Episode 23
Unlocking Impactful Branding: Rich Kozak's Expert Insights
Discover the secrets of impactful branding with expert Rich Kozak, as he joins Brett Deister on Digital Coffee: Marketing Brew. This enlightening conversation dives into the art of branding, highlighting the significance of shaping your brand's perception to effectively reach your target audience. Rich shares his extensive experience, emphasizing that a well-defined branding strategy is crucial for making meaningful impacts in today's market. Learn essential tips on how to craft a unique brand voice and the importance of authenticity in your marketing efforts. Equip yourself with invaluable insights that will elevate your branding game and help you resonate with your audience like never before.
Takeaways:
- Impact-driven branding requires a clear understanding of your unique purpose and vision.
- Effective branding is a process that shapes the perception of your target audience.
- Public relations is a crucial marketing element that amplifies brand awareness when executed correctly.
- The clarity of your brand's messaging directly impacts its ability to cultivate trust and connection.
- To achieve impactful branding, focus on defining your brand's unique characteristics and expertise.
- AI tools can assist with execution but cannot replace the unique voice of your brand.
Links referenced in this episode:
💬 Want to get involved? Leave us a comment, give us a 'like,' and follow us for more insights. Join our Locals for lively discussions, and if you've got questions, email us at bdeister@digitalcafe.media!
👕 Check out our merch: www.digitalcafe.store
🌟 Review the Podcast if you loved this episode and share it with fellow marketers who could benefit from a treasure trove of podcasting wisdom. Tune in to "Digital Coffee: Marketing Brew" and let's brew up some success together!
Transcript
Mm, that's good.
Brett Dicer:And welcome to a new episode of Digital Coffee Marketing.
Brett Dicer:Brilliant.
Brett Dicer:I'm your host, Brett Dicer, and this we're going to be talking about PR and a little bit about Ebill marketing, but mostly in that type of realm because PR and email marketing actually goes hand in hand because of all the awareness that we have to do for our clients.
Brett Dicer:But with me, I have Rich with me and he is a person that does brand to impact.
Brett Dicer:So he has impact driven branding and he is very experienced in branding in all aspects of branding.
Brett Dicer:So we'll talk a little bit about that too because it's just as important and he's just great to have him on the show.
Brett Dicer:So welcome to show Rich.
Rich:Hey, thanks, Brett.
Rich:It's a right, it's a really good place for me to be and I'm, I'm excited to deliver a bunch of different used to the people listening here.
Rich:So let's do it.
Brett Dicer:All right.
Brett Dicer:And the first question is all my guesses.
Brett Dicer:Are you a coffee or a tea drinker?
Rich:That's interesting.
Rich:I make coffee for my wife every morning and she usually asks me if I want a cup.
Rich:But I'm evolving to tea because I'm, I have a beast mode coach who's helping me get into the best shape of my life.
Rich:And the guideline is drink lots of green tea.
Rich:So I'm heading in that dark.
Rich:I like mint tea too, and other, you know, organic teas.
Rich:I, we grow our own, some of our own food here.
Rich:I'm an organic gardener and organic chef.
Rich:Yeah, leaning toward tea now, but it was 12 cups of coffee a day at the ad agency, so I've paid my dues on boots.
Brett Dicer:That's quite a bit.
Brett Dicer:I top out at five.
Rich:We didn't really keep count.
Rich:I'm just, it's 12 because we were there usually 12 hours.
Rich:You have at least one an hour.
Brett Dicer:Coffee can be good too, as long as you don't put the sugar and the cream in it.
Brett Dicer:The sugar and cream ruin it.
Rich:I don't know, man.
Rich:Coffee and chocolate were the fuel of the industry when I was in there.
Brett Dicer:Anyway, that's fair.
Brett Dicer:And I gave a brief explanation about your expertise.
Brett Dicer:Can you give audience a little bit more about what you do?
Rich:Oh, absolutely.
Rich:Going back to my degree, it's in marketing and international business.
Rich:Eventually I ended up for 17 and a half years as the executive vice president of what I would call a high tech ad agency and global branding firm.
Rich:So.
Rich:So we were partners with 21 other agencies worldwide.
Rich:So I had partners in 21 countries.
Rich:And we built global brand teams to move brands from country to country.
Rich:Talk about a pinnacle of a career.
Rich:That was an absolute blast.
Rich:I was really good at it.
Rich:Particularly sharing with target customers what we saw clearly they could do in terms of shaping the perception of their company in the eyes of their target constituencies.
Rich:Being that passionate guy, that was beautiful.
Rich:But also, also explaining to them that branding, the shaping of that perception is a process.
Rich:And they thought it was airy fairy marketing baloney.
Rich:And we taught them its steps.
Rich:And that's one of those things that people that are listening here right now probably are going, I never heard that because they had never heard that because people don't teach it.
Rich:And I've been teaching it for.
Rich:I'm on my 47th year of defining and languaging brands and launching them.
Rich:And that's.
Rich:Here's a goal, here's a rich strategy nugget.
Rich:You're listening to this right now.
Rich:You write this down, your marketing, and that includes all those marketing extension marketing elements, including PR and anything.
Rich:Mark, your marketing at its best is the execution of an excellent branding strategy.
