1793 – Breathing life into brands with Fusion Creative Branding’s Deevo Tindall

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0:58with us right now Devo Tindall Devo you are the founder and CEO of fusion creative branding you're found on the web at fusion creative branding.com Devo thank you so much for joining us Josh thanks for having me appreciate the time yeah give us an overview of your work who you work with and what you do? Primarily small businesses and entrepreneurs who have already established themselves or looking to launch a new brand or personal brand development. Anybody who is at a stage where they're trying to either reach a larger audience or better determine who their audience is. And then we help them through a very systematic and strategic approach to figure out all sort of their purpose and their brand strategy, and then amplify that through digital media channels, traditional marketing, et cetera.

1:46People don't have this figured out on their own? There's a lot of people who don't, you'd be surprised. I mean, it took me four companies to figure it out. So no, not yet. So talk about what that process is like, because I think a lot of us like, okay, well, I'm going to start a lawnscaping company. So I'm going to call it J &K Landscaping. And I'm just going to start being a service provider. And I got some good business, but I think it takes a particular set of skills to be able to really craft brand message. So if you're a business founder, hey, cut yourself some slack. Give yourself some grace.

2:23You don't have to be an expert in everything. And branding is one of those things that having gone through this process a few times with different consultants, I mean, a great branding person just has a way of evoking things that there is no way I would have been able to come up with on my own. Yeah, you're spot on. And it's interesting. Just because you're a CEO doesn't mean that you know everything about your business or your brand. I mean, that's the whole point. You're sort of a leader of the company. And the impetus is unused to find people who can fill roles that suit them instead of trying to be a Swiss arm and knife and doing everything yourself.

2:57And one of the things that I discovered early on is I was my own beta group. That is, I ran my own companies. I'm pretty talented. I'm good at things. I'm good at multitasking and all these different things. I can handle it. I'm just going to go into it. But what happened is as your business grows, you sort of reach a stopping point because if you're the only person in that space doing it and you're not surrounding yourself with qualified individuals that can also help you support that, whether it's contractors or your own hires, you end up just sort of hitting a stopgap and not really a ceiling, if you will.

3:27And so one of the things I saw was there was a big gap between entrepreneurs and small business owners and their ability to really tell their story in a strategic capacity so that they could reach not only the right audience, but amplify that in a compounding level as opposed to just sort of talking to everybody at the same time. And I think a lot of people have this idea that if I have a really nice logo and a really nice website, it's not a build it and they will come concept. You have to stay at it. It's an iterative process. It's an evolving process. and sometimes where you are today in your brand journey is not even close to where you are a year from now.

4:02And so, yeah. So staying on the pulse of that and being able to adapt and be flexible and nimble is really important as business owners. Yeah. We just went through this process. So for our own company, you know, it's like during that process of discovering, you know, I had someone that really uncovered a narrative that I'm like, yeah. And that's kind of, you know, and I bet you hear that a lot when you go through, we'll talk about like generally what this process is in just a moment, but, you know, when you go through this discovery process and, you know, where we really try to find the brand message and, you know, and hopefully there's a lot of research that goes into that, or at least, you know, kind of market research where we're actually talking to customers or potential customers, we're getting their feedback, we're taking their experience into this, you know, but one of those things like that we learned, it was so powerful because it was just kind of emotional story of our ideal customer, you know, and our ideal customer, what our guide, you know, kind of helped us discover was this message of our client feeling like at this stage in my business, I shouldn't be having this problem at my age and my level of authority.

5:10It's so frustrating that, you know, dot, dot, dot. Right. And it's like, to me as a founder, I mean, obviously that informed all of our branding and design and that sort of thing, but man, does that give me a huge degree of empathy when we do what we do. And when we figure this out, like it makes decisions in the company so much easier. Yeah. So sorry, there was a lot. There was a couple of questions. I know. Sorry. That was a 20 page question right there. And I don't even think it was really a question. It was just. Oh, I agree with everything you said, but what did, is there something specific you wanted me to respond to in that one?

5:48Well, just, yeah, your experience with that. But when someone, you know, it's like when you discover these sorts of things, right, the story is not just about how you're going to design your logo or your graphics or your website or your printed materials. These are things that impact your every decision in your business. Yeah, no, no. There's a question. Yeah. So the thing of it is, is branding is it's a multi-prong approach. approach and going through a discovery process enables you to have some clarity and some crystallization on what it is that you're actually adding. What is the service that you're bringing to the world?

6:27What problem are you solving? And getting clarity around that, if you have a team that works with you, it not only gets all of you in alignment on that, so you're all sharing the same brand message, but then on the other side of the flip side of that, it enables you to speak to a very specific audience that is actually seeking your problem that you're attempting to solve. So what discovery does is it enables you to have this sort of clarity around your vision and your mission and your goals and your objective. And really importantly, what problem do you solve? I think a lot of people don't quite understand.

