In this episode, Brian sits down with Gard Gibson, the founder of BrandHeart Strategies, a marketing leader with nearly 40 years of experience working with brands like Ford, Gatorade, and Wendy’s. Gard shares why connection is the core of branding, how businesses can foster loyalty, and why AI and technology should be used to enhance—not replace—human relationships.
Whether you're a solopreneur, small business owner, or scaling an enterprise, this episode delivers real-world insights on how to make your brand more authentic, impactful, and sustainable.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
🔹 The REAL definition of branding (hint: it’s not just a logo or colors)
🔹 How to create lasting customer loyalty without relying on constant advertising
🔹 Why human connection is the #1 growth strategy in today’s AI-driven world
🔹 How Chewy & Southwest Airlines use emotional intelligence to dominate their industries
🔹 How to use AI to personalize marketing without losing authenticity
🔹 Why big brands invest in “Mission Control” centers and what small businesses can learn from them
🔹 The importance of iteration—why the best brands are constantly evolving
📝 About Gard Gibson
Gard Gibson is a transformative marketing leader with over 30 years of experience driving global brand success through innovative strategies and consumer insights. As the founder of BrandHeart Strategies, Gard helps businesses forge authentic connections with their audiences by blending creativity with cutting-edge technology and data. With a legacy of shaping iconic efforts for brands like Ford, Gatorade, and Wendy’s, and as a recognized thought leader in customer experience and digital strategy, Gard brings unparalleled expertise and a passion for making brands truly resonate with their audiences.
🎯 Gard’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs & Entrepreneurs
"Be committed, but don’t be rigid."
💡 Key Takeaways from Gard’s Advice:
✔ Your business is a hypothesis—stay flexible & keep learning
✔ Customer relationships matter more than short-term marketing wins
✔ Don’t just sell—build connections, and success will follow
📢 Memorable Quotes
🗣️ "A brand isn’t a logo—it’s every single interaction a customer has with your business." – Gard Gibson
🗣️ "If you want true customer loyalty, you need to treat your audience like real people, not data points." – Gard Gibson
🗣️ "AI is a tool, not a replacement for connection. The best brands use technology to enhance relationships, not replace them." – Gard Gibson
💡 Actionable Takeaways
✅ Map out your customer journey—how does someone discover you, interact with you, and become a customer?
✅ Use AI as an enhancer, not a replacement—find ways to use it for personalization without losing authenticity
✅ Engage in social listening—set up Google Alerts or tools like Infegy to track what people are saying about your brand
✅ Test and iterate your branding—get real feedback from potential customers before committing to a final look & feel
✅ Build relationships, not just transactions—your marketing should feel human, not robotic
🔗 Links & Resources
- Visit BrandHeart Strategies’ Website
- Follow BrandHeart Strategies on LinkedIn
- Connect with Gard on LinkedIn
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, what is up?
Welcome to this episode of theWantrepreneur to Entrepreneur
podcast.
As always, I'm your host, brianLofermento.
I feel like in the world ofentrepreneurship and business,
we throw so many buzzwordsaround, like resonating with
your audience, buildingconnections, all of these things
but we very rarely go deepenough to uncover what actually
(00:21):
makes this stuff happen.
How can we implement it in ourown businesses?
And that's why I'm so veryexcited about today's guest,
because this is someone whoyou'll immediately see that
creating connection and buildingbrands that resonate are truly
things that he so deeply caresabout, and he's got really
interesting insights.
So let me introduce you totoday's guest.
His name is Gard Gibson.
(00:41):
Gard is a transformativemarketing leader with over 30
years of experience drivingglobal brand success through
innovative strategies andconsumer insights.
As the founder of Brand HeartStrategies, gard helps
businesses forge authenticconnections with their audiences
by blending creativity withcutting edge technology and data
.
I know how many of youlisteners love talking tech in
(01:03):
the realm of all of these otherthings we need to focus on in
our businesses.
With a legacy of shaping iconicefforts for brands like Ford,
gatorade and Wendy's, and as arecognized thought leader in
customer experience in digitalstrategy.
Guard brings unparalleledexperience and a passion for
making brands truly resonatewith our audiences, something
that all of us need in our ownbusinesses, so I'm excited about
(01:24):
this one.
I'm not going to say anythingelse.
Let's dive straight into myinterview with Gard Gibson.
All right, gard, I am so veryexcited that you're here with us
today.
First things first, welcome tothe show.
Thank you, brian.
I'm excited to be here too.
Heck, yes, you and I choked offthe air.
Listeners will very much enjoyyou being here on the show today
, because you've got that silkysmooth audio coming at us, which
(01:47):
makes me very happy as apodcaster.
Use that sweet mic of yours totake us beyond the bio.
Who's Gard?
How'd you start doing all thesecool things, gardner?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
00, 00, 00.
Yeah, so I actually have spentpushing 40 years in the industry
.
I kind of had a different paththere.
I didn't go to college and geta journalism or an advertising
degree or marketing degree.
I actually have a politicalscience degree.
But all along I wanted to domarketing and what really drove
(02:16):
that was the idea ofunderstanding people.
So political science actuallyhas worked out well in my career
because you're trying tounderstand the motivations for
groups of people, whichfundamentally that's kind of
what marketing is, and I've beendoing it long enough that I got
involved in account planning,which was basically in the 90s
(02:37):
how you talked about likeinsights and strategy around
consumers and proceeded to moveforward with that in my career
it.
Let me get into digital reallyearly because I loved the idea
of being able to see theresponse to the effort you put
in the strategy you had quicklyand at the time it was like
lightning fast for digital.
(02:58):
Continue that on and then endedup at an agency here based out
of Kansas City called VML Nowthe world's largest agency.
I think was there for nearly 20years before I decided that I
wanted to do something different.
Wasn't 100% sure what that wasgoing to be Actually started
(03:19):
Brandheart kind of as an idea ofwhile I think about what I want
to do, I can kind of share mythoughts through writing,
through the site and thenstarted to kind of gain a little
momentum with that and havebeen trying to take a lot of
those lessons that you get fromthose major global corporations
and help small, mediumbusinesses more with.
(03:40):
How do you leverage that?
What does that mean for you?
You don't have to have ahundred million dollars to have
impact.
You can learn a lot from howthey approach things and how
that can help you in yourbusiness.
Yeah, I love that overview.
And now I'm here today freezingKansas City.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Honestly, I love that for so many reasons.
I'm going to call this outright here because I know this
as a podcaster who hears fromour global audience how much
people love talking abouttactics.
And so what I love about youroverview is you started with
people first.
And when we talk aboutmarketing, everyone wants to
talk about funnels and trafficand advertising and all of those
things, but the fact that youstarted political science, I
(04:17):
mean you hit the nail on thehead there about the
understanding of people.
Talk to us about that strategicpeople first approach, because
anyone who's wanting to us aboutthat strategic people first
approach, because anyone who'swanting to talk about marketing
tactics, I believe and youclearly believe it very much
that we have to start there.
So let's talk people first.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, I assume that most of your audience and you
are familiar with Simon Sinekand his why theory, which is
brilliant.
The reality is that same thinghappens for people.
So when you're trying to marketto people, if you don't
understand their motivation ortheir why so I'll give you an
(04:59):
example I would hear a lot oftimes things like oh well, our
issue is affordability.
And I would go okay, why?
And the answer was alwaysbecause we're too expensive.
And I'm like no, I don't meanthat.
Why I mean why do they feellike it's not affordable?
