As a business owner, it’s difficult to do the right work AND guide your company toward its next big initiative.
With Red Direction Business Base Camp, learn how to implement and handle processes to meet your business’s specific needs and better understand your market.
Starting the conversation:
The disparity between the desired and actual image may limit business growth, making office changes essential for real revenue change. Elevating your office/work space attracts the clients you want to attract for real business growth. Carolyn Boldt, VP / Director of Design at CrossFields discusses the growth (and revenue) that may be left on the table by not using your office as a marketing asset.
Entrepreneurs and healing arts practitioners must recognize that the story being told is crucial for connecting with their ideal clients. Specialization, while scary and even intimidating, is the journey necessary to find the unique market space to be of the most service and most value. The connection points between digital and physical brand image consistency come from this important work.
In this program, you will be given two questions with which to use and evaluate your brand identity for the asset it really is; for learning how to connect digital and physical marketing efforts; and for exploring the entrepreneurial journey of a growing company designing a welcoming and on-brand image for healing arts practitioners. Jess Dewell talks with Carolyn Boldt, VP / Director of Design at CrossFields, about why it is BOLD to create a positive exchange of energy between your service and the client you serve.
Host: Jess Dewell
Guest: Carolyn Boldt
What You Will Hear:
Impact of our environment on our business’s success.
Your office space impacts the experience of clients coming to see you!
Your office experience is a branding and marketing asset.
Positioning and product are foundational elements for the way you package your office space.
The image you want to present versus the image you actually present may be limiting your business growth.
Office changes make real revenue changes!
- Attract the people that match the change
- Elevate your space and you elevate your client
Professional welcoming — how to think about it.
Changes don’t have to be expensive to do … but may be expensive NOT to do.
Connection for each interaction a person has with you strengthens the business image.
The reality of how easy it is to erode your business image between all the digital and in-person marketing elements you use.
Use these two questions to help you create the shape of the image you can present well.
It is possible to change the way people think about you and your practice.
Form follows function.
The story we tell matters and is important to connect with your ideal client.
Entrepreneur journey: you can’t sell yourself when YOU are the brand.
It is scary to specialize, yet that’s where you can find your own “Blue Ocean” (like the book!)
It is BOLD to create an office experience that is a positive exchange of energy between you and your client.
Get started and make a difference in your business with a Growth Framework Reset.
Resources
Transcript
Carolyn Boldt 00:00
When I say how do you want to show up? Who are you? I need to be really careful when I say that it’s not you. It’s your business.
ANNOUNCER 00:10
You are listening to the Bold Business Podcast, where you will hear firsthand experiences about what it really takes to ensure market relevance and your company’s future.
Jess Dewell 00:21
Welcome to the Bold Business Podcast. This is where we are exploring ideas that are not new, yet maybe new to us today are not revolutionary, yet. It’s what we need to help our businesses grow. Right now, the inspiration, the tips, the problem-solving approaches are what you can take away and apply to what’s happening in your world today. And by the way, maybe you don’t have this exact problem, you just like to come listen and learn with me as your host. Don’t forget, I’m Jess Dewell. And you’re listening, again to the Bold Business Podcast, and you can listen to this program on your favorite listening platform, the quickest way to get to that is red direction.com. Now, let’s go back to this other piece, right? You may be like, Oh, this topic is interesting. I’m glad I’m listening. I know, my peer needs it today. Send it to them. And remember, you know, this is your go-to resource. So when you get to a place, you’re looking to do something, come back and listen to the library. That’s why we created the Bold Business Podcast. But you already knew all that. You really want to know what are we talking about today? Well guess what? We’re talking about holistic health. And we’re talking about how that holistic health actually translates into our workspaces. Regardless of the industry we’re in. Yet, our guest is an expert in holistic health and wellness, in terms of the design of the offices, the presence, the way we do our work is as important as where we do our work. And you are going to hear from Carolyn bolt very soon. I want to tell you about her first, that she has over 40 years of experience in the commercial interior industry. She has a BS in interior architecture design. And she’s got a lot of credentials after her name. I’m not going to read them because we’re going to link to her in the podcast. And you can see all those. One of the things that stands out to me though, is lead l Ed. And that’s a type of design that is environmentally friendly, as well as forward-thinking. And so this is what one of the areas I’m sure we’re going to touch on. She and her husband Scott co-founded Crossfield. This is the design firm, based in Atlanta, that has in 2011 changed their focus to impact all of holistic health by elevating the public image of alternative medicine, because of create the creation of outstanding healing environments. Each one of us has this within us, regardless of our industry, because healing, nurturing regeneration. Okay, I’m going to stop here because you’re tired of listening to me, and we want to hear from Carolyn. I’m so glad you’re here today, Carol. It’s great to be here, Jeff. Thank you. Yep, that’s how it works at the Bold Business Podcast, we have a few topics. And here we go. And we’re gonna jump right in. How did you know that you wanted to really focus in in 2011? On the holistic wellness, that alternative medicine realm?
