February 2, 2025 • 34 mins
Unlock the secrets to building an authentic and impactful personal brand as a real estate agent with branding expert Justin Kerr from Justin Kerr Design. Dive into actionable strategies, creative insights, and fresh ideas to elevate your presence in the competitive real estate market. Whether you're rebranding or starting fresh, this episode delivers practical tips for leveraging your unique story, standing out, and building trust with your clients. Justin shares parallels between rebranding and house renovations, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and connecting with your audience.
Don't miss this insightful conversation packed with value for real estate agents ready to differentiate themselves and grow their business. Start building a brand that truly reflects you and resonates with your clients today!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
What's the term rebrandingto you?
Like, how would you, I thinkone way to look at it might
be like a house renovation,right?
You find a place it's the rightlocation and it's got good
bones, you know, the structure'sthere, but man, it needs a lot
of help, right?
Cause it's sort of past itsprime, you know, the essence
of it is there, but you reallyneed to rework it.
I think the most important thingfor me is authenticity.
(00:22):
And we definitely talked aboutthat.
There's a lot of talented.
Designers out there.
There's a lot of talented brandstrategists out there.
And you know the for me I liketo focus on the authenticity.
Tell me what's going on now Andwhat it does is it disconnects
them from the day to day?
And allows them to fantasizeand think about where do I want
(00:42):
to be in 10 years?
What is the vision for mycompany or for my organization?
Welcome everybody.
I'm camille sargi the host ofjust two minutes and today
(01:06):
we have justin Justin, you wantto tell us about yourself?
Absolutely.
I typically introduce myself topeople by saying I'm a brand
strategist, a designer, and apirate, but not necessarily
in that order.
Pirate, yes.
We can talk a little bitabout the, the pirate brand.
Where I focus is I work withmy clients and I help them
(01:26):
communicate their authenticbrand.
To the right audience,so we work together to develop
brand strategies and visualbrands to find that authentic
part of themselves and thencommunicate that to their target
audience.
Nice and that connect everysingle agent has their brand
and yeah, that's what I want totalk about today.
(01:48):
Awesome.
Yeah, I've actually worked witha few.
Real estate agents.
Nice.
You know, independent ones tohelp them find that unique thing
about what they do and whothey are.
And then communicate thatbecause it's hard to distinguish
yourself in the marketplace,whether you're a real estate
agent, whether you're anaccountant, whether you're
a tattoo artist, whetheryou sell medical devices,
(02:10):
no matter what you do,people are looking for a way to
get their authentic self acrossso that they can distinguish
themselves and connect with thepeople that resonate with that
brand.
Hmm.
So rather than sort of a shotgunapproach of let me appeal to
everybody.
Now, let me find that groupof people that really resonate
with my brand and work withthem and give them a good
(02:32):
experience.
And then they will refer me outto other people who will also
resonate with my brand.
It's amazing.
The show's called just twominutes.
Okay.
I have some questions for thejust two minutes.
All right.
Are you ready?
Absolutely.
And start.
All right.
So how many different categoriesare there for pirates?
(02:52):
And could you name them?
Categories for pirates?
Well, the one big differencebetween pirates and privateers
is privateers were retained bygovernments to do basically
legal pirating.
So, say, England might be atwar with France or Spain, so
England would hire piratesto raid the ships of their
(03:15):
enemies, and they would givethem a letter of marque, which
was an official governmentdocument saying, this pirate is
working for the government ofEngland, and they are protected
by the government of England,and they can raid any ships
that we happen to be atwar with.
Wow, that's pretty cool.
So, if you're a privateer, youhave the protection of the
government.
If you're a pirate, you're anentrepreneur.
(03:37):
Alright, so what is walkingthe plank and is it healthy?
Well, walking the plank issomething that has come about
through popular literature.
about pirates.
It popped up in the 19thcentury.
Jonathan Swift and otherwriters at the time who were
sort of romanticizing aboutpirates came up with this
walking the plank device asa way of sort of a like a
(03:59):
literature device.
There probably were pirates likeBlackbeard that Actually went
through the trouble of makingpeople walk the plank to
intimidate them.
But if you wanted to getsomebody off your ship,
really the easiest way todo it was just throw them over
the side.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Huh.
Yeah.
I wonder if they actuallydid that.
So next is why do parrots alwayshang out with pirates?
(04:22):
That's a good question.
Maybe they're very close to oneanother on a personality
scale or something, but so atthe time during the golden age
of piracy, which would have beenend of the 17th century,
beginning of the 18th century,things like parrots.
Parrot.
That's it.
Go ahead.
Yeah.
I was going to say, things likeparrots and monkeys were still
(04:43):
considered very exotic.
There were only certain placeswhere you could get them.
You wouldn't find themin Europe.
You'd only find them in placeslike Africa and the island of
Madagascar.
So they were really unique andexotic.
So it was kind of havingsomething really special to show
people, Hey, I've been aroundand I'm actually quite wealthy
because I can afford a parrot ora monkey.
Wow.
(05:03):
It's like a status symbol.
Yeah.
Uh, it'd be like having a, youknow, pair of, uh, high end
sneakers or something like that.
Big giant diamond or a coolhat that is unique that only
one person made.
As a matter of fact, in the 18thcentury, buttons were a
symbol of status.
(05:23):
So the number of buttons on yourjacket and what they were made
of showed other people howwealthy you were.
Wow.
Wow.
And among pirates.
Buttons could even be a form ofcurrency.
Wow.
Yeah, it's cool.
I'm sure you know a lot aboutpirates.
So that's why I thought I'd askyou these.
I appreciate that.
Okay, we'll talk aboutpirates in a second.
(05:44):
So branding.
Why do you think it's importantfor someone to just focus on an
audience or niche?
Like, why do you think that'simportant versus like shotgun
approach?
Right.
It's difficult becauseconvincing a client to niche
down their market focusmakes them feel like they're
(06:06):
leaving something.
Off the table.
But what it's really doing ishelping them focus on the
audience.
That's most likely to resonatewith what they do and who
they are, their brand andtheir why.
And honestly, narrowing yourfocus, your market focus,
and really honing your brand isgoing to be more.
(06:27):
lucrative in the long runbecause you'll be focusing
on those people that reallywant to work with you and
will refer you out to otherpeople.
Whereas a shotgun approach,if you only catch 30 percent
of the people that you'reshotgunning into, you're working
in a very narrow return oninvestment band.
Whereas if you're focused ona market that resonates
(06:48):
with your brand, you may becatching 60, 70, 80%.
Of that focus.
So it's just a higher percentageof return.
And I think the experienceis better too, because,
you know, narrowing your focusallows you to work with people
who really want to work withyou and who you really want to
work with.
And it eliminates a lot ofthe market space.
(07:09):
That's a better fit for somebodyelse.
Okay.
So, so if they're focusingjust on, on that, right.
And try to capture as muchof that.
Audience who they're brandingthemselves to, would they refuse
others or not really take onother others that don't match
(07:29):
their criteria?
I mean, that's really more of abusiness decision for the
individual who they want totake on and who they don't,
but their brand helps themattract the right audience
for them.
So within that stream, then theyhave the opportunity to say,
yes, I want to take thison, or no, I don't want to
take that on, but it just bringsa a more qualified category of
(07:52):
clientele to them, ratherthan just a wide swath where
maybe 60 percent or more isn'treally a good fit for them.
Because what you're ultimatelylooking for is a good fit,
right?
So when you develop your brandand you communicate effectively
what you're about, you'regoing to attract light and
you'll have not only a betterexperience, but I think in
(08:13):
the long run, a higher returnon that.
