Episode 14

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Published on:

8th Jul 2024

Personal Branding vs. Company Branding: Lessons from Steve Jobs & Walt Disney MMCB Podcast Episode 14

Episode Summary

In this episode of the "Mind My Creative Business" podcast, co-hosts Ronald Lee Jr. and ShySpeaks dive into the essential topic of branding, focusing on the distinctions and intersections between personal and company brands. They introduce key figures, Steve Jobs and Walt Disney, to exemplify how personal ethos and operational excellence can shape powerful brands. Through engaging discussions, they explore the importance of core values, mission statements, and the strategic elements that create memorable customer experiences. Tune in to discover how these branding principles can transform your creative business.

Timeline Summary

[0:10] - Introduction to the episode and topic: personal branding vs. company branding.

[1:57] - Ronald explains the necessity of core values in both personal and company branding.

[3:24] - ShySpeaks highlights the differences between mission-driven company brands and value-based personal brands.

[4:07] - Introduction of Steve Jobs and his influence on Apple's brand.

[8:16] - Discussion on Steve Jobs' creative background and his "Think Different" campaign.

[12:18] - The importance of customer experience in branding, using Apple as a case study.

[17:25] - Ronald contrasts McDonald's fast, convenient branding with Ruth's Chris's luxury dining experience.

[26:34] - Introduction of Walt Disney and his approach to operational excellence in branding.

[31:16] - How Disney's strategic operations ensure a memorable visitor experience.

[36:40] - ShySpeaks elaborates on how operational details support the overall brand experience.

[39:25] - Summary and concluding remarks on integrating strategy and operations into branding.

Links & Resources

Closing Remarks

Thank you for tuning in to this insightful episode. If you enjoyed the discussion, please rate, follow, share, and review the podcast. Join our Creative Corner by subscribing to our newsletter on MCB Podcast's website and following us on Instagram. We look forward to connecting with more creative entrepreneurs and helping you build and scale your brand!

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Transcript

Welcome to the mind and my creative business podcast, the number one podcast for creative entrepreneurs to focus on strategy, structure and self development. I am your host Ron ironically Jr.

ShySpeaks 0:55

and I am your host shy speaks and per usual I am excited about today's episode, not because we are here in a virtual space again, just running is because we're going to be introducing two very prominent I'm talking about beyond a figure creative entrepreneurs right here on this podcast, we're gonna welcome them to talk about personal branding versus company branding, and why that should matter for you. Right, everybody's talking about go get the legacy generation will start you a company. And as you're starting your company, you're like, Oh, I gotta build up this brand new. And it's like, okay, I'm a personal brand. And then it's like, okay, so we have run on here, who's a brand strategist, and we have me, we're gonna talk about how, like structure goes into all of that at the same time, and it's gonna be good, I'm telling you, personal brand versus company brand, you will find out where you fit in the mix. And this is gonna be really, really good. Because sometimes they parallel and sometimes they don't, and yeah, yeah.

Ronald Lee Jr. 1:57

All right. So you know, as we talking about, you know, personal brand, right, because, as a creative printer, I'm hoping that you understand and know that you are a brand, right? Whether you're going to brand yourself from a personal standpoint, or you're going to develop and build a company, and you're going to have a company brand. Either way, in order for you to fully monetize who you are, as a creative partner, you got to understand that piece, right? So we're gonna lean into that whole personal and company. So when we talk about these things, right, you got to understand number one, regardless of if you're doing personal, or if you're doing a company, you have to have a core values, right? Like, that's my, that's what you're gonna do, you're gonna build your core values around either, right? From a personal standpoint, what are your personal values, right? So you're building that brand around your personal values, or if you're doing it from a business standpoint, then you're going to build it around a mission. And don't get me wrong, both have a mission, but it's kind of like I said, the personal piece is built around the individual. Like, if I have a personal brand, my personal brand is built around Ronald Gregory Lee, Jr. Right, but I have what's the irony, right, and I have, you know, my Western productions, and that has its own set of values, though, they may reflect mine to a degree, but they're totally different. Okay. So that's kind of like that, that separation and that difference,

ShySpeaks 3:24

right? And the reason why we wanted to unpack that is because as you're building out these brands, and we're saying you're like, ah, because one of them may have these, this mission and its customer base, and his target market, and his look and his field and toll will operating, while your personal brand has an entirely different look feel in which, again, could be similar. But oftentimes, it is not. And again, when we introduce these guests into my beyond eight figure guests, you're gonna see what we're talking about. In fact, are we ready to introduce the first one are we do we think we need to?

Ronald Lee Jr. 3:59

I think we got there we go. Good. I think once we introduce this guest, they'll be able to see what we talking about. And you know, so yeah, let's let's go ahead and introduce our first guest.

