Anatomy of a Brand Podcast With Chris Cruz

Aaron Underwood doesn't make brands look old.He makes them feel like they've been here before.Aaron Underwood is the founder of Unto Dust, a visual identity studio built around story, craftsmanship, and the belief that the best brands don't need to be clever to be memorable. His work draws from vintage materials, old-world design, family histories, and the tactile imperfections of things made by hand. In this episode, we unpack what happens when a designer chooses depth over cleverness, and what that choice demands of the business behind the work.This isn't a conversation about making things beautiful.It's about what happens when you care enough about the work to let it take longer, say no to the wrong opportunities, and wrestle with whether the thing you're building can scale without losing the reason people came to you in the first place.If you're a designer, founder, marketer, or builder trying to create work that matters without sanding away what makes it yours, this conversation is for you.Timestamps00:00:00 Trailer00:00:11 Why Aaron is allergic to clever design00:01:20 Why he looks backward to create work that feels timeless00:02:21 The vintage mood boards that became part of his client process00:03:57 The Free Print Club — turning marketing into a human connection00:05:42 Why Aaron refuses to remove the human process from design00:06:10 When craftsmanship takes longer — and why his clients want it that way00:07:26 "I'm kind of allergic to clever design"00:08:00 Why story matters more than simplicity00:08:32 Designing identities that emotionally move people00:09:22 What designing brands has taught Aaron about himself00:12:27 The wrong project feels like swimming upstream00:13:49 How your work becomes a filter for the right clients00:14:26 The cost of saying yes to the wrong project00:15:40 What Aaron has discovered about his own emotional side00:16:40 The part of himself Aaron had to let go of00:16:55 Why perfectionism had to go00:18:10 What perfection was really asking for00:19:21 "Keep playing. Keep imagining."00:20:11 Embracing the mess instead of chasing perfection00:23:18 The creative path Aaron never planned00:24:05 Failing at college because there was no north star00:24:45 "I don't feel like a designer and I don't feel like an artist"00:25:34 Why Aaron sees himself as a problem solver00:26:16 The tension between craft and commerce00:27:42 The power of confusing people with your labels00:29:17 Can a craft built around one person's hand actually scale?00:31:20 Why you don't have to become the biggest studio00:32:49 What gets lost when a business gets too big00:34:09 The skill underneath all of Aaron's work: paying attention00:35:25 Building something that matters — and believing people will pay for it00:39:16 What the chip on your shoulder does to your life00:40:23 What brand actually meansGuestAaron Underwood is the founder of Unto Dust, a visual identity studio creating brands rooted in story, craftsmanship, and emotional connection. Self-taught and deeply influenced by vintage design, artistry, and the tactile process of making things by hand, Aaron works primarily with small businesses, restaurants, cafes, and hospitality brands to create identities designed to feel lasting rather than merely current.Get in TouchInstagram: www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrandWebsite: www.anatomyofabrand.co

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Somebody asked Tyler O'Laskey how to clean a mixer.His answer told him everything he needed to know about the leader he'd become.

Tyler and Aubrey O'Laskey met at the Culinary Institute of America, cooked their way through kitchens like Blue Hill, and ran a private-chef and catering business in Lake Tahoe before opening Perenn — an 800-square-foot bakery in Reno that was open four days a week and was never supposed to be the main thing.

Thirteen years later, Perenn is a self-funded, 170-person hospitality company spanning Nevada and Tennessee, with a flagship at Nashville's Cheekwood and a grocery concept opening steps from Soho House in Wedgewood-Houston.

In this episode, we unpack how two people who once ran their entire company from a shared brain scaled to 170 employees without losing the thing that made people fall in love with them in the first place.

This isn't a conversation about scaling a bakery.

It's about what growth asks of you before it ever pays you back.

