One thing most businesses have in common, especially when it comes to marketing, is they need to get noticed. The attention of followers and potential customers is the key to marketing success. What if you could drastically increase your followers? What if your product or business was at the top of everybody's mind? This recognition would ultimately lead to more sales and business success.    It's actually possible to create legitimate recognition through hype. This is the process of getting more eyeballs on your business by generating and leveraging hype for positive purposes. Hype can be used to create legitimate business success. It can be used to help people. It can also be a catalyst for effecting positive change in your community.    Michael Schein is the author of The Hype Handbook: 12 Indispensable Success Secrets From the World’s Greatest Propagandists, Self-Promoters, Cult Leaders, Mischief Makers, and Boundary Breakers. He is here today to talk about how recognition and hype can be used for legitimate business recognition. We get to learn how his book and the idea of hype is the culmination of his life’s work. We dive into several of the book’s concepts, and Michael breaks it all down along with several real-life examples.   Michael is the CEO of Microfame Media, A marketing agency that turns consultants into celebrities in their chosen niche. He has also facilitated content creation and production for companies like the Medici Group, Magento, LinkedIn, and more. He has a degree from the University of Pennsylvania and got his start at Spin the Bottle Inc., which is the production company behind the VH1 show Pop Up Video. He has wanted to be a writer since he was 5 years old, and he's also a contributor to several major online publications. I'm happy to have him here with us today.   And be sure to subscribe to The Self-Employed Life in Apple podcasts or follow us on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts so you don’t miss an episode.   Everything you need can all be found at jeffreyshaw.com    Michael Schein thank you so much for being here!   Remember, you might be in business FOR yourself but you are not in business BY yourself.  Be your best self. Be proud and keep changing the world.   Join 17,000 subscribers looking to do "business with a soul" and sign up to receive my Self-Employed Nutshell Newsletter! Sign up here!   Highlights –   [02:34] Michael is excited about his book coming out. It's the culmination of his life's work. He's wanted to be a writer since he was 5 years old. [03:52] Recognition and hype are legitimate strategies in business today. A business's biggest challenge is getting eyeballs. [05:58] Human beings respond emotionally to very different stimuli the same way.  [06:23] Michael defines hype as any activity that creates a large emotional reaction in a large number of people to get them to take an action.  [09:18] It's Michael's goal to help great people doing great things use the strategy of hype. [11:48] Picking fights and making enemies. Michael was struggling to get visibility. He wrote a column disagreeing with Gary Vaynerchuk. He received a personal response from Gary Vaynerchuk.   [14:32] Positioning his ideas against Gary Vaynerchuk's ideas launched his career. [17:14] Tribal mentality. The tribal tendency is why creating the us versus them dynamic works so well. We're all tribal about something like an idea or an identity. [20:22] People often get meaning through their tribal identity.  [21:50] Inverting norms. Not all disruption and publicity is created equal. With inverting norms there is already a conversation or trend happening. You want to ride on the coattails of that by flipping it upside down.  [23:34] An example of inverting norms is when the Rolling Stones became the anti Beatles. [24:06] Find your mini Oprah's. She makes careers. Find your niche or area and find an Oprah equivalent in that space and partner.  [26:28] People struggle with change. Small steps make it mu