Carolyn Boldt 03:22
How did I know? So just the story as short as I can get it is we my husband and I were doing design build interior architecture and construction in the Atlanta area. And our largest client was life University, which is a chiropractic college here in Atlanta, and we are involved in doing everything all over campus. And in the process, we became very educated, I would say, are very aware, very immersed in the business of chiropractic. We not only learned how to design, chiropractic offices and spaces, etc. But we began to learn about the challenges that the alternative medicine doctor has, in becoming respected, and just that respect factor that they deal with. So that was around 2000. We started working with them in 2003. And in 2009, I had an opportunity to do a chiropractic office, a single Chiropractor office, which was very fun to me, because all I’d ever done was large, corporate type. Large conglomerations and I just loved helping the entrepreneur. And he was a student at life and he was an intern at the doctor’s office I was working on the next thing that happened was in 2010, life University asked us if we would teach a class to the students on the impact your environment has on your success. So we, we excitedly did that put together a six-hour course. And then the next thing we know we’re doing another student and we’re doing another student and it just became Pretty obvious we were also just you heard me say that I was a chiropractic patient. But I’d been a patient chiropractic patient for years and was very big advocate of alternative and holistic health in my lifestyle. So when you have this mission and this passion for more and more people to know and understand what alternative health is available to them, and you want to get that message out there, and then you have this opportunity to elevate a profession, that’s one of the largest in the alternative health care, it just started to come together. And at the same time, from a business standpoint, we also realized that we owned a business that we were the middle of everything. And we needed to a business that could be duplicatable, and transferable and eventually run itself if we were going to own a business. And that’s a whole nother path, we could go down, right? But we’re not doing that today, the CIO, we had read the E Myth, if anyone’s familiar with. And that was 2009. So we had this convergence of, we needed to do something differently. And here is an opportunity that’s opened up to us that we see a need to elevate this profession. And we’re very passionate about it. So when you get all those things together, it just starts to happen. So we, we tiptoed in it for a while and it just kept growing. And that’s where we are. So we design we have a staff of three senior interior architectural designers, with architects on our team, we have engineers on our team, and we design offices all over the country, virtually all over the world, actually, anywhere we can go virtually. And yes, we started doing virtual design in 2011. Way before COVID. Yeah, it can be done and we figured out how to do it. So that’s what we’re doing.
Jess Dewell 06:46
So first, I want to know, okay, because I also am a avid believer in chiropractic care. Do you know the discipline of chiropractic care you receive the what.
Carolyn Boldt 06:56
I receive, basically just corrective care is what I receive?
Jess Dewell 06:59
Is it considered traditional? Is it more where they’re working on your job?
Carolyn Boldt 07:04
What I received is more traditional, but we have worked in functional medicine, upper cervical, all different types practices.
Jess Dewell 07:13
I’m only asking because I go to a network care practitioner, also a form of chiropractic care. And I know your designs can serve everybody. I was just like, I was just curious, what path fit your lifestyle only because I’m always interested in learning that about people.
Carolyn Boldt 07:31
Yeah, so my personal path has is very much more just corrective care. I’ll just share this story with you. So 32 years ago, my daughter was two years old. I was a single mom, and she had developed chronic tonsillitis. And I didn’t know anything about chiropractic or alternative health, but her pediatrician wanted her tonsils out. And I was against having tonsils not against having tonsils out at the time. But I was against having a two year old go under surgery. I avoided it. And through the course of events, I ended up being introduced to chiropractic and specifically pediatric chiropractic. And got my daughter started at the my daughter’s room at my daughter’s babysitter’s roommate was a student at life. And she was the one who really talked me into coming in and my daughter was healed of tonsillitis. She still has her ankles today. And that put me on this path of really opening my mind up to how the body can heal itself if you give it what it needs.
