Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Kriston Sellier. She is the president of ideate. Welcome.

Kriston Sellier: Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am excited to learn what you’re all up to. Tell us a little bit about ideate. How are you serving folks?

Kriston Sellier: Well, Idea is a specialized branding agency, and we work with the mid-market companies, manufacturing companies that are within 8 million to 25 million and really need a business partner who is going to help them increase their revenue.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Kriston Sellier: Well, I got a degree in graphic design from Illinois State University. I worked for IBM, building incredibly large websites for external clients like the New York Times. And after I worked there for a while, I loved the methodology, but I wasn’t feeling the desire to work on the same project for a year and see very little transformative change. So I thought if I could create a company that would serve the small, smaller businesses, the mid-market that really need the help and deliver that same quality of service. That it would be a win for everybody. And so that’s what I did. I started that in 2000.

Lee Kantor: So why was it the emphasis on brand?

Kriston Sellier: Because brand is an intangible but can create transformative change. People do indeed judge a book by its cover. And many times there is a fantastic business of fantastic brand, a product of service. And it’s it’s covered by a brand that doesn’t work. And so I just love helping companies go through that transformative change.

Lee Kantor: So what is it like working with Ida? Like what stage? What like what are the struggles that the company is having before they partner with you?

Kriston Sellier: They’re going through about four different problems. One, they may be having a leadership change. So the president is no longer there. There’s a new president or new people have been shifted into leadership roles. That’s one. Number two would be the product or service has significantly changed. Let’s say the business has been ongoing for ten years, and what they initially offered is no longer what they’re offering. So the brand that was created for the initial product does not match the current product. Number three, the brand itself does not reflect culturally what’s going on within the company. So let’s say, for example, the brand is all about trust and their colors are yellow and red. And those colors don’t necessarily communicate trust. So what’s going on within the business is not reflected in the brand visually. And then lastly there’s a lack of clarity. They say 70% of all frontline employees don’t know what the purpose of the brand is. And a lot of times that’s because it’s not communicated or literally not written down. So helping businesses come together and have a unique, specific vision and then sharing that vision to all of the employees so the employees can be the best ambassadors for them.

Lee Kantor: So in order to develop good marketing and communications, you need kind of these brand fundamentals to build off of.

Kriston Sellier: Yeah, it’s like the concrete, um, foundation of a house. And if that’s built, well, then the rest of the house is going to be stable. That’s exactly right.

Lee Kantor: Now is your work end with the brand, and then somebody else does the marketing execution. Or does your company do that as well?

Kriston Sellier: That’s a great question. So we have something called the branding program and it’s a three year process. Year one is alignment. That’s phase one. That’s where we’re getting everything into alignment. What we’ve been talking about. Um, and then year two is what we call momentum. And now you’re taking the align brand and putting it into the channels, into the proper marketing tools that are going to be needed to reach those audiences. And then year three is really, um, momentum. So now you’ve accelerated. Um, and now you’re, um, at, you know, driving at 65 miles an hour down the highway and you’re going to need, um, incremental improvements to the marketing and to, um, to the materials that are being made. And so we really consider it a three year program, and our clients graduate from that program and then move on to working with other marketing companies who’s really specialized, maybe in in very specific areas of digital marketing.

Lee Kantor: But you help them kind of build the strong foundation so that when it is time for the handoff that everything’s in place, and now it’s just kind of off you go.

Kriston Sellier: That’s exactly right.

Lee Kantor: Now, what are some symptoms that you might have a brand problem?

Kriston Sellier: Um, elongated sales cycle is one that I hear a lot. Um, or membership is declined or enrollment has declined, so that long, elongated sales cycle or sales taking a long time is usually a sign because there’s lack of clarity. And that’s very painful for businesses and organizations, because if you’re in a for profit business and cash flow is down, the business isn’t running properly. Um, and so that particular sign of elongated sales is usually a sign that there’s a deeper problem, and the elongated sales are simply a symptom of an unclear brand. That’s the one that I see the most. Um, that’s the most common and probably the most painful. Uh, because if you ask every business owner what they need more of, they’d probably say sales and um, um, and so when sales are down, it really harms the entire business. And so if we can come and help companies get clarity and have a proper foundation, Nation and know the words to say when they’re out selling. It really helps shorten the sales cycle. It eliminates confusion and it allows the salespeople to really do their job well.

