Podcast appearances and mentions of sol marketing

Most promotional efforts will center around publication month, but that doesn't mean your job is done when the first of the next month rolls around! Brand expert Deb Gabor joins us to discuss what it takes to grow and manage a successful brand and key things she's done post-publication with her book.“Leading Expert" doesn't come close to describing Deb Gabor's passion for brands. More accurate? Brand Guru. Brand Impresario. Brand Evangelist. She's written the book on branding (three times!) with bestsellers Branding is Sex, Irrational Loyalty, and Person-ality. She's the founder and CEO of Sol Marketing, a strategy-led marketing firm obsessed with solving major business and branding problems for clients in every industry. Companies throughout the world use Deb's Brand Values Pyramid, Ideal Customer Archetype, and “Brand Swagger Questions” to align their teams and articulate their brands to audiences.Deb also lends her brand authority with frequent contributions and commentary to major news outlets such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, FORTUNE, Inc., MediaPost, New York Times, NPR, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Business and marketing organizations regularly call on Deb as a keynote speaker and workshop leader, relying on her as an inspiration for executives to embrace the power of branding to create Marketing That Sells. Learn more at debgabor.com and solmarketing.com and follow Deb on LinkedIn, Facebook, and X. Discover more about Smith Publicity at www.smithpublicity.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, YouTube, & LinkedIn.

In this week's edition of the AmiSights Podcast, we talk to Deb Gabor, founder and CEO of Sol Marketing, a strategy-led marketing firm. Deb talks to us about cultivating your human authority to create irrational loyalty. “I'm in the business of creating the condition that I call irrational loyalty – when people are so indelibly bonded to a brand, they feel like they were cheating on it if they were to choose an alternative,” she explains. “Brands that create that condition of irrational loyalty scale more rapidly, more profitably, and are more focused. But the most important thing is that they earn on average – and this is just a mean – 40% more revenue than companies that don't.”  The main topics of today's episode will be how brand relationships are something that exist for any kind of business, no matter the size or the scope. Deb will explain why authority and servant leadership are indelibly linked. We will also discuss how giving away services with the sole purpose of helping other people and uplifting them will build your customer base and bottom line. Connect with Deb: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgabor/ Check out Deb's website: https://debgabor.com/ Check out Sol Marketing: https://www.solmarketing.com/ Recorded on 1/29/24

In this week's edition of the AmiSights Podcast, I found myself as the LIVE case study when an unexpected branding exercise unfolded in this episode with our guest, Deb Gabor. Deb Gabor is the founder and CEO of Sol Marketing, a strategy-led marketing firm. Known as the “branding queen,” Deb and I talk about what companies should do, if anything at all, to respond to difficult topics such as the current crisis in Israel and Gaza. “My hope is that we are going to help leaders navigate the thought process behind whether or not they should make a statement, and when,” she said. “And if they do decide that they're going to make a statement, how to construct that in a way that serves them, other people, the community, their employees, and people at large serves in the right way.” There are a few things to consider when deciding whether or not to take a stand on a sensitive issue. These include asking yourself if you have a dog in this hunt, and should you make a statement? How do you actually construct that statement in a way that doesn't put you in that awkward position of damned if you do, damned if you don't? Should you use your company as a platform for precipitating a change you want to see in the world? Who is your ideal archetypal customer? Connect with Deb: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgabor/ Recorded on 10/17/23

Today, I'm joined by Deb Gabor and we are talking about humanizing your brand. Deb is the founder of Sol Marketing, a consultancy that has led successful strategy engagements for some of the biggest brands in the world for almost 20 years. She is the author of a new book called Person-ality: Cultivate Your Human Authority To Ignite Irrational Brand Loyalty. I'm excited to have her on the show to talk about how we can differentiate ourselves and our companies by showcasing the humans behind our businesses. Show resources: Person-ality: Cultivate Your Human Authority To Ignite Irrational Brand Loyalty book Deb Gabor's website Sol Marketing's website Sponsors: Jeremy Clevenger Fitness The Sasquatch Flag Company The Fraternity of Excellence ____ Order my latest bestselling book, You Have the Watch: A Guided Journal to Become a Leader Worth Following Order my bestselling leadership book, All in the Same Boat - Lead Your Organization Like a Nuclear Submariner Order my bestselling leadership book, I Have the Watch: Becoming a Leader Worth Following Become a leader worth following today with these powerful resources: Subscribe to my leadership newsletter Follow Jon S Rennie on Twitter Follow Jon S Rennie on Instagram Follow Jon S Rennie on YouTube The Experience of Leadership book   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marketing and ad executives break down the winners and losers of this year's beverage-alcohol Super Bowl ad battle. Deb Gabor, CEO of Sol Marketing, and Mario Natarelli, managing partner of MBLM, each share an industry insider's view on the ads for Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors Light, Michelob Ultra, Crown Royal, Remy Martin and more.   Also, Brewbound reporter Zoe Licata explains the BORG (Black Out Rage Gallon) trend of mixing water, vodka and flavor packets into a gallon jug.

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Deb Gabor is the CEO of Sol Marketing and has introduced revolutionary brand strategy for organizations ranging from international household names like Allrecipes, Dell, Microsoft, NBC Universal, NPR, NTT Data, and Siemens, to exciting emerging brands like hint water and Indagare. She is also the author of the new book, Person-ality: Cultivate Your Human Authority To Ignite Irrational Brand Loyalty. Southwest Airlines Flying Into a Brand Disaster

Entrepreneurs tend to delve into books to discover how to improve their branding.But most branding books are either very academic or theoretical. And you shouldn't hold a Ph.D. to understand branding.In point of fact, all you need is to rely upon concrete foundations and a basic how-to plan—in plain English—for building or reigniting a brand.You ought to focus on relevant themes such as the overarching foundations of brand strategy, how to assess the timing for engaging in branding activities, and how to roll up your sleeves and create the foundation for your company or your personal brand.We invited Deb Gabor, renowned keynote speaker and author of the book ‘'Branding is Sex: Get Your Customer Laid and Sell the Hell Out of Anything'', so she can unpack for us the secrets of branding. Indeed, Deb was born to brand. She is the founder and brand dominatrix of Sol Marketing, a brand strategy consultancy obsessed with building winning brands.Listen to this episode of Conversations at The Edge with Deb Gabor to unearth the keys to enhancing your branding with ease.

Branding is better when you make the customer feel AMAZING — like they just got laid. My guest today, Deb Gabor has written the book on branding (twice!) with bestsellers Branding is Sex and Irrational Loyalty. She's the founder and CEO of Sol Marketing, a strategy-led marketing firm obsessed with solving major business and branding problems for clients in every industry. Join me today for a hot show (followed by a cold shower) as we dig into what brands need to do to create irrational loyalty in this world of bad marketing practices.  

“Leading Expert” doesn't come close to describing Deb Gabor's passion for brands. More accurate? Brand Guru. Brand Impresario. Brand Evangelist. She's written the book on branding (twice!) with bestsellers Branding is Sex and Irrational Loyalty. She's the founder and CEO of Sol Marketing, a strategy-led marketing firm obsessed with solving major business and branding problems for clients in every industry. Companies throughout the world use Deb's Brand Values Pyramid, Ideal Customer Archetype, and “Brand Swagger Questions” to align their teams and articulate their brands to audiences. And she's here to share her branding wisdom with you today!Want more from Deb? Check out her website here:https://debgabor.com/

Deb Gabor believes you shouldn't need a Ph.D. to understand branding.She was born to brand. As founder and brand dominatrix of Sol Marketing, a brand strategy consultancy, Deb jumps on to show us how to inspire our customers to come to our brand.

Retailers were slammed with challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, and front-line workers faced the brunt of industry disruptions. In this episode of Retail Leader Trend Talk, we dive into how retailers have taken care during the pandemic, from how the industry adapted to how workers were treated. Retail Leader Editor Amy Baxter sits down with Deb Gabor, CEO of Sol Marketing, to discuss the best - and worst - examples.

On this episode, Ami Kassar interviews Deb Gabor, Founder and CEO of Sol Marketing, on branding in this current world - best cases and worst cases of company responses to the pandemic. “Leading Expert" doesn't come close to describing Deb Gabor's passion for brands. More accurate? Brand Guru. Brand Impresario. Brand Evangelist. She's written the book on branding (twice!) with bestsellers Branding is Sex and Irrational Loyalty. She's the founder and CEO of Sol Marketing, a strategy-led marketing firm obsessed with solving major business and branding problems for clients in every industry. Companies throughout the world use Deb's Brand Values Pyramid, Ideal Customer Archetype, and “Brand Swagger Questions” to align their teams and articulate their brands to audiences. Deb and her team at Sol Marketing have introduced her revolutionary brand strategy for organizations ranging from international household names like Allrecipes, The Associated Press, Dell, Microsoft, NBC Universal, NPR, NTT Data, and Siemens, to exciting emerging brands like hint water and Indagare. Deb also lends her brand authority with frequent contributions and commentary to major news outlets such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, FORTUNE, Inc., MediaPost, New York Times, NPR, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Business and marketing organizations regularly call on Deb as a keynote speaker and workshop leader, relying on her as an inspiration for executives to embrace the power of branding to create Marketing That Sells. Recorded 08/30/2021.