Jess Dewell 08:33
It’s amazing. I think it sounds like just we could have a conversation like we were over coffee, just talking about that. And it would be amazing and fun. I also ended up introduced to chiropractic care, specifically for me, for from the same thing. I didn’t like the alternatives. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I knew what I was going to what I was doing and having to endure and deal with had to change because it was unsustainable. And it’s amazing. It’s amazing what alternative health care can be, can bring health and health care, the biggest parts are the things that we can’t see. And that’s actually what we’re talking about here with the virtual design process to be able to work worldwide with with emerging practices in emerging areas of health and wellness just for this so that I think it’s fascinating that you’ve been introduced, you are on a path for your family and for you that has been this journey. And now it’s a place that your skill and specialty can support and serve. That is that is something I very much admire.
Carolyn Boldt 09:38
When I decided to become an interior designer. I was 14 and my father worked as an engineer at NASA. And he was involved in advanced preliminary design. And he was working on the space station 20 years before there was it was even on the boards and he there was an architect that had been employed by NASA to You work with them on the zero on the interior design of a zero gravity Earth orbiting space station. That was his thesis. And so they he would come over and have some home cooking for a mom because he was out of town and they would sit in the living room and just philosophize about how the environment impacts you, personally, emotionally, physically. And I began to understand the psychology of space and knew that’s what I wanted to be involved in is I wanted to be involved in helping impact us use their artistic talent that I had, that use it to actually impact people. And in commercial design, which is very different than residential design, in my opinion, in commercial design, it’s not a luxury, it is a necessity for a business to understand that their environment when they’re brick and mortar dependent on a brick and mortar space, their environment is their biggest marketing asset, or detriment. So when people walk into the space, how they immediate react to the environment is so subtle, but it’s so deep, and it’s so real. And it’s that first impression, and if it’s incongruent with what’s being presented in that space, then that’s a loss. So all of that, that philosophy, and this emerging profession were like, Hey, we need to help these people, we need to help them, my job is to educate them. Also.
ANNOUNCER 11:33
If you are ready to make a real impact in your business, and you’ve waited too long to take action, go to reddirection.com. And click on solutions to find out how
Jess Dewell 11:45
I want to spend some time on something that you talked about because bold business truly is about doing things differently, and embracing what we have and how we are showing up in every aspect. And you said something that I thought was very interesting. It’s not a luxury for a business. And I will tell you what, I’m in complete agreement with you people who do video, that background matters, that approach the space that you have between you and your recording matters. And it matters more in person because there’s more dimension. And how do you what are your first couple of questions that you present people so that they can start thinking about this, to come down this path to be open to education about the importance of it as a marketing.
Carolyn Boldt 12:34
So I imagine it’s the package of the product that they’re selling, that they’re presenting on the inside? Okay, so what you’re doing is you need to know who their ideal customer is, who their ideal client who their avatar, it’s been called today and what they are trying to do you need to know that. And you also need to know, how do they want to be presented to that avatar. So it’s, you ask those same questions in marketing? Do you know you ask those same questions? When obviously designing a website, that’s part of the questions that you ask, but it’s the how you want people to understand who you are, because they’re going to form an opinion about you. In seconds, when they see your space, and your person. It’s not just your space, your the people, they are important and all those things, but your space is an aspect that you can be very intentional about, and should be very intentional about.
Jess Dewell 13:32
I actually think that’s really important. Because yes, you’re right. And I bet you probably get a little bit of pushback. What about all these other business elements, blah, blah, blah. And I’ll be the first to say, oh, and guess what, if there is anything that is unseen, that remains unsaid that causes stress or tension or disconnection, it doesn’t matter who the people are, they will get worn out. It doesn’t matter how efficient the processes are, what technology, it will still break down. And so I’m listening to you. And I’m thinking about this. And I recognize that there is an element that thinking about this actually can make other decisions that we’re doing in marketing easier. Because we’re actually starting from the place that is regenerative. Have you ever heard of Carol Sanford, she lives up here in the Pacific Northwest. And she created this concept of regenerative business, and it’s way more in depth than anything I can easily describe in a short manner, or what I will punctuate this way. If we’re not always looking at every element, at every perspective, we are definitely leaving ourselves open to accidentally fall into a really big hole. And so that regenerative pieces, what is the repercussion of what I say? What is the repercussion of taking this action? Not only tomorrow, a year from now 12 years from now And it sounds a little bit strategic. It sounds a little bit marketing. It sounds a little bit sales. It is rooted in Who are we? Are we true to who we are? And are we moving forward? So that’s what’s actually coming up for me as I’m listening to you, which makes me think this concept of presentation, I know we, in general, in the West have started to become, it’s not even casual anymore. It’s, it’s even a it’s a casual. Is that how you? Would you describe it that way? Do you see where I’m trying to go with this? I don’t even know the words, I’m not following fashion. I just recognize there is an element that if you want to have a certain presentation, there will be something that goes with that. And so I want to know from your person, and I can say that all day long. But you’re the expert here you are the one who’s saying, Look, all the stuff we never think about actually really matters. And I’m wondering, do you have a story that of a drastic change where we go from in my now expanding world, because I’m talking to you of somebody who in their office, and everything is casual, and they were missing out, and the benefit that they received from starting to think about the workplace environment, the service, the environment of the service provided actually matters.
