May 31, 2024 • 35 mins
In this episode of Trailblazers Impact, Nan McKay sits down with Ericka Saurit, the founder of Saurit Creative, a boutique brand marketing agency. Ericka shares her insights on brand building, the importance of storytelling, and her unique concept of being a "creative renegade." Discover strategies to transform your business into an unforgettable brand and learn about the emotional drivers that influence consumer behavior in the home industry.
As a global brand marketing leader, she has overseen digital product development and brand strategy at Airbnb in San Francisco, created immersive physical and virtual brand experiences for Tag Heuer, Estee Lauder, and Procter & Gamble as well as top home and lifestyle
brands around the world to develop award-winning brand messaging and
engagement campaigns.
Her background in interior design and marketing has made her passionate
about helping businesses transform into unforgettable brands.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker A (00:07):
Welcome. I'm Nan McKay, the voice behind Trailblazers impact, your beacon to
extraordinary women trailblazing unique paths.
Our podcast spotlights luminaries whose life
stories inspire and empower delivered to yourears bi weekly.
Buckle up for another episode packed withpowerful narratives and empowering journeys on
(00:30):
trailblazers impact.
Stay with us.
This is Nan McKay, and with us today is ErikaSarrit, founder of Sarrit Creative, which is a
boutique brand marketing agency with a missionto support and elevate brands across the
entire home industry.
(00:50):
As a global brand marketing leader, she has
overseen digital product development and brandstrategy.
At Airbnb in San Francisco.
She's created immersive, physical and brand
experiences for tag, right?
Speaker B (01:10):
Yeah, perfect.
Speaker A (01:12):
Estee Lauder and Proctor Gamble, as well as top home and lifestyle brands around
the world.
She's developed award winning brand messaging
and engagement campaigns.
Her background in interior design and
marketing has made her passionate abouthelping businesses transform into
(01:33):
unforgettable brands.
So welcome, Erica.
Speaker B (01:37):
Thank you so much.
Nan.
I'm super excited to be here and have ourconversation today.
Thank you.
Speaker A (01:42):
Yes. Can you start by explaining what it means to be a creative renegade and
how this concept relates to brand building asopposed to just maybe business building?
Speaker B (01:57):
Yeah, of course.
So I'll start by saying traveling the world
turned me into what I like to call a creativerenegade.
I spent most of my life traveling.
I went to graduate school in Finland.
I worked on projects in Europe and Asia.
I was fortunate to have lived for about seven
years in China, working there and then on myown adventures through South America.
(02:23):
Now I live in France half the year and theother half in North Carolina in a city called
High Point, which is the home of homefurnishings, in case anyone knows it out there
for the other half.
But the thing that stands out to me admits
this 20 year cache of experiences.
It's not the architecture, the history or the
food.
It's the feelings and the emotions that I had
(02:45):
in each place that I remember the most.
What I started to think in my work in doing
marketing and branding, of course, we think alot about the emotions, the motivations and
the drivers behind the behavior of ouraudiences and our clients and our customers.
In order to deliver marketing or createstories or create any kind of client or
(03:09):
customer facing marketing for them.
We think deeply about what are their emotions.
And so when I think about travel, I thinkabout the most unforgettable experiences are
tied to meaning.
The meaning and the memories that are created,
created from each place.
They're not about like brick or buildings or,
you know, food bouillon bays.
They're about the emotions and the feelings
that we associate with those places that makesthem memorable.
(03:31):
So, like, imagine, you know, a place, a verysignificant trip you took, maybe your
honeymoon or graduate trip, or, you know,maybe just a trip on your own, by yourself.
Your first travel alone anywhere, even, like,to another city, another state.
It doesn't have to be another country.
But remember those emotions and those feelings
that were tied to that experience and howwhenever you think now about that place, you
(03:55):
don't think about, again, you don't thinkabout the, you know, the buildings that you
visited or the, you know, the food.
You may have a memorable meal, but you
remember the emotion you had there, thefeeling that ties you to that place.
That can be very positive and hopefully notnegative, but there's always going to be an
emotional connection.
So that's the thing that becomes
unforgettable.
(04:15):
And that's how I start to think about brands,
how I think about the clients that I workwith.
I kind of get them to shift their mindset frombeing like a business, thinking like a
business, to thinking like a brand.
Because people think about a brand, they
obviously think about an emotion tied to thatthing.
So what I've been able to say is that, youknow, to be able to stand out, which is one of
(04:37):
the tenets of marketing.
You know, you really want to rise above the
noise.
You want to create a message or a story or a,
you know, storytelling strategy, a marketingstrategy that cuts through all of that, that
becomes unforgettable.
And that requires courage.
It requires an enormous amount ofunderstanding who you are.
(04:58):
And it becomes, it takes creativity.
So I say becoming a creative renegade is
really about just believing in the power ofyour brand to help you excel in your
marketing.
So that's my long, long story short about what
a creative renegade means.
And it's more of a mindset shift than
anything, a position, a directive, a call toaction, like, yeah.
Speaker A (05:25):
So I think what I hear you saying is it's really crucial to have a defined story
for your brand.
Speaker B (05:32):
Yes.
Speaker A (05:33):
So tell us a little bit about what are some of the strategies for getting that
story.
Speaker B (05:37):
Yeah, so a storytelling, a story itself is a metaphor.
It's like, I'm sorry.
It's an organizing principle for your brand.
Right.
And a metaphor, similarly, any kind of device
you use in the storytelling itself is how youbring people in.
Right.
I'm not the first person to say this,
certainly, but I'll remind you that we'rehardwired for stories.
(05:59):
That stories are the thing that you know, helpus understand our culture, our history, how to
survive, you know, stories that led us towater, that, you know, told us how to build
fire, that reminded us of who our, you know,ancestors and our historic history was.
But now story is a way to help organizecertainly our content plan in our marketing
(06:19):
strategy.
But for any part of your business, a story
becomes an essential part of onboarding newteam members, onboarding new partners,
potentially new vendors, or, you know, peoplethat you're working with and wanting to, you
know, bring into the ethos of your business.
A story is going to help quickly activate
(06:41):
those values and, you know, really essentialparts of your business that you want people to
remember and understand.
So I say storytelling is an organizing
principle in any marketing that you do.
I think I have developed a framework to kind
of give people a system.
It's sort of a one, two, three, kind of a
ladder system to think about storytelling as abrand strategy, but also as a way to start to
(07:06):
create stories in their business around that.
So the first thing is, all of these start with
an e. I will say I have this e threestorytelling framework.
I'm Erika.
So people can remember the e's and Erika at
the same time.
Um, the first one is, um, very kind of common
first place to start with marketing strategy.
But that's really defining that extraordinary
(07:29):
position you hold in the market.
