Page 131 - Midas Touch

genuinely care, fulfill your brand promise with an outstanding experience,
and operate 24/7 from everywhere—money will come pouring in.

Heart & Mind Brands start at the heart of the organization, then permeate
through everyone in the organization, and then go out to the public.

Robert has called our military branches—the Army, Navy, Air Force,

Coast Guard, and Marines—great brands. They are Heart & Mind Brands
even though the message of each military branch is different. Once a
person decides to join a certain branch of the military, he or she doesn’t
simply put on a uniform. No, before that official uniform is donned, the
future soldier is taken apart, stripped of former identities, beliefs,
thoughts, and habits. Only then is he or she ready to become a member of
the Marines, Army, Navy, Coast Guard, or Air Force. The armed services

make sure their people are first branded—mentally, physically, and
spiritually.

This branding process is especially true for the Navy SEALs (which stands
for Sea, Air, and Land), one of the most elite and prestigious fighting units
in the world. The 2,500 SEALs are considered some of the world’s finest
fighters. SEALs go through an extremely arduous two-year training
program before becoming a SEAL. The process weeds out 75 to 90 percent

of those accepted into the program. In one of their tests of will, a
challenge known as “drown proofing,” trainees are bound hand and foot,
thrown into deep water, and told to get to the surface somehow while
holding their breath. Then they swim 50 meters while still tied up. The
worst challenge is “Hell Week,” a period where trainees are kept awake for

20 hours a day, performing relentless, physically punishing drills, while
constantly being invited to quit. At the end of Hell Week, if they have not
quit, trainees are hosed with freezing cold water to induce hypothermia.
Then they swim two miles through the ocean. When the trainees emerge
from the swim, they are handed a mug of steaming hot chocolate by an
instructor, but told they can only drink it if they admit failure and drop out
of the program. Many SEALs admit that handing back that steaming cup

of chocolate is the hardest thing they have ever done.

Military organizations are some of the most sophisticated brand-builders
in the world. Kathy says a true brand starts from the core, the heart, and