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Hitting The Mark

Hitting The Mark

Fabian Geyrhalter

Conversations with founders about the intersection of brand clarity and startup success with your host, brand strategist, and author Fabian Geyrhalter.
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Top 10 Hitting The Mark Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Hitting The Mark episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Hitting The Mark for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Hitting The Mark episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Hitting The Mark - von Holzhausen: Vicki von Holzhausen, Founder
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07/30/21 • 41 min

Vicki von Holzhausen utilizes her background as a designer for Audi and Mercedes to innovate on materials that are truly sustainable through her eponymous vegan leather bags and accessory brand.

Vicki and I discuss the weight of her brand promise, The Conscious Code, how she bootstrapped a luxury brand, how she showcases accountability by using her last name as the brand name and so much more.

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Anna Sheffield launched Bing Bang in 2001, and her eponymous fine jewelry brand followed in 2009. Since then, some fine folks you may have heard of like Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Kerry Washington, Helen Mirren, and Charlize Theron came to appreciate her work.

Today we go deep into how Anna created a cult-like following with a brand that was almost created by accident and how creating the actual brand platform just 4 years ago was instrumental to her growth. But, I also take this opportunity to dive into all the questions so many of us have about the industry as a whole: How much in the diamond industry is an upsell? Are lab-grown diamonds really the future? And, I am going a bit witchy, to what extend do reclaimed stones carry the soul of the deceased? Yes, I went there.

Anna was a fascinating guest. If you are an artist who wants to turn their craft into a successful brand, if you are a fan of Anna's work, or even if you are just interested in taking a peek behind the nebulous diamonds industry, this episode is for you.

Learn more about Anna Sheffield Fine Jewelry

Learn more about Bing Bang

Support the show and get on monthly mentorship calls with Fabian. Join here.

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Hitting The Mark - Cameo: Devon Townsend, Co-Founder
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06/21/19 • 23 min

Fabian talks with Devon Townsend who co-founded Cameo, a platform that lets you book personalized video shoutouts from your favorite celebrities. Devon is 28, received 15.8 million in funding, and runs a 60+ employee company that both Howard Stern and Ellen love, and Snoop Dogg fully embodies. As you may imagine, Devon knows a thing or two about creating a brand that people will love, and he is sharing all of it with you on this episode. Dive right in!

I chat with 28-year old Devon Townsend, who quit Microsoft, became a viral Vine comedy star and yet he ended up creating Cameo, a platform that lets you book personalized video shoutouts from your favorite athletes, actors, and entertainers. His 60+ employee strong company, which has received 15.8+ million in funding to date, dispatches over 1,000 videos a day and signed up well over 10,000 celebrities, from Ice-T to Kevin O’Leary and from Charlie Sheen to Snoop Dog who are all happy to send you or your loved ones a personal message anywhere from 5 Dollars up to 2,500 bucks a pop.

Cameo was one of TIME Magazine's 50 Most Genius Companies of 2018 and Devon was named to Inc. Magazine’s 30 Under 30 list this year, yet he is happy to connect with you via e-mail if you have any feedback for him.

Devon and I discuss creating a delightful and transparent brand, the obstacles of naming and how to craft an authentic visual and verbal brand language that people will freak out over and scream and laugh and cry. Yes, all of the above is possible with Cameo.

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Episode 109 brings us Rockwell Shah, the CEO, and N.B. Patil, the Co-Founder & CTO of Ozlo, an innovation startup in the sleep technology space.

All three of Ozlo’s Co-Founders are former Bose veterans and they acquired and licensed assets from Bose to resurrect the discontinued but beloved Sleepbuds.

This episode is a fascinating conversation about building a new brand on existing IP, the fragile tension between what customers say they want and what they actually need, building a brand not on a singular product but a grander vision, how most consumer startups fail because they are not telling the right story, and how branding, in the end, is all about alignment – a simple but deep thought that we are exploring further together today.

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Hitting The Mark - Two Blind Brothers: Brad Manning, Co-Brother
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01/15/21 • 49 min

Brad Manning is one of the Co-Founders, or Co-Brothers as he puts it, of Two Blind Brothers, a mission-based company whose name is telling at least one important part of this brand’s story.

Two Blind Brothers is a NYC-based clothing line that focuses on luxury casual wear. Both founders are affected with a form of macular degeneration and pledge 100% of their profits to medical research to cure blindness. And their brand campaigns and stories are heartfelt and master examples of whip-smart marketing.

In this wonderfully inspiring conversation, we talk about what happens when mission-based brands pivot once their vision is fulfilled, how brands with a deep purpose have an easier time expanding across different product categories, how their ‘shop blind’ strategy is working miracles, how underproduced brand materials often outperform polished ones and above all, if you want to get a master class in authentic brand storytelling, this is it.

And as you know me, we also go a bit off-topic as I was wondering how a great keynote speaker like Brad works a big speech without being able to rely on a confidence monitor. The lesson: Despite being partially blind he has an advantage over those with perfect vision. And that is a key takeaway for those of you living with an impairment. You can follow Brad’s lead and turn that impairment into your superpower.

