1. Day by Dé Marketing — I’m a hustler baby

    When finding the definition to a word, I usually turn the to the trusted ‘Urban Dictionary” for the most educated and respected clarification. Today was no different and when I typed ‘hustle,’ (today’s subject) Urban Dictionary has come through yet again…

    And I quote….

    “Anythin you need to do to make money, be it sellin cars, drugs, ya body. If you makin money, you hustling.”

    “A dishonest plan for making money.” 

    “A faster way to make money also known as the Come up, Usually done illegaly.”

    God bless the US education system. Anyway, I don’t know why hustle has received a negative connotation. Sales, whether you like it or not, is a form of marketing, and how else are you going to get your idea, product, and/or service into the mind of the global consumer if you just have an idea. You need to hustle your idea, and then do it again, and then do it again, and then do it again. Keith Ferrazzi, author of “Never Eat Alone,” is a strong advocate of COLD CALLING. Yes, gentlemen, if you want to get your idea across show some avere I coglioni and cold call. Back to my point, Keith gives four ‘warm calling’ pointers, when hustling…

    Convey Credibility: Mention a familiar person or institution that connects you. If you don’t have one-find one!

    2.     State Your Value Proposition: How will interacting with you help this person?

    3.     Impart Urgency and Convenience: Be prepared to do whatever it takes to meet the other person on his or her own terms.

    4.     Offer a Compromise: Securing a definite follow-up at a minimum.

    So, what are your thoughts on hustling? Don’t be shy, let me know Email me at dominic@vujadestudios.com!

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    http://www.keithferrazzi.com/business-networking/how-to-leave-a-15-second-voicemail-that-gets-you-the-meeting/

     

    marketing, keith ferrazzi sales blogging hustle eat

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  3. Vujà Dé Presents - Daniel Rivera

    from Vujà Dé Studios

    Ladies and Gentlemen…Our first video blog with Daniel Rivera (aka D-RIV). Make it a great Friday!

    D

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  5. Day by Dé Design — What is Fun?

    what is fun?

    Fun from games arises out of mastery… learning is the drug — Raph Koster, A Theory of Fun

    Fun occurs from actually figuring it out. So when you cheat (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, a, b, start) you literally take the fun out of it.

    A good game is a great blend of frustration, failure and of course victory.

    Play on!

    Á

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    fun drug game

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  7. Day by Dé Ad - What makes a good commercial?

    What makes a good commercial?

    I was asked, what makes a good commercial, and I had to think for a moment. What does make a good commercial? If we are going to understand what makes a good commercial, first we need to know what a commercial is.

    Dictionary.com defines a Radio or Television commercial as “a paid advertisement or promotional announcement.” The first TV commercial advertisment aired on July 1st, 1941 at 2:29. The ad which featured the Bulova Watch Company was purchased for $9 and was 20 seconds long. Today commercials usually run anywhere from 30sec. to 1min. 30 sec. and up until the last decade the only outlet for these spots was television. 

    For years commercials, primarily television commercials, have been one of the largest monetary investments for corporations. Companies like Coke will spend a million dollars on a 30 second commercial because of the results they have seen. It is no secret that the main focus of a commercial is to sell something to the consumer, but what makes one stand out from the rest?

    There are three things that I think make a commercial stand out from the crowd!

    1) The number one thing that establishes a great commercial is Connection, or Relevance. The reason I think this is the most important is because of who views the commercial, the consumer. Connecting is the whole point of a commercial, you are trying to relate to the consumer. Emotionally attach them in some way to your product. 

    2) Pick your Genre and stick to it. The reason I say this is because if you are going to relate (step 1) to a twenty something guy, you probably want to add humor in your ad. On the other hand if you want to speak to a 40’s woman, you use a slow motion shot of a baby and talk about how precious life can be with pampers.

    3) Production Value will do one of two things to your commercial. If your commercial looks like a bad local used car sales spot, people will associate the product as being a cheaper or less valuable item. Sometimes this is a good thing. Let me explain, I once worked on a commercial for a mexican car insurance company, the commercial was shot in LA but the company was mexican and the target audience the same. They intentionally wanted the commercial to look cheap so people would automatically trust that they have the cheapest rates around. If they can’t afford to make a better commercial they must have low rates. That was their mentality and it paid off.

    But, if you want your product to look expensive or if you want to express that you and your company are experts in someway, you want a high production value. Lexus has done a great job at making their cars compare to BMW and Mercedes-Benz by using slick and higher class marketing. They spend more per commercial but when it looks that good, it can entice anyone to buy a car!

    So high production value equals expensive or classy looking products, but low production value equals cheap or inexpensive looking products.

    All in all I believe that using these steps can help increase the value of your spot and hopefully engage your consumer with your product. Below are a couple of commercials that I have placed in my top 5 because of their creativity and ability to implement these three steps exceptionally well.


