Your logo is not supposed to tell the whole brand story

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Logos are extremely important when building a brand. When you think about brands that have achieved iconic status, the mere mention of the brand name will conjure up the logo.

Apple

McDonalds

CocaCola

Nike

But notice that every one of these logos do not tell the entire story of the brand. Logos have a very specific purpose. It needs to be memorable. It’s the symbol that will evoke all the memories, feelings and perceptions accumulated in your mind from every touch point it has with you. From advertising (polar bears sharing a coke at Christmas time), product packaging (lifting a tab and the ipad delightfully falls into your hands), to celebrity endorsements (Lebron James dunking a ball with his new kicks), the logo is meant to capture all of that everytime you see it or think about the need it fills.

The best logos:

1. Scale to difference sizes

Billboards, websites, favicon, social avatars, hoodies, mugs… your logo is/ can be used across different mediums and should scale appropriately without losing resolution. If a logo is too complex, it makes it very challenging to be used, which limits it’s visibility and thus defeats its purpose.

2. Are simple, yet differentiated

The ones most memorable are the ones people can draw. Ask anyone to draw the Nike swoosh and you’ll probably get it them 90% right. Ask people to draw the Puma logo and you’ll probably get more wrongs than rights. The challenge with a simple logo is the ability to be differentiated. This is where you have to think about the category and industry, making sure that it stands out from its competition, not from all the brands in the world.

3. Reflects the essence of the brand

It is in the end THE symbol for the brand. Understanding the essence of the brand and making sure the logo reflects that is fundamental, but it’s not always the case. It requires first of all the uncovering of the brands essence, a strategic process that most brands skip… going straight to design -> FAIL.

4. Surprise and delight

In neuroscience, anything that evokes an emotion or additional senses help the mind to more likely create a long-term memory. Reinforcement of that memory through repeated recall keeps the memory from being erased. When logos have an easter egg, a hidden surprise, it becomes more memorable. Go look at the FedEx logo (find the arrow) and the GM logo (find the electrical plug). Be delighted.

5. Make a point

Instead of telling the whole story, the logo can be designed to make a point. ONE POINT. It could be the legacy of the brand, it could be the personality of the brand, or it could be the value proposition of the brand (look at the Amazon logo -> everything you need from A to Z) is in the logo! If there is a very specific point you want the logo to make, design it into the symbol, but don’t forget the other points!

Your logo is not supposed to tell the whole brand story, it’s job is to remind people of THE BRAND STORY.

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)

Why branding fails

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A brand is the feeling and perception somebody has about your product, your company, and your service. Branding is an intentional and consistent process of imprinting your brand story into the marketplace. And it's using every single touch point, but branding cannot solve everything. Sometimes branding does fail, and here are the top 10 reasons why.

Full transcript:

#10: NO BRANDING INSIGHTS

Your branding fails because there is no substantial insight to stand on. If you do not understand the audience you're trying to serve, and there's no core insight to make the decisions that you need to make, I can't help you.

#9: SALES, MARKETING AND COMMS ARE MISALIGNED

When these important channels of your company are frankly not connected and going in all different directions. It is very difficult to have the audience come back with one message. It is very tough for you to push a message through that helps everybody understand what you're trying to be known for. So fix the organization, make sure they're all aligned. Processes matter, people matter, organization matters.

#8: BRAND ONLY SEEN AS A LOGO, FONT, OR COLOR

Now, when brand is diminished to that level where it's only just about design, you really take away the potential and the ability of the company, product or service to be loved because brand strategy is the face of business strategy. So when it's pushed down to that level of just design, you're taking away its ability to be steering the company at that highest level.

#7: HR IS NOT SEEN AS A STRATEGIC PART OF THE ORGANIZATION

A large part of your brand strategy is getting your employees to be brand ambassador. They're the first group of people that really needs to love your brand. If they don't love your brand, how are your customers gonna love your brand? And so HR is such a strong component of the branding process and the branding activities, because they're the ones that help attract the best, retain the best, but also, enact your brand strategy internally, so you can turn everyone into a true brand ambassador.

#6: ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IS NOT ALIGNED WITH CUSTOMERS

This is a huge issue where you're trying to have a persona and personality towards your customers that is absolutely different from what your culture is in the company. That disconnect and that gap can cause your brand to fail. Think about this. If you are a very highly technical scientific company and that's the culture, but you're really trying to help moms or help caregivers care for their children, or you're entering a pediatric space. That disconnect is something that can be very hard to overcome.

#5: FOCUSED ON TACTICS, NOT STRATEGY

Now we all know that we have to execute the strategy, but if all of the focus is on creating tactics, that's really just throwing spaghetti on the wall. When you don't have an insight, when you don't have a strategy, and you're not spending time to decide what you're going to do and what you're not gonna do, it's wasting resources and it's creating spin. That can be a reason why branding can fail

#4: SHORT TERM OVER LONG TERM

Now, if everything that you're trying to do is short term, and you're looking at metrics at the short term, it can cause your branding efforts to fail. It can sabotage it because branding takes a long time. Creating that perception, owning that position in the consumer's mind or in the audience's mind takes time, give it time to win, give it time to be successful.

#3: ROI IS EVERYTHING

When every activity is measured based on the revenue it's supposed to bring in, you're really limiting the channels. You're really limiting that to a marketing function because everything else is trying to improve the reputation, trying to inject that feeling into the marketplace. And frankly it takes the air out of all your branding efforts–knowing that brand is a feeling, and branding is not a rational process.

#2: CEO DOESN’T UNDERSTAND OR CARE ABOUT BRAND

We can help make your brand matter, but if the top of the organization doesn't believe in building brands, it is an absolute uphill battle. Branding requires alignment. Branding requires leadership and branding requires bold moves. If leadership is not all in about zigging while everybody's zagging, taking this strategic directions that can take your brand to a different level to really make it loved. It's difficult.

#1: THE PRODUCT OR SERVICE SUCKS

It's hard to hear, but no matter how good your brand efforts are, no matter how good you're aligning all your channels, you're telling that one story, it, you can't deliver the value. If you can't have people fall in love with using the product, the service, all hope is lost. Your branding will fail.

Now that you understand what the top 10 reasons why branding can fail, you can put a plan together, address them, address them so you can really build the brand that is loved and truly capture the hearts and minds of your audiences.

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)

How to build a brand from scratch

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You want to launch a product, but have no idea where to start when it comes to building a brand.

Three stages of building a brand:

1. Position

   Find the truths in the category, customer, competition and your product. The intersection of all of these is the positioning of your brand.

2. Personify

   Establish traits and an archetype for your brand. People relate with people, not things.

3. Produce

   Create all the assets you need for your brand and activate a funnel to get people to buy and become true fans.

You are in luck! I’ve condensed the full process into three stages in the video below.

Full transcript here:

So you have a fantastic idea for a product and you want to build a brand from scratch. How do you do that? In this video, I'll show you the specific steps to building a brand that resonates, that gets you sales and really develop the kind of visuals, verbals and experiences that your audiences will love.

Before we start. It's important to align on what is a brand. A brand is the feeling and perception someone has about your product and/or service. And branding is an intentional process of building that feeling and perception through every touchpoint. So today, when we go through the steps, it's really about building this brand strategy in which you can put it out to the market place, put it out to your prospective customers, to provide and gain that feeling and perception. And so what happens then is through marketing and communications, you drive them through a funnel and you are able to convert them into customers for the long term.

