13 lessons in 2022 that I'll take with me forever

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Read time: 4 min

The year has been hard. I was let go in the Spring and I was the main earner in the family. My wife was (is) still coming back from her concussion and that was only the beginning. We had to muscle through two surgical procedures and COVID this year. OOF!

But as the saying goes, "Breakdowns lead to breakthroughs", I was able to replace my income with consulting work and reach 995,811 views on my LinkedIn content this year. I was even able to bring David Aaker, hailed the father of modern branding onto my newly launched podcast. 

So here are the 13 lessons I've gained along the way:

1. People are gifts

The good interactions leave you energized and maybe even become a life long relationship. The bad interactions help you grow. No matter what happens, when people come into your life, see them as gifts and be open to receive them. I have gained so many "friends" from LinkedIn and my podcast this year. It's been 🔥.

2. You are not your job

Our identities are so wrapped up in our work and rightfully so, we spend so much of our time working. But when I was let go, I had to find myself again, recover what was repressed or set aside.

3. Everybody starts from 0

Gaining followers, building email lists, selling my services as a consultant... every endeavor starts with a first step and we are all on our own journeys to get where we need to go. So instead of being disheartened, know that there is no race, just the acting of running.

4. Everything can be figured out

Starting a business can seem daunting, but like everything else, any problem can be tackled as long as you take the time to figure it out. There is an abundance of resources to help us through anything. I mean, I fixed my dishwasher by watching a 2 min youtube video... amazing!

5. Nobody is paying attention to you

We are self-centered beings in the end, our reality seems like the reality of others, when in fact everyone is consumed with themselves. After being laid off for 6 months, I still have people saying - oh! I didn't know you left the agency? So keep telling your story.

6. Everyone is making it up as they go

It can seem those who have "made it" got their shit together. The truth is, everyone is trying their best, making it up, trying, failing, learning and trying again! So make it up, just GO.

7. If you don't own your time, others will

As a solopreneur, my time is mine to structure, but that has not been the case for decades. If I don't schedule time for the most important things to me, it will get eaten up, leaving me with the scraps of time to spend on what matters to me.

8. Everybody puts on their pants one leg at a time

We tend to put our idols on a pedestal and be anxious about talking to those at the pinnacle of their careers. But the truth is they are just people, their public personas are just that. It really hit home when I was able to get David Aaker on my fledgling podcast. A dream come true and a stark reminder.

9. Things can seem impossible until they are done

Starting a business, supporting a family as a consultant, it can seem daunting and impossible, but once you've passed that goal, it seems so ridiculous that we doubted ourselves in the first place. Keep going for "impossible".

10. Your emotion and creativity is what differentiates you

Our skills are replicable, AI will get better and better. Our secret sauce is our emotions, our passion, how we interact with others, the way we make others feel. It's the crazy ideas and the big swings.

11. Shedding what's embedded in my mind is a constant process

We are programmed from a young age on what we are "supposed to do", how we are "supposed to think", and what success "supposedly is". Why should we be working long hours in order to feel like we're productive? Why should making more money mean sacrificing more family? It doesn't. Un-think it.

12. When you help without expectations, good things will happen

Give and expect nothing in return. By virtue of you being a little farther along means there is something valuable you can share. Karma is real, and good things will befall you - I've had many serendipitous things happen, one of which is appearing on the cover of Freelancer Magazine!

13. There is an abundance of problems to be solved, choose wisely

There are countless companies and individuals who need help. Many problems to be solved. What you need to do is to pick the problems you want to solve, are great at solving, and the wealth will come your way, along with joy and fulfillment.

Ways I can help you:

1. Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth

2. Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist

3. Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand

Want to Get Promoted Faster? Bring Strategy Into Everything You Do

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Have you ever been told to be more strategic? Or your manager telling you that the reason you haven’t been promoted is that you aren’t strategic enough?

Well, let’s put their money where their mouth is.

So what is strategy anyway?

The Oxford dictionary defines strategy as “a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim”

And various gurus have given us some thought provoking quotes about strategy

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do” Michael Porter

“Tactics without strategy is the noise without defeat” Sun Tzu

“Fitting in is a short-term strategy, standing out pays off in the long run” Seth Godin

They tell us why strategy is important and what strategy needs to be, but it doesn’t tell us how to get more of it.

My definition? Strategy is a series of decisions based on insights that sets the direction to overcome barriers to achieve a goal. It means that if it’s something you must do as a business or as a brand, it’s not strategy.

To be more strategic, you need to understand all four parts:

1.     Goal (What are you trying to achieve?)

2.     Problem (What’s in the way?)

3.     Insight (What gives us an idea about our direction?)

4.     Strategy (How will we move forward?)

After over a decade of strategy work, I’ve compiled thirteen ways for anyone to be more strategic

1.     Understand the bigger picture

-       How does your company activities relate to the overall category?

