7 Secrets of Unique Brands You Can Use to Stand Out in a Crowded Marketplace
In this episode of Marc Haine Live, host Marc Haine interviews brand strategist Gary Maxwell about how small‑to‑medium businesses can create "legendary" brands that pull customers rather than push them. Maxwell introduces his "Big Little Legends" framework, which draws on the timeless appeal of myths and legends to craft magnetic brand stories. He explains why traditional marketing language—product features, benefits, and unique selling propositions—fails to differentiate, and why brands must speak a metaphor‑rich, emotional language that resonates with the market’s deeper why. The conversation walks through a practical "category language exercise" for uncovering the common, bland messaging in a market and then zagging away from it. Maxwell illustrates the concepts with the case study of Jim Gilbert’s "Canada’s Huggable Car Dealer," showing how a simple, story‑driven repositioning grew the business from a local used‑car lot to a multi‑million‑dollar regional leader. They discuss the seven archetypal story plots identified by Christopher Booker and how aligning a brand’s narrative with one or more of these plots creates a timeless pull. The dialogue emphasizes that brand building is a leadership responsibility, not just a marketing tactic, and that strategic drama—discovering, living, and broadcasting a brand’s story—creates an irresistible pull. Practical next steps are offered, including free resources, a website, and 20‑minute Zoom calls. The episode closes with a call to action for listeners to avoid ordinary branding and aim for legendary status.
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So, I'd like to ask you, what makes you different? What is it about you that attracts people to your business? Do you know? Does your staff know? And that's what we're going to be talking about today on Marc Haine Live. Welcome to Marc Haine Live where small business owners and entrepreneurs pick up core skill sets to help them work on their business, not just in their business. I am your host, Service Expert and Master of Experiences Marc Haine. And today, I am so pumped to be speaking with someone I consider a friend, Gary Maxwell. And we'll get to him in just a second. I just want to acknowledge my fantastic subscribers. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you for being loyal. Thank you for following what I do. You are amazing. And to those of you watching this episode, I'd like to thank you for joining me today. I hope you and your team get extraordinary value from today's content. If you find the information here valuable, please do click the thumbs up button. It not only lets me know that I'm bringing you some valuable content, it also lets YouTube know that I'm producing content that you like. They kind of sort of track those things. So, go ahead and click the subscribe button and follow me as well. You know, I love the quote from Seth Godin. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same thing as being invisible. So, I have to ask you our question of the day. So, what do you and your team do every day that sets you apart from your competition? I'd love to hear. Go ahead and put it in the comment box below here on YouTube. And why not share what you are proud of, what you and your team are proud of? Because At the end of the day, that's going to become part of your differential. So today, I am so proud to welcome my guest. He is the author of Nuts, Bolts, and a Few Loose Screws. And trust me, he's got a few loose screws himself, but in a good way. He is a sought-after brand strategist, having spoken to and worked with some of North America's most iconic brands. He has shared stages with the likes of Richard Branson and Gene Simmons. And his unique market-tested ideas has inspired some companies to grow 15 to 20 times while creating an irresistible category of one. His next book coming up, I believe in the new year, is called Big Little Legends: How Everyday Leaders Build Irresistible Brands. And it is due out. But I'd like to welcome to the show Mr. Gare Maxwell. How are you, my friend? It's so nice to have you on the show.
Well, I can see that whatever the stipend was that I already paid you for that glowing introduction, I might have to double or triple. Thank you so much for the kind words, Marc. And really what intrigued me was the opportunity for you and I to share this philosophy that I uncovered a while back around this subject called Big Little Legends, you know, and so I'm just delighted to be here.
Yeah. So Gary, thank you. And before we kind of get into it, could you maybe tell us a little bit about what you do for your clients?
