When creating this presentation, Brands that Breathe, I was thinking about the last 20 years.

I originally was a fine art photographer. Then turned into a designer.Then became a business owner and a strategist. And realized some people in this room are going to be brand new to branding, and there's people that are going to be in the creative space, so how do you figure out the pain points clients have?

I'm going to take a step back and tell you a little bit about myself. So you have a little understanding, too, I started my business five years ago.

My key mission is to elevate businesses by visually enhancing their brand identity and online presence.

The branding challenge is it's in one of two ways:

1.  I need a logo or website asap.
2. There's so many mediums out there. The industry is changing fast. Where do I begin?

You're either: Very focused on a one-off project, which, won't move your branding forward by one piece itself. It really is all of these different pieces and parts that orchestrate together and that's an evolution.

I'm going to walk through the process with you: First, rather than thinking externally, need a logo and what it looks like, let's take a step back and look inward.

Branding is the process of discovery of:

• Who you are
• What your values are
• How you think
• What makes you stand apart
• Who you serve, your target audience
• Clearly communicating your value.

Being really direct in what it is that you can do for them and how you can provide value to them. It's less about you and more about them, consistently in new and inventive ways.

Because the world are changing so fast and the way branding works, it’s about coming up with different ways that makes you stand out and be original. I'm going to show examples here of that in a little bit. And for people to understand what you can do for them—That’s being really clear with your messaging.

And then to think of you in the future. So it's about being consistent, because a lot of times when you're running a business, someone isn’t going to think of you right in that moment. But if you consistently share what you're doing and starting a story with them, that's where they will think of you in the future. 

Here's a great example of Let's Eduhake: We launched her website a month ago. Her business, she is a one woman tutoring business, where she helps kids and kids with disabilities, learn in life skills, like going to the grocery store, with their math or their individualized education plan.

What we did with her was going through the branding process of the culture, while she's one person, she still has a culture. She’s very kind, she’s very punny, and that's how we came up with the name, Let’s Eduhake, because her last name is “Hake”man.

She was looking for different domains and wasn't having a whole lot of success. And she's like, "What if we do a new name?" That's a great way to start because you want to be consistent with your name across all of your different mediums. I'm going to talk a little bit about that later.

The culture, observing who she is as a person, what she likes, what she dislikes, and then visually taking that into account with her branding.

The strategy is distilling all the information that she gave, seeing the patterns, looking at what other people are doing in the same industry with tutoring and thinking of ways to make her stand out.

The creativity part of bringing in bright colors, different elements, shapes and fonts that feels both professional for parents, but then also very kid friendlyand overall approachable.

The marketing side is marketing to the parents and families.

And then advertising—say she did Facebook or Google ads— It's directing you back to that website.

This is where I was in the advertising industry for 5 years and didn't realize advertising and marketing were two completely separate departments. Even though they're connected, they are two different pieces, even design and creativity, they all intertwine. It’s understanding how each of those parts work together.

The last part is the human connection and it’s producing testimonials and results—this comes full circle visually through the branding process.

Let's say you're doing all of these things, but you're not getting the results you’re looking for. Here's one way to focus: Look at your branding, use really clear visuals, concise your messaging and be original. That goes back into the example of Let's EduHake and where we went with it.

When thinking about the eraser marks as the buttons, using plus signs and scribbles, it feels professional, yet kid friendly. Even taking into account the pencil tip and the pencil shaving type of mark.

On the tables is my business card and it's a coaster. That was on purpose because it's my conversation with someone over coffee. And it’s something you can take home with you - same goes with this eraser it’s a business card where on the back is the business information, but it's more of a tangible thing where you want to keep hold of it.

90% of business cards go straight into the trash because they are printed cheap where as if you made something functional people will remember you and it's a more of an original way of thinking.

Colors—Now, we’re going to dive into colors and the visual side of branding.

This is AfterMarkets, a post summary newsletter of the stock market. The stock market bell rings at 4 0'clock. It's a financial company and what was awesome about this logo is that you can figure out ways to incorporate the A, the M and the 4 o'clock symbol. 

I could have went the route of dollar signs, the bear and bull, or using the color green, which is common in finance, but I wanted to make sure that they stood out. That's something to think about when you're thinking originally think about things that are a little less obvious and think through your branding a little bit more.

And, oh, I was suppose to talk about the colors! The color red is a sign of urgency.The psychology of red, even before we can talk, we associate red with fire, blood and passion. Red is a really bold color. Less companies use red and more companies use blue and green. I'll go into detail about that later. In this case, urgently, the bell rings at 4 o'clock. It makes sense and that the color red was used.

The color orange—I like to use as a pop of color versus it being flooded because orange is a strong, intense color. Orange means optimism, signifies change, think of autumn and leaves changing. There's some of those things that are in psychology and color.

Yellow mimics the sun, a color that is more optimistic as well. The Early Bird is a newsletter that launches at 7:00 and thinking about the early sunrise type of color.

Going into the blues and greens, We’re first going to talk about those colors and we'll talk about purple later. Green, means growth, leaves, and the finance industry. Blue is skies, water and it's calming. You see more logos in those two colors than any others in the color wheel.

Gray is also very calming and neutral. And you see a lot of logos in those colors.

Purple is for royalty and a unique kind of colorthat's used less.

Black, a luxurious and sophisticated kind of color.

Let's talk about fonts.

You can have a font that's energetic and sporty.

You can go more decorative and make it delicious.Going back to the colors, if you look in between the 1 pint you have the peppers and onions and thinking of colorful ways to visually show that simply when it comes to salsa.

You can have fonts where they are the main show. They're very punchy. They want you to have all this information in front of you.

Fonts can be mysterious, film noir-ish. It's really interesting how fonts can make a huge difference because if I use this font with the farm, it wouldn't have the same connection.

Going into another form of visual branding is shapes.

You can use certain shapes to call out certain parts of the design of a product: Go back to the bright orange and making it more eye catching or you can use an angular shape to bring your eye down the page as you're looking at a website. This is a more direct and straightforward way.

Now let's say we round the corners that makes more for a friendlier shape — so you have more of a direct client previously, and now this is more a friendlier client.