-       What is the context of the company’s offering and brand in the current culture?

-       Are the tactics pushing us in the right direction?

2.     Look for patterns and connect the dots

-       When looking at data or hearing from participants in a workshop, ask yourself – what is common?

-       What seems to be a recurring theme?

-       How might disparate ideas be weaved together?

3.     Know the why behind the tactics

-       Why these channels? Why this content? Why this cadence?

-       Why are we executing a social media campaign on Instagram?

-       Why are we developing an explainer video for the website?

4.     Deliberately decide what you are not doing

-       What are the strategies you are considering?

-       What insights give you a sense of what you should pursue?

-       What are the strategies are you NOT pursuing? Why?

5.     Drive towards insights, not just data

-       What does the data tell you that is not typical?

-       How can you leverage everything you know and make a leap from what you see from the data to arrive at an insight?

-       Ask so what, so what, so what to arrive at a unique insight that makes you say “aha!”

6.     Step into your audience’s shoes

-       What will my audience think, feel, do about this?

-       What do they buy? (Hint: it’s not “what we sell”)

-       How does your message, your offer stack up against everything in the audience’s world?

7.     Appreciate the impact to the business

-       How does anything you do affect the business in the short term and the long term?

-       How do the tactics point back to the business objectives?

-       How are we strengthening or weakening our positioning in the market?

8.     Have a toolkit of frameworks

-       Business strategy (SWOT, BCG Growth-Share Matrix, Porter’s Five Forces, GE-McKinsey Nine-Box Matrix, OKR etc.)

-       Brand strategy (Brand architecture, Brand pyramid, Aaker’s Brand Equity Model, Brand positioning, 5 Cs etc.)

9.     Be curious about human behavior

-       How is the irrational mind contributing to the problem?

-       What is “under the surface” that we need to solve?

-       What does emotion and relationship have to do with the situation?

10.  Write with simple language that inspires

-       What words can I remove from my copy?

-       What words can I use that get an emotional reaction?

-       What buzzwords can I replace with simple words?

11.  Seek and deliver clarity

-       Is it direct?

-       Do I have to mentally figure it out?

-       Can it mean something different?

12.  Drive priority and hierarchy

-       Which is more important?

-       Are there three key things instead of a list of 20?

-       If there is only one thing to remember, what would it be?

13.  Find commonality in dimensions and denominators

-       How can you avoid using a mix of nouns, adjectives, and verbs when describing processes, stages, or categories? (“Insight, Strategy, Execution” vs. “Insight, Strategic, Execute”)

-       Are you able to group or cluster information?

-       Is there one theme across everything?

There is no one way to be strategic. But following these prompts can help you step out of the tactical and think more strategically.

Ways I can help you:

1. Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth

2. Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist

3. Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand

11 Tips to Best Present Your Strategy

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You might have a strategic mind, but if you can’t get your strategy recommendations across, you’ve wasted all your time…

I’ve presented to Fortune 500 CEOs, start up founders, board of directors, and different leaders making decisions on their corporate and product brand strategies. One thing I can guarantee is this:

The presentation is as important, if not more important than the strategy

Here are my 11 tips to best communicate your strategy

1. Approach it like theater

   Your strategy presentation needs to evoke emotion. Use the key concept of storytelling - Gaps: show what could be, show the challenges and barriers in the way and watch your audience lean in to hear how you resolve and complete the gap you’ve introduced. Turns, twists, and surprises are all fair game in a strategy presentation.

2. Embed metaphors and analogies

   Metaphors can plant powerful imagery in the minds of the audience, conveying complex ideas simply and in a memorable way. “A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running.” - Groucho Marx immediately brings to mind how costly and expensive an empty hospital bed is. Imagine using this as a pre-cursor to an insight that can help a hospital fill their beds?

3. Be prepared to get off script

   You might have every slide planned out, what key points to hit, what conclusions you are driving. But in every presentation, you need to know your stuff so well that if the conversation pivots, you are ready to go there. This tip goes hand-in-hand with the next one.

4. Read the room

   Whether this is a physical room or the “Zoom” room, you have to be gauging what’s resonating and what’s not. Always be open to take their lead on where the discussion needs to go. Along with the previous tip, stubbornly bringing the conversation back so you can trot through the agenda is not only presenting with blinders on, it’s just not cool.

5. Co-creation is a good thing

   Anytime your audience is so enthusiastic about the strategy, they start brainstorming tactics, it means you are nailing it! So instead of telling folks to stop, because that’s clearly meant for a different meeting, roll with it. When the strategy and tactics become their idea, your job is done.

