October 18, 2024 • 21 mins
Ever wondered how a childhood steeped in the arts can shape a successful creative entrepreneur? Join us as we chat with the dynamic Danielle Belvoir, a powerhouse in website design, graphic design, and marketing. Danielle takes us through her vibrant journey, starting with the artistic influence of her mother, a dedicated art teacher. These formative years in dance, music, and the arts laid the foundation for Danielle’s passion for digital art during high school, inspired by platforms like Instagram and Vine. Her relentless drive for improvement and creativity shines through in her story, offering a beacon of inspiration for aspiring creatives navigating today’s digital landscape.
Beyond artistic endeavors, we tackle the intriguing world of branding and design, unpacking why gender doesn't dictate a designer's ability to resonate with diverse industries. True design skill, as we discuss, is all about adaptability and aligning aesthetics with industry standards while maintaining a distinct brand identity. Celebrate with us as we mark our agency's five-year anniversary and welcome Lillian, our new traffic coordinator specializing in project management. Tune in for insights, personal stories, and a fresh perspective on creative entrepreneurship that promises to captivate and inspire.
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NerdBrand is a national branding and advertising agency based in Louisville, KY.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Anyways, on this episode of the Nerd Brand
Podcast, it's a girl.
Hi, I'm here today withDanielle.
Danielle, tell everybody yourname, because I've always
struggled messing it up.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Fair enough, it's a fun one.
So my name is Danielle Belvoir.
It is a fun last name topronounce and spell.
It has been mispronounced andmisspelled more in my life than
it ever has been right, so a foreffort yeah, a for effort.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
So on this episode of the nerd brand podcast, we're
talking to daniel bell law thereyou go and uh, because
everybody knows like yeah, youpronounce things so well, jason.
Hey everybody, welcome to thisepisode of the Nerd Brand
(01:04):
Podcast.
Hey everybody, welcome to thisepisode of the Nerd Brand
Podcast.
Today we have a special guest,danielle Belvoise.
I'm going to mess this up everytime, it's fine.
It's like I'm going to call youDanny B you know that's fine.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
If that's my name on the show, then I'm good with it.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
It may stick.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I mean whatever guys.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I'm good with whatever.
So you are a young entrepreneurdesigner.
I've said unicorn becausereally rarely is there a person
that does those things and thengoes into and understands
website design and developmentprinciples and understands
(01:46):
graphic design composition andon and on into marketing and
other practices of professionalmarketing and all that Like you
have, like you're weird.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
You are kind of weird .
I was going to say I'll take itand I take all of that as a
compliment.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So the dancing thing, let's start with that.
You were immersed in the arts,so music, dancing, fine art.
Tell us about what you weredoing in those days and what
explained that.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Sure.
So you know, growing up as akid, my mom's an art teacher and
I've, you know, been immersedin art all my life.
You know of art.
She always encouraged it.
I remember being super young,and there'd be watercolors, we'd
always have crayons, we'dalways have paint.
She always encouraged any kindof creativity and that was just
something I grew in love with.
(02:36):
And so whenever I got to bekindergarten, first grade, and
you have all these kids playingsports and stuff, my mom was
like, hey, let's try dance, thatcould be fun.
And so I got immersed intodance and did you know?
Jazz and ballet, basically thestuff you would see on dance
moms?
That's a pretty like a good wayof explaining it, cause that's
(02:58):
something that was popular.
Obviously, it was never thattoxic.
We never had the pyramid, wenever had coaches cussing you
out, at least not until you werea teenager.
The pyramid we never hadcoaches cussing you out, at
least not until you were ateenager.
But you know, so I got involvedin that and that was kind of my
sport, kept me athletic andeverything, and it was a form of
expression and creativity andso I loved it.
And then, of course, you know mebeing a Catholic.
My grandma sang in choir and Ialways thought it was so cool
(03:20):
because she had a really prettyvoice, she sang alto, and so in
third grade, whenever we had anew choir director at my school,
that kind of was something thatyou know was like hey, you know
what, I'll try it, why not?
And it stuck.
And so, you know, I sang inchoir all through grade school,
all through high school, off andon through college, just
because I mean, bellarmine in adouble major takes a lot of time
(03:42):
.
So thankfully, my choirdirector she's amazing, I love
her so much, she gets it.
She evens like plus, you'reyoung, live your life.
So I basically would sing atchurch, and so I kind of got
immersed in music and stuff,learned piano.
I haven't touched a piano inyears, though, but I play piano,
(04:04):
I play keyboard.
At church I played it and solike we really got immersed in
just about every kind of artpossible.
So that really encouragedcreativity.
And so you know I know this isa long winded answer, but I'm a
long winded girl, so it's fine,that's why I'm here, right, so.
So, of course, once I kind ofhit junior and senior year of
high school and I'm kind of like, okay, I need to figure out
(04:25):
what I'm doing with my life, Ireally love art and I love
painting, but that is not goingto pay the bills.
Um, around, that time is when,you know, digital stuff was
really getting big.
