Boost Brand Engagement Fast

Speaker 1: hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie you're here because you want to experience the life and business that you crave join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from

Speaker 1: when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in murn is the founder of Harmony marketing a Los angeles-based women-owned and operated boutique marketing firm offering creative and elevative solutions for strategy branding and experiences Meg thank you

Speaker 2: so much for joining us today thank you

Speaker 1: for having me Melanie tell us more about who you are about your early career experiences and what led you to create

Speaker 2: and launch Harmony marketing the past 16 years have been a roller coaster of fun within the marketing in branding space first starting out in Denver Colorado and now here in Los Angeles for about the past 10 years I have been in the corporate world most of my career and have learned from some of the best a mutual friend of ours Tracy sang Los Angeles magazine who is just a Dynam it marketer but the ju position was really around wanting to climb that corporate ladder and what that path looked like and realizing that there wasn't a straight path to what exactly I wanted to do I loved the corporate culture and I loved the structure and the consistency of what corporate life can give someone but there's a lot of red tape a lot of times red tapee is not something that we want to be constantly going up against and we want to be able to throw ideas at the wall and see what sticks and that's really where some of the most creative branding and marketing campaigns have come from is having that flexibility so my background I have a ba in marketing from the University of Denver and an MBA in marketing from Regis University as I said about 16 years of my career within different industries from marketing coord roles starting off and paying my dues and really just trying to absorb all information and seeing what leaders were doing and I would take from them not only what they were doing right but I've also learned from a lot of leaders as to what I didn't want to do and how I didn't want to manage or lead which I think is just as important and it's just as imperative to have those kinds of bosses and leaders in your career to get you to realize the type of individual and leader that you want to be

Speaker 1: absolutely and Tracy saying being one of those she is incredible incredible isn't it so great that we can look around and if we see a role that hasn't been created yet or a way that we can help people that we can just decide to create it yes tell us more about Harmony marketing and how you help Brands and businesses to become more aware to their followers I love it

Speaker 2: that you said followers the common factor is the audience whether you're building a brand whether you're selling a product or a service at the end of the day it's all about the target audience and backing into that formula I was always told by my parents and my father especially who's an entrepreneur that I could be anything that I wanted to be that is absolutely something that I attribute to my success today is having that support and if you don't have that from your given family then hopefully there's chosen family or mentors that can go out there to teach you that you really can achieve whatever you want to achieve but what was interesting the advice I was always getting from senior leaders or Senior Management was you should pick something and specialize in it and become that expert and that's how you're going to be successful and it was really at Los Angeles Magazine with Tracy saying that I realized and I don't know if she even consciously knows that she gave me this bit of knowledge with marketing and branding we can span so many different Industries because it all comes down to your target audience and working backwards in what goals you're wanting to achieve with that audience

Speaker 2: population you're really backing into your plan of action from there and making sure Again The Branding speaks to that audience color in branding and messaging marketing some of the most famous Brands just do it very simple

Speaker 1: yeah but so memorable and everyone knows it and everyone knows it things like

Speaker 2: that of having something that you're going to be able to be remembered by as I started Harmony marketing people ask what industry are you going to specialize in and I said it's not about the industry I really do want to focus on empowering females it could be young Brands it could be established brands that need a fresh perspective and coming in and turning their world upside down in a way of instead of trying to really figure out the formula to identify what the solution will be we work backwards from the solution to identify the formula and readjust that

Speaker 1: formula and I love how you said already establish Brands because The Branding sometimes can change over time and sometimes you need to change it and have a a fresh perspective and a fresh

Speaker 2: Outlook absolutely I think that's one of the biggest things that established Brands can get into take your your Estee Lauder your Coca-Cola some of your brands that have been around for a very long time even some of the centuries right your goyard Louis Vuitton one of the things that Louis Vuitton's creative director did I want to say maybe it was about three years ago Nicholas he came in and he completely changed the color palette and they were just pushing the envelope in so many edgy ways for that brand that was needed because the individuals that respected its timelessness are still buying that brand

