Coke Zero used to be easy to spot: red can, black text. Coca-Cola's new one-brand packaging system takes that away, and the problem isn't aesthetic — it's navigational.

Borzou is a brand-unity guy on the record. Cohesiveness, one system, one direction — he wants all of it. But packaging isn't a mood board. Its first job is helping someone in a grocery aisle grab the right can in under a second, and Coca-Cola spent a decade training everyone that black text means Zero. Now the only reliable difference is small type in the bottom corner.

Amanda's verdict: they should sue themselves for trademark infringement, because this is confusing.

There's history worth knowing here. Coke Zero exists because Diet Coke tastes chemically, and it was originally meant to replace Diet Coke — Americans just liked Diet Coke too much to let it go. Go to Europe and it's essentially all Coke Zero. That three-way split gave Coca-Cola a color system that worked: gray for Diet, white text for regular, black text for Zero. The new system flattens it.

Then the episode goes fully off the rails, in the best way.

THEY COVER:

• Why packaging is navigation first and identity second
• The difference between consistency and sameness, and why only one is a strategy
• Coke Zero's origin story, and why Diet Coke survived in the US but not Europe
• What it costs to un-teach a visual cue you spent years teaching
• Whether a small wordmark in the corner can carry the whole distinction (it can't)
• Borzou's theory that elevators without buttons say something about the institution
• Amanda's safety drink, an aspartame confession, and a warning to Diet Coke loyalists

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Did Coke Make Coke Zero Look Too Much Like Coke? 00:14 The Color System Coke Spent a Decade Teaching Us 00:45 Why Coke Zero Exists, and Why Europe Dropped Diet 01:16 Packaging Is Navigation, Not a Mood Board 01:37 They Should Sue Themselves for Trademark Infringement 02:01 Consistency Turning Into Sameness 02:38 Fine Print, Sugar, and Which One's Actually Worse 03:18 The Elevator Button Theory 04:01 Amanda's Safety Drink 05:42 A Warning to Diet Coke Loyalists 06:26 Where Do You Land?

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? Let us know — are the cans distinct enough, or are you squinting at fine print in the grocery aisle?

CONNECT WITH US:

Borzou on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bronxzou/
Borzou on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/borzou/
Amanda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akfischer/
Show page: https://www.nickelbronx.com/where-brands-get-their-edge

This episode is brought to you by NickelBronx.

Thanks for tuning in to Where Brands Get Their Edge, brought to you by NickelBronx. If you enjoyed today's episode, follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review — it helps other brand builders like you discover the show.

Want more insights? Visit https://www.nickelbronx.com/ for brand strategy tips and tools to help your business stand out.

Instagram changed its wordmark, and the loudest complaint isn't that it's ugly — it's that it doesn't look like it says Instagram.

Borzou and Amanda judge the new mark on aesthetic and strategy separately, and land in a place neither of them expected: it's a wash. Not bad. Not great. Which, for a logo, might be the most damning verdict of all.

The more interesting problem is the one underneath it. Instagram stopped being a photo app years ago. When the old camera icon became the gradient in 2016, the script never changed with it — so the wordmark and the icon spent a decade not matching. The new mark is an attempt to finally reconcile them, and it almost gets there.

They cover:

• Why a logo that "reads like a different word" is a real problem, not a nitpick
• The mismatched-letterforms issue — when custom type stops feeling like one typeface
• Judging aesthetic vs. judging strategy, and why the answers can disagree
• The 2016 icon change that created a decade-long mismatch
• Ownability: was the old script actually less ownable? (Probably not)
• When you're big enough that legibility stops mattering — and whether that's a license or a trap
• The rebrand nobody asked for, and the case for leaving a working mark alone
• Why NickelBronx had to abandon its own X icon after Twitter's rebrand — and why fighting it wasn't economically realistic

Should we redesign it ourselves? Comment and tag us — if enough of you want it, it moves up the list.

Connect with us

• Borzou: @bronxzou · LinkedIn
• Amanda: LinkedIn
• Show page: nickelbronx.com/where-brands-get-their-edge

This episode is brought to you by NickelBronx.

Thanks for tuning in to Where Brands Get Their Edge, brought to you by NickelBronx.

If you enjoyed today's episode, follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review — it helps other brand builders like you discover the show.