ShySpeaks 4:07

Company. Brand is built around the business mission, or personal brand is built around a personal ethos, but introduced, ladies and gentlemen, none other than the creative extraordinaire, himself. If he were here, this is how I would introduce it, Mr. Steve Job.

Ronald Lee Jr. 4:36

Yes, yes,

ShySpeaks 4:37

we'll bring him in with such fanfare. If you do not know who Steve Jobs is, Steve Jobs was formerly a CEO at Apple, and he's not just formally a CEO, he actually is transition on from this life to the next but but tell them a little bit more about Steve Jobs just in case somebody

Ronald Lee Jr. 4:58

know Steve Jobs. He was the founder, right of C. C, the founder and CEO of Apple, right? So anybody that has a iPhone, a MacBook iMac, any of these things, he is the creative genius behind that. And what was so dope about Steve Wright is that he, he wasn't the one that necessarily made or created these things. He had the idea, but he was able to put his persona, right who Steve Jobs was, he was able to put these into these products into these products, right, he took most complex of things. And he wanted to make it simple, right, that's where he was really, really big one, it's like, let's, let's simplify this, not only the product, but even this, the packaging and the experience and all that, and we're gonna get into that a little bit later. And just, you know, how he was able to take who he was personally, right, but put it into this company. And I can say that Steve hasn't been here in quite some time, right? He's transitioned for a little while, and the company is still there. Right? But because the company is following the mission and vision that he set out that he put in place, that was the foundation of his company's brand, they're able to still be a billion dollar business, right? So that's beyond eight figures, but what's really

ShySpeaks 6:23

gonna be beyond and a lot of times people don't realize, so you know, he's saying he's a founder, right? He was a co founder, because there's another another guy that's there, the other guy's more the computer engineering design. Wozniak, they think that Steve Jobs was also probably some type of tech guy. But he really, really was a creative by all stretch of the imagination. Tell us a little bit more about what made him a creative. And then we'll talk about what he did at Apple,

Ronald Lee Jr. 6:53

right? So he was real big into music, believe it or not when he was a college dropout, but some of the things that he kind of linked into he was real big on calligraphy. So one of the reasons why we have different fonts and things like that at our disposal, is because of Steve Jobs. Like, like, just something like that is where he was like, Okay, no, I want I I just don't want this basic font. Right. But that came from his calligraphy background, though. So he was he was familiar with doing different fonts and things but he learned calligraphy. And he brought that into what he wanted to do with Apple, you know, saying, so yeah, he's like to create it from a stance where I can take an idea, I can take a vision, and I can expound upon it, I can bring I can create something out of nothing. So even though I say wisely, I key was the, the engineer behind it. He was the technical guy behind it. He saw something in Wozniak and was like, oh, no, let's listen. No, this can be what you're doing. This can be the next best thing this can be put a computer in every home. Right? That he was. So he took that and saw that as a visionary. So I believe you know, visionaries are creatives, right? Because you're you're creating something out of nothing, you're creating something that didn't exist. And that's the essence. And that pitted me of who Steve Jobs was.

ShySpeaks 8:16

Wow. And people sleep on the fact that like you said, calligraphy that that's like a whole swagged out way of finance, right. So they're especially you think about back in that time you had like, he wouldn't even just Times New Roman, it was like another basic phone. I forgot what it was. But like, it's like, no, I want the user to experience something different. Yeah, there in lies a word that he introduced with the with the Apple concept. Tell him about that.

Ronald Lee Jr. 8:49

He didn't want that thing different campaign that they had. Right. So and even in that, right, so when he came up with the thing, different campaign, like he had people that was saying, No, we can't say that because it's not grammatically correct. Like notice this should be think differently. But he was like, no, he's like, think different, like he and he was he was able to build even that movement around that whole concept and idea of things different, right. If you think different, you'll be different. So he created this whole movement, because I mean, in anybody that knows Apple users, it's almost kind of like cultish. Right, but that was very intentional. Like he wanted to build a brand, right? That where people felt a sense of community where they felt as though they belong, like they felt special and valuable. And they felt like they were rebels and what Neil's saying like, they had this TV ad back in the 80s that they had put on during the Super Bowl, and it was very like us against the machine type thing like we're fighting corporate, right but they were very intentional to to push that because they wanted people that but they probably just because, you know, they weren't they were, they were like the underdogs, they they had just a small piece of the market share. You had other companies that were bigger than that were doing, you know, more massive numbers, right? So they was like, Okay, how can we once again speak to our particular target market and target audience and draw them out so we can get a piece of that market share. And over time, it definitely grew and grew and things like that. But yeah, that whole thing different was, that was that was it that was genius. That was,