You'll hear:

- Why the day someone asked Tyler how to clean a mixer became the day he realized he'd built a culture of fear without meaning to

- Why Tyler and Aubrey ignored the advice that told them not to open their most successful location — at 27 years old-

The real reason Perenn keeps its own growth plans a secret from its own team until the lease is signed

- Why "you're too expensive" is a piece of feedback they've learned to sit with instead of run from

- What it means to build a company where the founders have skipped their own payroll — and why that never becomes the customer's problem

- How a restored Land Rover delivering baguettes became the clearest symbol of what Perenn refuses to cutIf you're a founder, operator, or brand builder trying to grow without losing what made people love you in the first place, this conversation is for you.

Timestamps

00:00:00 Trailer

00:00:13 What Perenn actually is, when you can't just say "bakery"

00:01:17 Why "lifestyle brand" isn't a good enough answer anymore

00:03:28 The 800-square-foot bakery that was never supposed to be the main thing

00:07:45 The mixer question that exposed a bad leader

00:09:14 "It cannot be how we were taught" — breaking from restaurant culture

00:10:54 The moment Aubrey realized control was the thing holding them back

00:12:31 From two people in one bed to 170 people on payroll

00:14:03 Why they hide their own plans from their own team

00:15:03 Inside the internal newsletter that holds 170 people together

00:18:10 "You need to quit now" — going all in with no plan B

00:24:24 The advice that told them not to open their biggest location

00:28:31 How close failure actually came — skipped payroll, mortgaged house

00:33:17 The four-part framework behind every decision Perenn makes

00:33:33 "You're too expensive" — and what that feedback is really asking for

00:36:50 The build-out mistake that taught them to never cut corners again

00:40:20 The Land Rover, the baguettes, and the cost of refusing to feel cheap

00:43:26 What would remain if it all disappeared tomorrow

Guest

Tyler and Aubrey O'Laskey are the husband-and-wife founders of Perenn, the bakery-café-grocery brand they built from an 800-square-foot storefront in Reno into a self-funded, 170-person company spanning Nevada and Tennessee. Trained at the Culinary Institute of America and shaped by kitchens like Blue Hill, they've grown Perenn into one of the most talked-about hospitality brands in the country — without outside investors.

Get in Touch

Instagram: www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrand

Website: www.anatomyofabrand.co

Email: [email protected]

Most business owners think burnout looks like exhaustion. It doesn’t.

It looks like watching your creativity disappear and wondering if you’re already gone.

In this episode, we sit down with Laura Higgins, business coach for creative entrepreneurs and founder of The Next Level Club, the coaching program behind 1,000+ creatives scaling to six and seven figures.

Laura built a multi-seven-figure coaching business, took it from $30–40K months to $100K months in six months, and became the person creatives DM at midnight asking how to get fully booked.

Then, in May of 2025, she hit a wall so hard her own doctor called it what it was: burnout.

Not the kind that more sleep fixes. The kind that takes your creativity with it.

We unpack what happens when the identity that built your business starts working against you, why she shut down her most profitable offer to save the business that mattered more, why she killed an entire marketing channel everyone told her she needed, and the three types of content she now says are the only ones worth making.

This isn’t a conversation about hustle or 5am routines.

It’s about what happens when achievement becomes identity — and the discipline it takes to build a business that doesn’t require you to disappear to keep it running.

You’ll hear:

• Why Laura’s doctor diagnosing her burnout made her cry harder than the burnout itself

• The 1-out-of-10-to-8-out-of-10 leap that keeps high performers stuck in burnout long after they should’ve recovered

• Why she shut down her most profitable offer — and doubled client signups the month after

• The exact reason she killed her YouTube channel after a year of chasing it, and what ‘customer acquisition doesn’t work’ actually means• The three types of content every creative business needs — and the one nobody wants to post• Why ‘I’m a chooser, not a beggar’ changed how she runs every sales conversation

• The pricing question she still doesn’t answer directly — and why that’s the point

