The Design Business Show

Hey friends! Melissa here. If you're new or if you've been engaging with the podcast for a while, as always, I'm grateful for you!I'm recording this podcast at the end of June 2022, and I'm excited to see you take the tips from this short and sweet episode and apply them to your launches this year.

Fun fact: I'm recording this episode in my office, which is a sunroom at my house with all windows, and my air conditioning is broken. It's about 90 degrees outside, so the inside of my house is about 81, and this room feels like 100, even with a fan on.

But as they say, the show must go on!

Before we get to the content I wanted to let you know that I'm booking Launch Strategy VIP Days for July and August. During your VIP Launch Strategy Day with me, we build the launch system + sales strategy (your way!) that can generate results and ease you're craving.

To help you see if a Launch Strategy VIP Day with me is a good fit for you, I'm offering complimentary consult calls next week to give you some preliminary ideas on how to make your launch more simple, and add more revenue, of course.

This is NOT a sales call - just a chance for you to get some quick tips and see if you like my style. You can take my ideas, run with them and even book a VIP Day with me if it feels aligned. Or run far away from them. It's your call. :)

The word "launch" has a lot of different meanings in the online space.

I like to define a product launch as a digital campaign where you create an experience that gets your potential customers excited about the solution your product or service creates for them.

That experience could be a number of things:

• a live or pre-recorded masterclass
• a 7-day challenge
• a virtual conference or summit
• a private podcast feed
• a video series
• a live video extravaganza
• a series of free 1:1 sessions
• a live event
• an influencer campaign

It's a lot like trying a sample at the grocery store or going to a wine tasting. No one wants to eat or drink anything they don't like, and the same goes for your products and services. (It's totally why I'm offering free consults next week!).

When you launch, you grow your audience, show off your expertise, and hopefully, your customer base and bottom line. And the visibility that comes with a launch can help you attract podcast interviews, speaking opportunities, and even new clients. :)

Here are 3 ways to add more revenue to your next launch:

1. Add a VIP option (or another tier) to your product or service. When you buy an airplane ticket - you can fly private, first class, or economy. Buyers love options. Make it easy for them to choose the one that's best for them. My favorite brand, Ouai, just launched a new hair serum + supplement exclusive bundle, and I bought it immediately. I was drooling over the sales page. Here's what this could look like:

• If you sell premium web design services, add a VIP Brand Strategy day to your normal package, or a collateral package.
• If you sell a coaching program or mastermind or even a course, offer VIP support via 1:1 Voxer access, a private consult once a month or an online community for VIP members.
• If you sell a consumable product, create a campaign featuring influencers talking about the benefits of purchasing your high end bundle.

1. Pay attention to user behavior during your live launches.

Where are they clicking?

What questions are they asking?

Where are you getting the most sales? (live webinars? email campaigns? influencer campaigns?)

What kind of bonuses can you offer to incentivize people to buy?

How can you give them 1000% confidence in what you're selling?

Can you get on the phone with potential clients?

Can you offer a payment plan?

The possibilities are endless, but it's up to you to make it happen.

The last time I launched my mastermind for designers, I noticed I didn't have as many applications as my previous launches.

So, I changed my sales strategy. I changed the text on my button from "Apply Now" to "Book a Call" and increased conversions by 50%. An application is a little bit more intimidating than a call. In this case, I changed the call-to-action on my sales page mid-launch and got way better results.

1. Book a Launch Strategy VIP Day with me this summer!

For real. I've been in the weeds with my own launches for 4+ years, helped launch a course that generated $2+ million in sales, and designed sales pages for all kinds of digital offers. And, once you create the system + strategy for your launch, you can use it over and over again, making it better every time.

I'm here to help you transform your launches into a record-breaking blockbuster when you book a VIP Launch Strategy Day with me this summer. If you sell a premium web design service, a digital course, or even a coaching program, I can help with your launch system + sales strategy. Each day is custom for each online service provider + creator I work with.

The investment for summer VIP Days is $4,000 and I have space available for these in July and August. If you're interested or wanna learn more, you can email me at design (at) melissaburkheimer.com and say and say "sign me up for a VIP Launch Strategy Day" and I'll be in touch within 24 hours. ;)

To help you see if a Launch Strategy VIP Day with me is a good fit for you, you can book a complimentary consult call next week to give you some preliminary ideas on how to make your launch more simple, and add more revenue, of course.

Get some quick tips and see if you like my style. You can take my ideas, run with them and even book a VIP Day with me if it feels aligned. Or run far away from them. It's your call. :)

Cheers to selling out your next launch and doing it with ease, your way, of course.

Thanks for reading / listening. I hope all your dreams come true.

Links mentioned:

Book a Complimentary Consult Call this month

Like what you heard?

Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes.

Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board

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Katie is a Creative Director focusing on Brand and Marketing Design. She helps her clients translate their voice and vision into strategic visual concepts that communicate clearly and inspire their audiences so they can hit all their business goals. She brings a background designing for Prevention, Men's Health, Women's Health, Organic Gardening,

Organic Style and Runner's World Magazines. She also runs a household of 2 amazing kids with her husband while trying to figure out how to drastically cut the to-do list so they can eat dinner together every night, finally take that family vacation to Yosemite, and hang out by the pool, and sometimes the beach, as much as possible.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

Katie's Start in Design + Pursuing a Company She Believed In

• How Katie and I met during a mastermind I used to do called, From Designer to Director - we worked together for a year and have stayed in touch ever since
• I explain that Katie has the experience in the agency side that I've been craving the last few years and that it's been fun watching her evolve from an independent designer to a virtual agency owner
• Katie is here to share her traditional and nontraditional art/creative director experience and share how people can approach their marketing and design from a creative director's point of view to drive results
• The first job Katie had in design was as a desktop publisher at a boutique agency that she worked at for 7 years - after that, she moved into publishing
• How Katie originally received a BA in history but then went back to school for art
• Katie shares that at the boutique agency, they did a lot of catalogs for pharmaceutical companies and that she was able to learn the entire process because she saw each part of the project through
• When Katie decided to move on from the boutique agency, her goal was to only do design work
• After the boutique agency, Katie worked for a publisher that had a book and magazine division - some of the biggest magazines at that point were Prevention and Men's Health - then eventually, Women's Health and Runner's World came out
• The first project Katie worked on at the publisher was for Backpacker Magazine, and she says that the work was so beautiful that she thought she wanted to work there for the rest of her life
• How Katie had originally applied for a job at the publisher but didn't get it, so they called her a couple of weeks later to hire her as an onsite freelancer for 2 weeks to do one job, but she ended up staying there for 8 years
• Katie shares that she had been trying to work for this publishing company for years before working there, and because she kept following up, they eventually hired her
• The whole goal for Katie was to work for a company she believed in, like the health and wellness publisher, while becoming a better designer
• Katie shares that she got to do stuff for Betty Crocker, Al Gore's book, Flat Belly Diet - there was so much variety that really helped Katie learn all the different directions she could go
• When looking for jobs, Katie believes if you are the right fit and it's the right time, it will work out, and if not, that's not the right place for you at that moment - understand that people are busy, it might have nothing to do with you; they're doing what they need to move in the direction that's right for them
• Katie shares that she wanted to work at this publisher for at least 10 years before she started working there

Starting a Branding + Marketing Business

• After having her 2nd son, Katie didn't know if she could do it all or if it made financial sense to be working at the publishing company, so she decided to leave and stay home with her kids for about 10 years
• How Katie always knew she wanted to start her own business; she didn't know when, but in 2017/18, her kids were getting older, so she decided to play around with it and figure out what she wanted to do, which is when we met, while Katie was trying to figure it out
• The first thing Katie did was figure out her own stuff, like creating a website, figuring out what she wanted to say and what she wanted to offer
• When Katie first started her business, she started doing branding work for small clients to feel out if it made sense for her if she could help these people, and if her process was working - after that, she did some sales pages
• Because Katie has so much experience, she started by looking at the things that frustrated her, and that was people designing things, but it has no cohesion with anything else they're putting out
• Katie explains that although she loves doing lots of different things, she decided to do branding first because when people aren't focused on the overarching umbrella of their direction, what they're trying to say, do and how they want people to feel in every piece of their marketing, they miss something
• Anything you give to a customer or use to try to sell your service, product, or business should have cohesion - this means your social media posts, website, deliverables, etc.
• The concepts behind Katie's traditional editorial design and brand strategy are the same; she explains that everything has just moved digital now, but it's the same idea as with print
• Katie explains that now, she works with mostly female entrepreneurs but will take on other clients if she feels they are a good fit and works on their branding and marketing
• In Katie's business, they start by figuring out their branding, if they need it - Katie shares that one client had perfectly good branding but didn't know what to do with it to gain traction
• Some of Katie's favorite things about having her own business are having control over her own time, who she works with, and being home and spending time with her family
• Katie explains how she and her family had to navigate the pandemic with school and that it caused her to press pause on her business for a bit - now she feels like she's able to put herself out there again because things are a little more consistent with her kids
• Now that her kids are older, Katie says she has more time than ever to work

