Mark de Grasse shares his transformative journey of self-discovery and business innovation. Mark, founder of AI Branding Academy, discusses how his quest for personal fulfillment and clarity has shaped his leadership style. He reveals that his son, Damian, who has severe autism, has been a significant driver behind his transformation.

Mark talks about the challenges and joys of raising an autistic child and how it has influenced his perspective on life and business. He emphasizes the role of AI in modern business, explaining how it can centralize decision-making and ensure consistency in brand messaging and operations. According to Mark, AI allows businesses to avoid the pitfalls of inconsistent practices and streamline their processes. His dedication to clarity and purpose in leadership offers valuable insights for business owners and marketers.

Want to learn more about Mark de Grasse's work? Check out his website at https://markdegrasse.com/.

Connect with Mark de Grasse on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-de-grasse-19a50127/.

Key Points with Time Stamps

• [00:01:15] Introduction of Mark de Grasse and his work at AI Branding Academy.
• [00:02:08] Mark's journey to clarity and self-discovery over seven years.
• [00:05:01] Mark's realization about fulfillment and happiness.
• [00:07:02] Discussion on reading people and understanding their expectations.
• [00:09:09] Mark talks about shadow work and dealing with triggers.
• [00:10:03] Raising an autistic son and the impact on Mark's perspective.
• [00:18:01] The role of AI in business and its impact on consistency and decision-making.
• [00:22:08] Explanation of brand pillars and their importance.
• [00:30:05] How AI Branding Academy can help businesses with brand pillars.
• [00:35:10] Challenges of working with clients in marketing projects.
• [00:37:20] Closing remarks and how to connect with Mark de Grasse.

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:30:18
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment of my career.

00:00:30:20 - 00:00:51:09
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on the show.

00:00:51:09 - 00:01:15:16
Craig Andrews
Today I want to welcome Mark de Grasse. You know, I met Mark, through digital marketer. And he is just, a fascinating guy, who I'm very clear. If I were to say one thing about Mark, he's very clear. He's clear about who he is. He's clear about what he believes people should do. And so if you're a business owner, I think you want to listen to this.

00:01:15:16 - 00:01:43:21
Craig Andrews
If you're an agency, you want to listen to this because he's been working on something really, really fascinating. That is. And of course, it's about I. But this is more than just the namesake of AI. He's put together some tools that are really just going to transform, your business. And, the name of his business is AI Branding Academy.

00:01:43:23 - 00:01:46:17
Craig Andrews
So, Mark, welcome.

00:01:46:19 - 00:01:49:04
Mark de Grasse
Thank you. Craig. Very excited to be here.

00:01:49:06 - 00:02:08:16
Craig Andrews
You know, and one of the things I really do appreciate about you, I was as I was in their thing, it was like you were extremely clear. You are one of the clearest people I know. You're clear in your mission. You're clear in your communications. I think clarity is just one of these things that permeates everything you do.

00:02:08:18 - 00:02:21:03
Mark de Grasse
It does now. It's actually, kind of, recent development in the last two years because prior to that, I literally would share absolutely nothing. I thought. And then I just flipped it.

00:02:21:05 - 00:02:24:16
Craig Andrews
Well, all right, tell me more what happened.

00:02:24:18 - 00:02:41:03
Mark de Grasse
Well, it's funny because I, it was a I mean, it's a big process. I've been going through this, kind of transformation for about seven years now. but at one point and actually, you know, it's, it's been, it has been that long. But the big thing actually started about a year after I was that digital marketer as the president.

00:02:41:05 - 00:03:05:20
Mark de Grasse
And I realized that I had accomplished everything that I thought I wanted. So I, I had like the job I wanted, I had the property I wanted, that I had the stuff I wanted, and I had done all these things. And I thought, okay, why am I still not happy? And so at that point of realizing that everything that I had accomplished and everything I had worked towards actually gave me zero fulfillment, then I realized there was a massive problem.

00:03:05:20 - 00:03:30:23
Mark de Grasse
And so, my usual approach to when I discover a massive problem is to not qualify the solutions and literally just try everything. And so that's what I did. So I start therapy, set it for a marathon, joined a Bible group, started go to church every week, read the Bible every day, started meditating, sun gazing, grounding, different supplementation.

00:03:31:00 - 00:03:52:23
Mark de Grasse
did a whole battery of tests and, all of that for about two years, led up to, one pivotal moment where I actually did a, a gut biome check and realized that I essentially had, IBS for like 30 years, probably my entire life. I had, nausea. And it was extremely uncomfortable through my gut, always.