You know, instagram was blowingup and everybody was getting on
Instagram and Vine and all thisother stuff.
Oh man, I haven't heard thatname in a while I know right, I
(04:46):
know right, Talk about like youthink you're old and I'm not
even that old, that's the sadpart, but no, but so, like all
that stuff is growing andevolving and I was like, okay,
that's cool.
And then I took a digitalfoundations class and I loved it
.
I was definitely the kid that Iwould go to my teacher and be
like all right, here's theproject.
What more can I do?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
You'd be like it's perfect, it looks great.
I'm like, okay, yeah, but whatelse can I do?
You're an old soul, but you'realso one of these folks too that
I can tell, like what you justsaid right there.
You're looking always forimprovement.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Always.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
You find yourself like sometimes because this
happens to us a lot, all of usin NerdBrand is like we're very
critical of ourselves, yes, andthen somebody looks at us and
tells us you're fine.
And then we're like, oh, wedidn't realize we were ahead or
we were better off than what wethought.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Well and also, too, you know, with being able to
express creativity and doingeverything in the arts.
That being said, you grew upwith criticism around the arts,
I mean think about it.
When you're at dancecompetitions you're getting
judged.
You have to go on stage, youhave one shot, wow yeah.
And so you're practicing itover and over and over and over
and you have to incorporate anyminor movement, every minor
(05:53):
facial expression, anything likethat you know.
Same thing with.
You know fine art andcompetitions.
You know you have to keep it'sall subjective, it's all opinion
based, but you're gettingjudged for it.
Same thing with music.
So, like it's great that youcan be creative, but you know
you're always constantly aroundcriticism, which it's all up to
how you interpret it.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I always interpret criticism as positive.
Now, there are ways you can benasty about it and be mean about
it, but criticism isunconstructive.
Oh, absolutely.
But, like, constructivecriticism is never a bad thing.
So I'm always like what can Ido to be better?
What can I do to make thisbetter?
Because I want to make surethat whatever I'm putting out,
(06:33):
there is something that has goodquality, is something that
people are going to enjoy andappreciate.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, Do you find yourself looking at things like
that as you go along, whereyou're like this isn't going to
work.
But I'll try to polish it.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, for sure, there have been quite a few projects
or quite a few things I'll gethanded and I'm like, okay,
definitely not fantastic, and alot of times my clients even
know it, so at least you knowthat helps, cause then they're
like, yeah, we know it's trash.
I'm like, okay, great, so I canbe.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I can be real here.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
You are right, it's trash, but um, but, um, so I'm
lucky for that, but um, yeah.
So I mean things, just thingsaren't built great, things are
whatever, and if I can scrap itI will.
But there are definitely timeswhere I'm going to be like, look
, I'm gonna be straight up.
This is just going to be muchmore time efficient, it's going
to be a lot better.
It's going to cost a little bitmore, but you all are going to
(07:21):
be happy with it long term andwith business, you have to look
at things when you're spendingmoney in short-term and
long-term and at the end of theday, you know, short-term, yeah,
that's a lot of money up front,but long-term, you're not going
to have to fix this.
Long-term it's still going tofunction.
Whereas if I try to work withwhat's here, depending on what
you have, it could breaktomorrow, it could break in a
(07:42):
month.
You could have a plugin thatexpires, you could have
something that you know, decidesto.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Is this turning into a WordPress?
By the way, daniel side note,daniel's not a fan of WordPress
and I've been a WordPressdeveloper since 2008,.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
But it's okay, well, okay, but keep in mind, I've
told you my stories and I'vetold you my experiences with
WordPress, and even you are like, yeah, that's, oh, that's not
the most jackassery things doneto that platform to be try to
monetize it, change it orwhatever, and I'm like well then
it's not WordPress anymore.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
If you do that like, you can't mess with core files
and if you're building a theme,build your thing.
Don't modify a theme and removefunctions that are default to
WordPress, like managing menus,and it's just a weird stuff I've
seen over the years.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Oh, yeah.
So I mean, I think it's allabout you know, and in my
experience, whenever I've had totake over WordPress sites, it's
the people who don't know howto use WordPress for WordPress.
Yeah, so then when I get handedthese projects, it's all sorts
of jacked up, it's all sorts ofdebauchery, and it's like Nope,
I, I don't want to touch thiswith a 30 foot pole.
(08:53):
I will, because that's what theclient needs, but it has
definitely built a resentmentover the years.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Webflow all the way, baby, but you all do WordPress
right.
So there's the difference.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah, we try to.
We've got a client right now.
The site's five years old andthey want to make some changes.
We did, but we also said thisis the last time we're going to
do this because it's it'sreached its limits, right?
Uh, you get what I call frankencode at a point um, and you
know and that's what I would bedealing with.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
In wordpress.
It was always franken code, soby the time you know I'd get
these projects, it's like, okay,I'm, I'm dealing with with this
, I'm dealing with this monsterthere's.
