Branding for Lazy Geniuses

⏰ Today in 5 minutes or less:

• Almost every platform promotes video posts. Make more of those.

• Tools and AI work best if you already know what you want to say.

• Consult an attorney if you’re going through your first contract, or if you encounter clauses you haven’t used before.

Modern Branding for Lazy Geniuses (You Know Who You Are 👀)

After decades as a consultant, here’s the most important thing I learned about branding for indies: 

If you want to be remembered, you have to show up with clarity and consistency. 

But here’s the problem: You need to squeeze establishing your brand into a busy week of client work and business development – and it’s just you juggling everything. 

My solution? Hack branding with a bunch of tech tools. 

(I also have a longer list of biz dev tools I use for Keenan Reid here.) 

Videos First. Everything Else Second. 

When it comes to trust and visibility, videos trump everything. 

Almost every platform will promote video posts – and for a good reason too. 

Audiences want more than just logos.

They want eye contact and someone who speaks to them – that's just psychology. 

Producing videos takes some effort, but it’s gotten easier. 

There are tools to make it less intimidating: 

• Riverside is my pick for recording and editing videos used for podcasts and social media. 

• Opus Clip edits longer videos into shorter clips that will perform best on LinkedIn. 

• Transistor.fm publishes podcasts across all major platforms. 

• Microsoft Stream is great for internal training videos and executive comms, especially if you need security. Others use Loom, but we prefer Stream since it’s included in M365. 

Content Creation Tools for Extra Efficiency 

For us consultants, the content we publish is the evidence of thinking. 

But when a certain piece takes hours of effort, it likely gets pushed to the next quarter... again.

My advice? Use tools to automate your content creation. 

Here are some trusted ones for friction reduction every step of the workflow: 

• Microsoft 365 as the operational backbone. From shared OneNote pages for idea parking to Word and Teams, it keeps the machine humming. 

• Asana as the content pipeline command center – planning topics, assigning owners, and ensuring repurposing doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. 

• ChatGPT for idea refinement and now deep research. It’s the sounding board that helps shape messy input into a clear thesis, with just enough structure to move forward fast. My advice? We use ChatGPT Plus and for Teams – it’s worth every penny. 

• Taplio to improve our LinkedIn strategy. It tracks engagement, finds high-performing posts, and optimizes our copies for LinkedIn. A bit pricey, but SO worth it. 

• Canva for creating visuals that look intentional. Templates do the heavy lifting, and brand consistency stays intact. 

• Beehiiv for our newsletters. Clean layout, intuitive workflow, and analytics that help figure out what’s landing and what’s getting ignored. 

No Substitute for Human Thoughts 

Let’s get one thing clear: no matter how shiny the tools, the brain still does the heavy lifting. 

Strategy can’t be automated. Tone can’t be templated. And “authenticity” doesn’t come from pressing the “generate” button. 

Every piece of content we publish starts from my real experiences. 

A conversation with a client. A challenge from a past project. A moment where something clicked. 

Here’s how my thinking flows into content: 

• A quick note or voice memo captures an idea in its rawest form, or I save visual content in OneNote. 

• That nugget gets shaped through conversation with my team during our quarterly editorial planning.  

• The team brings research and context, often feeding the input into ChatGPT to structure and refine. 

• Final drafts go through a manual polish, because sounding human matters more than sounding efficient. 

Tools amplify the process. But the idea always starts from something real. 

The Humans Who Make the Stack Work 

Sounds like a lot of tools? It is, but this entire operation isn’t fully automated. 

There are lots of integrations between the tools, but it takes a human behind the scenes to make it work. 

As an indie, I invested in building an amazing team in the Philippines that I rely on every day. 

If this were just me talking about my indie business, I’d still make that investment, starting with one Virtual Assistant (VA). 

And who knows? They probably wrote the title of this article, not me. 

Show Up – Human First, But AI-Enabled 

Indies, remember that YOU are the brand. 

But the tech you use can help get the word out there – more often and more clearly, without needing five of your clones to do it. 

Start small, with one video tool or one writing assistant. 

Then say something useful with your voice and platform. That’s the work. 

Your tech just makes it easier to do consistently. 

Framework Focus: Columns

Humans, stop writing novels in your deck. 

There’s no need for 50 slides with 10 pt font to explain what you found. 

You just need columns.  

Literally the simplest way to get the ‘yes’ and move to action. 

Use it to line up your insights in a way that’s so clean, even distracted executives can understand it before their coffee mug hits the table. 

And if you can’t fit an idea in one of these rows, then it’s not ready yet. 

Picture a consultant brought in to support the integration of two healthcare tech firms. 

The executive team was overwhelmed with the conflicting systems, duplicate roles, and zero alignment on priorities. 

Instead of an 80-slide deck with the plan of action, the consultant simply dropped their insights using a columns framework during one of the integration meetings.  

The result? Execs streamlined operations and tightened timelines. 

The consultant was even invited back to lead the second phase of planning and implementation. 

Moral of the story? One well-structured slide > 80 wordy ones. 

Save time and sanity with our downloadable template here.

❓ Ask Me Anything: How Indies Go Legit

Welcome to Ask Me Anything – where we feature common questions asked by indies and fractionals. 

To kick us off, we’re answering questions about the foundational elements you need to have in place to protect yourself and work professionally. 

Q: Do I need a standard agreement?

A: Yes. I have one which I developed about six years ago. We designed it to be future proof by adding in different clauses for different scenarios that many consultants often overlook – like the terms of getting paid, duration of the agreement, and more. 

Q: Do I need an LLC to form a contract?

A: No. Any two parties can form a contract together. However, having an LLC is great for a whole bunch of other purposes. For example, an LLC is eligible to more tax deductions, and it gives consultants an extra layer of protection when running their practice.

But no, having an LLC will not impact the ability of a contract to be enforced or not. 

Q: When do I need an attorney? 

A: It’s great to have an attorney in two cases: you’re going through your first contract, or you receive one and it includes clauses that you haven’t used before. 

First, if you’re going through your first contract, an attorney’s help is useful so you can tweak the agreement’s template and have everything you want to include there worded clearly. 

It’s not expensive to consult an attorney for that – I only paid about $1,500 for the first time and I’ve used those first contracts over and over again. 

The other time an attorney might be useful is when someone hands you a contract and it has things that you haven’t seen or used before. Getting the advice and guidance of someone to understand the implications of new terms and clauses is always valuable. 

💼 See if you’re qualified…

• Senior Cybersecurity Consultant at Capco, 4+ years of cybersecurity consulting experience, ~$111k-$145k

• Contracts Manager for Vexcel Contracts and Compliance at Microsoft, 5+ years of project management experience, ~$122k-$214k

• Managing Consultant for Services Business Development - Global Fintech & Tech Providers at Mastercard, 5+ years of management consulting experience, ~$132k-$206k

• Senior Managing Consultant for Services Businesses Development - Global Fintech & B2B Service Providers at Mastercard, 7+ years of management consulting experience, ~$161k-$250k

• Financial Process Improvement Consultant at McKinsey, 5+ years of operational finance experience, ~$192k

Remember, the path to success is paved with continuous learning and embracing fresh perspectives.

Let's stay connected, share ideas, and elevate your consulting business.

Stay curious, friends.

The 2×2 is brought to you by Keenan Reid Strategies

Having trouble viewing this email? Check out this and past issues on our website.

Was this newsletter forwarded? Someone is looking out for you. You should definitely subscribe!