00:03:52:23 - 00:04:18:06
Mark de Grasse
And so once I, I solved that problem, I realized, like, oh, my gosh, I've been pretty depressed for basically my whole life. I was actually diagnosed with, a condition called the stigma, which is basically like a low grade depression. you're not gonna kill yourself, but you're just never, ever happy. And within a month of actually taking that get biome check and changing my diet, I had, like, an epiphany.

00:04:18:08 - 00:04:38:09
Mark de Grasse
I call it a Kundalini awakening. And and my whole life changed. And now I now share everything. But prior to that, essentially what I presented to the world was this shell that I thought everybody wanted to see and, never shared anything at all. And so now I just flipped it and started doing the exact opposite and saying yes to everything.

00:04:38:11 - 00:05:01:24
Craig Andrews
You know, what's really interesting is, you know, you reached you became the president, digital marketer. And if there's a marketer listening, you know, who digital marketer is. But if you don't, digital marketers, the number one marketing training company in the world, it's a big deal. And so you reach the the pinnacle that you're the president of that and you discover you're not happy.

00:05:01:24 - 00:05:20:12
Craig Andrews
And I think, you know, I think there's a lot of people who are just, you know, they work feverishly and maybe they're still working, maybe they're still on that path up. and they're assuming, hey, once I hit this top rung, everything will be there. But that's not what you experienced.

00:05:20:14 - 00:05:47:12
Mark de Grasse
Now. Now, I realize is that, you know, if you want to be happy, you should be happy right now. Like, why are you putting a deadline on it? It's like nothing. You're not gonna get anything that you can't also have right now, especially in terms of feelings. But until you kind of, realize that that you are absolutely in control of, of all of your perceptions, then, you're just going to keep reaching and hoping and trying and all that kind of stuff.

00:05:47:12 - 00:06:05:20
Mark de Grasse
And, you know, the the journey. Is the process like that? For me, the entire point of life is just to be alive. But you can't start there. You know, you have to think that, oh, once I'm rich, I'll be happy. Or once I have this, I'll be happy. Or once all this gets figured out, then I'll be happy.

00:06:05:20 - 00:06:29:03
Mark de Grasse
It's like, now, dude, stop. Like it's right now. You might not be here tomorrow. You might not be here tonight. You know? You just don't know. And so, I think you have to, to stop the, the future casting and instead say, like, well, how do I feel this instant? Because that's all you really have. but all of that is not something you could just say, like, yeah, I get it.

00:06:29:05 - 00:06:33:09
Mark de Grasse
I know you got to go through the process. That's. It takes time.

00:06:33:11 - 00:07:02:16
Craig Andrews
You know, there's a lady named Joan Demetrius and her claim to fame as she picked the OJ Simpson jury. Oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah. So she found the 12 people in the US, you know, that didn't believe OJ did it. And, and she talks about reading people. And one of the things she said, you know, all these things where you ask somebody a question, look, see if they gaze up into the right or up to the left to figure out they're lying or accessing history, she said.

00:07:02:16 - 00:07:29:17
Craig Andrews
All those little tricks will fail you, especially when you're dealing with a professional liar. You know, there are people that are just trained liars, and so they know those tricks and they retrain their body, to deceive people, she said to. Those will all fail you. She said the most reliable thing that she's ever found and reading someday is if she can figure out where they are today relative to where they expected to be today.

00:07:29:19 - 00:07:50:07
Craig Andrews
And so anybody who's exceeded where they expected to be at this point of life is more gracious, more forgiving, more generous. It just changes the whole person. And so when she's picking a jury, she's looking for those type of people because the other type of people are sending her client to jail.

00:07:50:09 - 00:08:06:18
Mark de Grasse
Oh, yeah. Well, they've already decided, you know, and that's what, you know, when you go through the process of really realizing who you are, you start to recognize, like, oh, I'm making these decisions because of this thing over here. And why do I believe that thing? I actually, I did a lot of work with, shadow work.

00:08:06:18 - 00:08:29:14
Mark de Grasse
It's a concept by Carl Jung. And it's basically to identify triggers like things that are you're instantly passionate about. And typically it's something you get angry about, like something happens and you're just furious, right? Then and you're like, oh, man, I'm so mad about that. But yeah, a lot of people just react off of that. But if you really take the trigger and say, hey, why am I thinking like that?

00:08:29:18 - 00:08:53:13
Mark de Grasse
And then, you know, for me getting really into meditation and whatnot, I was able to track back through my memories and I could discover like, oh, that thing makes me mad because when I was seven years old, there was a kid on the playground and he did this, and I really didn't like that. And literally all of my life, all my decisions that have been in regards to this situation are driven by, interaction I had when I was seven.