It's just always.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
That's always been my experience, yeah if you have to
hard code stuff, you know youkind of hit the point with that
theme where you're like thisisn't a theme, it's not dynamic
anymore.
It kind of defeats the purposeof managing the content because
I have to code this in.
So this person's not going toknow what to do if they don't
know HTML or server side.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Oh, exactly.
Not to mention when pluginsbreak and if you have to try to
find something new and it's likeokay, I can either hard code
this functionality, which isgoing to be a challenge, because
you have to keep it supported.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Exactly.
I don't realize that therecould be later on, somebody
could find a backdoor to exploit, and then you got to swing back
around and now everything fallsapart because you know you
don't want to invest time inplugin development.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Exactly, or you try to find another plugin, but then
that's more money, and then yourun the risk of that not
getting updated.
So it's just, it's an ongoingbattle, for sure.
But you know it's all about, ifyou do it right.
What I was saying originally,but kind of sidetracked, because
ADHD brain, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
That's the podcast theme by the way.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
That's just life.
So it's cool, but thankfully,because you know they're
starting out with you knowlittle to nothing, as every
small business would.
These are mom and pops, youknow Right?
Speaker 1 (11:01):
no-transcript and you have to have it.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
It's all about setting expectations, exactly
and it gives them theopportunity to either say, all
right, this is something you canbuild upon.
You know, get back with me in ayear or two, we can amp this up
to the next level or, if youfind a marketing agency and want
to either migrate this to themor take what I've done and have
them redo it, or whatever, likeit's at least a starting point
(11:29):
so that you can launch yourbusiness and launch your brand.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, if you've got a good model and you're going to
be around for three years, thatthird year you really need to
kind of ramp up, because you'vegot to make it past the fifth
year to really kind of keepyourself alive and show that
you're going to be around awhile Exactly, and so it's a
continuous investment.
Everybody talks about investingin marketing, but they don't
really.
They kind of want the returnbefore the investment, right?
Just because the R comes beforethe I and ROI doesn't
(11:52):
necessarily mean that's how lifeworks.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
And that goes back to that.
You know when it's when you'respending on marketing that you
know you might be a lot of moneyshort term, but think of what
that's going to do long term.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, so switching gears.
What is a brand that you love?
That's your favorite.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Oh gosh.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
This is the part of the show where we get to stump
you.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, shoot, that's a tough one.
Um, yeah, shoot, that's a toughone.
This is tough because there areso many different ones that I
absolutely love Are you moredriven or attract being.
I was going to say you're goingto have to narrow it down for
me.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
The elephant in the room is you're a woman.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Really, I wouldn't have guessed.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah, I didn't notice ?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I mean you wouldn't have guessed by the podcast
title.
Didn't notice?
I mean, look, you wouldn't haveguessed by the podcast title.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
No, not at all not at all so are you are when it
comes to brands.
Do you look for more brandsthat are more feminine in their
appearance and messaging?
Are you kind of neutral?
Or is masculine brands and turnlike, turn off, like you know
what I mean, like colors,messaging, I think, for me you
know, and granted, this couldalso be not, like you know what
I mean, like colors messaging.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I think for me, you know, and granted, this could
also be not just, you know,female perspective, but it could
also just be because I am theweirdo that I am.
Um, ultimately, you know, I canbe drawn to a brand and it also
depends on the industry.
Like if you're looking atsomething that's like hunting
and you know outdoorsy stuff,obviously if you show me that
business and it's got pastelsand rainbows, I'm going to be
(13:19):
super confused and I'm not goingto dig it.
But if we've got some deepernature tones and we've got camo,
we got hunter orange, all thosethings that make sense with
that brand and are cohesive withit, then it's something I can
be drawn to.
Same thing with something inwomen's fashion, something
that's clean and chic.
It really just depends on doesit match the industry and are
(13:41):
they able to take that branding,all those colors, all those
elements, and spin it intosomething unique?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Because there's so many brands out there.
You see the same thing over andover and over If you drive down
Bardstown Road in the Highlands.
So many of those businesseshave papyrus as their font on
their signs.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Oh my God.
Yeah, I wanted to highlightthat.
The fact that you know, I thinkthat a lot of people may think,
because you're a woman, thatmostly your design talent skills
lean toward working withfeminine brands or other women.
But that's really not.
A designer is more agnosticactually exactly, yeah and
they're thinking so it's like we, because we use, obviously we
(14:22):
use you, otherwise you wouldn'tbe here, um you know, and no,
I'm just some random girl youpulled on the street.
Hey, want to be a podcast yeah,yeah, yeah, I usually do that,
um and uh, yeah, no, thatdoesn't sound like that would be
a bad idea at all, um, but butit's something to kind of bring
up, because I know a lot ofpeople think that.
(14:43):
Because, you know, if a woman'sdoing the designs, then she's
going to be leaning to, and I'veactually had these.
I've had male mostly, of course, um, business owners think this
way, where we think like, oh,okay, her tastes are going to
come through the design, whichis true to an extent, but you
know how, like you can explainhow that's not.