Lee Kantor: So how do you help your clients build a brand that is authentic and that is true to their values and is also, you know, works in the marketplace, especially if it takes or it could take as long as three years to kind of get your groove on so that you are kind of executing at a high level.

Kriston Sellier: Right. That’s a great question, Lee. We start with research every project. We call it evidence based or research based creative. And every project starts with qualitative or quantitative research. Um, the qualitative research is one on one interviews, and we do one on one interviews with our employees, with our clients. And we select three different segments of the population. One, we talk talked to their clients, and then we like to talk to a few of their clients. And we always say, we don’t just want to talk to the people who have drank the Kool-Aid, and they absolutely love you. We’d love to talk to a few of your clients who maybe have had a few bumps in the road in their experience with you, and because we’d like to really learn the true character of the brand. Then we do one on one interviews with leaders in the brand. So that may be a president. It could be a VP, but someone who’s been there at the company for a while so that we can understand a little bit more about the culture, about the brand and the history. And then lastly, we talk to stakeholders. Now that may be younger or newer employees. It could also be partners or vendors that they work with. So we’re trying to see the business from all of those perspectives. And by doing that research, first, it allows us to us to see the truth because we can’t create a brand that doesn’t exist or is aspirational. We can only reveal what the brand is if we truly know what it stands for. So that research allows us to see if there’s gaps, if there’s not an alignment, if the business says we stand for this, but they’re delivering this. And um, and sometimes there’s some operational issues there. But in essence, that qualitative research is one of the research methods that we use to start capturing that information. So we can deliver a brand both verbally and then visually, that truly expresses what the what the brand is all about. Um, so it all starts with research.

Lee Kantor: Now, isn’t branding one of those things like culture that even if you’re not mindful in doing it proactively, it’s still going to happen?

Kriston Sellier: You’re exactly right. Brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. Uh, so, you know, we live in the world of in Atlanta. We live where Coca-Cola is. We live where Home Depot headquarters are, and I guarantee people sit around their kitchen table and they tell a story about either consuming a product or how much they love something, or an experience they had at Home Depot, good or bad. And and that’s what the brand truly is. It’s how it makes people feel when they’re experiencing experiencing the brand. Now the the beauty of that is we, as branding companies and business owners and executives have the ability to control that. But many times, business owners and leaders don’t take that the control of the reins. And when they don’t, that’s when there’s fragmented brands. That’s when all the sales people are saying the company stands for ten different things. That’s when leadership isn’t on the same page. That’s when one day you go to a restaurant and you get one experience and another get day. You go to the next restaurant. You get a completely different experience. Those are companies that really haven’t sat down and said, this is really important to us. We need to get on the same page and we need our leadership to really be vision casting out to the entire organization or to the management what our brand truly stands for, so that when the when customers are experiencing the brand, they really are experiencing the true heart of the brand. Chick fil A is a fantastic example of how, from leadership down to the front line employees, they deliver on that promise of, you know, making it a pleasure to serve their customers. And you hear it every time you go and experience a chick fil A going through a chick fil A drive through. So it really is, um, when done well and intentional speaking, the truth is, it’s just it almost just makes my heart sing when I see companies executing on that. It’s pretty. It’s pretty amazing.

Lee Kantor: Now, in order to do branding in today’s world, is it something that you need a large budget to kind of evangelize for the brand and get everybody, all of the people that you say are important for the organization to be, you know, talking off the same song sheet, because in today’s world, there are just so many individuals out there that have social media leverage and go on a variety of platforms and could be saying whatever they’re going to be saying based on, you know, one experience. So how do you kind of create a balance between, you know, being authentic and true and, and telling the story you want to tell, and then also dealing with just the chaos that exists in today’s world where anybody can say anything and, you know, you have to protect the brand.

