Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - How YOU Can Break Through The Noise In The New Year With Google’s #1 Rebranding Expert David Brier Episode 177

Episode Date: December 28, 2021

In This Episode You Will Learn About:  Defining your unique value proposition  Innovating your brand   Developing strategies to rebrand & maximize success for your business   Resources: Website: www.risingabovethenoise.com  Read Brand Intervention  Register HERE: The Branding Masterclass  Email: [e-mail]  Call: 715-235-9040  LinkedIn & Youtube: @David Brier Instagram: @risingabovethenoise Facebook: @DBD International  Twitter: @davidbrier Overcome Your Villains is Available NOW! Order here: https://overcomeyourvillains.com  If you haven't yet, get my first book Confidence Creator Show Notes:  So you’ve created something amazing. Now what? With SO many options online these days, it can be overwhelming for consumers to find your product. This oversaturation makes branding key to a business’s success! Tune in to learn how you can make your product and services stand out and be different from all the rest. When you can think differently, you can overcome any obstacles!  About The Guest: I couldn't be more excited to welcome David Brier onto the show today! He’s a Fast Company expert blogger and the subject of many articles featured in Forbes, The New York Times, Huffington Post, and so many more. David is the recipient of the Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship Medallion presented by the Shark Tank star, Daymond John! With over 330 international awards and industry recognitions in branding, rebrands, design and brand strategy, David is THE expert when it comes to transforming global brands to reach their ultimate success.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Croger, fresh for everyone, must have a digital account to redeem offers. Restrictions may apply, see site for details. If we sound like others, we're being cliche. And if we're using cliche in terms of our brand, what ends up others, we're being cliche. And if we're using cliches in terms of our brand, what ends up happening is we're promoting the category not our brand. If I sound like all the other XYZs,

whatever that category is, I could be coaches, it could be experts, it could be consultants, it could be authors, it could be keynote speakers, it could be whatever. If I sound like the others, I have just lumped myself in with, I'm just one more, whatever that category is. That's the problem.

I'm on this journey with me. Each week when you join me, we are going to chase down our goals. We've come adversity and set you up for better tomorrow. That's our new secret journey. I'm ready for my close time. Hi and welcome back.

I'm so excited for you to meet our guest this week. He's a fast company expert blogger on the subject of numerous articles in Forbes Inc. The New York Times, AdWeeb, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. David Breyer is the recipient of the presidential ambassador for global entrepreneurship, medallionion presented to David by Shark Tankstar and New York Times bestseller, Damon John,

an award-winning veteran, recipient of over 330 international industry and recognition in branding, rebrands, design, and brand strategy, Holy cow, David has designed and transformed global brands, regional and local brands, and brands for startups and even cities. In addition to writing the new branding Bible and Amazon best seller, brand intervention, 33 steps to transform the brand you have into the brand you need,

with a forward written by Damon John of Shark Tank and Fubu. David is featured in the new Netflix bestseller written by its CEO alongside Steve Jobs and Richard Branson on innovation. David, thank you so much for being here today. Well, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for having me. Well, this is so exciting. In a behind the scenes, you have been popping up

in my life a lot lately. And it's so crazy. Anytime it's serendipitous, the way, you have been popping up in my life a lot lately. And it's so crazy. Anytime it's serendipitous, the way that we have connected, we were both in this content creator program in LinkedIn. And we were randomly paired up the other night, which I thought was so exciting and fun. And then we were both recognized last week,

I think it was for 50 Most Impactful People on LinkedIn. So I said, oh my gosh, I've got to get with David and learn from him to really just get some insight into this massive success that you've had. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think at this point, I'm convinced that you're probably, you're probably the sister that my parents never told me I had. I think I've convinced at this point. That's what it is. We are running in the same circles. All right, so David, let's start here because I know for myself for a long time when I was in corporate America, I never thought about

branding, ever, never crossed my mind. Why is branding important? Well, branding is important for this reason. We live in a world where we are literally one stroke, keystroke away. That stroke is in heart attack. It's a to stroke is in keystroke away from finding, if I were looking for anything, I could be looking for sportswear, I could be looking for sneakers, cars, best restaurant to eat at, camera gear, tech, whatever. I could be looking for anything.

And I'm basically one keystroke away from finding hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of options. How do I, as a potential consumer, sift it down to my short list, right, without going like nuts? Obviously, for consumer type products, Amazon's made it particularly easy because, okay, you look for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, then you look for things that have like four stars or five stars. So that helps us sift. But if we're not there, we're just see because what's happened.

I mean, let's look at it. So 96, the internet changed everything. Now what used to happen, I like if you and I were friends, I'd say, hey, Heather, you know, I'm looking for a good gym to work out at. Where would you recommend? That's how it would normally happen. Well, now we find out all that stuff online. So the entire sales process that used to involve people or discovery process before a sale happened involves people.

