Season 1 - Ep. 7 - Importance of Authenticity in Branding - Neal Foard On this episode of UX Banter, we chat with Neal Foard who is the Chief Marketing Officer at Within Inc. He is an eloquent storyteller, a TED Talk Speaker, a creative thinker, and a strategic marketer. Discussion Points: What makes a good brand? 1:26 What has been your key learning while working with big names like Toyota, Sony, HSBC, Heineken, etc.? 5:10 Rapid Fire Segment. 13:44 What is some advice that you’d like to give someone who’s just starting out in the industry? 27:02 What is your success mantra? 31:59 Show notes: “The most important thing for a brand is authenticity, that is they have to conduct themselves in the world in a way that people will be satisfied with.” - Neal Foard 1:38 It isn't enough to simply create a public persona, because it's quite easy for people to discover how false that might be. 2:17 The focus should not so much be on the marketing and brand messaging, it's really about what the brand is from an experience standpoint. 2:36 When the people that represent the brand are enthusiastic about it, when they believe in it, or they believe in the leadership, that gets reflected out into the world. 3:18 In marketing it's not really the cleverness of the message, it's the sincerity of it. 8:53 You can work, you can find work. And when you can, it can be well-paid work. But unless you are working for someone you admire, I don't know that you're ever going to really learn what you need to learn. 27:21 Life advice from Neal: Our accents are simply the result of us imitating the people that we learn from. We've adopted their manner of speech. And we do that with everything. We mimic their body language, we mimic their gestures, and we mimic their postures. But most of all, we mimic their behavior without realizing that's an accent and to work for a great person, to find someone you admire. Maybe take a little less money to work for something you admire. The dividend will be paid back to you not in money, but in becoming a great person like them. 28:59 Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neal-foard-3727403/