Future-proof your brand | 2x Founder, Advisor, Dad

I’m an accomplished, strategic executive with extensive experience in building and leading teams, transforming brands, and developing innovative, long-term strategic plans. I’m known for cultivating trusted business partnerships and stakeholder relationships at all levels, including C-Suite leadership. As a visionary leader, I develop high-performing, empowered teams focused on achieving the organization’s short-term revenue goals and long-term growth objectives. 

I leverage a robust business acumen within brand development, creative, vendor sourcing and management, contracts negotiation, and budget management while staying informed of the latest trends and emerging technologies. I champion autonomous collaboration and bring a proven track record of designing scalable processes. Fluent in English and Russian.

Core Competencies:
Brand Equity | Operations Optimization | Strategic Planning | Team Leadership | Relationship Management | Innovation & Efficiencies | Process Improvement | Diversity & Inclusion | Systems Thinking | Design Thinking | B2B Marketing | Business Development | Solutions Development | Digital Agency Leadership | In-House Marketing | Creative Storytelling | Brand Strategy, Management & Transformation | Identity Development | Enterprise Partnerships | Consumer Experience | Financial Planning | Program Development | GTM Strategies | Organizational Planning  Project Leadership | Market Research | Product Positioning | Cultural Understanding | Emerging Technologies | Artificial Intelligence (AI) | Machine Learning (ML) | Web3

which one are you?

I'm lawful good and I've never been more upset about my life choices 😅

Dmitry Shamis

Future-proof your brand | 2x Founder, Creator, Advisor, Dad

Hot take: too many of you still don't know the difference between brand, branding, and brand marketing

Are they related? Yes.
Are they poorly named? Also yes.

But they are in fact three different things with different goals and audiences.

Branding is how you visibly and audibly show up in the market.

Brand Marketing is how you bring your brand to market.

Brand is the foundation they're both built on along with the internal operating system for your team. Yup, brand is internal! 

I wrote about it in this weeks newsletter: thebriefcreative.io/057

TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY TWO BOXES!

The six year old wanted to sell 50 boxes
Then she wanted to sell 200 boxes
She sold 262 when it was all said and done

...and it was thanks to YOU! I can't tag everyone that purchased on here but you know who you are and we're grateful for you!

Thank you! Start saving up for 2027 bc we're gonna be back and the goal is 500!

Some advice you just take.

About a year ago Katie and I went out. Her Aunt watched the kids.

When we came home we were cleaning up and noticed something new with our nonstick pans. We stack them to save space but now in between each pan was a paper towel.

We looked at each other and immediately bought in.

No questions. No research. No "let me think about it." Just instant trust.

That's the thing about certain people. When they give you advice you don't pause. You don't second guess. You just do it.

For the last year we've been stacking our pans with paper towels in between. Never looked back (it's so they don't scratch btw).

It got me thinking... who are those people for you on LinkedIn? The ones where you see their post and you don't question it. You just trust it and go implement what they suggest.

For me it's 🇺🇦 Eddie Shleyner, Christina Garnett, Jess Cook, Shez Mehra, and of course, Jenn Webb-Proud.

Who are yours? Tag them below 👇

ABM is the marketing strategy that will win ALL MARKETING STRATEGIES this year.

That's what Joshua Perk 👻 just said on Vector's live podcast with Jess Cook today. Bold claim. And I agree.

Here's what nobody's talking about though:

ABM doesn't work without a strong brand system.

Everyone's obsessing over the tech stack. Intent signals. Enrichment tools. Triggers. The perfect timing to reach the perfect account at the perfect moment.

Cool. You found them. Now what?

You still need to actually create the assets they're going to see.

→ The personalized landing page
→ The one-pager that speaks to their exact pain
→ The deck that doesn't look like it was made in 2019
→ The ad creative that stops the scroll

All that targeting tech is useless if you can't produce on-brand, personalized content fast enough to capitalize on the moment.

ABM without brand execution is like having a GPS that tells you exactly where to go... but no car.

You've got the data. You've got the signals. You know WHO and you know WHEN.

But can you actually build what they need to see before the window closes?

That's the gap. And that's where most ABM strategies fall apart.

OhSnap!

A friend is starting her own business. She asked for some rapid fire advice. Here's what I came up with...

𝗢𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗲:
→ Be hyper-specific in your SOW. "A video" vs "one video + 10 cut-downs" are very different deliverables.
→ Think of retainers as time blocks, not deliverables. You're selling 20 hours/month, not "whatever they need."
→ Have the overage conversation upfront. "Work beyond 20 hours is billed at $X/hour." They've agreed. It's not awkward later.
→ Track scope creep quarterly then renegotiate if you need to. 1-2 extra hours/month = almost a full month free by year-end.