Kriston Sellier: Mhm. In the business world is hard, and it is tough because people are sitting behind computers and they’re saying things on Instagram or on reviews, and it can be harmful and and detrimental to brands, for sure. And as a brand, as a brand, you’re not going to be able to stop that. That’s human nature, unfortunately. What we can do as brands is, is have something very specific that we talk about. And so, you know, your first question was around budget, you know, what do I have to have to budget? This is this really expensive? And your second was what do you do about everybody saying stuff about the brand? Good. Bad, indifferent. So the first question is where I recommend people start is start with the strategy. Start with what you stand for your purpose, and hiring a professional brand specialist to help you with that is very important. But it doesn’t have to be $250,000. You can hire a brand professional to come in and help you for under $10,000 to get that initial strategy and brand story down, and then utilize that for the next two years and keep repeating that consistent message. That’s that’s the important piece is that people, you know, in business, there’s so much to do. And it’s hard to just like, catch your breath and get it all done because it just feels like we don’t have enough time in the day. And, you know, we need to be on every social media platform. Number one, you don’t need to be on every social media platform form. And it’s actually pretty dangerous to be on every social media platform or every outlet, because if the brand is on all of the channels, all of the channels then have to be managed by the brand, and that means a lot more time and resources.

Kriston Sellier: So I say eat the elephant, one little bite at a time. So how you pick where you’re going to put your brand is you pick the brand. The channel where your audience is at. So let’s say, um, that I am creating a new, um, chicken sandwich and it’s, um, super spicy. And my audience from the research that I’ve done is a, um, 18 to 25 year old, um, student, um, who lives, um, who, you know, lives in an apartment. And, um, they spend a lot of time, uh, you know, uh, not they don’t spend a lot of time in their own kitchen. So all that information starts to narrow down where that audience member would be. Now, age alone, they’re more likely to be on TikTok. So I might, as a business leader, decide that I’m only going to put my brand on TikTok and I’m going to evangelize for the brand in that platform. So you’re investing less money and then you have less exposure because you’re limiting your exposure by only putting your brand in that particular platform. Um, so there’s a couple ways to do, you know, there’s a couple different ways to approach that. But that’s what I would recommend is keep your to your strategy. Um, be consistent for a couple of years and then minimize where you’re putting your brand because it takes so much time and money to manage it. And then as you become successful in each one of those channels, then you can start to expand.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, you mentioned the size of the organizations that you work with. Is there a niche within that, that size group that, uh, you work with primarily like are you more B2C, B2B?

Kriston Sellier: Uh, we work primarily with B2B companies in manufacturing space. And then on the public side of it, when we work with municipalities and nonprofits, they’re mostly B to C, uh, and with those both of those organizations, they typically have purpose and need to communicate, both B2B and both B2C and. Um, but our primary specialty is really focused on business to business communication.

Lee Kantor: And is the strategy different when it comes to branding for B2B versus B2C, or are the fundamentals really the same?

Kriston Sellier: Uh, the fundamentals are really the same because we’re all people, we’re all humans. And so a lot of people think, oh, businesses are going to be focused on technical information and they’re going to use logic to make decisions. And it’s actually the exact opposite. All of us make decisions based off of emotion. And so we’re always creating, um, brand and purpose statements and marketing that really appeals to the heart. And, and whether you’re making a decision as a consumer or decision as a business, you’re going to make that initial decision based off of emotion. Now what? Business decision. Um, decisions are then backed up with is then logic. So then the logical reasons, the science, the technical information that back up that particular emotional emotional decision are used then to support hiring company A or hiring company B, but it is definitely an emotional decision because we as human beings are emotional people.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any advice you would give somebody who’s listening right now that maybe hasn’t thought about their branding for a while, but is there some low hanging fruit they can do to kind of at least begin the process of improving their brand?

