The game has given so much to Arnold Palmer, but he has given back so much more: Jack Nicklaus

Arnold Palmer was golf’s greatest ambassador . This week he sadly passed aged 87 .

He’s credited with having taken the game to another level , but there was something else that set Arnold Palmer apart.

And it’s something that today’s champion golfers are struggling to emulate.

Not only was Arnold Palmer ‘ ‘THE KING ‘’, he was THE KING OF PERSONAL BRANDING

Many moons back in 1959 , Arnold Palmer teamed up with IMG’s branding guru Mark McCormack , to kick start what is today’s mega sports marketing industry .

Sporting champions of today earn telephone numbers because of what transpired way back in 1959 – two pioneering men who understood the value of branding in sport, business and in life .

And it was Arnold Palmer himself , who would take personal branding to another level .

Having lost a very close friend in a car accident when he was young , Arnold Palmer’s golf took a back seat when he decided to join US Coast Guard for three years – for him it was not just about golf .

He was to go on and build a brand which embodied the hard working strength of America – enabling him to take golf to the masses .

Arnold Palmer democratized golf, made us think that we, too, could go out and play. He made us think that we could really do anything, really. All we had to do was to go out and try : John Boehner.

Arnold Palmer built a potent personal brand : BRAND ARNIE , where’s today’s sporting champions are primarily directed towards building corporate brands such as Nike, Under Armour, Titliest, Callaway and the like – and getting handsomely rewarded for doing so .

But, there’s a difference, and there’s an inherent danger in that one’s PERSONAL BRAND can lose its way – losing it’s own essence.

Purpose and Performance Goals become entangled .Priorities get obscured.

We have seen this with Brand Tiger.

And we recently caught a professional glimpse of it when Jason Day , Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth all opted out of the Rio Olympics.It was an opportunity missed for golf’s new BIG THREE to showcase the game to the greater world .

Arnold Palmer would have been the first to board a plane to Rio.

Today’s champions are inclined to chase the game.

Arnold Palmer chased human great.

 defined by the 3S’s : Sustained Success and Significance.

Arnold Palmer transcended golf.

He had all the C’s which make up a potent champion’s cocktail : Capability , Charisma , Character,   Consistency ,Culture , Confidence , Certainty, Camaraderie, Contribution, Connection ,Courage, Control , Concentration, Creativity , Challenge, Charm

Summed up in sport ,  it’s called CLASS.

Arnold Palmer will always be a champion, in every sense of the word. He inspired generations to love golf by sharing his competitive spirit, displaying sportsmanship, caring for golfers and golf fans, and serving as a lifelong ambassador for the sport.  Our stories of him not only fill the pages of golf’s history books and the walls of the museum, but also our own personal golf memories.  The game is indeed better because of him, and in so many ways, will never be the same: US GOLF Association

Rob Opie is a Brand Strategist, Speaker, Author and Performance Coach to Business executives, Corporate teams, Sports teams and Individuals.

GET IN TOUCH . robopie@thegameplan.co.za

Find out more about his game -changing  THE GAME PLAN METHOD .

• Rob’s latest book: The Game Changers: Good to Great to Greater is available FREE to readers as an instant digital download on his site : www.thegameplan.co.za

 

 

Making something look effortless and easy requires great effort   –   Mark . H. McCormack

The great champions of business, sport and life seem to make it all look so easy.

Talent, technique and training certainly play their part, but there is something else that sets them apart .

To power up your game – you must power up your Personal Brand.

The great champions invest heavily in personal branding – both outer branding and inner branding.

Outer branding is the image one portrays to the outer world. It’s the easy part of personal branding .

Most champions get it right , but it’s inner branding component which ultimately sets the great champions apart – and drives sustained success and significance .

Inner branding creates the inner magic , which unlocks and unleashes the outer magic – which we all see.

Great happens when they get it right – their game plans made of the right stuff

Some commentators call it  “IN THE ZONE”.

It’s a place where winning becomes easy – winning becomes a habit

Personal branding has three powerful P’s ,namely

PURPOSE, PRIORITIES and PERFORMANCE GOALS

These three potent P’s are the key ingredients of any personal brand which is made of the right stuff – bringing authenticity , simplicity and synchronicity together in a potent champion’s cocktail for greatness .

