On Brand: A Podcast About Branding For Brand Builders, By Brand Builders

“Rebranding itself signals change.” Change is something that Jim Heininger focuses on extensively in his work as the leader of not one but two agencies. Dixon|James focuses on communication and change management while Rebranding Experts focuses on the comprehensive art and strategic science of rebranding. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Jim Heininger Jim Heininger is a Growth Communicator, Change Activist, and Rebranding Evangelist. He has spent 30 years in the marketing communications industry building and protecting some of the best-known brands including McDonald’s, Anheuser-Busch, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Wendy’s, and Molson Coors. Based in Chicago, he leads two agencies: Dixon|James Communications, a communications and change management firm, and Rebranding Experts, a team which focuses solely on the rebranding of companies and organizations. A firm believer that rebranding is an enterprise-wide strategic growth accelerator, he regularly shares first

“As African Americans, we’ve given up our narrative. It takes away our humanity. We have human stories just like everyone else—it’s just that our brand isn’t being written by us.” Faith McKinney is an author, media strategist, and longtime listener of the On Brand podcast. This week she joined me as a guest for a discussion on building your personal brand, taking control of the African American narrative, and the need for authenticity. Enjoy! About Faith McKinney Faith McKinney is the author of Schmingling-The Art of Being Well-Connected Through Blatant Self-Promotion. She has been mentioned in The Wall Street Journal, Ebony, The Washington Post, and many other publications. Please contact her at www.faithmckinney.com or faith@faithmckinney.com. Episode Highlights Schmoozing + Mingling = Schmingling! I had to start my interview by asking Faith what her book Schmingling was all about. When she explained this mashup it makes a ton of sense. “You have to move out of your comfort zone” if you want to be seen, as

“Enough is enough. It’s the responsibility of companies to stand up.” Following the murder of George Floyd, the nation has seen a critical shift in the growth and power of the Black Lives Matter movement through protest and action. But what should leaders and companies do? This week on the On Brand podcast, Media Frenzy Global Partner and COO Katie Kern returns to discuss how brands can start having tough conversations about race. About Katie Kern An innate storyteller and strategic creative, Katie Kern has navigated her career with two passions at the helm: building bold brands and pouring into tomorrow’s creative leaders through mentorship. As Partner and COO of Media Frenzy Global, Katie extends her 15-year industry expertise and business knowledge in the agency to drive business growth and advocate a ‘Go There’ company culture. Episode Highlights “Black lives matter. As leaders and companies, we have a platform, and a duty to our Black employees, clients, and industry professionals to speak up,” says Kat

“The person is a product themselves—regardless of what they’re selling.” As one of the youngest executives in the history of Sony Music Entertainment, Laura Bull worked to transform people into powerful platforms. Now she consults and teaches these lessons, which are also featured in her new book From Individual to Empire. We discussed all of this and more, this week on the On Brand podcast. About Laura Bull Laura Bull spent ten years with Sony Music Entertainment becoming one of the company's youngest executives at the age of twenty-eight. There she spearheaded artist development and marketing for global brands including Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley. Laura is now a consultant, speaker, and adjunct professor teaching disciplines in marketing and music business. She is an expert who specializes in marketing and transforming people into viable brands by offering insurmountable knowledge to teach others what it takes to become a powerful “influencer.” She currently resides in Dallas with her husband and dau

“Marketing is becoming more mathematical. You have to start reading the signals of what your customers are telling you.” Ominsend Co-Founder and CEO Rytis Lauris is on a mission to help small- and medium-sized eCommerce businesses understand just that. We discussed this mission and the state of omnichannel marketing this week on the On Brand podcast. About Rytis Lauris Rytis Lauris is the co-founder and CEO of Omnisend, the powerful marketing automation platform that’s focused on moving eCommerce marketers beyond the generic email marketing tools. With a mind seemingly crafted for business and an eye to the future, Rytis has gained notoriety within the eCommerce community for his insights on omnichannel and the future of eCommerce. He believes that rich customer data and an omnichannel approach empowers eCommerce businesses to generate more sales by sending highly personalized messages via various channels, including email, SMS, Facebook ads, Google retargeting and others. Omnisend is a bootstrapped business

