Mark It 2 Me: Podcasting about the Business of Creative Work

Branded Baron
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Mark It 2 Me is a podcast about branding, brand strategy, and the business of creative work, hosted by New York creative director Joe Baron. It's made for the people who hire creative work (founders, marketers, creative directors, and art directors) and the designers who want to understand how those decisions actually get made. This podcast is for you if you find yourself asking questions such as: How much should branding cost, and what am I actually paying for? Do I need a full rebrand or just a refresh? Why didn't my new logo fix anything? How do I write a creative brief that gets me what I want? Should I hire an agency, a freelancer, or bring it in-house? How do I tell whether the work my designer sent back is any good? Why isn't my product photography selling anything? The goal of this show is to help business owners and marketing leads make better decisions about the branding, design, and creative work they pay for and to give creatives a clearer read on what their clients are actually thinking. Joe Baron is the Creative Director and Founder of Branded Baron, a New York branding and creative agency. He's spent years on brand strategy, visual identity, and creative direction for lifestyle brands from Harley-Davidson Motorcycles to entertainment businesses like indie rock musician Alyxx. Most branding advice comes from people who've never had to defend a logo to a client who hated it. This isn't that. Solo episodes go deep on brand strategy, pricing, positioning, rebrands, brand identity, and creative direction. Guest episodes are conversations with apparel founders, licensing pros, marketers, and creatives who've built something that lasted. If you're looking for straight talk about branding and design from someone who does this for a living, you're in the right place. This podcast delivers value for small business owners, founders, marketing managers, creative directors, art directors, graphic designers, and anyone responsible for how a brand looks and sounds.

  1. 4d ago

    28: Why Design Influencers Get It Wrong | Francisco Reyes Jr. aka Never Made Part 1

    Francisco Reyes Jr. aka Never Made has a problem with design influencers and it is that the shortcut skips the part where you build a point of view. He would know what the long way looks like as he's spent 11 years inside Shepard Fairey's Studio Number One, most of it he was pen-tooling references building a strong vector art library. Before that, four months of unpaid interning. In Part 1 of this conversation we get into the case for gatekeeping, why nobody digs for references anymore, and what being in the room with someone great teaches you that no tutorial can. Plus, the 1000 fan theory, and why he tells every major brand exactly where he stands before he signs anything. It ends with a stranger at demanding to know why his print said her anger was a gift. In this episode The case for gatekeeping, and why the shortcut hurt the people taking itHow Pinterest flattened everyone's references into the same board What four months of unpaid interning taughtPen-tooling elements from archives to build Shepard Fairey's libraryWhy he will not sell a client his own color palette, and how that turned into collaborationsThe fork between calling yourself a designer and calling yourself an artistBobby Hundreds' thousand-fan theoryWhat he told students afraid of losing clientsWhy he discloses his politics before signing, and what brands keep saying backNotable Quotes "A million followers does not equate sales." "Art's not supposed to tell you what to feel." "To protect your brand, I'm just letting you know that this is my brand. And they're just like, that's why we want you." GUEST INFO Francisco Reyes Jr. is a Los Angeles artist and designer working as Never Made. After eleven years at Shepard Fairey's Studio Number One he went independent, and now splits his time between Never Made and his design agency, Design Bedroom. Website - nevermade.com Peace & Unity Tee as seen on Joe https://nevermade.com/collections/shirts/products/peace-unity-tee-1 instagram.com/nevermade Host Joe Baron Website brandedbaron.com If your brand still looks like everyone else in your category, that is usually a sourcing problem before it is a design problem. Start with the free Brand Refresh Checklist: brandedbaron.com/rebrand-checklist Every episode of Mark It 2 Me: markit2me.com Part two is next. Sign up for the newsletter to know when it drops. Chapters 00:00  Cold open 00:47  Intro 01:38  The beef with design influencers 03:41  Bring back gatekeeping 06:27  Flea markets, Playboys, and crate digging 07:10  What Pinterest and AI did to inspiration 10:42  Advice for the 22-year-old creative director 11:17  Why nobody wants to intern 15:20  The pen tool, and eleven years next to Shepard Fairey 20:05  Why the colors are not for sale 20:51  Artist or graphic designer 21:45  Making work nobody asked for 24:36  The thousand true fans theory 26:27  Where the protest work comes from 29:45  Some Designers are vanilla 31:42  Telling clients who you are before they hire you 33:17  Do institutions want creatives to fail 34:26  When to explain your work and when to shut up 37:13  Your anger is a gift