In this video, we're really focusing on your brand as a product. While most companies start out using their brands for both their products and company, as you have the foundation for this brand as product, you're able to build in behaviors and different ways in which culture can be instilled into your employees, but at the early stages, I'm going to assume that is not gonna be a big part of your goals because you're not starting out and building a brand from scratch with 20, 30, 40, 50 people. It's probably gonna be a handful if any. Maybe it's you and your partner trying to build a brand from scratch. So we'll focus on that. And then later on, you can absolutely come back and check out other videos about how do you build that culture. But right now we're gonna give you the tools and the processes to really have that foundation for your product brand.

Three steps

Three simple steps: position, personify, and produce. I'll go through each of them so you really understand and get clear about what are the steps to building a strong brand strategy and start to create these foundational elements.

POSITION

To build your brand and to find your position, it's really the intersection of four key things: the category, the customers, the competition, and your product. When you look at the category and the customers, you start to understand what is that tension? What is that pain? What are they trying to do? What's unresolved when customers try to get what they want, fulfill their goals within that category? And when you have an understanding of your competition, as well as the deepest benefits of your product, you then understand what is differentiating. What is that unique thing? What is that secret sauce that you can really tout as something that's truly different and unique? And so when you put the tension and differentiation together, that intersection is your positioning.

Category

The first thing you need to do is to define your category. It is to figure out what are the dynamics within that category. How do you do that? So let's take, for example, you have found out a way to manufacture and make water that helps a person think quicker, better, faster. So your category is water. That's sort of the biggest category that you can define your product. Once you understand that, it's also about what might be the subcategory. Is there already an existing subcategory in which your product can fit in? Or are you creating a new subcategory in this case? Is your subcategory brain water or smart water? So think about what that subcategory is and really define in the smallest possible category in which your product can fit in. Now, when you have defined a category, you need to think about what are the truths within that? What are the dynamics in that category? Which means are people having a hard time within the category to find the products, or what are the new technologies and products within that category? I think once you start defining what that is, you have a clearer picture about where you are operating in.

Customers

The second important piece is customers. So the first thing to do is to understand and write down who is your ideal customer. So again, if you are selling this water that can make people become smarter think better and faster. There's so many groups of people that you can sell this to. And maybe a segment, a customer segment could be young professionals in which they're starting out in their career, or it could be students, students who are really needing this water because they're under constant pressure to perform and do well in school. And then if you look closer, perhaps there's even a smaller and tighter segment, maybe it's medical students or law students, the most important thing is to find a customer segment that can help you really break into the market. And in this case, perhaps you pick medical students. They need a lot of help in terms of being able to constantly be clear and think on their feet. So you decide that's your ideal customer segment. That's your target customer segment. And once you understand that it's time to then dig in and think about what are their pains, what are their problems? What are you trying to solve? And also understand what is their mindset, what is their feelings towards being able to perform in the high level that they wish to,

TENSION: Category X Customer

Once you under understand your category, the dynamics of that, and your ideal target customer segment, you can start to understand at the intersection of that, what are some of the tensions today, maybe for this example about the water that can help people think better faster is that these med students, clearly don't even think about water as a source of nutrients or as a source of performance for them. And that could be your truth, but what's important is to really have the intersection and really write down what is that tension and what is the truth when you put these two things together,

Competition

Next up, competition. This is really important for us to understand. Who is our direct competitor, who is our indirect competitor and are there any alternative competitors? Most likely the question is yes, to all three, you don't really operate alone. But sometimes you might not have a direct competitor because you're creating a whole new subcategory or even a whole new category. So from a direct competitor perspective, in this case of our water that can help you think better and faster, are there other water products that claim to do the same thing? That's a direct competitor. Indirect competitor is something that they would rather use or they're using today. So if there's no water that can help you think better and faster in the market today, what are they drinking? As, as something that can, that's peripheral to that, maybe it's Vitamin Water. That's an indirect competitor. Alternative competition is something that if they're not even drinking water, what else are they drinking? In this example, maybe it's drinking juices or other types of beverages. That's your alternative competition.

Product

The last thing here, but very crucial, is look at everything there is about your product. And we call this a product ladder. You go from the bottom, which is attributes and features, the specific things and descriptions about your product. And as you go up the ladder are benefits. What are the benefits of these specific features and attributes? And as you go up another level, it's going into more of the emotional benefits. When you have these benefits, these functional benefits, what type of emotions are your customers gonna feel? And ultimately at the very top, is there some sort of self expressive benefit that when someone uses this water, they feel like they're becoming this ideal person or ideal archetype in their head. That's product ladder.

DIFFERENTIATION: Competition X Product

So once you understand your competition and what is your product’s features, functional benefits, emotional benefits, and perhaps even self-expressive benefit, at the intersection of those should be your most differentiating and powerful end benefit. That's where you really start to understand how you can push against the competition, but also provide something that's very special and unique from your brand.

POSITIONING

So now you have the tension between the customer and a category. You have your differentiation between your product and the competition. When you put those things together, you will have a good idea of what your product positioning is. And the framework is actually pretty simple.

For who: who is the target it segment, and what is the problem, and what is that tension?

Your brand is what: what is the description of that solution?

By how: what is the differentiation and a secret sauce?

In order to: what is that functional, emotional self-expressive benefit that is really pushing towards a purpose of what ultimately can happen?

So, do we have an example? Sure. We do. So let's take that example of the water that can help you think better and faster. And here could be a positioning statement.

For medical students looking to get ahead of their peers

Brain water is proven to boost, focus and memory

By providing electrolytes designed for the brain

In order to amplify potential for a smarter and healthier world.

So once you have your positioning statement, you really conquered and achieved a large part of how to build a brand from scratch. Congratulations. Now that you have your positioning, it's time to get into personification.

PERSONIFY

So how do you personify your brand and why is it important? It's important because people don't have relationships with water. For example, people don't have relationships with inanimate things. People have relationships with people. So it's important to personify and think about your brand as a person.

So how do you start? You start by thinking about your brand as a person. So start collecting all these characters and personas that you've encountered in the past. It doesn't matter whether it's a movie character or book character, or a celebrity. Start writing down all these different people and what are the specific traits about them that you feel portray not just your brand, but also your ideal target segment. And so what's the most important thing you want to reflect? What is a personification of your brand that your ideal target segment wants to become? So in our case of brain water and smart water for medical students, right, that's looking to get ahead of their peers, what type of people are they striving to be? They are competitive, they wanna win? Start putting all these things down and that becomes the foundation of personification.

If you really wanna geek out on this in terms of personification, there is a panel of 12 brand archetypes that brands typically fall into. I'm not gonna describe them here, but you can use them as a way for you to describe the persona of your brand.

PRODUCE

The last piece is really the culmination of your brand strategy into what is gonna be expressed into the market. And this is produce, which means you're really trying to make these things now. So the first part of it is really about the visual and verbal expression of your brand strategy: the positioning and the persona that you've laid out.

Visual Brand Language

So the visual manifestation is really looking at your visual identity. So this is your logo, color palette, typography, graphic elements. This is really where you put these foundational assets in place, and you really wanna adhere to them so that you can have a consistent look and feel of your brand moving forward. And you ask me how do I do that? I'm not a designer. So go out and find a designer that can help you put these things together. With positioning and personality in place, you have the foundational elements to give to a designer so that they understand exactly what they need to produce, and even have options for you that adhere to the guidelines or adhere to your needs from a brand strategy perspective. And it helps so much because then they know what to hit. They know what to look for. They know what to actually produce so that you get what you need. Fiverr is a great platform and that you can really find freelance designers to help you do this.