The world is changing. The economy is shifting, social media has changed the way we communicate and technology has made everything more accessible. As entrepreneurs and business owners in today's society - you have to be able to change with it or get left behind.  Building a brand is no easy task, and it can be even tougher when the economy changes. It's important to look at branding from an entrepreneurial perspective by identifying your target audience and creating a message that resonates with that client avatar.  I'm so excited to share today's guest Deb Gabor, CEO and founder of Sol Marketing who will be sharing with us what irrational loyalty is, how the best brands in the world create irrational royalty and the key to rapid and focused scaling for growth organizations. Main Topics: The Definition of Irrational Loyalty How the best brands in the world create Irrational Loyalty The key to rapid and focused scaling for growth organizations Key Takeaways: Understand how to "hack" Maslow's hierarchy to grow your brand Learn about the power of the Ideal Customer Archetype and how that provides relentless focus as organizations grow Unlock the Three Questions every brand needs to ask in order to become one of the Best Brands in the World  More About Our Guest: “Leading Expert" doesn't come close to describing Deb Gabor's passion for brands. More accurate? Brand Guru. Brand Impresario. Brand ​Evangelist​. She's written the book on branding (twice!) with bestsellers ​Branding is Sex​ and ​Irrational Loyalty​. She's the founder and CEO of​ ​Sol Marketing​, a strategy-led marketing firm obsessed with solving major business and branding problems for clients in every industry. Companies throughout the world use Deb's Brand Values Pyramid, Ideal Customer Archetype, and “Brand Swagger Questions” to align their teams and articulate their brands to audiences. Deb and her team at Sol Marketing have introduced her revolutionary brand strategy for organizations ranging from international household names like Allrecipes, The Associated Press, Dell, Microsoft, NBC Universal, NPR, NTT Data, and Siemens, to exciting emerging brands like hint water and Indagare. Deb also lends her brand authority with frequent contributions and commentary to major news outlets such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, FORTUNE, Inc., MediaPost, New York Times, NPR, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Business and marketing organizations regularly call on Deb as a keynote speaker and workshop leader, relying on her as an inspiration for executives to embrace the power of branding to create Marketing That Sells. 

Eventually, every organization faces a serious branding disaster. Think of United Airlines, Wells Fargo, Uber, and other companies whose tribulations made front-page news. Poor business decisions, corrupt cultures, or just plain bad luck can lead to major PR meltdowns, sending once-loyal consumers fleeing in droves. But there's a right way to handle controversy and come out stronger on the other side. Using recent high-profile brand implosions as prime examples, Deb Gabor, Founder and CEO of Sol Marketing and two-time best-selling author will talk about how top companies that break their promises inevitably suffer. And, we’ll explore the routes the more agile companies have taken to full recovery after letting their customers down. Today, you’ll gain invaluable insights that will help your business build positive brand equity, goodwill, and the "Irrational Loyalty" that will support your company during the best and worst of times. Our guest today, Deb Gabor, a leading expert on branding, will help you create a powerful brand for your business that connects with your most important customers – the ones most highly predictive of your success.

It's all about feelings and branding in this episode with Christine and her guest, Deb Gabor. This is a continuation of the conversation from episode 8. Deb shares more about irrational loyalty and the value of branding. In addition, she touches on how women are making strides in a male-dominant world and the importance of standing up to misogynistic behavior! Here are the things to expect in the episode: Transcending your sense of humanity down to your staff. Being indispensable to people at the dawn of COVID-19's rampage in the world. Appreciating women leaders who've broken through the male-dominated space! The essence of identifying your feelings and actually “feeling” them. “No margin, no mission.” And much more! About Deb Gabor: "Leading Expert" doesn't come close to describing Deb Gabor's passion for brands. More accurate? Brand Guru. Brand Impresario. Brand Evangelist. She's written the book on branding (twice!) with bestsellers Branding is Sex and Irrational Loyalty. She's the founder and CEO of Sol Marketing, a strategy-led marketing firm obsessed with solving major business and marketing problems for clients in every industry. Companies throughout the world use Deb's Brand Values Pyramid, Ideal Customer Archetype, and “Brand Swagger Questions” to align their teams and articulate their brands to audiences. Deb and her team at Sol Marketing have introduced her revolutionary brand strategy for organizations ranging from international household names like Allrecipes, The Associated Press, Dell, Microsoft, NBC Universal, NPR, NTT Data, and Siemens, to exciting emerging brands like hint water and Indagare. Deb also lends her brand authority with frequent contributions and commentary to major news outlets such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, FORTUNE, Inc., MediaPost, New York Times, NPR, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Business and marketing organizations regularly call on Deb as a keynote speaker and workshop leader, relying on her as an inspiration for executives to embrace the power of branding to create Marketing That Sells. Connect with Deb Gabor! Website: https://debgabor.com/ Branding Is Sex: https://www.amazon.com/Branding-Sex-Your-Customers-Anything-ebook/dp/B01GH62GDY Irrational Loyalty: https://www.amazon.com/Irrational-Loyalty-Building-Thrives-Turbulent-ebook/dp/B07NQ1TVDW Connect with Christine Trumbull! Website: https://www.coachingtheclimb.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristineLTrumbull Coaching the Climb Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/coachingtheclimb LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-trumbull-coachingtheclimb/

Join Christine with Deb Gabor as they get into branding. Deb's all about brands and is set on dropping tons of value on why you need to put a little more attention to your branding. This isn't just your logo and your company's signature catchphrase, but the entire being (or “humanity”) of your business! Want to learn more? Stay tuned! Here are the things to expect in the episode: What is branding, and why should you start early? What is irrational loyalty? How does branding lead to it? Start to think of yourself as a brand! And much more! ~ About Deb Gabor: "Leading Expert" doesn't come close to describing Deb Gabor's passion for brands. More accurate? Brand Guru. Brand Impresario. Brand Evangelist. She's written the book on branding (twice!) with bestsellers Branding is Sex and Irrational Loyalty. She's the founder and CEO of Sol Marketing, a strategy-led marketing firm obsessed with solving major business and marketing problems for clients in every industry. Companies throughout the world use Deb's Brand Values Pyramid, Ideal Customer Archetype, and “Brand Swagger Questions” to align their teams and articulate their brands to audiences. Deb and her team at Sol Marketing have introduced her revolutionary brand strategy for organizations ranging from international household names like Allrecipes, The Associated Press, Dell, Microsoft, NBC Universal, NPR, NTT Data, and Siemens, to exciting emerging brands like hint water and Indagare. Deb also lends her brand authority with frequent contributions and commentary to major news outlets such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, FORTUNE, Inc., MediaPost, New York Times, NPR, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Business and marketing organizations regularly call on Deb as a keynote speaker and workshop leader, relying on her as an inspiration for executives to embrace the power of branding to create Marketing That Sells. ~ Connect with Deb Gabor! Website: https://debgabor.com/ Branding Is Sex: https://www.amazon.com/Branding-Sex-Your-Customers-Anything-ebook/dp/B01GH62GDY Irrational Loyalty: https://www.amazon.com/Irrational-Loyalty-Building-Thrives-Turbulent-ebook/dp/B07NQ1TVDW --- Connect with Christine Trumbull! Website: https://www.coachingtheclimb.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristineLTrumbull Coaching the Climb Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/coachingtheclimb LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-trumbull-coachingtheclimb/

About Deb GaborPhone: (512) 554-1538Email: deb@solmarketing.comhttp://debgabor.comBook: Branding is Sex"Leading Expert" doesn't come close to describing Deb Gabor's passion for brands. More accurate? Brand Guru. Brand Impresario. Brand Evangelist.She's written the book on branding (twice!) with bestsellers Branding is Sex and Irrational Loyalty. She's the founder and CEO of Sol Marketing, a strategy-led marketing firm obsessed with solving major business and branding problems for clients in every industry. Companies throughout the world use Deb's Brand Values Pyramid, Ideal Customer Archetype, and “Brand Swagger Questions” to align their teams and articulate their brands to audiences.Deb and her team at Sol Marketing have introduced her revolutionary brand strategy for organizations ranging from international household names like Allrecipes, The Associated Press, Dell, Microsoft, NBC Universal, NPR, NTT Data, and Siemens, to exciting emerging brands like hint water and Indagare. Deb also lends her brand authority with frequent contributions and commentary to major news outlets such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, FORTUNE, Inc., MediaPost, New York Times, NPR, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.Business and marketing organizations regularly call on Deb as a keynote speaker and workshop leader, relying on her as an inspiration for executives to embrace the power of branding to create Marketing That Sells.

Today's episode is sponsored by Anchor. Make sure to check out Anchor.fm and see why we love to use them as our podcast hosting. Deb Gabor was born to brand and is on a mission to inspire 1 million brands to build brands that SELL. She is the best selling author of two books Branding is Sex and Irrational Loyalty. She's the founder and CEO of Sol Marketing, a strategy-led marketing firm obsessed with solving major business and branding problems for clients in every industry. Deb has worked with well known companies such as Allrecipes, The Associated Press, Dell, Microsoft, NBC Universal, NPR, NTT Data, and Siemens, to exciting emerging brands like hint water and Indagare. Deb has been featured in major news outlets such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, FORTUNE, Inc., MediaPost, New York Times, NPR, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Please rate, review, subscribe, and share with a friend who will be inspired. Visit KateHancock.com for insights into guests and future episodes. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ibhshow/support

Deb Gabor and her team at Sol Marketing have introduced her revolutionary brand strategy for organizations ranging from international household names like Allrecipes, The Associated Press, Dell, Microsoft, NBC Universal, NPR, NTT Data, and Siemens, to exciting emerging brands like hint water and Indagare. "Leading Expert" doesn't come close to describing Deb Gabor's passion for brands. More accurate? Brand Guru. Brand Impresario. Brand Evangelist. She's written the book on branding (twice!) with bestsellers Branding is Sex and Irrational Loyalty. ➡️Connect with Deb Gabor: DebGabor ➡️ Connect with Bert Martinez:  YouTube |  Twitter  |  Instagram   |   Click here for More Episodes ➡️ Get a free copy of DominatingYourMind: https://amzn.to/2XuM9Xr While supplies last, limited time.  

