Does your brand have a story worth telling?

Today, I’ll talk to you about brand storytelling.

A tweet from Peep Laya inspired me to write about this topic.

I was reading it and I was like - the answer is Funky Marketing. My team and I.

But let me start with a little background, a story of what was happening before I even founded a company.

I’m born in a small town in South-East Serbia called Pirot. A city that was always left outside the biggest conversations in the country. Our Prime Minister at the time, Zoran Djindjic (who was killed later), said that Pirot looks like a damn courtyard. I just want to drow you the situation and the way the rest of the country has looked upon the city and us, its inhabitants.

Things are different now, at least a little.

Anyway, when I started my career, I was working in the non-profit sector, fighting for youth rights and environmental protection. But my voice was unheard. Nobody would say listen to that kid from the province, he has something smart to say. So I had to learn how to present and promote myself. Early on, I learned that I need to build my authority, my personal brand, and prove my expertise. And I did.

It got my organization and me the biggest awards in Serbia for youth policies, for working with young people from vulnerable groups, and for connecting youth and local municipality.

It also got me a job in marketing, in a Canadian-based digital marketing agency. To be honest, when I started, I already knew a lot, I just needed to shift my mindset from non-profit to for-profit.

When I did, I took over the agency as a General Manager. All my clients at the time, from the US and Canada market, were #1 on Google Search and Google Maps listings. I knew my shit, as they say.

But it wasn’t enough for my peers here in Serbia to call me to speak at marketing and business conferences. I was still the guy from the province that talks a lot and is loud about certain things, but we’re pretending that he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

So I had to organize my own conference. I did, we had 90 people attending, and it was a huge success.

The point here is - I had to learn how to tell my own story, how to present my own results, and how to create my own brand.

Fast forward a few years, I’ve started to think of Funky Marketing. My own company.

I needed a name.

I've been playing basketball for about 12 years. And my dad was a player and a coach.

Growing up, I was surrounded by friendship, hip-hop, and, of course, basketball. The time of Jordan, Pippen, then Grant Hill, and drinking Sprite when he was a promoter of the same. Penny Hardaway!

We listened to Redmen, Method Man, Run DMC, Biggie, 2PAC, Rakim, Africa Bambaata, Snoop, Jam Master Jay .. Gang Starr!

Then we sang amateur hip-hop and played music, first of all, Breakbeat and Funk.

When I was growing up, I added to my listening repertoire Funky Soul, Motown .. Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Rick James, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Otis Redding, Berry White, even Michael Jackson, and the inevitable James Brown. The great Ray Charles.

With all that music goes the street culture. Graffiti, a way of dressing, and fighting for a better life.

That led me to become a fighter for youth rights, to an attempt to save mountain villages from dying, to this very fight - the fight to get marketing back to where it belongs. To purge marketing from quasi-experts, fraudsters, fog-sellers, those who use fake discounts and scarcity elements or try to position themselves as experts and sell until people understand it enough to separate the knowers from the ignorant.

Funky Marketing has always been a way of fighting for me. For 10 years, the message "Keep it funky" is on my phone screen. It didn't just happen.

For me, Funky Marketing is marketing that is done differently. Marketing that is edgy but not controversial. Marketing that is transparent and aims to solve people's problems does not sell the products and services it does not need. Marketing in the service of the business.

I wanted my company to be different. That we don't just do the work.

We are not operatives that just implement the strategy and follow someone else's instruction. We create the strategy, and then implement it.

This also conditions the clients we work with.

And by creating it, I was communicating all this on LinkedIn and Facebook, where I already had my personal brand built. It attracted like-minded people, that have the same philosophy.

People ready to get in the fight for the right reason and change the industry.

I didn’t want to have in my team people that would play it safe but people with strong opinions that can challenge not only me but the whole industry. And by communicating my story, and the story of my brand, this is exactly what I got.

Now, it wasn’t easy and this is not where it became easy. We were in a position of a company from Serbia, a country placed in Europe, not even a part of the EU, that’s going after changing the game and working with clients from the US.

Again, a story of a team coming from a province. Remember the start of the story?

Again, a challenge.

But this time, I wasn’t alone. I have a team with me, all of them with their personal stories ready to be told. 

My job is to give them the platform and munition, as well as the freedom, to tell their stories and the story of Funky Marketing. 

Personal stories blended with a company story.

It moved the needle for us quickly. We realize that we can’t wait for some huge magazine or a platform to feature us. We couldn’t wait for someone else’s help.

It’s up to us. The Internet made it possible, and LinkedIn made it easier for us.

We are the ones telling our own story. But it’s not just any story.

It’s a story supported with results, building up others, partnerships, and caring. We know who we are - a David. We’re not Goliath. And this is the way we behave.

If you’re reading this, and you came to this point, I want you to stop what you’re doing and think for a bit.

Am I doing it right?

What’s my story?

What are my goals?

Who’s telling my story?

It starts with you telling your story, but later your customers and clients are taking over and making your story their story. But it won’t happen if they don’t have the story to start with.

You, as a founder, need to know who you are and who your company is.

Without it, you’re just one of those nameless companies not playing the legacy game.

Have a great week. Keep it funky.

Nemanja, CEO of Funky Marketing

p.s. know someone who can be a great addition to our team and our story? Tag them in the comments below!