Personal branding

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Unpopular opinion alert:

Countless people are posting emotional stories and opinions on social media.

Some observers claim it is these stories’ over-reliance on em-dashes that give them away as being AI-generated – but I disagree.

What gives them away is that these stories tend to be told in a series of one-sentence statements.

What gives them away is their use of anaphora, being the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of several successive sentences, clauses or lines, for emphasis or rhythm.

What gives them away is that these stories tend to be very long, and use “It’s not X, it’s Y” lines, like the one coming up.

This isn’t a complaint. It’s a call to action.

Artificial posts often use lists with three bullets, so I am about to use four – to argue that artifice is not necessarily revealed by the fact that such posts talk about:

an immensely serious subject
an epiphany-inspiring experience
a deeply-held political view
or even someone’s death

What gives them away is that they all purport to express a heartfelt emotion.

One that, we can all tell, did not come from their heart – and so we will not give them ours.

—
I, not AI, wrote this.

Andris Pone, BA, MBA
President
Coin Branding Inc.
andris@coinbranding.com
1 416 560 0928
www.coinbranding.com

Personal branding

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Recently I spoke with someone who struck me as one of the smartest, most competent people I had encountered in a long time.

It was on a Zoom call. I was speaking with the client of a client. I was struck by how decisive and composed she was. She had a formidable yet approachable executive presence.

This impression formed in my mind very quickly – in a matter of less than 60 seconds. At the end of our discussion, which lasted about 15 minutes, I could not resist bringing it up – the fact that what made her communication skills so impressive was that she never, not once, said any of the following:

“like”
“uh”
“um”
“kind of”
“sort of”
“you know”

She smiled, because she knew exactly what I was referring to, because she had already done the work of eliminating these fillers from her speech.

In contrast, I have listened to podcasts in which someone uses fillers more than 100 times in 30 minutes of speaking. Sometimes several times in a single sentence. For many people, this frequency is quite typical of their regular, conversational speech. It can be distracting for the listener, and, especially in a business context, does not reflect well on the speaker’s preparation or knowledge, even though they might be brilliant.

(You know who almost never uses these fillers? Boomers and older. Any theories on why?)

I am totally projecting here, because I use these fillers a lot more than I would like. I am working on it. They really start to fly out of my mouth when I am caught up in the moment and not thinking. But because I am not thinking, how would I really know how often I am blurting them out?

And there is the connection. The people who don’t use fillers – what is going on in their brains in those moments that are not filler-filled? They are taking very short, often imperceptible pauses, and thinking. They are literally being thoughtful.

And that is how being filler-free literally makes you smarter.

—
I, not AI, wrote this.

Andris Pone, BA, MBA
President
Coin Branding Inc.
andris@coinbranding.com
1 416 560 0928
www.coinbranding.com

Advisor branding

Fifteen years ago, when I started helping advisors differentiate their brands, one of them warned me. “You’re going to hit a brick wall, he said. “Because we all do the same thing.”

At the time, I did not know whether he was right or wrong. Turns out, it was the latter.

I have learned that advisors do not do the same thing. It’s true that they do similar things, but they all think differently of what, how and why they do them, and therefore deliver them in a unique way.

The problem is that the great majority of advisors are doing a lacklustre job of communicating their differences. They rely on the same shortlist of language seen in this bingo card. Therefore they:

• do not stand out to the degree possible
• do not give potential new clients the strongest possible reasons to do business with them instead of someone else.
• do not give their audiences the strongest possible reasons to refer them

That said, there is a small minority of champions whose brands really stand out. Coincidentally, many of them have worked with me. Here are just two of them.

Timothy Simpson of BMO
Many advisors talk about excellence. But Tim and team – Team Simpson – have gone the many additional steps of embedding it in every aspect of their business. They have fêted their advisor clients with an annual awards gala, The Evening of Excellence, for 15 consecutive years. They have an ongoing campaign, Portraits in Excellence, in which they shine a spotlight on the excellence of others. They had their brand promise – Let’s make Excellence happen! – before they hired me, and upon interviewing their clients, I realized that it perfectly described their business and should not be touched.

Elke Rubach of Rubach Wealth
I interviewed Elke’s clients to find out what they thought of her, and did not prompt them in any way. Unaided, they were overwhelming in their view that she provides holistic wealth management, something many advisors say, but do not back up. No advisor I have worked with, before or since, has been cited on this dimension with such enthusiasm. And so the brand descriptor we developed for her and her team – Holistic Family Advisors – is spot-on.