6. Push your presentation to the top gear

   You have different gears in you as a presenter and when you are presenting strategy, you need to get into a high gear. Excited, confident, and charming. If your audience don’t feel your energy, they won’t have energy either. They don’t have to buy your strategy 100%, but they need to know you buy it 100%. That’s what matters.

7. Vary your eye contact

   Eye contact is very important, but you also don’t want to freak your audience out by “staring”. Use eye contact to connect, but also move on. This is obviously much harder on a zoom call, but it helps if you’re looking at the camera once in a while.

8. Use the silence

   One of the most important elements in a presentation, is the strategic use of the PAUSE. It creates anticipation and makes the following point all the more impactful. Pause before you reveal the insight, pause before you reveal the strategy. Don’t rush or fill it with the UMs and AHs. Revel in the silence and anticipation.

9. Align your verbal pace to your presentation

   Don’t be a monotonous presenter. Your verbal pace is the speed of your voice. Go faster when you are building up intensity or challenge, go slower when you are building anticipation or punctuating a point.

10. Adjust your volume to carry the message

    You don’t have to be loud all the time. That’s overwhelming. Your volume can convey excitement, or thoughtful revelation. Use it with the other ingredients of your voice so you can pack a punch in your presentation.

11. Mind your hands

    When you are presenting strategy, it’s usually to a smaller group, so your hand movements doesn’t have to be huge. No exaggeration necessary, but use them to give a visual cue to what you are saying, a simple four finger point can add a visual punctuation to a point being made. Be conscious of your hands, and then forget about them. It will come naturally as you present.

Presenting strategy is much like other presentations, but because a winning strategy is CLEAR & CONCISE, your delivery needs to line up to that expectation, or else all is lost.

Good Luck!

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Ways I can help you

1. Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth

2. Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist

3. Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
   

11 Tips You Can Apply Right Away for Better Communication

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When we can't communicate in a way for people to receive it, it doesn't matter at all what we say

Many years ago, I was invited to speak in front of a room with about 2,000 sales and marketing professionals. My job as a product marketer was to get them jazzed up about the new product launch. This was no ordinary product, it was a way for them to provide a customized dashboard for their customer's clinics and look at all their patient's implanted device data in aggregate with insights that can help them better manage their population.

I stepped up onto the stage, pretty good about what I needed to say. I knew my talking points and the three slides I would show to support my story. And as I started to speak, I initially felt nervous, but settled in to a good rhythm and went through my content methodically. 

As I got off stage, I felt great! I didn't forget any main points and I went through my slides. 

I thought it was a success.

BUT MY PRESENTATION ABSOLUTELY SUCKED...

It didn't move anyone. It wasn't at all memorable.

I was so focused on me, my delivery, my content, that I forgot about THEM. The part which mattered the most. 

Why should THEY care?
What do I need to do so THEY can relate?
How should I speak so THEY feel something?

Throughout the years after that, I've gone through multiple speaking classes and have since presented, facilitated, and used my voice and every tool I have to be a better communicator. I believe that both visual image and vocal image are extremely important when communicating and not only does it deliver your message, it also reinforces your personal brand. As a student in this lifelong quest to become a great communicator, I've collected these 11 tips to remind myself to use them consistently to up my communication game. And I thought - it's probably something you can use as well!

So here they are:

1. The larger the room, the larger your actions need to be (It will feel like gross exaggeration in a large room, but trust me, no one can see you if you're acting "normal")

2. Use all of your voice, think singing instead of speaking (your voice as a melody: vary tone, cadence, and volume)

3. Get extremely comfortable with silence (if you're thinking, don't say anything. Fillers like UMs and AHs distract and reduce your credibility.  If you want to make a point, pause before the point. Silence is your friend)

4. If the room is rowdy, repeat yourself to get the room to quiet down (If that doesn't work, go close to the folks who are distracted, if that still doesn't work, a gentle touch on the shoulder will have maximum effect - don't do this unless absolutely necessary)

5. Have a confident and open body language (Stand tall, open chest, open hands)

6. Always introduce gaps as you present so the audience wants to hear what's next (What is possible? What's at stake? -> But what is the problem? This gap is something the audience wants to see you close)

7. Add drama whenever possible (Drama is knowing what's probably going to happen, but have no idea when or how it's going to happen) 

8. Connect with the audience through eye contact (Speak to one person at a time, but vary where you give your attention. Don't scan constantly, linger too long, or always go in one direction, like left to right)

9. Re-energize by looking at friendlies in the room (Get your mojo back as you speak by periodically looking at the friendlies in the room, they should be smiling and/or nodding)

10. When asked a challenging question, it's ok to pause (You can ask them to repeat question as you think about the answer, or simply pause after you acknowledge the challenging question, remember #3) 

11. Read the room and give them what they want (this is extremely important, whether its in the board room or in front of a crowd, you need to be listening and getting a sense of what is resonating and "dance" with the room/ crowd)

Bonus Zoom call tips:

1. If you are on video, make sure you are well lit (never back lit)

2. Frame yourself so you are the center of the video image (not too small, not too big)

3. Close out all other windows and put your phone on DO NOT DISTURB to avoid distraction

4. End your speaking turn decisively (trailing off and being uncommitted to finishing your thought can be confusing on a zoom call)

5. Pay attention to your facial expressions (your face can say a lot and since that’s the center of attention on zoom, use them for maximum effect)

I hope you will use these tips as I do!

