The Brand Storytelling Rule That Changes Everything: "Would You Think It's Cool?"| Preston McFarland

Preston McFarland is the Head of Brand at Branded Bills, an Arizona-based headwear company that has grown from custom-order hats into a multi-channel powerhouse spanning DTC, golf licensing, wholesale, and big box retail. With over 8 years of agency experience (working on Nike, Jordan, and Apple accounts at Optimus Inc.) before jumping to the brand side in 2020, Preston brings a rare combination of creative agency polish and in-house brand ownership. In this episode, Preston breaks down exactly how Branded Bills unifies its brand story across dozens of channels, why they built a full in-house agency instead of outsourcing, and how AI tools with Claude integrations are quietly reshaping their content workflow. He also shares his best storytelling filter ("if you don't think it's cool, why would the consumer?"), why competitors should be a petri dish and not a villain, and what "let people cook" really means as a leadership philosophy. Here's what you'll learn: [00:00] - Meet Preston: Head of Brand at Branded Bills in Tempe, Arizona [00:35] - Unifying brand story across custom, DTC, golf licensing, wholesale, and big box [02:35] - Why Branded Bills built a full in-house agency instead of outsourcing [05:45] - How Branded Bills uses AI: Gen Fill, backgrounds, and preserving hat details [11:45] - Preston's agency days: telling Nike Jordan and Apple stories at Optimus Inc. [14:45] - The reality check: "Who actually cares?" (and how brands lose sight of this) [16:15] - Why leaders should learn to do the work themselves (the broken collarbone story) [18:15] - Final advice: competitors as a petri dish, and letting people cook Links: Linkedin:   / matt-laker   - connect with me! Need more help? https://acemakers.io/acemakers-it-con... - We make it easy and fun to grow your IT consulting company, instead of complex and boring!