Episode 7: Josh Gorero

In this episode of Finding the Balance, host Karen O’Donnell sits down with digital media and communications strategist Joshua Gorero to unpack what truly makes branding and marketing work in today’s crowded, content-driven world. 

Joshua shares how he acts as a “thought partner” for businesses—helping them move beyond surface-level content to build meaningful, story-driven brands that actually connect with people. From logo design and visual identity to messaging and campaign strategy, this conversation dives into the intentional work behind effective marketing.

Together, they explore:

•  What it means to be a thought partner versus just a marketer 
•  How color, shape, and design influence emotional connection 
•  Why storytelling is the most powerful tool in branding 
•  The difference between random content and strategic messaging 
•  The growing demand for authenticity in an AI-saturated world 

Karen also shares her firsthand experience working with Joshua on multiple brands, highlighting how collaboration and clarity can transform a vision into something impactful and aligned.

If you’re building a business—or trying to refine your message—this episode offers practical insight into creating a brand that resonates on a human level.

Find his work:

https://www.instagram.com/joshua.cooks/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-gorero/

About the Podcast:
Hosted by functional medicine nurse Karen O’Donnell RN, BSN, BC-FMNS "Finding the Balance" explores health, wellness, and personal empowerment, encouraging listeners to listen to their bodies and take steps toward improving their quality of life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello, and welcome everybody to the Holistic Inner Balance Podcast. My name is Karen O'Donnell, and I am a nurse in New Hampshire. I started this podcast to really create the health and wellness space so that I could align with all of my guests that are coming on. And my guests are typically business owners who have the thought process and the alignment of health and wellness in the space. And Josh is 100% aligned with the mission of bringing good health and wellness to people. So I want to introduce my friend Josh. So let me tell you a little bit about Josh. Um Joshua Guerrero, he is a digital media and communications strategist. I had to practice that a little bit. The strategist, I was like strategist strategist. What is that? Not usually in my vocabulary. So for his day job, he creates branding for print and non-print materials, social media management, creation, and planning across a portfolio portfolio of clients, particularly in the nonprofit space. He extends that on a personal level for for-profit organizations and small businesses, and he really enjoys being a thought partner with people. I love that. Welcome, Josh. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

So on a personal note, I will tell the audience that Josh and I have worked together for my branding, for my logos, and I will show you those in the very near future. But I do have to just first of all say that he's very thoughtful with the experience that you want to portray with your brand. So if you come to him with an idea, or sometimes even not having an idea, he's got the experience to be able to pull in the right fonts, the right colors, and the right messaging that really lands so much better than anything that a non-marketer's brain can process. So I'm gonna let you take it from there, Josh, and tell us a little bit about yourself and how you get started with this.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Yeah, um, again, thank you uh for just like what I like to do on the day-to-day and both my day job and then outside of my day job is trying to be a thought partner. And what I like doing particularly is to focus on what a client or a partner needs um and how do you convey that in a way that is visually compelling, but also that is centered into the work and the mission of the organization. So for instance, um for imperfect uh EFT and for holistic balance, like the inner holistic balance, one of the things that we wanted to convey is how do how does the work that you do, Karen, convey out to people outside of the organization? And how can how can the platforms and services that you provide um help other people? So like that's the type of things I'm thinking about in terms of branding and just the overall design. So one of the things is one of the thing things that I think about is how colors are important in um showing I guess well wellness and someone's well-being, or how we could use circles, shapes, right? Circles, colors, all of these things to bring about something that like conveys someone emotionally. So like that's the thing I'm thinking about. But then also for um imagery, so like photography, that that's another thing, thing that I have a passion for is photography. How do you convey particularly emotions at the moment that I see it? Or how do I want a client, say, like for an event, how do we want to uplift the event if it's celebratory, if it's something for um for people to take a pause at? Like these are the things that I'm thinking about in my computer.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