Verbal Brand Language

Messaging is your next part, right? So this is really putting all the ideas up front and your brand strategy into words. What is that headline that's gonna really hook your audience into the offering, right? What are other types of reasons-to-believe and proof points? You can get people to understand: wow, this is a fantastic offering for me that I cannot refuse. Some other things that you might want to write down is your purpose, which is why do you exist beyond money? The description of very specific and short and concise description about your product and your brand and also start to write out what are some phrases and words that you feel can really bring about the personality and positioning that you're trying to portray.

Activation

And the last part is activation. This is really putting it out there. This is the marketing and the communications to really get your target segment into the funnel and start going through the process of converting and make them to be the most loyal customers that you can get.

I'm not gonna go through the details of activation, but let me walk through a simple four part funnel for you to start putting together your plan.

So the first one is, is awareness. This is really getting into where is your ideal target segment? So for your med students, where are they not just in physical location, but also where are they getting information? Are they hanging out on TikTok? Are they on YouTube looking at videos? What are some of the places in which they're getting their information from?

The next one is consideration. So what do they need to it even consider about you? So what kind of information do you need to give them so that it can really consider brain water as, as a product that they wanna buy.

Conversion, you need to help them buy, like, where are they gonna buy this? Is it through an app that you're gonna deliver straight to their dorm room? Is this through distribution in their cafeteria? How can you help them buy? Where do they actually pay? Where is that conversion point?

Lastly is engagement. How are you gonna get them to buy from you repeatedly and become true fans? How do you get user generated content so that they can influence their peers to buy brain water from you?

So there you have it, the three parts of building a brand from scratch position, personify produce. These three buckets will help you really build your brand and put it onto the marketplace and start to get traction, you know, for your customer segment that you're targeting. Thank you for watching this video. I really hope you got something from it. And you understood the three main building blocks of building a brand from scratch. I wish you the best of luck. And until next time, my friend be safe, be well and build an awesome legendary brand.

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)

How to avoid typical traps in healthcare branding

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Building brands in healthcare has its own set of nuances and challenges to overcome. It can be very easy to fall prey to seemingly positionable territories–in other industries it may be so, but in healthcare, brands have to dig deeper.

Full transcript:

In today's video, I'll share with you six common traps that healthcare brands fall into. As they're trying to build a relevant, sustainable and differentiating brand. Hey everyone, this is Howard Chan and I help build he brands.

The first trap is we are patient focused. If you actually tell me that you're not patient focused, Hey, maybe there's a territory that actually makes sense. We're gonna Zig while you Zag, but every healthcare company is patient focused. The problem is not whether you are patient focused. It's about how are you patient focused. Are we able to talk about what is actually differentiating in the way that you're focused on patients? Well, if you think about all the things that you do, is it how you help patients access care? That’s table stakes. Is it about how you provide support programs for your patients? Table stakes. What about the way in which you educate patients on disease or educate patients on your therapy? Again, table stakes. What are things that you are actually doing with the patient that makes you differentiated? Actually puts you in a whole different category of healthcare companies that's actually focused on patients.

The second trap is we follow the science. Now, if you are a company in healthcare that's providing some sort of therapy, some sort of treatment, you’d better be following the science. Now what about following the science? Are you differentiated? Are you different? And if you have a particular mode of action, a particular technology, that's so different by all means dive deep into the specifics of what that is and use that as a way to position yourself from the rest of the competitors. But if that's not really something that the company can stand behind, don't use this as a territory. Don't use science as your key positioning element because everyone in your category is following the science.

A third trap here is we are innovative. It's a funny thing. This is kind of like a comedian telling you. I'm really funny, trust me. If you are funny, you don't need to tell people about that. Just like if you're innovative, you don't tell, you show. Companies that are truly innovative don't have to tell you they're innovative. They merely put out products. They put out solutions that help you understand how innovative they are. So that's a trap that particularly ensnares healthcare brands. When they say hey, we are all about innovation, we are very innovative. Let your actions tell people, and don't put it as a part of the way that you message. It's all about what are you gonna actually show in terms of value? What are you gonna actually show in terms of solutions so people understand that you are innovative. Like Dyson, for example, they don't tell you “we are super innovative”. No, they put out products that are just a tier above the rest. Just like in a healthcare space, how do you manifest that idea into the products, into everything that you deliver so that people can see and feel your “innovativeness” as opposed to that being a thing that you tell people.

The fourth trap here is we don't have competitors. Sorry to burst your bubble, but everything and everyone has competitors. If it's not a direct competitor, it's an indirect competitor. If it is not an indirect competitor, it's an alternative competitor. People are doing something as opposed to using your product. It might be not taking any decision at all. So if you are a completely new drug in a rare disease, what could be your competitor? Sure. There's no direct competitors because there's no treatment for that patient population, but a competitor or alternative competitor could be opting out totally from the health system or traditional sort of healthcare realm, because there have been no treatment. So what do you need to actually pull them back into the system? You need to reach them in a totally different way. Again, when you think about competition in a broader sense, it allows you to think about the solutions. But once you say we have no competitors, it makes you be in this space of complacency and customers will just flock to you. Well, if you build it, sadly, they might not come.

The fifth trap is we want to be a household name. Well who doesn't want to be a household name? It's cool. Who doesn't wanna be a brand that's known by everybody, but going broad, direct to consumer costs a lot of money. And if you can actually get the awareness and transform that awareness into tangible value, by all means become a household name. But think about, do you need to have a prescription for your product? Do you need to have insurance pay for it? Do you need to have adequate supply? Does the product or treatment apply to every household? So it's actually more tangible to focus on the specific stakeholders and parties that you want to be known for and go from there. Instead of doing something large scale, we wanna be known by everybody program. It's gonna cost a ton of money and you're not gonna be able to recoup or translate that into tangible value for your company and brand.

We have a disruptive technology. This is a trap where healthcare brands want to be known for bringing disruption, but it's not really about, we have a disruptive technology. This is a trap where healthcare brands wanna show up as being innovative and they talk about disruptive technology. It’s really more played out in a tech world where these technologies are disruptive and a leap forward. I think in healthcare, we have to be very mindful of that because the last thing anybody wants is disruption, especially in today's world where healthcare providers are stretched so thin. Their workflows, everything that they're doing, they're already putting so much work and effort into caring for patients. Anything disruptive will be deemed as a negative. I think what is more important is to take a look at how that technology actually delivers on the experience, the improved outcomes, but also the improved experience of how these products are being used or how patients are being treated or how even the provider's lives are made easier.

Now you know the key traps in healthcare branding, you can hopefully better avoid them!

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)

Badass Brand Books #1: Culture built my brand

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The first in a series of book summaries where I cover the key points of brand books I think are pretty badass. Welcome to Badass Brand Books! The BBBs! This book by Mark Miller and Ted Vaughn gives us a great insight into how do we infuse brand into the culture of an organization. A fantastic book filled with numerous stories and great tips on how to really bring a brand aligned culture to life. There are six layers of culture that I go through from this book:

1. Principles

2. Architecture

3. Rituals

4. Lore

5. Vocabulary

6. Artifacts

Full transcript

The central thesis for this book is that culture is really powerful and it's invisible. And so it can either help drive performance in the organization, building your brand, or it could totally derail all your brand efforts, eat your brand. They define culture as an organization's internal environment. And one of the quotes I found in the book by Edgard Schein is that culture is to a group, what personality or character is to a person. I find this conversation very similar and congruent with the experiences I've had helping to build brands. When talking about culture, it was typically either the last to be mentioned or really confined to developing a set of values and behaviors. It never really pulled through to the rest of what we could do for the organization, really infuse brand into every aspect of their culture. So what I really love about this book is that Ted and Mark give us very cool stories that help illustrate the six different layers of how brand can be infused into culture. And I'll go through every one of them.

