Marketing Positivity

Hey, Mike. Yeah. Can you say Swiss without a smile?

Gosh, that's a good one. Swiss. You're smiling with your eyes.

Welcome to the Marketing Team in One podcast, where we have conversations about the issues one person marketing teams face when trying to meet their goals with limited time and budgets. When I was a kid driving home from school every day and the car pull, cause that's what we did in the eighties. With inevitably there would always be a Swiss miss.

Pudding truck. Oh, yeah. The big freight truck. Yep. And the letters on the side of the truck would say, Can you say Swiss without a smile? It was 2. 30 in the afternoon. Of course, we're hungry. Oh, of course. We made a smile. Every time. Every time. It's a brand I think about still to this day. I don't eat the pudding, but I think about the brand.

I didn't, yeah, that's funny. I, I don't remember that, but like, it's, it's brilliant. I thought so too. Yeah. So, and I'm going to try from now on to be very, if I'm going to try that and succeed of saying it without a smile. Right. Yeah. I don't think it's possible, but I think that's why I love that tagline so much because when I'm producing copy or slogans or Our campaigns.

I always try to think of what will make someone smile. Yeah positivity side of things, right? That's totally you in a nutshell though, too, right? Positivity. Thanks. So we got a good guest today. She has one of the most impressive linkedin profiles i've ever seen I'm, not gonna go through all All the different items but got your start in the California State Senate.

I did. Yeah And then worked in the association world for some time and now co founder and ceo of luminary partners Thank you so much want to welcome to the crying couch. Sheila Johnston. How are you doing today? I'm doing well, Mike Thank you so much for having me huge huge fan. I'm so excited to have you here.

We always have great conversations. And I think letting other people see this, these conversations is going to be a win. I, I know, I know people don't care about me, but they'll definitely going to care about you on this. But we talked before and one thing that I thought was really interesting is your career path.

I mean, yeah, now you've created your own business. You're this co founder CEO, but you've, you've been that marketing team of one. for a long time. And you've had a really interesting path, right? Could you tell me a little bit about like your path from, I mean, working in government to getting into marketing?

That's a big jump. I, I've always been a creative. I learned how to play piano at a very young age and was always outside utilizing the energy of that, of, of what was around me. In addition to all of the people that I had a chance to grow up with and be around, my family was really, really. community focus.

So I'd be the person that would answer the phone and just talk to people for hours. Yeah. Yeah, totally. I could totally see that. Um, you know, and I always enjoyed writing as well and it wasn't until I was working as a budget analyst in the state of California for the state controller's office at the time where I found that rather than focusing on the numbers, I was focusing on how pretty my spreadsheets could be.

Oh my gosh. I've spent hours and hours of making a spreadsheet look not awful. Right. I mean, granted finances are very important, especially in business. And I went to the state controller's office just specifically to learn how this California state budgeting would work. But I knew very quickly, it wasn't the right.

Place for me. Yeah, and thankfully was opened I was introduced to the association world where I was able to use all of my skill set. Yeah. But as you mentioned, the association world tends to be very small in nature. Most often teams are three to five people. Yeah. And, uh, if no one is doing it, Um, well, in many cases, there's, there's not enough people to do the jobs that are needed.

Yeah. And marketing was one of those jobs that I took on pretty early on. It was synonymous with how you explain your brand or your mission or your purpose to your customer or customers. And that's how we met actually. It is. Yeah. You know, you've got a really small team. You've got three to five people.

Yeah. There, one way of it is like, Oh, there's too much to do. Right. But there's also the other flip side would be like, Oh, look at all these opportunities for things we could be doing and everything. What, what tuned you into that marketing was an opportunity that, that, or, uh, there's a vacuum that needed to be filled by that you could help fill on that.

I would say that the first opportunity I found was in the event space, when these small associations or big associations are planning the one event of the year where they're bringing everyone together and they have to sell tickets, they have to sell sponsors, they have to market for three to six months of the year.

And the marketing. Isn't just it doesn't happen overnight. It probably happens a year beforehand if you're doing a good job Yep, and then once you're on site, how do you bring that experience full circle? Yeah, yeah, and then maintain friendships with your graphic design team Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, you're not throwing things at them at the last minute Oftentimes, within that planning stage for an event, you're already planning two more events out.

Yeah. And I think when it comes to marketing, it is really a reflection of the energy of the company that you're representing and what drives people to continue to want to be affiliated with your brand. Yeah. So. When I was at this one particular association, that's really what I glommed on to. It was an opportunity to generate revenue, it was an opportunity to generate awareness, and that translated into every other aspect of the association.