Ways I can help you:

1. Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth

2. Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist

3. Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand

Every Brand Needs an "Oh Sh!t" Story

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I passed out.

And the only times I realized that I passed out was when I woke up.

“Crap, I passed out again, this is dangerous” I thought to myself in a foggy, dreamy state as I carried Concertina wire (razor barbed wire) to a truck.

I was slipping between conscious and unconscious after 4 days and 3 nights digging a foxhole. We were a battalion of soldiers digging on a hill for 4 straight days. Each foxhole was in the shape of a U, it holds two people and it is about five and a half feet deep. I had been awake for 74 hours. I was covered head to toe in mud and dirt, my hands were blistered and bloody, and I was glad it was over.

Exercise SPADE, the first trench/ foxhole digging exercise as part of our officer cadet school training in the Singapore army. We would take position in our foxholes during dusk and dawn, lay communication wires across all the trenches, set-up a Concertina perimeter, patrol our position, and run attack/ defense exercises at various times of the day. When we weren’t doing that, we were digging… all through the day and into the night

This memory and story has stuck with me for the rest of my life.

When I faced physical hardship, I would think “Oh sh!t, if I pushed through SPADE, I can probably push though this”

Every brand faces challenges in it’s quest for glory

You can easily see how a story like this can apply to you and your personal brand. It helps anchor your beliefs and propel you to do other difficult things. But the same is true for company or product brands. Taking the appropriate action can ink a story so compelling, it becomes THE “Oh Sh!t” story that can help overcome doubters, barriers, and anything that’s in the way of the brand.

A great example for this is establishing a company brand. When a company is being launched or relaunched, it communicates its new beliefs, purpose, and values. Sometimes the change is large and when that’s the case, people (both internal and external) might not actually believe in this new direction.

When CVS doubled down on its identity of a healthcare company, it made a dramatic action that shows employees, customers, and investors that they were serious. By taking cigarettes away from all their shelves, they inked a legendary story that displayed their commitment. No amount of messaging and campaigns can take the place of an act that demonstrates who they were as a company. Willing to lose billions was their “Oh Sh!t” story.

A framework to build your “Oh Sh!t” story

STEP ONE

What is THE barrier to your brand being at its best?

Example:

• A company’s new brand is all about customer service, but in the past the company has put profits over service.

• A product’s new brand is all about simplicity and ease, but traditionally the contracting process to get the product onto the customers system has been tedious.

STEP TWO

What is ONE time where your brand was truly at its best?

Example:

• There was one time where a customer service rep spent 8 hours on the phone with a customer and the social media response went viral.

• There was one time when contracting was a breeze for the client, when the company directly worked with the client’s IT team.

STEP THREE

How can you put in place a system so the ONE time becomes ALL the time?

Example:

• A new service metric and incentive was rolled out where it’s not about the number of calls/ hour, it’s about the extent of the THANK YOUs and APPRECIATION the team gets from their customers.

• A new process of working with the IT team was put in place.

STEP FOUR

What is a simple story structure that reminds everyone why we can be our best?

1. What was the challenge?

2. Why was it difficult?

3. How did the brand overcome?

4. What’s the takeaway?

Example:

• Our customer was really upset, but it was not our fault so it was against “procedure” to do anything. But one courageous customer service rep bent the rules and was on the phone for 8 hours to solve the customers problem and in return, our efforts have gone viral on Instagram. We are a customer service company and the new way of working is no longer calls/ hour, it’s about the extent of the THANK YOUs

• Our product works like a charm, but getting it on the client’s system takes weeks, if not months, directly contradicting our brand promise. An ingenious sales rep took it upon herself to warm up the IT team and then seamlessly created a transition and implementation plan. It was painless and we were loved before they even started using the product. Now, it’s a part of our process, our simplicity extends across all we do.

STEP FIVE

Tell your story at every chance you get, particularly if Sh!t is hitting the fan!

For my own story of digging foxholes and surviving the toughest of times, it’s a story I tell myself, particularly now, as I’m training for my half-marathon in September.

Conclusion

Build you stories so your brands can be at their best!