ShySpeaks:

what makes it genius is because, for him, it was, I want people to think, something different. I want them to understand this innovative approach that we're taking to technology, I want them to understand, I want them to feel a certain way. And that is very important. When we're talking about branding. A lot of times people are like probably by now you're, you're in this episode, you're listening, like they're talking about all this stuff I thought brand was gonna be about, like, yeah, we won't get to that we're here. A brand is also how you make people feel, right. And so for Steve Jobs, and for Apple, it was all about field, like how you unbox the box, how the box looks, how you walk into the store, how does that feel like all of these things are very important. When you first have to think differently, as a as a company internally, to then get everybody in the company to start thinking, wow, how can I create this experience that makes people feel like they belong, feel like they belong in words, feel like you belong, I want you to feel a certain way, when you open the box, I want you to feel a certain way when you come in here. So as you are again, we said this episode is going to be how this should pertain to you. So you're working on your personal brand, or you're working on a on a company brand. And you're you're you're trying to figure out how to make these distinctive. You want to ask yourself, when it comes to my customers, and the experience that I want them to have? How do I want them to think and feel when coming in contact with my brand? How do I want people to think and feel when coming in contact with my brand? is a very important question. No, definitely because

Ronald Lee Jr.:

and then be mindful of how when they come in contact with your brand, right the first time that they may experience you it may be via ad, right it may via depending on if you have brick and mortar, it may be your via your your store, it may be via a product or service or whatever the case may be. So you're thinking about okay, when they experienced my product. I don't want them to feel what I want them to think when they open that product. If it's a physical product, how do I want them to think I don't want them to feel if it's a service, right? When we get on the call? How do I want them to think and feel when we're on that call, right? Like all these different things that go into that branding process that a lot of times us as creatives we may not be aware of. But no these are this is very, very key like yes, we understand the color of understand the logo, and that's a piece of it. But even that even when we opened it, we talked about core values, like what does the brand value, whether it's once again the company or the the person or the person? And then from there, how do I want them to feel? How do I want them to think and things like that. So, you know,

ShySpeaks:

oftentimes I hear people say, Man, I don't want to do a rebrand or doing a rebrand. They're talking about the colors. And there is like you say, psychology that goes psychology that goes into the colors, right? And so yes, certain colors make you feel a certain way. But what Ron is talking about is how do I want them to feel along every touchpoint? Sure, when they see my logo, how do I want them to feel? Sure when I see my my brand's colors, how do we want them to feel but on the phone, when they get the email after they get the email when they get their product delivered to them? Like, is it just the product coming to them? Do I have some other stuff in the bag when they open it to a smell a certain way, like all of those things go into brand. Now we're talking about going beyond the colors, we're not saying that the colors don't matter of how your brand is going to look when you start the brand and when you rebrand. But we want you to think beyond the brand, especially if this was like, Okay, we go into like a service based business, right? So we talked about perhaps it could be a product that they get maybe you got a sweater or a roll that you have a fancy robe company and you deliver it to them. You want them to feel like oh, I want to put this on and plush and all that kind of stuff. That's a product. But ultimately, I think it shines brighter when we're talking about when it comes to branding in the service industry. So when we talk about service industry, you think about like, Okay, how do I want people to feel about the service I want? Like it's fast Do I want the experience to feel like is luxury? To feel convenient? And affordable? Okay, fast, convenient and affordable. That's, that's a that's a certain feeling. And it's an experience. So there's a whole thing that goes with that. But then there's like, do I want us to feel like luxury, and personalized, and maybe even a little costly? Because sometimes you want things to feel costly, because, you know, people have a little more skin in the game, right? And so I want them to feel like, Man, I just really put a little something out here, if you look further invested into the experience, so we see that carried out in investment. I mean, I'm sorry, in service based businesses, so Okay, explain that what that will look like in the food industry, right.

Ronald Lee Jr.:

So perfect is that was right everybody's, I'm sure bento McDonald's at one, you know, point stays in a life. So we know, we know what to expect going into McDonald's, right? It's gonna be gonna be fast, right? So we know that, like, say, if you look at the colors, yellow and red, yellow, red and white, yellow, and red, red is like it communicates communicates fast. Right? So when you think about McDonald's compared to something like a Ruth's Chris, right, you look at Ruth's Chris, and they're the way that they brand it. You don't expect that to be something that's that you're gonna go and fast, right there, you're gonna go in, do you expect to sit down, right? It's somewhat of a luxury, it's more of a higher end more of a luxury meal. You don't expect them you're not looking for the dollar menu, right? When you go on the roof, Chris, right. When you want McDonald's, you're looking for the dollar menu. So once again, that's how they've set these different things up. And you can expect a different experience and McDonald's because it's fast, because it's more convenient. Because, you know, you see $1 menu and whatnot, in certain words that they put my though the word value in itself intrinsically does not mean cheap. But when we hear value in the sense of like food, is it communicates cheat, right? So that's a part of the branding value. The value menu is the value menu, you're thinking, Okay, I'm going to spend $1 or two on this menu, you go to Ruth's Chris, you're not expecting a value menu, you have the menu,

ShySpeaks:

and you're expecting speaking, you're going to hear words like quality. Exactly, right. Because the quality of our meats or the quality of our vegetables, how they were formed, you know, brought from here and locally sourced and all this kinds of stuff. You're getting good quality, right?