It honestly was the perfect situation for me to do what I do best and connect. Yeah. Um, connect people and things and money for those that I was responsible for. Yeah. It's interesting. Like the, for people who aren't super familiar with associations, right? Like the lifeblood is members and events, right?

Those are the two, two drivers of everything. Right. So in your role, you're, Your primary role at that job, you were more on the member side of things, right? Like in membership, right? Funny story. I started as a lobbyist or a legislative advocate for this one association, but even working in public policy, which is what I went to school for, um, that's, that's a different way to sell something.

You're trying to convince an elected official on why they should or shouldn't vote for something. And then on the other side, convince your customer that they should care about this one issue. So really it's, it's marketing and it's. its most truest sense, maybe just not with graphics, but with copy or with passion, more to say.

Do you get the feeling that people who are sitting in that kind of, um, spot, do they think of it that way? Is it, is it, or do you, do you feel like you had a unique kind of, you've, you made that connection that, you know, Um, it wasn't talked about a lot. You know, I think everyone has their own style when it comes to lobbying and, and advocacy.

You do have to tailor whether or not they recognize that you do have to tailor your message to your audience. Um, one elected official might want a, um, how does this relate to my constituency versus what you're trying to do over here? So you have to cater your message, have a different type of campaign.

And another one might just already be in that profession. So, that's it. Yeah. So I would say every legislative advocate probably has 10 different elevator pitches up their sleeve. They've got little playbooks. They know what, which way to go with this and this and this. Exactly. And now in an election year, they have to redo all of their elevator pitches for the next wave of legislators that are coming in.

So I guess I would feel really comfortable calling legislative advocates marketers. That's so funny because they probably wouldn't. Hey, we joke sometimes that the, to the outside people, marketers almost get like a bad, you know, that's just marketing. They're like, like they're the dregs of the business or something like that.

But like it is, it's so important. Um, and even when we're talking about like, Advocacy as well. Yeah, right. I mean, I was just talking to a company yesterday and putting, along with my partners, um, an idea angle for them because the policy that's created at the state of California, that's what businesses use to market to a specific customer.

If they use eco friendly or drought tolerant, you know, there really is a synergy. That goes between government and business, uh, and marketers are what brings those two together. Do you, in, uh, being in the association role, like, uh, almost every business that is a member of that association, right? They probably all could.

Use their own marketing thing. How much do you think associations help coach them on the needs for marketing? Or is that something that, is that an opportunity that's kind of left to the side for some? I'm smiling because I made about 32 infographics for one association where I trained them on all of the different aspects of marketing.

Yeah. If you're going to spend 30 seconds on Instagram, here what, here's what you do. And I walked them through maybe a 10 month long training on how to become a marketer yourself. And in no way, shape or form, did I expect them to become professionals or take my job. But what I wanted to do was teach them that they can be an extension of the marketing presence of this one association I was working for.

Do you feel like that was really successful? It was, I would have monthly, I think I called them, Uh, the trainings, the communi communication zone, welcome to the communication zone. Oh, nice, yeah. And every month I would do 20 minutes on a new topic that was of trending. Yeah. In the marketing or comms world.

And, uh, I would get maybe about 20 to 30 members to come. Wow. That were very much helpful in wanting to be better, do better, you know, turn the camera the right way when they're at events and taking pictures or even how to tag. I mean, I'd still get the occasional, here's something to put on social, which is more than I could ever ask for.

Yeah. You're taking what you've learned. Distilling it down into some small, actionable pieces that can help others in the association market themselves. Exactly. I love to say to people, especially members, that I'm not the one that's selling your brand. You are. Yeah. So it really is my job to educate and make them aware of what they can do when they're out in community talking to other people.

Yeah. I can only imagine the amount of times, I mean, I run into you here in Sacramento and other marketers I've worked with, and we can have a conversation on the street and I can say to you, Hey, did you see that event coming up? And we would have a place to start a conversation from the same goes true.

Same is true to members of an association where the more that marketers and the team prep their members to have those conversations, it's the ripple effect that keeps on giving people coming back to join of learning something of clicking on a post and resharing it to the extent that they're able to.

Yeah. A lot of the stuff you're talking about right now is like, starts at like a core brand thing. Like what's the, what's the core message that you want I feel like I've been most successful with associations when they have a strategic plan to start from. Okay. When they already know what goals they want to achieve.