As a bestselling author and keynote speaker, Deb Gabor, CEO and Founder of Sol Marketing, has, herself, become a “brand.” She defines Sol Marketing as a brand-driven, strategy-led marketing firm in the business of creating irrational loyalty. Irrational loyalty means people are indelibly bonded to a brand.  When Deb talks about her agency, she does not list the provided services: she feels marketing services have become commoditized. Instead, she presents a passionate vision of what the future could be. She tells people she is on a million-brand mission – to impact a million brands in her career. She believes that the best brands in the world are truly unique – in why they do what they do. Her goal is to strengthen brands: making businesses more sustainable will up-level communities, and, ultimately, help people.  When the Corona virus hit, Deb's speaking engagements for the next 6 months were cancelled. She is sheltering at home . . . but not sheltering in her mind. The question was: how was she going to generate income when she could no longer speak at face-to-face events? What could she do? How could she help her company? She mobilized her team and made her personal brand a “client” of the agency. “Figure out how this has impacted us,” she told her team, “and then what we need to do.”  Deb referenced an interview with James Stockdale in Jim Collins' book Good to Great. Stockdale was held for 6 years in a Vietnamese POW camp. When asked how he managed to survive, Stockdale explained that he faced the brutal facts of his situation, but also kept up his hope and optimism. Prisoners who were over-optimistic, but refused to face the “brutal facts,” did not do as well. Deb's team identified around eight “brutal facts” about how Deb's brand was impacted by Covid-19. Some issues were solvable, some were not.  The company pivoted and, got Deb back on track in a new direction – creating information products, building online courses, building sales funnels, and building webinar funnels. Deb identified the assets she needed her team to build, established a schedule, and set targeted monthly income goals for the information products, her speaking, and her book sales. Then, taking things a step further, the company prioritized a something new: authority marketing services for professionals, who, like her, were facing the same challenges. The assets her team built for Deb became a product that could help other speakers, authors, experts, coaches, and consultants.  Deb says she has never seen a better opportunity than now for “smart people with expertise that can elevate other people in their own businesses, in their lives – I've never seen a better opportunity for them to share generously that expertise with other people.” She challenges people to think about: “How can I be indispensable to people at this time? How can I share something that I know or that I can do in a way that helps another person?” In reaching out, Deb says “be helpful, be authentic, be true to your brand.” She now spends around 6 hours a day, every day, presenting public or private webinars, and consulting one-on-one with business leaders, marketers, creators, or people with personal brands who are interested in setting up their brands to thrive during these unusual times. Deb can be reached through social media and on her website at: debgabor.com, where Deb is posting thought-provoking webinars that explore a post-Covid world. Deb's books, Branding Is Sex: Get Your Customer Laid and Sell the Hell Out of Anything and Irrational Loyalty: Building a Brand That Thrives in Turbulent Times are available on Amazon. Transcript Follows:   ROB: Welcome to the Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Kischuk, and I am joined today by Deb Gabor, CEO and Founder of Sol Marketing based in Austin, Texas. Deb is also a bestselling author and keynote speaker, and I think you're going to enjoy this conversation. Welcome to the podcast, Deb. DEB: Thank you. I'm really glad to be here. ROB: It's fantastic to have you here. Why don't you tell us about Sol Marketing and about your own journey as well into authorship and speaking?  DEB: Right on. I tell people that I'm in the business of creating the condition of irrational loyalty, and when I say irrational loyalty, that's that feeling that you're so indelibly bonded to a brand that you'd feel like you were cheating on it if you were to choose an alternative. It's kind of how I feel about my iPhone, and the weird feeling I get when my friends who have Android phones send me text messages and they show up in green bubbles. I'm so irrationally loyal to i-thingies that even if I would hold a competitor's phone in my hand, I'd feel dirty. So that's the business that I'm in, and how I do that is by running a brand-driven, strategy-led marketing firm. We do all the marketing things, and the reason why people hire us is because they need a good kick in the ass. They're growing rapidly, they have a lot at stake to get it right, they have no time to waste, and they need someone to lead them through the hard work of branding. Is that a good explanation? ROB: That's perfect. How did you come to this positioning? A lot of people talk about what they do, they talk about the nuts and bolts, the details of what they do, and I hear you coming at the conversation from the complete opposite direction. You're coming from a vision of the possible future, a vision of where things are going. How did you arrive at that view that this is how it needs to be? DEB: This is the work that I actually do with my clients, so a little bit of this is the process of eating my own dog food. I firmly believe that the best brands in the world are not just different; they're truly singular and they're unique, and that uniqueness comes from truly why they do what they do. When people talk to me personally and say, “Hey, Deb, what are you obsessed with? What are you working on right now?”, I tell people, I'm on a million-brand mission. Through my career, I want to have impact on a million brands. The reason why that's important is if I can help a brand be a better brand, it helps them create a more sustainable business. More sustainable businesses are great for up-leveling communities and truly helping people. So, I'm really internally motivated, and I'm very, very driven. It's an obsession and a compulsion for me, so I can't really talk about it any other way. The other thing is I work in Austin, Texas. There are 150 other people who do exactly what I do, including a direct competitor whose office is directly across the street from me, and when I'm at my office, at my desk, I look out this gigantic picture window and across the road I see the tombstone with her sign on it, and it drives me absolutely mad. Her services, her functional benefits, the stuff that she does as a company is exactly the same as the stuff that we do as a company, yet we don't compete. We really don't compete for the same clients because the reason that people hire us is vastly different than the reason that people hire her company. So that's one of the reasons why I don't default to the comfortable way of talking about agency business in terms of “here's what we do” because those services have become relatively commoditized. I want people to remember me for what I'm about, and I want people to really understand the specific singular thing they get from us that they can't get from anyone else. That's why I talk about it in terms of “here's the mission I'm on and why I do what I do” and being in the business of irrational loyalty. Also, if I told you “We're a branding and strategy and marketing services firm,” you would be like, “Meh, everybody else is that too.” ROB: Yeah, you definitely hear that a lot, and it's a tremendous visual metaphor to have that nemesis across the street. I find it motivating for a lot of teams to know who the enemy is – not in a jealous way or a competitive way, but in helping you refine and define the mission. You mentioned you're based in Austin, Texas. We were originally supposed to meet up in person at South by Southwest. It's April; South by Southwest is cancelled. It didn't happen. We are sheltering at home. But you, as we were talking about before we started recording, are not sheltering, in your mind. How has your strategy shifted amidst this coronavirus outbreak, amidst this pandemic, amidst some companies pulling back and some accelerating forwards? DEB: I think I shared with you before we got on the interview here that I'm in touch with a lot of business leaders through my personal and business networks, and they fall into two camps right now. There's one – these are the folks that are shuttering everything, they have their thumbs in their mouths, they're rocking back and forth, they're lying on the doormat in front of the front door – they've given up. They're throwing in the towel. Then there are others who are really looking at this through a new lens and practicing the art of the pivot or figuring out, “How this is an opportunity for me to emerge with maybe new offerings, new products, new services and things like that that are going to position me for the long term?” One of the things that I did that I think is going to be really helpful for your listeners is I went back and reread my copy of this great book by Jim Collins called Good to Great. The day that I decided to pick up Good to Great again, I opened up the book and it opened directly to a chapter where there was an interview with James Stockdale. Jim Stockdale was previously a vice presidential candidate, but he was also an admiral and a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. For 6 years, he was in a POW camp. Collins interviewed him for his book and asked him, “How were you able to actually get through that experience relatively unscathed? How did you endure 6 years in a POW camp?” What Stockdale explained was that he was able to maintain hope and optimism in the face of the brutal facts of his reality. He also explained that the people who were in the POW camps who were overly optimistic and refused to face the brutal facts were the ones that didn't fare very well. That's called the Stockdale paradox. I was reading about the Stockdale paradox probably right about the same time that South by Southwest was getting cancelled, and it was really empowering for me because I actually did an exercise with our leadership team where we went back and revisited our core values and our core purpose as an organization, and then we documented all the brutal facts. The brutal facts of the current situation are, personally, I make most of my money as a speaker and an author and a workshop leader, and every single speaking engagement I had scheduled between South by Southwest and the end of July was cancelled, all over the course of about two days. That's a brutal fact. Another brutal fact was I do mostly B2B work in our company, and we had already been seeing some supply chain issues with our clients, making it really difficult to do things like shoot videos of their products. That had started happening back in January, so that was a brutal fact. Another brutal fact was everybody's going to have to work from home, people are going to be less productive, we're going to have connectivity issues. Another brutal fact was I looked at how much per day does it cost to operate my agency, and how much cash runway do I have? How many days of cash runway do I actually have in the bank? And for each of these brutal facts – and there were about eight of them – there were some that I could do something about, and then there were some that I couldn't do something about. But for each of those brutal facts, my leadership team and I acknowledged every one of them, and then we flipped immediately to “What is our response to this brutal fact?” What I'm doing during this time, which gets back to your original question of like “you're not sheltering in your mind,” one of the opportunities that surfaced from really examining these brutal facts was the notion that I'm at home in Austin, Texas for 6 months without anywhere to go. What can I do? How can I help the company? Two things came of that. One of them is that we made a very strong pivot to offering authority marketing services to other speakers and authors and experts and coaches and consultants – people like me – to help them share their expertise without the need for face-to-face events. We had already created a business for me out of this – I'm a client of my own company – and we were offering it to other people. We turned this into a service. I've had a number of conversations with other people who are in my same situation where we're offering these kinds of services, which are like creating information products, building online courses, building sales funnels, building webinar funnels. That was one thing. And then another opportunity that came from that, which is really where I'm not sheltering in my mind – I have never seen a better opportunity for smart people with expertise that can elevate other people in their own businesses in their lives, I've never seen a better opportunity for them to share generously that expertise with other people. I literally have been spending I would say probably 6 hours a day, every day, if I'm not doing a public webinar, I'm doing a private webinar. Or I'm having one-on-one consultations with business leaders or marketers or creators or people with personal brands who are interested in understanding how they can set their brands up to thrive during this time. ROB: I love what you say about uplifting, because even though you could have a disposition towards making the most and really transforming business to thrive in this environment, we all I think still need a little bit of encouragement and uplift from other people for those days when maybe we're not feeling quite as strong about it. We're all going to have a down day here or there. I'm very interested by what you said about authority marketing and focusing there. I think that's a word that has been used and misused. I've seen it misused in such a reductive way as essentially buying a book for yourself. DEB: Yep, exactly. Which actually, I think the people who wrote the book Authority Marketing, the purpose is they wrote a book called Authority Marketing to teach you how to buy a book to do authority marketing. I look at authority marketing in a much more comprehensive way. ROB: And you're providing that service to people who know the difference, too. The people that you're going to work with are people who know how to get a book published, probably. They might change what they're writing right now, but it's not “Help me be famous.” They probably have a brand. They probably have some opportunity. They probably have some skills. But a lot of these folks probably don't have the tools around them the way you do. DEB: Right. I invested significantly over the past couple of years to actually build these things. I'll tell you a quick story about where this all came from. I wrote my first book, called Branding Is Sex: Get Your Customer Laid and Sell the Hell Out of Anything. Yes, I am the person who used both the words “sex” and “laid” in the title of a book. When I wrote that book, it really was part of this compulsion to share that information with as many people as I could. I give away our methodology, my expertise, 30 years of experience and track record in brand strategy – I give that away for the cost of a book. But what I didn't do was connect that back to how I wanted to grow in my own career, how I wanted that to serve my agency business, and how that was going to be the pathway to what my vision is for myself. I wasn't very intentional about it. After that book came out, fortunately for me, because of brand disasters at the hand of such great brands like United Airlines and Pepsi and Uber and Papa John's, lots of other branding dumpster fires that happened, I became the world's resident authority on brand disasters and botched corporate apologies. I became the person who was able to answer all the media's questions about who's handling it well, who's not handling it, what brands should do, what brands can learn. It was really during that time that the second book, Irrational Loyalty, was written, because that book basically wrote itself. I thought, I need to be smarter and more intentional and definitely more thoughtful and strategic about how I want these pieces of content that I've created to serve me in the long term. That's when it became apparent to me that I needed something other than just a book to express my authority, because a book is just one method. I do a lot of public speaking, but I also wanted to share my expertise in other ways so that people could consume it in more actionable methods for them. So I went out and attended a Mastermind of some of the best digital marketers in the world. This is one of those Masterminds you pay $30,000 a year to be a member and then $10,000 an event. Definitely the upper echelon. I happened to be there because I was a speaker, but I got to spend an entire 3 days with people who had 9-figure sales funnels. I thought, all right, these people are selling information products and they're selling a buttload of them. They've created a way to scale their personal brands or their business brands or whatever. I could do that too. I went out and asked all those people, “Can I hire you to build this for me?” They were all like, “No, you can find other people. Go see this person, go see that person.” I started talking to people, and I was interviewing people, and there was no shortage of people who were willing to put me into a sales funnel to sell me a course on how to build a sales funnel. I was like, what the hell? This is ridiculous. So, I mobilized my team, and my personal brand became a client of the agency. I was like, “You guys are going to figure this out. We're going to build all of these assets. We are going to build all of the automated marketing platforms. We're going to tie all of this stuff together, and we're going to build a business for me. Here's a metric, and by this time, in this many months, we're going to be making this much per month revenue off of these information products. I'm also going to do this much in speaking, I'm going to do this much in book sales.” We built a business around it. Over the last year, I had a number of clients coming to me saying, “I want to be you. How do I build that footprint?” I said, “Well, interestingly, we built it internally.” When the current coronavirus situation hit and all the other authors and speakers and experts and coaches and consultants, like me, were like, “Oh my gosh, I'm stuck in front of a computer in my dining room, working over Zoom; how do I impact many, many people?”, I was like, I'm good. I've got stuff. But I also was able to work with the company, and we made a pivot. We made this quick pivot. I said, “We need to really prioritize these authority marketing services.” So that's the story of a pivot. I hope that's helpful to your audience. ROB: I think it's absolutely impressive and resilient, and something to learn from. I think a lot of people strike out to write a book as a hunt for where their expertise is. It seems to me that in particular, the services you're providing require that somebody have an expertise that goes beyond just a book. But if someone's feeling like they really need to have this expertise and this array of services around it, but they're not quite sure where to go, where to focus on their expertise, how do you think about zoning in something that a person can offer that nobody else can offer, but they can't put their finger on it quite yet? DEB: That's an interesting question. That's a question that I've been answering for a lot of people over the past couple of weeks – people like me who are sitting around with a little bit of time to really navel-gaze and pontificate for themselves about where they're going. My recommendation for that is to just ask the question of “How can I be indispensable to someone at this present time?” That's the first question, honestly. I always start everything from a reexamination of my own personal core values and my own core purpose and my mission and my big hairy audacious goal and where I'm going in life. I'm lucky that I have that as a compass. If people are thinking about this and they're like, “What expertise can I share?”, the first place to start is really with, why do you do what you do? Or why are you? It's a very existential question. Simon Sinek's stuff helps with that a lot, too. I recommend that people do some examination of that. But then ask the question, “How can I be indispensable to people at this time? How can I share something that I know or that I can do in a way that helps another person?” If you're looking at creating content and putting content out to the world to share your expertise with only the goal of making money, you will never be able to make money. If you are putting content out in the world because you truly have a message that you need to share with other people because it's going to elevate them in a particular way, it is your job to figure out specifically what you do. I always tell people, just ask the basic – I have these three brand questions. The questions are, “What does it say about a person that they use my brand? What does it say about them?” The second question is, “What is the one thing they get from me that they can't get from anyone else?” And “How can I make my customer or my reader, my listener, my viewer, how can I make my person a hero in his or her own story?” I think that people will find a lot of answers there. In my own experience with not being super intentional about how I'm going to use a book – I'm very intentional now because I have a book and I have another book and I have a speaking business and I have classes, and we're starting up some online courses, I now have a webinar series, all that kind of stuff – the whole purpose of that is to create a community, and create a community that I can engage with and share my expertise with. My goal in my approach of sharing expertise first and not asking for anything in return, my hope is that it's going to elevate a lot of people and make them irrationally loyal to me. Then, when people are in a situation where they're back to buying stuff, they're going to want to buy that stuff from me, or they're going to want to buy that stuff from my company. ROB: Right. I think what you're saying there – it's subtle, but this is not a time, for the most part – unless you're selling surgical masks, this is not a time to be selling for a lot of people, but it is a time to be investing deeply and helping, and sometimes helping – I think you've done some work with startups; a common thing in startup land is a lot of times you'll ask for help, but you get money. If you ask for money, you'll get help. DEB: [laughs] That's true. I have a business where I work with early stage companies, helping them tell their story effectively through their investor pitch. That's something that we always say. You have to treat fundraising like a branding exercise, but the ideal customer that you're going after is an investor, and you have to figure out how you're going to elevate that investor's life. How are you going to give them bragging rights from offering you that kind of help that you're looking for? But you're 100% right. Now is a time to be looking at everything through this lens of helping versus selling. I've been telling everybody this. You really, really have to ask that question of “How can I be indispensable at this time?” There's lots of businesses that we can't use right now. There are lots of things that feel to us that they are maybe luxuries that we shouldn't indulge in right now. As a brand, any kind of brand, you can still help during this time. It's not just like the parent company of Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior retooling their factories to go from manufacturing perfumes to making hand sanitizer, or Tito's Vodka here in Austin doing the same. It's also, how can you help people deal with the current situation at hand in a helpful way? Really good example – I'm a skier, and I was super bummed that my season got cut short this year. One of the places that I buy gear from sent me the most delightful email. It acknowledged the current situation, showed real regard for humanity, and it said, “Hey, we're also bummed out that the season got cut short. If you're feeling bad, here's a link to a playlist of your favorite ski porn” – which is a playlist of really fun ski movies on YouTube. And further down in the email, there was a nice feature that you could link to on their website about ski touring – which, for people who are not skiers, that's the process of climbing uphill and skiing down. You don't ride a chairlift; you climb uphill and you ski down. The ski areas are closed, but there's plenty of places to go into the back country. A lot of people need tips and tricks for doing that and doing it in a way that's appropriate for the current pandemic conditions, so how do you still stay safe and ski with a buddy without getting too close? Also, safety – it's avalanche season, all that kind of stuff. Further down in the email, they merchandised, “Here's the best of the 2021 gear that's coming out. Ski season 2020 is over; however, it's never too early to dream.” So it was a light message, and it was not sales-y at all. Then what I loved, at the very bottom of this email, I truly was delighted to see there were the signatures of everybody who works in the store. It was very personal. It was very authentic. It was really sincere. It was totally on brand. It was helpful. They're not selling ski gear right now. People are not going online and buying a $1900 pair of skis and a $700 pair of boots right now. They're just not. However, this brand is going to stay connected not just in my mind, but in my heart. The next time I do need something, I'm going to go to them. Looking at everything from this lens of helping versus selling is what's going to help brands connect in the long term and remain relevant and thrive when this is over – which this will be over. Come hell or high water, it will be over, and people will be back, but nothing will be the same as it was before. ROB: It ties back nicely – it sounds like they even may have asked some of those questions that you asked, of what are the things they can't change. The thing they accepted that they can't change is that people cannot go skiing, and asking people to buy a pair of skis to sit in their closet for next year is not maybe a very good message. I've seen, I'm sure you've seen, I'm sure everybody has seen an unbelievable number of emails from companies about their response to COVID-19, and half of them say, “We're just going to keep being the business that we already are.” That's maybe an innocuous brand fail. But you, being someone who keeps track of some bigger mistakes, what are some bigger mistakes people have made in messaging around this crisis that we can learn from? Not to trash them just to trash them, but to trash them by way of example. DEB: I have something that would be really fun right now, which is this morning, I wrote something that is the perfect COVID-19 email that comes from that brand – I call it the perfect “we're all in this together” email. How many “we're all in this together” emails have you received from brands that you didn't even know you were on their email list? ROB: Oh, uncountable. DEB: Yeah. Let me read you the message. It's entitled, “An important message from our CEO”: “Dear Deb, “You don't ever remember giving us your email, nor do you know how we got a hold of it. You once briefly thought about us 7 years ago; however, we're here for you during these (unprecedented, uncertain, challenging, unsettling, unusual, rapidly evolving) times (pick one). We're keeping everybody safe and monitoring the situation. If you need a new wine rack/sofa table/machete/floor lamp/outdoor fireplace/Aston Martin, we're in this together. “Also, here's a reminder that we're also here for our employees, whom you didn't even realize existed until just now. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everybody affected by the current health crisis. Just know that (brand that you didn't even know had your email address) is by your side during these tough times. “We're in this together, and I'm on Richard Branson's yacht – “A Brand You Don't Really Know.” That's the big crime right now. During the first week – this was just post-March 11th – everybody was rushing to send out their COVID-19 email. All of them were “a letter from our CEO,” and they were all entitled “We're in this together.” That's my parody of that. Worst is automated marketing. Turn off your freaking automations, people. The day that the WHO announced that we had a global pandemic – and it was also the same day, I believe, that we closed off our borders to people arriving by airplane from most countries in Europe – I got an email from Air Canada asking me, “Hey, don't forget to opt in to get insider information and savings on your next flight!” I also received an email from another brand, like a big box retailer, from whom I recently purchased a box of legal pads – you know, those yellow lined pads that we write on at work – and they wanted me to give them a review. I was like, “Oh hey, let me stop everything and give you a review.” Then probably the worst offender that I saw during that time period was the email that I received from a clothing retailer. The headline on the email was “Staycay is better than vacay,” and they were advertising a 40% off friends and family sale. This is anything but a staycation, people. We are sheltering in place. This is for the safety of all humanity at this point. Don't make light of the situation. On the flipside, like the example that I gave you of the ski gear retailer that sent me that great message, I've also seen incredible efforts from brands, big and small, to be helpful. I have a really good friend who owns a chain of ecofriendly dry cleaners, and if you think about it, dry cleaners are not doing really well during this time, are they? It's considered an essential service, but since we're working from home – I don't know about you, I don't know what you're wearing, but I'm doing what I call the “business mullet,” where I'm wearing business gear on top and I've got workout pants on the bottom. It's business on top, party on the bottom. We're just not wearing dry clean-only clothes. He called me in a little bit of a panic and he was like, “I think my business is going to completely tank.” I said, “Let's think about this for a minute.” He's an ecofriendly dry cleaner. He also has a network of vans and drivers – it's a pickup and delivery service. They come to your house, they get your stuff. I said, “Everybody's working from home in their day pajamas, and they make the transition to the night pajamas later, so they're not doing dry cleaning of their clothes.” However, I work in my dining room and I have a set of really hideous, very dirty drapes. I said, “Do you guys dry clean drapes?” He was like, “Yes, I do.” I said, “You know what? It sounds like a time for you to educate people on the household items in your home that, while you're working from home and looking at them for 24 hours a day, you might think about getting cleaned, to have a cleaner, healthier home.” I said, “How can you be the arbiter of helpful content? You're an ecofriendly dry cleaner. How can you be the arbiter of content that is cool, that's helpful content about how you can keep your home clean during this time that you're sheltering in place with products that you have around the house that are also ecofriendly? How can you also provide helpful, useful content to people while they're working from home? Nobody sees more business casual clothing than the dry cleaner. How can you, in a fun and uplifting and elevating way, create some content for your immediate community showing them the best and worst of Zoom fashion?” Just to bridge the gap with content. This time is bringing out the best and the worst in people. Don't send the email that's the “We are in this together,” and God forbid, please don't use any of those words that I used in my parody email. Make sure that you're being authentic and sincere to your brand. What you do as a brand during this time is going to define you, more so than what you say. This is a time for people to take action. Thank you for listening to my TED talk. ROB: Oh, it's fantastic. To take action, to give, and to rethink. If a dry cleaner can rethink their business for this time, then so can any of us. I know, Deb, you're certainly not the only one with the “business mullet.” You might've seen this – I saw Walmart said that their sales of shirts are up and their sales of pants are down. DEB: Yes. [laughs] I love it. It's amazing. ROB: It's pretty universal. Deb, when people want to get more from you, when they want to see what you're doing – you mentioned all of this content you're putting around your brand, all these different tools that you're putting out into the world – where should people go to find those things? DEB: People should go to debgabor.com. All the things are there, including the webinar series, which we're adding new webinars every day. These are open and available to the public. Like I said, I'm bringing on a bunch of really, really interesting experts. Our focus really is just to help people. Nobody gets paid for this. I have experts in my network, and I'm helping them connect with people and share their expertise to help other people. There's ways to get in touch with me. You can send emails to me via the site. I'm on all the social media stuff as Deb Gabor. You can find me. I love to hear from people. If you hear this and you're like, “Wow, what you said, I really like it” or “What you said, it's complete B.S.,” I want to hear from you. I love to talk to people. I'm an extrovert, so this time of sheltering in place is really hard for me. So please, connect with me. Please, please love me. ROB: [laughs] Fantastic. Yes, I am in that boat with you of severe cabin fever. DEB: [laughs] Yep. ROB: Thank you for coming on the podcast, Deb. You've given a lot today. It sounds like you have an absolute ton more to give. I hope people will seek you out, and hopefully next year we can actually connect in person in Austin, Texas for South by Southwest. DEB: Yeah, I hope so. Thank you. ROB: All right, thanks, Deb. DEB: Take care. Bye bye. ROB: Thank you for listening. The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast is presented by Converge. Converge helps digital marketing agencies and brands automate their reporting so they can be more profitable, accurate, and responsive. To learn more about how Converge can automate your marketing reporting, email info@convergehq.com, or visit us on the web at convergehq.com.

How many marketing segments does your company have? Do you have the groups then separated by industry and role? Do you feel like your head is spinning with the amount of different segments you have? What if you could prioritize your marketing and branding efforts towards one ideal customer? A Global Keynote Speaker, Bestselling Author, and the CEO and Founder of Sol Marketing, Deb Gabor, challenges marketers to break free of the mindset that their brand is for several different segments and to grasp the notion that their brand is best suited for one ideal human being archetype.   Takeaways: Instead of dividing your audience into segments, multiply the amount of your best customer, by pinpointing who that ideal customer is. To help identify your ideal customer, start by looking at your company's reports. Identify the companies with the best client retention, customer lifetime value, and relationship with your business. Then dig deeper into the people that are at those companies. When you have a clear illustration of who your ideal customer is, you can look at new prospects and see how they compare. Can you see any pieces of your ideal customer in them? "Your brand is the magnet that is designed to attract human beings that share values and beliefs that are aligned with your own." - Deb Gabor Brands do not often tell people what they need to know, they will show you. What is your brand showing people? Brands form interpersonal relationships with their customers. To create irrational loyalty with the brand, a business needs to deposit into their customer's emotional bank account. The brand needs to set expectations, align values, deliver on those expectations, and then provide value to the customer's life. Make your brand indispensable to your customer. Ask, how can I add value to their life? What are they trying to accomplish? What are their hopes and dreams? Career Advice from Deb Gabor: Do not waste your time trying to be something that is not true to you, to please someone else. Know yourself and pursue your passion.   Links: Website: https://debgabor.com/ Sol Marketing: https://www.solmarketing.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgabor/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/deb_sol Irrational Loyalty: https://irrationalloyalty.com/ Branding is Sex: https://brandingissex.com/   Busted Myths: Segment marketing is dead. - For a brand to try and reach all of these different segmented groups of people is a waste of the company's resources. A company should focus on their one ideal customer that is aimed at a human being archetype that shares the same values as the business.   Ways to Tune In: iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hard-corps-marketing-show/id1338838763 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1vVLpNI1LssMTiL6Kdsamn Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-hard-corps-marketing-show YouTube - Full video (https://youtu.be/wgwfunyz18M)

Deb Gabor is the CEO and Founder of Sol Marketing, she helps brands scale their content and helps create brand loyalty, Ami Kassar is the CEO and Founder of MultiFunding and a nationally renowned small business advocate and leader, and Anita Cabell is the Founder of Leading Edge and has been in the Chinese market for the last 18-plus years as a Scaling Up Coach.   Since we’re living in a different world right now, Bill thought it was important to bring on the perspective of different coaches around the world to get their thoughts and insights on what is happening currently. As some of us have been hit really hard and had to lay off some people, others are dealing with a lot of overwhelm, our coaches today have some important insights on how they’re helping their clients through this pandemic.   What is working and not working in the world of online Zoom meetings right now? Deb tried to replicate the office scenario where she’d just randomly pop into meetings and see how everyone was doing, but she realized she had to stop doing this as it was creating a lot of anxiety for her team. Another piece that she’s been struggling with is eye contact. Who is she supposed to be looking at?   One of Ami’s friends had to cancel their son’s bar mitzvah, but they decided to host it on Zoom instead. It was an experience he’d never forget. They made the best out of an awful situation and 40 of their closest friends were able to attend from around the world. For Ami, it seemed a lot more intimate and meaningful than being in a synagogue.   Anita is experiencing something similar. As all of her family is from different parts of the world, it offered a rare time for their entire family to tune in and be together on Zoom. She also understands Deb’s perspective on having to be a little more ‘on’ and experiencing much more fatigue than normal while being on a Zoom meeting. People are overwhelmed with everything we’re throwing at them.   Bill, Deb, Ami, and Anita continue their discussion on what they’re currently seeing with online collaboration tools with their clients and how well they’re working as well as reflecting on how much time they’re saving on travel and being able to be home and connect with their families.   Interview Links: Debgabor.com Deb on LinkedIn Multifunding.com Ami on LinkedIn Leadingedgebusinesscoaching.com Anita on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube  

How should brands be managing their messaging at this sensitive time, expressing empathy without overdoing it? Deb Gabor, CEO of brand strategy consultancy Sol Marketing, has led brand and crisis strategy engagements for Dell, Microsoft, HomeAway and others. She discusses brand messaging do's and don't's in the days of COVID-19. The post How to Effectively Managing Your Brand Messaging in a National Crisis appeared first on Multichannel Merchant.