Now it's like consumers so informed before they ever hit that shopping cart or speak to a salesperson, that it's shifted a lot. That's the role of branding. How is a product or a service going to stand out and be different in your eyes or my eyes? And that's why basically one of the things I talk about

is that different is better than better. And so that's the role of branding in the world. So really defining that unique value proposition, what makes you unique, different, and special? That's part of it, but you've got to have this on the part against what's already out there. The reason being, because if we just look at it, there's that old model of the unique selling proposition,

the U.S.P. that we've all heard that. The problem with that was that tended to be done in an isolated approach. It didn't look at the fact that we're saying, well, where are the best blank, blank, blank, and because we've done blank, blank, blank, blank, we didn't take inventory of what was the noise out there? Because there may be five or 15 or 35 or 50 companies claiming the same thing. So even if what we're saying is true and factual,

if we just sound like everybody else, we've just reminded everybody that we're in the same category and bucket as all these other people. So it has to have that differentiation factor that makes it work. Otherwise, it's kind of like, it's up to like who's the most persuasive salesperson, who's the most compelling individual to pitch it

because the company failed to do what it has to do in today's market. So where is it that you advise brand start? Is it really doing an assessment of the category first then? You always have to look at the amount of noise. People don't need another XYZ. It's not you know if I said, hey Heather, you know, it's like, I don't know, whatever. Do you need another, do you need another, you know, comfortable chair in the house, or do you need another car or a thing or a, or whatever. I mean, whatever things that you might have, do you need just another one? No, you would want, you need one that does XYZ in a way that's different, not like the others.

It might simplify, it might accelerate, it might do various things, but it has enough differentiators that makes it compelling to you and me. So I'll tell you now that I am out on my own and have my own business and living in this entrepreneurial space, I have noticed how incredibly noisy it is out there. And your point seems very simplistic, however, it's so hard to flipping break through. And I truly believe a lot of businesses don't, especially smaller businesses, just from the time I've felt with them,

aren't spending a lot of time and or resources against that idea. How do we break through that noise? But do you work with those smaller companies and how do you help them to understand how critical this is for revenues? That's a great question and I'll tell you. I work, I mean, all of my work, I work with the CEOs. And so, I mean, I work with CEOs from startups to $70 million companies. It's

this whole spectrum. So it's never a matter of how big the company is or isn't. It's a matter of, do they honestly care about realizing their days are numbered if they're not continuously looking and continuously paying attention to what's going on there? Because there could be shifts culturally, they could be shifts technologically, so you gotta pay attention. So here's the normal conversation.

When I'm first interviewing a company to see whether or not they're going to want to engage me. And if I'm going to take them on as a client, I'll say, tell me why I as a potential customer should care about your product or service. And then they normally go down, well, we've done blah, and we've done blah, and we're made in America, and we're family owned, and we're this, and we're that, and we're the best indicted and we're state of the art and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and I let them finish their little list.

And I said, okay, thanks for that. So now, why do I know if I went to any of your competitors, I'd pretty much hear the same exact thing. That's when like the, oh shit, we have a problem. That's when the light starts to go on a little bit. They start going, and I tell them, I said, it's not that anything you said was untrue. It's not that anything you said

was not, couldn't be backed up and proven in a court of law, but it sounds like everyone else. That is a problem. If we sound like others, we're basically kind of being cliche. And if we're using cliches in terms of our brand, what ends up happening is we're promoting the category, not our brand.

If I sound like all the other XYZs, whatever that category is, it could be coaches, it could be experts, it could be consultants, it could be authors, it could be keynote speakers, it could be sports companies, it could be whatever. If I sound like the others, I have just lumped myself in with them. I'm just one more, whatever that category is.

That's the problem. Okay, to your point that you just made, I agree with you 100% right? And some of the brands you work with, Rezlon, I mean, some of the largest companies that are out there, right? You have massive credibility, case studies on your website to map all this up.

However, it just reminded me of an interview I did a couple months ago with Ron Friedman on my show wrote a great book called Decoding Greatness. His concept and direction to people is, don't go out and start over a new, go out and break down with somebody who's at the best of the best in a category is and ultimately reinvent and recreate that through your lens. So it's interesting in that what you're saying is you don't want to promote a category you don't

want to be this cliche. You don't want to just reinvent what everybody else is doing. You've got to separate yourself in some way from that noise that already exists. And that really, that becomes a big conundrum once you're out there. I mean, here's the thing that I am always amazed by. Probably about, I would say, 85% of my clients actually has something that really is a considerable advance. It might be a revolution, but it's not just a little iteration, it's not just a little tweak, it's like a considerable advance. It might be a revolution, but it's not just a little iteration. It's not just a little tweak. It's like a considerable advance,

but yet they sound like all the stuff. So one of the questions I ask is, why are you using the language of the old to introduce the new? You see, I mean, why would I do that? That's one factor. The other factor is every industry has baggage. And what I mean by that is,

let's say for example, let's say you and I are meeting for the first time and you say, oh hi David, nice to meet you. What is it that you do? And I say this, I say these four words. I am a lawyer. Now I don't say anything more. Immediately, what has happened?

