, BusinessWeek and The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch.

In this interview, the first video installment of The Personality Project, Rohit interviews Scott about how he uses his personality (and some of the ideas from Personality Not Included) to get his business to stand out. Scott covers the thinking behind his recent site redesign, his newfound passion for online video, and tackles the tough questions on the real ROI of personality.

Someone I recently met said to me, “You’re just like you are on your blog.” I took that as a great compliment, as I try to project a friendly and approachable image as I write. And that, I think, is part of what attracts people to reading my blog, my book, and ultimately hiring me as a consultant.

When I first started writing the blog, I tried to be all business, keeping my personality under wraps. After all, I wasn’t just representing myself on the blog, I was representing my company. But after a while of striving for stodgy, impersonal writing, I realized that as a consultant, my personality IS the company’s personality. And by letting my own authentic voice come through, potential clients are able to get a sense of who I am and what it would be like to work with me.

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There is no more apparent demonstration of professional personality, than in the outward expression of what we, as business owners, believe and what we stand for. But of course, opinions are like…um, pick a body part. Everyone has one. And more than ever before, we have seemingly endless avenues to share our opinions with anyone willing to listen. Just look at the airwaves, the internet and the newsstand. From call-in talk shows and other broadcast “gab-fests,” to e-zines, chat rooms, My Space, YouTube and the explosion of internet blogs, everyone has something to say – and they’re fighting to get their voice heard.

The glut of voices in the marketplace creates even greater challenges for organizations and professionals looking to build and promote their brand in the marketplace. Too many in business are looking to differentiate themselves by discovering the “secret formula” to get the microphone or camera turned in their direction. Well, I hate to break it to you – but there isn’t a secret formula. The answer, in fact, is right in front of you on the air, online and in newspaper columns across America every day – you just have to pay attention and recognize the source of the music.

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Whenever we talk about a company brand, we are not merely talking about a set of guidelines on how to use logos and taglines. We’re talking about how that specific mark or set of styles communicates and expresses what the company, product or service is about. In my experience, there can be at least ten branding strategies. A company can:

1. Be the first
2. Be the expert
3. Be the leader
4. Be the anti-leader
5. Be preferred (as in we are the preferred partner in a venture)
6. Own an attribute (this can be aspirational as well)
7. Own a cause (for example to eradicate poverty through micro lending)
8. Be special (proprietary technology falls in this category)
9. Use its history (for example craftsmanship from the hills of Romagna)
10. Use a carefully planned pricing strategy (for example Tiffany’s)

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Perhaps the real challenge for organizations looking to find their unique personality is figuring out how to convince clients that newly discovered personality isn’t yet another marketing trick or sales tactic.

When I joined The LEGO Company in 2001, the makers of those ubiquitous plastic bricks had all but flat ignored the adult LEGO fans (AFOLs) for decades. These talented enthusiasts were artists, choosing an odd medium to be sure, but artists nonetheless. Because LEGO was a kid’s toy company, most colleagues didn’t see much reason to support this small market segment. But with the rise of internet and online community, they had begun to collect and connect and their minority voices were carrying new weight.

Almost immediately after I started, I began building a relationship with the adult LEGO fans (AFOLs). I sat in rooms around the world with small groups and large groups hearing complains and concerns about the way they’d been treated for so many years.

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I was sitting in the Chicago o’hare airport on a very delayed flight, finding myself watching the TV, something I never do. I was watching nightline and they were interviewing a design firm and they were having them redesign the American shopping cart in 72 hours. I was very impressed with the process that was taken to get the results that were found and implemented. The design firm was IDEO. When I got home I called them to try and schedule a meeting just to meet some people there. At this point I was just a soap company with two employees with annual sales of just about 150k.