Want more insights? Visit nickelbronx.com for brand strategy tips and tools to help your business stand out.

Everything you've seen about interventions on TV — the circle of chairs, the letters, the ultimatums — mostly doesn't work.

Borzou and Amanda sit down with Chelsea Brigham and Jennifer Tarzia of Doyen Consulting, who work with families navigating addiction and mental health crises. Their take: addiction doesn't happen in a vacuum — it operates on the entire family system, and treating only the person with the problem misses the point.

Topics Covered

• Why "they entered treatment" is the wrong definition of a successful intervention
• Compliance vs. internal motivation — and why forced treatment rarely sticks
• How families slowly normalize the problem ("I don't even know how we got here")
• Boundaries as internal limits, not external rules — and why you should never set one you can't hold
• The workplace version: managing a talented employee with a substance problem
• What people at their most vulnerable teach you about marketing: connection and the shared human condition
• Entry points to help — for the person struggling and the family watching it happen

Guests

Chelsea Brigham, Director of Operations, and Jennifer Tarzia, Founder — Doyen Consulting
Website: doyencg.com
Instagram: @DoyenCG
Facebook: Doyen Consulting
Chelsea on LinkedIn: /in/chelsea-brigham425
 
Doyen - Family Support Group (message Doyen for future dates - we have the next three at time of posting): 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83802346445?pwd=1cf8CJfRuFOO1VOASjCohXrKZ5C9rp.1

Meeting ID: 838 0234 6445
Passcode: 217346

Monday, 4pm PST/7pm EST August 24th, September 21st Wednesday, 9 am PST/12pm EST September 2nd

Connect with Us

Borzou: @bronxzou
Amanda: LinkedIn
Show page: nickelbronx.com/where-brands-get-their-edge

This episode is brought to you by NickelBronx.

Thanks for tuning in to Where Brands Get Their Edge, brought to you by NickelBronx. If you enjoyed today's episode, follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review — it helps other brand builders like you discover the show. Want more insights? Visit nickelbronx.com for brand strategy tips and tools to help your business stand out.

The bar for building your personal brand? One founder got started by posting about eating a bagel.

Haley Bryant, partner at Hustle Fund, joins Borzou and Amanda to break down how a pre-seed fund writes $150,000 checks into "hilariously early" startups — sometimes investing in the person before there's even a product — and why founders who build in public raise faster, hire better, and carry their audience with them wherever they go.

They get into why lengthy diligence at pre-seed is a fool's errand (Haley aims for yes within a week), when brand actually matters at the napkin stage, and how the agentic economy is rewriting what's investable.

Topics covered:

• Hustle Fund's thesis: hustle = great execution meets high velocity
• Why non-consensus check-writing beats investment committees
• When brand is make-or-break at pre-seed (consumer and crowded categories)
• How Rork went from sleeping on floors to a $2.5M round led by A16Z — off a tweet
• The "1,000 coffees at once" case for personal branding
• Why consistent posting is proof to investors that you can execute
• The Hustle Commons rebrand and building a media-first fund
• How to market when AI agents are doing the buying

Connect with Haley:
Instagram: @haleymbryant
LinkedIn: /in/haleymbryant
Hustle Fund: hustlefund.vc

Connect with us:
Borzou – Instagram | LinkedIn
Amanda – LinkedIn

This episode is brought to you by NickelBronx — brand strategy, websites, and content for companies that want a real edge. nickelbronx.com

Thanks for tuning in to Where Brands Get Their Edge. If you enjoyed today's episode, follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review — it helps other brand builders like you discover the show. Want more insights? Visit nickelbronx.com

Most founders don't actually own a business. They own a job that pays them better.

In this episode, Borzou and Amanda sit down with **Jordan Solender** — operator across IT services, event and concert production, video, telemarketing, and a Maryland DJ company — who's known for one thing in particular: getting himself out of every business he touches in **6 to 9 months**.

Jordan walks through the exact playbook: the **week-off stress test** that exposes what's broken, why intake and handoffs are the first place to automate, how his DJ company's post-sale flow uses AI-generated welcome videos and 48-hour DJ intros, and why **founders don't micromanage because they love control — they do it because it makes them feel useful**.