Speaker 1: and now they speak to a younger audience that they're growing their Target demographic so I think that they did an incredible job of that of that transition it's great that they were able to Pivot and and also still appeal to such a broad audience I would love to have 10 minutes with him just to pick his brain on if that was a conscious effort or if that was really just a results that came to be with his creative genius we talk about a lot here marketing is not just your print ads or your digital or your social that you see today some of the biggest strategy campaigns that we work with with clients are around influencer promotions and influencer programming is kind of a wide term that categorizes from bloggers turned Instagram like Ami song um who has millions of followers around the world or it can be a celebrity that unknowingly is an influencer whether they like it or not so when they're dressed with these different brands or become brand ambassadors for the brand they're already speaking to a certain target audience that is so nicely tied into that that influence of promotion it's so interesting and I actually love how marketing has evolved in that way I think it's so much fun how has your early career experiences influenced you as a business leader and leading your company and how does that experience help your clients your leadership style and assist you in managing Harmony

Speaker 2: marketing my management style and leadership style has evolved over time I used to be very much a type a perfectionist and it's taken therapy and a lot of other things too to slowly let go of that type A but what it had taught me was no matter how hard I grasp on to every little detail of a Lexus launch event that we did at Los Angeles magazine for example making sure that every detail was perfect for that client and if something were to go wrong you know you have to to the audience to the client in that case into the individuals that are coming to the launch event everything needs to look seamless but behind the scenes anyone that has produced events before knows that even when everything goes right there's still something that didn't go exactly as planned it's quite interesting in my career I've probably produced over 300 events between Denver and Los Angeles not once is there like everything that goes exactly right and you're just like how is this there's always just you know somebody was a little bit late or something was off CU that's where kind of this planning for a and C scenarios came in to play and I think that that flexibility and thinking through that kind of helped with the just going into it knowing something's going to go wrong helped really to take away that the perfectionist side because how I lead now at Harmony marketing is with authenticity and being able to say oh I'm not really feeling so great about this like we should be watching out for being honest and I talked a little bit about it in the blog that we did together on this toxic positivity instead of trying to keep it all in for your team right to make sure that your your team's not seeing you sweat and you're holding it all in it you're a team for a reason if everyone knows like okay guys here are the things that we're looking for today here's the things that may go wrong or when something does go wrong that you have a team that's coming together and not panicking for whatever it is it could be something that like the print ad Got Run wrong and you know what do you do to fix something that's permanent like that right versus like if a digital ad gets thrown up on you know Ro and it's wrong that can easily be switched out but print can't so just knowing that there's going to be things that go wrong and it's how you address it and it's how we all learn from whether it's little failures or big failures and that it's okay for me it came down to almost like it was a little bit of an adrenaline rush when things went pretty good or if they went well enough to where it was you felt almost this Euphoria but at the end of the day when I was empowered by my teammates Tracy say as one of them she would no matter what happened or what went wrong it was looking at the good what did we accomplish here let's talk about our wins today and everything else we'll figure out leading with authenticity and empowering team members to go towards their strengths and if they're open to learning about their weaknesses and wanting to evolve those and change those that we have the tools and the space both mental space and physical space to allow them to evolve as humans and we're all human and you're so right when you give your team the space to possibly make a mistake they're probably going to do their job even better because you're right they are not operating from that sense of fear when we do an event or you host something for your clients you want it to go really well sometimes the clients do know but you as you know from an event perspective sometimes the event goes off really well and you know behind the scenes what hasn't worked but everyone at the event thinks everything's fabulous that's the best kind of event because then we called the teen dinner afterwards and we're all like we can you can all have the little Chuckles it's the inside scoop right of like can you believe that that what didn't happen or didn't like and at the end of the day the client and the audience they didn't know what to expect coming to the event we know what we had planned but they didn't know what to expect and what they had was a really great time a very memorable experience and in the case of what Harmony marketing does we produce events for Brands so making sure that the intended target audience is receiving that brand goal we then have done our job and hopefully in in a way that is memorable inspiring just leaving