    28: Why Design Influencers Get It Wrong | Francisco Reyes Jr. aka Never Made Part 1

  2. Oct 6

    27: Getting Unstuck: Why Mindset Isn’t Enough | Ryan Roghaar

    Most business books tell you to fix your head. Guest Ryan Roghaar printed out a revenue goal, stuck it on his office wall, and read it every morning for a year. He ended the year exactly where he started and that's when he figured out belief was never the thing getting him into the room. Back on Mark It 2 Me for the first time since Episode 2, the author of The Lid and co-host of Eggs! The Podcast breaks down the two halves of what stops people who are already good at what they do: the internal story you carry about who you are, and the structural piece almost nobody talks about (the information, the exposure, and the working model for how the next level actually runs.) He walks through the Threshold Loop, the six-step pattern that quietly returns you to where you started, and he is the example in most of it: a subscription model nobody asked for, version two of a product nobody bought version one of, a website refined instead of a sales call made. He also names the Social Lid (the people who love you and are still wildly accurate about who you used to be) and the Proof Move, the one action that gets you out. Key takeawaysBelief does not get you in the room. A year of reading his goal off the wall changed nothing. Sales calls, conferences, and asking would have.The lid has two halves, and most advice only treats one. Mindset is the half on every bookshelf. The other half is the map you do not have and the room you have never been in.Substitution feels like progress. The most dangerous step in the Threshold Loop is real, useful work done in place of the uncomfortable work that would actually move you.The Social Lid is well-intentioned. The people closest to you are not working against you. They are describing who you used to be — and pitching that version of you.The way out is the Proof Move. One action this week that the current version of you would not normally take. Thirty letters to thirty agencies. One yes.Guest Info - Ryan Roghaar Ryan Roghaar spent two decades running the creative and brand-strategy firm R2 and has co-hosted Eggs! The Podcast for nearly 500 long-form conversations with founders, artists, and builders. He is the founder of RŌG Health, a commercial-readiness and decision-support firm for medtech and medical-device companies, and publishes The Path, a weekly business newsletter. His book, The Lid: The Invisible Barrier Between Here and What's Next, came out of a pattern he kept hearing in those conversations — capable people stalling right after things start working. thelidbook.com Find more info on Ryan's book and download the free first chapter. ryanroghaar.com eggsthepodcast.com - Ryan's Podcast thepathweekly.com - Ryan's newsletter roghealth.com - Ryan's consultancy agency linkedin.com/in/ryanroghaar - Ryan's LinkedIn Host Info - Joe Baron https://www.brandedbaron.com/ - Joe Baron creative agency site Mark It 2 Me Website https://markit2me.com/ - Catch up on past episodes or sign up to the newsletter for more info not included in the episodes.