It's thinking about going through this page, looking at the fonts, showing a more professional headline, with a more of an easier to read body copy. The word, coach, is a friendly script font. The eraser is the little cherry on top.

Photography

Photography is taking into consideration, if you have lots of different photos and you don't have the same lighting there's not consistency across the board one easy way to do this is to add an opacity layer with your brand's colors.

It doesn't have to be super dark like this...it can be something more like this where the opacity layer is a tan color.

Going back to this is that you can create different visual dynamics where this is the background color, but it's also images.

Desty is a travel software company where they are thinking of your interests and you are picking your interests. What's nice is these images come from all the interests built into the software.You can see visually, all the interests, all at once, and then you can dive in and choose your interest one by one.

This page is more of a call-out to visually and quickly explaining what's going on without having to read the copy next to it or it can go side by side.

This is one of my favorite slides.

My husband, Doug, had animated this slide. He’s an animator. Before I show you this slide, I want to show you the way that our eyes take into consideration how we look at movement. I'm going to play this and I'm going to break it down piece by piece for you. I'm really excited for this part.

Here's a frame by frame:

Notice the color: Bright color, white color, dark color, light color, bright color...

Notice I'm not using white, white, white, blue, blue, blue because you visually like to have differences in contrast.

If you take it a step further, The first slide goes inward and the second goes outward. Third one's inward and outward. When you get to the truck, the movement goes down. MarketBeat goes up on the next slide. It goes in, out, up, down and zooms out.

It's about playing with different waves of motion and making it consistent.

Now let's talk about the basics of branding and starting with your company.

One recommendation for when people are starting a business or they've been in business a long time, is have your name, your social handles, your bio and tagline be consistent across the board. 

When people are looking for you online, for example:
bewiredesigncompany for Facebook
wiredesigncompany on X
wiredesignco for TikTok

You're starting to muddy up the message of who you are—That's where being consistent with what you're saying is important.

Everything that I have is Wire Design Company. If you look online, that's what my social handle is as well. I  chose to take a step further with the tagline:
Lead With A Vision.
Branding • Strategy • Design Solutions

Keeping it really short. On social media, it's about being concise and short.

Here's a few more examples of consistency across different social mediums: I recommend, even if you don't plan on using TikTok, create the social handle so someone else can’t come in and basically start becoming you. Having the ability to figure out what your social handle is going to be and do it across the board.

For example, if you have a common business name— wiredesignco was taken—One way to do this is by using little words in front of the name to emphasize and be consistent across the board for your business.

With my business, I came across the snag. If you count out the characters, it's 17 words. On Twitter, now X, there's a 15 character limit. How do you solve for that problem?

Because I am a one person business that works with subcontractors, SEO specialists and web developers, I wanted to brand myself. Because I couldn't use wiredesigncompany, I added my title and company name to the bio line so people can know where the tie to the business name is at.

Instagram tends to be more personal and relational type of social media. A lot of times brands put their brand logo on there, but because I'm showing my face so much on Instagram, felt like that was the right place to actually use my face versus the actual logo of the business.

So that gives you a more in depth look at the why behind the consistency and when it doesn't work in business branding.

Diving even deeper into the brand.

Let's go back to all the visuals: the fonts, the colors, the shapes and thinking about design...I'm going to show you all the consistency that's built in here.

The hexagon shape itself is a major component of the brand, because the hexagon is the most concise shape in the universe. A hexagon can't be divided down into smaller shapes like a square can or a circle. If you have circles all in a row, there's still spaces in between them.

What I found while doing this is it builds almost like a sense of community. And if you look at bees, they make honey efficiently out of hexagonal combs this way. I was thinking about being more clear and concise and using the hexagon to symbolize it in the shape.

The gray colors are more calming.

The font used is Antonio Bold and it's used throughout the site.

You have hexagons on the left, on the right and center. There's these hexagons that come forward here in a minute. All three hexagons emerge from behind the logo. The reason behind the 3 hexagon shapes is for the what, how and why, like Simon Sinek’s Start with Why book. Understanding your your brand from the inside out. That was a quick overview of consistency in branding.

Here's another client example: Marketbeat. Worked with them for over four and a half years.
When creating their brand, they already had the MarketBeat logo, but they wanted to update their colors, fonts, auditing their website and creating incremental changes over time.

What I noticed right away was the M mark is a line: “What can you do with the line?”
Thought about the visual patterns in financial graphs, I started to notice the shapes - of lines and dots - and thought these would be great elements to bring into the whole brand. If you look closely, the icons have lines and dots. 

Also thinking about the colors and making them more of these jewel tones, rich tones, because these are individual financial investors. They're interested in money. And it's thinking about luxurious kind of colors and paring it with Prata, which is a lighter serif font. The pairing gives a luxurious feel. The icons along the lines of the dots. And you can see that throughout.

When we dove even deeper, into some of the landing pages, having visual call-outs of gradients, with purple and green in the corners to lead your eye further down the page, and to bring in their brand colors. The MarketBeat app and reinforcing the brand with the colors and fonts in the gray areas with the line and dot.

The top 3 e-books were created early on with this darker, more luxurious look. Recently, with the bottom 3,  got more into this bright and bold and we introduced a new font.
That's where over time you are free to start moving in different direction.

It’s important to still keep your core branding visible.

Because the colors are still their brand colors you have the dot and the line graphics, speed marks, starbursts, and that actually goes to the starburst effect.This is another way of playing with that type of element.

And this was where MarketBeat, BronzeAge and I came together to create a design for the manhole covers in their space. This is the award that came after it. It was the same design.
I was thinking of a new way of even mediums that you never knew were possible previous to this. And again, reinforcing the brand’s colors and elements in new and exciting ways.

This is a piece where it's being more intentional about the folder structure.

When working with clients, I recommend having a short acronym for the client’s name, the number of the project and what the project is.

From there, creating a working file, that's where you put all your links in. Then a proof folder, what you're proofing out to people and then the final folder.

If somebody on marketing team needs to grab a final, they know exactly where to go. It's a lot more simple. It's a lot more easier to get there. 
So then that goes into organization.

Going further into it because this is a common thing that a lot of us face when you open up a logo file or a logo folder. You have all these different logo folders, which one do I pick?

Yes, there's black, yes, there's print, yes, there's web. But how the heck do I know which one you pick?