If you're stuck being the help desk for your own team, this one's the kick in the ass.

### Topics Covered

- What "getting out of the business" actually means
- Why every business hits the same walls (and yours isn't a snowflake)
- How AI killed the excuse for not automating
- The post-sale automation flow at Maryland's DJ Family
- The week-off stress test — when to do it, when to do it again
- Building an SOP library (and why Use Whale won out)
- How granular an SOP should actually be
- Process problem vs. people problem — using personality data in hiring
- Founder ego and why micromanaging feels useful
- Cutting Slack out of your life and training your team to bring solutions, not problems

This episode is brought to you by **NickelBronx**.

Connect with us
Borzou – 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bronxzou/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/borzou/

Amanda –⁠ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/akfischer/

Jordan – 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordansolender/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordan.solender/

And give some love to our sponsor: https://nickelbronx.com/

Brand strategy, websites, and content for companies that want a real edge.

 If you enjoyed today's episode, follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review — it helps other brand builders like you discover the show.

Most founders are either tool-hopping or sitting on the sidelines. Both are losing strategies.

In this episode of Where Brands Get Their Edge, Borzou and Amanda sit down with Seema Alexander — Co-Chair of DC Startup Week and AI transformation consultant — to break down how founders actually need to be thinking about AI in 2026. Not as a shiny object. As infrastructure.

Guest

Seema Alexander, AI Transformation Consultant & Co-Chair, DC Startup Week 🎙️ AI CEO Podcast | LinkedIn: /in/seemaalexander

Topics Covered

• The Rethink, Reimagine, Rewire framework for AI adoption
• Why AI fluency (not just tooling) is the real competitive advantage
• How data is becoming every company's most valuable moat
• Narrow agents vs. agentic AI — and why the distinction matters
• DNA-matched cannabis recommendations as a case study in unique data sets
• What founders should automate first and what to protect from AI
• Why brand matters more than ever in an AI-commoditized world
• Preparing the next generation for a job market we can't fully predict

Connect with Us

Borzou — Instagram @bronxzou | LinkedIn Amanda — LinkedIn /in/akfischer

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by NickelBronx — brand strategy, design, and marketing for founders who want a real edge. nickelbronx.com

Send us Fan Mail

Forget the game. This episode is all about what really mattered during the Super Bowl: the ads, the halftime show, and what they reveal about where brand, creativity, and culture are headed.

Borzou Azabdaftari and Amanda Fisher break down why this year’s Super Bowl leaned harder than ever on celebrity over creativity, why surprise has quietly disappeared from advertising’s biggest stage, and which brands still managed to stand out anyway.

They unpack Bad Bunny’s record-breaking halftime show and the cultural backlash around it, debate Coinbase’s polarizing karaoke ad, compare DoorDash and Instacart’s celebrity plays, and question why pharma brands felt especially strange during the broadcast.

This episode is a sharp, honest look at what brands are afraid of right now—and what they need to relearn if they want to actually earn attention.

Connect with us

Borzou – ⁠Instagram⁠ & ⁠LinkedIn⁠

Amanda – ⁠LinkedIn⁠

And give some love to our sponsor ⁠NickelBronx⁠

Brand strategy, websites, and content for companies that want a real edge.

Some of the ads we mentioned:

Coinbase 

Shatner 

BudLight 

Dunkin

Thanks for tuning in to Where Brands Get Their Edge, brought to you by Nickel Bronx.

If you enjoyed today’s episode, follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review—it helps other brand builders like you discover the show.

Want more insights? Visit nickelbronx.com for brand strategy tips and tools to help your business stand out.
 

Send us Fan Mail

What does it really take to build a cult brand in a trend-driven industry?

In this episode of Where Brands Get Their Edge, Borzou and Amanda sit down with Amir Mostafavi, founder of South Block, to unpack how a local smoothie shop grew into a 21-location brand by obsessing over product, culture, and community.

From pioneering açaí bowls on the East Coast to building a leadership-first company culture, Amir shares the real lessons behind scaling without losing the vibe. They talk about why aesthetics now matter as much as macros, how Gen Z “eats with their eyes,” why data can ruin good marketing, and how purpose needs to be lived, not marketed.

If you’re a founder or marketer trying to grow without becoming generic, this episode is for you.