00:08:53:18 - 00:09:09:14
Mark de Grasse
And so once you start really thinking about like, why do I think like this, then you could get out of the box you're in. But most people don't do that. They just stay in this little box of like, this is right and this is wrong, and this is just and this is not just. And then they just make every decision based on that.

00:09:09:14 - 00:09:27:06
Mark de Grasse
But the basis of that decision might be childhood trauma that you just never addressed or recognize. And now you're an adult acting like an idiot. Well, not an idiot. You're acting like a like a hurt child. And and a lot of people just don't go through that work. And so they just keep on reacting and reacting and react.

00:09:27:06 - 00:09:50:02
Mark de Grasse
And you're just like, man, you're in a box. You're stuck. So yeah, she's probably identifying open minded people who could judge situations individually based on the situation rather than based on their preconceived notion of like, no, this is, because this is like them, I don't know. And that's another thing I realize is like, oh my gosh, I know nothing about anything.

00:09:50:04 - 00:10:03:08
Mark de Grasse
And so once you accept that fact too, then you're able to, I don't know, do whatever you want. Let's just do it right. And how do I feel right now and what happened and how did I perceive it. And, you know, then you could start acting like a real person.

00:10:03:10 - 00:10:25:00
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So while you were on this journey to the top and to this journey of self-discovery, you were doing something that I personally admire, and I admire it so much because I just I can't comprehend it. It seems overwhelming. You've been raising an autistic son? Yes.

00:10:25:02 - 00:10:51:01
Mark de Grasse
Yeah. My son Damian, he's, 11 and, you know, he's actually the big driver behind the transformation itself, because what I realize at one point, you know, because he's severe, you know, he he doesn't talk. He's non-verbal. but it's beyond non-verbal. It's like he doesn't have the capacity for language. Like it literally. He just has no idea what any sign means other than anything that's been behaviorally, kind of program.

00:10:51:01 - 00:11:09:11
Mark de Grasse
Then who knows what means? But there's no connection like we have, like, I've, say, sounds. And you know what those sounds mean? so he's going to live with us forever. And so, you know, as, as the treatments progressed and we were able to kind of accept the situation, then it was like, oh my gosh, I need to stay alive for like a long time.

00:11:09:13 - 00:11:35:16
Mark de Grasse
Not just alive. He's also going to be way bigger than me. So my dad is, you know, six, five, 300 pounds and my son is headed that way. He's already 155 pounds and he's 11. so that that made a big difference. But, you know, for me, it's, it's and the care is hard and and extremely expensive. but, you know, he's just an amazing person.

00:11:35:16 - 00:11:58:03
Mark de Grasse
Like, he, he probably enjoys life more than the majority of people. he has a great personality. and, you know, the the care of him is, a privilege. And honestly, I think he both him and my other son, Declan, who's only ten months younger, are miracles in my eyes because we actually had a recent test done.

00:11:58:03 - 00:12:28:23
Mark de Grasse
It took three years to get this test. It was an experimental kind of like autism study. And we found that he actually had a, DNA deletion at conception, or that's the theory. And so literally, his existence itself is a miracle because that should have stopped the pregnancy. And it did it. so he exists. And then we didn't find about the autism until he was about 18 months, which, you know, is probably why my second son exists, because if we had found out about the autism, we probably wouldn't have had another child, or at least not soon.

00:12:29:00 - 00:12:52:13
Mark de Grasse
And and then they both exist. So I find it a privilege. And it is it's difficult, but it's like, you know, I, I love him. Yeah. I'm not going to let anything happen to him. And I think every, every good parent, you know, is like that's that's your job. Not to say that, you know, people have unique situations, but I would never, do anything other than this.

00:12:52:15 - 00:13:15:10
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, and here's where it gets it gets hard for people like me that haven't walked in your shoes, haven't lived in that world, is. You know, you said he has a a great personality and that's a hard it's a hard concept for people like me who haven't walked in your shoes to understand what am I missing and what what are other people missing?

00:13:15:12 - 00:13:20:17
Craig Andrews
Because he said he'd done really communicate. But you see this great personality?

00:13:20:19 - 00:13:42:21
Mark de Grasse
Oh, yeah. Well, I mean person just on a 1 to 1 basis. Like he will stare into your eyes. Oh, how? Like it just holds you there and you're like, okay, I know you're trying to say something. What is it? and he, you know, he's he's hypersensitive too. So a lot of autistic kids are hyper sensitive where they, they don't like, touch and they don't like sound or light and noise and stuff like that.

