Here's why brand isn't your logo…your employees are your brand. They are your first and most passionate (can be) brand ambassadors. So leadership must set the tone when developing core values, hiring practices, mission, operating principles, etc…Those are actually the foundation of your brand and brand promise.

You must deliver on every brand promise. Who delivers on that promise? People. And one step further, from where? The office. So you can and should also translate your brand into your physical space. I couldn't imagine Southwest Airlines' offices being stuffy and conservative…and if they are, shame on them.

​You can't expect people to compartmentalize how and when they "project,” or live, your brand. It's Jeckel & Hyde and it's exhausting. Who wants to be somebody else half their lives? Besides an online predator or something. Please don't fill your company with online predators. 

I went to Home Depot - which may as well be a foreign county to me, and I the annoying tourist to the locals - to help my mom pick out some paint. 

John jumped at the chance to help us. His enthusiasm contagious, his knowledge supremely helpful. He was happy to find out more about what we were trying to achieve and presented alternatives. Truly happy to help. 

Jump at the chance to help your customers. Jump at the chance to understand their goals and how you can add value. And they'll be happy to jump at the chance to talk about it. To talk about you. 

Thank you, John, and thank you, Home Depot. 

Southwest Airlines flight. As a member of the coveted boarding group C, expectations are low; each has a personal strategy in picking their undoubtedly middle seat. I entered the cabin seeking mine.
 
I’m not a plane talker. Based on the multitude of memes and comedic routines on the topic, I’d venture to say most people aren’t. So I chose my middle seat because one guy was asleep, the other wearing headphones. And quite frankly, neither were spilling into the middle seat. 8B, it was.
 
For whatever God-forsaken reason, I actually got into a conversation with my plane neighbor - the horror! Well, he turned out to be a literal neighbor – kids attend the same school as mine and all. He was positively lovely. How lucky am I to have a friendly neighbor!?
 
As my conversation with said neighbor started as a break from my reading on content marketing, customer conversion, blah blah blah, my mind wandered back to the topic after he returned back to episode 1 of John Ryan and I to my book...On the plane, I was annoyed when the conversation began. But if in my ‘hood, I would have welcomed a conversation from a neighbor!
 
As marketers, we need to meet customers where they’re ready and open to listen. Where they don’t mind being interrupted (because let’s face it, much of marketing remains an interruption at this point but hey, we’ll get there). Study your customers’ behavior. What is their mindset whilst on Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn? At a football game with family? Or even on a weekday versus Saturday…Understanding when they’ll be open to receiving a certain type of message (the value your product/service adds to their lives) can save oodles of wasted marketing dollars. Because some people love to talk on a plane. Others don’t welcome so much as a ‘hello.’ Are your customers in a frame of mind to welcome your hello?
 
One hour of planning saves three in execution. More difficult and time consuming to develop a strategy per channel, customer segment, behavior, etc., it will yield better results.
 
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Today is 10/31/18. I just built this website. I just decided to compile random writings and thoughts into this format. I have no idea where this will go. And then I visit one of my favorite marketing guru blogs (Seth Godin) and this is his post from today. 

Thank you for the sign, God; and thank you for the sentiment, Seth. 

​Serendipity? 

The more the words, the less the meaning... Ecclesiastes 6:11

How poignant and powerful being clear and concise can be.

Words matter. Think. Edit.

Take more time to write a shorter letter. Ie., Mark-Twain that shiz. 

Vulnerability isn’t a lack of strength, but rather strength in its rawest form. Being vulnerable is one of the most significant displays of strength.
 
Most people think of strength as an abundance of muscle and power, a lack of emotional display. Which doesn’t leave much room for vulnerability, which is actually the courage to display an abundance of emotion, many of the physically strongest lack. How powerful. 

Yes, consider what your logo looks like. Consider the design. Consider how it will appear or produce on print, embroidery, etc.

​But more importantly, consider how you’re going to deliver on your brand promise or the cleanest design and sharpest embroidery of your mark doesn’t mean jack.

Today you cheered. Trinity Fitness family, today you cheered upon the news to praise God for my dad’s recent cancer-free diagnosis. And you cheered because you’ve followed his and my family’s journey through lung cancer and now a brain hemorrhage. You’ve praised and prayed with me.

I’m an introvert. It takes me a while to warm up to people and truly feel free to be myself (obnoxious laugh and all) in a room full of people. I observe and admire. I observe those who may feel like I do yet I don’t approach them. I admire those who are extroverts - confident and outspoken.

Most of all, I’m grateful. I’m grateful to have a community of people who are patient with introverts. Who welcome extroverts. Who pray together. Who care. Who share. Who are vulnerable. Who are grateful. Who challenge you. Who fulfill you. Who teach you. And all of the above, whether you know it or not. And who cheer with praise, when your dad is told he’s cancer-feee.

With overwhelming gratitude,
your mom