Timestamps

• 00:00:00 - Trailer

• 00:01:56 - In May 2025, everything she’d built started breaking

• 00:02:29 - From $30K months to $100K months — and why that almost destroyed her

• 00:03:23 - The iPhone-update feeling she couldn’t ignore

• 00:05:48 - ‘You’ve hit massive burnout’: the sentence that broke her in a 15-minute appointment

• 00:07:11 - Why she couldn’t take the six weeks off her own sister took

• 00:08:26 - The judgment about other people’s burnout she had to unlearn

• 00:11:02 - Crying while doing her makeup, thirty minutes before a client call

• 00:12:01 - The Taylor Swift Eras Tour theory of burnout

• 00:13:38 - The three-month process of relearning what actually recharges her

• 00:16:25 - Shutting down her most profitable offer — and doubling signups the next month• 00:18:13 - Killing her YouTube channel

• 00:23:32 - The three-part framework behind every fully-booked creative business

• 00:26:37 - ‘I’m a chooser, not a beggar’ — the reframe that changed her sales conversations

• 00:29:12 - The three types of content: How I, Heart, and Hot Take

• 00:37:36 - The Canva sign that got her hate mail — and the clients it brought her

• 00:41:23 - Attention, authority, action: the three-step funnel behind every DM that converts

• 00:48:12 - How outsourcing sales took her from $30K to $100K months in six months

• 01:04:09 - Her three parting rules for staying fully booked without burning out again

Guest

Laura Higgins is a business coach for creative entrepreneurs and founder of The Next Level Club, the coaching program she’s used to help 1,000+ creatives scale to six and seven figures. She’s built and rebuilt her own multi-seven-figure business — including the year she nearly lost it to burnout.

Get in Touch

Instagram:

www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrand

Website: www.anatomyofabrand.co

Email: [email protected]

Most brands are losing seventy cents on every dollar they spend to acquire a customer.

They call it growth.

In this episode, we sit down with Eric Hinman, a 5x Ironman finisher, angel investor in more than 15 early-stage wellness brands including Ten Thousand, Oakley, The Normal Brand, Beam, and Kane Footwear, and the founder of Founders Only Club, a retreat-based community connecting founders, creators, and investors.

We unpack why customer acquisition beats branding in the early days, how a nightly sauna session became his most effective business development tool, and why he says most creators are doing "influencer marketing" completely wrong.

This isn't a conversation about growth hacks.

It's about why relationships outperform funnels every single time.

You'll Hear:

— Why the “one habit per year” method beats motivation every time

— The real math behind why brands lose money while revenue keeps climbing

— How Eric turned a hot sauna and an ice bath into his most valuable business relationship

— The exact DM script he uses to land brand deals

— Why he refuses to call what he does “networking”

— The investing filter he runs before writing a single check

— How nightly hangouts at his house became a 150-person company

If you're a founder, creator, or operator trying to build something that outlasts the algorithm, this conversation is for you.

Timestamps

00:00:00 Trailer

00:02:03 Why most people fail at building better habits and what Eric does differently

00:02:43 The “one habit per year” method that rewired his entire life

00:04:57 The comparison trap and the mental shift that killed it for good

00:06:13 Applying the athlete mindset to backing 15+ wellness brands

00:08:39 Inside the sauna sessions Eric hosts every single night of the week

00:10:36 Why branding is the wrong place to start and what to fix first

00:12:35 The investing filter Eric runs before he writes a single check

00:14:18 The 70-cent problem why brands lose money while revenue grows

00:16:24 What “whitelisting” actually means and why brands need 10,000 pieces of content

00:19:09 The mindset shift separating real brand partners from unboxing influencers

00:21:20 Where the generosity comes from a small-town lesson that still runs the business

00:22:56 The VIP list: the simple habit behind Eric's entire network

00:27:13 Why Eric writes a newsletter no one asked for and why it matters more than virality

00:29:25 Building real community around HyROX, CrossFit, and shared discomfort00:34:53 The David Protein case study, selling out before the product even launched

00:36:01 The exact DM script Eric uses to land brand partnerships

00:37:44 Inside Founders Only Club and the AI tool making 50 intros a day

00:42:01 The one piece of advice for anyone starting a personal brand from zero

Guest

Eric Hinman is a 5x Ironman finisher and Denver-based angel investor backing early-stage wellness brands including Ten Thousand, Oakley, The Normal Brand, Beam, and Kane Footwear. He's the founder of Founders Only Club and writes The Movement Memo, a newsletter on health, performance, and intentional living.