Speaker 1: people with that wow factor tell us about a particular life or business experience that is memorable to you and that you carry with you today I would say not being afraid to try new things within Andor outside of your industry to understand what you're most passionate about and what is going to be your highest and best use as a professional I think within this particular sector individuals that I've talked to before is where do I start and I had this the same overwhelming feeling coming out of undergrad of not understanding exactly where or what industry again at that time I was really focused on and Leadership that I respected was like finding in industry and find your Niche well I kept jumping around because I didn't know or didn't like it from a gut feeling was like this doesn't feel exactly right like let me try something else I would say that it's okay to explore that way one of the best advice that I received was just an informational interview with this woman who told me that if the individuals that I was interviewing with and the companies that I was interviewing with didn't see the value in my resume then they weren't the right foot versus putting so much pressure on me and something about that that was probably about three years ago now really stuck with me to say you know what she's right I'm a badass so if they don't see how all of my different skill sets and everything that I've learned and the education that I have would benefit their company I don't need to go there and that actually turned into I'm just going to go and and do it for a bunch of different companies and launch Harmony marketing so I'm just grateful for individuals that have cross cross my path and that support over the years to really dig dig your heels in and believe in yourself that was good

Speaker 2: advice and it was so great that you continued to make those small leaps because look at where you are today I bet you bring all those different areas into your experience at Harmony marketing and growing your

Speaker 1: company Absolutely I'll refer back to things of oh when I was here what experience did could I pull from or who do I know from that area that I could actually talk to versus if I just stuck in One path I wouldn't have all those different areas to pull from so in hindsight as they like to say is always 2020 I'm very glad that I was able to have the experiences that I've had and lead to where they are today so that I can give that to our clients but also I look for that in team members of really hiring people that have diverse backgrounds and that we're not overlapping too much because I think that that helps us all to grow and teach each other as well there's more

Speaker 2: diversity that way what gave you the

Speaker 1: courage to make your leap and say I'm going to launch Harmony marketing I was at my previous role as the marketing director with CBR a commercial real estate company specifically at the Block in downtown Los Angeles which is a 2.4 million square foot mixed use project project and I was there for a little over four and a half years and when I came on board I was the only marketing team member and I built a team it was a constant growth and a constant evolution of the brand and this placemaking in a very key City within our greater city of Los Angeles and it was just so Dynamic and I felt like I was really making strides So Not only was I enjoying what I was doing but I was making an impact for society and it got to a point where there was no future growth and so I considered where can I jump to next and as I started looking going back to that type of company that you want to work for and the flexibility that the tech companies for example your Netflix your Facebook your Twitter provide for their employee of being able to work from home the employee benefits pay rate Etc is attractive in that flexibility of I would say work life balance and the super corporate side of where I had been for a while again a lot of that R tape and when I started talking to people more and more about it almost every person said why don't you start your own company and I hesitated my dad is a successful entrepreneur and and has been for the last 40 years but I've seen the struggles that entrepreneurialship can do and I'm single with no kids right now he was is married to my mom and two kids and was the breadwinner of our family so it's it's that pressure it could be the cancer in me that Financial Security right right hear you that was a really hard thing to that constant every two week paycheck of walking away from that because I knew that what I was giving my heart and soul to any of the companies that I've worked for but that return was going to them all those extra hours it was so much that I was putting in and my nearest and dearest family and friends said if you put that into your own company that's going to come back and it's going to build a an ethos that you're really proud of and I just said okay I'm going to do this I'm a big believer in setting intentions we can call it manifesting um but of setting those intentions writing those intentions down and being very strategic about where you put your energy because I've seen firsthand the things that I've put my energy into and the things that I have written down come to fruition and if I can do it anyone can do it hire the people that are experts that's another thing I will say with entrepreneurship because being your own accountant and being your own CPA and your own like listing off all the things that we really need help with it it's one of those where you just it's better to start off in the beginning getting the right team in place and working your way towards figuring out what you're providing to the company as you mentioned before of the expertise if you're always doing your QuickBooks and and filing and doing everything else you don't have time to build the business it's so true and it allows you to do the things that you like to do yes and brings in those experts to do the things that you don't necessarily like to do

Speaker 2: that would take forever to try to figure out on our own yes exactly starting Harmony marketing it felt right and it also felt very scary there was just a feeling that was like yes this is the right thing to do and I feel very blessed that through initial conversations with individuals of saying like I think I'm going to do this people friends former colleagues have reached out saying like now that you're out on your own now that you're an entrepreneur I'd like to hire you for this or I'd like to hire you for that so that's my indication that things are working but I do think that there is still marketing at play there was hiring a professional photographer and doing branded photo shoot just things that going that extra mile to make sure things are done right it's so