Well, what I really do is I study the origin of legends and decode their enduring magnetic appeal. So when people think of legends, they tend to think of, well, King Arthur and Robin Hood and legends from my study. I'm a history buff. And from my study of the origin of legends, there's one thing they all share in common. is that they endlessly fascinate human beings. And a few years ago, I started to wonder, well, how could that same fascination, how could that irresistible magnetic pull be applied to marketing? How could that help a small to medium-sized business grow? So the way I explain it in my programs and my workshops and in my consulting, everybody knows You know, the greatest brands in the world. People think of Apple and they think of Nike and they think of Amazon and Disney and Harley-Davidson. Well, what about the small to medium-sized companies that have kind of like that same sort of appeal, but in, shall we say, more localized or regional type of markets? And who's doing it without spending a fortune on advertising and paid media. That's really the genesis of Big Little Legends. So we've got, you know, there's dozens of examples that I've identified in my research, Marc, and some signet— like too many to go into the book, too many to talk about today. But what we've done is we've distilled the core elements of what is a Big Little Legend and how anyone can basically tap into a force that's been around for centuries.
Right. Well, you know, and I, I, I'm so intrigued to dig deeper with this, uh, but before we get into it, I just wanted to remind everybody that, uh, this, that this episode is brought to you by my brand new book. Now, this book was driven from a conversation that Gare and I had over dinner one day where I was finding a little bit unfocused in what I was trying to do. And Gary looked at me and looked at my passion. And we were talking about customer service and we're talking about business operational excellence. And he looked at me and he says, isn't it a fact that every time a business opens up their doors, they're putting on a show? And right there, that created the catalyst for this new book called Lights! Camera! Action! Business Operational Excellence Through the Lens of Live Theater. It tears down what it takes to put on a great show for you and your customers no matter what business you are in. To get a notification when this book is released, please go down to the link below. I'll put it in the show notes. But it's marchaine.com/lightscameraaction and click on the Coming Soon button. And I will notify you as soon as it's released. Okay, again, it's Lights! Camera! Action!, Business Operational Excellence Through the Lens of Live Theater. And the catalyst for that, the muse for that, the The person who was responsible for yanking it out of my brain is my guest. And I'm so thrilled that you are here. And I can imagine, Ger, that you probably do this for a lot of your customers. You probably are in a position where you see things that maybe other people don't see.
Well, yeah, I appreciate that. And I never forgot from our conversation, you had this passion for improv and live theater. If I recall right, Marc, you were already doing this. In our consulting work, what we do is we've got a very methodical step-by-step process to identify basically who people already are beyond their products and services. Let me give you the great big lies around the subject of marketing and brand development that are happening now. No one cares about your unique selling proposition. Okay, this is I don't know how else to say it. No one cares about your product, service, features, advantages, benefits. That's not going to make people line up and come to you. The object of a brand strategy, in my view, is to make the customer or make the talent come to you. Let me ask you this, Marc. How much do the dynamics of a business relationship change when you've got the customer coming to you? Do they change a little or do they change a lot?
Well, obviously it changes a lot because they're doing it by choice.
Right. And so to me, strategically, that's the only place to play. It's the only place you want to occupy. People go to Nike or Ferrari or Harley-Davidson or Disney for— or Apple for a reason. I'm lining— hey, I was lining up the other day. I'm still waiting to get my new iPhone 12 Pro because Because there's too much demand. So when we talk about Big Little Legends, what we're talking about, well, how does the small to medium-sized business owner create that pull in the marketplace? And so what we distinguish very, very clearly is the difference between direct marketing and brand marketing. Direct marketing is more push-driven with the language of the pitch. Brand marketing is the pull. I call it the giant magnet on steroids. And the business leader has to recognize it's their responsibility to build the giant magnet on steroids.
Right.
And so when you recognize that that's your job and that there's something inside you, as in your theater background— this is a great example, Marc. You've got this theater background. Great. Tap into who you already are and use that to start to build something that has a chance to be irresistible. There's 10,000 customer experience experts out there, but there's only one who's all about lights, camera, action, and taking the lessons of theater and using them in a business. And that would be Marc Haine.
Well, thanks for that. That's, you know, and again, I wish I could have paid you for that because now I feel kind of guilty that you gave me all this value.
