Tell me about your vision.
My vision of what I'm trying to accomplish?
Yeah, your vision.
So I'm an author.
I have a day job and I have this job
that I'm writing books about branding.
In my day job, I'm the vice president of communications
for a Fortune 500 company here in Canada.
So it's a busy job.
I've written one book so far
and I'm ready to publish a second book on branding.
I am passionate about what a brand is
and how do you get a brand?
I think there's lots of misunderstanding
of what branding is today.
There is people keep talking about
everyone has to be a brand.
I'm not convinced that everybody has to be a brand.
The brand is something that is very unique
and somewhat complicated.
So I don't know if we all have to be a brand.
It's kind of like talking to a box of cereal.
And I don't think we all have to be a box of cereal.
Okay, that's amazing thought.
So tell me where did this vision come from of you
about branding and wanting to build or make
or not make brands?
So I've been working with brands for about three decades.
I've worked, as I said earlier to you,
I worked in the advertising industry.
I work for a brand that is,
it's one of the top 100 brands in the world.
I've seen brands falter.
I've helped brands try to succeed and some have not.
And so for me, it's understanding what is it
that makes a brand.
And to me, you gotta come up with a clear definition
of what a brand is.
And my definition, I'm kind of paraphrasing
a great quote from Maya Angelou,
which is a brand isn't about what it says or does,
but how it makes its customers feel.
So it is about a feeling.
That's what a brand is.
And that feeling resides with those people
that consume that brand.
Doesn't stop you from making all of the touch points
create that feeling,
but that feeling exists within the customer,
not with the brand itself.
So how do you build a brand?
There's, it's like, how do you create a human being?
Same thing, it's very complex.
There's things you can control
and there's things that you can't control.
Interesting.
That's an amazing point.
I've never thought about it that way.
That's a great insight.
So would you say that that's your why as well?
Yes.
So my why is to try and educate people
when they say they wanna be a brand,
really understand what is it you're trying to achieve.
Today, I hear so many people talk
about the tactics of branding.
And we're now using, because we have social media,
we have digital abilities to broadcast.
We've all now been trained or told we have to be a brand.
And that's all they're actually telling you
is they want you to put content out there.
And I can be cynical and say that,
is this driven by social media?
Because for them to exist, we have to create content.
That is true.
So they want the best content as possible.
So I keep hearing to build your brand,
your personal brand, guess what?
You've gotta have a presence in social.
And I'm going, it's bigger than that.
You actually do.
If you are the product or the service,
first most important element for a brand
is you've gotta have something that you're selling.
It's some transaction between the thing that you have,
the product and a customer.
Outside that, it becomes a relationship.
And a relationship, I have relationships every day.
I have people that I know today
that are very close friends.
I have associates.
Those aren't transactions.
Those are just relationships.
A brand has to have a transaction.
Otherwise the definition has to change.
And you can't compare yourself to a box of cereal.
But I can compare all the attributes of a box of cereal
and how to build that brand.
I build it through what I call the five Cs of branding.
And that is about consistency, about content,
it's about community, and it's about construct,
and it's about commitment.
So if you want to build a brand because you are consultant,
you're trying to sell your services,
you're trying to sell your ideas,
yeah, you should probably think about building a brand.
But understand you have to give up some of your personality,
some of the things that you,
because otherwise people can't understand.
We're complex.
People are complex.
So if I show my full self, I can't, that's not a brand.
A brand is about a box.
And I keep using the cereal box
because I think it's a really good example
of a finite aspect of a brand.
Because to be consistent, you have to live consistently
with the attributes and the things
that you are offering consistently.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is gonna get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.