Abbey McGrew is the founder and creative director of Wayfarer Design Studio, where she helps thoughtful e-commerce founders to bring their brands to life through visual identity, packaging, and web design. We discussed all of this and more this week on the show.

About Abbey McGrew

Abbey McGrew is the founder and creative director of Wayfarer Design Studio. Known for her heart-led approach to design, Abbey helps thoughtful e-commerce founders to bring their brands to life through visual identity, packaging, and web design. She believes that great branding is more than skin deep and always finds a way to weave deeper meaning into every last detail of her work.

Episode Highlights

What's in a name? “The name Wayfarer carries personal significance for both me and my clients,” Abbey shared. “To me, it symbolizes a passion for exploring the world with my husband, which inspired me to establish the company in 2016. To my clients, it speaks to the experience of embarking on a journey without clear direction, as is often the case when starting a business.”

Connecting design to brand story. “Through our design work, we aim to help our clients find clarity and envision their future, serving as guides on their entrepreneurial journey,” says Abbey.

What brand has made Abbey smile recently? Having recently returned to the U.S., Abbey has been buying a lot of American products. One that stood out recently was Billie Razors. She tells the story behind the smile during the show.

To learn more, check out the Wayfarer Design Studio website and connect on Instagram.

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Chantal Cornelius has spent the last two decades helping hundreds of coaches, consultants, and speakers grow their businesses and achieve their goals by making strong emotional connections with their clients. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast.

About Chantal Cornelius

Since founding Appletree Marketing in 2000, Chantal Cornelius has spent the last two decades helping hundreds of coaches, consultants, and speakers grow their businesses and achieve their goals by making strong emotional connections with their clients. Chantal knows that the key to standing out from competitors is to build strong, long-lasting relationships. Her mission is to help business owners realize that the path to success doesn’t involve churning out endless social content. In her writing and speaking, Chantal introduces business owners to the different Stand Out Strategies that they can use to make the best emotional connection with their clients. She explains how to utilize them, in order to stand out from their competitors, by incorporating more emotion and empathy into their work.

Episode Highlights

Threads? What do we do?!? This is a question marketers have been asking with the latest shiny new thing. “Think strategy before tactics,” Chantal cautions.

Where do we start? “Listen to your clients.” Again, with so many distractions today, it can be hard to remember this simple yet effective advice that Chantal doubled down on.

How can marketers build an emotional connection? “My research over the past few years has yielded five emotional strategies driving brands.” They are:

What brand has made Chantal smile recently? “I love Škoda, the car manufacturer,” Chantal shared. She loves the brand both for its funky colors and the amazing services she receives from Sam at her dealership!

To learn more, go to ChantalCornelius.com and connect with her on LinkedIn.

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Dan Zavorotny is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Nutrisense, a metabolic health company that helps anyone discover and reach their health potential. This standout brand in the health and wearable spaces helps people own their health. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast.

About Dan Zavorotny

Dan Zavorotny is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Nutrisense, a metabolic health company that helps anyone discover and reach their health potential. Under Dan’s leadership, Nutrisense has become one of the fastest-growing startups in America. He has led the company through rapid growth, building a team of 170 employees in just over three years, and raising 32 million. Prior to co-founding Nutrisense, Dan worked as a Healthcare Management Consultant at KPMG where he advised Fortune 500 clients and three of the top five hospitals in the US. Dan is passionate about travel, having visited over 100 countries before the age of 30.

Episode Highlights

“One-third of the United States is pre-diabetic,” Dan shared this staggering fact as we began our conversation.

“Our goal is to inspire people to take ownership of their health,” Dan said of Nutrisense. Why glucose? “Glucose is a good proxy for a lot of things,” including blood, stress, and more.

A wearable brand. Nutrisense monitors stand out in a way that evokes those first white iPod earbuds. “Our own customers become our brand ambassadors. They serve as conversation starters.”

What brand has made Dan smile recently? Dan shared his love of a Brazilian brand called iFood. “It’s like a combination of Uber they deliver anything—food, pharmaceuticals, something from your friend’s house.”

