Invisible Details

Last week Kyle and I were in Austin, Texas for seanwes conference 2017. Because we were traveling and putting on the conference, we didn't get a chance to record an episode together, but there was a conversation we had recently that we wanted to share. Giving things away for free is a great way to attract new leads. It opens up reciprocity, of course, but it also allows you to truly give someone value. Whether the content is freely available and shareable on your website or if it's a lead magnet someone has to give their email address for, it's never a bad idea to give. Our conversation today is about a different sort of method when it comes to giving products away for free. It's not necessarily a solution, but it's an idea worth exploring.

Whether you’re in business to sell products or services, at some point you’ll need to decide what exactly you’ll be selling. Not only that, but as you grow you’ll need to decide what happens if you want sell more than one thing. If you do decide to start creating more things to sell, it can be easy to lose focus on the bigger picture, which is understandable because you want to sell the best version possible. Fragmentation starts to creep in, and while you’re busy making sure your new thing gets off the ground well, everything else just sits to the side, not being taken care of. Knowing how to assign priority and where each new product or service fits can make or break the “structural integrity” of your business. In today’s show, we’ll be talking about the importance of having multiple offerings or products and how to stay focused on what you’re doing when there are many things fighting for your attention.

You’ve probably heard the saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” It’s a nice sentiment, but like most platitudes, it lacks any sense of practicality. Not only that, but the phrase “it’s who you know” might imply that you’re only getting to know people in order to gain something from them, which is remarkably disingenuous. How then is it “who we know”? Do you just try and find the biggest names possible and try to become friends so you can get a favor later on? Spoiler: no. Relationships vital to the success of your brand, not only the ones on the inside but also the outside connections you have. How you build your brand usually comes as a result of the people who help you. In today’s show, we’ll be talking about the importance of building relationships inside and outside of your brand, and how to leverage the relationships you already have.

You have an idea. It might sound crazy, but you believe that with hard work and dedication, your idea can be successful. Maybe you’ve been building this idea for years, but it’s time to finally get serious. Whether you are just starting out as a brand or have been building your brand for many years, it is always important to know where you’re from and where you’re going. Asking specific questions will help to lay the building blocks that will help you define your brand. Getting started can sound complex and intimidating. Surely you have to have everything completely figured out before starting, right? A brand is the culmination of a lot of things, certainly, but it starts from simplicity. A simple idea with a simple vision. In today’s episode I’ll be taking a look into some of the simple questions to ask as you’re getting started, or if you’re looking for deeper clarity as you go forward.

Building a company, product, business, or organization requires a lot of knowledge, hard work, and determination. You have to be sure that what you’re building matters and that you’re doing the right thing. When you believe you’re doing the right thing, you assume a level of confidence that you need to have to push forward. You believe in your brand, and you are sure that you are right as you proceed. Confidence, as you may have heard, is key when you’re a leader. You know how to move forward, how to ask questions, how to direct your brand in the way it needs to move. You’re sure of yourself, your goals, and your methods. Yet…is that arrogant? Is it arrogant to believe you have the right solution, that your work is quality, and that you have the solution for your customers? What is the difference between looking confident and arrogant? In today’s show, we’ll be talking about looking confident without coming across as arrogant, and how to uphold yourself and your brand in ways that attract people rather th

To make your brand stand out above the rest, you’ll have to create great content. But ideas seem so hard. Even if the ideas you have are relevant to what your brand is all about, they can seem lousy. If your content ideas are lacking, you’re not destined for failure. You just need a new perspective. In today’s show, Kyle Adams takes over to talk about how you can take those seemingly lousy ideas and turn them into epic pieces of content your audience will crave.

Over the years of building a brand, growing a business, or pursuing a passion, everything comes in cycles. Just like in life, there can be seasons of plenty and of need, times where it seems like success overflows and times where it seems you can’t find any. Our experiences often swing in pendulum, with varying amounts of time between the extremes, and sometimes we find ourselves in the most difficult seasons with no apparent relief. The stress feels endless, there’s too much work, too many projects, too many expectations, too many deadlines, not enough time, not enough resources. Other times it may just be difficult to stay the course. You’ve been working hard for years and you haven’t seen the results you want. How long do you keep showing up when it’s hard? How do you find purpose in the difficult times? In this episode, I want to talk about three primary reasons I believe consistency is important, especially in the hard times.

The universal aspect of business is at some point you’re going to have to deal with another person, and if you’re trying to *stay* in business, there will have to be some sort of monetary exchange. Even if you have a product or service that you give away for free, you’ll still need to have people using it. That’s the point, after all. When you have people buying your product or using your service, at some point you’ll have to deal with an unhappy customer. It could be a product that was damaged in shipping, a tool that doesn’t work as expected, issues with the service, website downtime, or any infinite number of problems. Support tickets, refund requests, and angry emails become more likely as more people encounter your brand. It’s not fun, it’s unavoidable, but it can be a great tool if you know how to handle it correctly. In today’s show, we’ll be talking about how to deal with unhappy customers, critical emails, refund requests, and why your process for handling these things is important for your bra

Feel like you haven’t been able to expand how you want? Seems like you’re just spinning your wheels and hustling but you’re looking for another push? It might be time to consider collaboration. Collaboration is when two parties unite together to produce something that will appeal to both of their audiences. This can open up a lot of opportunities and work to benefit both you and the other brand. There are a lot of ways you can seek out collaboration, and in this show we’re going to go over some ways you can seek out collaboration with others.