Well, it's just, but it's universal, Marc. It's understanding every single category. So whoever's watching right now, all they have to do is think about in their particular category. And it doesn't matter what it is. It could be accounting. It could be, you know, the legal profession. It could be hydraulic you know, manufacturers or piston ring makers, or— right? It doesn't matter what the product or the service is. Like this morning, one of our clients, we were chatting on Zoom, someone out of Wisconsin who's in the architectural build business. There's car dealerships. I'm just going through. There's— we're all over the business landscape. And here's— The central core issue. Every single category, so whoever is watching, every single category has its own language. The secret is if differentiation is in fact a strategic priority, the secret is to speak an entirely different language than all of your competitors. What you will find is that when you really study this stuff, and this is part and parcel of what we do, is that you'll find virtually everyone in the category is focused on what they sell, their product, their service, their expertise. Well, Simon Sinek very clearly in Start With Why outlined people don't buy what you do, they buy Why you do it. But then you go to the homepage of any website anywhere across all business categories and you don't see why they do what they do. You see, here's what we do, here's what we sell. So it's a much bigger strategy. It's understanding you want to capture your why, for example, in the form of a story based on the values that you already possess, based on who you already are. I call it, who are you beyond the product and service? Yeah, I get it that you're a holistic healer, right? There's 10,000 holistic healers out there. Who are you beyond the holistic healing, beyond the insurance, beyond the beauty parlor or the tattoo parlor? It doesn't matter what it is. Go beyond that.
Yes.
And see what you can discover.
So, is there a strategy that small business owners could use to help them uncover some of this? Because I know that knowing a lot of entrepreneurs that a lot of them tend to be quite focused on their business and they don't necessarily see what's going on or how to represent themselves outside of what they know.
Right. And I'm going to say something, Marc, that's— and I don't want it to come across as self-serving. It's just the law of the universe. Okay, you can't read the label when you're inside the bottle.
Exactly.
You can't do it. Why do the greatest golfers in the world— so who just won the Masters? Dustin Johnson. And before that, it was Tiger Woods. Why do the greatest golfers in the world hire a swing coach?
Why?
Because the swing coach can see things in the swing That the golfer can't see. This is one of those unique areas where— and I couldn't do it for myself either. I needed help to come up with Big Little Legends. I couldn't see it. So I had to find a trusted friend that I had confidence in that knew something about the language of metaphor. And let me back up a little bit. The language of brand, if that's the subject, if that's the discipline, I think it helps everyone to understand that the language of brand speaks a different language. The language is metaphorical. It is meaningful. It is symbolic. It is emotion. It is not the language of business. Business speaks a language that is logical, linear, analytical, mathematical, mechanical, factual. 2 completely different languages.
Mm-hmm.
And so the language of that which is metaphorical, emotional, and symbolic ties very nicely to lights, camera, action. We can see that in our mind without any explanation. And so I needed help to find Big Little Legends from someone I trusted. Well, guess what? My signature story, and it's a story I know that you know well, It still dates back. If people are curious about, well, where did all this come from? What sparked this? It's the story of the guy I met in 2002. So he's a small to medium-sized business owner. And I think, Marc, it's one of the easiest ways for anyone watching to kind of understand and put themselves in the shoes of my friend, Jim Gilbert.
Right.
So Jim Gilbert, is a small to medium-sized business owner, small mom-and-pop operation. Him and his wife Donna had already been in business for about 20 years. I meet him in 2002 at the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce. Great. He's got 5 employees. He's got maybe a part-timer selling an interchangeable product, and he's in a ruthless competitive category. There's lots of players and lots of people selling what he's got. Now, if anyone watching can identify with that, you'll understand what Jim's going through. He knows he's different, but he can't communicate it. Marc, how many times have you heard that conversation? There's something different about us, but we look and sound the same as everyone else. So, I met Jim in 2002. And At the time, I had transitioned out of broadcasting into small business consulting, specifically soft skills, kind of some of the areas you were involved in around customer service training, team building. And I met Jim and we started working together. And it was only 4 years later that we stumbled onto the Holy Grail. 4 years is what it took us. And simply put, without any strategic plan, without any detailed process to follow, what we did is we changed the story. And Jim Gilbert, as you can see the pictures, became Canada's huggable car dealer. So think about the typical radio spots that you've ever heard In the car industry, you've heard things, you know, what does the typical radio spot sound like? It's, you know, better quality, better service, better selection, better value, better prices. Well, in September of 2006, we went on, Marc, I love that you showed that video. We went on and completely went in a different direction. We told 30-second stories. There were these little vignettes about Canada's huggable car dealer. And so he's the Casanova of customer focus. He's the Romeo of roadsters. By golly, he's been called the McDreamy of drive. Stop by at Jim Gilbert's and get your daily dose of hugtonium designed to improve your love affair with your car and your libido. Well, there's 22 car dealerships in a 100-kilometer radius back then. Who else is Speaking that way on the radio? That answer would be zero. It's 14 years later. His entire competitive space is still speaking the same product-focused language. We're speaking story-based language based on the values that are already, that were already there. Like Jim and Donna Gilbert are the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. When I met them, I couldn't believe it. I found They were doing handmade, handwritten birthday notes for their customers. They were already huggable. It only took us 4 years before we got some help to figure out the story. Once we figured out the story, that was the launching pad for, as you showed in your clips, it's basically— I've had my American friends tell me, if Walt Disney imagined a used car lot, this is what it looks like.
