Living The Red Life - Why Your Brand Sucks (And How to Fix It) - The Unfiltered Truth About Building an Epic Brand!

Episode Date: June 13, 2024

The podcast episode emphasizes the critical importance of branding beyond just logos and color schemes. The host argues that true branding is about defining core values, target audience, and unique message. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to spend time figuring out their brand's identity, including what they stand for and what they oppose. A strong, distinct brand can make or break a business, influencing everything from marketing effectiveness to customer loyalty and community building.Through personal anecdotes and examples of successful brands, the host illustrates how a well-defined brand simplifies various aspects of business operations. The discussion includes the role of consistent messaging and the necessity of standing out, even if it means being polarizing. The host advises entrepreneurs to be comfortable with not being universally liked, as a clear and unique brand can lead to greater success and easier marketing efforts. The episode concludes with practical advice on creating content that reflects one's brand and continuously testing and refining brand elements to find what resonates most with the audience.2:01 - The Importance of Branding2:32 - Successful Branding Examples4:00 - Personal Branding Journey5:08 - Defining Branding7:11 - Case Study: Wes Watson7:54 - Variety in Successful Brands8:09 - Creating a Unique Brand8:49 - Reaffirming Your Brand Message10:12 - Consistency in Brand Messaging11:12 - Embracing Polarization in Branding13:09 - The Scientist's Neutral Approach14:07 - Creating a Solid Brand Foundation14:42 - Deep Work for Brand Development15:57 - Testing and Iterating Your Brand16:40 - The Power of ContentConnect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter

When I say branding, it's not a logo. It's not just the color schemes. It's like, who do I want to be known for? What do I want my brand to stand for? What are my core values? What am I trying to attract with my customers? What customers do I not want, okay? What philosophies and stuff am I going to stand for?

And then what is the stuff I hate that I'm going to call out and push against and talk about this and this and this that's wrong in the industry or the world. People can't answer those simple questions. So if you're sat there right now and you can't answer those simple questions, go away and figure it out. Spend a weekend or a day or a couple of hours, deep work in a nice open environment and just get pen to paper and start figuring these things out. My name's Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life. What's up, guys? Welcome back to another episode of Living the Red Life.

Today, we're going to talk about why your brand sucks. And yes, that may sting a little, but don't worry. I say it in the nicest way because most brands out there suck. My brand used to suck. I didn't even really used to have a brand. Now I would say I have a pretty epic brand. Everyone says I'm like the best at branding and they love my brand. And I wouldn't have said I was this branding expert years ago, but I've become very obsessed with it in more recent years. And I would say I'm doing a decent job at improving my brand over time. And I used to not even think it was that important. But by the end of today, in the next 20 minutes, I'm going to show you how to fix your brand, why your brand's important,

and how it's actually going to dictate your success in business, and why I believe it's actually the underlying success to most successful companies, okay, and the psychology of it. So let's dive in. When we talk about brand, I think as entrepreneurs, a lot of us don't pay attention to it. And I didn't used to, especially marketers, because we're so used to like focusing on sales, right? Like how do we just do sales and marketing versus branding? And I used to think this branding stuff was like a wishy-washy corporate America, billion dollar company, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But what I've actually learned now, and I've studied this and I've seen this firsthand over 10 years of doing marketing

for thousands of companies and obviously being in this industry is every single time that I would get an agency client or we'd get someone joining our mastermind or I'd hang out with a bunch of successful friends. There was a common denominator. The person that had like a really unique or interesting brand or clear brand would be crushing it and their ads would work way easier and they'd have this crazy tribe and community. Okay. And then everyone that had like no character and nothing unique about them and no brand, it would never take off. Right. Even like I ran an agency for four years. If most of you might not know that before COVID this was,

um, it's still around now. I just, I'm not involved in it. And, um, you know, we had thousands of clients and there'd be every now and then a client would come along with this awesome brand, amazing branding, amazing tribe, amazing messaging. And it was just like a home run when you talk about branding, right? And they would just like, everything would be much easier for us as an agency. Their ads would crush it. They'd get a bunch of engagement. They'd do launches and they'd crush it. It was just fun. It was easy, right? And then most of our clients were the opposite, right? They were random brands. They wanted to grow and scale. So they came to us to hire us because we were great at what we do. And we'd build funnels and we'd build amazing ads and

