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

“Your feet take you on these adventures. You should have quality flip flops that you keep for a long time. That really became our core story.” That spark of an idea led Jeremy Stewart and his wife to found premium flip-flop brand Hari-Mari. In doing so, they essentially created a new market that involved changing behavior around what we put on our feet in warm weather. He took some time to share the story of founding the company and building the brand this week on the On Brand podcast. About Jeremy Stewart Jeremy is the founder of Hari Mari flip flops – a Dallas-based sandal brand he launched in 2012 with his wife, Lila. The idea for Hari Mari was born out of the couple’s time spent living in Indonesia, where they were consistently disappointed with their flip flops – marked by painful break-in periods and the same iterations of black and brown color options. Moving back to the States, they doubled down on their unhealthy obsession with fixing these issues, Hari Mari, and combining color & comfort in a premiu

“Bad writing can undermine everything you’re trying to do.” As someone who started out as a marketing copywriter and who still spends a lot of time today teaching business writing and writing books, I couldn’t wait to talk to copywriting and web writing expert Nick Usborne about how the words we use help us build better brands. We discussed this and much more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Nick Usborne Nick Usborne is an online copywriter and trainer who wrote his first website in 1995. When his book, Net Words, was published by McGraw-Hill in 2002, it was one of the very first to address the new profession of writing for the web. After writing web copy for nearly two decades, Nick began teaching companies and organizations how to write better websites. A few years later, he began converting his corporate training materials into courses and programs for freelance writers and copywriters. Today, Nick continues to immerse himself in teaching the craft of conversational copywriting. Having worked with

“Marketing is your ability to attract and keep customers. Most confuse the definition of marketing with the definition of advertising.” This week on the On Brand podcast, I chatted with Wayne Mullins, Founder of Ugly Mug Marketing. We talked about how to avoid checklist marketing (a favorite topic of mine), investing in the right end of the customer experience, and the role of social media today. Enjoy! About Wayne Mullins Wayne Mullins is the Founder of Ugly Mug Marketing, and a highly sought- after marketing consultant, regularly having to turn clients away. He directly influences more than one hundred thousand entrepreneurs annually via his blog, books, and training programs. While making his clients more profitable is an easy motivator, Wayne is also driven by creating value for his clients beyond just the dollars and cents. He is passionate about building a team that isn’t focused on checking off items on to-do lists and completing projects, but instead, on getting results for their clients. Episode High

“The secret sauce of brands is purpose.” In a career that’s taken her from wrangling brands at Wieden+Kennedy to launching her own successful global PR shop, futurefactor, Kerrie Finch has spent her career helping brands share their stories with the world. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Kerrie Finch Prior to founding futurefactor (formerly FinchFactor) in 2009, Kerrie Finch was PR Director at Wieden+Kennedy. There she wrangled brands such as Nike and Heineken, Coca-Cola and Electronic Arts. Kerrie has been voted into Adformatie magazine’s top ten industry influencers for the past three years. As Founding Partner & President of futurefactor, Kerrie continues to drive change in the industry, while advancing her work as the Netherlands representative for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, board member of the ADCN, advisory board member of IncludeNow, and the founder of SheSays Amsterdam. Episode Highlights Kerrie Finch, Professional Bra

What do the Grateful Dead and Harry Potter have in common? Both have huge fandoms that include author David Meerman Scott and his daughter Reiko Scott respectively. “Our thesis was this—are the lessons of fandom relevant to brands?” While most fathers and daughters would use this as a jumping-off point for stimulating after-dinner conversation, the Scotts used it as a jumping-off point in writing a book together — Fanocracy. David joined me for a discussion of this on the first On Brand podcast of 2020. Enjoy! About David Meerman Scott David is an internationally acclaimed business growth strategist, entrepreneur, advisor to emerging companies, and public speaker. He is the author of 10 previous books including The New Rules of Marketing & PR (now in its sixth edition and in twenty-nine languages) and Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead. He travels around the world to surf and hear great live music.  Episode HighlightsWhy Fanocracy? “Democracies are ruled by the people. With fanocracies, the fans rule.” 