I'm going to dive into how to use the right file format.
I discovered this by creating logo portals where you can visually see what logo you are going to download. But then you have this logo color dropdown right here, where then you can choose white or black in this case it's black already. It gives you an idea of these drop downs.

And then logo use, if you want to use it for print. Here's an example of how to quickly find a logo that is white and for print. It's really that simple.

When you are going through the folder structure, where do I go? This is such a great tool.

And the other benefit is you can download the whole project up in the right-hand corner, but then you want to share with a web developer or printer, you can go to Share Projectand it sends a link directly to them.

You can go into advanced filters. At this point, when you're new and just starting outthis is the direction that's most intuitive.

We are going to talk about functionality next.

Your branding, like Dakota CPA, needs three things.

They need to have a website header, which is a horizontal logo in most cases, and then small applications like social media or embroidery. Having a clear and easily defined mark or icon. That's where creating logo variations come into play.

And it's because the designer is thinking 3 to 6 steps ahead,  how do you think about all the possible applications that could be used by this client? Taking it one step further you want to have a black logo and a white logo, making sure these types of marks work in those applications too.

This goes back to the file structure and organization. Now, we pick a digital logo.
For example: You don't have the logo portal and you only have this folder to work with. You choose a horizontal, full color logo for digital use. But here you got all these different types of file formats—What do these mean?

I am going to visually show you how this works.

This is an an illustrator file. It's called dot AI. It's not artificial intelligence, which makes it confusing.I'm going to show you the difference between .ai and the one on the right hand side is a .jpeg.

The reason why these two are so different:
This is a scalable image on the left.
On the right, it is not scalable.

Let's say you are a sponsor for a golf tournament and you send the .ai file to a designer. They can change the colors and do all of those things. 

With a .jpeg, what happens is if you get too big, the logo starts getting pixelated. If you’ve ever had a pixelated photo on your website or your print materials you're using a .jpeg or a .png.

Here’s the difference between the two and I'm going to dive deeper into this:
.ai is the best type of file format for logos and animations.
.pdf is a great second option, but there's an asterisk*—I'll get to that in a minute—where the logos and animations are more for Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and 3D software is where it is used.

.jpeg and .pngs are raster they are not scalable without losing quality. You can scale them up, but it's based on pixels, where vector is actual calculations.

That's kind of where you have your photos, presentations and email graphics, these are fixed sizes. That's Canva, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Adobe Photoshop.

My first logo that I ever did in college was in Photoshop, and my teacher said, "No, you need to do it in illustrator and this is why..."

When to send a designer a logo file, the best option in most cases will be a .pdf and this is because with an .ai file you have to have Adobe Software or a special design program to open it.
If you don't have that kind of software. The PDF is going to be your second best.

The reason why there’s been an asterisk behind .pdfs this whole time is if you embed a .jpeg into .pdf it’s basically catfishing. It's a box inside of the .pdf and it's a designer’s worst nightmare.

There are tools out there to vectorize your raster images, and there's a lot of AI software systems that are starting to do this. I recommend playing with them, but they are still quite rudimentary. There's still a lot of fine tuning. If you're planning on using a vector tool, you will want a designer to finesse the logo.

I'm going to jump into intellectual property.
I'm not a lawyer, and I have a legal disclaimer down below: Please seek advice from a licensed attorney in your own state or country.

When you are thinking about trademarking a logo hire a trademark attorney.

If you want to familiarize yourself even more, go to the USPTO.gov website. This is where the trademark application happens. You can watch videos and learn about the process in their website.

I highly recommend updating your terms and conditions on your website, and have an attorney write that, especially if you are a e-commerce or SaaS business, software as a service, it’s really important to have your terms and conditions and privacy on your website.

That’s a little bit about intellectual property.

Now, let’s talk about AI generated images.

An AI generated image is not trademark-able by itself. If you Google this and ask:
"I created my logo with AI, is it trademark-able?" It’s not eligible for copyright.

If you are able to change altered the logo by human hand—For example, the image on the left, was a AI prompt where I wrote:
"Insulated blue mug, fall running trail in the background."

That's what came up.

Now, if that was  an AI-generated logo and I used it as-is and put it on all of my marketing materials, somebody else could come in and use that same logo. We can't do anything about it.
You got all this brand recognition around your business, but now it's kind of like, well, now what?
These are potential pitfalls I want you to know, especially when generating content into AI.

When it's altered by human—and this is still in a lot of gray area of how much and how little you can change—the image to the right could be eligible because I took a stock photo that I paid for of the smoke, added lighting effects, all of the leaves were stock photos purchased.

They are on both sides of the image. I created that shape, but the biggest component here is I did take the buffalo head and I superimposed it onto the mug. Now that becomes a more human-made piece and could be eligible. That’s where it gets gray.

I wanted to give you an overview of branding from a visual standpoint,from a messaging standpoint, and then looking into the future and seeing what that holds.

I'm really excited to see where you'll go with your branding.

I'm going to open it up for questions.

First, can we give Kristi a round of applause for sharing.

I have a couple questions, but I will wait on those: Does anybody in the audience have a question?

Kyle. Hi Kyle!

With that logo portal, was that a proprietary thing? or is that a third party tool? What was that? I think we need that tool.

It is something that I had created with The Logo Package.com it requires a lot of understanding design software and being able to use design software to use it. If you go to logopackage.com you can  follow the tutorials and  do it yourself, but it does require certain criteria.

I think this is  a question for someone who's had a business for a while:
In your experience, when should someone rebrand and Why? Sometimes you feel you're getting stagnant or maybe your business is shifting. I was wondering, what you would say your time to rebrand is good and how often?

Yes, that’s a great question. The way I approach branding is to be continuously improving. Little things here and there. Make small steps because the industry changes so fast. Focusing on small steps and the end goal. 

But when you are thinking about a full rebrand, there are certain situations where you want to rebrand:

• If you're engaging with a new kind of audience
• Struggling to understanding your audience
• Wanting to promote your new services or if you're releasing a new product

That's something to be considered—when there's a shift or a change in the direction that you are going with your business. It's a good time to consider rebranding, and sometimes, it's more about connecting the smaller pieces. It's not necessarily "we need to change everything now" mindset.