ONE: PRINCIPLES

Principles are behavior based values to guide people on how to act, behave and make decisions. An interesting statistic from the book was that only about 27% of employees strongly believe in their organization's values. And I would say most of them don't even remember it. And when you scour the internet and look at websites of values that companies put out and they're typically pretty, blah, they're the same old words like integrity, accountability, maybe teamwork. I think this section could help us really dive into how do we create principles that resonate and how do you actually use them to communicate both internally and externally so that all the employees understand what they need to do to act and to behave in, in congruency to the culture of the company in this chapter, there are four main ideas that I think are really important when we talk about principles.

So the first one is modeling and they bring up the story of how you can actually show your values, not just tell it and put it up on a wall, but how do you show it. A story about Patagonia, since 1983, their principle was to really put people front and center and they actually subsidize and have onsite childcare at every one of their locations. And so because of that, all the parents, or at least close to a hundred percent of parents that take their maternity or opportunity leave, return. And so that's really an example of, of modeling and showing your values and principles, instead of just writing it down and putting up a poster.

The second thing here that Ted and mark mentioned is this idea of accountability. And so to have principle means something you have to use it to hire, but also to fire, you gotta to hold people accountable to the principles that you set out.

The third is to really externalize it. And so one of the really good examples here, which I love even before Mark and Ted mentioned in their book is REI’s Opt-out campaign. That's when they close all their stores on Black Friday to really demonstrate a core piece of their principles, which is to enjoy the outdoors.

The last but not least idea I think is important here, is to reward your employees, to demonstrate these principles day in and day out. It doesn't have to be something big. It doesn't have to be something expensive, but the mere gesture of continuing to reward and help people understand what are the principles they really need to adhere to can build a very strong culture.

TWO: ARCHITECTURE

It is defined as the organizational systems and structures designed to reflect your brand and support your employees to deliver on its promise. Now, this really goes deep into what are some of the things that the company and organization can do to help its employees you their best and really reflect all the things that the brand wants to reflect. There are, again, four different ideas here.

And the first one is about the performance of your employees. How do you develop systems and structures so that they can perform? And a great story that Ted and Mark tells is of their own agency, where they develop a system whereby every time somebody uses their company card to buy something, they get a SMS text that immediately prompts them to send a photo of the receipt. And then it's done think about that as a system to help remove mundane activities that doesn't add value or use your employee's time to the best in the best way.

The second idea here is people operations. So think about from a people from an HR perspective, whether it's from a recruitment standpoint, whether it's from an interviewing standpoint, onboarding performance management, if you can infuse the brand into every step of the people operations process, that really helps people to not just come to the company or come to the organization, but also stay and feel that they belong.

The third piece is budgeting. So this is really about tracking and understanding where the organization spends time on, not just money, resources, but also time. Where are you spending your money? And time can give you big clues about what the organization stands for and what they really focus on.

Last, but not least is decision making. It's a really important part of the company. As we know, it really determines where the future is and where the company goes. And so a story day tell is about Kodak. Its ultimate demise was really decision making about innovations or ideas. They want nothing to do with film. Even though they were pioneers and, and very innovative, well, they actually in the 1980s developed a digital camera. So one of the first companies to do so, but along the way, they lost that edge. And really the decision making process was not used for being an innovative company.

THREE: RITUALS

Rituals are repeated experiential activities that reinforce what's most important in your organization and create a sense of joy and renewed energy around your brand. One of the marquee stories in this section is one that I really love, and it talks about jet propulsion labs. A NASA entity. It's a 2.5 billion federally funded organization. And let me read quickly to you what they do at this annual pumpkin carving contest. So at the annual pumpkin carving contest one year, a team of rocket scientists created an Apollo Lunar Jack’o, Lander. It emitted faux smoke as audio voiceover from the actual Apollo lunar landing play played in perfect timing with the pumpkin’s careful descent, and another team entered a pumpkin that faked the moon landing in front of a green screen, in a mock film studio. Wow. I mean, it, they go all out and this is, this is a ritual that they hold very dear to their hearts, and everybody talks about it.

It's much anticipated, but I think the secret here is that they're not forced to do it. It's not mandatory. So when you think about rituals, Ted and Mark really talk about two distinct types of rituals. One is top down, which the leadership sort of think about what would be a ritual for the organization or bottoms up much like the JPL pumpkin carving contest ritual, where it's really formed by the employees themselves. Ted and Mark gave us a few ideas about what types of rituals can be a part of the company's culture. It could be internal, it could be culture, building events, team, building events, much like the pumpkin carving contest, or it could be onboarding experiences. So in Google, they mentioned that new hires are often called Nooglers. And so they're brought through their own experiences of, of what it means to live out the Google brand.

But one of the key things for us to remember as they talk about in this chapter is that rituals can't be mandatory. It can't be routine. It can't be something that people have to do. So when an executive or a leader says, Hey, at the beginning of every meeting we're gonna share a story about why change is important or why, why our personal values line up with the company values that becomes a routine. And much often when that happens, it's not really a ritual. It doesn't really give energy and joy to the employees. It becomes a checkbox you have to tick. So that's something really important to remember.

FOUR: LORE

Lore is defined as the canon of stories that circulate within your organization and reflect the most positive, negative, and even mundane ways your people experience your culture. It's important to understand that every organization has its lore and a question might be, how do stories become lore? Now, Ted and mark helps us understand this by saying stories can't turn into lore simply because the executives repeat it again and again and again, it doesn't work that way. Only when these anecdotes reflect their experiences of the brand and the culture they get repeated. And so it doesn't make sense for an organization to come up with these anecdotes and come up with these stories and simply just repeat them over time. It's really about gathering the experiences of these employees and turn them into stories to be repeated. The authors gave us a few examples of the types of lore that can circulate within an organization.

And the first one is brand elevating lore. And this one, they talked about a story of Pixar, where at Pixar, there was an employee in the early days where he found this small passage way. And with the company's principles of exploration and discovery, well, he crept on in, he crept through this passageway on his hands and knees. And at the end of it came into a secret room, a small room that housed the central air conditioning units and valves. And what he did was he gathered a bunch of colleagues and turned it into a speakeasy. So that lore really became this idea of exploration and discovery. And not only was it circulated internally, it was also circulated externally. So Steve jobs, and some other people like Buzz Aldrin because of hearing that story, came and had a look and found the speak easy themselves.

The next type of lore is origin stories. And so we all know origin stories can be very strong talks about where the company comes from. And especially if it's in the importance with the, the, the principles that in which the company was built.

A third is corporate and operational lore. And sometimes these stories get circulated, not because it's very emotional or visionary. It's really about very specific operational mundane tasks or even failures that get circulated.

The last one is prophetic lore, and this is really about the vision where you're trying to go, right? A story that circulates, because it is a very impactful vision about the future that employees will on to continue to talk about.