Want to play a different game, and get more referrals?
In my online course, Attract for Advisors, I personally show you, step by step, how to define your one-of-a-kind brand in a Brand Foundation and communicate it to the world — so you can solve the Four Advisor Problems and attract more of the referrals, clients, employees, strategic partners and other opportunities you seek.

All in as little as 5 hours.

Learn more about the course, including by taking my free Masterclass, by clicking here.

P.S. More Brand Champions:

Ocean 6 Wealth Advisory: A New World Of Wealth®

Bull Financial: Be Strong at Every Stage®

The Mah Investment Group: Build more with Mah

Integrated Financial Strategies: Let’s find your future®

Curate Wealth: Family is why®

George Dube: Do wonderful things® and Saving the world from tax, one bowtie at a time®

Andrew Sipes: People not product

Barrington Grey: Relationships are the new wealth

Outfitter Financial: Guiding Anglers and Hunters to Wealth and Beyond®

Flourish Family Wealth: Know Thy Wealth, Know Thyself

—
I, not AI, wrote this.
Andris Pone, BA, MBA
President
Coin Branding Inc.
andris@coinbranding.com
1 416 560 0928
www.coinbranding.com

Brand positioning

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Recently I was struck with this juxtaposition at Rexall: Why pay more than quadruple for a bottle of Evian versus – let’s face it – the very same thing right next to it on the shelf?

Mainly, because Evian is from France. If it was from New Jersey, we would not feel quite the same way, or be willing to part with our money with such abandon.

In branding, this is what we call a Reason to Believe. Because it comes from France, we believe that Evian (and Perrier, of course) is sophisticated. Just as we believe that Nike makes the best basketball shoes because LeBron James and Michael Jordan wear them.

The Evian rationalization, it must be said, is not exactly a fringe activity. A recent report advised that 60 bottles of Evian are consumed every five seconds worldwide. That’s approximately 378 million bottles a year. At $4.29 vs. $0.99 a bottle, that’s people collectively paying an annual premium of $1.25 billion for…nothing.

But is it really nothing? Not at all.

Notice that I did not explain why, exactly, Evian’s French origins are the key to its enormously premium pricing. That’s because you already know. That’s how clear and powerful the brand of France is in our minds.

For the record, in connection with water (and many other things), France means at least:

• Fine food and drink
• Clean natural environment
• Quality
• Luxury
• Distinction
• Exceptional taste (by which I mean discernment)

Every time they buy, every purchaser of Evian gets to not just experience these attributes in their minds, but to actually embody these attributes. To be them. And to them, it is very clearly worth it.

All of which begs the question:  What are your Reasons to Believe?

Spoiler alert: You definitely have some. In all likelihood, however, you are not voicing them in an optimally compelling way.

—

I, not AI, wrote this.

Andris Pone, BA, MBA
President
Coin Branding Inc.
andris@coinbranding.com
1 416 560 0928
www.coinbranding.com

Brand positioning

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Recently I posted on LinkedIn about Dunkin’s impending return to Canada, and how Tim’s was sure to counteract it by double-doubling down on its Canadian identity.

Turns out, Canadians are very passionate about this brand. And angry about it, too.

Hence the post’s 90,000 impressions and counting.

Below, for your convenience, you can read the post in its entirety. However, if you want to see all the comments and add your own (which I would love, and will answer), click here for the post on LinkedIn.

Here is a paste of the post:

Dunkin’ is coming back to Canada. Expect Tim’s to double-double down on its Canadian identity.

If you want to make Canadian-ness a vital part of your positioning, you at the very least must use Canadian spelling in your messaging.

Good Canadians will be able to see the obvious spelling mistake in this celebration of a huge moment in Canadian hockey history. Raising the error to the level of blasphemy is that it occurs at a physical and psychological location at the very core of our identity: centre ice.

Tim Hortons’ brand already skates on thin ice, given that it is owned by Restaurant Brands International, a Canadian company approximately 22% owned by an investment vehicle affiliated with Brazilian-founded 3G Capital, which acknowledged in its 2025 Annual Report that “So long as 3G RBH continues to directly or indirectly own a significant amount of voting power, it will continue to be able to strongly influence or effectively control business decisions of RBI.”

It will be fascinating to see how it all plays out. Mark Satov and his team at SATOV Consultants just released some proprietary research on Dunkin’s impending return, and the outlook may not be as dire as some might imagine amid a Canada-US relationship that is highly charged, to say the least, and therefore which could be negative for American entrants which have proudly traded, as Dunkin’s has, upon their American DNA.

—

I, not AI, wrote this.

Andris Pone, BA, MBA
President
Coin Branding Inc.
andris@coinbranding.com
1 416 560 0928
www.coinbranding.com

Brand = culture

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Introducing the one-second, one-word employee engagement test.