(05:24):
And try to get past the wholeprice point issue into probably
value could be past.
Experience could be the categoryyou're in.
But get to the core element ofwhat people are trying to do,
and I think throughout my careerin marketing, I've seen what
can be the heavy hand at timesof advertisers, especially with
a lot of money, where theybasically just pound their
customers and they play thenumbers game.
(05:44):
The problem with that is, yeah,you'll get some short-term
results, but it does nothing tobuild your brand over time.
As a matter of fact, you becomereally transactional to people.
The brands that are extremelysuccessful recognize that idea
of I've got to build arelationship, and a relationship
is a two-way street, so I needto try to use whatever I can to
(06:05):
understand you as much as you'retrying to research and
understand me as a business, andI really do believe that is one
of the central keys to beingeffective and successful.
And I've got some of that basedon just in my experience seeing
that pay off and seeing whenyou don't do that it not paying
off.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, gard, I'll tell you what.
This is.
Something that stands out to meabout your brand itself.
Obviously, your company iscalled Brand Heart, so it's
right there in your name theheart part of it, and I love
your logo.
By the way, listeners, we'reobviously dropping the link to
Guard's website down in the shownotes.
If you want to see his logo, Ican talk about it, but seeing it
is so cool.
The heart, the actual heart,not the cartoony heart that
(06:46):
we're all used to drawing theactual organ, the heart is right
there in his logo.
But, gar, the reason why I callthat out is because a headline
on your website it says atBrandheart, we simplify branding
to its core.
And then there's only one wordafter that connection.
As a podcaster, I always askwhen we have people who do
branding, when we have them onthe show.
I always ask when we havepeople who do branding when we
(07:06):
have them on the show.
I always ask what is branding?
It's such a big term that wethrow out there that it
encompasses everything.
Of course, it's our emails thatwe send, it's our logo, it's
our aesthetics, but it's alsothe user experience.
It's all of those things.
You boil it down even simplerof just that connection.
What does that mean to you?
Why?
Why is that the lens throughwhich you view branding so?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
if you think about it , especially in a world now
where everybody's trying tofigure out loyalty and they'll
use.
I love the idea of CRM, whichis customer relationship
management.
Yet if you talk to almost anyclient about that, they just go,
oh, that's our email, and it'slike, well, that's not a
relationship, that's justpublishing things.
(07:45):
Um, if you want to havelong-term loyalty, you need to
create some sort of a connection.
But you're a corporate entity,so you're not.
It's not like you're a personthey can connect to.
But you can use some of thebasic human needs when it comes
to interaction to make yourbusiness more welcoming, more
(08:05):
connected, listen, and when youdo that, it's wildly successful.
Um, a great example of this ischewy.
Now, for the record, I've neverworked with chewy.
I've worked with some other umpet brands, but what I love
about them is at the base oftheir business.
They are just an e-commercestore for pets, but their brand
(08:29):
is one that actually is based onthe idea of truly understanding
pet owners and their connectionto their pets, and not only
knowing that but acting on that,and I've you know this
anecdote's been around for awhile, but I've seen things
where people have been customersof Chewy and like they'll put
food on subscription.
(08:50):
They'll go in and cancel thesubscription and, like anything
else with subscription, they'llask why you canceled and they'll
say no longer have the pet orpet deceased.
Chewy will send a card, flowersand tell you how sorry they are
for your loss.
Most other companies just okay.
(09:11):
Well, we'll hit them back inour cycle which says if you've
lapsed, we'll hit you in 60 dayswith a new message to try to
prompt you again.
Chewy recognizes fundamentallyyou're buying this for something
else.
If you've lost that, you havean emotional connection.
I'm going to address youremotional connection.
(09:32):
I'm not going to worry aboutcan I sell you more food in six
months?
That creates a tremendousamount of connection and loyalty
because people appreciate thatside of a business.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, gard, I'm going to go here with you because I
don't typically go here in thecontext of branding, but that
example that you just gave ithits home so deeply for so many
people because that's a tangibleemotional connection.
We're not just talkingconnection in the broad sense of
the word that we use inbusiness, but that's a real
human level connection from whatwe view.
(10:02):
I mean, chewy is a massivebrand that so many have heard of
, it's a household name, but itretains that human connection.
So, gard, I can already imaginethe business academics or some
people saying well, gard, thatdoesn't scale.
How does scalability fit intoall of these things?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Well, one of the benefits is technology, honestly
, and AI, even though I think alot of people hear AI and they
get kind of nervous and, yes, aiwill get misused, especially in
marketing it.
It already has anybody who'stouting their AI based
television spot okay, thanks,like I don't.
(10:39):
I don't know what the point ofthat was.
It doesn't connect anything.
It's like okay, so you that.
But if you can use AI as ameans to take the data that you
have and begin to use it tounderstand what that means as a
whole and you start to actuallydevelop groups within your
audience and you understandbased on the data you actually
(11:03):
have, you can start tounderstand more about them at a
personal level.
You aren't literally doingone-to-one marketing, but you're
touching enough of a connectivepoint for them that they
understand and it resonates thatit's almost like it's
one-to-one.
And, quite frankly, if youthink about even bigger brands
(11:27):
Southwest Airlines that is apast client of mine and if
you've flown Southwest and we'lltake what's in the news right
now about losing open seatingand some of the other things but
historically, if you takeSouthwest, when you fly on their
flights, it's it's a littledifferent, it's a little more
laid back, a little morefriendly, a little more fun.
(11:47):
You don't have a class systemin the aircraft.
All the seats are basically thesame.
You're able to.
It's a little bit more spaceand just feels kind of more laid
back and friendly and welcoming.
So they always do really wellwith their customers and loyalty
.
The first time I went to theiroffices, walk in, they've got
(12:10):
their front desk.
The woman who was thereliterally had the same
personality as anybody on aflight crew and as I worked with
those clients you understoodthat was the way they operated.
The entire company behind thescenes was very much in that
same sort of experience and feeland belief and they were bought
(12:31):
in and that's why it manifestedall the way to the customer.
So part of the scaling isrecognizing.
It's not just a logo, it's notjust a commercial, it's not just
your colors or the music bedyou use.
Your brand is every interactionthat a customer has with it and
(12:52):
that's either direct orindirect.
So that's a way for scaling isactually recognizing.
If I look along the entirecustomer journey, I can create
an impression with every touchpoint and when I do that it
actually helps define that brandwhich is primarily defined by
your customers, but you can tryto live into that and drive it
(13:13):
the direction you want.
So technology allowing for thatkind of scaling is what really
can give more power to it today.
It was harder in the past, butnow with AI, you have a lot of
opportunity to try to do that toit.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Today it was harder in the past, but now, with AI,
you have a lot of opportunity totry to do that.
Yeah, so well said.
Bring in the heat with somereal life case studies and
examples here today.
I'm so appreciative of thatHearing you talk about these,
though.
One thing that I reallyappreciate is nothing happens by
mistake, and so we could talkabout Chewy, we could talk about
Southwest, we could talk aboutyour brand, we could talk about
any single company on the planet, and nothing happens by mistake
when it comes to the good stuff.
(13:47):
A lot of stuff can happen bymistake if we don't give it
attention, and there's probablybad outcomes attached there.
But with regards to that levelof intentionality and an
intentional thought andstrategies to support that,
obviously there's someonesomewhere, people like you
sitting there giving it thatlevel of attention and giving it
that level of practice.
(14:07):
What does that look like?
