 How can you have one of the most powerful brands of all time and one of the weakest brands of all time at the same time? I know it sounds impossible, but if you legitimately want to build a great personal brand, brand in general, for your product and music, of course, because that's what we do, you need to watch this episode because I think it will give you the greatest understanding of how this junk actually works and how we've built multiple brands for us and artists and companies at the same time. I'm Brand Man, Sean. And I'm Corey. And this is yet another episode of No Labels Necessary. All right, all right, Corey. I got a clip for you, sir. Let's do it. They will watch this clip and I don't know if they will understand. I don't know if they will understand. However, this clip is talking about artists that every single one of y'all know. Every single one of y'all know this artist has a great brand, yet they have a horrible brand and I hope y'all get it by the end of this episode, but we're gonna workshop on how to fix everything. Everything? Most things and I think it'll help y'all out. Check out this clip right here. Rihanna did what I thought Beyoncé would do when it comes to building a business. And what I mean by this is, and Beehive, don't kill me, but Beyoncé does not have a strong personal brand. Yes, she is a celebrity, but she does not have a strong personal brand whatsoever. That's why any venture that she pursues outside of music, if you notice, it doesn't do that well. And the core reason behind that is Beyoncé has, in a way, made her life so private and herself kind of unreachable that when she puts out a product, it's hard for us to connect to the product because we can't really connect to her as a human. We don't believe that she's using the things that she's selling us. The perfume, House of Darion, even the collaboration with Adidas. All right, shout out to the AK brand on Instagram for this take. This is actually something I've talked about with multiple people. We've had conversations like this before. I actually talked about this with my sister last week before I saw this clip. And Beyoncé is a perfect example of understanding the difference between brand in general, personal brand, and there's other subsets. And I think it's important to understand these because it'll help you define your brand and strategically apply your moves when necessary to get the outcome that you expect, right? Because people are surprised. It's the same reason that people will be surprised that they have a lot of followers and when they drop some music and they don't see the streams they want, right? It's just a misunderstanding of which brand applies where and how do you implement things, right? So Beyoncé, there's a lot of love for you in this room. There's a whole lot of love for you in this room. Please don't get this twisted, please, nobody. Chop, chop, it's to misconstru it. But I think it's amazing to have this example because people actually use success to discredit somebody's next success. They think just because you're successful, the other thing that launched, oh, that wasn't a big deal. Of course Beyoncé is supposed to win. But what about Beyoncé's failures? You get what I'm saying? She just went through multiple brands that fail. It doesn't transfer. It's always hard. It might be easier for a Beyoncé, but it's always hard to launch her next thing. Well, I'll take it a step further. Artists like to use these bigger artists' examples and when they're not doing certain things, I know we're about to get into it, but like, hey, like, she ain't gotta do it. And it's like, she probably should be doing it. Yeah, yeah. That's why it's not hitting like it could hit or hitting at all in this particular case. So here's a couple of things that should order your steps as my people, my elders say. Believability is a big thing. Huge thing. You can't just hop into any pond and expect that thing to splash if we don't really care about you or know or associate you with that thing. I wanna give you a second while I'm talking to think of an example of somebody, like if they launched, if this person launched this brand, you wouldn't believe it, even though somebody else might be doing it successfully. Like this is a product, is she talking? No, no brand, just an example, just an example. But like Beyonce, you had fashion. Yeah, Rihanna launched fashion successfully. Kanye launched fashion successfully. Diddy launched fashion successfully. Jay-Z actually launched fashion successfully. And even if you don't think of Diddy, like really killed it y'all, like just are missing if you don't think he killed it. But even if you don't think of Jay-Z on the level of a Diddy or a Kanye or Rihanna, like he's done it successfully in comparison to what Beyonce, and moving culturally in comparison to what Beyonce did fashion wise, right? And why is that? Well, Beyonce, we don't really think of her when it comes to how she dresses, right? You don't like, you will look at her outfit and might be say that's dope. But Rihanna like built a brand around how she dresses. It became a thing. So if no