Um, if your brand is, you know, if you're the
first of your kind to be creating a product,that's what makes you extraordinary.
But for many of us, we're not, you know, thesole service provider.
We're not the sole, you know, product categoryleader.
We are competing, you know, we are going to bebenchmarked with other brands.
(07:50):
Um, and what we need to do is it's think verycarefully and thoughtfully about what it is.
Whether it's, you know, your education, youraccreditation, your experience, your maybe
experience from another industry brought overinto the current industry that you're in, that
lifetime of experiences are going to make youextraordinary simply because nobody else has
(08:13):
followed the path.
I don't care if you put two of the same people
with the very same job next to each other.
There's going to be things that we can pull
out that can talk, that we can speak to thatmake them extraordinary.
And I really, I start with that.
I ask people two questions, like, tell me what
are the positive associations with your brand,and tell me the negative.
And we usually kind of dig into the negativeones first and flip them, you know, turn them
(08:36):
into positives, because we all have thisreally sort of extraordinary thing about us
that really will resonate with our clients ifwe're able to, you know, bring it forward, be
confident about it.
And most of the time, it's something people
are like, oh, I wasn't really going to mentionthis, but I did this blank, blank, blank.
And so that's the thing, finding out whatmakes you extraordinary.
(08:59):
And that's the.
The position where we start.
The second part of this e three storytellingframework is emotional resonance.
This is my favorite part because this is whereyou get to start, to come back to that, you
know, creative renegade, you can be reallybold and build stories around the true
meaning, the true motivation behind why yourclients come to you.
(09:24):
In my industry, the home furnishings industry,which also includes interior design, building
architecture, real estate, in some cases, it'sall part of home making for people, for our
clients.
I have found from my experience working as an
interior designer for about ten years and thendoing marketing for ten plus years after that,
(09:48):
that there's five, you know, real relevant,core emotional drivers that influence clients
to work with, you know, to work with someonewho's going to help them renovate their home
or refresh their home or purchase products fortheir home.
Do you want to hear them?
Speaker A (10:06):
I do.
Speaker B (10:08):
Okay. I will say, just to give this some context too, there is a very large and
established and quite famous, if you're in theenvironmental psychology side of branding,
that was developed by a set of researchers andpsychologists looking and trying to understand
(10:29):
what it was that influenced purchase decisionat the moment of purchase for fast moving
consumer goods like toothpaste, cosmetics,soaps, things like that, where we see things
on a shelf.
Back in the day when people shopped in stores,
it's still happening online.
But, you know, they really wanted to
understand what those emotional drivers werethat allowed a person to choose one over the
(10:53):
other.
Not simply kind of physical position on the
shelf, but that emotional story that they weretelling themselves right when they chose, you
know, one brand of toothpaste over another.
Now, we know that when you're purchasing
things like, you know, toothpaste or maybeeven shoes or, you know, something, that the
(11:14):
stakes are a little bit lower than when you'repurchasing something like a car or a home or
you're choosing to, you know, hire an interiordesigner, it can be very expensive.
It can be, you know, a multi month orpotentially multi year process.
It can involve you, you know, moving out ofyour home, maybe taking your children into a
(11:36):
new school.
If you're in a place of transition, it can be
really an emotionally fraught experience.
And so, of course, the funnel phase of
creating stories around this for people haveto be really resonant because someone is going
to make a split second decision to buytoothpaste, but not to make interior design
(11:58):
purchases, like not to make a servicepurchase.
So of those 16 to 20 core emotionalmotivations that the psychology research
identified, I knew about this for many years,and I started thinking about this in context
while I was working in marketing for how thisis playing out in my space.
(12:20):
What emotions?What are the five key emotions that I see most
likely being used in storytelling, inmarketing for the home industry that are
happening with furniture, with furnishings,with service brands.
And so those five are a sense of belongingthat we want the home to represent, a place of
(12:42):
safety, a place of security.
I see this a lot in people building
specifically for families.
Interior designers that focus on growing
family homes, or even homes where people aremoving out of the house.
Empty nesters who want to retake back theirhome together after their children have gone
(13:03):
away to school or gone off and created theirown lives.
So they want to make a space where people cancome back and gather.
And that's really the motivation for themseeking a designer to help them with the
space.
Less about resale value or other factors, but
it's more about creating a place that feelslike everyone still belongs there.
(13:27):
And so that is a way, if you can get into thepsychology of why a person is really seeking
out interior design services, that one mightapply to your client and is a really great
place to start storytelling for, you know, forthat market.
The second one is to be seen and heard.
This one, I see a lot with interior designers
(13:48):
who are working with, you know, new peoplefirst home first home buyers or people who
are, you know, using the home to entertainmore.
They want to have a lot of people over, youknow, so that they can, you know, entertain
and share that space.
But it's not a negative of feeling at all.
(14:09):
It's sort of a place where the home becomes anexpression of something you can't quite
articulate about yourself.
I love the phrase my home.
It's really me.
What does that mean?
That's a really hard thing to message around.
So what's driving that is the core emotion, to
be seen and heard.
And an interior designer can really help you
(14:31):
get to the heart of what that means so thatyou can feel comfortable in your space.
The third one is that our life has purpose andmeaning.
This one is about creating something biggerthan yourself, leaving a legacy.
I usually see this one together with the nextone, which is hope for the future, you know,
(14:51):
creating a home where, you know, it willbecome multi generational, where it will
become a place where, again, you know, people,the home becomes more of a fixture in the
family.
It's part of the story of the family.
It's another character in the family.
And there's a lot of, you know, people seeking
out that type of place.
(15:14):
They.
They want to be able to do something justbecause they can for their family.
And that's a really beautiful way tostorytell.
The last one is my.
One of my favorite, and I think we see this
one very, very often.
You know, we see all of these outside of home,
the home industry.
But it's the idea of wondering with an o and
(15:35):
wonder with an a. The idea that we are alwaysin a state of discovery, always in a state of
exploration about, you know, understandingsomething about ourselves in a. In a wider
world.
You know, walking through the forest, staring
at the stars.
Those kind of, you know, emotions that make us
aware that we're very small in a very, youknow, big, vast world, but it also tells us
(16:01):
something about, you know, ourselves.
So this one is very, very beautiful, beautiful
way to tell stories here.
And my homework assignment for you and for the
audience is to say, okay, now that I'm awareof each of these sort of five core human
(16:22):
emotions, I certainly probably have had those.
How are brands using these?
Like, how might you begin to notice when abrand is speaking to these particular or some,
you know, some device around these fiveemotions?
And there's others.
Like I said, you can.