Does it look like on a weeklybasis, checking in and saying
are we staying to the valuesthat we planned when we launched
our brand?
Does it look like quarterlyreviews?
Does it look like certainactions or workflows?
I'd love to hear how we can putthis stuff into practice.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Well, I definitely think the first thing you want
to be able to do is almostscript it.
So think about your business andthink about the customer that
you're trying to attract.
Script out, from the momentthey're exposed to you, what
your ideal pathway would be forthem to become a customer, and
(14:45):
then take a look at that andfigure out what are the things
that you can do to try to put iton that path.
It won't always stay on thatpath, it's never perfect, but if
you do that and you considerwhat you're trying to achieve.
And then the other thing is youhave to have metrics on
everything.
You should always have a numberassigned to something or a goal
(15:06):
that you can measure, becauseone thing I can tell you is very
few people or companies oranything just out of the box
it's perfect.
There's a lot of learning thatgoes in there and a lot of trial
, and especially when you'restarting a business, you want to
use that new period of time andany kind of dollars you can use
(15:29):
towards marketing or effort,because it isn't always dollars
and try to validate is thisgoing to pay off?
Is this a good approach?
Am I getting what I need out ofthis?
And as you're able to start tovalidate that, you'll start to
build a better overall programFor really big companies.
They will have departmentsfocused on this About.
(15:54):
I guess now it's been about 15years ago.
I was working with Gatorade andit was when you started to have
more user-generated content, sothis is before Twitter.
Have more user generatedcontent.
So this is before TwitterActually at this point you kind
of.
I don't think my space was fullydead.
Facebook was starting to growand part of what we looked at
(16:17):
with Gatorade was there's somuch opportunity for us to see
how people talk about the brand,engage with the brand.
So we built something for themcalled Mission Control and it
was literally a room withintheir offices in Chicago with a
big glass wall and we staffed it.
I think total staff in therewas probably four and it was
using social listening software.
(16:39):
It was using an analytics offthe web software, the analytics
from their digital advertising,and you would start to be able
to see the whole thing in frontand be able to understand when
opportunities rose, when therewere issues that had to be
addressed really fast and youcould kind of see, before they
(17:00):
took off, things that you neededto try to address quickly.
So in those larger companiesthey could do that.
But that practice can be for asmaller company.
You can use any number ofsolutions to be able to try to
set triggers so you knowsomething's changed.
When you're first starting out,it might be a lot of reading.
You might go out and search.
(17:22):
I will tell you that one of thebenefits of AI out and search I
will tell you that one of thebenefits of AI is it's almost
like a search engine, kind of onsteroids.
You can ask a question and youdon't get a traditional search
response.
You get what feels like ananswer.
Now, to be fair.
I mean the accuracy can be hitand miss sometimes, but if you
(17:45):
always ask for sourcing, thenit'll come back with why it said
that and you can quickly take alook and figure out was that
poorly interpreted or accurately, is it relevant or was it
pulling something because ofsome weird connection, and
pretty quickly you can have aview of your customer and kind
of how they're appealing, asmuch as like Gatorade, and
(18:06):
ultimately PepsiCo took thatmission control over to be able
to see their overall audience.
So that's definitely one of thethings I think you really want
to try to do.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah, that mission control, real life glimpse into
how these bigger brands get tomanage their brands and guide
their brands.
That's super powerful and,listeners, if you're hearing Gar
talk about this and you'rethinking, well, how the heck am
I going to do that?
One very basic and free tool issomething as simple as Google
Alerts, where you can set up aGoogle Alert on your personal
name, on your company name.
You could set up a bunch ofGoogle Alerts and anytime it's
(18:37):
mentioned anywhere on the web,you get an email from Google
saying hey, here's the link ofwhere you're being talked about,
and it's a really cool way totune into the conversations that
may be happening.
With regards to that, somelisteners might be thinking well
, no one's talking about me.
I'm a brand new brand.
I'm a brand new business owner.
Guard, what I really love aboutyour business is you talked
about it that you just startedwriting and you just started
(18:59):
putting these things into theworld, even when you still had a
full time job.
I know how easy it is to lookat brands like yours.
I'm staring at your logo.
Honestly, I love your brandingso much, but it always feels
like these brands look like thefinal product.
Of course, you and I both knowthat they're evolutionary.
We rarely get it right rightout of the gates.
Talk to us about those buildingblocks and how we can evolve
(19:20):
and iterate along the way whenit comes to our branding.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, you're right, when you first start out, if you
do Google alerts unless yourname's John Smith or something
it can be and then it's evenworse because then you're
getting a bunch of stuff youdon't want.
What I did was I tried to lookin the space around the topic
that I was interested in.
So, at the core level this ideaof modern branding, which
(19:44):
encompasses way more than whatit has level, this idea of
modern branding, whichencompasses way more than what
it has traditionally and tryingto figure out okay, so what's
important to me you know alittle bit of the Simon Sinek
why and honestly, my why isreally I want to help companies
actually build a relationshipand not abuse their customers.
(20:06):
Because I feel like when we gotto the point where you could go
to my email inbox and dumpwhatever you want, I mean, just
think about how much of that youget.
So this idea of you can be asuccessful business and still be
conscientious and respectful ofyour customers and actually
become a partner to them.
That's what kind of excited me.
So looking for that, I think,in trying to do the website,
(20:32):
because the website for me isthe equivalent of me putting up
a storefront and a brick andmortar space, basically.
So there were a few iterationsand thoughts and, with the logo,
all credit goes to a partnerthat I've worked with in the
past and still do, mark Eimer.
He is a great designer and agreat creative and he pushed me
(20:54):
on the no, we need a real heart,not the fake heart.
And then, so as we started todo that, you start to be able to
see how many people are coming,what they're interacting with,
and then you can start to usethings like google alerts.
Um, when you start to get towhere you can afford to spend a
little bit on it.
(21:15):
Um, there's a company calledinfigy and they have something
called starscape.
It's a.
It originally was a sociallistening tool, but it's
broadened out.
It can now pull YouTube, thecomments from YouTube,
lexisnexis.
It can get to a lot of contentand it can do it fast.
And what they've been able todo is they'll give you the
(21:35):
traditional capabilities ofbeing able to see like is our
people positive about me,negative about me?
If they're negative, what arethey negative about?
Some of that kind of stuff?
But one of the cool thingsthey've done that I think is
great because it allows you togo faster is they've used ai to
create summaries and thesummaries they create are really
good.
From that, ai, um and I I knowthe ceo and he put a lot of
(21:58):
effort into making sure that itwasn't like robotic response
back, that it really wassomething that was useful.
And then the other thing theydo do is they do use AI to
create social personas so youknow who's talking about you in
groups, and that's reallyimportant too, because you start
to understand where theconversation's happening.
And should I be involved inthose conversations or allow
(22:21):
them to go and watch?
So you kind of gradually rampyourself up.
As you know, you have more outthere, but, like with the logo,
I literally went to a bar, satat the bar and randomly showed
people and said what do youthink of this?
And I didn't care what theirbackground was, I just wanted
the reaction of people and therewere a couple that were like
(22:45):
that's a little too realistic,but most of them were like that
is memorable, I like it,including some asking if I was
going to have t-shirts.
No-transcript guard.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Please do t-shirts.
Let me be yet another personwho pushes you there.
Honestly, because it is.
It's perfect for a graphic tee.
Give me that vintage feel withthat brand.
I'm loving it 100.
I'm signing up to have thatt-shirt and absolutely rock it
because it speaks.
