You Are Not for Everybody — People

J.D. Netto

Introduction

Also known as J.D., JD Netto

• InAuthor, designer and brand strategist who frames the book as an honest conversation over coffee drawn from seventeen years as an “entrepreneur of the arts.” College wasn’t for him; life pushed him out of the nest early.
• Ch 13His family moved from Brazil to the United States two weeks after his twelfth birthday, arriving on a tourist visa with no connections or money. See Moving to America at twelve.
• Ch 1His work in books (see J.D.’s novels), graphic design, brand strategy and J.D. Netto Creative all grows from one passion: storytelling. It began with The crucifixion drawing and The cologne ad.
• Ch 5He began freelance graphic design at fifteen, and today splits his time between a place in New Jersey and visits home to Massachusetts.
• Ch 18Raised evangelical and gay, he spent years shrinking himself to belong in church before learning that not every space is for him.

Mayte Carvalho

Foreword

Also known as Maytê Carvalho, Mayte

• FwBest-selling author of Persuasion and Dare to Speak Up, a communication and semiotics scholar, former Director of Business Strategy at TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles and Chief Growth Officer at Cubo in New York.
• FwShe was on The Apprentice in Brazil at eighteen and learned young that letting others define you hands them your narrative. Being called a “difficult woman to deal with” became part of her brand.
• FwShe argues that meaning changes with the audience: “order” comforts a child of the military but not a child of hippies, and a blue balloon may be a Cappadocia hot air balloon or a party balloon.
• FwShe calls the book a chat with a good friend at a café, with takeaways “worth a thousand MBAs,” and says You are not for everybody is a message she wishes she’d known earlier.

Timothée Chalamet

Branding via Association

Also known as Timothée

• Ch 6The new face of Chanel’s Bleu, used to reposition the fragrance for a new generation. See Chanel Bleu campaign.

Johnny Depp

Branding via Association

• Ch 6The previous face of Bleu. Millennials know him as Jack Sparrow, Sweeney Todd and the Mad Hatter; to Gen Z and Gen A he’s a controversial figure whose characters come second.

David Grutman

Branding via Association

• Ch 6J.D. heard him speak in 2022. The hospitality entrepreneur raised his business and image by being seen with strategic people, from athletes to influencers.
• Ch 6J.D. notes he was intentional about what was made public, a lesson in Branding via association.

Kim Kardashian

Branding via Association

• Ch 6Her collaboration with Balenciaga is one J.D. lists as memorable. After the Balenciaga 2022 campaign, she had to speak publicly about it.

Robert Greene

The Circle

Also known as The 48 Laws of Power

• Ch 7Author of The 48 Laws of Power, whose law of concealing your intentions J.D. applies to people who try to take advantage. See Concealing your intentions.

Steven Spielberg

The Circle

• Ch 7J.D.’s example of honest wanting: he’d like to get closer to Spielberg because he might read one of his stories and adapt it. See Wanting something from someone.

Malcolm Gladwell

The Characters in Your Story

• Ch 8Popularized the 10,000-hour rule.

Taylor Swift

The Characters in Your Story

• Ch 8She built an empire by anticipating both admirers and haters. Accused of dating too much, she released empowering music; called a snake, she built an entire era around the snake archetype.
• Ch 8“Fans root for her. Critics talk about her. Haters build her up. And her empire grows.”

Adele

The Gift of Silence

• Ch 10She drops an album, tours, then disappears for years: an example of The gift of silence. J.D. also nods to Rihanna.

George R.R. Martin

The Gift of Silence

Also known as A Song of Ice and Fire

• Ch 10J.D. asks whether he’ll ever finish A Song of Ice and Fire, an example of silence that keeps people talking.

Madonna

Judgement as Research

• Ch 16J.D. calls her a marketing genius: every symbol, song and image orchestrated to create followers and haters, and that loyalty on both sides kept her platform for decades.
• Ch 16She defended the LGBTQIA+ community when progress was less evident, using art, music, body and image to send a message.
• Ch 16See The 2003 VMA performance.