Neal, a cool, young internet saavy speaker and author, is thinking about some new business cards. “Do you have templates at your printing company,” he asked, striking up a conversation at a recent O.C. marketing event.

“The problem with graphic design templates, is that they’re just that: templates,” I responded. They make your business look like every other business. And that’s deadly for your marketing, be it in print or on the web.

If your marketing looks like it was “cut and pasted” from another company, that’s a clear message: You don’t have your own story to tell. So you just borrowed someone else’s.

Marketer Seth Godin says it well: “There is no roadmap.” If you’re in business, you’re in the marketing business. That means you have to create your own map. You get to define the customer, and the business model. And of course you must design the ad, brochure or business card that communicates that model.

No, I don’t have templates, and I promise I never will. BTW, Neal appears to be quite an accomplished LinkedIn artist. You can find him here.