Let’s take a step back. Let's look at your business as a whole and see what you really need versus trying to do all the things. Branding becomes super overwhelming when trying to do all the things all at once.

Kind of a related question: How about business owners who are just getting started, I'm not quite ready to go full-on branding, but I need a few of the basics. What are the things you'd recommend that they focus on when they're maybe not quite to the point of...In my case, for example, I'm starting a small business on the side, it's overwhelming to think about doing all the things at once. What do I start with?

I would start with going back to organization and structure of your business name and being consistent across the board with your:

• Messaging — that’s taking all of the social media accounts and putting that in there. 
• Get your url in the same name too. Your business name dot com.
• Get on Google Business. It’s free and easy to do. If you have customers who could give you reviews, ask them to write you a review, it's free.It helps build awareness and boosts your online presence.

When you're starting your business, really focus on your customer.

Get the foundation down, your business name, who you serve, what you can do for them before you even start thinking about branding. 

Because if the culture is struggling and you have people leaving, a job recruitment marketing campaign isn't going to save your business. It's figuring out the culture and the looking inward of who you are, who you serve, and what your value is to your audience.

I love that advice because if you're focused on your customer before you think about branding, it helps you know where you are. Kind of like the Let’s Eduhake example. It can be too, an inward reflection on: Who am I serving? Before even talking to you about creating my brand.

Any other questions?

I don't  know much about t graphic design, but we've always used .svg files — why is an .svg  your third tier preferred file format?

.svgs are usually used in web. Some people need things for print and .svg is not a file format for print, but it’s scalable. So if you want to have a logo, that's the third option. Svgs are most often found when you're working with software companies and more website-based clients. So this is more of a generalized approach if you're working in all mediums: print, digital, screen—That’s your guide overall.

.svg is a good file, especially for web applications.

Do you recommend mixing short marketing videos into your branding messaging? 

I do. It helps people understand what you're doing. Very concise, under 30 seconds, 60 seconds max. I’m actually doing this right now with my brand—I'm creating YouTube Shorts. You can do it in LinkedIn, you can do it in Facebook, you can do it on X and on Instagram.It helps seeing your face because people want to connect with people. And that's important to think about looking forward is gettingyou in front of the camera as much as you can.

Kristi, does it matter how’s the fidelity of that video? I know sometimes people are worried about really highly produced videos when they're posting on social media. But sometimes I've heard people connect to actually with a more raw on your phone. 

You can play with both of those and  see what happens. I know people personally who have over 100,000 followers on certain social media platforms, and they still get most of their business from the relationships they build offline, not directly from social media.

Now, if you're doing e-commerce, it's a little bit different because you're selling products.

But at the end of the day, it’s to build awareness of your brand and develop relationships socially. The social platforms are made for social.It's not necessarily about selling on social media sites, but to share stories, show processes and being able to connectwith another person— that's where social becomes really successful. Great question.

Any other questions?

I had no clue who you were prior to signing up for this workshop. I don't know if I went on the Startup Sioux Falls website, where I actually saw your first image and your first image that I saw was you upside down. If you want me to be completely honest, I clicked on your image like ten times. Did they get this wrong? Why is it this way? Does she know it’s wrong?

That’s the whole thing. That's my question. What made you do that?
Because to me, I was like, and then I saw it up here and she’s doing it on purpose...
That’s brilliant! But what made you do that?

I get this question lot.
In 2016, I wanted to do something that evokes joy, because I’m a joyful person. I'm doing it to have fun. It's not necessarily sell you something. Doing something different and creative takes a lot of guts.

And I think people need to embrace their originality and go out there with their talents in ways like: "What if I do turn my photo upside down?"
Then it becomes this conversation starter between us of "Why did you do it?"
And that's the reason why...and then you clicked on it 10 times.

And then I get five emails here: "Hey, Kristi’s photo is upside down." No, she’s just cool and interesting. It’s unique. It’s upside down on purpose. 

I can turn in right side up.

No, I love it. It's who you are.

Any other questions?

Can you all help me thank Kristi one more time?

Thank you.

Welcome to Frame One, I'm Drysen and today I'm sitting down with Kristi Wire of Wire Design Company. 

We are talking  about your journey and to give a brief synopsis, the way Frame One works is this is completely unscripted, very natural, very conversational. So wherever this goes, we go. But the goal is to talk about your journey, the emotions you felt before leaving the agency world into what you're doing here today. 

To recap, I want to make sure I got your story right. You worked in the agency world for about 10 years. You left the agency world to start your own design studio about five years ago, and you've been rocking it ever since.

That's correct. And thank you so much for having me today. 

When starting a business, there's always going to be that fear. The fear of: 

• How am I going to survive? 
• How am I going to get new clients... 
• All of the things. 

It's based off of survival and naturally humans want to be safe.

Yeah. It's a lizard brain kicking in.

Yeah. When I was building  different strategies and processes and meeting with clients, I realized over time watching my husband, who is also an entrepreneur, the ups and downs. And one day he said to me, "You're kind of an agency inside an agency. Why don't you go off and do your own thing?" Now, two entrepreneurs in one house is a little scary , but there was this little instinct or intuition of: You should really pursue this—It wasn't something that I actively pursued in the beginning.

So that calling you had right there, was that something you've always had or was it once your husband's mentioned it, you're like, oh yeah, that could be a thing?

There was a little intuition before that and the biggest reason why I left was I had a really great friend, and he was just a really bright person, energy wise.  I knew him and his wife before they even met. I was friends with both of them and I wasn't their matchmaker, but he was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer and they gave him two years to live. He lived two years beyond his due date.

And I realized, in that moment, life is too short. What do you want to do in life that you want to do?

That's an intense call to action, like a call to like, yes, I'm going to make a choice and I'm going to move forward. What was your final moment where you're like, okay, I'm ready. Let's pull the trigger tomorrow, next week, next month?

It was his diagnosis. It really was. And his positivity throughout it all. I get teary-eyed when I talk about him, but it's so important to realize that you have no idea what tomorrow brings and go for what you want to do in life. Do the scary things because people regret stuff on their deathbed and I don't want to live like that.

Oh... I got the chills. I got the chills.