Approaching Marketing Like a Creative Director + Katie's Offers

• Katie wants people who are running their business by themselves to understand that they are doing at least 5 jobs right now
• A creative director is usually looking over the big picture; they're looking over copy and design - they aren't specifically doing it but are helping by giving direction on it
• In the corporate world, you have an art director, copywriter, creative director, and other people who are looking at it from their point of view, so when you're running a business by yourself, Katie says to give yourself grace because it's a lot
• Sometimes clients will come to Katie, and sometimes she will reach out to potential clients because she believes in what they are doing - sometimes they want to work with her, and sometimes they don't, which is completely fine
• If clients come to Katie with a brand they are happy with, she is more than happy to work with them on using that brand and designing marketing pieces for them
• Other clients come to Katie because their brand is no longer working for them due to changes, so their brand needs to change to show what they're really doing now
• Katie shares that she usually doesn't work with someone until they are 3 years in because it doesn't make sense for them to make that investment until they truly know what they're offering and what they want to put out there
• If a client comes to Katie needing a rebrand, she will do the brand identity for them and says that her package has a couple of pieces of marketing
• Katie starts by sending clients a lot of questions, then has a long conversation to go over all those questions because people change their minds and because she needs to fully understand what they're telling her, so she doesn't misinterpret it
• When Katie is on the same page as her clients, there aren't as many issues moving forwards, and if there are, they fix them
• After the brand identity, they work on the marketing pieces because some people don't know what to do when you hand them all the elements of the brand - the layout needs to be done well because if it's not, no one will read your stuff
• Katie gets clients through relationship building as much as she can - she also reaches out to a lot of people and is finally getting her Instagram running again
• People want to work with people that they like, which is why Katie says relationship building is so important
• While listening to a podcast, Katie heard a great quote, so she designed something with the quote and sent them an email of it, and posted it to their Facebook group - a few days later, Katie had a meeting set up with the person she had emailed for some opportunities to work with them and ended up designing a landing page for them
• Connect with Katie through her website or on Instagram

Links mentioned:

Katie Seitzer Design

Connect with Katie on Instagram

Like what you heard?

Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes.

Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board

Let's connect on Instagram!

Charlotte Isaac is a Business Operations Consultant who gave up her role as a corporate ops manager inside of a creative agency so that she could serve small business owners who love their people just as much as she does hers. Through her signature program, Ease Seekers Society, and her DIY Dubsado shop, Charlotte helps overwhelmed and overworked entrepreneurs build customized solutions so they can serve their clients better, automate busywork, and feel confident in their business. Blessed with a travel bug herself, Charlotte leads by example, having designed her own business in a way that allows plenty of space to enjoy life with her husband, both in their hometown of Sydney, Australia, and around the world.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

How Charlotte Became the Dubsado Queen

• Charlotte talks about how she liked her corporate job but felt she wanted more freedom and flexibility in her life and knew she could help others achieve the same
• How Charlotte worked with the same creative agency her whole corporate career, starting on the account management team, moving to communications, and into an operation and systems role which surprised her because that's never where she thought she'd be
• The purpose of today's episode is for Charlotte to talk to us about Dubsado, which I've heard many people rave about
• Charlotte shares that Dubsado is there every step, from when someone inquires about working with you through your website through your onboarding and offboarding – it helps make the process super simple
• I have heard that Dubsado can be complicated on the backend, but once you get it set up, it works magic – Charlotte agrees this is a fair assessment; it makes your life easier, but for most people, it is not super intuitive, which is why some stop playing around with it
• Charlotte shares how she first found out about Dubsado; the creative agency she worked for was setting up an office in Singapore where she was looking into CRMs and stumbled across Dubsado, which was still pretty new at the time but says she could tell it was special at the time
• Unfortunately, at the time, Dubsado was not big enough to support a large team, but Charlotte knew it was something she wanted to play around with, so when she started her business, she had it from day one
• How Charlotte kept telling and helping her clients about Dubsado but never intended to become the Dubsado person, but she knew it could help so many people – a lot of her clients and students call her the Dubsado Queen
• Charlotte has been helping people get set up on Dubsado for many years and after a while, realized there is a pattern to coming up with a well-streamlined process
• These days, Charlotte helps people set up Dubsado through her group program, Ease Seekers Society
• Charlotte shares that most service-based businesses have 3 workflows 1) leads workflow, which is managing people coming in through your website & having a discovery call with them 2) proposal & onboarding workflow 3) offboarding
• One of the hardest thing for Charlotte was owning that she is an expert, but she says that's also why she likes helping people because it makes her own her expertise

Charlotte's Group Program + How to Use Automated Processes

• In Charlotte's group program, Ease Seekers Society, they set up Dubsado over a 6-week timeframe; they also have live group calls a couple of times a week, have access to different trainings and all of Charlotte's best tools and resources
• In the program, you start by planning out workflows, and before getting into Dubsado, you dive deep into how you serve your clients, what's unique about your process, and what you want to automate, and then they move into the nitty-gritty of setting up Dubsado
• The series of unfortunate events that happened to Charlotte and her husband after buying their first home, but Charlotte explains why she loves Dubsado and having so many systems in her business is because everything was able to keep going without her
• How a lot of people put off using systems because they don't know where to start - Charlotte says the best thing you can do is take a step back and think about how you want your client processes to run
• Charlotte walks through an example of a leads workflow for when someone fills out the contact form on your website - she suggests writing out your whole process, thinking about what you already do, so you can then think about automating those steps in your process through Dubsado
• Using my very organic process for getting clients a launch system as an example, Charlotte walks through how I could use Dubsado in my business process
• I talk about my process for most clients and how I like to map out their calendar, so we know where everything fits; from there, we look at where they're at and what's worked in the past to make a system that works for them based on how their business is set up vs. how they want their launch to look
• My process is done over two half days; this allows me and my clients to ask follow-up questions - I share that during the second half-day, we focus on their creative assets
• Charlotte suggests having a nice wrap-up email in my process to let clients know what it looks like going forward and recap all the stuff we went through, and Charlotte also recommends having an offboarding sequence
• How having nurturing sequences for your existing clients is important because Charlotte shares you can ask them how their launch went or ask for testimonials through that sequence
• In Dubsado, there is a checkbox you can check that says, 'requires approval,' which means when it's time for an email to go out, Dubsado will check with you first - Charlotte says this is a great way to be able to personalize messages, push back messages or change the phrasing of a message depending on the client
• I use many different applications in my business to help in different areas, but Charlotte says in Dubsado, you can do everything you might need to with a client - send out one-on-one emailing, questionnaires, proposals, contracts, invoices, you can do scheduling, etc.
• Charlotte shares that Dubsado also has a client portal which is great for people who work with clients for a long time, on bigger projects, or on multiple projects
• Charlotte says to not be scared of Dubsado; even though it is a big tool, there's so much it can do, and there are so many resources to help you get started, like on Charlotte's website
• Most people end up saving around 4 hours a week when they implement Dubsado - think about what you could do with that time
• Connect with Charlotte through her website and check out her free mini-course called 7 Steps to Automation which walks you through all the things you could automate to help streamline your client process

Links mentioned:

Ease Seekers Society

Charlotte's DIY Dubsado shop

Business Resources on Charlotte's Website

7 Steps to Automation

Like what you heard?

Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes.

Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board

Let's connect on Instagram!

Ari Hale is a mom, business + marketing coach, and a systems + automation genius. She helps freelancers stop trying to be everything to everybody so that they can focus and think like a CEO.

In her programs, she helps give the mindset, systems, and templates you need to grow your business. She helps clients increase their revenue, and make more of an impact while working less hours.

Ari is not another business coach who's never had a business. She's been in your shoes and every single thing she teaches is something she has used successfully in her businesses and her coaching clients businesses.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

How Ari Has Transitioned Her Business

• How I have known Ari from the industry for 8 years now - we met while working together on a project for a mutual client and through the years have worked together, and I've hired her to do some coaching for me
• Ari is a business and mindset coach; right now, she works with business owners who are driven, ambitious, and high performers but are at a point where they've realized this isn't what they want and are questioning how to walk away or transition away from something they've worked so hard to build but currently isn't in alignment with them
• How we were both launch managers and are good at the systems, organizational, and project management skills, but the context in which we used them were on completely different sides of the launches
• How Ari started as a virtual assistant in 2014 and shifted into exclusively launch and project management
• Building a business launching back to back wasn't sustainable for Ari; she needed downtime to rest, so, around 2018, she decided to transition away, and then in 2020, she officially stopped all client work in that manner and launched a project management course, membership, coaching and her group program which she ran for almost 2 years
• Now Ari is transitioning again in her business and says she is getting closer and closer to alignment for the present moment and where she's at now
• It's hard to create a brand for something and then decide you want to transition out of it– a lot of the people we helped with launches spent all of their time, investments, and assets on teams and stuff for their launches, not necessarily for their brand
• How Ari and I believe you should test your service before doing everything that goes into launching it and building your brand
• A mistake Ari has made and has seen past clients make is rushing to build an entire business and brand around an offer that validates and does well without giving it time and space to breathe or before seeing if you enjoy everything that goes into it like the operations, delivery and clients you're bringing in
• There's always this rush to make more instead of taking a pause and checking in with yourself – there's no conversation or strategy around making sure what you're doing is really in alignment with you
• One thing Ari realized this year is that she has been doing things that are out of alignment with why she decided she wanted to have a business

Our Real Experiences + What We Learned

• I talk about how I realized I didn't want to do launch management anymore, and Ari adds that we would help these businesses get up and running, sacrifice a lot of time and energy, and then when it came time to scale and grow, the processes, compensation, and consideration from human to human weren't equitable or fair
• When these businesses want to grow and scale, they want to hire someone younger who will do it for cheaper, but these people don't have the experience and don't know what to look out for in the industry
• We talk about how to keep contractors who helped you build your business and how to not burn contractor bridges by treating people poorly
• I share the story of how I worked for someone and couldn't get away from my computer, not even to move, which we were doing at the time because we were launching
• Ari shares the story of a client who hired someone to come in and clean up operations - she was asked to speak to this person and was very transparent in her feedback with things she thought were going well and areas where she thought there could be an improvement
• When Ari shared her feedback, the client was furious that she was so honest about their business - they were verbally abusive and fired her that day but realized they needed her and asked her to come back
• Ari thinks when people reach a certain level in their business, it's like they lose touch with reality; they get a weird complex around speaking to their team, and they forget we're all human - she never wants to create experiences like that in her business or for her team
• When you treat people poorly, all that energy leaks through everything – the company that treated Ari poorly had lower audience engagement, emails opened, and their launches stopped working
• I share a similar story where I was yelled at because the web developer wanted to be paid
• How the campaign I just worked on was fun, but there were a lot of issues on the back end – like it was extremely hard to send out an email broadcast and how I wanted to help them with that
• There are two other stories I share - one about having to let a client go after 2 weeks and one about letting a client go after not getting compensated per our agreement
• What Ari has learned as a leader is that her business runs much differently than what she's experienced and how she's been super intentional about not letting her business stress her out - if it's causing her displeasure or stress, she's not doing it because she's seen what kind of monsters people can turn into because of stress
• Ari talks about how she runs her business with her team - she doesn't launch anything and expect them to help unless she's had a meeting and planning call with them; Ari doesn't have their numbers unless they've texted her first and because things are so simplified they don't even have a weekly team call anymore
• Mistakes are encouraged on Ari's team because she doesn't want them to be afraid to make mistakes - this way, they can see where things can be improved
• The freedom Ari gives her employees makes them happy because it allows them to get in their flow, create their process and just be deadline-based
• I talk about my process for the podcast, the journal I want to create, and even the virtual summit I've been thinking about for creators to learn about all the ways they can make money online

Ari's Current Business Pivot + Creating Alignment in Your Business

• How Ari launched Allergic To Hourly™ in 2020, which was the most financially successful thing she's done but says she wasn't prepared to grow and scale it; she didn't have a good mindset or financial strategy, which created a lot of pressure for her and diminished her creative flow
• When Ari first started building her audience, she posted and created what she wanted, but when the program became successful, she started posting for conversions instead of using her creative flow, which made her miserable
• For the last 4 - 6 months, Ari has been doing a lot of internal work to tap back into what she wants and what she will make it mean about herself if she transitions again
• How there is no course or streamlined strategy for pivots in your business because it's very specific to the individual - Ari shares that she's gaining clarity and feels like she wants to create, engage and invite new people in again
• Ari speaks about the grieving process she had to go through to let go of the things she had recently built and invested in because she was not happy with it
• It's not about the clients Ari was working with, and she shares that she's been very transparent with them about her journey because a lot of people don't want to talk about it, and many of them are going through the same thing
• If you are a go with the flow type of person and never take time to decide what you want and create a vision for yourself, you're going to flow into things you don't want
• How the operations of Ari's business were never in alignment because she never stopped to give herself space to think about what she wanted and how she wanted things to look and feel
• By ignoring herself and the feelings she was having, Ari created situations where she had to make a change, and it mostly manifested in her mental health and her ability to create
• To make this shift in her business, Ari switched Allergic To Hourly™ to self-study, because she was unclear on what she wanted the program to look like, so Ari paused enrollment and marketing while figuring out how her business could support how she wanted to feel
• How it can be scary to push pause, but Ari says she needed to create as much space physically with her time and mentally so she could figure out what she wants
• You are going to be a completely different person than who you were when you first started, from 5 years ago, from last year, which is why it's okay to shift and change to create alignment for yourself in all seasons of life
• Both of Ari's programs are self-study right now, and something she's been experimenting with is mindset coaching because she realized clients were coming to her for what they thought were strategy issues, but when they dug deeper, they were really mindset issues
• Ari shares that it's been fun to dig deep and help give clients the tools they need to self-coach themselves, so they don't feel like they are stuck between their calls
• In the past, Ari went off advice from other people about what her business should look like
• Ari has discovered that many clients start their business out of necessity or because they fell into it, so when she works with them, they first figure out how they feel, and she guides them into trusting themselves, the things they are feeling, and navigating the times it doesn't feel great
• How Ari was able to get her mind to a place where she felt like she wasn't spiraling and how she then got her body on board by moving and using supplements/food to make sure her body felt right and good
• This year, Ari worked with Chrissy Papetti, who helped her learn about nervous system regulation through human design and gene keys, which Ari has found extremely helpful in keeping herself grounded
• Right now, Ari is into tapping (EFT), automatic writing and shares that she recently started working with Susan Ferraro again for mindset work
• Different things I've learned about myself through the years like how to eat and allow myself to rest - something I want to learn more about is navigating mindset work vs. anxiety and depression
• Ari talks about leveraging how your brain naturally processes information instead of forcing yourself to be or think like other people, which is something she struggled with in the past
• A lot of what Ari has experienced in the last year with her business has been an opportunity to better understand, accept and love herself, which is the energy she wants to build her business around
• How Ari has been able to navigate and move forward in her business while having a little boy at home
• Ari shares that it's okay to have low moments as long as you can pull yourself out and says that she's learned that feeling the highs and the lows is part of her process
• Part of Ari's purpose of being here isn't just to help clients grow a business so they can amplify what they want out of life; it's to hold space for people who are experiencing the things that she's experienced and navigated
• So many people are rushing to an end goal without thinking about what they want, what it means when they get there or what happens after they do get there
• People get on this hamster wheel of achievement, and it feels empty because they don't know what they're doing it for at a certain point
• If you don't want to deal with yourself and get to know all sides of yourself, Ari does not recommend getting into business because it will bring all those things up
• How I'm giving myself as much space and grace as possible because I need it and how it's okay to give yourself permission to not have it all figured out and to just let it be a mess for a bit
• Trust yourself and know that you will land where you are intended to land and know that with every experience, there is something to learn
• Conect with Ari through her website, Instagram, Twitter or TikTok

Links mentioned:

Allergic To Hourly™

Ari's Website

Connect with Ari on Instagram

Connect with Ari on Twitter

Connect with Ari on TikTok

Like what you heard?

Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes.

Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board

Let's connect on Instagram!

Lisa Simone Richards is a PR & Visibility Strategist for online coaches who want to get seen everywhere.

Through her free workshops, masterclasses and mentorship program, she gives you the insider secrets on how to get exposure and reach more people without spinning on social media or wasting more money on Facebook ads.

Her clients learn the lather-rinse-repeat formula for more visibility which makes them more sales. They go from invisible to in-demand getting interviewed on top podcasts, partnering with big names in their industry and building their authority expert status getting featured on major media like FOX, NBC, Forbes, Inc., and more.

On weekends you can find her playing in the kitchen with her husband, petting ALL the dogs in the park, and watching way too many fashion styling videos on YouTube.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

How Lisa Got Started in Public Relations + Starting Her Own Business

• Today Lisa is here to talk about public relations and press, which is a topic we haven't really covered on the show yet
• When Lisa first learned about public relations, it was 2002, and she was in her first year of college – she became interested because Samantha Jones on Sex and the City made PR look super fun
• Right after college, Lisa worked for a beauty company; she also interned at Fashion Magazine and worked at a few fashion agencies where she would be behind the scenes at various shows or working designer suites during film festivals
• Eventually, Lisa moved into the agency world, where she had more corporate clients like Staples, Crayola, and Virgin Mobile
• In 2009, Lisa got a taste of working with small businesses and entrepreneurs and fell in love with how much influence and impact she could have versus being a cog in the wheel at an agency
• Lisa shares that she was able to help one company she worked at for four years grow from 30 locations in Ontario to over 100 across Canada and help take the company's revenues from $400k to over 4 million a year
• Now in 2022, Lisa loves teaching creatives and online service-based business owners how to get earned media opportunities, how to get interviewed on people's television shows, podcasts, newspapers, magazines, and websites
• Your ideal client is hanging out somewhere; Lisa helps show people how they can get access to that place, figure out who they need to know, come up with a creative message and get free access to their ideal clients while getting an endorsement at the same time
• When Lisa started her business as a side hustle in 2015, she was running a PR agency called Vitality PR & Communications – what she saw in the market was people wanted to work with PR agencies, but their prices were set very high, and that wasn't realistic for up and coming, new business owners
• Through Vitality, Lisa offered 3-month PR packages at a fraction of that cost – so clients could get access to exposure, get up and running, and then they could choose if they wanted to re-sign or not
• Lisa wanted to have more impact, scale, and leverage, so she moved from the agency model into doing one-on-one coaching, group mentorship programs, and having courses – and shares that she still has all those things today, but what is fun is now she's starting to revisit the agency model
• The differentiator before for Lisa was having shorter retainer plans, and now they have a 6-month model where they also train an in-house team – Lisa says it's like the publicists showing you the secrets that other publicists don't want you to know

Tips for Showing up Like a Pro + ABCs of Visibility

• Lisa recommends that if you don't have a full media kit on your website, at least have a shareable Dropbox or Google folder with certain assets in there like, high-resolution images and headshots, and your bio
• Before you start going out for outreach, Lisa says you'll want to get really clear on your messaging – what is that lather-rinse-repeat message that you can use over and over again
• Lisa shares that she likes to work with clients on the messaging – she gets to work with a lot of very talented people who come to her with complex ideas and messaging, and then she gets to help deliver it in a way that will be consumer-friendly
• The story of when Lisa worked with identical twin chiropractors in 2015, and they wanted to do a piece on what happens to your elbow and wrist alignment when you take a selfie and how Lisa worked with them on making that message interesting for consumers
• How Kim Kardashian was in the UK and took 1,500 selfies that week, so all of a sudden, they were able to change it into a story about what happens to your elbow and wrists when you take 1,500 selfies like Kim Kardashian – that's when it got picked up by national news, local radio and a magazine
• Lisa wants to understand what a person's business goals are, so where she starts with that is what she calls the ABCs of visibility; are you looking to build A) awareness, B) Buzz, C) Credibility – understanding which one of these you are trying to achieve will determine the types of places that make sense for you to be seen
• Another thing Lisa likes to check in on is who are her clients and what are they comfortable with – someone who is introverted may not want to speak live at a conference or be on national television – so really understanding a person and where they are going to shine helps Lisa decide where they should get started as well
• Lisa shares that it's easy to have relationships in the industry, but they are not necessary - if you want to be on Good Morning America, for example, figure out who the segment producer that covers the topic is, send them an email with a good idea – it doesn't need to be harder than that

Easy Ways to Achieve Visibility + Lisa's Offers

• Why you should have a healthy media mix for your audience when it comes to reading content, listening to content, or watching content
• When it comes to written media, instead of writing on your website or doing a blog post, Lisa says you could do a guest blog post on someone else's site or go to Google and search write for us + your industry, and you will get websites that are looking for people to write on that topic, so you can put your content out where people are actually looking for it­­
• For audio content, Lisa says you could be interviewed on podcasts, radio, or co-host rooms on Clubhouse
• Moving to visual content, you could be interviewed on a local morning television show, go live in someone else's Facebook group or Instagram, you could do a guest training in someone's mastermind, or speak on live or virtual stages
• How imposter syndrome happens to everyone no matter what stage they are at in their business and how Lisa encourages her clients to write a not so humble brag sheet to help build confidence – grab a pen and paper; write down how much time and money you've invested in your specialty, and think about the results you've achieved
• Lisa talks about the transition she went through in her business and says if you are going through a transition in your business, an easy thing to do is to take control of the platforms you own – update your profiles, and send an email to your list sharing your transition into your new niche
• When you are transitioning in your business, Lisa shares that you might have to start from scratch and build your brand according to your new niche – think about the new podcasts, stages, and websites it makes sense to be seen on and start positioning yourself for those opportunities so you can get in front of the right people
• Lisa's super deluxe package is for service owners who want to done-for-you PR services who don't want to be paying the agency endlessly on retainer – a 6-month package where Lisa does their PR and also trains someone on their team to be able to bring it in-house
• Where Lisa tends to work with most of her clients is inside her 6-month mentorship program, where she teaches everything she's learned in her 20 years of experience
• How Lisa has a few entry-level courses on podcasting or getting on television where people can go through automated modules and teach themselves how to get publicity
• Lisa shares that she used to offer a 30-day program but realized that doing it all for people to a certain degree keeps her up at night, so she doesn't offer that anymore – she's learned that she can come up with an amazing PR strategy and hand it off to someone on her team to execute
• Although it's great we can now own our social media platforms, Lisa cautions us that our social media content is where we are nurturing our existing audience - It's not the same as visibility, which is why it's so important to get on other people's platforms to increase visibility and get lead generation
• A line Lisa learned and loves is "don't change your talk, change your audience" – get clear and consistent with your message and put it in front of new people over and over again because for those people, it's going to be the first time that they hear it and if they think about working with you, they will research and Google you, and a consistent message will instill trust
• I talk about my business transition and the 3 things I want to offer, and Lisa comments on how I could package my 3 steps and position my message or how I could break down step 1 in-depth and help clients get little wins so when they want to keep going, they come back to me for step 2 and 3
• How sometimes simplifying your process is better than overloading your audience with a bunch of content
• After listening to this episode, Lisa encourages everyone to write down one thing they took away from the episode that makes sense for them and put it into practice
• If you head over to Lisasimonerichards.com/quiz, there is a quiz called 'How should I get visibility as an online Coach' – based on your answers, Lisa will share 1 of 5 ways to start getting visibility and send a training video so you can get started

Links mentioned:

Lisa Simone Richards Website

Get Clients From Podcasting Course

How Should You Get Visibility Online as a Coach?