Kriston Sellier: You know, yeah, I think the big thing is to almost take a step back if you can and do an audit, look at what you have out there. And let’s say you have a sales pitch deck. Let’s say you maybe have a website, you have a social media channel, you might have some marketing. Print it all out. Lay it on a table and look at it. Are you using the same colors? Are you using the same fonts? Does your logo look the same? If you’re using pictures of people or the people, the actual people, or are they stock images? So you can look across everything that you have and do that audit and then clearly decide, oh, this doesn’t really fit. You know, almost like the memory game where you could match, like the cards, you pull up a card and one would be an owl and another one would be a bird. Um, once you get the two owls that match, you’re like, oh, yeah, this is the match. That’s what you want everything to do. It should match. Um, and so I think the audit is a great place to start because it allows you to see everything at once and then start to simplify and make your brand look consistent on all the channels. Um, and the reason that is so important is that as human beings, again, we have a short attention span and we forget things and advertisements are coming at us really quickly now. And it might take someone seeing a brand 17 times to remember it. It’s not you know, they’re going to see your brand one time and remember it. They will not because they’re, you know, bombarded with advertising on a regular basis. So doing that audit, making your materials consistent and then repeating the same key differentiators over and over again is, to me, the lowest hanging fruit.

Kriston Sellier: And something that because it’s so basic, a lot of people don’t do their very much thinking, I need to be creative. I need to be innovative, I need to be new. And what people really want is predictability. There’s a great book called The Myth Revisited, and it talks about how one of his clients made apple pies, and she started making apple pies. And, you know, she was trying to make some deadline for a client, and she had to cut some corners to make the deadline. And the apple pies didn’t taste the same. And the customer wasn’t happy. And the author was saying that people want predictability. They want to know if you’re selling an apple pie, that when they buy it today and eat it and they buy it tomorrow or next year, the apples are going to taste the same. That’s going to be the same amount of cinnamon, the top of the apple pie. The crust is going to taste the same. It’s going to have the same texture. They’re looking for predictability. And if you think about yourself and buying patterns, whether it’s places that you go to eat or maybe even the paper towel that you use, we are creatures of habit. We like to buy the same thing. And because we know how it’s going to work, we know how it’s going to taste. We know what it’s going to feel like. So being a brand that’s predictable is really, um, a very important aspect of that. So your marketing, if it’s consistent and the same on all the channels, people start to feel more comfort and that your product or service will be predictable and that will help, um, the buying process for someone interested in your brand.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share that maybe illustrates how you work with your clients, maybe share the problem they had and how you were able to help them get to a new level? Obviously don’t name the name of the organization, but maybe just the problem that they were going through.

Kriston Sellier: Right? Okay. Uh, so we worked with a, a school, a private school, and they were really struggling with enrollment, and their enrollment was down and it was declining year over year. And there’s a board, usually in a private school and a principal. And they were sitting as a board and they just didn’t know what to do. And one of the board members, uh, Terry, knew who I knew about. Idiot. 88. And so he recommended to the principal to reach out to us. So the principal and I chatted, and she wanted to know, you know, if I thought they could solve the problem. And I said, absolutely, you can. This is a fantastic school. You’re delivering a fantastic product. Your kids are secure. Um, it’s a secure place. Um, uh, the curriculum, they had some great data on the curriculum where it was something like 87% of all kids that went through the program graduated from college. So it was fantastic data. Uh, so we sat down with them. We helped create a brand. We helped create a the identity, what it looked like, the colors, the style we helped create, what they said about the brand. So the verbal brand. And then we created a marketing strategy for them to increase the enrollment of students for the next year. And they were a fantastic client. So it’s always a collaboration because we can’t do it alone, because your business, the brand that we work with, has to do work as well. So they followed our process. Then we said, you know, here’s the marketing strategy.

Kriston Sellier: Do this. They did those activities. And, um, we started that project I think, in March. Um, and for the enrollment of the school in August, they had exceeded their enrollment requirements to fill the school and had a waiting list. And it was just more satisfying to me than anything that they really sat down and they poured out their heart. They said, this is what the school is. And really what it was is the school. They were just so humble, so humble because they, um, were teachers and educators and, you know, didn’t really want to talk about themselves. And I said, you know, this, it’s fine. You need to tell people what you stand for. You need to tell the parents, you know, this because their kids are going to be safe. You need to tell the parents this because look at these great stats about kids going not only starting here, but graduating from college if they go through this curriculum. Um, so, you know, it’s really a collaborative process. The client was very open to listening to us and following our advice, and we listened to them and heard where they were at. We saw them and we included in their brand, their, you know, authentic selves who they were, um, down to actually creating murals throughout the school so that even when students and parents walked into the school, they could feel the brand even in the hallways of the school. So very exciting story.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you ever when you’re having a conversation with a leader and you do your audit and you’re kind of doing your research, do you ever do that? Does it ever come out that they thought the brand was, you know, a and then in reality it was, you know, G. Like where they were just kind of it wasn’t what they thought the brand was, um, displaying or evoking.