Two years ago I was fortunate enough to interview one of my business heroes—management legend and author Tom Peters. This was a once-in-a-lifetime podcast event. Or so I thought. A couple of weeks ago, Tom reached out again wanting to talk about the unique challenges of leadership and work in these troubling times. I couldn't wait to catch up with Tom and to share our conversation with you. Enjoy! About Tom Peters Tom Peters is co-author of In Search of Excellence—the book that changed the way the world does business and often tagged as the best business book ever. Seventeen books and thirty-five years later, Tom is still at the forefront of the “management guru industry” he single-handedly invented. What’s new? A lot. As CNN said, “While most business gurus milk the same mantra for all it’s worth, the one-man brand called Tom Peters is still reinventing himself.” His most recent effort is The Excellence Dividend: Meeting the Tech Tide with Work That Wows and Jobs That Last (Vintage, 2018). Tom’s bedrock beli

“Agile marketing is about focus, quality, and planning. We have an ultimate destination. We’re just more flexible about the path we take to get there.” A certified agile leader and practitioner, the focus of Andrea Fryrear’s work is helping marketers find greater focus in their work. We discussed process, planning, and why agile marketing is more important than ever on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Andrea Fryrear An early convert to the ways of Agile marketing, Andrea Fryrear knows that Agile teams do better work in less time with less stress, and she loves nothing more than seeing a team evolve from chaos to high performance. Agile marketing represents a huge shift in how marketers have historically managed their work—and, like any change, this shift isn’t easy. Through education, training, and coaching, Andrea and her team at AgileSherpas work to make this shift easier, guiding marketers along the path towards greater agility while always on the lookout for new and better routes. In Jun

“People are smart about how they can avoid advertising at all costs. You have to present them with a story they want to hear and use the brand in support of that story.” Lee Tone of Alkemy X has spent his career navigating the blurred lines of advertising and entertainment, finding ways to talk about brands without directly talking about brands. This has never been easy but it's even harder today. We discussed all of this on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Lee Tone Creative Director Lee Tone leads entertainment company Alkemy X’s branded content division. Concepting and creating strategically grounded nontraditional work, Lee works with brands to develop content platforms spanning episodic, short- and long-form films, experiential, and interactive. He has a 10-year career as a creative director and copywriter in the agency world, with extensive experience in brand storytelling that blurs the lines between entertainment and advertising. Lee has done global campaign work for clients like Sams

“In digital you can constantly keep going—if you had a good play celebrate it and see how you can evolve it from there.” In a career that started with athletics and continued to professional journalism to being a marketing thought leader and author, Christoph Trappe has executed several good plays. Because of this experience, he knows how to build a high-performance content marketing culture. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Christoph Trappe Christoph Trappe helps companies share their unique stories more efficiently to reach prospects and retain existing customers. He has run content marketing campaigns across many industries, including healthcare, SaaS, and publishing. In his career, he has led teams of journalists, content creators, strategists and designers to successfully drive results. Today, he’s a global top 14 content marketer, top 40 B2B marketer, and top 100 digital marketer. His blog (www.authenticstorytelling.net) has been listed as a valuabl

“In times of crisis, as leaders, we often want to clamp down—command and control. We go into bunker mode.” However, customer loyalty is best built by closing the distance between a brand's leadership and the front lines of employees and customers, explains Rob Markey of Bain & Company. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Rob Markey Rob Markey is a partner in Bain & Company’s New York office and a leader in the firm’s Customer Strategy & Marketing practice. He is an expert in customer and employee loyalty, new product development, and customer service strategies. Rob leads the NPS Loyalty Forum, a group of approximately 35 senior executives from loyalty-leading companies around the world, such as The Vanguard Group, American Express, JetBlue, Telstra, TD Bank, LEGO, Progressive Insurance, PwC, and Intuit. He has published numerous articles on various aspects of customer experience and loyalty in publications such as the Harvard Business Review. He is the co-a