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Meagan Carboney is an avid face shaver known for her live tutorials highlighting this little-known beauty technique. As a self-made makeup artist, she discovered how face shaving completely transformed her skincare and makeup routine-and wanted to share it with women everywhere. After tossing out razor after razor, Meagan knew there had

to be a better way. With a degree in product development and 20+ years in the fashion and beauty industries, Meagan's background helped her launch Jill: the world's first razor designed for female face shaving. Jill has perfected the art of the exfoli-shave with a patent-pending design shaped for a woman's face. It's a convenient, subscription-based, eco-conscious way to get your glow on, with guidance from Meagan on how to shave the right way. Jill's on a mission to normalize female face

shaving so women around the world can proudly say #weshavetoo. Learn more at tryjill.com.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

Meagan's Background + Pivot

• How Meagan and I met in 2012 at yoga class when I was doing freelance graphic design, and how we've both been able to watch and be part of each other's journey
• When Meagan was younger, she had the dream to move out of Iowa and move to California to pursue fashion, which is what she did after high school
• After graduating from a fashion institute in California, Meagan landed her dream job on Rodeo Drive working for BCBGMAXAZRIA
• Meagan stayed in LA for 10 years, where she climbed the corporate ladder and had the job she truly wanted in marketing, where she still got to be creative - she worked directly under the owners of the company, which gave her a start-up experience that has helped her launch her brand
• How Meagan met her husband at the same company in LA, and when they talked about raising a family, they decided to move back to Iowa
• When moving back to Iowa, Meagan had to pivot her business because the fashion part of what she was passionate about wasn't there, so she ended up building her personal brand online and landed in the beauty space
• In the online beauty space, Meagan would share tutorials, tips and would share about face shaving
• Meagan talks about the multiple businesses she and her husband have had, one of them being her husband's videography business, which they still have today and have grown to do photography too
• How Meagan saw her husband working full-time with a videography business on the side and decided she could make an income in addition to her full-time job, which is how she got into the social selling world and started earning commission through her social media
• The unique story of how Meagan's partners for Jill found her through one of her face shaving videos on YouTube after deciding they wanted to create a sustainable face razor for women
• When the world was shut down due to the pandemic, that's when Meagan and her partners were on zoom building the Jill brand - they launched in February 2021
• Meagan shares that all 3 of them are co-founders of the brand and her gratitude for pivoting in her business that led her to where she is today

Jill's Benefits + Mission for Sustainability

• Right now, Jill is an at-home dermaplaning (face shaving) solution for women - they have a starter kit that customers can buy, and they have a subscription for the blades
• Women have more sensitive skin, which is why they cannot use the same razors or techniques as men - Meagan's 3 Cs to dermaplaning at home, which means having a clean face, clean hands, and clean blades for shaving
• Not only does dermaplaning remove the facial hair, but Meagan explains that it also exfoliates the skin, so your makeup goes on much smoother instead of sitting on top of peach fuzz and dead skin cells
• Meagan shares that the motion of dermaplaning stimulates skin cells, helping to produce more collagen, and also has long-term benefits such as smoothing out fine lines and wrinkles and lightening dark spots
• One thing I like about Jill is that they offer a smaller razor for your eyebrows
• The story behind the name Jill, which comes from the nursery rhyme Jack & Jill - Meagan likes to say, move aside Jack; it's Jill's turn because Jack got so much attention in face shaving for years
• How a lot of Jill's competitors are afterthoughts of big companies that don't have much of a brand, mission, or education behind the product, which is why it was so important to Meagan and her partners to create a beautiful product, but one that also had the full on brand experience that brought education and their mission
• Because they wanted their product to be feminine, they picked the color pink for their brand, and when it came to the design, they knew they wanted it to be soft, airy, pretty, and unlike anything else that was on the market
• Meagan shares that they have been improving their product since launching it and are already working on a rebrand which will make it even better
• How they wanted their product to be sustainable - Meagan explains that when designing the wand, which holds the blades, they knew they didn't want to use a lot of plastic, wanted to use recycled plastic, and also knew they wanted the blades to be recyclable as well
• Meagan shares that they worked with their manufacturer to create a tab that removes the medal from the plastic because the guidelines are set that if there is metal in plastic, it cannot be recycled, which is why our landfills are full of razors

Launch Strategy

• With their marketing strategy, they had to go the organic route and were built on TikTok Meagan shares - they put all their marketing funds into hiring creators who were good at creating content with their product
• A month before their launch, they started building out their TikTok and started creating viral content with a waitlist for their product - the waitlist was 5,000 people
• At the time, they didn't have the funds to do a paid media strategy as they do now, which ended up helping them because 70% of their sales still come from organic reach
• How they tapped into the education and science behind their product while tackling the myths behind shaving your face on TikTok
• Meagan talks about how they found and reached out to creators to help them - she shares they would pay the creators and send them concepts that they ran with
• In the beginning, Meagan would do a lot of the content creation herself - she still does today and has launched her own TikTok, where she's been posting 6 times a day
• Where Meagan came in strong for content creation was the hand content, like shaving fruit, which is one of the reasons they went viral
• When they first launched, they predicted that 20% of their business would be membership and 80% would be one-time purchasers, but in their launch, they had a 60% subscription rate
• Within 2 weeks, they sold out of their memberships which was a bummer, Meagan says, because they misprojected, and the memberships were out of stock for 4 months
• Creating a community through membership has been huge for the Jill brand and is something Meagan wants to focus more on so she can connect with these women and dive more into their mission
• One thing they've learned is that everyone has a different hair growth rate, so they are working towards being able to offer more razors at a time so those who need to shave more often can do so
• Looking back, Meagan shares that she wishes she would have known more about the fundraising side of business and shares that direct to consumer is not favored in the venture funding space right now
• Meagan explains why they need to be able to grow in both ways, direct to consumer and retail
• How Meagan is starting a podcast called, The Skinclusive, where she is going to have guests on, and they will shave together
• Meagan shares that moving forward she will be focusing on building her TikTok, which she loves
• Connect with Meagan on Instagram and follow Jill on Instagram

Links mentioned:

Try Jill

Connect with Meagan on Instagram

Jill on Instagram

Jill on TikTok

Connect with Meagan on TikTok

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Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board

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Hey friends! Melissa here. If you're new or if you've been engaging with the podcast for It's the first week of May 2022, also my birthday week, and if you're like me, you're looking to produce some game-changing results in your business or professional career.

For me, this means bringing new offers, a brand refresh and strategic visibility to life. And to stop dragging my feet. How's that for real life accountability? (That's me making fun of myself!)

While I'm not designing sales pages anymore, I still sell my $37 course, Sales Page Superstar and will continue to use the principles + strategies I teach inside the course as I build my new brand.

Last week I sent an email to my list with the subject line: "3 design elements to add to your sales page hero section for higher conversions (samples inside)" and it got a 42.4% open rate, which I thought was pretty impressive. :)

So, I thought I'd repurpose that content here for a short, fun episode this week.

When I was designing sales pages, I spent the MOST time designing the hero section of my clients' sales page.

The "hero section" is the part of your sales page on a desktop you see before you scroll down.

You have about 8 seconds to get people's attention, so the hero section has to wow them. When you map out your sales page hero section, there are 3 must-have elements you to include:

1. A headline that highlights your offer promise.
2. A branded identity like a photo, logo or sales video so people know who they're buying from.
3. A distinctly-designed button, so the user knows what the call-to-action is.

Do NOT include:

A photo of you and your Lambo.

A link to your YouTube channel.

Any language or messaging that tells the user they will fail unless they buy from you. This is a big no-no.

We don't want to confuse or mislead anyone. We want them to be excited about what you have to offer.

Sample #1: The sales page hero section for my mini sales page course, Sales Page Superstar. You see my photo, my logo, and my brand colors, with a distinct headline and subhead that describes my course, and two buttons.

Sample #2: In this sales page example we have a strong headline, brightly colored button, a logo, the brand photo, and directional cues pointing towards the call-to-action.

Sample #3: In this example, we have a sales page hero section I designed for Successful Ads Club that includes the program logo, a photo of the founder, a simple headline, a supporting paragraph about the program, and a button that says "Join the Club."