one's talking about you for that in particular, then when you launch something because of that, then you can't expect them to feel the influence. Like you're not into fashion magazines. I mean, you are for like the official Beyonce release stuff, but it's not like regular fodder. Yeah, yeah, cause fashion is about how consistently do we see you dress well? Or at least do you have a particular style that we can associate you with? Like Erica Badoo with the hats at this point. You know what I mean? So we don't even think of what you're wearing outside of like, oh, you look amazing right now. But if you thought about like, well, how does Beyonce dress? What does that mean? You know what I mean? Outside of the theme for a specific project. Yeah, cause that's what I was thinking, right? Like cause she mentioned like, I think she said it like Beyonce don't really go outside like that. You gotta come outside? Yeah, you gotta come. Especially like I said, fashion is like, like I said, a lot of the stuff in fashion is how consistently do we see you dress well to your point? Is there a unique aesthetic to you? And yeah, like anytime we see her being fashion was either in like an editorial, it's for a project. So it's these situations where it's like, yeah, you look good, like you look nice, but like I'm only seeing you in this context of like, you know, like most of the time when Beyonce posts up it's like her in an event or something like a gala or something like really upscale where like I expect you to be dressed nicely. In this situation versus like Rihanna, like you would see pictures of her like walking through a gas station looking like she's dressed nice. Or actually dressed nice. So you believe like, it's like, oh, with Beyonce, I'm thinking like, hey, maybe she gets dressed really well for these special occasions versus Rihanna. It's like, oh no, she do this shit every day. And it's like not just the fancier dress with the Rihanna. Like it could be a, you just got on the jeans. Some shit regular people. Like it'll feel regular, right? And that's what the AK brand focused on. She said untouchable, unreachable. Beyonce has one of the most like unreachable brands there are untouchable brands. When you say the queen bee, she actually a lot of artists say on this, I'm this queen, the ball stuff, she actually gets treated like a queen in comparison to anybody else. And when people think about her for a brand, they think about execution. Like she's on point at all times. She's amazing, the former. But when it comes to this, it doesn't tie together. So look, y'all, like even Beyonce needs to come outside. Does she have to come outside? No. But even she would benefit from coming outside more and being seen in that way, just being less private. And that's where I get to the second point of it. Be outside to promote, right? So Jay-Z, I talked about like him doing well and was successful with the rock aware. Obviously there was a whole Rockefeller movement around it. You had all these touch points of people actively being outside all the time, like moving it. So that gave like a reference point versus, I just see these fashion, these editorials and all the things that you referenced before. So if you aren't like touching the people moving and just around man, like as a regular brand, you can put your weight behind other companies that aren't built or supposed to be associated with you in a personal way, like you're invested in something or you're giving something a co-sign. But if it's something that's supposed to be a little bit more personal around what you would do on your day-to-day life, then like perfume, like fashion. Hair care product. Definitely the hair. We're gonna actually workshop this hair care and tell you everything she needs to do to fix this, to make this hair care launch a success. We'll see what y'all feel about that. But like, there's, even if it was, I don't know, I feel like when it's a star at this level, even if it was something like a toothbrush or something, if it's something that a person would use that's personal, it has to match with the personal brand. Like, oh, it's liquor and all this. I gotta see and feel for it to really be successful. Cause there's a lot of stars that are way less untouchable than Beyonce to have liquors. And I'm like, eh, I don't really see you, like I see you get mentioned with the liquor in your music video, but I don't see you using it from a legitimate lifestyle aspect of it. Yeah, it's like what, you know, Didi and Sirac is like, you believe it cause you see him outside, he's fucked up off of it. Exactly, exactly. He's pushing it on you, he's using it. Like it's there. It is there in your face. So if you want to do something like that and y'all are, if y'all are building up brands like My Merch and things like that, some artists don't want to be associated with their merch at all. Well, hey man, you need to build some merch that you want to wear yourself, especially today. Like that might have worked way back maybe, but like you gotta wear your merch sometimes. People notice that man. I will look at like great example of artists