To learn more, connect with Dan on LinkedIn and check out Nutrisense.io.

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Donna Griffit is a world-renowned Corporate Storyteller, pitch alchemist, and author of the bestseller Sticking to My Story. Based on 20 years of helping startups, her book and her work help founders and startups who find themselves stuck in telling their stories. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast.

About Donna Griffit

Donna Griffit, author of Sticking to My Story: The Alchemy Of Storytelling For Startups, is a world-renowned Corporate Storyteller and Pitch Alchemist. She has helped over 1000 startups, corporates and investors raise over one billion dollars and accelerate their sales with a personal touch and unmatched messaging savvy, in any industry, at any phase.

Episode Highlights

Wait—what is a “pitch alchemist”? I had to ask. “Taking one element and transforming it” as part of a larger brand story, Donna shared.

What inspired Donna to write Sticking to My Story? “It was a book 20 years in the making. It’s what I’ve learned along the way. Stories stick. It’s that simple.”

How gender dynamics play a role in personal branding and storytelling. “Women struggle when it comes to tooting their own horn as they’re seen as too assertive,” Donna notes. “But you have to toot your own horn.” The secret: “Back up the ‘toot’ with a fact.”

What brand has made Donna smile recently? Donna shared a story on the occasion of Microsoft's 8th year anniversary of acquiring LinkedIn, which tied back to our earlier conversation when Donna noted that you should use your LinkedIn summary to tell a story.

To learn more, please visit DonnaGriffit.com.

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Marcus Collins is head of strategy at Wieden+Kennedy New York and author of the new book For the Culture. In addition to his work as an award-winning marketer and cultural translator, he also teaches marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast.

About Marcus Collins

Dr. Marcus Collins is an award-winning marketer and cultural translator. He currently serves as the head of strategy at Wieden+Kennedy New York and as a clinical assistant professor of marketing at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. Prior to his advertising tenure, Marcus worked on iTunes + Nike sport music initiatives at Apple and ran digital strategy for Beyoncé. Marcus holds a doctorate in marketing from Temple University, where he studied social contagion and meaning-making. He received an MBA with an emphasis on strategic brand marketing from the University of Michigan, where he also earned his undergraduate degree in Material Science Engineering.

Episode Highlights

What does a cultural translator do for brands? “My role is to translate the culture of a part of a group of people to a brand.” This draws on Marcus’s background as an engineer looking to build bridges of trust between culture and brands.

“Trust is a mechanism that absorbs uncertainty.” This starts with answering questions about how a brand sees the world and the kinetics of how a brand moves through the world. As Marcus notes, “You gotta walk it like you talk it.”

For the Culture is for the people. “It's not a marketing book. It's a people book,” Marcus shared as he explained the need for his new book. “You ask about culture and you’re going to get 35 different answers. We need better language.”

Speaking of definitions and language ... I love Marcus’s definition of a brand. “A brand is a vessel of meaning. And that meaning is not fixed.”

What brand has made Marcus smile recently? “It might be a bit of a chat as it's a client but I didn't work on it.” Marcus shared his love of the nostalgia evoked by McDonald's in their recent campaign celebrating Grimace’s birthday. Still no word yet on what Grimace is exactly ...

To learn more, look for Marcus on all of the socials at “Marc to the C.” Here he is on LinkedIn and Instagram.

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Annette Simmons is the author of several books including The Story Factor and Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins. Having read a lot of books about story, I can say that Annette is a leader in this area. That's why I was excited to chat with her about her work this week on the On Brand podcast.

About Annette Simmons

Annette Simmons is a vibrant keynote speaker, consultant, and author of four books: The Story Factor named one of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins, A Safe Place for Dangerous Truth (AMACOM, 1998), and Territorial Games: Understanding and Ending Turf Wars at Work.

Annette started with a business degree from Louisiana State University in 1983, spent ten years in Australia in international business, attained an M.Ed. from NC State in 1994, and started Group Process Consulting in 1996. Annette is surprisingly honest, ferrets out hidden opportunities, joyfully takes risks, and tells a good story.