Yeah. Now if they don't have that, and that's okay, it's pretty normal for associations to not have that. Um, It's okay. You can always go back to your mission and the vision of the organization. Yeah. In most cases, associations want revenue and they want growth. Yeah. And they want people to come to their events.

So, there's always something to work with. Where I like to come in and is to look and assess where we can leverage opportunities. Mm hmm. Um, I once worked for a healthcare association. And set up a lot of Google news alerts. And it just so happened that, um, one of these news alerts was, um, unfortunately a dermatologist poisoned her husband and it was in the news.

But thankfully for the Google news alert, I was able to send it to the president and prepare him for what might come. And that's a marketing opportunity, right? That's PR, that's press. Expect a phone call. They're a statewide association, thankfully nothing came, but that's an opportunity, good or bad, where if you're looking out for what might come.

then you can help change a narrative and or position the organization to be that end all be all on expertise. Yeah. Which is what associations really want. They're a, um, they're a clearing house. They're, they're the unifier for a profession or a voice. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what you're talking about there is almost verging a little bit on public relations too, right?

Like really trying to be connected and be, stay ahead of those things and not, you know, I mean, ideally you're not super reactionary to things, but I mean, there is the need for that as well, but yeah. And that's a good point. Many marketers and associations are also the PR relationship, the structure you're talking about is three to five people.

Like, I mean, there's obviously there's like an executive director or somebody at the, at the top managing everything, right? Exactly. You've got, are two, one or two of them lobbyists and advocacy work. Oftentimes that could be contracted out, but you still have to have an in house person that understands the issues.

Yeah. And then if you're talking about three or four people, like that means that the marketing, the membership, um, Taking care of all the members, like proving value to the members beyond like, Hey, see all this stuff we're fighting for in the Capitol. It's all these other things that you want to try and sell the benefits of, right?

Leaving that to one person, one person or a quarter of a person in some cases, it could be one and a half people. Yeah. Typically it's marketing, membership and events and membership can range from Board governance and committee management, um, as well as anything else that comes along the way. And then that half a person you could be fighting for based on what time of year it is.

Oh, definitely. Definitely. It's, it's probably never a dull moment, right? Never a dull moment. Yeah. I mean, you've got someone who's really like the lone person and they're trying to get a lot of things done. Right. And so I imagine there's a big mix of. of putting out a lot of fires and, and everything, but also a need to plan ahead.

Like, have you seen some examples of like a good mix or what are planning you could do ahead of time to kind of limit the amount of panic? I love the word panic because it's such an opportunity to level set after you get through the panic. A couple of years ago, I was introduced to a podcast and I'm listening to it in the car driving to a shoot I was doing.

The podcaster was talking about this trick that he would teach his guys in the military. Uh, the acronym is called breathe and move on and granted I'm on highway 99 when I'm learning about this. As I'm learning about it, a spider comes down in front of my steering wheel and I can practice this technique called BAMO, breathe and move on.

So I'm telling myself to breathe and move on. I give the spider a name. I tell him now we'll be there soon. Like it's a kid in the car asking how much longer are we there yet? But I bring up this technique because it's something that I hadn't given a name years prior when I had the 20 jobs and was a team of one, uh, because Taking a moment to just understand what the priorities are is really the first step.

Yeah, yeah. And then from there you can triage, you can plan, you can remember that you're only one person, that you're human, you can figure out where to ask for help. Yeah, do you find that asking for help thing? It's hard on a couple different levels, right? Depending on your management, whoever your boss is or something, right?

Sometimes it's just stubbornness. Like we were talking earlier about the stubbornness of asking for help or more letting go. Right. But, um, do you, do you find that that's a big hurdle there in that, in that Panic zone is like just the not feeling like you can get help. Yes. I think that is very very common Yeah, but i've learned time and time again that when I asked for help I Thankfully I had someone that was far more experienced and knowledgeable Yeah, and they would always tell me this can be moved Yeah, I know I said this but it really is a level one priority and not a lot of level 10 But that's how I heard it.

Yep. So by asking for help Along the way, I was reminded of letting go, asking for help is the right thing to do, and there is always tomorrow. There's always tomorrow. That's good to know. I don't think in those terms very often. You don't think in those terms? No. This needs to be done now. Can't put this off.

No. I also have found Thankfully, in my current job, we have a wonderful operations manager, and a couple weeks ago I asked her for help, and this is also something I wish I would have done years ago. She asked me, well, what times of the day are your best for creating, for focusing, what do you like to do and when, what do you need to do and when?