Rich:So what the heck does that mean?
Rich:And if it's a process, how do you do that in a way that makes you the champion of your own brand and how you evolve that crystal clear, consistent perception over time to move your strategically?
Rich:It works.
Rich:That thought process and the step by step process of doing what needs to be in place works for $14 billion companies.
Rich:I know I've been doing it.
Rich:And it works for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs.
Rich:That is all I've been doing for the last 10 years.
Rich:Today, the work at rich brands literally evolves personal brands with what we love to say, divine purpose.
Rich:Because everyone has a purpose.
Rich:Everyone's here for a reason.
Rich:They might be really good at their business, but our businesses aren't necessarily why we're here.
Rich:But if you do really branding the right way, it gives you this marvelous platform that makes it easier for you to step higher, to make higher impacts, to leave a legacy to step into really why you're here.
Rich:So that's why I'm still in branding after 47 years.
Rich:Hopefully that helps.
Rich:And it feels like love, Brett.
Rich:It didn't feel like love at the agency.
Rich:It felt like stress.
Rich:I still was addicted to it, but at 50, I literally resigned my career and changed my prayer to I'm reshaping my life.
Rich:Show me what you want me to do.
Rich:I'm ready.
Rich:And I end up back helping individuals, moving, they're shaping, defying the Brands they envision, but they were clear.
Rich:They said, this is what I see, these are the impacts I see and what we realize.
Rich:And this is a writer downer.
Rich:When you ask your heart, hey, heart, I'm doing this and I know I can really impact this kind of a person in this way and I really want to.
Rich:And you write that down and there's levels of impact.
Rich:You can get them to change how they see themselves and you can get teach them new skills and next thing, the highest level of impacts, they're giving back to the community or to the world.
Rich:So it's what you write that down.
Rich:I'm telling you, however big you are, one person, a big company, you can be, you can define in language the brand you must become to make those impacts.
Rich:And that's when everything you say and do aligns from that point on.
Rich:And that is where you want to be no matter what you're doing.
Rich:I don't care if you're a coach or you're integrating software, or you have a manufacturing industry or you know, you're a podcast host, it doesn't matter.
Rich:Does that help?
Brett Dicer:And so is that part of the impact driven branding is finding your impact in life?
Brett Dicer:Is that what I'm like assuming is what it's all about?
Rich:It's not.
Rich:There was a lot of stuff during the self development heyday, find your purpose and all that stuff.
Rich:This is not a loosey goosey kind of thing.
Rich:The process I'm talking about of the book is coming out that I'm writing is called Impact driven Branding.
Rich:Seven steps to ensure your brand impacts people's lives in the world.
Rich:So to really come alive and attract people quickly and get faster to your impacts, brands need to come from inside you.
Rich:They need to come from your heart, not some something slapped on the outside.
Rich:So the name of my publishing company, which you saw behind me maybe for a split second when I had my background up, is Impact Driven Publishing.
Rich:The name of my business is Rich Rich Brands.
Rich:It's what my name is and what I do.
Rich:Rich Brands.
Rich:And at Rich Brands we, we.
Rich:Obviously I teach and I speak and I write, but I mentor and guide clients sometimes one on one.
Rich:If that's the only way they can do it and if somebody's really successful, often the only way they can do it is one on one and in groups to define in language that next level of their brand, or if there's something new right from the start so that they're getting credit and using unique language that gives them exactly what they need to Be unique and to come alive and to race to their impacts.
Rich:It's a process, it's steps.
Rich:There are seven and it's not a big deal.
Rich:It's rigorous work.
Rich:But most people who talk about branding are selling marketing services and they don't really know the process.
Rich:And many people, even in the branding industry don't teach it or guide it.
Rich:They just are doing creative ideation and maybe their background's visual and so they talk about colors and logos and stuff.
Rich:And maybe their background, maybe they were on the suit side, so their background strategic.
Rich:But it's just a process and it works if you make it impact driven.
Rich:In other words, you write them down first.
Rich:The whom you clearly see impacting and the impacts all the way up to the highest level.
Rich:You write a few of those down and you can define a brand.
Rich:And because of the foundation of clarity that work gives it the brand resonate.
Rich:People can feel how authentic it is and it's coming from the heart of the champion of the brand.
Rich:It's not something that somebody like me threw on them or thought up for them.
Rich:It's something that came from inside them.
Rich:The impacts they clearly see.
Rich:The impacts, the people they clearly see and really want to help, they really want to impact.
Rich:It doesn't matter whether it's a.
Rich:I had one client who was integrating software and their target was manufacturing and distribution firms.
Rich:I have other clients who help people get over the fact that they were sexually abused as a child or somebody that has a software that increases the efficiency of business.
Rich:It's.
Rich:It doesn't matter what you're doing.
Rich:If you're focused on impact.
Rich:This can really help the people who are impact driven.
Rich:They don't have.
Rich:They don't know who to trust and they know they need a brand.
Rich:Wait, don't they?
Rich:It's like branding.
Rich:The word is so misused by people who sell stuff.
Rich:This will help your brand that people don't trust it and they don't understand it and they are leery of it or skeptical.