Carolyn Boldt 16:17
There, I’ve got lots of testimonials of people who change their spaces. And they seen how people that they didn’t think I’ve got one great one that he was a doctor, he bought a practice, he did what he could to update that practice. And but he was in a local networking club, and worked with bankers, lawyers, things of that sort. Five years in, he decided to build his own space, rent, rent a nice space, build it out, to beat his image. And almost instantaneously these people that were in the network that would never show up at his office before were coming in and be becoming clients. So just by elevating his image, he was able to reach an and more elevated audience, let’s call that, let’s call it that. And at the same time, that’s why he had to know who was his ideal, who was his ideal patient. That was the patient that he felt like he wanted to work with. He wanted to work with the executives and help with their performance and some of those things because that’s part of what holistic health and chiropractic can do to not just healing but also helping with executive performance. And you follow Him saying so he knew that was avatar, that’s what he wanted to go after. And he wasn’t able to do that until he changed his environment. So that’s a story.
Jess Dewell 17:42
I now have another question. How do you create professional welcoming? Is it trees and coffee tables? I’m thinking about like a reception area and couches, is because now I’m thinking of a magazine or I’m thinking about a picture out of a picture on a website, or that you’ve seen designed, what is professional welcoming.
Carolyn Boldt 18:04
So professional welcoming has to be defined further than professional welcoming. So that’s the first thing. So when we do one of those common words that chiropractors come to us, and they say I want my office to be professional. It was like, Of course you do. Right? Let’s talk about who you’re going to have in that office professional is just not a descriptive enough word to come up with what they’re trying to accomplish. And we’re trying to do, I can go off on a tangent here and give you some. Okay, so let’s just say that a client comes and they really want to be known as cutting-edge. Let’s just say we were talking earlier about different types of alternative health and functional neurology is the is the type of chiropractic that really focuses very much on the brain and the plasticity of the brain and working through that the majority of the people that need a functional neurologist are very injured, they’re sick, they’re in, they tried lots of different things. To get concussions, they have different kinds of brain problems. And to really, what most of the functional neurologists, they’re so specialized, they really do have to charge a lot of money for what they do. Okay? So if you walked into a space and it looked like I have another story and he said Here I am learning to become a functional neurologist, you work in my office and you feel like you’re in the country. You felt like your country bumpkin instead of a professional. It’s professional, it feels very homey, it feels very that’s who that’s what he was doing before he started studying astrology. This hey you we need a more cutting edge feeling we need a more state of the art we need a more classy we need a more. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It just has to be purposeful.
Jess Dewell 19:55
I love that this does not equate to money it occurs relates to purpose.
Carolyn Boldt 20:01
We think about retail design. And the opposite show, I’m sorry, the stores that you buy, if when you walk into that store, the surrounding of that store needs to match the product that you’re going to be expected in there or there’s a disconnect. Same thing with hospitality, design, hospitality design needs to create an environment, depending on what you’re trying to do with those, that your patrons, do you want your patriots to hang out there for a really long time and spend a lot of money? Or do you want your patrons to get get in and out real quickly? What are you trying to do, and that’s the culture and the environment that you create there,
Jess Dewell 20:37
I’m thinking about digital presence. There are a lot of people that are practitioners that might rent somebody else’s space for a day or a week. And it would be important to choose the, the place that you rent, because you’re part of something else that matches that additional adjective descriptor of what professional is for you. Because whatever you’re putting out online, the connections you’re making the foot forward digitally, must be represented when they come see you to reinforce the expectation already set very much.