that wears their own merch like Kanye and Travis, they wear their own stuff. And when you see artists that don't do it, you start, your hind brain goes like, damn, if you wouldn't wear it, why? Like you won't wear this symbol that represents, like you put this whole creative thing together and you won't put it on, why am I gonna spend $8 on it? My, you know what I love about you, man? I admire you, I want to be like you. And you don't want this. And you don't wear it. Something you have like subconsciously, consciously tells me this might be wack, bro. Why am I gonna do that? Hey, just want to drop this quick mention, if you're looking for help in blowing up your music and your career as a whole this year, at the beginning of every year, we open up to find new artists that we want to work with and continue to grow throughout the year, which has resulted in many of the big moments that you hear us talk about. So if this time we've opened up where you'll be able to see how we approach things from ground zero, digging into your brand identity, translating that into content, advertising and full blown campaigns that result in streams and real fans. And it's only one dollar. At www.nolabelsnecessary.com slash 30 days, I'll put a link in the description below. But beyond that process, we actually have ways to speak, get to know you, watch you grow throughout your process so we can lean in and offer extra advising on how to navigate what you're going through in real time. So if you want some real help without having to sign your life away, check it out at www.nolabelsnecessary.com slash 30 days. Either way goes best of luck to you and your career. And then we get to the next thing. You mentioned talking to fans, right? And like actually making that connection. So you said, I'll let you give your examples first. Like talking to fans, like what were some of the examples and then I kind of like add to it. Yeah, the two I gave was one, she doesn't do any type of live streaming. I personally, I could be wrong, but I personally never seen Beyonce on like an Instagram live stream or YouTube live stream, like nothing like that. Something where, you know, live streaming for a lot of artists and creators in general is one of the more popular ways to digitally interact with fans right now. Let me go live, talk to them for 10, 15 minutes and get off, right? So in all of the years that lives have been popular and that's probably going like four or five years at this point, I don't think she's ever done one. Yeah, crazy. Second one is the other really popular fan interaction tool right now is doing small pop-ups and events. Like we've seen legacy acts do them, we've seen big acts do them, we've seen no upcomers like LaRussell do them, right? Like that's a trend right now, like people doing these small, put together pop-up events. Now, small for Beyonce would be way bigger than most artists. Yeah, way bigger than most artists, but I don't think I've seen her even attempt to put something like that together. It's like you said earlier, right? Her brand is, hey, this is big and when you see it, it's gonna be huge and it's gonna be a shit ton of people here and it's gonna be this massive event, but it's like sometimes fans just wanna be in a room with only 200 other fans and like you, you know what I'm saying? She doesn't give the options, like you only can go to the big events, like you don't even get the option to experience her in a smaller or more intimate setting from what I've witnessed in like her last two or three drops, you know what I'm saying? And it's important to understand that this doesn't mean the fans like you any less, it doesn't mean we'd like you any less, it's just that I'm not gonna run to you for that, you know what I mean? Like I never hear you talk about that. Like I don't associate you with that. That's like, oh, yo, Jacory, bro, guess what, man? I just, I got this new house, man. I met this random realtor and they were dope, I was looking for the house, I ended up, you know, doing that. I mean, I'm getting the house and using that person as my realtor and you're like, what, Sean? How come you ain't come to me? I do real estate. And I'm like, bro, you've never talked to me about real estate. You be talking about music and shit, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's just, exactly, exactly. It's just like, it's a disconnect that happens at that point. And the huge part of what you said is like, everything is so big, everything is this massive event and it works on your favor to create this desire, let this build up happen, right? But at this point, shoot you break the internet by doing something off the cuff, at least feels off the cuff, you know? It's interesting because it makes her feel archaic, in a sense, right? Because, I got the word. The artist brand of being like bigger than life isn't as popular of a thing as it used to be, right? We are in an era where relatability wins out for like 80% of ours. Like there's gonna always be- 80% of people in industries and everything. Oh yeah, you're right. Cause like, you know, listen to what y'all gotta