Michael Melfi: The Six Degrees’ Experiential Experience

Imagine a limo picking you up from your house and driving you to an exotic location, flooding you with gifts, and topping it off with a demo of the latest up-to-date product at no cost to you. This is where marketing has gone according to Michael Melfi, C.E.O. of Six Degrees magazine.

Michael Melfi started Six Degrees magazine three and a half years ago, and it is blossoming into a major magazine operation. As a former lawyer and graduate of Wayne State Law School, Michael used his experience working in contracts to help spearhead his magazine. His magazine is pocket-size and consists of sixty percent editorials and forty percent adds. The magazines are free of charge and are placed in the hottest stores, restaurants, clubs, and lofts. The magazine is currently in Three cities; Detroit, Miami, and Atlanta, and intends to expand into other markets in the future.

“Respond to everyone timely, and you will have humility and integrity,” according to Michael Melfi these three things; responsiveness, humility and integrity is what every business owner needs to have in order to remain successful. Ironically, Michael sees his company as being in the advertisement business rather than the magazine business. He has to convince companies that his product will consciously persuade people to into the lifestyle of their product. His biggest obstacle has been measuring how many eyes are actually viewing his magazine on a monthly basis. He has hired an outside company to come in and measure this.

Michael has proven himself to be a very successful entrepreneur. He believes that there are six skills that every future entrepreneur should have:

·         Write at every chance you get

·         You are selling or getting sold

·         The clients are always right

·         Go with your gut feelings

·         Keep your team members happy

·         Know your assets and resources