And she's actually trained me to lean into the times of the day where I can actually execute on my deliverables. And that way I'm not necessarily having meetings during the day. My mornings, which are my most creative times. Yeah, I save those for the afternoon. That's really smart and Really? She's that's amazing.

Incredible person. In fact, she and I used to work at an association together. Oh, wow. Okay These associations breed associations that can last forever, right? They absolutely do. That's awesome. Mm hmm It's been a game changer, but I know, I can understand. When I was 30 and getting my start in the association world, I didn't know that much stuff about myself.

I didn't know how I needed to be or how I needed to act as much as I do now. Yeah. So the more that, And someone can invest in themselves and go within to be the best version of themselves for their clientele or their customers. It will pay off tenfold later on. Yeah. Let's say you are, you need help and that help can't necessarily come from within.

Are there some tricks or like when you're trying to talk to a boss that you're like, I'm really up against it here. You talked about like them being able to shift priorities and stuff like that, but have you ever been in a place where like, Fighting for budget or fighting to bring in other people like do you have any things you've done in the past to help with that?

I do once I embrace that marketers are the most genius individuals to be able to have this conversation Everything changed for me because marketers understand audience and one type of audience is can be your supervisor And or a finance officer and or a partner. Yeah, so We're always able and willing to change our pitch to make it land.

So it's really important when someone approaches someone else that has that decision making authority to understand how to frame the ask for a finance person. It might be, if we do this, then the ROI is that coming with the numbers and having that understanding of what, and a lot of that comes from the understanding of what your role is and what the role of your.

Department or whatever is in the overall scheme of things, correct? Yeah, and it could be if if someone is just new to that process a simple way to start that conversation and to be comfortable with it is Understanding if if you need comfort or if you need solutions, yeah That's always a good way. It works with relationships, too.

Oh, totally. Especially with significant others or friends. Oh my gosh, this is like marriage therapy now, because I know that a lot of times I will be, I will jump immediately to solutions. My wife doesn't want that. Not that, not then. It's all about just getting it out, getting it out into the world. And then we had somebody, I forget who said it, but it's, it's like having a pitcher and pouring out the pitcher a little bit.

The pitcher gets filled up. You just need a little bit more space. Exactly. Yeah. All right. I'm going to, I'm a changed man now. My wife thanks you for this. But that can always help or even understanding how your audience likes to receive information. Do they like emails or do you know that their email inbox is already flooded?

That's going to hurt your feelings if they don't read it. So why not walk into the room and talk to them if they're close by or pick up the phone? Talking? I scheduled an old school phone call with someone the other day and they just lit up. I, this is a total aside, but I've seen that I, and I do feel like, especially since Since 2020 and everybody started shifting remotely people can be so overly concerned about their Someone else's time because you're so disconnected.

You don't know what else that are working on or they focused or not and you can You're like, is it okay if we talk can we talk now? Can we schedule this thing instead of like where it would be like A phone call, you'd be like, and it could be something that could be settled in 15 seconds. 15 seconds. You know, I feel like some of that's lost and I've seen it in other, you know, other places too.

It's just like being so concerned about disruption in a remote environment. And I'm sure there's a lot of times you don't want to be disrupted. You don't want that all the time, but. Correct. You would save so much more time if you could just. Pick up the phone and pick up the phone or I know and that's what it comes down to is knowing who your audience is and knowing what you need.

Um, I think having those conversations up front, especially if you're interviewing for a position with an association or with anyone really is asking. what the communication style is of an organization is the most invaluable question that can be asked because inevitably everyone will have a different answer.

Um, I know my partner, Cheryl, I love her. She's wonderful. She knows that I'm an early riser. Uh, wake up before sunrise and try to get as much done. Pack it all in, pack it all in. Before all the noise comes in. And she's told me that I don't need, I don't need Teams messages before seven. And I'm so grateful that we have that open line of communication because it makes me more aware of what I'm asking of her and understanding when she likes to receive communication makes our business 10 times stronger.

Yeah. Do you find that your communication in there is more asynchronous or is it you're, you're still, having those conversations regularly. We talk all the time. Yeah. I think I talk to her as much as I talk to my husband during the work day, you know, or whenever, but that's associations, businesses.

They're just, they're an extension of what you're able to accomplish when you work together. You've been a part of a bunch of different organizations over time, and now you've taken that big step and you've created your own business. Um, I'd love to hear more about what you're doing. Does Luminary Partners do?