Learn more about Two Blind Brothers

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Hitting The Mark - Unbound Merino: Dan Demsky, Co-Founder
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11/06/20 • 48 min

If you launch a t-shirt brand in this day and age and you find a way to stand out, you bet I’ll have you on my show. And that is exactly what Dan Demsky did by co-founding a Merino wool clothing brand that is high-performance yet stylish.

Dan was running a Creative Agency but sought to pivot into offering an eCommerce product that allows for scaling instead. That was the goal, then the journey of finding an actual need to built a brand around started.

In this fascinating conversation, we talk about the power of having a very narrow positioning at first, how surrounding yourself with friends that are ambitious is a key to success and how the outrageous claim of being able to wear an Unbound shirt for 18 days without washing it was the right brand move.

Learn more about Unbound Merino

Support the show

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Hitting The Mark - 1 Year Anniversary Special
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10/25/19 • 31 min

There are 782 minutes of combined insights and inspiring journeys we had to edit down to arrive at this 32-minute special, which hones in on 5 key areas:

  • Brands challenging the norm
  • The importance of people – Your tribe and your culture
  • Investors' viewpoints on brand thinking
  • Brand DNA - your brand in one word

And to finish it off, not-to-be-missed brand advice from these successful entrepreneurs and investors that we needed to bring back up front and center.

Show your support for Hitting The Mark, and if you have been listening and have not rated the show yet, please do so wherever you listen to podcasts.

Thank you, and enjoy!

_______________________________________________

Here is who you will be hearing from on this episode:

BRANDS CHALLENGING THE NORM:

3:15 - 5:35 = Liquid Death (Mike Cessario)

5:35 - 7:13 = Wilkmazz (Sam Mazzeo)

7:13 - 8:59 = Antis Roofing (Charles Antis)

8:59 - 10:21 = &Pizza (Michael Lastoria)

10:21 - 13:02 = Charity Water (Scott Harrison)

THE IMPORTANCE OF PEOPLE – YOUR TRIBE AND YOUR CULTURE:

13:37 - 14:11 = The Futur (Chris Do)

14:11 - 14:30 = Double Dutch (Raissa & Joyce de Hass)

14:30 - 14:36 = Journey Meditation (Stephen Sokoler)

14:36 - 15:36 = Parlor Skis (Mark Wallace)

15:36 - 15:49 = Journey Meditation (Stephen Sokoler)

15:49 - 18:18 = &Pizza (Michael Lastoria)

INVESTOR'S VIEWPOINT ON BRANDING:

18:47 - 19:35 = Angel Investor (Frank Demmler)

19:35 - 21:18 = Dormitus Brands (Mark Thomann)

21:18 - 22:26 = New Crop Capital (Chris Kerr)

BRAND DNA – YOUR BRAND IN A SINGLE WORD:

23:23 - 23:29 = The Futur (Chris Do)

23:29 - 23:31 = Rogue Brands (Raaja Nemani)

23:31 - 23:32 = 4th & Heart (Raquel Tavares)

23:32 - 23:34 = Bureo (Ben Kneppers)

23:34 -23:35 = Journey Meditation (Stephen Sokoler)

23:35 - 23:37 = Antis Roofing (Charles Antis)

23:37 - 23:38 = Beboe (Clement Kwan)

23:38 - 23:39 = Idagio (Till Janczukowicz)

23:38 - 23:39 = Charity Water (Scott Harrison)

23:39 - 23:40 = Liquid Death (Mike Cessario)

23:40 - 23:43 = &Pizza (Michael Lastoria)

23:43 - 24:04 = Bureo (Ben Kneppers)

24:04 - 24:35 = Charity Water (Scott Harrison)

24:35 - 25:01 = Idagio (Till Janczukowicz)

25:01 - 25:28 = Beboe (Clement Kwan)

25:28 - 25:53 = Rogue Brands (Raaja Nemani)

NOT-TO-BE-MISSED BRAND ADVICE:

26:26 - 26:46 = Rogue Brands (Raaja Nemani)

26:46 - 27:02 = The Futur (Chris Do)

27:02 - 27:20 = Barrel Bourbon Foods (Matt Jamie)

27:20 - 28:10 = Cameo (Devon Townsend)

28:10 - 28:22 = Tiny Beans (Eddie Geller)

28:23 - 29:23 = Double Dutch (Raissa & Joyce de Hass)

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Hitting The Mark - Fourth & Heart: Raquel Tavares, Founder & CEO
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10/11/19 • 29 min

Fabian sits down with Raquel Tavares, the founder and CEO of Fourth & Heart, an artisanal food brand based in Los Angeles, set on a mission to modernize ancient pantry food staples – starting with a line of grass-fed, flavored, pure spreadable butters known as 'ghee.'