This is what makes it look easy for the great champions .

When Tiger Woods dominated word golf for nearly a decade , sports psychologist Steven Kosslyn had this to say.

 In Tiger Wood’s head there is an orchestra. And it’s not just that some of the orchestra’s players are virtuosos, a lot of them are! How they interact makesTiger what he is. There is a confluence in his brain,his person, his world, his goals and beliefs ,his culture. He has all the aces.’

It’s not uncommon for even the greats to sometimes find themselves stuck in life. Nine times out of ten , it has nothing to do with the power T’s – their Talent , their Technique or their Training .

It happens when they get their personal brand in a tangle by failing to align their power P’s – Purpose , Priorities and Performance Goals :

I put myself thru hell and back in the last few years. I believe I did it to myself. I entangled my life – Joost van der Westhuizen

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Now, let’s go back to making it look easy.

At THE GAME PLAN we want you to be great .

To help you , we have modelled and packaged what the great champions know , do and importantly do not do  –  in a powerful ONE WEEK ONLY ONLINE SHORT COURSE – which can be taken by anyone , anytime , anywhere .

It’s all made real easy for you.

As we say at THE GAME PLAN :

Every Game has a  winner . Every winner has a GAME PLAN

 Click on link below to find out more :

PERSONAL BRANDING SHORT COURSE. Power up your game – Power up your brand.

Invest today

Perhaps Richard Branson sums it up best :

Branding is everything

Please do let me know what you think : robopie@thegameplan.co.za

Rob Opie is a Brand Strategist, Speaker, Author and Performance Coach to Business executives, Corporate teams, Sports teams and Individuals.

GET IN TOUCH . robopie@thegameplan.co.za

Find out more about his game -changing  THE GAME PLAN METHOD .

• Rob’s latest book: The Game Changers: Good to Great to Greater is available FREE to readers as an instant digital download on his site : www.thegameplan.co.za

 

 

 

Every Game has a winner. Every winner has a Game Plan  

Having already won THE RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP, the mighty All Blacks are out there on their own as the best rugby team in the world.

For them, it’s now about honing in on a world record 18 consecutive wins.

It’s all going to play out in Durban, but before then, let’s go inside their game plan, to see just what’s driving their burning desire for continual improvement.

Is it that they just have better players? I don’t think so.

It’s about the All Blacks having relentlessly and consistently built a powerful brand – a brand with identity – a brand that

serves as their compass in good times – and their scaffolding in challenging times.

Even given the recent retirement of their legendary captain, Richie McCaw and other All Black  greats , the team has gone on to reach new heights, and that has a lot to do with the consistency created through power branding.

That’s just the way the All Blacks are. No one’s bigger than the game

You don’t want to get ahead of yourself and think that you’re bigger than the game. As soon as that happens someone’s going to tip you up and you’re going to look like an absolute dick :   All Black lock forward Luke Romano

New Zealand Rugby, with Steve Hansen at the helm, has built a culture of wanting to dominate.

It happens when everyone from top to bottom, buys into what the brand stands for.

It happens when the Team ‘T ‘Brand and the Individual ‘I” Brands within the team begin to gel.

The three magical P’s of branding, namely Purpose, Priorities and Performance Goals get aligned – and a magical multiplier effect swings into action.

Winning becomes a habit.

Teams who struggle to articulate and agree on the 3P’s will always be chasing the game , not conquering like the mighty All Blacks.

The saying goes:

If you don’t give yourself a chance – you will never have a chance  

Steve Hansen has fostered a high level game plan on and off the field of play – one which has helped the All Blacks make their fellow countrymen pretty proud of late.

Here’s All Black assistant coach Ian Foster’s take on it:

We’ve quite often talked about it. It’s about challenging ourselves to be the best we can be

Even though they are likely to rest some of their players, it’s now on to Buenos Aires and Durban to haul in that world record

 Us trying to put in dominant performances on the road in two pretty hostile environments – that’s certainly up there.It’s not just about the players, it’s about the management making sure we are prepared”

And that takes staying true to a potently orchestrated brand identity – on and off the field of play.

There’s a honour code to uphold.

