Behind the Brand

We’ve had an incredible first season of Invisible Details and we’re very proud of what we’ve created. Whether you’ve been listening since the beginning or just started recently, thank you! We hope you’ve received an incredible amount of value from our show. In today’s episode we’ll explain a little bit about why we’re pausing the show and some of the exciting things we have coming up.

Logo? Check. Mission statement? Check. Target audience? Website? Check and check. The external components of a brand are fairly easy to spot. You can get a sense of what you need to have in place with a quick Google search or a trip down our podcast archive. It’s not that the obvious things are unimportant. On the contrary, every facet of what brings a brand to life holds great value. There are also many unseen parts of a brand, and it’s a journey we like to take to find those invisible details. These are the things that keep the clock ticking and locked in time. What is it that makes McDonald’s a stand-out brand in the fast food industry? What should you be reminding yourself (and employees) of as often as you can? What do you need to have written down and solidified so you aren’t caught off guard? We’ll answer these three questions and more on today’s show where we talk about some practical things your brand needs that may not be as apparent.

When your business is not yet financially viable, you have to have something that pays the bills. Running a business is not cheap, plus with the fact that you need to keep the lights on at home, there has to be a means of income somewhere. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to work on their business full time. Many people support their business ventures by working a day job or bringing in finances by some other means. For some, this may work quite well. They enjoy their day job and it provides them the peace of mind that their expenses will be covered so they can work on their business on the side without concern. (This is one of the cornerstones of overlapping; be sure to check out the book at OverlapBook.com) For others, their day job is one they dread every single day. It drains them and is a continual source of frustration. They may feel trapped, either because of the paycheck or the seeming lack of work elsewhere. When you feel stuck in your day job and you feel like it controls you, you are doing a disservice to your business and passion. So what would it look like to take control of your day job? What steps could you take to not only improve the job you have now, but perhaps even the company you work for? What sort of mindset would you need to transform yourself from getting burnt out at work to thriving and being fulfiled at your day job? On today's episode, we talk about what it might look like to support your business with a day job (you don't hate!), how a simple mindset shift could change your actions and behaviors toward your day job, and why your business probably should be put on pause until you get your day job situation in order.

When learning to ride a motorcycle, one of the earliest things they teach you is to always keep your eyes focused on where you want to go. “Don’t look too long to the left or to the right unless you want to go there,” the instructor says. “Your eyes will lead the bike to that point.” It doesn’t even matter if your head is pointed straight forward. If your eyes wander too far away from where you want your motorcycle to be, your body slowly starts to lean in that direction, and it can obviously lead to devastating results. Doing anything professionally requires much of the same focus. Too much deviation from your goal, too much sidelong glances at what others are doing and you might find yourself straying away from your objective. If you’re truly helping people and you run your brand off the road, who suffers the most? The same people you’re trying to help. Finding success doesn’t mean you have to be the best in the world. On today’s show we’ll be talking about what it means to define your own success, ways to practice putting your customers first, and why slow sustained growth is better than a flash-in-the-pan success.

There is an interesting divide in businesses around the world when it comes to their various practices. Many companies seem to want to do anything it takes to make money, while others take pride in having some level of virtue and wanting to do the “right thing”. The “right thing” can be incredibly subjective, not to mention controversial. If one business says they are doing something ethical, does that necessarily mean that any similar company doing the opposite is not? The values of a company determine its direction. They define what you will and will not do as a business or a brand. It’s one thing to set these values internally, but it’s another completely to make them a focused part of your external brand. In today’s episode we’ll be talking about what it means to define your brand’s ethics, where ethics should sit in regard to the public, and how you can help consumers become more mindful when it comes to the things they buy.

There is often a confusion with the term “branding”. Many people often think a brand is what something looks like, how it’s made or presented. People often equate “design” and “brand”, even though it’s only part of the picture. All that being said, design is an essential ingredient of a memorable brand, and the best cakes require the best ingredients (yes, I used a cake metaphor.) Charli Prangley is a web and graphic designer who is passionate about helping designers do their best work. She currently works for ConvertKit, an email marketing service for creators who want to make a living. She’s built a massive audience on YouTube, where she makes quality videos about design. Charli joins me on the show today to talk about how design and branding work together. We’ll also talk about when to invest in design for your business, when to hire out, and how to communicate your brand values through design.

