Anatomy of a Brand Podcast With Chris Cruz

What Therapists Know About Founders That Founders Won't Admit | w/ Three Percent Co. Ep. 32

Subscribe and join our community for operators, marketers, and builders shaping the future.Most founders don't break because the business broke.They break because nobody told them the 3% they were hiding was already running the company.In this episode, we sit down with Blake and Jamie — two licensed therapists, best friends for nine years, and the co-hosts of The 3% Podcast — a show built out of a 12-step room and a single sentence: "I need to share my 3%."We unpack why the most operationally healthy founders are the ones doing the inner work, why "I'm fine" is a leading indicator of a business unraveling, and why the same pattern that ruins relationships is the one quietly killing your team.This isn't a conversation about therapy.It's about the silent tax founders pay when they refuse to be honest with themselves.You'll hear:• Why a 3% lie binds you to 100% of the shame• The Resentment Metric — how to know your business is breaking before the numbers say so• Why baby steps" are wobbly, courageous jumps - not tentative ones• Why 97% of expert-led brands sound like every other expert-led brand• The unsexy word-of-mouth strategy that built two full therapy practices• Why founders are trying to be influencers - and influencers are trying to be therapists • How to tell the difference between exporting an idea and exporting an experience If you're a founder, operator, creative, or builder, and you've been quietly carrying something you haven't named — this conversation is for you.Timestamps00:00:00 Trailer00:01:00 Why a therapist asked Chris to do somatic work — live, on his own podcast00:05:25 "Mental health is slow. Until it's sudden."00:07:30 Why founders crumble underneath the metrics nobody sees 00:10:30 The Resentment Metric - when your business is broken before the dashboardsays so00:13:30 Owning the chaos: "It's my fault" as a leadership skill00:18:00 The 3% origin story - born in a 12-step room00:21:00 Why being 97% honest is still 3% bound to shame00:22:30 The pivot - why a creative agency for therapists became a movement for men 00:25:00 Baby steps are wobbly courageous jumps — how 3% was built in 2.5 hours aweek00:29:30 The bigger vision — multiplication, not metrics00:34:30 Word of mouth as a 30-month strategy — coffee every week for eight months00:37:30 "You are the gift" — why most expert-led brands market themselves wrong00:42:00 The intensity tax — why being yourself can feel like a hangover00:46:00 Why 97% of expert websites lose their audience in the first sentence00:49:30 Brand therapy - the moment a founder cries in a brand audit00:53:00 Why Blake avoided social media for two years — and what cracked open lastweek00:58:30 "Why are therapists trying to be influencers?"01:02:00 The end of the niche-down era — why multidisciplinary is back01:04:30 Closing reflections — the weird medium of being seenGuestBlake and Jamie, co-hosts of The 3% Podcast and licensed clinical therapists in Tennessee. Both run full private practices, both came up through 12-step recovery, and both have spent the last decade building a framework for how vulnerable men can lead more honest businesses, families, and relationships.Get in TouchInstagram: www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrandWebsite: www.anatomyofabrand.coEmail: micaela@harborandunion.com

What the Man Behind 3 Billion Organic Impressions Actually Thinks About Virality w/ Caleb Ralston Ep. 31

