Articles
Develop a Growth Mindset
The Ability of a Brand to Go from Viable to Valuable
MVP. Sounds exciting. You want that title. Right?
Well, unfortunately, I am not going to talk about being the most valuable player. Instead, my thoughts are about a minimal viable product (MVP). I know that is nowhere near as sexy. And as you know, you don't want me talking sports. LOL!
Anyway, I want to draw attention to the words--minimal...viable...product—MINIMAL in particular.
The concept is great, you spend as little as possible and generate the most revenue (and hopefully profit too)…
Define Who You Actually Are and the Value You Really Provide for Success
Sometimes even the experts need experts. Over the last 20 plus years, I’ve noticed that there are two types of leaders—the ones who are willing to ask for help and actively practice personal and professional development, and those that believe that they must always appear to know everything.
A few years ago, I heard someone say, “if you can’t do for yourself what you do for clients, you’re an imposter.” This briefly caught me off guard, but after some consideration, I realized that this person …
Integrity is Really Useful and Important to Your Brand
A quick search on LinkedIn reveals that “integrity” is mostly associated with product launches or cancelations and job changes. There are a few posts that reference an organization’s core values. A quick search engine search reveals the definition, of course, and a series of self-help articles about how to identify someone ‘with’ it. So apparently integrity is a thing that you can acquire. Hmmm…
According to HubSpot and Ferguson Values, integrity tops the list of common core values. Yup. It’s t…
Case Study: How Passion for the Brand and Re-Uniting the Team Created Unstoppable Energy
Most brands would do anything to create the deep emotional connection and intense loyalty enjoyed by our client, a 50-year old regional non-profit. The organization was named after one of its charismatic, larger-than-life leaders. Back in the day, the founders had united the community around their mission of fostering conversations about diversity in various mediums--a public access television talk show, retreats, and workshops. But now, all but the TV show was shut down due to financial mismana…
How Your Mindset Affects Being Ready to Scale Your Business
Mindset. It’s all about the mindset. You can talk about growth, acquire the tools, and implement the systems, but if your mindset isn’t in the right place, you’ll still plateau or worse, fail. So, what is mindset? Mindset is a set of beliefs that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself. It influences how you think, feel, and behave in any given situation. Mindset is perception, it’s not fact-based. However, it feels like fact to you.
I was on a call with a client and we were talkin…
Case Study: Growth and Change Elicit Strong Feelings for Everyone in a Company
When the founder left the industry-leading company where he’d worked for the better part of a decade to strike out on his own, he had big ambitions: to compete with his former employer on a global scale, with an offering that would set a new industry standard for ethics, safety, and client value.
He was soon joined by two colleagues he’d met during his 16-year tenure in the industry, who had also become friends. The three shared the same vision for improving the industry, and together they atta…
Increase the Power and Impact of Your Brand with a WOW Statement
Are you looking to enhance your brand impact, drive sales, and achieve your revenue goals? Harnessing the power of brand messaging with category design is the key to unlocking growth and scaling your business.
In my experience, there are gaps between formal, traditional marketing statements, the pillars of marketing success, and the actual application and results of these structures. These statements are either too formal and wordy or too slapstick and trendy. The pillars used to build and defi…
What is Brand Personality and How it Helps in Marketing?
Think about a person that you admire or has been a mentor to you.
Can you see them in your mind?
Feel how they make you feel?
Now, tell me about this person. Only I don’t want to know their name or their gender. I want you to describe their personality to me. Do they always make you laugh? Are they always running late? Do they have a quirky twitch that they do when they are thinking? Remember, do not tell me their name or gender.
I’m listening...
Now let me tell you about my person-> My perso…
How the Influence of Technology is Vital on Corporate Boards
“If you didn’t have a digital strategy, you do now or you don’t survive,” said Guillermo Diaz Jr., chief executive officer at software firm Kloudspot, and a former chief information officer at Cisco Systems Inc. “You have to have a digital strategy and digital culture, and a board that thinks that way,” he said in an article for the Wall Street Journal.
Technology is not new for businesses. It’s been a standard for a minimum of two decades. But not everyone embraced it, understood it, or recogn…
How to Avoid Being a Brand with Snowflake Syndrome?
A while back in one of my first books, I wrote about what I call “Snowflake Syndrome” and it was the hit of the book. That chapter was popular beyond the specific industry that the book was written for. Recently, I have had a few encounters that have reminded me of it and got me thinking that maybe I should expand upon it and release a new book. Maybe…what do you think?
So just what is Snowflake Syndrome? It’s when a brand believes that it is unique in its market and that the market should go …