“We're the BASF of brand story. We don't make it but we bring it life.” This analogy perfectly captures the inflection point where Christopher Wallace has built his business. InnerView helps marketing teams take the brand from the boardroom to the customers on the front line. This isn't as easy as it might sound at first. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. Christopher Wallace Christopher Wallace is the Co-Founder and President of InnerView which is a marketing consulting firm that helps companies align their brand and product strategies with their customer-facing representatives. Prior to InnerView, Mr. Wallace has had previous success as an entrepreneur in the sales consulting and coaching space. He has nearly 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, and corporate leadership. Chris’s primary professional focus is to help companies better align the strategies of the board room with their customer experience. Episode Highlights “We're professional translators.

“You don’t want your brand name to be tame. You can’t afford to be tame!” As the verbal identity expert behind names for brands ranging from frozen yogurt to Burger King, Alexandra Watkins knows how to develop names that make people smile—and we talk about that a lot on the On Brand podcast. She’s also the author of the newly revised Hello, My Name is Awesome. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. Alexandra Watkins Alexandra Watkins is a recognized expert on brand names with buzz. She the founder and Chief Executive Boss Lady of Eat My Words, a boutique firm that specializes in creating brand names that make people smile instead of scratch their heads. Her name hall of fame includes Burger King's Mac 'n Cheetos, the Neato Robotic Vacuum, Spoon Me frozen yogurt, the Church of Cupcakes, a Spanish language school named Gringo Lingo, and a San Francisco nail salon named Hand Job. Alexandra is the author of the newly revised creativity book, Hello, My Name is Awesome: Ho

“The constant today is still that the consumer is at the heart of everything.” In a career spanning big brands and early-stage companies, Aimee Irwin has been at the forefront of strategic marketing and advertising. Despite the fact that big data is bigger than ever before, it’s nothing without the ability to effectively manage it and create meaningful connections with customers. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Aimee Irwin Aimee Irwin serves as VP of Strategy at Experian Marketing Services. Aimee is a skilled strategy and corporate development executive with deep experience in digital marketing and advertising and track record of success in developing and building profitable new digital and mobile businesses at both early-stage and public companies. Aimee led strategic partnerships and strategic initiatives for Nielsen’s Marketing Cloud where she negotiated and managed strategic data and identity management partnerships supporting Nielsen’s data targetin

“It’s the simple things that I think people overlook because they’re trying to be so complicated or complex.” Beth Trejo is a force. As CEO and Founder of Chatterkick, she works to infuse the world of social media and digital marketing with a human spark. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Beth Trejo Beth Trejo is the leader, mentor, torchbearer, innovator, founder and CEO of Chatterkick. As a trailblazing entrepreneur, Beth loves to take risks and starting Chatterkick in 2012 was her biggest one yet. Defying the odds of successful female-founded start-ups, Beth not only prevailed, she grew her company with a predominantly female staff. Beth started her social media agency with a lot of goals in mind, like redefining how businesses connect with people and providing a human connection in the digital world. But she also had a deliberate goal to advance the role of women in the tech industry and enhance the potential of Siouxland women in order to create real

“Collaboration is the next phase of marketing.” And Vlad Calus knows a thing or two about collaboration. A serial entrepreneur, Vlad’s latest venture is as co-founder of Planable, a social media management tool built around the need for greater collaboration among internal and external marketing teams. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Vlad Calus Vlad Calus is the co-founder @ Planable, the command center of social media collaboration for marketing teams, digital agencies and freelancers to collaborate with their teammates & clients on content calendar in the most visual way. Planable is used by more than 5000 brands worldwide, including Mini, BMW, Volkswagen, SkyTeam, Wendy’s and many others. Vlad founded two non-profits at the age of 16, then dropped out of college, moved to another country with two 2 his friends, built Planable (Techstars London ’17) at 19 y.o and became an honoree Forbes 30 Under 30 at 22 y.o. And he’s been featured as a guest writer &

