#Authentic Branding

[selfdiscoverymedia]

 BB24-16. Rachel Lee & Artistic Branding

Building a business with Sara Troy and her guest Rachel Lee, on air from April 16th  Join us for an insightful conversation with Rachel Lee as she shares about her journey as an artist, designer and creative entrepreneur. As a recovering people-pleaser, Rachel spent most of her earlier years being the version of her that everyone else wanted to see — in school, in work and in her earlier years…

[blaksheepcreative]

🔥 Ooohhhweee, this one might sting! 🐝 Are your bold marketing claims really hitting the mark, or are they just missing the bullseye? 🎯 We're unpacking the pitfalls of claiming to be the "Nation's #1" when it might not resonate with your local crowd. Dive into our latest piece where we reveal the true power of authentic and targeted marketing strategies. 🎩✨ Don't get caught in the overconfidence trap - read on to make sure your brand stands out for all the right reasons! #MarketingTips #SEOStrategy #LocalSEO #BrandGrowth 👉 https://blaksheepcreative.com/digital-marketing/overconfidence-in-marketing-claims/

[sarahboyerdigiexpert]

The Power of Employee Influencers: Revolutionizing Brand Advocacy

In the dynamic marketing world, a new trend is taking center stage: the rise of employee influencers. These individuals are not just employees but powerful advocates for the brands they work for. This article delves into how employee influencers are reshaping the landscape of brand advocacy, offering unique insights and strategies for leveraging this phenomenon to its fullest potential.

The Rise of Employee Influencers

Employee influencers are a breed apart. They combine their brand with their employer's, creating an authentic and relatable synergy. Unlike traditional influencers, they offer an inside view, building trust and credibility among their audience.

Why Employee Influencers Matter

Authenticity: They offer genuine, relatable insights into a company's culture and products.

Trust: Audiences tend to trust employee recommendations more than traditional advertising.

Extended Reach: Employees amplify brand messages, reaching diverse and broad audiences.

Enhanced Employee Engagement: Employees feel more connected and valued, improving workplace morale and productivity.

How to Cultivate Employee Influencers

Create a Supportive Environment: Encourage sharing, provide training, and recognize efforts.

Leverage Social Media Platforms: Utilize platforms where your employees are most active.

Provide Quality Content: Equip your employees with high-quality, shareable content.

Measure and Optimize: Track metrics and adjust strategies accordingly.

Best Practices for Employee Influencers

Maintain Authenticity: Keep messages genuine and aligned with personal and brand values.

Encourage a Mix of Content: Balance promotional content with personal, relatable posts.

Stay Compliant: Ensure all activities adhere to industry regulations and company policies.

Foster Community Engagement: Encourage interactions and build a community around the brand.

FAQs

What makes an effective employee influencer?

An effective employee influencer is authentic, relatable, and knowledgeable about their company's products and culture.

How do employee influencers differ from traditional influencers?

Employee influencers offer an insider's perspective, often making their advocacy more relatable and trustworthy.

Can small businesses benefit from employee influencers?

Absolutely. Employee influencers can be effective in companies of any size, offering a cost-effective way to enhance brand advocacy.

The power of employee influencers in brand advocacy is undeniable. By leveraging their authenticity and trustworthiness, companies can significantly enhance their brand's visibility and credibility. As this trend continues to grow, businesses increasingly need to understand and effectively implement employee influencer strategies.

[cuubism]

saw a post the other day, can't remember if it was tumblr or reddit, but it was like 'picky eaters are always characterized as only eating fries and chicken nuggets. what about us picky eaters who only like things like sushi and tiramisu, we exist'

anyway that's human dream

[elderwisp]

◁ || ▷ now playing

Gabriel: Find anything good? 

Theo: Nah, a lot of the newer stuff is kinda blegh. 

Gabriel: We could always look at those cool picture books with birds. I like those. 

Theo: Of course you would like the picture books.

Gabriel: No shame. 

Theo: He likes to drink milk with his bedtime stories.

Gabriel: Oh so you got jokes?

Theo: Plenty. Hilarious ones too. 

Gabriel: [ snickers ] Maybe you should be a comedian. 

Theo: If dancing doesn’t work out, I just might.

Gabriel: I mean, hypothetically, what would happen if things didn’t work out?

Theo: Oh I’d simply be devastated. No, things have to work out.

Gabriel: I mean, you always got family to fall back on, no?

Theo: Well, that would be my last option.

Gabriel: Huh.

-

Gabriel: You cool with your family, Theo?

Theo: Hm? Oh yeah. Everything’s normal.

Gabriel: Normal’s such a unique concept because what’s normal to me, might be the complete opposite for you. 

