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Want to be a successful lawyer? Think Jimmy Buffett. Wait…what???
Like many of you, I was saddened to learn of the passing of Jimmy Buffett last week. He was a phenomenal artist and a cultural icon. He was a singer, a writer, and an author, among other things. His music, in many ways, was the music of my life. He gave us more than 40 years of songs and stories of happiness, sadness, distant places, and, of course, adventure. Whenever I hear one of his songs, I am reminded of vacations, the beach, cruises, and good times.
Jimmy made us see the Gulf Coast in our minds. You could almost smell the breeze off the water hearing his music. You could picture the characters he sang about
Many of you may not know that Jimmy was not only a great artist but also a shrewd businessman. The value of his holdings from merchandise, restaurants, hotels, and casinos was valued at over a billion (with a B) dollars.
How was he able to do all this? How could he be successful as an artist, a writer, a restaurant owner, and a marketer? He was certainly talented but he also understood branding. His music converted a certain spirit and feeling—Caribbean sunshine. Good times. Ballads and stories about people he knew in the gulf coastal region and the islands he frequented. When you heard a snippet of one of his songs, you immediately knew it was a Jimmy song. Not that all of them sounded the same by any means. He converted all of that into his personal brand. His brand was consistent with who he was and how he wanted to be viewed.
His brand was Jimmy and Jimmy was his brand
The same was true of
