You wanna talk grit? In our latest episode of Brands in Action, Brett McCoy, CEO and founder of Huck Cycles, talks about how his career in the Army, client-side marketing, and agency strategy has prepared him to become the founder of a hybrid electric motorcycle startup. Their mission is to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. and maybe change the way you get to work.

Can you imagine having the guts to start a food company when you’re only 25? Ian Walker and a friend did just that to create Canada’s largest organic bulk foods distributor. And now they have an amazing brand called Hippie Snacks, a better-for-you, plant-based food that’s sold all over the place. In this BIA episode, Ian talks about how leading with their values has been a key ingredient in their success.

Leigh Day, CMO of Red Hat, joined the company over 20 years ago and has worked through many different roles on her way to the top. She talks about the company’s journey: From open source rebel-brand, dead set on bringing down the big players, to becoming the leader in the open source movement by making coopetition a superpower. Give it a listen.

Here’s part two of our interview with Melissa Katrincic, founder and CEO of Durham Distillery, known for producing one of the best gins anywhere. Don’t just take our word for it, their Conniption Gin’s win all the prizes everywhere they go. But building a world class Gin isn’t all Juniper and Coriander, it’s a tough business. Join us as Melissa talks about the rise of this great brand.

Today’s episode of Brands in Action is part one with our guest Melissa Katrincic from Durham Distillery. We hear how Melissa is building an empire from out of this little distillery in Durham, NC. She and her husband started from absolutely nothing and have built one of the finest gins in the world.

Kevin runs one of the biggest brands in advertising: Advertising. As CEO of the One Club for Creativity he manages a big swath of the Awards Industry itself. Kevin talks about how the One Club is much different from many other bigger awards shows because it’s a nonprofit and is driving education and diversity as much as the creative conversation. They’re making a huge difference in the industry. Lend it an ear.

One of the most powerful things about a brands purpose is how, when it’s well articulated, it can drive everything the company does. Marketing is only one aspect. On today’s episode Hannah Magnan from Bandwidth, tells how the ethos within the walls of the company informs everything they do, top to bottom and side to side. Give it a listen.

Jeremy Jones and his team are building a full service agency inside of Mailchimp, and they’re doing work any ad agency would love to have done. On this week’s episode, Jeremy talks about his career and how MailChimp uses their brand to drive everything they do.

Joey Manfre leads creative for Fender Musical Instruments, one of the coolest and most iconic brands in the world (OK, maybe one of the coolest brands in the history of brands). Joey talks about Fender turning the quarantine into an advantage, working with artists to take the brand into new places, and generally how Fender fits in popular culture.

If there’s a more courageous brand out there right now, we don’t know it. Liquid Death is succeeding by overturning all the category norms and driving not only customers but advocates. They do it by going to 100 on everything they do – if it’s them, they do it and they do it well. Andy Pearson, VP of Creative, tells us what they’re up to and how they look at what a brand is.