Speaker 1: interesting because now today you can have a company but then you might also want to bring a bit of your personal brand in there too so if you decide you want to do that finding that dynamic between the two can be challenging sometimes and I'm sure hiring a company like Harmony marketing can help to

Speaker 2: figure out those directions absolutely and what I always recommend is is we do something called a marketing Diagnostic and we will go in and look at what a company is currently doing what are their goals and objectives for the year looking at what their strategy is what they've implemented and the results that have been achieved thus far their budgets we've always found that we will find something because our mindset is outside of the company sometime when you're in it and you're just horse and blinders on you're not really looking left and right and we do like a full u-turn on the left in the right on how we get in and we dig and we search and then we present it to our clients and from there they can then choose to redo their brand and do that with us or do a brand refresh and what that would look like or have us come up with a different marketing strategy and find ways to be more strategic about their budget there's all different things that we can do it's amazing how even some of the most sophisticated Brands certain departments may not be talking to each other so when you have an outside consultant like Harmony marketing looking at everything from a 360 degree view it opens up some of those like oh well PR wasn't talking to advertising and advertising wasn't talking to branding and it can happen definitely happen definitely can so yes that is one of the things that we do and do

Speaker 1: well what do you like the most about

Speaker 2: what you do now I wake up every day inspired one of the things that was missing in my corporate career of waking up knowing that I have the ability to impact an individual's company or corporate company or an entrepreneur in a positive way that inspires them to be excited about what they're doing too and that inspiration and don't get me wrong not not everyday's rosy cheeks and and excitement as I talked about with the whole toxic positivity but inspiration I think is really important to have in whatever you do personally or professionally and that motivation behind knowing that I'm helping in a way that is giving back through knowledge and through Innovation and in ways that are also really enjoyable what we've heard from clients that we've worked with is that they had a really fun time working with us like that was one of the the quotes that we got back was I didn't realize how much fun this was going to be going through these exercises and diving into all of this so to be able to bring joy especially to an established company that maybe hasn't looked at their brand in 10 years they're in that Cog and wheel and just going around and around year in year out we bring in that inspiration you're so right you can get so into your business and you're paying attention to all the different aspects of the business so bringing in someone like Harmony marketing to just look at the marketing and marketing should be fun because it's probably going to gain you more clients and more visibility so why shouldn't it be fun absolutely at the end of the day no matter what we do we're giving clients knowledge what they want to do with that knowledge and that diagnostic is up to them and nine out of 10 clients are like great sign me up for all those things we need help with all that it's fun it it really is it's every day we get to do something fun I think it's fun you know um an accountant probably would not think it's as fun but I don't think numbers are fun so we'll leave the accounting to them and creativity to

Speaker 1: harmy marketing exactly and you can tell that you just have so much joy in what you do magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one tip that you can leave with us today about how you

Speaker 2: find and live your joy find what inspires you and hold on to it if it doesn't feel right there's a reason for that out not that you need to turn around completely or stop doing something but really listening to what brings you pure joy and following that

Speaker 1: path great advice we can get so busy in our day that we think oh sure we're doing what brings us joy but are we really focused in on it and is it really joyful things that I thought brought me Joy were actually just bringing me more stress that I wasn't processing as stress and it's important to find the true joy in things really good advice you are building a wonderful company your branding is beautiful it speaks for itself and the marketing photos that you talked about are just beautiful thank you so much for joining us today can you tell our listeners how and where they

Speaker 2: can find you absolutely website is Harmon mkt.com on Instagram it's Harmony

Speaker 1: mktg and on LinkedIn it's Harmony mktg if you are new to shil it we'd love for you to join us we offer a community memberships masterminds Innovative virtual events and meaningful connections to entrepreneurs and corporate leaders please also check out our shetit shop curated products from women-owned businesses who put their heart and soul into their their beautiful and Innovative products we offer Sheil tip business Consulting and the Sheil tip blog thank you to everyone around the world who joined today thank you to my editor Rich stalino please download And subscribe wherever you get your podcast and until next time together let's let nothing stop us from experiencing the life that We crave