You can dig into that research, but if you'rein the home industry, or if you're in an
(16:44):
industry where, you know, your potentialclients might resonate with some of these
emotions, they might be making purchasedecisions based on some of these deeper
motivations, then that's a great place tostart your storytelling.
I just spoke for, like, a long time without abreak, and I'm so sorry.
I should have let you jump in.
Sorry, Nan.
Speaker A (17:06):
See if you've covered this already.
I was just thinking how we can tap into those
emotions to build that brand that not onlystands out, but maybe is also unforgettable.
Yes.
Are there any examples of strategies that you
might have used that have worked pretty wellfor you?
Speaker B (17:25):
Yeah. So I would say the third e in that framework.
So we have extraordinary positioning,emotional resonance.
That's the second one with those five beneathit.
The final one is experiential touch points.
So how can you really create a strategic plan
to execute this messaging and the storytellingacross all the touch points of your customer
(17:48):
journey.
And I do that with clients.
We look, of course, at what messaging isimportant at the awareness phase, what
messaging is important at the discovery.
The awareness and discovery phase are the
same, but at the consideration phase of thiscustomer journey, which is usually for design
services, quite long again, because people arenot making a spontaneous choice here.
(18:11):
They're educating themselves for weeks,months, longer, possibly longer.
So the storytelling has to be really rich andemotive.
And we look at then what channels are best forthat, just high level.
The awareness discovery phase.
Social media is great.
You can push out a broad message to many,many, many people.
(18:35):
Whether or not they see it, it's not up toyou.
But if you want to have a, you know, aconversation with people, I think, you know,
word of mouth, person to person networking,going to events, going to where your clients,
the potential clients are showing up is reallyimportant.
We talked about leveraging your partners,building, building a brand message that, you
(18:58):
know, if you're an interior designer,sometimes your leads for clients come from
realtors, like realtors in your area.
So if someone's going to purchase a home and,
you know, the realtor can say, hi, you know, Isee you love this house, but maybe you want to
make this change.
I know a great designer.
The next thing that comes out of their mouthis so essential because what they'll say is,
(19:21):
and they are blank.
That's the narrative, the message, the story
that you want to be a little bit more incontrol of.
You don't want them to just say, oh, she's aninterior designer down the street.
You want them to say, she's an interiordesigner that focuses on family homes.
Yes.
That like, you know, that really are about
connectivity, you know, again, you can, youwork on what you want them to repeat, and
(19:44):
that's the kind of script that you give them.
But you will find that that's when, you know,
people really start doing marketing for you,but you've got to make sure it's consistent
and it's aligned with the brand that you wantto represent.
So that experiential touch point happensthroughout the entire, you know, pre kind of
awareness phase all the way through to thepoint where they make a decision.
(20:06):
And even after, you know, because your clientsare your best marketing, too, they're also
sharing who's done their home, who, who is,you know, who would you recommend?
I just.
There's an industry publication here called
Business of Home, and I was listening to oneof their podcasts and the editor in chief had
interviewed a designer and what the takeawayfrom their conversation was, you know, lots of
(20:31):
people are doing word of mouth, but have youconsidered that the neighbors of your clients
are just as important in this system?So what she was, the interior designer was
doing was saying, I'm so sorry, there's goingto be a little bit of construction noise.
There's going to be some extra traffic overthe next couple of months.
Here's a gift, here's my card.
Call me if anything, you know, goes out of and
(20:53):
beyond the time, the hours, the expectedamount of chaos, call me and I'll make it
right.
And in doing that, she introduced herself as
the designer.
She typically, you'll see that maybe your
clients in the same neighborhood are the otherclients that you're trying to reach.
So I thought that that was just a reallybrilliant way to share a brand message, to do
(21:19):
some word of mouth marketing.
Low cost, if not, no cost.
Handwriting a card doesn't cost you anythingexcept for time, and it's time well spent.
So, yeah, that experiential touch point, thatthird part of this framework is really more
about activation.
Speaker A (21:36):
What are some maybe common mistakes that people make when trying to build that
brand in the home industry?And how could you avoid these?
Speaker B (21:47):
Yeah, so I think not marketing at all.
Obviously, the first one, no one's, well,really, no one's going to find you if you're
not making an effort.
And marketing people say, you know, I can't
afford to hire a marketing person, or I can'tafford to hire internally, or I don't want to
(22:08):
work with an agency.
I had a bad experience.
You know, I say, well, that's fine.
You know, you probably went through several
plumbers or maybe several accountants orseveral bookkeepers before you found the right
fit.
And that's, you know, you have to run a
business and you have many hats to wear ifyou're a solopreneur, or if you're doing it on
your own, or if you're small and you're tryingto, you know, balance all the responsibilities
(22:32):
of running a business, even when you're amedium sized business.
I mean, even a small business is.
You tell me, I'm sure I'm going to get this
wrong, but a small business in the US ischaracterized as 26 million in revenue or
less.
I would say that's a majority of the
businesses I know.
Is that right?
Speaker A (22:52):
Well, it depends on your criteria, who you're asking.
So if you're asking the SBA versus you'reasking government contracts, you know, it
depends.
Speaker B (23:03):
Okay.
Speaker A (23:04):
Usually it's probably a lot smaller than that for most situations because I think
especially in the startup, you know, you'renot making anywhere close to that.
Speaker B (23:17):
I know, yeah.
Speaker A (23:18):
Differently for different purposes.
Speaker B (23:21):
Right. But I would say for every single person I've ever encountered in
business, period, money is always going to bean issue.
Right.
No one has bottomless pockets to hire
marketing, you know, and do $20 millionmarketing projects.
It's just not happening.
So get out of that mindset, you know, I think
(23:41):
the biggest mistake is really just notinvesting soon enough.
And when I say invest, it can be something youcan do on your own.
You just, you know, need to give yourself thetime and the space.
If you don't have a background in marketing,it's more than just, you know, creative and
beautiful ads or your website.
There has to be a strategy to it, just like
(24:03):
anything else.
And so we help clients with that, with a lot
of, we start with messaging.
We say, you know, there's really no sense in
doing any marketing, building a website, doingany social media posting, doing any email
campaigns, if you don't have a very clear andvery effective brand message.
So we start with that.
(24:24):
And it's, it's, that's the most enlightening
part of the whole process, Nan, because oncepeople see the power of a really good message,
how quick, how effective it represents themand what they do and who they do it for and
why they do it and why it makes their lifebetter, then it opens all kinds of ideas and
(24:44):
it frees them up.
So that's where we start.
I would say that's the biggest mistake, ishaving an inconsistent or unclear message and
then struggling with marketing, because it'snot going to work if you're not speaking to
the right people and saying the right thing.
Speaker A (25:00):
What you brought this up on the financial end of it, what should people expect
just as a range to pay for this kind ofbranding and marketing that goes on?