Guest

Amir Mostafavi
Founder, South Block
Website: https://southblockjuice.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/southblock

Topics Covered

• How South Block grew from one shop to 21 locations
• Why product alone isn’t enough to build a lasting brand
• Community-first branding and culture at scale
• Gen Z, Instagrammable food, and visual-first marketing
• Protein, creatine, and functional food trends
• Leadership mistakes founders make when scaling
• Why grassroots marketing beats pure data-driven decisions

Connect with us:

Borzou – ⁠Instagram⁠ & ⁠LinkedIn⁠

Amanda – ⁠LinkedIn⁠

And give some love to our sponsor ⁠NickelBronx⁠

Brand strategy, websites, and content for companies that want a real edge.

Thanks for tuning in to Where Brands Get Their Edge, brought to you by Nickel Bronx.

If you enjoyed today’s episode, follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review—it helps other brand builders like you discover the show.

Want more insights? Visit nickelbronx.com for brand strategy tips and tools to help your business stand out.
 

Send us Fan Mail

Bermuda isn’t a tax haven, a loophole, or a shortcut—and that’s exactly why serious founders are paying attention.

Connect with our Hosts:

Borzou: 

 https://www.instagram.com/bronxzou/

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/borzou/

Amanda: LinkedIn

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/akfischer/

And give some love to our sponsor: https://nickelbronx.com/

In this episode of Where Brands Get Their Edge, Borzou Azabdaftari and Amanda Fisher sit down with Anthony Howell, Bermuda’s Overseas Representative and Director of the Washington, DC Office, to break down what actually makes Bermuda a credible global business hub.

We cover:

• What “regulatory clarity” really means in plain English
• Why Bermuda attracts fintech, insurance, and digital asset companies
• Why Bermuda is intentionally not for underfunded or bad-actor startups
• Headquarters vs subsidiary vs satellite office strategies
• How Bermuda compares to Dubai, Singapore, and other global hubs
• The lifestyle, talent, and long-term trust advantages founders care about
• And yes—the truth about the Bermuda Triangle

If you’re a founder thinking globally and building for the long term—not looking for shortcuts—this episode is for you.

Thanks for tuning in to Where Brands Get Their Edge, brought to you by Nickel Bronx.

If you enjoyed today’s episode, follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review—it helps other brand builders like you discover the show.

Want more insights? Visit nickelbronx.com for brand strategy tips and tools to help your business stand out.
 

Send us Fan Mail

Domino’s just dropped a new logo, new packaging, and a fresh jingle… but did they actually take a risk or just turn the saturation up a notch?

In this episode of Where Brands Get Their Edge, Borzou and Amanda break down Domino’s latest brand evolution: the brighter blues, the refined logo, the “mmm” sonic branding, and the Shaboozey jingle that lasts about as long as a TikTok. They debate whether this is a smart, subtle refresh for a brand with massive equity—or a missed opportunity to tie real brand change to real product or experience upgrades.

Connect with our Hosts:

Borzou: 
 https://www.instagram.com/bronxzou/
 https://www.linkedin.com/in/borzou/

Amanda: LinkedIn
 https://www.linkedin.com/in/akfischer/

And give some love to our sponsor: https://nickelbronx.com/

They also get into:

• The thin line between evolutionary and way too safe rebrands
• How Domino’s used to compete with Pizza Hut—and who they’re really competing with now
• Why packaging and boxes might be doing more storytelling than the logo
• The missed chances around using actual dominoes (hello, falling tile visuals)
• Why the best rebrands are tied to real operational or product improvements

If you care about fast food, big brands, or how to evolve your logo without tanking your brand equity, this one’s for you.

You’ll learn:

• When a subtle brand evolution makes sense—and when it’s a cop-out
• How color shifts and packaging design change consumer perception
• Why jingles and sonic branding matter more than ever
• How to launch a rebrand so it doesn’t just… quietly exist

Follow Where Brands Get Their Edge for more real-talk brand breakdowns, not agency fluff.

Thanks for tuning in to Where Brands Get Their Edge, brought to you by Nickel Bronx.

If you enjoyed today’s episode, follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review—it helps other brand builders like you discover the show.

Want more insights? Visit nickelbronx.com for brand strategy tips and tools to help your business stand out.