Client Relationship With June Thomas

0:02Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. We go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it. Hey there, welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs, brought to you by Action Coach Growth Partners. I'm your host, Bill Gilliland, and in this podcast, you'll find three things.

0:46You're going to hear real stories from real entrepreneurs that will help you along your entrepreneurial journey. You're also going to get business tips to help you scale up faster, and you're going to get actual coaching to help you get better real-world results to be the best entrepreneur you can be. Hey, and if you like the podcast, remember to subscribe. And now, enjoy the show. Hi, I'm June Thomas. I'm located in Nashville, North Carolina, and I own a boutique graphic design firm. We do both print and digital design. So it brings up a question for me, June. What's boutique mean to you? I get to basically have a team of three full-time employees.

1:31So, you know, we work, we're a very small, close-knit team. Got it. So you're able to do customized, very specific things for your clients? Yeah, I would say we have a pretty, a very kind of intimate, close relationship with our clients. There's not like a lot of hierarchy to go through. we work. My team has a lot of autonomy and unlike a lot of traditional ad agencies, my team gets to work directly with the client. So, you know, when we talk about advertising or marketing, I mean, it is wide. There are a lot of things. So what, I mean, what have you learned and what do you focus on, I guess? Our agency leans a little production.

2:16We basically act as the outsource graphic design department for national brands in the health food industry. So we really, you know, are acting as an extension of their internal teams. And that allows us to get to know the brand in depth that gets us to know the preferences of the executives and department leads in depth. And so that saves a lot of time and back and forth for both parties, where we just already have a deep understanding of what they want and what they like and what they need for their business. Yeah. So you're super clear on your niche. What was that an accident or, you know, was that intentional or how did you come about, you know, getting into the health food industry?

2:56Yeah, that kind of just unfolded organically. No pun intended. Yeah. Pun intended. We'll take the pun. We like it. Yeah. So, yeah, I started freelancing, you know, 2004-ish, I incorporated my business in about 2009. And one of my first clients was a health food company located out in Salt Lake City, and they make a nutrition bar. And yeah, I just really enjoyed working with them. And then, you know, my relationship with them turned into working with another one of our main clients that's a protein company. And yeah, I just, I really, you know, health and food is something that's always been very important to me.

3:38And so the more I worked with them, the more I realized how much I loved and enjoyed working with brands and companies that align with my own values and how, you know, that made work so much more enjoyable and inspiring. Yeah, no, I'm super, I think it's super important to, yeah, to get the values lined up between your customers and your employees, the whole thing, the whole thing, the whole culture thing has there. So that second client, I'm interested in that second client? Was that, sometimes that happens because somebody moves from one business to another or it's a supplier or something. How did, or did you intentionally go after a second client in the industry?

4:18That's exactly what happened. Someone moved to company. Someone I worked with very closely at the first client. I attended a Christmas party and I just really enjoyed talking with him. I really enjoyed talking with his wife, spent the majority of the party talking with them had no idea that would solidify our relationship to the extent that when he changed companies he was you know he recommended to the owner of the new company he was like i know this person that's really great with graphic design has a good team you know let's let's work with her and uh yeah that was that was great yeah that's yeah that's that's not unusual and i think but i think so that's i think that's why it's important to make those relationships because you never actually know when someone's going to move companies or when someone's going to recommend you to somebody else or anything out there.

5:08So do you have any intentional keeping in touch system or is it all, hey, we do great work and we just naturally keep in touch? Yeah, that's something I'm definitely working on fleshing out and building. But one thing my brother told me, he was also an entrepreneur for an extended period of time is that he's always like the reward for good work is more work. And that's definitely been true for us. And so, you know, we're just really, you know, deliver quality work on time. And that just turns into more work. And yeah, I just kind of casually keep connections, but, you know, as I focus on growing my business more, you know, I plan to be more intentional with, with maintaining those relationships.

5:55Yeah, as you get bigger, it gets more challenging because there's just more. And there's more to do. There's also more to keep in touch with. So I want to talk about team a minute. You say you got a team. Have you always had a team? Or when did you decide to bring on team? Yeah, that's a great question. Probably around 2015, 2016. And considering I've been a solopreneur since 2009, was when I started dabbling in hiring employees. And, you know, that was a learning experience. Probably wasn't until 2017, I brought on my first, you know, kind of employee that was fully like committed to being in this with me and helping me out.

6:38And that was amazing. Once that happened, I was like, why didn't I do this sooner? Yeah. And then it grew from there. Yeah. So do you remember like the, I mean, that first employee is obviously the hardest one. Do Do you, I mean, do you recall like how you were feeling before you hired that person? Overwhelmed. I was burning the candle both ends for sure. Like I just, around the clock, it just, it got to a point. And I tried to mitigate that by shedding clients, like shedding local clients. But even then, like the work just kept building. And I was like, okay, there's, it's just at a point where I can't do it all by myself.

7:14Yeah. So what did you learn and how did you find your first team member, I guess? um the very first woman I worked with she was very nice we had a connection through social media we actually met through Twitter and um naively you know I didn't do my due diligence or call references or you know that sort of thing and I just trusted that like oh we've we've just connected well via social media that should work and then you know um as we began to work together I realized okay well this isn't the best fit you know and I take accountability for that because I I should have, you know, done a little more research or, you know, put out a formal ad and interviewed more people and considered options.

7:55So, you know, that was that was kind of a hiccup. But, you know, with my my first full time sort of employee that was committed, that was a formal like interview hiring process. And that worked really well. Yeah. So I think a lot of times when we we hire for convenience and it rarely, rarely works. So what's your hiring process now? Yeah, I guess, you know, I just I pick a platform or two to post the job posting. And, you know, I usually receive a variety of applicants, you know, like anyone. I guess what's kind of maybe too unique to the way I vet people versus the way other people might vet people is I am very, heavily weigh their portfolio.

8:48If their portfolio has quality work, not just quality work, but I'm also looking at it stylistically. If it stylistically matches the needs of our clients, that's very important to me. When I attended UNCA's multimedia program, one of the professors said to me, she said, include a variety of things because you never know what someone is looking for. So even if you think something is your greatest piece, it might not align with what the hiring manager wants to see or what they're looking for. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. I mean, I think getting clear on what it is you're looking for before you actually begin the process.

9:34Like who do you want and what skills and values? values. We talked about values earlier. Do they have that's going to be in line with what's going on? So as an outsourced graphic design firm, you work within a marketing department. Is that correct? Right. That's correct. Yeah. So you have to collaborate with people. Tell us a little bit about that. That seems to me like it might be A, interesting and B, challenging and fun all at once. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How'd you like to learn from the best? How'd you like to network with the best? How'd you like to be the best? Well, the key to being the best is to hang around with the best and to learn from the best.

10:20And we're going to make that possible for you this August in Asheville at the Asheville Business Summit. I want you to stay tuned. We're bringing in speakers from outside. We've got a lot of good events planned. It's going to be amazing. We got more information coming, but if you'd like more info on how you can be involved, how you can attend, or how you can be a sponsor for this event, it's going to be over 350 entrepreneurs in one place right here in Western North Carolina in Asheville. For more or to be a sponsor, I want you to reach out directly to Beth Limmel. That's L-E-M-M-E-L at actioncoach.com.

11:01That's Beth Limmel at actioncoach.com. We look forward to seeing you there. It's going to be amazing. Yeah. I mean, I guess it could be challenging. I've actually found a lot of benefits in it. You know, one benefit of working in that manner and giving my team quite a bit of autonomy is that, you know, they work directly with the client a lot. So like it wasn't a few years into that kind of like model that I realized oh I've created myself the benefit of like since they're able to work with the point people as well I don't have to always be the person that's holding them accountable for deadlines you know the client holds them accountable for deadlines as well and so that takes something off my plate and that and that works well and then the other thing that's been really nice is I mean we're we're highly organized you know here internally but these marketing departments um are organized as well with a project management tools and so they have processes in place and so while we have our own internal process it's it's been really easy to kind of like plug into their you know processes for you know submitting a creative brief and you know reviewing assets and then turning in the final deliverables and um we've done such good work they've always involved us in that process too like you know helping them evaluate evaluate tools that might be beneficial to them or make the process easier.

12:20So that's been great. So do you still do graphic design yourself or is it all the team? Yeah, unfortunately very little. I act more as a project manager and creative director, art director at this point and business owner. So I don't get to be hands-on as, you know, like I was in the beginning. And I do kind of miss that a little bit. I do, you know, we have a little a tiny bit we don't do so much html coding work anymore we have a tiny bit of that and um i handle anything like that that comes through but i'm not getting to like you know spend hours in photoshop or anymore anything like right yeah yeah i mean it's an interesting it's a decision right i mean you had to you essentially had a ton of work and you were working like you said burning the candle at both ends and then you were decided to hire people and now you've become more a project manager or business owner, that is a, that's a mental shift.

