3 More Questions (Mike Cessario) with David Novak and Koula Callahan

How Leaders Lead with David Novak

David Novak Leadership

Entrepreneurship, Business, Management

4.8 • 596 Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of 3 More Questions, you'll hear David Novak's answers to: What do you think about edginess in branding and reframing edginess as entertainment? What advice do you have for leaders trying to build momentum for a brand just starting out? What can leaders of larger companies do to stay agile and move fast in the same way small companies can? ——— GO DEEPER Scale up your leadership skills in 2 minutes a day with the How Leaders Lead app — ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download today in the App Store⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get coaching from David by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠signing up to receive his Weekly Leadership Plan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. It builds on each podcast episode by offering actionable steps you can take each week to incorporate the learnings from the episode into your leadership style. It only takes about 5 minutes and is a great way to start off your week! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the How Leaders Lead podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to ensure you never miss an episode!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Happy Monday, everybody, and welcome to How Leaders Lead. I'm Kula Callahan, here to bring you
0:09.1	another edition of three more questions with David Novak and David Novak. Today, I'm going to need
0:13.6	you to lean into your most punk rock version of yourself because we're talking about your
0:18.8	conversation with the CEO of Liquid Death, Mike Cesario.
0:23.8	Well, I don't think I can go punk rock as far as I could go as country, but I'll try to be as
0:29.3	off the charts as I can.
0:31.7	Your conversation with Mike is so fascinating.
0:35.1	I mean, this guy is a marketing genius, and he actually does have a punk rock
0:38.7	background, which is really evident when you look at the packaging of his products with liquid
0:44.1	death. Oh, absolutely. I mean, his packaging breaks through the clutter, but everything he does
0:49.1	breaks through the clutter. I mean, this guy basically wants to shock the system. He started out with
0:53.8	the water, and water could be pretty boring.
0:56.0	So he said, how do you make it exciting and make it something that kids want to drink and, you know, gets attention off the shelf, which you got to do when you're a small brand?
1:05.0	And so he came up with the name Liquid Death.
1:08.0	And then he's got all kinds of great line extensions and different
1:12.4	categories like tea with names like, I think, what, Pina Killata? He's a really big baker and
1:19.8	has a lot of fun with his brand. And everybody on the team does too. Absolutely. If you are
1:24.4	looking for a way to make your brand stand out, you really need to listen to this
1:28.2	episode and study Mike's strategy because he doesn't just do this stuff to be edgy, like for
1:33.8	edginess sake. There's real discipline and strategy around how he is using language and visuals
1:40.4	to disrupt the space. And it's just an amazing episode. So go back and listen to it if you
1:45.2	haven't. David, today, we're going to go punk rock with our questions. Are you ready for it?
	...

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