Notes on Founder Brand by Dave Gerhardt

I heard another B2B SaaS founder recommend ​Founder Brand: Turn Your Story Into Your Competitive Advantage by Dave Gerhardt, and I recently finished reading it. It was a nice, quick read that summarized a lot of great points about founder social media and marketing in general. It reminded me of Gary Vaynerchuk's books, which I loved as well.

I loved​ the ideas about picking an enemy to vanquish, learning from role models, and the importance of becoming a publisher on social media and your own podcast. It makes a lot of sense.

Below are my main notes and takeaways. This is a really good book about founder-driven marketing.

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​Intro
Goal of marketing is to make sales easier by building trust
Build brand for company’s founder
Start podcast for founder, weekly 30 min interview 
People buy from people
Expertise of founder
Leadership of founder
Content from founder
Personality quirks of founder
Relationships of founder
Master art of storytelling
Become a publisher
Master feedback loop and metrics

1 become a storyteller 
Founding story
What is the founders backstory
What problem is the business solving
Who is the villain your customer is facing
What is the solution you provide
What are the benefits of using your product
What’s life like before and after using your product

2 find your niche and define your enemy
Riches in niches
Risk of insult is the price for clarity
Build email newsletter and blog with helpful articles for your audience
It’s better to be first than to be better
If you can’t be first in a category, set a new category you can be first in
Pick villain for brand to fight against
Show your work and prove your tech yourself

3 now you need an explainer
Goal is to get attention of audience
2-3 sentences max
You know how blank? Instead of blank problem, we have blank solution. 

4 find your role models, mentors, and anti role models 
Steal like artist
Role model companies to learn from
Find role model founder and follow everything they do
Role model watches from distance
Mentor is someone you can meet with and discuss
Anti role model teaches what not to do

5 become a publisher and get on social media
Post at least 3-5 times per week on Twitter and LinkedIn
Start a podcast focused on your niche
Make public speaking a priority
Put it on the calendar
Focus on brevity on Twitter and longer posts on LinkedIn

6 Twitter and LinkedIn 
Posts not articles
Write as you speak
Short sentences
Comment on audience posts
Comment as post
Write bios carefully
Promote events in bio graphics
Keep Twitter bio short and simple
Be a curator of happenings in industry
Share what’s going on for you reality tv style
Do work in public
Just document what you happens
Document, don’t create
Post about your process
Can use as lead magnet
Education or entertainment
Daily consistency
Find your voice
Participate and respond yourself
Comment and respond
Daily post to both platforms
Follow your dream followers
Respond to every person who replies

7 start a podcast
Unique expertise
Consistent duration
Daily five minute podcast
Build backlog to publish
Weekly or daily episodes
Need content ideas
Can use voice memos app on phone
Gear advice
Software advice
Audio editor from fiverr
Transistor fm to host
Promote on social
Screenshot Zoom meeting then post on social about upcoming episode 
Post quotable moments from podcast to post again segment
Invite interesting guests
Custom graphics for episode promotion
Create two articles per post: shorter about episode and longer evergreen about main ideas
Use podcasts for ghostwriting content
Invite guests to events you host
Write book about those guests
Give ghostwriter 50 podcast episodes of content and have them turn that into book
Reach out to podcasts you want to be on and events you want to speak at
Look at download and growth metrics
Takes 6-12 months to see growth
Read the comments
Goal is to become number 1 resource in your category
Overprepare for first episodes with lots of notes and questions 
Show your process
Give teaser of next episode
Ask for reviews and feedback
Ask each guest to recommend and intro you to someone for next episode
Have at least 6 episodes ready prior to starting

8 hit the road
Early to bed, early to rise, hit the road, and advertise
Prioritize public speaking
Be on constant book tour for your company
Be guest on other podcasts
Niche down
Say yes to everything 
Reach out to podcasts and events

9 become a master of the feedback loop
Become mini media company
Podcast can be Trojan horse for all marketing content
Direct feedback from customers on ideas
Transcribe podcasts to blog
Followers, engagement, inbounds for social 
Followers and downloads for podcasts 
Use analytics to guide what you create

Conclusion