Carolyn Boldt 21:09
Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Which is we go back to that chiropractor, I was telling you earlier that bought the practice in here, he was trying to get people to come to his office. But he or the one that I was just talking about that functional neurology and the office looked like a country bumpkin, it didn’t match. So he wasn’t able to, he wasn’t able to acquire the patience that he needed to acquire, that he wanted to acquire. So yes, you’re exactly right. So the whole presence needs to match. And I love you talking about the digital background, because I want to just share with you you have a beautiful digital background.
Jess Dewell 21:45
Oh, thank you, because it’s the simplest one that I have had over the years, because it’s interim, I can’t wait for you to see my next one.
Carolyn Boldt 21:54
But there’s a whole there’s a whole need for people to understand that their visual presence on the web is part that’s their background. That’s what they’re Yeah.
Jess Dewell 22:08
And I know people like to make their own with their logos and stuff like that, to me all that screams, no offense, any of you that do this, I have no judgment about it. But I will tell you what it means to me, it means you win, I need you. And I see that I’ve got a billboard behind you. And you can put anything you want. But I’m gonna treat it a little bit more like a billboard. And thank you for this for the depth because Red Direction is all about circulars, my logo was circular. My the way we settle? Yes. And it took so long to find something that allowed that circular piece to come back in. Because our journey is circular. It’s going to sound like we’re it’s gonna seem and experience sometimes that we’re starting over, but we never are. It’s always that forward motion of rolling and changing and momentum, which is also circular. And then I love color. So there will always be something colorful .
Carolyn Boldt 23:01
And very appealing. And it’s very and distracting from what Yeah, I just had to share that with you.
Jess Dewell 23:08
So all of you listening to this, you better pop over to YouTube and take a look, because that’s where we do put clips video clips of this. I appreciate that very much, Carolyn. And one more thing before we hit our halfway mark here, which is can you give two starting points. So let’s say we’ve got to make that connection. So when we’re thinking about, and anytime we’re doing planning, anytime we’re doing a review of our business, anytime we’re doing this, we need to go one of the questions I’m hearing that we need to ask is, where are we creating connection subtly? Then I feel like there are questions that you have that could help us look at and make the connection between the digital and the physical, or the message of the communication and the imagery that is used. That translates to showing up and meeting us in real life in our space.
Carolyn Boldt 24:02
I alluded to them earlier, but I’m going to repeat them because I think that they’re the most important ones. Yep. You need to know in descriptive words, how you want to be perceived by the people that you are marketing to, let’s use that terminology, whether they’re patients whether their clients, whether their online presence, whatever it is, how do you want to show up? Do you you mentioned the word casual, that is actually a style, a super casual. And that style actually, and I could go off on some tangents on each one of those. But it’s not bad and it’s not good. It’s just is it is a style and it does it it represents something. So that needs you need to know what you want to represent. And then the design starts to come out of that. Okay, so that’s one you got to know who you are. Okay, number two is who are they? Okay, who is who are they? Because it’s not always the same, right? It’s not always the same. A lot of times it is though we tend to be attracted to people, our clients tend to be attracted to us because of the similarities. Probably not as hard as we think. But it’s not the same. For example, in my world, I’m a, I’m a grandmother, interior architectural designer, and I’m attracting chiropractors, and I know my ideal chiropractor and holistic health care, not just Chiropractors, we also do regenerative medicine and med spas and anything having to do with that, that choice of wellness. Okay, but I know that my most ideal practitioner is, it’s not his first practice. He’s coming to us because he’s elevated up to another level. And he knows he can’t go where he wants to go. And unless he raises the whole experience around him, which includes his office, which is an experience, I can’t we call it the environment. It’s an environment because it’s a whole experience. So who is he trying to draw into that practice? You’ve got to know those two things. So I know I’ve alluded to it, but yeah, who are you? Who are they?
Jess Dewell 26:16
This must be part of what you have in your reflection for business performance. Because while it’s not over, and it’s subtle, those can be the biggest changes the quickest. And I will need to pause right here, because don’t forget, I’m just doing your host, you’re listening to the Bold Business Podcast. And with me today is Carolyn bolt. She is the Director of Design and vice president of Crossfield. I’m telling you what, and cross Oh, I have to tell you, and Crossfield. Does digital design work for alternative? Medical and practitioners, right? Medical doctors and practitioners? What have we been talking about, we’ve been talking about the importance of how you show up, we’ve been talking about the importance of who you want to attract, we have been talking about the stories that maybe never could be quantified, but until this work is done, and then all of a sudden, it becomes quantifiable. And Carolyn, this is where I want to start backing for as we continue because you shared a story of a client, who they wanted to change who they attracted, so they changed their environment. And one of the things that I find fascinating is this fear, I think this is a theory. And it might even be a myth, I don’t believe this to be true of a truth. I do know, it is common thought that everybody knows everything going on in a small town, right? When you’re 12 years old, and you do something crazy in the seventh grade in your small town. And now you’re 35 years old, you might still be remembered for the crazy thing you did when you were 12 years old. Okay? That is a real deal. And now with digital media, it is harder to break that and because it’s not just a small town anymore, it’s the whole world. And so one of the things I hear you talking about with your clients that are ready to elevate and ready to grow, there’s almost this reimagining of a whole new image that comes out because I want to grow, but nobody else can see me how I’ve grown. And I need to start that so that the people who I now match since you were saying the majority of people, we attract we our clients tend to be similar to us in some way can start to show up.