Ways I can help you:

1. Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth

2. Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist

3. Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand

The 5 principles of a healthy brand

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The purpose of a brand is to achieve the highest perceived value possible and a healthy brand is able to sustain this kind of performance amidst external forces. In this blog post, I’ll share the five principles of healthy brands, after helping build brands in healthcare for almost a decade.

A healthy brand may or may not be in the health & wellbeing industry, but the health & wellbeing of a brand is key to be continuously high performing.

Principle 1: Stability

Everything begins with a strong foundation of the brand. From positioning to personality and purpose, the core of the brand needs to be an unwavering north star so decisions can be made consistently in service of building brand equity. The market and the competition is going to fluctuate and change, but without a stable core, your brand is going to go where the wind blows–average, bland, uninspiring… Consider iconic brands you know (the Nikes of the world), they are unwavering, and because they lean into a human truth, they are timeless.

Principle 2: Congruency

Brands are like people. If you are incongruent where your actions don’t match your desires, you feel uneasy, your gut tells you something is off, you are unhappy. Brands are the same way. If its actions don’t match its promise, if its expression doesn’t match its personality, your audience and your customers can sniff it out immediately. Congruency is also where a brands memorability and power comes from. Patagonia is congruent–from its backstory to how it communicates, to its CSR programs, it seeks to match its outside with its inside as much as possible, as often as it can.

Principle 3: Tenacity

For a brand to be healthy, it needs to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Why? Because standing apart from the competition means you need to zag when others zig. It’s uncomfortable to stand out from the crowd. And if god forbid you need to do something different in order to stay relevant with the prevailing culture, that’s really painful. But no brands can be loved if it doesn’t do something true to their purpose even if it’s uncomfortable, even if it means sticking to your guns. When CVS renamed to CVS Health in 2014, they pulled tobacco products from their shelves, the investor and business community called it suicide, immediately losing billions of dollars in revenue. It was uncomfortable, but guess what? It was on brand and it delivered real impact.

Image from: https://causemarketing.com/case-study/cvs-health-last-pack-case-study/

Principle 4: Adaptability

In order for the brand to stay relevant, it needs to be constantly listening and adapting. The why remains constant, but the how can change. When a brand is so full of itself, drinking its own “Kool-aid” and blaming its customers for not doing what they are “supposed to do”, it’s in trouble, the ego of the brand is taking over. Much like people, when ego drives decisions, disaster awaits. Brands like Toys’R’Us, Blackberry, Kodak… the list goes on where the lack of adaptability dooms the brand. When you are not willing to change with your customers, you will be left behind. It’s that simple.

Principle 5: Grow-ability

Ok, I made this word up, but it doesn’t mean it’s any less important! A healthy brand is constantly seeking improvement, serving more people and serving them better. Tony Robbins says it best “If you are not growing, you are dying” and this applies to brands so well. Even if a brand seeks to maintain its brand equity, it has to grow, because nothing around it stays the same.

Conclusion

By putting together the right people and leaders, the right processes and governance, the right technologies and competencies, these five principles can be used to build a healthy brand that will drive peak performance even in the worst of times.

Ways I can help you

1. Download free guides (Healthy Brand Blueprint & Branding 101) to help you build healthy brands

2. Work with me as a fractional CMO/CBO or through Healthy Brand Consulting (Schedule a 15 min intro call)

What are 5 life lessons that can apply to branding?

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What do brands and branding have to do with human potential? I would say everything because brand is really a reflection of who we are as people, as humans. It's a reflection of how we think, how we make decisions, how we make memories and how we feel. Learn about five life lessons that applies to branding.

Five life lessons that I’ve applied to branding:

1. Do hard things

2. Focus on process

3. Harness the power of emotions

4. Be self-aware

5. Practice extreme ownership

I've been a lifelong student of fulfillment and what makes us tick. And throughout the years, I've been able to apply much of what I've learned to the world of brand and branding. It might be surprising at first, but it makes perfect sense. I think as long as people exist, brands will exist. And if we want to build brands that really strike a chord, we need to understand the fundamental lessons of how to live a full life. 

1. Do hard things

If you haven't read David Goggins book “Can't hurt me”. You really should. Reading about his story has really changed my perspective on life. Instead of moving away or shying away from discomfort and pain, lean towards it, go through suffering. So you come out different, you come out more confident on the other side. You are really building mental capacity and mental strength in the process of pain and discomfort. How does this apply to brands? It does because when you think about when a brand needs to stand out, it needs to Zag while everyone Zigs. So what does that mean? It means doing something that's uncomfortable, doing something that's different, something that the category hasn't seen, hasn't done. Doing something that your peers or competitors are not doing, but it means going into new territory. It means shedding entrenched behaviors and beliefs. 

