Joe Dannelly and Brains on Fire®

Brains on Fire®

I attended the Upstate Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners meeting last night. Joe Dannelly was the speaker. Joe works with one of the most progressive Idenity and Branding Companies I know, Brains on Fire®. Hearing Joe speak was a real treat for me because while I'd love to be able to hire Brains on Fire® to help me brand Wolff, with a starting price of $85,000.00, they are a little out of reach for my budget! Just the same, even though Brains on Fire® caters to high ranking companies, both nationally and internationally, they showed concern for local small business as well when they agreed to speak to this group.

Fisk-A-Teers

During Joe's presentation, he talked about the work Brains on Fire® did with Fiskars® Shears. They helped Fiskars® develop a Community Website for Scrapbookers called Fisk-A-Teers. It's a brilliant marriage between a hobby and a supplier that does two things as far as I see it:

1. It's an excellent way to promote the Fiskars® brand.
2. It provides a powerful medium for Scrapbookers to learn, swap ideas, show off their crafts and build friendships. These things lead to loyal customers!

Two Columns

One more thing I wanted to share with you from Joe's presentation was an exercise he had all of us perform. Each of us had to take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle of it. In the left hand column, we wrote down 3 or 4 of our favorite brands. In the right column, we wrote what we loved about those brands and what draws us to them. After a time of sharing, Joe told us to fold the paper in half and ask ourselves, "Does this list of things I love about these companies describe my company?" It was a great exercise!

I could go on and on about Joe and Brains on Fire®, but the best thing I can do is point you to their blog. It's an excellent source for anyone in business!

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