FIVE: VOCABULARY

It’s the lexicon of clearly defined words and phrases, helping your employees understand what's important in your brand and how to drive it forward. A story that the authors mentioned here to bring to light of how to use vocabulary as part of the culture and brand is at Netflix. Now, when Netflix moved from a business model of DVDs to streaming, they kept a separate brand called Qwickster, and it was a failure and they recognized that. But one of the most important things that they learned from that was they really had to instill a principle in the company whereby it's not just about failing, it's about learning from it, but it's also about gathering input at the beginning of any venture that might be contrary. So they introduce vocabulary of sun shining failure and farming for descent. And these specific words, help employees to understand that that's a very crucial part of their culture and their mode of operation, and built into their way of working.

The next story that the authors used was from Ray Dalio. He's the CEO of Bridgewater investment management company. For, for those of you who don't know, he wrote a book called principles and their organization is really all about continuing to learn. Learning is such an important principle in the company. They really pride themselves in gathering data, lots of data, and really learning from it. And so the vocabulary that they use is pain plus reflection equals progress, pain, plus reflection equals progress. So again, this idea of really going through pain, which is failing, which is being in, in uncomfortable situations, but when you reflect you move forward and you can be better. So these are specific examples of how vocabulary in an organization can really help to pin down and put a final point on the types of principles and the type of culture that you want built at the organization.

SIX: ARTIFACTS

It is defined as tangible objects at the surface level of your culture, helping your people engage and feel a sense of ownership in the brand. Artifacts are cool. Artifacts are physical manifestations of the culture. And so when, when culture is something that's invisible, it's something that's implicit. Having artifacts can really bring a sense of realness to something that's already there. The authors gave us some examples of artifacts that we could use to really help exemplify the culture.

And first one is spatial art artifacts and spatial artifacts are really any sort of physical manifestations in the office. It could be installations, it could be sculptures really anything kind of bring that to life. I remember for me back in the day when I worked at a company, there was a big patent sculpture. So it illustrated the number of patents that a company had over the years, but it also helped exemplify the innovation and the engineering culture that the company really hung his hat on.

The second is operational artifacts. And, and an example here they gave was the IBM design thinking guide a really a pocket guide that's given to the employees to help them think about how to use design in their daily activities.

The third one here are inclusive artifacts. So think of it as anniversary pins or things that you can give out to help people feel included into the group.

The fourth here is high engagement artifacts. And the example they gave here was for REI, they have a big board of all the different employees with their favorite outdoor activities. It doesn't have to be super expensive or very elaborate. I think the authors really wanted to push the point here where anything simple works, anything simple is actually more organic, but then the key of it is to make it real, make it tangible.

There you have it, the six layers of culture infused with your brand.

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)

Branding vs. Marketing vs. Communications

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It can be confusing out there, where branding is confused with marketing and communications don’t even get mentioned.

Full transcript:

Is branding a part of marketing? Is communications helping with your branding? There's a lot of confusion out there about what is branding, marketing, and communications. When you think about how a business makes it money, there is the cost of its products and service. There is a price that's sold at and between those is the profit. Now the ultimate goal of branding is to increase perceived value. And you can capture that value, whether it's increasing the price. So you have new profit or more profit, or you can get more share of the market. In order for us to define and clarify what is branding, marketing communications. We have to start from the beginning.

What is a brand? What is branding? Brand is a perception and feeling anybody has about your product service or even a person. In other words, everything has a brand. Now branding, that's the intentional process of creating and making that feeling across every single touchpoint. In other words, branding is everything. In fact, when you consider the process of branding, there's six different pieces and components to it.

1. The first one is research, that's really diving in understanding what your audience needs are and coming out with truths.

2. The second piece of it it's strategy. Once you understand your audiences, you can create a brand strategy to really hone in on the truths and the positioning, the personality of your brand.

3. The third piece is design. It's getting into the, the artwork, the verbals, the voice, and, and all that to kind of bring that to life.

4. The fourth piece is to activate, put it out in the marketplace or launch it within your company for your employees.

5. The fifth piece is measurement. Making sure that you measure, you understand what's working, what's not working well, lending you to tweak or change some of the activations.

So now that we understand brand and branding, let's see how marketing communication plays its role. So you might see out there Venn diagrams of marketing and branding. Most of the time, communications are left out. But when you really look at it, marketing and communications, they are a part of branding because if branding is every single touch point, marketing and communications sit within that. We've gone through what the goal of branding overall is. But the goal of marketing as to drive sales, it's conversions, it's funnels. It's doing what it takes to get the word out to your potential customers, get them into their system, get them into the funnel, convert them into customers and through loyalty programs continue to engage them. So they become lifelong customers. Now that's marketing. Now for communications, the goal is to increase reputation. The tactics and channels might blend and blur with marketing as they get into paid ads, whether it's social or sponsored content. But the goal of communications is to really increase that reputation

In a recent survey on LinkedIn, I asked who owns branding and 78% of respondents said, it's all employees. It's true, every employee needs to own branding because they need to be advocates for the brand. But 12% of respondents said it is the CMO or CCO. And 10% says it's the CEO, which then lies to a conundrum. If everyone owns it, nobody owns it. And so when you think about the confusion in branding, marketing communications, it's really about how organizations are structured. Typically organizations are not structured in a way to pull through the definition of branding, where branding is everything. So who really owns branding? Who does sales and marketing and communications and all those different functions report up to? It's the CEO. And so the CEO needs to be a strong proponent of this idea. That branding is everything. Even though everyone needs to be a steward, who really pushes and makes sure that the brand permeates throughout organization, sometimes it is the CEO, but sometimes there can be an interim or different layer. Maybe it's the chief operating officer. But regardless of that, what is important to note is that marketing and communications both contribute to branding because branding is every interaction and touchpoint. Now you might ask, what about customer service? What about sales? Yes. They are a part of branding. Anything that interacts with the audiences you're trying to influence, whether it's a customer as a prospect or a potential recruit for the company is part of branding.

Before we conclude, the sixth thing, you thought I forgot that didn't you, it's governance. Besides research, strategy, design, activation, measurement, governance is the last but really important piece to hold it all together. It's the people, it's the process to make sure this is a well-oiled machine. You never want your delights and your wows to be accidental. You want them to be intentional, build it into a system and govern it so that you can deliver the promise again and again and again, that's brand building. And so this is where the brand council comes in. Every company needs to have a brand council, and this includes all the different heads of functions, of all those that touches the audiences in terms of brand, but also think about a crucial component of this, which is your HR. You need all leaders to be infused into the brand so that they can bring it to life across all.

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)

Making sense of Purpose, Mission & Vision

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Every company needs to understand their WHY, their HOW and their WHAT.

WHY = the reason you are here beyond money, it’s forever = PURPOSE

HOW = your actions based on your purpose, it’s everyday = MISSION

WHAT = the final destination when you are “done, it’s someday = VISION

While you don’t need three statements, you can understand what they are for your company and then decide what to communicate. There is a difference between strategy and execution.

TEMPLATE:

Purpose

We believe... (what is the insight or belief  you have about the problem you are here to tackle?)

We exist to... (what do you need to make happen that leverages this insight and belief?)

Mission

We act on our purpose by...  (what are the key activities and principles that are the most critical to our success?)

In order to...(what is the impact and for whom?)

Vision

Our version of utopia is... (describe the new world when you are "done")

Watch the video that breaks it down:

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Purpose vision, mission. What are they here to do? Do you need all of them? When you look at companies today, some companies put out a purpose statement, some companies put out a mission statement and a vision statement, but does it really matter?