Narrow focus of investmentin your marketing and your
brand.
Have you found it difficultto get clients to see the light,
which is narrowing?
Yeah, it's a challenge becauselike I said before, they
feel like they're missing out onsomething, but what they're
(08:34):
missing out on is.
Bad fit projects or bad fitclients, which is what you would
want to eliminate, right?
You want to focus in an areawhere you can be of the most
effect and have the greatestvalue to the people that you're
working with.
So, you know, it's like example,worked with one real estate
(08:55):
agent recently.
And her focus was communityinvolvement, and she really
wanted to make that part ofwhat she was doing.
So she's going to be attractingand picking up people who
are also community minded andinvolved in the community.
Whereas, if she were taking ashotgun approach, she might
miss those people because itwouldn't be part of her message
(09:17):
and they wouldn't necessarilypick up on, I'd really like
to work with this person becausethey're like me.
They're very focused on thecommunity and community
development.
And we really work with peoplethat we like to work with.
I mean, certainly beingcompetent in what you do is
important and having the rightskills is important.
(09:37):
But at the end of the day, welike to work with people that we
like.
And people that we resonatewith.
So part of branding andnarrowing that focus is finding
those people that resonatewith you, they're going to have
a much better experience,which is going to increase the
livelihood word of mouth fromthem is going to bring in
even more people that willresonate with that brand.
(09:58):
Okay.
For real estate agents, it'sanybody who wants to.
Sell buy or invest in realestate.
Sure.
So, but let me ask you thisquestion.
So you brand yourself as, youknow, gold door realty, right?
Why gold door?
What is that?
What kind of message are youtrying to send out by making
(10:20):
that part of your name and partof your brand?
Oh, no, you're interviewing me.
I'm sorry.
No, it's okay.
Yeah.
I guess the vision I had yearsago was building something
for the people.
Cause I was the people making itunique, making it super techie,
(10:41):
ton of support, more money inpeople's pockets and more,
you know, being creativeand coming up with ways to
help them.
May be successful, whateverthat is to them.
Okay.
And have you had any feedbackfrom people on why they chose to
work with you versus Somebodyelse.
(11:04):
I think it's the trust and maybeseeing me and like how dedicated
I am to everybody.
I'm the broker who's therefor their agents nine Florida
sipping on a martini.
You know, like I want tobe there.
I want to answer questions.
I want to coach them, mentorthem, be creative with them and
(11:25):
come up with ways where theycan do business that's special
to them.
I guess kind of like branding.
Because that is part of yourbrand.
So a couple things that youmentioned about, you know, being
creative for your clients, beingthere for them and not down
in Florida somewhere and workingwith them to find the best
solution.
I mean, your brand ultimately,and this is a quote from Jeff
(11:48):
Bezos, your brand is what peoplesay about you when you're not in
the room.
So if people are saying thingsabout you like, he's right
there for me when I need him,he comes up with all these
creative ways of helpingme reach my goals in regards
to, you know, buying andselling, that's part of your
brand.
Now, gold door realty might havea certain sort of catch to it or
(12:09):
ring to it, which is great.
But when people see that nameon your business card or on
a brochure or on a website,the first thing you're going to
connect to is what kind ofexperience did I have with
Camille?
That's your brand, right?
And they're going to tell otherpeople that that was their
experience that they had withyou and your brand then.
(12:30):
Expands and goes out further,you know?
Yeah.
I found it tough to, sothe reason I didn't call it
Sargi Realty or Camilleis because I wanted people to
own it, to feel like it'stheirs.
Like Goldor is me, but the moreI realize is I'm the brand.
(12:53):
Pretty much.
You are.
Yeah, you are.
And if you think about, youknow, some famous brands, right?
Well, what does a green mermaidhave to do with coffee?
Not much, really.
But when you see that greenmermaid logo, you instantly
think about the last experienceyou had at Starbucks, good,
(13:13):
bad, or otherwise, right?
Your experience with thatbrand Is the brand now the
logo is just a Device to triggerthat memory of what your
experience was like so likegold door realty people see
it It's going it triggers Whatkind of experience did I have
or what kind of experiencedid my friend have?
(13:34):
That said that they worked withcamille, right?
That's how your brand movesout and affects people.
So having an authentic brand Notjust the logo, but the whole
experience is important.
Not only distinguish you fromthe next realtor, but also to
resonate with the audience thatyou're really aiming for.
(13:55):
You want to work with clientswho appreciate your creativity,
who appreciate the fact thatyou're there and you take
personal interest in Theirgoals, right?
Now there'll be other peoplethat don't care about those
things.
Those aren't your customers.
Those aren't your clients.
So that's where the brand reallysort of hits the road and starts
(14:17):
working for you is whatare people saying about you?
What was their experiencewith you?
Interesting.
I never thought of it thatway, but yeah, with people being
different.
And do you find it difficult?
Narrowing down what, yeah, it'shard, it's counterintuitive,
(14:39):
um, and you feel some resistanceto like with what you suggest
or what you see could be,yeah, but the reason that I
believe in finding thatauthentic aspect of your
brand and sort of narrowingthe focus is because I had that
experience, sorry I just whackedthe microphone, I had that
experience personally.
Yeah.
So when I.
(15:00):
First started on my own.
I branded myself like everyother graphic designer
out there, every other brandstrategist out there.
And it wasn't until 2019 whenI was in business incubator
workshop with a bunch of othercreatives.
We were talking one night and Ihad been in the program
for a few weeks.
So they knew about me.
(15:20):
They knew about, I was ahistorical reenactor and that
I was into being a pirate.
They also knew about my work.
And someone said, Hey,why aren't you taking the pirate
part of you and the designerpart of you and bring them
together as your brand?
And I'm like, I'd never thoughtabout that.
I was like, well, because that'swhat I do over here as a pirate.
And this is what I do over here.
(15:42):
It's like, yeah, but.
It's both you, you know, you arein both of those worlds So
bring them together.
Yeah, and I thought about itfor about six months and I
thought I don't know Is thisgoing to be hokey?
Are people going to understand?
Are they going to take itseriously?
So finally I did.
So we had the main event atthe end of the workshop was to
give a two minute pitch andthere was a bunch of people
there.
(16:02):
I came out, I was not infull kit, but Did you have
time to go run and get I, Iwas, I was dressed
appropriately.
Okay.
And I went out and I gave mytwo minute pitch and I talked
about what I do in a way thatresonated with people and they
understood the brand.
(16:24):
Now that night I didn'tNo, if it had worked or not,
but about three weeks later, Iwas with a group of people
taking a tour of a new buildingdowntown and there was a woman
in the group kept lookingback at me and I thought,
Oh man, we've met somewhere at anetworking event.
I don't remember her name.
This is going to be awkward,right?
She comes back.
She points right at me.
She goes, You're the pirate.
(16:45):
And I said, what?
She goes, you're the pirate.
I was there that night at pitchnight.
We didn't talk that night, butI remember your pitch.
And I said, this is goingto work.
And so I had to go through thatjourney myself.
Of finding that authenticpart of me and put it as
part of my brand and I've hada blast being a pirate and
(17:09):
helping people with their brandstrategy and their design needs.
So when I go to a networkingevent now and they give you
the little stick on label, Ijust write pirate and I have
the most interestingconversations with people
because if I were a graphicdesigner in there, no one
would talk to me, right?
But I put pirate on there andwe talk about all sorts of
things and it's a great wayto sort of get past that barrier
(17:31):
of, you know, well, what do youdo, you know, for a living,
what's your business and allthis.
We just start talking aboutpirates and then we eventually
get over to brand strategyand stuff like that.
