Chris Do’s Brand Building Secrets for 2023 (Leveling Up Mastermind Talk)

This next session is with Chris Do, who is the founder of The Futur, and this is from the Leveling Up Founders private event that I did. He is going to talk about branding, so I hope you enjoy this session and let me know what you think.

I just go to the book, and I love Marty Neumeier's definition of what a brand is. A brand is a gut feeling that a person has about a product, service, or organization. So it's a feeling, and that means that you can't control it. And when enough people start to feel it, then you start to develop your brand. So it's not what you say it is, it's what they say it is. And we've seen this before in the old days of advertising. If somebody just repeated a message enough, you would say, well, that must be— Ford's job qualities, like, you know, number one, that's their mission, right? Not really. And so what's happened with social media and all that stuff is now we can have the conversation with each other. So let's focus on that part, right? So So if you have a few people who have a similar idea but not enough people, maybe it's not the brand that you want. So I would say that it's not a brand, but when enough people start to share that, then that same gut feeling that they have about you, that's a brand. So I'd like to share something in case you haven't read the book, The Brand Gap. I love this exercise that Marty has, and I turned it into a little bit of a game for you. So 6 things, right? So what do you call it when someone tells someone else, like, I'm a great lover? What is that called? If you don't know.

Hearsay.

Hearsay. Are you a legal person? Attorney? Okay. Well, when you tell someone else, that's called marketing, right? And then what do you call it when you do that over the phone? Telemarketing. So somebody's like— you're figuring out the pattern, right? And so if a friend says it for you, like, you know, he's a great lover, trust me.

Reference? Affiliate.

Affiliate. Yeah, it's called public relations, right? So what do you keep saying over and over and over again? What is that called?

Spam.

Spam. Well played. Yeah, it's called advertising. And then sometimes people don't even use words, and we would call that graphic design because designers don't like to use words. So it's not until that they say it, like, I hear or I understand that you're a great lover. That's branding. Now, in the world of brands, they're not all created equally. So Hyatt has a brand and Apple has a brand, but they're not equal. And I think it was— I hope I'm citing my sources here— that Seth Godin had said, like, do this simple test. Do this simple test. If Hyatt and Apple swapped places and Hyatt made a computer, Is it clear in your mind what kind of computer they would make? So to me, the ability to extend your brand, to apply it to other things, says a lot about how strong the brand is. But if we were to flip that over and say, what if Apple started a hotel? I'm pretty sure you guys can picture like what that would be like. Super smart, sleek, clean, very thoughtful, probably premium, very expensive maybe. So that's the strength of the brand. And the reason why this is important is that as we start to understand our relationship with brand, what people really want to do is to feel safe and secure. And so they want to find people who think like they think. They want to find their tribe. So when you're building your personal brand, you need to let them know what they're joining. So whose tribe will they join? And whoever has the strongest tribe wins the brand game. Okay, so that's now going to take us to the personal branding part. So you all can use the same principles that large corporations use to brand yourself. And the reason why I highlighted the word person is because there's you in it, and we have to bring that to the surface. Oftentimes when I talk to people about this, they'll say, well, do I have a brand? And the answer is yes. Every single person here has a brand. If we have common definitions, everyone here, by the way you dress, the way you talk, the content of your character, somebody's going to have a gut feeling. And even growing up, if you're a 7-year-old, your dad's gut feeling about you is one thing, your mom and your auntie and your grandma and grandpa, see how they're like, and they might have a very different impression of you. So yes, everyone has a brand, but the thing is it's not intentional, it's unmanaged, right? So what we have to do is we have to start working on that if this is something that's important to you. So we look at the primary ways in which, like, we take in feedback and input, right? There's the visual, what you look like, the way you dress, the hair, your height, your build, Alex has got the jean shorts, you know, he's rocking the Crocs, so he's got a very specific brand. And then there's the tone of voice, the words you choose, the phrasing, the pacing of how you speak. And those 2 are pretty strong ways to identify, at least for other people, like who you are or who they think you might be. Even the accent that you speak with tells somebody something about you. So we're going to be a lot more intentional about that. I got this from Christine Lusser, who explained it this way, that branding is really about impression management. Right? Like when you show up for a job interview— none of you are showing up for job interviews, but when you did back in the day, you might dress a specific way. You might fluff up your resume a little bit because you want to make a very strong impression. Or if you're going out on a date, probably more applicable to most of you, you're like, hey, I'm gonna just look my best. So this is what you're trying to do. And I say that because you need to be aware that obviously you can't control people.