Ronald Lee Jr.:

You're about a chef, you might have a chef special the chef special today, right? You hear words like that? You don't hear nothing about a chef when you walk into McDonald's. All right. So even just this those those simple nuances or whatnot, it was it was going to psychology is training your brain your brain is thinking something different in this expecting something different compared to McDonald's, the cooks in the back when you hear cook compared to Chef, totally different thing.

ShySpeaks:

Right. And I say this because I think as creatives are working on building their business, all too often it's like, I don't want it to feel like yeah, it's okay. Do you want to feel a luxury? Right it's okay it's not it's not there's nothing wrong it's not a bad it's not that I it's like it's not good or bad. Almost enroute. Chris are both successful business as it relates to being in the food industry. According to what however, they define success. Both well known. That's probably why you know, what we're talking about right now. Right? What they're offering two different experiences based on probably the founders values or the company the mission. Right. So there's a mission here for this this particular business, the it's a company mission here, it's moving beyond just what the original founder wanted, right? The original founder probably didn't want to expand burgers. But now it's like the business's mission is to give people fast, affordable, quick, convenient foods. So that's our mission. So everything we do is built around trying to service that from you know, from every experience along the way, from the ad to the in person, etc. And again, these are the things you have to think about, versus the business mission. The company's mission at Ruth's Chris is different. Our mission we're trying to aim at Ruth's Chris we're trying to give people a quality experience a personalized customized experience a sit down, relax. ambiance you say all of those things, is what we're on a mission to do. Yeah.

Ronald Lee Jr.:

Good. No, I'm just saying and even that and even as we talking about these these different brands, these different brands actually were at one point they weren't they weren't personal brands, but they were at least named after people. Like I don't know who a roof Chris is. But that's the name, right? We know that McDonald's. That's a name we know Ray Kroc, you know, brought the company or kind of, I'll say creatively took the company from the McDonald's brothers, right? But that that was the name, right. But these companies are once again existing without us even knowing who these people are. Right. And they're, they've way surpassed what they've ever could have did, if it was a personal brand. And we're not saying that the personal brand, because Steve Jobs had a personal brand, people were aware of who Steve Jobs was. But once again, he was let go by Apple back in the mid 80s. Right, and they only took B, he came back, they brought him back in later on years later, years later, right. But the company was still able to function, even though he wasn't there. So that's kind of what we're seeing, like a personal brand. The brand is contingent upon me. And if I'm out of the picture, then there's really no brand. But when if you build a company, right, even though if you have a former facing CEO, or something like that, the company is still going to function around because it has its own set of values and things like that.

ShySpeaks:

It's important for us to break that down. Because at the end of the day, the people who are at math don't like a word creators, they probably were creating a very new food product, right? The people rude to Chris, or whoever, were pioneering in the industry trying to come up with a steak and trying to come up with a, they weren't creatives. Yeah. And so I think it's important, though, but they, they they branded a certain way. Okay, I said I was going to actually keep it moving and bring in too, I was gonna bring another person in, right. But before I bring that person in, you know how it is on these podcasts? You know, we got to pay you to be who's so I'm going to actually introduce that second person, we're going to take branding, and personal brand and company brand even further, like, you don't want to miss this part, because we're gonna talk about how operations plays a part. And we talked about experience and values. We want to talk about this. Okay. We'll be back, we'll be back. What's the irony is because it's us in different color clothing. I mean, listen, we've been doing a lot of talk, and we want to make sure that you have an opportunity to make a statement as well, because

Ronald Lee Jr.:

we've seen people make statements with their athletic apparel. We've even seen people make statements as entrepreneurs. But one thing I haven't seen is somebody makes a statement as a creative entrepreneur. So what we've done is we have given you an opportunity to make a statement as a creative entrepreneur. Oh, okay.

ShySpeaks:

Okay. So if they want to make sure that they're rocking their creative printer gear, where can they go get that? You

Ronald Lee Jr.:

can go get that gear from what's the irony.com?