It speaks to people who shareyour values.
That's what I really appreciateit about.
It is that you, as abusinessman, you put the heart
(23:22):
into brands that you work with.
You put the heart intomarketing considerations and for
those of us who share thatvalue and we appreciate that
component of your work, we wantto further enhance that and
share that message with theworld and I think it's so
important and what's reallyfascinating to me.
I kind of teased it at the topof this episode, but I love how
much you focus on the people andhow much you focus on the heart
(23:43):
, but you also have that rarecombination of technology which
is you're preaching to the choirhere.
So many of our listeners arealways looking for that.
You've brought up some reallycool use cases of real life AI
and I love the fact that youshouted out your friend's
company, who does some reallypowerful work that allows us to
gain those insights from an AIperspective.
Listeners love hearing howfellow business owners are using
(24:05):
AI.
Talk to us about some of thoseways that you're using AI to get
ahead faster.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yeah, I mean when you come from a background of
agencies where there's prettydecent sized staffs, when you
want to do research on somethingthere's entire groups that do
that for you.
You'll do some of it yourself,but there's other groups that
you can bring in when you go outon your own.
(24:32):
Those groups aren't there.
So I had taken a look at whatwas out there and I liked the
way ChatGPT kind of worked,mostly because I could verify
sourcing for it.
So I use it as it's like theflash for research when I'm
writing stuff.
I'll turn around and be able toput in fundamentally what it is
(24:52):
that I'm going to write.
It won't be as polished or likemeant to be published, but I
can get the thought across.
I can use chat GPT to go outand one validate that there is
information to back that up andit's not just me having a random
opinion and then look at thosesources pretty quickly and that
means when you're writing thingsyou're able to more quickly
(25:16):
bring in like empirical truthversus opinion and that makes a
big difference because whenyou're starting a business
there's a lot of God.
I hope this works.
I don't know what I should dohere.
I hope that works.
I had the benefit of havingstarted a business myself with a
(25:37):
partner.
Now it's been 24 years ago,almost 24 years ago, and we
learned a lot of lessons.
I mean, we were 24 yearsyounger, we had a lot of energy
and we were pretty confident.
But you learn lessons throughthat, that that company still
(25:58):
exists.
I'm not part of it anymore,although I do partner up with
them a little bit.
I'm not part of it anymore,although I do partner up with
them a little bit, but takingthose lessons and knowing it the
next time has kind of helpedfrom the standpoint of you have
to be flexible, you have to payattention.
A lot of times when you come out, you get really excited about
being focused on.
This is what I'm going to bring.
(26:19):
Well, you need to validate am Igetting information?
Is that right?
Is that really a benefit?
And AI will help with that.
And then also it can kind ofhelp as a sounding board.
I'm somebody that has alwaysbeen better off when I have a
whiteboard.
I'm literally looking past thecomputer at a whiteboard that's
(26:40):
about six feet by four feet inmy office because I'm just
better on my feet riding on awhiteboard.
I've always kind of been thatway.
Well, that's okay, but it'sstill just me.
I can bring ChatGPT in andstart to engage with that and
get information back and thenvalidate it.
(27:01):
But at least it's a point ofview that's coming in.
That's a little bit differentand I can request point of views
so I can say, for example, I'vehad some agencies that have
reached out about helping themand it wasn't kind of what I
meant to do but it made sense.
So I actually use ChatGP to sayokay, based, based on my
(27:23):
business, how would this work?
Does it make sense?
Are there examples from thepast?
And then turn around and getlinks to where I could go, look
at that stuff but kind of get anidea or a gut feel pretty quick
on.
Yeah, that's not a bad idea tobe able to do that.
So I think AI can help educateyou faster, inform you faster
(27:44):
and also allow you to make somechanges quicker.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Yeah, so well said the whiteboard.
To me, that's the coolest partis, instead of just me being at
a whiteboard I'm similar to you,Gard Right past my camera lens
is a whiteboard on the wall aswell and to have a whiteboard
companion 24-7, especially forall those late nights that I
can't stop working because I'mso engaged in what it is that
I'm doing.
It's so cool to be able tobounce those ideas, and even I
(28:11):
love the fact that we're at thepoint with AI where we can take
a picture of our whiteboard andsay make sense of this, Add
ideas.
We can have it do so many coolthings.
So really cool insights, Gard.
I knew that time would be flyingby with you here today.
Cool insights, Gard.
I knew that time would beflying by with you here today,
but I do love squeezing thisquestion in at the end, because
it's super broad and I want totap into your mind, not only as
a subject matter expert, but asone of us, as a fellow
(28:31):
entrepreneur.
And so that question is what'syour best piece of advice for
listeners, Knowing that we'rebeing listened to by both
entrepreneurs and entrepreneursat all different phases of their
own business growth journeys?
What's that one thing that youwant to impart on them today.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
This does not relate back to my company, necessarily,
but it's lessons learned fromthat.
You need to be passionate andcommitted to what you're doing,
but you cannot be rigid.
You need to learn as you startto do this where that
opportunity really lies.
Because fundamentally, when youstart a business, this where
that opportunity really lies.
Because fundamentally, when youstart a business, even with a
lot of research, it is a bit ofa hypothesis and you've got to
(29:09):
prove it out and your goalshouldn't be I 100 want to make
sure it's that your goal shouldbe success, and success that
aligns with why you were doingit.
So, um, I think, going intosomething and recognizing that
you can be committed andpassionate and still make
adjustments becausefundamentally that's how all
(29:30):
businesses have to perform andthat can be kind of tough when
you're first starting out,because on one hand, you really
want to be committed and I'vegot this great idea and on the
other hand, you don't want tolook like I don't know I'm doing
whatever the wind's pushing meto.
But that idea of still beingcommitted to what you're trying
to achieve, but recognizingyou've got to be flexible about
(29:52):
how that might happen, I thinkis one of the real keys when you
start something out.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yes, so well said, important advice for all of us.
Garth, that's what I look forin that last answer is not just
speaking about your subjectmatter expertise, but that
entrepreneurial hat on with somuch wisdom from your own career
up to this point.
I'm so appreciative of thoseinsights and I'm gonna kick it
off to you to drop your links onlisteners, but before I do so,
listeners.
One reason why I've been soexcited to have guard here on
(30:17):
the air is because we've talkedabout ai, we've talked about
really cool technologies, butguard joins me in something that
I so value.
It's how I began my ownentrepreneurial journey, and
that is through blogging, and so, on his website, he's going to
drop that link in just a second.
His blog he calls it from theheart, and I think that it's
such a lost art where peopleshare their insights, their
thoughts, their emotions inwritten form, and I think that
(30:40):
in those lessons, as someonewho's read through his blog,
there's so many lessons that youcan take away from your
business.
Of course, you're also going toget to see all of his services,
his incredible brand guard.
Drop those links on us.
Where should listeners go fromhere?
Yeah, if you want to go to thewebsite.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
It's brand heart strategies.
All one word um dot com.
Uh, it will hopefully somedayjust be brand heart, but I was
not going to spend the extradollars just to get that.
You can also follow me on BlueSky at Brandheart Strategies,
and you can also follow me onLinkedIn on Brandheart
Strategies.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yes, and, listeners, you already know the drill.
We're making it as easy aspossible for you to find all of
those links down below in theshow notes, no matter where it
is that you're tuning intotoday's episode.
Don't be shy.
I have tooted his horn quite abit for his logo, his own
branding, the work that he'sdoing.