But I find people are far moreinterested in the pirate.
Wow.
So it kind of like clickedfor you and it was like a
realization, huh?
And I said, I need to help otherpeople take the same journey.
(17:52):
Right to go from I want toappeal to everybody To no,
let me find that unique thingabout myself find my authentic
brand and then Put that outthere and the people that
resonate with that Will bemy clients will be the people
that want to work with meand I want to work with them
so I went through the sameprocess and I want to help other
(18:15):
people go through that sameprocess as well and some of
them are You know, get itmore than others.
The ones that do, it's awesome.
You know?
Wow.
So you find that realizationmust have been freeing to be
able to be yourself.
And do you see that?
Like once it clicks for yourclients, they're like that
(18:38):
they feel like they can bethemselves instead of this
position, this title, right?
Right.
Because really what they'rebringing, like you were talking
about earlier and and how youwork with your clients, you're
bringing you.
To this process, right?
So you want to dressappropriately.
You want to talk appropriatelyfor your market space, right?
But you're bringing you andyou want to bring the authentic
(19:01):
you to that process becausethat's what who people are going
to work with If you bringa facade They're going to see
through that pretty quickYeah So you might as well
bring your authentic you Becausethat is your brand and that
is what people you're eithergoing to enjoy working with or
say yeah This isn't for me.
Let me go find somebody else andthat's fine You You know,
(19:21):
anybody who has spent morethan five minutes in marketing
knows the golden rule.
It's like, you're not marketingto everybody.
I love how unique people are.
And when I go to networkingevents, I try to break that
barrier.
Like I try to see who theyreally are or bring that person
out.
And I'm like, There they are.
It is awesome.
(19:42):
It is awesome when you can getto that.
Yeah.
And I used to, used to networkwith this fellow who sold life
insurance, right?
The most exciting thingyou could ever do, sell life
insurance, right?
So what he used to do ishe would go to networking
events and he would write onhis name badge, Time Traveler.
So of course people were like,tell me about time traveling.
And he used it as a wayof talking about, look, I help
(20:03):
people prepare for that point inthe future that they don't want
to really think about.
Cool.
But they need to right so if youcould go back, you know and
tell your younger self Hey,you should have life insurance
because here's all the reasonswhy it's important for the
people around you that'smy job is to help them time
travel and understand the valueof life insurance and i'm
(20:24):
like Yeah I like that andthat set him apart and it
allowed him to haveconversations with people
about what was really important.
The policy is the policy,but what's really important
is their loved ones who weregoing to benefit from that
policy.
It was all about connections.
It was all about connectingwith other humans.
So he brought his authentic selfto that process and out
(20:45):
came Time Traveler.
So back to real estate agents,there's like 6, 500 last
I checked agents in RhodeIsland out of those 6, 500
someone or a bunch might befocusing on that niche that.
(21:06):
The person who's tryingto create their niche is
focusing on.
So how to deal with that or howdo they feel more confident?
Like, because if that was thecase, like let's say
firefighting, that's my thing.
And I realized, Oh my gosh,there's a hundred of those
6, 500, there's a hundredagents who are also firefighters
(21:28):
who brand themselves as thatand feel intimidated about
being a firefighter showingthat I'm a firefighter.
So how does someone.
In that scenario, that's aninteresting hypothetical.
So if I were Working withsomebody who was, you know
firefighter and a real estateagent I don't know if I would
necessarily say well you needto brand yourself as a fire
Fighter, but there's somethingabout what they do That we could
(21:51):
probably bring through tothe real estate side, right?
And so part of the processwould be sitting down with
them and say, well, why areyou a firefighter?
What is it about firefightingthen?
Gets you up in the morning.
And so they may talk about,you know, wanting to help other
people.
They might talk about theexcitement and the challenge of
fighting these fires.
But there's something in therethat's authentic that we
can then bring over to the realestate side.
(22:13):
Well, here's something that youcan apply to what you do in real
estate that will make youa little distinctive, set you
apart and allow the real partof the real you to come through.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
Unfortunately, I don't have analgorithm, but a lot of it is
conversations with my clients.
And I do workshops to bring someof this stuff out.
(22:34):
So for example, typicallya brand strategy will include
mission, vision, and values.
So we'll start with values andwe'll talk about, you know,
what are the most importantthings to you?
And we'll focus on those.
Vision is interesting becausea lot of people are so sort
of trapped in the day to day.
So one of the things that I'vedone for helping with them
(22:55):
thinking about vision.
Is I'll do an interviewwith them, but I'll do an
interview 10 years in thefuture and I asked them to
pretend Wow, you're 10 years inthe future Tell me what's going
on now.
And what it does is itdisconnects them from the day
to day and allows them tofantasize and think about
where do I want to be in10 years?
What is the vision for mycompany or for my organization?
(23:19):
And I say, there's no limit,right?
If you tell me that you'vedone Ted talks already, you're
a best selling author, or, youknow, you've been asked, you
know, to be part of, youknow, the UN, you It doesn't
matter anything, and it reallyfrees them up to think about
things that they don't thinkabout in the busyness of the day
to day.
And so in that interview,I usually find three or four
(23:42):
things then that we can focus onto say, okay, here are the core
components of your vision.
Here's where you say you want tobe in 10 years.
Now, how can we put thattogether as part of your overall
brand strategy?
What are the things we can pullout to help you Find that
authentic part of you and it's areally interesting process
because it's different everytime I do it Yeah, every
(24:05):
time there was a one woman Iworked with she is a medical
professional.
She works for the VA She wantedto start a assisted living
facility.
That was much more like ahome And a facility, right?
And so we were doing the processand she's really struggling
with the name, right?
And she had come up withall these names that were
(24:25):
fine, but they were kind ofvanilla, right?
So I said, well, tell meabout your experience.
Why did you want to get intohealth care in the first place?
Why do you want to help people?
And so she told me this story.
She's a Haitian immigrantand she told me the story about
growing up and how everyday after school, her favorite
place to hang out.
(24:46):
Was at her grandmother's becausethat's where everything was
happening Her grandmotherwas always cooking some sort
of meal And it was just a reallywelcoming place to be And it
felt like home And I said that'sreally interesting.
I said What what did youcall your grandmother?
She goes.
Oh, I called her nana and I saidThat's your name.
(25:07):
It's nana's house Whoa, andshe Now I don't say this
to brag, but she literallystarted crying.
She's like yes That's thekind of Vibe that I want
this place to have that's thekind of feeling I want people to
have when they come into thisassisted Living facility.
It's Nana's house.
And so it's not like I cameup with something But we
(25:29):
took that journey togetherand when I saw something I was
like, hey, I think this isvaluable.
Yeah, let's pull this out And itclicked.
So those are the kind ofexperiences I like to have with
my clients because it is likegoing on a journey, right?
Or think about it like aroad trip, right?
You're going from, youknow, here to the coast.
And what makes the tripinteresting is the things
(25:51):
that you discover along the way,right?
And the experiences you haveas you make this trip, it's.
Yeah, it's the destination,but it's really what's happening
along the way, and what arethe things that later on when
you're telling people about thisjourney, what are the stories
you're telling them, right?
Oh, we stopped at thisplace, and they had like the
(26:11):
biggest ball of yarn inthe world, or, you know, it's
something that, That isimportant to them to communicate
the value of that journey,right?
Those are some of the thingsthat I do with my clients,
which I have a lot of fun with.
I really do like that partof what I do.
It does sound really cool.
Let's say they find that.
(26:32):
Aside from like going out andmeeting people and networking
events and saying, what's agood way for them to promote
that?
There's about a milliondifferent ways to market
yourself.