Right.
So he's on 17 acres now. He's got the mascots, he's got hundreds of teddy bears. There's a merry-go-round out front for the kids to play on. There's a 2-kilometer nature trail so you can go walk your dog. Anything and everything that speaks to Huggable, which is the metaphor for taking care of people, for doing the right thing, for giving great service. And, and so That business, as of 2019, we're talking 38 employees and north of $50 million. So that was kind of like the lab to study human behavior and how that can be positively influenced when you share the power of a story.
Right.
And so what we've done, Marc, is deconstructed some of the timeless principles And then juxtaposed it against, well, isn't that interesting? The same dynamic that creates legends also helps small to medium-sized businesses like Canada's Huggable Car Dealer achieve, shall we say, legendary status within their space.
Yeah. Well, you know, I like your initial point, this idea that ultimately we can't do it by ourselves. No, we have. And this is a message that I think through my podcast, people have heard time and time again. Every time I bring on a subject matter expert, the message is always clear. You can't do everything by yourself. And this— I love your metaphor of not being able to see the label if you're inside the bottle. I'd like to take it a step further. But before we go any further, could you let everybody know how they can get in touch with you if they want to tap into your expertise? Sure.
I'm the easiest guy to find on the internet. It's Gare maxwell.com. So Gair, G-A-I-R, you're on the air with Gair who used to have hair, maxwell.com. I'm easy to find. I've got a very active YouTube channel. I post consistently. I give away a lot of free content and ideas for people to really stop and think about, well, what do I want to do? Do I want to be in the, you know, do I want to play the role of spectator in the audience or do I want to be on the stage and be the performer?
Right.
And so metaphorically, it's about how do you escape the mosh pit of the language of your category and get on a stage and become Metallica or Celine Dion or Garth Brooks, whatever your flavor is. See, that's what the huggable car dealer is. There's— he's within his space, there would be nobody like him, which is not only how he became the largest independent used car dealer in all 4 Atlantic Canadian provinces, but as of right now, the brand has expanded into the world of Kawasaki. And as of September 1st of this year, he got into the Kawasaki business in 2018. In 2019, they were number 2 in the country. And as of September, by 11 units, number 1 Kawasaki dealer in all of Canada.
Wow.
Wow.
And it goes to show, you know, I— so I see a lot of times I'll talk to small business owners and they will use the excuse that it's easy for the big boys to do it because they have the budgets and I don't have the budget. And what you're telling us is there's something else in what we can control that will help us launch and be able to be Kind of this irresistible brand that makes us stand out in our communities.
Right. This is the game changer right here. It caught— what is right now, Marc, the cost of distribution on this live feed? What is our shared cost?
Yeah, it's minimal.
Zero.
It's absolutely minimal.
It's actually like zero. It costs nothing. The platforms are free. They're easy to use. They're available. Excuses are also easy to use and available. I don't know that making excuses and staying invisible is a solid long-term business and brand building strategy. Forgive me, I don't— I'm not sold that making excuses and being invisible works long-term.
Yeah.
But I am convinced because I've seen it repeatedly. And I could tell you many more examples. When you find a story that is uniquely your own, and people ask me all the time, well, what's the secret? What's the magic pill, if you will?
Yeah.
It's recognizing that it's the leader's job to create what I call strategic drama. You have to create strategic drama, which begins with, can you discover the story that is uniquely your own? Can you tell that story? But more importantly, can you live that story? And then what we always recommend is if you can anchor it to a 2 to 6 word narrative, then you've got this long-form storytelling with the story that has no ending being shared on free platforms. The platforms are going to change. Right now we're on things like YouTube and Facebook, and there's going to be, you know, Instagram is out there and Twitter's out there and LinkedIn's out there. Great. Are there going to be more platforms?