think, bro, like the average, let's just say, creator fan feels like they are friends with their favorite creators across the board. Not even just music artists, we're talking about YouTubers, you know what I'm saying? TikTokers, like Instagram creators, they like, they feel one, like I know you, and two, like there are some areas where we're on the same level, right? And I can trust you. And I can trust you because you feel just like me. So now, I mean, I don't think, I think if this was anybody else doing what she did, we would have heard backlash a long time ago. But because Beyonce, like the brand power is so strong, like it's gonna, she's always gonna come out on the other side, like at least, okay. You know what I'm saying? And that's the music brand and the brand we have for her in culture, right? She has a great status from that same point of brand. She, and we know that she gonna kill it in that particular space, but that does not translate as your brand over there. Kanye works over time, whenever he goes into a new space to convince you why he is that person on in this space and why he's better than other people in that space, whether you believe him or not, or whether you even are educated enough in that space to know whether it's true or not. He's giving you a strong argument why this is gonna make sense. Yeah, because I remember when Kanye first started talking about the Yeezy brand, and you know, he got the same backlash in the beginning. Like, oh, it's just another artist money grab. But I remember he started like releasing like sketches on socials at the time. He was like- Showing you the vision. He was showing like samples, not even like the shoe sample, but just like, I don't know what it's called, but designers have put together like these little packages where it shows like the materials and colors and stuff that went. He was leaking all that shit. So at that point you would like, oh no, like he really is behind the scenes like working on this. So even if it was a point where let's say, Kanye never wore the Yeezy's and we didn't have that same level of believability, I would have at least still felt like he cared because he showed us the attention to detail and him actually going through the process to create it. So it could have been a win-win on either side. Like it's like, hey, I can either believe that you really took time and energy to create this or I can believe that you actually liked this enough to wear it and he covered both sides of it. It's an easy way, man. That's where we move into like, how do you fix this? She could improve the launch of this next era under hair care and like you've already touched on it. And I think a lot of people immediately thought this, this is more believable. I don't know if you know that her mom had the Harrison line growing up, right? So already you think, okay, there's some level of connection there. There's a background there. And I even think a big part of that would also even maybe be bringing the mom into the forefront. I don't know if there's a certain level you wanna do that or not because you don't wanna give mom too much of the bag. I don't know. I don't know. Like that, they seem to have a great relationship but like using more of that personal story, if you look back at the bills, bills video they did early on and they were in the hair salon, I'm sure a lot of that background and how they thought of it probably came from there or that might've been the reason that they chose that in the Destiny Childs bills, bills, bills video. So there's a great aspect to it there. I think adding her vision though in unofficial ways, like less constructed, there's a mini doc, right? That's telling you why this is so important and I have this history there. No, not all that. We can have that. But not all that, like just, like you said, little snippets, maybe just talking about a fan or whatever or like, hey, I wanna do this. Maybe you got it planned that I'm gonna have this type of hair care, likes, I don't know, a line or a scent or whatever, but just write, oh man, what do y'all think about this idea or this scent? Or I'm thinking that this is gonna be dope. Like little things like that, I don't see her brand, like her necessarily doing it like that, but that would set a tone that she's thinking about it. It's on her mind and give a sense to people that there's thought. Of course you know there's thought, but that, I think that's the weird part that people don't get when it comes to brands. It's like language. People can hear you say something, but they didn't know that you meant it. It's like, bro, I thought I told you to bring to such and such. She's like, oh, you a serious about that? You know what I mean? It's like I heard you, but I didn't know that you meant that shit for real, for real. So like adding those small little elements for someone like her is huge. And I think people don't realize that brand is all relative. What works for one person won't work for another person because of their positioning. So many people benefit from something that feels larger than life. So many people benefit from super