Carolyn Boldt 28:31
And he talked about that same story, Jeff, he talks about how Yeah, this the people remember buy things, but the word that comes to me is that we now it’s been coined a lot, but branding. Okay, so many use the term branding. And it’s been defined a lot of different ways. years ago, it was as simple as your logo. But as it’s grown, Brandy encompasses more of the entire persona that your product is going to have, right and what it’s going to be and that’s you think about their stories galore of how cereal boxes change things to attract different look. I love to go down the cereal box how you can like look at it and go, Okay, that’s who they want. They want the child they want the young adult they want the whole the guy.
Jess Dewell 29:20
Tthey want somebody who’s health conscious. They want somebody who wants quick and good. They want somebody who gets excited about color and sugar.
Carolyn Boldt 29:30
I have grandchildren.
Jess Dewell 29:32
I know that’s amazing. What kind of cereal do they eat? Because I’ve actually now I’m thinking did I actually eat cereal depending on my mood. There’s a possibility of that when.
Carolyn Boldt 29:43
Very much. So it’s that idea that if there’s very big statistics on when companies change their packaging, their sales change, and that’s what we’re talking about. So the packaging, and I know you’ve talked In digital, because virtual and website and all of that, of course, we’re doing more the physical space, but it’s got a mesh, it’s got to mesh, and it’s so much more than a logo.
Jess Dewell 30:11
It’s true. And the reason I’m using digital is because everybody listening, regardless of having a physical office, it’s the thing that we most likely we all have in common that can benefit from all of the wisdom and the experience that you have in this specific place. And hopefully expand our view and allow a new piece of knowledge to come in. That helps us connect even further. Because it is those small details that really when thought out make all the difference.
Carolyn Boldt 30:43
I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, because I know anyone that’s working in the digital world also are I’m thinking like website designers and things like that, I don’t know if that’s part of what we’re trying to. When we design, it’s not all about how it looks either. It’s got to work, okay, that we do, and here 100% To form follows function. So it’s got to work and it’s got to be smooth, and it’s got to, and something you were saying earlier about re looking at everything that sometimes necessary, when sometimes happens naturally, when people move, do you know I’m saying it that just, they gotta clean out, they’ve got to rethink they’ve got to how many of these types of rooms do I need now and what’s not working? What is working. So that’s happening usually naturally, when people go through any kind of physical change, which happened about every seven to 10 years, and then coordinated. And that’s mostly function driven. And on top of that would be the aesthetics or the form the three dimensional space? And how does that help support what they’re trying to do as a business or as a person, or whatever it happens at our homes to so it’s totally void of that, yeah,
Jess Dewell 32:01
I’ll tell you a constant struggle I have came. We have internal marketing people, which I love. And every once in a while, we bring in an outside marketing consultant to help us think a little bit differently. And maybe it’s a rebranding, because we’re marketing people. Internally, we that, that realm is we are marketing people, we have this message, what ends up happening is we come up with this idea. So Red Direction over the years has evolved in a lot, because I live in the Pacific Northwest, and I love mountains, and I wear red glasses, sometimes red glasses and mountains have become very important in our branding. When if we are not careful. And the story of Red Direction is the point my logo is like the red point on every compass that points to magnetic north. So there’s something that you’re always following wherever you go, what ends up happening is the majority of our imagery, from outside consultants and things like that come back in, we are always being pushed to more. So not only do we have the wrong mountains, we start looking like an outdoor sports, travel company, or adventure company or, and so it’s really confusing. And we have to be really on top of that because this is a place that I struggle with making, maintaining that we’re in your boardroom. We’re in your executive offices, we’re going to come to offsides and facilitate for you, and we’re just associating with a compass in a nice way that is the subtle behind-the-scenes element. And so that is a constant thing that I have to watch because it’s easy in the day-to-day and the speed of the day today. To that can get lost. And then all of a sudden, it’s like, where did all this stuff come from? I love it. It’s great. And that’s not who we are. That’s not what we do. Right. And so I can that’s why that’s another reason I’m probably thinking that is this is helping me with my dilemma of that specifically, right now in the world.