So um to backtrack a little bit, you have worked with me three different times. Umce on my my primary company, which is Caring Nurses Staffing Agency, and I had just this basic logo because it was in 2012 that I started that company, and I like created a logo basically from like VistaPrint. So I didn't have any experience, and I just had kind of this thing that really spoke to me, but you were able to help me to kind of craft what the message really should be. So we were able to rebrand that. So when you came into the um the next company, Imperfect EFT, it really was, I didn't know what I wanted to create. So you helped me through that process and with the colors and the circular logo, um, it really resonated and it it helped me as your thought partner, which I love that. You know, I've never heard of that. It that probably is something in your in your circle, but I've never heard of a thought partner. I absolutely love that. And then, you know, the third aspect, when I came to you for a different logo for the holistic inner balance, I had something in mind, and I wanted it to be, you know, specific kind of color scheme and look. And you were able to create it with like 10 different varieties that I wouldn't have even thought of. So it really was helpful for me to be able to say that one looks good, but you know, maybe something else, and to have so many options was really incredible. So I want to first show people that literally my my vision for the holistic inner balance was to be um aligned with the colors of the energy fields of the body of the chakras and giving you that information and you just kind of running with it and knowing that that's where the alignment was gonna be for my messaging and my company. Literally, this is just amazing. I'm gonna just give this a little bit of a twist there. So if you can see that these are literally all of the colors of the chakras, and the inner balance on the inside is the differentiating between like that, you know, struggle of the first three chakras for your kind of fight and flight versus like the uplifting your, you know, going into love into happiness and abundance. So literally creating this has been a game changer because it absolutely 100% was what I wanted, and I didn't know how to get there. And I just gave you the idea and you just ran with it. So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Thank you for giving me the opportunity. Um, I was thinking about, especially with that design, how they're not necessarily concentric circles that go out, they're all intertwined because in terms of the the chakras, the levels of chakras, yeah, they're all intertwined with one another. So, like that's another thing that I was thinking about. How do you make sure it is true to the mission, but also true to where the roots are?

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

And I do think that thought partnership is where this comes from. Um I think thought partnership is a very important um asset to have, especially when everyone has their ideas, everyone has um things they want to create. Um and you know, it's it's you know, I think it's like the next level idea of brainstorming is just thought partnership. Because brainstorming, you could have, you know, one-off uh one-off time to go back and forth, create something, or strategize on something. But thought partnership is brainstorming, but continually brainstorming with people and iterating on that.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Yeah. So if you don't mind, um, I'm gonna share my screen so that people can see another example of what you have created. So this is the first logo that you created for caring nurses, and I really think it resonates because my again, original logo was just kind of like thrown together, it wasn't personalized, and you brought in the different colors of the C that really made it pop, and I we worked on that, you know, kind of back and forth, but it it really created that softness that I wanted other people to know is very specific for what my branding is. I want people to know that the nurses that I'm gonna send are gonna be very experienced, very caring, and we are gonna kind of work together in that community, and that's why it just like blended so beautifully. So, that is an example of one of your amazing logos. And I'm gonna see if I can um try to share one more. Um that is it's gonna be a little bit better for the holistic inner balance one. Um, let me see if I can get to that a little bit easier. I'm not the techkiest person in the world. Um this is not what I want. Hang on. And the interesting thing is that I think um I on my end kind of screwed it up a little bit, but it came out with a black contrast, but this kind of like shows people how it uh can you see that?

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Uh can you um change your screen?

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Change my screen. Um pausing. Can you see that?

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Uh I just see your uh Gmail.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Oh, okay. Um, sorry. Again, not techie.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Um so I'm gonna stop sharing that and I'm gonna come back, and this will probably be the point that there we go. Okay. Can you see that? Yes. Okay, perfect. So yeah, again, um not sure how I got it to the the dark background, but again, as you were saying, they all align together and they all overlap, which I hadn't even thought of. You know, I thought just I wanted the color scheme, and it just like it just pops. It just looks so beautiful in terms of what what you created, how we created it together. And this is truly the journey. And I I love that we had the thought processes, and you know, again, you having the experience that you do, myself not being in the marketing space, I don't know how to make things flow. So your experience really comes into play. So I know that we I'm gonna stop sharing for a minute. I know that we talked a little bit about you having the um the experience with nonprofits as well as for-profits. Do you have one particular um type of business model that you really like to focus on or that is um more fun for you?

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Um the branding marketing space is something that I do like the most in terms of just packaging branding assets, um creating the print and non-print um branding assets. So that's like, let's say, flyers, social media templates, those are the things that I like doing. Um uh merch, swag, all of these things I think brings something that is cohesively unique. Yeah. Um, so those are the types of things that I like working on, particularly, uh both in my day job and then outside. Um in terms of messaging, I like more quippy type messaging. Um so if there is a campaign strategy or a uh marketing strategy that requires, you know, like one-line messages, like that's the thing that like makes me think, oh, how can we condense a particular um idea into something that is easily understandable for everyone?