6:56Okay, so I have this really good idea, but I'm not really sure exactly how to connect the dots to the right buyer, first of all. But what's the real problem am I solving? What am I hoping to accomplish by bringing this new idea to the table? And how do I reach to that specific audience? And so discovery and having a strategy around that, it works on both sides of the coin. It gives you, the CEO and your company clarity, but it also gives your buyer clear resonance when they hear that message like, that's, they're talking to me. I hear that. That's my message intended for me. Are there some ways, Devo, that you would recommend, let's say someone that's, they're not working with you yet, or, you know, maybe it's a little early or whatever, but things that we can do to be a little bit more intuitive around what we should be communicating, how we should be communicating it, you know, kind of our brand messaging, how can we start to discover that?

7:48I don't know if there's maybe an internal practice or exercise that we can do to get some clarity around that. Yeah. Yeah. So a couple of things is it's, you want to think about your customer's journey. So if you're communicating with your customer and let's say you're using social media for it, you want to think about who's watching this and what type of audience am I trying to reach? And if you can answer a few questions in your messaging, again, what's my purpose here, AKA your why you heard that buzzword thrown around everywhere, but what's the purpose here? What is it I'm trying to sell and what offering am I bringing to the table?

8:19That's adding some sort of value? What problem am I solving? And be very clear on those two pieces. And then if you're using social media to amplify that message, you should look at it from three different perspectives. Number one, is it lead generation so that you can capture something, right? Because you want to be able to remarket back to these people. And I don't mean spam them. I mean, provide value to them, inspire them, educate them, tell a story, just give them a reason to follow your content. And eventually what happens is when you're using in social media's case or any marketing, If you're doing those pieces compellingly and correctly, you start to build trust with this very specific buyer who wants to hear and consume your content.

8:56And then how do you nurture them? And then ultimately, how do you convert them into a buyer? And the best way to do that is to have clarity around what value you bring to the table and then clarity on the message that you're sharing along that customer's journey. Again, it's not just one piece. It's literally everything. It's how you answer the phones. It's your website copy. It's your emails that you send out. It's your signature. It's your logo. It's all of the things. And so you have to think about that. Every single time you touch your customer, are you telling the same brand message to them so that you can drive the point home of who you are, what you are, why you are, and what problem you're solving?

9:29Yeah. What is it like, Devo, working with a branding agency? Again, I'm a big fan of who, not how, and just where you can surround yourself with brilliant people who are the best in the world at what they do. But what is that kind of initial process when you start working with someone? Yeah, someone that's not been through that, what is that like? So it's a systematic approach for us. I assume it's probably different for other people. So I'm answering it from my perspective. We do a brand discovery as part of every engagement. I have to understand your brand. If I'm going to promote and work with you as your marketing and branding partner, which is how we position ourselves, I need to be part of your team.

10:10I need to understand what makes you tick. I need to understand what value you're adding. So everything for us, every engagement begins with a brand discovery audit, if you will, where we pull back the covers with them through a very systematized, somewhat therapeutic, somewhat psychological approach where we analyze everything they're doing from what they've had success with to their failures, to the gaps, to the things that they're trying to accomplish, to their competition. And we create a very clear, crystallized picture of all the things we've talked about so far. And what that does is that enables us to be part of their team and be able to speak their brand and operate within their ethos.

10:44And at the same time, it builds trust with them because they see that these guys are on my side. They're here to help build my business. Because in the end, if I'm not succeeding with my clients or if we're not adding value, then we don't have any longevity with that. If they're not succeeding, we're not succeeding. So it's a multiple approach. Yeah. Yeah. And tell me about Fusion Creative, like the company itself. Who are you? What is your team like? What's kind of generally the scope of work that you do within branding? So thank you for asking that. So we do have a pretty cool team. We're not a big, big company.

11:16There's 10 of us that work here. I've been very, very specific about the types of talent that I've tried to attract. And because I have, this is my fourth business now that I have stepped into. And I've taken something that I've learned from every single element of that. And one of the critical elements I have learned probably most in my entrepreneurial life is that it's really critical to surround yourself with talented people and people who will buy, drink your Kool-Aid, but buy into the process and understand and get behind it. And so we have a group of individuals that I've known for many years now that are part of the process that have been with me and my other companies in some extent.

11:51And we've all just sort of evolved along the way. Yeah. On your Devo, you share some really good stuff on LinkedIn. Thank you. One of these, and this is on your blog as well, you'd created an article, Connect, Collaborate, and Create, Redefining Networking in the Digital Age. Can you tell me maybe just a bit about that concept and the value and power of networking, why that's so valuable for you as a leader? Thank you for asking. I'm actually doing a keynote on that in a couple of weeks. Oh, no kidding. Cool. Yeah. So really, for me, the whole idea, and it really spawned from the concept of competition.