"Leading Expert" doesn't come close to describing Deb Gabor's passion for brands. More accurate? Brand Guru. Brand Impresario. Brand Evangelist. She's written the book on branding (twice!) with bestsellers Branding is Sex and Irrational Loyalty. She's the founder and CEO of Sol Marketing, a strategy-led marketing firm obsessed with solving major business and marketing problems for clients in every industry. Companies throughout the world use Deb’s Brand Values Pyramid, Ideal Customer Archetype, and “Brand Swagger Questions” to align their teams and articulate their brands to audiences. Deb and her team at Sol Marketing have introduced her revolutionary brand strategy for organizations ranging from international household names like Allrecipes, The Associated Press, Dell, Microsoft, NBC Universal, NPR, NTT Data, and Siemens, to exciting emerging brands like hint water and Indagare. And she agreed to share her knowledge with you Sharks on today's show. We discuss her inspiring story, darkest day, and of course- 3 tactics you can take back into your company to build your brand. Click here to connect with Deb

Welcome homies to another great week of Weed To Know Basis! Today we are throwing it back a bit to the Green Seed Texas Event we had here in San Antonio. We wanted to highlight Deb Gabor, the founder of Sol Marketing. She is a master of marketing and not to mention getting her clients laid. Listen up and you'll see what I mean. Deb is a powerhouse and her knowledge in marketing will amaze you. CONNECT WITH DEB HERE: www.debgabor.com https://www.solmarketing.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgabor https://twitter.com/deb_sol https://www.instagram.com/deb.gabor FOR HER BOOKS: Branding Is Sex https://amzn.to/2lQCIjL Irrational Loyalty https://amzn.to/33BOksl The US’ Top Rated Cannabis Mastermind. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/2XXy9HO FREE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://bit.ly/2LoB0yL FOLLOW FOR THE LATEST IN THE CANNABIS BUSINESS STARTUP WORLD: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/weedtoknowbasis Twitter - https://twitter.com/WeedToKnowBasis Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/weedtoknowbasis _______________________________________________________________ INTRO MUSIC BY: Rock Angel by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported— CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/K8eRXvLL7Wo

Scaling Up Services is a podcast devoted to helping founders, partners, CEOs, key executives, and managers of service-based businesses scale their companies faster and with less drama. Have each episode delivered to your inbox by subscribing here: http://www.scalingupservices.com/subscribe

It wasn’t exactly the Summer of Love for Chick-fil-A and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. A “chicken sandwich war” erupted in August when Popeyes launched — and quickly sold out of — its chicken sandwich followed by a “Ya’ll good” tweet directed at Chick-fil-A. And the rivalry only intensified when Popeyes mocked Chick-fil-A for promoting National Sandwich Day which fell on a Sunday — when Chick-fil-A locations are closed. After resolving its supply chain issues, Popeyes then used National Sandwich Day to launch the return of its chicken sandwich. This move turned out to be far more than another dig at Chick-fil-A; it was an opportunity to kickstart a conversation about Chick-fil-A’s values, according to Deb Gabor, CEO of brand strategy consultancy, Sol Marketing. In this podcast, we spoke with Gabor about the real battle — a battle of brands — and the competing values of the customers who love them.

This week on SHARK SCHOOL… Failure Is NOT Something to Strive For Scrolling Instagram today I came across a rather interesting caption. As someone with a 43 module online course on how to market and sell using social media, I naturally am keen to paying attention to peoples stories and how they leverage them for their brand. And I read this: "Formula for success: increase your rate of failure. You have to fail to be successful. Like you have to . like you have to drink water to live, you have to fail to be successful. So don’t let fear of failure hold you back because you have to fail if you want to be successful at anything. Its mandatory. Its non negotiable." Thank goodness this did not come from one of my Sharks because I would pick up the phone instantly and discuss with them how their pursuit of failure is ultimately, why they haven’t succeeded. Their model of the world, emphasized failing instead of success around systems and processes. And for that- Todays episode explores this culture we have as a society that I will affectionally call Failure (Expletive). It's a confusing concept to most at first, and yet there are those who really dive into discovering what it is and how it can be used to bring them closer to the people they love and the business they want. If you are confused at first, recognize that the confusion means you want to learn and that by owning it, you are already learning. In true Shark School style, we explain all of the different interpretations and HOW you can apply some of the methodologies and principles to your every day life immediately. Cuz if you can't apply this stuff, what's the point?! Here were the exercise questions: 1. Think of the last time you considered you failed. 2. Can you remember a specific time? 3. As you go back to that time, I want you to hear what you heard, see what you saw, feel what you felt in the moment you knew you failed. 4. Now, pause. Think of someone who is succeeding at exactly the thing you want to succeed it. What did they do that you did not? 5. Specifically, what did they do, how did they respond, what actions did they take, what sacrifices did they make? 6. And are you committed to doing the exact same thing? Special mentions: Homegirl Deb Gabor, founder of Sol Marketing, 2x best selling author and branding genius

Conversation with Deb Gabor, the CEO of SOL Marketing, an expert in brand strategy, and the author of the bestselling book, “Branding is Sex”.

Today's interview is with Deb Gabor. Deb is a leading brand strategist, CEO of Sol Marketing, and author of Branding is Sex: Get Your Customers Laid and Sell the Hell Out of Anything. She shares her incredibly successful methodology for building long-lasting brands that withstand the fluctuations of the market. With critical focus on knowing your customer, she reveals why brands that have bonded emotionally with their customers are among the strongest and create “irrational loyalty.”“Branding comes from your customers,” says Gabor. “Your brand lives in your customers’ needs and desires, as well as their perceptions of and connection to you. Branding is not an inside-out activity; it’s an outside-in activity. In others words, real branding comes down to getting inside your customers’ heads and then working inward from there.”In our interview, we discuss:Leadership branding and examples from 2017 and 2018 where company blunders from CEO’s cost them and what to do to recoverWhy your customers own your brand and not youHow the best brands in the world get their customers “laid” and why that mattersHow to show up and articulate your value ANDThe amazonification of the worldResources Mentioned In The EpisodeSol Marketing: www.solmarketing.comBranding is Sex: Get Your Customers Laid and Sell the Hell Out of Anything: https://www.amazon.com/Branding-Sex-Your-Customers-Anything-ebook/dp/B01GH62GDY See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Deb Gabor is the author of Branding is Sex: Get Your Customers Laid and Sell the Hell Out of Anything. She is the founder of Sol Marketing which has led brand strategy engagements for organizations ranging from international household names like Dell, Microsoft, and NBC Universal, to digital winners like Allrecipes, Cheezburger, HomeAway and RetailMeNot, and dozens of early-stage tech and digital media titans. Watch my Celebrity interviews on my YouTube Channel! Go here> https://goo.gl/EA9x6D Connect with Bert Martinez on Facebook. Connect with Bert Martinez on Twitter.

The best brands in the world make you feel sexy, invincible, and like a hero — and you can be just like them! When you start thinking about yourself and your business as a brand, it can open up all kinds of opportunities that you may have never seen before. Find out how to develop ‘the best brand in the world’ on this week’s episode.   Deb Gabor is the Founder and CEO of Sol Marketing. She is a brand dominatrix and investor pitch whisperer. At Sol Marketing, Deb has helped develop brand strategy for household names like Dell, Microsoft, and Goldman Sachs, just to name a few. Deb is also the author of the bestselling book, Branding is Sex.   After trying to become a doctor, Deb found herself being really, really bad at medical school. She decided to switch fields and study communication instead. While still in college, Procter and Gamble came to her school and she helped launch a test product called Fruitopia. This sparked a huge interest for Deb on the research involved as to why someone would buy a product. There are so many other drinks to choose from, what’s the person’s story and why would they pick this drink out of all others?   The best, most sustainable brands in the world are the ones who can create and convey a vision for the future and deliver on that promise. The biggest disruptions in business models tend to happen outside of the given industry. For example, big food innovations and disruptions that are happening right now are not coming from within the grocery market and food producer industry.   When it comes to branding, it comes down to a breaking point of “Brand or be branded.” You don’t own your brand, your customers own your brand. Your brand technically has two parts: The identity and the image.   The brand image is the part the customer owns. It’s their reflection back on you; it’s their perceptions and relationship with you. Most importantly, it’s their immediate experience with you. The brand identity is the part you own and control. It is how you show up. It is how you make promises and deliver on those promises to those you are serving. You have to manage both in order to deliver effective messaging. If you fail in these two areas, you leave your brand up to the control of your customers, and this can lead to broken brand promises.   Interview Links: Brandingissex.com Solmarketing.com 8hourbrand.com   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Website Gazelles Website Bill on YouTube    

Deb Gabor was born to brand. She is the founder and brand dominatrix of Sol Marketing in  a brand strategy consultancy obsessed with building winning brands. Since 2003, the Sol Marketing team has led brand strategy engagements for organizations ranging from international household names like Dell, Microsoft, and NBC Universal, to digital winners like Allrecipes, Cheezburger, HomeAway and RetailMeNot, and dozens of early-stage tech and digital media titans. Francis Jackson  is an attorney who specializes in disability law for those seeking veterans disability benefits and social security disability benefits.  A founding partner of Jackson & MacNichol, he has been featured on NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX network affiliates around the country.   Connect with Bert Martinez on Facebook. Connect with Bert Martinez on Twitter. Need help with your business? Contact Bert Martinez. Have Bert Martinez speak at your event!