(15:03):
Usually you'd be agnostic andkind of step back and be like,
oh, absolutely Like.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I mean I've got my color preferences, I mean I've
got things that I feel look goodand that are attractive to me.
But as a designer, you know, you, you have to find a balance in
what you think looks good andwhat the industry that you're
working with looks good.
Because if you look at anindustry that is typically kind
(15:28):
of I don't want to say out ofdate, but just not super
developed, you have to be ableto make it unique but still make
it recognizable.
So, like you can't throw youknow, I'm just going to go
stereotypical here but you can'tthrow glitter, you can't throw
pastel colors, you can't throwBarbie pink, you know.
But if you're working with asalon and they want to be more
(15:49):
fun and trendy, then yeah, let'sgo, let's throw the neon lights
, let's do, you know, let's dothat Barbie pink, let's do all
these awesome things, becausethat's your industry.
So being able to, you know, beable to know like, okay, this
looks good, as like a structure,but being able to cater to the
industry and what is considereda standard, I guess, for lack of
(16:12):
better phrasing- Right, youknow, and elevate it.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, like I said, we're glad to have you along
with us.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Well, I am honored that you guys saw me yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
It took a while to get to you because you know we
had a lot of stuff going on.
Oh yeah, we had to move thingsaround and yeah, these past five
years have been just absolutelyturbulent.
But that's kind of normal inthe business, especially for an
agency starting.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Now we're getting into, we really are.
We have hit.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I guess in february we hit our official five-year
anniversary.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
How exciting.
Yeah, yeah, please tell mey'all are gonna do something fun
for that.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
You know, every time we say we're going to, we never
do, and then time passes andwe're like oh whoops, and we are
.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
We are terrible about that, uh well then, I will take
that on okay, well, you, well,you have it.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
February 25th is the Actually, yeah, 25th.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Oh, day after my birthday Perfect, that'll be so
easy to remember.
I got this.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Yeah, we incorporated on the 25th, got all the
paperwork done.
Our lawyer vanished.
He was doing the partnershipagreement.
Love that he's alive.
We just weren't told where hewent, so we were not really
aware if cause that was right,when COVID and everything shut
down.
So we really didn't know whathappened.
Um and uh, john merged in withhis company into what it is
(17:31):
today.
Um, I want to say around thattime, around March or whatever.
So, yeah, april 1st wasactually going to be our kickoff
, officially, which we knew.
April 1st, april Fool's.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yep, that's what ours was too, when we had that
agency.
Yeah, it was April 1st.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yeah, and April Fool's on us because we did not.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
There's no joke here.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
We're here.
Yeah, we're new.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
And we didn't make it to April 1st because everything
was shut down.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
And so the merging that John's clients into our
company, a new formed companywith Mitch and I.
It was just like we can'treally upset that during this
time.
Everybody's already.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
There's already enough instability and insanity.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Right.
So it went all the way out toJune or July and by that point
we were like I forget it.
So no, we haven't done anything.
We did our 200th podcastanniversary.
We did not much for that either.
I hate to say um, because thiswill be episode two, 19 or 20.
Um and uh.
So yeah, we failed on that.
And then the 100th, when wewere in a studio for the 100th.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I remember that.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, we had a different team member at the
time and, yeah, there was a bitof fanfare for that, but we
didn't really get a cake oranything.
But the studio folks that werehelping us out, they got
involved in some of the pictures, so it was a little fun.
Everybody was wearing theglasses.
That's actually when we boughtthe glasses was way back then.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
I love those glasses.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, and I overbought on the glasses.
So please, please, if you seejacob out there, everyone asking
for a pair of nerd brandsunglasses they are actually
really good.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Sunglasses.
I think I have like three pairs.
I keep one in my car.
I have one in my brother's car,but you know, I just left it in
there and it's just kind ofstayed in there.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
It's just it's in his glove box, it kind of just I
don't know, maybe in the springwe'll do like an event and if
you have a pair of glasses, youget in either for free or
discount to the event, becausewe'll probably get some special
guests or something.
I don't know.
There's something we want to do.
We tried to do the NerdFestival.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I was just about to say is it something that's a
spinoff on that?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Well, we couldn't get that together because we just
couldn't get the vendors and itwouldn't have been a good
experience for anyone.
So we called it off.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
If you're going to do it right, you got to do it.
If you're going to do it, yougot to do it right.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And we saw a couple of other local cons go on and
they weren't really great fromwhat we were hearing.
So we were like maybe not thetime, and I think we'll just
pivot to something else.
That's what we do anyway.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
But yeah say, if you have it like let's say the
event's may 1st, do somethingevery weekend in april so you
can hand those babies out.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Yeah, promote the event that way.
Yeah, good see, that's why wehave you here now I have my
moments.
They are very few and farbetween, but when I do they can
be pretty good I have a feelingbetween you, lillian and jacob
because lillian is another nerdthat'll show up for our audience
uh, between the three of you,I'm going to laugh at John and
Mitch trying to wrangle you inlike a bunch of cats, which is
(20:23):
why I'm distancing myself andjust kind of being like all
right later.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Well, when you bring in Lillian, it'll be.