There's something about life in general that... Just finding joy even when things are tough. I think that's something, as entrepreneurs, it's kind of a different breed of people. Not everyone's meant to be an entrepreneur because it is...It's hard. You have to be so resilient and there are so many challenges that you don't see, that your employees, your clients don't see, but yet you need to solve these problems.

Talking about that entrepreneur stuff, there's a book I read a little while ago called Entrepreneurial Leap by Gino Wickman, and it was very interesting because it's a self-diagnosis help book trying to figure out, "Hey, do you have the traits to be a true entrepreneur or are you more like a lifestyle business?" Because both are fine, but knowing which one you are helps to grow your business. It was an insightful book for me to read and listening to you talk about, "Hey, do you want to solve the problems and do this and deal with that." Just kind of made me think about that. So I wanted to throw it out for anybody who wants to listen to that real quick or check that out.

So talk to me about as that diagnosis came to be, you're like, yes, I'm going to start my own studio that I'm going to be able to help people build branding packages and build design and do all the stuff you can do for them. As that deadline of like I'm leaving my job next week, came to be closer, talk to me about how you prepared to make that transition.

I prepared by asking eight different freelance designers who were in the business for over two years:

• What are the pros?
• What are the cons?
• What you would recommend when starting? 

And there was some great insights from people that I knew for years. My aunt, Kim Rasmussen ran an interior design business for over 30 years and she worked with multi-million dollar clients. And she helped me craft my contracts and also helped me understand QuickBooks. And those two things are really important when you start out.

Got to get the money figured out.

And contracts, having it half up front, because in our world we do so much up front as far as work goes and making sure that is set for you as well.

Yeah, absolutely. And I imagine that learning curve, okay, I've got to figure out contracts, I got to figure out money. That's a lot of things to learn right off the bat, to be prepared for. When you first started freelancing then, did you have all this stuff in place and you were able... Not freelancing but your studio, were you able to have everything in place and run with it then, or did you still have growing things to learn over the next few years?

What I first did was I took a whole month off. I stopped in the agency world on February 1st of 2019—I'm so glad it wasn't a year later—this would've been a whole different scenario...potentially...Anyways, when I decided on February 1st, then that first full month was building out the contracts, building out onboarding, ongoing and exiting strategies— with not only clients but also subcontractors. 

So the way that I run my business is not as a freelance business, which that can be a little confusing to people because they look at me and they're like, "Oh, you're a graphic designer of one." The way that I've structured it and the way that I've  shared this story is:
Wire Design Company is a creative strategy studio where it's a company of one, myself, that does the communication and design and the strategy, but I hire out highly skilled individuals, especially when it comes to websites, as developers, other strategists, and I only take on people who I know personally and have a good track record and also are business owners as well. So they're not going to just flake out and disappear, which is so common in the freelance world.

When I decided to go that route versus doing freelance, I still do a little freelance here and there. If the project is like this amazing project and I want to be a part of that team. 

Absolutely.

But for the most part it's working directly with the business owner or the CEO or the marketing manager of a company, mostly leaders who are looking for someone who has a creative vision for them and walking them through the process of what are your pain points, what are your successes? And then visually show that in their branding, which is something that can be so transformative for different companies. 

I don't niche down because I like being an outside perspective looking in and being like, "Has your audience ever thought about this?" Because it's a different perspective that helps understand who they are, why they do the things that they do, and what kind of value they bring to the table for their particular audience.

Absolutely. For complete transparency, we hired you to work with my wife's photography company probably longer ago than I want to admit. And the process that we went through of you showing and presenting me how things could be mocked up and how they could be used was unlike anything else that I'd seen from a freelance basis before. So when I felt the word leave my mouth, freelancer, earlier and I'm like, no, that's not the right one. It's a studio of one. So I apologize, that was not my intent.

That's all right.

But with that, being a studio owner where you're able to outsource particular parts of the process can also be scary and stressful too. And a lot of the goal of the people we've been talking to in Frame One is sharing that journey of saying, "Hey, I have to let go of this creative piece here to have someone who's more talented or more skilled than what I am or has more time than what I do to accomplish that." So let's explore that for a moment here.The first time that you had to outsource something, talk to me a little bit about that experience?

Outsourcing—When it comes to web development, I outsource pretty much all of that. However, I have discovered a new type of website software where I can actually develop without code. So that's really cool. But I also still lean heavily on web developers, especially when it comes to hosting environments because that's a whole crazy world with website hosting, email hosting, all of that. But I'm kind of going on a tangent. So going back to outsourcing, can you be a little bit more specific? What kind of...

In general, because...I don't think I've talked about this at all on Frame One yet, so this is a first time to share:
My first company was Three Cord Weddings, and it was my wife and I, we were DJ and photographer together. One reason that we realized we could not scale the business up was because I was too close to the business and for me to let go of the trust, for another person to be able to do as good of a job as what I wanted to do, was really hard for me to do. I did not have that ability from an emotional standpoint, which is why I'm hyper-focused now. It's different because it's not live and I can trust people. For me learning to say, "Hey, I need you to do this thing for me." Was a major growing curve or a growing point in my career. Did you experience something different the first time you had to say, "Hey, I need your help to do something that I can't do?"

When you outsource, it's really transformative because you are putting trust in someone else and in their skill set. When you can identify in yourself—I'm not great at coding, but here's someone who is excellent at coding—I don't want to spend the time or energy to continue to try and learn to code like they do...

Yeah.

... but have a basic understanding of coding and lean on them for their expertise and ask them questions, bounce ideas off of each other. That's the really important part of running a business is continually learning and communicating with people in a way that helps not only promote their business but your business as well. It's important to promote their business too. And with all of my subcontractors that I work with, I give them the opportunity to talk directly with the client.

That's cool.

And it's very hands-off in that way, and that's really important for trust. Some people decide that they don't want to do that and that's fine. It's kind of tailored to how they want to work. And then also I have a Slack channel with my different subcontractors and it's asking... And a couple of them, we work together quite often. So with the Slack channel, we have a set time a day that they like to Slack. And then in advance, I'll ask, "Hey, could we meet this day?" It's building the expectations + a structure of, "Okay, this person is available at this time. Let's make sure we do the meetings at this time." And it's just been really a great experience and really enjoy working with...