A sophisticated sales page design is a great way to position yourself as an authority in your industry. You can create the best product or service in the world - but if the hero section doesn't connect with your visitors, no one will scroll, so let's make it easy for them to buy from you! MMkay?If you like this episode, you can find more strategic tips + more inside my $37 sales page course, Sales Page Superstar. Visit https://salespagesuperstar.com to see if it's right for you.

Thanks for reading / listening. I hope all your dreams come true.

Links mentioned:

Episode 169 of The Design Business Show

Sales Page Superstar

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Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes.

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Terrence Thames is the CEO of Advanced Media Production Firm, LLC dba Cocoa Creative Agency. Terrence Thames is a man of faith, husband, father, and entrepreneur. Terrence has a passion for seeing others succeed in business and in life – especially people of color. Having grown up on the South Side of Chicago, Terrence was raised by his college-aged cousin in Iowa City at the age of 9 where he was exposed to a better life and more opportunities. At that time, Terrence became heavily involved in church, video production, journalism, and music.

Working professionally since the age of 17, Terrence launched his own creative agency in 2011 – Advanced Media Production Firm, LLC dba Cocoa Creative Agency.

Terrence is currently focused on family, faith, and wealth-building among minorities and their communities.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

Terrence's Young Start to Video Editing

• How I'm currently in a business accelerator at Drake University in Des Moines, IA, for a new business I was to start, and how Terrence is a business advisor within the program, which is how we met
• Terrence shares that he learned to edit videos at the age of 12 from a family friend and then started volunteering to edit videos for their church program at the time
• When Terrence got older, he started doing more creative editing using Premiere and Final Cut, which really made things take off for him
• After high school, Terrence started working at the University of Iowa in the athletics video department, where he was able to combine his love for sports, video production, and design
• There are many approaches to production, but Terrence's approach to editing has been taking standard video production from live events, cutting them up on a computer on a timeline, and then putting together a narrative with music to help convey a message
• Terrence got to practice his skills through sporting events at the University of Iowa and even helped on some TV sports shows for coaches
• When Terrence was volunteering for his church, their TV program was on the local public access station, where people could make anything for any purpose, so Terrence grew up around people who were creating art and things for community programs
• You can use video editing and production to create so many different things, and we see more and more people get into editing or content creation because of the accessibility we have through social media and our phones
• How a lot of people may not know they are editors even though they are engaging with content all the time and changing it into something else
• Terrence explains that many games were covered by ABC, ESPN, or Fox Sports, but if someone didn't show up to work, they would call the person for video production for the school and ask if they had any students to do different tasks for them, like running a camera so Terrence would take many of those opportunities
• Terrence says its a really special thing when you're able to combine your passions as he has with sports and editing video production
• By freelancing and taking those opportunities, Terrence was able to build his resume with many bigger brands early on through proximity, and because he lived in a smaller town, he was able to get to anyone, which opened up even more opportunities

Creating His Business + Getting Experience

• In his heart, Terrence always knew he wanted to have a business, but he says he really wanted to have something on paper for tax purposes, so he was thinking about names and came up with Advanced Media Production Firm
• Before making his business an LLC, he had it as a sole proprietorship with his local county and was working full-time while doing his business on the side
• How Terrence moved to Des Moines and 2010 and in 2011 had his business filed as an LLC, which is when the business officially started - he didn't have a business plan or very many clients but knew that if he was going to be freelancing or doing work for people he wanted to have it separated on paper as an entity
• When building his brand, Terrence says it was a lot of manifestation, God opening up opportunities and using his personal experiences with brands as part of his business portfolio
• Terrence made a website early on, and people started to call - sometimes, the small projects were for big brands, which he leveraged
• Growing up, Terrence's church did fundraisers by working concessions at the University of Iowa games - during the 4th quarter, they shut down the concessions, and Terrence was able to watch the last quarter of the football games on the jumbotron - he told himself one day he was going to work for that video board team
• The family friend that taught Terrence how to edit videos also did freelance camera on the sidelines for the University of Iowa, and so when Terrence got older, he asked her who she used to work for, but she only remembered the person's first name
• Terrence made a resume right out of high school and started calling the athletics department of Iowa University asking for this person until he finally got connected with them - he wanted the opportunity to work for them as a student even though he was going to community college
• They agreed Terrence would be hired on as a miscellaneous professional - they taught him how to use their special cameras and had him come in a few hours a week to edit and film the Iowa women's basketball team, which he did part-time while going to community college
• Eventually, in 2012, Terrence started working at Drake University, where one of the things he oversaw was video production for athletics; in that position, he was looking for students to help with production, which gave them a lot of experience
• Terrence says there is always an opportunity if you look for one to get experience
• Content creation and editing were Terrence's specialty, but he says he was always big on visuals and led with visuals by using video or photography as a primary part of the layout for design
• How Terrence was able to easily navigate templates which helped him when he started doing more motion graphic design
• In your professional space, Terrence says, there is a certain time where video production is key, there's a certain time with graphic design and layout is key, and then there's a time to integrate all those things

Understanding Your Business to Build a Team + Price Model

• How being a creative helped but only got Terrence so far; when he started doing more work, he didn't have time to do everything - to grow, he needed to hire people who were better than him in certain spaces
• Terrence shares that he loves to work on teams that do well and lift each other up
• As an agency, they lead with video production; virtual productions, virtual events, live events, and filming other things with a narrative for storytelling
• Secondarily, the agency does social media marketing campaigns, web development, and brand strategy
• When Terrence first started, he was charging $500 for an early Wix website, $100 for graphic design because he had another job to rely on at the time, so he wasn't charging in a way that would let him grow his business
• Terrence has an office downtown, they have clients locally, regionally, and a couple nationally - his pricing model is better but could be improved because he realized they were charging under 150% in some areas compared to their counterparts
• Now, if they do a small virtual event, they are charging a minimum of $3,500 - Terrence shares that the price is similar for a smaller hybrid or in-person event
• Video production rates for onsite productions can range anywhere from a half-day, around $1,400+ if it's a virtual production for a conference they are producing, it would be a minimum of $11,000 and could get up to $40,000 - $80,000 depending on all the elements going into it
• For bigger projects, if some of the client elements reach beyond the agency's capacity, Terrence says they partner with people who can help bring something alive for a client
• Terrence explains that they try to hover around $125 - $175 / hr, and if it's a long-term project, they do an assessment to determine what the pricing will be based on the number of hours estimated to go into the work
• How the agency now has 7 - 8 full-time and part-time staff who are W-2 employees and 4 - 5 freelance that work for them regularly
• A main theme for the agency Terrence says has been building out infrastructure, putting in standard operating procedures, and then doing the things that make them an actual viable business as opposed to 'Terrence and the freelancers' - they offer benefits because people have needs and concerns
• How you need to keep reassessing your business to make sure everything is working in all areas - you have to think about your growth and what you should start, stop and continue
• There are a lot of creatives out there who don't think about what they need to do to become profitable, bring on investors or partners, or even sell their business - Terrence says you need to have an open mind and make sure you're handling your pricing model correctly
• A lot is going on in the creative space right now, there are a lot more people exercising their entrepreneurial mindset, and while Terrence thinks it's important to be around other creatives, he says you need to make sure you understand the business side first
• If you have an idea of how you want to grow your creative business, Terrence believes you have to go after what's in your heart - there's no one way to do anything; you can learn along the way
• Making sure your business is in order first is important because you don't want to be a struggling creative; you want to be flourishing and adding value to areas that you see you can solve a problem in as a creative
• Terrence encourages people to expand their minds about how the business works, ask a lot of questions and be unafraid to live in your purpose
• Connect with Terrence on Instagram or LinkedIn

Links mentioned:

Advanced Media Production Firm, LLC dba Cocoa Creative Agency

Connect with Terrence on Instagram

Connect with Terrence on LinkedIn

Like what you heard?

Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes.

Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board

Let's connect on Instagram!

Best selling Author, International Speaker, and host of both the Award-winning eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast and the brand new Keep Optimising Podcast.

Chloë is one of the Top 30 eCommerce Influencers 2021 (Scurri), and her podcasts are regularly included in lists of the top eCommerce & marketing podcasts in the world.