“How do we make sure there’s a consistency of experience, consistency of messaging, and consistency of feeling?” These are the questions all brand builders grapple with. However, startup brands are building answers to these questions from the ground up. This week I was joined by Jonathan Wassterstrum, founder and CEO of startup brand SquareFoot. We discussed how he tackled these questions and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Jonathan Wassterstrum SquareFoot Founder and CEO Jonathan Wasserstrum has worked for over a decade in commercial real estate. SquareFoot is a new kind of commercial real estate company that helps companies win at finding their next (and next) office, providing transparent access to inventory, brokerage services, and a flexible space offering. SquareFoot brings together technological innovation and human expertise to solve clients’ needs. Episode Highlights What aspects of your story have been most important in building the brand? “It’s that surround-sound look, f

“Something that disruptors bring to the table is the personal relationship with the customer.” And Brand Hacks author Emmanuel Probst knows a thing or two about disruptors. With a background in academia and working with several Fortune 500 clients at Ipsos, he brings a consumer behavior focused mindset to the world of branding and marketing. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Emmanuel Probst Emmanuel Probst’s background combines over 15 years of market research and marketing experience with strong academic achievements. At Ipsos, Emmanuel supports numerous Fortune 500 companies by providing them with a full understanding of their customer’s journey. This encompasses brand awareness to purchase and recommendation, leading to greater insights on the consumer within it. His clients span across a wide range of industries, including consumer package goods, retail, financial services, advertising agencies, and media outlets. He’s also the author of the book Brand

“Getting people to change habits and try new things is an exciting challenge for any marketer.” And Jessica Jensen knows a thing or two about marketing challenges. In a career that has taken her from Yahoo to Apple to Facebook, she’s tackled some big challenges including B2B marketing, platform development, and more. As CMO of Sun Basket, she’s driving growth by building the brand and connecting with customers both online and off. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Jessica Jensen Jessica Jensen came to Sun Basket having led high-performance marketing teams at some of the world’s leading technology companies. Most recently, Jensen spent the last five years at Facebook, where as Head of Platforms, Products, and Insights, she oversaw B2B Marketing for the social media giant’s largest platforms, including Instagram and Messenger. Before working at Facebook, Jessica served as the Global Head of Product Marketing for Apple’s mobile advertising platforms and was t

“Entrepreneurs have always been the voice of good.” As the author of bootstrapping bibles Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine, and Duct Tape Selling, John Jantsch has also been a voice of good for many entrepreneurs. He’s brought this insight and experience to his latest book The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur, designed to help entrepreneurs feed their souls while building brands with purpose. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About John Jantsch John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker, and author of Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine, Duct Tape Selling, The Commitment Engine, and SEO for Growth. His newest work, The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur: 366 Daily Meditations to Feed Your Soul and Grow Your Business taps into the wisdom of 19th-century transcendentalist literature and the author’s own 30-year entrepreneurial journey to challenge today’s entrepreneur to remain fiercely self-reliant while chasing their own version of success. Episode Highlights

“Brands today have to create a memory.” In over 200 episodes of the On Brand podcast, we’ve had a lot of definitions of branding. However, I’m a big fan of how this week’s guest defined what we all do. Inge Overtoom is partner and operations director for BrandBase. In creating bold experiences for big brands it all comes down to creating a standout memory. About Inge Overtoom Inge Overtoom has 15 years experience in project and account management across every aspect of experiential advertising. She is currently the partner and operations director of BrandBase, a creative production company based in Amsterdam renowned for big and bold brand experiences. With clients including the likes of Shell, ABN AMRO, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, ING Bank – Inge is responsible for all operations of the BrandBase team. Inge also sits on the board for IDEA, the trade association representing the Netherlands’ most prominent live communication and event agencies. Episode Highlights Be big. Be bold. What are most brand builders