    27: Getting Unstuck: Why Mindset Isn’t Enough | Ryan Roghaar

  3. Sep 29

    26: McLaren’s New Logo and Why Rebrand Outrage Rarely Matters

    McLaren changed its logo and the internet reacted like the company was going under. The criticism is fair — but a new logo almost never hurts a brand, unless it erases the thing people recognize you by. In this solo episode, Joe breaks down what McLaren changed and kept, answers a skeptic’s “how?” with five reasons, reveals the line Gap and Cracker Barrel crossed, and shares four lessons for smaller businesses. Key takeaways • Loud isn’t right — outrage doesn’t measure damage. • Needing to explain a logo isn’t a failure. It’s the job. • A logo change hurts when it erases what people recognize you by. • The product is what people are loyal to — see New Coke. • Don’t rebrand because you’re bored. 00:00 McLaren’s new logo and the internet’s reaction 00:50 When does a rebrand actually hurt a brand? 01:02 The rebrand outrage cycle: Jaguar and Cracker Barrel 01:43 Why designers complain the loudest 02:14 Why the McLaren critics have a point 02:51 What McLaren changed and what it kept 03:47 Needing to explain a logo isn’t a failure 04:23 Does a logo need to show what you do? 04:38 Telling the story: Ep. 11 and McLaren’s homepage film 05:40 Does the new logo hurt McLaren? 05:53 Answering “how?”: five reasons it won’t 07:03 Nobody outside the room knows the brief 08:41 When a logo change actually hurts 09:06 The line: Gap, Cracker Barrel and New Coke 10:39 What small businesses should take from this 11:10 Four lessons: product, story, consistency, positioning 12:24 Don’t rebrand because you’re bored 12:40 Honor the past + the Brand Gut-Check Notable quotes “The noise is loud, but the loud isn’t the same as being right.” “Needing to explain a logo isn’t a failure. It’s the job.” “A logo change hurts when it erases what people recognize you by. Evolving is fine. Erasing it isn’t.” Brand Refresh Checklist - https://www.brandedbaron.com/rebrand-checklist Episodes to check Episode 15 - The Brand Gut-Check Episode 11 with Jason Frostholm Mark It 2 Me website — https://markit2me.com/ Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/mark_it_2_me_podcast HOST - Joe Baron Branded Baron — https://www.brandedbaron.com/ Follow on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/brandedbaron/ Follow on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/brandedbaron

    26: McLaren’s New Logo and Why Rebrand Outrage Rarely Matters

  4. Sep 22

    25: What Running a Brand for 19 Years Actually Costs | Matthew Johnson

    Matthew Johnson has run Seventh.Ink by himself for nineteen years. Four years ago he moved his inventory into a warehouse. This spring he moved it back out. He breaks down why, what in-person sales actually look like right now, and how a monthly Patreon series became the only deadline on his calendar that cannot slip. Key takeaways—   Scaling up is only a good decision if you are willing to reverse it. The warehouse solved a real problem in year fifteen and created a different one by year nineteen. —   A subscription is a deadline before it is a revenue stream. The monthly pin and patch series is the only thing that cannot slip, so everything else organizes around it. —   Quality is the through line, not the theme. Customers arrive for one series and stay for the blanks and the ink — some of them buying a yellow shirt they swore they would never own. —   Convention sales came in at roughly half of last year across his entire vendor network. If your numbers are down, it is worth knowing it is not just you. —   Make the call before the math makes it for you. Wait too long and it does not shrink, it implodes. Chapters 00:00Cold Open 00:10Intro 01:26Haunted Collection 17 03:08Portfolio Book Archive 04:58Bringing back old graphics without killing sales 07:19Releasing Halloween in August 09:21The four releases a year 12:19The monthly pin and patch series 13:27Designing for fans vs everyone 16:20Promoting a Patreon page 18:24Magic the Gathering, Lord of the Rings, and more Fantasy 20:04Why pins and patches 23:01DTG vs Screen printing 24:59Color separation and why it matters 28:56Art books, collectibles, and an idea worth stealing 33:35The Warehouse - Having it then Giving it up 37:14The Call with Johnny Cupcakes 38:14Make the call before it makes itself 39:39The Dip in Sales - The economy and convention truth 41:54Wholesale, Retail, and a Brick and Mortar Store 43:09Rapid Fire Questions 47:40The Wrap up Guest bioMatthew Johnson is the artist and designer behind Seventh Ink, a one-man art and clothing brand he has run since 2007. A graduate of the Art Institutes International Minnesota, he is a graphic designer and web developer by trade and still freelances under Seventhfury Studios. Seventh Ink spans apparel, enamel pins, patches, prints, and original art, with an annual Haunted Collection now in its seventeenth year. He works out of Tampa, Florida. Links - https://seventhink.com/ patreon.com/seventhink instagram.com/seventh.ink Host - Joe Baron https://brandedbaron.com/ Social media- @brandedbaron Show Website https://markit2me.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mark_it_2_me_podcast