I personally think thata website is an important hub.
It doesn't matter how big or howsmall your organization is.
People will come to your websiteto sort of vet you and
(26:53):
figure out like, are you legit?
What are you about?
So your website is a goodplace to communicate.
A lot of that part of yourbrand, so.
Writing is important.
I work with a lot of reallytalented copywriters and they
are worth their weight in gold.
So to be able to take the work Ido with clients as far as
the brand strategy, and thentake that to a copywriter
(27:15):
and say, here's their brand,here's their tone of voice,
here's their personality.
Now, we need some marketingcopy that resonates with this
brand.
It's extremely important.
Visuals are extremely importantas I'm sure, You know, someone
in what you do understands.
So I, again, I work witha lot of really talented
photographers and videographers.
(27:36):
You know, I work with a lot oftalented developers and coders.
So one of the things that I dois I put together a team
that will bring all of thesepieces together into their
website, into their social mediafeeds, into print marketing,
outdoor advertising ifnecessary, even things like
podcasts, right?
(27:56):
But that brand is driving all ofthat content.
And the content contains themessage and the imagery contains
the message.
And when it's all workingtogether, it's like an
orchestra, right?
And you want something like theBoston Pops that's communicating
your message and not a juniorhigh band, right?
So you want to make surethat this is all working
(28:18):
together and is communicatingthe right message to the right
audience.
So I really love what I do, butI stay in my lane.
So I get to work with allof these other talented people,
like copywriters.
Marketing experts, social media,people, photographers,
videographers, SEO peopleto help bring that whole thing
(28:39):
together and get it communicatedin an effective way.
Wow.
Okay.
So the marketing is not like acutter.
Type of thing, it's got to beunique to what their niche is.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I mean, that's one of the thingsthat we work, you know, sort
of the marketing phase of thingsis like, what's the best way to
get your message out?
(28:59):
You know, when website'simportant, but outside of that,
you know, does it make senseto be on social media?
Well, which channels, right?
Is direct mail work for you?
Right?
Does speaking engagements, maybethat's the best way to get your
marketing out.
It really depends on who theaudience is that they're trying
to reach.
Because if you can figure outwhere the audience is hanging
(29:20):
out, you can target yourmarketing to the audience.
It's not a cookie cutter processat all.
It's like trying to figureout like, Okay.
Where's your audience?
Well, let's go to them.
Right.
Like I said, there's a thousanddifferent ways to market
yourself.
The trick is finding the mosteffective way to do it.
Cause not everybody's got amillion dollars to market.
(29:40):
Right.
So you got to make those dollarswork.
What's the term rebrandingto you?
Like, how would you, I thinkone way to look at it might
be like a house renovation,right?
You find a place and it'sthe right location and it's
got good bones.
You know, the structure's there.
But man, it needs a lot of help,right?
Because it's sort of pastits prime.
(30:01):
And you know, the essenceof it is there, but you really
need to rework it.
So, you know, you've, you'vegot the place, you redo the
electrical, the plumbing, paint,everything, and you restore
the house, right?
So rebrand is kind of like that.
I'll work with a lot of clientsthat have been in business,
you know, five, 10, 15 years,and they just feel like the
brand they have isn't quite aright fit anymore.
(30:25):
So we'll go in and lookat, okay, well, what's worth
keeping.
And what needs to be reworkedright now can be something
as simple as we're just touchingup the visual brand, the
logo and all of the accompanyingstuff so that it's a little
bit more contemporary, or itcould be going in and completely
(30:46):
gutting the whole thing andsaying, we need to rework
this so it really.
It's kind of on a spectrumand it really depends on client
to client.
Interesting.
That's a good way to explain it,especially to a realtor,
you know, redoing the house,right, right.
You know how to speak thelanguage.
(31:07):
I try.
Is there anything I missed asfar as a branding?
I mean, a lot, but I thinkthe most important thing
for me is authenticity.
And we definitely talked aboutthat.
There's a lot of talented.
Designers out there.
There's a lot of talented brandstrategists out there.
And you know, the, for me,I like to focus on the
authenticity and really helpingpeople find that unique thing
(31:30):
about what they do and why theydo it.
And bring that through tothe brand.
So the strategy, the visualbrand, getting it out into the
marketing, communicating thatmessage, that's the way I like
to work.
And so for me, that's probablythe most important part is
helping them, you know,find that authentic part of
themselves.
Hmm.
That's not easy to do.
I mean, you've done it for along time.
(31:52):
So to you, it's, you know whatto ask and how to push people.
I've definitely gotten betterover the years when I first
started doing it, it was alittle hit and miss, but I have
a genuine interest in otherpeople's stories and like,
you know, how they came to bethe people that they are.
So I think that drove a lotof it.
(32:13):
And, you know, sort of honingmy skills over time and picking
up little tools and processes,but the interest has always been
there.
You know, if I was able tosomehow, you know, make a living
by just interviewing people, I'dprobably do that.
Yeah.
Cause people are fascinating.
And especially when you get totalk to them about the things
that drive them and get themout of the bed in the morning
(32:35):
and, you know, really lighttheir fire.
Yeah.
Wow.
So just how do people find you?
Well, you can find me onlineat I'm also on LinkedIn.
You can also come to any one ofthe pirate events that I do
throughout the year.
So there I am, which is what,well, I am part of a crew, an
official reenactment crew calledfree men of the sea.
(32:58):
So the British ones that youmentioned where they can go in
and they have the right, Oh,the letter of Mark.
Yeah.
Yeah, it depends on the event,you know, so if we're in
an event where other reenactorsthat are reenacting, you know,
British officials, we havea letter of Mark always at hand
just to make sure there's noproblems.
Freemen of the Sea, we do eventsthroughout the year and you'll
(33:18):
find us at Gatsby Days or at theNewport Parade at St.
Paddy's Day.
So we're, we're all over theplace.
Wow.
And what do you guys do?
We do festivals and parades.
We'll also do reenact historicalevents.
We get invited to a lotof places like historical
locations to either come anddo like a show and tell of,
you know, nautical equipment,weapons, sort of talk about that
(33:40):
period of time.
Or do you want a ship?
Well, we don't have a shipat the moment.
But, I mean, if they had a ship,they're like, we need some
pirates to take some pictures.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
One of our favorite placesis Mystic Seaport.
Uh huh.
There's a ship down therecalled the Morgan, which is a
completely refurbished whalingship.
We've spent a lot of time onthat.
In and around Mystic Seaport.
So, we do probably about twoor three events for them a
(34:02):
year, and hangouts.
So, we also like Newport.
Newport's really cool.
Newport has a long history.
History of Pirate activity.
Really?
Oh, yes.
Oh, yes.
Yeah.
I mean, it's great.
I love it's sort of acombination of entertainment and
education and every time peoplesee us, they go, Oh, the pirates
are here and they just, they'realways so happy to see us, even
(34:24):
though we show up like arms ofthe teeth.
They're just like, Oh, thisis great.
So we'll do things like shantystrolls where, you know,
we'll go down to Newportand we'll just go from pub
to pub and sing shantiesand stuff like that.
Accent.
You do the accent andeverything.
Some of our crew do, I'vetried to do it.
I just don't have the knackfor it.
(34:44):
So this is what you get when youhear me.
New age pirate.
Yeah, but yeah, we just have,we have a great time doing
reenacting and just sort ofeducating people about the
whole.
Time and lifestyle andentertaining them.
I mean, it's, it's great tobring a smile to somebody's
face when they hear a shantyor, you know, their little kid
comes up and wants to havea picture with a pirate
(35:06):
and yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Awesome.
