Beyond Paralysis: Rob Genovesi’s Fear-Proof Brand Strategy (Part 2)

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You are, but make sure you're a little different. Like, find out the different part of you as a person and amplify that. Me, I'm just like, I like things down and dirty, so that's who I am. And when you show up, own it.

Step into the world of success with your brand Amplified, the ultimate podcast designed to unravel the intricacies of thriving businesses. I'm your host Anika Jackson, and I'm on a mission to uncover the stories, strategies and secrets that have propelled entrepreneurs and business leaders to success. How did this shift in your mindset, overcoming fear and all these different things that could be considered setbacks? Roadblocks? Signs 2. Build your brand. Create this agency. Find really, really fast success. Once you got it dialed in writing the book, how has that changed other people in your life's perceptions of you? If it has, I'm just thinking through your parents and you know how they're like, you're crazy. You shouldn't be doing this. This isn't the way. This isn't like what's going to be stable in your life to, I'm sure a number of other people, whether it's your kids, your wife, other family members, former colleagues.

It's not like this just happened within the last couple of years. Even though my story goes back in terms of business, you know, I officially went full time in business in 2019 after my third and final layoff from corporate. I just never went back. I knew it was coming and I I built my business for three and a half years for that moment, and so I had some skills developed. It Just. It took me so long because I was so clueless, Anika. I mean, when I say clueless, I didn't know what was going on. You know, I. I heard a guy say from stage one time, he goes, there's three kinds of people in the world. There's those that make things happen and those that watch what happened? And the third one, they go, what happened? I was the third guy. I was like, what just happened? People like, are you kidding me? You didn't. You didn't see? I'm like, I missed it. And like, that cluelessness was pervasive in my life well into my 30s. And so. But what I was doing was I was learning the whole time, learning to overcome. So it wasn't like, I don't want to make it sound like overnight, I just kicked the fear aside and I was, know, fearless. It took some time, but, you know, I was compelled to do it because I wanted everything life had to offer. I wanted to own my own business. I wanted to make as much money as I possibly can. I wanted to build something that mattered. I wanted to make an impact in people's personal lives through business. That's my mission, because I know what business has done for my life. We were on government assistance twice in our life. I have four kids. We were the family where the local church put a Thanksgiving box of food on our front doorstep. And I was like, what's this? That's how broke we were. We were on SNAP benefits. We couldn't afford food. I remember several nights, my son, who, you know, he's, you know, I don't know how old he was at the time. Six, seven. Dad, aren't you gonna eat dinner now? I'm not hungry, son. We didn't have enough food. And I'm not saying I don't want pity over that. That's what we had to go through so we can learn the lessons to never go back there again. And so I think the kicking the fear aside came from, I so don't want to be that person anymore. I so don't want that to be my life. I'll do whatever I got to do. And that meant me developing me. It had nothing to do with my wife or my kids or my friends or my parents. So my mom, you know, later in life, after I got some skills, she was like, I can't. Now that I was speaking in front of some local entrepreneurs here and there, outside of my corporate job, you know, learning a little bit about business from local entrepreneurs. And my mom would go, I can't believe you're the little boy who used to hide behind my skirt. So, yeah, you know, people started to realize, like, my brothers, I have two older brothers and my oldest brother, who is not afraid of anybody any point in his lifetime and is the consummate salesman. He was like, man, bro. He goes, you're killing it. Like, I don't know if I'm killing it, but, you know, I'm doing what I want to do.