I will be repping one of hist-shirts pretty soon, so if
you're going to see it in avideo in the future, you'll know
exactly where it came from inthis episode.
(31:34):
So definitely check those linksout down below.
Otherwise, guard, on behalf ofmyself and all the listeners
worldwide, thanks so much forcoming on the show today, brian
thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet
another episode of theWantrepreneur to Entrepreneur
podcast.
If you haven't checked us outonline, there's so much good
stuff there.
Check out the show's websiteand all the show notes that we
talked about in today's episodeat thewantrepreneurshowcom, and
I just want to give a shout outto our amazing guests.
There's a reason why we are adfree and have produced so many
(32:07):
incredible episodes five days aweek for you, and it's because
our guests step up to the plate.
These are not sponsored episodes.
These are not infomercials.
Our guests help us cover thecosts of our productions.
They so deeply believe in thepower of getting their message
out in front of you, awesomeentrepreneurs and entrepreneurs,
that they contribute to help usmake these productions possible
(32:30):
.
So thank you to not onlytoday's guests, but all of our
guests in general, and I justwant to invite you check out our
website because you can send usa voicemail there.
We also have live chat.
If you want to interactdirectly with me, go to the the
wantrepreneurshowcom.
Initiate a live chat.
It's for real me, and I'mexcited because I'll see you, as
always every Monday, wednesday,friday, saturday and Sunday
(32:53):
here on the Wantrepreneur toEntrepreneur podcast.
Hey, what is up?
Welcome to this episode of theWantrepreneur to Entrepreneur
podcast.
As always, I'm your host, brianLofermento.
I feel like in the world ofentrepreneurship and business,
we throw so many buzzwordsaround, like resonating with
your audience, buildingconnections, all of these things
but we very rarely go deepenough to uncover what actually
(00:21):
makes this stuff happen.
How can we implement it in ourown businesses?
And that's why I'm so veryexcited about today's guest,
because this is someone whoyou'll immediately see that
creating connection and buildingbrands that resonate are truly
things that he so deeply caresabout, and he's got really
interesting insights.
So let me introduce you totoday's guest.
His name is Gard Gibson.
(00:41):
Gard is a transformativemarketing leader with over 30
years of experience drivingglobal brand success through
innovative strategies andconsumer insights.
As the founder of Brand HeartStrategies, gard helps
businesses forge authenticconnections with their audiences
by blending creativity withcutting edge technology and data
.
I know how many of youlisteners love talking tech in
(01:03):
the realm of all of these otherthings we need to focus on in
our businesses.
With a legacy of shaping iconicefforts for brands like Ford,
gatorade and Wendy's, and as arecognized thought leader in
customer experience in digitalstrategy.
Guard brings unparalleledexperience and a passion for
making brands truly resonatewith our audiences, something
that all of us need in our ownbusinesses, so I'm excited about
(01:24):
this one.
I'm not going to say anythingelse.
Let's dive straight into myinterview with Gard Gibson.
All right, gard, I am so veryexcited that you're here with us
today.
First things first, welcome tothe show.
Thank you, brian.
I'm excited to be here too.
Heck, yes, you and I choked offthe air.
Listeners will very much enjoyyou being here on the show today
, because you've got that silkysmooth audio coming at us, which
(01:47):
makes me very happy as apodcaster.
Use that sweet mic of yours totake us beyond the bio.
Who's Gard?
How'd you start doing all thesecool things, gardner?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
00, 00, 00.
Yeah, so I actually have spentpushing 40 years in the industry
.
I kind of had a different paththere.
I didn't go to college and geta journalism or an advertising
degree or marketing degree.
I actually have a politicalscience degree.
But all along I wanted to domarketing and what really drove
(02:16):
that was the idea ofunderstanding people.
So political science actuallyhas worked out well in my career
because you're trying tounderstand the motivations for
groups of people, whichfundamentally that's kind of
what marketing is, and I've beendoing it long enough that I got
involved in account planning,which was basically in the 90s
(02:37):
how you talked about likeinsights and strategy around
consumers and proceeded to moveforward with that in my career
it.
Let me get into digital reallyearly because I loved the idea
of being able to see theresponse to the effort you put
in the strategy you had quicklyand at the time it was like
lightning fast for digital.
(02:58):
Continue that on and then endedup at an agency here based out
of Kansas City called VML Nowthe world's largest agency.
I think was there for nearly 20years before I decided that I
wanted to do something different.
Wasn't 100% sure what that wasgoing to be Actually started
(03:19):
Brandheart kind of as an idea ofwhile I think about what I want
to do, I can kind of share mythoughts through writing,
through the site and thenstarted to kind of gain a little
momentum with that and havebeen trying to take a lot of
those lessons that you get fromthose major global corporations
and help small, mediumbusinesses more with.
(03:40):
How do you leverage that?
What does that mean for you?
You don't have to have ahundred million dollars to have
impact.
You can learn a lot from howthey approach things and how
that can help you in yourbusiness.
Yeah, I love that overview.
And now I'm here today freezingKansas City.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Honestly, I love that for so many reasons.
I'm going to call this outright here because I know this
as a podcaster who hears fromour global audience how much
people love talking abouttactics.
And so what I love about youroverview is you started with
people first.
And when we talk aboutmarketing, everyone wants to
talk about funnels and trafficand advertising and all of those
things, but the fact that youstarted political science, I
(04:17):
mean you hit the nail on thehead there about the
understanding of people.
Talk to us about that strategicpeople first approach, because
anyone who's wanting to us aboutthat strategic people first
approach, because anyone who'swanting to talk about marketing
tactics, I believe and youclearly believe it very much
that we have to start there.
So let's talk people first.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, I assume that most of your audience and you
are familiar with Simon Sinekand his why theory, which is
brilliant.
The reality is that same thinghappens for people.
So when you're trying to marketto people, if you don't
understand their motivation ortheir why so I'll give you an
(04:59):
example I would hear a lot oftimes things like oh well, our
issue is affordability.
And I would go okay, why?
And the answer was alwaysbecause we're too expensive.
And I'm like no, I don't meanthat.
Why I mean why do they feellike it's not affordable?
(05:24):
And try to get past the wholeprice point issue into probably
value could be past.
Experience could be the categoryyou're in.
But get to the core element ofwhat people are trying to do,
and I think throughout my careerin marketing, I've seen what
can be the heavy hand at timesof advertisers, especially with
a lot of money, where theybasically just pound their
customers and they play thenumbers game.
(05:44):
The problem with that is, yeah,you'll get some short-term
results, but it does nothing tobuild your brand over time.
As a matter of fact, you becomereally transactional to people.
The brands that are extremelysuccessful recognize that idea
of I've got to build arelationship, and a relationship
is a two-way street, so I needto try to use whatever I can to
(06:05):
understand you as much as you'retrying to research and
understand me as a business, andI really do believe that is one
of the central keys to beingeffective and successful.
And I've got some of that basedon just in my experience seeing
that pay off and seeing whenyou don't do that it not paying
off.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, gard, I'll tell you what.
This is.
Something that stands out to meabout your brand itself.
Obviously, your company iscalled Brand Heart, so it's
right there in your name theheart part of it, and I love
your logo.
By the way, listeners, we'reobviously dropping the link to
Guard's website down in the shownotes.
If you want to see his logo, Ican talk about it, but seeing it
is so cool.
The heart, the actual heart,not the cartoony heart that
(06:46):
we're all used to drawing theactual organ, the heart is right
there in his logo.