Well, thank you very much forstopping by.
Thanks for having me.
And, uh, yeah, maybe we'll haveyou back in the future to
talk about marketing thoseniches.
That would be awesome.
You like that.
Marketing of those niches.
Yeah.
Yeah.
. I can see the t-shirt.
. Thank you.
Thanks Camille.
What's the term rebrandingto you?
Like, how would you, I thinkone way to look at it might
be like a house renovation,right?
You find a place it's the rightlocation and it's got good
bones, you know, the structure'sthere, but man, it needs a lot
of help, right?
Cause it's sort of past itsprime, you know, the essence
of it is there, but you reallyneed to rework it.
I think the most important thingfor me is authenticity.
(00:22):
And we definitely talked aboutthat.
There's a lot of talented.
Designers out there.
There's a lot of talented brandstrategists out there.
And you know the for me I liketo focus on the authenticity.
Tell me what's going on now Andwhat it does is it disconnects
them from the day to day?
And allows them to fantasizeand think about where do I want
(00:42):
to be in 10 years?
What is the vision for mycompany or for my organization?
Welcome everybody.
I'm camille sargi the host ofjust two minutes and today
(01:06):
we have justin Justin, you wantto tell us about yourself?
Absolutely.
I typically introduce myself topeople by saying I'm a brand
strategist, a designer, and apirate, but not necessarily
in that order.
Pirate, yes.
We can talk a little bitabout the, the pirate brand.
Where I focus is I work withmy clients and I help them
(01:26):
communicate their authenticbrand.
To the right audience,so we work together to develop
brand strategies and visualbrands to find that authentic
part of themselves and thencommunicate that to their target
audience.
Nice and that connect everysingle agent has their brand
and yeah, that's what I want totalk about today.
(01:48):
Awesome.
Yeah, I've actually worked witha few.
Real estate agents.
Nice.
You know, independent ones tohelp them find that unique thing
about what they do and whothey are.
And then communicate thatbecause it's hard to distinguish
yourself in the marketplace,whether you're a real estate
agent, whether you're anaccountant, whether you're
a tattoo artist, whetheryou sell medical devices,
(02:10):
no matter what you do,people are looking for a way to
get their authentic self acrossso that they can distinguish
themselves and connect with thepeople that resonate with that
brand.
Hmm.
So rather than sort of a shotgunapproach of let me appeal to
everybody.
Now, let me find that groupof people that really resonate
with my brand and work withthem and give them a good
(02:32):
experience.
And then they will refer me outto other people who will also
resonate with my brand.
It's amazing.
The show's called just twominutes.
Okay.
I have some questions for thejust two minutes.
All right.
Are you ready?
Absolutely.
And start.
All right.
So how many different categoriesare there for pirates?
(02:52):
And could you name them?
Categories for pirates?
Well, the one big differencebetween pirates and privateers
is privateers were retained bygovernments to do basically
legal pirating.
So, say, England might be atwar with France or Spain, so
England would hire piratesto raid the ships of their
(03:15):
enemies, and they would givethem a letter of marque, which
was an official governmentdocument saying, this pirate is
working for the government ofEngland, and they are protected
by the government of England,and they can raid any ships
that we happen to be atwar with.
Wow, that's pretty cool.
So, if you're a privateer, youhave the protection of the
government.
If you're a pirate, you're anentrepreneur.
(03:37):
Alright, so what is walkingthe plank and is it healthy?
Well, walking the plank issomething that has come about
through popular literature.
about pirates.
It popped up in the 19thcentury.
Jonathan Swift and otherwriters at the time who were
sort of romanticizing aboutpirates came up with this
walking the plank device asa way of sort of a like a
(03:59):
literature device.
There probably were pirates likeBlackbeard that Actually went
through the trouble of makingpeople walk the plank to
intimidate them.
But if you wanted to getsomebody off your ship,
really the easiest way todo it was just throw them over
the side.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Huh.
Yeah.
I wonder if they actuallydid that.
So next is why do parrots alwayshang out with pirates?
(04:22):
That's a good question.
Maybe they're very close to oneanother on a personality
scale or something, but so atthe time during the golden age
of piracy, which would have beenend of the 17th century,
beginning of the 18th century,things like parrots.
Parrot.
That's it.
Go ahead.
Yeah.
I was going to say, things likeparrots and monkeys were still
(04:43):
considered very exotic.
There were only certain placeswhere you could get them.
You wouldn't find themin Europe.
You'd only find them in placeslike Africa and the island of
Madagascar.
So they were really unique andexotic.
So it was kind of havingsomething really special to show
people, Hey, I've been aroundand I'm actually quite wealthy
because I can afford a parrot ora monkey.
Wow.
(05:03):
It's like a status symbol.
Yeah.
Uh, it'd be like having a, youknow, pair of, uh, high end
sneakers or something like that.
Big giant diamond or a coolhat that is unique that only
one person made.
As a matter of fact, in the 18thcentury, buttons were a
symbol of status.
(05:23):
So the number of buttons on yourjacket and what they were made
of showed other people howwealthy you were.
Wow.
Wow.
And among pirates.
Buttons could even be a form ofcurrency.
Wow.
Yeah, it's cool.
I'm sure you know a lot aboutpirates.
So that's why I thought I'd askyou these.
I appreciate that.
Okay, we'll talk aboutpirates in a second.
(05:44):
So branding.
Why do you think it's importantfor someone to just focus on an
audience or niche?
Like, why do you think that'simportant versus like shotgun
approach?
Right.
It's difficult becauseconvincing a client to niche
down their market focusmakes them feel like they're
(06:06):
leaving something.
Off the table.
But what it's really doing ishelping them focus on the
audience.
That's most likely to resonatewith what they do and who
they are, their brand andtheir why.
And honestly, narrowing yourfocus, your market focus,
and really honing your brand isgoing to be more.
(06:27):
lucrative in the long runbecause you'll be focusing
on those people that reallywant to work with you and
will refer you out to otherpeople.
Whereas a shotgun approach,if you only catch 30 percent
of the people that you'reshotgunning into, you're working
in a very narrow return oninvestment band.
Whereas if you're focused ona market that resonates
(06:48):
with your brand, you may becatching 60, 70, 80%.
Of that focus.
So it's just a higher percentageof return.
And I think the experienceis better too, because,
you know, narrowing your focusallows you to work with people
who really want to work withyou and who you really want to
work with.
And it eliminates a lot ofthe market space.
(07:09):
That's a better fit for somebodyelse.
Okay.
So, so if they're focusingjust on, on that, right.
And try to capture as muchof that.
Audience who they're brandingthemselves to, would they refuse
others or not really take onother others that don't match
(07:29):
their criteria?
I mean, that's really more of abusiness decision for the
individual who they want totake on and who they don't,
but their brand helps themattract the right audience
for them.
So within that stream, then theyhave the opportunity to say,
yes, I want to take thison, or no, I don't want to
take that on, but it just bringsa a more qualified category of
(07:52):
clientele to them, ratherthan just a wide swath where
maybe 60 percent or more isn'treally a good fit for them.
Because what you're ultimatelylooking for is a good fit,
right?
So when you develop your brandand you communicate effectively
what you're about, you'regoing to attract light and
you'll have not only a betterexperience, but I think in
(08:13):
the long run, a higher returnon that.
Narrow focus of investmentin your marketing and your
brand.
Have you found it difficultto get clients to see the light,
which is narrowing?
Yeah, it's a challenge becauselike I said before, they
feel like they're missing out onsomething, but what they're
(08:34):
missing out on is.
Bad fit projects or bad fitclients, which is what you would
want to eliminate, right?