In a past hospitality job, decades ago, I remember a colleague explaining to a customer that they were not going to get exactly what they wanted.

My colleague (let’s call him Bob) framed it as an unfortunate result of a decision that “they” – meaning management – had made.

I remember thinking that Bob using “they” – blaming the problem on someone else – was a cop-out. That instead, using “we” would have at least shown he was reasonably engaged with his job.

“We,” of course, is not the highest ground. “I” is.

They – we – I. Consider it an employee engagement continuum.

If your team members are using “they,” they’ve either never bought in to what you’re doing, or have checked out.

If your team is using “we,” they are at least moderately engaged. And yet, “we” should be the minimum standard, because “they” is, well, bad.

All of this came to mind when I was getting my teeth cleaned earlier this month. The hygienist said, “I am going to do such-and-such because I don’t want such-and-such to happen to your teeth.”

She is not the dentist (wow…if there was ever a moment to run, it is your dentist using “they”). She is not the business owner. She is a dental hygienist taking ownership of her clients and I have to tell you, it felt very reassuring. I know that she is totally locked in. So I will go back.

I especially notice the they – we – I continuum at restaurants. When you have a server say, “I have these specials today and I have these beers on tap,” you know you are in the hands of someone highly engaged in what they are doing and willing to take responsibility for the quality of your experience. It is much, much more common for servers to use “we” (or “they” when they are blaming the kitchen).

“I” is heard very rarely indeed.

Some 20 years ago, I was fortunate to do some consulting work for the original owners of beerbistro, a restaurant (still) at the corner of King and Yonge in downtown Toronto. They had a wide and very thoughtfully put-together beer list, the staff were extremely well-educated on beer, and beer was an ingredient in every food item on the menu. Master chef Brian Morin and his team were running a serious restaurant, and the customers were pouring in the door.

Two expressions from that engagement have stuck with me. First was a classic saying of Brian’s: “There’s a great idea in the bottom of every beer.”

This might explain why we drank beer during our meetings. I sipped.

The other expression came from a senior member of his team, who referred to some people – a very small group of people – as having “the hospitality gene.” These people, it was explained to me, are the rare individuals who are born to be in service roles, caring for others.

Most of us experience considerable stress when serving others. These folks experience none. To them it is all a great pleasure. I will never forget the sight of Dougal, who had been a doorman at the Royal York Hotel for more than 40 years when I worked there in the late 90s, giving someone directions for the millionth time, with an enthusiasm that suggested it was the first time he had ever heard the question. THAT is the hospitality gene.

People like Dougal are the people most likely to speak in the language of “I.” At worst, “we.” And “they”? Never.

How to get your team members saying “I”?

This is a complex question, and I am not an HR expert. My contribution from the branding perspective can be this:

Your brand is your culture. They are the same thing. The logic goes like this:

A brand is what people think of you – especially, what you and your team think of yourselves and how you accordingly behave. Thus your brand is your system of beliefs and behaviours, and thus it is your culture.

So follow these three steps:

1
Make ownership a defining feature of your culture by embedding it in your brand foundation (we create them btw), being the written-down elements that define at least your:

Brand Foundation elements
Core purpose — why you do what you do, instead of merely what you do.
Position — how you are genuinely different from other advisors.
Character — how your brand acts, sounds and looks.
Reasons to believe — the proof that you are every bit as exceptional as your brand says you are.

(I am not talking about making actual equity ownership a feature of your brand, although you could do that.)

2
Assuming you are the CEO of the business, give yourself the official or unofficial title of Chief Brand Officer, and accept responsibility for ensuring every day that your team deeply understands the importance of ownership. A simple, crucial thing you can do is to start every team meeting by doing a table read of your brand foundation.

3
Repeat.

P.S. There is more here on the importance of having a brand foundation.

—

I, not AI, wrote this.

Andris Pone, BA, MBA
President
Coin Branding Inc.
andris@coinbranding.com
1 416 560 0928
www.coinbranding.com

Advisor branding

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For years, my work has been getting advisors more, better referrals. So I distilled my coaching into an online course that you can take in as little as 5 hours.

That course, launched in June, is called Attract for Advisors – and I am delighted to tell you it is selling well.

I spent 25 years creating this knowledge and 5 years distilling the very best of it into this course, so advisors can learn and apply it in 5 hours, and attract more and better referrals for many years to come.

All at less than 5% of what they would pay to work with me one-on-one.