Luminary Partners is a testament to all of the good that I learned from associations. And even prior to that, working in the state legislature, why I started my career was to be an extension of the, of an ability to make an impact and to make a difference in other people's lives. Last fall, when I was working at the California Lawyers Association as their interim CEO, I knew that was a position that, um, I wasn't going to continue on in.

I was asked to serve having been promoted from the executive director of communications and provide support during a transition. I knew I needed to make my next step plan for it. Right. Any good marketer is the planner. But I found myself looking at positions and already knowing that I would be bored and that I would be constrained and that I wouldn't be happy.

Like is that constraint part of the, well, you mentioned the lawyers association. They're talking law all the time. There's this is, is it the, The vertical like positioning of that. I think it was just the rinse and repeat of what most associations need is to grow, to follow. I think I was feeling constrained and only being able to help one or one at a time.

And my partner Cheryl was also feeling the same way. And it had been, and she was working for the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce at the time. And we have always talked about separately, what if we just had our own business? What would life be like? Right. And there was always so much freedom with that line of thought.

Uh, so we got together during Thanksgiving, right before Thanksgiving and went to lunch and we decided to go for it. What was going to hold us back? You know, take a chance on ourselves. So with her incredible experience in finance and operations, and she has 25, 25 years of experience in commercial development and in um, nonprofit management, coupled with my knowledge of, public policy, marketing, and managing associations, we knew that we could take our skill set and apply that to any type of organization.

Interesting. And we were very, very meticulous in terms of branding ourselves as a business consulting firm. Mm hmm. Because we look at Any type of organization as a business, regardless of your tax status. Interesting. Yeah. We did not want to be labeled an association management firm. We wanted to apply our skillset to do as much good as we could for as many companies and visionaries that we possibly could.

So we now have a team of four between Cheryl and I, um, and we have four different verticals, which. is really exciting for me to talk about because it's the brainchild of a marketer. Along with my partners. Um, one of our partners, Kyla, she brought us into a room and said, Okay, our solutions page needs to be cleaned up.

How can we reorganize our offerings in such a way? And that day of post its turned into the most incredible verticals I've ever seen distrib uh, displayed on a website. How did you, um, gosh, I mean, did you have structure going into that day? I mean, you had the problem you needed to solve, right? We had a problem.

What we're, what we're selling is confusing. Correct. And we need to make some sense of this and everything. What happened before you sat in that room with a bunch of post its? Oh gosh. Well, we needed to check our egos out the door. We also, and I'm speaking about myself. Yeah. I think that's one thing a marketer has is, um, and rightly so.

I mean, our product and solutions that we create are ours, right? Yeah. You could get really close and really not want to let go of that idea. Even if there's a lot of. Contrary evidence that maybe that's not the best you're it. Some people is Stubbornness sets in right? That's why I'm so happy. I'm on this couch I feel like I can say I'm really very tuned into my ego and when it flares up Which I think is good for marketers to I think it's I think you need it a little bit, right?

Without ego, you're probably stuck in a lot of indecision. Exactly. So mindful of that and knowing that we needed the help. Those two things were the perfect opportunity for us to be open minded to displaying information differently and targeting an audience that we wanted to become our customer base.

Yeah. If we were to use, paint a word picture here, what did it look like before? And then what did it look like after, after this? It was beautiful. Let me just say that. The color scheme and the words were great. We had iconography going on, which would Make page design very proud, which I think I got my love of iconography from you and your team, but it was kind of just, uh, Pick your pick your solution, right?

It wasn't really grouped in a way that would make sense to someone else Yeah So was it were you asking the people coming to have already assessed what their problems were in? And almost know what the solution would be it could be both it could be an entrepreneur That knew they needed a business plan, but might not know they needed a financial forecast along with it.

So it was everything that you could possibly need as a business, which is all over. It's synonymous with our expertise, but what we ended up doing, and Kyla is great as a strategic facilitator. That's what she was trained to do. She put everything on a wall. All in post it notes and said, okay, this is what we have.

How can we group these in such a way where it makes sense? And how can we speak to Sheila's heart and title these in a way that would be different than all of the competition out there? And that's a whole other thing too, right? Like, so you're trying to decide. Okay, here's how we describe what we do in a compelling way for the people we want to bring in.

Oh, but we also need to sound different than the people who are doing a lot of the same things. I guess that differentiation comes from your core values and Exactly. Yeah. It comes from our core values. It comes from a place of what brings us joy as executives and professionals that are running Luminary Partners right now.