One of the realities of doing anything in this world is that you’re always building up a perception about yourself. People are going to feel and think things about you, no matter what. Naturally this means that everyone has a brand of some kind, whether or not you have a business or are trying to build anything. Connecting this to what you’re doing, however, carries a lot of weight. What is a personal brand, anyways? Is it as simple as slapping your name on something and calling it good? On today’s show, we’ll be talking about personal branding, how to scale when it’s just you, and some of the perks (and challenges) of the personal brand.

Let’s talk about haters. If you’ve been around the internet for more than five minutes, you might have seen or heard someone complaining about “the haters” or saying catchphrases like “haters gonna hate”. It’s generally used to describe a negative or critical person, specifically in relation to you or your brand. It’s not even just complaints or frustrations, but any sort of criticism that might come at you, both online and offline. Can you escape it? Is there a magic way of preventing this kind of criticism? On today’s show, I want to talk both about what to do when people are negative towards you or your brand, and also why I believe the term “hater” can be more harmful than helpful.

In most cases we like to make each show on this podcast as timeless as possible, so we tend to talk about more high-level brand concepts. Today, however, we want to talk about Uber. Uber is a self-defined “platform” that acts as a middleman for freelance car drivers and people who need a lift. It is in dozens of countries around the world and hundreds of cities, and its drivers have collectively completed several billion rides. While the company has seen incredible growth and success over the last eight years, it is also subject to an incredible amount of controversy. The Uber brand has taken a significant hit, and there’s a lot we can learn from its history. In today’s show, we’ll be discussing the Uber brand and both its successes and failures, and see what we can learn from a company whose past and future are quite shaky.

Whenever you see a successful brand come to light, you usually only see the external results. A new product is released, a company is purchased, another venture begins. For these brands, however, everything you see is the result of careful planning, execution, and unified goals. We’ve talked about goals in the past, but today we’re going to zoom out and talk big picture. In today’s show we’ll be talking about the difference between mission and vision, why they’re important, and what it looks like when you have incredible harmony between the two.

Achieving what you want in life or in business requires a lot of good old fashioned hard work. There are no shortcuts, no remarkable hacks, just getting into the middle of things and moving forward. Working to accomplish what you want takes more than a willingness to start or to work, it also requires direction. Knowing *what* you want is just as important as knowing *how* you plan to get it. We talk a lot about goals on this show and for a good reason. Goals are the not only the milestones of your journey, they are the lanterns along the path that help you get to your end destination. They are meant to guide and direct, making sure that you’re staying on track. In today’s episode, we’ll be talking about how to set better goals, why goals are actually not the end result, and why setting the right goals is imperative to your success.

You want to reach success, whatever that may look like for you, but it seems like everyone you look up to got there instantly. Why aren’t you one of the chosen few that doesn’t have to work to be known? Spoiler alert: you’ll have to work hard. In fact, just about every “overnight success” has worked for years to build something great.

As you work on your brand and how you want to present it to the world, communicating the heart of what you're about is at the top of the list. Eventually you'll be able to share your vision and mission with your audience, but how do you get their attention and interest first? In today's episode, Cory examines the qualities of an effective tagline and how to capture people's attention quickly.

“Create content,” they say. “Make sure you have content marketing in your strategy,” they say. So there you are, sitting in front of a blank screen, trying to come up with content and a strategy because you have to put a check mark next to that task. It becomes an endless process, day after day, week after week, trying to come up with new and interesting things to create, hoping that it will fit the grand marketing scheme you were told you needed. Content is not the problem, and lack of content is not the problem. So what gives? Is there such a thing as too much content? Is it a never ending roller coaster of creating and production, one that leaves you exhausted every time you even think about making something else? In today’s show we’ll be uncovering some commonly flawed ideas of content marketing and discussing the point of purposeful content in your own brand strategy.

Culture is defined as a set of characteristics, behavior, and knowledge of a particular group of people. Different cultures have different languages, histories, social structures, protocols, habits, and everything in between that make up that culture. This definition of culture can easily scale down into micro groups of people, in this case companies. The collective personality of the people who make up a company is one of the defining ways a brand is created. A brand is shaped by the people within it, and the culture of that group of people will further define how that brand is shaped. Whether you’re on your own, in a twelve-person company, or leading 300 employees, a healthy company culture is vital to the success of your vision. On today’s episode we’ll talk about why a healthy company culture is important and how to shape it into something that others will want to be part of.

It’s easier than ever to connect with people around the world, and if you’re working on building a business or brand you’re probably wanting to dive deeper into producing great shareable content. While it’s incredibly important to create and share evergreen content like videos, images, and blog posts, live streaming has been growing in popularity and is a great medium to connect with your audience. This is even more important for businesses that are primarily online, because people are only going to buy from you if they trust you. How can you build greater trust if you’re hidden behind the walls of the internet? On today’s show we’ll talk about the benefits of live streaming and connecting with your audience face to face, even if it’s through a screen.

You have an amazing idea. You’ve thought about it for a while, you think you’re onto something, and you really believe that it will really help a lot of people. You start to work on the product. Stop. Don’t do that. I’m serious. If you haven’t spent any time actually validating your product, you’re wasting your time. The only way you’re truly going to know if a group of people is going to buy what you’re selling is if you validate your product. There are many different ways to validate your product, a few of which we’ll discuss in today’s episode. More important than the method is the mindset. The greatest (and most successful) product you can create is not based on a whim or “idea,” but it will come from an intimate understanding of who you’re trying to help. In today’s show, we’ll talk about the importance of validating your product and some practical methods to make sure you’re not wasting your time.