Monthly Archives: May 2019

Why wear someone else’s brand, when you can create your own?

What was originally meant as a prank on the local country club now approaches it’s 10th anniversary, and this logo adorns the bodies and boats of scores of my friends and neighbors (and friends of neighbors)! These shirts have been photographed such far-away places as Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico and Scotland.(Keep ’em coming!)

I’ve gotten to know people I otherwise might never had met, all because of one simple question:

“Where the HELL is the Crooked Lake Yacht Club?”

Easy, silly. Upon close inspection of the logo, one finds a longitude and latitude. A quick trip over to Google Earth, and viola, mystery solved. (SECRET: It’s my house)

While the Club doesn’t physically exist, I’m still the Commodore, and our community enthusiastically interacts with the brand. The Club lives in the hearts and minds of those wearing its symbol, and their positive reactions have been simultaneously gratifying and humbling to me. I take great pride in knowing I was responsible for its genesis.

As you’re building your own brand, why not incorporate more imagery into things? It’s a great opportunity to introduce some personality into your brand – for example: while I don’t actually believe myself to be a pirate, I share an affinity to certain swashbuckling and adventurous aspects of the idea of pirating – hence the presence of the pirate on a Yacht Club logo.

As the pictures demonstrate, we’ve gone to lengths to extend the brand and create more interest from our potential buyers, such as creating different versions of the logo, creating unique colorways, and sometimes introducing change-up apparel items (like ringer Ts) to create enough variety to assist in the longevity of the brand. Next year marks the tenth anniversary of the logo, and I’m often asked about the plans for anniversary product! It’s great knowing there’s pent up demand, and I’m excited to put together next year’s collection!

While I’ve become far more purposeful in my personal branding efforts as a professional, it’s a happy accident that my logo came to life. I can’t be more grateful for that set of seemingly unrelated events, and urge anyone who might listen to give something similar a try.

Roger has spent 20+ years making complex concepts more understandable for both buyers and sellers alike, and has devoted the majority of his recent career to writing and executing sales and marketing plans for early and mid-stage businesses. He is a student of organizational behavior and the disciplines successful selling organizations use to achieve the greatest reach, even in instances of scarce resources. He loves the outdoors and seeks memorable experiences whenever possible. Contact Roger at roger@branded-logistics.com or 810-986-5369.

I do the same thing today. If I dig your brand, I want to wear it. It’s my way of making the identical statement as my musical heroes. Not with band T-shirt’s, rather the brands owned and operated by those I admire.

Here are a few in my current rotation.

But this story isn’t about those shirts, it’s about this one.

I carry BrandFuel T-shirt’s with me all over the place. There are a bunch of photos on social accounts of me in the two versions of their logo I’ve worn as we got to know one another years ago. I actually think the first T-shirt (which is NOT ruined, mercifully) was stolen from Misters Rosin and Fiveash upon our first visit to their studio.

Needless to say, T-shirt #2 suffered terribly and recently had to be retired from the Brand Rotation. I was heartbroken. It was like losing a friend. But, the guys behind the logo are still making T-shirts so…

Our exchange went something like this.

Me:  I ruined it. I am so bummed right now this T-shirt went so many places with me.

Reply: It’s never too late to send me your address and shirt size again. So, stop your woe-is-me-ing:)

Me: Address provided with much speed, extra tight please j/k medium. This situation has inspired a blog post and thank you my friend…

That exchange made me realize just how deeply I cared about Danny and Robert’s brand. Losing that shirt meant fewer opportunities where I’d be stopped and asked about the logo on the front. That oil stain interrupted my ability to tell the story of the brand created by friends of mine, in much the same way those musicians told the similar stories by wearing the T-shirt’s of the bands they wanted other people to know about.

When you truly care about a brand, you go beyond merely admiring someone else’s work, you begin to pick up the ability to share the message behind their brand, which is SUCH a great testimonial to anyone working to make something great. Not to mention, in each instance, it’s a high quality garment, from the material in the T-shirt itself to the uniqueness in logo design and even placement. One was even crowd-sourced in a competition over at PromoKitchen. The garment tells a story in much the same way as the brands behind them.