Well, I've been in the same position of going from being and sorry for those of you who listen to this podcast regularly and have heard this before, this is the truncated version. But being that wife who took really great vacations every year could be a stay at home mom, could spend a lot of money on charity and fancy things to being on food stamps and having to like, really get into who am I? What is my identity? And I think that, though, really does help give us a lot of insight into ourselves, the paths we have to go on to grow. But then also, how can we help others see the same thing in them? And that's what we're really talking about here, overcoming the fear. But also, whether it's about your company or yourself, having that confidence and just that foundation of knowingness, I feel right.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, confidence plays a big part in this. And it's unfortunate that I think most people think, you know, as I get older, I should be more confident. That's not the case. I mean, you develop confidence or you don't. I see people who in their 50s and 60s are still unconfident, can't make proper decisions, whatnot. It's a shame because with all the information we have at our fingertips, this should not be the case. But that confidence in knowing who you are, I think is the greatest gift. So when I'm urging people to apply brand strategy to your personal brand, forget your company brand. That's necessary. And by the way, we could just get this debate out of the way, right? You need both. You need both. You build your personal brand. By the way, I heard Gary Vee say this, so this is not me. I'm just repeating what. And he's. He's a marketing genius. Yeah, he said this one time, he said, you need to build both. Because if your company should go through something that you can't control and it implodes, and it's economics or whatever, somebody steals, somebody embezzle, whatever, your company implodes, you don't have a company, okay? If you built your personal brand, they can never take it away. And if you built it well, if it's strong, you can leverage it against anything you do in the future and win. And when I heard him say that, I'm like, yes. I didn't know why I knew that. But when he said that, I was like, that makes total sense because I understood the correlation at that point. So understand that personal brand is the person and it's who you are. Like, you know, if you look at some of my LinkedIn posts, I did one a few weeks ago of a picture of me in 2015, corporate me. And then a picture of me now this year. And they're like night and day. Well, the corporate me was exactly what you would expect. It was, it was the collared button down dress shirt with the slacks and the leather shoes, the belt to match. And I was clean shaven and, and wore like, you know, kind of a, you know, what call those glasses that look like lawyers wear. And that was the mask. That was not who I was. I, I got so used to it, I thought that's what you wanted me to be. So I showed up that way and people just, it's like people just glossed over because when you look like everybody else, you do not even register on their radar, which was the problem. I. And so the real me, when I discovered I'm like, I hate being clean shaven. I love ripped jeans, old jeans. I wear these, these hen. These vintage Henleys look like they came out of like 1988 because they're all worn out. And I just like things that are comfortable and broken in and worn. And I love leather and I love metal and I love all that kind of stuff. And I don't like bling. I'm not a bling. There's nothing shiny in my personal life. And so these are the kind of things I know about myself. So when I show up. By the way, can I tell you a story? This is great.

Yes, please. I love that you're interrupting your own answer.

I mean, because we're talking about style, and I think style has a very, very important but intentional place in personal brand. Okay. So if you have a personal brand, you do have to be different. So people might go, but I'm not that way. I am the corporate guy. Well, then you need to find something that differentiates you. I'm not saying you have to be like me or like, have green hair or purple ties or whatever. Like, these are fine. But one time I was on a panel at a local LinkedIn, local LinkedIn, local event near me and there was probably like 60 people in the room. And I was on a panel of four people. And I come dressed not like anybody else, right? Everybody else was in. The women, the men, they were in business suits, right? It's evening mixer type thing. And I show up like, if you're not watching this, I'm wearing a T shirt, an old Henley. And at the time, I was wearing a lot of performance pullovers. You know, I was wearing black jeans, black boots. I got a circle beard. And, you know, my glasses, these I'm wearing, are kind of tame. The ones I have usually wrap around my face. And I'm on this panel, and the moderator asks me the following question. Rob, what would you say to people who think that you don't dress professional and that therefore you're not professional? And I don't know if they would just, you know, they were turning the screws on me, and I'm totally fine with it. Like, I could answer any question and I don't get bent out of shape. But what I told them was this. I said, you know, it's a really good question because some people go, you don't look professional. And I go, professional is not what you wear. Professional is the results you get for people. And I get results. And that was it. My answer was all of 30 seconds. And I think that's the part that people need to understand. A personal brand. Stop focusing on the gimmicks that you wear. Be who you are, but make sure you're a little different. Like, find out the different part of you as a person and amplify that. Me, I'm just like, I like things down and dirty, so that's who I am. And when you show up, own it. Don't apologize. Don't change your dress, because you went into a room full of a hundred suits and you're wearing a performance pullover, black jeans and black boots. You have to embrace that. And when you own that, people know there's a confidence there. They start to admire your style. Not for themselves, but. But because of the person you are. In acknowledging it and embracing it, the.

