Mario and Katie Marchese on Branding For Yourself (Not the Space)

By Kim Hanna

Welcome back to Let's Talk About Brand! Today we talked about personal branding with Katie and Mario Marchese. Mario is better known as Mario the Maker Magician. He has been a magician for over 15 years, and he really breaks the mold!

Mario has been called “the greatest children's magician in the world” by magician David Blaine, who he's also toured the world with. He has taught his own special brand of Maker Magic to Murray the Muppet on Sesame Street. He has also done a whole ton of live programming with Make Magazine. Normally, he’s touring all over the place with his family and his co-adventurer, Katie Marchese. 

Katie, in addition to being Mario's wife and keeping their personal life going, is also his manager, his co-adventurer, road trip buddy, and they've got their kids in on the action too!

Mario and Katie had been touring all over the country until March, when the pandemic abruptly canceled all performances. However, they’ve been able to continue their show in a different way. They’ve been broadcasting from their home, where they’ve designed a set in their very own attic!

The traditional image of a children's magician would probably include a tux, top hat, and a black cape with red lining. However, Mario has created his own aesthetic, which has a punk rock, steampunk, Vaudevillian feel. In a cover piece for MUM Magazine, writer Chloe Olewitz summed Mario up perfectly as, “magic’s punk rock Peter Pan philosopher.” 

Becoming Mario The Magician

Christine: “I want to go way back to over 15 years ago when you started out being a working magician. Was there a time when you hid the tattoos and put on the tux? Or were you always kind of like, “Here I am, I'm Mario?’” 

Mario: “Honestly, I hid my tattoos and wore the stereotypical outfit in the beginning. When something's new, you're gonna look at what everyone else is doing and you play it the safest possible to be accepted.”

As Mario worked as a magician, he hit a plateau where he realized he wanted to set himself apart. “My show naturally became better as I took apart this uniform and discovered where I'm most comfortable where I'm most happy,” says Mario. “I think that's with any business. The more you're brutally honest with who you are, with your strengths and weaknesses are, the more people can relate to you.”

Christine: “In terms of how it changed your act, how you stopped being in that little box of 'here's what people expect from a magician,' how did it start to change your act?” 

Mario says he had two obsessions: being a magician and building things. He mixed these two things together to make what his show looks like today.

“They say the audience creates the performer. I would hear some criticism like, ‘Oh, that was Mario, he's just doing this and he's just doing that like everyone else.’ That kind of stuff organically pushed me. And once the robot started mixing in, it was cool.” 

Mario goes on to introduce Marcel the Monkey. “He's definitely part of my theater show. He's completely 3D-printed autonomous. He's been in for six years now. He's still the same monkey, just reprogrammed for the new generation of kids.”

Listening To Your Audience

Mario said earlier that “the audience makes the performer.” He tried out new things. Some worked, and some didn’t. But once he found what worked, that was the direction he moved in and tried to see how far he could push it. He realized that he could really push it as far as he wanted - there was no limit!

For example, Mario's audience responded really well to the segment of his live stream where he interviews kids. “All of a sudden, we're getting big feedback. For some reason, me interviewing kids is working. So we shifted everything where a big chunk of that live stream with eCamm was our interviews with children. And so it's constantly changing.”

“What makes them laugh? What makes them interact? The goal of the show really is the goal of my life. It's just to stay curious, to be inspired that kids can know it's accessible, that they can see my props. It looks homemade for a reason, and the more I stay true to that, the more we keep the flow on my end.”

Personal Branding

Katie and Mario have come up with the branding and the feel of Mario’s act together. 

Christine: “Mario is a real person, obviously, and Katie too. There’s the Maker Magician who's the person on stage, and then there's the real person. How do you choose which elements to amplify as part of the brand and which elements to maybe not?”

Katie: “Everybody knows we're a family business. We definitely give glimpses into that, especially when we're traveling. But we're not going to show the downside. We're not going to show the kids tantruming. We're not going to disrespect their personal space. You have to be conscious of the fact that they are their own people, too.”

Mario and Katie love to show what they’re working on - whether it’s their recent Airstream purchase, their Little Blue Bus, or Mario’s building processes during the pandemic. These things definitely fit into the whole narrative of being a maker in every aspect. So, they pick things that make sense, and that fills in that persona for their viewers. 

Katie: “Mario is the same person on stage and off. But we elevate certain aspects that are going to be more interesting for people to see.”

For Mario and Katie’s personal branding strategy, they really try to highlight the aspects of their life that match up with their brand and show what they’re making.

In our live stream, we got to see Mario and Katie’s awesome homemade set. “We want to demonstrate that all this cardboard, paper masking tape, duct tape, is accessibly created. And it doesn't have to be perfect. Just have fun with it! This is based on just what my strengths are as a person and as a maker. I am not a polished person! But I make things. They are naturally a little off, you know? So we're trying to heighten the strength of what makes us good and what makes us stand out.”