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Yeah. So I want to get into the topic of you know, all the content that's out there on social media. And it seems like a lot of it is completely mindless, and you know, there's just so much out there, right? And it's like trying to get to the algorithm to get to the right space. There are a lot of moving pieces and parts. So what you're bringing to the audience for a client or a business is more directly marketed to an actual client or a potential client. So it's not just about whatever content you want to put out there, it's more thoughtful. So I'm sure that that would create more of a successful business model for marketing versus just putting any sort of you know content out there to be a content driver, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Right, exactly. Because um, yes, like people could create content and then just post it and just see where it goes and then from there um filter it out and then hone into like what's been successful. Yeah. Um, the things that I do at um both um at my day job and then outside of my day job is to particularly look at the messaging ahead of time so that we could help create new narratives or create um a lasting brand awareness for these organizations. So for example, um thinking about a or I I work for a small business who has who sells particular uh body butters, and this is outside of my day job, and she particularly her name is Tamara Tamara, and she has a really uh impactful story um on why she created these uh body butters. She has a history that is uh incredibly captivating. She has a story to share, and she's using this body butter and the teas that she makes as well as a way to um help other people. So, like the messaging that we've been focusing on is how is your story grounded in the product that you're selling? Like, why why do why should people look into your product? Because there's so many body butters around, but like what makes it so unique to you? And the the underlying thing for her is I'm trying to build up from what I have lost in the past. So it's a beautiful story, it's a beautiful story. Um and that's the type of thing that I'm trying to help elevate so that people will associate her brand with transformation, with you know, going up and passing the obstacles that would generally be there against her. So that's just the things I've been trying to help, particularly.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Yeah. So you really really bring the essence of the person and their story to the marketing. Yeah. Wow. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Well, just to add, it's just I think it's because people want real stories with their marketing. Like there are so many companies that have, you know, X, Y, and Z products, but then how do you make sure it is pertaining to you? Like, how can I benefit or how can I resonate with the branding and the marketing that you have, right? So, like, that's those are the things that I'm thinking about in terms of connecting people's stories is because people want a real person, people want the mission, they want the conviction of why you know it's a passion for these people who are trying to create either services or products that make people feel better, feel pe feel that they could support another person. I think that's like really important in terms of modern day marketing and branding. How do you make sure it is bringing back to the people?

SPEAKER_00 17:20

And I think that that is gonna be so much more important in the future because everything is AI driven. So you can you can create a thousand videos in a matter of seconds, but they're all computer generated. So, you know, in this past year, I think you and I have seen that people are wanting more content with real people and what their stories are. So it's almost like the AI backlash that, yeah, AI is great and you can create a lot of content, but it's like meaningless content if you don't have a person behind it. And if you have that mission of keeping it real, keeping it people oriented and telling the story, there is gonna be so much more value, especially you know, moving forward, that I think that your your value is gonna be so much greater in terms of what you can do for the people and for their their missions. And you know, you probably I can envision that you actually almost like coach them through that process that you help them to really figure out what their mission is because some people don't really ever question it. Well, I make this product, so you know, I want to sell it. There's a lot more to it, right? And what people want to buy from you and your mission and your vision and why you got here is incredibly important. So, you know, you being thoughtful about that and bringing that to the messaging, I'm sure is is gonna just like make all the difference in the world for your your business, your side business that will become your full-time business and to be able to grow and expand everybody else's support and their businesses.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

So exciting.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Yeah, it is, and I think also it has to do with ever like everyone has if let's say you are creating a product or service, everyone has their mission, they have it in their head. How do you just communicate that is the most important part? Yeah, because there are so many reasons, right? There are so many reasons for to create something, to share something, and it's you are bringing a piece of yourself into this. So how do you convey that is something that one helps you understand like your own self, but then also helps understand what makes you going and what drives you and what brings you to your passions.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

And then that also is conveyed. I've been using the word conveyed because I feel like that is a very important word right now. Conveying, conveying how you feel, conveying how people will feel and understand the person that is trying to share something to the world.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Yeah, yeah, I love that. So, how can people find you, Josh?

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Uh, people could find me on social media. I'm on social media. If you go on Instagram, it is josh.guerrero. Um, on LinkedIn, you could find me on LinkedIn too. It's Joshua Guerrero uh G-O-R-E-R-O. Um there you could also find me where else?

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Um I saw that you have something about Joshua at joshua.cooks. You want to get into this?

SPEAKER_01 21:07

Oh shoot, yes. So I have a so one of one of my other passions is cooking and photography, and I like blending it together with food for food photography. So Joshua Cooks on Instagram, joshua.cooks. It's my my little my little baby. Um just showcasing um the dishes I'm making, but also sharing my art of photography and showcasing really pretty dishes. Um so you could also check out joshua.cooks for food food content. Um I've been meaning to share more, so be on the lookout for that.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Um this is your call to action. You're called out.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Um and then let's see where else. Um, yeah, particularly those social media accounts. I do have a TikTok. That's just more so for me. But yeah, you could kind of find me anywhere on socials. But then you could also contact me through email, which is joshua.guerrero at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Awesome. We will link all of those to this video. And I definitely will follow you on your Joshua Cooks because I have experienced your cooking, maybe not the actual photography, but the food, and it's amazing. So you know, I I can't wait to follow you on that. And uh yeah, good luck with all of your ventures. And I definitely would recommend anybody reach out to Joshua for any sort of support, any sort of thought partnering. And if you just want to see some really good food content, I'm sure that we will all be appreciating that. So thank you for joining, and we look forward to seeing you next time.