Rich:But man, oh man, I'm telling you from, for the last 10 years actually going on tenure, individuals who hear me speak and who realize it's straight talk, not jargon and deep experience, know that there's a place that they can literally plug in and they get it right the first time.
Rich:They don't want to get it wrong.
Rich:Many times they've been working for 20 years or 30 years and they want to take it to another level.
Rich:The last thing they want to do is muck it up, make a mistake or do it wrong or work with somebody who says they, you know what they're doing, but they don't.
Rich:There's a lot of them in the coaching world.
Rich:I don't know if I know.
Rich:I don't know how much you get out, but I keep going to all these.
Rich:I just literally got back from Las Vegas, I was in two back to back sessions over five days and there were a lot of people on those stages and some of them have been around a long time and some of them are just hit the screen about three years ago.
Rich:There are a lot of people that love to use the word brand and they don't know jack squat, not comparatively.
Rich:They.
Rich:If you lit them on fire, they couldn't tell you the four things a brand has to have to come alive instead of fall flat.
Rich:They would have to wing it.
Rich:But it's just a process.
Rich:It's steps and man oh man, it's like building a pipeline to a jungle or you know, writing a course curriculum just is steps.
Rich:Writing a book we offer.
Rich:The reason I have impact driven publishing is like once a brand is clearly defined, one of those executional marketing elements like pr, which is a huge one and I'd love to talk to you about that because I know that's your expertise area is book writing or article, literally documenting your opinion or documenting your expertise or documenting your thinking in ways that you're leading people's thinking instead of just regurgitating what everybody already knew.
Rich:And we literally.
Rich:Once a brand is clearly defined, it's easier, it's actually way easier to not only name books but title and subtitle the chapters, create the flow subchapter titles that are intriguing and you haven't even written the book yet, but it's all congruent and it's in brand language.
Rich:It's a delight.
Rich:I just finished two clients books.
Rich:One is already launched.
Rich:We're going to launch the other one early next year and there's lots more coming.
Rich:I have one client who's on their second book with Impact Driven Publishing and he has a series of three books.
Rich:The first was on his expertise and the second is a bridge book and the third is.
Rich:Is clearly right in his.
Rich:His purpose.
Rich:Awesome.
Rich:And that.
Rich:And I get to do this work.
Rich:To me I feel like the luckiest man in the world.
Rich:That's not.
Rich:You don't usually hear that kind of talk from a branding person.
Rich:I can talk big boy branding and I can use jargon all day long.
Rich:But why There are millions of entrepreneurs, many deeply Experienced and know there's more.
Rich:There's a higher level for them.
Rich:They don't even know how to articulate it, but I will.
Rich:There's an umbrella brand.
Rich:They think they're a specialist at stress relievable, or they think they're a specialist at book writing, or they think they're a specialist at software integration or at overcoming abuse.
Rich:That's what they think they are.
Rich:That's what they think they're.
Rich:But there's a higher level why they're here.
Rich:And so those things I just mentioned, those are just a spoke in the umbrella.
Rich:The question is for everybody who knows there's more and they want to make bigger impacts, more impacts, higher level impact is what's that umbrella?
Rich:That is a fun area and a very, very authentic area of branding the right way for individuals.
Rich:And hey, Brett, I don't know if you can tell I don't like this at all.
Rich:Okay.
Rich:I don't enjoy this at all.
Rich:Is that coming across?
Rich:It is a God blessing to be able to.
Rich:And I quit.
Rich:I used to say I don't do branding anymore.
Rich:That's what those words are coming off my lips.
Rich:It is a blessing to be doing this work.
Rich:So I've made the decision a year ago to put myself out there and put rich brands out there so that whomever is supposed to hear this hears it and knows there's a place that they can get straight talk you can trust and deep experience you can count on in the area of the brand you will become.
Rich:How's that?
Brett Dicer:All right, that sounds good.
Brett Dicer:So how do you start this process?
Brett Dicer:You said there's the seven steps.
Brett Dicer:And how does PR get in with this?
Brett Dicer:Because I know a lot of PR people.
Brett Dicer:They talk about authenticity, they talk about authority, they talk about all this stuff.
Brett Dicer:But where do you get all that stuff?
Brett Dicer:Because I see the PR industry is very specific on what they want people to be authentic, which to me isn't really authentic.
Brett Dicer:Because if you're one specific way and you're only one specific way, that's not very authentic.
Rich:Public relations is a marketing execution element.
Rich:So let's give it a definition.
Rich:Public relations technically is an unpaid marketing channel.
Rich:So someone who runs a magazine or someone who runs a TV station or runs a radio show or runs a podcast, they're a media.
Rich:Public relations is feeding them a voice of an individual or the information from a company.
Rich:So that media outlet, if you will, chooses to interview it or lift it up or tell a story about it or present it.
Rich:And because they're only one person, but media reaches, in some cases hundreds, in some cases millions.
Rich:It is a marketing multiplication execution element.
Rich:So PR can be, PR can make.
Rich:PR is a game changer.
Rich:Let's give it its highest level.
Rich:You get one really good pickup, even if it's local.
Rich:And it can move like wildfire.
Rich:And so it is worthy to ask when it's time.
Rich:Once the brand's been defined and languaged and it's ready to open its mouth, you know its messaging hierarchy has been drafted.
