Most marketing professionals make branding out to be more complicated than it actually is.

When you boil it all down and distill the essence, branding is simply who you're allowed to stand next to. It's a popularity contest. And if your brand is hot, you have the right to stand next to established players who already dominate the space. If you're lackluster and don't have the goods, there is no way that you get permission to play at that top-level. Let that sink in and then look at every partnership and collaboration through that lens. It's always the game of "Who gets to stand next to who?"

When I came on as VP of Sales and Marketing for Earthworks Audio more than 4 years ago, we were standing by ourselves in the corner looking down at our shoes. We weren't even on the bench waiting to play. When I left, we were collaborating with iZotope and Native Instruments. That alignment and association speaks volumes for the brand's turn-around success story — and reading between the lines — the collaboration speaks to the sheer amount of work that was done to get there.

As told by Dave Godowsky, the Head of Artists & Industry Relations for Native Instruments:

Word of mouth is a critical aspect of any business, but particularly for any company whose products are used by creators and artists. It's the keystone of a company's brand, and despite being a primary driver of the business, it's often misunderstood at the executive level, mishandled by the marketing team, and structurally disorganized. In recent years, Earthworks has been one of the best examples of how companies should be doing it. And it's all thanks to Mike Dias. His acute comprehension of the strategy, tactics, and value of word of mouth has resulted in a top-tier artist relations strategy, more effective marketing plans, and a best in class brand, which elevates partnerships and fuels purchasing decisions across the entire customer base.

It's not every day that a small boutique company gets to stand next to giants

When you approach everything with the core desire to add value and to be of service — and when you relentlessly advocate for the end-user — amazing opportunities can be achieved. Here's how the collaboration came about, the benefits for the customers, and why it mattered to me personally.

iZotope, Inc. changed the game for all content creators everywhere when they launched their new VEA plugin. With VEA, creators can focus on what they do best while VEA does all the heavy lifting cleaning up the audio tracks. It's the fastest and easiest way to sound better. Faster. And for me, this is a win on many levels. First of all, I'm an ok creator and a bad sound engineer. So this lets me produce content that I actually want to share without looking like a clown.

And then for the day job and my bosses, this is like landing on the moon. Because besides for iZotope just launching VEA, they were kind enough to allow Earthworks Audio to bundle VEA and RX Elements with all their streaming and broadcast microphones. That move right there positions Earthworks to be the Ultimate Creator Bundle and places our content mics in front of literally hundreds of thousands of new customers. Don't forget — when I started with Earthworks a few years ago, not only could I barely get my resellers to even call me back — but everyone thought we were a Chinese knock-off brand.

We certainly didn't have permission to play in this space. And now we're collaborating with iZotope by Native Instruments — one of the biggest players in the field. Talk about light speed changes and what can happen when you properly rebrand and restructure.

But really the Big Win is for me personally — for all the things that I speak about on Authentic Networking and how it takes a team to tackle the really big things that create lasting impact. This is proof. This is literally the result of simply saying yes and showing up and then finding ways to add value and to give more than you take. All of this happened over burgers and because Dave Godowsky is even more passionate about taking care of everyone in his network and because of his dedication to making things simple and easy! Thank you Dave!

To everyone who helped enable this win for me — THANK YOU. I never could have done this without the help of my team and extended network.

Networking is about collaborating with people and teams to accomplish huge tasks and to create lasting impact. So whenever I showcase a business win, it is always to illustrate the power of what is possible when you think beyond yourself and focus on working with others to solve the big problems and to tackle the hard issues.

‍

https://www.mike-dias.com/testimonials-referrals-and-recomendations/mike-dias-networking-as-a-fundamental-business-strategy-dave-godowsky-head-of-artist-industry-relations-for-native-instruments

‍

Mike Dias is a business leader with over 20 years of experience working at the intersection of Pro Audio and Consumer Electronics. He is a huge believer that life is about who you know and that success is about who's in your network. This is why he writes and and speaks so passionately about Why Nobody Likes Networking and What Entertainers can Teach Executives. From time to time, he shares business wins like this to illustrate the power of adopting a networking mindset for work and for life.  If you or your teams need more sales & wins or if you want to infuse your organization with that same can’t fail attitude and work ethic that goes into building out all of your favorite shows and concerts, then simply get in touch.

‍