Brand for Good

If you love doing your work more than selling it, you’re in good company. But when sales conversations feel heavy, you may be asking one conversation to accomplish too much. In this episode, I walk through what I call the cycle of engagement: awareness, engagement, and consideration. I share how each phase helps people discover your work, get to know you, and feel comfortable exploring what you of...

A growing business can win awards, attract customers, and still struggle with cash flow. Clayton Tomasino knows because he’s lived it—and he’s willing to share what he learned. In this episode of Brand for Good , I sit down with Clayton, CEO and owner of Scorpion Protective Coatings, a family business serving thousands of small businesses in the automotive industry. Under his leadership, Scorpion...

For many entrepreneurs, growth becomes the ultimate measure of success. More revenue, more employees, more opportunities. But somewhere along the way, you can lose sight of why you started your business in the first place. In this episode of Brand for Good , I’m joined by John Moncrieff, CEO and Head of Community at Small Giants , an organization inspired by the belief that businesses can choose t...

Two years ago, I stopped offering media relations as a standalone service. That decision cost me about half my annual revenue, but it also gave me peace. As publications thinned and expectations for premium placements rose, I became increasingly uncomfortable offering a service whose outcomes I could influence but never guarantee. Eventually, I had to decide what staying aligned with my beliefs wa...

What do you stand for, and do the people who encounter your work actually know? That question has been on my mind since attending Called to Lead , an event hosted by Kelly Roach and Sandi Glandt. What struck me most was not simply that faith was present in the room, but that women with different beliefs were able to gather around a shared idea without requiring everyone to define it in exactly the...

Sales gets a bad reputation, especially among people who care deeply about doing business with integrity. But selling doesn’t have to mean persuading, pressuring, or performing. In this episode of Brand for Good , I explore the relationship between marketing and sales, and why stronger branding, trust and relationship-building make the sales process feel far more natural. I also share what ethical...

In this episode of Brand for Good , I’m sharing another Brand Breakthrough Live coaching session, this time with Seth Diamond, multimedia artist, tech expert, culinary storyteller and creator of Road Feast on Substack. Seth’s background is anything but conventional. His work has spanned technology, photography, video, music, culinary media and production, including experience with America’s Test K...

We often celebrate the independent creator, visionary founder, or entrepreneur who built something from nothing. What we talk about less often is how lonely that experience can be. In this episode of Brand for Good, I’m sharing what seven months on Substack helped me recognize about the difference between having an audience and belonging to a community . An audience may witness our work, but a com...

Brand for Good is turning the spotlight on creators and how they can use Substack to build a personal brand around the full range of who they are and what they create. In this episode, I’m sharing my second Brand Breakthrough Live with Monica A. Leyva, a true unicorn who brings together the intellectual and the creative. Monica writes about healthcare, systems and leadership alongside poetry, pers...

If social media wasn’t essential to growing a successful business, would you still use it? In this episode of Brand for Good, I’m joined by Megan Espinal, founder of Social Reject, a social-media-free marketing agency. Megan believes social media has taken on an outsized role in business, turning what should be one distribution tactic into the foundation of many companies’ marketing strategies. We...

What do you do when everything you’ve created feels true to who you are—but, together, it doesn’t make sense to anyone else? That’s the challenge at the heart of the first episode of Brand Breakthrough Live , my new Substack show where I coach a creator or business owner through a real brand issue—live—so others can learn from the conversation. So many people messaged me after this live that I dec...

Your business may be ready to change—but that doesn’t necessarily mean you need a new brand. In this episode of Brand for Good , I explain the difference between your brand and the current expression of your business. Services, offers, audiences, and delivery models can evolve while the beliefs, values, and reputation at the heart of your brand remain intact. I also share how I’m applying these id...

In the last episode, I shared some of the business advice I no longer believe—including the idea that growth should always be the goal. This week, I’m taking that idea further by sharing how I’m editing the business I’ve spent more than a decade building. I’m not walking away from meaningful work or giving up on ambition. I’m becoming more discerning about what I want my business to require of me...

Brand for Good is entering a new chapter. After 200 episodes and 13 years in business, I’m shifting away from primarily teaching what I know and making more room to share what I’m learning, what I’m questioning, and what I’ve changed my mind about. I want these episodes to feel more personal, more reflective, and more honest about what it actually means to build a business over time. I’m starting...

Two hundred episodes. In this milestone episode of Brand for Good , I’m celebrating episode 200 by bringing together many of the ideas this podcast has explored from the beginning: how to do well while doing good, why clear copy creates clarity and distinction, why PR is essential to brand-building, why influence beats attention, and why earning trust with your market should always be the goal. Bu...

Why does sales feel so hard for so many brilliant, capable, purpose-driven people? In this episode of Brand for Good , I’m continuing the three-part series leading up to episode 200 by exploring the gap between marketing and sales — and why selling becomes easier, more natural, and more effective when it is rooted in mutual trust, shared value, and relationship. In Episode 198, I talked about the...

There is a difference between being known for what you do and actually growing your business. In this episode of Brand for Good , I’m launching a three-part series leading up to episode 200 by exploring the gap between marketing and sales — and why that gap is often really a relationship gap. Over the past year, I’ve talked a lot about building a Category of One Brand through marketing, copywritin...

Strong brands aren’t built from tactics. They’re built on belief. In this first episode of Brand for Good hosted on Substack, I’m sharing the theme behind my Substack column, Brand & Belief , and why I believe the strongest brands begin beneath the surface — before the messaging, before the content, before the campaigns, and before the strategy. After years of working with founders, executives, cr...

In this episode of Brand for Good, I'm talking about the way women are changing networking — moving away from bigger, louder, more performative events and toward experiences that are more intentional, relational, and real. After recently attending an event that got it right, I found myself thinking about what makes a room truly powerful. The big international events may get the headlines, but I be...

What happens when the business you built no longer fits the person you’ve become? In this episode of Brand for Good, I’m talking with Maria Fontana, a two-time bestselling author, entrepreneur, reinvention coach, and private advisor to founders and leaders navigating reinvention, refinement, and exit. Maria brings more than three decades of entrepreneurial experience, a down-to-earth Jersey edge,...

In this episode of Brand for Good, I'm calling out the copycat craze: the growing habit of mimicking other people's content, language, positioning, and creative identity and calling it "inspiration."  To be clear, we are all influenced by other people. That is not the problem. The problem is when influence becomes imitation. When admiration becomes appropriation. When someone borrows another perso...

In this final installment of the five-part Brand Influence Accelerator series, I bring everything together. Over the past four episodes, we explored why visibility alone doesn't create influence, how to choose an authority anchor where your ideas can compound, how to build an authority engine that distributes your thinking, and how trust pathways accelerate credibility. But today is where the real...

In this episode, I'm sharing an adapted version of Day Four of the Brand Influence Accelerator, where we explore the hidden step between visibility and influence: trust.  Many experts believe authority comes from showing up more, posting more, or explaining more. But visibility alone doesn't build authority. Trust does. In today's marketplace, people aren't simply asking, "What does this person kn...

In this episode, I'm taking you inside Day 3 of the Brand Influence Accelerator, where we move from clarity into strategy. If the first two days helped you define what to say and where your authority lives, this conversation answers a different question: Where should you actually show up—and why? Because most entrepreneurs have been taught to be everywhere. And that's exactly what's keeping their...

In this episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of Day 2 of the Brand Influence Accelerator—one of the most important shifts I teach for building real authority. Because here's the truth: most entrepreneurs are creating content… but they're not building authority. They're posting on social media, sharing ideas in fragments, and wondering why their influence isn't growing. But the problem isn't c...