When you look at iconic brands, you hear accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy, to be the Earth's most customer centric company, to help all families discover the joy of everyday life. Now, what do you think they are? Are these vision statements or mission statements? Regardless of which, they act as a north star to any organization. While you don't have to put out all three statements per se, you do have to go through the process of understanding what they are and align on the core elements of these things. The first thing you have to pull apart in your mind is that there is strategy and there is execution. These are two different things. First, you gotta go through the strategy, the strategy of making sure that you have the right elements for the purpose, the mission and the vision, then you figure out what do you want to execute. What do you wanna communicate to the world?

The first one is purpose. Now you've all heard of this. Purpose is your why? Why do you exist? Why do you exist beyond making money? And Simon Sinek has an analogy that helps us understand this. Every company's reason for being is not about making money. It's like a car, a car's purpose is not consuming fuel. A car's purpose is to take you from point A to point B much like a company. A company's purpose is not just making money. Money is the fuel that gets you from point A to point B. So the first thing to tackle is purpose, it's forever. It's your why. Now your mission that's every day. How are you gonna act on your purpose? How are you gonna make that a reality? And a lot of times, when you think about your mission, it's also about who you serve and what kind of impact do you want to have? And the last piece is the vision. This is, this is the someday what's gonna happen. When you have acted upon your mission every single day, what's that desired end state?

A reminder that this is strategy. So approach it from a strategic perspective, what is your purpose, your mission, your vision. And then we figure out what we wanna communicate

Purpose. Remember, this is forever. This is your why. We believe… What is that key insight of belief that you have about the problem that you're here to tackle. We exist to… What do you need to make happen that leverages this insight and belief. Your mission. And this is your every day. We act on our purpose by… what are the key activities and principles that are most important and critical to our success? In order to… what is the impact and for whom? Lastly, vision. That's your someday. A version of utopia is… describe the new world when you are done.

A hypothetical example from Patagonia

The purpose. We believe that all life on earth is under the threat of extinction. We exist to make the climate crisis, our business. And so you can see their belief is that because the earth is under the threat of extinction, they exist beyond making money, making the climate crisis, their business. For their mission. How do you act on that purpose? How do you act on that? We want to use all the resources. We have our business, our investments, our voice, our imagination, to do something about that threat in order to are the best products to enjoy nature while protecting and preserving the environment in their vision. Our version of utopia is a secure and more just future of our planet. Once you're put together the strategic elements of the purpose, the mission, the vision is time to decide what you communicate

In a traditional sense, companies put out a mission and a vision statement. So helping people understand where they're trying to go. That's your vision statement and what are the things that they're doing every single day to get there? That's your mission statement. My preference, one statement. Something really clear to help people understand what you're here to do. And that could be a purpose statement. It could be your mission statement. It doesn't really matter. It's one statement to help bring clarity into why your company exists, what it's here to do and, and give people a north star. So for me, this is just, but one element of all the things that a company can use to communicate all the things that wants to say, whether it's your positioning, your promise, your value proposition, there are other ways to talk about your company, your values and behaviors, for example. it's a very, very important way to communicate the principles that you live by. So pick a statement, write something concise, let it feel something, write it in a way that helps your audiences feel and understand immediately what kind of a company you are. Well there, you have it, the purpose, the mission, the vision. I hope through this video, you understand what these elements are, how to strategically craft something and then pick an, a statement to execute and communicate on that north star.

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)

How to organize your brands for maximum impact and efficiency

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Brand architecture is the reason why some companies have to pour money into a gazillion brands and some companies just focus on one brand. In this post you will learn about brand architecture and how to decide on a strategy to house all your brands today and guide brand decisions into the future.

BONUS: A deep dive into Pharma and Medtech brand architecture considerations.

So why is it that when you buy sticky notes, you know, it's from 3M, but if you buy AXE, deodorant, you have no idea who manufactures it unless you dig deeper. That's brand architecture. 

Why is brand architecture important? Every brand that you introduce might be fun, but it costs money. It takes a lot of resources. Time. It takes gut evidence. It takes a lot of management to keep it in place, to build the equity that you really wanna build. So let's avoid brand palooza. Please stop the madness, establish a brand architecture to help you today and use it as a frame work for your future growth And brand architecture is not just about the logo. It's not just about where you place the product logo, the company logo. That's a part of it. That's a tip of the spear. That's what people see. But outside of that are all the things that you would do to either place the brands closer together or place the brands further apart.

But first, let’s rebrand/ rename an architecture type!

There's a lot of nomenclature that describes brand architecture, but there's one that we should really strike from our language and dictionary. Master brand is now leader brand.

Brand architecture types

1. Branded house/ leader brand

2. Sub-brand

3. Endorsed brand

4. House of brands

1. Branded house/ leader brand

So the leader brand or branded house approach is where you have one key brand where all the brand equity really rolls into that one brand. So FedEx is a great example. We talked about Virgin. These are all great examples of master brands, where you're building equity in one brand. Everything that you introduce in terms of a product or a service is mainly a description of what that thing is. So like FedEx, ground FedEx office, for example, even BMW as they introduce new series of cars. Now, when we think about the next type, you start to get further further away where the products and services start getting detached and, and, and further away from that parent company brand.

2. Sub-brand

The sub-brand model is where you have a new name or even sometimes identity that sort of showed up side by side with the company brand. So Toyota Prius is a great example. Prius is a brand of its own, but when it was launched, it showed up side by side with Toyota that you kind of know, and have equity from Toyota into the Prius brand. 

3. Endorsed brand

This is where a product or service is endorsed by a parent company brand or even sort of a brand that lend its equity to that brand. So Courtyard by Marriott is one. You also see examples where it's by something or from, or powered by. This is endorsed brand. 

4. House of brands

This is where the product brands are really separated from the parent company brand. The company brand is invisible. So you don't really know who's behind it, like Dove, for example. That's very typical of the consumer packaged goods world and the pharmaceutical world. 

I'll dive deeper into the healthcare realm later, but these are the four main types of brand architectures.

Deciding on a brand architecture

So how do you decide on a brand architecture? There's really no right or wrong answer. This is strategy. And so is about making decisions on one end of the spectrum. Is it a, a one ring that rules them all approach ala leader brand or branded house, or do you want to have a specific superpower for every superhero, that’s your house of brands approach. And so there's really no specific way you need to go about it. What is the most important is do you want to have a brand experience that stretches across all of your customer segments or do you want to have a very specific brand introduced for a niche and specific customer segment? And so it's really about synergies and efficiencies for me. When I think about companies introducing brands, especially at the outset, especially for startups, think brand at house, think one brand there's not enough resources to go around to all these different brands anyway, and you can always shift.

Brand architectures can shift

For example for Microsoft Windows. It was a leader brand model (or sub-brand model) for the longest time until Xbox came along, for example, where that's a totally different brand, that's very specific for a specific customer segment. That really is apart from the equity that Microsoft has gathered. But for Virgin, the same fun, entertaining hip, that same positioning is used across a multitude of different brands. It could be for the hyper loop. It could be for finance banking, that one brand stands for a specific thing, but across multiple customer segments. Could they have been successful introducing sub-brands? Perhaps, but it's so efficient to leverage the equity and the snowball effect of that one brand across all your products and offerings.

5 steps to establish a brand architecture

1. Audit your brands

2. Establish scenarios and options

3. Plan for brand transitions

4. Govern through style guides and decision trees

5. Measure and optimize

1. Audit all your brands

What are all the brands that's floating out there? What is happening to each of them? What's working? What's not? The first step is to understand the landscape of all the brands. 

