Unleashing Creativity: The Urban Essence of Street Studio Creative

Intro: [00:00:12] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Sandy Springs, Georgia. It’s time for Sandy Springs Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:28] Lee Kantor here with Rachel Simon, another episode of Sandy Springs Business Radio. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Connect the Dots Digital. When you’re ready to leverage LinkedIn to meet your business goals, go to Connect the Dots dot Digital. Rachel, what a show we have today. I’m excited.

Rachel Simon: [00:00:49] Me too. Hi Lee, I’m really excited about our guest. We’re gonna have a great conversation talking all about branding, which is something that I think is all around us all the time. And, uh, there’s always great real world examples. So I’m really pleased that we have as our guest today, Lisa Weltsch, who’s the CEO and founder of Street Studio Creative. Lisa, hi.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:01:13] Hi, Rachel and Lee, thank you so much for allowing me to be on your podcast today. And thanks for the introduction and sort of the lead in about branding. So we have a lot to cover here today too.

Rachel Simon: [00:01:26] So why don’t you tell us a little bit about you and what you do?

Lisa Weltsch: [00:01:29] Well, starting I can go way back, but I won’t necessarily go, well, we’ll get there. Let’s say, um, we I am the, the I run a branding and marketing agency in downtown Roswell. And what we do for clients and for our clients and for businesses help build the foundation of what they need to, to, for their their ideal clients to know who they are in the digital marketplace. So building brands, building branding tools like logos, brand messaging, all of the brand strategy behind that as well as websites. So websites are kind of our that’s usually the big ticket item that, um, is really critical in communicating all your marketing and sales tools need to kind of point to that hub. So we are a boutique agency. We are women led. Um, I have a team and we have a host of designers and web web designers and designers and writers and content writers, videographers and so forth that we use. And we’ve been in Roswell as an agency, as a creative agency for going on 13 years. So I have and I’ve lived in Roswell for 30 years. So that’s really my community. Um, I do have a back story behind that, if you want me to segue, or we can just kind of keep going to.

Rachel Simon: [00:02:51] Ask you about that later.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:02:52] Yeah, it’s all good.

Rachel Simon: [00:02:53] Um, well, you know, Roswell, our lovely neighbor to the north. Yes. Sandy Springs. Yes. Um, yeah. So it’s so interesting when we think about brand and the value of what branding brings to an organization, you know, in so many companies want to jump into a digital strategy. Why do we need to have that brand first? What does that bring to.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:03:14] Well, that is kind of the dilemma or issue that we see with businesses all the time. It’s very easy to like look around and go, okay, we need to get on social media. We need to be on TikTok. We need to be in all these crazy places. And I say crazy because that is, you shouldn’t start there. I have to always catch myself because I am a designer by trade. I tend to lead with design, and I have stopped myself because it’s really important to take a look at what the strategy is behind the brand. Building that foundation first, and there’s elements there in building the brand that’s really critical before. So actually it creates the roadmap. So you know which where to take your your next steps. So you by knowing certain things about your company and your vision and who your ideal clients are and what problems you solve, and really identifying that and then laying the brand foundation on top of that, the marketing and sales tools become that much stronger.

Rachel Simon: [00:04:20] So I think I saw something on your website and it was like something is the. Something is the GPS. Oh, yeah.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:04:28] Thank you. I wish I’d have to pull my website to get it. And that was quoting myself. Yeah. Um, if I can do it while we’re chatting. Because I have my iPad here. Um, if brand, if marketing is the roadmap, and, um, sales are is the the the the guide that branding is the GPS, that, that is the engine that drives the whole bus. So so if you look at that, let’s just say a triangle or depending on what side of the triangle, you’ve got branding really in the center. And then you have your, you have all your bigger sales tools off on those points that foundation creates. Especially I have to make a point of this. When a business owner has a very clear vision about who they are and what they want in that experience they want to create. That’s one reason why we love working with restaurants. Typically, restaurants understand that, you know, they know where they’re located. They know what their menu. They know they typically have a vision. So it makes it very easy for us to build the brand. The logo then comes out of that vision. It’s like designing or creating from the the brand from the inside out, because essentially it’s a personality. You know how you dress and what you look like and how you want people to perceive you is just the same as a brand. Um, and kind of make a sort of a side asterisk here. We have worked with restaurants, for example, that don’t know who they are, and they’re looking to us to create that vision for them, and it tends to get squirrely. We can’t we have to know the foundations and have that, and that has to be driven from their vision. Then we then can reflect back what they need in their logo design and their messaging and their colors and their their style and and so forth.

