Agency Years
2005 - 2017
My first business was a remote-before-remote-was-cool brand and marketing agency, called Pixel Perfect. Eventually it became RAVEL Creative.
If you’d like the backstory:
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If you remember 2005, it was still very much the early days of the internet:
Social media consisted of Myspace…
WordPress hadn’t yet taken over the market…
1-person shops popped up online to leverage a major advantage over brick and mortar agencies:
They were slow to bring web development in-house and into their suite of offers.
The ad agency I’d worked for only had 1 web dev on staff.
So…
Some of us decided to create businesses helping other businesses get online and grow through their web presence.
I offered and delivered marketing strategy, web development, copywriting, brand identity design, email marketing, printed collateral, and more.
It was the wild west of the internet… and most of us were self-taught.
At the time, I lived in Las Vegas, which took the 2nd hardest hit in the nation during the recession of 2008-09.
However, I grew to capacity.
While half-built high-rise buildings were abandoned, people were looking to pivot and innovate quickly.
I met people at coffee shops, talked about their business, and “somehow” we’d end up working together.
I say “somehow” because I didn’t consciously know what I was doing back then. Selling in a no-pressure, no-stress way came easy to me…
I now call it Zero-Pressure Persuasion and help others integrate it into their business.
I learned a lot about business strategy in the face of economic recession, high competition, and overly saturated markets.
Helping people solve problems in their business and keeping them from what they truly wanted seemed to be my superpower…
While I’d been coaching clients for many years, I made the shift official to a hybrid coaching / consulting model.
That way I could still support execution and jump in on occasion to provide support or guidance.
In 2017, I trained at Gallup as a CliftonStrengths coach, to add that powerful tool to my toolbox.
Today, my greater objective is to help clients create the solid foundations they need for long-term success and business-life satisfaction:
Great offers
Solid people
Leadership
Clarity & Vision
Sales
Service
Awareness
and more
My objective was to deliver solutions that would grow brand loyalty and add long-term value. These were delivered through brand assessment, strategy, design, and management.
You didn’t need a niche back then, and I worked with a wide range of businesses and industries.
From companies with multiple brands to family-owned businesses, solopreneurs, product and service-based businesses…
I had interesting clients, such as:
a family business whose history goes back to patents and government contracts during the Civil War
a company with a viral product that won investors on Shark Tank
a tequila company
truly innovative wellness experts
an international company with multiple brands selling artists’ designs
a university in Uganda, Africa
and many others.
It was my honor and privilege to work with each and every one during those years.
Years of strategic planning and tactical execution led me to develop and offer a comprehensive solution that could be delivered significantly faster than traditional solutions… and get growth-oriented results in 90 days or less.
I call it BrandStrengths for Business.
Industries represented:
Online Services (brand + digital marketing, tech, coaches, consultants, and more)
Local Services (fitness studios, physical therapists, med spas, home services, fitness & self-defense, etc.)
Retail / Products (e-commerce and offline)
Health & Wellness (functional medicine, massage, nutrition, health coaches, etc.)
Education (K-12 & higher ed)
Finance (brokers, financial advisors, etc.)
Automotive
and more.
Examples of client project work:
