1793 – Breathing life into brands with Fusion Creative Branding’s Deevo Tindall

Josh (00:00:04) - Hey there, thoughtful listener. Would you like consistent and predictable sales activity with no spam and no ads? I'll teach you step by step how to do this, particularly if you're an agency owner, consultant, coach, or B2B service provider. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create more than $10 million in revenue. Just head to up my influence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. You can even chat with me live and I'll see and reply to your messages. Also, don't forget the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for guests. Go to up my influence.com and click on podcast. We'd love to have you. With us right now. Deevo. Tindall. Deevo. You are the founder and CEO of Fusion Creative Branding. You're found on the web at Fusion Creative Branding. Com Deevo. Thank you so much for joining us, Josh.

Deevo (00:01:15) - Thanks for having me. Appreciate the time.

Josh (00:01:16) - Yeah. Give us an overview of your work, who you work with and what you do.

Deevo (00:01:20) - Primarily small businesses and entrepreneurs who have already established themselves or looking to launch a new brand or personal brand development. Anybody who is at a stage where they're trying to either reach a larger audience or better determine who their audience is, and then we help them through a very systematic and strategic approach to figure, figure out all sort of their purpose and their brand strategy and then amplify that through digital media channels, traditional marketing, etc..

Josh (00:01:46) - People don't have this figured out on their own.

Deevo (00:01:48) - There's a lot of people who don't. You'd be surprised. I mean, I took it, took me four companies to figure it out. So no, not yet.

Josh (00:01:56) - So talk about what that process is like, because I think a lot of us like, uh, okay, well, I'm going to start a landscaping company, so I'm going to call it J and K landscaping. And I'm just going to start being a service provider. And you know, I got some good business. But, you know, I think it takes a particular set of skills to be able to really craft brand message.

Josh (00:02:17) - So if you're a business founder hey, cut yourself some slack. Uh, you know, give yourself some grace. You don't have to be an expert in everything. And and branding is one of those things that, you know, having gone through this process a few times with different consultants, I mean, a great branding person just has a way of evoking things that there is no way I would have been able to come up with on my own.

Deevo (00:02:42) - Yeah, you're spot on. And it's interesting. And just because you're a CEO doesn't mean that you know everything about your business or your brand. I mean, that's the whole point. You're sort of a leader of the company. And the impetus is on used to find people who can fill roles that suit them. Instead of trying to be a Swiss Army knife and doing everything yourself. And and one of the things that I discovered early on is in my by my I was my own beta group, that is, I ran my own companies. You know, I'm pretty talented.

Deevo (00:03:05) - I'm good at things, I'm good at multitasking. And I'm, you know, all these different things and, like, I can handle. I'm just going to go into it. But what happened is as your business grows, you sort of reach a stopping point, because if you're the only person in that space doing it, and you're not surrounding yourself with qualified individuals, that can also help you support that, whether it's contractors or your own hires, you end up just sort of hitting a stop gap and not really a ceiling, if you will. And so one of the things I saw was there was a big gap between entrepreneurs and small business owners and their ability to really tell their story in a strategic capacity so that they could reach not only the right audience, but amplify that in a compounding level. As opposed to just sort of talking to everybody at the same time. And I think a lot of people have this idea that if I have a really nice logo and a really nice website and it's a it's not a build it and they will come concept like you have to stay at it.

Deevo (00:03:53) - It's an iterative process. It's an evolving process. And sometimes where you are today in your brand journey is not even close to where you are a year from now. And so yeah, yeah. So staying on the pulse of that and being able to adapt and be flexible and nimble is really important as business owners.

Josh (00:04:09) - Yeah. Um, we just went through this process. So for our own company, you know, it's like during that process of discovering, you know, I had someone that really uncovered a narrative that I'm like, yeah. And that's kind of, you know, and I bet you hear that a lot when you go through and we'll talk about like generally what this process is in just a moment. But, you know, when you go through this discovery process and you know, where we really try to find the brand message and, you know, and hopefully there's a lot of research that goes into that, or at least, you know, kind of market research where we're actually talking to customers or potential customers.

