My Approach
I help businesses take their branding and marketing to the next level. My ideal client is a small business owner looking to create a cohesive brand as well as the overwhelmed sales or marketing manager with an inadequate marketing department tired of trying to piece together a marketing plan.
I want to be a resource for small businesses who need help with their branding and don’t know where to start. From developing a professional logo, letterhead, business cards, & stationery templates, to helping them translate that into the broader sense of branding, making sure every marketing move they make reflects their brand.
I also want to be a resource for overworked sales or marketing managers of larger businesses that know they need a more professional face, but don’t have the time or resources to make it happen. I want to help them understand the existing brand they have and help apply it to all their materials. And if they don’t have a well-defined brand, that is our first step.
My Story
I have loved design and computers from a very young age. I build an office out of scrap wood and markers in elementary school, and preferred to organize my toys rather than play with them. Tetris is still one of my favorite games. I started designing, if you can call it that, on a typewriter in my typing class in middle school, and I participated in every desktop publishing class in and out of school I could find.
Despite all of this, I still thought I wanted to be a journalist. I loved information. I loved researching, asking questions and getting all sides to a story to get the bigger picture. And I really loved taking all of that information and finding a way to present it that makes the best sense and tells the most true story. Asking the right questions and finessing the best answers from clients is a strength of mine. I really enjoy teasing out what someone is really looking for. Often you don’t know what you want until you see what you don’t or think about it from all angles.
In college, I realized that I could combine the two together. I still love information and presenting it in the best way. But now I take a more visual approach to my story-telling. It’s not just the words that we need to look at, but how the words are presented on a page or screen. You can have the best content in the world, but if no one picks up your brochure or knows where to look on your site, it doesn’t matter. HOW the information is presented is just as important and what is presented. And that becomes more and more true as technology advances.
Family
I am all about hard work and bootstrapping, getting stuff done, but my first commitment is to my family. I work with flexibility. Strict regular hours are not my priority, and super tight deadlines are hard without advance notice. But that flexibility extends into my thinking and I find creative ways to solve problems – flexible thought process and delivery. With a little advance notice, however, I can work under a very strict deadline if needed.
Because my family comes first, working for myself as a virtual assistant or consultant has been a perfect fit. It allows me the flexibility to work around my family’s schedule as well as my clients’ schedules.
Next Steps…
Do you have a project you would like to discuss? Are you interested in working together for a longer commitment? Please contact me today!