really high level copy and all these things. But it'd be hard. It'd be like climbing up like uphill with the wind against you in a thunderstorm with a muddy surface. Right. Versus this beautiful like beach run down to the ocean. That's like with a brand versus without a brand. And that was probably those four years when I moved back into growing my own personal brand. And whole red thing that, you know, we've done over $20 million since COVID. So it's pretty good. This is my personal brand and the coaching and masterminds we have off the back of it. That was like a wake up moment that like, okay, as I go back into my own business, I'm going to do it properly this time. I'm going to really build a brand and a community. And I'm still like in the beginner phases, I would say. I think most people say my branding is crazy and blah, blah, blah. But it's like in my head, it's going to be 10 times bigger than this. And that's a big difference between my fitness brand. So I had a fitness brand originally, right? I did about $10 million with that company in my mid-20s. And that didn't

really have a brand. It was named after me. And I became kind of well-known because I spent so much on ads and had so many customers and stuff. But there wasn't a core message. It was like, I just did science. My whole thing was scientific workouts and nutrition for women, right? But it could have been 10 times better if I'd known what I knew now, Okay. So that's the story of why I have seen branding become so important. And when I say branding, I think it's clear to define that it's not a logo. It's not just the color scheme. It's not like how your website looks. It's like the values of who you are and what you do. And if you are fun and entertaining and you have

good characteristics that people want to attract themselves to, and you have something unique and you hit the right market, uh, kind of area of a marketplace and within a niche. And that's all to me, like your brand, okay. And your messaging and, and what you serve and what you do and who you serve and all those things, okay? And it can look very differently. So, you know, I have a friend in Miami here, Wes Watson, his name is, a lot of you might know who he is, very successful in like fitness, health, coaching, and then also like, you know, more like no BS, I would say no BS advice to men and people. And you wouldn't say he's like this necessarily branding expert, right? He's not spent millions of dollars on defining his logo

and his color scheme or anything like that. But he's figured out branding, right? How he polarizes people, how he attracts people, how he drives around in his, you know, Bugatti and 27 Lamborghinis and Rolls Royces. And he's very specific in the brand and the tribe and the community he's growing. And, you know, we had dinner when I first moved to Miami and he was telling me how easy it was to close like really high ticket sales. And, you know, in my head, I was like, it's because of the brand that he's built because no one else would be closing all these crazy high ticket sales. And, you know, in my head, I was like, it's because of the brand that he's built, because no one else would be closing all these crazy high ticket sales like that through their Instagram without sales calls, right? But it's because of the brand he's built. So like, that isn't this like super polished, right? Like spending hundreds of hours on a logo

and a color palette and this branding PDF packet, whereas if you're listening, maybe you have that. I doubt it, but it's like a very clear, distinct and unique brand that has a very strong message. And that's why I love him and what he's done there. Right. And then if you go to the other end of it, there's some of these e-commerce brands out here, beauty lines, like, you know, health food lines, where they've done this amazing job of growing like a really strong and unique and cool brand. You have people like Mr. Beast, who's grown this really strong personal brand with his videos. You have the Kardashians, right? So you have all of these different brands out there and they're all wildly different, but they all have that uniqueness to them. They all have that loyal tribe and community

and they all share some very important characteristics that we're going to talk about for the rest of the today and how you can turn your branding around so it doesn't suck. And so that you can start having that nice, like run down to the beach kind of moment in your business versus how I think most businesses feel, whereas this running uphill in the mud, you know, with the wind this running uphill in the mud, you know, with the wind and the thunderstorm in your face kind of feeling, right? Because most businesses I work with, that's how it feels. And then the few that come along that have the branding nailed down, and don't get me wrong, they have good products and unique products too, but that they have that more running down to the ocean feel, right? When they're doing all their marketing.

So let's talk about key characteristics, okay? So number one is a clearly defined, unique brand, okay? And I know that's a broad thing to say, and it's maybe to go, yeah, no shit, Rudy, but it's very important that you spend time figuring that out. And I do a lot of live trainings on this. I do a lot of trainings to my community on this. I do a lot of trainings to, you know, events about this.