When clients reach out to us, a lot of times they want to do something new. They want to do something different, but when the rubber meets the road, it's uncomfortable, it requires embracing the unknown. Most companies shy away from that. Most brands don't take that move, it's because it is terrifying to do something unfamiliar. It's terrifying and painful to go through change and doing something totally different. Take for example, Toys “R” Us. I refuse to believe that people within that company, within that brand, didn't see it coming. Didn't understand that the world around them is changing. I believe that it's the culture. It's the entrenched beliefs. It's the pain of going against what has been established over decades, challenging the status quo within that brand was something too painful to do and that caused its downfall. So as you build your brands, as you think about brand strategy, think about how you can put it through the fire, put it through pressure, build a culture of embracing discomfort and having the brand come out better on the other side. 

2. Focus on the process

Kobe Bryant, the black mamba. He is one of the greatest of all time and it's not just because he is talented, it's his hard work ethic, his dedication to disciplined training. His philosophy was simple, but it was certainly not easy. While having goals is important, it's really the process, the getting after it every single day, that's what ultimately gets you there. So for a brand, we should think about how its equity is built upon delivering on its promise consistently, aligning and executing on every touch point and interaction. The customer experience and journey cannot be accidental, it has to be intentional. A brand strategy is great, but it's really about a dedication to the process. It's how you architect a system such that you are able to deliver “Wow” again and again and again and again, until you build a brand equity snowball, until you have an iconic brand.

3. Harness the power of emotions

Emotions are powerful. If you're in a beautiful state, you can achieve beautiful things. If you're in a state of power, a state of resourcefulness, don't you think you can convince people of almost anything? But how does this apply to brand? Seth Godin has a great quote “It's easier for someone to love your brand if your brand loves them back”. But maybe it's more about “It's inevitable that someone loves your brand if your brand loves them first”. I think it is critical that a brand can show its love for the people that they serve, whether it's through a call with a salesperson, with a call center, or even through emails, how can you show up as a brand that loves your customers first? How can you think beyond the ROI and beyond "scalability" to deliver something personal and touching? Think about Taylor Swift. She shows up at weddings, surprising them and serenading the party. Do you think that's ROI optimized? That it’s a scalable move? No. But it's about building true fans, giving back to those that you serve. It's about showing them the love and desire to bring something delightful into their lives. So how can you take that learning and apply it to brands? How do you develop a brand strategy such that you're able to show your gratitude for all your customers and those that you wish to serve?

4. Be self-aware

Self-awareness, gosh. It is the Jedi move that we can all use, that brands can use. Without self-awareness, we can't reach the optimal potential of ourselves, of the brand. When you think about making moves that are different, think of how Patagonia can say "don't buy this jacket”, of how REI can “opt outside” and close its doors for black Friday, of how Nike can engage Colin Kaepernick to talk about something that may be controversial. You truly can do something different when you lean into your purpose, and lean into the beliefs of the brand. Much like a person, if you can lean into your strengths, if you really understand yourself and how you're being perceived and who you actually are, you can double, triple down on that, even though it's odd and it might seem weird, it's authentic. It's real. It becomes something so powerful when viewed from the outside, but from the inside, you are merely doing what's in your heart. You're merely being in line with who you are and who the brand is. Self-awareness for a brand is critical. It's the first step to building everything around that brand. What is its purpose. Why is it here beyond making money? What is its core beliefs? What are its principles? These foundational items form self-awareness. And that allows the freedom of the brand to do what it needs to do in the world and to show up different. 

5. Practice extreme ownership

Extreme ownership, such an important concept. When you think about applying that to life, if you don't take responsibility for everything that happens around you, you're really at the mercy of what goes on around you, you have no power or control or the ability to get better because you're simply shrugging that responsibility and pushing it to somebody else. From a brand perspective, we need to understand that taking extreme ownership is really important because brand is not just owned by chief brand officer or the head of marketing, or even the CEO. It's really owned by everyone that has to exude that brand from a company brand perspective. Everyone within the company, every employee, owns the brand. Well, they own it in terms of delivering on their promise. Ultimately the perception lies in the heads of the consumers, in the heads of those who would serve. So take extreme ownership from a brand perspective across everything that you do. Don't push it to a part of the organization is not just owned by one function. It’s really owned by everybody.

So here they are, five lessons for your life, but also how you should apply them to brand strategy and branding. Use them as principles as you build your amazing and healthy brands.

Ways I can help you

1. Download free guides (Healthy Brand Blueprint & Branding 101) to help you build healthy brands

2. Work with me as a fractional CMO/CBO or through Healthy Brand Consulting (Schedule a 15 min intro call)

Cold showers in the tundra

I stare at the shower head thinking I don’t really want to do this, I didn’t work out this morning, I already feel cold. Maybe I can institute a "workout rule" before a cold shower... 