Episode Highlights

A shared story. I began by sharing with Annette that we both have backgrounds in advertising. How did we both get into the business of story? “Advertising is the business of story,” Annette added. “If you like to entertain and influence you end up in advertising and you end up telling stories.”

But that only works for so long. “Advertising felt empty after a while. The work of the team became more interesting to me. It's the story that everyone tells themselves that drives the behaviors of the group.”

The practice of storytelling. I asked Annette about her two books on story — The Story Factor and Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins — and how they fit together. “I'm a practitioner. I only write about what I've tried and what works with groups.”

What brand has made Annette smile recently? “I love gardening,” Annette shared. “The nursery just outside of town—they are just magic.”

To learn more, check out Annette's website, and feel free to reach out via email (which she shared during the podcast).

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Joe Pulizzi is the godfather of content marketing, having first mentioned the term in 2001. A serial entrepreneur, he's the founder of Content Marketing Institute and Content Marketing World as well as The Tilt and the Creator Economy Expo. We discussed as much of Joe's work as we could fit into a half-hour episode this week on the On Brand Podcast. 

About Joe Pulizzi

Joe Pulizzi is the founder of multiple startups including content creator education site, The Tilt, the content entrepreneur event Creator Economy Expo (CEX), and is the bestselling author of seven books including Content Inc. and Epic Content Marketing, which was named a “Must-Read Business Book” by Fortune Magazine.

Joe is best known for his work in content marketing, first using the term in 2001, then launching Content Marketing Institute and the Content Marketing World event. In 2014, he received the "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Content Council. He successfully exited CMI in 2016 and consequently wrote an award-winning mystery novel, The Will to Die. He has two weekly podcasts, the motivational Content Inc. podcast, and the content news and analysis show This Old Marketing with Robert Rose.

His foundation, The Orange Effect, delivers speech therapy and technology services to over 350 children in 35 states. Joe and his family live in Cleveland, Ohio.

Episode Highlights

Events are back! Kind of ... "I'm a connoisseur of events," Joe began. We discussed how events are back but not completely. "Full travel budgets are not there yet. People have kind of forgotten about events." But they shouldn't ...

Creating super fans. "A content marketing organization is set up like a media company—you need two things. You need an amazing online presence and an in-person event. Look at Salesforce and Hubspot. Look at Adobe. Look at Red Bull! They all have in-person events. When people connect at your events you create super fans for your brand."

What did Joe learn from writing a mystery novel? After selling CMI, Joe took a sabbatical and ultimately tackled an exciting new challenge—writing the mystery novel The Will to Die. What did it teach Joe? "First, everything needs to be entertaining—even B2B. Second, it's okay to play your hits." As marketers, we often think that once a blog post is written on a certain topic it's time to put it away. However, like a rock musician on tour, we need to remember to revisit our hits.

What brand has made Joe smile recently? "That one's easy—The Savannah Bananas. I love everything they do—it all makes me smile."

To learn more, go to joepulizzi.com, TheTilt.com, and CEX.events.

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Tristen Norman is Head of Creative Insights at Getty Images. Using both sides of her brain, she and her team help brands of all shapes and sizes bring their work to life in an increasingly visual world. We discussed what this looks like this week on the On Brand podcast.

About Tristen Norman

Tristen Norman is the Head of Creative Insights, Americas at Getty Images. She operates as one-part visual anthropologist and two-parts data scientist – working across disciplines to understand what motivates visual selection, identify trends within visual language, and using this data to help shape the development of Getty’s creative content globally. Leveraging consumer research, and social and cultural listening and pairing it with proprietary data, Tristen hones in on the valuable insights that feed the development of Getty Images own creative collections.

A passionate advocate for elevating marginalized voices within creative spaces, Tristen also plays a critical role in supporting and advancing initiatives and partnerships with the aim of championing diverse visual narratives at Getty Images and beyond.

Tristen’s experience stems from over nine years of experience in creative design, market research, and brand strategy. Prior to joining Getty Images, Tristen was most recently a Senior Experience Strategist at Wunderman, where she was responsible for developing creative, data-driven omnichannel creative brand strategies for clients across a variety of industries.