Please do let me know what you think : robopie@thegameplan.co.za

Rob Opie is a Brand Strategist, Author, Speaker, and Performance Coach to Business executives, Corporate teams, Sports teams and Individuals.

GET IN TOUCH . robopie@thegameplan.co.za

Find our more about his game -changing  THE GAME PLAN METHOD .

• Rob’s latest book: The Game Changers: Good to Great to Greater is available FREE to readers as an instant digital download on his site : www.thegameplan.co.za

Great companies are defined by their purpose.

They know that People and Brands with purpose do more , achieve more .

Here are three shining examples : 

DISNEY’S PURPOSE : 

to make children smile

COCA COLA’S PURPOSE:

to create open happiness

STARBUCK’S PURPOSE :

to inspire and nurture the human spirit ,one person, one cup, one neighbourhood at a time

Guess what, it’s no different  for great individuals. It’s what makes them great champions of life .

Let’s explore this , as it’s often not that easy to spot where the greatness is coming from :

Bill Gates is driven by a defined higher purpose:

To empower people to do more

Through windows he empowered millions around the globe and became the richest man in the world, but there is more – he is now empowering millions through the work his foundation does to combat infectious dis-eases – especially amongst the poorest .

Some might argue he is losing the battle for the title of the richest man in the world  to Spanish tycoon Amancio Ortega –  when Zara shares surged  recently , but that would be missing the point.

To date , Bill Gates has donated nearly 40 billion dollars of his personal fortune though his foundation –  to ensure more children ,and young people, survive and thrive.

South African born Elon Musk also has a potent higher purpose in life:

To elevate humanity.

He sees the world through a different lens, continually asking the question:

What’s going to affect mankind the most in the foreseeable future, what is not working – let’s go and fix it

Elon Musk’s world is an exponential one, where one plus one no longer equals two.

He reads it as:

1+1 = 11.

And he has only just begun

Adrian Gore has turned discovery into a gamification machine – having adopted business guru Michael Porter’s “Shared Value” business model – where customers, society at large and the business all benefit.

Discovery has built an established and aspirational brand in medical aid, insurance and boutique investment offerings. Now it is digital abundance which is driving their next move into the banking world . Disruption springs .

But, behind it all lies a burning desire of its founder ,with a purpose:

To inspire and help people to do life better.

In sport, it’s no different for those who reach the pinnacle –  and stay there for protracted periods of time .

AB de Villiers talks about many things in his latest autobiography, but behind his success is a clear understanding of what it takes to be great.

It comes from a home environment that reinforces a bigger picture; one that serves as a constant reminder of good fortune, one that inspires champions to make the most of their advantages.

AB knows that he is blessed with unbelievable physical talent, which many people do not have.

He has the opportunity and privilege to be able to use his sporting genius:

To entertain, to educate and to enrich the lives of others

For AB de Villiers, sport is far bigger than winning or losing.

History also shares with us, what it takes to be great.

Nelson Mandela’s purpose:

To create freedom for all

For Nelson Mandela it was a never ending story – his legacy now playing an ever more important role in our lives. Purpose lives on. It is never complete .

Winston Churchill’s:

To inspire hope

In Britain’s darkest hours, he knew that if Britains gave up hope- they would lose the war .

Even though he must have had grave doubts as a leader, he never ever showed it.

You are not here to merely make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.– Woodrow Wilson

Purpose happens when one’s passion meets the universe’s need.

One goes on to share what one is expert in and great vision and great value gets imparted to the world.

You may say that in this article I have used examples of great champions only , and  how does it relate to someone who is just doing an ordinary job – living an ordinary life.

Simple, human greatness inhibits every single one of us.

We are all great at something.

It’s our human task to unlock and unleash our own unique greatness.

How about the toilet cleaner at Oliver Tambo International who welcomes foreign guests to our country with a smile and his opening line: Welcome to my office.

He sees his job as far bigger than just cleaning toilets.His purpose  :

 To make people smile.

Ok, what’s yours? What are you great at ?

Here’s mine:

To unlock and unleash human potential.

Next week, I will be doing some more of just that, with an exciting move into online education – anybody, anytime, anywhere.