Theo: I dunno. A lot of concepts don’t make sense, you know? 

Gabriel: So it’s better to not ask questions.

Theo: You might not like the answer.

Gabriel: Try me.

Theo: I- [ sighs ] Things were fine, then they weren’t. It always starts that way. My parents are close-minded folk and they couldn’t stand the idea that their kid didn’t want to conform. I’m good now.

Gabriel: I see. 

Theo: Things need to work out for me here, Gabriel.

Gabriel: So let’s make sure of it, yeah?

Theo: Deal.

[sparxwrites]

i've decided that the difference between Grian Weird and Joe Weird is that, like. okay. let's say they're both given two points and asked to draw the most direct line between them that they can.

grian is given this task and immediately goes "what is the Most Irritating way i can partially comply with this whilst also being a problem" and draws this weird meandering wiggle to vex the taskmaster.

whereas joe looks at it and, in all earnest helpfulness, says "oh, that's easy!" and draws a fucking spiral.

[shadystranger]

the switch from worry for sam to appealing.. oh he knows how to fuck him up so perfectly tailored for him

[batsplat]

jorge martin is just an off-brand motogp version of george russell. both incredible qualifiers, hard racers, have issues sometimes keeping their tyres together, have stayed in a satellite/backmarker team for three years begging the big manufacturer to accept them into the main fold and will randomly decide that they are actually done with race by beefing it into the gravel/walls on the last laps.

this is why ducati did not hire martin, he hasn’t done the power point presentation

strong last line but hm... do I agree with this...

I don't entirely disagree with the profile of racer, though jorge's a bit more in the flame bright and early mould (partly also just because of the different rhythms of those two racing series). he cut his teeth not just on being an exceptional qualifier but also a starter. even though this year, you do kinda have to say pecco's just?? uh?? he's never been a BAD starter but I swear he didn't used to be this good? some of his starts from the second or third row this year have been genuine works of art. this isn't relevant, just needed to mention it. that's part of why jorge does so well at sprints... he's really good at that abbreviated format, where it's just all out from the very start. mr russell was considered quite a poor starter in his williams days (though lbr that may have partly been car characteristics) - the qualifying's very strong and very consistent, but for a while the question was of capitalising off the line. he's got a few more drives that are about working his way through the field... like qatar last year. I just don't really associate jorge with that?

the bottling thing is debatable and we could get into that debate, but like, never mind that. we're leaving sports analysis now and getting back into vibes territory. the thing about jorge is that he has had a competitive bike from the word go. mr russell, whatever you think about how clutch he is or isn't, did not set a foot wrong in terms of making the mercedes case for himself. what happened with him was basically just... a series of unfortunate events that got him stuck in a spectacularly uncompetitive car for three years. got one shot in a good car in said three years (sakhir 2020) and delivered the perfect performance. but jorge!! jorge had 2022!! he blew it!! he did get unlucky with the gp22 vs the gp21 comparison early that season and how bastianini was able to take advantage of the early stage factory spec malaise, and he's far from the only gp22 who was struggling early on (cf one 'pecco bagnaia'). but still, some of his rides that year were. truly horrendous. and the way the whole thing played out left him with a massive chip on the shoulder.... that's the thing, right, I think what's so key about jorge is that sense of grievance, the fact that he was rejected for that factory seat and we're now several years on from that. and it's a really thin line between that being a good thing and a bad thing. like, anything that's a potential source of motivation fundamentally can be helpful, right? in 2007, casey showed up at ducati as not their first choice, kinda a stopgap, and also after yamaha had pulled the plug on a potential contract not once but twice. he has spoken again and again how yamaha and honda's behaviour towards him made him want to show them exactly what they were missing out on. he used that! it was good for him as a competitor that he had something to get worked up over! he's done it throughout his career! but on the flip side, if you're so busy feeling victimised that you're kind of already... primed for failure, then you've got a problem. like, if the takeaway is you're probably screwed anyway because you're being sabotaged by the factory, then even if that were true you're fucked before you start competing. you've already lost in your own head, you've made excuses before you've even started. it's a thin line! thinking the world is out to get you can either be a good way to get yourself to going, or it can be a loser mindset