    What do you think? Leave us a comment or email me directly at: james@vujadestudios.com

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  9. Day by Dé Tips-Spring Cleaning

    Spring Cleaning

    When I moved to LA last year, I was eating dinner with some friends and the subject of detoxification came up, as it usually does for some reason. Coming from an ‘alternative’ health background (even though I believe ‘alternative’ should be mainstream, again, another conversation) I told my table that I am an advocate of the liver cleanse. Your liver is one of the most important organs in your body (checkout www.druglessdoctor.com for more info on that) and to keep it working at its full potential, it needs a good cleaning every spring and fall. This cleansing process is actually quite simple. As you can see right below:

    Drink 1 quart of organic apple juice from the Health Food Store throughout each day for 3 days.  Add 90 drops of Phosfood Liquid and 20 drops of Peppermint Leaf to each quart of apple juice. The pectin in the apple juice and the Phosfood Liquid helps to soften and flatten the stones in the gallbladder and liver. The Peppermint Leaf will aid digestion.  Eat as normal these 3 days, but for your evening meal on the 3rd day you may want to eat a light dinner, as you will be drinking the olive oil mixture before bed that evening.

    If you cannot tolerate that much fruit juice, or are diabetic, use distilled water instead of apple juice.  If you use water, you must increase the amount of Phosfood Liquid.  Put 135 drops of Phosfood Liquid and 20 drops of Peppermint Leaf in each quart of water and drink 1 quart throughout each day for 3 days.

    WARNING:  You must follow this step.  If you don’t take the Phosfood Liquid drops, don’t go on the program.  If the Phosfood Liquid does not soften the stones before they come out, they will remain hard and can tear the ducts on the way out.  You don’t want this to happen.  It is recommended that you follow the entire program.  But always check with you doctor first.

    2. On the third day after the last meal (before bed), mix the following foods together:  A cup of high quality olive oil, a cup of pineapple juice, grapefruit juice, and/or natural spritzer.  Add the juice of one whole lemon (organic is best).   Stir this together.

    The pineapple juice or spritzer serves the purpose of helping to get down the olive oil.  You hardly taste the olive oil.  (This program originally included epsom salt.  But this was too harsh on most people.)

    3. Immediately after you drink the olive oil, go to bed for the night.  Put your knees up to your chest.  Lie on your right side for half an hour.  The oil will go to the gallbladder and liver.  These organs will not know what to do with all that oil, so they will over compensate and throw off the stones.  It will be best for you to lay on your right side as long as you can while falling asleep.  

    4. Take herbal laxatives next morning.  The next day, take an herbal laxative to flush the stones out of the colon. Organic black coffee also works.

    5. Colon Cleanse.  We have seen better results when patients have colon irrigation prior to the flush.  This clears the pathway for stone elimination.  We also encourage, after your flush, to have another colonic.

    6. All Females who pass stones and are estrogen dominant (determined by saliva testing) should take A- F BetaFood from Standard Process, three daily, until their estrogen levels become normal.

    7. Frequency.  If you are really sick (cancer), consider going on this once a month for a few months.  Everyone is different.  There are no absolute rules.  For prevention, go on it at least once a year.  Others do it more frequently.

    You will notice that the stones often times will be green and float.  You could retrieve the stones from the toilet and save them in your freezer.  People are always amazed that you passed gallstones naturally.

    Special Note:  Stones in the gallbladder are the result of eating a high-acid diet.  All foods burn to either acid or alkaline ash after digestion.  All meat and dairy products, plus nearly all cooked produce burn to acid.  The body needs to stay slightly alkaline to remain in good health.  It makes acid as a by-product of metabolism, but makes no alkaline.  This must come from the diet.  If the diet is primarily animal foods and/or cooked produce, the body must rob the bones of calcium (an alkalinizing mineral) to keep the bloodstream from becoming acidic.  But before going to the bones, the body raids the gallbladder.  From the bile stored there, it removes the organic sodium (another alkalinizing mineral).  What is left behind is cholesterol, which hardens into stones.  To protect against gallstone formation change your diet.  Taken from Dr. Frohm’s “Health Quarters

    Monthly”, June 2002 

    Reasons for a Liver Flush 

    Problems with:

    Blood Sugar

    Chemical Sensitivities

    Cholesterol

    Digestion

    Dizziness/”Shakes” 

    Dry Tongue and Mouth

    ‘Elimination’ 

    Extreme Fatigue

    Eyes

    Female Reproduction

    Hair 

    Headaches

    Mental Issues

    Muscle/Skeletal Problems 

    Nail Fungus

    Overall body pain

    Respiratory

    Skin Problems

    Susceptibility to Infection

    Weight Gain

    If you have read this entire blog, you must have questions, and I definitely want to hear from you!: Email me at dominic@vujadestudios.com!

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    cleaning, health liver cleansing detox spring colon juice marketing

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  11. Day by Dé Marketing — Copy That

    So you have an idea. Fantastic. Now you need to market the product with the whole marketing mix, and all of that good stuff. I believe one aspect of marketing that is extremely overlooked is copywriting and not copyrighting (also important, but we’ll save that for a legal blog) because your product and or service will live or die with the words that you use to advertise your product. Today there is a plethora of advertisements with copy (Internet: Your website, Google Ads, and Facebook Ads Print: Magazines, Newspapers TV: Adverts with words, etc.) Sooo, what types of copywriting are most effective? Not to be vague, but it does depend on your audience, the target, education level, among others, but taking a some advice from our posthumous mentor, David Ogilvy offers these suggestions for effective copy.

