An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be open and transparent: consumers are increasingly skeptical in this day and age. Creating a believable brand means lifting the curtains and take your customers on a journey behind the scenes. By admitting your customers into the creation stage, they would not only feel more involved in the production but also feel a greater pull towards the product. Being open to answering questions and communicating also shows your audience that the company has nothing to hide, therefore, building a stronger sense of trust.

As part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to interview Xindi Soh.

Xindi Soh is the founder and CEO of By Xindi, a studio offering a complete brand identity and messaging transformation. She prides herself on balancing creativity and data in creating a brand and messaging strategy that helps her clients build their brand authority and increase their profit through organic marketing. She’s taken her clients to multiple 5-figures months by helping them create brands that their target audience trusts and resonates with.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Absolutely! Growing up in a tiny town, I was surrounded by entrepreneurs who broke generational poverty and built a business purely out of their own wit. Despite their successful businesses, the majority of the population were not formally educated so going to a reputable university and joining corporate was always seen as ‘the way out’ or a symbol of success in our society. That was exactly the path I took. I was part of the first generation in my family to experience life across the world. I was also fortunate enough to not only attend one of the top universities in the world but also start employment in one of the top financial services companies in the world. I was living the dream life.

Although I learned major lessons in corporate and had great experiences that will stay with me for the rest of my life, I can’t help but feel a certain itch for more. I started learning about copywriting and thought it would be a cool side hustle. From there, my curiosity led me to learn all about brand strategy and digital marketing. Before I know it, I’m deep in this business thing and I’ve not looked back since!

Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

My mistake — which turned out to be funny in hindsight — is my dancing reels. I’m itching to delete everything! When I first started my business, I did not think about my brand strategy and was blindly following all the trends out there promising me more growth and follower. So, I was projecting an image of me that did not feel like me at all, nor was it an image I envisioned for my brand. I was dancing and acting all sassy and goofy because that was what everyone was doing. It’s funny in hindsight and I gained two big lessons from that mistake — going viral is not a strategy and instead of jumping on what everyone is doing, my focus should be on evergreen messaging instead.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

I believe what makes my company stand out is the core values I infuse my business with. Core values is a term that’s often thrown around in the industry without a full understanding of it. We’ve all heard business coaches and thought leaders highlight the importance of identifying your core values. But what comes out of that is people picking random adjectives that they think would be nice to base their business on. ‘Freedom’ and ‘Respect’ are two popular ones. Instead, I believe that your core values are not values you choose but rather, values that came out of your life experiences.

Therefore, what makes my company stand out to my target audience is the values that I’ve distilled from my life that they can relate to. I often get messages from people saying they choose to work with me because they resonate with my past and my story. They choose to work with me because the way I bring my life experiences into my business evoked an emotional response in them because it reminded them of their own.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

I’m currently working on building a brand and messaging strategy for a power couple. They are individually highly successful in their industry and have decided to join forces in creating an intimate mastermind for entrepreneurs ready to expand their impact. The program they are launching aims to help entrepreneurs tap into their inner self in order to discover their deepest desire and remove any fear or mental obstacles that stops them from reaching their goals.

I think this is a fantastic program because as entrepreneurs, we often focus on the external — what’s the best business model? The best strategy? Although those are so important, we can only go so far without working on our internal self as well. Mindset, fears, limiting beliefs are all subconscious sandbags weighing us down if we do not acknowledge them.

Ok let’s now jump to the core part of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?

So, the easiest way of thinking about it is that product marketing focuses on influencing perceptions of a single product while brand marketing focuses on influencing what people think of the company that sells that product. An example of product marketing is showing consumers how powerful yet portable the iPad Mini is while brand marketing would show consumers how Apple as a company advocates for style, simplicity and innovation.

Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?

One of the biggest misconception business owners have is to that their priority should be marketing and advertising. Understandably so, as these activities have strong links to sales and profit. However, I believe that building a brand should be our number focus as your brand determines the direction of your marketing, advertising and more.

With the amount of competition in the market, consumers are getting increasingly savvy and so, having an amazing product is no longer enough to stand out. Instead, you should build a brand that shows consumers that your business exists for a reason bigger than making profit. As Simon Sinek so famously said, ‘Consumers Do Not Buy What You Do, They Buy Why You Do It’. The goal of a brand is to construct an intangible asset that captures your vision, story and purpose that moves your audience into taking actions. It is a crucial step in earning trust and commitment from the consumers.

Can you share 5 strategies that a company should be doing to build a trusted and believable brand? Please tell us a story or example for each.