constructed, high quality documentary with great storytelling because it feels like something that's bigger than where they were before. But someone who's been so dominant, someone that people already hold in such high regard, and so many people hold her in such high regard, doing something that feels normal, right? Like the goddess that has put her feet on the ground. Like that's what they talk about. You know what I mean? Like, all right, we say it like this. Humans being gods and gods being humans are the things that people talk about, right? Jesus being looked at as a human. And then all of a sudden he resurrected on some God stuff. That's the story that people tell. You get what I mean? And then if God came to the ground, right? Definitely talking about it. That will be the story to tell. You're not gonna talk about the God in the sky, being the God in the sky or whatever, or you're not gonna talk about the human being the human on the ground. It's when that one does the opposite. And right now from a brand perspective, she is this goddess in the sky. The story is putting your feet on the ground. Yeah, yeah, 100%. No, I agree. I think that after that, I think the salon style pop up there, that would be crazy. I kinda hope they steal it out there so we can put this part back out there. That would be hard. It would be hard. Yes, 100%. I think what I would add to it is, I think she should take five beauty influencers, three really big ones, one mid-size, one new-ish to start up, send them products for free, and then do like a 10-minute customer review live stream with each of them. It'll be five. I think that'll be cool. We'll be getting straight out the horse's mouth. They're probably gonna say nice things because they're talking to Beyonce. So it's a win-win for the most part. I think the second thing that I think could be cool is she did. You remember when Drake had that series where he was walking around New York in the disguise and asking people random questions? I think she could do a combination between that and the old-school Pepsi challenge. And I think she could go out into the street or maybe not the street. I don't know how it would work exactly, but some type of like product, blind product, not taste test, I guess sample test thing that she could do with random people in disguise then maybe at the end reveal. Like, oh, that was really mean. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I think that could be hard. And then I think the only thing I think I would add to it too is going back to the live stream. I think she should do however many products there are, she should do one 20 to 30-minute live stream for each, maybe like one a week until she covers all of them where she is using the product on the live and then answering fan questions about it. Because each of those series are gonna push people to either try that product or get curious and get the other products. And if I don't have that particular product yet, then that could be the thing that pushes me over the edge. And if I do have that product, now I can kinda see like one, how she's using it and then two, I can get real-time responses from other people that I've got in the moment. So, you know, assuming thing is not a, you know, product that's fucking people up, that should go pretty well. I think the breakdown should be cool, creative and regular. Yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep. So, cool, she's already done that. Like, I don't know if you've noticed her, well, you didn't see the Super Bowl because you were out and about. I was. But like, bro, like they flashed on her for like half a second on the Super Bowl. She wasn't even a focus of the screen. And when I tell you, she looked way better than everybody in the screen. And I don't even mean like, oh, she looked good like in a sexual way. I'm talking about like, like she had a different lens on her. Like there was a glow, right? And when I look back at it with my wife, she was just like, the hair was a big part of it. She was like, it's just that hair, the color. Like she just looked like she had hot HD on her. You know what I'm saying? Everybody else looked horrible. It was crazy. And that was cool. And I don't think a lot of people, even enough people might have noticed her, talked about it. But like when you look at it, it's cool because she had like more of the big hair, right? Like the, if you think more about like 50s, not necessarily that style, but just a bigger hair, you know what I mean? Like women, you know, correct me on terms and how all that kind of stuff. So that, I would say cool. Like you look great and it's more of that queen. I'm a queen aspect of things. Creative, that's what we talk about. All right, she should do a pop up in a hair salon and go to these different cities and things like that. Create something that no one else can create cause you are a Beyonce. However, regular would be, hop on YouTube, do regular hair reviews. Or I'm like, not product reviews, but like, hey, this is me washing my hair. I'm washing blue ivy hair. You know, I don't know how much you wanna actually integrate your children