Yeah. Um. That is an extension of what we're good at and what we like to do. If we're not embracing the solutions we're providing to our clients, then We're not true and authentic, which is we like to call ourselves the business next door. You'll see us We're approachable um, I mean I had a short circuit on a meeting the other day and You know, I think anyone can relate to that where you're trying to figure out how to say it best Yeah Everyone has those feelings.

I can't imagine you short circuiting. What does that look like short circuited? There's proof i'll send it to you I, I, my short circuit is I just, I can, you can see me visually shut down. You shut down. I mean, I, I took it the other way that maybe you just, like, it was like you saw a spring bounce outta your head or, uh, something, I don't know.

But yeah, just a loss for words. I, I had to do that quick cost benefit, benefit analysis. If I say this, then it will. Be absorbed this way or if I say that. Yeah. Wow. So I had to do a quick five second assessment. Still beating myself up over here. So what does the page say now? So we have four different verticals that we've incorporated all of our solutions into.

The first one is what I like to call the go ahead and click. And this speaks to every marketer's heart and dream. This is everything relating to brand strategy, storytelling, website design, podcast, film, and anything that would literally generate a click. Interesting. So the clients that would utilize this vertical would be the ones that are trying to establish and or expand a brand or, Create awareness around a campaign.

Yeah Our next vertical is called the accountables. Okay, which is so much fun. This is Cheryl's passion and joy this is where we provide accounting and financial support, especially to boards and associations that might need a pro forma budget planning or Financials every, every month or every quarter.

This is where we also do our business planning for our visionary entrepreneurs, as well as just help them forecast out for the future. Wow. The we'll take it from here is our management package. Oftentimes there are businesses that just, need someone to run the day to day And or come up with an operation strategy that is different than what they are doing Yeah So this is where we get to come in roll up our sleeves and just take care of everything so that The business leaders and our owners can do what they need to so they're They know they can be out If they're more on sales focused, chasing opportunities and focus on the business development things.

And then the rest of the stuff can keep moving. And why we love this vertical is the executives, myself, Cheryl and Kyla, our third partner. We were all former executives in our respective careers. So when a company hires us to do the, we'll take it from here. They're getting that executive mind. Yeah, that's service.

You come at it from a place where you know that you've done that. And they know that they can trust that. Exactly. And especially for those association teams that have one marketer, we can be an extension of their vision. Yeah. Um, and then our fourth vertical is called the mind melt. Yeah. This is where we get to go up and take off our seatbelts and fly at 30, 000 feet in the airplane.

Yeah. And, um, Talk about brainstorming, strategic planning. We also have one of Kyla's specialties is I mentioned the post it situation is diffusing chaos in mind and are amongst employees, organizations. Um, so that's really, she's actually called a chaos diffuser. So we needed to put that on the website. I love that term.

Yeah. Um, we also do our public relations and external relations strategy in the Mindmelt as well. So between those four verticals, we really cover everything, um, and apply it to any organization that's looking to meet their maximum growth potential. Yeah. The people that are coming in, are they kind of in this early stage thing or are they more established and they've hit some, you ceilings that they're trying to bust through.

It could be both. One of our early success stories was a local yoga instructor. Her name is Taylor. She has this beautiful property and she saw that she can convert it into a yoga studio, Airbnb, and she already had it on VRBO, but she didn't have a presence and or the ability to sell it. So she said, Sheila, Cheryl, help.

Wow. Six weeks, we got her formed as an LLC, wrote her business plan, got her a website, uh, Instagram presence, uh, turned the keys back over to her of her business, and within two to three weeks she was booked for the summer and had five stars on Airbnb. Wow. Yes. So that was a really special moment for us to help Taylor.

She was, she had the wherewithal to know. This wasn't her expertise, but she knew who to call to make this dream happen. She knew when to ask for help. She knew when to ask for help. Yeah. On the flip side, we have, um, we have helped associations and nonprofits manage their operations. Mm hmm. We've also helped, um, one association in particular with their storytelling.

We write their email campaigns for them in advance of a big conference. They have a worldwide conference coming up. Wow. Again, their team knew that they couldn't bother their own in house social media team. for help. So we're, we're really moving and shaking in terms of what we're helping others with.

Yeah. We've written a few business plans for visionaries. We're really, like I said, approachable, affordable, and just want to make a difference. We're truly meeting our mission. Can I turn the, the. interview back over to you and ask you a question. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm totally fine with that. I'm a little worried, but I'm fine with that.

