Some of the most successful products on the market today may not differ much from their competitors, except for that thing that’s hard to define: soul.

Take Ben & Jerry’s.

Their brand isn’t about just ice cream. The company sends their ice cream waste to a pig farm, where the pigs run at the first sight of their truck. It’s my daughter’s dream to be reincarnated as one of those pigs. That’s soul.

Many companies try to manufacture soul. Chain restaurants put local high school teams on their wall and adorn their servers with crazy pins.

Right out of the starting gate, I wanted our products to have soul.

Prior to writing our content, we surveyed other books and websites that tried to explain “life skills.” Generally speaking, they were just boring.

So we focused on being smart and concise with a quirky sense of humor. Take this example from our topic on dinner etiquette:

On a business dinner, it’s always nice to extend your hand when you first meet (no fist bumps). A proper handshake involves eye contact and three-second, firm grip. That’s it. And don’t count to three out loud.

We keep this cheeky tone in the “life 101” photos from our app:

Soul is that “special something” that often connects people to brands. Our content has soul… which you can use to build your brand with alumni.

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