Speaker B (25:12):
There are a variety of different price points and there's a lot of different
service providers who can help you as a rule,between on the low end, maybe 5% and at the
high end, nine or 10% of your revenue.
If you're at a place where you can outsource,
um, you can, I will say, if you're on a deepbudget, I think you can hire different people
(25:38):
at different, you know, don't worry about aninternal hire.
Hire people out who can help you.
Experts.
But look for experts in your industry, becauseas you know, marketing is a part of a business
strategy.
If you hire a generalist marketing agency and
they don't understand the nuances of, I mean,certainly finance or potentially healthcare,
(26:00):
wellness, the design industry is like this.
It's very complicated for them to ramp up and
understand, you know, how your business works.
So I would say there's certainly marketing
agencies that are going to specialize inspecific, you know, verticals or specific
areas.
Find one and talk to them first, find several,
(26:22):
find three, find, you know, four, talk tothem, find out what they do.
Some will be only on the implementation side,so they will only be building or executing.
And they will look to you to come with the,come with, you know, your brand style guide,
your brand message, your tone, your voice.
Um, that again is the very most important part
of any marketing.
(26:43):
So before you start building anything, make
sure that you've got that set.
And I, to do that work, I would say hire a
brand strategist, hire someone who can reallywalk you through the complex process of
getting the brand foundation right.
And you will thank yourself in the future,
(27:03):
thank yourself immensely for getting that workdone first.
Speaker A (27:06):
And I think that was just a pearl of advice to find somebody maybe that
understands your industry rather than justshotgunning it.
And then they have to do all the work, chargeyou probably for that.
So, yeah, kind of knows their way around.
Right.
That was just a pearl of advice.
Speaker B (27:28):
That was really, I've just seen it so many times.
And then, you know, in the other agency ownersthat I've spoken with, we end up redoing the
work of, you know, very well intentionedother, you know, service agencies, but they
just simply did not have the capacity tounderstand the, the lingo, the jargon, you
(27:49):
know, the depths that you have to understandthis business to be able to, you know, make it
resonant, to make effective and beautifulmarketing.
And I think what a lot of people do sometimesis that they meet someone.
Marketing people are great at marketing.
Like, that's our job, right?
We're really good at selling what we have tooffer.
That's why we do it.
(28:09):
But they just might not have spent, you know,
maybe it was the right place at the righttime.
You know, they just maybe didn't know.
They weren't educated on another process or it
was someone local or something like that.
But I just say, before you invest anything,
just do your due diligence and talk todifferent people and find a good fit.
It's just like any other service.
(28:31):
It's just going to be really important to find
the right fit and continue to ask questions,see samples of their work.
And a lot of times I will say too, marketing,especially brand strategy agencies like us, we
do a lot of internal work that we can't share.
A brand strategy is a business strategy, so we
(28:51):
can't share a lot of that work in ourportfolio publicly.
But we can walk you through case studies whenwe do meetings with you that help you see and
understand a deeper level of the work thatmight not be kind of readily available on
social or on websites.
Speaker A (29:10):
Well, you've been so helpful when somebody's trying to, yeah.
What in the world, you know, they, they can doto make their business stand out?
You know, you've been so helpful with that.
Speaker B (29:20):
Thank you.
Speaker A (29:21):
Tell us about what exactly you might offer somebody.
Speaker B (29:25):
You know what, I'd love to.
Speaker A (29:27):
How can they contact you? What would you do?
You know, what service you providespecifically, how to go into that.
Would you marshall yourself?You know, like we were talking about?
Speaker B (29:37):
Thanks. Thank you.
And I really appreciate that.
I will say first that I put a lot of effortinto my newsletter.
I love to get really well thought out, wellresearched.
Well, you know, even sometimes justentertaining, you know, newsletters from
people in not just my industry and lots ofdifferent ones because that's actually one way
(30:00):
I stay really educated.
So I put a lot of thought into the one I put
out for my, my list.
So I will say if you want to get on that, it's
not just for the home industry.
I talk a lot about, you know, brand ideas.
I talk about bigger kind of higher levelbusiness and usually end up bringing it back
down to marketing.
So there's something that you can apply even
if you're not in the design or creativeindustry.
(30:24):
So you can get on that.
My website, it's sarcreative.com saurit
creative.com.
you'll see there's a brand audit that I offer.
It's a free, really fast way to look at howyour brand messaging is showing up across all
your, I will say, marketing channels.
It's a one page downloadable.
(30:45):
There's a video that will walk you through itreally quickly.
And you can do it, you can fill it out.
It's a PDF, you can fill it out on your phone
or on your computer.
And that I hear from a lot of people who take
that and sort of look at it and go, wow.
I know exactly where to start on updating my
message.
I know exactly where it's inconsistent.
There's a couple things I maybe forgot about Ibuilt a few years ago that are still out there
(31:09):
because typically you're not looking atyourself when you Google, I mean, you may
google your business, but you would besurprised at how inconsistent your message
might be to someone who sees you on GoogleSearch, who sees you on Instagram or some
social media platform, sees you on LinkedIn,who sees you even on your business card, who
(31:31):
again, also might hear about you from word ofmouth connection or at a party.
Make sure all those messages are consistent.
And this little one down, one page
downloadable will help you see that reallyfast I am launching.
It will be certainly be live by the time thispodcast goes live.
Marketing School for creatives it's a six weekvirtual course that you can take and I'll be
(32:00):
popping in to support you with that.
This is a MBA level marketing school for
people, anyone with who's doing any kind ofcreative business.
I say a service business.
But you know, this came about because I was a
creative who found my way into a marketingrole.
And in doing so, I thought that the creativitywas enough for me to produce, you know, high
(32:24):
level marketing assets.
And I realized very quickly that what I was
missing was this foundation.
I went back to school.
I learned it.
I learned from some of the best marketing
minds in the world at the company that Iworked for.
And so I created this as a way to, you know,educate other creatives who need to market
their business or find themselves in amarketing role that is going to be available.
(32:48):
And you can see that from my website as well.
Yeah.
And then just reach out.
I do, you know, free discovery calls.
I'd love to talk to you about, you know, yourbusiness, transforming your business into a
brand.
We do services and, and all sorts of things.
So I would say the best place to start iscertainly my website, sorry, creative.com.
(33:08):
do that brand audit.
Check out the marketing school for creatives
if you're interested and then just reach out.
Speaker A (33:17):
Well, thank you so much and thanks.
Speaker B (33:19):
For, thank you, Nana.
Speaker A (33:21):
It's been a pleasure input and all your.
Speaker B (33:23):
Thank you.
Speaker A (33:24):
Appreciate that.
Yeah, thanks for being with us.