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Okay. I love your questions and, you know, some of these are burning questions. It's great fodder for talk online for sure. So recently, and this is the first thing that comes to my mind, Annika, is the whole Cracker Barrel fiasco. You know, this was several, what, several months? It was over the summer. I don't know when it was, but it was this year. And people went mad over the redesign of the logo. That's, that's what you saw. Okay? So people went, I don't like this rebrand. This is not Cracker Barrel. You took out Uncle Herschel. And what does that even mean? And there's not even a barrel. And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Look at this logo. This is, this is an atrocity to the Cracker Barrel story. Legend, whatever culture, brand, of course, they always use brand, but they don't even know what it is. And I wrote a post and this, this was one of my better performing posts, by the way. Right? Because anytime you, you get a little disruptive, people speak out. So I showed the before logo, the, the original Cracker Barrel logo, and right next to it, I showed the new logo and I wrote above it in big letters, this is not a rebrand. Cracker Barrel did not rebrand something like that. And I got a not blowback, but people like, wow, oh my gosh. But actually it was a rebrand for Cracker Barrel and it had nothing to do with the logo necessarily. That's just the amplification and the visual aspect. What was a rebrand was they said, hey, we don't have a big enough market segment of people who enjoy our restaurants. Let's see if we can expand on that. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna tweak the menu a little bit. We're gonna change the decor, we're gonna change the furniture, we're gonna change the look and the feel. We're gonna take out the Uncle Herschel thing and the logo, and we're gonna make it much cleaner, and it's gonna be very appealing to more people, but it'll be that same wonderful Cracker Barrel experience. And the answer was no, it's not. Why? Because they took away the one thing that made the brand a brand. The difference maker. The old country, small town, country store feel. That was what people went for. You walk in the place and you get to play with the little wooden puzzles and buy grain and a little sack and then eat, you know, food that was entirely unhealthy, the potatoes just swimming in gravy. And. And so while it was a rebrand, my point was the logo was not a rebrand. That was just part of the entire rebrand. But too many people think we rebranded, look at our new logo, and that's it. Right. So the bottom line is a rebrand is when you are changing your ideal client or you're expanding, you're opening it up to another market segment. Therefore, you have to change your strategy bit and the identity has to fall into place with that. A rebrand is not a change in logo in and of itself. Is that clear?

Very clear. Yeah. I, I've given a talk called your logo is not your brand.

I know. Well, you know, people say that's like the probably the most popular hook in the whole branding world is your, your brand is not your logo, but nobody actually knows what it is.

Yes. And I always reverse words. That's why I'm your brand. Amplified. Right? Instead of your amplified brand.

Well, can we talk about that for a second? Talk about words. You know, I so appreciate you having me on because you said normally that people wait a year to get on your show, and I know you've got a very popular show and I don't take it for granted. And you said there's just something that resonated there. And I think there's some of the like mindedness that we don't quite put our finger on. So it's a gut feeling. But when we talk about words, if we could talk about words in terms of brand, if you're building your personal brand. All right, forget company brand. That's a whole big strategy. You don't need complicated, deep strategy for personal brand. But here's what you need to do. You need to stop using cliches and jargon and buzzwords. So when you Say, you know, you say your brand amplified, it stops the mind a little bit and goes, hey, wait a minute, what was that? Like, I know those words. What does this mean? And when people use words that everybody else uses, they sound like everybody else. Therefore, the brain just dismisses it very fast in a subconscious way. There's no stickiness, there's no recall. So I always tell people, look, if you see a word and you're tempted to write a word in your post that other people are using all the time, stop, go to wordhipo.com, which is my favorite site for this. You know, it's a thesaurus, and find other words that mean the same thing but people are not using. And that corporate speak drives me crazy, Annika, when I hear people say, like, and this is no indictment on anybody who uses it, I'm just saying, this is just me. When people say, let's do things that move the needle, I cringe. And not that it's not a good phrase, it's just not a good phrase anymore because everybody's using does have good meaning, but it's losing meaning. And when people use it, they just sound like everybody else. So again, if branding is differentiation and being different is perceived as better, well, then you've got to say something different than everybody else is saying in order to create a stickiness, a little splinter in people's mind that go, wait a minute, what'd that guy say? What'd that girl say? And that is where you grab their attention. And right, we have that two seconds.

And it's funny, I mean, because this was it's registered trademark and it was literally used to be the tagline for my PR firm. And then I turned it into. And then it was the podcast when I had my PR firm and then I kept it. And those words are all very popular words, which makes me cringe a little bit. But I've had it for a long time and I'm not going to let go of it. And it's helped me do a lot of things. But then when I was thinking about, okay, it's been a couple months since I left my last full time job to just be a podcaster full time and work in this field. And I was thinking of all these names for different, I mean, I have a course at USC that originally started as a, of course I was going to get for entrepreneurs and thinking through the names and I'm like, and I was using all of those other words and I never released it, right? And then I went, wait, why am I not using your brand. So now it's your branded podcast for my production side and my other services. Because that's also a little bit of a twist, but it's not Pod Pro, you know, launch pad mastery, all the other words that many of my colleagues who I love, all of them but use. Right. I had to find my own twist. And once I did that, it all that clicked for me and went, yes, because it's attached to my. My other brand. It also tells you what you're going to get out of this program and working with me.