Yes.
Yes.
All the time. Just like TikTok came out from nowhere.
Exactly. So, and so with Jim Gilbert, the Huggable Car Dealer, we started on the radio to the point where His radio budget at one time, I think, was about, I'm gonna say ballpark it around $120,000 to $140,000 a year, and that went down to zero because his social media traction and the snowball effect was so big.
Yes.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, you know, and I hope this makes sense to our viewers as well. And just a quick little call out to them, you know, if you feel that this is valuable for you, Please give it a thumbs up. Is this making sense? I'd love to hear your comments and your questions in the comment box as well because your experience, you have experiences, you have challenges. And so, I'd love it if you would share some of this in the comment box and just start this discussion. How is it working for you? Do you tell a unique story? And Gary, to me, it feels like it comes down to this. And you mentioned it. It's not only just come up with something, but you have to live the brand as well. And then, it's all about telling those stories. When it comes down to this idea of being able to tell stories, what do you think the foundation of that storytelling should be?
Well, storytelling foundationally, and that's a great question because it's fundamental to our consulting work. is if our hypothesis is true that a brand is a story embedded in the mind of the market, then there's only 7 basic stories. There's only 7. And this becomes a valuable filter for whether or not you've actually got a story.
Okay.
So Christopher Booker is a researcher out of the UK, and he researched the origin of story that goes back You know, into Greek Roman times and way before the Bible and things of that nature. And, and, but he studied things like Shakespeare and Broadway and Hollywood and fiction, and, and there's 7 recurring plot lines. What we do is figure out, okay, if there is a story to be told, how does it align with at least 1 or 2 or 3 of these basic plot lines.
Right.
So using the Huggable Car Dealer as an example, that would be a synthesis of comedy meets voyage and return. So it's like Runaway Bride meets The Wizard of Oz and Disney, which is a timeless foundation. If people, if societies for years for centuries have been fascinated by the same stories, then what you have is the confidence that you're at least in alignment with the greatest stories ever told. So Lights, Camera, Action is— that's very much voyage and return, which is escapism, creating alternative universes, right?
So that's different expectations.
Exactly, but it's also allowing for the role of fantasy and make-believe. It's all kinds of possibilities. Now what you do with it, that's going to be all up to you. What I love is what— just what you created with your studio, Marc. Lights, camera, action. Well, what do we see? We see this very well-lit thing, and with your theater background—
Welcome to the backstage.
We're backstage, but this is— this is— and I see the little clapper, right?
For the— Yep, yeah, got the clapper.
Absolutely. These are the— and so the clapper is— that would be one of the things that is symbolic, for example, of what lights, camera, action is all about, right? No different than the teddy bear, or I mentioned the Masters earlier, the green jacket. Why are they so, you know, desperate to win that green jacket?
Why? Just a green jacket. It's just a green piece of cloth.
That's all it is functionally.
Yes.
But it's what it represents. And so the business leader, Marc, who can recognize a bigger role than just selling stuff, a bigger role than a laundry list of product, service, feature, advantage, benefit. No, no, no. Strategic drama begins when you can discover, tell, live your own story and answer the fundamental question, who are you? Beyond the product or service.
Right. You know, I really appreciate the fact that you use kind of this idea that every industry has the language. Is there some way for these small businesses to figure out, are they like everybody else? Because again, being so close to it, how do they figure out, am I like everybody else? Everybody, every entrepreneur I've ever met has said, oh, I make better pizza than so-and-so. And oh, I do, you know, I have a better hardware store than everybody else. And I have— everybody thinks that they're different, but somehow when it gets out into the marketplace, it doesn't seem like it. So what can they do to figure out what is the language in their industry?