Welcome to this episode of the Real Fast Results podcast!  Deb Gabor is the special guest, and she is here to offer advice on branding for authors, publishers, and content creators.  Deb is the founder and brand dominatrix of Sol Marketing, which is a brand strategy consultancy that is obsessed with building winning brands. Since 2003, the Sol Marketing team has led brand strategy engagements for organizations ranging from international household names like Dell, Microsoft, and NBCUniversal to digital winners like Allrecipes, Cheezburger, HomeAway, and RetailMeNot as well as dozens of early-stage tech and digital media tycoons.  Deb has thorough expertise in thinking through and setting up a brand that will continue to sell you today, tomorrow, and well into the future. Promise: DIY Framework for Building Your Brand What I promise people today is that in the next 20-25 minutes, we are going through the “branding is sex” methodology that’s covered in my book, Branding is Sex: Get Your Customer Laid and Sell the Hell Out of Anything.  We’re going to go through that, and I’m going to give everybody a pretty easy and practical DIY framework for building the strategic underpinnings of your brand. Download the Complete PDF Show Notes Free for this Episode So, a lot of people think of a brand as the visual representation, or how a brand actually articulates itself in the marketplace, such as how it shows up, like what color it is, what kind of logo it uses, and what kind of personality it uses.  A brand is so much more than that, and before we go on and I explain how to do it, you have to buy into the idea that: [bctt tweet="A brand is a strategic relationship that you have with your customers. " username="danielhall"] This is true whether you are a small business owner or you work for one of those big corporations, like those mentioned before.  Even if you are an individual publisher, content creator, or a writer, and also if you are just trying to market yourself to find a job, this is true for you as well.  You are a brand, whether you like it or not.   Learn A brand has two parts Relationships in branding Your ideal customer "Brand Swagger" 3 important questions to ask yourself when branding Brand values pyramid The best content in the world is stuff that brings the audience into the story Self-expressive benefits How to make your customer the hero in his own story Download the Complete PDF Show Notes Free for this Episode Connecting with Deb I would love it if people would just email me directly.  I’m Deb@solmarketing.com.  You can find me on Twitter.  I’m @Deb_sol on Twitter.  Also, go check out BrandingisSex.com.  You can link back to my company’s page from there, and you’ll find a bunch of different places where you can buy my book.  In fact, you can go there and download a free chapter to try it before you buy.  You can also communicate with me through that website, or at SOLMarketing.com. Real Fast Results Community If you are diggin’ on this stuff and really love what we’re doing here at Real Fast Results, would you please do me a favor? Head on over to iTunes, and make sure that you subscribe to this show, download it, and rate & review it. That would be an awesome thing. Of course, we also want to know your results. Please share those results with us at http://www.realfastresults.com/results. As always, go make results happen!

Segment 1: Deb Gabor was born to brand. She is the founder and brand dominatrix of Sol Marketing, a brand strategy consultancy obsessed with building winning brand and author of Branding is Sex: Get Your Customers Laid and Sell the Hell Out of Anything.Segment 2: Jackie Huba is author of four best-selling books, including three on customer loyalty. Her book Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics was hailed by Publishers Weekly as “a thought-provoking, well-executed look at one of the biggest music sensations of this generation”.Segment 3: Randall Bell, PhD is a socio-Economist, keynote speaker, best-selling author and the expert in Success Research. He is the author of Me We Do Be: The Four Cornerstones of Success. He consulted on the World Trade Center, the Flight 93 Crash Site, the BP Oil Spill, Hurricane Katrina and the O.J. Simpson cases.Segment 4: Brendan Walsh is the Executive Vice President of American Express Global Commercial Payments. He is responsible for acquisition, growth and retention of small, middle market and large market companies in the U.S.Segment 5: Dan Walton is passionate about making tools to empower creators and communicators. He has created Cast.market that enables podcasters and potential sponsors to explorer the podcast landscape and track any show's popularity across time and geographic region. Sponsored by Nextiva.

Tom Hopkins carries the standard as a master sales trainer and is recognized as the world's leading authority on selling techniques and salesmanship. Over 5 million people on five continents have attended Tom's high-energy live seminars. Maria Burns Ortiz is co-founder and CEO of 7 Generation Games, where they make video games that teach math and incorporate history. She's also a New York Times best selling author, having written the book "My Fight/Your Fight" with Ronda Rousey, and was an award-winning journalist before making the jump to the tech startup world. AnnMaria De Mars is president and co-founder of 7 Generation Games, an educational technology startup making games that teach math, social studies, English and Spanish. She is also a world judo champion, making her probably the only person who is a literal coding ninja. Deb Gabor Deb Gabor was born to brand. She is the founder and brand dominatrix of Sol Marketing, a brand strategy consultancy obsessed with building winning brands. Since 2003, the Sol Marketing team has led brand strategy engagements for organizations ranging from international household names like Dell, Microsoft, and NBC Universal, to digital winners like Allrecipes, Cheezburger, HomeAway and RetailMeNot, and dozens of early-stage tech and digital media titans. Connect with Bert Martinez on Facebook. Connect with Bert Martinez on Twitter. Need help with your business? Contact Bert Martinez. Have Bert Martinez speak at your event!

Butterflies of Wisdom is a podcast where we want to share your story. We want to share your wisdom if you have a small business if you are an author or a Doctor, or whatever you are. With a disability or not, we want to share your story to inspire others. To learn more about Butterflies of Wisdom visit http://butterfliesofwisdom.weebly.com/ Be sure to FOLLOW this programhttps://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wins-women-of-wisdom/id1060801905. To learn how Win walk and about Ekso go to http://www.bridgingbionics.org/, or email Amanda Boxtel atamanda@bridgingbionics.org.   On Butterflies of Wisdom today, JC (Host) and Best-Selling Author, Win C (Co-Host) welcomes Deb Gabor. Deb was born to brand. She is an author of the bestselling book Branding is Sex. Get Your Customer Laid and Sell the Hell Out of Anything and founder and brand dominatrix of Sol Marketing, a brand strategy consultancy obsessed with building winning brands. Since 2003, the Sol Marketing team has led brand strategy engagements for organizations ranging from international household names like Dell, Microsoft, and NBC Universal, to digital winners like Allrecipes, Cheezburger, HomeAway and RetailMeNot, and dozens of early-stage tech and digital media titans. ThroughInvestorpitches.com, a division of Sol Marketing, hundreds of startup founders have benefited from Deb’s wizardry for crafting pitches that entice investors to open their wallets to the tune of up to $85 million. A displaced Midwesterner, Deb’s current home base is Austin, Texas, where she enjoys 300-plus days of the sunshine and the best barbeque west of the Mississippi. You can reach Deb and the Sol team at SolMarketing.com and InvestorPitches.com. To learn more about Deb visithttp://www.brandingissex.com/. To learn more about Win Kelly Charles visithttps://wincharles.wix.com/win-charles. To follow Win on Twitter go to @winkellycharles. Please send feedback to Win by email her at winwwow@gmail.com, or go to http://survey.libsyn.com/winwisdom and http://survey.libsyn.com/thebutterfly. To be on the show please fill out the intake athttp://www.bit.ly/bowpodcast. Butterflies of Wisdom sponsored by Brought to you by Dr. Kelly, aka The FitShrink, who offers 1-on-1 and group wellness coaching for people of all abilities. She makes the psychology of wellness easy! You can learn more about her at fitshrink.com. The code will be XOBUTTERFLIES. To learn about the magic of Siri go to https://www.udemy.com/writing-a-book-using-siri/?utm_campaign=email&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email. If you want to donate Butterflies of Wisdom, please send a PayPal donation to aspenrosearts@gmail.com oraspenwin@gmail.com. Please send a check in the mail so 100% goes to Bridging Bionics Foundation.    In the Memo section have people write: In honor of Win Charles.    Send to:  Bridging Bionics Foundation  PO Box 3767 Basalt, CO 81621   Thank you Win  

Yup, you read the title right. This is the episode where our guest teaches us about BDSM- why brand domination strategy matters that is! Sorry, didn’t mean to shock you there, but in the spirit of this week’s guest we just had to. Because our guest, Deb Gabor, is the founder and Brand Dominatrix of Sol Marketing, a brand strategy consultancy obsessed with building winning brands. Guys, she’s awesome, so awesome that after talking with her for five minutes Jeff proclaimed them best friends. Here's the post it note he wrote to prove it.  Jeff wrote this about Deb during the first five minutes of recording. And you're going to want to be her best friend too after listening to this episode. Friends, Deb gets incredibly honest with us. She talks about her passion and compulsion to make other people's businesses better. She talks about her inability to slow down. She talks about how her daughter helped her become a role model in her career. There's so much that happened, you just gotta listen.  SHOW DETAILS Running time: 42:51 Subscribe on iTunes and leave us a review SHOW NOTES How Deb uses tech: Deb is no tech novice. In fact, she’s had every i-thingy there has ever been. Although she’s an early adopter, Deb’s more interested in the value that technology brings to her life rather than the flashiness of the gadget. For Deb, technology allows her to do things that she otherwise couldn't do without it, and to free up headspace to do the things she's really passionate about like building brands. Essentially, Deb uses tech as a facilitator to make other things happen. Tech makes Deb's life easier, so she can make other's lives easier. And she sets boundaries. Deb tries to keep notifications from oppressing her and monopolizing her time. Most importantly, Deb has learned not to let technology stand in the way of a good relationship with a human being. What she wishes she’d learned earlier: Slow the FUCK down. One thing you should go do today: Read Deb's book – Branding is Sex Apps in her Dock: Phone, Email, Chrome, & Snapchat One app she can’t live without: Trello Last Social Media left standing: Facebook One book you should read: Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout Desired Superpower: Temporary wobbly puddle of goo (so she can slow down for 15 minutes at a time) ADDITIONAL NOTES Deb's Basics of Branding: Your brand can't exist without your customers. Your brand can't be about you, it has to be about them. The questions to answer to get your mini MBA in branding: What does it say about someone that they use this? What is it that we do that singularly solves a problem for someone? Everyone wants to be the hero in the story of their life. How does your brand make someone a hero? CONNECT WITH JEFF Email Jeff: jeff@truevoicemedia.com @JGibbard on Twitter Jeff on Facebook Jeff on Linkedin(make sure to introduce yourself) Jeff on Instagram Jeff on Snapchat CONNECT WITH DEB Email Deb: deb@solmarketing.com Deb's w