You know I'm probably not the most fun person in the room. You know that I probably take something that could be extremely simple and it'll be really long-winded. You know that I probably will never pick up the check. You know that I'll always look at 15 minute increments in terms of billing and such like that. All of that came because I said four words. I immediately brought that baggage to the industry. So if I am not proactively separating myself from my industry, how am I different, how am

I distinct, how am I providing you something that isn't just one more of those people over there, in which case means that I always have to compete on price because at that point I'm a commodity. You see what I mean, these are the dynamics that come into it. Oh, I love, these are the dynamics that come into it. Oh, I love that. Yeah. And it's so often in business people are just competing on price because they haven't separated themselves with their brand, correct? Yep. That's right. To be really clear, I am not talking about, well, you know what? Everyone

else's packaging is blue. We're going to go red. There's our big differentiator. Stop treating differentiation like lipstick. That's what I tell people. You know, it's not like, oh, I like this color. This color goes my off. It's not just a little cosmetic boom. I'm gonna do my hair differently or I'm gonna put on a different suit.

You know, it's not those things. It's actually something deeper. And I love it because it's so exciting. I literally, I've literally reintroduced brands to their owners who have been babying this little creation for 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 years. And they're like, holy shit.

We had no idea what business we were in. I mean, literally it's that dramatic, but that's the thing that I find fascinating because I'm looking at it with impartial eyes. I'm looking at the whole thing. I'm going, you go down that road, you will lose money. You go on this road, right there, you've added 1 million, 2 million, 5 million, 10 million onto your revenue stream, just because of the fact that you're going this other route

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I remember him sitting in my office and I said, so tell me, is anything different about your ice? Is there any unique, anything? He has some people said that ice cools faster. I said, huh? He was, some people said that our ice cools faster. He said, huh? He said, I've heard that a little bit, but I said, can you go to an independent lab and then have that verified?

He was sure. So does that nine days later? Speak on the phone. I said, so what did you hear? He goes, our ice does cool faster than traditional ice. And I said, so what do we have quantifiable? And so we figured it out. And it was actually the cool's 33% faster.

The reason was because the shape of his ice actually exposed more ice surface. And as a result, it cooled your drinks faster. So we created a whole brand thing around stop waiting for your drinks to get cold. And the whole thing was like, it cools 33% faster than traditional ice. We ended up calling it ice rounds and it became the number one brand of ice in terms of bagged ice and people asked for it by name. Like, people would literally come in and say,

do you have ice rounds? They wouldn't just say, do you have frozen, do you have bagged ice? It went from that to being by name. So that's one of them, one of them, I mean, I have plenty of examples of plenty of stores, I can tell you, but that's one that paints the picture. If I can do that with frozen water, I can pretty much do that with anything. And that's

that's the thing that gets me pumped. Yeah. So for you, it's like a puzzle that you're putting together from the moment you engage with someone until you bring that final campaign and brand strategy to like. Yeah. One of the, I really liked one on your website. You have a number of different case studies. I like the nimble case study, the startup that you work with during the pandemic and took them to four million in revenue. Can you walk us through a little bit how that worked?

One hundred percent. We'll see. Nimble was previously in its prior incarnation. It was called XP camper, XP being short for expedition because for those that don't know, there's expedition travel, which basically means you're really going off grid. And you have to have a vehicle that can allow you to go off grid so it can really handle all variety of terrain and it has all of the amenities that you

need and such. So it's a real no compromised situation. It doesn't mean that you're being pampered. It doesn't have like a built-in manicurist and pedicurists or, you know, and stuff like that. But it basically, it has all the everything. So I went with them to a trade show and I looked at all the competitors and I was looking at what they were doing and this, that the other and all the, what are they doing? What are we doing?

One of the things that I found fascinating and you don't appreciate it. You've probably seen this. It was an enormous show in Vegas. I mean, must have, I think it was about 200,000 square feet of show, right? It was for everything, or everything on a motive. And one segment of it was expedition campers and vehicles. Well, what ended up happening was I started looking around and because again, I have the outside look, I'm looking around. I'm not drunk on the cool aid yet. So I'm like, I'm the sober one, right?

