5to9: Succeed By Making People Hate Your Brand

Metadata

  • Type: #talk
  • Speaker: Stephen Gates (Head Design Evangelist @ InVision)
  • Event: 5to9 conference
  • Date: 2020-08-27-Thu
  • Links: 5to9.co, Events 2020
  • Tags: #sideprojects #branding

"Write something people have to pay attention to."

Started a Podcast called The Crazy One which went from hobby to job.

What is a Brand?

  • A visual language is not a brand.
    • It is a manifestation of great thinking. But it is the great thinking that makes the difference.
  • Who are you?
  • What do you stand for? (Brand values)
    • Your audience is not everybody. You need to narrow it down.
  • What makes you different?
    • Why should people care? What value do you offer them?
  • Personal brand: find a balance between recognition and humility.
    • The push and pull between self-importance and self-doubt. At the intersection is the sweet spot.

The Generic Problem

Why Build a brand people hate?

  • Well it's clickbaity and gets people's attention.
  • But it's also because there is so much generic work.
  • We think if we act like everyone else we will be successful. But it doesn't.
  • A brand has to illicit an emotion. ANYTHING. It must make you feel/connect to something.
  • It should be strong enough that those who connect love it, and those who don't hate it.
  • It's not 'be an asshole', it's being strong enough to be memorable and clear enough people can decide if it's for them or not.
  • It's about standing for something.
  • Generic people aren't successful. Generic brands don't get a following.

Personal Brand

  • You are not where you work or where you went to school.
  • Average resumes... what is the point? This is your first introduction to people, not a corporate buzzword competition.

The Work Ethic Problem

  • When you need a brand, it's already too late.
  • Your brand is a living conversation. It will evolve throughout your career.
  • Your work ethic is going to define your success.
  • Work ethic beats talent every time.

How to Get Started

Find your archetype

  • Ground your brand in archetypes of our subconscious.
  • Joseph Campbell's hero's journey archetypes
  • What is your archetype? Mage, Explorer, Philosopher, Artist, etc.?

We are our own biggest blindspots

  • How does the world see you vs how does the world see you? Find the gap
    • Do a card sort of the archetypes and pick two. Which one feels more right? Keep going until you only have one.
    • Have a primary and secondary.
    • Do it twice: once by yourself, once having friends/colleagues/customers do it.

Be Yourself

"Being yourself is one of the courageous and rebellious acts there is."

We often try to create things that we think are palatable to everyone else/world. We start to move our personality closer to what we think that is. This creates the crisis of trust we are currently experiencing. We focus on who we think we are supposed to be and betray who we really are

  1. Be credible --> Be real. Be authentic. You will find an audience with that.
  2. Be creative --> we all are but not once we get in a public/open forum.
  3. Be memorable
  4. Be hated --> it means you are saying something strong enough.

Don't Compare

  • Social media compares our insides to everybody else's outsides (and we're gonna lose every time).
  • Success is only a concept that exists in hindsight. While you're doing it, it feels messy and wrong. Then when it works, it's a success.
  • Embrace the crazy
  • Write down the names of the people's whose opinions matter to you on an index card. All the rest you can listen to, but you don't have to worry about or be afraid of.
  • Everyone is quick to have an opinion and nowhere in sight when it comes to taking a risk.

Further Research

The Crazy One podcast episodes covering this in more depth: 6, 7, 9 61