Life On Brand with Keith Tatum

Letters are sexy to us here at Life on Brand so today we are excited to welcome the Type Hunter himself, Keith Tatum. For those of you who don’t know what that is, the Type Hunter Co is an Instagram stream of antique typography from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With over six thousand posts of beautiful lettering and unique advertisements for things from the familiar Bicycle playing cards to German hair tonic, it’s obvious that this passion Keith explored is shared with his over 40,000 followers. At the height of the page’s popularity, Keith decided to shut down the stream and move onto to a new project called Visibility Experiments.

The Type Hunter Co was a passion project Keith started long after becoming a self-taught digital design expert and full-time creative director. With a creative background that combines illustration, interface design, along with high-level director level experience, Keith draws on his skills to shape and improve digital design experiences, while finding a balance within his professional life, his passions, and his personal life. Visible mind mapping is Keith’s current passion project as he now spends a good deal of his free time pursuing ways of exploring the power of pulling ideas out of the brain using visual prompts.

Episode Highlights:

• • 11:18 How as a creative director Keith felt he was getting further and further away from being creative.
  • 17:58 Keith explains he was not trying to actually create a business nor become an overnight success.
  • 20:16  Why at the end of the day business is not always about making money.
  • 24:13 The moment when Keith realized that things were getting a bit bigger than he originally intended and what started to attract brands to Keith’s project.
  • 29:20 How Keith started to share the work being pitched to him and formed partnerships with other designers to whom he then passed the work along.
  • 35:35 What Keith truly dislikes about the design process.
  • 39:19 Why Keith views himself as a “multipotentialite” and why it can be dangerous to think you are meant to only do one thing.
  • 48:25 What it would look like if students had a semester to study the “Art of Exploring your Curiosity and Interests.”
  • 54:59 Keith’s experience in giving up the Type Hunter and how that affected him, his followers, and his social media habits.
  • 1:12:45 The Visibility Experiments and how he found himself starting a new project which involves experiments for seeing thoughts, connecting ideas, pictures and words in order to bring real ideas to light.
  • 1:25:07 How Keith got started with mind maps and his plans to spread the idea to businesses and schools.
  • 1:33:04  We hear about the 100-day mind map challenge Keith has undertaken, his expectations are of the experiment, and his favorite mind map thus far.
  • 1:53:33 Why we should all use mind maps rather than lists!
  • 1:55:00 How Keith defines success.
  • 1:58:04 One thing he would do differently.
  • 2:01:48 What the education system would look like if educators could start to incorporate visual thinking into the classroom
  • 2:03:57 Things that Keith found surprisingly easy and difficult on his journey.
  • 2:11:01 The one musical piece that defines Keith as a person and what he loves about mixing music.
  • 2:19:08 One question Keith wants to ask of other business owners and leaders.

Links and Resources:

The Type Hunter Instagram

Visibility Experiments Instagram

Multipotentialite Ted Talk

The Art of Asking

Life On Brand Webpage

Life On Brand with Patrick Hoban

They always say that the best problem to solve is a problem that you yourself are experiencing. Nobody personifies this better than today’s guest, Patrick Hoban. Patrick is the founder of Probility Physical Therapy, which has multiple locations in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan. Patrick is a truly inspiring individual whose story really shows that if you have a purpose in life you are going to achieve what you want and change lives along the way.

Patrick always knew he wanted to be in the healthcare field but it wasn’t until he was injured in high school that he found his true focus in physical therapy. Patrick talks to us today about his journey, his faith, and what drives him and keeps him focused. He is also going to give us insight into the experience of selling his business after putting many years of his life into the project. We talk to him about his criteria for that sale and how the experience changed him as a leader.