2. Establish scenarios and architecture options

Establish scenarios and hypotheses and start putting together the brand architecture frameworks, and really test and look at how they would act in different scenarios. Is it a scenario where you'll go into a totally different customer segment? Is it one where you might be introducing a brand within the same category in the next year? What are the scenarios? How does it play out? Get people comfortable with a specific architecture and a specific framework. 

3. Put together a transition plan

This is where you put together a transition plan. Are you changing your architecture? Or do you need to transition brands? Is this the FedEx Kinkos example where you're acquiring a brand and you're transitioning it to a branded house? Establish that transition plan. 

4. Put style guides and decision trees in place

Governance. It is absolutely important to create style guides, decision trees, anything that you can put in place, so people can follow and your brands don't run away. Remember, avoiding brand palooza is important. 

5. Measure and optimize over time

Measure, get your feedback. Every brand is an evolution. It's not static. It's dynamic. So review what's happening to your brands. What's going well, what's not going well? And really have the lens towards your customers. Are you confusing them? Are they getting what they need? Are you helping them buy things together or pointing them to a direction or a brand that's really standing out for them? Make changes based on that.

Brand architecture in the healthcare industry

Let's dive deeper into healthcare, brand architecture in healthcare. It is already a very complicated industry, but what you typically see if we think about the pharmaceutical world, there's all house of brands and it's so ingrained into the nomenclature and culture that when you say the word brand in pharma, it's only products. They don't even think about their companies as brands, because a lot of times the company is invisible. So that's the house of brands architecture. What's also really interesting is that within the world of pharma, they are unbranded and branded programs. And when you say unbranded, these are usually disease awareness sort of programs, and it's actually sponsored by the company, but they call it unbranded. Whereas branded campaigns or branded programs, that's all about the product. So you see brand architecture has a very strong influence on how people operate within that realm. And again, within the pharmaceutical land, it is so ingrained that when you say brand, it's nothing to do with the company at all.

Changing the brand architecture in pharma

Could this change, should it change? Like any strategist, I would say it depends. It really depends on what is the strategy of the business. And the first thing is, do you want your brand to stand for something that can serve as a why across all the products that you put out. And that becomes a reason for why they consider your product. And the product brand itself perhaps could just help you understand when to use it. And so if you think about moving towards a branded house architecture or leader brand architecture, pharmaceutical companies can expect some benefits to that, which is the new drugs that you continue to launch can take some of that equity from the parent company, and you don't have to build it from scratch all over again. The other thing is the consistency of the experience. Today, if you have 10 different products, you have 10 different reps. And so you might have sales reps, each representing a product brand, knocking on the same door of the same physician or the same clinic. What if you are able to put it all into one bag where you have a company brand representative talk about the benefits of each of those products? And what about patients? When patients get access to a product, there are support systems, education. There are a lot of things that the patients can receive from the company. And today it's a mixed bag. It can come from the product brand, it can come from a support brand and it can come from the company brand. So moving towards a branded house model can simplify, but also reduce confusion. 

Feasibility of introducing a new brand architecture in pharma

But is this actually possible? Can you actually do that? Well, legally, you can't have the company name as part of the drug, but it's nothing stopping a brand from showing the two brands together. So it's not a true leader brand, but is a step in the right direction. It's almost like a sub-brand model. And in healthcare that's already played out. You have companies like Medtronic and Abbott that's medical device, but Abbott also has a myriad of different products. And they spread across multiple customer segments, but they lean heavily into the leader brand model. Now, again, if you dig into the, the depths of what they do, they do introduce sub-brands, but really they have captured so much equity into that company brand. The sub-brands don't really mean much. They devices and the products are referred to mainly through the company brand. So the analog is already there for the pharmaceutical industry to take hold, but we shall see because change is hard. And if there's not a business imperative to change your brand architecture, it shouldn't be done. And it will probably fail.

Brand architecture in the Medtech industry

I've worked in medical devices for quite some time. And within that industry, I would say most of the time when new products are introduced, they have a sub-brand that goes along with it. Now, when I think about brand architecture and the way that these, these brands are put out there, for me, it doesn't make sense because of three things. The first thing is when medical device companies introduce brands, we all know that continued generations of those brands would come. So if you introduce a new name and brand a year and a half later, you're going to have a new product to introduce. And it's a phase in phase out strategy, meaning none of these products are going to last forever. They're going to be retired at some point. So there's not even enough runway for you to build brand equity into that. So why do it in the first place?

When I was working in these companies, the majority of it is driven from: Hey, we need something fresh, we need something exciting to talk about. And they put all of that into the name of that product. In fact, you probably don't need a new name. You can probably take the previous name or the name of that platform and introduce generations. Much like the iPhone does, and you can actually brand the algorithms. What’s really special about that device? The truth is if you have something special in that new product introduction, it is gonna be communicated, not through just the name, but it should be communicated through the actual benefits of the device. But if you keep introducing new names, you don't actually build equity into that platform, or you don't build equity into, you know, the type of algorithms or the smart technology that's in there.

So instead, I propose that Medtech companies brand their platform, ala iPhone. You still have Apple, which is your company brand, but just like the Apple iPhone introducing different generations. And if there's a specific technology that would carry throughout time, that you can continue to build equity on, make it a new brand, introduce an ingredient brand that you can put effort, resources, communications, marketing into it, so that it builds along the way.

Today what's happening is you have all these new brands and new names of products where people don't even get a chance to to recall or remember, because it's too short and they get phased out. 

And that's my spiel on brand architecture. It is a passion of mine to avoid brand palooza and companies putting out brands for the sake of it. It is a specific strategy and it is imperative that you can make your decision, have a framework that helps you out to be the most efficient as you can.

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)

Position or be positioned

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What is positioning? Does it matter? Does everything need one? Is it just for products? Before you communicate anything, before you write messaging and a narrative, you need to start with positioning. Positioning is really owning that specific association in the mind of your audience, and it is a core part of any brand strategy.

Positioning needs to be:

1. Relevant

2. Differentiating

3. Sustainable

Five Cs to help you build a positioning:

1. Culture

2. Category

3. Customer

4. Competition

5. Company

Full Transcript:

What is positioning? Does it matter? Does everything need one? Is it just for products? Before you communicate anything, before you write messaging and a narrative, you need to start with positioning. Positioning is really owning that specific association in the mind of your audience, and it is a core part of any brand strategy.

Take for example, you wanted to buy a car and you just had a baby, and safety's important. What pops up into your head? Volvo. Immediately, Volvo is part of your consideration set. They've done a tremendous job positioning that brand in the safety realm. So whenever anyone thinks about safety and in automobiles or cars, Volvo comes up.  Safety equals Volvo. And Volvo equals peace of mind, well-designed, solidly built. All this as part of the branding strategy and brand strategy, but it all starts with positioning.

Positioning as a concept has been made popular by Al Reis and Jack Trout back in the sixties. And at time it was very focused on product. But since then, it has really evolved over time. And when I look at positioning, it's an approach. It's a concept that obviously has been embedded and cemented in marketing and branding history, but I'm using it in a broader context. Brand is really not just about a product, brand can be a company, for example, Pfizer. Brand can be a product, for example, Dove. But brand can also be both product and company, for example, 23 and Me, Nike and so on.

Every brand needs a positioning.