If your brand has a story, I’d love to hear about it. I’ve got lots of space left in the closet. I welcome the chance for any and all of the readers of this piece to share their stories with me in the vehicle of your choosing. The stories that resonate most with me will become future additions to this “Brand Rotation” of shirts I wear – should there be a willing audience!

PS – T-shirt #3 is pictured below. SCORE!

Enjoying my writing? If you’re a music-lover, I’m also curating a specific Spotify playlist titled The Burn (LINK) which serves as the musical accompaniment to the articles found here. It’s another way to interact with my thoughts on the topics I cover in writing here and a great way for other music lovers to share how what they read might be accompanied in music. Head over and Subscribe today!

Roger has spent 20+ years making complex concepts more understandable for both buyers and sellers alike, and has devoted the majority of his recent career to writing and executing sales and marketing plans for early and mid-stage businesses. He is a student of organizational behavior and the disciplines successful selling organizations use to achieve the greatest reach, even in instances of scarce resources. He loves the outdoors and seeks memorable experiences whenever possible. Contact Roger at roger@branded-logistics.com or 810-986-5369.

There was a pregnant pause on the other end of the line.

Jonathan and I speak often, keeping up with one another’s lives in the way that good friends often do, but not in the way that friends whom have never worked closely together would recognize. Sure, there have been moments where our conversations might turn to the comings and goings of our personal lives, but the majority of our discussions more closely resemble two guys peering under the hood of a car, wondering aloud to one another how to better her performance.

Those discussions often occur in moments where one of us faces a decision warranting inputs – necessary when your own opinion seems too uninformed or naïve, inputs earned only from having been there in honest and sincere ways for one another time and time again.

In the time since we’d last worked together at iClick, our professional lives have diverged. His, a steady but rapid trajectory in the growth of his own business, cultivated well with an eye toward the future. Mine, a much-needed and valuable journey of new businesses and, finally, building sales plans and teams from the ground up.

We’d come close to joining forces anew once before, but the excitement in my voice discussing other choices was too palpable for a good friend to ignore. In my mind, to return before I’d gotten the kind of seasoning necessary to do justice to the tasks at hand would only hamstring our ability to hit the ground running, plus, I needed the chance to put my own signature on one more piece of art before I brought my brushes back to the gallery.

I can’t recall the exact way he’d worded the sentence, but as our conversations would occasionally turn to the thought of getting the band back together, his comment always sounded something like “When you’re ready, tell me you’re ready”

I was ready, and I’d just said so.

To others, the pregnant pause might have been misconstrued as hesitation, but I knew exactly what was happening. Jon’s brain operates at warp speed, and, sometimes, his mouth needs a few seconds to catch up with the tornado of thoughts spurred by my commentary. This time was no different, and his first pause-breaking words were a perfect reflection of such.

“We have a LOT of work to do”

So, Promotional Products industry, here we are once again. Here I am, once again, product in hand, relationships in tow, ready to serve distributors with products to impress your clients, backed by service honed from years of making sales calls as distributors ourselves. We know what you need, we know HOW you need it, and we’re ready.

If you’re attending the ASI Chicago show, stop by Booth 103. Catch Jon, Jordan or me in the halls of the convention center, at the Hyatt Bar where we all seem to congregate, or at Shenanigan’s or The Lodge after hours. Come to dinner with us. Have coffee. Let us tell you all about how OtterBox is the mother of all tumblers, or how selling protective devices for electronics has never been easier or more lucrative. Order a sample kit. If you do none of these things, do nothing more than stop in and tell me all about what’s been going on in your world since I last saw you.

I’m excited to be home.

Roger has spent 20+ years making complex concepts more understandable for both buyers and sellers alike, and has devoted the majority of his recent career to writing and executing sales and marketing plans for early and mid-stage businesses. He is a student of organizational behavior and the disciplines successful selling organizations use to achieve the greatest reach, even in instances of scarce resources. He loves the outdoors and seeks memorable experiences whenever possible. Contact Roger at