Josh (00:04:45) - We're getting their feedback, we're taking their experience into this, you know. But one of those things that we learned, it was so powerful because it was just kind of an emotional story of our ideal customer, you know, and our ideal customer, what our guy, you know, kind of helped us discover was this message of our client feeling like, at this stage in my business, I shouldn't be having this problem at my age and my level of authority. It's so frustrating that, you know, dot, dot dot. Right. And it's like to me as a founder, I mean, obviously that informed all of our branding and design and that sort of thing. But man, does that give me a huge degree of empathy. When we do what we do and when we figure this out, like it makes decisions in the company so much easier.

Deevo (00:05:35) - Yeah. So sorry. There was a lot. There was a couple of questions I know.

Josh (00:05:38) - Sorry. That was a 20 page question right there.

Josh (00:05:41) - And I don't even think it was really a question. It was just. Oh, I agree.

Deevo (00:05:44) - With everything you said, but what did. Is there something specific you wanted me to respond to in that one?

Josh (00:05:48) - Well, just yeah. Your experience with that, when someone, you know, it's like when you discover these sorts of things, right? The story is not just about how you're going to design your logo or your graphics or your website or your printed materials. Um, these are things that impact your every decision in your business. True or false?

Deevo (00:06:09) - Yeah. No, no.

Josh (00:06:10) - There's a question.

Deevo (00:06:12) - Yeah. So the thing of it is, is branding is it's a multi-pronged approach. And going through a discovery process enables you to have some clarity and some crystallization on what it is that you're actually adding. What is the service that you're bringing to the world? What problem are you solving and getting clarity around that? If you have a team that works with you, it not only gets all of you in alignment on that, so you're all sharing the same brand message.

Deevo (00:06:36) - But then on the other side of the flip side of that, it enables you to speak to a very specific audience that is actually seeking your problem that you're attempting to solve. So what discovery does is it enables you to have this sort of clarity around your vision and your mission and your goals and your objective. And really importantly, what problem do you solve? I think a lot of people don't quite understand. Okay, so I had this really good idea, but I'm not really sure exactly how to connect the dots to the right buyer, first of all. But what's the real problem by solving? What am I hoping to accomplish by bringing this new idea to the table? And how do I reach to that specific audience? And so discovery and having a strategy around that, it works on both sides of the coin. It gives you the CEO and your company clarity, but it also gives your buyer clear resonance when they hear that message like that's they're talking to me, I hear that that's my message intended for me.

Josh (00:07:27) - Are there some ways Deevo that that you would recommend, let's say someone that's they're not working with you yet or, you know, maybe it's a little early or whatever, but, um, things that we can do to be a little bit more intuitive around what we should be communicating, how we should be communicating it, you know, kind of our brand messaging, how how can we start to discover that? I don't know if there's maybe an internal practice or exercise that we can do to get some clarity around that?

Deevo (00:07:54) - Yeah. So a couple of things is it's you want to think about your customer's journey. So if you're communicating with your customer and let's say you're using social media for it, you want to think about who's watching this and what type of audience am I trying to reach. And if you can answer a few questions in your messaging, again, what's my purpose here? AKA your why? You heard that buzzword thrown around everywhere, but what's the purpose here? What what what is it I'm trying to sell? And what offering am I bringing to the table? That's adding some sort of value? What problem I solving? And be very clear on those two pieces.

Deevo (00:08:24) - And then if you're using social media to amplify that message, you should look at it from three different perspectives. Number one, is it lead generation so that you can capture something, right. Because you want to be able to remarket back to these people. And I don't mean spam them. I mean provide value to them, inspire them, educate them, tell a story, just give them a reason to follow your content. And eventually what happens is when you're using in social medias case or any marketing, if you're doing those pieces compellingly and correctly, you start to build trust with this very specific buyer who wants to hear and consume your content. And then how do you nurture them? And then ultimately, how do you convert them into a buyer? And the best way to do that is to have clarity around what value you bring to the table, and then clarity on the message that you're sharing along that customer's journey. Again, it's not just one piece, it's literally everything is how you answer the phones.

Deevo (00:09:12) - It's your website copy. It's your emails that you send out. It's your signature, it's your logo, it's all of the things. And so you have to think about that every single time you touch your customer. Are you telling the same brand message to them so that you can drive the point home of who you are, what you are? Why you are, and what problem you're solving?