But, gar, the reason why I callthat out is because a headline
on your website it says atBrandheart, we simplify branding
to its core.
And then there's only one wordafter that connection.
As a podcaster, I always askwhen we have people who do
branding, when we have them onthe show.
I always ask when we havepeople who do branding when we
(07:06):
have them on the show.
I always ask what is branding?
It's such a big term that wethrow out there that it
encompasses everything.
Of course, it's our emails thatwe send, it's our logo, it's
our aesthetics, but it's alsothe user experience.
It's all of those things.
You boil it down even simplerof just that connection.
What does that mean to you?
Why?
Why is that the lens throughwhich you view branding so?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
if you think about it , especially in a world now
where everybody's trying tofigure out loyalty and they'll
use.
I love the idea of CRM, whichis customer relationship
management.
Yet if you talk to almost anyclient about that, they just go,
oh, that's our email, and it'slike, well, that's not a
relationship, that's justpublishing things.
(07:45):
Um, if you want to havelong-term loyalty, you need to
create some sort of a connection.
But you're a corporate entity,so you're not.
It's not like you're a personthey can connect to.
But you can use some of thebasic human needs when it comes
to interaction to make yourbusiness more welcoming, more
(08:05):
connected, listen, and when youdo that, it's wildly successful.
Um, a great example of this ischewy.
Now, for the record, I've neverworked with chewy.
I've worked with some other umpet brands, but what I love
about them is at the base oftheir business.
They are just an e-commercestore for pets, but their brand
(08:29):
is one that actually is based onthe idea of truly understanding
pet owners and their connectionto their pets, and not only
knowing that but acting on that,and I've you know this
anecdote's been around for awhile, but I've seen things
where people have been customersof Chewy and like they'll put
food on subscription.
(08:50):
They'll go in and cancel thesubscription and, like anything
else with subscription, they'llask why you canceled and they'll
say no longer have the pet orpet deceased.
Chewy will send a card, flowersand tell you how sorry they are
for your loss.
Most other companies just okay.
(09:11):
Well, we'll hit them back inour cycle which says if you've
lapsed, we'll hit you in 60 dayswith a new message to try to
prompt you again.
Chewy recognizes fundamentallyyou're buying this for something
else.
If you've lost that, you havean emotional connection.
I'm going to address youremotional connection.
(09:32):
I'm not going to worry aboutcan I sell you more food in six
months?
That creates a tremendousamount of connection and loyalty
because people appreciate thatside of a business.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, gard, I'm going to go here with you because I
don't typically go here in thecontext of branding, but that
example that you just gave ithits home so deeply for so many
people because that's a tangibleemotional connection.
We're not just talkingconnection in the broad sense of
the word that we use inbusiness, but that's a real
human level connection from whatwe view.
(10:02):
I mean, chewy is a massivebrand that so many have heard of
, it's a household name, but itretains that human connection.
So, gard, I can already imaginethe business academics or some
people saying well, gard, thatdoesn't scale.
How does scalability fit intoall of these things?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Well, one of the benefits is technology, honestly
, and AI, even though I think alot of people hear AI and they
get kind of nervous and, yes, aiwill get misused, especially in
marketing it.
It already has anybody who'stouting their AI based
television spot okay, thanks,like I don't.
(10:39):
I don't know what the point ofthat was.
It doesn't connect anything.
It's like okay, so you that.
But if you can use AI as ameans to take the data that you
have and begin to use it tounderstand what that means as a
whole and you start to actuallydevelop groups within your
audience and you understandbased on the data you actually
(11:03):
have, you can start tounderstand more about them at a
personal level.
You aren't literally doingone-to-one marketing, but you're
touching enough of a connectivepoint for them that they
understand and it resonates thatit's almost like it's
one-to-one.
And, quite frankly, if youthink about even bigger brands
(11:27):
Southwest Airlines that is apast client of mine and if
you've flown Southwest and we'lltake what's in the news right
now about losing open seatingand some of the other things but
historically, if you takeSouthwest, when you fly on their
flights, it's it's a littledifferent, it's a little more
laid back, a little morefriendly, a little more fun.
(11:47):
You don't have a class systemin the aircraft.
All the seats are basically thesame.
You're able to.
It's a little bit more spaceand just feels kind of more laid
back and friendly and welcoming.
So they always do really wellwith their customers and loyalty
.
The first time I went to theiroffices, walk in, they've got
(12:10):
their front desk.
The woman who was thereliterally had the same
personality as anybody on aflight crew and as I worked with
those clients you understoodthat was the way they operated.
The entire company behind thescenes was very much in that
same sort of experience and feeland belief and they were bought
(12:31):
in and that's why it manifestedall the way to the customer.
So part of the scaling isrecognizing.
It's not just a logo, it's notjust a commercial, it's not just
your colors or the music bedyou use.
Your brand is every interactionthat a customer has with it and
(12:52):
that's either direct orindirect.
So that's a way for scaling isactually recognizing.
If I look along the entirecustomer journey, I can create
an impression with every touchpoint and when I do that it
actually helps define that brandwhich is primarily defined by
your customers, but you can tryto live into that and drive it
(13:13):
the direction you want.
So technology allowing for thatkind of scaling is what really
can give more power to it today.
It was harder in the past, butnow with AI, you have a lot of
opportunity to try to do that toit.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Today it was harder in the past, but now, with AI,
you have a lot of opportunity totry to do that.
Yeah, so well said.
Bring in the heat with somereal life case studies and
examples here today.
I'm so appreciative of thatHearing you talk about these,
though.
One thing that I reallyappreciate is nothing happens by
mistake, and so we could talkabout Chewy, we could talk about
Southwest, we could talk aboutyour brand, we could talk about
any single company on the planet, and nothing happens by mistake
when it comes to the good stuff.
(13:47):
A lot of stuff can happen bymistake if we don't give it
attention, and there's probablybad outcomes attached there.
But with regards to that levelof intentionality and an
intentional thought andstrategies to support that,
obviously there's someonesomewhere, people like you
sitting there giving it thatlevel of attention and giving it
that level of practice.
(14:07):
What does that look like?
Does it look like on a weeklybasis, checking in and saying
are we staying to the valuesthat we planned when we launched
our brand?
Does it look like quarterlyreviews?
Does it look like certainactions or workflows?
I'd love to hear how we can putthis stuff into practice.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Well, I definitely think the first thing you want
to be able to do is almostscript it.
So think about your business andthink about the customer that
you're trying to attract.
Script out, from the momentthey're exposed to you, what
your ideal pathway would be forthem to become a customer, and
(14:45):
then take a look at that andfigure out what are the things
that you can do to try to put iton that path.
It won't always stay on thatpath, it's never perfect, but if
you do that and you considerwhat you're trying to achieve.
And then the other thing is youhave to have metrics on
everything.
You should always have a numberassigned to something or a goal
(15:06):
that you can measure, becauseone thing I can tell you is very
few people or companies oranything just out of the box
it's perfect.
There's a lot of learning thatgoes in there and a lot of trial
, and especially when you'restarting a business, you want to
use that new period of time andany kind of dollars you can use
(15:29):
towards marketing or effort,because it isn't always dollars
and try to validate is thisgoing to pay off?
Is this a good approach?
Am I getting what I need out ofthis?
And as you're able to start tovalidate that, you'll start to
build a better overall programFor really big companies.
They will have departmentsfocused on this About.
(15:54):
I guess now it's been about 15years ago.
I was working with Gatorade andit was when you started to have
more user-generated content, sothis is before Twitter.
