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Root + River

a beliefs-based branding strategic consulting team

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How Do I Do Big Marketing With A Small Team?

December 13, 2019 By Emily

As the director of marketing, you are one person. You are one person who acts as the chief mouthpiece, the brilliant broadcaster and the tenacious town crier for your big organization. With limited resources, it’s up to you to manage publicity, message, brand voice, campaigns, digital, visuals, and video, all while vetting new marketing advice and services, newfangled technology and CEOs who ...

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The Future of Your Brand Starts Now

September 24, 2019 By Emily

By Emily Soccorsy and Justin Foster One of the downsides of being an engaged leader in a company is that you really want the company to succeed.  You want the profitable business venture that leads to you and your team getting paid, furthering your cause, enjoying accomplishments to succeed. Badly, day-in and day-out. And as fast as possible. You want it to succeed so much it creates ...

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What Fear Does to Your Brand

July 16, 2019 By Emily

  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 ...

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The Off-The-Record Factor: Share Stories You’d Normally Hide

June 27, 2019 By Jennifer Lawhead

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 ...

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BrandLab Attendee, We’d Like You to Meet Someone. Yourself.

June 26, 2019 By Jennifer Lawhead

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 ...

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An Open Letter

March 8, 2019 By Emily

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 ...

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You Don’t Need a Marketing Agency

December 3, 2018 By Emily

By Emily Soccorsy + Justin Foster Small business owners are in a bit of a conundrum when it comes to marketing. You can either do it yourself or bring in a marketing agency. Let’s be real. Doing marketing yourself is not an option. Even if you enjoy it, there’s too much. Contemporary branding and marketing is not something you do in the seams and creases of running a business. A marketing ...

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What is your brand’s MLE (minimum level of excellence)?

October 1, 2018 By Jackson

By Emily Soccorsy and Justin Foster A brand is an organic, living thing. It is both a practice and a discipline. And yet there is also a baseline, or minimum, level of organic environmental excellence to create for your brand to grow and thrive. Without this brand primordial soup, you may inadvertently stunt the growth of your brand and reduce its vibrancy and reach. Most people begin ...

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3 Corporate Habits that Will Crush Your Entrepreneurial Spirit

April 3, 2018 By Justin Foster

  We heart entrepreneurial people. We heart them wherever they may be, and whenever they might find us. In the last year, we’ve seen an increasing number of what we term ATLs, or “about-to-launch,” folks who have finally found the corporate structure too oppressive to their souls to abide any longer. As they prepare their escape, they reach out to us. We meet at the junction and help ...

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Know Thyself: A 21st Century Branding Principle

January 8, 2018 By Emily

One of the most surprising moments of a Root Session is when our beloved client has the realization their brand was already inside of them. We did not tell them what their brand is. They discovered it. How is this possible? It’s been taught that branding is an external thing. Something you want to be, some construct you build, one aspirational and slightly delusional brick at a time. The ...

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Co-Founder @emilyatlarge was recently asked about ...

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Co-Founder @emilyatlarge was recently asked about intentions.“No words came to me,” she writes. “Instead, my heart filled, my mind flooded with emotional visuals, forms and feelings blending seamlessly into one another. (This is how most important ideas begin within me.)”Read more about why she doesn’t do resolutions and her unique process for setting intentions. Link in bio

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In the years I spent as part of a fundamentalist ...

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In the years I spent as part of a fundamentalist church, “Grow where you’re planted” was a common trope. It was typically used as an admonishment to someone’s complaining about their circumstances, writes @fosterthinking.The phrase is an adapted relic of survival. While its roots are in hope, it’s usage in contemporary times encourages hopelessness, he continues.Visit the link in bio to read Justin’s three tips if you’re stuck in a survival situation or mindset.

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For those of you who are new here, welcome! We’d...

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For those of you who are new here, welcome! We’d love to share a little bit about who we are.We are a team of four (from left): Jen, Justin, Emily and Cat. Our mission is to inspire others to go inward. We are the founders of intrinsic branding, the practice of building your brand from the inside out. No cheesy gimmicks or taglines allowed in our work.A few more facts about us: We are defiers. Each of us have stories about going against the status quo, shaking up the stale and trying new things.  We are teachers. Our team loves guiding others, teaching new concepts and freely sharing what we know. Plus, Cat was an actual teacher earlier in her career! We are a silly bunch. Ask Justin about his library of Dad jokes.Drop us a line below to say hi and ask us a question.Photo credit: Jean Laninga
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We believe all great brands are spiritual experiences. Branding is an experience that will change you. It will shift the borders of your thinking and give you a practical framework for how to collectively carry the brand forward.

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