Ray Mendez, Partner at Masa&Boz, joins A.J. in this episode to discuss how to make your brand come alive as an entrepreneur with innovative ideas. 

They dig into several topics, including how to utilize branding and marketing methods to bridge the gap between your business and its customers, why working with agencies can be limiting, the vital link between technology and creativity, and the three areas every business needs to focus on. 

Tune in to learn first-hand about building effective brand strategies for the sustainable growth of your business.

About our guest:

Ray Mendez is the Partner at Masa&Boz, a transformation-innovation consultancy that helps turn your business idea into reality. He's a genius at brand prototyping, workshop design, brand strategy, product design, and communication strategies and helps integrate and transform brands across four continents.

On today’s episode:

• Meet Ray Mendez, our guest and Partner at Masa&Boz- 00:40
• Ray gives a brief overview of his journey in life and how he got into entrepreneurship - 03:22
• Ray explains the exciting backstory behind coining the name “Masa&Boz” - 06:52
• What are the two things to keep in mind for deep branding and marketing? - 8:50
• Why the ego of the branding and marketing industry should not exist and how they should instead move forward - 09:00
• How do Ray’s business tools help the producer (the business) and the user interact more seamlessly? - 10:26
• What is the traditional concept of an agency? - 11:26
• Ray explains the vision behind his agency and his thoughts on life going forward - 14:04
• What is a legacy business? - 21:06
• How does the transition from a B2B to a B2C business model look like? - 22:50
• The three significant focus areas of any CEO and why they are essential - 31:30
• How does Ray define his success? Why is it not focused on material goals? - 37:41
• Ray talks about his experience working on the rebranding of the Empire State Building - 41:35

Key Takeaways:

• Business sustainability involves keeping your business running through all ups and downs.
• Working with a traditional agency could mean you’re handing over your power to another body.
• Traditional agencies add more services to their clients’ billable even if it adds no extra value to the latter’s time.
• A legacy business is a type of business that has evolved over a long time. It involves coming up with a physical product.
• The three focus areas of Masa&Boz include its vision, culture, and revenue.
• Shifting from a B2B to a B2C model involves a lot of planning and careful thought because you need to head to a completely different culture and operations.
• Marketing isn’t merely about selling a product or service; it’s also about keeping your customer in the loop and understanding and improving their product cyclically.

Is there a right way to approach marketing?

[43:27] - “The kind of approach we like to take marketing - it shouldn't just be about selling, it should be about understanding the customer and improving your product, and then selling and understanding your customer and improving a product.”

How important do you think branding is for your business? Tell us on Facebook or any social media platform of your choice (and don’t forget to say hello if you would like to share your story with us)!

Connect with Ray Mendez:

• LinkedIn: @Ray Mendez
• Website: https://www.masaboz.com/about
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/masaboz

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