At the mid-way point of my 30-day challenge, I had a morning where I didn’t work out. I must admit it was really tough. The first few times I was hot and sweaty, and I took deep breaths to get my body ready for the cold. I was trying to follow Wim Hof’s deep breathing exercises before the cold shower. It wasn’t bad, but I was ready for a cold shower anyway. This morning, however got me a little anxious. I was already thinking about it the night before, knowing I won’t be able to work out as I had to prep for a morning meeting, my reptilian brain was already pushing me to weasel out. That’s how our inner voices constantly sabotage our goals. Damn the brain!

But in my mind, there was no other way. Cheat myself? Why? What's the point? I committed to this challenge and I told my wife I would do it. Do I want to be the type of person that don’t follow through on what they say? Not if I can help it. I stared at the shower head and turned on the blast of cold water anyway. Just get that shit done. It’s shocks the system when the freezing water first hits my head, but then it turns into this refreshing feeling, followed by slight numbness of the fingers but it never really hurts and the discomfort eventually goes away. I have turned the water colder at times because the shocking first blast set the bar of how cold it should be. I must admit though, I haven’t timed how long my showers are, but from what I can tell, it’s not any shorter than when I had hot showers. One thing that’s different though, it always turns into a feeling of pride. Even if it feels like such a small thing, I did something my inner voice says is crazy and stupid to do. 

And for me, that is precisely the reason why I want to do it. Why I need to. By practicing facing discomfort, I train my mind to be hardened. It strengthens my “get it done” muscle. I fully buy into David Goggin’s philosophy of being the uncommon among the uncommon and using physical training to train the mind. If my mind says it’s crazy to attempt something, it really means I need to just do it. If I think anyone who is normal will never do this, it means I need to do it. There is no choice for me - because I want to grow and I truly believe it comes from struggling. 

So 30 days into it, I’ve actually lost count after that. Now I don’t even prep for it through breathing anymore, I just kinda submit to my “fate” and turn on the freezing water when I step in. It’s just what I do. Is the voice still there? Of course. Just like my 4.30 am morning routine, the voice is always there, telling me to quit, to stop, that it’s just crazy. I then reply, yes, I know and that’s why I’m doing it. 

Waking up at 4.30 a.m. - Day 30

What is a habit? We all know what it is, because we all have them, but when can we truly categorize it as a habit? When does it truly become auto pilot? My belief is that a habit is formed when you find yourself noticing when you don't do something rather than when you do something. Feeling the film of build up on your teeth when you haven't brushed your teeth, feeling lethargic when you haven't worked out for the day. 

Today, not waking up at 4.30am doesn't feel detrimental, I'm just drenched in guilt. Trying to be consistent has not been easy. Especially when I travel, I am usually not willing to drop below 6 hours of sleep to be up at 4.30am in whichever time zone I'm in. The point is that I get a workout in, do some writing and thinking, journal and meditate. These core elements of my morning are what drives my 4.30am routine, not the act itself. Although waking up at this time does have other benefits

It trains the mind to comply to your will

Less distractions and interruptions

Getting a psychological win first thing in the morning

 I'm keeping this routine, even though I've kept it to the weekdays and weekends I'm usually going to bed later and waking up at around 6.30 am. Looking back at the past 30 days, I found myself battling the loud inner voice that grew incredibly loud and at the same time giving myself such a hard time if I missed a day due to travel. I think what's important is to be ok with breaks in the routine. Focus on the impact every single day, be grateful and proud about what you are embarking on and let each morning be full of energy and joy. 

The ongoing tweaks in this routine will start with:

How can I refine the elements within the morning routine to be the most impactful?

What sub-routines do I need to develop so I'm going from one thing to the next seamlessly? 

Good luck with YOUR journey!

Waking up at 4.30 a.m. - Day 15

Wow. 15 days of getting to bed by 10pm, sometimes 9.30pm and being awake at 4.30am, cutting my sleep by about an hour, but it almost seems normal now. Two weeks ago, it felt pretty ridiculous to even say I want to do that. This is why the idea of experiments work! If we position our mind to take whatever ludicrous idea and say "Hey, I'm just going to give it a go, if it feels right, I'll do more of it, if it doesn't, I'll learn from it" it empowers us to reach far beyond who we think we can be. Something that may feel ridiculous can eventually become normal. The environment and people we interact with sets the anchor for our future. Even if we try to reach beyond our "social class", we'll probably fall short of our potential. Think about how hard it is to transcend even when we are aware of this barrier. Fears and doubt crowds out our drive, our hopes and our dreams. The further we try to reach beyond our bubble, the more scary and unthinkable it becomes. There is more comfort in residing in a terrible state than pursuing an unknown one.

