In 2019, we helped redesign and launch two new brands.

Building those brands was a special treat for us since it required using the following skills: research, assembling a team of designers, packaging specialists, and specialty printers. It also required leadership skills.

Both brands are on the market and are doing well. Ask us about them.

If you are building a brand, you may need to start from the beginning.

I spent the last several weeks on the road. I'm happy to be home.

At all those events, I reconnected with friends. Met new people. And I was exposed to a ton of information.

If you're like me, you'll make a point of attending conferences to advance your career, expand your network, and build your business.

I have to admit that when I first started going to conferences, I didn't really have a plan or a strategy. But the more I was exposed to people who are smarter than I am, I realized I should have a plan.

The artists at the Cabaret Voltaire supported and encouraged each other. Dada spread around the world and its influence is still felt today.

The Dadaists worked in visual, literary and sound media. They painted, wrote, photographed, performed. They also made chance encounters (meetings, conversations, collaborations) a part of their creativity.

In 1916, a group of exiled European artists gathered in Zurich and started an art movement that would change the world.

Unhappy with the violence and the horror of the first World War, the artists rejected logic, reason, and modern capitalism.

Birthed at the Cabaret Voltaire, the movement was called Dada.

Are you attending SynBioBeta for the first time?

Congratulations!

SynBioBeta is one of the most exciting events of the year bringing together the founders, investors, thinkers and people who are changing the world with synthetic biology. The conference is one of the only places where you can see the future of biology by being around the people who are already creating and living it.

I love strategy.

The word gets overused but you can’t accomplish a thing without a strategy.

And strategy is simple.

It’s a plan of action to achieve a goal

I teach a class on thought leadership, I always open by saying "Everyone in this room is a leader."

And I always get blank stares. 

Every. Time.

Imagine you had written an article or blog post, or had recorded a podcast or video that answered the most pressing issue in your industry.

Your audience would read, listen, or watch, and would understand your solution.

Their questions would be answered.

The response we got from that article is rare. But the article itself worked because it was really, really good.

What are the elements that made the piece so successful?

Let me tell you so that you can think about this the next time you’re creating a piece of content for your audience. It was...

So, clearly, you are all aware that I’m on an obsessive crusade to help scientist-entrepreneurs tell great biotech and synbio stories, convince investors to back you, build great companies, disrupt the way things have been done, and make the world a better place.

“To live well is to see wisely, and to see wisely is to tell stories.” - Padraing O. Tuama (quoted in Jerry Colona’s Reboot)

A question I’ve been asking myself lately is: Who am I talking to? Right now?

In the past three days, I’ve spoken with:

When you're launching a new company, you want to keep your marketing simple.

The current universe of marketing tactics is overwhelming, so you need to prioritize them.

Let me tell you a story:

A few weeks ago, a post-Series A biotech company called and said, “We need a public relations agency.”

My stock answer is, “We’re not a PR agency. We help clients grow. Public relations is just one of many growth tactics. Let’s figure out if that's what you really need.”

If you're a scientist-turned-entrepreneur, then your storytelling chops better be damned good.

Storytelling is key to selling your ideas to investors, customers, the press, the public.

It all comes down to how well you tell your own story.

Given the amount of information we process everyday, telling your story, sharing your vision of the future, is more important than ever. It is how you stand out.