We have these incredible coffee chats at Temple Coffee. Yep. That should just be scheduled for the whole day. It really should. Yeah, because it's really, it's like, oh, we're, oh, we got to go. We have a really long interview schedule. Relationship of working together, Mike. And I know I've been that person that I've said, I've called you and said, Mike, can I have a website tomorrow?

And you always say, well, but let me see what I can do. So I think I would love to hear your advice, a retrospective on our working relationship and maybe things that I did to help promote our Final deliverables that other marketers can learn from. Oh my gosh. When you ask that question that one of the things that immediately comes to mind is like I, I always appreciate looking at working with people who can be a little bit more visionary.

One thing I've really appreciated about working with you is well, you've never come unprepared for anything. ever, right? But also you've like thinking innovatively about something like one of the one project I really remember working on. You came to us with this, this great idea. You had this process at the association that was a lot of work.

It was, there's a lot of physical things that need to be put together. And you came to us and like, why can't we, why can't this be online? And I mean, me personally, someone coming to me that and like planting a seed in my head that I can think about and like, how are we going to do this? What does it need?

How do we put this stuff together? That's fantastic. But to be able to also come in really prepared and knowing, All the different pieces, done some of the risk and the benefit analysis beforehand. So we're not, we know we're not going into this thing, just spinning our wheels and coming up with a solution that may not work in the end.

So valuable to me. And I think that's the stuff that gets me excited. Um, those type of client relationships are really, really part of it. And I think it's mutually beneficial because I, what I loved working with page design the most for was that you pushed my limits of what I was able to create. I think before working for this one association and finding page design, I didn't understand the extent a brand could have and that when someone comes to a conference and leaves with something, they're going to have a memory of that.

That we helped curate and working with your team, I should have brought it cause I keep it on my desk. It's such a special momentum of our time working together for this one client and it was a leadership conference and the theme had, um, an image of a paper airplane. Yep. And I said, how can we have an activity on the table for attendees that when they fold the paper airplane, there's different characteristics of a leader that they could remember as they go back to their offices and companies and then serve other people.

Do you remember this project? I do remember it. I remember seeing the paper airplanes being tested in the studio to see how well they worked and everything. Yeah. I mean. And that's the beauty of marketing and the relationship that graphic designers and web designers have with a marketing team of one is that we care, all of us collectively, so much about how a brand lands and what it encompasses.

And there's so much heart that goes into it. So much so we're talking about a paper airplane, something that has basically no life unless you put it together. But that's what marketing is about. I think if you go into it knowing it's more of a partnership and less of a, it's not a You do this thing. It's gonna make everybody better.

It's it's that tide that rises all the boats if you can view that and trust The expertise of the people you're bringing into right exactly what allows you to think bigger about a lot of these things There's a few things that allow me to think bigger and to be able to be present and deliver for whoever I'm delivering for.

I think firstly, it's taking care of myself. I have found through the years that I have certain music to help me create. I have copy music. I have thinking, I have a thinking station. I, I just, I, I, I know that the endorphins from exercise really help me clear my mind. It helps me to focus on what my intro and or layout might be for something.

Um, so that's one way that I've learned to rely on myself if I need the assistance. Secondly, I've also leaned into the things that bring me joy. I can't believe I'm in beneath this on the crying couch, but what is the crying couch for if not for admitting things? I love people magazine. I absolutely love people magazine.

It gets you outside of your own head, right? It does. Yeah. You know, it not only is that I get my fashion fix there, I get, I get to understand what's going on in Hollywood. But what I mostly get from people magazine is that it's so easy to read. It gives me that. Um, that knowledge of how to write for the mass audiences.

So when Southwest used to have a magazine on the airplanes, I would love to read the Southwest magazine for that specific reason. They're, they're, they're writing for general appeal for general appeal and being able to Not overcomplicate things too, right? Which I think it's very easy when you get stuck in whatever you're doing to overcomplicate the message or, Oh, I need to include this.

I need to include this. And then you get the, this monster of things. And then speaking of being overwhelmed, I think it's also important to understand what overwhelms you. Um, I tend to not listen to people talking to me, for instance. I, I'm very, Very rigid on what podcasts I listen to you. I think I told you today.

