Designing Culture: The Brand Being MethodⓇ with Kristen Graham Brown

0:01John Lee Dumas:Boom, shake the room, Fire Nation, JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. And today we'll be breaking down designing culture, the brand being method. To drop these value bonds, I brought Kristen Graham Brown and EO Fire Studios. Kristen is the founder of Hoot Design Company. They help destructive leaders build culture-driven brands through the brand being method. And today we talk about brands that move culture, building hoots, motherhood and leadership, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Kristen and our sponsors.

0:35If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure.

0:39John Lee Dumas:High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support. Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com. highlevelfire.com. Kristen, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Excited to be here. The thing that came to mind to me when you're posing that question is that I think any success I've had has started with looking in the mirror first.

1:22very early on I heard this quote like your shadow qualities will be reflected back to you and the people that work for you and that it really was a game changer for me at the time I was only a couple years in and I immediately had this thought of like you know I am the problem and so that it began a total journey you know what is I'm sure to be a lifelong journey but for sure has been the last decade of just internal work. You know, I think you it has to start with you and showing up as a better version of yourself, being introspective, constantly doing the work to model that for other people.

2:01I think that managing can really bring you to your knees. For me, it's the only other parallel is parenting that has humbled me this much. And so I think if you are not willing to kind of look in the mirror and start with yourself, it will be a tough road.

2:18John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, designing culture, the brand being method. And I want to start by talking about brands that actually move culture, Kristen, because you're often known to say branding's about moving culture forward. So what, in your opinion, in your experience, truly separates influential brands from those that simply have great marketing? Yes, I love this question because our entire philosophy is built on this idea that brand is the being, marketing is the doing. And I think you can have really great marketing that is just the doing, but it's probably going to be a flash in the pan. I'm always surprised when I hear people start their content marketing, they almost reverse engineer it, like what's trending now, what's popular.

3:09what are the algorithms pointing toward? And I think, of course, we have to take those things into consideration, but only after we have done the hard work of defining the being. Because otherwise, you know, you might have a video that goes viral or a post that goes viral, but it doesn't actually do anything for you because it's not part of a wider strategy. It's not consistent with what you've done or said in the past. And so I like to think of brand is that the thing, you know, it truly is a leadership discipline. And I do not think, I don't think people think of it that way. I think they think of it as like a sister to marketing, or many people don't even know the difference between branding and marketing.

3:50And I think it's probably one of the most under leveraged tools for building the culture that you want inside your company, and therefore, you know, changing the culture around you as well.

4:02John Lee Dumas:Yeah, I heard somebody say once that your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room. Because marketing, that's when you're in the room. You're marketing, you're talking about it. It's there, it's in your face. But your brand, I mean, that's when you're not in the room. What are people actually saying about you when it's not right there in front of them in your face? And I want to talk about building Hoot because you actually started your entrepreneurial journey at a very young age. So what were the biggest lessons that you learned while building Hoot Design Company into a nationally recognized agency?

4:35You know, when I reflect back on this, I think it's kind of zig when others zag. and really knowing how to take in information, like what I mentioned before about constantly learning, growing, self-reflecting, and balancing that with also trusting your gut. You know, I think that some of the things that have made us really strong are, you know, thinking outside the box and then also really putting our money where our mouth is. You know, like we're an in-person agency that is pretty countercultural at this moment. And not only are we in person, but we built a house next to our building to host clients.

5:13So we built a house, you know, for retreats. We call it like a brand being laboratory, right? Because we think that the best work is done in person. And I just think it's so important to really double down on what you believe in. So in order to do that, you know, you have to define what you believe in. What are you about? Who are you for? Why should they care? And then you really have to walk the talk. I think that is something that people can sniff that out now more than ever is if you are not walking the talk, if you're not consistent with what you're saying and you're not showing us what you believe through your actions, not just your words.

5:47I think that's what really powerful brands do. And I think that has been something I've learned for sure along the way.

5:55John Lee Dumas:So something that's become really big for you is motherhood and leadership. So how did becoming a mother reshape your perspective on leadership reshape your perspective on just business growth and of course, what success really means? Yeah, I think motherhood, you know, it did not make me want to do less. It probably made me want to do more. I think it made me want to build the kind of place that I wanted to have while I was becoming a mother. And, you know, I had worked at an agency before, a large one. I always knew I wanted to be in advertising and brand, even at, you know, like 12. And I had seen a lot of women in that space, but not mothers, because I think it's just It's a very demanding job time wise and schedule wise.