I love that. 

And then also printers here in town. A printer that does a hundred tote bags and then a printer who does 10,000. There's different printers that do better work based on those kinds of parameters. So it's about being a guide to clients when they're doing print work and saying, "Hey, this company is really good for this because you're looking at doing tote bags or direct mail." Building those relationships and knowing exactly who can do and what their specialties are.

I want to take it back real quick to that month you took off to put your processes in place. When you took February off and you're getting up to ramp up to March, what was your confidence level? Like, yeah, we're going to crush this.

It was a lot of leaning on my husband, to be honest.

Yeah.

He's a very positive person. I'm kind of more of a negative person, but I would say negativity in the short term and positive in the long term. I think that's a  healthy way... Well, I shouldn't say healthy way, but it's a balance of he's very positive in the now, which has been amazing to find a partner that you balance out with because he's been a major cheerleader.

Maybe there's something we should talk about there a little bit is just having that support system when you are venturing off to do your own thing. Because same way I would've given up years ago if not for Erin being like, not Drysen and you're not going to be happy anywhere else. Keep going. Talk to me about the importance of having a support system.

A support system is so important. It's a very lonely journey as a CEO, as a founder, as an entrepreneur, whatever you want to put that title on and your support system, especially if it's people who are in your same shoes.

If you are with other entrepreneurs, my husband Doug, is that, and I'm trying to think of how to describe this... They can put themselves in your shoes too. They've been through a lot of the same things you've been through. That's where leaning into people who are like-minded, but also having people that have a completely different perspective. 

My father is an engineer, but I've reached out to him for advice, especially when talking with CEOs or business owners, because it was something that I was already doing, but I wanted to improve on. 

When starting a business, there's not really a finish line. It's not really a marathon. It's an ongoing, continually improving evolution.

I love that. When you were getting ready to leave the agency world to start Wire Design Company, what systems did you put in place for building relationships and reaching out to people? What was that start-up phase like for you to start reaching out to new clients, to new businesses?

The biggest surprise that I had was that all of the business, except for one client that I've had has been all word-of-mouth. It's been someone who knew someone and haven't done any type of the traditional or digital marketing.And that's going to change here soon. But at the same time, I wanted to reach out to the network that I had built over the last 10 years in the agency and digital marketing world and just telling people, "Hey, I'm out here doing my own thing now. I'm doing creative strategy, branding and websites, and this is the date that I'm available and would love to work with you."

I crafted up this piece—It is about five years old already—put it in a bright envelope and then also creating a piece where it's more dynamic than a regular postcard. 

I sent this right out at the beginning of the year. Before I had left, but I had already put in my six-week notice. It was a New Year's resolution card. It went out at the beginning of the year and it had my business card in it. 

I sent it out to about a hundred people and got 20 replies back. Even two years later, people were still contacting. 

There's a saying that print is dead, but if it's done with intention, craft and quality, then also provides value to the person you're sending it to, I think that's the biggest component is a value to that person.

And it ended up being where I went from zero clients for the first three months and about that three month mark, I got really nervous, did I make the wrong decision sort of thing. But what I did was before leaving on the agency world too, was I saved up a year's worth... if shit hit the fan and I wasn't going to have a single person come through the door, have a year set aside, and I said to Doug, "I'm really nervous about this." And Doug was like, "The worst thing that could happen is you're just going to have to go back into agency world or do something different."

Right.

"What do you got to lose?" "Yeah, you're completely right." I changes my mindset to: "Okay. I got a year." 

The first three months were quite stressful. 

Every day I went to work and did the habit of, "Okay, I'm going to reach out to new people, I'm going to continue to send out proposals."
At that point I was meeting with people and sending out proposals, but I knew that there was going to be a floodgate open at some point, and I'm thinking, "Okay, do I stop now?" And it's like, no, keep doing it, keep doing it. And tkept building processes over that time, the onboarding, ongoing and exiting systems that I talked about earlier.

What happened was almost on the three month mark is I met with Matt Paulson. It was completely by accident because I actually had a no-show at Josiah's. Anyways, I saw him working and he shared a studio space with my husband at Creative Co-Op years back.

 And I said, "Hey Matt, I'm starting this new venture." And his response was, "I think I have a project for you." That's how we started, we started with The Early Bird and then worked into Market Beat. For the past four years, I have been building a majority of their brand. Now, they recently hired an amazing in-house designer. And while the torch has been handed off, I'm  so happy for them and to see how much their company has grown over the last five to ten years and being a part of their growth and process.

Matt was the first client, and within two weeks, 18 people had responded to these contracts and said, "Let's go!" It was the flood gate situation of Oh, no! What am I going to do? Followed by: Nope, you just put that hat on of like, "I'm going to figure it out. We're going to make this work." 

Some people had to wait awhile, which they were open to doing that and there were some people that were like, "You know what? I really need this today." But it was one of those moments where it's like, "Okay, now I need to figure out how much workload can I take on?"

What is your capacity? Yeah.

And luckily I was able to take on, 12–14  clients and was able to pump out everything in two months.

That's impressive.

Two months, all of the work with them.

That's impressive.

Coming from the agency world, the one thing that was really beneficial is how to work fast and on your feet. It's always been in my nature to do things super fast, but also focusing on the quality and getting to the solution as fast as possible.

So when you first started, your services were branding, websites and creative strategy...Have they changed over the years?

It has stayed the same. Consistently. And I think that's because of... They can be so diverse because when you think of branding, it could be vehicle graphics, it could be internal wall graphics, it can be logos and all of the umbrella items that go beyond that with elements, fonts and colors. And even going into messaging and voice. The way that you talk and the way you present yourself or your business says a lot about you. And a lot of times that's taken for granted or is just kind of this kind of hidden visible.

It's almost like a subconscious expectation that when somebody interacts with your brand, it's like a promise of what to expect.

Right, when branding doesn't work is when that promise isn't met or that expectation isn't met. There's a lot of great branding and designers and strategists out there in the world, but there's also a lot of not great ones too. And it's finding what fits with your company.

Yeah, this actually might be a fun thing to dive into real quick then, if you don't mind.

Sure.