Have you seen our new podcast and YouTubewebsite trailblazersimpact.com?
join us there and please leave a review oniTunes.
Check out our new shorts on our YouTubechannel, trailblazers impact interviews.
Until next time, check out my newsletter onLinkedIn.
(33:47):
Also, I host a new lead and succeed communityto quickly accelerate your leadership skills
and explore our regular website,nanmackeconnects.com with new resources.
Welcome. I'm Nan McKay, the voice behind Trailblazers impact, your beacon to
extraordinary women trailblazing unique paths.
Our podcast spotlights luminaries whose life
stories inspire and empower delivered to yourears bi weekly.
Buckle up for another episode packed withpowerful narratives and empowering journeys on
(00:30):
trailblazers impact.
Stay with us.
This is Nan McKay, and with us today is ErikaSarrit, founder of Sarrit Creative, which is a
boutique brand marketing agency with a missionto support and elevate brands across the
entire home industry.
(00:50):
As a global brand marketing leader, she has
overseen digital product development and brandstrategy.
At Airbnb in San Francisco.
She's created immersive, physical and brand
experiences for tag, right?
Speaker B (01:10):
Yeah, perfect.
Speaker A (01:12):
Estee Lauder and Proctor Gamble, as well as top home and lifestyle brands around
the world.
She's developed award winning brand messaging
and engagement campaigns.
Her background in interior design and
marketing has made her passionate abouthelping businesses transform into
(01:33):
unforgettable brands.
So welcome, Erica.
Speaker B (01:37):
Thank you so much.
Nan.
I'm super excited to be here and have ourconversation today.
Thank you.
Speaker A (01:42):
Yes. Can you start by explaining what it means to be a creative renegade and
how this concept relates to brand building asopposed to just maybe business building?
Speaker B (01:57):
Yeah, of course.
So I'll start by saying traveling the world
turned me into what I like to call a creativerenegade.
I spent most of my life traveling.
I went to graduate school in Finland.
I worked on projects in Europe and Asia.
I was fortunate to have lived for about seven
years in China, working there and then on myown adventures through South America.
(02:23):
Now I live in France half the year and theother half in North Carolina in a city called
High Point, which is the home of homefurnishings, in case anyone knows it out there
for the other half.
But the thing that stands out to me admits
this 20 year cache of experiences.
It's not the architecture, the history or the
food.
It's the feelings and the emotions that I had
(02:45):
in each place that I remember the most.
What I started to think in my work in doing
marketing and branding, of course, we think alot about the emotions, the motivations and
the drivers behind the behavior of ouraudiences and our clients and our customers.
In order to deliver marketing or createstories or create any kind of client or
(03:09):
customer facing marketing for them.
We think deeply about what are their emotions.
And so when I think about travel, I thinkabout the most unforgettable experiences are
tied to meaning.
The meaning and the memories that are created,
created from each place.
They're not about like brick or buildings or,
you know, food bouillon bays.
They're about the emotions and the feelings
that we associate with those places that makesthem memorable.
(03:31):
So, like, imagine, you know, a place, a verysignificant trip you took, maybe your
honeymoon or graduate trip, or, you know,maybe just a trip on your own, by yourself.
Your first travel alone anywhere, even, like,to another city, another state.
It doesn't have to be another country.
But remember those emotions and those feelings
that were tied to that experience and howwhenever you think now about that place, you
(03:55):
don't think about, again, you don't thinkabout the, you know, the buildings that you
visited or the, you know, the food.
You may have a memorable meal, but you
remember the emotion you had there, thefeeling that ties you to that place.
That can be very positive and hopefully notnegative, but there's always going to be an
emotional connection.
So that's the thing that becomes
unforgettable.
(04:15):
And that's how I start to think about brands,
how I think about the clients that I workwith.
I kind of get them to shift their mindset frombeing like a business, thinking like a
business, to thinking like a brand.
Because people think about a brand, they
obviously think about an emotion tied to thatthing.
So what I've been able to say is that, youknow, to be able to stand out, which is one of
(04:37):
the tenets of marketing.
You know, you really want to rise above the
noise.
You want to create a message or a story or a,
you know, storytelling strategy, a marketingstrategy that cuts through all of that, that
becomes unforgettable.
And that requires courage.
It requires an enormous amount ofunderstanding who you are.
(04:58):
And it becomes, it takes creativity.
So I say becoming a creative renegade is
really about just believing in the power ofyour brand to help you excel in your
marketing.
So that's my long, long story short about what
a creative renegade means.
And it's more of a mindset shift than
anything, a position, a directive, a call toaction, like, yeah.
Speaker A (05:25):
So I think what I hear you saying is it's really crucial to have a defined story
for your brand.
Speaker B (05:32):
Yes.
Speaker A (05:33):
So tell us a little bit about what are some of the strategies for getting that
story.
Speaker B (05:37):
Yeah, so a storytelling, a story itself is a metaphor.
It's like, I'm sorry.
It's an organizing principle for your brand.
Right.
And a metaphor, similarly, any kind of device
you use in the storytelling itself is how youbring people in.
Right.
I'm not the first person to say this,
certainly, but I'll remind you that we'rehardwired for stories.
(05:59):
That stories are the thing that you know, helpus understand our culture, our history, how to
survive, you know, stories that led us towater, that, you know, told us how to build
fire, that reminded us of who our, you know,ancestors and our historic history was.
But now story is a way to help organizecertainly our content plan in our marketing
(06:19):
strategy.
But for any part of your business, a story
becomes an essential part of onboarding newteam members, onboarding new partners,
potentially new vendors, or, you know, peoplethat you're working with and wanting to, you
know, bring into the ethos of your business.
A story is going to help quickly activate
(06:41):
those values and, you know, really essentialparts of your business that you want people to
remember and understand.
So I say storytelling is an organizing
principle in any marketing that you do.
I think I have developed a framework to kind
of give people a system.
It's sort of a one, two, three, kind of a
ladder system to think about storytelling as abrand strategy, but also as a way to start to
(07:06):
create stories in their business around that.
So the first thing is, all of these start with
an e. I will say I have this e threestorytelling framework.
I'm Erika.
So people can remember the e's and Erika at
the same time.
Um, the first one is, um, very kind of common
first place to start with marketing strategy.
But that's really defining that extraordinary
(07:29):
position you hold in the market.
Um, if your brand is, you know, if you're the
first of your kind to be creating a product,that's what makes you extraordinary.
But for many of us, we're not, you know, thesole service provider.
We're not the sole, you know, product categoryleader.
We are competing, you know, we are going to bebenchmarked with other brands.
(07:50):
Um, and what we need to do is it's think verycarefully and thoughtfully about what it is.