    25: What Running a Brand for 19 Years Actually Costs | Matthew Johnson

  5. Sep 15

    24: Branding vs. Marketing: Why Brand Clarity Comes First

    Most companies think they have a marketing problem. What they actually have is a brand clarity problem — and it shows up as fragmented messaging, shifting visuals, and campaigns that never compound. This episode breaks down why brand identity is a decision-making system, not a visual project, and what it costs when it's treated as the latter. Key takeaways Fragmented marketing is a clarity problem, not a creativity problem. Effort and budget are rarely the bottleneck. Undefined identity is.A brand identity's real job is speed, not consistency. It answers questions before they become meetings and makes creative decisions directional instead of subjective.Weak identity has four measurable costs: slower internal decisions, higher long-term creative spend, inconsistent customer perception, and trend chasing.Redesigning every 18–24 months isn't evolution, it's resetting — and each reset costs you accumulated equity on top of the invoice.Identity is a filter. New campaign, new partnership, new visual direction: does it build equity or reset it? 00:00 The Clarity Problem 00:11 Intro 00:38 Doing Everything Right, Still Fragmented 02:18 Systems That Scale Across Channels 03:03 What Consistency Actually Does 03:49 What Weak Brand Identity Costs 05:27 Brand Identity as an Operational Asset 07:04 Four Practical Principles 08:19 Brand First, Marketing Second About the Host Joe Baron is the Creative Director and Founder of Branded Baron, a New York branding and creative agency working with founders and business owners on brand strategy, visual identity, and content systems. *Links:*http://brandedbaron.com  ·  http://MarkIt2Me.com  ·  Follow on Social Media - @brandedbaron  ·  @mark_it_2_me_podcast *Download the PDF* Brand refresh checklist — brandedbaron.com/rebrand-checklist• Episode 15 — Do You Need a Rebrand or Refresh? The Brand Gut-Check Visit the site to grab your prompt pdf - https://www.brandedbaron.com/what-a-founder-shares The Power of Core Graphics Article - Click here

