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The Brand Atelier Show
Most brand advice chases trends. This podcast builds brands that last.
Hosted by Shayne Mackey, a brand strategist with over 30 years working with Fortune 500 companies and legacy brands, The Brand Atelier Show cuts through the noise of viral tactics and flavor-of-the-month marketing to focus on what actually matters: strategic positioning, enduring identity, and brands built for the long game.
If you're a founder, brand strategist, or creative director tired of being told to "just post more on TikTok," this is your antidote. Every episode delivers expert-level thinking on brand architecture, messaging, visual identity, and the strategic decisions that separate brands people remember from brands people scroll past.
No hype. No shortcuts. Just decades of experience distilled into actionable strategy for building brands with staying power.
New episodes weekly.
Shayne Mackey (00:00)
You know, everyone talks about branding. Build your brand, be your brand, own your brand. But sometimes I sit back and think, does anyone actually know what that means anymore? We've said that word so many times in so many contexts that it's almost lost its meaning. It's become this shiny, overused buzzword like authentic or content.
And I'm going to be honest with you, this one really drives me crazy because branding, real branding, is not surface level. It's not performance. It's not a logo or a tagline or a color palette. A brand, your brand, is a living, breathing entity. It's the foundation of everything you build. It informs your company, your product, your service, your marketing, your team, and even how you lead.
And somewhere along the way, we have forgotten about all of those things.
When I taught the history of advertising in graduate school, one of the books we used was by Julian Silvoca called Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes. And it's a brilliant cultural history about how advertising shaped America, how marketing moved from simply selling products to selling meaning. And there's a part of that book that has always stayed with me.
In the late 1800s, America was industrializing very fast. People were leaving cities, moving west and starting over. For the first time, consumers weren't buying goods from the local shopkeeper who knew their name and vouched for every barrel, bolt or bottle they were selling. Now, consumers were buying from manufacturers they would never meet. So those manufacturers had to find a new way to earn trust.
And they began printing their company names and symbols directly onto packaging. Soap wrappers, flour sacks, tobacco tins, shipping crates. That simple mark told buyers, you can trust what's inside this box. And believe it or not, that was the birth of modern branding. Not design for decoration, design for reputation. It wasn't about standing out on a shelf. It was about standing for something.
because branding began as a promise, a way to bridge the gap between maker and buyer, to carry trust across distance. It was, from the very beginning, about meaning, accountability, and identity. And when you think about it in that way, branding has always been about relationship, and it's always been alive. So fast forward to today, and we've gone in the opposite direction.
We have more tools, more content, more personal brands than ever before, and somehow we have less meaning. Everywhere you look, someone's telling you to grow your brand or build your brand or be your brand, but no one's actually teaching what a brand actually is. And I'm gonna tell you, it's not your Instagram grid, it's not your website template, and it's not even your product packaging. Those are expressions and tactics of your brand.
but they truly are not the brand itself. Because here's the truth, a brand is not what you say it is, it's what people experience and believe it to be through every single touch point. And that belief, that feeling comes from consistency, conviction and clarity. So let's talk about what a brand really is. At its core, a brand is the firm foundation of your business.
It's the architecture that holds everything else up. When it's strong, everything you build, your product, your marketing, your culture, has something solid to stand on. And when it's weak, everything starts to wobble. Great brands are not built overnight. They're built through thoughtful strategy, aligned, consistent behavior, and a whole lot of time.
Because a brand is the sum of your actions, not just your visuals. It's about how you make decisions, how you treat people, how your team shows up. It's how your product feels in someone's hand, how your customer service team answers the phone, and how your brand voice sounds when it's having a good day and how it sounds when it's having a bad one, because it's alive. And that's why I always say all the time,
that a brand is a living, breathing thing. It evolves, it learns, it responds, but it also needs to be nurtured, protected, and stewarded. So just like a child, a brand has stages of growth. It needs discipline when it's young, clear boundaries, values, and behaviors to learn who it is. It needs structure as it starts to explore, guidance and consistency to keep it grounded as it experiments as changes.
And as it matures, it's going to need course correction, those small intentional adjustments that keep it aligned with its purpose, even as the world around it shifts. Because that's what stewardship really is, guiding and growing with the brand. You can't just set it loose on day one and hope it thrives. You have to shape it, challenge it, and keep learning alongside it so that it matures into something strong, enduring, and self-sustaining.
And here's the beauty of it. When you steward a brand well, it doesn't just grow, it grows you. It develops incredible brand managers, strategists, designers, sales teams, and leaders because building a brand teaches discipline, clarity, and conviction. It makes better people and better companies along the way.
Somewhere in the last decade, we lost that depth. We traded strategy for style. We traded brand building for content calendars. And we started measuring success in vanity metrics, likes, follows, and fleeting engagement instead of loyalty, brand equity, and real connection. And it truly is hurting us, especially the next generation of founders who are told to show up online
before they even know who they are or what they stand for. Because without clarity, there is no consistency. And without consistency, there will be no trust. And trust is the currency of branding. Now, don't get me wrong. A beautiful visual identity matters. Great storytelling matters. Social media can be very powerful, but only when they're anchored in strategy.
when they're connected to something deeper than just aesthetics, because that's where real brand power comes from. When a brand is built from the inside out, rooted in truth, guided by purpose, and expressed with intention, it doesn't just attract attention, it commands loyalty. Because you're not just building a company, you're building a belief system. Think about it. Patagonia.
isn't just selling outerwear, it's selling conviction. Apple doesn't just sell devices, it's selling simplicity, creativity, and belonging. Ralph Lauren isn't just selling clothing, he sells an entire universe, a lifestyle you wanna step into. And these brands endure because they were built with intention. They know who they are and they know what they stand for, and every choice reinforces that. They're not reacting to trends.
They're creating culture and that is what real branding does.
I think part of the reason why I'm so passionate about this and why I've spent more than three decades working on brands at every level is because I've seen what happens when you skip the foundation. When companies chase visuals instead of vision, when they mistake awareness for affinity, when they confuse being seen with being known, it never lasts. The truth is branding is the long game. It's discipline, not dopamine.
and it's stewardship, not splash. You don't build a brand once, you build it every single day. So let's go back to that question. What is branding anyway? Branding is the process of defining who you are, what you stand for and how you show up in the world. And then making sure every single thing you do say,
Design and deliver aligns with that truth. It's not one department. It's not one campaign. It's the connective tissue of your entire business. It's how you lead, hire, sell, communicate, innovate, and serve. It's how your brand behaves when no one is watching.
So if you're listening right now and wondering whether your own brand fits in all of this, here's the truth. Every brand, no matter how big or small, sits inside a larger framework. Because once you understand that your brand is a living, breathing structure, the next question becomes, what kind of structure are you building?
Are you building a personality-led brand that thrives on visibility and audience reach? That's the influencer model. Are you building an expert-driven brand that builds authority through ideas and methodology? That's the expert model. Are you a founder-led brand where your personal story shapes an entire company or product world? That's the founder-led brand playbook. Or are you an enterprise brand?
mature enough to operate beyond you with systems, people, and culture that carry your vision forward. That's the enterprise model. That's the big brand model. Every business, every brand lives inside one of those four models, whether you realize it or not. And understanding which one you're building is how you start to make smarter, more strategic decisions about everything. Your messaging, your design, your marketing, and your growth.
Because when you know your architecture, you know your path.
In our next episode, we're going to clear the clutter. We're going to talk honestly about what branding is not, so you can finally see the work with fresh eyes and build from a place of clarity and conviction. I'm Shane Mackey, and this is the Brand Atelier Show. Let's build something that lasts.