So we focus on executing each day, each routine, not the destination. At this point, I'm trying to tackle every silent alarm, every workout, every journal entry, every meditation session and every post. I'm pretty sure this is a routine I will adopt during the weekdays, allowing some level of catchup over the weekends. What am I catching up on? By having the same sleep schedule with my wife, it allows more time to connect and of course more sleep. I have read that we get a higher quality of sleep if we go to sleep and wake up the same time every day to maintain a consistent body clock. This is something I will monitor, but relationships matter more! We can apply lifestyle changes in our day to day, but often times these "programs" or new habits don't take into account that we live our lives with other people! We can't just adopt an alternative sleep cycle where we sleep 30 min every few hours, or become an extreme fruitarian without having some impact on our personal relationships. Be practical and be gentle with yourselves, I believe we can still get to where we want to go without being extreme.

Although some of you are probably thinking 4.30am is pretty extreme. I sure did. Why don't you try it out for yourself?

Waking up at 4.30 a.m. - Day 7

These first seven days were tough. I sat in the dark for 15 min on day three and after shoveling snow the night before day five, I really did not want to get up.

My inner voice continued to dish out undermining thoughts and was really loud. It kept telling me how early it was and my writing was essentially useless and it was not going to change anything. And I just kept telling myself these three things:

You told your wife you were waking up at 4.30am to work out and she thinks you are crazy, so you better just stick to your "fantastic idea" if you don't want to be mocked at for the foreseeable future

You don't want to feel like a slob (like for the past two years) so, I'm sorry, but there is no other time to work out

Let's just do it for the 30 days and see what happens

The first point was the most motivating for me, since who wants to look like a jackass? And especially since I always have harebrained ideas, this would actually be something I pull off. 

The physical tiredness was also grueling. Starting my day feeling like it was the end was definitely not enjoyable. Coffee was definitely my friend. I would drink an espresso with milk at home and then at the office take two more coffees, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In the evening around 8pm, I really felt ready to crash, but pushing through to about 9.30pm was what I tried to do, although sometimes it would be 10pm before I was able to hit the hay.

I've decided against waking up at 4.30am on the weekends and use those days to catch up on sleep, which typically is about 30 min more ( 7 total hours instead of 6.5) since I would go to bed at about 11pm and wake up at 6am. We will see if this routine works out, but for now, I'm good with it.

Wish me luck!

Waking up at 4.30 a.m. - Day 1

I am not a morning person, but I had to give this a shot. My silent alarm buzzed and I frantically tapped on it to shut it off. I bought a Fitbit especially for this experiment as I wanted a quiet way to wake up without disturbing my wife. My reptilian brain was on full throttle before I rolled out from under the covers. "why don't we start on a Monday?" "do you think this will make any difference in your life at all?" "go ahead and sleep in, it's 1.5 hours more sleep" I continued to move in the dark and reached for my exercise clothes, placed the night before at the top of the stairs on my way down to the basement, where I will spend the next hour working out, journaling and meditating. From there, I will make my way to the office to write for the remaining time before my 2 year old starts to scream.

I could definitely feel the pain in between my eyes especially after the workout. Remind you, this was the first official workout after the birth of my son. I popped in our old but trusty T25 exercise dvd and zoned out for the next 25 minutes. It felt really good. Sean T. utterly kicked my ass and I was soaking wet after the session. The 4.30am experiment started because I needed to find some time to workout, but ultimately I also wanted to try meditating and other morning routines. I wanted to see if I could have the feeling of accomplishment before 6 a.m. Just like what all the "gurus" say about morning routines. In reality I had no choice; with a toddler in the family and me feeling utterly exhausted at the end of the day, any time I want to myself needed to come in the morning.

Next, I meditated with the help of the Headspace app. I must admit, closing my eyes felt great, and even though I was all sweaty and my heart was still pounding, I welcomed the rest for my weary eyes. The 5 min period was not easy, with many thoughts flying around, most of which was my inner voice again "are you really going to do this tomorrow?" "you should just stop now" I know my inner voice would resist, but I never thought it would be this strong.

Journaling was cathartic, as I scribbled down what my inner voice was saying to me and then made it visually clear why I was doing this.

If I want to be somewhat fit and healthy, there is no choice. This needs to happen, and everything I'm doing is for me. I can care less if no one reads a word I'm writing. I need to exercise and this morning time is for me.

Tiptoeing to the office gave me anxiety as I didn't want to wake my son. The worst thing were the creaky wood floors, which were the loudest outside his room, right before I entered the office. I slid into the office, sat down and paused to listen. All clear. As soon as I started typing, it felt fantastic and the time just flew by, really, 45 min is not enough, but it's all I have right now. And just like clockwork, the wailing started at 5.58 am. 

My forehead continued to throb and my eyes stung as I opened his door.

"Good morning sunshine!"