Get in Touch

Instagram: www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrand

Website: www.anatomyofabrand.co

Email: [email protected]

Most designers aren't losing to AI. They're losing to their own fear of what AI means.

In this episode, we sit back down with Matt Lehman, founder of Matt Lehman Studio and the designer behind the Harlem Globetrotters' 100th anniversary rebrand, to go deeper on what it actually takes to build a visual identity that lasts. We get into the creative process nobody shows you: pencil to paper, free association, playing until something clicks. We talk about why the Nike Swoosh isn't a great logo, it's a great brand. And we dig into the harder question: when AI can generate a logo in seconds, what does a 25-year career actually protect you from?

This isn't a conversation about tools or trends. It's about judgment, taste, and the courage to push back when a client is wrong.

You'll hear:

• Why commodity designers are getting knocked out, and what separates the ones who won't

• The single question Matt asks every client before touching a pencil• Why your logo doing "all the heavy lifting" is the #1 mistake founders make

• What the Harlem Globetrotters' rebrand taught him about honoring legacy without living in it• The "broccoli moment" — and when to hold your ground with a client who hired you

• Confidence: what it actually is, and why you might not have it yet

If you're a founder, creative director, or operator who's ever hired someone to build your brand, or been hired to do it, this conversation is for you.

Timestamps

00:00:00 Trailer

00:00:10 Matt returns: he just redesigned a 100-year-old icon

00:00:47 The Globetrotters rebrand: honoring the past without living there

00:02:40 How do you hold a legacy brand without breaking it?00:04:00 The creative direction decision that surprised everyone

00:05:18 AI and design: the real question nobody's asking

00:06:22 "Head in the sand" vs. "no jobs left" — navigating the gray area

00:07:17 The holistic view 25 years of reps actually buys you

00:09:15 Commodity designers vs. craft designers — the split is happening now

00:10:04 The analog comeback: why imperfection is the new premium signal

00:13:10 How we're all navigating our own hypocrisy around AI

00:13:46 The Christopher Nolan test for creative ownership

00:16:43 Pencil first, always — and why the brain flips

00:19:40 What a speech on failure taught him about creative identity

00:21:55 Confidence is only confidence until it survives a challenge

00:25:10 Bad for a long time: why most people quit too soon

00:29:14 Creating from pride vs. creating to be liked

00:34:14 The founder problem: why they'll outsource HR but not their logo

00:36:25 The framework Matt uses to align every client before a single sketch

00:37:17 When to push back — and what you risk when you never do

00:41:10 The first question Matt asks every client (and how it saves them money)

00:50:55 Advice for founders: what actually makes a good logo

00:51:45 "There's nothing special about the Nike logo"

00:53:04 The #1 pitfall: making your logo do too much

00:56:23 When Starry Night became a dorm room poster — context collapse in branding

Guest: Matt Lehman, Founder of Matt Lehman Studio (Nashville, TN). Designer behind the Harlem Globetrotters' 100th anniversary rebrand. Clients include ESPN, Delta, PepsiCo, The Atlantic, Esquire, Nickelodeon, and NASA. 25+ years designing visual identity systems that last.

Get in Touch

Instagram: www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrandWebsite: www.anatomyofabrand.coEmail: [email protected]

Most founders are told that level of confidence is dangerous.