Chloë Thomas has been in eCommerce since 2003; she's worked client-side, agency-side, and adviser-side. Working with a wide variety of retailers from high street omnichannel operations to fresh online-only start-ups, covering international launches, subscription, B2B, and even dabbling in marketplaces.

Chloë's specialty is solving eCommerce Marketing Problems, from how to increase new customer acquisition to improving the performance of email marketing newsletters or finding the right new website provider.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

Chloë's Start to eCommerce + Running a Marketing Agency

• How Chloë worked for a big bank, which she hated, so she started applying to any marketing job she could find
• Chloë shares that she started in eCommerce back in early 2000 at a retailer in the UK, where she took on their catalog marketing - she got addicted to the stats and watching the money roll in
• We talk about how sometimes the best thing you can do is leave where you are, even if you aren't entirely sure where you're going
• Within a year of working at the retailer, Chloë became the direct communications manager, which meant she was in charge of anything they put through the post
• Chloë was responsible for their in-store loyalty program, catalog, mailings, was heavily involved in email marketing and anything else that she could get her hands on that involved eCommerce, which drove the web manager mad
• When Chloë set up her marketing agency, the same web manager that she drove mad came to work for her
• The retailer Chloë worked at sold gifts, and she says she worked there for two Christmases, but the second Christmas, they went under
• Chloë was 24 or 25 when the retailer went under, but she had made enough of an impression in the industry that she got calls from some interesting people to see if she wanted to work for them
• How Chloë sat down with 3 of those people, and one offered her the head of eCommerce role for their group of mail-order businesses - which was about 6 different businesses, all not doing much online but that had big customer bases
• If this business worked out, they planned to turn it into a marketing agency
• In her new role, Chloë had a wonderful time building websites, sending the first email campaign, doing the first Google Ads, SEO, affiliate marketing, etc.
• A year after Chloë started the head eCommerce job, they turned it into an agency - Chloë ran the marketing agency for 10 years and sold it in 2017
• On day one of the marketing agency, they took the marketing activity they had been doing for the mail-order brands and rolled that into the agency - they were an outsourced online marketing team for those businesses doing everything that modern eCommerce and digital marketing teams would do
• Over the next 10 years, they worked out different areas of their business model because parts weren't as financially sustainable as the industry evolved, so they ended up narrowing it down to primarily Google and Facebook Ads with a little bit of email marketing
• Chloë shares some stories of mistakes she made in the past, like not having contracts and not chasing invoices to get paid, and how they were able to overcome the mistakes
• How Chloë implemented contracts and brought a bookkeeper on to chase all the invoices for them, and they started invoicing at the beginning of the month with a 14-day payment term instead of at the end of the month, so if they did have to stop working for a client because they weren't paying it would all happen in the same month, limiting their liability
• 5 years into running the agency, Chloë realized it was the wrong business model for her to be running because she took a talent dynamics test and read a book that gave her a lightbulb moment of realizing she was an introvert
• How managing the team, the clients, and the new business process was too much for Chloë to handle, so she delegated some management to other people within the agency but says she never found a good way of delegating the new business, which is why Chloë decided to exit and sell the agency
• Chloë tried various ways to sell the agency and, in the end, had an awesome team member who still runs the business now buy it from her

Chloë's Podcasts + Changes in the Industry

• These days, Chloë is a podcaster and speaker who runs the occasional virtual summit
• When Chloë left the agency, she had one of her podcasts and shares she did a certain amount of coaching and consulting - she had to see if her other business could make money because it had always been funded by what she made at the agency
• Chloë realized that she could make money, but her next question was, could it make money in a way that gave her back as much energy as possible - that meant getting out of coaching and consulting, and the only way to do that was to launch a second podcast
• How running the podcasts can be a little exhausting, but Chloë says it's fun work, she can outsource a majority of it, and it has been very lucrative
• Chloë shares that she monetizes the podcasts entirely by sponsorships because she hasn't had success making money on the backend
• Chloë says she's lucky to be in the eCommerce business because there is currently a lot of growth; there are a lot of software and service businesses and others who are desperate to get in front of other eCommerce people and want to sponsor podcasts
• Along with finding a viable business, Chloë says you need to find a business that suits you - there is nothing wrong with wanting to make money and wanting to be happy
• Chloë explains that she is lucky to be able to monetize her 20 years of experience, brand awareness, and growth in this industry and is currently riding a very nice scenario where there are lots of people wanting to sponsor eCommerce podcasts
• How Chloë also knows that the podcast industry is going through many changes at the moment and that it is heavily dependent on the Apple platform and the Spotify platform, which doesn't make it the strongest, and although it's going well now, she is considering what comes next, which she admits she hasn't worked out yet
• One idea they have been playing around with is sponsored emails to their list, and Chloë shares they have a couple of options that they could do involving their virtual summits

Creating Long-Term Success

• When it comes to creating long-term success, Chloë says as you reach the point of solid profitability for whatever you're currently doing, that's the point to start testing the next idea because you've got the cash to do it, and you should be able to find the time to do it and then hopefully one of the ideas your testing will also peak
• Don't sit smugly on the crest of your wave; always be looking for what the next thing is going to be
• This is the first time that Chloë has been keenly aware of finding the next thing she's going to do and has been actively exploring it
• Chloë has had her fair share of failures and says that her marketing agency went under twice due to various misdirections, which showed her why it's so important to constantly be innovating and testing
• We talk about the elements that come with running your own business, like freedom but all the responsibility that also comes with it
• If Chloë could tell her past self one thing, it would be, be you and be you sooner because she had to learn that she was an introvert to build a business that suited her and gave her energy back
• Another thing Chloë would tell her past self is to say no more often, which Chloë struggled with for a long time
• Going back to Chloë's why for everything has been, she hates waste; she cannot stand wasted opportunities and businesses not doing things that they should be doing to get them great results because they don't know they exist or are scared of them
• Everything Chloë has done has been about helping eCommerce business owners and eCommerce marketers make better decisions within their business to help them run better marketing
• In terms of building her brand, Chloë has played to her strengths, and although she is an introvert, she is also very good at taking complex things and making them make sense, Chloë's good at standing on a stage and involving an audience to teach them something, which she has leveraged in every stage of business

How Creatives Can Help eCommerce Businesses

• Because of the pandemic, many people started buying online and will continue to buy online, but in the eCommerce industry, a lot of businesses started selling online, so the competition levels have gone up a lot
• How consumer behaviors have changed, they are more interested in ethics and sustainability and also want more of a connection with the companies they buy from
• Chloë talks about the cookie issues that have happened with the Apple updates on the iPhone, which are going to happen on Google later this year, which impacts some of the gains you can make in your advertising and marketing through the algorithmic side of things
• With all these changes in the eCommerce industry, if an eCommerce business wants to do well with selling products in 2022, they need to invest in stronger creative - you need to have the ad creative, the email creative, the PR creative, etc.
• Chloë says all these creative elements need to be great copywriting, graphics, and videography that tell a story that aligns your brand to key missions and movements that embrace your customer content and bring them to your business
• To step up your game as a creative, Chloë says to look into storytelling; founder story, product story; these things are really big for consumers - also, look at how to pull together user-generated content to a video format
• A lot of eCommerce brands only have written testimonials and reviews on their products, but Chloë shares what's working well in content is video content - so turning those written reviews into great graphics or videos is a good idea
• Chloë shares that a big opportunity in the eCommerce industry is for creatives to help businesses create better product pages, homepages, email content, about us pages, etc.
• How this year, Chloë thinks we will see a lot of eCommerce brands looking to hire in-house creative skills, freelancers, or agencies to help them test ideas
• As we get into July - September, Chloë thinks we may potentially reach a point where there is more demand for creative services than there is supply
• If you don't currently have something on your page about helping eCommerce businesses with these things, Chloë says now might be the time to be building those up
• If you want to understand more of what is happening in the eCommerce space, check out Chloë's eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast, which is an interview with a different retailer each week where they are currently focusing on growth as much as sustainability and going carbon-neutral
• On Chloë's Keep Optimising Podcast, they focus each month on a different marketing method, which has a lot of creative input

Links mentioned:

Keep Optimising Podcast

eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast

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Show notes:

Melissa is the Founder and Creative Director behind Branch Creative Co.