Subscribe and join our community for operators, marketers, and builders shaping the future. You can post every single day for a year.And still build an audience that will never buy from you. In episode 31 of Anatomy of a Brand, we sit down with Caleb Ralston, the filmmaker behind Gary Vaynerchuk's TikTok explosion from 300K to 3.5 million followers in three months, and the Director of Brand who architected Alex Hormozi's rise from 1.2M to 11.5M and built his media team from the ground up. Caleb has operated inside the rooms where the biggest content bets in the game were made, and now runs his own brand strategy operation. We unpack what actually drives trust at scale, why the wrong audience can kill your business faster than no audience, and what most creators miss about the real cost of chasing reach. This isn't a conversation about posting schedules or platform hacks. It's about patience, craft, and the discipline to say no to the things that look like growth but aren't. If you're a founder, brand strategist, or creator building something that lasts; this conversation is for you. Timestamps• 00:00:00 — The bamboo tree: why the best growth is always invisible first• 00:01:33 — Where Caleb's obsessive self-reflection actually comes from• 00:03:35 — Operate, reflect, iterate: the framework beneath everything he's built• 00:05:10 — Looking back at the 6-hour course: what he'd change• 00:08:29 — Why V11 is ego, not quality• 00:12:02 — Having a real point of view without being contrarian for clicks• 00:13:22 — The trap of optimizing for the widest audience possible• 00:14:02 — He pivoted to entertainment content. Subscribers exploded. Revenue died.• 00:16:09 — Chris shares his three-topic tension — Caleb gives real feedback• 00:17:24 — How to know which niche you can actually compete in right now• 00:19:14 — The reactive leader: what changed when Caleb had no buffer• 00:20:46 — Gary Vaynerchuk's real leadership approach — not what you see online• 00:22:59 — The check-in Gary does with his team every six months that most leaders skip• 00:24:39 — From Pure Wow to Team Gary: the decision that changed everything• 00:28:40 — Why turning down an opportunity was the most valuable move he made• 00:31:21 — Gary says 30 posts a day. Caleb disagreed. Here's why both are right.• 00:33:43 — "A truly powerful piece of content will market itself"• 00:37:08 — Can you afford to play the long game? The honest answer.• 00:39:14 — If you need cash right now, do not make content• 00:41:46 — Phil Jackson didn't optimize for championships. Here's what he actually built for.• 00:43:41 — Why zero case studies made his course go viral• 00:45:07 — The 36-month expectation: set it right or you will quit• 00:47:41 — What it actually means to be a great leader• 00:48:35 — The rage transference painting — and what work does to people• 00:52:34 — Inside Caleb's content system: scripting, shooting, and teaching simultaneously• 00:55:24 — The 6-hour course took 120 combined hours to write. It wasn't a prompt.• 00:57:02 — The three-question test every piece of content has to pass• 00:58:38 — "Talking head is dead" — who actually says that and why• 01:01:50 — The only thing that actually makes talking head work Guest Caleb Ralston is a brand strategist and content producer who served as Gary Vaynerchuk's videographer and TikTok lead growing his audience from 300K to 3.5 million followers in three months and as Director of Brand for Alex Hormozi, scaling his reach from 1.2M to 11.5M and building his media team from scratch into a team of 18. He runs his own brand strategy operation and recently launched Ralston Select, a four-part content curriculum covering pre-production through platform strategy. Get in Touch Instagram: www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrandWebsite: www.anatomyofabrand.coEmail: micaela@harborandunion.com

The Brands Winning Right Now Are Weird, Human, and a Little Embarrassing | w/ Mike Payne Ep. 30