    *When choosing a font, good typography will assist people reading your copy, while bad copy detracts readers. Do Not set your headlines in all caps. Our eyes are creatures of habit and we are used to reading in lower case.

    *Always include the price of the product/service you are selling. When price is omitted people may ’turn the page.’

    *Lastly, when writing a ‘long advertisement’ address your audience like you are writing each of them a personal letter, instead of ‘mass email’ language. One quote from Ogilvy on this: You cannot bore people into buying your product. You can only interest them in buying it.  

    Again, this subject could be a whole series, and it may well be. What are some of your favorite written adverts? Email me at dominic@vujadestudios.com!

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    marketing branding creativity ogilvy writing blogging Google Facebook website

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  13. Day by Dé Design — What is Boredom?

    bored

    “Boredom is the brain casting about  for new information. It is the feeling we get when there are no more patterns to observe.” Raph Koster, A Theory of Fun

    So if you’re bored look for some new patterns — in other words, go learn something.

    Many products,toys and apps have tried to solve the boredom issue by surface level entertainment. This method is short lived and in the bigger scope of things ineffective. Why? At the end of the day the pattern to solve was so simplistic that we master it to quickly and in turn become bored once again.

    Solution. Look for a more difficult problem to solve. A few suggestions: world peace, cure for cancer, cheap renewable energy — perhaps too difficult — there is always sudoku and cross word puzzles.

    Á

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    boredom fun bored illustration

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  15. Day by Dé Ad - 3 Tips for Personal Brands

    Advertising for small businesses and personal brands has evovled quite a lot in recent years. The days of being able to only put an ad in your local paper and put some flyers up at the library are quickly fading while new medias and outlets allow for reaching more people with less money. Here are my three tips for your personal brand.

    1. What is your niche, what do you do best?

    The reason I started with this question is because if you can’t clearly define this, you will fail. You need to know what it is that you do better and why. Cultivate your passion/niche, meaning become an expert in your field. Research and learn all the time. The worst thing you can do though is to speak from the podium, becoming and expert doesn’t mean you need to act pretentious, talk to people with everyday terms and be friendly.

    2. Be availabe

    Being available just means that people can reach you. The best part is that with social media outlets this is incredibly easy. Join what I call the big three, a blog website (tumblr or wordpress are great), Twitter, and Facebook. Get on those and start establishing your self with others. This will be your new outlet for advertising, replacing the old standard of putting ads in newspaper. The best part about these sites is that they are completely free so the only thing you put in is time and the reward is worth it. 

    3. Don’t try to do it all yourself.

    Focus on your passion and cultivating it. Don’t spread yourself thin and wear yourself out trying to do everything. I for one am not a coder, so I don’t try and write code because it would take way to much time and produce a bad result. That’s why I hire someone to code things for me. That way I can spend time working and focusing on my niche/passion.

    I think that using these tips is a great place to start for anyone trying to get the word out about their business. So follow these steps and email me at james@vujadestudios.com and let me know how it’s worked for you!

    Feedback? Leave a comment and let us know!

    J

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  17. Day by Dé Tips — Kerning 101

    kerning_101

    Kerning is the adjustment of individual pairs of letters to improve the spacing and fit (http://www.typographyforlawyers.com/?p=766).

    In ReL terms: the space between letters that invade other letters’ space — in the above sample the V and the j.

    Kerning adjusts the space between the vivacious V and its adjacent counterparts. Kerning make for more even spacing, a much easier read, and longer eyeball stamina.

    Unfortunately kerning is not “on” as a default on all programs, namely: Word and WordPress.

    Turn it “on” and don’t be scurred to invade a little letter space.

    Á

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    kerning typography 101

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  19. Day by Dé Marketing

    creativity_on_tap

    Creativity is probably one of the most misconstrued words in the English language. Actually, to quote dictionary.com, creativity is “ the state or quality of being creative.” Shocking. The second definition is quite better, which is, “The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, originality, progressiveness, or imagination.” Indeed.

    Oftentimes, marketers, advertisers, and people that get paid to have a ‘creative’ label use mediums that are more visible to express creativity that will reach more masses. But if you think about it, someone had to be ‘creative’ to:

    -Decide that postcards should be rectangular instead of circles (in most cases)

    -Realize that a chair is best suited with four legs instead of two or three

    -Develop a knife, fork, and spoon. Most likely they were tired of continuously cleaning their fingernails.

    True, us ‘creatives’ do come up with creative ideas, but sometimes I think the ‘creatives’ bread and butter is packaging and promoting to magnify the true creative ideas. How do you get into your creative zone? Connect with me at dominic@vujadestudios.com!

    D with special appearance by À

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    creativity creative world globe marketing branding dictionary connect

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  21. Tangible Creativity