Zach Iscol, Grid North

Brand Building Through Consistency & Caring

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Zach Iscol, Founder of Grid North — which is comprised of Hirepurpose, Task & Purpose, & Millitary One Click.

Zach, a combat decorated Marine Officer served as the first officer in charge of Recruiting, Screening, Assessment, and Selection (RSAS) for the US Marine Corps Forces — Special Operations Command. With this in mind, I was especially keen to learn how his military experiences have influenced how he thinks about and acts upon the art / science of building brand and product.

For the full episode on the Branded Podcast you can click here.

Here’s what I learned:

• Who are you with? When we share experiences that transcend everyday mundane activities or have a shared sense of service, it connects and bonds you and the community that you are trying to build.
• Consistency Creates Community: In the military, you are asked to take a bullet for someone else, this is an immense amount of responsibility. Core to that responsibility is the ability to show up day in and day out. In today’s social media landscape, brands can reach you anywhere you are, but in order to create a real community, it takes consistency, day in and day out.
• A brand is a promise that you make and a promise that you keep
• Purpose to Product Through Line: In the military, you are given a task and a reason for that task. Similarly, in business, the through-line between a tactic, feature or a product should be directly apparent.
• False divisions: The power of diverse conversation, when you listen, an amazing thing happens — common motivations emerge, even though folks might have differing labels.
• Brands don’t have to be polarizing: The middle ground be better, listening and facilitating conversation is better than creating divisiveness.
• Consistency and Caring: You have to care and you have to back up the promises you are making.
• Networks & Non-Zero Sum Games: The win win win, evolving from the mind that wants to compete for resources, partnering that creates more value for customers and clients.

For all of these insights and many more, check out the full episode on The Branded Podcast.