13:18I mean, that's, there's, it's a different skillset than, than what's coming on. So what did you, what did you run into along that, along that journey? I don't know. I think it worked. I mean, I've always liked, you know, when you, when I was working solo, you know, I was doing all of that. I was, you know, managing projects and, you know, doing the design. And so it was just kind of like, I guess I didn't really the shift didn't feel too abrupt it just felt like I was taking more things off my plate and I was okay so yeah so you I mean you were ready essentially is what you're saying and you were you're ready for it you you're already doing a good bit of it now you just had other people to to manage and as long as they fit in the culture it's not a problem so yeah so was it tough to let that first person go or how did that?

14:09Let's see. I guess, yeah, my very first hire, that was difficult, but it was, I mean, letting anyone go at any time is difficult, but usually, you know, I give people the benefit of the doubt and see it through until it's become very clear that this is not a working relationship. I like to give people, you know, the opportunity to grow or change. And so, yeah, that's always difficult. Yeah. Yeah, I think. Yeah. I mean, I mean, the big lesson was in the hiring process, but, you know, which you took and have already done that. So the name of our show is Epic Entrepreneurs and Epic is and our tagline is Be Epic.

14:51And so it's an acronym. The first, the B stands for bring the energy. How do you feel energy comes into play in running a business? Oh, yeah. I think that's a great question. I think there has to be a good energy. I know that's kind of big, but morale is so important. And so to kind of be in tune with your team and give back to them and do things for them, it's important. And to be present, yeah, it's good to keep. you know sometimes things can get really repetitive and so it's good to kind of bring in activities or things that help energize the group. Yeah bring the level up, bring some energy back, you know do something fun, something along those lines.

15:38Cool, yeah good. So the E in EPIC stands for education. What do you think the value of education is in growing a business? Um, I think I was listening to a book or podcast recently. And you know, one of the things they advised was being a sponge, like the more you can, you know, take in the better. And in my early days of my business, that was very much me. Like I was always like reading blogs or following designers. I liked or going to conferences. Like, yeah, I just, I loved it. And I just took it all in. And It's amazing how much that just taking in that information can help you, you know, grow professionally.

16:22Yeah, I've always found that when I get stuck, I go back to education. I go back to learning something. There's probably there's I'm not I don't you know, I haven't learned enough to achieve the next level. And so, yeah, it's it. And I think it also for me brings energy. So it's kind of it comes back to the B, you know, becoming who we need to become to reach the next level. OK, the P stands for planning. And I don't know any successful people who aren't good planners. What do you believe? You know, what's your philosophy on planning? Yeah. Yeah. Planning is great. And that's something I'm blocking out more time for.

17:00You know, my business unfolded so naturally. You know, I hadn't had to be too proactive about that in the past. But I guess, you know, kind of thinking about that a little bit, sometimes I really love processes. And I feel like if you if you are able to establish good processes, that can help minimize the amount of time you have to spend planning or, you know, sorting things out. So, yeah, you know, I kind of put processes right up there with planning. I think it's great. I think processes are part of planning. I mean, I think you add in, you know, you plan what's our plan to add. you call them processes, I call them systems, but it's the same thing, you know, to the business so that it is repeatable and, and, uh, you know, people can, can follow them.

17:44I think it's good. I think it's a great thing. How about inspiration? You're, you're in, I guess you come out of an art ish background. Um, what, what, what are you, what are your thoughts on inspiration? Um, yeah, that's, that's really, uh, important and, you know, something, you know, we try to, I try to fold in a company culture as well. Like, you know, just from the like design level, you know, just sharing links or things we find interesting or things that are relevant to like what we're working on. Yeah, that's very important. And I think I, I think I kind of like, I would say inspiration, you know, definitely influences a lot of my actions.

18:26Like I, I see something that sparks my interest or really gets me excited. And then I'm like, oh how can I run with that or how can I do that or how can you know that play into my life so I had a mentor of mine say instead of looking for inspiration or finding inspiration he said be an inspiration and I was like huh that to me made a lot of sense how do how do how do you become an inspiration you know to your team and to your clients and to everyone else and but I think it comes back to what you're saying you have to you have to be willing to go down those rabbit holes and see where it takes you sometimes.

19:01Like you get an idea. I mean, I don't know about you, but I get ideas all the time. And not all of them are great. Some of them are, but we have to test them out to do it. So, all right. So that's the EPI. The C stands for commitment. So, I mean, you seem pretty committed to a path here and a niche. and talk to us about commitment and the importance of commitment in your business. Yeah, I think, you know, I would say commitment for us, like we're very committed to our clients. You know, we have a great relationship with them. You know, there's a great work dynamic here. And I think when you give people autonomy or, you know, a little bit of creative freedom and don't, you know, and be realistic about deadlines and expectations that when you do have like something urgent or last minute, you know, that commitment is there.

