Build Brands That Convert

Speaker 1: [Music] 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 Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in Meg mothershed is a brand specialist and co-owner at mothershed design a boutique brand and web design studio near Denver Colorado together with their husband Josiah they help businesses succeed by building Brands and websites that stand out attract the right customers and drive growth thank you for joining us today Meg thanks so much it's great to be here you have a background in Fine Arts illustration your bio says you are a problemsolving bundle of energy I love that tell us about your business and how do you think your mix of illustration strategy and problem solving helps your clients my husband Josiah and I own motherf design Co so Boutique branding a web design studio near Denver Colorado we mostly work with service-based businesses my husband and myself are both designers who come from a design background I have that fine arts illustration background that problem solving piece is really crucial to what we do we don't just make things look good we make sure that what we're doing actually solves our clients problems to help them better reach their goals we start every project with a strategy session and where we do a deep dive into our client business understand their audience their competition to really lay the groundwork and foundation for every project before we start so always say we we do our homework up front uh before we actually start designing everything that's really a combination of solving a client's problem and then executing that in a visual way whether that's through branding or web design or very often both a lot of moving pieces it can be very complicated but our job is to make it easy for our clients and I love hearing that because going through the design process I'll send an email to someone about a design it's very hard to type that out so it's great that you you do that deep dive for clients and I'm sure they love a brand refresh every now and then definitely and I think you touched on something great where most people are not super Visual and that's okay that's our job is to pull that out of you and understand what you're looking for what needs to happen that's a big part of what we do too is we don't like to give our clients any necessary homework or or things to do we have a lot of discussions again our strategy sessions because it is hard but that's always our job is to to handle that part why is it important to Rebrand when the time is right I would say if um a lot of times our clients they've been in business for five or 10 years and what they're doing just isn't necessarily resonating with either who Their audience is now or they've changed as a business and their Vision has changed and so it's no longer reflecting where they're trying to go so i' would say if you're one one of those boats where what you're doing just is maybe your website or your logo or a combination of everything just making you feel really stuck and held back that's the right time to start talking with the brand designer to help you reach that next step because how you're presenting yourself to the world whether it's again on your website or your social media or whatever it might be public facing that's really what's going to help attract the right people to you and help you keep moving forward so I would say if you're one of those quotes where what you're just doing is is no longer working time for a Rebrand it's so true and things change so fast today it seems like rebrands are needed quicker today than ever before I am going through a podcast cover art Rebrand right now because at one point people were using microphones and now no one has their microphone it's always fun to have that fresh perspective though I think for the business owner as well it adds that increased energy yeah I think a big part of what we do too is giving our clients the confidence they need to continue moving forward and marketing themselves and promoting themselves a thing I hear a lot from clients when we first just start to work with them is that they feel stuck they feel held back they don't like what they have so they don't want to keep putting it out there in the world right if it's not a good reflection of them and their business so that confidence piece to yes and now I feel happy and confident to to go out and start promoting myself is a big part of it too that mindset shift as well yeah and today it seems like there's so much coming at us with sell your products or service this way why do you suggest that a website is a number one sales tool I always compare a website to a a storefront whether you're selling products or selling services I always tell people picture yourself walking down the street there's a bunch of shops on either side which stores are you going to go into if your storefront is really busy or cluttered or even if you look closed right no one's going to come into your store but if it's welcoming and inviting attracting the right people those people are going to want to come into your store so just kind of a helpful reminder of how to think about your website it's always visible right it's always on so it's important that yeah that it's Top Notch and is representing your business well and a couple other things too is that helping you stand out from your competitors looking at what other people are doing and making sure that you're standing out and really communicating your value that's something that we talk a lot about with our clients is how do we communicate your value and make sure it's easy to understand visually organized well so really a combination of things but your website should really have everything someone needs to know in order to want to reach out and contact you or go ahead and buy your product so it's a really important piece and should do a lot of the sales work for you and I like that you do that deep dive because not all web designers do that take it a step further to Think Through the sales process and how you're going to win clients and close business definitely yeah that's a really big piece because we do believe your your website should be your number one sales tool in that way so yeah thinking through that funnel aspect too and ter determining what pages you need on your site what's the path someone's going to go to to the end results to the main CTA there um so yeah that's a huge part of it what do you like the most about what you do well I love working with small businesses we're a small business I love working with small businesses and we've worked with other much larger companies and corporations and it's just honestly not as satisfying to work with them because you're not making much of an impact in comparison to working with small businesses so love working directly with small business owners we understand the problems that they're facing and the things that they're going through and so you can just really relate to each other so much better and it's just really rewarding to see that impact that you're making on their business helping them grow feel more confident so and at the end that's really what we love to do and probably more of a personal one-on-one conversation other than working with teams definitely definitely most of the time we are working directly with the business owner or owners or otherwise it's very very small teams and so yeah I love that client intimacy you can get and then just continuing to build long lasting relationships that way which is great it just again makes everything so much more rewarding and honestly just fun to do how do you approach management by either managing a project or managing teams yes I love project management I say that's my middle name um that's a big part of my role with our company my husband Josiah does more of the heavy lifting on the creative side side and then I handle more of the business side of the business so sales marketing client Communications and project management are a big part of what I do and I think in some ways being a small team ourselves helps us and is also a bigger challenge when it comes to project management I'm not we're not handling huge volumes of projects or clients at a time but because we are such a small team we have to be really specific with how we're allotting our time and energy uh to stes the two of us so I think the biggest thing is just get ring out our time really really well and communication between myself and my husband being uh the best it can be it really helps it's Unique to find someone that has that strategy and management side and also the Creative Design side yeah well that's why there's two of us sure