00:13:43:00 - 00:14:10:08
Mark de Grasse
He's the exact opposite. He actually craves all of that. but all of it is, you know, it's hard to explain to people, but you can choose what you like. You know, you don't have to qualify it in any way. You could just say this is a good experience because of X, and that's actually like the superpower we all have that nobody takes advantage of because we all have these locked in notions like, hey, you.

00:14:10:08 - 00:14:27:21
Mark de Grasse
Well, let's just take a child like my other son, Declan. He's also amazing. You know, he's a star baseball player and he gets straight A's and he's now into engineering, which is super fun for me because I was trying to get him into it for like since he was seven. And then he finally like triggered. And now he's super in engineering.

00:14:27:23 - 00:14:49:16
Mark de Grasse
and he's incredible too. Everybody loves him. And, you know, it's you see both sides. And that's not easy either, because he has special needs as well as kind of a gifted child. but it's literally a decision. It's just like, I'm going to make the most of this because I love these people, and that's the end of the story.

00:14:49:16 - 00:15:02:10
Mark de Grasse
It doesn't have to be anything else. But I do get to see both sides of you. You know, it's just qualifying stuff. It's, it's a hard way to live for, for a lot of people.

00:15:02:12 - 00:15:26:13
Craig Andrews
Well, I remember when, you know, the first week after I woke up from my come, I had to trick him and I couldn't talk. And I had all sorts of needs, but I couldn't communicate them well. It was really frustrating. I wonder, I wonder how he processes that because that's, you know, he sees this. Yeah.

00:15:26:15 - 00:15:52:11
Mark de Grasse
You know, and then the other kind of discover like, okay, what does he want? Like what? What is the situation right now. but it's literally everybody's like that if you really think about it. I mean, I think we all have these preconceived notions of what we want, and most of the time they're wrong. And if you just could open your eyes to like, hey, this is just the situation, like, take it as it is, then you have the opportunity to have like a million great experiences.

00:15:52:13 - 00:16:15:08
Mark de Grasse
but yeah, it's it's almost like a game. It's like I'm actually doing an experiment right now where I'll sit in his room. And one of the things he does is he watches movies. He watches, like Pixar movies like Frozen and Tangled, and you know, usually, characters, the big guys he really likes, but he'll find a clip, and the clip will only be about five to 10s, and he'll loop that clip and he'll only watch that clip.

00:16:15:08 - 00:16:31:08
Mark de Grasse
And if he gets a computer, he'll literally try to match up that clip on the computer with the clip on the TV. And he'll try to be. And so I've started just going in there and just recording what the clips are. And my goal is to really discover, like maybe all of that mean something he's trying to communicate.

00:16:31:10 - 00:16:51:08
Mark de Grasse
But, you know, it's a game. It's, you know, how how can we improve this? And you'll see that with, he goes to, Central Texas Autism Center, which is incredible for autistic children, full time. And you'll see this with the therapists and like, it's just the smallest gains, like, oh my gosh, he, you know, brush his teeth for 30s.

00:16:51:12 - 00:17:11:18
Mark de Grasse
And he usually stops after ten. And that's a huge win. That's like, oh my gosh, this is working. is is incredible. And I get super excited. And again, it's just a decision like what? What's your level of going to be happy about this. You could make it way up here or you could make it way down here.

00:17:11:23 - 00:17:33:05
Mark de Grasse
And but actually that is way up here for for Damien. I mean, it's, every, every task he can do is. And credit him pulling on socks is like, yes, this is working. You know, I feel great about this. but yeah, it's just how how do you qualify? How do you qualify? Happiness. Do you want it to be hard?

00:17:33:07 - 00:17:34:20
Mark de Grasse
Yeah.

00:17:34:22 - 00:18:01:06
Craig Andrews
That's such a cool perspective. That's really cool. Well, and you said that, you know, he drives a lot that you do. And one of the things that you've been working on that from what I've been able to tell, is it seems like it's pretty important for if you're if you're running in business or if you're running an agency that's helping businesses with their marketing, it's eye branding academy.

00:18:01:06 - 00:18:25:10
Craig Andrews
And so you've really I mean, a lot of people have gotten on the AI bandwagon. I would say that there's a lot of people trying to catch up with where you are because you've just, like, really gone after it. And so what, I guess let me just start here. You know, there's a little element of, you know, the whole teenage sex thing with AI.

00:18:25:10 - 00:18:47:21
Craig Andrews
Everybody says they're doing it. no, not as many people are doing it as a, they say they claim. And what's the third thing? They're all a little awkward about it. And so, you know, let's just start here. What do you see as the role of AI in today's business?