Josh (00:09:29) - Yeah. What is it like working with a branding agency? You know, again, I'm a big fan of who, not how. And just, you know, where you can surround yourself with brilliant people who are the best in the world at what they do. But what is that kind of initial process when you start working with someone? Yeah, you know, someone that's not been through that, like, what is that like?

Deevo (00:09:53) - So it's a systematic approach for us. I assume it's probably different for other people. So I'm answering it from my perspective. Yeah. We do a brand discovery as part of every engagement.

Deevo (00:10:01) - I have to understand your brand. If I'm going to promote and work with you as your marketing and and branding partner, which is how we position ourselves, I need to be part of your team. I need to understand what makes you tick. I need to understand what value you're adding. So everything for us. Every engagement begins with a brand discovery audit, if you will, where we pull back the covers with them through a very systematized, somewhat therapeutic, somewhat psychological approach where we analyze everything they're doing from there, what they've had success with to their failures, to the gaps, to the things that they're trying to accomplish, to their competition. And we create a very clear, crystallized picture of all the things that we've talked about so far. And what that does is that enables us to be part of their team and be able to speak their brand and operate within their ethos, and at the same time, it builds trust with them because they see that like, hey, these guys are on my side.

Deevo (00:10:49) - They're here to help build my business. Because in the end, if I'm not succeeding with my clients or if we're not adding value, then you know, we don't have any longevity with that. If they're not succeeding, we're not succeeding. So it's it's a multiple approach.

Josh (00:11:01) - Yeah. And tell me about fusion Creative like the company itself, you know, who are you. You know, what is your team like what's kind of generally the scope of work that you do within branding.

Deevo (00:11:12) - So thank you for asking that. So we do have a pretty cool team. We're not a big, big company. There's ten of us that work here. Um, been very, very specific about the types of talent that I've tried to attract. And because I have, this is my fourth business now that I have stepped into and I've taken something that I've learned from every single element of that. And one of the critical elements I have learned, probably most in my entrepreneurial life, is that it's really critical to surround yourself with talented people and people who will buy drink your Kool-Aid, but buy into the process and understand and get behind it.

Deevo (00:11:42) - And so we have a we have a group of individuals that I have known for for many years now that are part of the process that have been with me and my other companies in some extent, and we've all just sort of evolved along the way.

Josh (00:11:54) - Yeah. On your Deevo, you share some really good stuff on LinkedIn. You know, one of these and this is on your blog as well. You created an article, connect, collaborate and Create Redefining Networking in the Digital Age. Can you tell me maybe just a bit about that concept? And, you know, kind of the value and power of networking, why that's so valuable for you as a leader?

Deevo (00:12:15) - Thank you for asking. I'm actually doing a keynote on that in a couple of weeks. Oh no kidding.

Josh (00:12:18) - Cool.

Deevo (00:12:19) - Yeah. So really for me, that whole idea and it really spawned from the concept of competition. I was asked a question a while back in one of my workshops. I was doing. How did I deal with competition? And, you know, did I see them as a threat and whatnot? And, you know, I think early on in my career, I did see other because I owned a photography studio as well.

Deevo (00:12:36) - I did see like I would see my photography being copied here and there and people taking the exact same post. And I used to think, wow, that's really rude. But then I started realizing there are so many people that need services. What if you can distinguish yourself clearly and articulate what value you bring to the table? There's customers everywhere for you. It's our job to find them. And so I changed my perspective on seeing people as competition more, as really realizing that the way to build your business is through relationships, through collaborations, and through connecting with people. And ultimately what that leads to is the ability to create. And so the whole idea of just like, hey, I'm going to this 5 p.m. networking session, I'm going to get my free beer coupon, and I'm going to sit in my corner and talk to my little circle like I've never really bought into that nonsense. I was just like, there's got to be a better way to do that. And so the whole conversation centers around every single thing you do is networking.