“As an entrepreneur, it’s our job to make something that wasn’t there.” And that’s exactly what New Orleans based entrepreneur Scott Wolfe did in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. With a boom in rebuilding and restoration construction, Wolfe quickly saw that it was challenging for contractors to get paid. In founding Levelset, Wolfe worked to address this head-on. We talked about the zigs and zags of startup branding and content marketing this week on the On Brand podcast. Enjoy This Episode Now Download Episode Subscribe via iTunes Subscribe via Stitcher About Scott Wolfe A husband, dad, & entrepreneur in New Orleans, Scott founded Levelset to even the $1 trillion construction playing field and make payments easier, faster, and more predictable. Levelset is used by thousands of contractors and suppliers nationwide to make payments easier on billions in contract value each year. Scott is a licensed attorney who previously practiced construction law. Recognized by New Orleans City Business as an “Innovator o

“Story doesn’t start with a 40-page deck. It starts with a founder with a vision.” And yet, there are quite a few 40-page branding decks floating around out there. This week on the podcast I was joined by Ellen Utrecht, a branding, film, and storytelling expert and founder of creative agency MikeTeeVee for a conversation about how brand stories really start. About Ellen Utrecht Ellen Utrecht is an all-round film professional with +25 years of experience in both commercials as well as feature films. She got her training at one of The Netherlands most iconic creative agencies, KesselsKramer, where she was instrumental in delivering impactful commercials for brands like Diesel, Ben (t-mobile), Bavaria beer, 55DSL, and Vitra amongst many others. Ellen has a long track record of innovation in film, pioneering new and groundbreaking production approaches for clients like Philips, Heineken, Lego, DSM, and Denham. Her Dutch training in conceptual storytelling and strong execution led to a successful worldwide career

“Be an outlier. Play a game no one else is playing.” With success in developing both corporate marketing and political campaigns, Phillips Stutts knows how to win big. As founder of Win BIG Media and Go BIG Media he helps clients across the board do just that. Recently, he’s trained his focus on fighting his own rare, incurable disease. We talked about overcoming obstacles, innovating, and winning this week on the On Brand podcast. About Phillip Stutts Phillip Stutts is fighting a rare, incurable disease. Diagnosed in 2012 with the esophageal disease, Achalasia, he spent five years ignoring it. Frankly, he put his head in the sand, taking medications that did more harm than good, and waiting for the inevitable. Then he woke up and said no more. His mission today is to find a cure and pursue a life of constant growth and giving. And he’s making progress. Phillip is also the author of Fire Them Now: The 7 Lies Digital Marketers Sell…, an Amazon bestseller, and one of the masterminds behind the curtain of politi

“What we do in life is we solve what’s in front of us instead of what’s next.” That’s exactly how most brands have approached content marketing. The initial challenge was creating all of this content. So we focused on content creation. Now there’s too much content and people aren’t engaging with it. As CMO and Co-Founder of Uberflip, Randy Frisch helps marketers create engaging content experiences. He’s also the author of a new book with a NSFW title that we discuss on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Randy Frisch Randy Frisch is the CMO and Co-Founder of Uberflip, a content experience platform that empowers marketers to create content experiences at every stage of the buyer’s journey. He has defined and led this movement, prompting marketers to think beyond content creation and truly put their customers first by focusing on the experience. This movement has fuelled an annual conference, Conex: The Content Experience, that brings together 750+ passionate marketers, and a North American-wide

“There are fifteen accepted definitions of a brand. My favorite definition is that a brand is a sum of all experiences a customer has.” As the name of the popular online platform he founded suggests, Derrick Daye is the ultimate Branding Strategy Insider. He’s worked on brand strategy for everything from EA Sports to the Statue of Liberty. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Derrick Daye Derrick Daye has spent the past 20+ years helping organizations release the full potential of their brands. His experience is as extensive as it is diverse, encompassing the disciplines of brand strategy, advertising, sales promotion, and public relations. At The Blake Project he manages daily operations and serves in the delivery of brand stewardship services as a brand strategist and educator. Previously Derrick held rewarding leadership roles at global advertising agency leader Saatchi & Saatchi as well as at three other respected agencies. He has led the brand strategy effort for man