Tristen earned her Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from Temple.

Episode Highlights

What does it mean to be "one-part visual anthropologist and two-parts data scientist"? "I think about visual storytelling all day," Tristen notes. What's going to drive action and move the needle for people?"

"At Getty, we see ourselves as a content company in an increasingly visual world." Tristen shared several fascinating findings from Getty's new Visual GPS study.

"Visuals are the centerpiece of storytelling," Tristen explained. "It's about being moved. That's what great brands do."

What brand has made Tristen smile recently? "Tinder's latest campaign—it starts with a swipe." Tristen loves this campaign, especially its bold use of color.

To learn more, connect with Tristen on LinkedIn and see her team's work at creativeinisghts.gettyimages.com.

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Rob Levinson is a corporate brand strategist and personal brand coach. A Madison Avenue veteran, dot-com survivor, and former Marketing Strategies columnist for the Wall Street Journal online, Rob shared how all of his experiences have shaped how he builds brands this week on the On Brand podcast.

About Rob Levinson

Rob is a corporate brand strategist and personal brand coach who helps leading brands, and those who run them, get noticed, remembered, and results. As the founder of Leverage Advisors, Rob creates comprehensive Brand Blueprints for clients seeking the strategic direction and tools required to inform and guide the development, or reimagining of their brand. As the founder of Brand You Better, Rob helps individuals from recent graduates to C-Suite executives gain the confidence to tell their best, and most impactful, personal brand narrative.

Episode Highlights

Rob always starts personal branding work with a definition. "I love the Jeff Bezos definition—your brand is what other people say when you're not in the room." That said, this takes a degree of self-understanding and assessment. Rob shared an exercise that makes this a little easier.

What does a personal brand blueprint look like? Whether corporate or personal, a brand is more than just a logo. But what are the key deliverables for a personal brand? We always provide someone with an overarching brand story along with a LinkedIn and resume reboot."

"It's a matter of intention, it's a matter of purpose." As Rob shared, personal branding starts and ends with purpose.

What brand has made Rob smile recently? "There are all kinds of different smiles," Rob began coyly as he shared that the brand that's made him smile most recently is the Royal Family as King Charles steps into a new role in building his own personal brand.

To learn more, check out Rob's website on personal branding brandyoubetter.com. For his corporate branding work, go to letsleverage.com.

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Steve Rawling is the creator of the innovative cards decks—Workshop Tactics and Storyteller Tactics. These popular tools help organizations like Apple and Facebook generate creative ideas and, most importantly, put them into action. As a user of the decks, I couldn’t wait to chat with Steve this week on the On Brand podcast. 

About Steve Rawling

Steve Rawling is a former BBC TV journalist, turned international author and consultant on business storytelling. He's told over 20,000 stories in his career, so he can probably help you tell yours. Steve's latest venture—a deck of cards called Storyteller Tactics—smashed its target when it went live on Kickstarter, raising $100k in a few weeks. It has now sold over 60,000 copies to people in companies like Apple, Facebook, and IBM.

Episode Highlights

Cards vs. books. Steve and I are both lovers of books—especially books on workshops and storytelling. However, it can be hard to put the ideas inside these great books into action. “It’s hard to think on paper.” This provided the creative spark Steve needed to create card decks for Workshop Tactics and Storyteller Tactics.

Putting story to work. “Story is everywhere,” Steve noted. As a former BBC journalist, he reminded us that there are always at least “two sides to every story.” Steve shared his favorite story “recipe” from the Storyteller Tactics deck—with a reminder that these are “more of a buffet” than recipes.

What brand has made Steve smile recently? Recorded the week before Easter, Steve shared a smile from UK grocer Tesco with a fun headline for hot cross buns—All buns glazing! This had Steve reminding us that …

“Humor is a powerful tool for brand communication.” It’s certainly high risk but with the proper investment of brain power, it can be high reward as well.

To learn more, connect with Steve on LinkedIn or go to PipDecks.com.

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