Why aren’t advisors getting more, better referrals?
Because they have at least one of The Four Advisor Problems I’ve identified over the past decade-and-a-half:

THE FOUR ADVISOR PROBLEMS

1. Saying what you do instead of why you do it
2. Saying the same thing as other advisors
3. Looking Low Net Worth
4. Being Brand Blind

Solve those problems, get more and better referrals.

Is the course any good?
You may be wondering: Is the course any good? I asked 34-year Sun Life veteran Wayne Miller to be the first person to take it. His feedback was short and sweet:

“The content is exceptional and your delivery is even better.”

You can enrol now (or learn all about The Four Advisor Problems by taking my free Masterclass) by clicking here.

P.S. If I haven’t already worked with you one-on-one, this course could be just what you need – to get more, better referrals.

P.P.S. If you want to see all the nice things people said when the course launched on LinkedIn, click here.

—

I, not AI, wrote this.

Andris Pone, BA, MBA
President
Coin Branding Inc.
andris@coinbranding.com
1 416 560 0928
www.coinbranding.com

Advisor branding

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All advisors think they are different. But the reality is that most have positioned themselves in, and are communicating in, a way that is generic – and don’t realize it. Therefore, they are not attracting nearly the number of great referrals they seek, and they don’t know why.

They are generic because they have one of – and probably all of – The Four Advisor Problems:

THE FOUR ADVISOR PROBLEMS

1. Saying the same thing
   – They sound just like every other advisor.
2. Saying *what* they do, instead of *why* they do it
   – They think they have a unique offer – but alas, are not expressing it.
3. Looking Low Net Worth
   – Their brand looks much more random than they realize.
4. Being Brand Blind
   – They are largely unaware that they have problems 1-3. This, by the way, is normal.

THE BRANDED ADVISOR

The Branded Advisor, on the other hand, lives in a different, referral-rich universe.

They:

1. Express their unique gift
   – Because they have done the (surprisingly easy) work to figure it out.
2. Talk about *why* they do what they do
   – Based upon their one-of-a-kind origin story.
3. Look High Net Worth
   – They look and sound polished, appropriate to the pond in which they swim.
4. Are Brand Aware
   – They have an expert *interpret* what they see in the mirror.

BECOMING BRANDED

How to cross the chasm, become a Branded Advisor, and attract more and better referrals?

You solve the Four Advisor Problems by defining your unique brand — in a way that is actually different — and then using it as the foundation for everything you do.

In other words, you do it by defining your Brand Foundation:

• Core purpose — why you do what you do, instead of merely what you do.
• Position — how you are genuinely different from other advisors.
• Character — how your brand acts, sounds and looks.
• Reasons to believe — the proof that you are every bit as exceptional as your brand says you are.

Then, use your Brand Foundation to guide everything you ever do or say – so the world will understand just how different and valuable you are.

HOW TO GET MORE REFERRALS
In my online course, Attract for Advisors, I personally show you, step by step, how to define your one-of-a-kind brand in a Brand Foundation and communicate it to the world — so you can solve the Four Advisor Problems and attract more of the referrals, clients, employees, strategic partners and other opportunities you seek.

Learn more about the course, including by taking my free Masterclass, by clicking here.

Don’t be a stick figure.

—

I, not AI, wrote this.

Andris Pone, BA, MBA
President
Coin Branding Inc.
andris@coinbranding.com
1 416 560 0928
www.coinbranding.com

Brand positioning

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The essence of branding is being different. Clichés, therefore, are the antithesis of branding.

Some of the clichés I regularly see include claims that a brand:

• Is “making a difference”
• Is doing something “by design”
• Has “revolutionized” or “reinvented” its product, service or industry

It is this last one that is most depressing to see, because it is almost always a sizeable exaggeration. It is also a bummer for the reason that it is lazy, which is the polar opposite of revolutionizing or reinventing.

Angine de Poitrine does not have this problem. They are the band and viral sensation you have already heard about, or are hearing about now for the first of many times.

Earlier this month, they performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. It is not normal for a studio audience to break into cheers at multiple points midway through a band’s performance, but that is exactly what happened. Three times in one song.

Let alone for a band that plays 100% instrumentals and has only two players in it – who do not even speak, except for a few mumbles in a supposedly alien language. They wear absurdist costumes – polka-dot-saturated and reminiscent all at once of papier-maché, busking, and Monty Python. Their oversized outfits raising legitimate questions about how they can even see the instruments they play with extreme technicality in a weird jazz, electronic and progressive chaos that relies on microtones, i.e. the notes *between* the standard notes, thereby sounding somewhat off-pitch.