It's a girl.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Part two yeah, it's a girl.
Part two Lillian is our trafficcoordinator, project management
, so we get to meet her more.
But anyways, yeah, that's goingto take this episode of the
NerdBrand podcast.
If you like this episode, youknow where to go to like,
subscribe.
Just search for NerdBrandpodcast on Google or your
favorite podcast app and followalong and you can go to
(20:54):
nerdbrandagencycom slash podcastand find the shows there
streaming all the time.
And we will see you next week.
Anyways, on this episode of the Nerd Brand
Podcast, it's a girl.
Hi, I'm here today withDanielle.
Danielle, tell everybody yourname, because I've always
struggled messing it up.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Fair enough, it's a fun one.
So my name is Danielle Belvoir.
It is a fun last name topronounce and spell.
It has been mispronounced andmisspelled more in my life than
it ever has been right, so a foreffort yeah, a for effort.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
So on this episode of the nerd brand podcast, we're
talking to daniel bell law thereyou go and uh, because
everybody knows like yeah, youpronounce things so well, jason.
Hey everybody, welcome to thisepisode of the Nerd Brand
(01:04):
Podcast.
Hey everybody, welcome to thisepisode of the Nerd Brand
Podcast.
Today we have a special guest,danielle Belvoise.
I'm going to mess this up everytime, it's fine.
It's like I'm going to call youDanny B you know that's fine.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
If that's my name on the show, then I'm good with it.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
It may stick.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I mean whatever guys.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I'm good with whatever.
So you are a young entrepreneurdesigner.
I've said unicorn becausereally rarely is there a person
that does those things and thengoes into and understands
website design and developmentprinciples and understands
(01:46):
graphic design composition andon and on into marketing and
other practices of professionalmarketing and all that Like you
have, like you're weird.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
You are kind of weird .
I was going to say I'll take itand I take all of that as a
compliment.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So the dancing thing, let's start with that.
You were immersed in the arts,so music, dancing, fine art.
Tell us about what you weredoing in those days and what
explained that.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Sure.
So you know, growing up as akid, my mom's an art teacher and
I've, you know, been immersedin art all my life.
You know of art.
She always encouraged it.
I remember being super young,and there'd be watercolors, we'd
always have crayons, we'dalways have paint.
She always encouraged any kindof creativity and that was just
something I grew in love with.
(02:36):
And so whenever I got to bekindergarten, first grade, and
you have all these kids playingsports and stuff, my mom was
like, hey, let's try dance, thatcould be fun.
And so I got immersed intodance and did you know?
Jazz and ballet, basically thestuff you would see on dance
moms?
That's a pretty like a good wayof explaining it, cause that's
(02:58):
something that was popular.
Obviously, it was never thattoxic.
We never had the pyramid, wenever had coaches cussing you
out, at least not until you werea teenager.
The pyramid we never hadcoaches cussing you out, at
least not until you were ateenager.
But you know, so I got involvedin that and that was kind of my
sport, kept me athletic andeverything, and it was a form of
expression and creativity andso I loved it.
And then, of course, you know mebeing a Catholic.
My grandma sang in choir and Ialways thought it was so cool
(03:20):
because she had a really prettyvoice, she sang alto, and so in
third grade, whenever we had anew choir director at my school,
that kind of was something thatyou know was like hey, you know
what, I'll try it, why not?
And it stuck.
And so, you know, I sang inchoir all through grade school,
all through high school, off andon through college, just
because I mean, bellarmine in adouble major takes a lot of time
(03:42):
.
So thankfully, my choirdirector she's amazing, I love
her so much, she gets it.
She evens like plus, you'reyoung, live your life.
So I basically would sing atchurch, and so I kind of got
immersed in music and stuff,learned piano.
I haven't touched a piano inyears, though, but I play piano,
(04:04):
I play keyboard.
At church I played it and solike we really got immersed in
just about every kind of artpossible.
So that really encouragedcreativity.
And so you know I know this isa long winded answer, but I'm a
long winded girl, so it's fine,that's why I'm here, right, so.
So, of course, once I kind ofhit junior and senior year of
high school and I'm kind of like, okay, I need to figure out
(04:25):
what I'm doing with my life, Ireally love art and I love
painting, but that is not goingto pay the bills.
Um, around, that time is when,you know, digital stuff was
really getting big.
You know, instagram was blowingup and everybody was getting on
Instagram and Vine and all thisother stuff.
Oh man, I haven't heard thatname in a while I know right, I
(04:46):
know right, Talk about like youthink you're old and I'm not
even that old, that's the sadpart, but no, but so, like all
that stuff is growing andevolving and I was like, okay,
that's cool.
And then I took a digitalfoundations class and I loved it
.
I was definitely the kid that Iwould go to my teacher and be
like all right, here's theproject.
What more can I do?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
You'd be like it's perfect, it looks great.
I'm like, okay, yeah, but whatelse can I do?