ShySpeaks:

I love that particular commercial because it's us, you know, it's like, Wait, man, what happened? Yeah, we're giving you a commercial. Make sure you head over to MMC v.com right in. I'm sorry, my creative business pockets MMCD podcast.com. and meditate, go to our Instagram, follow us, then hit the link in our bio, it'll take you directly to the links to buy their merch that we were just talking about. So you can write that look, mine and my creative business podcast and you told me and visually see what Ron is doing. With not head over to the Instagram. Now. I am excited to introduce this next person. Are you excited?

Ronald Lee Jr.:

No, definitely. He's He's definitely one of my favorite creative printers. Yeah, so yeah, he's somebody that started off as a animator and listen, he wasn't even that good of an animator. Right? He was he was good enough. But he wasn't he wasn't great. But he was he was a visionary. See, I love I love visionaries. So we're gonna bring this next visionary to the stage and I'm sure everybody's encountered this man's visions and at some point in life and in some capacity right so bring to the stage we want to bring the one and the only well this

ShySpeaks:

is me in here. The reason why we bring a Walt Disney has been kicked because I believe that brand can be a broken up simply into experience and operations. I mean, we got we have all these other things that we say, but so far, we talked about experience. Now we need to talk about how operation goes into branding. And that's my kind of carry You know, and a shout out to Walt Disney for, for making my points so easy to convey. Let's get into the fact that Walt Disney. We know, from the TV shows the movies and films and cartoons and all of that singalongs, right we know what these be from those things. But what isn't right. Everything that we say, see, right there's, there's a group of people who create what comes out of Disney. In fact, we don't call it Walt Disney. And then we just say this. But Disney was built out of Walt Disney, which is a person who probably had his own personal brand in some regard at some point. But the the business model, the mission of Disney, the company, became a whole different thing. And so I liked that one, because the earlier one, Steve Jobs had his own thing he was he was, he had his own personal Lab, which is a little bit different from the Apple side. Whereas Walt Disney is more of like, where you see the personal brand, and the company brand kind of merged into one, and then eventually over time, taking on their own separate identity, probably. But Walt Disney is also known for the like, Disney World. Okay. The music parks. Right, so let's talk about how he took operations and how his concept and approach to operations ties into the brand of like Disney World. Give me so

Ronald Lee Jr.:

you know, he was already successful with with films and everything like that. So he wanted to do he wanted to do this part, right. You want to do with amusement park, right? Disneyland was was his first theme park. Everybody was telling them? No, that's a bad idea from why you want to do amusement parks, amusement parks, they're filthy. They're disgusting, right? So in his mind, he was like, it don't have to be though, right? I guess I hear y'all. But my vision, I got a different vision for it. Right? We are going to make a amusement park a theme park, but it's going to be clean, right? There's going to be some place where it's, it's family friendly. It's this warm, welcoming environment. And he put systems and things in place in order for that to be in to ensure next for that to happen, right? He would go to a hotdog stand, right? And he would order a hotdog. And he asked he would walk and he would see okay, where he stopped eating that hotdog is where he would put a trashcan. Right? Because he knew that. Once again, people would throw their trash down. So he put things and systems in place to where Okay, that's not gonna happen. All right, so that's how much of a visionary he was. And he was like, Okay, no, I'm gonna make it clean. He doesn't say I'll make it clean. No, he was like, No, we're gonna put things in place so that we ensure that it's clean. You're muted.

ShySpeaks:

Oh, my bad. Oh, there we go. There we go. That right there. So when we talk about brand, and operations being brand new people be like, Oh, no shot. Oh, no, I think he just like this systems, and processes stuff too much. No. Disney world wouldn't be disney world if it didn't run the way it was run. The experience that there is, yeah, it's how it makes you feel. But like you said, there are systems or processes in place. So even there's a trash system where the trash is are low. The trash cans are located ever so many steps. So that didn't take away from your desire to want to drop trash and you were like NASA system, then there is the greeting team. Right? That's just kind of experience. But it's also like where are their stations that were at where they are, where they kind of can be serviced. They can be services like informational to a degree, you know where you are based on what you're seeing. Because that is yet it's still in a certain Okay, I want you to have this feeling but what am I doing to make sure you have this feeling? Right? People station every so often. Then there are the accommodations is a trip you want to go on the trip like oh, it's a big deal to say we're gonna when we went to Disneyworld before, like, you know, like, you've probably spent some money on that. But you also had this experience that was probably like no other. But the experience was anchored by how the accommodations need to look as well. The accommodations have to be cleaned a certain way. There's a certain routine about how often we're going to come into cleaning those things, how it's gonna look like. All of that ties in and goes hand in hand. Ron, you were telling me about I like the detail a certain level of detail because you wrote you read a book, right? Yes, yes.