So we're talking about ownability. When creating a brand, you have to be able to own it. Now you can own it legally, which for a small business owner, that's hard to do. I mean, I went through a first iteration of my brand and I couldn't own it. I thought, well, I have the greatest name. And I went to trademark and couldn't get a trademark. And I realized it's not good because I can't own it. It was actually really good in small circles because it was very compelling to people. People loved it and they responded positively to me. And I got hired. But I couldn't own it. So I banned it. And people went, oh my gosh, Rob rebranded. And I rebranded. Cause I changed the name and on all the visuals. But the fact is, I learned a very valuable lesson. If you can't own it in people's minds, forget the legal stuff, forget the trademark. That's important. But if you can't own it in people's minds and in the space you're in, then it's not really good, no matter how good it sounds. And so when you say that, and by the way, look again, you guys are cut from the same cloth. You said your brand amplified. Well, nobody's you. These are common words. So I go, but then I use them like this so I can own it. It. Many of my companies build strong brands. None of those words are particularly unique or compelling. But guess what? Nobody's using them. Nobody had the name, nobody had the domain. Nobody's saying it like that. Nobody's using it as a message. And I, and I live that like, I'm not talking about, I'm going to bring you in a hundred million dollars a year. I don't talk like that. You know, that's not who I am. That's not what I'm doing. I talk about profitability. That was my, that's my journey. I talk about building a strong brand. I, I built a brand. I didn't focus on sales for a couple of years. With my first brand, I wanted to prove that brand could attract ideal clients and make you more profitable. And I proved that. So I did. No selling people just came my way and it wasn't like I built this huge business, but I was immensely profitable and making good money. It's just that I wanted to make, I wanted to prove to myself so that I knew, hey, this is really something that is a non negotiable in business building a brand. So when you say your brand amplified, you know, you're talking about ownability, you're talking about something that I love, which is your. The name of it is actually a statement as opposed to Google or at&t or even Tesla, like, well, you know, very valuable brands. Right? No doubt worldwide brands. But we're were saying you can use these as a statement. And to me that was powerful. That's why I chose build strong brands. Because when you say the name of my company, you're saying what gets done.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love it.

Oh, I love it.

Yeah.

This is so fun.

I could talk for days on this. Annika.

Yes, we both could. We will have further conversations on and off the podcast platform. But Rob, what's one last thing that you would like to leave people with when they're considering brand?

The reason I love this stuff so much is it cuts me deep. Everything I do at brand is because I lived through some adversities that I came out the other side and made me better for it. And outside of the fear message, I will tell you this and look, fear to me, I see it everywhere. Now that I'm aware of its insidious nature, I see it holding people back. So I'm always talking about it. But I will tell you this and this, this takes guts, right? One of the other turning points when I realized, okay, now I understand how building a brand and being different helps a company, you know, attract their ideal clients because no profitability, all that stuff, you know, makes your marketing dollars go further, faster. I mean, you could spend less money on your marketing endeavors if you have a strong brand because it smooths out all the speed bumps, right? And it brings business to you inbound becomes so much easier. Easier. Less expensive, let's say less expensive. So but here's the one thing. I came across this article in Forbes one time, this is going back, I think in 2017. And the name of the article, the title of it was something along the lines of pissing people off is actually safer than playing it safe. And I was like, what the heck does that mean? What are they talking about? And the basic idea of the article was that it's proven that when people take a stand, that could be potentially polarizing. You know, you say something and you know a group of people are going to be like, you're wrong and I don't like you, and you cancel, cancel, cancel. There's also another group of people that be like, you the man, you the girl. I'm with you. I hear you. We're the same. And so it was saying, if you don't take a stand, if you play it safe, you're not being safe because you don't please anybody. We hear this all the time, right? If you serve to please everyone, you please no one. Well, that's just. Again, I don't say these things because they don't mean anything to anybody. The point is this. You need to take a stand that you know is going to tick some people off, but it needs to be something real, real, very real inside you that you're. It's not a gimmick. And so when you have that thing and you're willing to overcome the fear to say it, you're going to attract people to you that love everything you do because you stand for something. And so when I read that article, I was one. Yeah, I said, and not that I'm fighting a big Goliath necessarily, but, you know, I'm going to call people out for being afraid. I'm going to say things like, you know, you're just playing it safe. You're. You need to have guts. And, you know, I, you know, I'm not being mean, and it's not necessarily even that polarizing, but I'm just, I go is to speak the truth. I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear. So I have plenty of business colleagues, and they know, like, if they ask me a question, they're getting an answer and they may not like it. And I'm going to tell you and say, I love you so much. But if you don't stop being afraid of this, if you don't stop trying to do all these things, if you don't focus your efforts in this one thing and have the confidence to see it through, to make it work, you're not going to win. And I know that because I lived it. So take a stand, kick fear aside, go all in on that focused message. And, man, I'm telling you, on the other side of that is fulfillment and freedom and peace of mind and competition. Irrelevant.