Rich:The number one barrier that won't let the brand in, that you got to overcome right away.
Rich:You've prioritized the top 10 characteristics that the brand must get credit for.
Rich:On first impression, all that work's been done and now it's time to write a press release or to say, what do we lift up and when?
Rich:These are marketing decisions, timing, and what's the purpose?
Rich:So if you need to be known for something in order to make your impacts, PR is one huge way to be known.
Rich:But you better have that language crafted.
Rich:Because if you think, let's get back to a real basic that we can all like, use as the Bible.
Rich:Your brand is a perception, but it's not your perception, it's everybody else's.
Rich:And your job branding is to shape a consistent perception.
Rich:So the language, the way you say what you do, the way you describe what happens when someone takes the brand in, the way you describe, simply the way, you know, I describe for someone what I see for them when they do this work, the way I describe, the way we all say, here's what I see for you, here's what we at our brand see for you is very magnetic or it's very confusing.
Rich:And most brands fall flat because they create confusion or misinformation.
Rich:And the way they talk, the way they show up, and the clarity with which your brand speaks, says things, shows up, looks, its posture, its attitude, its passion or not, whether it's listening or whether it's just talking, the clarity with which your brand speaks shapes its impact.
Rich:So having that foundational work done before the marketing execution elements like advertising or social media or public relations or trying to land a story or start a movement or whatever the mission is, is really, let's just say, dramatically improves any individual brand's probability of succeeding.
Rich:Otherwise, when there's inconsistency, you lose trust.
Rich:When there's.
Rich:You say something two different ways, it creates confusion.
Rich:And these are very common human.
Rich:These are very common human attributes.
Rich:Look, we all have to raise our hands.
Rich:We go to a pod, we go to a networking thing.
Rich:And somebody says, what do you do?
Rich:And you say it one way, and then somebody else says, what do you say it another way?
Rich:And the guy, first person you talk to, the woman says, hey, I thought women, I thought you did this, but you do this, we're all guilty.
Rich:And brands get to clearly define and language themselves.
Rich:It is maybe that clarity is a magnet.
Rich:It's a magnet.
Rich:And so we all should want it.
Rich:But we don't know.
Rich:We don't think about branding in that way.
Rich:We think about it's a campaign or a look or a logo or a tagline or anything.
Rich:We think that's it, but it's not.
Rich:It's the strategic.
Rich:And branding is a strategic and ongoing crafting, shaping of that perception so that your brand strategically wins and gets where it needs to go.
Rich:And that's an ongoing process.
Rich:And if you don't know how to think about it, you just beat anything, you know, anything is good.
Rich:And this process we love, we laugh about the process gives you the power of next.
Rich:Where somebody comes in because, oh, hey, here's a good idea.
Rich:Dumbo flies in and drops the leaflets and then we give the kids candy and then the big band.
Rich:It's like, whatever, an idea.
Rich:And you look up at your desired brand triangle that lists your characteristics and priority order and you go, that's a pretty good idea.
Rich:It gives us credit for three of our top seven characteristics, two of our expertise and competencies.
Rich:That's a pretty good idea.
Rich:Or you look up and you go, next.
Rich:The power of next will save you so much time and money.
Rich:Okay, let's not kid around.
Rich:If you wanna be more successful, doing the work in advance will save you time and money.
Rich:And what's the value of blowing a year, confusing people or trying what works?
Rich:And you end up crossing the credibility line because you were in the hands of some marketer who said, do this.
Rich:This always works.
Rich:But it didn't feel congruent.
Rich:And you didn't use that as a, you know, as a value.
Rich:And it's because you didn't know.
Rich:So pr, a phenomenal execution element.
Rich:And there are people, and I, some of them are my coaches, who, particularly media relations, knowing people who, Knowing people in media outlets who are looking for voices, looking for good interviews, looking for stories.
Rich:Those people are worth their weight in gold.
Rich:They're facilitators because they already have the ear and the relationship with the media.
Rich:And getting plugged into them is a joy, particularly when you're real and you really have something of value.
Rich:And PR is.
Rich:You don't.
Rich:You might pay the PR person, but you don't pay the media.
Rich:It's not pay for play.
Rich:Advertising is pay for play.
Rich:So one good placement can multiply your success.
Rich:It's always a question, is it part of the meat of the marketing execution elements list?
Rich:Always.
Rich:And the process of marketing.
Rich:I sat on the board of directors of the American Marketing Association.
Rich:Just so I don't know if you saw them resume, but literally I was elected.
Rich:I was a president of Southern California's American Marketing Association.
Rich:I got elected to the national board and I was with these big marketing, you know, big vice president marketing from big consumer products.
Rich:And then there were people who were focusing on research.
Rich:So there are the people who are the practitioners and then the frontline people and the people who are the.
Rich:They.
Rich:They use the word academicians who are the process people and the studying people and the.
Rich:They specialized in multivariate statistical analysis and things like that.
Rich:What a mixed bag.
Rich:Absolutely wonderful.
Rich:And I only use one word for marketing.
Rich:It's execution of an excellent branding strategy.
Rich:And it's always the same question.
Rich:Series media is always one of them.
Rich:What media do we use?