Have more user generatedcontent.
So this is before TwitterActually at this point you kind
of.
I don't think my space was fullydead.
Facebook was starting to growand part of what we looked at
(16:17):
with Gatorade was there's somuch opportunity for us to see
how people talk about the brand,engage with the brand.
So we built something for themcalled Mission Control and it
was literally a room withintheir offices in Chicago with a
big glass wall and we staffed it.
I think total staff in therewas probably four and it was
using social listening software.
(16:39):
It was using an analytics offthe web software, the analytics
from their digital advertising,and you would start to be able
to see the whole thing in frontand be able to understand when
opportunities rose, when therewere issues that had to be
addressed really fast and youcould kind of see, before they
(17:00):
took off, things that you neededto try to address quickly.
So in those larger companiesthey could do that.
But that practice can be for asmaller company.
You can use any number ofsolutions to be able to try to
set triggers so you knowsomething's changed.
When you're first starting out,it might be a lot of reading.
You might go out and search.
(17:22):
I will tell you that one of thebenefits of AI out and search I
will tell you that one of thebenefits of AI is it's almost
like a search engine, kind of onsteroids.
You can ask a question and youdon't get a traditional search
response.
You get what feels like ananswer.
Now, to be fair.
I mean the accuracy can be hitand miss sometimes, but if you
(17:45):
always ask for sourcing, thenit'll come back with why it said
that and you can quickly take alook and figure out was that
poorly interpreted or accurately, is it relevant or was it
pulling something because ofsome weird connection, and
pretty quickly you can have aview of your customer and kind
of how they're appealing, asmuch as like Gatorade, and
(18:06):
ultimately PepsiCo took thatmission control over to be able
to see their overall audience.
So that's definitely one of thethings I think you really want
to try to do.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah, that mission control, real life glimpse into
how these bigger brands get tomanage their brands and guide
their brands.
That's super powerful and,listeners, if you're hearing Gar
talk about this and you'rethinking, well, how the heck am
I going to do that?
One very basic and free tool issomething as simple as Google
Alerts, where you can set up aGoogle Alert on your personal
name, on your company name.
You could set up a bunch ofGoogle Alerts and anytime it's
(18:37):
mentioned anywhere on the web,you get an email from Google
saying hey, here's the link ofwhere you're being talked about,
and it's a really cool way totune into the conversations that
may be happening.
With regards to that, somelisteners might be thinking well
, no one's talking about me.
I'm a brand new brand.
I'm a brand new business owner.
Guard, what I really love aboutyour business is you talked
about it that you just startedwriting and you just started
(18:59):
putting these things into theworld, even when you still had a
full time job.
I know how easy it is to lookat brands like yours.
I'm staring at your logo.
Honestly, I love your brandingso much, but it always feels
like these brands look like thefinal product.
Of course, you and I both knowthat they're evolutionary.
We rarely get it right rightout of the gates.
Talk to us about those buildingblocks and how we can evolve
(19:20):
and iterate along the way whenit comes to our branding.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, you're right, when you first start out, if you
do Google alerts unless yourname's John Smith or something
it can be and then it's evenworse because then you're
getting a bunch of stuff youdon't want.
What I did was I tried to lookin the space around the topic
that I was interested in.
So, at the core level this ideaof modern branding, which
(19:44):
encompasses way more than whatit has level, this idea of
modern branding, whichencompasses way more than what
it has traditionally and tryingto figure out okay, so what's
important to me you know alittle bit of the Simon Sinek
why and honestly, my why isreally I want to help companies
actually build a relationshipand not abuse their customers.
(20:06):
Because I feel like when we gotto the point where you could go
to my email inbox and dumpwhatever you want, I mean, just
think about how much of that youget.
So this idea of you can be asuccessful business and still be
conscientious and respectful ofyour customers and actually
become a partner to them.
That's what kind of excited me.
So looking for that, I think,in trying to do the website,
(20:32):
because the website for me isthe equivalent of me putting up
a storefront and a brick andmortar space, basically.
So there were a few iterationsand thoughts and, with the logo,
all credit goes to a partnerthat I've worked with in the
past and still do, mark Eimer.
He is a great designer and agreat creative and he pushed me
(20:54):
on the no, we need a real heart,not the fake heart.
And then, so as we started todo that, you start to be able to
see how many people are coming,what they're interacting with,
and then you can start to usethings like google alerts.
Um, when you start to get towhere you can afford to spend a
little bit on it.
(21:15):
Um, there's a company calledinfigy and they have something
called starscape.
It's a.
It originally was a sociallistening tool, but it's
broadened out.
It can now pull YouTube, thecomments from YouTube,
lexisnexis.
It can get to a lot of contentand it can do it fast.
And what they've been able todo is they'll give you the
(21:35):
traditional capabilities ofbeing able to see like is our
people positive about me,negative about me?
If they're negative, what arethey negative about?
Some of that kind of stuff?
But one of the cool thingsthey've done that I think is
great because it allows you togo faster is they've used ai to
create summaries and thesummaries they create are really
good.
From that, ai, um and I I knowthe ceo and he put a lot of
(21:58):
effort into making sure that itwasn't like robotic response
back, that it really wassomething that was useful.
And then the other thing theydo do is they do use AI to
create social personas so youknow who's talking about you in
groups, and that's reallyimportant too, because you start
to understand where theconversation's happening.
And should I be involved inthose conversations or allow
(22:21):
them to go and watch?
So you kind of gradually rampyourself up.
As you know, you have more outthere, but, like with the logo,
I literally went to a bar, satat the bar and randomly showed
people and said what do youthink of this?
And I didn't care what theirbackground was, I just wanted
the reaction of people and therewere a couple that were like
(22:45):
that's a little too realistic,but most of them were like that
is memorable, I like it,including some asking if I was
going to have t-shirts.
No-transcript guard.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Please do t-shirts.
Let me be yet another personwho pushes you there.
Honestly, because it is.
It's perfect for a graphic tee.
Give me that vintage feel withthat brand.
I'm loving it 100.
I'm signing up to have thatt-shirt and absolutely rock it
because it speaks.
It speaks to people who shareyour values.
That's what I really appreciateit about.
It is that you, as abusinessman, you put the heart
(23:22):
into brands that you work with.
You put the heart intomarketing considerations and for
those of us who share thatvalue and we appreciate that
component of your work, we wantto further enhance that and
share that message with theworld and I think it's so
important and what's reallyfascinating to me.
I kind of teased it at the topof this episode, but I love how
much you focus on the people andhow much you focus on the heart
(23:43):
, but you also have that rarecombination of technology which
is you're preaching to the choirhere.
So many of our listeners arealways looking for that.
You've brought up some reallycool use cases of real life AI
and I love the fact that youshouted out your friend's
company, who does some reallypowerful work that allows us to
gain those insights from an AIperspective.
Listeners love hearing howfellow business owners are using
(24:05):
AI.
Talk to us about some of thoseways that you're using AI to get
ahead faster.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yeah, I mean when you come from a background of
agencies where there's prettydecent sized staffs, when you
want to do research on somethingthere's entire groups that do
that for you.
You'll do some of it yourself,but there's other groups that
you can bring in when you go outon your own.
(24:32):
Those groups aren't there.
So I had taken a look at whatwas out there and I liked the
way ChatGPT kind of worked,mostly because I could verify
sourcing for it.
So I use it as it's like theflash for research when I'm
writing stuff.
I'll turn around and be able toput in fundamentally what it is
(24:52):
that I'm going to write.
