FINIEN

→ This is post 2 of my Walking The Talk Summer Thursday series: a transparent look behind the scenes of building my product innovation brand in the music space, Toneoptic – a humbling and rewarding experience of me choosing to walk my brand talk ←

Studying Communication Design and having a career as a Creative Director and Brand Strategist, I frequently exhausted my mind during a typical workday, but never my body.

A goal with Toneoptic has always been to produce products locally, in California, regardless of how difficult everyone made it sound (they were right). With our new product, we made that dream come true: Our factory space that also serves as a warehouse.

Every piece of the product is being touched by my hands. Extrusions are cleaned, aluminum parts drilled, and parts trucked from the powder coater to the anodizer. Trucks I learned how to drive, filled brimful with pallets of things I mastered how to pronounce.

Over the past half year, I learned to cherish the balance between physical and mental stimulation and to embrace the new sensation of working hard with my body (which is very different from working out).

When I was done holding a bag of ice in my right hand after tapping (creating screw threads for) 160 pieces of aluminum extrusions today (which will serve as the handles of our new product), I wondered why this pain makes me feel strangely fulfilled. It comes down to a sense of completion that is lacking on a day filled with virtual meetings and e-mails.

I cherish my work of brand identity and strategy, but after handing off a final logo, for example, you won’t see your work in Times Square at that time, for a long time, or perhaps ever. You know you did great work, it is stimulating, but besides an invoice sent and appreciation received by the client, you basically move on to the next project, until a while later, you might start seeing your work being enjoyed in real life.

That bag of ice on my hand, those 160 extrusions that are now tapped, those 200 50-pound boxes I moved to another area in the space, those 1,200 aluminum plates that have now been quality controlled, one at a time, that is something that is real.

It happened. I can see it.

And more so, I can feel it.

Learn more about the Toneoptic brand: toneoptic.com/pages/about
Get notified via e-mail about next week’s post: tinyurl.com/finiennewsletter

Want to hear me talk about something specific in my startup’s journey? Leave a comment or DM me.

→ This is post 1 of my Walking The Talk Summer Thursday series: a weekly post that provides a behind-the-scenes look at me building my product innovation brand in the music space, Toneoptic – a humbling and rewarding experience of me choosing to walk my brand talk while continuing my brand advisory practice ←

At 7:00 AM today, I interviewed the man behind the crazy-successful Parisian downtempo group Gotan Project.

This was not for Hitting The Mark. I did this for Toneoptic, and it is one of many brand marketing strategies I pursue.

When I started Toneoptic, I had to lean into what I knew and the resources I had. After hosting 130+ HTM episodes, I knew how to conduct an interview, create an interesting show, and I had the setup and resources.

But just when you thought this was easy, hold your breath. I set out to talk to icons of the music world, and only those who actually have a record collection, because I wanted to ask about the first record they ever bought and their rarest gems. I wanted it to be a thrill for my listeners.

I relied on personal intros to get the first two episodes of the show (Sound Habit) going. My most connected advisor rejected making intros because big talent seeks money in return, and we were not ready for it, he advised. Not an answer I was ready to accept. That habit I share with many early or innovative startup entrepreneurs; a "no" means "try harder."

So I spent countless evenings researching artists with record collections and DMing one musician after another. I was basically cold calling. Hundreds. It felt strange.

And then it happened. Fred Schneider, the frontman of the B-52s replied, and I got to tape him for episode 3. At that point, I knew it was the beginning of a successful show. Today’s interview with Gotan Project was only the seventh episode I taped because it is still very hard to get the right people on the show, but just like running a startup, it gets easier over time. Along the way, I made friendships and found advisors and collaborators.

I try to navigate diverse musical genres to attract a wide range of fans. It’s a hustle. A fun one. Like most of the hustles you will hear me talk about in this new WTT series.

🎧 Listen to Sound Habit: toneoptic.com/pages/soundhabit
🚨 Receive the full version of these condensed posts via e-mail: tinyurl.com/finiennewsletter
🙋 Want to hear me talk about something specific in my startup’s journey? DM me.

WTH? Isn’t it Thursday? Isn’t it Brand Therapy Thursday time like every week?

Welcome to WTT instead, a series I am starting next week that will take the place of Brand Therapy Thursday this summer.

After many colleagues, advisors, and friends kept pushing me, I finally listened and I will share with you how I am ‘Walking The Talk’ lately by creating my own brand from scratch. It started with a sketch, and I am now funded and a few products down the line and just like many of my clients, trying to make the right decisions day in day out to ensure this brand (toneoptic.com) will thrive.

I will transparently share the crazy, hilarious, difficult, and meaningful tidbits from my double life - the seasoned brand strategist advising brands on how to get it right, and the passionate entrepreneur driving flatbed trucks and trying his darnest to do it right for himself. I feel the pressure, and this may just let me take off some steam.

Welcome to WTT - starting right here and in your inbox (sign up: tinyurl.com/finiennewsletter) next week Thursday, all summer long.

You will laugh, maybe cry, but definitely learn something along this brand journey of another kind.

Missed the last episode of Hitting the Mark?

Tyler Strand co-founded the creative operations platform Air - air.inc a tech company that could easily be seen as a media agency. Air is empowering Creatives in the age of AI, and the entire brand is built on smart brand marketing. The team is putting out all kinds of crazy campaigns that most Creatives wish their agency would let them run, thereby building a bond and a community that reaches far beyond the product.

A fascinating brand, with a name that continues to set the direction even after 8 years in business. Tyler shares his insights on community building and why picking brand marketing versus traditional feature-forward sales was the right path for Air in a highly edutaining episode.

Listen here:
↠ FINIEN — https://loom.ly/7NnJycM
↠ Apple — https://loom.ly/dZ4cuSo
↠ Spotify — https://loom.ly/AKk8gk8
↠ Simplecast — https://loom.ly/aLTDbAI

…or perhaps it is because after navigating a flatbed truck through LA traffic all day, lifting 180 30 lbs boxes for 5 hours straight, and trapping a possum that sneaked into the open gate at your factory you just don’t have the energy for time-wasting decisions 😅 (yes, that was my week last week - running a D2C startup truly is as glorious and easy as they made you believe!)

Introverts doing an extrovert's job.

Social media noise can diminish your optimism and hinder your growth. Focus on when the right ones start reacting in the way your brand’s offering, messaging, positioning, and branding intended. Then you know your brand is on the right track.

How to gain brand authenticity?

"We are like them. We just happen to design, produce, and market a product/service they purchase." – All Great Brands

Getting to the bottom of this is part of building your brand’s platform, which I have helped Founders and C-Suites accomplish over 200 times now through my 8-hour brand strategy sessions.

Once manifested, everyone will feel it, and the founder will be empowered, rather than pushed, to take the stage.

Take AI along with you on a strategic and creative brand odyssey, but make sure it is not the starting point. 🚷