Carolyn Boldt 34:01
So it’s interesting that you say that because as much as our design staff really wants to work with our clients, and really focus on their ideal customer and things of that sort. They don’t understand sometimes that what they really like, is not bad for them, but it’s not necessarily going to be appealing to their ideal customer. And that they want what they want anyway and you’re like we’re just doing your disservice to I understand you love Star Wars. But no. What does that have to do with your family that you are your sports or whatever? Like how do you blend that together? So it’s funny that you said that it came out of something you really like. And it started to merge over into becoming your identity and how, what do you do with that?
Jess Dewell 34:53
And then there’s this generalization that occurs and I actually think in branding, that is a slippery slope that no None of us realize until too late. And the two questions that you gave us before the break, are key to reflecting this back. So thank you for that. Because now that this is actually something that I can use, and maybe catch a little sooner before I’m like, wait a second, of course, we have high abandonment rate. Of course, we don’t have as many people coming to the office. Of course, of course, of course, because they think we’re gonna take them on a trip. Out in the world, no, we, we want to grow their revenue. I am super excited to hear the way that you’re seeing it from the other side
ANNOUNCER 35:43
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Jess Dewell 35:59
So is that something that in the branding of today, we you’re our potential clients of yours, the people you were in service to? We get caught up in the wrong way we’re hung up on? What’s our persona? And how are we seen and are we are our authentic self, instead of what we need to be.
Carolyn Boldt 36:18
That was beautifully said, you may love hiking in the mountains. But that’s not how you want it to show up to your customers. That’s like a little sidebar that’s really fascinating about you. That’s part of your personality, and your persona and all of that. But that’s not the persona of your company. Remember, it’s when I say how do you want to show up? Who are you? I need to be really careful when I say that it’s not you. It’s your business. It’s your business identity. Because you are not even a solopreneur is not 100% their business, we can go off on another tangent there. There’s the face of the brand and who that person is becomes that brand and all of that. But a true, what I learned very quickly when I studied E Myth was that you can’t, if you’re the brand, you can’t really sell the brand. You have to always be there. So do you even want to be the brand? That’s a whole nother topic to talk about? But it’s not who you are? It’s who your business is? Because your business has a persona?
Jess Dewell 37:23
Yes, yes. And okay, we are talking about this people. And you know who you are out there who are the center of your business, because that is the branding you have done because it’s the easiest place to start. The better I know me, the better I know what I like, the better I can attract what I like, which comes back to some of the questions, some of the comments and the conversation, and the expertise that Carolyn has shared with us.
Carolyn Boldt 37:49
And it’s not always black and white, right?
Jess Dewell 37:51
Well, it’s never black and white ever. Let’s so we’ll say that. And so with that in mind, I want to talk about you then for a few minutes, because you went through this, I heard you say at the beginning, in your story, you said we had to do something where we weren’t the center of the business. And for most of us, that actually includes our branding, too. So let’s talk about the center of the business. And let’s talk about when did you realize that Carolyn, I can’t be my husband and I we can’t be the center of the business and grow this thing to the potential? It could be.
Carolyn Boldt 38:26
When did I actually realize it? I remember sitting at a lunch room because it was like, we were getting burnout because we were the center of the business. Right? Okay. And everything revolved everything had to come through us to make any kind of decisions. We had a small staff, there was nothing that was duplicatable. It was all coming through our creative brain. So both of us are both very creative. So we were enjoying that. But we couldn’t delegate anything to anyone because it always had to go through our brain to and it was never done the same way twice. Not nothing in our business. A very little in our business. Specifically the design. Key things like the deliverable. Yes, the deliverable. And so what we, when we sat down at lunch room with a guy that has grown a landscape company, and he had graduated 2008 recession, horrible time with a landscape engineering degree and started mowing lawns, and got a hold of this ebook, and said, You know what, I’m going to turn this into a landscape business. And he started looking at the things he could do that he could make systems out of and change things and turn things so that’s what we that’s what we started doing saying okay, if we could zone in on the same kind of project. No two projects are ever going to be designed the same, but the system to design it can be modifie can be streamlined, it can be documented, it can be checklist it out, it can be worked through. So that and then every scope, every time we do a scope of service on a large project, we had to start from scratch, create this massive work to get it done. And here’s this, you may or may not get it. It’s like, how can we create simplified little scopes, so having smaller little offices to work on with simplified scopes became the vision. And then we could train other people to do it. And we hire very experienced interior architectural designers who understand that we didn’t have to teach them to be a designer. We also went through that for a while we thought, okay, well, layers that will try to teach them but when they’re not a designer, we can’t let go. Everything still had to go through us. We begin to learn it took a while. It was not an easy journey. And we’re still learning things. Like you said, we’re, we’re still having a look at what’s this whole customer journey like let’s relook at this.
