In this introductory segment of a live webinar, host Evan Carmichael introduces guest branding expert Jason Fonseca of RiseOnline.com. Carmichael recounts meeting Fonseca over an avocado milkshake in Toronto, noting how that conversation sparked his own branding overhaul (new website design, slogan, font). Fonseca then delivers three concise branding principles for entrepreneurs: 1) “Don’t be ugly” – prioritize high‑quality design, hire specialists, and enforce meticulous quality control (pixel‑perfect visuals, akin to Steve Jobs’ standards). 2) Consistency – maintain the same visual and verbal language across all channels (logo, colors, fonts, messaging) so the brand feels unified, using examples like Jay‑Z’s consistent cultural references. 3) Authenticity – brand must stem from the founder’s genuine life experience and values; it cannot be fabricated. He illustrates this with contrasting personas of Jay‑Z and Eminem. The segment ends with a call‑to‑action for viewers to like, comment, and stay for the upcoming webinar, while the hosts plan to grab pizza.
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Hey everyone, it's Evan Carmichael. We are just about to start the next webinar, and I'm here live with Jason Fonseca from RiseOnline.com, and I wanted to take the quick opportunity to introduce you guys to him. Now, I've met Jason through my website. He was part of my forums and entrepreneur community online, and he was so super helpful to everybody who was in the forums, giving tons of advice. Just being a force of good for entrepreneurs on the site. And he's based in my hometown of Toronto. And I thought one day, I had a Thursday night free, and I said, I want to know this guy Jason a little bit better. So I fired off an email and said, "Jason, what are you up to tonight? You want to grab some drinks?" And he said, "Sure." And so we met up, and I thought we'd talk for maybe like an hour, an hour and a half, and it turned into like a 4 or 5 hour extravaganza, and I think we may have gotten kicked out of the place. And, uh, we talked about his business, my business, and just loads of fun, tons of information. And one of the things that I really learned from Jason at that point was the importance of branding. And we talked about how you have to have a strong message and it has to be communicated across all your marketing material. And from there, I reworked my website, put new pictures up, we changed my slogan. I changed my font, and that was all thanks to that one discussion we had over— what did we drink? Avocado milkshake. Avocado milkshake.
And chai.
Yeah, and chai. So that was awesome. And so I wanted to introduce you guys quickly to Jason before we start the webinar here today. And Jason, maybe just share some of your advice on branding, some quick tips where you see entrepreneurs making mistakes and how they can do better.
Love to, man. I'm super happy to be here. Thanks for the invitation. And okay, let's get right to it. Branding is a huge subject, I can talk about it forever. It's a key or a core to someone's success in anything really, not just business. And right off the top, one of the most important things is don't be ugly. It sounds simple, but there's a lot involved to it. This means attention to detail, this means Hiring people who do a good job at creating your materials. If you're going to make a video, get a video guy involved. If you're going to make a website, get a website guy involved. And make sure that you have quality control and standards. Dot your i's, cross your t's. Make sure every pixel is perfect. Some people are really like anal and they have a good time with this. Like they really, their brand comes across really well. Steve Jobs, famous for it. He would not release anything from Apple until it was 100% perfect.
This guy's like that. He doesn't do anything I do.
Yeah, man, I can't do it. You cut a pixel on my site, I've known about it forever and it's been bothering me at night. Really, like I can't, but you know, priorities are priorities. You can't worry about dotting I's and crossing T's when there's fires going on or whatever, so step by step. But yeah, second thing, consistency. You mentioned it briefly when you were introducing. Have everything consistent across all channels. It's, again, it's a simple word but it expands into a huge topic. This means that the stuff you speak about on camera, like, it needs to all relate to your brand. Jay-Z is a rapper, a musician, and everything he talks about relates back to the music or the culture or the hip-hop or the whatever. He doesn't, even if he's talking about the latest movie or the the Obama or whatever, he's always relating it somehow back to his core message. If you have a logo or a color scheme or a font, like you said, you get some consistency. You pick that font and you stick to it, and hopefully you've chosen the font well and it represents your brand well. Like if you're, you know, a dark gothic tattoo parlor, you didn't pick, you know, Barbie cutesy font or whatever.
I had like 10 fonts on my site. Yeah, it was crazy. It needed to be fixed.
And it was easy to fix. Yeah. But it took expert knowledge. You just have to, you gotta talk to somebody or research branding. Google branding. Do something. Too many small businesses skip this and they don't have to because a brand is a perception. It's how everybody sees you. Everyone has one whether it's bullshit or fantastic. And so you have one right now and if you haven't looked into it at all, you're probably hurting yourself. So, third thing, this is the most important, I would say.
Rest your back.
Yes. Anything for branding. Okay. Just come from the heart. Have a vision. Every human being on earth, all 7 billion, have these unique lives, unique experiences. They all grew up a different way. Again, I guess I'll use Jay-Z. He's my idol, Jay-Z, so I'll use him as an example. But him and all the other rappers, like Eminem, they have totally different backgrounds and life experiences, and they stand for different things. Jay-Z doesn't come out and cuss everywhere and be dark and gritty and have all kinds of horrible things going on. He's not an angry rapper or whatever. But Eminem is. He talks about all these trailer times and dark times and 8 Mile and drug rehab and all this kind of stuff. And Jay-Z talks about changing culture and coming from a rough background, rags to riches kind of thing. And he's always inspiring others. So each of those people, they're in the same business or in the same industry, but they stand for different things as human beings. And it's hard to fake. You can't make it up. You can't be like, oh, I'll stand for this one day. You have to have a life experience that says, I stand for this yourself. You help entrepreneurs. And I remember one time we were talking, I made a joke, or I was being casual about it, and I was like, oh, see, those are just people you help. I mean, I'm an entrepreneur, but, and you're like, no! Those aren't just people I help, that's a way of life. That's what I stand for. That's right, I remember that. The best I ever saw from you, man. And I was like, that has to show up in your brain.
Yeah.
And it does. And same goes for all the audience, everybody we're speaking to right now. You, right there, in your seat, you stand for something. You have a life experience and stuff you care about. And most people repress it and hide it because they don't want to talk about it. Some people are really sex positive and they don't want to come out and say that. Some people want to, you know, talk about race, but they don't want to say that. Some people want to really help entrepreneurs, because if you never said that, you wouldn't be where you are today. But you stood up for it. And same for anybody trying to expand their brand. So that's my 3 tips.
There you go, 3 tips from Jason Fonseca. You can check him out at RiseOnline.com. We're going to grab some pizza and then start the webinar. You guys know the drill. You like the video, please give it a thumbs up. And if you have any comments or questions for me or Jason this time, We're both going to be checking the comment feed, so please leave a comment even just to say, "Hey, great job guys. Enjoy the pizza." And we'll see you guys soon, alright? Cheers, thanks guys.