Mm-hmm.

but you can influence how they're going to feel about you and what they take away. Now, here's the cool part. The cool part is that we're hardwired to be able to spot differences. And I think that's how we've been able to survive up until this point. Like, if you're in the bush and something doesn't look like a tree and it's gonna eat you, you have to be able to spot that in order to survive. But it's not good enough today just to be different because it's a really noisy world. You have to be radically different, and that's what we're going to lean into. My friend Yo Santos says that people don't fall in love with corporations, they fall in love with personalities. So that's what we have to do, we have to highlight your personality. So this is a framework I've been developing, it's still a work in progress, but I want to share it with you. There are a lot of people who are going to talk to you about branding and have a different angle. I'm going to have some fun with you today and talk about branding through the lens of pop culture, mostly because I'm a geek. I like comics. And so I'm going to try to draw some parallels that may make this a lot easier for you to understand and be able to do something with. And I just wanted to check, like, what is happening in media and pop culture right now in terms of, like, the rise of comic book-related intellectual property. So I just did this search, top-grossing box office films of all time. 4 of them, I think, equate to over $8 billion in box office receipts. They're all superhero films. And I think it's the reason why they're working so well now is because they're not just building an individual or a character, they're world-building. And Marvel, AKA Disney, has mastered the art of creating characters that cross over so you get a sense that you're not just stepping into one person's story, but into this entire ecosystem and you get to experience that all the way through. So they've mastered storytelling. And it's my feeling that all these superheroes have become the modern era mythology and the new gods. So I want to ask you a quick question here. I don't know your level of nerdiness or nerddom here, but what do you know about Spider-Man, Peter Parker? I know he's a superhero. Tell me anything, just shout it out, whatever, just any little thing. He got bit by a spider. What kind of spider? He did get bit by a spider. Do you know what kind of spider?

Radioactive.

Radioactive spider, because we all get bit by spiders, nothing happens to us. Maybe you get a little bump, right? Okay, radioactive spider. What else do you know about Spider-Man?

He's poor.

He's poor, yes.

Science nerd.

He is a science nerd, right? Like chemistry and biology, and like he's a super bright guy. Right? What else do you know about him? He's a photographer. He's a photographer. Yes?

The girl. He what?

He can't get the girl. He can't get the girl. It's important to note that. I start looking at all these comic book characters from the ones that you know something about and the ones that are totally forgettable. And there's certain traits and the things that they do really well. And bias, I'm more a Marvel guy than I'm a DC guy, but we'll cross over and we'll talk about that a little bit. But there's 4 components to this brand wheel I'm going to share with you, okay? So the first thing that you need to do is you have to master the 3-part story. And it doesn't matter who you're talking about, whether it's fictional or real, they're going to have these 3 things in common. And those things are, what is their origin story? Like how they came into the world. And then they have this defining moment that they see something different and then they learn this really important lesson and they're forever changed. If you think about Elon Musk, like his background being South African, coming to the United States, the defining moment for him, I think, is like when he bets all in on 2 different companies and SpaceX works and he gets the prize and he saves Tesla and it all works. But up until that moment, it's not clear. And now he's like the richest person in the world, having transformed. Okay. So I think if you want to be a person who's going to have a strong personal brand, You have to master the 3 parts of your story: your origin story, your defining moment, and how you've transformed. So here's the second part, and there are 2 parts to it, the top and the bottom of that circle that I showed you, is that what you want to do is you have to be clear about what it is you stand for, who your friends are, and who your enemies are. Sometimes not literally like people, but just, I'm an enemy of this idea, I'm an enemy of this behavior. If you want to have true friends, which I think Many of us would desire, there's an opposite side to that, which is true critics. And you have to be willing to embrace that as part of your journey. And so when we look at the worlds that are built for these people, it's very clear who their family is. And it could be like the nuclear family or just a modern definition of family, not people that you're related to. The critical characters are the sidekicks and allies and this entire supporting cast. Sometimes the family doesn't know the secret. But the sidekick will. And the sidekick is the confidant who understands both the worlds of the personal and the public life. So if we were to like look at Batman, Batman is also super iconic because they've done a masterful job of building the world around Batman. So Batman's supporting cast is Alfred, who you know, who takes care of him, not only handles his affairs, but also is his personal doctor. So whenever he gets beat up, he doesn't have to go to the hospital. But then he has all these other characters that make his life richer, and they're part of this movement that he's— this kind of form of his justice. One thing I want to point out to you as a supporting cast member is the city. The city in which Batman lives in is Gotham City, and I think it's a stand-in for Chicago or New York, right? And the city defines him too. And if you're thinking about it, like where you're born and where you choose to live, It creates an impression on people immediately, right? Like when we talk about like somebody who's living in New York, what is your impression of somebody who lives in New York?

Hustle.

Hustle. Some might say rude. What else? Straight talker, fast talking, direct, going places, right? The New York minute, whatever, you know? And then what is your impression of somebody who's from the South?

Talks slower.

Slower talking. Yes, what else?

Religious.

Religious. Who said that?

Me.

Yes. Maybe polite.

Unhealthy.

Unhealthy. Okay, that's an impression.

Southern charm.

Southern charm, hospitality, saying like, bless your heart. So those things do say something about you, and it's important for you to understand that because you can use that as part of your narrative. Gary Vaynerchuk does this pretty masterfully. Like, I'm from the former Soviet Union, Belarus. You already have certain ideas, right? And I'm going to just work like an animal and just grind, grind, grind because that's it. That's the immigrant story. And so think about how you can weave the story as a cast member in your brand.

All right. So that's it for this session. Hope you enjoyed it. If you are interested in learning more about the Leveling Up Founders private event, it's basically an annual thing where we gather the top founders and also the top speakers and ultimately just help each other grow our businesses. Is faster. Last event was rated a 9.8 out of 10, and everyone said it was more so about the people. The speakers were amazing, but the people are even more amazing. So you can go to live.levelingup.com to learn more if you are interested, and we will, we'll catch you later.