Kriston Sellier: You know, that happens a lot. Li they a lot of times they think their features, what they do is what the brand is all about. And that’s that’s not what the brand is all about. And people don’t buy features, they buy the benefits to them. So it’s almost like we’re swapping what the brand stands for. You know, people like to talk about themselves and brands like to talk about themselves, but their buyers, the consumers or the businesses, they want to know the benefit to them. So and it’s hard to change that language in your head. Um, so we really walk through that almost on every single project that our customers will say, we deliver great customer service, we’re innovative. We, um, um, our relationship driven, uh, we have the best price. They say things like that. None of those things are anything that people really cares about because they’ve been said so much, and it really doesn’t mean anything. Um, and where we want to get customers to is language that helps that particular brand win. And, um, I would say every single client, we get to a point where they’re like, yep. Um, we thought that, you know, that sounds right. But they weren’t saying it even though they felt it and maybe thought about it.

Kriston Sellier: That’s not what they were saying. So a lot of times they aren’t in disagreement, they’re in agreement, and they’re like, yeah, that that is what we stand for. That is our purpose. They just couldn’t get to it. So it’s kind of exciting to take what’s in all of the people’s heads and be able to think through the leadership. How the customers feel culturally with the brand stands for and be able to create messaging that reflects truly what they stand for. It’s it’s really a neat moment, and I will say that our team has that pretty fantastic when it comes to the verbal brand. Like what the brand, how you talk about the brand. And it’s a very hard thing to do if you’re doing it inside. And, um, I just feel honored that I get to work with a team of such incredibly talented, creative people that they’re able to take all the information and then create salient messaging that gets people’s head shaking. So that’s a really pivotal point in the project. And that’s, um, I get huge satisfaction just being able to be on those projects and see that happen.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And I think that’s why you need fresh eyes on it because you’re it’s too internal. Like you take things for granted. The, the the client doesn’t see what the outside people see. And and especially if there’s founders involved, they see what it was or what it could have been at the beginning. They probably lost track of what it is today in the eyes of their consumer. So fresh eyes is critical.

Kriston Sellier: Yeah. Yeah, you’re exactly right. They they may think that everybody does this. You know, a lot of times they’re like, well, everybody does that. Do they? You know, and we may uncover something and they’re like, well I never thought about it that way. So it’s yeah, the fresh eyes, the outside perspective is really important. Um, to be able to just see things differently.

Lee Kantor: And the impact is real. Like this isn’t a hypothetical. These are things that can really happen when you all get on the same page and, and say the same things, and everything looks the same, all of that, you get that compounding effect.

Kriston Sellier: Right? It’s like being in a canoe. I’m terrible in a canoe. My husband and I tried canoeing once and we flipped the boat and it was awful. But if you think about it, if you have people in a canoe using AWS and they’re all, you know, using the Or in the same direction and you’re going to go the right way, but if you’re all trying to go in different directions, it’s going to tip over and you’re not going to make the trip safely. It’s kind of like that. And it’s it’s really pretty beautiful when you see everybody rowing in the same direction, how quickly they can move in advance. When they’re all, you know, working together and to see companies really flourish is exciting. Not only from we get to see net profit EBITDA, company growth, company expansion, company acquisition. There’s a lot of great things that come after going through this brand process and following that, the branding program.

Lee Kantor: Well, Kristen, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Kriston Sellier: They can visit? Um ID eight agency. Com that’s I as an idea D is in design the number eight agency. Com.

Lee Kantor: Well thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Kriston Sellier: Well, thanks, Lee. I really appreciate the opportunity.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.