𝗢𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴:
→ Define your hourly rate first. It grounds every conversation. 10 hours × $200/hr = $2,000. Simple.
→ Eliminate decision fatigue. Don't renegotiate in your head for every client.
→ The price is the price.

𝗢𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳:
→ Be selfish (responsibly). How many hours do you 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 to work? How much do you 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 to make?
→ No one will advocate for you. If you won't have the hard conversations, clients will happily take free work forever.

𝗢𝗻 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀:
→ LinkedIn is a legit marketing channel. We built our whole business on inbound and referrals from posting.
→ Commenting ≥ Posting. "Totally agree!" doesn't cut it. Thoughtful replies get noticed.
→ Just hit post. Some "brilliant" posts flop. Some dumb ones go viral. Post anyway.
→ Join communities in your space. When someone asks "anyone know a good agency?" you want to be there.

𝗢𝗻 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁:
→ Talk to people doing better than you. They're not your competition. They're your teachers.
→ Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Posting, pricing conversations, setting boundaries—it all feels weird at first.
→ Don't outsource your thinking. AI is great for contracts, but keep a notebook. Keep pulling on threads.
→ If you know how to do it then you've waited too long.

What would you add?

OhSnap!

Blank pages are scary.

I used to spend way too long staring at automation tools trying to figure out where to even start. "If this, then that" sounds simple until you start getting lost in triggers, actions, and filters.

That's why Zapier's Copilot is such a big deal.

You type what you want. It builds the Zap. Done.

Is it perfect every time? No. But here's the thing—editing something that exists is infinitely easier than building from scratch.

It's like getting a rough draft vs. a blank doc. One of those you can work with. The other one just stares back at you.

I've been using Copilot for a few months now and the time savings are real. Instead of spending 20 minutes figuring out the right trigger, I spend 2 minutes tweaking what Copilot already built. It's so easy!

If you've been putting off automating stuff because the setup felt like too much work, give Copilot a shot. Get a free 14-day trial with the link in the comments.

#Sponsored #ZapierPartner

Brand partnership • Future-proof your brand | 2x Founder, Creator, Advisor, Dad

My desk is covered in post-its.

It's not clutter. They're ideas.

I used to take the most thorough written notes I could. Detailed. Complete. And in doing so, I missed stuff. I was so focused on capturing that I wasn't actually listening.

Now AI handles the notetaking which means I can actually be present on calls. I can hear things the transcript will never pick up. I can connect dots that no LLM will ever connect.

That's the part people get wrong about AI.

It's not an idea machine. That's YOUR job.

AI is great at the busywork. The stuff that takes hours and makes you want to give up halfway through.

But the thinking? The connections? The "wait, what if we tried this?" moments?

That's still on you.

AI doesn't mean you get to stop thinking. It means you finally have the space to start.

(Shoutout to Jason Bradwell for having me on Pipe Dream. I'm truly honored to be guest 3 of 100 on his podcast. You gotta see it! Links in the comments)

OhSnap!

I wrote over 60 pages of single spaced, size 12 font strategy docs last week.

1. One deliverable was a LinkedIn + email strategy tied to a client's new brand strategy so they know how to show up

2. A brand and creative ops audit that uncovered why things weren't working as smoothly as they could plus a 90-day plan to fix it all

3. A Zapier workflow to tie 6 different systems together and reduce a ton of manual overhead

4. A client review for a new Canva system so their team can actually self-serve AND stay on brand

And I'm probably forgetting something.

Here's the part people don't see: strategy isn't one thing.

It's not just "brand strategy" or "content strategy" or "ops strategy" sitting in neat little boxes. It's all of it, connected. The way you show up on LinkedIn affects how your email lands. The way your creative team operates affects how fast you can execute on any of it.

60 pages sounds like a lot. But when you zoom out, it's really just answering one question over and over:

How do we make this actually work?

Different clients. Different problems. Same question.

That was last week. Back at it tomorrow.

OhSnap!

Yeah... that sounds about right

Five figures for brand work and messaging that are collecting dust in someone's Google Drive.

You can have the best strategy, the best visual identity, the best messaging, and the best systems. If people don't know what to do with them they're useless.

Your brand is your company's operating system. Everyone should know how it works.

OhSnap!

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

I was on a call with a friend yesterday. They were venting about their boss—decisions getting bounced around, everything delayed, the classic "let's circle back tomorrow" on repeat.

They didn't understand why their manager couldn't just make a call.