Jess Dewell 41:06
One of the things I heard you say is once we decided what we were going to offer, narrowing it down. That reminds me of Jim Collins Good to Great his concept of one of the things, there’s three things that he asks some one of the three things in this particular thing, this particular exercise that he offers is, and I say offers. It’s in his book, Good to Great, he writes down in a Venn diagram is what can we be the best in the world at.
Carolyn Boldt 41:31
And we’d became niched. It was scary, to niche to such a small, it was scary. And I have to say we niched, while we were still doing over here, we had two kinds of businesses running for a little bit to see how to make this thing happened. And then but what? Because we are what we used to LaPrade say, Okay, we are the only interior architecture firm in the world that we can find that specializes. And when we started, it was 100%, chiropractic, and now it expanded into holistic, because chiropractics are doing all kinds of crap. There is no, there’s very few 100% chiropractors, but with that, it’s we’re the only one. So is that a good thing or a bad thing? Why was there no one else out there? So you’ve looked at the market that way, but it was to be that what have you heard the concept of the blue ocean?
Jess Dewell 42:25
Oh, yes. In my other workspace, it’s one of the books you will see there are five books and it is one of my five books. Yes. I’m a fan too. So yeah, we were absolutely right. And we met you for I was going to ask you actually, that was gonna be my next question. So you created a blue ocean. We’re just throwing book names around here we Mazal bring in all the amazing concepts that revolve around the Geralyn. I love it.
Carolyn Boldt 42:44
So yeah, it was it was interesting. And then the other real big thing I just have to say is that I was trained to be an interior architect, interior designer, I did not know how to run a business. And it’s just I remember when we created this concept, it started out as a Facebook page that I offered a free resource called your five biggest mistakes, which I still offer today. Five biggest mistakes, specifically as chiropractors I changed into practitioners make when opening an office. And it was I my experience of where that were those biggest mistakes, were just trying to educate people and start as a Facebook page. And then it was like, Okay, we need to market this thing, because we’re gonna have to do it nationwide. It’s got to go virtual. How do you market nationwide, all we had ever done was one on one local but and it was relationship built. So is a totally different process. Totally. Yeah. So now I actually don’t even do design anymore. I just business development marketing.
Jess Dewell 43:45
So going to the E Myth piece, there is a place where it is you graduate, and you are no longer the crafts person. And that evolution is really important. And it’s hard. That’s actually a place where I love to play when businesses get to that stage. And they have to start letting go because the other becomes more necessary. You’re removing different obstacles, you’re looking five steps ahead, you’re understanding how those things are changing, and you’re making other people more successful. You’re allowing your work and your legacy is through those systems and processes that got you to that point.
Carolyn Boldt 44:19
It’s been very hard and very fat.
Jess Dewell 44:22
Totally and completely Carolyn, I want to know what makes a bold, I want to know what makes it bold to create positive change in positive energy in the space that we actually do our best work.
Carolyn Boldt 44:37
What makes it bold when I was 14, and I got that initial awareness of the impact my environment had on me or the impact that I could help other people have from their environment is just really being aware that it the environment around you is Psychology. And it is it’s an entity that changes your, who you are and how you show up and how people show up and Enter. And just so many people don’t, they’re just, they don’t even know they don’t understand. So if I could help get that understanding out there, I’ve done my mission.
ANNOUNCER 45:21
Jess host the Bold Business Podcast to provide insights for building a resilient, profitable business. By deeply understanding your growth strategy, ensuring market relevance and your company’s future. It is bold to deeply understand your growth strategy with your host Jess Dewell. Get more information about how to drive solutions and reset your growth mindset at Red Direction.com. Thank you for joining us and special thanks to our post-production team at The Scott Treatment.