Rachel Simon: [00:06:09] It’s so interesting. I just had this conversation on a LinkedIn live that I did when I was in New Orleans. If anyone caught it, it was literally the most ridiculous LinkedIn live of all time. Okay, it’s so silly. Um, silly. And, um, we were talking about this and how, you know, when I started my company, Connect the Dots Digital, I was like, I kind of did what you said. I was like, oh, I need to have this. I need to do this, of course. And I went to Canva and I built a logo myself, which actually, you know, six years later, still functions okay. But I didn’t know what I was doing. Um. It’s very. It’s very challenging, I think, especially for the solopreneur to figure this stuff out and to figure out like, well, should I invest in this? Can I do it myself? Sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t. I’ll tell you where I learned that I couldn’t was my website. I tried to build my first website. It was an absolute hot mess. And then I was like.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:07:06] Okay, then you need a.

Rachel Simon: [00:07:08] Big girl website for my company.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:07:10] Now, right? And then what happens is if, okay, you just unpacked a lot of things in that one little statement, because that’s an experience that a lot of businesses or solopreneurs or businesses have. Where is the starting off point now? You might have created a logo that was functional. Like you just said, we often get businesses that come to us at that point where they’re ready for growth and they’re ready to go to the next level, maybe open more locations or whatever. They have cash flow coming in. And so we might do a logo refresh at that point. But the website is a is a key thing. But if you go to, let’s say a web designer and I’m not I’m not let’s say you start there. I’m not. Criticizing web designers. They still need to understand your core values and understand who you are, and if you are able to hand them a brand deck for example, your colors, your fonts, your styles, your brand voice, who your market is, how you want to look it will make it that much easier for the designer when you come for the for the web designer. But when you come to an agency, that’s when you put your big girl pants on and you recognize that I. I have a vision about this company. I have to bring in a team. And that is there’s a like, for instance, we have a couple of options. We have a custom option, but we also have a I hate using the word DIY, but we do have an entry level option in which it allows them to be self-starter and then maybe hand-holder and then fully engaged with our team.

Rachel Simon: [00:08:33] Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:34] Okay, now, well, let’s dig in about the brand. What kind of the definition of the brand is? Because brand I think means different things to different people. And, and and like you said earlier, some people think it’s the logo is my brand. But really the why of your being is closer to the brand, right? And brand is one of those things where you’re doing it whether you think you’re doing it or not. So you might as well be proactive about it because people are going to have an opinion about your company just however they interact with you, whatever they see you, whether it’s a website, whether it’s a business card, whether it’s a hat, and they’re going to come to some conclusion. And that, in essence, is your brand. So if you haven’t done anything proactively to really help define it and to clarify it, you’re kind of doing yourself a disservice, right? Isn’t isn’t that where you have to begin when you’re talking to people about a brand?

Lisa Weltsch: [00:09:27] I would say yes, all of that. You’re absolutely right, brand. Your brand is. I’ll go back to what I said a moment ago is definitely the personality of the the the experience, the vision of the business. So having an expression that’s really targeted to who your ideal client is, you cannot be all things to all people. And that’s something that, you know, when I had my dance studio, I would I used to call it spamming. I would just put and I was this is the 2020, what year are we 2010 I know, 2010. I’m just saying that it was a lot of like throwing everything out there and whatever stuck, stuck. And we have learned the value and the importance of really niching down. There’s riches in the niches. I heard someone say, and I love that. So it really does require investing in understanding what it is that drives the what solutions you provide in your business, and then how to address that and target your ideal client. So I don’t know if I answered your question.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:29] It also has to be it has to be congruent. Like, you can’t say I’m the fanciest place in town and then have like paper napkins at the restaurant, right? Like you can’t be Nordstrom. Say your Nordstrom and then be Walmart. Yes. Right. Like you can’t behave like Walmart and and say your Nordstrom. It’s just incongruent. So everything has to kind of work together. And I think the brand is is at the heart of it. Like you said it’s the engine. If you don’t get that right or you’re misspeaking in what you think you are and your customer thinks you’re something else, yes, it’s going to hurt you.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:11:04] It’s going to confuse your customer.