    24: Branding vs. Marketing: Why Brand Clarity Comes First

  6. Sep 8

    23: Why Other Creatives Are the Wrong Audience with Jimmy Bryant of Atomicchild

    Jimmy Bryant spent years trying to earn the approval of other designers before he figured out they were never going to be his customers. Now Atomicchild is in hundreds of retailers, he sells art on products for a living, and he just shut down a profitable airport store because it was eating his life. We get into stickers, markets, manufacturing, and what success actually looks like when you stop letting other people define it. Key TakeawaysThe creative community is not the market. There are not enough creatives to support all the creatives, and the people who buy art on products are not the people critiquing kerning.Do not optimize before you validate. Ignore margins, minimums, and wholesale math until you know whether anyone wants the thing at all.Stickers are the cheapest market research that exists. Under a dollar to make, six dollars to sell, and they tell you what to build next.Apparel is the trap. A maxed four thousand dollar credit card and ten sales was his own first lesson.Markets are a real economy. People are earning six figures at them without posting anything online.Scale is a choice. He built the warehouse and the team, decided it was not the life he wanted, and dismantled it on purpose.00:00 Cold open 00:28 Intro 01:38 What an Atomicchild shirt says about you 03:23 They create products, we create art 05:29 Keith Haring vs. Atomic Child 08:54 Graduating into a market with no doors 10:13 Five hundred cold emails a month 11:47 Watching them make his fee in two seconds 12:59 Why the client list stops mattering 13:43 Nalgene and Times Square 15:22 You are not designing for other designers 16:15 Stop trying to appease other creatives 17:22 Conventions versus the internet 19:25 I'm a commercial artist. I make art to sell. 21:42 Why you start with stickers 22:25 Two thousand dollars in stickers in a weekend 23:24 Listening at markets, and why apparel is a trap 24:45 What a booth actually costs 26:53 How he decides what to make 27:54 The bag line he never planned 30:32 Evergreen designs over drops 34:06 Finding your niche festival 35:22 Physical products in an AI world 37:16 Getting your work stolen 39:55 Trademarks and the cost of enforcing them 40:30 Has running a company made him a better artist 44:05 Scaling up, then scaling all the way back 46:15 Is the money worth your time 47:35 Sometimes success is survival 47:52 Five sources of income 52:27 Rapid fire Questions LINKS GUEST - Jimmy Bryant atomicchild.comStore: 179 North College Avenue, Fort Collins, Colorado — Thursday through SundayInstagram - @atomicchildesignTik Tok: @atomicchild HOST - Joe Baron https://www.brandedbaron.com/Social Media - @brandedbaronhttps://markit2me.com/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mark_it_2_me_podcast

    23: Why Other Creatives Are the Wrong Audience with Jimmy Bryant of Atomicchild

  7. Sep 1

    22: How to Tell Your Brand Story (Without Making It Up)

    Long summary A ginger ale label sent Joe down a rabbit hole. Hal’s New York names a real person on the front of every bottle — and then describes him with five adjectives that would fit half of Queens. Hard-working. Straight-talking. Life-loving. Nothing you could picture, repeat, or remember. That is not a soda problem. It is the most common branding problem there is, and the founders who have it usually believe their brand story is finished. In this solo episode, Joe makes the case that the failure is almost never a missing story — it is a real one, flattened into description. He lays out the three things a usable story needs, why specificity feels risky and costs you anyway, why comparing your life to someone else’s finished marketing guarantees you lose, and the three questions that pull the real version out. Plus the overcorrection to avoid: invented heritage always reads smooth, and real stories never do. Key takeaways Adjectives describe. Details convince. If a customer can’t picture it, it isn’t doing any work.Specificity feels like a risk, so founders sand it down to include everybody — and land on nobody.A usable story needs three things: a specific person doing a specific thing, a reason to exist that isn’t market opportunity, and something a customer can repeat in one sentence."My story isn’t interesting" is a comparison error. You’re measuring your actual life against somebody else’s finished marketing.Invented heritage reads smooth. Real stories have a weird detail nobody would have made up. 00:00  Who Is Hal? 01:02  Intro 02:01  The One Line That Gives It Away 03:15  Why Founders Sand It Down 03:42  The Three-Part Test 04:16  Why This, Why You, Why Then 04:47  "My Story Isn’t Interesting" 05:38  Three Questions to Find Yours 06:06  Don’t Invent Heritage 07:31  Go Put It Where People Can See It HOST BIO & LINKS Joe Baron is the Creative Director and Founder of Branded Baron, a branding and creative agency in New York, and the host of Mark It 2 Me — a show about the business of creative work: how people build a brand, make a living doing it, and what it actually costs to get there. * Free download — The Brand Refresh Checklist:http://brandedbaron.com/rebrand-checklist Companion — The Brand Gut-Check (Episode 15) https://youtu.be/m2Q8CQPgyvg?si=2FPBGA-fP7i535Ev * Web:http://brandedbaron.com  ·  http://markit2me.com * Social media: https://www.instagram.com/brandedbaron/https://www.instagram.com/mark_it_2_me_podcast Affiliated Links Every creative needs to hydrate while working. Salty Water Electrolyte Drink - https://amzn.to/49jq4Q0 Join More Creative Academy - Receive mentorship from Michael Janda and connect with fellow creatives https://www.skool.com/mca/about?ref=c88a1577acbe4b459b82a7cfd8a814ee

