Blog Archives


EP074 – Houseplant: Evan Goldberg & Michael Mohr, Co-Founders

Together with Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Michael Mohr founded Houseplant, a lifestyle brand rooted in cannabis that creates and curates thoughtful, design-led original products.

 

By unifying the words “house” and “plant,” the brand has created an entirely new cannabis experience through curated, one-of-a-kind expert insights from Rogen and Goldberg that marry perfectly with well-designed, premium Housegoods.

 

In this episode with Evan and Michael, we dive into the similarities of crafting a movie versus a brand, why pricing is key to positioning, how to create a welcoming brand in a misunderstood and jaded business segment, and how you can perfectly plan something yet it can still misfire. And that is in a way the challenge, but also the beauty of entrepreneurship and brand building, and I can guarantee you that you will not only gain a lot of insights into brand strategy but you will also greatly enjoy the company of these fine gentlemen on today’s show.

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Why Facebook Groups are best for Customer Insight

I said it before, and I’ll say it again: Facebook Groups are amazing for customer insights (and not only for the lazy ones like myself).

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EP073 – Intelligentsia: Doug Zell, Founder

Doug Zell is the Founder of Intelligentsia Coffee, a brand that established itself as a leader in what came to be known as third-wave coffee.

 

Intelligentsia embodies a quest for superior quality and sophisticated design, but it is furthermore about the overall impeccable brand experience that those of us who have visited one of the 15 US locations have come to expect.

 

Doug is a masterful brand builder and his insights from not only successfully building, but carefully expanding the Intelligentsia brand over the past 26 years is, just like the brand itself, rather illuminating.

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EP072 – Savor Beauty: Angela Jia Kim, Founder

Angela Jia Kim founded  Savor Beauty with a strong brand ethos inspired by a career as a concert pianist.

 

What caught my eye about Angela’s brand was how she checks off all the boxes a brand in her space should, and she does it seemingly with ease: farm-fresh small-batch organic products, cutting-edge technology, 100% non-toxic clean formulas, made locally, supporting various deserving communities, cruelty-free testing, minority-owned, et cetera, et cetera.

 

And Angela understands that her brand ethos is the guiding light that makes all the difference in the why, the what, and the how of her brand. A wonderful episode, also because she shares with us how the person who sued her over her brand name gave her transformational business advice.

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From Brand Strategist to Brand Strategist

I talked with Eliza Blank who founded The Sill and revolutionized the household plant market with a keen eye on brand essence.

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On Mark Savant’s Show

We cover how to build a brand, why you need a brand, how to grow your business, if you can create a brand, and the future of brand building.

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EP071 – Breeze Airways (JetBlue, and others): David Neeleman, Founder & CEO

David Neeleman is the Founder of 5 airlines and changed the way people experienced surprise and delight by flying JetBlue.

 

During the pandemic, he launched his latest airline brand, Breeze, and I sat down with David to talk about what branding means to him, what makes great company culture, how a book inspired the JetBlue brand, and his preferred airline naming process (in the case of JetBlue the name was derived the Friday before a Monday launch).

 

Needless to say, an episode that is packed with insights from a truly amazing brand builder I believe all of us are thrilled to hear from on the subject of branding.

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EP070 – Drink Monday: Chris Boyd, Co-Founder & CEO

Chris Boyd is the Co-Founder of Monday, a Southern California distillery that crafts non-alcoholic spirits such as gin and whiskey.

 

The brand is only a year old and its impeccable design caught my eye from day one.

 

Chris and I talk about how community and authenticity are key to building his brand. And he is walking that talk as he has 1,366 shareholders to who he is reporting.

 

And of course, we talk about the power of design and how the big question ‘why’ should be fundamental to any entrepreneur’s journey of building their brand.

 

A spirited conversation all around.

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EP069 – Crossnet: Chris Meade, Co-Founder

Chris Meade, 28 years young, a Forbes 30 under 30 nominee, invented a new sport with his co-founders that mixes Four square with Volleyball.  Today you can catch Crossnet on ESPN and the product sells in over 3,000 locations in the US and around the world.

 

Chris and I talk about naming not only a brand, but a sport, how to create not only momentum but a movement, the latest in digital marketing, and why communication, internally and externally is key to brand success and, as usual, we touch on a lot more.

 

If you are an entrepreneur in the D2C space, listen in. If you are any kind of marketing professional, listen in. Much wisdom is to be gained from this conversation on how to get e-commerce traction in today’s environment.

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On the Devour Podcast

A conversation about how I started my career, why I pivoted from running an agency to a consultancy, what brand strategy means to me, how design education changed, and much more.

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FINIEN