Rachel Simon: [00:11:06] Confused, right? And this is something that I work a lot with, with my training clients when it comes to LinkedIn is, you know, you have a sales team and they are all describing. They could all be describing the company in their own words as opposed to, you know, as simply as having a consistent boilerplate description. Right, clear.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:28] Messaging, right, to get that.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:11:30] Right. And it’s almost like a bit of clay because it does require molding and kind of refining. We were actually working on our own strategy right now and and defining it even closer or, or more more well defined as we have niched down in our services. I know who my ideal clients are, but we’re not. We’re serving we are serving a broad range of clients. But when I’m in front of restaurants or retail or right now, it’s commercial real estate because that’s been a rainmaker for us. Obviously, commercial real estate has all the consumer forward businesses. I in creating that experience and leveling up our brand so we can talk to those big guys. Some of these guys are these are we’re not talking to the little guys anymore. I we need to have a very clear understanding about what we can, what solutions we provide. And, um, I hope that we answered your.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:26] Yeah, well, I just want the listener to understand that this is not, you know, let’s pick two colors and that’s our brand. Or let’s pick a.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:12:35] Or even pick a logo. Right. And I’m actually I’m looking at because I’m looking at my iPad right now. Marty Newman Neminger is sort of the king of um or The Godfather, I guess, of of brand building if you want to look him up. Marty Newman. Newman I can’t pronounce his name, but he talks about how a logo is not a brand. Your logo is not a brand. It is the brand experience that’s represented by that logo. You think of Nike and you see the swoosh you have that you already, or target or any of the bigger brands that you have an experience with. They are they are consistent in their messaging. They know who their market is. They have, um, really identified the brand that experience. And when you see the logo, you can it’s very clear. So right.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:20] And it’s one of those things also especially um, Rachel, you were bringing up like the solopreneur just because Nike has can put a swoosh up there or even chick fil A can put a cow up there and you know exactly what that means and feels and all that. The small entrepreneur can’t necessarily copy the same strategies that these larger brands that have millions of dollars to invest in their brand, to put it everywhere and in fact, like chick fil A doesn’t put the cows in in brand new markets. They only do that in mature markets where everybody has already heard of them. So they have to do more education early on. And that’s. Do you help your clients with that, Lisa? Is that something that you can really help them kind of manage their expectations? Because you can be too clever sometimes for your own good when you’re doing this kind of work because you think, oh, this is so creative. And then if nobody gets it, that’s.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:14:14] Actually a very good point. In fact, I tend to be cheeky in my designs and in my, my, my taglines, for example. And my team is the one that really I really we, we, we operate as a team, but they’ll I’ll find them catching me saying that’s just, you know, this is not doesn’t it’s not congruent. It doesn’t fit the who the ideal client is. So we need to take the cheekiness out, maybe be a little bit more sleek or elevated. And our goal here is always to identify who the client’s ideal customer is, where they are. So we can make sure we’re on the right or they are on the right platforms. We’re not managing social media, by the way. I hope I kind of made that clear, but we do provide the, the, the graphics or the the brand messaging and the tools for them to execute that. Um, but having the understanding of who the what the ideal experience is is always at the forefront. And yes, we that is one of our strengths is because that’s something that a that a business owner will miss. They’ll think that, okay, this is cute, or this color is great and and things just don’t align right.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:22] And they all understand it. They get they get the joke right. They understand the message because they’re in it 24 seven. But the the prospective customer isn’t in the business 24 seven so they don’t they need more explaining sometimes. And it has to be kind of simpler, clearer.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:15:38] Simple and clear. That’s really that’s really a good way of putting it. Yeah.

Rachel Simon: [00:15:42] I think it’s interesting also on this, speaking as a solopreneur, um, you know, when I. Initially. Sort of built my company brand. I was very much in the background. But people are buying me. Ultimately, I’m. I am my business. And so when I did, which feels like my millionth rebrand. Um, I put myself front and center, like, on my website because I can’t be hiding. Right? So it’s like for solopreneurs, we have to balance our personal brand with our company brand and make sure that we’re hitting all the marks. In the same way, we still have to know who our ideal customer is, what’s the message that’s going to resonate with them, and who are we? The right personality for that?