quickly circling back to georgie boy, my main feeling is that they kinda have a different type of malaise. one is an overthinker and the other is at times very much an under-thinker. grussy actually shares the overthinking trait with his fellow 63 more than anyone else... all three kinda have this fun meeting point of a lot of cockiness and a lot of insecurity - they just balance them in other ways. and russell reminds me more of pecco in that kind of... being constantly thrown up against a Big Legacy of someone you admire, being in the shadow of greats and having to make your own name... you're very much part of a succession plan that leaves you with massive shoes to fill... (though admittedly grussy has also gone through the unenviable experience of getting to work closely with his hero and eventually having most of said hero's fans absolutely despise him. can happen, I suppose.) jorge is a bit more baggage-free. he's very much the main character in his own story, not so much faffing about with the narrative implications of all this shit. more straightforward! if jorge wins, it's about him. if he loses, it's also about him. ducati has been his world for the past few years, to the point where he's gotten a bit parochial about the whole thing. early this season, he was talking like - sure, the championship lead is important, BUT this is also giving him power in contract negotiations!! which... yes, that's true, but also that should be way down the order of priorities my man. jorge martin might be the only person in this universe who... genuinely might be more obsessed with beating pecco than marc? like, beating the marc marquez would be great and all, 8x world champion bla bla, but pecco is his personal antagonist! he's known him for years! that's ducati's golden boy! he needs to beat pecco so badly! there's something really fun about a rivalry where it feels like at least one side's feelings towards the other... kinda go beyond a personal relationship, like at a certain point it becomes about what the other guy Represents. jorge isn't worried about legacy and the shoes he's got to fill and can he truly live up to all those expectations as much as he's worried about himself and also occasionally pecco bagnaia

anyway, I've been thinking about the bottling thing... what jorge said about it earlier's been rattling around in my head since I saw the quote

man, it must be really tough, right? like, you don't know why it's happening... it's not just cockiness - though there is an element of someone who's kinda used to bulldozing his way through problems with sheer obstinacy and stubborn self belief (another distinction with the 63's, who are more introspective and prone to self-flagellation following mistakes). but it's also just... you can't figure out why it's such a fundamental shortcoming of your game! today, from the way pecco and also luca (apparently) were talking about it, it seems like there was something noticeable about how jorge was gradually losing a bit in his control and precision as a result of how the tyres were going off, as a sort of precursor of the fatal error. which... well, it's at least a somewhat understandable mistake, because it comes from pressure? it's not just the tyres going off each time - the mugello sprint crash was lap four, jerez was lap ten. but an interesting thing about his big errors this year is that they have all come as a result of serious pressure - as a result of pecco directly behind him in the case of jerez and sachsenring and like... in anticipation of the massive points damage he knew he was probably going to take in mugello. it sounds obvious to say pressure is more likely to generate mistakes, but of course that's not always true of our title contenders! pecco only really wakes up when he's already dug a hole halfway to the centre of the earth - but when he faces actual pressure, his track record is mostly very strong. his biggest howlers this season, portimao + catalunya sprints, both came when he was leading comfortably. martin has also made these pressure-light mistakes in the past, most memorably indonesia last year but... well

one of the most fascinating bits of sports are like... limits and ceilings and how your build-up as an athlete kinda determines what's possible for you. like, sports is sort of where you experiment with notions of fate and inevitability and all that, where you question whether it's possible for anyone to ever really change. is it once a choker, always a choker? if you know that you have this problem, this flaw that is always just there in the background, waiting to be actualised - what can you do? does it give you more or less hope that there's not a clear root cause? how debilitating that must be for confidence too, always knowing that you could cause everything you've worked for to crash down in a moment.... this is where. y'know, the thing with pecco, right, is that he's now gotten to a weird place where psychologically he has to be wary of the mistakes he himself makes - but he knows that he can also bounce back from them. he has that muscle memory, because he's done it before. he chucked it down the road in india and he won the title! jorge did it in thailand and he didn't! and the problem is that it becomes a self-reinforcing cycle of sorts, because even though the margin between the two of them at the end of last year ended up being relatively slim... one of them still won and one of them still lost. which actually means that even though pecco and jorge both have made serious mistakes this year (though pecco's track record is cleaner - in portimao the points punishment didn't quite fit the crime and in the jerez/le mans sprints he was kinda just unlucky), only one of them knows they can do this shit and win the title anyway

and now jorge has an entire summer break to go away and think about that. can be a good thing, get some distance, and it's easy to slip into a run of bad form that you can't escape if there's no interruption. can be an awful thing because you're sitting with your mistakes for weeks on end with no chance to rectify them. I'm naturally a pessimist on the 'can any athlete ever really change' question because life has very much worn me down on this topic over the last few years (aka some sports results made me really sad). but I always want to be optimistic! I want to believe athletes can fix their fatal flaws! I want to believe they can get better at managing their tyres and not folding under pressure. and pressure works weirdly... sometimes it's not really a test of 'mental strength' as much as it is of what kind of in-built margin an athlete has (btw this is my best guess for what goes wrong with martin). sometimes it's beneficial in sharpening the mind and erasing the possibility of you just... not being sufficiently concentrated (which is my best guess for what happens with pecco when he's not being pressured). can you truly get better at dealing with that? or at a certain point, have you already accumulated so much mental scar tissue that you're always going to get in your own way? who knows! maybe we're all doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past forever and ever. who knows

anyway. in response to this ask. I do think it's more a case of 63's aligned in being too stuck in their own head, too concerned with legacy, and walking a very thin line between arrogance and insecurity. all three of them, though, have a bad case of 'coming through the ranks in an era of greats they'll always be disparagingly compared to'. what's new can never be as good as what came before, right? and they're constantly struggling to manage or maybe even overcome basic flaws that seem to be embedded in their make up as competitors... maybe they'll make it, just a little. maybe they never will. but it sure is fun to watch them try!

[sonic-adventure-3]

wait do people know about grind plate heelys. soap shoes are owned by heelys nowadays (acquired about a year or two after sa2 iirc) and they made soap shoes heelys

lookit em!! soap heelys!!!

[karouvas]

The thing about Blue is that compromising her wants and identity as a concept is antithetical to who she is, like she will do it in some areas because she has to as a girl in this world but it’s very against her nature to do it when there aren’t other external barriers.

[cactuslester]

dan is actually SUCH a romantic I didn't expect that

idk if this is in reference to something specific that happened recently lmk if it is, but yeah he really IS

he's got his edgy cynical persona and brand and we love him for it, but he can never really help being a bit of a sap when it really comes down to it

most recent silly example i can think of is him thinking the sims shouldve had an option for evan to lovingly wake dab up lmaooo

and of course there's all of those interviews, archenemies, husbands, 4000 year old tortoises, and so on <3

this is getting slightly off topic but also slightly related, something i find absolutely fascinating is the differences in how dnp navigate these types of things, being romantic and/or being emotionally vulnerable on camera/in print

like had has the edgy cynical aloof "coincidences are just statistics" thing he likes to project, but really it doesn't make much digging to get him to start waffling poetic

but phil has the cheerful optimistic believes in the magic of coincidence thing, but i think he holds a lot of his sappiness and/or emotional vulnerability way closer and way more guarded

there's obviously a lot more complexity to this that we are not privy to and i also cant explain in just a few sentences, but still, it's so interesting how the major/most noteble aspects of their branding and online personas can give a viewer, especially ones who arent insane about them like all are here on this website, an almost opposite impression as to what's really happening

(this also is tangentially related to my thoughts about how dnp navigate the idea and practice of lying, which i also find fascinating, like i think for dan lying is a Bigger thing, like he has a greater urge/need to feel like he is being authentic and honest and a greater want to not lie, but phil sees lying as more of a neutral practice that can be helpful and useful in situations where people just aren't entitled to that information, like i think when dan said "phil doens't care, he's just like like 'i'll fucking lie to anyone'" there was a kernel of truth to that, but this is a longer conversation and i've already made this answer way longer than i expected lmao thank you for humoring me guys)

[skeletalheartattack]

do you have any pets in your life (don't have to be yours i just wanna see aminals..) :0

hi jack :) can you watch this while i go smoke

[thechillstonie]

Don't forget your Mothers, baby's mother and aunts this Easter or Mother's day ✨️💕

[techdriveplay]

How WhistlinDiesel Revolutionized Car Reviews

With automotive content, traditional car reviews have long followed a familiar formula: polished shots of vehicles, technical specifications, and reserved commentary on performance. However, with the rise of platforms like YouTube and social media, this formula has been challenged. One creator who stands out in this shift is WhistlinDiesel. Known for his unconventional and often extreme approach,…

[peachdoxie]

Honestly I probably wouldn't find Taylor Swift nearly so annoying if it weren't for a large contingent of her fans thinking she's hotter shit than what Satan last shat.

[su-angelvicioso]

@the-most-pathetic-edge-marquis I was thinking of your tags about María’s outfit in my art and thought I’d share the inspiration behind it.❤️

In case anyone else was wondering where I got the idea for the outfit I drew for María. It was inspired by the dresses commonly worn in Baile folklórico. María loves dance and she has definitely attended many of the “Ballet Folklórico de México” ensemble concerts.

Because I have the hc that she makes her own clothes, often using old techniques (she learned from the best lol) to stay grounded and close to her culture. I also hc that she made that outfit, inspired by the pretty dresses she’s seen in dance but she gives her outfits a more ‘modern’ twist and added her own sense of style to it. She’s a hot girl, would you expect anything less?

Here are some pics w/sources that visualize the idea:

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Source 4, 5, & 6

Source 7 & 8

Source 9

Source 10.