You're an old soul, but you'realso one of these folks too that
I can tell, like what you justsaid right there.
You're looking always forimprovement.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Always.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
You find yourself like sometimes because this
happens to us a lot, all of usin NerdBrand is like we're very
critical of ourselves, yes, andthen somebody looks at us and
tells us you're fine.
And then we're like, oh, wedidn't realize we were ahead or
we were better off than what wethought.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Well and also, too, you know, with being able to
express creativity and doingeverything in the arts.
That being said, you grew upwith criticism around the arts,
I mean think about it.
When you're at dancecompetitions you're getting
judged.
You have to go on stage, youhave one shot, wow yeah.
And so you're practicing itover and over and over and over
and you have to incorporate anyminor movement, every minor
(05:53):
facial expression, anything likethat you know.
Same thing with.
You know fine art andcompetitions.
You know you have to keep it'sall subjective, it's all opinion
based, but you're gettingjudged for it.
Same thing with music.
So, like it's great that youcan be creative, but you know
you're always constantly aroundcriticism, which it's all up to
how you interpret it.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I always interpret criticism as positive.
Now, there are ways you can benasty about it and be mean about
it, but criticism isunconstructive.
Oh, absolutely.
But, like, constructivecriticism is never a bad thing.
So I'm always like what can Ido to be better?
What can I do to make thisbetter?
Because I want to make surethat whatever I'm putting out,
(06:33):
there is something that has goodquality, is something that
people are going to enjoy andappreciate.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, Do you find yourself looking at things like
that as you go along, whereyou're like this isn't going to
work.
But I'll try to polish it.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, for sure, there have been quite a few projects
or quite a few things I'll gethanded and I'm like, okay,
definitely not fantastic, and alot of times my clients even
know it, so at least you knowthat helps, cause then they're
like, yeah, we know it's trash.
I'm like, okay, great, so I canbe.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I can be real here.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
You are right, it's trash, but um, but, um, so I'm
lucky for that, but um, yeah.
So I mean things, just thingsaren't built great, things are
whatever, and if I can scrap itI will.
But there are definitely timeswhere I'm going to be like, look
, I'm gonna be straight up.
This is just going to be muchmore time efficient, it's going
to be a lot better.
It's going to cost a little bitmore, but you all are going to
(07:21):
be happy with it long term andwith business, you have to look
at things when you're spendingmoney in short-term and
long-term and at the end of theday, you know, short-term, yeah,
that's a lot of money up front,but long-term, you're not going
to have to fix this.
Long-term it's still going tofunction.
Whereas if I try to work withwhat's here, depending on what
you have, it could breaktomorrow, it could break in a
(07:42):
month.
You could have a plugin thatexpires, you could have
something that you know, decidesto.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Is this turning into a WordPress?
By the way, daniel side note,daniel's not a fan of WordPress
and I've been a WordPressdeveloper since 2008,.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
But it's okay, well, okay, but keep in mind, I've
told you my stories and I'vetold you my experiences with
WordPress, and even you are like, yeah, that's, oh, that's not
the most jackassery things doneto that platform to be try to
monetize it, change it orwhatever, and I'm like well then
it's not WordPress anymore.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
If you do that like, you can't mess with core files
and if you're building a theme,build your thing.
Don't modify a theme and removefunctions that are default to
WordPress, like managing menus,and it's just a weird stuff I've
seen over the years.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Oh, yeah.
So I mean, I think it's allabout you know, and in my
experience, whenever I've had totake over WordPress sites, it's
the people who don't know howto use WordPress for WordPress.
Yeah, so then when I get handedthese projects, it's all sorts
of jacked up, it's all sorts ofdebauchery, and it's like Nope,
I, I don't want to touch thiswith a 30 foot pole.
(08:53):
I will, because that's what theclient needs, but it has
definitely built a resentmentover the years.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Webflow all the way, baby, but you all do WordPress
right.
So there's the difference.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah, we try to.
We've got a client right now.
The site's five years old andthey want to make some changes.
We did, but we also said thisis the last time we're going to
do this because it's it'sreached its limits, right?
Uh, you get what I call frankencode at a point um, and you
know and that's what I would bedealing with.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
In wordpress.
It was always franken code, soby the time you know I'd get
these projects, it's like, okay,I'm, I'm dealing with with this
, I'm dealing with this monsterthere's.
It's just always.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
That's always been my experience, yeah if you have to
hard code stuff, you know youkind of hit the point with that
theme where you're like thisisn't a theme, it's not dynamic
anymore.
It kind of defeats the purposeof managing the content because
I have to code this in.
So this person's not going toknow what to do if they don't
know HTML or server side.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Oh, exactly.
Not to mention when pluginsbreak and if you have to try to
find something new and it's likeokay, I can either hard code
this functionality, which isgoing to be a challenge, because
you have to keep it supported.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Exactly.
I don't realize that therecould be later on, somebody
could find a backdoor to exploit, and then you got to swing back
around and now everything fallsapart because you know you
don't want to invest time inplugin development.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Exactly, or you try to find another plugin, but then
that's more money, and then yourun the risk of that not
getting updated.