Because like I said, the sub goal of Frame One is to inspire the next generation of freelancers to take their shot and start a freelance career or for people who are currently freelancing to level up and start a studio. So talk to me about the role of how to plan for branding, how to think about branding and how to implement branding into a small startup company.

The way that I would recommend would be something very, very simple. Four things. It's why you matter, why your product services matter to a specific audience and figure out who your specific audience is. And then the other is to tell your story because people want to work with people that they like, know and trust.

Absolutely.

And in order to get from like to trust, you have to share what your services are, how your process works, what it's like working with you. And it seems so simple, but what's interesting about the human brain and the way we think is usually we're either here or it's way out here, and it's finding that middle ground. And that's kind of what I do with clients every day is kind of bring it in and just being like, "Okay, what are the biggest pain points? What are you looking to accomplish?"

And just being really transparent and honest and figuring out, because sometimes a client will come to me and say, "Hey, I want a website." And it's like, "Okay, what's not working with your current website?" Let's first dive into that because there could be things that are not seen that are going on and want to make sure making the right recommendations for you.

Right.

And it's like having those kinds of conversations are really beneficial versus like, "Oh yeah, I'll do that." And then just run with whatever they want to do. Because sometimes it's like there are a lot of ways that can be more streamlined, whether it's saving money or building a higher profit margin. There's just so many different ways.

One of my favorite goals is to simply try to talk to someone, talk them out of buying something because if they really need it, if they truly need it, then yes, we're going to move forward. But if it's something that's like, yeah, it could be okay, I'd rather they save their money until they actually can benefit them to see a real benefit. It sounds kind like same mentality here.

I want to cycle back real quick to something you said earlier about when you were crafting your strategies onboarding, you also thought about the exit strategy, which is something I don't think a lot of people really give a lot of thought and attention to when they're starting a company. Talk to me a little about A why you thought that was important and B, what you did for it.

I thought that the exiting strategy was really important, especially with clients because if they're leaving, I want to know what was successful during that time, what could have been improved, what types of technologies and things that they see that I should be focusing on.

Yeah.

That's another one. And then also, how can I benefit them in the future outside of doing business? Because there's one thing to be said about doing a job and just getting paid, being done and then moving on to the next one. But there is something to be said of really caring about people and want to see them be successful beyond the relationship that you built. And also thinking about how can I send more people different ways and connect them? I don't know, there's just something wonderful about building communities and seeing people interact in a way that it's going to benefit them.

I love that. I really, really, really do. Talk to me a little bit about, let me back up and give some context here. Through the conversations I've been having, it seems like there's typically phases of your company. The first couple of years are you're figuring it out, then you get your stride, and then maybe year five things are really, really gearing in, and then there's different phases above that. Have you seen different phases or different... I guess just yeah, different phases of your company over the last five years?

Yes. And something that I do every quarter is actually have a: What are we doing well, what aren't we doing well and constantly improving.

Yeah.

And it's weird, like you're kind of having a board meeting in your head sometimes, but sometimes you're working with contractors too.

And I think it really helps when leaning into client insights, when onboarding, exiting, those strategies, also taking those insights and improving your business based off of those insights I think is really beneficial.

In the beginning it was a lot of setup. It was figuring out the financial, legal and just the system side of:

• How do I want to track my time? 
• How do I want to introduce a branding package? 

Granted had a lot of experience beforehand, but it was fine-tuning it in a way where it was a lot more streamlined. And figuring out who the particular audience I wanted to work with, which are leaders who are looking for visual identity and an online presence that's more clear and concise and unique to them.

How long did it take you to find that target market?

It was an evolution, so it was kind of always in the back of my mind, but it wasn't until these last two months have I really crafted it because for the first four years of...

This is interesting. It has taken four years to identify this. Please, sorry, keep going. Yes.

That's the whole evolution process. But the reason why it took four years is because I was always putting clients first and always making sure their needs were met and I wasn't focusing on my own company's branding. 

It's like: "the plumber's toilet is always broken" kind of saying, and in order to really go to that next step, I need to take a step back and focus on what I'm doing. Because I'm telling them in person, but public awareness, nobody knows really what I'm doing. And so that was a shift. I joined the SBA Thrive Cohort, which is a very intense six-month course where you probably spend 10 hours a week focusing on leadership, company culture, IP, legal, finance, all that sort of thing. And a lot of it was a refresher for me, but at the same time, there were these key points of... Even though I know a lot of these things...There's always something new. It also is bringing you back into thinking about it again.

Okay.

It's also about building systems that work really well in the beginning versus trying to do it later. Starting out small and lean and then scale when it makes sense to. 

One of the biggest reasons why businesses fail is they scale too fast. And that's something that I've always been really conscious of and  want to stay small. Especially with AI technology and different things that are coming out, I see a lot in the future where it is going to be more leaner and mighty teams.

Absolutely. I agree. I agree. So let's talk about that a little bit because... Not AI specifically because in the motion world, I am so sick of talking about AI. I'm not going to lie. So sick of it. But what does the next five years for you look like?

That's a great question because in the SBA class, we just actually presented a three-year growth plan yesterday. What I'm going to focus on is the strategic communication skills that I have currently and really tell people why the business could bring value to you, how it can, and also what services can be provided. 

That way of thinking and doing it in a public way helps people. It helps build awareness of what you're actually doing and also what sets you apart from other people.

As a freelancer, entrepreneur, a company of one or a thousand, it's also figuring out what do you bring to the table that's different than anyone else. Because everyone has different experiences in their life and they have different thought patterns and the way that their brain connects, whether it's with people or technology, I  think humans are amazing and it's fun to see when people have those a-ha moments.

And for the longest time, because of the creative work that I do, a lot of people think it's subjective. Like, "Oh, I don't need that. I'll just DIY it or I'll do it." And that sort of thing, which is like, it's fine. Some people do a really great job at it. But I think the biggest thing is having a strong understanding of who you are, who you serve, and what kind of value those two connect with.

So as you were going through the program, what did you discover about yourself or rediscover maybe?

That I was being too quiet. I've been kind of head down doing lots of work, creating great results for clients, but not sharing any of that.
The whole working in the business and not working on the business.

Correct. Gotcha.