Yeah, here I do an exercise all the time in my different workshops and my consulting programs. I call it the category language exercise, and it's astonishingly simple. And it costs— it will cost someone zero. There's no monetary investment. You just got to put a little elbow grease into it. Here's what you do. If you're a solopreneur, you can do it yourself. If you've got a small business, put 3 or 4 people in the room and everybody grab a laptop. And what you do is you start studying Each person in the room would study 4 or 5 websites of your competitors. Just study the websites. And here's what you're going to figure out. And it's right out of, like I say, the book's coming out in 2021, but this is kind of like the workshop handout. And the category language exercise is so simple. You just go to page 5. And if anyone wants to email me and get a a soft copy, I'll gladly email them this document.
That's great.
Yeah, absolutely. But the category language exercise on page 5, picture 5 people in a room, Marc, and everyone's got to study 4 websites. Well, on page 5, all you do is, okay, you make note of the commonalities. In other words, you put down, you were taking inventory What are the common words and phrases used by all the websites on their homepage and their About Us sections and things of that nature? Okay, great. Those are the common words. And then, oh, what are the common visual elements? And then what's the common strategy, the positioning, the themes? What you'll see in a lot of businesses is The strategy, the positioning, and the themes is right out of the movie Elf. Remember that movie with Will Ferrell?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, he comes down from, uh, what is it, the, uh, the North Pole into New York. Didn't he do some something around those candy cane forest or the swirly gumdrop things? And the plunk, he's in New York. And then he goes by the coffee shop and what does he see? Whirlspout! Best cup of coffee. And he walks in, you did it, guys, you did it. In my view, Marc, that's how most businesses, a lot of businesses market themselves from a strategy point of view. We're the best hardware store. We're the best. Really what you're sending out to the universe is we're the world's best cup of coffee.
Yeah.
The point, quality is not a differentiator. You cannot differentiate on quality.
Right.
Quality is table stakes. We assume you're good. See, we're past that. We already know you're a good dentist. We already know you're a good engineering firm. We get that, right? Who are you beyond all that? But quality cannot be a differentiator. So when you study the common words and phrases, When you look at all the visuals, any business owner, and especially if they have a small team doing it, all you got to do is put flip chart paper on the wall.
Yeah.
Put it all down.
Yeah, Post-it notes.
Post-it notes of all the stuff that's the same.
Yeah.
I've had people tell me they go from website to website and you can almost literally copy and paste complete sentences or even paragraphs about how— I never forgot, I was doing an executive session with a CEO group in Edmonton with a guy who was in the business of, it was very high-end specialized furniture. So hutches, tables, chairs, not discount, high-end, a lot of craftsmanship. And when he did the category language exercise, Marc, I never forgot that guy. He says, you know, within a 50-kilometer radius, all 3 of us are the world's finest. This is what you've got to figure out. What is the actual language of the category? And then you've got at least a baseline understanding of what brand strategy is. Brand strategy is this: if everybody zigs, you zag.
Right.
You have to find a different language, but first, To create a zag, what are we going to do it against? It does 2 things. The category language exercise does a couple of things, Marc. And one of the most important things it does is it fuels inside the entrepreneur this question. And it's a question that's the jumping off point for everything. Can you decide What you're not going to be.
Yes.
Because if you can't decide what you're not going to be, you'll never discover what you could become.
Yes.
But that's a big leadership decision. See, this is not a marketing issue. It's a leadership issue. And that's why the subtitle is very deliberate. It's How Everyday Leaders Build Irresistible Brands, not how Everyday advertising agencies build irresistible brands because brands are only built by leaders. Enzo Ferrari did it. Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman did it with Nike. Steve Jobs did it with Apple. Branson did it with Virgin. You can point all the greatest brands in the world, Walt Disney. This was leadership. And I look at Jim Gilbert, same thing, Marc. It's a leader that did it.
Yes. Yeah. It starts at Again, like everything else starts at the top. So, is there, you know, when you're talking about this, I imagine that some people would watch this and go, oh my goodness, I got to get on this. I got to do this. Are there any cautionaries to what we're talking about today? Is it possible that people can go too far or kind of get off course somehow with this?
Very easy. Of course, that's a great question. Yeah, you're going to get— there'll be tons of distractions. The biggest thing will be the naysayers. The biggest issue will be taking advice from people who actually don't know anything about the subject called building irresistible brands. Marketing in many respects as a practice or a discipline is a lot like being a minor hockey coach in Canada.
Yeah.