because it is hard uh to do everything being all in one person and we realized that early on when I joined him in the business that how having defined roles definitely helps I mean there's only two of us we get our eyeballs on everything that goes out of here but having those defined roles and responsibilities and playing on each other's strengths and weaknesses in that way has been really Key to Our Success you say it's never too late how can a Rebrand help a business reach the Right audience increase revenue and receive the recognition that the business deserves you touched on some great things there knowing who your audience is and who you're trying to continue to get more and more of in terms of who you're working with is really crucial not just doing the same things and expecting that to work each time but revisiting what you're doing and who you're talking to and how you're talking to them is a really big piece and so by uh speaking to the Right audience in the right way you're much more likely to actually attract the right clients to you and then as well as standing out for your from your competitors I think that's something that we tend to do maybe once right and then just kind of forget about what everybody else is doing but continually looking at who your competitors are what they're doing in order to stay ahead of them in terms of how you're presenting yourself how you're talking about your services and your offerings is super important as well so by doing those things and just making sure you're staying current those are going to really help you ultimately attract the right people stand up from the competition and ultimately drive that growth forward that's really good advice and I actually have an avatar sitting on my desk to remind me of who exactly who I want to talk to the type of person I want to reach and it's interesting because sometimes we think oh I want to reach everyone but at times we reach the most success when we speak to specific people about specific topics definitely I would I would absolutely agree with that I think it's hard to say no to anyone even if deep down we know they're they're probably not the right fit or just not a great match um it's hard to say no and I think that's something that takes a lot of practice and just time to to get better at but then once you do know and you and you get used to that you know even more when someone is the right fit for you and for your business and how much you can help them then it just makes you that more excited to work with them and vice versa just least to a better end result yeah and you're reminding me of another conversation I had with someone who was afraid to Niche down because she thought I don't know if I'll have enough clients and her business actually exploded once she got more specific I mean I hear that all the time as well and that's something that we were afraid to do initially too we started out much more General Design Studio we can do anything which might be true but that doesn't mean that a good thing uh to be able to do so yeah we slowly niched down to um focusing on just branding and web design and that is it can you tell us a a client's success story or one of your favorite stories from clients that you've worked with yeah I have a number of them but I think someone in particular who stands out to me is a client who they've been in business for about 10 years and doing really well but just how they were presenting themselves was no longer relevant to where they're trying to go they Chang some things about their business model they're really trying to grow their team and so we came in and helped them Define that vision of where they're trying to go and then rebranded them gave them a new website and set them up for future success they got uh featured in Industry presentations and just really helped them feel much more confident and gave them the the drive to continue moving forward towards that Vision so that was a great one and another one in particular was um a local client who he's a local screen printer printer he does amazing work some really big music venues but just communicating about his services and what he does and the value of what he does was not his strong suit at all very humble nice guy and so we came in and helped him through having this new website he's gotten way more work and just does a lot of that sales work for him and could not be happier that he doesn't have to rely on just just his own talking to people to to do that so um yeah just really anytime there's something really rewarding and you're helping people a what they're trying to achieve that's just been great that has to feel so good and you bring up an interesting point with someone that's an artist wants to focus on their art they don't want to focus on the sales or the marketing side so it's great that you can come in and help someone in that way yeah and most business owners uh with some exceptions of course we're not natural sales people right that that's something you have to learn or hire out or hire someone to be on your team to do sometimes but yeah if we can take that off your plate or take a lot of it off your plate that's the goal and again especially with a website it's out there all the time anyone can come to it 247 doing that work for you making things easy for both you and for attracting the right clients the right customers it's a win-win for everyone I believe that magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one tip you can leave with us today about how you make sure to find and live your joy that's something we've definitely learned over the past few years and I would say the biggest thing and you hear this a lot but it's balance and I think that's different for everybody for us it means setting firm expectations for ourselves and for our clients and setting boundaries too for example since we are so limited on our time and block everything out I'm always looking to schedule calls versus just picking up the phone or having them call me and setting up those expectations and boundaries just leads to much more of a seamless smooth process for everyone which then can feel much more balanced and enjoyable and one other thing we've done is that we have in the last four or five months or so is that we've been closed on Fridays so we only work Monday through Thursday and that one in particular has been huge for us much more literally balanced right four days working three days not and that has been wonderful and has really brought a lot more joy back into our business because it is more balanced and can just focus our time more evenly it's interesting because when you love what you do it can be hard to stop working and it's great that you put in those boundaries and I've actually thought of taking Fridays off too because when you work so hard and sometimes late into the evening you could just get so consumed in work that if especially if you love it and it seems you and your husband do you don't stop working so it's great that you're taking that specific time and I'm sure setting it up in your head that Friday is off allows you to create some special moments and do some interesting things that maybe you would have just worked through the day and not have experienced and it definitely frees up more time to have more experiences outside of work and when you do love what you do and especially when you work from home like many of us do especially now it's hard to set those boundaries of stopping and starting work and even yeah different days and so it's been just helpful for us and something we plan on contining forever because now I can't go back right I know sometimes I put my phone in another room and I think okay I'm not I know not every industry can do that doctors sometimes if they're on call different people can't but sometimes I put my phone away and think I'm just for the next hour I'm not even going to look at it and there's just something so freeing about that when we're so attached to our technology today definitely yeah having those healthy boundaries in place I mean obviously help you yourself but ultimately helps your clients as well because you're better able to show up and be present and be better rested and have more energy when you are working with them so yeah it's definitely a win-win for everyone so true you and your husband are building a fun and successful business can you please share with our listeners how and where they can find you yeah you can visit us at mothershed design.com check out our brand and website packages and we'd love to talk with you if you are new to she built it we'd

Speaker 1: and the she built it 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