You want to focus in an areawhere you can be of the most
effect and have the greatestvalue to the people that you're
working with.
So, you know, it's like example,worked with one real estate
(08:55):
agent recently.
And her focus was communityinvolvement, and she really
wanted to make that part ofwhat she was doing.
So she's going to be attractingand picking up people who
are also community minded andinvolved in the community.
Whereas, if she were taking ashotgun approach, she might
miss those people because itwouldn't be part of her message
(09:17):
and they wouldn't necessarilypick up on, I'd really like
to work with this person becausethey're like me.
They're very focused on thecommunity and community
development.
And we really work with peoplethat we like to work with.
I mean, certainly beingcompetent in what you do is
important and having the rightskills is important.
(09:37):
But at the end of the day, welike to work with people that we
like.
And people that we resonatewith.
So part of branding andnarrowing that focus is finding
those people that resonatewith you, they're going to have
a much better experience,which is going to increase the
livelihood word of mouth fromthem is going to bring in
even more people that willresonate with that brand.
(09:58):
Okay.
For real estate agents, it'sanybody who wants to.
Sell buy or invest in realestate.
Sure.
So, but let me ask you thisquestion.
So you brand yourself as, youknow, gold door realty, right?
Why gold door?
What is that?
What kind of message are youtrying to send out by making
(10:20):
that part of your name and partof your brand?
Oh, no, you're interviewing me.
I'm sorry.
No, it's okay.
Yeah.
I guess the vision I had yearsago was building something
for the people.
Cause I was the people making itunique, making it super techie,
(10:41):
ton of support, more money inpeople's pockets and more,
you know, being creativeand coming up with ways to
help them.
May be successful, whateverthat is to them.
Okay.
And have you had any feedbackfrom people on why they chose to
work with you versus Somebodyelse.
(11:04):
I think it's the trust and maybeseeing me and like how dedicated
I am to everybody.
I'm the broker who's therefor their agents nine Florida
sipping on a martini.
You know, like I want tobe there.
I want to answer questions.
I want to coach them, mentorthem, be creative with them and
(11:25):
come up with ways where theycan do business that's special
to them.
I guess kind of like branding.
Because that is part of yourbrand.
So a couple things that youmentioned about, you know, being
creative for your clients, beingthere for them and not down
in Florida somewhere and workingwith them to find the best
solution.
I mean, your brand ultimately,and this is a quote from Jeff
(11:48):
Bezos, your brand is what peoplesay about you when you're not in
the room.
So if people are saying thingsabout you like, he's right
there for me when I need him,he comes up with all these
creative ways of helpingme reach my goals in regards
to, you know, buying andselling, that's part of your
brand.
Now, gold door realty might havea certain sort of catch to it or
(12:09):
ring to it, which is great.
But when people see that nameon your business card or on
a brochure or on a website,the first thing you're going to
connect to is what kind ofexperience did I have with
Camille?
That's your brand, right?
And they're going to tell otherpeople that that was their
experience that they had withyou and your brand then.
(12:30):
Expands and goes out further,you know?
Yeah.
I found it tough to, sothe reason I didn't call it
Sargi Realty or Camilleis because I wanted people to
own it, to feel like it'stheirs.
Like Goldor is me, but the moreI realize is I'm the brand.
(12:53):
Pretty much.
You are.
Yeah, you are.
And if you think about, youknow, some famous brands, right?
Well, what does a green mermaidhave to do with coffee?
Not much, really.
But when you see that greenmermaid logo, you instantly
think about the last experienceyou had at Starbucks, good,
(13:13):
bad, or otherwise, right?
Your experience with thatbrand Is the brand now the
logo is just a Device to triggerthat memory of what your
experience was like so likegold door realty people see
it It's going it triggers Whatkind of experience did I have
or what kind of experiencedid my friend have?
(13:34):
That said that they worked withcamille, right?
That's how your brand movesout and affects people.
So having an authentic brand Notjust the logo, but the whole
experience is important.
Not only distinguish you fromthe next realtor, but also to
resonate with the audience thatyou're really aiming for.
(13:55):
You want to work with clientswho appreciate your creativity,
who appreciate the fact thatyou're there and you take
personal interest in Theirgoals, right?
Now there'll be other peoplethat don't care about those
things.
Those aren't your customers.
Those aren't your clients.
So that's where the brand reallysort of hits the road and starts
(14:17):
working for you is whatare people saying about you?
What was their experiencewith you?
Interesting.
I never thought of it thatway, but yeah, with people being
different.
And do you find it difficult?
Narrowing down what, yeah, it'shard, it's counterintuitive,
(14:39):
um, and you feel some resistanceto like with what you suggest
or what you see could be,yeah, but the reason that I
believe in finding thatauthentic aspect of your
brand and sort of narrowingthe focus is because I had that
experience, sorry I just whackedthe microphone, I had that
experience personally.
Yeah.
So when I.
(15:00):
First started on my own.
I branded myself like everyother graphic designer
out there, every other brandstrategist out there.
And it wasn't until 2019 whenI was in business incubator
workshop with a bunch of othercreatives.
We were talking one night and Ihad been in the program
for a few weeks.
So they knew about me.
(15:20):
They knew about, I was ahistorical reenactor and that
I was into being a pirate.
They also knew about my work.
And someone said, Hey,why aren't you taking the pirate
part of you and the designerpart of you and bring them
together as your brand?
And I'm like, I'd never thoughtabout that.
I was like, well, because that'swhat I do over here as a pirate.
And this is what I do over here.
(15:42):
It's like, yeah, but.
It's both you, you know, you arein both of those worlds So
bring them together.
Yeah, and I thought about itfor about six months and I
thought I don't know Is thisgoing to be hokey?
Are people going to understand?
Are they going to take itseriously?
So finally I did.
So we had the main event atthe end of the workshop was to
give a two minute pitch andthere was a bunch of people
there.
(16:02):
I came out, I was not infull kit, but Did you have
time to go run and get I, Iwas, I was dressed
appropriately.
Okay.
And I went out and I gave mytwo minute pitch and I talked
about what I do in a way thatresonated with people and they
understood the brand.
(16:24):
Now that night I didn'tNo, if it had worked or not,
but about three weeks later, Iwas with a group of people
taking a tour of a new buildingdowntown and there was a woman
in the group kept lookingback at me and I thought,
Oh man, we've met somewhere at anetworking event.
I don't remember her name.
This is going to be awkward,right?
She comes back.
She points right at me.
She goes, You're the pirate.
(16:45):
And I said, what?
She goes, you're the pirate.
I was there that night at pitchnight.
We didn't talk that night, butI remember your pitch.
And I said, this is goingto work.
And so I had to go through thatjourney myself.
Of finding that authenticpart of me and put it as
part of my brand and I've hada blast being a pirate and
(17:09):
helping people with their brandstrategy and their design needs.
So when I go to a networkingevent now and they give you
the little stick on label, Ijust write pirate and I have
the most interestingconversations with people
because if I were a graphicdesigner in there, no one
would talk to me, right?
But I put pirate on there andwe talk about all sorts of
things and it's a great wayto sort of get past that barrier
(17:31):
of, you know, well, what do youdo, you know, for a living,
what's your business and allthis.
We just start talking aboutpirates and then we eventually
get over to brand strategyand stuff like that.
But I find people are far moreinterested in the pirate.
Wow.
So it kind of like clickedfor you and it was like a
realization, huh?
And I said, I need to help otherpeople take the same journey.