Many of the conversations I have with creative professionals or people wanting to get started in business in some sort of creative industry usually come around to this question: “what’s holding you back?” For most people, I’ve found that the biggest obstacle is putting themselves and there out there for the whole world to see and critique. Sure, the possibility of success is there, but so is the possibility of rejection from the people you’re wanting to help the most. The fear of rejection can be incredibly powerful. The idea that you might put an incredible amount of work and passion and time into something just for people to reject it can be absolutely crippling. Why would anyone purposefully put themselves into a situation where the things they create could be mocked or put down by others? What if you spend weeks, months, or years pouring your heart into a project or business only to have it met with poor reviews, negativity, or bad press? The answer is: you might, and that’s okay because the solution is to plan for it. If you plan for the worst, you’re ready for when it comes. This is a topic really close to my heart, and I want to encourage you. On today’s episode I’ll be talking about how to deal with negativity, poor reviews, bad press, and a general feeling that you’re just not good enough.

When you make the decision to shift away from your current pursuit to something different, sometimes the transition isn't too big. There may be some overlap and you may not have to rebuild your audience or following. But what if you want to change industries completely? What if you decide that what you have been pursuing is not what brings you fulfillment and you find a passion in something completely different? What does that process look like? On this final part of our three-part series on reinventing yourself, I’m joined by my good friend Sarah Dayan (https://frontstuff.io) to talk about the process of changing industries (in her case from hand lettering to development), how that affects your brand, and how to make the switch even when it feels uncomfortable.

In the first episode of this three-part series, we talked about pivoting without throwing everything away. Pivoting is a process in and of itself and you can still bring along a lot of what you’ve already learned and built. Starting from what seems like zero can be complicated, especially when you’ve been in your current industry for a while. People might know you a certain way, you may have built up an existing audience, and your network might still be comprised of the field you want to depart from. You may still have some foundation from your previous direction, but there is a lot of new ground to cover. If you want to be known for this new thing, you have to take the steps to get there. This episode is the second in a three-part series on reinventing yourself. In today’s episode we’ll be talking about how to take beginner steps even though you have a lot of experience, and where you should be focusing when you decide to take the big steps of change.

There may come a point in your career where it seems like there is a significant fork in the road. Maybe the fork in the road has come because you’re not sure if you’re passionate about what you’ve been doing anymore. Maybe your business isn’t viable or major changes and shifts have happened that now require you to make a decision. You can either continue down the same road you’ve been going or you can change directions. This might be a small shift, perhaps in business practice or something minor. It also could be as large as moving into another industry all together. A move like this can be overwhelming at many levels. Does this mean all of the work you’ve done to date is useless? Do you have to just throw it away because it may not exactly apply? On today’s episode we’ll be talking about how to make significant pivots in your life or business without completely throwing away what you’ve already made, accomplished, and achieved.

This is a short conversation that Kyle Adams and I had a few days after the launch of Instagram's new video service IGTV. It is raw, unscripted, and very on-the-spot from our perspectives on using the service and the future of the platform. IGTV is an interesting subject of discussion because of its desire to take a piece of the long-form video market in a unique way. Its dedication to vertical video and insistence that users must adjust their consumption habits is incredibly thought provoking, which lead to this conversation. Whether or not you prefer to consume content on Instagram, there's no denying that IGTV is making a large impact in the space already. There are certainly some concerns we have that are likely simply growing pains of a new service that hopefully will get ironed out over time, and it will be fascinating to watch it develop.

Today's episode is a quick show to announce that all of the episodes for Invisible Details are now public and free. In the past, the majority of the shows on the seanwes network were available only to seanwes members, with the exception of the week's latest episode and a selection of hand-picked episodes from the show. This is no longer the case, and we're excited to be able to share that all of the shows on the seanwes network are now released to the public. This change is the the result of some changes to our business model happening at seanwes. There is a much more in-depth explanation over at seanwes tv e224. I invite you to watch the seanwes tv episode linked above for a bit more context, but in this short episode I also talk a little bit about why the changes are happening and what you can expect going forward.