Lisa Weltsch: [00:16:30] For them, right? In fact, that’s a good point. We may not be the right branding agency for every industry. We understand a lot of industries. And so even though I mentioned, um, restaurants, hospitality, that’s kind of a broad, um, a broad experience. We are working with lawyers, insurance. These are more service providers, professionals. What we still apply the same, um, the same techniques in order to understand who they are. But I will tell you, and I’m thinking of something ahead. So, uh, we apply that, apply the same techniques to understand who they are, who their ideal client is, and how to best communicate. I want to say when we do work with we’re now working with several, um, insurance and some, you know, this is more, I guess on the B2B side, we are applying some of the the things that we’ve learned, um, let’s say for our websites, for example, we’ve discovered that by and you guys probably already know this adding video and adding adding something more dynamic. It’s more engaging. So you’ve got these sort of businesses that might want to obviously remain very professional and very polished, but we we have ways of elevating that and bringing it, making a little bit more engaging. You know, and when you have video on a website, somebody stays, they stay there longer. And the goal, of course, is to, um, have lead capture and have, you know, the tools on there. So you can then that’s, that’s the marketing side. But we, we know what it takes to build those tools.

Rachel Simon: [00:17:57] Yeah. We got to infuse that humanity. Yeah. Right. Some of those right industries.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:18:01] Right. Exactly.

Rachel Simon: [00:18:03] Um, so Lisa, you have got a fun background in dance.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:18:08] Yes.

Rachel Simon: [00:18:09] So tell us a little bit about that. And how do you feel like that has like infused what you do in your. In your agency.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:18:18] Are you taking me back into my kind of my my own, you know. Actually, I don’t haven’t built a personal brand for myself. Um, I really focus on street studios as sort of the forefront, but I think if I’m going to talk about me as a and bring in my personality, I am a former dancer. I am, um, that meaning I did dance professionally in the 80s. I just gave away kind of my age and, um, and I’m from originally from California. So my MTV days and the days I was in dancing, um, and teaching, I was also in art school. I was in design school. So that was in San Francisco. Um, I felt like that was the lifestyle that, you know, reflected. I’m from Los Angeles originally, so I and I had a designer mother and I was sort of the the flavor and color of Los Angeles was sort of infused in me. So how does it help me today? It, it um, as I mentioned, I did open my own brand, which was Street studio Dance and Fitness. I segwayed into that in the 2010, I think. I come lost in the years here. Um, and what that did was gave me the sort of confidence because I opened it. Not as a dancer. I opened it as a business person, an entrepreneur, and the confidence to stand in front of people because that’s what you do as a dancer.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:19:34] You’re still it’s still a sense of performing and communicating and and connecting with people. So I think that one of my strengths, probably my biggest strength, is the fact that I’m I love people, love business. I’ve been in businesses shoes. I understand the, the the risks involved and what it takes to what drives business owners to have that, you know, fire about their their business and what it takes to bring it into the marketplace. My dance studio was an opportunity for me to have a brick and mortar and kind of be in those shoes. Now, today, I, I’ve, I find myself. Still. I mean, I still teach dance, so I mean, that is a different side to my personality, but I just love connecting with women because these were this was a dance fitness studio was for women, not for kids. So I want to be clear there. And and I still teach weekly. So I have an opportunity to kind of, uh, feed that part of my self, the part that makes me feel confident and excited about working out and feeling good about myself. And I like that value that I bring to people in, in business and in my professional and my personal life.

Rachel Simon: [00:20:47] That’s so awesome. I’m going to make a mental note because I was literally my husband and I were just joking about how for when we’re we have a milestone anniversary at some point, and I was like, we should go and have someone teach us the La La Land dance.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:21:03] Oh, okay. Well, actually, I have a teacher for you for that. Who can? A private teacher, if you want something. I don’t do that. I mean, I’m teaching essentially. I mean, you teach like hip hop. No, I actually am a jazz dancer. So I teach what I would call it’s a dance fitness class. If you come to my class, you just have to be prepared to really work out and sweat. I want to say it’s on the Zumba side, but I say the Zumba spectrum because I’m not a Zumba teacher, but it’s just essentially you’re following along and and I have following me. And if I have dancers in my class, we definitely add choreography. Um. It’s scary. No. Well, it’s it’s still, if I don’t have the answer, I got fitness people. I keep it on the beat. But anyhow, I mean, it’s listen, dance, just like branding or just, like, everything. It’s not for everyone. So I could still do a workout class with you because I lift weights and make sure I do all that stuff as well.