That is such the Mic drop moment. We're gonna have all of Rob's links in the show notes. I always do ask one more question, but that was the moment. I can already tell that my editor's gonna put that part before the intro of this episode and I'm here for it. Favorite quote, Mantra, verse, family motto, poem.

Oof. So, like I said, and I hope people pick up the book, as you can hear, a lot of the things I picked up along the way from people, I've learned from all the most successful people in the world over the years. And I think my favorite thing that I like to say is not by any famous person and probably something that most people have never heard. And I was just talking with somebody this morning and you know, my dad, he was a job guy, he was a corporate guy. My dad was, I do it myself. We don't hire people in this family. We do it all ourself. And my dad was very analytical. And it didn't matter whether it was a blender or a process. He was going through an application. And he never said it to me, but I was there. And he would go, there's gotta be a better way. And those words always stuck with me and shaped my journey because what it said to me was, the way that's been handed to you is not the way for you. And so when I was 23 years. No, I was 21 years old and I was sitting in rush hour traffic and my first job as a graphic designer. This is in the book, by the way. It's a great story. I'm sitting in traffic and I'm like, excited because I'm on a brand new job. I went through college, my degrees in graphic design. I had my first graphic design job. I'm so happy, right? I'm a kid, I get to play with markers and paints and paper for a living, and they pay me to do it. And I'm stuck in traffic and it's probably a 20 minute drive home. Took me two hours. So I'm sitting at the foot of the Tappan Zee Bridge here in New York and I'm going, oh, it's like a Friday around June and summer's upon us and I can't wait to go out and, you know, have fun and go to the beach, whatever. And I'm sitting there going, must be an accident up ahead. Hmm. Nope. All right, I guess we'll just wait for them to clear it. And I look around and I look to my left and there's a guy who's very unhappy in his Car. I looked to the right. Another guy that's unhappy. And then it dawned on me. My dad used to tell me, this is rush hour traffic. And I kid you not, this was 1989. I go to myself, oh, my gosh, I can't do this for the rest of my life. There's gotta be a better way. Now. Now, listen to this. It's 1989. Nobody had cell phones, right? Except unless you were a CEO, right? And they were those big things. The Internet was not what we know it today. There were a bunch of chat rooms, and you had no business being on there at all unless you were just some tech guy, right? And computers, Pretty much. Very few people had them. And they were big monstrosities on your desk. And in that moment in 1989 when I said, there's gotta be a better way, I had a vision of myself on the deck of my house with one of those notebook computers. We know them as laptops today, with one of those cellular phones, running my own business and on my own time. Wow. Now, look, it was 1989. It took a long time, but that's my life today. My laptop, my cell phone, wherever I am in the country or the world, with my wife, we could do business from anywhere. And the freedom. So people need to go, there's gotta be a better way. But my kids hate this. This is my saying. This is mine. Figure it out. Take all the courses you want, Learn from coaches, have mentors. But at the end of the day, it's your journey. You have to figure it out.

Amazing. Lots for people to think about. And, Rob, thank you so much for having this conversation with me. As I said, to be continued. I'll have all the links for everybody. I just. My mind is reeling. So I don't even have a final suggestion for people. Just think about this episode, listen to it, pick up a copy of Rob's.

Book, and I'll tell you what, I have a gift for your audience. Sure, I'd love for people to go to Amazon and buy my book, but look, I'm not here to make profits on book sales. I'm here to get the message out there. And so if the audience wants a free copy of the free ebook, you go to buildstrongbrands.com freebook. I'll give you a free copy of the ebook just for being an audience of this show, because I do appreciate, Annika, that you had me on and so quickly and giving me the opportunity to talk about this, but I'm really just here to kind of spread the word and make a positive impact.

That's what I love about this format and the people that want to come on. So yeah, we could continue and we will bring you back on and I have other ideas as well. So thank you to everybody who is watching this episode, who's listening to it, who's been with us. Hope that you've enjoyed this as much as I have and a lot for you to take in about brand but also about mentality. You know, I'm not going to say resilience. So fortitude and staying true to what your brand is, it just makes everything so much easier. It makes the money flow faster. It gives you so much clarity. So let's just leave on that note and until our next episode, I hope you have a beautiful day. Thanks for listening or watching to this episode of youf Brand Amplified. Don't forget to leave us a rating or review on your favorite podcast listening platform. And if you want to learn more, check us out@yourbrandamplified.com.