SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

Main Theme
• How your public persona—what you reveal (or don’t reveal) about your beliefs and values—affects your business potential.
• The title “No Bumper Stickers” means avoiding public displays (literal or metaphorical) of polarizing views that may drive away customers.
Key Points
1. Persona Defined
o Persona = aspects of your character presented or perceived by others.
o These aspects can be political, religious, cultural, moral, or lifestyle-related.
2. Two Approaches
o Unknown Persona:
? Keep polarizing views private.
? People have no reason to avoid doing business with you.
? Tom avoids logos, bumper stickers, and political posts to remain neutral.
o Known Persona:
? Publicly state strong views.
? Can attract like-minded customers but risks alienating others.
? Example: Black Rifle Coffee (patriotic/gun stance) vs. neutral businesses.
3. Risks and Considerations
o Once your views are public, it’s difficult to “go back.”
o Some entrepreneurs (e.g., Trump) could afford the risks of polarizing positions; most small businesses cannot.
o Decide whether the benefit of attracting like-minded customers outweighs the potential loss.
4. Advice
o For most entrepreneurs, it’s safer to remain unknown on divisive issues—“no bumper stickers.”
o Later, when established, you can decide if taking a public stance is worth the consequences.
5. Closing
o Tom promotes his internet marketing school (IMTCVA.org) and mentor program.
o Encourages listeners to think carefully about whether their public persona helps or hurts their business.
________________________________________
?? Bottom line: Keeping polarizing opinions private usually maximizes business opportunities. Public stances may build loyalty in a niche but often reduce overall market reach.

===

Episode 1041 – No Bumper Stickers
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1041 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today's title is No Bumper Stickers. Okay, I'll tell you why in a minute. And hope you didn't miss episode 1040. That was for shy marketers, but you loudmouthed marketers out there too could learn a few things from that episode. That was episode 1040. And anytime you want to get to a back episode, you go to screwthecommute.com, slash, then the episode number. All right, let's see. Pick up a copy of my automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Get Version 3.0. If you've listened in the past and got 2.0, get 3.0. It's the latest. It's free. And of course, check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingtraining.com and my school at IMTCVA.org, certified certified to operate by SCHEV.

[00:01:23] All right. So this is going to be a discussion of how your public persona affects your business potential. Why'd you call it no bumper stickers. Well you'll see here in a minute. So let's do a little dictionary definition here of persona. The dictionary says it's the aspects of someone's character presented to or perceived by others, the aspect of someone's character presented to or perceived by others. So there's two main categories of this. Do people know, obviously your persona or is your persona unknown? Now, I got to back up a little bit, because there's another word in this definition that we have to see what it's all about. And that's the aspect of someone's character. See, because people can have character, all different parts of their character.

[00:02:31] So here's some examples of aspects. You could be conservative or liberal. You could be Democrat or Republican. You could be religious or not religious. You could be seen as fair or as a rip off. You could be cheap or expensive. Like for instance, like let's say Hyundai car compared to a Mercedes or Lamborghini. You could be gun for guns or no guns. You could be for immigration or not for immigration. All these things that are out in the world are aspects of your persona. And now we get back to the two main categories. Are they unknown to your business prospects or known? So let's say they're unknown. Well, people do not have a reason to not do business with you if you keep your mouth shut about these polarizing type aspects. Some aspects are not polarizing, but many are and will drive customers away. So if you keep it unknown, people don't have a reason to not do business with you. And this is where why I titled this No bumper stickers. So you might have bumper stickers on your car screaming one of these aspects, one way or the other. Now with me, I don't wear any logoed clothes. I don't have any sayings on my shirts or my hats. Nothing. Okay, so up to this point in my business career, which is a long one, I'm pretty much unknown. You don't see me commenting on social media on any of these polarizing type things.

[00:04:24] I just look at them and I can't believe I know that person that they said that and some of them I don't want to do business with them after I see their comments. I think they're idiots. Right? And again, right now I'm being unknown because you don't know what their comments were, right? This may change. This might change. I really on the edge of coming out with my new book and podcast, Highly Educated Idiots. Okay. It's a catchy name, right? But up to this point, I'm unknown on my views on stuff. So what I'm contending is that being unknown on these things keeps you out of having anybody have a reason to not do business with you. Let's use Donald Trump as an example. Prior to him getting into politics, he donated to everybody Republicans, Democrats. I don't know if there was any independents, but he kept everybody happy. Right. And then he chose to jump over into the the other main category, which is a known category. Now if you choose. Now I want you to choose rather than to accidentally go into the known category. So if you choose to go into the known category on aspects that could be considered polarizing, you're hoping that taking a hard stand on your on this aspect of your public persona will give you a higher percentage of business from that segment of the population that agrees with you.

[00:06:07] You know, you could be patriotic. Another aspect, patriotic or not patriotic. So you got the Black Rifle Coffee Company. I would bet the farm that lots of people will not go there for coffee because of their stand on guns, Second Amendment patriotism and so forth. There's a barbecue place here too. I can't remember the name of it that has a big military truck out in front of it. And at noon, if you are there, everybody stands up and pledges the allegiance to the flag. Right. So. So guess what? You know, a lot of people that hate America are not going to go to that place. Right. And I'm not telling you which one is better for you. I just want you to think about this. Of how your your aspect of your persona that could be considered polarizing is helping or hurting your business. And I'm not talking morally. So if it's your morals to stick up for something like some of these bakers that won't do gay marriage or something, great, that's up to you. But is it good or bad for your business overall? And again, I'm not condemning anybody that that stands by their morals if they've got that kind of conviction. Great. As long as they're not breaking any laws, that's fine with me. But all I want to do is to make you think. Is my public persona helping or hurting my business? And is it that important to me, this, this public persona or this aspect of it, that I want to scream it to the mountaintops, and I'll take the consequences of a lot of people won't do business with me.

[00:07:56] But on the other hand, maybe a higher percentage of people that do believe with me will make up for any lost money. I mean, that's you just don't know until you try to figure this out and it's difficult to go to the known route and then come back, okay. Because all of that stuff is that you have said and done and social media and signs you put up in your, your restaurant or your, you know, whatever service you have. A lot of times it's there forever, you know. So it's I believe it's best to start out unknown and take as much business as you can from everybody and then make a decision later. Again, I got to use Donald Trump as he was already a billionaire before he decided to run for president so he could afford to lose a billion here, a billion there where most of us can't. Right. So I'm suggesting that being an unknown person. No bumper stickers, no thing, no hats, no t shirts that say whatever position you're in, no color schemes, whatever it is that screams your position could be hurting your business. And I just want you to think about it. Like I said, I don't care either way.

[00:09:18] Whatever is best for you. That's what I'm trying to do with killing myself with 1040. What is this 1041 episodes of a podcast? I'm trying to help you out here with all the episodes that I do. So just think about it. No bumper stickers. There you go. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Check out my school at IMTCVA.org. Save yourself a couple hundred grand and and and getting indoctrinated. Well there you kind of see in my stance there, I guess. So I'm not totally unknown. Of course I want to promote my school, because I know I can give you a highly in-demand skill in as little as six months, and you're not going to have to pay for the rest of your life. This this 90 year old comedian, uh, one of his jokes is, hey, I just paid off my student loans. 90 years old, so I don't want that for you. And we finance your education for you with a very reasonable down payment. You won't be paying the rest of your life. And you'll have a marketable skill that's in super high demand. That's the internet and digital marketing school. All right. Uh, so that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Get in touch with me if you want to check out the school or my mentor program at Tom at com, and I will catch you on the next episode. See you later.