Deevo (00:13:28) - Like this podcast is networking and showing up on other people's shows, or launching your own podcast every time you're driving on the road, your network. I saw it, I told the story the other day. I was in the road and there was this road rage incident going on up above a few lanes up in front of me, and this dude has his car plastered with his business name, but he's like cutting people off and flipping people off. And I'm like, the first thing that pops into my mind. I was like, dude, you were literally committing career suicide right now because everyone is seeing exactly who you are, and if anyone ever needs those services, they're not going to call you. So the whole idea behind connecting, connecting, collaborating and creating is that in every touchpoint of your journey, whether it's the way you answer your phone or how you treat the checkout person at the grocery line, it's connecting like it's literally connecting and networking people. And so what it does is it just it establishes you with this, like all of these different spider legs going out where you're connecting with people and touching on different things and building relationships.

Deevo (00:14:21) - And ultimately the competition will think of you when they need something. So I get leads from photographers all the time, from other branding agencies we do work for because of the relationships that we've built with them. And it's not about competition, it's about community.

Josh (00:14:34) - Yeah. Peter Thiel right. Competition is for losers. You know, the pie is so big. There's an infinite number of customers. So, you know, an abundance mindset I think truly does, you know, is the right tack today. And I was just thinking about that the, you know, the guy with the logos plastered all over his truck, you know, driving like a nincompoop out on the road. And I wonder, you know, in our branding how often we do that or let's say, you know, our marketing, you know, we do that. And I just gotta say, this is my own opinion. But, I mean, if you are engaged in kind of that spammy legions sliding into DMs, doing what all of the amateurs are doing, I think that's kind of like being that, you know, it's it's like being that the guy driving the car and just you're doing your brand damage when that's how you choose to engage with people out there.

Josh (00:15:25) - I don't think people really enjoy being cut off, and I don't think people really enjoy being spammed at like that.

Deevo (00:15:33) - Yeah, you're absolutely right. And there is a more conscientious approach to doing all the things you just said. But if you can change your perspective from buy from me or help me to how can I serve you? And you can be authentic and genuine about that and not just use it as a Trojan horse? I mean, consumers, I mean, you know, this consumers are crazy smart, man, and they have so many choices today. If they're turned off in any way, shape or form, it's subscribe or thumb to the next image. And so and they can really, really I mean, you just touched on it, you can really clearly see through the subterfuge to see if this is genuine or not. And so one of the things that we do, because I do find you said sliding into DMs, I do actually find that to be an effective method. If you can do it from a genuine approach and not just spamming the people and saying buy from me.

Deevo (00:16:17) - So one of the things that we do on LinkedIn is we reach out to people that we think would be. So let me back up once a week. I have a coffee date on LinkedIn, whether virtual or physical, it's I make it my goal to reach out to somebody. I have no agenda whatsoever. It's literally, how can we connect? Is there something that we can do together to help each other's business? And that's the approach I take with my DMs. Is there something I can do? And I can't tell you how many times that has turned into something more promising or compound for me, in the term of referrals, in terms of relationships, I develop friendship with people over podcast where I'm like, they become part of my mastermind now. So if you can just reframe your juxtaposition on, this is why I want to connect with you, because I genuinely want to connect with you as opposed to, hey, this is my Trojan horse, I'm going to sneak in the backside and hopefully you buy something from me.

Deevo (00:17:05) - And I'm like, you, like, I hate that kind of nonsense. Yeah, we've changed that paradigm a bit.

Josh (00:17:09) - Mandeville I don't know if you know what we do, but we need to talk afterwards. Yeah. Eager to brainstorm with you. Um, so your website is fusion creative branding.com to a friend that's been listening to our conversation. They like you. Or maybe they're already kind of in the research. Phase and now they've heard our conversation. What would you recommend they go from here?

Deevo (00:17:30) - Well, after the website hit me up on Instagram. If you want to talk further, you can find me on Instagram or LinkedIn. Uh, and then, uh, we actually have a really cool, if I may plug, we have a really cool branding and marketing blueprint workshop that we do once a month. So that will be coming out in January 4th. And you can find information that on our website. It'll be on LinkedIn shortly. That's the best way to sort of get some information from us or just send me a DM.

Deevo (00:17:51) - I respond to every message I receive. So.

Josh (00:17:54) - Awesome. All right. Again. Fusion creative branding.com Deevo. Tindall, you're the CEO. Deevo. It's been great having you. Great conversation. Thank you so much Josh.

Deevo (00:18:05) - Thanks, man I appreciate the time.

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