It results in a “math rock” style and a level of innovation celebrated by admiring and astonished legends including Shania Twain, Dave Grohl, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson (who called the band “exotic and mesmerizing”) and many others – not to mention all corners of the music press.

For its part, Rolling Stone describes Angine de Poitrine (translation: “angina of the chest”) as Spotify’s most viral band, and as having “one of the most fascinating and cataclysmic breakout years in recent Canadian music history.”

You may know that they exploded onto the scene this year after posting, as far as I can tell, a mere three YouTube videos of their playing, which earned them a spot opening for Jack White in Toronto, and now the Tonight Show appearance.

You may know in addition that they are 333-year-old alien time travellers, named Khn and Klek.

Apparently they are also from the Saguenay.

Easy listening this is not. Listening to Angine de Poitrine takes focus, dedication and quite possibly some mid-song breathers.

“This is what I imagined the future of music would be. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”

So says Rick Beato, an incredibly insightful music industry insider and master multi-instrumentalist. He has six million followers on YouTube and has interviewed many music icons including Sting, Billy Joel and Robert Plant.

His POV on the costumes: “Unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

I confess that I really don’t get the music. But here is what I can say with confidence: Angine de Poitrine, starting with their weird name, are an example of the power of truly being different. They can actually say, with a straight face beneath those masks, that they are on the reinvention-revolution axis.

Even their detractors cannot help but be somewhat charmed. By the audacity of this band’s inventiveness and humour. By the virtuosity of their playing in an era of fake (AI-generated) music and even fake artists.

By their transfixing of our attention on something other than the millisecond-by-millisecond news and social cycle that is our prison.

—

I, not AI, wrote this.

Andris Pone, BA, MBA
President
Coin Branding Inc.
andris@coinbranding.com
1 416 560 0928
www.coinbranding.com

Brand naming

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We can learn something from shops that live or die on whether they can get people to pull over.

This summer I took a road trip up through Muskoka, to the shores of Lake Superior as far north as the Wawa Goose, and back home via Manitoulin Island and the ferry to Tobermory.

If you want to disconnect, this is one way to do it. For long stretches of the Trans-Canada Highway west of Sault Ste. Marie – amid the rocky shorelines and dramatic climbs – there is no signal. There are also very few people and cars, and a satisfying lack of sirens and leafblowers.

There are also very few businesses. Driving 50-100km for the next cup of coffee, or gas station or tourist trap, is standard. Of the businesses that are in existence, the great majority are independent – not part of a franchise or chain.

Which is perfect, because independent businesses often have the most creative names, something I – and many other potential customers – cannot help but notice and enjoy.

As in (notice how some are so smart, they require no explanation):

Bracebridge

1. Deli Lama & Buddha’s Bakery and Café

Wawa

1. Off the Hook
   – Fish-and-chip restaurant
2. Krazy Fries
3. Faces of Gitchee Goomee
   – A wooden mask-maker using the Ojibwe name for Lake Superior

Manitoulin Island

1. That’s What Cheese Said
2. The Codmothers
   – Fish and chip restaurant
3. Meat Boss
   – Butcher

Tobermory

1. Tacomory
2. The Hungry Hiker
3. The Net Shed
   – Tourist shop in a fisherman’s former net shed

Why are these great names? Because:

They are memorable.
– They use techniques including puns, alliteration and wordplay to anchor in our minds, making it easier for us to give them our repeat business, and refer them to others.

They are meaningful.
– They give us an immediate sense of the value proposition, and hence whether they are for us.

They are attractive.
– They have an element of fun or intrigue, making us want to check them out.

And why is it that very small businesses tend to have more creative names than larger ones?

Naming by committee, which is the trap that larger (and even some smaller) organizations fall into, can be deadly to creativity. After a certain point, extra voices around the table increase the likelihood that someone with especially poor branding / naming judgement will run the process off the rails. You may recognize this as the Dunning-Kruger effect: a psychological phenomenon in which people with low knowledge or skill in an area may overestimate how competent they are.

An owner-operated business is usually in a better position to avoid all of that.

When deciding upon a name for your business, the stakes are very high. An attractive name – a name that attracts your target audience – can make your life so much easier, and a so-so or bad moniker can repel the very customers you seek – and thereby stunt or kill your business.

I have created attractive brand names for many advisors, and also for corporations including Brookfield, Sun Life, Home Trust, Revera, The National Ballet of Canada, Canadian Tire and more.

Here are some super-short case studies:
Advisor names
Corporate names

—

I, not AI, wrote this.

Andris Pone, BA, MBA
President
Coin Branding Inc.
andris@coinbranding.com
1 416 560 0928
www.coinbranding.com