So I'm looking and I go, all right. And I point out to the guys, I said, dudes, I said, if you notice one thing, I said, first of all, this whole place is driven by testosterone. They have the very, very shapely and scantily clad women in the various of the boots. So they have that play.

And then on top of that, they have probably 65 to 70% of the brands out there were red, black, and white. And it was really mailing, right? It was like, I love that voice. It's like, that's right, we're men, you know? It has that kind of thing. And so, and I pointed out them,

do you know what I said? I pointed out that banner and then that banner and then that big brand and then that international brand and they started looking around and they go, holy shit, like me and open their eyes. They never noticed this before, but they're like, holy shit. We guess we're not going to be red, red, black and white. It said, damn right or not. So that was one thing.

And then it was the way that they were all playing and doing the pitch. Again, they were doing like the manly man's, you know, the shots in the dish. And I was like, what's this really about? Because our audience, we know our audience for the company was couples. It wasn't just the dude, but it was like the man, the wife, the couple, living life in their own terms, being independent. So I came up looking at how agile this had to be, et cetera, et cetera. So I came up looking at how Agile this had to be, etc. So I developed the name Nimble for the brand, renaming it from XP camper because they needed just like a really advanced way it will be on where XP camper had been. And in addition developing the slogan Freedom to Rome,

and the language because again being an outsider, I'm not in the matrix of their world and how they all talk. So I started to introduce narratives that nobody else was introducing. You know, I mean, one of them we just recently did, this is an example. And I love this one because it's just a brilliant one. We had a gorgeous shot at night, the camper, you know, campers, like set up and they're having a little campfire outside. And you see the elimination coming from the camper. And it's this stunning backdrop of mountains with like a star-filled sky.

I wrote the headline, why settle for five star lodging when you can have 4,722 star lodging or something like that? And it was like, I actually figured out the math. Like how many stars does one see in the half of the actual hemisphere, right? So it's like how many do you see? And then how many can you see?

So that number was actually based on fact. How many stars you could see? No one's talking that way in the industry. And so it's painting the pictures, the little journeys, little moments. So you outline on this case study on your website, how to make your brand a glimpse of the future, you note the story that you're telling, the hope that you're instilling in your audience, and the dream that you resurrect, was it, or a recestate? Well, gonna tap into that dream, it's gotta be an aspiration. Look at the last purchase that you made of anything.

What's the transformation? Is it either gonna be a big one or a little one? It's gonna be big enough for you or big enough for me. Then I go, bam, that's the aspiration. Might make things simpler, might make things faster, might make things more comfortable, might make things less complicated, might make things prettier or whatever, right? There's that aspiration. So it's got we have to connect to that. I love when I was reading that and I really, that just the whole brand story resonated with me

and the strategy that you took. I thought it made so much sense. And even looking at personal brands online, I was relating that story back to some of the things that I see on social media. What are your thoughts on personal branding and the importance of personal branding? I find for myself and I think in what I've observed, we connect to brands that have humanity connected with them. It may be humanity in the way of, you know, just like a really, really down to earth and real values, not a big corporation playing on, let's be purpose driven and let's donate a percent, not that, that's a, that's a transparently ugly spin

and that I don't appreciate. But the real, authentic, but even more to the point, Apple had Steve Jobs. Virgin as Richard Branson, Tesla as Elon Musk, we connect to those organizations and companies that has a person that we can connect with. They're more real, they're more tangible. Yeah, you can always put Samsung against Apple

and say, where's the technologies? Who's cameras better, and even Google you know, Google's the products. And it's like, yeah, they've got things. And some of them are going to be head-to-head. Some of them might be, but they're going to, they're not going to be far from one another. But Apple still has the human aspect with regard to technology. And Samsung is still a faceless corporation.

What is it? If they just added one person, and it's got to be a person that's real, it can't just be a spokesperson. It can't be flow. I mean, even though flow is cute on progressive, right? I mean she's cute. She's funny. Stay farm dude. He's like a commercial dude But it's nice when you've got a person and you go oh, there's that person I can relate to them They had the same frustrations and same things and even Nike you know,, so when I grew up, we had Keds, we had Converse, we had Puma and Adidas, right? And then Nike comes around, and they come around with adding that human element that Jordan, you know, in the air with those close-ups

and the quality of the talk, he humanized. So to me, the human component has the potential, I say, I have this potential because someone shows shows up without naming names, you and I can easily rattle off right now, we could probably rattle up 20 people who are showing up, but the stuff that's coming out of their mouth, it's not well thought of, it's not disruptive, it's a regurgitation of what we all heard before. I don't need to see somebody regurgitating, right? It's just, I have better time, better to use the my time

and say some regurgitating. And it's happening everywhere. So for the people listening right now that are saying that sounds great. And yes, Steve Jobs did a great job of humanizing and Elon Musk has a story to tell.