Whether it's, you know, your education, youraccreditation, your experience, your maybe
experience from another industry brought overinto the current industry that you're in, that
lifetime of experiences are going to make youextraordinary simply because nobody else has
(08:13):
followed the path.
I don't care if you put two of the same people
with the very same job next to each other.
There's going to be things that we can pull
out that can talk, that we can speak to thatmake them extraordinary.
And I really, I start with that.
I ask people two questions, like, tell me what
are the positive associations with your brand,and tell me the negative.
And we usually kind of dig into the negativeones first and flip them, you know, turn them
(08:36):
into positives, because we all have thisreally sort of extraordinary thing about us
that really will resonate with our clients ifwe're able to, you know, bring it forward, be
confident about it.
And most of the time, it's something people
are like, oh, I wasn't really going to mentionthis, but I did this blank, blank, blank.
And so that's the thing, finding out whatmakes you extraordinary.
(08:59):
And that's the.
The position where we start.
The second part of this e three storytellingframework is emotional resonance.
This is my favorite part because this is whereyou get to start, to come back to that, you
know, creative renegade, you can be reallybold and build stories around the true
meaning, the true motivation behind why yourclients come to you.
(09:24):
In my industry, the home furnishings industry,which also includes interior design, building
architecture, real estate, in some cases, it'sall part of home making for people, for our
clients.
I have found from my experience working as an
interior designer for about ten years and thendoing marketing for ten plus years after that,
(09:48):
that there's five, you know, real relevant,core emotional drivers that influence clients
to work with, you know, to work with someonewho's going to help them renovate their home
or refresh their home or purchase products fortheir home.
Do you want to hear them?
Speaker A (10:06):
I do.
Speaker B (10:08):
Okay. I will say, just to give this some context too, there is a very large and
established and quite famous, if you're in theenvironmental psychology side of branding,
that was developed by a set of researchers andpsychologists looking and trying to understand
(10:29):
what it was that influenced purchase decisionat the moment of purchase for fast moving
consumer goods like toothpaste, cosmetics,soaps, things like that, where we see things
on a shelf.
Back in the day when people shopped in stores,
it's still happening online.
But, you know, they really wanted to
understand what those emotional drivers werethat allowed a person to choose one over the
(10:53):
other.
Not simply kind of physical position on the
shelf, but that emotional story that they weretelling themselves right when they chose, you
know, one brand of toothpaste over another.
Now, we know that when you're purchasing
things like, you know, toothpaste or maybeeven shoes or, you know, something, that the
(11:14):
stakes are a little bit lower than when you'repurchasing something like a car or a home or
you're choosing to, you know, hire an interiordesigner, it can be very expensive.
It can be, you know, a multi month orpotentially multi year process.
It can involve you, you know, moving out ofyour home, maybe taking your children into a
(11:36):
new school.
If you're in a place of transition, it can be
really an emotionally fraught experience.
And so, of course, the funnel phase of
creating stories around this for people haveto be really resonant because someone is going
to make a split second decision to buytoothpaste, but not to make interior design
(11:58):
purchases, like not to make a servicepurchase.
So of those 16 to 20 core emotionalmotivations that the psychology research
identified, I knew about this for many years,and I started thinking about this in context
while I was working in marketing for how thisis playing out in my space.
(12:20):
What emotions?What are the five key emotions that I see most
likely being used in storytelling, inmarketing for the home industry that are
happening with furniture, with furnishings,with service brands.
And so those five are a sense of belongingthat we want the home to represent, a place of
(12:42):
safety, a place of security.
I see this a lot in people building
specifically for families.
Interior designers that focus on growing
family homes, or even homes where people aremoving out of the house.
Empty nesters who want to retake back theirhome together after their children have gone
(13:03):
away to school or gone off and created theirown lives.
So they want to make a space where people cancome back and gather.
And that's really the motivation for themseeking a designer to help them with the
space.
Less about resale value or other factors, but
it's more about creating a place that feelslike everyone still belongs there.
(13:27):
And so that is a way, if you can get into thepsychology of why a person is really seeking
out interior design services, that one mightapply to your client and is a really great
place to start storytelling for, you know, forthat market.
The second one is to be seen and heard.
This one, I see a lot with interior designers
(13:48):
who are working with, you know, new peoplefirst home first home buyers or people who
are, you know, using the home to entertainmore.
They want to have a lot of people over, youknow, so that they can, you know, entertain
and share that space.
But it's not a negative of feeling at all.
(14:09):
It's sort of a place where the home becomes anexpression of something you can't quite
articulate about yourself.
I love the phrase my home.
It's really me.
What does that mean?
That's a really hard thing to message around.
So what's driving that is the core emotion, to
be seen and heard.
And an interior designer can really help you
(14:31):
get to the heart of what that means so thatyou can feel comfortable in your space.
The third one is that our life has purpose andmeaning.
This one is about creating something biggerthan yourself, leaving a legacy.
I usually see this one together with the nextone, which is hope for the future, you know,
(14:51):
creating a home where, you know, it willbecome multi generational, where it will
become a place where, again, you know, people,the home becomes more of a fixture in the
family.
It's part of the story of the family.
It's another character in the family.
And there's a lot of, you know, people seeking
out that type of place.
(15:14):
They.
They want to be able to do something justbecause they can for their family.
And that's a really beautiful way tostorytell.
The last one is my.
One of my favorite, and I think we see this
one very, very often.
You know, we see all of these outside of home,
the home industry.
But it's the idea of wondering with an o and
(15:35):
wonder with an a. The idea that we are alwaysin a state of discovery, always in a state of
exploration about, you know, understandingsomething about ourselves in a. In a wider
world.
You know, walking through the forest, staring
at the stars.
Those kind of, you know, emotions that make us
aware that we're very small in a very, youknow, big, vast world, but it also tells us
(16:01):
something about, you know, ourselves.
So this one is very, very beautiful, beautiful
way to tell stories here.
And my homework assignment for you and for the
audience is to say, okay, now that I'm awareof each of these sort of five core human
(16:22):
emotions, I certainly probably have had those.
How are brands using these?
Like, how might you begin to notice when abrand is speaking to these particular or some,
you know, some device around these fiveemotions?
And there's others.
Like I said, you can.
You can dig into that research, but if you'rein the home industry, or if you're in an
(16:44):
industry where, you know, your potentialclients might resonate with some of these
emotions, they might be making purchasedecisions based on some of these deeper
motivations, then that's a great place tostart your storytelling.
I just spoke for, like, a long time without abreak, and I'm so sorry.
I should have let you jump in.
Sorry, Nan.
Speaker A (17:06):
See if you've covered this already.
I was just thinking how we can tap into those
emotions to build that brand that not onlystands out, but maybe is also unforgettable.
