Everybody Brands

It's ridiculous to argue about what's more important, branding or marketing. It's important to understand the difference between branding and marketing so you know how they work together to attract, inspire, and engage customers and create raving fans. 

In this episode, Brian discusses the definition of brand and marketing, and shows you how your brand can align with the principles from Donald Miller's book, Business Made Simple.

• Read this podcast episode at Aespire.com
• (I recommend listening to Chris Do discuss the merits of both marketing and branding with Melinda Livsey and Fabian Geyrhalter).

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In this special episode of the Everybody Brands podcast, Cleveland businessman and National Director of WEC, Intl., John Murtha and Brian Sooy have a conversation about faith-driven business, entrepreneurship, and why everybody who works is essential.

This episode is different from most others on this podcast — you'll learn about Brian's background, his faith story, and his passion for helping entrepreneurs grow and experience the joy of their faith — whether they are the CEO or someone who pushes a broom.

John and Brian dig deep into why work matters, how you can integrate your faith at work, and if Brian's forthcoming book, Essential: Finding Worth in your Work During Uncertain Times, a 30-day devotional, is prophetic for times like these.

Enjoy a 5-day devotional sample when you subscribe to Essential: Finding Worth in your Work exclusively from Bible.com and the YouVersion app.

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In this episode of the Everybody Brands podcast, we have a conversation with Mind State Group founder Will Leach on how making fast emotional connections with people will help your brand win trust and resonate with people’s hearts and minds.

Will knows what it what it's like and how it feels to hold your breath every time you launch advertising, and how crushing it is when the campaign you worked on so hard just crashes and burns. With over 25 years of experience in corporate America, Will has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world and conducted hundreds of research studies. His best-selling book, Marketing to Mindstates generated six figures in just six months of launching, (which makes me jealous). Marketing to Mindstates is one of the leading resources on behavioral and science-based marketing today.

Connect with Will at

• Mindstate Group
• Will Leach on Twitter 
• Will Leach on LinkedIn

Connect with Brian Sooy from Aespire at

• Aespire.com
• on Marketing Made Simple
• Brian Sooy on LinkedIn
• Brian Sooy's books on Amazon

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Take two for the first international Everybody Brands episode with Eddie Biroun, a copywriter who happens to design. Eddie helps businesses attract more leads, create more customers and increase profits through brand building and sales messaging. 

Eddie has achieved results across 16 different markets, including financial insurance, real estate, automobile education, entertainment and fitness, and he's worked with brands like Sotheby's, Toyota, and Volvo. 

Eddie and host Brian Sooy are both passionate about brands and branding. We both approach brands and branding from similar and different directions, with a common mentor in one of the world's leading branding experts. 

Connect with Eddie on

• Instagram
• EddieBiroun.com

Mentioned in this episode:

• Marty Neumeier
• Raise Your Voice: A Cause Manifesto

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Purpose, mission, and vision statements can be confusing. It's rare to find two organizations that agree on common usage, definition and application of the words. It can be even more confusing to understand why each word is relevant, and how each component relates to one another. Some organizations tend to substitute their mission and vision for their purpose. If you want your audience to connect with your mission, you need to communicate with clarity about why, what, and how you are creating value and impact.

In this companion podcast the popular article, The Difference Between Purpose, Mission, and Vision, Brian Sooy unpacks the difference between purpose and mission, the difference between mission, and vision, and why impact is ultimately what matters.

A good mission statement and vision statement are best suited for internal organizational guidance. Purpose keeps you focused on why you exist, vision aligns you with your goal, and mission empowers how you will accomplish it. Done well, it will inspire and motivate you every day, and just might inspire your audience.

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Purpose lifts us at the end of the day beyond the tasks we have accomplished and the goals we have achieved to the belief that we have not just added value, but we've achieved something of significance in pursuit of something greater. 

This is perfect episode for anybody who's in a leadership position. 

It's perfect right now for organizations who are finding the need to adapt what they're doing and align new things in an economic crisis and during COVID-19 with their purpose. 

Get clarity for your purpose, vision, and marketing message at Aespire.com/storybrand

Connect with Brian Sooy on LinkedIn or Twitter

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In this episode of the Everybody Brands Podcast we have a conversation with Wes Gay about how we should define a brand and what a marketer or business owner focus on now, especially in uncertain times: branding or marketing. 

Wes Gay is the founder of Wayfinder and a StoryBrand Certified Guide & Copywriter. Wes’ experience as a former pastor gives him the empathy and credibility to help leaders create a clearer message for their companies using the StoryBrand Framework.