I don't. How do you advise people start with a personal brand? I tell them that they're liars. I met bullshit. Someone doesn't have a story. And you know, you know how I'd rip personal brand? I tell them that they're liars. I'm that bullshit. Someone doesn't have a story. And you know how I'd rip that apart? I'd say good.

Tell me how you don't have a story. Well, right. It will be boring and dull because you've already decided it's going to be boring and dull. Let's look at the people of today. Oh, and Gary Vee with VaynerMedia. There's another example of a person, right? So David Ogovee with Ogovee advertising. So I mean, yeah, people, we could connect to people, people who actually dared to think, dared to have a viewpoint, stand for something. There are people that we all are aware of. There's some that have amazing platforms, but they don't do anything with those platforms.

And then there are those that have amazing stories and they just lean into it as much as they need to, need to and want to lean into it. And they take us on the journey, take me on the journey. If someone is stupid enough to challenge me and say, I'm boring and I don't actually have a story and I'm not worthwhile, I will say first of all, you're a freaking liar

and we're gonna handle that right now and trust me, you will lose this battle because you do have a story to tell. It may be one that you think is very uninteresting but that can be corrected too. So I don't buy it. I never let anybody get away with that because I think it's a crock. And sometimes it'll be, they'll, I can tell. In fact, there's one person just completed my master class. He was just like this.

He was kind of like self-demeaning and and he was kind of, well, blah blah blah, you know, I said, dude, are you trying to wake me up or put me asleep? I put him in the driver's seat. He was so used to No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, No one is predetermined the outcome of this conversation unless you've decided that you're going to be a boring human equivalent of nightquill. Is that what you're going to be? So I force people into taking ownership of what they need to take ownership of. That's the thing because I forever believe that people are remarkable. I refuse to buy someone trying to close me on the fact that they're dull or they're uninspired or this or that the other. And if they're really convinced on it, I say, look, here's a deal. You and I are playing different games. Congratulations. You won by losing.

I wish you the best of luck. Two things. One, oftentimes people have a story, but they're afraid to share with that real story. Is that scary to them to put that out there. And the second thing is that some of these smaller stories are the ones that are most relatable because everybody's felt that way or gone through that challenging situation. It's about letting people know that seeing that story through your lens

and your experience is what makes you unique and different. 100%. 100%. I would also add this one other component. There's an ability to be able to see the macro and the micro. The micro is your story. The micro is my story. The micro is each person's story. But I never look at my story as an isolated thing

that it is inherently relevant and valuable what I do. And I know that you do it because the fact that you keynote, any good keynote speaker has this ability. You gotta be able to look into the room. You gotta be able to look into the room. You're looking into the room and you're going, because this is resonating. You're not doing it as a soliloquy.

You're not doing it as a monologue just for yourself. You're doing it to impact this group in front of you. That's a macrocosm. So it's kind of like that dual awareness. It's like, okay, what's gonna cause a ripple here? I go wherever I need to go. I mean, if I need to walk out into a room, and if I feel there a bunch of pompous assholes,

I'll say, okay, I have late breaking news. You all suck. I'll let it hang in the air there for the five seconds it needs to, for it to land. Then they go, who the hell invited this dick to actually speak from the last? But you know, but the bang, I will have their attention and now we can actually have a conversation

because you can't have a conversation. If you and I can't be talking, if I'm not looking at you and listening to you and you're not, you know, it's, we've got to be paying attention. So it's that dual capability that that really makes a difference. That's what you just described is a real big breakthrough moment.

I remember going through this as a speaker where I've become great at telling my story, but I was making it more about me than I was about the audience and making it about them. And you actually, you have a free e-book, a branding e-book, the 10 golden rules of branding. And it just came to my mind that one of them is, your brand is not about you, it's about me.

We've all been in a room when we felt smaller. We've went in that room and that person we were speaking with we kind of felt we shrunk, we felt smaller. That was a horrible feeling. To me, that's a real red flag. If I feel smaller and I didn't feel smaller, prior to that, I was me, I was in my own space, I had my own place and position in the world,

and I walk in and I feel smaller. Whoa, that's a freaking red flag. You know, that person, that's where we're feeling smaller in front of that person. Obviously, they're the most important person. They've got the altitude. They've got the this, they've got the that. Well, screw you, you son of a bitch.

I'm sorry. That shit is bullshit. Because anybody that's trying to play that game is actually exceedingly small. And they're just feeding off of whatever implication and I don't know that in business. I mean, I think anybody in the beginning of their career just feeding off of whatever implication and I had to learn that in business. I think anybody in the beginning of their career would have

run into that and either was smart or quick. I wasn't smart quick. I probably took me about 12 years to learn how to navigate through that and hold my own position. And again, like we were talking about before, we started this, be willing to walk out the room. You've got to always be willing to walk away and say, look, with no art feelings too.