Ronald Lee Jr.:

How to be like what. And in his, in his book, they mentioned this, this, this part where they had this castle and the castle was probably still there. But it was grass in front of the classroom. But they noticed that the grass was getting worn out because people was walking on the grass to take photos in front of this castle, right? So the people was like, Okay, we'll put a fence around it. Well, it was like, No, we're not gonna put a fence around it. Let's put a walkway there. And then let's put a sign here saying this is the best place to take photos. Right? So just something that's simple, is like, okay, get a grasp has been worn out, I want it to look pretty. But okay, if the people are willing to take photos here, let's just simply put a walkway, put a sign there. And now people are taking these photos. And this is a hand seeing the experience right now they're doing what they already want to do. But now we're encouraging them to do it, right. So that just once again, is going back to and leaning into that experience to where Okay, I'm going to ensure that you have a great experience based off of what what values we have in place, right.

ShySpeaks:

And then not only are there values there, there are, there is an approach, there's a there's a system here, there's a process here, people are going to take photos, let's create what photo stations, stations is the big deal. Anybody who's into events, events, phases, or event planning, wedding coordination, they understand that there's a whole operations to make to make the event flow and have a functional way. And sometimes people need things to do while they're waiting. So while they're waiting room, I can create a photo station. And that helps me control the flow of traffic, right? People are walking, as they're walking, I want them walking this way. Pathways. All of that goes into logistics, right? That's the logistics of the personnel. So again, like we said earlier, these are the type of things we want you to be thinking about when you when you are thinking about your brand, whether you're working on the business brand that's built around a mission? Are you currently working on a personal brand that's built around your personal ethos and your values? At the end of the day? How how do I need to operate so that people can get that feeling that I was when they were asking me about earlier? I wanted it to be luxury? I want it to feel customized. You want it to feel like whatever? Or did you want it to be fast, you want it to be affordable, and she wanted it to be amazing, whatever it is that you said she wanted it to be? What type of things do I need to implement on the backend now for theme park is trash stations and placing people here and there and making sure the accommodations are suitable a certain way, making sure the photo stations are here. But for you, it may be something different, what type of systems or processes do I need to put in place so that I can deliver like because that's what the brand is gonna be people are gonna remember you're the brand is how you make people feel based on what they experienced in the year. Okay, experience, but like, the experience is only anchored by how things run operationally, I'll give you a perfect example. If, for example, you run a service based business, and you're like, Okay, I want it to feel luxury, and I want it to feel. But I also want to feel convenient, well, you want to make sure you have an invoicing system that's in place that feels convenient, you don't want it to be what it has to do this and login here, or maybe your signature sign, you don't want it to be like gotta sign this and send this back and check this and cross this to you want to feel convenient, and you need to create a convenient signature signing process. Because that's gonna, that's going to anchor into that's going to further solidify your brand and people's mind and every touchpoint that they have with you. Maybe you have a service based business, and you say that you want it to feel affordable, right? You you may have this goal that you want to make off of east coast, each customer $1,000 Well, you can package and you can package it 1000 You got to break that down where they're spending 20 100 With you at a time. So you have to break down the services that you're getting now, the lifetime value of the customer may be 1000. But how do I take my products and position my products in such a way that they get this product and then after that they get this product? And then after that there's a there's a customer journey ladder that's happening so that they're spinning their money little by little over a process of time. I'm just trying to help you wrap your mind around it, but it's ultimately a question that you have to ask yourself, what are some systems, some operations, some processes, what do I need to have in place? Do I need to have somebody to answer the phone? What do I need to do because I need this brand to be solidified.

Ronald Lee Jr.:

And I know some of you all might be thinking well listen, I don't I'm not trying to do a theme park, or I'm not, I don't have a physical product or whatever the case may be. Because, you know, We The Internet has leveled the playing field for a lot of people to write, but they're still systems and processes that you need. If you have an online business, right, there's still a funnel, right? There's still like a side to say there's a value ladder that you want to take them to get to their desired outcome. So there's still a process is you just can't say, well, this doesn't. This doesn't apply with you, right? No, this does hope. I'm hoping you can see the connection. So think about it. My year, you may have a theme park, but you're doing something you're offering some kind of service or product. And it's a connection to where, okay, I still want them to feel a certain way when they receive this email or phone call, or this DM or whatever the case may be. So no,

ShySpeaks:

it's still applicable, like even restaurants, there are restaurants who will make sure when you leave, okay, maybe they're not a theme park. And there's like a souvenir shop and they can go buy all this swag and merch, right, which I'm sure it applies to a lot of artists, if you're artists, and you are creative in some kind of way, I'm pretty sure that people want to experience your creativity in a continuing fashion. So there's there has to be some type of souvenir, but even even certain restaurants, they will leave make sure they give you a peppermint on the way. Yeah, you know, that's branded with their logo on it, so that you throw it in your little cup holder, and you look later and you see their logo there, and you pop in the mint, or whatever. This is what I'm leaving you with. This is what you know, this is what you can keep of me even after this experience is over. Even

