Your brand is one of the most essential assets you’ll ever build. It lives in the hearts and minds of your customers and can make or break your business.
It’s woven through every touchpoint in the customer experience and speaks about your product even when you’re not in the room.

A brand left untamed is like a wild horse—full of energy, magnetic, but unpredictable. It might pop up in unexpected places, maybe even draw attention, but it’s unreliable and chaotic. A wild brand can bring excitement one moment and chaos the next. To transform that raw potential into trust and value, you’ve got to learn to harness it.

Who’s the hero? Where does it happen, and when? Does the hero get the girl by the end of the book?

A great brand doesn’t make the product the hero; it empowers customers to reach their goals. It’s not about attracting everyone—it’s about connecting with those who see themselves in your brand’s values, aspirations, and vision. That’s where differentiation comes in: attracting the right people with a common purpose, dreaming the same dream.

Think about the queues for the latest iPhone, the loyal subscribers, and the fans that fill the concert halls or stadiums: the genuine recommendations, the brand ambassadors, and colleagues talking up your product in the office.

A brand that knows its audience doesn’t just make customers; it makes advocates who wear their loyalty proudly. That’s what happens when you create a brand that’s not only different but deeply relevant.

In the Foundations program, I’ll walk you through the “Three Hurdles” exercise based on what I learned from Professor Scott Galloway at Section. It’s not just another framework; it’s a ruthless stress test for every strategic move you make for your brand. If you want a brand that stands out, stays relevant, and wins loyalty, it has to clear these three hurdles: Differentiation, Relevance, and Sustainability.

Let’s get something straight: differentiation isn’t just about being different; it’s about being different in a way that matters to a specific group. It’s about solving a problem in a memorable way, something that makes your customers willing to pay for your solution over anyone else’s. Differentiation is the backbone of your brand’s identity.

If you can’t say what makes your brand unique in a single sentence, you’re in trouble. Differentiation gives your brand its flavour and character—without it, you’re just another face in the crowd.

Once you’ve nailed down what makes you unique, the next step is making sure that difference matters to your audience. Relevance is a moving target; consumer needs, market trends, and cultural shifts keep evolving, and your brand has to grow with them, move with them, and laugh and cry at the same table.

Whether competing on volume and price against the giants or positioning yourself as an exclusive, high-margin player, relevance keeps your brand connected to the people who matter most—your customers.

It’s not enough to be different and relevant; you’ve got to protect this balance over time. Sustainability means digging moats around your brand from day one—patents, trademarks, and customer experiences that create lifelong loyalty. It’s about building something that withstands market shifts and grabs hold of your customers’ hearts. You want this relationship to feel as exclusive as possible.

The question of sustainability is simple but unforgiving: Can we defend the value we deliver over time? If not, you’re on borrowed time. A sustainable brand adapts, protects, and grows with your product. As a business owner, it’s your job to defend this territory.

When you tame the wild energy of your brand—when you focus its power and direct its impact — you create something reliable, something that wraps around your product and shows up exactly where it matters, removing obstacles in the decision-making process.

So, are you ready to take the reins? If you’re serious about transforming your brand from unpredictable to unstoppable, join the Foundations program.

If you’re a startup founder or part of a growing scale-up, it’s easy to put off thinking about your brand. There are products to launch, features to ship, and investors to impress. But here’s the truth: the work for your brand starts when someone interacts with your idea, with you and your business, before the official launch of your product.

It starts with how you talk internally about your solution: how you and your team envision customers feeling about it, how you position it in conversations, and how you pitch its potential.

Your brand begins to form when you share your vision with a friend and wonder why they don’t see the brilliance behind your idea. It’s woven into your website’s pitch, email, interaction, and word. Even your silence shapes it. Your brand doesn’t wait for you to decide it’s “time.” It’s happening now.

That’s why you need to care for it early—a brand isn’t built; it’s grown. A clear brand helps you make better decisions, keeps your messaging consistent, and aligns your team with your vision. Waiting until you’re “bigger” or “ready” risks creating a wild horse, a brand by accident that doesn’t reflect your purpose or resonate with your audience.

Caring for your brand is like training a horse: you start early, setting discipline and direction, because an untrained horse only grows harder to control with time.

If you’re serious about transforming your brand from unpredictable to unstoppable, join the Foundations program. In the brand workshop, we dive deep into each outcome, equipping you with the tools to take your brand from untamed to unstoppable.