A few months later I got a call back. I happened to be in SF visiting my girlfriend at the time and I went down there and got a tour and told the business development person, Dan Bomze the story of Pangea, he quickly went and got a writer and a designer and a few more people, I told the story to them as well. A few weeks later I got an email from Dan expressing IDEO’s interest in branding Pangea. After a few rounds of negotiations we struck a deal. Coming to the plate with many concepts and ideas myself, they partnered me with two designers a writer and a materials expert, together the Pangea Organics brand was found. Earlier that year I was sitting in Joshua Tree National Park for my annual visionary meeting with myself when I decided to introduce the concept of plantable packaging to the world. It took two years but finally we found success.

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“Good products and services are like brushing your teeth. You’re expected to do it every day. You don’t get extra credit.” — paraphrasing Geoffrey Moore

We don’t talk about companies that we like. We don’t talk about companies that deliver quality service, day in and day out, for a reasonable price. We expect that. You’ve never called a friend and said “Did you know that Ritz hotels are really nice?” You need to give people a reason to talk about you. Word of mouth starts with the topic of conversation. (It doesn’t start with a MySpace page or a viral video). Bland companies never give us a reason to talk, so we don’t talk about them.

There are seven emotions that cause someone to make a recommendation:

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I work at the house that David Ogilvy built. There was a man who understood the value of personality. His signature is our logo. To this day, his photos appear in various “shrines” throughout the company. Like the one in the NYC office mezzanine. His visage sits tucked up above the cool, concrete floor meeting space. You could easily overlook it, but if you did you would miss a great snapshot of the man sitting in the Lotus position with flowers around his neck. That’s personality. No, not one more picture of our beloved leader. The permission and the culture to allow someone with a little time on their hands to “make” a funky picture of Mr. Brand and sneak it into the meeting space.

We spend an awful lot of time meticulously defining and fashioning “brand.” What do we want people to think about us? What is the promise our companies and products make to their publics? We talk about storytelling. We agonize over the visual experience of a brand, and so forth. All of this is valuable stuff. It drives business. But it’s not the same as personality. I don’t believe that personality can be manufactured. Look at the staff, I mean “cast” at Disney Parks. By the time you actually arrive at your hotel via the airport bus, you have been told to “have a magical day!” by no less that three people. That’s not personality although it may be on-brand. Don’t get me wrong, I pefer people to wish me a magical day over those who are silent or even hostile. But I lean towards brands that express their personality, that are more open and inviting, brands that do not dilute or hide their personality in the pursuit of broad appeal.

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SMITH, the online magazine I started in January 2006, is powered by stories, so I’ll start with one here. One of our most successful ideas has been the six-word memoir project. The concept is simple: Tell us your life story in six words. However, it can be challenging to distill a life with such brevity. When we launched six-word memoirs, we published some examples on the site. I quickly wrote one for myself: “Big hair, big heart, big hurry.”

The hair is genetic (and often unruly), but the other four words accurately describe my personality, a worldview and way of being that burns itself into SMITH Magazine. I can even distill my personality further, all the way down to one word: infectious. I bring a passion to SMITH’s mission—our belief that everyone has a story and everyone should have a place to tell it—that is unwavering and infectious. I spread my love of what I do fast and furiously. I don’t know how to do it any other way. SMITH and so many other media outlets are fighting to capture the attention of an audience with many choices and much to do. When I infuse this audience with the infectious spirit that lifts me up and fuels SMITH Magazine, I know I have won over new readers—new “SMITHS” so to speak.

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Last mother’s day, we screwed up. Big time.

We had these brand new customizable photo bags we were gonna put up for sale. They looked beautiful, and you could upload any photo to have it baked into the fabric with heat. High quality finish, for $100+. It was perfect for moms, so we scrambled to get it up fast so our customers could order them for Mother’s day delivery (the bags take a couple weeks to create.)

We stayed up all night, but we got it done. And aside from a few early glitches, it worked! The orders came in, and people started writing in to tell us how excited they were to be getting a custom bag. It went on like this for a couple weeks before we found out. Almost a third of our orders had never gone into manufacturing. A technical glitch had prevented us from seeing them, and with a week left until M-Day, it was impossible to get to deliver on our customers’ promises. We were about to have a bunch of very angry customers (and moms!) on our hands. I didn’t know what to do.

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