12:24I was asked a question a while back in one of my workshops I was doing, how did I deal with competition? And did I see them as a threat and whatnot? And I think early on in my career, I did see other, because I own a photography studio as well. I would see my photography being copied here and there and people taking the exact same post. And I used to think, wow, that's really rude. But then I started realizing there are so many people that need services. If you can distinguish yourself clearly and articulate what value you bring to the table, there's customers everywhere for you. It's our job to find them.

12:56And so I changed my perspective on seeing people as competition more as really realizing that the way to build your business is through relationships, through collaborations, and through connecting with people. And ultimately, what that leads to is the ability to create. And so the whole idea of just like, hey, I'm going to this 5 p.m. networking session. I'm going to get my free beer coupon and I'm going to sit in my corner and talk to my little circle. I've never really bought into that nonsense. I was just like, there's got to be a better way to do that. And so the whole conversation centers around every single thing you do is networking.

13:28Like this podcast is networking and showing up on other people's shows or launching your own podcast. Every time you're driving on the road, you're networking. I told the story the other day. I was on the road, and there was this road rage incident going on up above a few lanes up in front of me. And this dude has his car plastered with his business name, but he's like cutting people off and flipping people off. And I'm like, the first thing that pops in my mind is like, dude, you are literally committing career suicide right now because everyone is seeing exactly who you are. And if anyone ever needs those services, they're not going to call you.

13:57So the whole idea behind connecting, collaborating, and creating is that in every touch point of your journey, whether it's the way you answer your phone or how you treat the checkout person at the grocery line, it's connecting. It's literally connecting and networking people. And so what it does is it just – it establishes you with this like all of these different spider legs going out where you're connecting with people and touching on different things and building relationships. And ultimately, the competition will think of you when they need something. So I get leads from photographers all the time from other branding agencies we do work for because of the relationships that we've built with them.

14:32And it's not about competition. It's about community. Yeah. Peter Thiel, right? Competition is for losers. The pie is so big. There's an infinite number of customers. So an abundance mindset, I think, truly is the right tack today. And I was just thinking about the guy with the logos plaster all over his truck, driving like a nincompoop out on the road. And I wonder in our branding, how often we do that. Or let's say our marketing, we do that. And I just got to say, this is my own opinion. But I mean, if you are engaged in kind of that spammy lead gen, sliding into DMs, doing what all of the amateurs are doing, I think that's kind of like being that, you know, it's like being that guy driving the car and just you're doing your brand damage when that's how you choose to engage with people out there.

15:25I don't think people really enjoy being cut off. And I don't think people really enjoy being spammed at like that. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And there is a more conscientious approach to doing all the things you just said. But if you can change your perspective from buy from me or help me to how can I serve you, and you can be authentic and genuine about that and not just use it as a Trojan horse. I mean, consumers, I mean, you know this. Consumers are crazy smart, man. And they have so many choices today. If they're turned off in any way, shape, or form, it's subscribe or thumb to the next image.

16:00And so – and they can really, really – I mean, you just touched on it. You can really clearly see through the subterfuge to be if this is genuine or not. And so one of the things that we do, because I do find, you said sliding into DMs, I do actually find that to be an effective method if you can do it from a genuine approach and not just spamming the people and saying, buy from me. So one of the things that we do on LinkedIn is we reach out to people that we think would be in. So let me back up. Once a week, I have a coffee date on LinkedIn, whether virtual or physical. I make it my goal to reach out to somebody.

16:30I have no agenda whatsoever. It's literally how can we connect? is there something that we can do together to help each other's business? And that's the approach I take with my DMs. Is there something I can do? And I can't tell you how many times that has turned into something more promising or compound for me in the term of referrals, in terms of relationships. I develop friendship with people over podcasts where I'm like, they become part of my mastermind now. So if you can just reframe your juxtaposition on, this is why I want to connect with you because I genuinely want to connect with you as opposed to, hey, this is my Trojan horse.

17:02So I'm going to sneak in the backside and hopefully you buy something from me. And I'm like you, like, I hate that kind of nonsense. So we've changed that paradigm a bit. Man, Devo, I don't know if you know what we do, but we need to talk afterwards. Yeah. Eager to brainstorm with you. So your website is fusioncreativebranding.com. To our friend that's been listening to our conversation, they like you, or maybe they're already kind of in the research phase and now they've heard our conversation. What would you recommend they go from here? Well, after the website, hit me up on Instagram. If you want to talk further, you can find me on Instagram or LinkedIn.

17:35And then we actually have a really cool, if I may plug, we have a really cool branding and marketing blueprint workshop that we do once a month. So that will be coming out in January 4th. And you can find information that on our website, it'll be on LinkedIn shortly. That's the best way to sort of get some information from us or just send me a DM. I respond to every message I receive. So awesome. All right. Again, FusionCreativeBranding.com. Devo Tindall, you're the CEO. Devo, it's been great having a great conversation. Thank you so much. Josh, thanks, man. I appreciate the time.

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