News Archive January 2011

The Simmons' Formula For Success
From: TheStar.com
by Tony Van Alphen
Posted: January 26, 2011

There was no sign of the kabuki makeup or the platform dragon boots. No blood spitting "demon" bursting on the stage with his guitar and pyrotechnics exploding around him.

Just a casually dressed Gene Simmons, the entrepreneur, offering his simple pearls of wisdom on how anyone can become successful and/or rich.

Simmons, the 61-year-old rock star, told about 400 curious onlookers at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts that they needed to listen, save, diversify, conduct proper due diligence and spend other people's money to make it to the top.

Appearing as an Advertising Week event sponsored by the Toronto Star, he said they may not make it big like him as the architect of the worldwide KISS marketing and merchandising juggernaut but his tips might help.

"Everyone here is a brand," said Simmons, who received $100,000 plus expenses for his 1-hour package of thoughts and answers to questions.

The entrepreneur and entertainer has leveraged the KISS rock music band into a money making marketing and merchandising machine with more than 2,500 licensed products during the last two decades.

They range from calendars and condoms to cups and coffins. There are KISS Visa platinum credit cards, comic books, a coffee house, video game, action figures, fragrances, footballs and pinball machines.

He is a partner in Simmons Abraham Marketing and Simmons Records with auto parts heiress Belinda Stronach and a co-founder of CoolSprings Life.com which provides estate planning for people with a net worth of more than $20 million.

"It's the Rolls-Royce of estate planning," he boasted.

Simmons said it's important to listen to people and customers, noting that Hollywood film director and producer Stephen Spielberg speaks to people everywhere in all walks of life in search of advice.

He told them they should save and it's not even a bad idea for young people to stay at home and use their money pursuing other opportunities.

"Jesus lived with his mom until he was 33," he said strolling around the stage in white shoes. "I was 22."

He added most people that strike it rich didn't come from big cities or corporate cultures. They came from places like Liverpool (the Beatles) and Kitty Hawk (the Wright brothers.)

"You can come from anywhere and conquer the world," Simmons said after showing a brief film clip of the KISS success story.

Simmons also urged the crowd not to "put all their eggs in one basket" and diversify into different interests by holding one job or two while still pursuing something they really enjoy.

Borrowing a strategy of many famous entrepreneurs, he told them to never spend their own money, if they can get it from somewhere else.

"I use other people's money to make money for others," he said.

Simmons said he also listens to his mother who told him to look beyond accomplishments of today and to the future and partner Shannon Tweed, who advises him regularly to conduct proper due diligence before teaming up with someone on a business deal.

He noted that the victims of New York fraudster Bernie Madoff never did enough homework before losing billions of dollars in his Ponzi schemes.

Among participants posing questions, one budding entrepreneur presented a pillow to Simmons with a picture of the rock star embroidered on it. She asked him for his advice.

Simmons smiled and joked that she would still have to pay a licensing fee to sell it.