They're trained to soften it and that's exactly when they start to lose.In this episode, we sit down with Whitney Miller — the first-ever winner of FOX's MasterChef — who walked into Gordon Ramsay's competition at 22, self-taught and fresh from Mississippi, and won the whole thing.

Now she's doing something even harder: building a premium cookie brand from scratch in the most competitive food market on earth.This isn't a conversation about celebrity cookbooks or food TV.It's about irrational self-belief, fighting for the thing no one saw coming, and building something that makes people feel something real.

You'll hear:

Why the most dangerous thing for a founder is learning to be less confident

How Whitney recipe-tested an entire product line while breastfeeding — without tasting a single cookie

What happened when she paid thousands for a marketing agency and watched the money disappear

Why she chose cookies over a restaurant — and why that decision was harder than winning MasterChef

The “unhurried conversations” philosophy that makes her stores impossible to replicate at scale

How she’s targeting a market that still sends tin cookies every December — and winning it

If you’re a founder, brand builder, or operator who’s ever been told to dial it back, this one’s for you.

Timestamps

00:00:00 Trailer

00:00:52 The college athlete who didn’t want to be a dietitian

00:01:54 Finding the MasterChef audition with two weeks to spare

00:02:41 The New Orleans audition and the moment everything clicked

00:04:22 What winning actually costs you (at 22, away from everyone you know)

00:05:40 The tennis mindset that hid her stress from every competitor

00:06:38 Irrational self-belief — the trait they try to train out of founders

00:07:51 Gordon Ramsay said something nobody had ever told her before

00:09:01 From college student to speaking in Dubai next to the PepsiCo president

00:11:24 Traveling the world as an ambassador for Southern food

00:12:32 How she ended up on cookies — and why it was a harder choice than it looks

00:13:35 Wrestling with identity: am I just a cookie company now?

00:14:57 She couldn’t taste a single recipe (and created a better product because of it)

00:15:58 The vegan cookie that wasn’t in the plan — and became a bestseller

00:16:30 Launching nationwide in January 2020

00:18:11 Why every Whitney’s cookie has its own distinct flavor profile

00:19:38 How a MasterChef perfectionist trained a team that had never cooked before

00:21:10 Why mentorship was always in the product whether she planned it or not

00:22:00 The setback: almost couldn’t open the Franklin store

00:23:44 What doubters said — and what happened when customers tried the $5 cookie

00:25:34 Learning the business side with zero background

00:27:18 She hired a marketing agency. They nearly killed the business.

00:29:04 The “unhurried conversations” philosophy — and where it came from

00:30:55 Why she won’t cut corners even when the business demands it

00:32:09 Going seasonal: getting outside her own chocolate obsession

00:33:14 The collaboration strategy: turning brand fans into co-creators

00:34:11 Parkinson’s, purpose, and a cookie that meant more than revenue

00:36:07 How she thinks about Crumbl and the mass-production competition

00:37:49 Nashville, Spring Hill, and the small-footprint store model

00:38:13 The next frontier: corporate gifting and the opportunity hiding in plain sight

Guest

Whitney Miller, first-ever MasterChef winner, founder and head chef of Whitney’s Cookies (Franklin, TN), Southern food ambassador, and author of two cookbooks - including Modern Hospitality, praised publicly by Chip and Joanna Gaines.

Get in Touch

Instagram: www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrand

Website: www.anatomyofabrand.co

Email: [email protected]