A fascinating story on how to make it in the food business while coming from a marketing background, how to utilize branding to introduce a product in a category unfamiliar to many shoppers, why crafting messaging from your heart is key, and how to juggle family and entrepreneurship.

This marks the beginning of 3 back-to-back episodes featuring female founders. All 3 of these upcoming guests succeeded in an industry with many curve-balls that is hard to make it in: the food industry. And out of sheer co-incidence, 2 of these founders happen to be Brazilian women taking the US food market by storm.

We kick it off with Raquel Tavares, the founder & CEO of Fourth & Heart, who migrated at age six to Northern California with her mother and brother in the early 80’s. She currently lives in Los Angeles and is a mother of two young boys. Raquel is the principal creator of Tava Organics, the parent company of 4th & Heart, which also happens to currently be the 4th fastest growing Food & Bev company in the country.

If this quote by Eckhart Tolle, which appears on the Fourth + Heart web site, speaks to you (as much as it inspired me), then make sure to not miss this episode: "Life isn't as serious as the mind makes it out to be."

Links mentioned:

Fourth & Heart

Fourth & Heart on Instagram

Hitting The Mark Patreon Page

FINIEN Brand Consultancy

Happiness Won

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Hitting The Mark - IDAGIO: Till Janczukowicz, Founder & CEO
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09/13/19 • 48 min

Fabian sits down with Till Janczukowicz, the founder of Berlin-based IDAGIO, which is often described as being the Spotify for classical music.

As the future of music listening is streaming and streaming services aren't designed for classical music, Till is on a mission that is much bigger than his product: to save classical music from extinction in the digital age.

This fascinating conversation shines a light on how to craft exciting and compelling brand messaging and design that works flawlessly to attract audiences of all ages.

Music to me is, and has always been existential. From when I was a little boy growing up with a concertmaster – in many of the world's most famous orchestras – as my dad, in Vienna, and constantly visiting his workplace, the famous Musikverein, to today where I am a music aficionado, an avid vinyl record collector as well as a (fairly amateur) music producer. Music is a passion, or 'addiction' as my wife would say, and a great source of joy for me.

Having Till Janczukowicz on this show was a big personal pleasure. His classical music streaming app, IDAGIO, is constantly running a fine line between catering to the young and the old, the classical novice versus the expert, and it is a fascinating branding game.

Till discusses how classical music, as a brand, was intimidating, and how he and his team are breaking that wall down, out their offices in Berlin, Germany. And how classical music's role and perception in society has changed over the years, and what role technology played in it.

We discuss how to showcase music visually, with all of its nuances, is an extremely difficult task, one that IDAGIO mastered from day one.

So many fascinating takeaways in this conversation, one that struck with me, and that should give you an idea on how deep we are diving into not only the brand discussion, but also the entrepreneurial journey as a whole: "The bigger you grow as a corporation, the more you have to bring things that are on a subconscious level to a conscious level."

A delightful conversation that truly inspired me, and I believe it will do the same for you.

To support this show, please head to Patreon.

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If you think of a roofing company, you think of small businesses that have a hard time staying in business. Lots of competition in a tough service environment with high employee turnover rates and low customer retention. One thing you would not think of is branding.

Fabian sits down with Charles Antis, a founder who has been at it for 30 years. His is not a new brand, nor one that is shockingly innovative or disruptive at all as it relates to the services it provides, but Charles Antis, founder and CEO of Antis Roofing and Waterproofing, has built a brand on the power of good a long time before it became a mainstream business etiquette and to an extent most can only aspire to.

This episode dives into how being empathetic, being adaptive, having high emotional intelligence and being a critical thinker can create a strong culture, a better planet, and an admired brand – even in commodity-type service categories where true brand thinking is rarely even being considered.

This is where Charles Antis comes in, who founded his namesake company Antis Roofing & Waterproofing in 1984 and soon thereafter started to inject it with personality and the stigma that it needed to be bigger than just the service offering he provided. Charles himself turned into a conscious capitalist, who has donated every single roof installation of every single home built by Habitat Orange County since 2009 and was honored with the American Red Cross Corporate Hero Award.

This is the story of a roofer who turned into a leader in corporate social responsibility and who sees himself as a futurist. Charles shares with us how leading with cause will shape an amazing corporate culture (Antis has a 93% employee retention rate) and drive new business, all while giving real meaning to what you do.

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FAQ

How many episodes does Hitting The Mark have?

Hitting The Mark currently has 113 episodes available.

What topics does Hitting The Mark cover?

The podcast is about Branding, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Startups, Podcasts, Brand Strategy, Business and Strategy.

What is the most popular episode on Hitting The Mark?

The episode title 'von Holzhausen: Vicki von Holzhausen, Founder' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Hitting The Mark?

The average episode length on Hitting The Mark is 43 minutes.

How often are episodes of Hitting The Mark released?

Episodes of Hitting The Mark are typically released every 14 days, 3 hours.

When was the first episode of Hitting The Mark?

The first episode of Hitting The Mark was released on Oct 15, 2018.

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