Rich:Marketing doesn't change just because there's new media.
Rich:Oh, but what about clubhouse?
Rich:It's just a media.
Rich:The question is my target audience?
Rich:There, that's it.
Rich:We got it.
Rich:Back to media analysis.
Rich:We were looking at magazines back in my day.
Rich:Who's reading it?
Rich:Am I reaching electrical engineers that are working on semiconductor design or am I not?
Rich:Or am I reaching doctors who are working in psychology?
Rich:Who am I reaching?
Rich:It's the same process.
Rich:It's just there's different media and there'll be different.
Rich:There'll be new stuff popping up all the time.
Rich:But the process of defining and languaging a brand and then the process of going through the marketing questions and asking where should we be to reach our target?
Rich:And are the same.
Rich:They don't change.
Rich:Sorry.
Rich:In case you're listening and you're thinking, wow, it's so different now.
Rich:Not so much different media.
Rich:Okay.
Rich:Been there.
Rich:Yeah.
Rich:We used to try to reach people on their blackberries.
Rich:That's over.
Rich:Okay.
Rich:I was at one of these conferences that I was just this weekend, I heard, hey, the convert.
Rich:The.
Rich:Sorry.
Rich:The open rate for text marketing, text messages is 90%.
Rich:People open their text message.
Rich:The open rate for email is 10.
Rich:Note to self.
Rich:It's like when you learn stuff like that, you're going, now that's a change.
Rich:So people's behavior change.
Rich:I own an Event called the Clarity Summit where I interview world class experts.
Rich:We did it in August this year and I interviewed the man who has written the book on consumer behavior that is in its 14th pressing worldwide.
Rich:It's in he knows more consumer behavior and trends than anybody else in the world and he will tell you that certain behaviors are shifting and certain things are having more influence than they ever have before, including environment.
Rich:Many times people have marketers have, let's say, put their expectations in place for how a consumer will behave based on demographics, what was their education, how much money do they make and what's their zip code.
Rich:It's not a real working formula anymore.
Rich:It has more to do with the environment where they make the decision.
Rich:And he will explain that to you in spades.
Rich:So listening to world class experts about what's shifting, futurists who are watching how people behave, how they change, what their preferences are, the language they use, these are the important things to keep your if you are a marketer, you're selling what you do or presenting what you do to your target audience, knowing what's on their mind, the thoughts they have about what you do.
Rich:For an inst.
Rich:Let's say you're a branding consultant like me and the thoughts in my target market is I don't, I don't.
Rich:We need better ways to say what we do.
Rich:But I don't know, I don't know how to get that.
Rich:I don't really trust branding.
Rich:It's just so fake.
Rich:It's like there's all these thoughts.
Rich:Even among experienced entrepreneurs, they've been doing something for 20 or 30 years.
Rich:They have their own perception and their own history and knowing what those are, we get to speak to them.
Rich:So even in, let's say we're doing a public relations interview on a topic that a media person was interested in and hooked them and they asked us to be on.
Rich:Within that interview, I literally can say, for example, a person might think, this common entrepreneur might think, wow, it's just we just are struggling with how to position ourselves to charge what we're worth.
Rich:Well, that's actually a very overcomeable challenge.
Rich:So what I did was just mention a care about a thought in the language of my target audience that's in their head that repeats.
Rich:We're not positioning ourselves to charge it worth.
Rich:We need to position ourselves better to be able to charge it.
Rich:It's in their head and I happen to let it pop out of my mouth.
Rich:And if my target audience hears that it's a magnet, even though it was PR And I am there to satisfy and serve the interviewer.
Rich:But I know as a mark what my job is.
Rich:It's to get credit for that list of things that we must get credit for to make our impacts.
Rich:Categories of expertise, characteristics.
Rich:It's a process and there's not a big list.
Rich:Those are the two big ones.
Rich:Categories of expertise stated in a unique way.
Rich:So we get credit and characteristics, those things that you must get credit for.
Rich:One of the things we really love about it, they're just so transparent.
Rich:Transparent.
Rich:On the top five list, you want to get credit for it, you want it in your testimonials.
Rich:I feel funny saying thanks for asking because I've been talking all this time, but you can tell I'm at the top of the umbrella in terms of branding and marketing.
Rich:When you run an agency, and ours was B2B, but it doesn't matter.
Rich:It's the same process and we had partners all over the world.
Rich:And then you have the international dimension, which there's different laws and stuff, which makes it even more fun.
Rich:But you only get about 5 or 10% of the time of a year to work on brand issues.
Rich:The rest of the time, it's execution, it's marketing, it's building market share, it's launching new products, it's changing the perception of a target audience.
Rich:It's getting credit for something people don't know to give you credit for.
Rich:It's doing those, it's executing.
Rich:And so somebody like me, I either have a gift of touching people's hearts and being able to hear and see what their.
Rich:What is possible for them and their brand.
Rich:That's a gift.
Rich:And I love that I have it.
Rich:I'm so grateful that I have it.
Rich:And that's probably why I'm doing what I'm doing.
Rich:Because I believe it's God's work.
Rich:I believe God put the desire for impacts in people's hearts.
Rich:So that's why it feels like love.
Rich:But the process of looking at the whole overview, it's a lot of moving parts, but it's always the same parts.
