"You can't stand out if you're trying to blend in." That's the message Sally Hogshead drives home in the updated edition of "Fascinate," her how-to handbook for making any brand impossible to resist.

"In any crowded marketplace, you have to make a choice," she writes. "Either have the biggest marketing budget ... or be the most fascinating. Otherwise, your messages will be ignored and forgotten."

Her research shows that a product or service can charge up to 400 percent more, without changing the product, by identifying how to fascinate buyers. She goes on to demonstrate how anyone can make anything fascinating. Her book gives the tools to prove it.

In her original version published in 2010, Sally explained how our brains become captivated by certain people and ideas. She shared the seven ways in which brands fascinate people, or as she puts it, "the why, but not the how."

The new version of her book includes more than 60 percent new content. Most exciting is the introduction of her Brand Fascination Profile, a process that enables you to measure the advantages of your own service or product.

Another new feature is TurboBranding, a step-by-step process that shows you how to create branding messages in about an hour.

Sound like useful information? You can't begin to imagine how many ways you can apply this advice. After all, as Sally writes, "Corporations don't create brands. People do."

What attracts people to certain branding messages and not others? "Every day, in every relationship, you're 'marketing' your ideas to be heard," Sally says. "You want clients to hire you, or customers to recommend you. ... Your influence will be measured by your ability to fascinate."

The word "fascinate" comes from the Latin "fascinare," which means "to bewitch or hold captive so that others are powerless to resist." Fascination is the most powerful force of attraction, drawing customers into a state of intense focus.

How do you harness this fascination? "If you master the forces that influence human behavior, you win," Sally says. "You can win bigger budgets, more time, better relationships, greater admiration, deeper trust."

But if you don't attract people, you lose the battle. She cautions: "As a business, if you can't persuade customers to act, you might as well donate your entire marketing budget to charity."

You will know that your brand is fascinating if you are provoking strong and emotional reactions, creating advocates and inciting conversation, or forcing your competitors to realign.

The examples and stories that Sally shares offer convincing evidence. One describes how women who were given the choice between sunglasses with a designer logo and plain sunglasses were willing to pay more for the logo, although the functionality of the product was the same. The experiment showed that they weren't concerned about buying something that was better, but something that was different.

"That's the heart of differentiation," she writes. "It's tough to be better. But far easier to be different."

Fascination goes beyond rational thinking, she says, "transforming customers into fanatics and your brand's products into must-have purchases."

But what if your marketing budget is limited? "The goal here is not to spend more money on marketing. It's actually to spend less money by marketing more effectively," Sally advises.

"Spend less, but see better results. Outthink instead of outspend. If you don't have the biggest budget, then be the most fascinating."

The real meat of this book comes in Part II, "The Seven Fascination Advantages: How to Make Your Brand Impossible to Resist." Here, Sally describes the creativity of innovation, the emotion of passion, the confidence built by power, the new standards set by prestige, the stability of trust, mystique's language of listening and the rules of alert.

She next moves into tactics, a practical system to customize your message. The seven advantages are coupled with specific tactics to position your message more effectively. Sally also shows how to combine the seven advantages with each other to customize your branding.

The closing section sends you on your way with a five-step action plan. The "Fascinate System" is not a "substitute for a full-service agency," she says. But "it condenses the time-honored marketing process into a streamlined and straightforward process for identifying your brand's message and key competitive advantage."

In a nutshell, "Fascinate" is fascinating. Your brand can be fascinating too.

Mackay's Moral: Big-time branding doesn't require a big-time budget, just a commitment to fascinate.

A small village by the sea depended on fishing to survive. Each year the village boats had to go farther and farther from shore to catch enough fish to feed the population.

But as the anglers ventured farther away, they encountered a problem. Their usual practice was to put the fish they caught in big tanks to keep them fresh until they returned home. But the fish grew lethargic in the tanks, and many died before the boat could reach shore again.

After much thought, one of the crew hit upon a solution: On their next fishing trip, they caught a small shark and placed it in the tank along with the fish. The shark ate only a few fish, but the rest swam frantically around the tank trying to keep away from the predator -- and made it to shore fresh and healthy for the villagers who depended on them.

The moral of this story is that sometimes a little fear is what we need to stay active and alive. I certainly find that to be true. If I begin to coast, I lose concentration and focus. I perform best when I have a little anxiety or fear. I am sharper and more on my game.

A little fear can be healthy. But fear can hold a lot of people back and stop them from living life to the fullest. I understand that feeling of being afraid. However, there is only one thing worse than a quitter, and that is a person who is afraid to begin. There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them.

Dale Carnegie once said: "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."

Don't let fear block your success. If you truly want to learn to control your fear and advance in your career, I have some ideas that have worked for me. They can work for you too.