into it. Like that's a personal decision. But like just literally in the same way, the, you know, the women who do reviews, like will use the product and go through it, do that yourself. But also you being regular, come down to the ground. Of course you wanna get as many other women to do that as possible and build that out where they're talking about you. Not just because it's Beyonce, she got some new stuff, but also like, at some point they start to feel like, well, you know, Beyonce is cool. I'm gonna talk about it just cause like, I feel like Beyonce really rocks with us as hairstylists, really rocks with us as, you know, hair YouTubers. Like she really supports us and gets us. Yeah, you gave me like three ideas. Beyonce team, if you out here, this is very back worthy in my opinion. But you remember, I think it was Alex Homozi that talked about early in his gym days, he would go to different gyms and do like a supplement, kind of like rescan, like he would convince them to get his supplements and go to different gyms and just talk to them. I think she could do like, exactly like you said, a salon tour. I'm gonna go to different salons across the country and, you know, give them free product to use for a week and then document what that experience looked like and, you know, the positive things that came up. That would be cool. Because like you said, showing love to the, the hairstylist community, the beauty industry and that way. And then, I also think maybe starting some type of challenge where she's, like you said, challenging women to use her product for a certain amount of time and document, you know, their own changes or a glow up or, you know, things that were good that happened because of it. Cause now you can bring other people's stories into it. You know what I'm saying? Use their stories for marketing. And then the last thing I thought of is I think she needs a video series where she's a bit more vulnerable and talking about what specific things the hair product helped her with personally. So like, was your hair draw and you use your own, you know, moisturizing serum to make your hair better? Was it flat and you use your own, you know what I'm saying? Spray to make it more voluminous, you know what I'm saying? So I think like being personal in that way and being transparent that way about like what her own personal issues were and how this helped fix it would go a very long way. I love that one because use this moment to show us a flaw that we can't see, right? Cause when you think about it we only see you looking amazing. So why do you even need this? So then you'd have to go, oh, I've been wearing wigs all this time to do what I do as a performer. And because of that, that's made my hair suffer in one, two, three types of ways. I use this product to improve that, right? Those simple things. Now take that all the grain of salt. You know, we just like, you know two mere marketers in a room in the middle of, you know a state in the United States, you know what I'm saying? That's all we are. And we happen to be men, women, if y'all have any thoughts on this, especially we would love to hear y'all's thoughts, but we do, we have helped many men and women do, you know what I mean? Have some, have some success. But like if y'all have any counterpoints thoughts we're always open to it. Cause we just let a discussion and shout out to Beyonce for giving another shot. We hope, I hope this will wins. I hope this will wins. But no, this is legit, no, but I do think this would be a, this for me, I think you, like you said, this is one of the most believable ones naturally. She already has that going for her. You more believable already out the jump in terms of product. So now you kind of just got to take those next motions. I can't believe it anymore. Really just use it one time probably, you know. It's crazy cause she has the brand that so many artists wish they have, but now that she's at that point, she actually has to get some of the brand that other artists have. Yeah, facts, yeah. You know what I mean? Which is crazy, but you know, that's what happens when you have a career and you're not just a moment in time. There has to be errors of you as an artist. Yeah, facts, great point. With that being said, this is yet another episode of No Labels Necessary Podcast. I'm Brandon Shawn. And I'm Corey. And we out. Peace. Appreciate you for watching. If you like content like this, you'll love seeing our music marketing strategies that we use as an agency to actually blow up artists to millions and even billions of streams that are available for free at nolabelsnecessary.com and the cool part about it that's gonna really make you love it is we don't have to be all entertaining and add all this fluff just to get some views that we do on YouTube. We get straight to the information. There's play by play in courses that give you a breakdown of every step that you should do to get success. And you have the ability to have communication with us. We get on live talks, a lot of cool things for members and it's free just to hop in. So check it out right now at nolabelsnecessary.com.