You know, I don't know how familiar you are, Marc, with minor hockey, the world of minor hockey. Anyone who ever coached minor hockey can tell you he's got 20 parents in the stands that are better coaches than he or she.
Yeah. Yeah.
So everyone's got an opinion. Few have expertise.
Yeah.
Real expertise. Who's done this? And so, you know, we've been— so anyone who's thinking about doing this, they've got to recognize you might not want to pay too much attention to what Aunt Sally has to say or Uncle Fred.
Right.
You might want to say, wait a second, I got to learn a little bit about this. And because the long-term implications are real. Jim Gilbert's business has never been the same since we told that story. When we started telling that story, within 6 weeks, Think about the logic of this. Within 6 weeks, Jim and Don are telling me complete strangers are walking up to them at the shopping mall, at the coffee shop, at the hockey games. Strangers. And they're looking at them, is that true? Are you really the huggable car dealer? Can I get a hug? Like, and we didn't know it back then. I mean, we were so young and naive, but— But looking back, those were the first seeds planted in the soil that was the pull. That's— they're coming to him, right? And I never forgot at dinner that night, Jim saying, you know, I've been advertising on the radio for years and years. He says, I've never had anyone come up to me and talk to me about my ads. Because they weren't ads, they were stories.
Yeah.
People hate ads. It comes up on YouTube, skip ad. What happens? You can't go fast enough, but people will always have time for a story. Maybe not everyone, but story is something people love to see because we grew up with stories. They're part of our birthright. And not only that, Marc, but people actually share stories.
They do.
They don't share— has anyone ever seen anyone on the internet share a unique selling proposition?
Never.
Ever?
Never.
And I think that is the biggest load of crap that's ever been sold in the management consulting world. When I hear these so-called experts talk about things like competitive advantage and USPs, I can't stab a fork in my eye fast enough because I think what a wasted effort towards nothing.
Yes. But what's interesting about that is when you talk about things like USP, unique selling points, you're talking about money. You're talking about finances. You're talking about the accounting. You're not talking about business. You're not talking about the people in your business. And I think that's where the big differentiation makes is you're taking the step of we tell them why, we deliver on the why, and then we wow and we become irresistible to those people.
Right. And what I identified, Marc, is that because I'm very focused on the world of that which is legendary and creating a pull strategy, that means by definition, it has to speak the language of metaphor.
Yes.
And that which is symbolic. So that's the language of, you know, everyone from FDR to JFK to MLK, right? It's just, it's got to represent something bigger. And when you can pull that off, then it's got a chance. Otherwise, you're just another, you're just disappearing into the mosh pit or the, you know, the sea of sameness, swimming with everybody else, right? So that's kind of, you know, it's great. It's, it's, it, you can probably tell, Marc, I can talk about this literally not just for hours, but for days. And here, here it is, I've completed the manuscript for the book. And I'm like, there's actually 2 more books that are going to come out of this book. Because there's so much.
Yeah.
Because it's such a, it's, for me, it's such a fascinating topic. I never get tired of it.
Yeah, yeah, this has been so great. If you were to recommend, you know, to the people watching this, if they're sitting on their thumbs right now and they're just like, this is so much information, how do I get started? What's the next steps for them?
Right, you can always do something real simple. Go to my website, subscribe to the blog, and that way you get like lots of free stuff. If you want to even go Further, I do 20-minute Zoom calls all the time with people all over the continent and different parts of the world, actually, that just want to bounce ideas.
Yes.
You want to, like Fred VanVleet, who's the latest to defy logic and go to the hoop, if you just want to bounce an idea. Yeah, I do Zoom calls all the time for that, right? And I'm a pretty easy guy to track down. On the internet. It's not something that is mainstream, right? It just isn't because it's not another social media marketing expert.
Exactly.
It's thinking through, well, how did Nike go from nothing? You know, when they started Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964, Adidas was already a billion company.
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, how did Nike become the biggest of them all in that business? How did that happen? How does the Nike brand valuation of $36+ billion is more than double than their top 4 competitors? And Nike is a great example. I use that story all the time of of building a brand off of 3 words. What's the Nike?
Do it.
Yeah, just do it. Well, how many stories can you tell with just do it as the anchor?
