Hitting The Mark

Max Johnson built a tremendously impactful business over the course of the last 4 years through simple necklaces that celebrate female goddesses and leaders. The brand, Awe Inspired, was born out of Max's mother’s desire to empower fellow cancer survivors. From the journey of blindly walking into brand agencies on Madison Avenue to learning how personalization and shared values are key to the future success of their jewelry brand, Awe Inspired is exactly that: Inspiring.

If you were wondering if taking a political stance is the right move for your brand, or how to navigate picking up the phone to call your customers to have them help you in creating the next iteration of your offering, to thinking of your brand as an actor, this episode is full of awe-inspiring – yes, I had to go there - nuggets of brand and marketing wisdom.

And, who knows, you may even be moved to tears when you hear the brand story.

You must have been on a social media diet to not have stumbled upon TRUFF’s masterfully designed array of truffle-infused sauces. But TRUFF is not solely a social media sensation, you can find the brand anywhere from Whole Foods to Neiman Marcus, and from the U.S. to Australia.

The two Co-Founders, Nick Ajluni and Nick Guillen, have a knack for brand building and now that I have tried their products, which of course in true TRUFF fashion they immediately shipped my way after recording the interview, I can attest that this is not just hot marketing; it is one unbelievably addictive, tasty, and unique product.

I am thrilled to have had them on the show to share their branding and marketing secrets with you. We had tons of fun during this interview and it is an episode I would want no one to miss out on. 

Eddie Hartman created LegalZoom 20 years ago with two friends and built it into the best-known legal brand in the United States. LegalZoom has over 4 million customers and more than half of all Americans know the brand.

I have been a customer for a mighty long time and having this chat with Eddie was just incredibly stimulating and rewarding. We talk about how celebrity lawyer Robert Shapiro became the face of the company, we discuss the impact of assurance and how ‘brand’ is the future promise about something you can not guarantee today, how the word ‘zoom’ used to stand for LegalZoom before the pandemic hit, and Eddie shares tons of actionable brand advice for any entrepreneur, CEO and CMO alike. 

In the last episode we were in Iceland, today we are in Australia, and finally, we have a B2B brand on the show again: A tech brand that is in the business of converting, retaining, and growing your customers with delightful personal video messages sent at just the right moment.

But Bonjoro is not your typical tech company – it has brand and culture at its heart. It is about creating customer love, and it is a weird brand, a fun brand, a brand that is not afraid to stand out, most probably more afraid to blend in.

Matt and I talk about the importance of branding for B2B companies, about brand copy, about creating funnels for a brand that has multiple audiences with multiple pain points, and of course, we talk about the importance of bears to Bonjoro hence Matt's unusual title.

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Björn Steinar Jónsson runs Saltverk, which produces hand-harvested sustainable sea salt using only energy from geothermal hot springs in the northwestern fjords of Iceland. Saltverk's salt-making method is based on the traditional methods of the 17th-century, which means that during the entire process they leave zero carbon footprint.

The salt is used in many of the world's best restaurants (great story about Noma in the interview) and it was time to sit down and talk about the concept of 'brand' with Björn, whose product I have been enjoying for a little while now.

It was a great pleasure and I hope you will enjoy Björn’s story of harvesting salt, his empathetic viewpoints on sustainability, trust, and brand purpose which should be inspirational for any brand builder, marketer, and foodie alike.

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Interior designer Nicole Gibbons set out to 'take the pain out of paint' through her brand Clare where she has pioneered an easier, faster, and more inspiring way to shop for paint.

Fast Company proclaimed “The Warby Parker of paint is here” and Nicole has just been named one of Inc’s 100 Women Building America's Most Innovative and Ambitious Businesses.

In a fascinating conversation, we dive into sustainability, physical retail experiences versus D2C, Clare’s unique brand language, and of course, the meaning behind the brand’s name, which could have easily been Nicole, but ended up being Clare. And you will get to know the very misleading and dangerous side of the paint industry.

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Shivam Punjya is the founder of the luxury handbag label behno which is designed in NYC but made in India. behno operates at the intersection of ethical thinking and luxury design, a space I have always been very interested in.

Further, behno’s mission is to redefine and bring awareness to the character of “Made in India”, and to set a new standard for Indian factory manufacturing that improves the quality of life and safety of women in the garment trade.

Shivam and I talk about how to move from exploiting cheap labor to creating a nurturing environment and community, how the company’s name encompasses the DNA of the brand even after pivots, the innovative way in which behno reacted to Blackout Tuesday last year, and much much more.

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Emmanuelle Magnan is the Founder of the Parisian flower studio Pampa.

Those of you listening to the show frequently know that I love to talk with founders of internationally known brands like Rotten Tomatoes and Evernote just as much as with smaller brands that are unknown to many of you, but that I feel are doing something unique in their space or with their brand.

Pampa is doing both as they disrupt the traditional flower business with a splash of color. Once you see their brand and their bouquets, you can not unsee them. That’s what happened to me as I scrolled through my Instagram feed and I stumbled upon the brand and sure enough, here we are today chatting with Emanuelle about how to stand out in a crowded space, how to navigate sustainability, and why branding is all about creating self-identification.

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Brad Manning is one of the Co-Founders, or Co-Brothers as he puts it, of Two Blind Brothers, a mission-based company whose name is telling at least one important part of this brand’s story.

Two Blind Brothers is a NYC-based clothing line that focuses on luxury casual wear. Both founders are affected with a form of macular degeneration and pledge 100% of their profits to medical research to cure blindness. And their brand campaigns and stories are heartfelt and master examples of whip-smart marketing.

In this wonderfully inspiring conversation, we talk about what happens when mission-based brands pivot once their vision is fulfilled, how brands with a deep purpose have an easier time expanding across different product categories, how their ‘shop blind’ strategy is working miracles, how underproduced brand materials often outperform polished ones and above all, if you want to get a master class in authentic brand storytelling, this is it.

And as you know me, we also go a bit off-topic as I was wondering how a great keynote speaker like Brad works a big speech without being able to rely on a confidence monitor. The lesson: Despite being partially blind he has an advantage over those with perfect vision. And that is a key takeaway for those of you living with an impairment. You can follow Brad’s lead and turn that impairment into your superpower.

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Patrick Lee was Co-Founder and founding CEO of Rotten Tomatoes, the movie rating system we all came to know so well and that I always saw as a kind of anti-brand.

To kick off 2021, we are talking about how Patrick transitioned from running a design firm, like so many of my listeners, to running Rotten Tomatoes 23 years ago. Needless to say, the brand is still going strong and we discuss how the name and the famous Tomatometer with its counter-intuitive colors came about, how focus is key to brand success, but we also go back to his design agency days where Patrick shares an inspiring story on how the small agency won Disney as a client without having any related work in their portfolio.

A well-rounded conversation to ease into 2021, which I hope will get a Certified Fresh status too. Oh, I know, only you Rotten Tomatoes fans will get that one.

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