Yes.
Are there any examples of strategies that you
might have used that have worked pretty wellfor you?
Speaker B (17:25):
Yeah. So I would say the third e in that framework.
So we have extraordinary positioning,emotional resonance.
That's the second one with those five beneathit.
The final one is experiential touch points.
So how can you really create a strategic plan
to execute this messaging and the storytellingacross all the touch points of your customer
(17:48):
journey.
And I do that with clients.
We look, of course, at what messaging isimportant at the awareness phase, what
messaging is important at the discovery.
The awareness and discovery phase are the
same, but at the consideration phase of thiscustomer journey, which is usually for design
services, quite long again, because people arenot making a spontaneous choice here.
(18:11):
They're educating themselves for weeks,months, longer, possibly longer.
So the storytelling has to be really rich andemotive.
And we look at then what channels are best forthat, just high level.
The awareness discovery phase.
Social media is great.
You can push out a broad message to many,many, many people.
(18:35):
Whether or not they see it, it's not up toyou.
But if you want to have a, you know, aconversation with people, I think, you know,
word of mouth, person to person networking,going to events, going to where your clients,
the potential clients are showing up is reallyimportant.
We talked about leveraging your partners,building, building a brand message that, you
(18:58):
know, if you're an interior designer,sometimes your leads for clients come from
realtors, like realtors in your area.
So if someone's going to purchase a home and,
you know, the realtor can say, hi, you know, Isee you love this house, but maybe you want to
make this change.
I know a great designer.
The next thing that comes out of their mouthis so essential because what they'll say is,
(19:21):
and they are blank.
That's the narrative, the message, the story
that you want to be a little bit more incontrol of.
You don't want them to just say, oh, she's aninterior designer down the street.
You want them to say, she's an interiordesigner that focuses on family homes.
Yes.
That like, you know, that really are about
connectivity, you know, again, you can, youwork on what you want them to repeat, and
(19:44):
that's the kind of script that you give them.
But you will find that that's when, you know,
people really start doing marketing for you,but you've got to make sure it's consistent
and it's aligned with the brand that you wantto represent.
So that experiential touch point happensthroughout the entire, you know, pre kind of
awareness phase all the way through to thepoint where they make a decision.
(20:06):
And even after, you know, because your clientsare your best marketing, too, they're also
sharing who's done their home, who, who is,you know, who would you recommend?
I just.
There's an industry publication here called
Business of Home, and I was listening to oneof their podcasts and the editor in chief had
interviewed a designer and what the takeawayfrom their conversation was, you know, lots of
(20:31):
people are doing word of mouth, but have youconsidered that the neighbors of your clients
are just as important in this system?So what she was, the interior designer was
doing was saying, I'm so sorry, there's goingto be a little bit of construction noise.
There's going to be some extra traffic overthe next couple of months.
Here's a gift, here's my card.
Call me if anything, you know, goes out of and
(20:53):
beyond the time, the hours, the expectedamount of chaos, call me and I'll make it
right.
And in doing that, she introduced herself as
the designer.
She typically, you'll see that maybe your
clients in the same neighborhood are the otherclients that you're trying to reach.
So I thought that that was just a reallybrilliant way to share a brand message, to do
(21:19):
some word of mouth marketing.
Low cost, if not, no cost.
Handwriting a card doesn't cost you anythingexcept for time, and it's time well spent.
So, yeah, that experiential touch point, thatthird part of this framework is really more
about activation.
Speaker A (21:36):
What are some maybe common mistakes that people make when trying to build that
brand in the home industry?And how could you avoid these?
Speaker B (21:47):
Yeah, so I think not marketing at all.
Obviously, the first one, no one's, well,really, no one's going to find you if you're
not making an effort.
And marketing people say, you know, I can't
afford to hire a marketing person, or I can'tafford to hire internally, or I don't want to
(22:08):
work with an agency.
I had a bad experience.
You know, I say, well, that's fine.
You know, you probably went through several
plumbers or maybe several accountants orseveral bookkeepers before you found the right
fit.
And that's, you know, you have to run a
business and you have many hats to wear ifyou're a solopreneur, or if you're doing it on
your own, or if you're small and you're tryingto, you know, balance all the responsibilities
(22:32):
of running a business, even when you're amedium sized business.
I mean, even a small business is.
You tell me, I'm sure I'm going to get this
wrong, but a small business in the US ischaracterized as 26 million in revenue or
less.
I would say that's a majority of the
businesses I know.
Is that right?
Speaker A (22:52):
Well, it depends on your criteria, who you're asking.
So if you're asking the SBA versus you'reasking government contracts, you know, it
depends.
Speaker B (23:03):
Okay.
Speaker A (23:04):
Usually it's probably a lot smaller than that for most situations because I think
especially in the startup, you know, you'renot making anywhere close to that.
Speaker B (23:17):
I know, yeah.
Speaker A (23:18):
Differently for different purposes.
Speaker B (23:21):
Right. But I would say for every single person I've ever encountered in
business, period, money is always going to bean issue.
Right.
No one has bottomless pockets to hire
marketing, you know, and do $20 millionmarketing projects.
It's just not happening.
So get out of that mindset, you know, I think
(23:41):
the biggest mistake is really just notinvesting soon enough.
And when I say invest, it can be something youcan do on your own.
You just, you know, need to give yourself thetime and the space.
If you don't have a background in marketing,it's more than just, you know, creative and
beautiful ads or your website.
There has to be a strategy to it, just like
(24:03):
anything else.
And so we help clients with that, with a lot
of, we start with messaging.
We say, you know, there's really no sense in
doing any marketing, building a website, doingany social media posting, doing any email
campaigns, if you don't have a very clear andvery effective brand message.
So we start with that.
(24:24):
And it's, it's, that's the most enlightening
part of the whole process, Nan, because oncepeople see the power of a really good message,
how quick, how effective it represents themand what they do and who they do it for and
why they do it and why it makes their lifebetter, then it opens all kinds of ideas and
(24:44):
it frees them up.
So that's where we start.
I would say that's the biggest mistake, ishaving an inconsistent or unclear message and
then struggling with marketing, because it'snot going to work if you're not speaking to
the right people and saying the right thing.
Speaker A (25:00):
What you brought this up on the financial end of it, what should people expect
just as a range to pay for this kind ofbranding and marketing that goes on?
Speaker B (25:12):
There are a variety of different price points and there's a lot of different
service providers who can help you as a rule,between on the low end, maybe 5% and at the
high end, nine or 10% of your revenue.
If you're at a place where you can outsource,
um, you can, I will say, if you're on a deepbudget, I think you can hire different people
(25:38):
at different, you know, don't worry about aninternal hire.