Subscribe and join our community for operators, marketers, and builders shaping the future. Get in Touch Instagram: www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrand Website: www.anatomyofabrand.co Email: micaela@harborandunion.com Most brands don’t fail because they lack content. They fail because they’re creating for algorithms instead of actual human beings. In this episode, we sit down with Mike Payne, co-founder of Arcade, the marketing agency behind Matty Matheson’s food brand, John Krasinski’s Some Good News, SmartLess Mobile, and some of Canada’s most culturally connected brands. We unpack what digital audiences actually want in 2026, why the brands chasing virality are just telling you they’re impatient, and how a futurist practice called signal scanning is helping Arcade spot cultural shifts before they become trends and turn them into content strategies that move the needle. This isn’t a conversation about social media tactics or content calendars. It’s about understanding people, celebrating effort over efficiency, and building brands that audiences actually want to follow back. You’ll hear: -Why brands that only chase virality are just impatient brands - The 5 cultural trends shaping what audiences crave in 2026, from improvisation to analog to camp -How Apple TV’s logo went viral not from the reveal, but from the behind-the-scenes -Why Gen Z women are booking up convents for summer and what it signals about digital fatigue -The Matty Matheson story: how Arcade got rejected twice, then used Cameo to close the deal -How John Krasinski’s Some Good News grew more after the show ended than during it -Why a content piece about features and benefits with a CTA does absolutely nothing -The case for “to be cringe is to be free” — and why camp is the trend brands keep underestimatingIf you’re a founder, marketer, or operator trying to figure out why your content isn’t connecting, this conversation will reframe how you think about every post, every campaign, and every audience you’re trying to reach. Timestamps 00:00:00 Trailer 00:01:10 Dad life, Mexico trips, and why Calgary is a brand city worth studying 00:05:20 From Arcade agency to Scan Club: how a futurist practice became a newsletter 00:09:40 Signals, trends, and drivers — how to spot what’s actually moving culture 00:13:45 Why brands that chase virality are just impatient brands 00:17:10 Substack as the anti-algorithm: Tumblr meets MailChimp meets old Twitter 00:20:15 The 2026 trend report: why this year feels like the new 2016 00:23:00 Effort as content: why Apple TV’s BTS outperformed the actual logo reveal 00:25:30 Pizza 73 x Calgary Flames x Sora: when AI is the punchline, not the shortcut 00:28:00 Trend 1 — Improvisation: Bob’s Smoke Break, Duolingo’s Bad Bunny crash course, and unscripted moments 00:32:00 Trend 2 — Analog: cassette cafes, bed nesting, J. Cole’s trunk sale tour, and convents 00:36:00 Trend 4 — Camp: Lego clogs, maximalism, and to be cringe is to be free 00:40:00 The Matty Matheson saga: two rejections, a Cameo video, and finally getting the work 00:45:00 Content without the celebrity: how to inherit a founder’s tone without relying on them 00:48:00 John Krasinski’s Some Good News: how a pandemic side project became a global movement 00:52:00 SGN global correspondents: the creator strategy that grew the audience after the show ended 00:55:00 Retainers, lo-fi content, and how Arcade prices its workGuestMike Payne, Co-founder of Arcade, a marketing agency based in Calgary, Canada. Arcade’s clients include Matty Matheson’s Matheson Food Company, John Krasinski’s Some Good News, SmartLess Mobile, Monogram Coffee, UCLA Health, Pizza 73, and more.

The More You Talk About the Pain, the Better Your Product Sells | W/ Donald Miller Ep. 29

Subscribe and join our community for operators, marketers, and builders shaping the future. Most businesses don’t fail because their product isn’t good enough. They fail because they’re talking about themselves instead of their customer.In this episode, we sit down with Donald Miller, CEO of StoryBrand and Business Made Simple, New York Times bestselling author, and the mind behind a messaging framework that has helped over a million business leaders clarify their message and grow their revenue. We unpack why most brand messaging is invisibly broken, how one rewrite of product descriptions drove a 400% increase in total sales, and why the human brain is hardwired to ignore you — unless you know how to speak in story. This isn’t a conversation about marketing tactics or design trends.It’s about the psychology of attention, the cost of confusion, and why the brands that position their customer as the hero are the ones that win. If you’re a founder, CMO, or operator who suspects your messaging might be costing you customers, this conversation will show you exactly where the leak is. Timestamps: 00:00:00 Trailer 00:01:10 Meeting Donald Miller — the book that made Chris rethink the story he was living 00:05:20 The StoryBrand framework: 2,500 years of storytelling turned into a marketing system 00:07:46 Why your customer can only want one thing — and it can’t be vague 00:09:01 The dog trainer pitch that doubled a business overnight 00:10:49 Zero cognitive load: why “build a wall” beats a book on immigration 00:14:00 The most important sound bite in your brand is the problem — not the solution 00:17:10 What a first date teaches you about why most brands fail 00:21:55 Why Chick-fil-A’s “other-focus” is worth $11 billion 00:24:20 The hardest decisions Donald made scaling StoryBrand and Business Made Simple 00:27:04 The apology tour: what happens when the CEO stops listening to the customer 00:29:54 Why success is correlated with the number of at-bats, not the quality of any single swing 00:33:02 Delivering the same keynote 500+ times and never getting bored 00:36:53 Why Donald reads his obituary every morning — and what it’s cost him 00:41:00 The entrepreneurs who are healing father wounds through success — and creating new ones 00:44:00 Eulogy virtues vs. resume virtues: the tension every brand builder carries 00:46:19 How StoryBrand is adapting to AI — and why the human advantage isn’t going away 00:51:11 The StoryBrand AI pricing move that fractured trust — and rebuilt it 00:54:26 Live brand teardown: Donald rewrites the Anatomy of a Brand agency pitch in real time00:57:22 Why 80% of all interesting writing is conflict — and what that means for your brand 01:01:04 The playbook close: how to package services so clients stop hesitating Guest Donald Miller, CEO of StoryBrand and Business Made Simple. New York Times bestselling author of Building a StoryBrand, Marketing Made Simple, and How to Grow Your Small Business. His frameworks have been used by over one million business leaders and brands including TOMS Shoes, TREK Bicycles, and Tempur Sealy. Get in Touch Instagram: www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrandWebsite: www.anatomyofabrand.coEmail: micaela@harborandunion.com