You know what, it's not, you don't have to be like, hey buddy, you're an asshole. I wish you, I wish you nothing but hell and death and like, and being locked in an elevator where you've just eaten, you know, beans for lunch just five minutes before and you are, that's it, you know. Right, we don't need to go there, right? We don't have to have that mouse.

It can just be, you know what? You have a different philosophy. I have a different philosophy. I wish you the best of luck. This isn't the journey I'm taking. I'm out of here. That is a powerful illustration, but an excellent, excellent point to him. Okay. So one of the things that you talk about is the importance of rebranding into forever rebranding. That sounds a little intimidating to some people, I would imagine. And how do you suggest people do that and companies do that? I'm gonna answer that with a little scenario

and a question back at you. I personally don't consider it hard work. I consider it harder work. Here's the hard work. I've done a rebrand, whether it's for yourself, or whether it's for your company, or whatever, we've done a rebrand. Now you make that rebrand your master.

No, that's like mistake number like one. The rebrand is in your master. You were the master of the rebrand. You brought it into existence. It's what I tell people when literally what I tell people, I mean, and this will partially answer your question. At the beginning of every master class that I run, I say, I know that you're here to handle your brand, but I'm here to tell you, you don't need a brand, your brand needs

you. And I'm here to give you back to you so that you can empower your brand. So the thing is, is that the rebrand that we create doesn't define us, we define it. And by just continuing to pay attention, we can have it do the little shifts and growth movements that needs to do to continue to be relevant. And also one other little side note, the proper rebrand is gonna be built on values.

It's not gonna be built on a thing, a thing is transient. A thing you and I can become outdated tomorrow if we built our brand on a thing, a thing is transient. A thing you and I can become outdated tomorrow if we built our brand on a thing. If you built your brand that I don't know on, you know, pick whatever, but if it was instead built on values and two examples that we all know, Nike, what is it? Just do it. Does a better sneakers, cooler synthetic rubbers?

No, right? They didn't build it on the thing, they built it on, that's a value, that's something we can connect to. Apple, when Steve Jobs came back, did he say, cool or operating system? Nifier design. No, that was part of their other messaging. But what did they build around? Think different. That was a set of values. So the more we build it on values, which is timeless, which connects to you as an individual, connects to me as an individual, which is timeless, which connects to you as an individual, connects to me as an individual. We're not just relying on that color, that technology,

that design thing, blah, blah, blah, blah. So... It actually made me think of the mistakes that I've made when I was still in corporate America. I launched a personal brand around starting from the bottom and making it to the C-suite. That was, you know, the whole mission behind it it to the C-suite. That was the whole mission behind it and being a C-suite executive.

Then I got fired and wrote a book and I rebranded as Confidence Creator, which was really the thing. It was the book, right? So then I just kept leaning into Confidence Creator, which is Black, Red, and White, which is funny to your point earlier around colors, which I wasn't thinking of that.

So then I'm leaning into the thing, to the thing that's thing, and then people started losing, no one knew I was a C-suite executive. No one knew I had 20 plus years in sales leadership in this whole career because I focused so much on the thing that it lost who I was and who my brand really was. So I started leaning back into, and I guess these are all kind of mini rebrands.

I started leaning back into, you know, I'm the former C suite executive that was fired and has created different methods and ways to go from rejected to redirected and can help you do the same. So it doesn't matter if it's a keynote or a book or the first book or the second book or the podcast, it doesn't matter the thing. It's more around getting back to who that brand and who I really am. If you're struggling with swelling in your legs, ankles are feet, you're going to want to listen up. Forget your compression socks and water pills. New research shows that swelling and inflammation can be resolved by upping your intake of omega-3 fatty

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Sounds like you have no plans to leave the couch tonight. Nope, you just wanna unzip your jeans, slip on a pair of fuzzy slippers, and rip open a bag of skinny pop popcorn. Because the only place you're going tonight is the bottom of this bag of popcorn. Perfect. The continuous rebrand thing, you're doing it. You're paying attention. It's so much easier to be paying attention than to be going, oh, I got blind design. I don't

want to know. That's leaving it living in a state of cautiousness, fear, denial. The world isn't staying stagnant. If you're not attentive to the changes and the shifts that are going on, your days are numbered. If you're going to take that approach, it's always been the truth. And for people looking at 2022 and trends and what should they be leaning into or leveraging, what some of the advice that you can give around branding for the time that we're in?