-- Explore your memories. Look back over your career. What situations have made you feel afraid? Do you see any common denominators? When was the last time you were afraid to do something and did it anyway?

-- Look at your responsibilities. You have a lot of priorities in your life. Which ones make you fearful? Why are you afraid of them? Dig deep, and keep asking "why" until you are satisfied that you have found the root of your fear.

-- Construct a worst-case scenario. When a certain situation makes you nervous, try to think of the worst thing that could realistically happen. Chances are the reality won't be as devastating as you think, and examining the possibilities ahead of time will prepare you to avoid the potential pitfalls.

-- Shift your focus. When you're confronted by a task that makes you fearful, stop and think about all the positive benefits it will produce in the end. Focusing on the outcome helps you put the small worries aside.

-- Try new things. At every opportunity, take on a new task or a different responsibility. This will increase your capacity to take risks. It will also expand your skill set and build your confidence.

-- Review your risks. Look at some of the risks you've taken recently. Chances are, most of them turned out OK. Figure out what made them work. Can you duplicate those decisions that led to success and apply them to other situations?

-- Know that your fears will resurface occasionally. Accept this fact, because there will be times when you feel like you are out of control. Outside factors can influence situations adversely. Prepare yourself to handle disappointments and unsettled situations. Stop and assess the circumstances so you can decide whether further actions will help or hurt.

Not knowing how to control your fear can have disastrous results. Consider the great tightrope walker Karl Wallenda. He died many years ago in a tragic fall. His widow was quoted as saying: "All Karl thought about for three straight months prior to the accident was falling. It seemed to me he put all his energy into not falling – not into walking the tightrope."

Mackay's Moral: Don't let your fears get in your head -- get ahead of them.

The great Greek sculptor Phidias had high standards when he was carving the statue of Athena for the Parthenon about 2,400 years ago.

According to an old story, he was busy chiseling the strands of her hair at the back of her head when an onlooker commented, "That figure is to stand 100 feet high, with its back to a wall. Who will ever know what details you are putting behind there?"

Phidias replied, "I will."

Perfectionism or a waste of time? I vote for doing the best you can at every opportunity, regardless of your line of work.

Perhaps because works of art often outlast the artist's life span, such creators are more inclined to strive for utter perfection. When Frederic Auguste Bartholdi completed the Statue of Liberty in the late 1800s, there were no airplanes or helicopters to inspect its detail from the air.

Yet many years later, when helicopters can hover close overhead, it is clearly evident that the sculptor meticulously finished every detail of the lady's coiffure and crown without "cheating" in any area that could not be seen from the ground.

Clearly, Bartholdi was a perfectionist. He wanted to create a thing of beauty that was perfect from every point of view and over any period of time. He did his absolute best because he could. That's a good principle to follow when creating anything of lasting value.

"Perfect" may be the ultimate praise, but trying to attain perfection can cause stress, hinder efficiency and create unnecessary conflicts with the people around you. A more productive goal is excellence -- meeting the highest standards agreed upon for oneself or by a group.

I find that if I set a goal for myself, get the best coaching available, practice the right concepts and give it all I've got, there is nothing more I can do. I've done the best I can humanly do, so there is no reason to stress out and be nervous. I take my lead from my longtime friend, Coach Lou Holtz, who said: "Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."

Attitude is central to assessing your ability and pushing it to its maximum. To move from strict perfectionism to the pursuit of excellence, may I recommend you consider these suggestions:

-- Be realistic. When you find yourself becoming frantic about a goal, stop and ask, "Is this goal really worth all the frustration I'm experiencing?" You cannot do your best work when you are preoccupied with worry.

-- Establish clear expectations. If you know what's expected of you, you can better track your progress and draw boundaries when needed. Then you can move forward with the project instead of trying to alter it just for appearance's sake.

-- Identify your triggers. Learn to recognize the factors that lead or contribute to your perfectionist thinking and behaviors, and avoid them. That does not mean you give any less than your best; just be aware that you can undermine a terrific outcome by nitpicking minor details.

-- Delegate. Many perfectionists mistakenly believe that they, and only they, can complete the task at hand. Allow other people to assist you, which will improve the odds that a group will more easily reach excellence.

-- Know what's important. Consult with friends, colleagues and your boss about the most crucial points of the project at hand. Analyzing your objectives, then narrowing down key points and agreements, allows everyone to measure his or her performance accurately.

One note of caution: When you think you've arrived at excellence and can now relax ... BEWARE! Contemplate the lesson learned from the window washer of the Empire State Building in New York. After doing a superb job with the windows on the 116th floor, he made the mistake of stepping back to admire his work.

Mackay's Moral: Never apologize for doing your best.