1. Reflect on your deeper ‘why’ and build your strategy around that. Consumers want an emotional connection. Having a rock solid foundation grounded in the emotional trigger that inspired you to start your business immediately infuse your company with a higher purpose. This shows your consumers that your focus is beyond profit-making and that you care about making an impact.
2. Tell stories that showcases your core values: now that you’ve identified your deeper ‘why’, it’s time to show the world what you stand for as a brand. Statistics and research are great at building authority, but nothing captures consumers’ attention than the thing we’re hardwire for — stories. Our brains love patterns and stories are easily digestible and recognisable patterns. Finding meaning in stories come naturally to humans. Consumers buy with emotions and justifies with logic. By telling stories, you’re reaching beyond consumers’ logical thinking and into their emotional decision making.
3. Be open and transparent: consumers are increasingly skeptical in this day and age. Creating a believable brand means lifting the curtains and take your customers on a journey behind the scenes. By admitting your customers into the creation stage, they would not only feel more involved in the production but also feel a greater pull towards the product. Being open to answering questions and communicating also shows your audience that the company has nothing to hide, therefore, building a stronger sense of trust.
4. Create trustworthy brand persona: this is a crucial step in building a trusted and believable brand. Building a brand persona injects human characteristics and personality into your company that makes your consumers feel like they’re not dealing with just another faceless entity. Building a brand persona would involve deciding who your brand would be as a human being. Is your brand a fun and witty jester? Or are you a suave and confident ruler? This human side of your brand imbues your customers with an innate sense of confidence that they don’t get when dealing with the rise of large corporate in the last few decades.
5. Stay true to your brand: as a company matures, it’s natural to see changes that comes with growth, whether that’s in the brand attributes or products. As the company expand and evolve, it’s important not to lose sight of the company’s purpose or the deeper ‘why’ when it comes to fostering company culture or brainstorming marketing campaigns.

In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job building a believable and beloved brand. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?

As basic as this example is, I’m constantly amazed by the mass impact Apple has with every launch of their product. Apple’s brand stemmed from their desire to challenge the status quo, to be different. This implies that their brand persona links to the artists and the rebels. And yet, their buyers are made up of people from all walks of life — from a corporate executive who abide by strict rules to a budding artist who seeks to challenge conventions. How do they do it? By understanding their audience to the core and telling stories that evokes the side of them that resonates with the Apple brand. They have built a brand that not only calls innovation and style to mind but also one that inspires their audience to be changemakers. These are all qualities that their audience would love to be associated with. Another sign of Apple’s effective branding? They’ve created a whole group of anti-iOS, Android gang. This is evidence that they stay true to their ‘why’ by taking a stand. They are not afraid of losing sales by staying true to who they are. By taking a stand, you’ll inevitably get opposition but those who stand with you, will be committed to the core.

In advertising, one generally measures success by the number of sales. How does one measure the success of a brand building campaign? Is it similar, is it different?

Measuring the success of brand building campaign is tricky. This is because your brand is an intangible asset associated with how people think of you which is difficult to gain an accurate measurement. Building a brand is also a prolonged process as it requires strict consistency in order to have the message sink into your consumers’ consciousness. On the other hand, advertising directly translates to purchases and sales which can be easily tracked. Having said that, there are some indirect ways of measuring the effectiveness of your brand campaign:

1. Track your social media performance: look at the shift in your analytics. How are people engaging with you? Are they leaving more emotional comments or DMs or are they just sticking to likes? Bearing in mind that emotions aren’t always heavy, it could be something as simple as laughing emojis. Another way to check the efficacy is by looking at how much website traffic is coming from your social media platforms. Lastly, don’t forget other metrics like follower counts, quality of followers (are they your target audience) and how much your content is being shared.
2. Market research: Host a market research and ask people what they think of your brand and what do they associate your brand with. This is helpful as we want to make sure that the message we’re sending as a company is accurately received on the consumers’ end. Asking open ended questions like these can help you deduce what the market thinks of your brand and whether this is a direction your company would like to lean into.

What role does social media play in your branding efforts?

One of the most major roles. To me, social media is one of the best and most accessible way to build a brand. Gone are the days where you have to hire an expensive branding agency and take out a newspaper ad to reach your audience. With social media, your audience is not only a lot easier to reach, but it also brings them closer to us by allowing them to interact with us on an intimate level. Social media is such a great way to open up the doors and show consumers what goes on behind the scenes. It is also a fantastic way to invite consumers into our journey of growth and evolution. I seriously recommend every business be on at least one social media platform if they are serious about building a sustainable brand.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would create a movement that normalises entrepreneurship as a ‘career’ choice. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not for everybody. But I’ve seen way too many people being miserable in different career paths when they’re born to be entrepreneurs. Just because they think being an entrepreneur means you have to have a ground-breaking business idea and loads of capital to back it up. I think the world would be a better place when more people embark on a path that fits their natural strength, and entrepreneurship is one that many people overlooks.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

‘I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. It’s my time and I’m ready for the next step’ — Denise Duffield-Thomas.

With everything in life, it can be frustrating waiting for your efforts to reach an outcome. With businesses especially, we’re often faced with so many choices and decisions. As entrepreneurs, we obviously want to make the best decisions for our companies so it’s easy to spiral into analysis paralysis at every crossroad. When the decisions did not pan out as we hoped, or when we’re in situations where we are not seeing results just yet, we tend to fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others who are more successful or criticise ourselves for not doing more. I believe that no matter what happens, beating ourselves up is not going to solve anything. Easier said than done of course. But that’s why I love this quote. It releases me from the negative thoughts and gives me a sense of calm that allows me to forge on with greater wisdom from the lesson learnt.

We are blessed that very prominent leaders in business and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you would like to have a lunch or breakfast with? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂

I can never say no to Gary Vee. I love how genuine he is and how he’s seriously trying to help others achieve their dreams. He does a great job striking the balance between tough love advice and empathy in the struggles of people he interact with. I truly believe he’s inspiring big changes in the way people think about life and how they actually want to live it. I feel blessed to live in a world where technology gives us access to the wisdom of people like Gary Vee that change the way we approach happiness and fulfilment, and break generational beliefs that might be holding us back.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Instagram: @byxindi

Email: [email protected]

Website: byxindi.com

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.

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Xindi Soh Of By Xindi On Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.