00:18:47:23 - 00:19:08:21
Mark de Grasse
Oh, it's huge. Well, for me, what I realized with marketing, because I've been studying marketing for 20 years, that's how long I've been doing some aspect of marketing, whether it was website development or content or as an executive in different roles. And what I realized was that there was no consistency to anything that we do. It was basically like any business project.

00:19:08:21 - 00:19:30:06
Mark de Grasse
It was its own project, and we had to get together and chat and take opinions and do brainstorming. And I the more I thought about, the more I'm like, this is a total waste of time. Not only a waste of time, but it's not productive because we're not being consistent with how we actually execute any tasks. So what happens with most companies is companies are built out of a team of doers, right?

00:19:30:06 - 00:19:51:11
Mark de Grasse
You might have 50 people that 50 people you'll probably only have about ten doers. The rest are just kind of task people. but the ten doers, that's essentially what the company is. And that's not consistent either, because they have their own personalities, their own agendas, their own objectives, like, all of these things are then inserted into every project and every task that's done within a business.

00:19:51:14 - 00:20:12:14
Mark de Grasse
Completely inconsistent. Now, what I does is finally allows you to centralize decision making. So instead of, hey, we have this new project, we're doing events in a month, how should we do the events, which is literally at every level of business, because I used to think it was like, oh, it's just tiny businesses. They're the ones that are doing this inconsistent practice.

00:20:12:19 - 00:20:38:01
Mark de Grasse
But no, it's everybody, every, every company for every size up to Google size. Because I've been at it. Google executives tell me that I know exactly how they operate, and it's just as efficient as everywhere else. but it's because everybody's inserting their opinions and their experiences into every decision, and you shouldn't do that. So what I does, and specifically what I bring in Academy is just centralize where you get the base information.

00:20:38:03 - 00:21:00:21
Mark de Grasse
I call it brand pillars. So what's your company's mission, what's the offer and how do you describe it? What are your core values? And there's nine of these. pillars that we talk about. And once you have these, they'll drive everything else. Everything else is an easy decision, because all you have to do, since I will know your pillars, every option will be filtered through the pillars.

00:21:00:21 - 00:21:19:09
Mark de Grasse
And so now when you go to do an event and you're thinking, how do we get people in the booth, you could just run and query the AI. Hey, based on our brand pillars, how should we engage customers at this event? And then it pulls the information and says, here you go. Here's different ways you could do it that are consistent with the brand.

00:21:19:11 - 00:21:44:14
Mark de Grasse
So now we don't have to do, you know, you can still do your brainstorm and talk about it, but the base information is already decided because you decided it when you started the business or when you set your pillars in place. So that's really, you know, for me, the operational impact of AI is finally we'll just get options that actually coincide with the mission and our goal versus, well, you know, Sally likes the color yellow.

00:21:44:14 - 00:22:08:16
Mark de Grasse
And Bob thinks we should do fliers. And Bill thinks we should have this music because he was in a band in high school. Who gives a crap about all that? This is your business. This is every impression that you're making with your customer in every situation is either hurting the business or adding to the business. That's the two options, and we all just leave it up to chance and that's it.

00:22:08:22 - 00:22:33:05
Mark de Grasse
Oh, I hope this works out. So that's that's what I said after I looked at everything. I was like, why is everything so stupid? It's because the start was stupid, the start was unfocused and unclear. And and for most business owners, they eventually decide like, well, I'll do the business plan when I have time, when I get this successful, when this happens, and it's just like, what are you doing right now?

00:22:33:05 - 00:22:56:12
Mark de Grasse
Right now is when the customers are happening. Right now is when you need to start building the brand, because it's not going to get better. As you get bigger, it's going to get more distributed and unclear and just wrong, and then you're going to fix it. No way in hell. So that's, that's kind of why I, but really it's taking the it's centralizing authority is what it's doing.

00:22:56:14 - 00:23:02:06
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And for those that aren't marketers, what do you mean when you say brand pillars?

00:23:02:08 - 00:23:28:01
Mark de Grasse
Oh, brand pillars are basically the basis of the company. The thing you do, your mission. Why does your business exist? That's the question. And people will be like, well, I sell rain gutters. It's like no rain gutters is a product. Like, why does your business exist? Well, you know, people have old rain gutters, like, okay, that's the problem that you're solving for.

00:23:28:01 - 00:23:46:16
Mark de Grasse
But why does your business exist? And so you go back and I call it brand vision. It's really what I'm talking about here. It's like, no, we're wasting water. I want to save the planet. And I think that if we channel water properly, then we could save that water and we could use it in ways that are more productive.