19:57They're willing to, you know, put in extra time or work to do it because, you know, you've established a good relationship. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, it's an interesting one. You know, I think I'm impressed that you've been able to a lot of graphic designers just want to do design and they don't actually want to build a business. And you've actually built a nice little business here. And that's that's impressive. Here's a question for you that I pretty much ask everybody. What do you wish someone had told you before you started your business that, you know, now that they didn't tell you? Yeah, I wish in the early days someone had told me, you know, to not worry about the things that I felt intimidated by or that felt uncomfortable to me.

20:44because the reality is, you know, someone's already solved that problem or done that. It's just a matter of gathering the resources for you to be able to do that or move forward. Yeah, it's a great lesson. That's a great, you're right. Somebody's already done it. How do you find those people, though? You know, that's the real question. Where do you find them? Yeah. Yeah, and that's tricky. I think mentorship comes about naturally sometimes, but then also, you know, sometimes you need to just seek out people to kind of give you a little guidance and accountability. Yeah. And Google's not bad and Amazon's not bad.

21:19They, you know, their books and, you know, there's a lot of places to find that mentorship out there. So do you have any last thoughts or any comments that you'd like to, lessons maybe that you've learned that you'd like to pass on to other business owners and entrepreneurs out there? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if there's, I mean, I guess I've been really lucky in that, you know, I've grown my business with very little adversity. But maybe that comes from just, you know, following, you know, what speaks to me. And I think if you do that and are kind of in tune with that, you know, being an entrepreneur doesn't have to be, you know, hard.

22:03It can be in a very, very enjoyable process. yeah i love that i love that yes do what speaks to you wow maybe that that's that's a great title for this this one that's awesome so how do people get a hold of you if they're i'm assuming you're just looking for people in the health food industry but that's all right how do they get a hold of you if they if they if they want to find you yeah yeah that's a good question um my website is naya llc.com n-y-a-h my email is june at naya llc.com and yeah i've been very word of mouth up to this point i haven't done a lot of marketing so yeah just contacting me directly is is a great way and um also you know even though i've i've mentioned you know the health food industry is a niche like um i'm very active in the outdoor industry so anything that just kind of like surrounds health and wellness is, you know.

22:56Okay. Got it. Okay. Health and wellness folks, you got it right there. Naya. What is Naya? I thought, I told you it was going to be my last question, but it's not. What is Naya? Yeah. The word or the acronym or whatever it is. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great question. It's a swangili word that means kind of with purpose. And so when at the time I incorporated, I was doing a lot more, I actually started out in web development. So I was doing more of that work. And so any of the, a lot of the design work I was doing was user interface design. And so, you know, I picked that word because I, you know, my design work wasn't like frivolous or showy.

23:37It was very intentional. And I think we kind of operate in a similar sense today too, where, you know, our design work is very functional. It's not just like for show or to grab attention. It's, it's to like serve a purpose and help our clients. It can be, yeah, yeah. It can be functional and beautiful. I mean, that's, there's nothing there's, that's great. I mean, that's sort of what Steve Jobs was after at Apple. So, you know, that's, that's fantastic. That's great. I love that. So if you want a graphic design firm that's working with purpose, here we go. We got an eye for you right here in June.

24:15So reach out to them. Hey, and really appreciate you coming on the show. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Hey, and until everybody, I look forward to chatting with you next time. And until then, all the best. Hey, thanks for listening to the Epic Entrepreneurs Podcast. Here's three things that you can do. Number one, remember to subscribe to the podcast. It takes very little effort on your part. It's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs. Plus, you guys know how it works. The more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach.

24:52It's free for you at giftfrombill.com. That's giftfrombill.com. Hey, and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business, send me an email directly. Just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com. That's my personal email that I read. No one else reads it first. It's not screened. It's my real email. Just send it to me. I can't wait to talk to you. Hey, and until then, all the best. Hey, thanks for listening to the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast. Here's three things that you can do. Number one, remember to subscribe to the podcast. It takes very little effort on your part.

25:39It's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs. Plus, you guys know how it works. The more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach. It's free for you at giftfrombill.com. That's giftfrombill.com. Hey, and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business, send me an email directly. Just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com. That's my personal email that I read. No one else reads it first. It's not screened. It's my real email.

26:27Just send it to me. I can't wait to talk to you. Hey, and until then, all the best.