You're one of two that I listen to the second I still don't 100 percent believe you but quite an honor You know limit the noise you're always having these ideas so how can we as individuals and marketers and creatives Celebrate what we have within us to where it's not There's no shadow cast on us Did that I'm fascinated by this idea of limiting the inputs, right?

Did you listen to a lot more things and did that Did that ultimately drive you crazy like of setting unreal expectations on yourself even in high school I was labeled the quiet one and it wasn't because I had nothing to say It just wasn't worth saying and I would only speak when there was something of value to say Yeah, I feel like I've carried that through My life and into my profession and the marketing and to business is yeah, it's knowing I was the first audience I've ever had And I think bringing it back to being selfish as a marketer Again, if you're not enjoying what it is, you're thinking or saying or producing then it won't sell it's not as much fun either No, it's not.

No, like yeah, you're not gonna have any it's probably gonna show through Right, and coming back to your questions. I remembered Challenging myself to be silly once I got to a thousand followers on my dog's Instagram page Yeah, that was a place for me to test out new tricks and ideas. I was like, okay, I'm done now I get it So you tried the silliness and then I did and then you're like, okay, it's over it's over I got it.

No more imposter syndrome. Like, why not use the things around you as a subject? Absolutely. Yeah. Um, I think I did a LinkedIn post about this the other day. I put a canvas piece of art. Next to my desk, and then I, I, I got this greeting card from my mother in law with a beautiful hillside It was a, I think a place in Colorado.

It was the Smoky Mountains with lupines, lupins, flowers Really really gorgeous, and I knew I wanted to paint it. I'm not a painter By any means, but I put the canvas next to my desk and I Every so often throughout the day and weeks, I would go paint a little bit more and I embrace the imperfection of the perfection I was seeking and it turned out to be a beautiful, it was really hard.

It's really, really hard to, um, I mean so much of what we do as marketers is that we are creating three different logo designs or three different names or color schemes, but you might not necessarily know where it's going to lead to, but. You tend to always be okay with the final results. Yeah. Even if it's a little imperfect.

Even if it's a little imperfect. Yeah. But the painting is done. The painting is done. And are you going to do another? I have another. Okay. I haven't started it yet. Yeah. I'm scared to start it. See, I have to just do it. It's, it's set up. I know what it's going to be, but part of that is challenging yourself to learn new things.

Last summer, my husband and I learned how to sail. Wow. It's really hard. My ego is bruised all the time. All the time, but you do it, you try it. Um, I think, If you're constantly pushing yourself to try new things, then you're always going to succeed. And it might not necessarily be the thing that you're doing, right?

But it's that drive. It's the drive. That has applications everywhere else, right? Correct. I mean, I was so overconfident that, We signed up for a race. I didn't even make it to the starting line. I capsized. Oh no. And then I was too weak to get back in the boat. It was really windy, but I embraced that. Yeah.

I owned it. Yep. Love the bruises. I've loved talking to you. I think your perspective on things, especially from a marketing perspective, being selfish about it is something I've never really thought of. I don't, I hope that a lot of people get some, a lot of good nuggets out of this. Cause there's so many.

We cover so much ground. Thank you. And I wanted to thank you, Mike, and honestly, the page design family, cause that's what it is. Uh, you've inspired me and the team here has inspired me to think in bigger terms and bigger ideas for better or for worse for your team. Um, but honestly, it's, uh, it's been. A pleasure to work with you over these last, I think, 15 years.

Has it been that long? I think so. Oh, no. Let's not admit that. Can we strike that? Can you, can you let people know where they can find you and, um, and because I think there's a lot of ways that you can help a lot of people. So we are on the web at. Luminarypartners. com and that's Luminary with an I.

There's actually a funny story about that real quick if I Yeah, yeah. So when we explained to our web designer our name and our vision for the website, we didn't actually tell him how to spell our name. And so he came back and spelled Luminary with an I at the end instead of a Y. We loved it and it was an instance where we gave our team carte blanche authority.

Yeah. To do what he does best. Yep. And it ended up becoming our brand. So that's so, so interesting. So always trust your marketing team. Yeah. is what it comes down to. Hear that. Always trust your marketing team. Go marketers, . So we're luminary partners.com and we're also on LinkedIn and Instagram. Sheila's LinkedIn, again, is something to behold.

I, uh, the posts are great. They are. Um, but if you're, her experience is well documented and like, I'm not joking. It's one of the most impressive profiles I've seen in a long time. So. Thanks for having me and thank you for your support. Till next time. Till next time. Yeah. I'll be here. Awesome. Thanks for tuning in.

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