Yeah. And again, to those people, those naysayers, the ones who say, well, you're talking about Nike, they're a multi-billion company. I'm just a small guy. But at some point, Nike had to start with It had to start with an idea. It had to start with a small business. It had to start with somebody making a prototype and somebody who says there's something in the market that's missing and I can fulfill it.
Right. Nike started with a handshake and $1,000 between Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. They started with nothing.
Yeah. Okay.
The other thing they, in my view, what they did in 1988, they landed on 3 words that they've never abandoned. And that's the difference between what I call a campaign and a brand. Nike has always anchored all of its storytelling to the 3 words. So they tell a story about Jordan, or it's Bo Jackson, or it's LeBron, or it's— keep going, the characters change in the story.
Right.
Or it's Serena Williams, or It's Colin Kaepernick and Nike enters the world of social justice.
Or it's a chubby little guy running down the road.
There you go. Great. How many stories can they tell knowing that the ending of the story is always 3 words?
Yep.
Inside those 3 words are the values of initiative, courage, resourcefulness, tenacity. It's all in 3 words, right?
Okay.
Hold that thought. Then how many stories can Jim Gilbert tell with 4 words, Canada's Huggable Car Dealer?
Exactly.
Oh, it's the same. We're using the exact same strategy that Nike uses only with small to medium-sized businesses. What's the first thing? Let me do this for you, Marc, and all your viewers will love this. What are the words that instantly come to mind? Let's play a little association game, right? Because it's all about top of mind, right? What comes to mind? What's the first thing you think of, the first words you think of when you hear the word Reebok?
Yeah, running shoes. That's it.
Right. And that's the point. I can't find an audience anywhere that can answer the question, well, who's Reebok beyond the product. And so Reebok is an example of a company that has had tons of resources, spent millions of marketing dollars for decades to be known for nothing.
Mm-hmm.
So when you are invested in your story and it's a story with some, you know, It's got some gumption, it's got some grit, it's got some actual— like it's grounded in truth, right? Like Lights! Camera! Action! doesn't exist without your theater background.
Yeah, or it'd be inauthentic if it did.
Exactly. So it's got to come from a real place, but once it comes from a real place and it's aligned with those values, and then you turn it into a, like I say, a long-form narrative based on 2 to 6 words, Then everything that you invest in the future is building equity.
Yes, it's awesome. Gary, like you said, we could go on for days talking about this stuff because I think it's both very close to both our hearts, this idea of how do we differentiate, how do we do something different, how do we think of ourselves in a different way. And so, like individuals, every business is unique even if you're in the same industry. Unfortunately, this is all the time that we have today. Gary, I can't thank you enough. And again, just to remind everybody how they can get a hold of you, it's gary@garymaxwell.com?
The email is gary@garymaxwell.com. The website is garymaxwell.com. YouTube, I'm easy to find. Facebook, I don't hide from anyone. And Marc, I—
That's a really long URL, I don't hide from anyone.
Yeah, exactly. Oh, I'm easy to find. And Because I believe that as the world has more capacity and technology to be connected, I find in some ways we're a little more disconnected, and I'd like to try and change that in some way. And hooking up with you today is one example of that, because suddenly people are eavesdropping on our conversation, right?
Yeah.
And suddenly people are getting to know you. And more about what lights, camera, action is all about and creating show-stopping experiences.
And at the same token, hopefully, and this is the purpose of this podcast, hopefully it's given people something different to think about in the context of their business.
Yeah, the bottom line, if you need a closing statement, is don't settle for ordinary, be legendary.
Awesome. Gary, thank you so much. I so appreciate you being here to share your knowledge. your passion, and your expertise. And to those watching, why don't you give me a thumbs up if this was of value to you? Please do it if it was. If you found it was valuable, YouTube likes it when we engage. And so, they'll turn around and go, oh, Marc is somebody we should maybe be listening to. And as always, my offer also stands. If you would like 30 minutes of my time to brainstorm your business with you and your team, that's always the provision, please feel free to book yourself on my online calendar. The link is down below. It's the one that's listed as meetme.so/MarcHaine. And as always, I am at your service. And if you haven't done so yet, why don't you hit the subscribe button, ring the bell? That'll give you first dibs whenever I bring you some fresh content to help you work on your business, not just in your business. My name is Marc Haine. I hope you stay safe, stay healthy, and dare.