A Family's Unexpected Path to Brand Success | AOAB w/ Ben Eggebrecht Episode 28

Subscribe and join our community for operators, marketers, and builders shaping the future.In this episode of Anatomy of a Brand, we sit down with Ben from Consider the Wildflowers to explore the unlikely journey of building a fine jewelry brand rooted in story, legacy, and human connection. What began as watercolor greeting cards and flea-market jewelry experiments grew into one of Nashville’s most beloved independent jewelry brands, known for crafting heirloom pieces that mark life’s most meaningful moments.Ben shares the origin story behind the company he runs alongside his wife Emily, from Belmont University dreamers pursuing music to founders building a family-run brand through craft fairs, maker markets, and a tiny warehouse studio in Nashville. We talk about the slow and intentional growth of the business, the importance of hospitality in luxury experiences, and why building trust with clients ultimately shaped the company’s reputation.The conversation moves deeper into leadership, marriage, and entrepreneurship as Ben reflects on stepping into the CEO role, letting go of perfectionism, and learning how to scale a brand without losing the heart behind it. From crafting a last-minute necklace for Kelsea Ballerini’s album shoot to helping customers celebrate engagements, births, and family legacies, this episode explores how meaningful brands are built through story, patience, and care.This is a conversation about legacy; why some objects carry stories across generations, and why the brands that endure are the ones that remember the human moment behind every purchase.Timestamps00:00 – A chance meeting in Florida that started the conversation02:00 – What Consider the Wildflowers actually does04:00 – Belmont University, music dreams, and Nashville in the early days07:00 – From greeting cards and flea market jewelry to a real brand10:00 – Craft fairs, maker markets, and the early growth of the company12:00 – The first retail spaces and building a local following14:00 – The moment the brand reached celebrity clients17:00 – The Kelsea Ballerini necklace story19:00 – Running a business with your spouse22:00 – How Ben became CEO of the company24:00 – Growing the brand through COVID and major challenges27:00 – Letting go of perfectionism as a founder30:00 – Where perfection actually matters in building a brand32:00 – Family life while running a growing company34:00 – Jewelry, watches, and the idea of legacy pieces37:00 – Why great brands aren’t built on trends39:00 – The psychology behind luxury purchases41:00 – What Ben is focused on next for the brand42:30 – Final thoughts on storytelling and legacyGuest: Ben — Consider the WildflowersInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/considerthewildflowers/Website: https://considerthewildflowers.com/Get in TouchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/anatomyofabrand/Website: https://www.anatomyofabrand.co/Email: micaela@harborandunion.com#BrandBuilding #FounderStories #LuxuryBrands #EntrepreneurJourney #CreativeEntrepreneur #ModernBrand #StoryDrivenBrands #BrandLeadership #CreativeBusiness #FamilyBusiness #LegacyBrands #BrandStrategy #CreativePodcast #EntrepreneurPodcast #BuildingInPublic