And I say to people, tell me what you stand for. Tell me what your customers think you stand for. How do people recognize you, right? What makes you different? And people can't answer those simple questions. So if you're sat there right now and you can't answer those simple questions, go away and figure it out, okay? And once you've answered those simple questions, the next questions I ask is when it comes to more content creation and branding, right? What do you do that's different? How do you go against the

grain or serve a certain type of person? How do you serve a certain niche? What beliefs do you do that's different? How do you go against the grain or serve a certain type of person? How do you serve a certain niche? What beliefs do you have and you don't have? Okay. All again, very small, subtle, but very, very important little key pieces that will attract people to you, which is what a brand is, right? People that love what you do and they love who you are, okay? And then if we go into another step across from this, okay? So part of it is who you are, your messaging, what you stand for, how you attract people, how you put out content. So then this next phase is like, how do you consistently reaffirm your messaging, okay? And I think most people don't do that very well.

Let's use my friend Wes Watson again. He is very good at doing that. I open my Instagram and I've got him on my Instagram screaming and shouting and calling everyone a bunch of swear words and it's a harsh truth. right? And then I open my Instagram again and he's driving around Miami and it's Bugatti, right? So it's very consistent. It's very clear messaging. He's saying similar things in different ways because that repetition is important, right? Because people take a long time for stuff to sink in. And you can only obviously say the same thing so many times, but it's very consistent messaging. And if you look at other brands out there that are really good, right? Different brands, whether they're econ brands, whether they're hotels or airlines,

they have that consistency about them. I have consistency in the red about me, right? Like I walk around, everyone knows who I am. And if they don't know who I am, they're like the red guy. And even when I'm not around, people see my staff and they're like, do you work for Rudy? Because we have that consistency. Okay. So think about for you, what is the consistency that you're loved for? And what is the consistency that you're hated for? Right? If we look at politics, you know, I'm not into politics, so to speak, but I think Trump was a great example of doing this, building this brand loyalty, right? And, you know, right now, as I'm filming this, you know, there's a lot of controversy because he just got all of these sentences, right? And charges against him. And during his election run, he was very clear around the MAGA, right? And he had the

red hat and everyone still, you know, I still see people wearing them, right? And he had that clear message, make America great again, okay? And he's very good at polarizing. People hate him, people love him, okay? And then some people in the middle are like, what the hell's going on? How do you do that, okay? And take politics out of it, right? Whatever side you support. How do you do that for your brand where you have that consistent, clear messaging? How do you have it where some people really love it? And some people go, what the heck is going on? Because I guarantee when I'm walking around Miami, 90 degrees, big red, fluffy coat, all red, right? I get looks and I can tell I'm not a mind reader, but I can tell they're like, who the hell is that idiot, right? And I'm okay with that. And I'm sure every

controversial person, right? Grant Cardone, Wes Watson, Gary Vee, all of them, right? Jordan Peterson. We all have people that hate us. They're like, I can't stand that idiot. That idiot shouting again. That idiot's talking about 10xing again. That Gary Vee guy swearing again, talking about hustle, right? Whatever it is, we have groups of people that hate us, but then we have a big group that love us. So a key piece of that is knowing what you stand for and then consistently pushing that message. And of course, to be able to do that, you also have to be okay with not having everyone like you. And this was one of my biggest mistakes in my first business, you know, eight, nine years ago, I was a scientist. When I was in my early 20s through college, I was a scientist. I used to study. And the one thing you get taught to be a good scientist is never be opinionated,

be neutral all the time. Okay. They teach you don't ever go into a research study, right? Unless you're trying to disprove a thesis or prove it, go in neutral. Because once you have a cognitive bias, you're going to skew something one way or the other. So everything was neutral. And in nutrition, I would always, in fitness, I'd always be like, this is the best workout. This is the best food. But if you, I would always, and fitness, I'd always be like, this is the best workout. This is the best food. But if you don't like this, you know, you could do it this way

and you can lose weight on carbs or no carbs. And every single diet can work and it's all neutral. And it was like, this is what I believe, but these other things can work and this doesn't work for everyone. And I learned now that was the worst thing I could ever do.

And the key point in there is being okay not to be loved all the time, right? So once you've figured this out, okay, and this all the things I'm talking about here, I know it's big picture and it's going to take some time. So don't worry. Don't be sat there like, Rudy, I don't know where to start, blah, blah, blah. It's okay. But it's something you got to start working on. I promise you, okay?