Most brands aren't losing to better competitors.They're losing to themselves because nobody will say the content strategy is broken.In this episode, I sit down with Oren John — internet creative director, co-founder of Cut30 (2,500+ creators trained), and founder of HYPER — to break down the exact structure behind a content flywheel that actually drives revenue.Oren had a YouTube video hit 1 million views in two weeks about how to build a marketing team in 2026. We pull it apart — the pod system, the analytics loop that gets executives off your back, and why your top of funnel content doesn't need to mention your product at all.This isn't a conversation about hacks or growth tactics.It's about structure, autonomy, and what it actually takes to build a content team that executives trust enough to leave alone.You'll hear:- Why hiring one person to 'fix' your social is the first mistake every brand makes- The pod system: the most effective content flywheel with the least amount of spend- How 90 days of pillar analytics gives your team full creative autonomy- The second order effect — how executives who 'don't watch YouTube' are finding your content anyway- Why top of funnel content doesn't need to mention your product to generate pipeline- The only two ways to win in a saturated category (and most brands have neither)- How confidence in content comes from volume, not talentIf you're building a brand, running a marketing team, or wondering why your social isn't converting - this one's for you.Timestamps00:00 — The morning Riverside didn't record (and what happened next)01:26 — Why organic is the highest ROI marketing lever (and why brands attack it wrong)02:00 — The pod system: creative strategist + in-house creator + extended universe03:39 — What the 'creator' role actually means (it's not a videographer)05:32 — What you need to give a strategist for them to function06:12 — The CEO's cousin has opinions. Here's how you shut them down with data.07:48 — 90 days of analytics = executives leave you alone. Here's the system.08:03 — ManyChat + a product tease = 1,000 email signups in a day they hadn't seen in years09:18 — What should you actually pay a creative strategist in 2026?13:08 — The 3 qualities that make a great creative strategist (most hires are missing one)15:46 — Where communication skills actually come from (it's not what you think)18:09 — How 1,000 videos changed the way Oren speaks, pitches, and leads19:17 — Chris on Cut30: getting feedback when the content you made just isn't good enough22:45 — 'My customer isn't on social media' — Oren's response to every executive who says this23:59 — The second order effect: 3 workshop bookings from executives via a Slack link25:24 — Outer Signal: the tool that proves your customer is on social (with data)26:21 — What makes a good creative director vs. a bad one28:36 — Brand vs. Product: why this series changed how Oren thinks about consumer behavior33:24 — How David Protein Bars locked up the category (and what it means for everyone else)35:07 — AG1 is a terrible product experience. Here's why it doesn't matter.36:03 — Field Trip, ROI, and why your best content doesn't need to mention your product38:53 — How Oren decides to kill a content pillar (same system he teaches)41:01 — Workshopping bits like a comedian: the process behind viral content ideasGuestOren John is the internet's creative director. Co-founder of Cut30 (2,500+ creators trained across 20+ cohorts), founder of HYPER (content strategy newsletter), and former SVP of Marketing with a career spanning Red Bull, Ciroc, Grey Goose, TrackingPoint, and agency work across Sundance, Miami Art Week, and NYFW. His YouTube video on building a marketing team in 2026 hit 1 million views in two weeks. Follow him @orenmeetsworld.Get in TouchInstagram: www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrandWebsite: www.anatomyofabrand.coEmail: [email protected]

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Most business owners don't fail because they're bad at their craft.

They fail because they built a job and called it a business.

In this episode, we sit down with John Felkins, Executive Director of EntreLeadership Elite at Ramsey Solutions and the head coach who's spent 14 years building Dave Ramsey's leadership coaching program from the ground up.

We unpack the five stages every founder gets stuck in, why "information-only" coaches are about to get replaced by AI, and the brutal identity shift that happens when your team starts doing the work you builtyour name on.

This isn't a conversation about productivity hacks or hiring tactics.It's about identity, vigilance, and the courage to stop being the hero of your own business.

You'll hear:

• Why the gap between knowing and doing is widening every year

• The five stages every founder gets trapped in — and how to break through each one

• Why most "coaches" won't survive the next 24 months

• The identity crisis that hits when your team gets better than you

• How Dave Ramsey built a culture that survives without him

• Why balance is an illusion — and what to chase instead

• The one question that exposes whether you own a business or own a jobIf you're a founder, operator, or coach navigating growth pressure — this conversation will change how you see your own role.