(17:52):
Right to go from I want toappeal to everybody To no,
let me find that unique thingabout myself find my authentic
brand and then Put that outthere and the people that
resonate with that Will bemy clients will be the people
that want to work with meand I want to work with them
so I went through the sameprocess and I want to help other
(18:15):
people go through that sameprocess as well and some of
them are You know, get itmore than others.
The ones that do, it's awesome.
You know?
Wow.
So you find that realizationmust have been freeing to be
able to be yourself.
And do you see that?
Like once it clicks for yourclients, they're like that
(18:38):
they feel like they can bethemselves instead of this
position, this title, right?
Right.
Because really what they'rebringing, like you were talking
about earlier and and how youwork with your clients, you're
bringing you.
To this process, right?
So you want to dressappropriately.
You want to talk appropriatelyfor your market space, right?
But you're bringing you andyou want to bring the authentic
(19:01):
you to that process becausethat's what who people are going
to work with If you bringa facade They're going to see
through that pretty quickYeah So you might as well
bring your authentic you Becausethat is your brand and that
is what people you're eithergoing to enjoy working with or
say yeah This isn't for me.
Let me go find somebody else andthat's fine You You know,
(19:21):
anybody who has spent morethan five minutes in marketing
knows the golden rule.
It's like, you're not marketingto everybody.
I love how unique people are.
And when I go to networkingevents, I try to break that
barrier.
Like I try to see who theyreally are or bring that person
out.
And I'm like, There they are.
It is awesome.
(19:42):
It is awesome when you can getto that.
Yeah.
And I used to, used to networkwith this fellow who sold life
insurance, right?
The most exciting thingyou could ever do, sell life
insurance, right?
So what he used to do ishe would go to networking
events and he would write onhis name badge, Time Traveler.
So of course people were like,tell me about time traveling.
And he used it as a wayof talking about, look, I help
(20:03):
people prepare for that point inthe future that they don't want
to really think about.
Cool.
But they need to right so if youcould go back, you know and
tell your younger self Hey,you should have life insurance
because here's all the reasonswhy it's important for the
people around you that'smy job is to help them time
travel and understand the valueof life insurance and i'm
(20:24):
like Yeah I like that andthat set him apart and it
allowed him to haveconversations with people
about what was really important.
The policy is the policy,but what's really important
is their loved ones who weregoing to benefit from that
policy.
It was all about connections.
It was all about connectingwith other humans.
So he brought his authentic selfto that process and out
(20:45):
came Time Traveler.
So back to real estate agents,there's like 6, 500 last
I checked agents in RhodeIsland out of those 6, 500
someone or a bunch might befocusing on that niche that.
(21:06):
The person who's tryingto create their niche is
focusing on.
So how to deal with that or howdo they feel more confident?
Like, because if that was thecase, like let's say
firefighting, that's my thing.
And I realized, Oh my gosh,there's a hundred of those
6, 500, there's a hundredagents who are also firefighters
(21:28):
who brand themselves as thatand feel intimidated about
being a firefighter showingthat I'm a firefighter.
So how does someone.
In that scenario, that's aninteresting hypothetical.
So if I were Working withsomebody who was, you know
firefighter and a real estateagent I don't know if I would
necessarily say well you needto brand yourself as a fire
Fighter, but there's somethingabout what they do That we could
(21:51):
probably bring through tothe real estate side, right?
And so part of the processwould be sitting down with
them and say, well, why areyou a firefighter?
What is it about firefightingthen?
Gets you up in the morning.
And so they may talk about,you know, wanting to help other
people.
They might talk about theexcitement and the challenge of
fighting these fires.
But there's something in therethat's authentic that we
can then bring over to the realestate side.
(22:13):
Well, here's something that youcan apply to what you do in real
estate that will make youa little distinctive, set you
apart and allow the real partof the real you to come through.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
Unfortunately, I don't have analgorithm, but a lot of it is
conversations with my clients.
And I do workshops to bring someof this stuff out.
(22:34):
So for example, typicallya brand strategy will include
mission, vision, and values.
So we'll start with values andwe'll talk about, you know,
what are the most importantthings to you?
And we'll focus on those.
Vision is interesting becausea lot of people are so sort
of trapped in the day to day.
So one of the things that I'vedone for helping with them
(22:55):
thinking about vision.
Is I'll do an interviewwith them, but I'll do an
interview 10 years in thefuture and I asked them to
pretend Wow, you're 10 years inthe future Tell me what's going
on now.
And what it does is itdisconnects them from the day
to day and allows them tofantasize and think about
where do I want to be in10 years?
What is the vision for mycompany or for my organization?
(23:19):
And I say, there's no limit,right?
If you tell me that you'vedone Ted talks already, you're
a best selling author, or, youknow, you've been asked, you
know, to be part of, youknow, the UN, you It doesn't
matter anything, and it reallyfrees them up to think about
things that they don't thinkabout in the busyness of the day
to day.
And so in that interview,I usually find three or four
(23:42):
things then that we can focus onto say, okay, here are the core
components of your vision.
Here's where you say you want tobe in 10 years.
Now, how can we put thattogether as part of your overall
brand strategy?
What are the things we can pullout to help you Find that
authentic part of you and it's areally interesting process
because it's different everytime I do it Yeah, every
(24:05):
time there was a one woman Iworked with she is a medical
professional.
She works for the VA She wantedto start a assisted living
facility.
That was much more like ahome And a facility, right?
And so we were doing the processand she's really struggling
with the name, right?
And she had come up withall these names that were
(24:25):
fine, but they were kind ofvanilla, right?
So I said, well, tell meabout your experience.
Why did you want to get intohealth care in the first place?
Why do you want to help people?
And so she told me this story.
She's a Haitian immigrantand she told me the story about
growing up and how everyday after school, her favorite
place to hang out.
(24:46):
Was at her grandmother's becausethat's where everything was
happening Her grandmotherwas always cooking some sort
of meal And it was just a reallywelcoming place to be And it
felt like home And I said that'sreally interesting.
I said What what did youcall your grandmother?
She goes.
Oh, I called her nana and I saidThat's your name.
(25:07):
It's nana's house Whoa, andshe Now I don't say this
to brag, but she literallystarted crying.
She's like yes That's thekind of Vibe that I want
this place to have that's thekind of feeling I want people to
have when they come into thisassisted Living facility.
It's Nana's house.
And so it's not like I cameup with something But we
(25:29):
took that journey togetherand when I saw something I was
like, hey, I think this isvaluable.
Yeah, let's pull this out And itclicked.
So those are the kind ofexperiences I like to have with
my clients because it is likegoing on a journey, right?
Or think about it like aroad trip, right?
You're going from, youknow, here to the coast.
And what makes the tripinteresting is the things
(25:51):
that you discover along the way,right?
And the experiences you haveas you make this trip, it's.
Yeah, it's the destination,but it's really what's happening
along the way, and what arethe things that later on when
you're telling people about thisjourney, what are the stories
you're telling them, right?
Oh, we stopped at thisplace, and they had like the
(26:11):
biggest ball of yarn inthe world, or, you know, it's
something that, That isimportant to them to communicate
the value of that journey,right?
Those are some of the thingsthat I do with my clients,
which I have a lot of fun with.
I really do like that partof what I do.
It does sound really cool.
Let's say they find that.
(26:32):
Aside from like going out andmeeting people and networking
events and saying, what's agood way for them to promote
that?
There's about a milliondifferent ways to market
yourself.
I personally think thata website is an important hub.
It doesn't matter how big or howsmall your organization is.
People will come to your websiteto sort of vet you and
(26:53):
figure out like, are you legit?
What are you about?
So your website is a goodplace to communicate.
A lot of that part of yourbrand, so.
Writing is important.
