Marketing Executive Merges Personal Brand And...Poop (BrandME Case Study)

You read that headline correctly.

And no, poop is not some clever acronym for something. 

So why would Jared Anders, Director of Marketing for VectorX (not DUDEwipes or anything like that), try to make his personal brand crappy?

Well, it actually started with a personal problem...

Your Personal Brand Should Be...Personal

After years of being a successful marketing executive, Jared was seeking an outlet for his creativity and curiosity.

He enjoyed his job but felt the itch to do something outside of it to express this integral part of who he was.

One day, he was sitting upon his porcelain throne and thought..."I wish there was a podcast that could teach me something quick for times when I'm driving short distances or...otherwise detained."

Eventually, that idea turned into the popular podcast While You Were Pooping. Quick 2-5 minute daily episodes about random things like "Why Dogs Tilt Their Heads" and "Coldest Temperature On Earth". 

If you ever get on the gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, make him your 'phone a friend'. 

He's done over 200+ episodes at the time of writing this and continues to do it because he loves it.

But he started to wonder...is that all this was ever going to be?

The Power Of An Effective AND

After getting lots of visibility from people beyond his inner circle, he had a thought.

"Could I use this professionally somehow?"

Jared and I went through part of the BrandME exercise. 

We discussed the power of your AND when it comes to your brand. It enables you to stand out in a sea of blandness.

A brand-relevant AND turned him from one of thousands of Marketing Directors to an instant one-of-one.

In the collector world, anything with that level of scarcity is valuable.

Case and point—a Cheeto Charizard (yes, that's the unnaturally red chip in the shape of a Pokemon) recently sold for $84,840! 

So if something as pointless as strangely-shaped food (and yes, if I had too much money, I'd have bought it myself) can be considered more valuable than the average person's annual salary...

How much could your personal brand be worth if it was a one-of-one? Or even a one-of-hundred?

So when Jared and I discussed whether or not he should combine the two, the answer was an emphatic YES.

But how do you bridge marketing for a Salesforce-integrator and a podcast named after something all do but don't want to talk about?

And what does that say about Jared?

Connecting The Unconnectable

Jared is active on LinkedIN and posts regularly there.

One thing that's quite "cringe" on that platform is when people try to connect something that shouldn't be connected.

Viral examples such as "what getting engaged taught me about B2B sales" or "how laying off 100 employees hurt me as much as them"...and yes...those happened (see LinkedIN Girlfriend Proposal and Crying CEO). 

In BrandME, we talk about brand values and identities. One that is consistent across Jared's life personally and professionally is "curiosity". 

He's a naturally inquisitive person and asking good questions has served him well in his career.

And while it was a common trait between being a Marketing Executive and hosting his While You Were Pooping podcast, did that mean they needed to be merged?

Not necessarily.

After some brainstorming, we couldn't find a natural way to bridge the two without it coming off...uh, forced.

So we didn't! 

Instead, we decided that if he did videos for his podcast as digital shorts on social media, he should use it as an awareness tool for what he does. 

He could share the interesting facts and have a fun sign-off to tell people who he was and what he did with the last 2 seconds of the video.

"Heyo, I'm Jared and we implement salesforce and software for your business."

That's it. Thousands will see each video and know who he is and what he does.

It's a digital billboard every time he posts.

And I think its safe to say, that when someone eventually needs his services and goes "oh yeah, call that salesforce poop guy", everyone around will know exactly who they're talking about.

And that's the goal!

If you want to see the full workshop and conversation, here it is!