Rachel Simon: [00:21:54] I would just be pretending like I was in A Chorus Line the whole time.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:21:57] Okay, there you go.

Rachel Simon: [00:21:58] Um, that’s.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:58] So let’s talk though. But your brand has the word street in that, okay, so that that’s not an accident. Obviously, that’s part of your brand. So can you explain how that kind of all fits in?

Lisa Weltsch: [00:22:09] Thank you for that. So the the initially like when I mentioned that I we we were street studio dance and fitness. The idea is is that I, I personally lived in London. I lived in New York, I’m from Los Angeles, I lived in San Francisco. And I felt that this is going back to the dance studio. All dance and all culture came from the streets. So that was the street studio idea and and the design and the studio was. So I branded it this way. Again, I didn’t fully realize that I was launching into building this brand until after I went, oh my God, I’m building something that doesn’t exist, solving problems. And I’m doing all these things to create value in people’s lives filled with graffiti art. Very fun, very open, very urban. It felt very urban for being in Roswell. Close the studio open it rebranded as Street Studio Creative. It’s still the same experience. All of our communications, our culture, the words we choose, how we identify who we are as a as a people originally starts from the streets. So I feel that the that I carry that value because that is how ultimately we have we all. We all experience one another other. It’s in our cultures and in our daily lives. So the street represents that experience.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:25] And that’s at the heart of branding though, right? This is these are not accidents. They they happen. They’re there for a reason. And you lean into them. And that’s the full expression of what you do every day.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:23:36] Thank you for bringing that up, because that’s really important to me that, that, that that also drives the conversation of why Street Studio is different. We are a women led agency that loves creative, providing creative solutions and creative solutions. We’re not just designing something for fluff. There’s we put the meat behind the business in terms of how it’s experienced online. Maybe in print we do print. I’m a print designer. I mentioned that I was a designer, but that’s not our lead. Um, we really talk more about the digital space for business. Yeah.

Rachel Simon: [00:24:12] Um, well, speaking of women, um, you were you just received an award.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:24:16] Yes. We were. We will be. We will be receiving the award. We were, we are. We are honored. This award. So. Yes.

Rachel Simon: [00:24:22] So, um, you are involved with the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce? Yes. And you just shared with me before we started talking that you will be receiving a Bold Company award, which is about contributing to the success of women in North. Yes. So congratulations.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:24:41] Wow. I am really honored by that. Now, this is a team or a company award. Um, I am part of the Bold Women Committee through the Greater North Fulton. So I’m. I’m also proud of that. There’s probably. 25 to 30 women on this this committee and through Greater North Fulton. They have four significant dates that for that are women led events, women forward events. Their wine their wine event has men there, but it’s still in honor. It’s the bold wine event. I don’t know if I have all the names correct, but I was nominated and I was really proud that we had, um, we successfully were honored this award. So they’re having a luncheon in a couple of weeks and we’ll our team will receive the awards.

Rachel Simon: [00:25:31] Very exciting. Congratulations.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:25:32] Thank you very.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:33] Much. Now for the listener. Do you have any advice? Um, if there hadn’t really thought about branding, is there any piece of advice that’s maybe low hanging fruit for somebody or some questions they should be asking themselves when they get into the beginning stages? You know, maybe before they need you that they’re trying to do this on their own. What is some of the low hanging fruit that can help them at least be in the neighborhood of a brand that could, you know, last?

Lisa Weltsch: [00:26:02] There’s a lot there. But, um, and I do have a, um, we have a branding guideline that you can download on our website, and I don’t necessarily I mean, I, we can send that out or I can send it to you to send out or.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:14] We can put the link.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:26:15] On, we can put the link, or you can.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:16] Maybe share the link of your website and then they can they can probably get to it through the website. Exactly.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:26:22] It’s um street studio creative.com. But we do have it’s sort of a worksheet in and it’s something that just breaks down the basics and identifying your ideal client. It’s kind of the header. And in there you’ve got the who what, why your mission statement. Who do you serve? What do you offer? What is why does your business exist? In other words, what problems do you solve? Those sound like really easy questions.

