How to Turn Any Venture into an Admired Brand – In Just 7 Minutes with Fabian Geyrhalter

Resources/Links:

• Master your BRAND LAUNCH (an online version of Fabian Geyrhalter’s popular Resonaid® workshop):Gain Brand Focus Now: Check-out the Course Through This Link: https://www.resonaid.com/

Summary

Renowned Brand Strategist and Creative Director Fabian Geyrhalter is the founder and principal of FINIEN, and a prolific author and speaker on the subject of branding. He is also a columnist for Forbes and Inc and has been published by the likes of The Washington Post, Entrepreneur and Mashable.

In this episode, Fabian shares how he ensures clients are set up with a strong brand foundation, have structured ideas that ultimately craft a well-defined brand that is easy to buy into for your target market.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:16 – Fabian’s ideal client: “Our ideal client is a founder of a company that needs to define his or her brand foundation, name, and identity. Or if part of a rebranding, it’s a founder or a marketer, a CMO, who needs to re-evaluate the brand’s positioning identity and voice.”
• 01:39– Problem Fabian helps solve: I create clarity and focus..
• 03:15 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Fabian: “You have a product but no one cares, despite it being an actual good offering, so that’s a problem. Or they have a service that sells but they don’t get an engagement as the brand. So, you know, or the third one is actually their launching a brand but they have difficulties understanding themselves what the true north is, why people would deeply care about the brand.”
• 04:02 – Common mistakes people make when trying to solve that problem: They try to be too many things to too many people, right? And that’s why brand clarity creates that focus that allows them to attract the right people. I call it your brand DNA, right? You have to define your brand DNA and voices it that actually stick to it .
• 05:42 – Fabian’s Valuable Free Action(VFA): Define that brand DNA.So, write down in a sentence, here’s what we sell, and here’s who we sell it to, and then finish the sentence with because.
• 06:49 – Fabian’s Valuable Free Resource(VFR): They can visit our website, which is https://www.resonaid.com/
• 07:28 – Q: “Why is Fabian obsessed with branding?” A: Because I really strongly believe that branding is the new advertising. I feel like stories are now real and brands can’t wear costumes anymore. So today, branding, if you do it in a transparent, authentic and meaningful way, you can create better companies, better cultures, and quite frankly, a better world. Then who would have thought that branding could ever do that for you.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Branding — if you do it in a transparent, authentic and meaningful way, you can create better companies, better cultures, and quite frankly, a better world.” -@FINIENinsights Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland: 0:09
Hello, every one a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing The Invisible, and my name is Tom Poland and joined today by Fabian Geyrhalter. Fabian, a very warm hello, good day from Australia, and welcome. Where are you hanging out?

Fabian Geyrhalter 0:22
I’m hanging out in Long Beach which is greater Los Angeles,

Tom Poland: 0:25
Long Beach, California, well away from the fires, I hope.

Fabian Geyrhalter0:29
Yeah, just far enough. But yeah, we can definitely see the smoke. It’s not fun right now.

Tom Poland: 0:33
I don’t know. Our thoughts are going out to everyone who’s threatened by that. We’ve recently had bushfires and evacuation here, where I am. In Australia as well. So, cross your fingers.

Tom Poland: 0:43
So, for those of you who don’t know Fabian, he’s a Renowned Brand Strategist, which I always find the most fascinating of subjects and Creative Director. He’s a prolific author and speaker on the subject of branding. He’s the founder and principal of Los Angeles-based brand consultancy FINIEN. And our subject today is going to be, “How to Turn Any Venture Into an Admired Brand.” Fabian is going to tell us how to do that in just seven minutes. Fabian, our seven minutes starts now. Question number one is, who is your ideal client, please?

Fabian Geyrhalter 1:16

My ideal client is a founder of a company that needs to define his or her brand foundation, name, and identity.

Or if part of a rebranding, it’s a founder or a marketer, a CMO, who needs to re-evaluate the brand’s positioning identity and voice.

Tom Poland: 1:34
Perfect. Thank you. Six and a half minutes left, question two, what’s the problem you solve?

Fabian Geyrhalter 1:39

I create clarity and focus.

That’s really how I like to say it. It’s that most entrepreneurs are focused but they’re only focused on the product. Its product, product, product, right? And they can’t be focused on the customer, and the consumer, the client.
So, they’re kind of like in that bottle, right?

So, I create that foundation for them that serves as a liaison so that they can get a strong brand that creates strong bonds with hopefully an ever-growing tribe.

And by the way, that totally disregards less if it’s D2C, B2C, B2B, right? Because all companies desire a loyal following that clearly understands what the brand offers. And also, what values to brand showcases that they can buy into, right? People need to buy into shared values, and everyone wants the company to be liked and followed, right? But how many brands are you following on social media, right? There’s, not many and the ones that you’re following they’re actually personable, right? So, they feel like their friends in the timeline. And most brands do not know how to authentically become personable. That’s really what I’m for.