Build your brand around something that can survive anything. No one knew in March 2020, that was the beginning of the shit storm, right? All we knew was there's this thing, right? Then April, May, you know, everyone's holding onto their cash, you don't know what's going on. So the thing is, is that it parallels a little bit with like diversify,

but build yourself up in a way that, and that was the one of the things that I did. So yes, I've been doing branding for in 2022, 42 years. And that service could be vulnerable to economic trends, different things of that nature and all that kind of stuff. Yes. So some years ago, I wrote this. That was like great for people who didn't yet know me. They were kind of like, they loved it.

They were like, it's, it's, boom, it's big. And they love the big type. That's what that's what cracked me up. I loved showing it to my daughter. Because she goes, oh, you finally get me. I mean, that's the size of the type in the book, right? It's large. And for anyone who is only hearing this on audio,

that's brand intervention book, David's bestselling book on Amazon. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. It's very visual, but the thing about it is like, so I put that. So that was like, so that was another little way that people could avail themselves to me. And then I, in 2020, I was like, wow, this is pretty nuts. So I started looking at some other ways to have other layers of being able to engage with me. That's where I created my Masterclass Mentorship Program. And so that's a different tier of investment as opposed to working with me. So or not even as opposed to, but just in addition to it,

that's another layer depending on where you're at. And so that's an example of what I would recommend to people. It's like, okay, how many layers can you do? If you are an experienced individual, I know you could speak to this because of your book, I know I can speak this because of my book. The ultimate calling card is a book. If you have insight and you can go,

you know what, no one's tackled this before. No one's given it this vantage point, this insight freaking write a book. And if that's too daunting, then go ahead and maybe start putting together micro content in other areas, but show up. You've got to show up if your listeners are listening and they get nothing else from this, this they could take to the bank.

We are way too prone in today's hyperspeed sense of business to want to put stuff on autopilot. Oh good, oh that'll be, let me do it. Let me do a drip campaign. Let me do it, let me do it saying, let me do an email sequence. Let me do a funnel, let me do it this,

you're listing this and you do that. You are sucking the life out of your brand by putting too many things on autopilot that should be tended to by you. And it doesn't mean that you can't delegate in different things, but it's just be deliberate. And the perfect example that everyone can relate to, it's the moron COOs who put these things, hey, we've got customer service calls that are coming in. And how come, what do we put a menu tree? So that way by the time that they've gone through a menu tree and we've called that, but we've gone, oh, hi, we see the economy from this number.

Is that right? I'm sorry, I can't understand your response. Is that right? No, I can't understand. How about we try it this way? And then you go one layer, two layers, three layers for like, by the time you're getting a person, you're ready to kill them. What does that do for your company's brand

in terms of efficiency, in terms of customer relations, in terms of being relevant? I am blown away. Are there places that you call them and you actually get a person? It's very rare. I'm like, my BMW payment the other day, and I couldn't get to someone that helped me make my payment.

It was crazy. The ones that do, and I'm not talking like a little small local business, but I'm talking about like an actual decent size company. No, it doesn't support your mind. It's stress. American Express every single time they get me to a person faster than any other company, and they separate

themselves and their brand. I would never leave that credit card. Hey, there you go. Perfect little micro example. We are too prone to putting stuff automated. Oh, well, automate that, automate that, automate that, automate and you will die a premature death because you're putting things in place of showing up when you or someone part of your team

should be showing up. People are freaked out. People are like, hey, you know what? I'd like to apply to do your master class. They're shocked when I'm on the Zoom. I'm right there like, you're like, oh my God, hey, you know what? I'd like to apply to do your master class. They're shocked when I'm on the Zoom. I'm right there like, you're like, oh my God, it's you. They're kind of like, it cracks me up. It always cracks me up.

And they're kind of a little star struck or there's that in there. I've been following you for years. I didn't expect you. They're like blown away. They're shocked, but I care, and at the same time, I don't know anybody else who can look through my eyes and see, is this a good candidate

or is it not a good candidate? Because not everybody gets through, right? But I also think people need to know that you've made some strategic decisions that allow you to show up. And I noticed you on social media, you show up all the time. But then today you taught me because you said no to having your own podcast because you said no to put an email on your phone so that you don't disrupt these different times during the day.

You've made choices and you've foregone different options. Yeah. Well, David, it is such a pleasure having you on the show. You are welcome to come back anytime you want. Please let everybody know how do they find out more about your master class and where can they pick up your book? Totally. Well, the book, Amazon Barnes and Noble online,

they can get it for books of million online, any of those, and get the hardcover. Why do I say get the hardcover? Well, first of all, it's best production values, and someone is seeing that in your home or office, will want to borrow it. And if you're kind of like, if you have like boundaries, you're like, did I say you could touch my book? See, and then when you slap them, if you slap them with a paperback, they're not going

to know, your heart's not in it. You hit them with a hardcover, they're going to go, whoa, they're serious. So heart's not in it. You hit him with a hard cover, they're gonna go, whoa, they're serious. So that's the first thing. The other thing is my site for short, rising above the noise.com, RIS, I&G, rising above the noise.com, you can find out all about whatever you need to know. The master class, you can find out all about that.