    22: How to Tell Your Brand Story (Without Making It Up)

  8. Aug 25

    21: Beating Imposter Syndrome as a Creative Entrepreneur

    The voice asking “what if this goes wrong” isn’t protecting you — it’s rehearsing failure, and it ends up in the work you ship. In this solo episode, Joe Baron traces the question that shuts it down back to an 8th-grade production of The Music Man, and makes the case that letting fear make your decisions is the only wrong answer. Sometimes the smart move is to swing. Sometimes it’s to leave a good thing alone. The discipline is the same. KEY TAKEAWAYSIt’s a location, not a warning. Imposter syndrome shows up when the work matters, not when you’re unqualified.The negative default has a bill. It feels like preparation, but it lowers confidence, narrows creative thinking, and kills your willingness to swing big.This isn’t optimism. Hope is not a strategy. You look at the evidence, then decide — and you already know where the answer is.Sometimes the answer is don’t. Rebranding out of boredom torches equity. Leaving a good brand alone is the same discipline as swinging big.Mindset ships. A brand built defensively looks defensive. Your brand doesn’t need to be new — it needs to be true. 00:00  Cold intro 00:23  Main introduction 01:11  The Music Man — trouble with a capital T 02:20  Preparation vs. doom-scrolling worst-case scenarios 03:26  Pitching the safe idea 04:16  You’re not alone in the room 05:27  When your brand stops telling the truth 06:39  Don’t rebrand because you’re bored 07:37  Responding to the voice: what if it goes right? HOST BIO & LINKS Joe Baron is the Creative Director and Founder of Branded Baron, a branding and creative agency in New York, and the host of Mark It 2 Me — a show about the business of creative work: how people build a brand, make a living doing it, and what it actually costs to get there. Free download — The Brand Refresh Checklist: brandedbaron.com/rebrand-checklistCompanion — The Brand Gut-Check (Episode 15)Web: brandedbaron.com  ·  markit2me.comSocial media: @brandedbaron @mark_it_2_me_podcast

    21: Beating Imposter Syndrome as a Creative Entrepreneur
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About

Mark It 2 Me is a podcast about branding, brand strategy, and the business of creative work, hosted by New York creative director Joe Baron. It's made for the people who hire creative work (founders, marketers, creative directors, and art directors) and the designers who want to understand how those decisions actually get made. This podcast is for you if you find yourself asking questions such as: How much should branding cost, and what am I actually paying for? Do I need a full rebrand or just a refresh? Why didn't my new logo fix anything? How do I write a creative brief that gets me what I want? Should I hire an agency, a freelancer, or bring it in-house? How do I tell whether the work my designer sent back is any good? Why isn't my product photography selling anything? The goal of this show is to help business owners and marketing leads make better decisions about the branding, design, and creative work they pay for and to give creatives a clearer read on what their clients are actually thinking. Joe Baron is the Creative Director and Founder of Branded Baron, a New York branding and creative agency. He's spent years on brand strategy, visual identity, and creative direction for lifestyle brands from Harley-Davidson Motorcycles to entertainment businesses like indie rock musician Alyxx. Most branding advice comes from people who've never had to defend a logo to a client who hated it. This isn't that. Solo episodes go deep on brand strategy, pricing, positioning, rebrands, brand identity, and creative direction. Guest episodes are conversations with apparel founders, licensing pros, marketers, and creatives who've built something that lasted. If you're looking for straight talk about branding and design from someone who does this for a living, you're in the right place. This podcast delivers value for small business owners, founders, marketing managers, creative directors, art directors, graphic designers, and anyone responsible for how a brand looks and sounds.

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