So it's just, it's an ongoingbattle, for sure.
But you know it's all about, ifyou do it right.
What I was saying originally,but kind of sidetracked, because
ADHD brain, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
That's the podcast theme by the way.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
That's just life.
So it's cool, but thankfully,because you know they're
starting out with you knowlittle to nothing, as every
small business would.
These are mom and pops, youknow Right?
Speaker 1 (11:01):
no-transcript and you have to have it.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
It's all about setting expectations, exactly
and it gives them theopportunity to either say, all
right, this is something you canbuild upon.
You know, get back with me in ayear or two, we can amp this up
to the next level or, if youfind a marketing agency and want
to either migrate this to themor take what I've done and have
them redo it, or whatever, likeit's at least a starting point
(11:29):
so that you can launch yourbusiness and launch your brand.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, if you've got a good model and you're going to
be around for three years, thatthird year you really need to
kind of ramp up, because you'vegot to make it past the fifth
year to really kind of keepyourself alive and show that
you're going to be around awhile Exactly, and so it's a
continuous investment.
Everybody talks about investingin marketing, but they don't
really.
They kind of want the returnbefore the investment, right?
Just because the R comes beforethe I and ROI doesn't
(11:52):
necessarily mean that's how lifeworks.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
And that goes back to that.
You know when it's when you'respending on marketing that you
know you might be a lot of moneyshort term, but think of what
that's going to do long term.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, so switching gears.
What is a brand that you love?
That's your favorite.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Oh gosh.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
This is the part of the show where we get to stump
you.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, shoot, that's a tough one.
Um, yeah, shoot, that's a toughone.
This is tough because there areso many different ones that I
absolutely love Are you moredriven or attract being.
I was going to say you're goingto have to narrow it down for
me.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
The elephant in the room is you're a woman.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Really, I wouldn't have guessed.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah, I didn't notice ?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I mean you wouldn't have guessed by the podcast
title.
Didn't notice?
I mean, look, you wouldn't haveguessed by the podcast title.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
No, not at all not at all so are you are when it
comes to brands.
Do you look for more brandsthat are more feminine in their
appearance and messaging?
Are you kind of neutral?
Or is masculine brands and turnlike, turn off, like you know
what I mean, like colors,messaging, I think, for me you
know, and granted, this couldalso be not, like you know what
I mean, like colors messaging.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I think for me, you know, and granted, this could
also be not just, you know,female perspective, but it could
also just be because I am theweirdo that I am.
Um, ultimately, you know, I canbe drawn to a brand and it also
depends on the industry.
Like if you're looking atsomething that's like hunting
and you know outdoorsy stuff,obviously if you show me that
business and it's got pastelsand rainbows, I'm going to be
(13:19):
super confused and I'm not goingto dig it.
But if we've got some deepernature tones and we've got camo,
we got hunter orange, all thosethings that make sense with
that brand and are cohesive withit, then it's something I can
be drawn to.
Same thing with something inwomen's fashion, something
that's clean and chic.
It really just depends on doesit match the industry and are
(13:41):
they able to take that branding,all those colors, all those
elements, and spin it intosomething unique?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Because there's so many brands out there.
You see the same thing over andover and over If you drive down
Bardstown Road in the Highlands.
So many of those businesseshave papyrus as their font on
their signs.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Oh my God.
Yeah, I wanted to highlightthat.
The fact that you know, I thinkthat a lot of people may think,
because you're a woman, thatmostly your design talent skills
lean toward working withfeminine brands or other women.
But that's really not.
A designer is more agnosticactually exactly, yeah and
they're thinking so it's like we, because we use, obviously we
(14:22):
use you, otherwise you wouldn'tbe here, um you know, and no,
I'm just some random girl youpulled on the street.
Hey, want to be a podcast yeah,yeah, yeah, I usually do that,
um and uh, yeah, no, thatdoesn't sound like that would be
a bad idea at all, um, but butit's something to kind of bring
up, because I know a lot ofpeople think that.
(14:43):
Because, you know, if a woman'sdoing the designs, then she's
going to be leaning to, and I'veactually had these.
I've had male mostly, of course, um, business owners think this
way, where we think like, oh,okay, her tastes are going to
come through the design, whichis true to an extent, but you
know how, like you can explainhow that's not.
(15:03):
Usually you'd be agnostic andkind of step back and be like,
oh, absolutely Like.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I mean I've got my color preferences, I mean I've
got things that I feel look goodand that are attractive to me.
But as a designer, you know, you, you have to find a balance in
what you think looks good andwhat the industry that you're
working with looks good.
Because if you look at anindustry that is typically kind
(15:28):
of I don't want to say out ofdate, but just not super
developed, you have to be ableto make it unique but still make
it recognizable.
So, like you can't throw youknow, I'm just going to go
stereotypical here but you can'tthrow glitter, you can't throw
pastel colors, you can't throwBarbie pink, you know.