Ronald Lee Jr.:

Even a simple phrase as it was my pleasure to serve you. Right? We all know where that come from. Right? It's my pleasure to serve you. Right? That stuff like that. It enhances the experience, and I want to go back like well, he was pleased to serve me. Well, I mean, you feel special, like oh, wait, man, I got a smile every every every stop and check point I got a smile that a smile when I when I when I pull it up to the draft do I got to smile and when I put up to the window I got it, you know, saying like, it's that

ShySpeaks:

you didn't we didn't we wasn't gonna introduce true a cat. Who is the founder of Chick fil A. To me all of that people love Chick fil A they don't they like the food, the creativity of the foods, the sandwich, how they compressed it and what's the rising to a certain degree. And that's the creativity of it. And the experience like pods always. But it's always good all the time. But you don't realize it when you pull up is multiple lanes in the drive thru. So you'd have multiple options, when you pull up, somebody is actually standing out that effect, I don't want you to wait till you get to the window, I'm gonna have somebody to take your order here. So that we can by the time you get to the window, we have increased our time that we have to make your order. Yeah, if we wait to get to the window, then from the window to around here, it's not that long. But if I get your order way back here, right, so now, what system what operational tool that they need to have, they give them some kind of tablet or some type of phone, they can send outside. And they can take your order right there and not just take the order and relay relay the message, they can go ahead and take the payment right there as well. I need to man, if in order to bring this brand that we're working on for Chick fil A to life, I have to make sure that there is some type of device so that they can that's operations. Yeah, there's something over your head where it's covering you. So you're out of the sun, or out of the rain as you're making your order. You don't realize what I feel so great. Because you wouldn't in the rain as you ordered your food because you the sun wasn't being down on you because they they bought this tent or these, you know, overhead like all of that goes into the brand. Yeah, the fries should be on point. Yeah, the food should be on point. That's the creativity of the matter. And I know that creative love making sure that the creative is together. But all the rest of this stuff, is why you really, really, really love Chipotle, I'm telling you, it's not just gonna taste good, right? It's an experience. And it's very, very strong brand. So I want to go back and recap before we conclude this episode. And like really make it cohesive, right? Yeah. So oftentimes we talk about branding, we think about the use of colors, fonts, and all that kind of stuff.

Ronald Lee Jr.:

The way the visual, the visual aspects of the brand we think of visually,

ShySpeaks:

right? But all those things are really compliment. They just, they kind of because again, we say when McDonald's if I want you to be happy, and I want it to be kid friendly, and I want it to be fun. Then I'm picking logos, fonts and and all those kinds of mood boards to complement this feeling. This experience that I want people to have operational experience I want them to And

Ronald Lee Jr.:

that derives from the core values. Everything you just said kid friendly, family oriented, like those are core values. So every brand needs core values, because from those core values, you're going to build the rest of the brand. Right? There. Right? Exactly.

ShySpeaks:

Ruth, Chris earlier, you have, I want people to feel like a professional atmosphere, a status, but a celebrate here, then you're going to have white and bold and red wine color, using their color scheme. be given toast amongst each other. And you're gonna see white gloves and tablecloth servers and things like that and use when you look at our website and on our commercials, because overall, I'm trying to give you a dining experience a dining, customized luxury experience. And so the fonts that they use some bold fonts, you know, and then they have some cursive stuff as well to insinuate luxury. And then, like I said, the red wine kind of eludes you in the wine feel with the with the steak in the wine, the fish and what they're trying to get, all of those things are complementing the original core values, and the operational experience that they want to deliver. Okay, so again, we said the brand can be broken down into experience and operations brand can be broken down into experience and operation. So when we talk about experiencing core values, we have foundation, the mission, the vision, right? We talk about operations, we have ambiance, environment, aesthetics, right, so, so these are some things that you have to take into consideration. So if you're creative entrepreneur, I might encourage you to, man, take those, those values right there in two different ways, especially when you're talking personal and company, you might want to like, build a company buys from the person why stuff because you really, really need to make sure this stuff is cohesive. Definitely

Ronald Lee Jr.:

know. And listen, don't don't be overwhelmed. You don't got to do everything at once, right? I know, we were hitting y'all with a lot now. Like what I even thought about that. But But no, seriously, you do want to be intentional about the things that you are putting in place and about their experience and how it operates and whatnot, because that it really affects everything, right? We all know people that have some great things. But because some of this other stuff is lacking and missing, we haven't returned, we haven't been back, you know, saying I'm like, not gonna get my money again. Because they did not take into consideration how I would feel, or they didn't put these things in place. So that's all we're encouraging you to do was like when you're are thinking about your brand, you have to be very intentional about how you want your customer to think feel, do what how do you what do you want them to experience so that they can return so that they can refer so they can do all these things that you can continue to generate revenue,

