“If you’re interested in delving deeper into your brand and taking it to the next level, and/or helping your clients do the same, you absolutely cannot miss this.”

“I liked how much the group appreciated the opportunity to take a break to stop and think. People were grateful to get away from work and grateful for how productive the training was.”

“Pedagogically, the mix of exercises—lecture, reflection, small group discussion, whole group discussion—was effective and well thought out.”

“I was able to reflect on my work with unique prompts, which gave greater depth to this reflection. AND it had the added benefit of getting mirrored by a significant number of people.”

“You have a wonderful way of explaining the concepts, taking us through Theory U, giving us the ‘headlines’ of branding.”

“I liked that you were able to present so much info in a short time in ways that I found easy to absorb.”

“I really appreciated the conceptual framework for thinking about brands, particularly the notion that one starts with meaning and core identity and then works outward from there.”

“We saw the direction we need to take to clarify and solidify our brand, and got a good sense of how to get there.”

“Taking time away from business for a retreat is hard, but finding time to reflect is even more rare. I had time to connect the overarching concepts to my specific business.”

The Conway Institute Presents

DIY Brand Camp, Fall 2019.

September 10, 2019
Smith College Conference Center
Northampton, MA

Learn how to identity and attract the clients, donors and team members who want and need what you do best.

Are you tired of that nagging sense that there are ideal clients in your market who simply don’t know that you exist? That inner-belief that if they did know about you they would be very pleased and very satisfied clients?

Good news. There are simple, learnable techniques to identify your best-fit audiences, to understand who they are and why they care about you. And there are straightforward ways to translate this understanding into a positioning and messaging strategy that will help you to get noticed and understood by more of these precious people.

Your brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what your “best-fit” clients say it is.

No matter your business, and no matter how many years you’ve been in business, you know that your best business is earned by referral. The Clarity Brand Design process that I teach in this workshop is rooted in this understanding.

The DIY Brand Camp is a one-day sprint to understanding your “referability”. In one easy-to-grasp arc I introduce, and then show you how to use, foundational truths about your business or your offer:

Why your company, service or organization exists (your mission)
Who your company serves (your audience)
What audience needs your company meets (audience itch)
How your company meets those needs (your promise)
How your audience perceives you (your current position)
How you are distinct and different than your competitors (your distinction), and
Your strategy for communicating these brand distinctions

Clear positioning, strategic messaging and effective communications are uniquely powerful and efficient tools. Typically they are used only by those who can afford to hire a branding firm. This workshop is for you if you are an individual or a team that wants to use the tools and processes that a big budget can buy, but you want to learn to do it yourself, in-house.

Register securely online via Eventbrite.

A retreat for learning

The DIY Brand Camp is a working retreat away from the distractions of the daily grind.

In one super-condensed day, I will show you the tools and processes that I’ve been using for more than 30 years to help hundreds of companies and organizations understand and utilize their own potential.

In a dynamic mash-up of classroom teaching, breakout groups, and personal check-ins, we’ll start at the beginning: How do you help? Why do you exist? How will the world be different when you are successful?

Such fundamental alignment is the basis of the two rails of true organizational growth: an open and honest dialog among your team and all of your external stakeholders.

The format is hands-on. Come prepared to work on your own brand. Come with a list of problems you want to solve.

Learn to go beneath the surface.

Your brand is not a logo. It is a promise you make to the people you serve. It is a clear statement of how you help. Your brand invites your audience to understand, know, remember, refer, and choose you, and then choose you again. Among the things we’ll show you during the workshop:

How to understand who you serve and their needs
How to understand how you meet those needs
How to turn this insight into a brand that distinguishes you clearly

With your new understanding of brand, you’ll then learn how to build a messaging strategy that furthers your own specific goals.

Strong branding works from the inside out.

Clear branding aligns your team and mobilizes everyone to move together. It sets you apart from your competitors. It establishes an emotional connection with your customer and evokes goodwill, trust and loyalty. It turns observers into donors. It improves the efficiency and effectiveness of your communications. And it turns casual fans into brand ambassadors who will share your messages with their own networks.

Teacher

I’m Mitch Anthony. I’m on a mission to redefine branding. I sees the art not as a tool to sell things we don’t need, but as a powerful means to sell ideas we do. I work with organizations to help them translate their purpose and mission into a clear brand promise that can transform not only a company’s marketing, but also all of the people in it.

I am a skilled facilitator, team builder, and presenter. I have a track record of finding synergy, traction, and opportunity where fear, overthinking, and bureaucracy slow others to a crawl.

I have built and developed corporate and product branding programs for such clients as Bloomberg Television, VH1, Church World Service, Microsoft, Lightlife Foods, Reebok, Avid Technology, and FX Networks.

Registration information

All proceeds for this workshop will be contributed to the Conway School.

I’m a proud member of the Board of Trustees of the Conway School of Landscape Design. I know of no other graduate program that teaches a systems thinking approach to the ecological, community and land use planning challenges we face. Part of my commitment to this almost 50-year old pedagogy is to donate all proceeds of the Fall Valley DIY Brand Camp to this amazing little school with an outsized impact.

I’d love to see you at Smith College on September 10.

Register securely online via Eventbrite.

Photos by Maureen Bridget. www.maureenbridget.com