But if you're working with asalon and they want to be more
(15:49):
fun and trendy, then yeah, let'sgo, let's throw the neon lights
, let's do, you know, let's dothat Barbie pink, let's do all
these awesome things, becausethat's your industry.
So being able to, you know, beable to know like, okay, this
looks good, as like a structure,but being able to cater to the
industry and what is considereda standard, I guess, for lack of
(16:12):
better phrasing- Right, youknow, and elevate it.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, like I said, we're glad to have you along
with us.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Well, I am honored that you guys saw me yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
It took a while to get to you because you know we
had a lot of stuff going on.
Oh yeah, we had to move thingsaround and yeah, these past five
years have been just absolutelyturbulent.
But that's kind of normal inthe business, especially for an
agency starting.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Now we're getting into, we really are.
We have hit.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I guess in february we hit our official five-year
anniversary.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
How exciting.
Yeah, yeah, please tell mey'all are gonna do something fun
for that.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
You know, every time we say we're going to, we never
do, and then time passes andwe're like oh whoops, and we are
.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
We are terrible about that, uh well then, I will take
that on okay, well, you, well,you have it.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
February 25th is the Actually, yeah, 25th.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Oh, day after my birthday Perfect, that'll be so
easy to remember.
I got this.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Yeah, we incorporated on the 25th, got all the
paperwork done.
Our lawyer vanished.
He was doing the partnershipagreement.
Love that he's alive.
We just weren't told where hewent, so we were not really
aware if cause that was right,when COVID and everything shut
down.
So we really didn't know whathappened.
Um and uh, john merged in withhis company into what it is
(17:31):
today.
Um, I want to say around thattime, around March or whatever.
So, yeah, april 1st wasactually going to be our kickoff
, officially, which we knew.
April 1st, april Fool's.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yep, that's what ours was too, when we had that
agency.
Yeah, it was April 1st.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yeah, and April Fool's on us because we did not.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
There's no joke here.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
We're here.
Yeah, we're new.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
And we didn't make it to April 1st because everything
was shut down.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
And so the merging that John's clients into our
company, a new formed companywith Mitch and I.
It was just like we can'treally upset that during this
time.
Everybody's already.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
There's already enough instability and insanity.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Right.
So it went all the way out toJune or July and by that point
we were like I forget it.
So no, we haven't done anything.
We did our 200th podcastanniversary.
We did not much for that either.
I hate to say um, because thiswill be episode two, 19 or 20.
Um and uh.
So yeah, we failed on that.
And then the 100th, when wewere in a studio for the 100th.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I remember that.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, we had a different team member at the
time and, yeah, there was a bitof fanfare for that, but we
didn't really get a cake oranything.
But the studio folks that werehelping us out, they got
involved in some of the pictures, so it was a little fun.
Everybody was wearing theglasses.
That's actually when we boughtthe glasses was way back then.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
I love those glasses.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, and I overbought on the glasses.
So please, please, if you seejacob out there, everyone asking
for a pair of nerd brandsunglasses they are actually
really good.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Sunglasses.
I think I have like three pairs.
I keep one in my car.
I have one in my brother's car,but you know, I just left it in
there and it's just kind ofstayed in there.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
It's just it's in his glove box, it kind of just I
don't know, maybe in the springwe'll do like an event and if
you have a pair of glasses, youget in either for free or
discount to the event, becausewe'll probably get some special
guests or something.
I don't know.
There's something we want to do.
We tried to do the NerdFestival.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I was just about to say is it something that's a
spinoff on that?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Well, we couldn't get that together because we just
couldn't get the vendors and itwouldn't have been a good
experience for anyone.
So we called it off.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
If you're going to do it right, you got to do it.
If you're going to do it, yougot to do it right.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And we saw a couple of other local cons go on and
they weren't really great fromwhat we were hearing.
So we were like maybe not thetime, and I think we'll just
pivot to something else.
That's what we do anyway.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
But yeah say, if you have it like let's say the
event's may 1st, do somethingevery weekend in april so you
can hand those babies out.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Yeah, promote the event that way.
Yeah, good see, that's why wehave you here now I have my
moments.
They are very few and farbetween, but when I do they can
be pretty good I have a feelingbetween you, lillian and jacob
because lillian is another nerdthat'll show up for our audience
uh, between the three of you,I'm going to laugh at John and
Mitch trying to wrangle you inlike a bunch of cats, which is
(20:23):
why I'm distancing myself andjust kind of being like all
right later.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Well, when you bring in Lillian, it'll be.
It's a girl.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Part two yeah, it's a girl.
Part two Lillian is our trafficcoordinator, project management
, so we get to meet her more.
But anyways, yeah, that's goingto take this episode of the
NerdBrand podcast.
If you like this episode, youknow where to go to like,
subscribe.
Just search for NerdBrandpodcast on Google or your
favorite podcast app and followalong and you can go to
(20:54):
nerdbrandagencycom slash podcastand find the shows there
streaming all the time.
And we will see you next week.
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