How I Built This Advice Line: Branding, pricing, and finding your audience

Executive overview

Three early-stage founders get live coaching from Barre3 CEO Sadie Lincoln and host Guy Raz. The callers each face a distinct challenge: one needs a brand voice, one needs to justify a premium price, and one needs to step back from being her own product. The advice converges on a common thread: clarity of story drives everything else.

Being the face of your business is a phase, not a permanent identity — but it's unavoidable early on.

Ketchustard: finding the right brand voice

• Name alone does the heavy descriptive work — it says exactly what it is.
• The logo reads corporate; the product calls for playfulness and wit.
• Study Sir Kensington (invented mascot, backstory) and Liquid Death (mission-first storytelling) as branding models.
• Convenience is the core value proposition: one bottle replaces two at every barbecue or outing.
• A squeeze tube or aluminum format could make the product iconic on tables and in coolers.
• Heinz validated the mashup condiment category in 2018 — leaving Ketchustard as the open gap.
• Hold the product line to one SKU until the brand identity is locked.

Ramps game: converting premium price into sales

• Viral Instagram reel hit 24M views, drove 150 sales from 250-unit inventory — momentum is real but fragile.
• The $269 price point creates hesitation; buyers need to experience the game before committing.
• Prioritise trial over donation: put units into high-traffic social venues (pickleball courts, KOA campgrounds, RV parks) where target buyers already gather.
• Be selective about free donations — only give to groups with large, engaged audiences who will actively promote.
• Capture buyer data from the viral spike: demographics, interests, and email addresses to identify the core tribe.
• Test removing the baked-in shipping cost; the research default may not apply at this price tier.
• Explore a base-game version at a lower entry price with add-ons, to widen the funnel.
• Look at how Spikeball found their early tribes (church groups, Mennonite communities) by analysing purchase data — then go deep into those communities.

Ruffner Treehouse Village: stepping back from being the brand

• Being the sole face of a nonprofit is depleting and unsustainable long-term — but it's unavoidable before the physical product exists.
• TikTok virality built a community of advocates who are independently lobbying the city of Birmingham for support.
• Financing through book advances and grants; GoFundMe provided supplemental runway.
• The personal story — divorced mother, newborn, pandemic, $30K book advance used to buy the plot — is the brand until the treehouses are built.
• Once the space exists, visitors create their own stories and the founder steps back naturally.
• Surround storytelling strengths with people who speak in data and analytics to build institutional credibility.
• Board already includes an architect and nonprofit leaders; a business education programme is the next target.

Sadie Lincoln's advice to her younger self

• Believe you deserve the very best people around you — best marketer, best finance lead, best operator.
• Hire or attract people who respect your strengths rather than trying to replicate them.
• Who you surround yourself with is a bigger lever than almost any strategic decision.