By: Hillel Fuld (@hilzfuld)

So I was asked to come speak at a Microsoft BizSpark event last week. The topic I chose was how to market your brand in 2014. I know, shocker. The thing is, I genuinely believe that my whole “philosophy” in marketing can be summed up in two words. Of course, you are going to have to watch the entire speech to learn what the two words are. Wait, what do you mean you can fast forward to the end to get the two words and not watch the whole thing? You’re a tricky one…

Anyway, to use a sentence from one of the classics, I would say to market yourself today, reember the sentence “If you build it, they will come!” But here is the thing. Building it does not mean opening a Twitter account and spamming users, asking people to like your page, or trying to come up with other shortcuts. It means building value through thought leadership and content on an ongoing and consistent basis without expecting an immediate return.

Sounds crazy? I am pretty sure I gave enough examples and stories in the speech to illustrate that the ROI of such a strategy ends up arriving, and arriving in spades. For THAT, you are going to have to watch the whole video. Hope you enjoy and apologies about the poor quality. Ahem, Nexus 5, ahem!

In other news, I don’t like hearing myself speak. I repeat certain words way too often. #Fundamentally