In our work as brand excavators and strategists, we are not working to shoehorn your brand or business into a pre-set market position that we’ve deemed advantageous. That’s Old World branding. What we are ultimately working to do is to inspire you to overcome your fear. Fear is the main dynamic that keeps you from truly becoming a brand. The fears you have may feel monstrous ...
The Off-The-Record Factor: Share Stories You’d Normally Hide
If you were being interviewed by The New York Times about the success of your brand, what would you say? (I’ll give you a moment). Would you explain how you made some smart investments? Would you describe your strong work ethic? Would you acknowledge all of the things you did correctly? Yes, I’m sure you would. As you should! Undoubtedly, if a national newspaper has recognized you as an ...
BrandLab Attendee, We’d Like You to Meet Someone. Yourself.
When is the last time you raced against your buddies to make and fly a paper airline? Or when have you last handwritten something sacred and private, folded it up carefully and discreetly passed to a friend? How about taking the time to sit back and let someone read aloud to you? Has it been awhile? I’d venture to guess it’s because you’re an adult and most of us haven’t done these things ...
Podcast Appearances
Throughout the various podcasts that we’ve been grateful to appear on, it has been such a joy to speak to other experienced leaders who share similar passions as we do. Having the opportunity to help guide visionary leaders convey their message to the world is extremely rewarding, especially when they are ready to let their true self reflect in ...
Don’t Tell Stories. Excavate Them. By Jennifer Lawhead
“That’s the story!” I exclaimed to a client on a recent storytelling and content coaching call. If I’ve learned anything from our clients recently, it’s this: when it comes to storytelling, the story is actually buried in the story. Sometimes, the story is buried in the story inside of the story. In other words, there’s probably a cooler/more interesting/more fascinating/more authentic story ...
Synthesis Episode #12: Marcia Reynolds On How Coaching Can Shift Living
As Our twelfth episode features Marcia Reynolds, Psy D., Marcia is the author of three books, The Discomfort Zone, Outsmart Your Brainand Wander Woman, with a fourth book on coaching in the works about how to get into a inquiry process. Marcia is real, frank and incredibly bright in her discussion with us and we cover a lot of meaningful ground. We cover how we remake ourselves, how coaching is ...
An Open Letter
We believe every great brand is a spiritual experience. A movement. A brand is the only place in business where your inner world is experienced by the outer world. For too long, we have accepted the belief that these worlds are supposed to be separate. We say no. When these worlds are kept separate, dissonance occurs. Identity crises emerge. Leaders drift from the mission. Employees feel ...
Why You Should Stop Saying, “I Don’t Have a Story”
By Jennifer Lawhead “I have nothing to say.” “I don’t have an exciting story to tell.” “I’m just a typical business owner.” When I work with clients to help them tell their stories, I’m usually met with one or more of these excuses. I get it. I’ve long been this person too, who didn’t feel I had anything extraordinary to say to the world. I haven’t survived a life-threatening ...
A Very Different Kind of New Year’s Resolution…
New Year's resolutions are lame. For the most part, anyway. They are generally some in-the-moment super important idea abandoned as quickly as a battery-less toy on Christmas morning. But setting resolutions is fun! At least for self-improvement nerds like us. In looking back over more than 25 Root Sessions, 15 presentations, four BrandLabs, three Synthesis episodes, buckets of ...
What does culture have to do with brand?
We are five years into the Human Age. In the 21st century, leaders must go beyond taking care of their people to embodying a new level of caring for people. Taking care of your people is a minimum requirement - compensation, benefits, work environment. And even in the Human Age economy, there are still plenty of places to work that are sweatshops and boiler rooms - just with healthy food, ...