Design has been a passion of hers for years—from her early days (before even turning double digits) when she would put together the "family newsletter" using Microsoft Paint, to her first real job as a designer at a large print shop...she has always loved this industry!

She started her company back in 2009 as a side hustle while working full time as the Creative and Communications Manager at the Sioux Falls Convention & Visitor's Bureau. As her family grew, she was blessed to be able to grow that side hustle into a full-blown design studio!

Since then, she's built a team of contracted design associates to help her manage the day-to-day client work, allowing her to focus on what she loves the most—working with businesses one-on-one to bring their passion and purpose to life through a strategic branding and design process.

Her home studio is located in Brandon, SD where she and her husband have two daughters and one cute little pup named Finn. Fun fact: she is also Co-Owner and Director of Marketing for Severance Brewing Co. located in beautiful downtown Sioux Falls, SD!

Here's what we covered on the episode:

Melissa's Passion for Design + Starting Her Freelance Side Hustle

• How we met through Michelle, who told me that melissa would be a great guest for the podcast
• Melissa shares that she went to school for design and has always had a passion for it — after graduating, she worked at a print shop and then moved into the creative and communications manager position for their local visitors bureau
• While working full-time, Melissa started doing freelance design on the side, and by the time she had her second daughter about 8 years ago, she was able to go full-time into freelance and build her own company
• At the print shop, Melissa worked as a production designer and shares that she learned a lot about the print industry and how to prep different files
• Melissa missed working with clients on projects, so she applied for the creative and communications manager position at the visitors bureau, where she got to do different event promotions and design advertisements — this is where she met a lot of her first clients as a freelancer
• How Melissa was focused on her full-time job and building relationships through it so one day she could branch off and do freelance
• How Melissa wasn't ready to go full-time into freelance yet, so she worked part-time as a designer at a digital marketing agency for a couple of years and shared what was great about the agency was that they didn't offer print services, so they were able to refer clients to her
• The story of how Melissa was able to lean on the relationships she already had to get the opportunity to leave full-time work, go part-time while starting to build her freelance business

Melissa's Transition to Full-Time Freelance + Building Her Business

• Melissa says to lean into the relationships you do have, don't be afraid to call the people you know or meet up with them, and says, even if you don't get the job or opportunity right away, you are planting the seeds and nurturing those relationships
• How Melissa was open about her goals and intentions to eventually go full-time into freelance with the digital agency and how her services and the digital agency's services aligned really well, so there was never a lot of competition
• Before going full-time on her own, Melissa had a new client who was going to replace her income from her part-time job
• Melissa shares that she used to charge $50 - $60/ hr for freelancing and was doing it about 15 - 20 hrs a week
• How Melissa was naive in thinking that it would be 100% blissful joy working from home as a mom of a 3-year-old and a newborn and says that the transition was harder than she thought it would be
• The biggest thing Melissa learned during her transition to working from home full-time was that she needed help with her kids so she could focus, serve her clients to the best of her ability and build her business the way she wanted to
• To show people she was successful, Melissa thought she needed to build a team and have a brick and mortar store for people to see her studio — up until November 2020, that was still her goal, and she had hired additional designers and a business development manager

The Shift in Melissa's Business + Implementing The Brand Process

• In December 2020, Melissa's grandfather unexpectedly passed away from covid, which hit her hard and left her feeling very unmotivated for a few months
• In the first quarter of 2021, Melissa lost two of her biggest clients due to them hiring her position full-time, in-house, her business development manager had found a full-time opportunity, and one of her designers decided to take a full-time position with an agency and her other designer was going on maternity leave soon
• How this shift in Melissa's business helped her reenvision how she saw the growth of her company and through a string of events, Melissa came across a new coach, Lydia Kerr, who had started a program called, The Brand Process
• Melissa shares that she's been working with Lydia through her coaching program for about a year and that it has completely transformed her business — Melissa learned that she could offer a very solid brand process and charge premium pricing for it
• Melissa feels that she can now approach brand strategy as a designer and as a business owner because she's owned her own business for 12 years and now has the brewery
• Now that Melissa has The Brand Process, her vision for her studio is not a brick and mortar; it's not a big team, but she shares that she still has an associate designer who helps her with the day to day, hourly design work for her clients
• Melissa's focus is on all the brand and web clients and says that she only takes 1 - 2 a month because it is very hands-on and intense — they spend several weeks talking about their brand strategy before jumping into design
• Melissa shares the deep dive into brand strategy she does with clients and shares that the work being produced with this new process is so much better and intentional, which her clients appreciate
• Helping other business owners is Melissa's passion because she is one herself and says that she loves diving deep into their brand strategy and being able to help them with the design after
• Before The Brand Process, Melissa was doing logos, web design and says that the majority of her work is what she calls 'hourly work' — she wasn't sending proposals or quotes for each little project her clients had; they would email her whenever they had design needs, and she'd bill them hourly
• Melissa's business name, Branch Creative Co., comes from being an extension of her clients' team
• Since making the shift in implementing The Brand Process, now Melissa still takes care of clients through hourly work, but she's not out seeking more hourly clients anymore and is a lot more strategic and picky with who she works with for small hourly projects
• Melissa walks through how her process works now; she starts with brand strategy, moves into the logo design, and after the logo is approved, they work on any marketing collateral they might need and finally move into web design
• Implementing The Brand Process has given Melissa so much more freedom because everything is scheduled out on the calendar, and she knows what to expect; It's also given her more control because once her slots are filled up, she's telling people that she is booked out until a certain date, which she's never been able to say before
• Last year, Melissa's goal was to get her process dialed in, which she did; her goal this year is to automate parts of her process, like client onboarding, and says she is working with a Dubsado specialist
• Melissa shares that clients work directly with her for the most part during the process, but her assistant designer will jump in and help with initial logo concepts and will then build out all the logo files once the logo is ready
• Another system Melissa has heard about and is thinking about implementing into her business is the Logo Package Extension for Illustrator that will name out and save different logo files for you
• 2021 was a year of transformation for Melissa's business, so this year, she will be focusing primarily on personal things and trying to implement automated systems into her process

Pricing Approaches - Then vs. Now

• Before having The Brand Process, Melissa thought in terms of hourly rates for her logo design package and shared that she was charging around $100/hr
• After implementing The Brand Process, she increased her prices by 200% but realized after talking to her coach and other designers that it is so much more than just an hourly
• Hourly rates are the easiest way to charge clients, but the flawed aspect of it is the more experience you get, the more efficient you get, and the less you're going to get paid
• Another form of charging for design work is by value pricing, which Melissa explains is basing your price based on how much value it will bring to the client — but that could be different for each client, so Melissa doesn't think it is the most transparent or fair way to charge
• Through The Design Process, Lydia taught Melissa a blended approach where you take into consideration your hourly rate, the value it's going to offer the clients, and your experience as a designer
• Now, Melissa has a base price for brand strategy, a base price for brand strategy + logo design, and a base price for web design and says she can add additional collateral pieces to each package if the client needs
• For Melissa's life-long clients, she still charges hourly but, going forward, she will use the blended pricing approach for her brand and web design projects
• How Melissa doesn't see herself as a freelancer anymore but as a studio owner and creative director instead
• The story of how Melissa named her business Branch Creative Co. because she wanted to take her name out of it and because she sees herself as an extension of her clients' teams
• Melissa shares that she doesn't do all the marketing for clients when it comes to ad buys or marketing plans; they are the branding and design branch when it comes to the overall marketing efforts
• The biggest thing Melissa has learned in the last 10 - 15 years is to trust herself; she used to compare herself to others, but through working with more designers and executive-level businesses, she realized that she actually does have a lot of experience and knowledge
• To any creatives out there, Melissa says, don't be afraid to lean into what you have and what your talents are and to live fearlessly with that because you can take your business further than you probably ever thought you could
• Connect with Melissa on her website, branch creative co.com

Links mentioned:

Branch Creative Co Website

The Brand Process

Connect with Melissa on Instagram

Connect with Melissa on Facebook

Like what you heard?

Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes.

Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board

Let's connect on Instagram!