Timestamps

00:00:00 — Trailer

00:01:30 — Why consistency is the unsexy reason Ramsey scaled for 25 years

00:04:40 — The hidden cost of having a "founder draw" in your brand

00:07:20 — The leadership trap most CEOs never escape

00:11:00 — Why information is now the cheapest thing on the internet

00:14:30 — The question that decides whether you own a business or a job

00:17:00 — The five stages every founder cycles through

00:21:45 — Why building a cross-functional team is harder than building a craft

00:25:10 — The Monday meeting that costs Ramsey millions (and why it's worth it)

00:28:20 — When the system you built starts running you

00:30:00 — "Victory has defeated you" — the threat at the top

00:34:50 — Reframing money, profit, and purpose without losing either

00:38:30 — The 30,000-application hiring engine and what they're really screening for

00:42:00 — The challenge keeping John up at night right now

00:46:00 — Why most coaches won't survive the AI era

00:48:30 — Emotional acuity: the only skill AI can't replicate

00:51:30 — Final reflections: presence, mirrors, and the hardest sell of all

Guest

John Felkins, Executive Director of EntreLeadership Elite at Ramsey Solutions and the architect of Ramsey's coaching program. 14 years inside the company. Coach to thousands of operators navigating the gapbetween knowing and doing.

Found out more here: https://ter.li/entreleadership

Get in Touch

Instagram: www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrand

Website: www.anatomyofabrand.co

Email: [email protected]

Subscribe and join our community for operators, marketers, and builders shaping the future.Most founders don't break because the business broke.They break because nobody told them the 3% they were hiding was already running the company.In this episode, we sit down with Blake and Jamie — two licensed therapists, best friends for nine years, and the co-hosts of The 3% Podcast — a show built out of a 12-step room and a single sentence: "I need to share my 3%."We unpack why the most operationally healthy founders are the ones doing the inner work, why "I'm fine" is a leading indicator of a business unraveling, and why the same pattern that ruins relationships is the one quietly killing your team.This isn't a conversation about therapy.It's about the silent tax founders pay when they refuse to be honest with themselves.You'll hear:• Why a 3% lie binds you to 100% of the shame• The Resentment Metric — how to know your business is breaking before the numbers say so• Why baby steps" are wobbly, courageous jumps - not tentative ones• Why 97% of expert-led brands sound like every other expert-led brand• The unsexy word-of-mouth strategy that built two full therapy practices• Why founders are trying to be influencers - and influencers are trying to be therapists • How to tell the difference between exporting an idea and exporting an experience If you're a founder, operator, creative, or builder, and you've been quietly carrying something you haven't named — this conversation is for you.Timestamps00:00:00 Trailer00:01:00 Why a therapist asked Chris to do somatic work — live, on his own podcast00:05:25 "Mental health is slow. Until it's sudden."00:07:30 Why founders crumble underneath the metrics nobody sees 00:10:30 The Resentment Metric - when your business is broken before the dashboardsays so00:13:30 Owning the chaos: "It's my fault" as a leadership skill00:18:00 The 3% origin story - born in a 12-step room00:21:00 Why being 97% honest is still 3% bound to shame00:22:30 The pivot - why a creative agency for therapists became a movement for men 00:25:00 Baby steps are wobbly courageous jumps — how 3% was built in 2.5 hours aweek00:29:30 The bigger vision — multiplication, not metrics00:34:30 Word of mouth as a 30-month strategy — coffee every week for eight months00:37:30 "You are the gift" — why most expert-led brands market themselves wrong00:42:00 The intensity tax — why being yourself can feel like a hangover00:46:00 Why 97% of expert websites lose their audience in the first sentence00:49:30 Brand therapy - the moment a founder cries in a brand audit00:53:00 Why Blake avoided social media for two years — and what cracked open lastweek00:58:30 "Why are therapists trying to be influencers?"01:02:00 The end of the niche-down era — why multidisciplinary is back01:04:30 Closing reflections — the weird medium of being seenGuestBlake and Jamie, co-hosts of The 3% Podcast and licensed clinical therapists in Tennessee. Both run full private practices, both came up through 12-step recovery, and both have spent the last decade building a framework for how vulnerable men can lead more honest businesses, families, and relationships.Get in TouchInstagram: www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrandWebsite: www.anatomyofabrand.coEmail: [email protected]