“It’s a time to double down on your value—your why.” During Bill Cates's storied career as an entrepreneur and relationship marketing expert, he’s helped countless businesses achieve exponential growth. Now he’s back with a new book on Radical Relevance and why we need it today more than ever. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Bill Cates Bill Cates has been an entrepreneur for almost 40 years. He has started, built, and sold two successful book publishing companies. After the sale of his second publishing company, Bill devoted the last 25 years to the art and science of relationship marketing. He has three books on the topic of referrals: Get More Referrals Now, Don’t Keep Me a Secret,andBeyond Referrals. Bill is widely recognized as an international expert in helping businesses create exponential growth through strategic networking, referrals, and personal introductions. Bill has now turned his attention to helping businesses and professionals develop and

“It is absolutely a time to help more and to serve more but it is not a time to sell or market any less.” David Newman is all about getting things done. Whether it’s marketing or speaking, his approach helps people organize their work to positively impact their lives. While COVID-19 could make this harder, Newman argues that clarity is more important now than ever before. We discussed what to do now on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About David Newman David Newman is a Certified Speaking Professional and member of the National Speakers Association Million Dollar Speaker Group. David is the author of the business bestseller Do It! Marketing and Do It! Speaking: 77 Instant-Action Ideas to Market, Monetize, and Maximize Your Expertise (HarperCollins, 2020.) He’s the host of The Speaking Show, an iTunes Top 50 marketing podcast, and the #1 highest-rated podcast on the business of speaking. David helps executives and entrepreneurs master speaking as the ultimate marketing tool, personal brand builder

It’s a different time for marketers and brand builders across the board. But what about B2B marketers? What’s different for them in the face of COVID-19? I couldn’t wait to ask our guest this week just that. Ana Raynes is the CEO and founder of Simplified Impact, a B2B growth marketing agency. We discussed what B2B marketers can do during these strange times and the various stages of business that will follow. About Ana Raynes Ana Maria Raynes is an entrepreneur, digital marketing expert, and CEO and Founder of Simplified Impact, a growth marketing agency for B2B niche companies. She was a co-founder of the Internet fashion startup Smart Is Cool, where she was responsible for social media and information technology. While working at Smart Is Cool, she was featured in Glamour Magazine and had multiple appearances on FOX Strategy Room. Following her position with Smart Is Cool, she pursued a career that focused on digital marketing. Ana Maria worked for agencies in the New York and Boston areas where She has le

“People are going to have a favorable impression of your brand or a negative impression of your brand. Then, when you add social media reach on top of that, it can get really great or really crazy.” That’s why you have to brand—with clutter-cutting messaging and compassion—from the inside out, starting with your employees. Especially in the midst of the pandemic we find ourselves battling both personally and professionally. Brand strategy expert Amber Hurdle discussed all of this and more, this week on the On Brand podcast. About Amber Hurdle Amber Hurdle is the CEO of Amber Hurdle Consulting, a multi-award- winning talent optimization firm that pioneers using both science and marketing principles to strengthen customers’ brands from the inside out. Hurdle helps overcome costly business problems like ineffective recruiting, turnover, underperformance, declining morale and leadership gaps by clearly connecting her clients’ people strategy to their business strategy for measurable bottom-line results. She perso

“Branding people have not formally gotten into the strategy world.” And vice versa. And that’s a problem according to branding and marketing legend David Aaker, author of several books including his latest Owning Game-Changing Subcategories. It’s a book that's coming out at a game-changing and turbulent time in the world of business and beyond. We discussed all of this and more, this week on the On Brand podcast. About David Aaker David Aaker, the Vice-Chairman of Prophet (a global consultancy around brand, growth, and digital transformation) and Professor Emeritus of Marketing Strategy at the Berkeley-Haas School of Business is the author of over 100 articles and 18 books including Aaker on Branding and Creating Signature Stories. He had received four career awards including the NYAMA Marketing Hall of Fame. Named as one of the top five most important marketing/business gurus in 2007, he is a recognized authority on brand strategy. His latest book, Owning Game-Changing Subcategories: Uncommon Growth in the D