6:44And I think that I was determined to then build a place where women and mothers and of course, fathers, too, would have a place where they could have a career they loved, but also show up for their family in a way that they could be happy with and proud of. Because it looked like to me, from my perspective, it looks like a choice. You can do one or the other. You can have a career you love or you can show up for your family. You know, and that doesn't mean giving people a pass or having low expectations. I think what it means is being really creative about the type of benefits that you offer, giving people flexibility and trust.

7:24Like we always say, flexibility is deciding when to work, not if you work. You know, it's not that we're carrying people. We demand a lot. I think I think this is a very intense place to work, but we try to give a lot back. Like one of the interesting things we do is this thing called life support, because most mothers are still doing about 10 hours more per week in the home of household duties. So we do this thing where we give you we reimburse you 250 bucks a month for anything that allows you to buy back your time. It can be house cleaning, dog walking, you know, yard maintenance. but something that gives you back your time because that is this, you know, most valuable resource that we all have.

8:10And throwing another 250 in your paycheck every month, I think is a pretty negligible, forgettable amount. But this, this life support thing has been kind of a game changer for us as far as a benefit that we can offer.

8:22John Lee Dumas:It is a game changer because now you're taking like the onus of like, oh, should I really be like investing in that like lawn care or in that, you know, fill in the blank, or should I just be like putting this, you know, towards like diapers and all these other things that are kind of lifestyle necessities, you're going to have that guilt, but you're like taking away that guilt and saying, no, you can only use this money to make your life better, to make your life more efficient, to give you time back. Because I want the best version of you to show up at work, to show up as a mother, because that's going to be the most impactful thing that makes you a better overall person.

8:55John Lee Dumas:And not like a better human, but just a better person when it comes to operating, operating your personal life and your business life. And we're going to talk about supporting working mothers even more, standing out in a crowd of markets, the future of branding, and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, when was the last time you Googled yourself? It's pretty wild how much personal information can be floating around online, your phone number, address, even information about your family. A lot of that comes from data brokers, companies that collect and sell your information.

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10:37John Lee Dumas:Everything you need to succeed all under one roof. No duct tape, no juggling five platforms, just one clean system for your business. And their award-winning 24-7 support has your back when you need it most. When you sign up at highlevelfire.com. You also get my exclusive bonus stack, a 30-day free trial, a private 15-minute call with me, JLD, access to my weekly live office hours, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something Execution Roadmap, and more. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Kristen, we're back and I want to talk about supporting working mothers because Hoots become known, let's be honest, for championing the working mom.

11:23John Lee Dumas:So what changes do businesses have to make to create genuinely inclusive workplace cultures? Yeah, I love this question because I think, you know, it starts, there are two sides to this coin. I think that we have to ask more of our employees, you know, the conversations that they're having within their home. And then we also at the same time have to build the policies and the structure that make work and life, you know, harmonious and possible together. So what I would, I challenge my employees a lot to have, we ask people to read Fair Play. It's an awesome book about the division of labor. We ask you to be really honest about how much time you can give to really fantastic work.

12:07And that might mean that, you know, this is 40 hours a week is not for everyone in every season. So we offer any employee at any point that they need to, to go 50%, 75%, or 90%. Because we are pretty aggressive about our full-time expectations. When we say full-time, we mean full-time and we mean 40 hours. So we want to give people without pushing you out of the workplace altogether, we give you that opportunity to say, this is what I'm capable of right now, which might also mean having conversations with your spouse about those expectations that you hold as a partnership. Something that we do, I think, in addition to life support, we want to make it possible for people to even switch to 1099 status, status, contractor status, so that they can come in and out of the workplace as necessary and have a little bit more control over their schedule.

13:04We offer maternity leave, which I will tell you is very, very tough. This is a soapbox I can really get on because it is crushing for a small business to offer maternity leave, but I really, you know, this is a good example of walking the talk. I do not think I could sleep at night if I was asking people to come back to work after, you know, four to six weeks. That's just not healthy for anybody. So another thing we do is let them bring their baby in. So I think it's very hard to leave a baby after three months. So we offer people 12 weeks and then we say, if you need to bring your baby in and you can still get your work done, you know, do that.

13:45We really try to create a village around our team members because we're not a family, like we cannot carry you. And we're also not a team that can be more, you know, we're not just super transactional or we're only all about the KPIs. We know that, you know, life demands different things from us at different times. And we wanna be that community around you that when you show up for us, we show up for you.