Subscribe and join our community for operators, marketers, and builders shaping the future. You can post every single day for a year.And still build an audience that will never buy from you. In episode 31 of Anatomy of a Brand, we sit down with Caleb Ralston, the filmmaker behind Gary Vaynerchuk's TikTok explosion from 300K to 3.5 million followers in three months, and the Director of Brand who architected Alex Hormozi's rise from 1.2M to 11.5M and built his media team from the ground up. Caleb has operated inside the rooms where the biggest content bets in the game were made, and now runs his own brand strategy operation. We unpack what actually drives trust at scale, why the wrong audience can kill your business faster than no audience, and what most creators miss about the real cost of chasing reach. This isn't a conversation about posting schedules or platform hacks. It's about patience, craft, and the discipline to say no to the things that look like growth but aren't. If you're a founder, brand strategist, or creator building something that lasts; this conversation is for you. Timestamps• 00:00:00 — The bamboo tree: why the best growth is always invisible first• 00:01:33 — Where Caleb's obsessive self-reflection actually comes from• 00:03:35 — Operate, reflect, iterate: the framework beneath everything he's built• 00:05:10 — Looking back at the 6-hour course: what he'd change• 00:08:29 — Why V11 is ego, not quality• 00:12:02 — Having a real point of view without being contrarian for clicks• 00:13:22 — The trap of optimizing for the widest audience possible• 00:14:02 — He pivoted to entertainment content. Subscribers exploded. Revenue died.• 00:16:09 — Chris shares his three-topic tension — Caleb gives real feedback• 00:17:24 — How to know which niche you can actually compete in right now• 00:19:14 — The reactive leader: what changed when Caleb had no buffer• 00:20:46 — Gary Vaynerchuk's real leadership approach — not what you see online• 00:22:59 — The check-in Gary does with his team every six months that most leaders skip• 00:24:39 — From Pure Wow to Team Gary: the decision that changed everything• 00:28:40 — Why turning down an opportunity was the most valuable move he made• 00:31:21 — Gary says 30 posts a day. Caleb disagreed. Here's why both are right.• 00:33:43 — "A truly powerful piece of content will market itself"• 00:37:08 — Can you afford to play the long game? The honest answer.• 00:39:14 — If you need cash right now, do not make content• 00:41:46 — Phil Jackson didn't optimize for championships. Here's what he actually built for.• 00:43:41 — Why zero case studies made his course go viral• 00:45:07 — The 36-month expectation: set it right or you will quit• 00:47:41 — What it actually means to be a great leader• 00:48:35 — The rage transference painting — and what work does to people• 00:52:34 — Inside Caleb's content system: scripting, shooting, and teaching simultaneously• 00:55:24 — The 6-hour course took 120 combined hours to write. It wasn't a prompt.• 00:57:02 — The three-question test every piece of content has to pass• 00:58:38 — "Talking head is dead" — who actually says that and why• 01:01:50 — The only thing that actually makes talking head work Guest

Caleb Ralston is a brand strategist and content producer who served as Gary Vaynerchuk's videographer and TikTok lead growing his audience from 300K to 3.5 million followers in three months and as Director of Brand for Alex Hormozi, scaling his reach from 1.2M to 11.5M and building his media team from scratch into a team of 18. He runs his own brand strategy operation and recently launched Ralston Select, a four-part content curriculum covering pre-production through platform strategy. Get in Touch

Instagram: www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrandWebsite: www.anatomyofabrand.coEmail: [email protected]