Wes worked in churches and nonprofits for 10 years, including running a thrift store.  Wes began his journey to entrepreneurship the way many of us do: He had been unemployed for about six months and couldn't get anywhere after coming out of a difficult kind of church experience. 

Little did he know three and a half years later being a copywriter and marketing consultant would become his real job. 

While Wes and Brian approach their work from different backgrounds, both guide companies integrate and implement the StoryBrand framework, a storytelling and marketing model that is proven to help any business or brand to create clear messaging and grow through consistent implementation.

Wes and Brian talk about how we should define a brand and the interplay between the disciplines of branding and marketing.

“How we talk about ourselves in the verbal version of branding is something that a lot of smaller and big businesses struggle to figure out. Most branding agencies only focus on the visual stuff. How are you going to talk about yourself in a way where people care, and people understand either the problem you solve or the solution you provide?”

Connect with Wes Gay at

• WesGay.com
• Wes Gay on LinkedIn

This episode is brought to you by Websites Made Simple.  Download a free ebook, 8 Things Every Website Needs to Engage Customers, to find out what simple changes you can make so your website helps you grow your business and make more money.

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David Lemley has had a creative and strategic hand in shaping some of the world’s most iconic brands including Starbucks, REI, Pampers, and Nintendo. As the Founder and Chief Strategist of Seattle-based Retail Voodoo, David is on a mission to help better-for-you brands win customer’s hearts, minds, and souls. He partners with marketers, investors, and founder-owners to unlock the power of their brand’s promise to engage consumers, spark innovation, identify opportunity, and drive exponential growth.

This episode is brought to you by Aespire Websites Made Simple, the visual website builder that helps you build a professional site that grows with your business.

David Lemley published his first book, Beloved and Dominant Brands: The Brand Ecosystem that Drives Better-for-you Brands from One of Many to Category Prominence, a highlight of the very first model David and Retail Voodoo uses in their brand strategy development process.

Some of the questions David and Brian discuss include:

• In an age where people care more about “what's in it for me,” are you finding that consumers are still really tied in with the “Why?”
• Based on industry and a culture perspective, how do you define branding?
• What are some of the myths that you encounter around branding?
• What do you tell someone who doesn't believe their brand is a valuable business asset?
• How can a business and brand do a better job of using story to keep promises?

As you listen, you’ll learn about a mutual colleague whom David counts as a major influence on his thinking and interviews in Beloved and Dominant Brands.

Find David Lemley and his work at:

• Retail-voodoo.com
• Buy Beloved and Dominant Brands: The Brand Ecosystem that Drives Better-for-you Brands from One of Many to Category Prominence on Amazon.

Find podcast host Brian Sooy at Aespire Branding and Marketing, LinkedIn, and Amazon.

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“Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing people.” — Peter Drucker

It’s no wonder business leaders struggle with marketing. Spend any amount of time listening to podcasts and ”experts” and you‘ll hear conflicting advice, confusing jargon, and a jumble of terms that make you wonder why you bother to try marketing at all.

IN this conversation with Dennis Hahn, we'll explore branding, experience, why shared values are key to building a tribe, and more — including the difference between branding and marketing, and why they matter,

As chief strategy officer at Liquid, Dennis is responsible for the methodologies that Liquid uses to address the strategic challenges of our clients. Dennis leads teams of strategists across all of Liquid’s offices, providing expertise, mentoring and consulting on a wide range of significant strategic branding initiatives for clients that include John Deere, HP, Microsoft, Motorola, Nasdaq, PayPal and Walmart.

Dennis’ background and training as a designer gives him a design thinking perspective that gives him the insight and expertise to help organizations enculturate their brands with their employees and customers. Working with the leadership teams of companies like Microsoft, Intel, Symantec, SAIF and Mercy, Dennis has provided his expertise to create alignment and commitment to organization-wide brand culture programs.

Find Dennis Hahn at Liquid Agency , LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Get in touch with host Brian Sooy, brand strategist and president at Aespire, and StoryBrand Certified Marketing Guide.

Music in this episode is the track, Wrong, by Dan Henig on Youtube Audio.

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If you’re a board member or nonprofit leader, this two-part episode of Everybody Brands is one to which you need to listen, to understand why your digital strategy needs to be part of your entire organizational structure.

All businesses need to be managing their digital resources, but It's like a “spaghetti of things.”

What many leaders neglect is that just like if you have a campus of buildings, somebody has to manage that campus. You probably already have an ecosystem of digital tools that you're using and somebody needs to be keeping an eye on those resources.

It is a critical function to get the most out of those resources and ensure that they’re used properly to strengthen and connect the entire organization.

Get more insights for strategy and thriving organizations at Aespire.com

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