ShySpeaks:

revenue, because at the end of the day, we here at the mind of my creative business podcast winning creative entrepreneurs, to lean into the business side. And part of the business side is the branding. And part of the branding is a little bit beyond the fonts, the colors, the logos, it's actually those things are complements to the brand, get down to the root of your brand. And from Ron's perspective, get your strategy together, get your experience together, but from my perspective, get your operations together, how's this thing going for long, I don't care if your food is bus and if it took all day, your car machine wouldn't work. And I won't be back, I won't be back. So that stuff has to be together. Again, a personal brand is built around the life of the founder. So that's where you found those core values and how you want people to feel about you personally, what you bring to the table, a company brand is built around. Its outside the life of the founder is built around mission, this company, this entity in and of itself has a mission to fulfill right. And that mission. There's values there. And in order to fulfill that mission, we have to operate a certain way. And I hope that this is really sitting and resonating at home, simply and one of the things that Ron said, Ron say you have to be intentional. Let's see. You don't have to be overwhelmed. Just be intentional. And I actually have a slogan and a phrase, an affirmation if you will. And I like to recite with you before we get out of the episode before we get out. Ron, do you have any special people that you want to think?

Ronald Lee Jr.:

Yes, I want to thank our case studies, Steve Jobs and and Walt Disney for allowing for us to speak about them and just the phenomenal things that they They're with their brands, right? So capital for them, and also wants to thank you, our viewers and our listeners, right, you could have spent your time doing anything but anywhere, but you spent two here with us. So we thank you for that. Along with thanking you, we want to encourage you join our creatives corner, if you go to our website, MCB podcast.com. Subscribe to our newsletter. Once you subscribe to the newsletter, we're going to invite you to our Facebook community with other creative entrepreneurs to where we all are growing in our creative partnership. And they're on that same road and paths so we can encourage and motivate one another and glean from one another. So join that, once again, wherever you're listening to this, whether it's apple, Spotify, like, leave a review, comment, share, same thing, if you're watching this on Youtube, LIKE COMMENT, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE so that we can get those numbers up. So that's all

ShySpeaks:

I got. We want to help more creative entrepreneurs. And we want to continue to expose them to these eight figure. This episode, it was just running on we said we want to bring in eight figures and beyond. So we went you know, with people who we couldn't technically interview but oftentimes here on this particular podcast, we're bringing in real people, contemporary people who are six, seven and eight figures. And you can hear from them on how they did it all the strategy that you structure, they have the self development tools. And so we want you to be able to take those things as you're building your brand or scaling your brand. And if you're not a creative entrepreneur, like Ross it like it and share it with somebody who is because this is some good stuff. Now, I was talking about this monitoring this affirmation. Now the way this affirmation goes, I want you guys to repeat after me, Ron, we ready? We ready? All right. All right. So I want you to repeat after me. All it takes. All it takes is intention is intention, consistency, consistency, and laser focus and laser focus to my

Ronald Lee Jr.:

creative business to my my creative business. Oh good. So listen on that note. We will see y'all again don't forget we are here on Mondays as early as 6am es t. So looking forward to seeing you all. Well, we will see y'all y'all see us or y'all to see us or hear us either way. Check us out.

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About the Podcast

Minding My Creative Business Podcast
MMCB Podcast helps you embrace the business of creativity!

Every week, go with Ron "iRonic" Lee and ShySpeaks behind the brand of some of the most wildly successful creative entrepreneurs. You'll be sure to gain access to the strategy and structure that
turn creative arts into viable 6, 7, and even 8 figure businesses!

Trust us, you're not the only _____ (*insert your creative genius here*) that struggled with generating a full-time income from your skillset and passion.
But musician, photographer, designer, etc. all over the world have embrace the power of information, implemented business principles & systems, and moved from creatives to CEOs thereby turning their passion into profits.

Say this out loud: All it takes is intention, consistency, and laser-focus to Mind My Creative Business!

About your hosts

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.

Profile picture for Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.
Ron, is a Detroit born and raised music producer turned creative business coach. As the CEO and founder of “Vision Work” Academy Ron’s passion is and has always been helping creative people turn their creative gifts and talents into revenue generating businesses via mindset development. He majors in VISION CLARITY & BRANDING.

Shy "ShySpeaks" Amos-Powell

Profile picture for Shy "ShySpeaks" Amos-Powell
ShySpeaks is an artivist & operations enthusiast from Dallas, TX! When she's not graces mics & stages or curating community events, she's helping other indie artist setup, organize and operate their art as a business! She is the passionate founder of Indiestructure Academy. She majors in SYSTEMS & STRUCTURE!