Rich:So when you've done it for 47 years, you're familiar with all the parts.
Rich:So if you said to me, hey, do you know what do people really need to know about trademarks?
Rich:Or what do people need to know about logos and taglines or about trade dress?
Rich:Nobody even knows what that is.
Rich:I could talk for weeks.
Rich:Don't get me started.
Rich:Because I've been doing this a long time and I love to.
Rich:I've been teaching clients Forever.
Rich:They're not specialists in branding.
Rich:It behooves the agency to makes help them know that we are.
Rich:And the more experience we have, we can even take from one industry and use it in another industry.
Rich:What worked over here that somebody's using?
Rich:No, but somebody over here never heard of.
Rich:So all of that's in there and.
Rich:Yeah, and every one of the marketing execution elements has its value for the client, for the target audience, for the time, for the objective.
Rich:It all starts with objectives.
Rich:And if your objective is to sell, you gotta be doing that.
Rich:You gotta have a call to action on everything.
Rich:If your objective is to change an industry's, change a person's mind, it's a different process.
Rich:So you gotta start with the objectives.
Rich:Even no matter what the project is into a brochure.
Rich:You're gonna write a book or you're gonna write a press.
Rich:You start with the objectives in priority order.
Rich:I'll do okay.
Rich:PR firm, Advent, it doesn't matter.
Rich:One of the absolute most valuable tools on the planet is a creative brief.
Rich:It's that document that the, the head of whoever owns the account writes before they allow the creative people to start brainstorming.
Rich:And it says, okay, these are the objectives.
Rich:There's only three.
Rich:And here's priority order.
Rich:This one's 50%.
Rich:This is, here's a target.
Rich:This is what we want the result to be.
Rich:Here's the barrier.
Rich:If what we do creatively does not overcome the barrier, everybody loses.
Rich:So do not bring me any solutions that do not overcome the barrier.
Rich:That 15 seconds right there will save you time and money.
Rich:No matter what area of marketing or branding you're in, or any marketing excuse in public relations or marketing or selling, sales, promotion, it doesn't matter.
Rich:It's, it's write a brief, write a project brief and man, oh man, everybody gets to refer to it and it keeps things on track and you'll be more successful faster.
Rich:There got to be questions on your mind about the things that people struggle with that maybe someone like me might have a perspective on.
Rich:I would love to speak directly to any of those, if any of them are coming to mind.
Brett Dicer:Mostly it's just all about the advent of AI and how it's changing the landscape a little bit.
Brett Dicer:So how do you deal with that while also trying to create an impact driven branding?
Brett Dicer:Because anybody can now create a logo.
Brett Dicer:Anybody can now create branding.
Brett Dicer:Anybody can now create low taglines or anything or a creative brief.
Brett Dicer:They can just use ChatGPT or Bard and they could make a generalized one.
Brett Dicer:It won't be good, but it'll be general.
Rich:It's a great question and very timely part of this.
Rich:Probably half of the conference, the five days that I just attended was AI focused for that reason.
Rich:So first, my opinion doesn't really matter here, but I will give it to you.
Rich:There will be phenomenal benefits to marketers in using AI technology.
Rich:It will speed things up.
Rich:It will maybe, depending on how it's used, might help build consistency.
Rich:But it will not define and language a unique brand.
Rich:It's not designed for that.
Rich:It's designed to take pieces of stuff it already has and put them together.
Rich:And that said, phenomenal benefits coming down the road.
Rich:It was.
Rich:It's like the TI calculator was for engineers.
Rich:Holy crap.
Rich:I don't have to do any of this.
Rich:That's like back from the day, okay?
Rich:But we were all using TI calculators when we got to college because they created this chip that was a math processor and Holy Mazzoli.
Rich:AI is kind of like that when it comes to language.
Rich:People write, promote, they write proposals and they import their thing and they say, talk like me.
Rich:I just saw something that said, hey, write an article in the.
Rich:That that is a sales promotion article and make it in Dan Kennedy's voice.
Rich:It's what?
Rich:Okay, anyway, there is tremendous opportunity to, let's say facilitate, in other words, make easier some of the marketing execution processes and sales promotion processes.
Rich:But the creation of a unique brand that has unique language, that transfers energy, that gets you credit for what makes you outstanding.
Rich:Don't be looking to AI to do that.
Rich:I'm telling you, you want to look AI to execute it.
Rich:Okay, so let's say you've done the foundational work.
Rich:The language is there.
Rich:First of all, you don't feed it into AI because now it has your unique language.
Rich:It's like giving away the corporate jewels.
Rich:So time out on that one.
Rich:Please do not do that.
Rich:But let's see, you have it now.
Rich:You say, hey, we need to get credit for this.
Rich:Write me an article that and you get it back and you make sure that piece of copy, whatever it is, congruent with the brand.
Rich:The process that you'd been through included.
Rich:This is a category of expertise.
Rich:Let's name one.
Rich:A woman who has a bookkeeping studio that she has for 20 or she has 15 people working for it, but she understands tech stack and how it will people mess it up and they have and it becomes if it's kludgy, it's going to keep you from growing the company.
Rich:And it's going to be a drag on your growth and a problem.