Hire people out who can help you.
Experts.
But look for experts in your industry, becauseas you know, marketing is a part of a business
strategy.
If you hire a generalist marketing agency and
they don't understand the nuances of, I mean,certainly finance or potentially healthcare,
(26:00):
wellness, the design industry is like this.
It's very complicated for them to ramp up and
understand, you know, how your business works.
So I would say there's certainly marketing
agencies that are going to specialize inspecific, you know, verticals or specific
areas.
Find one and talk to them first, find several,
(26:22):
find three, find, you know, four, talk tothem, find out what they do.
Some will be only on the implementation side,so they will only be building or executing.
And they will look to you to come with the,come with, you know, your brand style guide,
your brand message, your tone, your voice.
Um, that again is the very most important part
of any marketing.
(26:43):
So before you start building anything, make
sure that you've got that set.
And I, to do that work, I would say hire a
brand strategist, hire someone who can reallywalk you through the complex process of
getting the brand foundation right.
And you will thank yourself in the future,
(27:03):
thank yourself immensely for getting that workdone first.
Speaker A (27:06):
And I think that was just a pearl of advice to find somebody maybe that
understands your industry rather than justshotgunning it.
And then they have to do all the work, chargeyou probably for that.
So, yeah, kind of knows their way around.
Right.
That was just a pearl of advice.
Speaker B (27:28):
That was really, I've just seen it so many times.
And then, you know, in the other agency ownersthat I've spoken with, we end up redoing the
work of, you know, very well intentionedother, you know, service agencies, but they
just simply did not have the capacity tounderstand the, the lingo, the jargon, you
(27:49):
know, the depths that you have to understandthis business to be able to, you know, make it
resonant, to make effective and beautifulmarketing.
And I think what a lot of people do sometimesis that they meet someone.
Marketing people are great at marketing.
Like, that's our job, right?
We're really good at selling what we have tooffer.
That's why we do it.
(28:09):
But they just might not have spent, you know,
maybe it was the right place at the righttime.
You know, they just maybe didn't know.
They weren't educated on another process or it
was someone local or something like that.
But I just say, before you invest anything,
just do your due diligence and talk todifferent people and find a good fit.
It's just like any other service.
(28:31):
It's just going to be really important to find
the right fit and continue to ask questions,see samples of their work.
And a lot of times I will say too, marketing,especially brand strategy agencies like us, we
do a lot of internal work that we can't share.
A brand strategy is a business strategy, so we
(28:51):
can't share a lot of that work in ourportfolio publicly.
But we can walk you through case studies whenwe do meetings with you that help you see and
understand a deeper level of the work thatmight not be kind of readily available on
social or on websites.
Speaker A (29:10):
Well, you've been so helpful when somebody's trying to, yeah.
What in the world, you know, they, they can doto make their business stand out?
You know, you've been so helpful with that.
Speaker B (29:20):
Thank you.
Speaker A (29:21):
Tell us about what exactly you might offer somebody.
Speaker B (29:25):
You know what, I'd love to.
Speaker A (29:27):
How can they contact you? What would you do?
You know, what service you providespecifically, how to go into that.
Would you marshall yourself?You know, like we were talking about?
Speaker B (29:37):
Thanks. Thank you.
And I really appreciate that.
I will say first that I put a lot of effortinto my newsletter.
I love to get really well thought out, wellresearched.
Well, you know, even sometimes justentertaining, you know, newsletters from
people in not just my industry and lots ofdifferent ones because that's actually one way
(30:00):
I stay really educated.
So I put a lot of thought into the one I put
out for my, my list.
So I will say if you want to get on that, it's
not just for the home industry.
I talk a lot about, you know, brand ideas.
I talk about bigger kind of higher levelbusiness and usually end up bringing it back
down to marketing.
So there's something that you can apply even
if you're not in the design or creativeindustry.
(30:24):
So you can get on that.
My website, it's sarcreative.com saurit
creative.com.
you'll see there's a brand audit that I offer.
It's a free, really fast way to look at howyour brand messaging is showing up across all
your, I will say, marketing channels.
It's a one page downloadable.
(30:45):
There's a video that will walk you through itreally quickly.
And you can do it, you can fill it out.
It's a PDF, you can fill it out on your phone
or on your computer.
And that I hear from a lot of people who take
that and sort of look at it and go, wow.
I know exactly where to start on updating my
message.
I know exactly where it's inconsistent.
There's a couple things I maybe forgot about Ibuilt a few years ago that are still out there
(31:09):
because typically you're not looking atyourself when you Google, I mean, you may
google your business, but you would besurprised at how inconsistent your message
might be to someone who sees you on GoogleSearch, who sees you on Instagram or some
social media platform, sees you on LinkedIn,who sees you even on your business card, who
(31:31):
again, also might hear about you from word ofmouth connection or at a party.
Make sure all those messages are consistent.
And this little one down, one page
downloadable will help you see that reallyfast I am launching.
It will be certainly be live by the time thispodcast goes live.
Marketing School for creatives it's a six weekvirtual course that you can take and I'll be
(32:00):
popping in to support you with that.
This is a MBA level marketing school for
people, anyone with who's doing any kind ofcreative business.
I say a service business.
But you know, this came about because I was a
creative who found my way into a marketingrole.
And in doing so, I thought that the creativitywas enough for me to produce, you know, high
(32:24):
level marketing assets.
And I realized very quickly that what I was
missing was this foundation.
I went back to school.
I learned it.
I learned from some of the best marketing
minds in the world at the company that Iworked for.
And so I created this as a way to, you know,educate other creatives who need to market
their business or find themselves in amarketing role that is going to be available.
(32:48):
And you can see that from my website as well.
Yeah.
And then just reach out.
I do, you know, free discovery calls.
I'd love to talk to you about, you know, yourbusiness, transforming your business into a
brand.
We do services and, and all sorts of things.
So I would say the best place to start iscertainly my website, sorry, creative.com.
(33:08):
do that brand audit.
Check out the marketing school for creatives
if you're interested and then just reach out.
Speaker A (33:17):
Well, thank you so much and thanks.
Speaker B (33:19):
For, thank you, Nana.
Speaker A (33:21):
It's been a pleasure input and all your.
Speaker B (33:23):
Thank you.
Speaker A (33:24):
Appreciate that.
Yeah, thanks for being with us.
Have you seen our new podcast and YouTubewebsite trailblazersimpact.com?
join us there and please leave a review oniTunes.
Check out our new shorts on our YouTubechannel, trailblazers impact interviews.
Until next time, check out my newsletter onLinkedIn.
(33:47):
Also, I host a new lead and succeed communityto quickly accelerate your leadership skills
and explore our regular website,nanmackeconnects.com with new resources.
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