Rachel Simon: [00:26:47] They’re so not they’re not easy. They’re not easy at all.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:26:50] No. And so when you stop to really reflect on these things, it helps you refine and define. I also would recommend writing a business plan if you’ve not written one. And a lot of this would fit into the business plan because that will help answer the questions about your about all of this, your budget and so forth. Um, and then what are your values? And then so I do have like a brainstorm list and write down the, the top words, which are your values. Um, refine and focus limited to five words. Um, and then define your core values. So all business, all brands, all have um clearly what I would call brand propositions, what those core values are. And when that is defined, it makes it very easy for you to understand what decisions to make at that point. Right. Um, and then you want to become this is really this is a it’s new Neumeier, Marty Neumeier. Why couldn’t I get his name? This is something I learned from Mani Neumeier, and that’s on his website, as well as how to become the one and only in your category. So, um, we have connect the dots. What makes you the, the go to and the specialist. And we don’t have to answer. I’m not I’m not interviewing you here. It’s okay. But really we have to we all have to answer that. So what makes you that one and only. And that is your clear brand differentiator and separates you. You want to keep your eye on competition. Competition is good because it kind of keeps you juiced up. It keeps you aware. But if your competition is doing a bunch of things, whatever that might be, email marketing, um, they decided they wanted it. You kind of got to be careful, though. They end up on TikTok, they’re on YouTube, they’re doing all these things. Doesn’t mean that means you have to do it. Just keeping your eye on it is really critical and important. But understanding what makes you different from that competition and and that allows you to really focus on your differentiator or problems you solve and how to niche down.

Rachel Simon: [00:28:46] Yeah. And it’s interesting because you and I are both in spaces where they’re they’re very crowded. They’re very crowded. Right. So, you know, very crowded.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:28:54] But I have to tell you, I don’t I know a few brand, um, agencies that I really respect here in Atlanta. Some especially that focus only, let’s say, on the restaurant space really, they do amazing work. Most of the time they do more than just that. They might do PR, they might offer, you know, full packages. And we really try to I bring referrals in if I need to because we don’t do PR, for example. Um, but I don’t, I don’t I feel like what our, our differentiator is, is that we really are true creatives and we really do boil it down to these, these the, the the root of the root, the core of the core.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:30] You want to be the go to. Right. That’s it. Yeah. Right. And let other people do whatever they do. But if you want this thing.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:29:38] And in in this I’m again I’m kind of glancing at my checklist here. We have a checklist of how to build your brand experience. And so there’s there identifiable things in here. And again we could share I’ll share the link with you and share this. Yeah.

Rachel Simon: [00:29:51] We can put it on the in the show notes um for sure.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:53] And that’s. Yeah. So. The website. Do the website so we’re clear on the website.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:29:58] Street studio creative.com. And. You should should pull up.

Rachel Simon: [00:30:03] Right. That’s I mean honestly just listening to that tells me it’s probably worthwhile just to take a brand audit to see how that’s.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:30:10] Exactly that’s exactly how.

Rachel Simon: [00:30:12] Are you, you know, kind of showing up. Do you need to refine any messaging? I mean, I’ve changed my messaging so many times. Yeah.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:30:19] So have so have we.

Lee Kantor: [00:30:21] And it’s interesting, if you took that that worksheet and gave it to your whole team, have them all fill it out individually. Then you’ll see the if there’s clarity. Right. Actually that’s.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:30:32] Real. That is you’re absolutely right. And I like I said, we are working on refining our our strategy right now. And that will be one of the exercises I’m sure. Um, and I’m really excited by it. Yeah, it makes me excited because new, you know, when you come out, you have your website, you’ve been open. Let’s just picture a business picture a business that has been open for five years, have the same website, same logo, same messaging, same, same, same. When they decide, okay, we need to pivot, we need to make a few changes. When they come to a company like us, they come out fresh. It changes in attitude. It catches an eye. Um, you can really see a difference because then it changes your kind of your body language. Like now, now I’m there’s confidence in building, having a solid website, having solid messaging, having a solid experience is a confidence booster. Not having those things and hiding behind it. Well I wish I could. I mean, it happens to all of us. There’s a there’s a lot at stake here and there’s a lot of investment, and branding is a little bit more of an art form than it is like marketing can you can tie to ROI and actually look at benchmarks and, and things like that. It’s not as easy with branding. It’s much more of, um, it’s a little more like I said.