Tom Poland: 2:45
Thank you. Well-articulated. There’s quite a lot there to unpack. So, folks, feel free to rewind or you’ve read the transcript, which is sometimes a very good way to get even more value out of that, because there was a lot in there, Fabian. A lot of value, a lot of concepts. Question number three, just over five minutes left. Someone’s got this problem of not having a brand well established, not getting the community or the tribe established, not clearly communicating values, etc. What are some of the typical symptoms they’re going to be experiencing when they’ve got that problem?

Fabian Geyrhalter 3:15
Well, yeah, like we already pointed at, right?

You have a product but no one cares, despite it being an actual good offering, so that’s a problem. Or they have a service that sells but they don’t get an engagement as the brand.

So, you know, or the third one is actually their launching a brand but they have difficulties understanding themselves what the true north is, why people would deeply care about the brand.

Tom Poland: 3:39
And that’s quite difficult to achieve when you’re inside your own head, right? That’s what you can’t see the wood in the trees. Thank you. So, question four, just under four and a half minutes left, what are some of the common mistakes that people are going to make? They’ve got a brand that’s not getting cut through, it’s not generating loyalty, people not buying. They’re going to try stuff before they find your solution. So, what are some of the things they try that actually don’t work?

Fabian Geyrhalter 4:02
Well, they try to be too many things to too many people, right?

And that’s why brand clarity creates that focus that allows them to attract the right people. I call it your brand DNA, right? You have to define your brand DNA and voices it that actually stick to it.

And I think it’s really crucial. Actually, my latest book, Bigger Than This, how to turn any venture into an admired brand, where the title of our conversation today came from, I noticed a lot of commodity-type products. So, products that have really nothing new to offer, right? No tech, no innovation, no new design, but they turned into admired brands because they created an emotional connection. And that is really, that is really exciting, right? So, the companies like Poppin who distribute, you know, office products, and the office products are suddenly in colors. They’re painted, they’re green, and they’re all kinds of colors. That’s all right. It’s the same old plasticky stuff, but they disrupt through delight and that’s all it is, their brand DNA delight.
Or Shinola, the watch company out of Detroit. There’s no innovation, the watches are not completely innovative or newly designed. It’s just that they’re made in Detroit. So that heritage becomes the brand DNA. So, most entrepreneurs, even the ones that have a tech-based or innovation-driven offering, they have a hard time making the brands personable. So that companies really like heart and soul, and that’s what makes it become a true brand.

Tom Poland: 5:23
Very interesting. So, they’ve created a competitive advantage, not through a product feature, but through brand strength. So, thank you. Two and a half minutes left. Question number five, we’re going well here, what’s one valuable free action that you could recommend an audience member takes that it’s not going to solve the whole problem, but it’s going to take it a step in the right direction?

Fabian Geyrhalter 5:42
You know, define that brand DNA, right? What is bigger than your offering?

So, think outside of the offering and really think about the brand. What does it stand for, right? So, write down in a sentence, you know, here’s what we sell, and here’s who we sell it to, and then finish the sentence with because right? So that’s where you will find that emotional connection you need to uncover. And that will be a brand’s true north. That should really be the answer to Simon Sinek’s big “Why,” right? Why does the brand actually exist? So that’s what I would do to define your brand DNA.

Tom Poland: 6:14
And can you give us an example of that? What that sentence would be for your business or one of your client’s businesses, perhaps?

Fabian Geyrhalter 6:21
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look to Whole Foods, right? The American chain, everyone knows it’s now part of Amazon, you know, “To health-conscious customers, we are a grocery store that provides healthy food options,” and then to because, “It’s because we believe in Whole Foods, Whole People, and the Whole Planet,” like that is magic. And that’s their HR, that’s like, what kind of products they store in their grocery stores. Everything is part of that because.

Tom Poland: 6:49
Whole people, Whole Foods, Whole Planet, very clever. Thank you. Just a minute left, two questions left. One valuable free resource we can direct people to, I’m going to, for the sake of time, just tell them what it is. www.resonaid.com, R-E-S-O-N-A-I-D, R-E-S-O-N-A-I-D, we’ll have the link under the video interview, but if you’re on iTunes or whatever, dot com. And go there because then you can start a free part of a course there, with a bunch of free stuff. But go there, do the brand course. The question, Fabian, the one question I should have asked you but didn’t, and the answer please in 30 seconds.

Fabian Geyrhalter 7:25
Why is Fabian obsessed with branding?

Tom Poland: 7:28
The answer to that is?

Fabian Geyrhalter 7:28
So, I would ask, because, because I really strongly believe that

…branding is the new advertising.

I feel like stories are now real and brands can’t wear costumes anymore. So today, branding, if you do it in a transparent, authentic and meaningful way, you can create better companies, better cultures, and quite frankly, a better world. Then who would have thought that branding could ever do that for you?

Tom Poland: 7:28
The answer to that is?

Tom Poland: 7:49
Fabian Geyrhalter, thank you so much for your time.

Fabian Geyrhalter 7:52
My pleasure.

Tom Poland: 7:49
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.