Here's what I told them:

Your boss isn't avoiding decisions because they don't know the answer. They're avoiding them because they don't want to be the bad guy.

Every decision upsets someone. Prioritize X and the person who wanted Y is disappointed. Cut a project and someone's feelings get hurt. Say no and now you're the villain.

So instead of making the call, they make another deck. Schedule another meeting. Ask for more input. And you sit there waiting.

The irony? By trying not to disappoint anyone, they disappoint everyone.

→ Confusion instead of clarity
→ Bottlenecks instead of progress  
→ Frustration instead of trust

The fix isn't learning to be more decisive. It's prioritization and having priorities so clear that the decision makes itself.

I've seen this play out at every level. It's why teams balloon to twice the size they need to be. It's why mediocre programs don't get cut. It's why "let's see what [pick a name] says" becomes code for "I don't want to make this call."

Sometimes being a good leader means letting people down. It means delivering news that isn't ideal. It means making the call even when you know someone's going to be upset about it.

You shouldn't feel good about it but that's the job.

The fastest way to lose your team's trust isn't making a bad decision. It's making no decision at all.

This post making you sweat? Here's your chance to finally make the call. Get a brand systems audit—yes, decision making is part of your brand system.

OhSnap!

The biggest threat to your brand isn't your competition. It's your own team.

I've seen it too many times. Marketing says one thing. Sales says another which just confuses your prospects. Product is off doing their own thing entirely. Everyone thinks they know best and nobody's talking to each other.

The result? Customers get a different experience depending on who they interact with and don't know who to trust. Different language. Different ideas. Different priorities. Sometimes you'd think they were dealing with three separate companies.

And the worst part? Half the time "helping the customer" wasn't even the goal. It was winning the internal argument.

This is what happens when brand is treated like arts and crafts instead of an operating system.

When brand lives in a PDF that nobody opens, every department fills the void with their own interpretation. Their own language. Their own version of what matters.

But when brand is the OS—when it's the foundation every decision runs through—suddenly you have alignment. Marketing, sales, product, support... they're all speaking the same language because they're running on the same system.

You don't fix this with more meetings or another Slack channel. You fix it by making brand the thing everyone builds from, not the thing design owns.

Your brand is either the glue holding your company together or it's the crack letting everything fall apart.

OhSnap!

I saved $150 on contacts yesterday because I asked AI to do my homework.

My one-year supply ran out. Took me four years to get through them but I got through them. I needed an active prescription so I went to get an exam and found out they don't even make my old lenses anymore.

So now I need to figure out where to buy these things. Problem is, I haven't shopped for contacts in years. I had no idea where else to even look. Checked 1-800-CONTACTS and it was expensive so I gave Perplexity my prescription and told it to find me prices.

It checked 1-800-CONTACTS, Costco, Walmart, and a bunch of other sites. Organized everything. Compared it all.

Walmart won by $150. Same contacts. Same process. Way less money.

Honestly, I had no idea Walmart even sold contacts if AI hadn't told me.

This is what AI is actually good for. Not writing your novel or replacing your job. Just doing the annoying busywork you don't want to do.

Price comparisons. Research. The stuff that takes 45 minutes and makes you want to give up halfway through.

Let AI do that. Keep the $150.

OhSnap!

It was bound to happen at some point and it'll happen across all the AI providers at some point but...

RIP to the supposedly unbiased LLMs out there. It was a fun ride

Designers, stop fighting Canva.

I was on a call with a marketing leader this week. Her designers won't let sales touch templates. Won't let marketers mock things up. "We can't let them do that."

Why? Because every headline is screaming that AI is coming for their jobs. So they hold tighter. Guard the gates. Make themselves "essential" by being the bottleneck.

Here's what they don't realize:

By holding onto sales decks, paid ads, and social posts, they're not protecting their craft. They're stunting it. There's no space left for actual creative thinking.

And the fear is misplaced. AI isn't coming for creative work. It's coming for production work. The stuff they're clinging to.

Self-service tools aren't the enemy. They're the boundary.

This stays with creative. This does not.

That's how you protect your time. Not by hoarding tasks, but by letting go of the ones that don't require you.

Creatives should want to work on things that actually make an impact.

A marketer with a Canva template can test an idea in under an hour. That same idea through the creative process? Intake, triage, kickoff, feedback rounds, someone's on vacation, sprint's full — three weeks later it's irrelevant.

Self-service lets marketers figure out what works. Then creative can pour resources into the stuff that matters.

That's how we get better. That's how we make ourselves irreplaceable.

The fastest way to become replaceable isn't handing off templates.

It's spending all your time on work that doesn't require you.

OhSnap!

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