Rich:And one of her categories of expertise is.
Rich:And the way we stated, the woman speaking at the Rapid Growth Business Conference next year is an expert at.
Rich:I need to get in her zone.
Rich:Simplifying the critical tech and accounting decisions for your business to reach millions.
Rich:That's not a bookkeeper.
Rich:Okay.
Rich:Is not.
Rich:She is on it, on technology.
Rich:She works with tech stack assimilation.
Rich:Bookkeeper.
Rich:Oh yeah.
Rich:There's always a general journal.
Rich:It's at the hub of what's attached to it.
Rich:That's.
Rich:That's what it looked.
Rich:And you're going to grow quick.
Rich:You better get that right before you start firing.
Rich:Under that category of expertise, we write, we create during the process titles and subtitles of content for her.
Rich:I think we did about 15 under that header.
Rich:And there's only two rules.
Rich:They have to be congruent with the language of the brand.
Rich:Those characteristics that we described earlier, they're on step four.
Rich:This is step five where we, in step six, where we say the categories expertise and the titles and subtitles of content.
Rich:So you have these words.
Rich:So if the brand is patient, you can't have a title that sounds impatient.
Rich:If there's a certain attitude from the brand, you can't write with a different attitude.
Rich:So we're already doing that in the process and you're already really familiar with it.
Rich:Now when you get back your AI generated article or blog post or sales promotion tool or whatever you're doing, you can apply the overlay of what's not congruent.
Rich:My brand.
Rich:Let's fix it.
Rich:We're in a headline to tagline.
Rich:It still speeds you up, but you make sure that the brand is always.
Rich:That everything the brand says and does is aligned with the impacts that you want to make and the things you must get credit for to make those impacts.
Rich:It's.
Rich:It always works.
Rich:It has to, because it's a prep.
Rich:It's a prerequisite.
Rich:What are the impacts?
Rich:What do we need to become to make those impacts?
Rich:We got to get credit for what we need to become.
Rich:I don't know if it feels.
Rich:I'm trying to make it sound simple because it is rigorous work, but once done, you benefit from it for a lifetime.
Rich:Your brand benefits from it for a lifetime.
Rich:And you have this foundation of clarity that acts as a magnet.
Rich:Who wouldn't want that?
Rich:But people will know it exists.
Rich:They think branding is tricks.
Rich:And the ones that will feed will call Fiverr and make a logo and think that's Pretty good.
Rich:And they wonder why their brand's not coming alive and why.
Rich:It's a process.
Rich:I don't know how many logo evolutions I've been through and developments, but it's a process for logo development.
Rich:It starts in black and white.
Rich:If it doesn't work in black and white, you never use it.
Rich:And logos do a lot of things.
Rich:They position, they can share messaging, they can overcome a barrier.
Rich:They can create a first impression using colors.
Rich:Like logos do a lot of things and people don't know that and they don't think about it.
Rich:They say, I mean logo.
Rich:And those people are dangerous to themselves.
Rich:It's like back in the back years and years ago when the Apple, the Apple machines were coming out and companies would buy a Macintosh or whatever and they would.
Rich:And you'd say, wow, we've been watching what you're doing and we'd like our agency to come in and share with you.
Rich:Oh no, we don't need an agency.
Rich:We have a Mac.
Rich:It's like the computer is gonna.
Rich:You can't get perspective from a computer.
Rich:Same thing.
Rich:It really is.
Rich:It's the same thing.
Rich:And we laugh about it.
Rich:It's just.
Rich:AI has tremendous power.
Rich:Just like the calculator is tremendous.
Rich:Unbelievable.
Rich:And for productivity and 100 times is amazing.
Rich:But do not the responsibility to be the champion of your brand.
Rich:Oh dear.
Rich:Not a good decision.
Rich:And if that decision is made out of ignorance, I totally understand.
Rich:Or out of a misunderstanding, not understanding what branding can be, I totally understand that.
Rich:I my wish and prayer for people who really want to make an impact and they have great work to do that will change the lives and businesses and outcomes of individuals and those who are their target audiences is that they.
Rich:This message reaches them and they go, wow.
Rich:Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Rich:And it does.
Rich:Sorry if I'm making your head spin, man, but I'm gonna tell me doing this 47 years, as you can tell, I'm not.
Rich:I don't think I'm going anywhere anytime soon.
Rich:So I'm, I'm not.
Rich:I'm gonna keep doing this because it feels like love.
Rich:The people who find me are remarkable.
Rich:I just came from this conference, I swear probably 17 people came up to me and said, oh my God, you touched my heart.
Rich:I really value what you're doing.
Rich:I can't.
Rich:This is new to me.
Rich:Those are the ones.
Rich:And this is very high level kind of self development area.
Rich:And yeah, it's a good thing.
Rich:So I'm going to keep, I'm going to Keep speaking regularly.
Rich:And I'm.
Rich:I want to speak to any audience that wants to talk about the importance of defining clearly and magnetically defining in language your brand, whether it's a company or an individual.
Rich:I'm after individuals in a way that makes you a magnet and makes no one seem like you.
Rich:So that you can move more quickly, get to the impacts faster, get to the money faster and step into your purpose sooner, praise God.
Rich:Does that help?