Episode Highlights:

• 2:12 The origins of the name of the Probility Brand.
• 3:26 The length of time and the process of the naming of the brand.
• 6:26 Patrick’s belief regarding marketing your brand to the consumer.
• 7:39 The reasons Patrick and his partners started the business and their ideas for standing out in their field.
• 12:37 Keys to keeping the core values and vision of the brand intact over time.
• 15:33 What made Patrick want to be a physical therapist and the professional journey that led him to start his own business.
• 22:32 Patrick explains the why of his professional path.
• 26:33  How he communicates and educates in a way that his students and patients retain what they are learning long term.
• 29:20  What makes Probility unique.
• 33:05  How Patrick identifies the best people to join the Probility family.  
• 38:28  When and how Patrick identified the need to expand and open other clinics.
• 40:55  The acquisition process and eventual sale of Probility to St. Joseph Medical of Maryland.
• 45:39 How long the acquisition and full integration took.
• 47:04 Ways Patrick dealt with the fears of staff transition and change in the acquisition process.
• 49:26 What Patrick learned from the process. The one absolute that Partick recommends keeping in mind during the any transaction of this type.
• 51:12 The importance of surrounding oneself with people who know what they’re doing.
• 51:54 How Patrick defines success.
• 54:53 Why he rarely experiences doubt.
• 57:37 Things that Patrick found surprisingly easy or difficult in his business journey.
• 1:00:47 The one song that defines Patrick as a person.
• 1:02:52 One question Patrick wants to ask of other business owners and leaders.
• 1:05:06  Patrick’s perfect work environment.

Links and Resources:

http://www.probilitypt.com/probility

Book Recommendations:

The Ideal Team Player

First Break All The Rules

Good to Great

Daring Greatly

The Energy Bus

Difficult Conversations

Contagious Culture

 Plugs:

Rob Doerr (accountant)

Susan Kornfield (attorney)

Brandon Lorenz VP of Operations

Life On Brand Jane Larson

Jane Larson, co-founder of the Sfumato joins us to talk about fragrances and her new scent/cocktail fusion bar. We discuss her story and what its like to be apart of the Detroit entrepreneurial scene. Jane talks co-founders and how the support of the small business community works together to support one another’s successes.

Today’s episode is the story of scent and other senses. We are talking to Jane Larson of the Sfumato fragrance team, whose fragrance brand and new scent/cocktail fusion bar are some of the latest additions to the downtown Detroit entrepreneurial scene. In addition to taking inspiration from Jane’s partnership story, we’ll also be getting insight into the thriving Detroit entrepreneurial spirit, hearing how the small business community works together to represent Detroit and proudly bring it back to prominence.

Started in 2013 by Jane and Kevin Peterson, the Sfumato Fragrance team is not only a business partnership, but it is also a husband and wife team. We are digging into how that works and how the couple is able to turn on and off the business relationship. Their business is unique because while Jane is the eyes and Kevin is the nose, they work together to create these inspired fragrances. While the idea of having a co-founder is appealing, the real trick is to have a co-founder you can work well with to run the business successfully.

Episode Highlights:

• 2:17 How the Sfumato brick and mortar space in downtown Detroit came about.
• 3:48 The story of how Jane and Kevin got their start in the fragrance business.
• 4:45 The starting points for the sales of their new brand.
• 5:20 How the e-commerce portion of the business grew “organically.”
• 6:00 The origins of the business name they adopted.
• 10:08 How Jane and Kevin found themselves becoming entrepreneurs.
• 11:54 The unexpected moment they knew they were onto something.
• 12:14 How the original business and subsequent tiers of the business growth have been a slower process.
• 12:53 Where the couple finds inspiration for the scents and now the cocktails.
• 14:27 The top fragrance that started the whole venture.
• 16:11 How Jane as the artist creates a translation of the scent into something visual that the brand is trying to evoke.
• 17:24 What “all natural” means for scent and what it means to the Sfumato brand.
• 19:19 How their partnership helps grow the business.
• 20:13 Challenges the team faced in getting where they are now.
• 21:55 Tactics for keeping business and personal life separate.
• 23:58 Qualities to look for in a business partner.
• 25:31 How Jane identifies their partners in the fragrance market.
• 26:48 Instances where the product didn’t work in certain collaborations.
• 28:13 Views of building a brick and mortar in Detroit’s growing entrepreneurial scene.
• 29:41 Detroit community programs that were instrumental in getting Sfumata and Castalia off the ground.
• 32:51 How the idea for scent and taste came together for the brand.
• 35:01 What superadditivity is all about and how the phenomenon triggers in your brain.
• 37:07 How Jane defines success.
• 37:39 Moments when doubt crept into the business building process for Jane.
• 39:00 What they found surprisingly challenging when growing the business.
• 39:51 What came more easily than Jane anticipated and what factored into that ease.
• 41:42 One thing Jane would have done differently.
• 42:31 Things the couple never focused on from the start in the playful process of a side gig and how those things have crept up on them as they’ve grown.
• 44:13 The one song that captures the essence of Jane and the business.