Download: MP3 (56.3 MB) You’ve come up with an idea, you’ve validated it with your audience, and you know the story you want to tell. Now you have to sell your product. The process of determining a price for your products can be difficult. Making sure the price is fair but also wanting to make  Continue Reading »

Download: MP3 (58.7 MB) The worst mistake a business can make when talking about a nice to have product is to define its specifications…and that’s it. Certainly the features of a product are important, as many people in your target audience might be interested in those facts, but facts don’t sell nice to haves: stories  Continue Reading »

An idea is just an idea. You can’t market, launch, or sell an idea, no matter if it solves problems or not. If you want to sell something, you’re going to need to have someone willing to buy it. When it comes to products that are nice to have, you’re already starting with an uphill battle. This doesn’t make it impossible, but there is work that needs to be done. Unlike problem-solving ideas where you can simply answer the question of, “do people have this problem?” you have to tackle viability from a different standpoint with nice to haves. The questions are different, and the answers can be more complicated. Acquiring data is one of the most important parts of deciding to move forward with producing an idea. Without data, you’re flying in the dark and hoping that someone will want to buy it at some point. This episode is the second of a four-part series. We’ll be talking through questions to ask, data you’ll want to collect, and how to better determine if your idea is actually viable.

Most businesses are built on a very understandable, palatable concept: find a problem, solve the problem, and sell it to the people who have the problem. This is a surefire way to make money in the 21st century, because much of the upfront work has already been done. While many people who want to make a living provide for themselves by solving direct problems, there is a vast number of others who want to make a living doing something that doesn't solve a direct problem. How do you come up with a price for your art? How do you determine the value of those snazzy jeans you designed? Why do people spend their money on certain things and not others? What do you do when your product doesn’t provide any sort of monetary return? This episode is the first of a four-part series. We’ll be talking about the subjectivity of value and how to start on the path to developing a brand based around what some would call “nice to haves”.

Keeping up with the modern trends can be an arduous task with great reward. Staying in business requires knowing your market and adjusting as things change over time. On the other side of the coin is the idea of remaining consistent with your brand over the years. You’ve established yourself, you know what you’re about, and you’ve established solid patterns and systems. How do you balance staying relevant with your target market while not compromising on what your brand is built on? On today’s show we’ll talk about how to balance the natural evolution of a brand with remaining consistent to your core audience.

One of the lesser-appreciated but equally important parts of any business is research. Knowing your market, understanding your target audience, and analyzing your current status. Taking a look at the numbers in any form can feel daunting. The moment you start looking over your site analytics, social media data, or the numbers from last month’s sales, lots of questions begin to spring up. Knowing how to evaluate the data is a skill that takes time, but it also requires you to disassociate yourself from the numbers themselves, which can also be hard. What do you do when the numbers are less than what you want, or when they aren’t what you had expected? It’s far too easy to get caught up in the calculations and the math and forget to see the realities of analytics. The “numbers” represent actual people, which is the most important focus. In this episode, we talk about how we look at the numbers and analytics and how to work on staying objective while studying the data.

Any time you start something there is a desire to have that thing find success, whatever level of success that may be. Perhaps it’s completely passive income, making seven figures a year, having a certain amount of clients, or just having enough to do the things you really want to do. Goals, dreams, and aspirations are all very important. Having a path in front of us helps to determine where we walk and what we do. There’s a lot of advice out there about envisioning the future, deciding who you want to be and then modifying your behavior to fit that persona. We’re told to decide how successful we want our business to be and then “make it happen”. While these pieces of advice can be helpful, it also introduces the problem of looking too far ahead and not looking enough at where you are right now. Having a desire for success is important, but the process of building a brand is not one that grows immediately, and sometimes you have to step back and focus on your short term actions rather than what might happen in the future. In today’s episode we’ll be talking about the decision making process for your brand, how to make short term decisions based on long term goals, and how to make decisions based on your current business situation.

The idea of putting imperfect work out into the world is unpleasant. You know if you worked just a little harder, just a little longer, you might be able to get it to where you envision. Late nights, tweaks, updates, rehauls and refreshes. The bar for completion keeps getting higher and higher. Deadlines start coming up and the project is nowhere near the level you want it to be. Sound familiar? Maybe you’re working on a project and waiting to share it with the world until it’s done. You want to put the finished product on display and share it as people will experience it. You only get one shot at a first impression, right? There’s a problem with this methodology, and the problem lies with humanity’s incredible ability to move on and move on quickly. Knowing how to achieve the result of your vision is more important than the vision itself, and on today’s episode, we’ll be talking about how to keep yourself from procrastinating on shipping, why imperfect work can actually work perfectly, and why you may not want to wait until it’s done.