Brett Dicer:Yes.
Brett Dicer:We talked about a lot of things.
Brett Dicer:So where can people, where can people find you online?
Brett Dicer:To find out more about impact driven marketing, branding and pr.
Rich:Thank you.
Rich:The website is Rich Brands.
Rich:R I C H B R A N D s dot org.
Rich:Don't make the dot com mistake.
Rich:You'll end up in Nigeria.
Rich:It's dot org.
Rich:Okay, Rich brands dot org and frankly, you know, I joke that with my experience I should be on a yacht or on a beach and I'm on zoom.
Rich:So it's like you go to the website, it says talk to rich for 30 minutes.
Rich:You can literally go to calendly.com rich brands and get on my calendar and talk to me about you and let me listen to your heart and talk briefly about possibilities of the way your brand touches the world and you might start seeing things differently.
Rich:I make myself available for anyone.
Rich:Don't be jumping on if you're a vendor trying to sell me stuff that's not for you.
Rich:That's for people that want to talk about what they're doing and the impacts they see making when they thrive and what's possible for them and what's their umbrella brand.
Rich:They're a specialist at this.
Rich:But what's that?
Rich:What's the brand above it?
Rich:Yeah.
Rich:Join a good example of that.
Rich:I have a really good example that I'm right in the middle of.
Rich:So I go in a mastermind and there's this gentleman, white hair, has some.
Rich:He's.
Rich:Let's call him.
Rich:Sure.
Rich:Okay.
Rich:It's white Hair.
Rich:And he's from the, he's from Alabama and he has this great accent and he is explaining who he is because everybody's introducing himself and he says, I've written, I wrote, I've written a few books.
Rich:20.
Rich:And you're like, okay.
Rich:And I did have a radio show for 14 years and I did a little pitching for the New York Yankees.
Rich:And you're like, wait a minute, who is this guy?
Rich:So I private chatted him.
Rich:I went and I looked at all his book covers and it looks like a hodgepodge from a banning perspective.
Rich:It was like.
Rich:But every one of those books, Brett, was about a topic that he felt was important.
Rich:Face to face communication in these days of social media.
Rich:Lifting up your heritage.
Rich:A book about his Indian heritage in the southeast.
Rich:His best friend from rural Alabama.
Rich:Being a colored boy had to be a novel because there were legal issues back then.
Rich:Winning the head game was for young athletes, but it's really for anybody.
Rich:What happens between the years determines.
Rich:Happens at the plate.
Rich:Right?
Rich:These are all books that if you strip it down and take the.
Rich:The nuggets, you have these bunch of golden nuggets.
Rich:Let's call it generational wisdom.
Rich:And I said, hey, Lou, I want to talk to you.
Rich:When can we talk?
Rich:Let's talk tonight.
Rich:So we talk.
Rich:And I told him this.
Rich:The way I see there's a level that you're not there yet and you never got credit for it.
Rich:You're not getting credit, but you can't.
Rich:And he hired me and we've defined a brand that stands for generational wisdom.
Rich:A brand told a wise word, activating your best life.
Rich:And he's a paid speaker, Lou Vickery.
Rich:And he'll tell you you need a good forgettery.
Rich:What?
Rich:This guy's a hoot.
Rich:He's an absolute hoot.
Rich:But he wasn't getting credit for the highest level impact that he can make.
Rich:The kind of generational wisdom that you want to give to your children and your grandchildren.
Rich:This is Lou Vickery.
Rich:It's like he didn't know.
Rich:And now we're having fun sharing generational wisdom.
Rich:All right.
Rich:Doesn't sound like branding, does it?
Rich:Anyway, that's a good example.
Rich:It really is.
Rich:20 books.
Rich:20.
Rich:And he's writing one right now called the book of generational wisdom.
Rich:So anyway, it's going to be a lot of fun.
Brett Dicer:All right, any final thoughts for listeners?
Rich:Oh, golly, don't let anyone steal your dream.
Rich:We're all here for a reason.
Rich:You have more power than you think.
Rich:You were made all powerful, a perfect child of God.
Rich:Take it to the highest level you can and just close your mind and use your imagination.
Rich:When what you love to do thrives.
Rich:Whom do you know you can impact?
Rich:And what are the highest level impacts?
Rich:Just use your imagination and think about that and start right there because that's step one.
Brett Dicer:All right, thank you, Rich, for joining Digital Coffee Marketing, Sharing knowledge on branding purpose or impact driven branding, PR and all that other fun stuff that you shared.
Rich:My pleasure, Brett.
Rich:I'm really pleased to be your guest today and thank you for allowing me to share so much.
Rich:I hope that people who hear it allow it to touch their hearts and give them hope that they don't have to put some superhero costume on because somebody thought their brand is a cool idea.
Rich:They can just be themselves and let their authentic brand come out and there's a process.
Rich:So just do that.
Brett Dicer:And I sure hope you guys do.
Brett Dicer:But as always, please subscribe to this podcast and all your favorite podcasting apps.
Brett Dicer:The five star review really does help, and join us next time as we talk to another great thought leader in the PR and marketing industry.
Brett Dicer:All right guys, stay safe, get to understanding your branding and making an impact in the world and see you next time later.