And you know what, I have to send this to you, Heather. I have to send this to you, because you'll appreciate this. I did my first speaking, life speaking gig in like, I think it was 18 months in June, right? And it was in Montana. And I wanted to make it really memorable because it was a nice small intimate group. It was like about 35 entrepreneurs in beautiful Montana, the hills, and all, it was great. But what happened was I was like, how do I make a lasting impression? I made this coin. And it's like, it's the largest coin. It's like it's cast that of bronze. And it's just, it's a whole thing.

And so what you have to do, you have to, I'm gonna send you one for you to have Heather. This sucker has heft to it. And so you can hurt somebody with this kind of thing. So I know you're not gonna hurt anybody with this, but I want you to have one just as my, as my expression of appreciation. Give me some, before we hang up And you are a star ago before we

hang up, let me know the numbers in regards to revenue generation on the master class that you quoted me a little bit of information on the success that master classes had. We put 63 entrepreneurs through the program from

Australia, Dubai, Malta, Venezuela, India, Hawaii, America, and Canada. Those are the various places that I can remember offhand. And so 63 of them, since they've completed the program, they have generated in excess of $71 million in sales since completing the program. And so what's interesting about it, I hated what I'd seen out there. I didn't like the programs I see in that because they were, they were kind of like throwing a lot of different crap at you. And here's what I found. I consider myself smart, not like academically smart, but like,

I'm a hard worker, I will study, I will lean into stuff, I'm observant. And so why am I feeling from the beginning of the program to the end of the program that I'm as clueless at the end as I wasn't the beginning, the only difference now is I have their whole educational souvenir kit. You know, I have all their swipe files and their formulas and then it all just junk, but why do I feel dumb? And so I didn't want to create something that basically was like,

hey, do what I say, follow what I do so you could be a blind David Barrier puppet. I didn't want that. I want people to think for themselves. If I know why something works, I can construct it, to deconstruct it, put it back together, make it work. That's the way it was built. And so the way it's done is it actually somehow finds the weakest link in each person's, what's undermining their brand. And it's fascinating because for some people it might be how they sell, for some people

like how they negotiate, for some people how they frame their story. For others it's like all the bits and pieces. We even had a fitness instructor out of the Hamptons who did it, had her own fitness studio. And of course 2020 obliterated fitness studios as far as business. So she went from a seven person fitness studio to just being her own solo practitioner.

And so when she heard my program was available, she did it, didn't change, she tweaked some different key things. What would happen was by the time she was done, she now had a completely full roster. She was servicing more customers to capacity than she actually had when she had seven people. Her profit margin went through the roof. She increased her prices and she has people on waiting lists and are referring them elsewhere and that's just a result. So for each person, whether they're solo or other people, we had five people from a $3.5 billion lighting company, the largest lighting company in the world and their their earnings the next quarter were just, so it impacts wherever anyone is to change

their trajectory because they're no longer the passenger. They're actually in the driver's seat of their brand. They have the ownership because I'm very, very well known for threatening to break people's kneecaps if they actually say something. If they are really Very very stubborn about no, no, I really can't do this. I'm like bullshit You're really So that's the kind of pathway and journey it happens. Oh my gosh Well, you are clearly the branding expert. I'm so grateful to be in your circle

I'm gonna have to check out this master class and for everyone else go to rising above the noise.com. I will link to the book to the class to the website in the show notes. Definitely check it out. David until I see you soon on LinkedIn. Thank you so much for being here. 100% you are awesome and make sure send me I got your neck got your name on this. So send me your info and I'll send it to you. Done and done as I would say in my true brand words. Until next week, everyone, keep creating your confidence. You know I will be. I'm gonna write a word over here. I decided to change that line and the end of my bill. I couldn't be more insane than the world. Once you're in here, start learning and growing.

And inevitably something will happen. You know what? 16 to 11. You don't stop and look around once in a while. This episode is brought to you by the YAP Media Podcast Network. I'm Holla Taha, CEO of the award-winning digital media empire YAP Media, and host of YAP Young & Profiting Podcast, a number one entrepreneurship and self-improvement podcast where you can listen, learn, and profit. On Young & Profiting Podcast, I interview the brightest minds in the world, and I turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your daily life. Each week, we dive into a new topic like the Art of Side Hustles, how to level up your

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