Noted branding expert David Brier called me the other day in a panic to tell me: “My book was hijacked by a UK designer!”
After Brier explained to me what happened, I ran the gamut of emotion from disbelief to astonishment to exhaustion from laughing so hard.
Here’s Brier’s account of what happened:
“This Brit took my book Brand Intervention and did things with it I didn’t think were possible (or even ethical). So I tracked him down. Found out his name is Dean O’Callaghan He took my words and did things with them I never envisioned. He even referred to my book’s content as ‘meat.’ What nerve!
So I reached him via LinkedIn and told him very simply, ‘I am going to let the world know what you’ve done.’ I could tell this filled him with a combination of terror and excitement when I told him.”
Hold That Thought
At this point some of you may be thinking that Brier was considering some sort of legal action. After all, this guy took his content and without permission, repurposed it.
Surely this was grounds for litigation, right?
Well perhaps others would have gone down the litigious path, but not Brier. To his credit he immediately recognized the incredible value in what O’Callaghan had created – this homage of sorts if you will.
So instead of calling his lawyer, he called O’Callaghan and recorded it via video.
Part of what David did was show via the video was the caliber of people who love and admire David’s book as it exists:
- Daymond John, NY Times bestselling author and star of Shark Tank
- Ian Paget, logo designer from the UK
- Chris Do, noted design mentor of Blind and TheFutur
- Justin Matthew, social media expert and CEO, Checkmate Social Media, and
- Yours truly (I got my hands on this book, and it is factually vital if you do anything in branding)
Until you see this for yourself, you won’t believe what this designer from the UK took upon himself to do.
Lessons To Learn
The benefits of repurposing content are well documented. From taking an eBook and turning it into blog posts and social posts to turning a webinar into a white paper. The examples and benefits of repurposing content are virtually endless.
However most of these scenarios involve the creator(s) of the original content also doing said repurposing.
This is a fantastic example of a creator of content not only appreciating the repurposing but promoting it as well. And why not? It only serves to help his book, AKA the original content in the long run!