It won't be as polished or likemeant to be published, but I
can get the thought across.
I can use chat GPT to go outand one validate that there is
information to back that up andit's not just me having a random
opinion and then look at thosesources pretty quickly and that
means when you're writing thingsyou're able to more quickly
(25:16):
bring in like empirical truthversus opinion and that makes a
big difference because whenyou're starting a business
there's a lot of God.
I hope this works.
I don't know what I should dohere.
I hope that works.
I had the benefit of havingstarted a business myself with a
(25:37):
partner.
Now it's been 24 years ago,almost 24 years ago, and we
learned a lot of lessons.
I mean, we were 24 yearsyounger, we had a lot of energy
and we were pretty confident.
But you learn lessons throughthat, that that company still
(25:58):
exists.
I'm not part of it anymore,although I do partner up with
them a little bit.
I'm not part of it anymore,although I do partner up with
them a little bit, but takingthose lessons and knowing it the
next time has kind of helpedfrom the standpoint of you have
to be flexible, you have to payattention.
A lot of times when you come out, you get really excited about
being focused on.
This is what I'm going to bring.
(26:19):
Well, you need to validate am Igetting information?
Is that right?
Is that really a benefit?
And AI will help with that.
And then also it can kind ofhelp as a sounding board.
I'm somebody that has alwaysbeen better off when I have a
whiteboard.
I'm literally looking past thecomputer at a whiteboard that's
(26:40):
about six feet by four feet inmy office because I'm just
better on my feet riding on awhiteboard.
I've always kind of been thatway.
Well, that's okay, but it'sstill just me.
I can bring ChatGPT in andstart to engage with that and
get information back and thenvalidate it.
(27:01):
But at least it's a point ofview that's coming in.
That's a little bit differentand I can request point of views
so I can say, for example, I'vehad some agencies that have
reached out about helping themand it wasn't kind of what I
meant to do but it made sense.
So I actually use ChatGP to sayokay, based, based on my
(27:23):
business, how would this work?
Does it make sense?
Are there examples from thepast?
And then turn around and getlinks to where I could go, look
at that stuff but kind of get anidea or a gut feel pretty quick
on.
Yeah, that's not a bad idea tobe able to do that.
So I think AI can help educateyou faster, inform you faster
(27:44):
and also allow you to make somechanges quicker.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Yeah, so well said the whiteboard.
To me, that's the coolest partis, instead of just me being at
a whiteboard I'm similar to you,Gard Right past my camera lens
is a whiteboard on the wall aswell and to have a whiteboard
companion 24-7, especially forall those late nights that I
can't stop working because I'mso engaged in what it is that
I'm doing.
It's so cool to be able tobounce those ideas, and even I
(28:11):
love the fact that we're at thepoint with AI where we can take
a picture of our whiteboard andsay make sense of this, Add
ideas.
We can have it do so many coolthings.
So really cool insights, Gard.
I knew that time would be flyingby with you here today.
Cool insights, Gard.
I knew that time would beflying by with you here today,
but I do love squeezing thisquestion in at the end, because
it's super broad and I want totap into your mind, not only as
a subject matter expert, but asone of us, as a fellow
(28:31):
entrepreneur.
And so that question is what'syour best piece of advice for
listeners, Knowing that we'rebeing listened to by both
entrepreneurs and entrepreneursat all different phases of their
own business growth journeys?
What's that one thing that youwant to impart on them today.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
This does not relate back to my company, necessarily,
but it's lessons learned fromthat.
You need to be passionate andcommitted to what you're doing,
but you cannot be rigid.
You need to learn as you startto do this where that
opportunity really lies.
Because fundamentally, when youstart a business, this where
that opportunity really lies.
Because fundamentally, when youstart a business, even with a
lot of research, it is a bit ofa hypothesis and you've got to
(29:09):
prove it out and your goalshouldn't be I 100 want to make
sure it's that your goal shouldbe success, and success that
aligns with why you were doingit.
So, um, I think, going intosomething and recognizing that
you can be committed andpassionate and still make
adjustments becausefundamentally that's how all
(29:30):
businesses have to perform andthat can be kind of tough when
you're first starting out,because on one hand, you really
want to be committed and I'vegot this great idea and on the
other hand, you don't want tolook like I don't know I'm doing
whatever the wind's pushing meto.
But that idea of still beingcommitted to what you're trying
to achieve, but recognizingyou've got to be flexible about
(29:52):
how that might happen, I thinkis one of the real keys when you
start something out.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yes, so well said, important advice for all of us.
Garth, that's what I look forin that last answer is not just
speaking about your subjectmatter expertise, but that
entrepreneurial hat on with somuch wisdom from your own career
up to this point.
I'm so appreciative of thoseinsights and I'm gonna kick it
off to you to drop your links onlisteners, but before I do so,
listeners.
One reason why I've been soexcited to have guard here on
(30:17):
the air is because we've talkedabout ai, we've talked about
really cool technologies, butguard joins me in something that
I so value.
It's how I began my ownentrepreneurial journey, and
that is through blogging, and so, on his website, he's going to
drop that link in just a second.
His blog he calls it from theheart, and I think that it's
such a lost art where peopleshare their insights, their
thoughts, their emotions inwritten form, and I think that
(30:40):
in those lessons, as someonewho's read through his blog,
there's so many lessons that youcan take away from your
business.
Of course, you're also going toget to see all of his services,
his incredible brand guard.
Drop those links on us.
Where should listeners go fromhere?
Yeah, if you want to go to thewebsite.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
It's brand heart strategies.
All one word um dot com.
Uh, it will hopefully somedayjust be brand heart, but I was
not going to spend the extradollars just to get that.
You can also follow me on BlueSky at Brandheart Strategies,
and you can also follow me onLinkedIn on Brandheart
Strategies.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yes, and, listeners, you already know the drill.
We're making it as easy aspossible for you to find all of
those links down below in theshow notes, no matter where it
is that you're tuning intotoday's episode.
Don't be shy.
I have tooted his horn quite abit for his logo, his own
branding, the work that he'sdoing.
I will be repping one of hist-shirts pretty soon, so if
you're going to see it in avideo in the future, you'll know
exactly where it came from inthis episode.
(31:34):
So definitely check those linksout down below.
Otherwise, guard, on behalf ofmyself and all the listeners
worldwide, thanks so much forcoming on the show today, brian
thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet
another episode of theWantrepreneur to Entrepreneur
podcast.
If you haven't checked us outonline, there's so much good
stuff there.
Check out the show's websiteand all the show notes that we
talked about in today's episodeat thewantrepreneurshowcom, and
I just want to give a shout outto our amazing guests.
There's a reason why we are adfree and have produced so many
(32:07):
incredible episodes five days aweek for you, and it's because
our guests step up to the plate.
These are not sponsored episodes.
These are not infomercials.
Our guests help us cover thecosts of our productions.
They so deeply believe in thepower of getting their message
out in front of you, awesomeentrepreneurs and entrepreneurs,
that they contribute to help usmake these productions possible
(32:30):
.
So thank you to not onlytoday's guests, but all of our
guests in general, and I justwant to invite you check out our
website because you can send usa voicemail there.
We also have live chat.
If you want to interactdirectly with me, go to the the
wantrepreneurshowcom.
Initiate a live chat.
It's for real me, and I'mexcited because I'll see you, as
always every Monday, wednesday,friday, saturday and Sunday
(32:53):
here on the Wantrepreneur toEntrepreneur podcast.
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