Back in university, a professor once told me, “If you want good service, be a good customer.” In my conversation with Emily, we uncover the extension of that philosophy for marketers - that is, if you want to be a good marketer, you need to first be a good customer. Great marketers stay in touch with the humanity and empathy that goes into truly connecting with your audience. As the owner and lead brand strategist with Root + River, Emily is one of those greats whose humanity suffuses everything she does.

I was excited to spend this time with Emily, just as I’m excited now to share her insights with you: from the quirks of human identity and how it relates to the customer journey, to the true metrics that matter most: the lives you touch. Emily’s journey is one of radical transformation and embracing what sets you apart, and her insights about how it affects her ability to relate to her clients and her career were revelatory for me. I hope they are for you too.

Takeaways:

• Finding time for oneself and reconnecting with one’s humanity is essential in a productivity-driven society.
• Branding is about repelling as much as it is about attracting, as it helps businesses focus on their core audience.
• We forget what it’s like to be the customer because we forget ourselves, and what it’s like to be human in the workspace.
• The satisfaction and fulfillment in making art comes from making it real in the world.
• Midlife and quarter life crises occur because we lose our sense of identity.
• The ego’s favorite number is more.
• The metrics that matter are the lives touched.