I had the pleasure of observing Scott Galloway teach.

Scott is a rock star. He’s a boardmember of the NY Times, focusing on expanding the paper’s digital presence. He founded brand-strategy consultancy Prophet (my employer) in his late 20s and publicly-traded (though de-listed) Red Envelope at 34. He was also on the board of Gateway and now teaches at NYU Stern.

And I had the sweet opportunity to observe him lecture for 3 hours in his MBA brand planning course.

Afterward, my hand ached from note-taking. Check out these pearls of wisdom worth a mental bookmark:

1. It’s all about return to shareholders. You don’t want to be that cool marketer in all-black clothing that doesn’t understand shareholder value.
2. Rookie mistake for a brand consultant is to just say “Do X.” That person tops out at VP. Where is the return? You need to be able to allocate capital. [This reminds me of Buffet. All marketing should deconstruct to ROI, allocation of capital, and limited resources.]
3. I cannot think of one company that should not be using SEO.
4. Google has begun to incorporate Brand into page rank. Brand counts for something.
5. A good consultant manages their client. Most consulting engagements fail because they fall of the edge.
6. What gets measured gets done.
7. [For evaluating brand attributes] Three pillars: Is it differentiated? Is it relevant? Is it sustainable?
8. Co-branding creates credibility.
9. Eliminate the words “like,” “you know,” and “I mean” from your vocabulary. They do you no good.