We were lucky to catch up with Amy Zander recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Amy, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

Most people have a different concept of what “brand” is. They think their brand is their logo, their colors, their font, etc. But they miss the biggest point of their brand – your brand is the emotional connection you are making with your customers and clients and why. And it is ONE emotion based on one concept that sets you apart from your competition and it is what makes you memorable. Big successful companies like Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and even Oprah know this and do this, which is why they are so huge – it’s not because of a huge marketing budget (although that helps). There is no reason why small businesses can’t use this same strategy and dominate their own markets.

The strategy is called Brand Archetypes. My company, Zeedia Media, leads small businesses through a very simple process to discover what their archetype is and then we teach them how to use it to create a powerful brand that will allow them to connect with their clients in a meaningful way so that they are unforgettable.

My goal is world domination to teach every small business this concept – most of them are doing marketing wrong and wasting their money.

I have also co-authored a book titled, Brand Archetypes for Business

Amy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Zeedia Media is a full-service digital marketing agency that offers the following services: Branding, content creation, website design, graphic design, social media marketing, and podcast production.

We use a process called Brand Archetypes that sets us apart from most marketing companies to build our client’s brands and their marketing campaigns. Marketing is really hard, especially for small businesses with tight budgets and little time. Most business owners aren’t marketing experts, yet they are expected to be, among all the other hats they have to wear – and marketing is often where they fall short – but it is crucial to growth. We can provide a simple, yet powerful way for them to think about their brand built on one concept and one emotion that will set them apart from their competition and keep them at the forefront of their clients (or soon-to-be clients’ minds).

I have owned 5 businesses, Zeedia Media being my 5th, and hopefully my last – and definitely my most successful.
In everything I have ever done, I have enjoyed the marketing aspect the most, and the networking. So, it makes sense that this is where I ended up. I have a degree in Journalism and am a strong writer, but I have taken one business class and have learned all of this by trial and error, watching my mom build her business, surrounding myself with other business owners, asking a lot of questions, failing a lot, taking risks, and being humble.

Now I am in a position to help other people get started. I have been a mentor, I do talks, I host a podcast promoting small businesses in my community, called Adventures In Business, I donate money, I sit on boards, I buy locally, I buy from my friends’ businesses, and buy local art.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

This story illustrates how drinking my own Kool-Aid really launched my own brand. I had a hard time figuring out my own archetype for my marketing company. I started out as the neighbor because that felt friendly and safe, and at the time I was hustling and taking every job I could get, and thinking about everyone else’s marketing, and not my own.

But one day it dawned on me, while talking to a client about the name of their business, that the name of my own business sucked. It was Zander Management at the time. It sounded like a Property Management company. So, I took a whole weekend and shut myself in my office and I became my own client. I walked myself through my own process and was really hard on myself.

This is when I realized I was an Outlaw brand because of 2 things. 1 – I do things very differently than most marketing companies – Brand Archetypes being fairly unintentional for small businesses. 2 – The emotional connection I want to provide is FREEDOM. What do outlaws have? Freedom to do whatever they want. I want to give business owners FREEDOM from the burden of marketing so they can do what they are good at.

Once I defined that and adopted the Mobstress of Marketing moniker, and changed the name of my business to Zeedia Media (Zeedia is a made-up word – a very outlaw move) my business took off. People remembered me. They loved the name, they identified with me, I was able to better define what type of business I wanted to work with, rather than take any job that came along, I started making better money, and making better decisions.

How’d you meet your mentor?

At the time, I owned a cafe in the town where I live and I got to know one of my regulars, Kevin, He had a marketing company and introduced me to the concept of Brand Archetypes. Every time he came in for a coffee I would bombard him with marketing questions. My cafe was struggling and I was trying everything I could to keep it going. He always answered my questions and had a great sense of humor.

After a couple of years, I decided to sell my cafe, and when I told Keving he asked me what I wanted to do next. I told him I wanted to do what he does. Since I have a strong writing background he hooked me up with a couple of clients who needed blog writing, and he kept teaching me about social media marketing, and brand archetypes, and eventually, we wrote a book together and worked together with clients for years until he retired.

I would not be where I am now with my business without him. Having a good mentor is really important to owning a business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://zeediamedia.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zeediamedia/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZeediaMedia
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amymzander/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/zeediamedia
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@zeediamedia2577
• Other: TikTok: https://www.youtube.com/@zeediamedia2577 https://brandarchetypes.com/

Image Credits
Zeedia Media Zeedia Media