This week’s podcast interview was originally scheduled to take place live on stage at SXSW. Unfortunately, a nasty pandemic got in the way of this. However, I still wanted to talk with VR expert Ashley Crowder about her work as CEO and Co-Founder of VNTANA, a company that helps brands build out new online realities (which may be more relevant now than ever before!). We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Ashley Crowder Ashley Crowder is the co-founder and CEO of VNTANA, the industry-leading platform that automates the conversion of physical products into 3D Web, AR, VR & hologram e-commerce experiences. She has worked in the mixed-reality space for over 7 years, creating unique hologram activations for Fortune 1000 brands including Adidas, Lexus, Intel and more. Prior to co-founding VNTANA, she gained valuable engineering experience at Gulfstream, Northrop Grumman and BP, now leveraging her engineering background to guide VNTANA’s overall direction and technolo

“Attention is the defining business challenge of our time.” This prolific idea was noted by not one but two guests this week. Jamie Mustard is a strategic multimedia consultant who helps create brands, ideas, and messages that stand out. His new book The Iconist features bold examples from the world of business, art, and music including the story of Mindhunter actor Holt McCallany. We’re lucky to be joined by both Jamie and Holt this week on the On Brand podcast. About Jamie Mustard and Holt McCallany Jamie Mustard is a strategic multimedia consultant and Iconist. His passion is to teach the science and “art of obviousness,” helping professionals, change agents, artists, and businesses confidently and at-will make their messages, brands, and ideas stand out to their desired audiences. A graduate of the London School of Economics, Jamie’s work is an explanation of the “economics of attention,” based on the primal laws of human perception called Blocks. He has spoken, educated, and inspired others with his work

“Vision and strategy require a lot of thinking about brand.” Mona Bijoor would know. She spends a lot of her time thinking about and helping early-stage founders startup, scale, and grow their businesses, which, as she notes, involves more thinking about brand than most realize. She’s also the author of the new book, Startups and Downs, The Secrets of Resilient Entrepreneurs. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Mona Bijoor Mona Bijoor is a partner at King Circle Capital LLC, an investment and advisory firm, where she has holdings in real estate, franchises, start-ups, and online businesses. Mona is also the founder of JOOR, the premier online global B2B marketplace for wholesale buying that directly connects brands and retailers. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, Mona lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters. She is the Amazon best selling author of Startups and Downs, The Secrets of Res

“Marketers today have to be data junkies.” Kristin Luck would know. She’s founded two marketing analytics companies that were so successful both ended up being acquired. Today she helps founders and executive teams scale and monetize their businesses. What role does branding play in all of this? We discussed that very topic and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Kristin Luck Kristin Luck serves as an advisor and growth strategist to a number of cutting-edge marketing and analytics technology and services firms through her consultancy, ScaleHouse. She is the founder of two marketing analytics companies that she led to successful exits. Kristin co-founded OTX, an online research business that was named the fastest-growing research firm in the world in 2002 and 2003 and was subsequently acquired by Zelnick Media & Pilot Group and again by Ipsos in 2007. She then founded Forefront Consulting Group, a research technology firm that was acquired by Decipher. Decipher was acquired by FocusVisi

“The biggest disservice we've done with content marketing is giving such high expectations without the tools to fulfill them.” When it comes to upping your content marketing game, most struggle with obstacles related to time, talent, and treasure. Luckily, StoryFuel founder Melanie Deziel's new book The Content Fuel Framework can help you with all of this. We discussed all of this and more this week when Melanie returned to the On Brand podcast. About Melanie Deziel Melanie Deziel is a keynote speaker, author, award-winning branded content creator, and lifelong storyteller, on a mission to share the power of compelling and credible content with others. Melanie is the author of “The Content Fuel Framework: How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas,” and the founder of StoryFuel, which teaches marketers, publishers, creators and companies of all sizes how to tell better brand stories. Prior to founding StoryFuel, Melanie was the first editor of branded content at The New York Times, a founding member of HuffPost’s