And that was a pivotal moment of let's balance this. Let's do both. And it's tough. It's very much a kind of work-life balance. There isn't such a thing as work-life balance. It's just you have a little bit more. 

Some days are going to suck more or less.

Yeah. It's one of those things where it's like it doesn't exist.

I agree. I full-heartedly agree. 

There are days you're like, you know what? I'm going to be working until midnight, but tomorrow maybe I'm working until 11 A.M. and I'm done for the day. 

I always work later than that, let's be honest.

I am curious because your husband is an animator and you are a designer, how often do your guys's projects overlap?

We have done four projects together.

In five years?

In five years. We own our own companies. And this wasn't by design, but it just happened. And  it's healthy too, as we could do a whole podcast on like working with your spouse...

That might be the version two.

Yeah. Because there's an art in the science to it, and the first project I will say that did not go very well. And it was more on me than it was on him. And it's like, you need to separate the wife and husband from the business partner.

When the project was a little bit rocky, we sat down and we talked, "Okay, do we want to continue to do this together?" 

And it was "a yes, but in smaller quantities or different ways. 

And he said, "Okay, then let's figure out how we can work together more effectively."

I think honesty comes out a lot more with your significant other or family member. And that's where...

I start to forget the compliment sandwich.

And it's like, "No, I need to treat him like a client."

Yep, absolutely.

This is different. Three more projects since then, and he's been amazing to work with and he has been the whole time. But it's those first humps of  figuring out how do you work together...

Yeah. It's a challenge. Like my first company, my wife and I, we ran it together for seven, eight years. It was a minute, it was a minute. And I think now, post that company, now that she's taken over and it's evolved as strictly into photography and I'm no longer involved, which is really nice.

We have more things to talk about at the dinner table, whereas beforehand it was just, what should we do for business reason XYZ? So there's definitely something to be said there too. So kudos for you guys for keeping it separate because that's a really easy trap to fall into.

Yeah. I don't even really know where I want to go at this point. Any advice and tips you want to share? Let's talk about that. Someone wants to start their own company, their own freelance journey or studio. What advice and tips would you give for them?

One of the biggest benefits as a freelancer or starting your own company is understanding what the need is that you are trying to convey to someone else. When doing the three-year growth plan, someone had reached out to me this morning that was in the class, and said, "I've never thought about branding before in a visual way. I didn't ever think it mattered. It matters. Because the way that you talked about it and the way you showed me why it matters, it changes my whole perspective.

Absolutely.

It's important to remember that branding is not always visual, it's sometimes communicative. At the base of design work, it's about your business goals and your business values and your messaging and how you talk with your employees and what the expectations are of those employees. That's a brand. And design is secondary.

If it wasn't for businesses, I wouldn't exist. There's that sort of thing where, I would exist, but I wouldn't be doing what I do in the branding sphere because that's the important part. The design comes second and marketing comes second. But sometimes people tend to think that comes first and  push it. If you have a good foundation, a system, the way that you talk or how your business and how your employees talk, that is a huge benefit.

It's so much more than just logos and a color.

Yeah. But if you can visually convey what they're saying into a logo, into a brand...because the psychology of colors, fonts and all of that really play into and can be infused into the branding.

So how do you take your branding and still have a style that you are known for? Or is it strictly what the client needs and your style doesn't matter? Because that is a hard conversation for people sometimes.

It took me seven years to figure out my style.

Yeah?

It really did. And it's clean, concise, but it does vary. A lot of the same components of understanding color theory stay throughout. For example, I've worked with a one-person tutoring business where it's super colorful and super fun, where as I'm also working with an insurance company where it's very white and airy—but it always has this clean, concise aesthetic to it all.

The aesthetic is usually the reason why they first ask for work, but then they realize that there's way more to this. 

It's also about building connections. 

For example, with the tutoring business, she was looking to get into the homeschool community and I said, here's a person and I'm going to introduce you over email. And it was giving more value on top of the design work. And she was looking into doing a subscription based program and I helped craft with her how she would structure that out, because she wanted input and it was a better experience for both of us. 

And I love seeing it when a client is super successful in their business or that they have that a-ha moment of, "Yes, this is the direction I want to go in and you had the vision to bring me there."

I love that. I'm getting all giddy over here like yes. 

And it is true, because it really is all about building those relationships, building that experience so someone actually feels like they're not just paying a dollar for a service. Because when you do that, then you don't get the word of mouth referrals, you don't do what you've done. 

Is there a certain range of business that you like to work with? More startups, more mid-seasoned, more mature?

I would say mid-seasoned to mature. It's working with leaders who have a vision, who want more of a visual communication and strategy behind their vision, "here's all the pieces and parts I'd like". And then I will fill in the blanks and ask questions where they may have not even thought about a certain part of their business before. "Well, have you thought about..." 

For example, recently had a business owner have a 3D U-line box that they were shipping out for $8. She was looking to save money. Right away, I'm like, okay, it's got a sticker, it's plain on the outside, she wants to design this box, but what if we made it flat? I brought it to the post office. I made a mock-up and figured out she could save,  66% on all of her shipping.

Yeah, that's a big deal.

Yeah! 

Having that kind of skillset is way beyond just design work - it's looking at a problem with a new kind of solution. By the time that this podcast is uploaded, this will be a thing. I was thinking about the tutoring client, where it's pencils, erasers and fun crayon drawing type environment and branding I've built for her. And she wanted a  business card. 

People think business cards are dead, but if the card has value and a use people will hang onto it. Otherwise, if it's a low quality printed card, 90% of those go into trash.

What I'm going to do for her is get blank pink erasers and do a stamp. It's simple, but it's so effective. A new way of thinking outside of the box, but yet it's still on brand for her. And it's useful.

I love that.

It's just, it's win-win all around.

Oh, I love it.

Well, Kristi, I think we hit everything I wanted to talk about today. 

Yeah, thank you so much for having me today, Drysen. It's been so much fun. I appreciate it.

Good, I'm glad. And if you guys are still watching and have not liked or subscribed to Frame One, please do so because you're missing out. And as always, thanks for watching.

I specialize in branding, design, and creative strategies tailored for business owners and creatives. My topics explore how to:

• Craft authentic brand identities
• Refine and streamline design processes
• Use both clear communication and creativity to solve sticky business challenges.
  
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