Just lock yourself for a weekend, okay? Or fly to my office and spend the day with my team working on, I promise you, okay? Just lock yourself for a weekend, okay? Or fly to my office and spend the day with my team working on it, or fly yourself out for two days to the Caribbean or, you know, to the mountains and just sit there and work on these things, okay? This is deep work. This is stuff like, who do I want to be known for? What do I want my brand to stand for? What are my core values? What is my content strategy? What am I going to push? Who is my, what am I trying to attract with my customers? What customers do I not want? Okay. What philosophies and stuff am I going to stand for? And then what is the stuff I

hate that I'm going to call out and push against and talk about this and this and this that's wrong in the industry or the world or whatever, right? So figure out all these things. Think about how can people resonate with me? How can people recognize me? I got the red, right? You don't need red, but how can people recognize me, okay? Figure out, I say something else from working with lots of big celebrities, people like Hulk Hogan, I learned, figure out your gimmick, okay? Everyone has a gimmick that's successful these days. What's your gimmick, right? You have the 10X Grant Cardone, the Gary Vee hustle, hustle, hustle, Tony Robbins, big hands, right? What's your gimmick, okay? Andrew Tate's gimmick, right? It was that super controversial, like how men should be and the world's all screwed and men are all screwed and, right? What's your gimmick? Okay. So

figure out what your gimmick is and just spend a weekend or a day or a couple of hours, deep work in a nice open environment and just get pen to paper and start figuring these things out. Okay. And then once you've got these things, start testing them. Okay. It's like marketing or anything in life. It's not going to be home runs right away. You're not going to start on them all. And it's like, everything's working and hunky dory and you just go viral and have this massive community. No, it's going to take some time. You're going to say, this doesn't really resonate. This doesn't feel right. The audience loved this. They didn't love this, but your best way to test this is content, content, content, content, start getting those messages out there. Start doing those controversial posts. Start talking about these things that you hate and these enemies,

right? Enemies of the audience. So start testing these things with content and starting to see what resonates and even ask your audience, right? Poll them, say, I'm going to start content on these five things. What resonates with you the most, okay? And I do promise you over time, this branding stuff is not a fad. It's not a myth. It's not for billion dollar brands like I used to believe. It's actually an underlining concept in your business that's going to give you stability. It's an underlining concept that's going to make running your business much easier. And it's going to put basically everything on steroids. Your ads are going to work better. Your emails are going to work better. Your launches are going to work better. You're going to walk into an event like I do, and people are going to know you and come up to you. And when

you want to get on a call with someone for help or to do a JV or a partnership, they already know who you are and they love you. And they're like, hell yes. Right. So everything's going to be easier and better. If you can get this stuff right, your content is going to be easier and better if you can get this stuff right. Your content's going to do better. You're going to get more followers, more organic traffic. People are going to be excited to buy your new product and open up your emails, right? I'm filming this right now. I just mentioned this. All the Trump controversy just got all these charges in court. And I think within one day, 24 hours, he had $56 million in donations, $56 million in donations. Again, not into politics, but you can't tell me he's not built a tribe in a

community and done it in a world-class fashion to get $56 million in donations in one day because he got all these charges, right? That is, to me, proof that those tribes exist and a great example, right? Like, I want for every single one of you, right, that if something happens or you get charged with something, you have $56 million in donations from your fans, right? Because you've built a tribe at that point, okay? For us in business, hopefully it's nothing illegal and it's not donations because you got charged to something. Hopefully. Right. It's just people buying your products and services. Right. That's what we want. That's what we all desire as business owners.

And that to me is like the creme de la creme of building a brand. So there you have it, guys. Hopefully that message hits home. Your branding may suck right now, but I promise it can change quickly if you listen to today's episode. I love you all and I'm excited to help all of you. If I can help, just let me know. And if you have questions or you want me to help flush out your brand, just Instagram message me, okay? And while you're there, go ahead and leave a review on the podcast, screenshot that, and I'll send you $1,000 of courses, courses on marketing, copywriting, email marketing, advertising, and social content and branding, which you probably need

if you got this far into the podcast and you know this is a sore point for your business. Okay. I love talking about this stuff. As you can tell, I'm enthusiastic about this stuff. I geek out on this stuff because I see how powerful this stuff is for you. So until next time, work on your brand, keep me updated, and I'll see you soon.