Find Mario and Katie

Mariothemagician.com is their main hub where you can find all of their social links. They put on a fantastic show and when they are out touring again, everyone everywhere should get out and see them. You will not regret it!

Thank you so much to Mario and Katie Marchese for hanging out with us today as well as everyone who has joined us for our live show, Let’s Talk About Brand!

Rebekah Radice on Branding with Content

By Kim Hanna

This week on Let’s Talk About Brand, we talked to Rebekah Radice on branding with content. 

Rebekah is a former morning radio talk show host, but for the past twenty years, she's been training others on how to engage their audiences through digital marketing. She's the founder of Rebekah Radice Media and the co-founder of BRIL.LA, a digital marketing and consumer experience design firm that, as of this year, is working exclusively with cause-based organizations. She’s also the creator of the Authority Matrix and the performance method and author of the book Social Media Mastery: A Comprehensive Guide to Strategic Growth. 

Check out our live video here:

Branding with Content 

When branding with content, it’s really important to make sure you’re conveying something meaningful about your brand. Since content is everywhere, it’s making an impact in a variety of ways. That being said, it gives you the opportunity to get your brand in front of the exact people at the exact time and in the exact place. 

Here are some of Rebekah’s top recommendations on branding with content:

• Make your brand an extension of yourself. “We're tired of keeping up a facade that isn't congruent with that person behind the brand,” says Rebekah. “I would say the most important thing is that it speaks to who you are so that when people meet you in the offline world, that you're exactly who you represent online.” 

• Myth: You have to have everything perfect. Your brand doesn’t pop up overnight. “Get yourself out there. Just start talking to people. Start having conversations. That's the important aspect. And let all of those other things come.”

• Don't be afraid to make continuous improvements. Rebekah explains that just as people evolve, brands evolve as well. “It is a constant evolution of just really paying attention. Typically you’ll find that there are 2-3 types of content that stand out for you and resonate most with your audience.”

• Relationship marketing. Rebekah says that relationship marketing has been so important in the past six months, and brands that aren’t utilizing this are going to feel the sting. “It's more important that you focus on your audience and their needs...building that Know/Like/Trust factor to where they truly trust you as a confidant, as a friend.”

Advice to people starting out in social media

Rebekah says to just go for it! “The worst thing you could do right now is take a back seat.” We're in such interesting times, and people are looking for connections now more than ever. People are looking for a calm in this crazy storm that we're in. So now more than ever, people are connecting with each other through social media.

Don’t let the fear of not having everything perfectly ready keep you from getting started. People 

will want to hear from you as you’re getting started. So get out there and start connecting with people and starting those conversations. 

As you get started, pick a few channels and be consistent on how you’re showing up to them. Then, find people. “Pick people like Christine to start connecting with because she is a master networker!” says Rebekah. “Those are the people you need to be connected with. They will help raise you up and amplify your voice. They will get you out there in front of the exact right people too. Connection is everything. And the only way you can do it is just to get started!” 

Using different types of content to convey your brand

There are so many different content types out there on all the different platforms. As you’re starting on social media, you might want to learn about some of the ways to use content to convey a personal brand.

Here are some questions to consider to better understand your audience: Where is this content going? Who is your audience and what are their expectations? What type of content are they looking to consume? Are they interacting with visuals? Are they interacting with video content? Is it short form or long form content? Is it questions? Or is it more just conversational type of content? 

Figure out where your audience is spending most of their time and work off of that. “What you don't want to do is spread yourself out too thin at first. You just want to dip your toe in where your audience is spending their time and get a feel for what that content is.” 

Doing a little bit of research to understand will go a long way. Test out different strategies to see what works best for your brand.

Understanding your audience

Since understanding your audience is so important, we asked Rebekah for some more advice on that. Here are some things you can try:

• Use analytical tools - Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook all have great analytical tools for you to obtain insights on your followers. 

• Look at your competition - Pick out four to five competitors that are talking about similar things to your brand. Get a feel for the type of content they are sharing and look at how the audience is interacting. You’re not looking to steal somebody else's brand, you're just simply doing a little bit of homework to get a feel for the content that is already working with a similar audience. 

• Research - What might have been working a few months ago may not be the case today. It's important to take a step back fairly often to look into what your audience wants.

Find Rebekah

Thank you so much to Rebekah Radice for her incredible knowledge about branding and being yourself. The best place to find her is at rebekahradice.com and anywhere on social @RebekahRadice.

Next week on Let’s Talk About Brand, we have, 'brand for yourself, not the space.'  We’ll be talking to an awesome friend, Mario the Maker Magician and his rock star wife, Katie Marchese. We hope you can join us live next Friday at noon!