00:23:46:16 - 00:24:13:15
Mark de Grasse
And my mission is to save the planet by redirecting how we use water. Okay, finally, we have a vision for your company, and you executed it through products like rain gutters and the people you serve are this. That's all you know. Customer avatar. That's a pillar. Core values. That's a pillar. but really the start is the vision, because a lot of people just know I want to save the world, but they don't describe how it's done.

00:24:13:15 - 00:24:35:18
Mark de Grasse
So we talked about quantifying your vision. Like what? Okay. So so that's your vision. Your vision is to save the world through water management. That's the vision. How do you do that. When are you going to do that. And so we start to quantify and we say okay, well you know if, if homes actually start rerouting their water properly, you could actually save up to a million gallons of water a day.

00:24:35:18 - 00:24:51:14
Mark de Grasse
So I think we should try to hit 10,000 homes. It's like, okay, well, well how soon are you going to do that? Well, if we really want to make an impact, we need to do it in the next 24 months. Okay. Well, two years, that's your goal. So now you're going to save the world through water management. You're going to do it by replacing the great rain gutters and 10,000 homes.

00:24:51:16 - 00:25:12:06
Mark de Grasse
And you're going to do it within two years. And now you take that. Now that's that brand vision. Hey, we're going to save the world through water management by increasing the, you know, efficiency of 10,000 homes by 2026. Oh, man. You tell that to people. People will be like, yes, I'm on board. I'm ready. What do you want from me?

00:25:12:06 - 00:25:35:15
Mark de Grasse
And then actually, if you take that one vision and you just derive all your objectives and derive all your processes and your hiring practices and your management principles and all of that off of that one vision, wow. It's all consistent and everybody knows what you're doing and there's no reason to, you know, remake everything every single time. Because as long as it fits that vision, you're doing well.

00:25:35:15 - 00:25:37:19
Mark de Grasse
So that's I don't know if that answer your question, but.

00:25:37:23 - 00:25:44:19
Craig Andrews
No, I think that's great. You know, and it ties back into a lot of people are familiar with that. Simon Sinek video start with y.

00:25:44:19 - 00:25:45:18
Mark de Grasse
Yeah, start with y.

00:25:45:20 - 00:26:14:11
Craig Andrews
You know people don't buy what you do. They buy a Y. You do it. And so literally, you know, immediately before we jumped on this to record this, I was talking to a guy who manufactures trusses, you know, prefabs, trusses to go into construction projects. And, you know, there's no differentiation. You know, there's wizards, it's wood, you know, put together using, you know, you know, braces or what have you.

00:26:14:13 - 00:26:38:22
Craig Andrews
They all look the same. They all feel the same. And and he realized the reason he was calling me was he was like, I need a way of standing out. And and it comes back to that y that you're talking about. But I would even say that if you believe you have some super secret proprietary process, you still need your brand pillars.

00:26:38:24 - 00:27:01:02
Mark de Grasse
Oh yeah, you need to do even more, you know, and it's, you know, the level of disclosure. That's what we we get into values because you could say, like, hey, this is proprietary. Keeping this a secret. So, you know, maintaining proprietary information could be a core pillar of core value. And so your core brand values then get into that section where it's like, okay, well, let's define this.

00:27:01:02 - 00:27:21:05
Mark de Grasse
Because if you say that privacy is actually a core value of yours, that will definitely influence how you hire. It will influence how you write your policies. It will influence how you write contracts and deal with legal situations like that's that's a big, important decision. And so then now you have a million more projects that could now be branded, and you could use AI to actually make that happen.

00:27:21:11 - 00:27:38:10
Mark de Grasse
But it's all clear. It's not like, well, let's start over again. How do we protect IP? And it's like, no, like that should be built into the company. If that's a core value, if it's not a core value, then stop wasting time on it. Like you're not serious about it. So stop wasting time.

00:27:38:12 - 00:27:55:05
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah, yeah. you know, I have a, I have a buddy that pulls down like, mission statements and what have you, and he just ruthlessly mocks them because they say a lot of things without saying anything. They all use the same jargon.

00:27:55:07 - 00:28:18:17
Mark de Grasse
Yeah, well, I saw the same thing because I was like, man, branding is so pivotal. Like, it's the basis of, you know, I can say for business, yeah, you need to have a vision. But literally branding is how every religion was built. Branding is why we use the technology that we use today. Branding is why the laws we have exist like and why we trust the government or don't trust the government like.

