(Podcast #13) Building a Brand

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- This week’s podcast features MAD Records Collective member and advertising expert David Baldwin.

David has spent his life as a creative. He grew up around advertising, started playing music early, and never really separated the two. Over the years, he built a highly respected career as a copywriter and creative director, eventually founding the agency Baldwin& in Raleigh, North Carolina, which was named Small Agency of the Year twice in its first five years by Ad Age and the 4A’s.

David’s work has been recognized by nearly every major award in advertising, including Cannes Lions, The One Show, D&AD, the Clios, the Effies, and Communication Arts. He previously served as Chairman of the One Club in New York City and was an executive producer on the Emmy winning film Art & Copy, as well as an associate producer on the Emmy and Peabody Award winning documentary The Loving Story.

Even as his advertising career grew, music remained a constant. David continued writing songs, playing guitar, and staying creatively active, never treating music as something he had to leave behind. Eventually, those two worlds started to intersect more intentionally. His understanding of storytelling, belief, and audience from advertising began to directly inform how he approached art, creativity, and identity.

- In this episode, David and I have a wide ranging conversation about creativity as a long game. We talk about identity, values, and what it actually means to be an artist, especially when your path does not follow a traditional music industry timeline.

David discusses why having a career outside of music does not make you less legitimate, how fear quietly drives many decisions, and why he has always focused more on output than validation. We talk about branding as an extension of values, not aesthetics, and the difference between being distinctive versus trying to be different.

We also talk about age, experience, and releasing music later in life. David reflects on coming back to music with perspective, redefining success without an end point, and why doing the work itself has always been the goal.

This is a well-rounded, vulnerable conversation about patience, trust, and building a creative life that actually lasts.

If you are navigating big decisions, questioning timelines, or trying to balance stability with creative ambition, you’re in for a treat.

Topic Overview

00:00 Intro and background02:15 Growing up around creativity06:00 Being an artist as a mindset09:30 Choosing a creative career without leaving music behind14:00 Building companies from values18:30 Risk, fear, and long term thinking23:45 Branding as behavior29:30 Distinctiveness versus differentiation39:00 Releasing music later in life45:00 Experience and authenticity51:30 Defining success56:00 Closing thoughts

(Podcast intro music created by Luke Despain, Thomas Muer, and Rob Schustack.)

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