Most of us have similar thoughts on Musk renaming Twitter to X: It’s a self-inflicted mortal wound that tosses a globally recognized name and verb (tweet) out the window. There’s absolutely no long-term value in altering a name, logo and trademark that nearly everyone with a smartphone recognizes. It’s a short-sighted move and a lesson in what not to do with your brand.

Luckily you can’t destroy your brand like Twitter if you’re a startup. That’s because no one has heard of your company. But, there are missteps that can make your branding path more difficult. Over the years, I’ve heard many CEOs, entrepreneurs and CMOs turn down media opportunities because they thought the news organization was too small. In some cases, they criticized the news website design.