How do you develop positioning? It is really a fit between the audience, what they need, what they care about, their goals, and what you can deliver. How can you uniquely give them the thing that no one else can, it's really an exercise in decision-making. I always say that strategy is about making decisions. If everybody has to do it, that's not strategy. You have to decide what's important enough. You have to decide what rises to the top. It has been always very tempting for any business to want to be known for everything, that's typically the mindset of most people. But if you want to be known for everything you in the end become known for nothing.

Ultimately positioning needs to fulfill three main criteria:

1. Relevant: It needs to be relevant to the audiences of the customers in which you hope to influence.

2. Differentiating: It needs to stand apart from the other competition from the other folks, that's trying to influence those same audiences.

3. Sustainable: It should be hard for other people to copy what you're doing. It serves as a moat to prevent other competition or new entries from immediately doing what you're doing.

How do you build positioning? Remember the Five Cs

1. Culture

Culture is really the context around the people that you're trying to influence. So if you were to start a company in healthcare, you need to understand that one of the trends is that people are viewing healthcare just like they view Uber or streaming Netflix. It needs to be on demand, on their time, wherever they are, whenever they want it. And so that is a key piece of context or culture, in the world of healthcare you need to take into consideration.

2. Category

Category is really important because it starts to set the frame of reference from which your brand will operate. It also gives you an understanding who the competition is. But when you think about the idea of solidifying a category, it's tempting to just look at one, you need to look at the tangential categories, other categories that might start to encroach on your category. But also when folks think about categories, it's also tempting to say hey, I want to create a totally new one. New category creation can be sexy, but it's also daunting. It's resource heavy. It is not simple. And the benefits of that typically does not come into other companies come into your category because when you think about new category creation, it's also probably educating your customers are or audiences about a problem they never thought they have. Think about the very successful brands–Facebook or Tesla, they did not create their categories. They simply made it better. They simply take their specific category and tweaked it. And so think very carefully about what category you're in. And if you're thinking about creating a new category, you damn well have the resources to back it up.

3. Customer

The customer for me is going to be broad. It might not just be the folks that buy your product or service. It’s also your audiences. It's all the people that you hope to influence and change along the way. So what's important about them? You need to understand what their goals are, what are they trying to do? What job are they really trying to accomplish? And what's in their way, what are the barriers. What's really getting them to be in a frenzy when they are not meeting the goals and the challenges that's ahead of them.

When you think about the category and the customer, and you put them together, you really start to understand the gap and tension faced by the people that you hope to influence day in and day out.

4. Competition

It is very important to understand your competition. As I said before, differentiation is so important.  There are three different types of competitors that you need to look at: Direct competition, indirect competition, and alternative competition. I'll give you an example. So let's say you are offering a taxi service and more specifically, going from the airport to the hotel, a direct competitor might be other taxi services. They might even be Lyft or Uber. Indirect competition could be a rental car company, or it could be Zipcar.  An alternative competition could be the hotel transport service. It came from a totally different industry. It's the hospitality industry rather than transport. So you see, when you start to consider the different sets and types of competition, then you have a good understanding of actually what is the white space and what you can own.

5. Company 

Companies in this sense, it's really your brand. It could be a product, service, solution or portfolio of products. What's important here is to look at the unique value that your brand provides. What is the thing that your customers or the audiences would come to you for? What could be your secret sauce?

Once you start to understand that and the competition, you can create something that's differentiating, something that's unique to talk about and be part of your positioning.

When you understand your five Cs, it is time to put all the components together to write your positioning. It's really deciding upon what is that most important thing that's going to help your audiences do what they need to do for positioning. I don't really care about what a specific template is going to be, but it should accomplish three different things. 

The first one, it needs to talk about your audiences or customers for products. It might be very specific. It might be a very specific target segment for company. It might be more white. You're talking to investors, you're talking to media, you're talking to, uh, your employees, but what is that red thread? 

The second piece is the differentiation and the value. What value are you providing that is unique that is going to solve their problem? That's going to help release that tension?
And number three, if there's a core piece of information, in terms of a proof point or a claim, it should be in the positioning.

So next time before you write any type of messaging or communicate a narrative, or if someone asks you to refresh a website, you need to ask this one question: What is the positioning? Start with that.

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)

Why should you care about brand and branding?

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What I'm about to tell you will change how you view the world. I'll tell you why everything is a brand and why branding is everything. It is the fundamental way we make decisions as humans.

Full transcript:

One of the things that we do a lot of as humans is make decisions. A number that's floating around the internet is 35,000 on average, and a doubt human makes 35,000 decisions every single day. And that's a lot of decisions to be made. Although we don't know a lot about how our brains think. We know that it tries to be as efficient as it can.

And Daniel Kahneman an award winning psychologist, actually a Nobel prize winning psychologist proposed a way or a mechanism in which our brains think. There's two systems: system one and system two. System

one is quick. It's almost involuntary. And system two is deliberate. It's focused. It takes a lot of effort. And so when we make these decisions, when we go through our thinking process, the brain really defaults in most typical situations to system one. System one leads most of the time.

And that means we make very quick decisions. It proposes a recommendation to system two to take action. And how does system one do it?

It's through feelings, intentions, impressions, using associations to knowledge and memories that form. And that's the realm of brand because at the end of it, a brand is that feeling and the perception your audience has about a company about a product, about a service, really about anything. When you think about all the things that you come across, a pit bull, milk, they all have brands because they all conjure up a feeling and a perception.

So when I say Nike, when I say Patagonia, Oprah Winfrey, the Ritz Carlton, a feeling and an image comes to mind and expectation comes to mind, and these brands are built intentionally.

But if it's not done intentionally, you have what you call an accidental brand. Accidental brands are unhealthy and subpar. Think about the DMV, for example. And for those of my, my non U.S. friends, the DMV is a place where you get your driver's license. And it's not about the logo. It's not about the color palette. That's not what a brand makes. It's the experience. Every time you go through that process, you cringe because you'd never wanted to ever again, the infinite lines, the really slow arduous process to get your driver's license. It doesn't have a good brand. And if you view it through that lens, in that context, brand and branding will exist as long as that's how we as humans make decisions.

So how do you make an intentional brand? It's through branding. Branding is that intentional process of going through the research to create the strategy, but eventually building the visual, the verbal, the experiential. It's every touch point. Again, it's not just the logo, not just a specific piece of ad. It's everything. It's the zoom call. It's how your customer service rep picks up the phone. It's what they say. It's the way a sales person shakes your hand. All of that encompasses your brand. And so branding is so important, but it also means that it covers a lot of ground. Is marketing branding? Yes. Is communications branding? Yes. It's all of the above. And so when you're thinking about building a brand, please think about all the different touch points. It's not just one thing. It's not just a specific style guide that you're trying to build. It's that, but everything more.

So there you have it. Everything has a brand and branding is everything. So the next time when you're making a decision or someone is trying to convince you of something and influence you as something, think about whether you want to be led by system one, which is more of a brand decision–very quick. Or is it something that's really important to you that you want to dive deep and you want to conjure up system two and put some effort into it?

And if you're trying to influence somebody else of something, think about how that brand is being perceived. Did you do a good enough job in branding to make sure that that whatever you're trying to sell has a great brand? That it conjures up a specific feeling and perception that you want to have?

Brand and branding is important because that’s how we humans make sense of the world to help us make decisions every day.

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)

References:

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/books/review/thinking-fast-and-slow-by-daniel-kahneman-book-review.html

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!"