Look out for the launch of the first online short course at THE GAME PLAN: Here’s a sneak preview: CLICK ON LINK BELOW:

PERSONAL BRANDING. Power up you game, Power up your brand

Till then, go great

The two most important days in your life – are the day you are born and the day you figure out why – Mark Twain

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Rob Opie is a Brand Strategist, Speaker, Author and Performance Coach to Business executives, Corporate teams, Sports teams and Individuals.

GET IN TOUCH . robopie@thegameplan.co.za

Find our more about the game -changing  THE GAME PLAN METHOD .

• Rob’s latest book: The Game Changers: Good to Great to Greater is available FREE to readers as an instant digital download on his site : www.thegameplan.co.za

This week, let’s be brave and jump into the ultra hot seat of Springbok coach, Allister Coetzee – and it’s indeed  pretty hot right now.

Here’s the tough call  YOU will have to make first up as coach  :

Yes or No?

If you were the Springbok coach:

Would you pick foreign based players in your team?

We know how the great coaches all play their cards close to their chest, but what do you think Steve Hansen’s answer would be?

Or even better still , what do you think Sir Alex Ferguson’s  answer would be ?

Sometimes, we can learn from the most unlikely of  sources.

Last week, I was fortunate to spend some time with “Londolozi Lion Legend”: Ian Thomas.

For many years now,  Ian has shown how taking lessons from Lions can inspire and help elevate teams in business, sport and life to the next level.

He relates how Lions take down a giant buffalo that can weigh anything up to 850 kg – that’s the same weight of the eight-man All Black pack.

Lions, being the only cats which hunt as team – know a great deal about what it takes to be a team.

The key ingredients of a team:

FOCUS & TRUST

A Lioness will not even contemplate jumping on the back of an 850 kg buffalo, unless the team is coming in very fast behind.

It’s a zero doubt game , as getting it wrong can mean certain death for the lead Lioness .

Things can go badly wrong, as depicted by this photo taken in the Kruger.

Each and every Lioness is razor focused on JUST ONE THING : THE HUNT.

When the team commits, the hunt is on,  and no Lioness breaks the FOCUS or TRUST.

No Lioness will simultaneously choose to go :

 WARTHOG HUNTING ( aka easy food /easy money).

Lions hunt with their priorities 100 % aligned – with 100 % trust in one another. Every skill counts .

It’s this crystal clear FOCUS and uncompromising TRUST that builds a potent team – taking down a 850 kg buffalo .

As Ian explains ,it allows for Lions to go :

HIGH RISK HUNTING

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In sport, THE NO.1 PRIORITY of a great coach, is to allow the team:

To be the very best they can be

Players who choose to base themselves overseas are clearly  indicating that their top priority is money – money is their motivation.

It’s a personal choice and that’s perfectly ok , as many rugby players do not enjoy the luxury of longevity .

But , for teams to take down the might of the All Blacks , they need to take heed  – that when the going gets tough :

Hunting warthogs does not count

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For many years Richie McCaw  chose not to play overseas, although he must have been offered telephone numbers.

He chose to closely align his personal priorities with his team priorities – those of his national coaches.

He went on to lead the All Blacks to two successive Rugby World Cup triumphs.

FOCUS and TRUST  sit at the very top of  Richie McCaw’s value list –  his choosing inspiration ( finding meaning ) before motivation ( finding money ).

Inspired teams, where individual and team priorities are optimally aligned, will always achieve more.

Inspiration elevates performance –  and helps you to get more of what you want together.

And sometimes the gap between inspiration and motivation can be as wide as twenty percent.

That’s the difference between a player performing at the 9/10 level, as opposed to a player performing at the 7/10 level.

In South Africa, we are truly blessed with many of the most talented rugby players in the world.

But, the pressure is now on our coaches to pick the right team – to make the tough calls

 to allow the Boks to go high risk hunting.

As Billie Jean King aptly put it: Pressure is a Privilege.

That’s because much is expected of you – as an individual and as a team .

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Rob Opie is a Brand Strategist, Speaker, Author and Performance Coach to Business executives, Corporate teams, Sports teams and Individuals.

GET IN TOUCH . robopie@thegameplan.co.za

Find our more about the game -changing  THE GAME PLAN METHOD .

• Rob’s latest book: The Game Changers: Good to Great to Greater is available FREE to readers as an instant digital download on his site : www.thegameplan.co.za