I work with a lot of reallytalented copywriters and they
are worth their weight in gold.
So to be able to take the work Ido with clients as far as
the brand strategy, and thentake that to a copywriter
(27:15):
and say, here's their brand,here's their tone of voice,
here's their personality.
Now, we need some marketingcopy that resonates with this
brand.
It's extremely important.
Visuals are extremely importantas I'm sure, You know, someone
in what you do understands.
So I, again, I work witha lot of really talented
photographers and videographers.
(27:36):
You know, I work with a lot oftalented developers and coders.
So one of the things that I dois I put together a team
that will bring all of thesepieces together into their
website, into their social mediafeeds, into print marketing,
outdoor advertising ifnecessary, even things like
podcasts, right?
(27:56):
But that brand is driving all ofthat content.
And the content contains themessage and the imagery contains
the message.
And when it's all workingtogether, it's like an
orchestra, right?
And you want something like theBoston Pops that's communicating
your message and not a juniorhigh band, right?
So you want to make surethat this is all working
(28:18):
together and is communicatingthe right message to the right
audience.
So I really love what I do, butI stay in my lane.
So I get to work with allof these other talented people,
like copywriters.
Marketing experts, social media,people, photographers,
videographers, SEO peopleto help bring that whole thing
(28:39):
together and get it communicatedin an effective way.
Wow.
Okay.
So the marketing is not like acutter.
Type of thing, it's got to beunique to what their niche is.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I mean, that's one of the thingsthat we work, you know, sort
of the marketing phase of thingsis like, what's the best way to
get your message out?
(28:59):
You know, when website'simportant, but outside of that,
you know, does it make senseto be on social media?
Well, which channels, right?
Is direct mail work for you?
Right?
Does speaking engagements, maybethat's the best way to get your
marketing out.
It really depends on who theaudience is that they're trying
to reach.
Because if you can figure outwhere the audience is hanging
(29:20):
out, you can target yourmarketing to the audience.
It's not a cookie cutter processat all.
It's like trying to figureout like, Okay.
Where's your audience?
Well, let's go to them.
Right.
Like I said, there's a thousanddifferent ways to market
yourself.
The trick is finding the mosteffective way to do it.
Cause not everybody's got amillion dollars to market.
(29:40):
Right.
So you got to make those dollarswork.
What's the term rebrandingto you?
Like, how would you, I thinkone way to look at it might
be like a house renovation,right?
You find a place and it'sthe right location and it's
got good bones.
You know, the structure's there.
But man, it needs a lot of help,right?
Because it's sort of pastits prime.
(30:01):
And you know, the essenceof it is there, but you really
need to rework it.
So, you know, you've, you'vegot the place, you redo the
electrical, the plumbing, paint,everything, and you restore
the house, right?
So rebrand is kind of like that.
I'll work with a lot of clientsthat have been in business,
you know, five, 10, 15 years,and they just feel like the
brand they have isn't quite aright fit anymore.
(30:25):
So we'll go in and lookat, okay, well, what's worth
keeping.
And what needs to be reworkedright now can be something
as simple as we're just touchingup the visual brand, the
logo and all of the accompanyingstuff so that it's a little
bit more contemporary, or itcould be going in and completely
(30:46):
gutting the whole thing andsaying, we need to rework
this so it really.
It's kind of on a spectrumand it really depends on client
to client.
Interesting.
That's a good way to explain it,especially to a realtor,
you know, redoing the house,right, right.
You know how to speak thelanguage.
(31:07):
I try.
Is there anything I missed asfar as a branding?
I mean, a lot, but I thinkthe most important thing
for me is authenticity.
And we definitely talked aboutthat.
There's a lot of talented.
Designers out there.
There's a lot of talented brandstrategists out there.
And you know, the, for me,I like to focus on the
authenticity and really helpingpeople find that unique thing
(31:30):
about what they do and why theydo it.
And bring that through tothe brand.
So the strategy, the visualbrand, getting it out into the
marketing, communicating thatmessage, that's the way I like
to work.
And so for me, that's probablythe most important part is
helping them, you know,find that authentic part of
themselves.
Hmm.
That's not easy to do.
I mean, you've done it for along time.
(31:52):
So to you, it's, you know whatto ask and how to push people.
I've definitely gotten betterover the years when I first
started doing it, it was alittle hit and miss, but I have
a genuine interest in otherpeople's stories and like,
you know, how they came to bethe people that they are.
So I think that drove a lotof it.
(32:13):
And, you know, sort of honingmy skills over time and picking
up little tools and processes,but the interest has always been
there.
You know, if I was able tosomehow, you know, make a living
by just interviewing people, I'dprobably do that.
Yeah.
Cause people are fascinating.
And especially when you get totalk to them about the things
that drive them and get themout of the bed in the morning
(32:35):
and, you know, really lighttheir fire.
Yeah.
Wow.
So just how do people find you?
Well, you can find me onlineat I'm also on LinkedIn.
You can also come to any one ofthe pirate events that I do
throughout the year.
So there I am, which is what,well, I am part of a crew, an
official reenactment crew calledfree men of the sea.
(32:58):
So the British ones that youmentioned where they can go in
and they have the right, Oh,the letter of Mark.
Yeah.
Yeah, it depends on the event,you know, so if we're in
an event where other reenactorsthat are reenacting, you know,
British officials, we havea letter of Mark always at hand
just to make sure there's noproblems.
Freemen of the Sea, we do eventsthroughout the year and you'll
(33:18):
find us at Gatsby Days or at theNewport Parade at St.
Paddy's Day.
So we're, we're all over theplace.
Wow.
And what do you guys do?
We do festivals and parades.
We'll also do reenact historicalevents.
We get invited to a lotof places like historical
locations to either come anddo like a show and tell of,
you know, nautical equipment,weapons, sort of talk about that
(33:40):
period of time.
Or do you want a ship?
Well, we don't have a shipat the moment.
But, I mean, if they had a ship,they're like, we need some
pirates to take some pictures.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
One of our favorite placesis Mystic Seaport.
Uh huh.
There's a ship down therecalled the Morgan, which is a
completely refurbished whalingship.
We've spent a lot of time onthat.
In and around Mystic Seaport.
So, we do probably about twoor three events for them a
(34:02):
year, and hangouts.
So, we also like Newport.
Newport's really cool.
Newport has a long history.
History of Pirate activity.
Really?
Oh, yes.
Oh, yes.
Yeah.
I mean, it's great.
I love it's sort of acombination of entertainment and
education and every time peoplesee us, they go, Oh, the pirates
are here and they just, they'realways so happy to see us, even
(34:24):
though we show up like arms ofthe teeth.
They're just like, Oh, thisis great.
So we'll do things like shantystrolls where, you know,
we'll go down to Newportand we'll just go from pub
to pub and sing shantiesand stuff like that.
Accent.
You do the accent andeverything.
Some of our crew do, I'vetried to do it.
I just don't have the knackfor it.
(34:44):
So this is what you get when youhear me.
New age pirate.
Yeah, but yeah, we just have,we have a great time doing
reenacting and just sort ofeducating people about the
whole.
Time and lifestyle andentertaining them.
I mean, it's, it's great tobring a smile to somebody's
face when they hear a shantyor, you know, their little kid
comes up and wants to havea picture with a pirate
(35:06):
and yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Awesome.
Well, thank you very much forstopping by.
Thanks for having me.
And, uh, yeah, maybe we'll haveyou back in the future to
talk about marketing thoseniches.
That would be awesome.
You like that.
Marketing of those niches.
Yeah.
Yeah.
. I can see the t-shirt.
. Thank you.
Thanks Camille.
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