00:28:18:17 - 00:28:43:19
Mark de Grasse
All of that is the ability of an organization to propagate a concept. And that's the basis of all of civilization is just that one process. Can I convince you of this thing? Great. Now we can make it happen. Can you convince that person of the thing? Okay, now we have two more people. And so that's literally how how everything has developed.

00:28:43:20 - 00:29:06:14
Mark de Grasse
And people just kind of fluff it off, like whatever. And it's like, oh, you can't build anything without this. You have nothing. You have a one time service or you have a one time product. Like, is that really why your business or your business to make a lasting difference and you can't make a lasting difference unless you've done this other stuff and some people fall into it.

00:29:06:17 - 00:29:29:00
Mark de Grasse
So some people are like accidentally do a good job branding, which is, hey, good job you won the lottery, but typically it isn't. And then what happens is the whole company falls apart no matter how successful they've been or you know, they never been successful. And then it falls apart. But, you know, it's you're setting yourself up for failure by not just sitting down and deciding this.

00:29:29:00 - 00:29:45:03
Mark de Grasse
And my process, you could literally do in one hour and finally have like, oh, I have all this stuff. And then with the pillars, all you have to do is start your, your prompts on AI with it, and then all of a sudden, oh my gosh, this is exactly in line with what I wanted. And I didn't have to think.

00:29:45:05 - 00:29:52:04
Mark de Grasse
And there you go. So now now humans get to go out and do stuff. So then that's what we're good at.

00:29:52:06 - 00:30:05:10
Craig Andrews
Well, and that's a that's a pretty amazing thing. One hour, you know. So if I'm a business owner, one hour I can pillars I can put my brand pillars together. Yep.

00:30:05:12 - 00:30:10:17
Mark de Grasse
It's a set of GPT. You just walk through it. There you go.

00:30:10:19 - 00:30:21:00
Craig Andrews
That's insane that there's. I've never heard such a claim. That is amazing. Where do people do this? Where do they go to do this?

00:30:21:02 - 00:30:49:03
Mark de Grasse
well, you have to hire an AI brand right now. I am going to have, like, some courses, and the courses will walk you through the pillars, and then. Then that's it. Then you just answered a question and that's that's the amazing thing about AI too, because I've always been in education in some capacity. And, you know, the problem has always been you could present concepts and you could present things that makes sense, but it still takes the user to take an active interest and then action to make everything work, to put it all together.

00:30:49:03 - 00:31:09:19
Mark de Grasse
But now with AI, I could just make you a custom GPT, like, hey, you know, I'll use the example of like giving up alcohol. Like I wrote in an article about how to give up alcohol, and usually that'd be it. That'd be like, okay, good luck to you. I hope you use these things. But now I could give you a custom GPT or a prompt and say, hey, here's how to take this or put this article into action.

00:31:09:21 - 00:31:32:13
Mark de Grasse
And so what the prompt does is it says, what's the alcohol you drink all the time? What's the time frame you want to give it up? What's. And then it just walks you through everything. In the article. And now you have a customized solution. And so that's that's the core benefit of AI is we don't have to have, you know, average solutions that that can work for hopefully the largest group of people possible.

00:31:32:16 - 00:31:44:13
Mark de Grasse
I can make it specific for you and your exact situation and your exact experience and history and all these other things. We don't have to generalize. No more generalization. It's incredible.

00:31:44:15 - 00:32:14:01
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, and one of the values as seeing this, aside from being able to get so much done in such little time, is, you know, what happens as marketers, you know, a company will go through a whole series of marketers and they're all coming in and saying the different things to do. And one of the things I'm a marketer, and when I go on zoom with somebody who's a potential client, I always know that they have a bad marketing experience in their past.

00:32:14:03 - 00:32:36:00
Craig Andrews
And I also know that they're not the most qualified in hiring a marketer. And so part of my job is to help them be a better shopper. a better buyer of marketing services. And so the thing that I like about what you're doing is it gives them that framework, and they can they can ask potential or, you know, marketers that will execute for them.

00:32:36:00 - 00:33:01:04
Craig Andrews
They can ask them better questions. They can do better, you know, whether they need somebody to run ads or social media or what have you. It gives them the framework so that they can say, hey, here's what our brand is. And all of a sudden it starts becoming apparent quickly what what scale of marketer they're dealing with. You know, somebody understands the importance of brand or somebody is like, oh no, I've, I've got this magic juju.

00:33:01:04 - 00:33:03:18
Craig Andrews
And it's going to make your life.

