My first job was cleaning toilets. I lasted two months until I realized I could make more money in one hour mowing lawns than I could scrubbing toilets all day. I quit, printed up some flyers for Jantz Lawns and started knocking on doors. 

I guess that’s the day I discovered I was an entrepreneur. 

Over the years, my career path has meandered — from joining a creative agency out of college that a couple of friends had started (which subsequently cratered in spectacular fashion) to independent consulting to joining a tech startup and moving my family all the way across the country to starting my own company (twice!). 

Looking back, the thread that ties them all together is the excitement of solving difficult challenges together with people. 

I love thorny problems and the messiness and ambiguity of trying to build something that has never existed before. 

As a partner in EBG, I’m able to share my experiences and knowledge with leaders of mid-market companies by helping them to identify and clarify the challenges in front of them, prioritize those challenges, and then design and implement strategies to overcome them whether those are branding, messaging, design, content, or digital marketing. 

I am honored to be the shepherd of the comprehensive Brand Strategy Toolkit available at MarketingMO.com and co-teacher and coach of the 7-month intensive brand strategy cohort. 

In addition to my consulting work with EBG, I serve as the co-founder and CEO of Houston, a digital design, brand, and marketing consulting firm as well as co-founder and CEO of Tillage, a community organization in San Francisco dedicated to building community-first third places in neighborhoods across San Francisco. 

And, in those tiniest gaps of spare time outside of work and family life, you can find me baking fresh sourdough bread, making homemade pasta, or volunteering with California Search & Rescue.

Even the greatest products and ideas required brand strategy and marketing because they required change.  You may have the absolute best and most superior product or service but without a well defined brand strategy it will likely fail to reach its full potential.  

0:01 Every business has a brand. Some brands are intentional and some brands have been assigned to us because we failed to describe and define ourselves to our market.  The question is, does your brand actually represent who you are, what you care about, and what sets you apart in a sea of alternatives. 

0:13 Brand strategy and the science behind it is the most critical aspect of connecting with your market and ultimately making a strong emotional connection with the market you are created to serve. 

0:28 Many businesses tend to make the all to common  fatal mistake of starting with tactics. We do websites, we do email campaigns, we do social media, but it is absent of any real clearly defined brand strategy which is why we are frustrated with the results. 

0:42 And that’s why Jim Sagar developed the Marketing MO Brand Strategy Toolkit.  Marketing MO makes it possible for mid-market businesses to follow the same timeless principles and processes that Fortune 500 companies have been using for years in order to connect with their market.

0:57 The Brand Strategy Toolkit will guide you through the seven distinct movements of brand strategy, which once complete will inform every action you take as it pertains to where you spend money, how you invest, and how you bring your brand and your business

1:17 product service to the market and make a strong emotional connection with the people that you’re designed to serve. A strong and well-developed brand strategy will be the competitive advantage that will determine whether or not you win in the decade to come.

An authentic and clear brand strategy will be a competitive advantage for you not only to attract clients, but in a labor market that is expecting to get even tighter it will be the key difference in attracting the right employees and investors as well.  

Visit marketingmo.com to learn more about the brand strategy toolkit.  Access to the entire platform starts at 500.00/year with an option to join a online Brand Strategy Mastermind hosted by Jamin Jantz.  Use the code NextLevel to get 20% off our first year. 

If you don’t create a comprehensive brand strategy you will be forced to live the brand you have been given.