Tony Monaco is a Toronto radio
personality who has truly mastered the art of branding
himself.
Although not #1 in terms of
over-all audience share, he certainly ranks one of the
highest in my eyes.
Tony has been entertaining
listeners over the airwaves for almost two decades and truly
loves going to work everyday.
Personal branding rule #1,
love what you do. He is of course a brand of the radio
station he works for but beyond that,
his audience identifies with him
as “the king of euro music” although he wasn’t always aware
of this perception. Tony
concedes the light bulb went off
when he saw a large enough group of people respond in a
cult-like way to the music
he loved and played in
nightclubs. He saw an opportunity to capitalize on this and
admits this realization was the driving
force that influenced him to
co-create 45 CD compilations over the last decade. He
receives royalties on all CD’s sold which
are consequently branded with
his name on the cover. In addition, Tony generates
supplemental revenue using his name
as a “celebrity” to host events
around the city and even endorses products that are
synonymous to his personality like
tanning salons and food.
(he’s always tanned and everyone knows him for his appetite
for good food).
Tony had the foresight to secure his own website
www.tonymonacoradio.com and directed loyal fans there
from the radio long before the web became a household tool.
He believes the web has done wonders helping him build and
stay in touch with his network. Tony is also a regular
contributor to entertainment and music related magazines
which help him build a broader network and with over 10 000
loyal subscribers to his personal site, he’s doing something
right.
Tony was happy to share the characteristics he attributes to
building his personal brand and qualifies being personable
and friendly to everyone he meets as a key element. “If
you’re having a bad day, never let the people know it, on
air or in person. I never stop working or building my brand,
I am always “on”, always thinking, getting myself out there
and schmoozing with the people”. He coins networking as
one of the most important factors to being successful and
personally responds to close to 500 daily email messages. He
advises his fan base of new club venues he'll be hosting,
new CD’s being released and even sells his
royalty-generating CD’s online. He also made a point of
stressing the importance of portraying a consistent image in
an effort to become trusted by his network.
Aside from making a very good
living doing what he loves every day, Tony’s claim to fame
is having the ability to impact people and make them feel
good through music. Tony also shared with me the
flauntrepreneur he most admires; Vince McMann CEO of WWE
(Word Wresting Entertainment). Vince branded himself as a
pro wresting commentator, leveraged that association and
went on to build a professional wrestling federation worth
millions.
Every flauntrepreneur stands for something. Martha Stewart
is the queen of domestic perfection, J-Lo is a fashion diva,
Trump is all about real estate,
luxury and wealth and Tony Monaco is about euro-music. He
had a passion and stayed
true to it. He may not
be the top-rated radio personality in the city but he’s
making top-rated revenues as a
result of his
resourcefulness to capitalize on his brand and that
makes Tony Monaco our flauntrepreneur of the month.
|