Lee Kantor: [00:31:46] It’s it’s art and science.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:31:48] Yes. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:31:49] And it’s one of those things where you need fresh eyes and you have to hire a professional that does this every day to ask the right questions, because you have all the answers. The the company has the answers. You just need a professional to facilitate it.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:32:03] There’s also trust, right. So trusting us and we do have a track record I we have lots of really great referrals and lots of really great experiences. So but it is that trust factor because they are it’s like leap of faith right. You know you have to you have to by by stepping off, having that leap of faith and knowing that you’ve got a team that will will kind of be there to catch.

Lee Kantor: [00:32:25] Right?

Lisa Weltsch: [00:32:25] I like that analogy. I’m going to use that.

Rachel Simon: [00:32:28] There you go.

Lee Kantor: [00:32:29] We’re all learning. We’re all learning.

Lee Kantor: [00:32:31] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. I mean, you’re doing such important work. We appreciate you.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:32:38] Well, Lee, I’m honored to be here, quite frankly. So I and Rachel, I don’t know, do you have any other questions for me?

Lee Kantor: [00:32:45] I do.

Lee Kantor: [00:32:45] I want to make sure one last time the website, okay, that people go there.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:32:50] Thank you. And you can follow us. We have um or I’m on LinkedIn as Lisa Welch. We do have our LinkedIn business page, which is Street Studio Creative, also on Instagram, Pinterest. We we have a lot of followers. Pinterest is a good platform for us because we do have and I don’t mean to jump into any sales pieces, but we do have some templates and some things that we offer as other types of solutions. Some digital templates and Facebook of course. Street studio, creative.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:33:17] Good stuff. Well thank you. And Rachel, before we wrap, it’s time for our sponsor spotlight. You have some LinkedIn intelligence. Yes. So, listeners.

Rachel Simon: [00:33:27] Since we are talking all about branding, just a reminder of where we can infuse our brand into our LinkedIn profiles. And so first and foremost is in that in your banner image, which is the picture, the rectangle that sits above your profile photo. It is too often I’m doing a training for a company. Today I took an inventory of their sales and customer service manager’s profiles and I would say. Probably about 10% of them had something in that section of their profile. It’s such a missed opportunity to infuse company brands. So they didn’t have.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:34:06] They didn’t have anything there. Blank. Yeah. That is definitely an opportunity to have a brand message. Absolutely. And and use your brand colors. And so I have a question for you for people who are in a company and they may work for the company, would they have the message of the company that they work for or have a personal, let’s say, so experience about them.

Rachel Simon: [00:34:27] Ideally based on people’s, you know, comfort? I think that it’s great to have your company brand in there, particularly if you are in a customer facing role, but it is your LinkedIn profile. So just don’t have a blank, right? Because it just looks incomplete. So infusing your branding through in the banner image in your headline by adding a tagline to your company. Because so many company names mean nothing and require that tagline to make it clear. And then if you are a solopreneur or a small business owner, please build a company page so that your brand.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:35:02] Exactly. And I would say going back to this, the header, because we do a lot of those for not just for LinkedIn, but also for other platforms where you’re able to do that, um, keep it clean, keep it simple, don’t clutter it with a whole bunch of stuff. You don’t have to put all your contacts one if you because you can’t click on that. So if you are to put your website or whatever your main contact, but that’s going to be in your bio and all that, just keep it, keep it clean and and let it speak loud and clear. That’s another one. Loud and clear the kiss method.

Rachel Simon: [00:35:32] Keep it simple.

Lisa Weltsch: [00:35:33] Yeah, I love that.

Rachel Simon: [00:35:34] Um, so yeah. Utilize all those brand opportunities on LinkedIn.

Speaker6: [00:35:37] Good stuff. Thank you. Rachel.

Lee Kantor: [00:35:39] All right. Well Rachel, thank you so much for putting this together. Great episode. Oh, we all learned a lot okay. Awesome. All right. This Lee Kantor for Rachel Simon. We’ll see you all next time on Sandy Springs Business Radio. Ooh!