00:33:03:20 - 00:33:24:00
Mark de Grasse
Oh yeah. Well that's the exact problem because since the owner or whoever's doing the hiring doesn't actually know what they need, it forces the technician, you know, the social media marketer or the email specialist or the SEO person, like, whatever. They have to insert their system into your business. It's their system, though. And they had to do it because you didn't give them information.

00:33:24:02 - 00:33:46:20
Mark de Grasse
So then even if it works, they don't know that that's what worked, right? The owner doesn't know. And then if it doesn't work, then it's for sure your fault. Even though, yeah, the CEO generated 10,000 hits a day, but your actual acquisition system is crap. So of course it's it's not going to work. But nobody qualified that statement because you just hired an SEO person.

00:33:46:22 - 00:34:13:01
Mark de Grasse
So, you know, the the person hire doesn't know what they need. The person they hired is doing their best. And either way, you don't know what actually works. And so you just fire and rehire and fire and rehire and fire and rehire and it's everybody's miserable. And so yeah, that's that's one of the major reasons I did. And for marketing specifically, you know, you hire an accountant, you hand them your books and you say, please fix this.

00:34:13:01 - 00:34:31:21
Mark de Grasse
You hire a lawyer, you hand them your situation and say, please fix this. You hire a marketer. And all of a sudden it's like, well, I have opinions on color and I have opinions on what you should say here. And I have opinions on how we should do this. It's like, no, idiot, you hired me for that. Like, what are you talking about?

00:34:32:00 - 00:34:53:07
Mark de Grasse
I'm not going to take SEO advice from you. I'm not going to take social media advice from you. Why would I do that? I'm the professional. Am I taking crazy pills? Because that's what it feels like. So, yeah, I mean, especially with marketing, it's just it's incredible because it's just like, you know, qualified. I don't know anything about marketing, but I need you to do this.

00:34:53:07 - 00:35:09:23
Mark de Grasse
And you'd be like, you just disqualified what you just asked me to do by saying you don't know anything about this situation. What? What are we doing here? You know, so it's it's very important for marketers that this gets developed because we got. Stop that. We're all going nuts.

00:35:10:00 - 00:35:36:20
Craig Andrews
Yeah. You know, why am I least favorite things to do is as a website project. Because what happens is everybody in the company who's probably never looked inside Google Analytics, never looked in any type of, you know, package, looked at detail on how certain pages are performing versus other. They come out of the woodwork and all of a sudden they're experts on how websites should be designed.

00:35:36:22 - 00:35:45:20
Mark de Grasse
Yeah. So that that was my business. I had an agency for websites. And so that's why I'm, I'm coming from a, from a lot of experience with a situation where I'm like.

00:35:45:22 - 00:35:46:11
Craig Andrews
Why are.

00:35:46:11 - 00:36:08:11
Mark de Grasse
We talking? And honestly, marketers have not done a good job of telling them to shut up. Honestly, because you should say that's cute. And, I will consider it. And also, we're going to do the thing that I've done a thousand times, and it worked. And why would you hire me unless you trusted me with that information, or to do that thing in the first place?

00:36:08:13 - 00:36:31:10
Mark de Grasse
What are we doing here? And so, yeah, it's I know exactly what you're talking about, but you know, the reason why people think they know marketing is because we're inundated with it 10,000 times a day, right? So and we've been we've seen a million commercials and a million ads and a million billboards. And so you think since I've seen this stuff a lot, then I'm good at it.

00:36:31:10 - 00:36:41:08
Mark de Grasse
But I always say it's like, you know, there's a lot of people who have been driving for maybe 50 years and they just get worse. And guess what? That's your opinion of marketing.

00:36:41:10 - 00:36:54:18
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, Mark, I love what you're doing. I love the tools that you're putting out. if somebody were to reach out to you, how did they find you?

00:36:54:20 - 00:37:20:21
Mark de Grasse
Oh, my website's the best. Mark, you asked com I have a list of, what I call content machines, and, those are, a magazine, magazine Mark, a podcast. Podcast. Mark. And, daily, spiral video series called daily Mark. and then, yeah, that's the best way to get involved. And then if you want to hear about branding the I branding dot Academy, that's, that's where I'm putting everything I know how to do.

00:37:20:23 - 00:37:25:05
Craig Andrews
Wow. Well, thanks for sharing that on leaders and legacies.

00:37:25:07 - 00:37:29:24
Mark de Grasse
Thank you for having me. This is a blast.

00:37:29:24 - 00:37:58:21
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Alize for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this episode on social media.

00:37:58:23 - 00:38:22:07
Craig Andrews
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00:38:22:09 - 00:40:32:20
Craig Andrews
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