Yup, you read the title right. This is the episode where our guest teaches us about BDSM- why brand domination strategy matters that is! Sorry, didn't mean to shock you there, but in the spirit of this week's guest we just had to. Because our guest, Deb Gabor, is the founder and Brand Dominatrix of Sol Marketing, a brand strategy consultancy obsessed with building winning brands. Guys, she's awesome, so awesome that after talking with her for five minutes Jeff proclaimed them best friends. Here's the post it note he wrote to prove it.  Jeff wrote this about Deb during the first five minutes of recording. And you're going to want to be her best friend too after listening to this episode. Friends, Deb gets incredibly honest with us. She talks about her passion and compulsion to make other people's businesses better. She talks about her inability to slow down. She talks about how her daughter helped her become a role model in her career. There's so much that happened, you just gotta listen.  SHOW DETAILS Running time: 42:51 Subscribe on iTunes and leave us a review SHOW NOTES How Deb uses tech: Deb is no tech novice. In fact, she's had every i-thingy there has ever been. Although she's an early adopter, Deb's more interested in the value that technology brings to her life rather than the flashiness of the gadget. For Deb, technology allows her to do things that she otherwise couldn't do without it, and to free up headspace to do the things she's really passionate about like building brands. Essentially, Deb uses tech as a facilitator to make other things happen. Tech makes Deb's life easier, so she can make other's lives easier. And she sets boundaries. Deb tries to keep notifications from oppressing her and monopolizing her time. Most importantly, Deb has learned not to let technology stand in the way of a good relationship with a human being. What she wishes she'd learned earlier: Slow the FUCK down. One thing you should go do today: Read Deb's book - Branding is Sex Apps in her Dock: Phone, Email, Chrome, & Snapchat One app she can't live without: Trello Last Social Media left standing: Facebook One book you should read: Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout Desired Superpower: Temporary wobbly puddle of goo (so she can slow down for 15 minutes at a time) ADDITIONAL NOTES Deb's Basics of Branding: Your brand can't exist without your customers. Your brand can't be about you, it has to be about them. The questions to answer to get your mini MBA in branding: What does it say about someone that they use this? What is it that we do that singularly solves a problem for someone? Everyone wants to be the hero in the story of their life. How does your brand make someone a hero? CONNECT WITH JEFF Email Jeff: jeff@truevoicemedia.com @JGibbard on Twitter Jeff on Facebook Jeff on Linkedin(make sure to introduce yourself) Jeff on Instagram Jeff on Snapchat CONNECT WITH DEB Email Deb: deb@solmarketing.com Deb's website Deb's book: Branding is Sex @deb_sol on Twitter Deb on LinkedIn SPECIAL THANKS TO Caroline, our Producer. Thanks for everything you do to make this show happen. Ray, our Audio Engineer. Thanks for cleaning up our voices and adding all that sexy production value. Oprah. Even though you're already the Oprah of podcasting, can't we be too?

IN THIS EPISODE: of Rise & Grind, episode 44 we chat with Deb Gabor. Deb is a brand dominatrix (branding expert) and investor pitch whisperer with legendarily bad travel karma (she had way too many bad travel experiences). In her capacity as Sol Marketing's strategic and spiritual leader, Deb has led brand research and strategy engagements for organizations ranging from international household names to venture-funded startups. First of all this episode or Deb's new book: "Branding is Sex" have no sexual or vulgar language, it was just a provocative way of calling marketers' attention of how branding can indeed be compared to sex. This episode was a hybrid one, a mix of a branding masterclass as Deb is a branding expert with decades of experience working with huge corporations as well as with early stage companies and a "normal" episode as we also talked about her entrepreneurial experience with Sol Marketing, a marketing agency she started in 2003 and she still runs helping many companies with their branding strategy. Another awesome thing Deb does is helping startups refine their investor pitches to get funding when they need it the most. Listen now to this amazing interview with Deb Gabor. WHAT WILL YOU LEARN: How Branding can be compared to Sex What is The Brand Pyramide What is a customer archetype and a brand archetype What branding exercises you should perform and how often LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS INTERVIEW Sol Marketing - Get your free chapter of Deb's book on this website Investorpitches Branding is Sex - Deb's new amazing book Deb on Twitter FIREBOLT ROUND Favorite Business Book: Positioning Favorite online tool: Waze Somebody you admire and follow: Richard Branson Knowing what you know now and If you wanted or had to start a new business today, what would you do?:"I would start a business in the online real estate/renting sector, I have an idea in that sector." Motivational quote?: “If you are going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?: “Nobody cares why you didn't do it or what you do. Nobody cares about you. Do more than anyone asks you. Work hard. In one sentence: If you are going through hell, keep going." Thanks so much for listening! Do you guys have any question about this interview? Or any question? Please comment below! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Also, please leave an honest review for Rise and Grind on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are very helpful and greatly appreciated! And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. And please share the word with your friends to help the show grow! Till next episode, keep grinding!

“It’s brand or be branded.” That’s the ultimatum that Deb Gabor presented this week on the On Brand podcast. The founder and CEO of Sol Marketing and author of the new bestselling book Branding Is Sex explained that if you aren’t talking to your customers, finding out what’s important to them, and making that a part of your brand story, you run the risk of being branded by them. She discussed all of this on the On Brand podcast. About Deb Gabor Deb Gabor is the founder and CEO of Sol Marketing. Deb Gabor was born to brand. Deb is a brand dominatrix and investor pitch whisperer with legendarily bad travel karma. In her capacity as Sol’s strategic and spiritual leader, Deb has led research engagements and brand strategy development for organizations ranging from international household names like Dell, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and NBC Universal, to digital winners like Allrecipes, Cheezburger and Rentpath, to well-loved Austin icons like Austin Ventures, KUT/KUTX, ZACH Theatre, HomeAway, RetailMeNot, The University of Texas at Austin and St. Edward’s University. Deb is author of the bestselling book, Branding is Sex. Get Your Customer Laid and Sell the Hell Out of Anything. Before starting Sol Marketing in 2003, Deb was Senior Vice President at Citigate Cunningham, a strategic communication firm serving technology digital media and financial brands around the world. Prior to that, Deb was the managing director of brand research and strategy at IntelliQuest. Before crossing the chasm to agency work, Deb worked in house as a brand manager and marketing manager at several high tech companies in the Chicago area. Deb is a proud member of the Austin chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organization and serves on the board as Learning Chair. Additionally, she has served on the board of directors of the Jewish Community Association of Austin and Austin Children’s Theatre, and on the ZACH Theater board’s marketing committee. Episode Highlights So what does it mean to be ‘born to brand.’ “The legendary basketball coach John Wooden said that he was ‘born to coach.’ He ‘couldn’t not coach.’ That’s how he sees the world. Brands are how I see the world. They exist in the hearts and minds of our customers.” Deb’s definition of a brand? “It’s the sum total of all relationships, connections, and emotions around a person or organization.” The Deb Gabor Mini MBA in Branding. “It comes down to three questions — (1) What does using your brand or your product allow the customer to say about themselves? (2) What single thing do you do better than anyone else? (3) How do you make your customer the hero of your story? Brands that do this — that make people feel — will win today.” Brand storytelling vs. the story of your brand. Deb reminded us that while brand storytelling — an extension of content marketing — is very big right now, it’s not the same thing as telling the story of your brand. “The story of your brand is one that your customer is the hero of.” Deb shared how Zappos does this masterfully. Beware of the ‘-ers’ and ‘-ity.’ These word extensions can be dangerous as they focus less on emotions and more on attributes that can ultimately be copied. Smaller, faster, lighter. You have to be more than this as a brand. What brand has made Deb smile recently? As someone with “legendarily bad travel karma,” Deb notes that her recent experiences with Jet Blue have made her smile recently. To learn more about Deb, check out Sol Marketing, Branding Is Sex (the book’s website), andfollow Deb on Twitter. As We Wrap … Before we go, I want to flip the microphone around to our community … Recently Josh Krakauer of Sculpt right here in Iowa City gave a shoutout to our episode featuring Daryl Weber, author of Brand Seduction. Thanks for listening Molly! Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show. Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. Remember – On Brand is brought to you by my new book — Get Scrappy: Smarter Digital Marketing for Businesses Big and Small. Order now at Amazon and check out GetScrappyBook.com for special offers and extras. And finally a reminder that On Brand is brought to you by the Social Brand Forum. This premier digital marketing experience takes place September 22-23 in beautiful Iowa City, Iowa. Learn from experts like Jay Baer, Joe Pulizzi, and Gini Dietrtich in the heart of the heartland. Listeners of the show get the best rate when they register using promo code ONBRAND at socialbrandforum.com. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet!