Building a worldview around brand building

Welcome to another edition of PROse, where we explore the science behind building a brand.

In today’s email, we discuss:

• My favorite follows for building a worldview of brand building

Yo! I’m Darien from Antidote 👋🏾. Every week I share what I learn about the science of building a brand. If someone forwarded this email to you or you’re reading this online, welcome to the fold! What you're about to read is an unconventional view on B2B marketing.

If you enjoy it, join 100s of other B2B marketers on the journey to build a standout brand.

If you’ve been in B2B marketing for a while, you' probably already have an idea of how it should work, or maybe how it once worked. But we know the world has changed—buyers have changed.

If you want to stand out; if you want to be known for innovative ideas; if you want customers and fans that care about your company and evangelize your product, you have to start thinking about how you build brand.

The people on this list have helped reshape how I think about marketing B2B companies, I think you’ll like them for the same reason.

1. Erica Schneider

Who they are: Erica is the Head of Content at a content marketing agency

What you’ll learn: Advanced writing techniques and how to properly repurpose content

What I like about them: Erica is a prolific writer. She always has a unique POV, writes clearly and persuasively, and most of all, adapts for the context/platform she publishes on. I’ve read some of her articles and much of her social content and never felt like she phones it in. That is hard to accomplish.

2. Ashley Lewin

Who they are: Ashley leads research & IP development at a B2B marketing agency

What you’ll learn: How to turn around traditional marketing/lead generation programs

What I like about them: Ashley is one of few people in the B2B marketing world that not only challenges traditional lead gen models, but also uses data to back it up. Her mix of data-inspired arguments and tactical content is refreshing.

3. Paddy Galloway

Who they are: Paddy is a YouTuber and YouTube strategist

What you’ll learn: How to grow a YouTube channel (aka how to create content that engages your audience, and how to measure performance)

What I like about them: Paddy’s concepts are generally about YouTube growth, but when you peel the layers back, so much of it applies to creating content anywhere. This newsletter is all about the science behind building a brand. Likewise, there’s a science to creating hit content. And Paddy does regular breakdowns of the mega-creators that have figured that science out.

4. Katelyn Bourgoin

Who they are: Katelyn is a B2B marketing consultant

What you’ll learn: How to understand buyer psychology

What I like about them: Good marketers understand proven psychology. Great marketers understand how to discover underlying psychology in their audience’s behavior. Buyer psychology may not be directly related to brand, but at the end of the day, we run/work for B2B companies. Our goal is to influence people to buy our products. When generic platitudes don’t work, Katelyn gives you the tools to understand what’s going on in your buyer’s mind.

5. Anthony Kennada

Who they are: Anthony is the Founder of a B2B media software/community organization

What you’ll learn: How to build a B2B media organization

What I like about them: Anthony is not prognosticating. He’s built media orgs at Hopin, Front and Gainsight. I’ve asked multiple friends who I should be studying if I want to understand media orgs & brand building better, Anthony’s name constantly came up.

6. Devin Reed

Who they are: Devin leads content at a B2B software company

What you’ll learn: How to create engaging content

What I like about them: Devin basically built the modern playbook for employee advocacy and brand building on LinkedIn through his role at Gong. If you’re even decently active on LinkedIn, you’ve probably heard of Gong. If you haven’t, you should check out how they’ve built an insane following around what is practically another “boring” product (note: I don’t think the product’s boring, but sales enablement probably isn’t the first niche you’d think of when you think of a B2B company with a massive following)

7. Reed Duchscher

Who they are: Reed is CEO of a talent agency

What you’ll learn: How to build a creator-led business

What I like about them: Reed manages Mr. Beast (and other top .1% creators). He regularly shares the behind-the-scenes of what it’s like to build a business around his clients. And let me say, there’s a lot to learn from someone who manages the top YouTube creator in the world.

That's a wrap, folks! But before you go...

Let me know what you think about this newsletter. Your feedback goes a long way (seriously, I read & respond to every email—good or bad!)

See you next week,