Links and Resources:

Sfumato Fragrance
Castalia
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Build Institute
Tech Town Retail Boot Camp
Motor City Match
Detroit Development Fund
Life On Brand Webpage
DM on Instagram

Life On with Brand Logan Nickleson

Welcome to the first episode of the Life On Brand podcast, where we bring you inspiring stories of change-makers and rule-breakers. Mixing business with passion and making a profit are the ideal rewards of a successful venture so we’re here exploring how you CAN achieve success on your own terms.

Today we feature Logan Nickleson, the founder of Music for Makers, a niche product that offers royalty-free music to creatives and entrepreneurs. The unique aspect of Logan’s business is that he composes every piece of music himself. Every single week, Logan finds the inspiration to write a new song to add to his library and offer to his customers without the hassle of royalties and copyrights.

Episode Highlights:

• What made Logan decide that entrepreneurship was the route for him.
• How his digital marketing day job exposed Logan to the entrepreneur mentality.
• What other business ideas Logan came up with before Music for Makers.
• How he knew that his idea had the potential to work.
• Logan takes us through his music background and what led him to become a writer and musician – and what he regrets about his music choices.
• Find out where all the Music for Makers magic happens.
• How this endeavor has changed Logan’s perspective on music.
• Some of the struggles of connecting passion with business.
• What Logan believes about inspiration and where he looks for it.
• The potential obstacles of starting something while working full time.
• What distinguishes Music for Makers from others.
• Logan’s future vision for Music for Makers.
• How Logan defines success.
• One thing that he found surprisingly difficult in starting this venture.
• What he would have done differently.
• What Logan found unexpectedly easy when getting the business up and running.
• The one song or soundtrack captures Logan as a person.

Links and Resources:

Music for Makers
Logan’s LinkedIn
Logan’s Twitter
Lifeonbrand Instagram
Show website

Welcome to Life on Brand with Hien Lam and Matt Hansen, a podcast for change makers and rule breakers who want to succeed on their terms.

This episode is a welcome letter and explanation for why we started the podcast and the inspiration we hope listeners get from it. There are a ton of podcasts out there, but we’ll tell you why you should give your time to focus on living your life “on brand.”

Back in 2015, we started a personal philosophy blog called Chillpill when we realized that although all of the boxes on our checklist of success were checked off, we weren’t any happier or fulfilled for having checked them. We knew there was more to life so we started the Huck Finch branding agency to help great businesses create great brands. We believe it is our path to help businesses put a dent in the world and bring about positive change.

This podcast is an extension of our mission to help others live inspired and balanced lives and craft a life, on brand. We look forward to sharing the stories with you through candid conversations with inspiring entrepreneurs and business owners.
On the podcast, you will:

• 3:35 Hear how even the bigwigs are just like everyone else.
• 3:45 Learn that entrepreneurs often feel stuck.
• 3:56 See that success comes in many shapes and sizes.
• 3:59 Find out that money doesn’t matter if you end up off the mark.
• 4:07 Understand that living life on brand means having a vision for success.
• 4:20 Contemplate what you want to have said at your funeral.
• 4:30 Try to figure out how you can live every day to match your vision.
• 4:52 Hear all about the entrepreneurs we’re interviewing and how they try to live on brand.
• 5:36 Get information on how to get your life or business question on air.
• 6:50 See that the life you want isn’t going to happen by accident.

Links and Resources:

Huck Finch Branding
Chillpill
Life On Brand Webpage