Business Book Review: Oversubscribed by Daniel Priestley
After reading Oversubscribed, you’ll always ask yourself…how many people can I truly be remarkable for? And then deliver delightful experiences that build demand.
My Rating: ★★★★
Length: 320
Publisher: Capstone
Released: 2020
Key Takeaways for Personal Branding
Best-selling author and entrepreneur, Daniel Priestley, lays out 7 Principles for becoming ‘oversubscribed’. Explaining why some businesses have people lining up at the door.
Being oversubscribed is described as when demand massively outstrips supply. When many more people want something than capacity allows for. It speaks to the core principles of economics.
Oversubscribed also aligns strongly with the foundations of personal branding. Standout conversations include:
Creating a ‘Remarkable’ Budget
Principle 7 states:
‘Nothing beats being positively remarkable.’
Priestley calls for replacing your Marketing Budget with a Remarkable Budget. Arguing that traditional advertising isn’t as important as it once was. He reminds us what many marketers know, but often ignore. You should spend more money on your current customers than prospective ones.
Building a Remarkably Trusted Personal Brand
In the spirit of being remarkable, Priestley makes business personal. He highlights that gone are the days of faceless corporations. Oversubscribed companies build and leverage the personal brands of the people inside their businesses. And personal brands are built when you or your people become better known, liked and trusted in the marketplace.
Know your Capacity
Priestley presents a ‘Campaign Driven Enterprise Method’ for becoming oversubscribed.
Importantly, the planning stage begins with one key distinction. One that Priestley’s counterparts don’t highlight as significantly - capacity. While many speak in ‘targets’, Priestley asks you to be very clear on how many people you can truly delight. What is the exact number? How many can you provide a remarkable service for? That’s your capacity and anything beyond that risks comprising your standards. It’s the foundation of becoming oversubscribed.
Know your Market
Becoming oversubscribed, Priestley notes, is also about finding a market that:
Highly values you
That you want to serve
Has the capacity to pay you
Having all three is non-negotiable for your business's success.
Favourite Quotes
…you're linking your business to the industry, to the market and to the trends that everyone else is following, then you'll continue competing on price with everyone else.
You can't be super cheap and also compete on relationships; it costs money to build relationships.
Oversubscribed businesses spend money on their existing customers before they spend money on their prospective ones.
Companies that become oversubscribed build and leverage the personal brands of the people who are inside.
Human brains are highly geared to connect with people. A big brand can spend millions trying to get you to recognize their symbol, but it's far easier to get people to recognize a face. Humans are hard wired to trust and connect with faces, voices, body language and words directly from a person.
You build a personal brand when you or your people become better known, liked and trusted in your market. You can build personal brands using videos, blogs, articles, books, photos, quotes, live appearances, talks, publicity and events.
Becoming oversubscribed is about finding a market that highly values you, has the capacity to pay you, and that you want to serve.
Oversubscribed is a meticulous manual for creating demand. It rehatches the marketing principles that can slip through the cracks. Lost in day-to-day operations. The little things that yield remarkable results toward becoming oversubscribed.
Oversubscribed by Daniel Priestley: Available on Amazon.