14:09John Lee Dumas:Man, that's powerful. And it really is important to have those distinctions too. Like, no, we're not a family in the sense that like we're carrying you. It's like, we're doing this together. Like we're going to succeed because you're adding massive value and you're giving your all. If you're a full-time worker, you're a full-time contributor. Like, let's go. So let's talk about standing out in a crowded market because a lot of companies, Kristen, I mean, they just struggle to differentiate themselves. I mean, you know, they lack brand awareness. They lack just brand identity. So what are the most common branding mistakes that you see time and time again?

14:43John Lee Dumas:And how can leaders avoid them? Yeah. Yeah, you know, something that we do in our process, the brand being method is to really define who you're for. And we call it the brand advocate. Now, sometimes we build out multiple marketing targets, but the brand advocate is the center of your bullseye. So it's the epitome of your target demographic, who you're speaking to. And we go very deep on that because it's really it's about the psychographics, not the demographics. So what keeps them up at night? What are their pain points? You know, what kind of car do they drive and how? Because the car tells us how they identify themselves.

15:23You know, are they an environmentalist or, you know, a speed demon, for example? So those are just the types of things that inform our psychographics. And we need to know this person intimately. so we don't want them to be a real person we kind of want them to be like an amalgamation of multiple people that allow our team to speak clearly and to speak in unison about who we're for so when we refer to our brand advocate we all know what we're talking about which is the target this is that's probably one of the things i see people miss the most they will not commit or they'll say you know we're for everyone who goes out to dinner you know that is not that's not a brand advocate i can't imagine what that person would say, do, read, visit, et cetera.

16:08If you do not have that person, you will not be successful. And then in conjunction with that, it's like, after we define that, we have to know our point of difference or our value prop. And we need to commit because I see people all the time, you know, again, they'll say they won't want to commit to a point of difference or they'll say something that many other people can say. So what I really want to help you uncover is, you know, what are you doing that is truly different? There must be something that makes you truly different that, you know, we can hold on to and build from.

16:42John Lee Dumas:Let's keep building on this conversation to talk about the future of branding. I mean, when you look ahead, how do you see branding working, the workplace culture, the leadership evolving, like over the next five to 10 years? Like, what are you forecasting? What are you seeing? What do you believe? Yeah, well, easy for me to say, but I really do think brand is going to be more critical than ever and that people who believe in brand, understand brand and know how to pull the levers of brand will be the most successful organizations, employers, you know, and companies in the future. Because I think, you know, I feel like every AI tool is at my disposal because I have codified everything I believe and what I should look and sound like.

17:29So there is this source document now that I have to move into the future, no matter, you know, it is changing so fast. So whether it's Fable 5 or, you know, Hey Jen video capabilities, I am able to leverage them now because I have done the hard work of defining my brand being. So it is easy for me to train. It is easy for me to scale. And that's true whether I'm talking about humans or AI. I also think that, you know, when you're north of 10 million, your brand is the biggest lever you can pull for hiring and recruitment and retention. And at that level, you know, your talent is more critical than ever.

18:11And I think that's just it's a very underutilized tool for that. So that's why I say, you know, it's a leadership discipline. Identifying who you are and being able to walk that talk is actually very tough. And that that has to come from the top.

18:25John Lee Dumas:Kristen, we talked about the future of branding, standing out in a crowded market, how to support working mothers, you know, brands that move culture. What's the one thing of everything we talked about today that you would really want our listeners to walk away with? Yeah, the thing that I hope people remember the most is just that brand is the being, marketing is the doing. And once you, you know, whether you work with me or anybody, you deserve it. Anyone that works for you deserves it and your customers and clients deserve it. For you to sit down and do the hard excavation work of figuring out, you know, what is your vision?

19:04What are your values, your purpose, your point of difference, your value prop, and how you're going to move through the world? Because there's plenty of slop out there right now and nobody deserves more of that.

19:16John Lee Dumas:Kristen, if Fire Nation wants to connect with you, your company, learn more about you from you. What is your call to action for our listeners today? Yeah, I would love to have people follow our newsletter, Parliament, which we say is a weekly newsletter for disruptive leaders. You can sign up for that on our website, which is hootdesigncompany.com. And anyone can always reach out to me, email me anytime. It's kgb at hootdesignco.com. We're also on Instagram. Fire Nation, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with KGB and JLD today. So keep up the heat.

19:57John Lee Dumas:And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type Kristen, K-R-I-S-T-E-N in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. And Kristen, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks. Hey, Fire Nation, a big thank you to our sponsors and Kristen for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation. If you have a high ticket offer, but you need more quality leads just to have conversations with, check out Nexus Install. You can learn more by emailing me, john at eofire.com.

20:31John Lee Dumas:I'll catch you there or on the flip side. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform. plus award-winning 24-7 support. Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com. highlevelfire.com.