EP #56 | How to Get Your Brand Story Straight with Ericka Saurit
Welcome to the Designers Oasis podcast. I'm your host, Kate Bendewald, interior designer, mama and CEO of a thriving interior design business, built on authentic word of mouth referrals. It wasn't that long ago that I stepped away from my corporate architecture job to build my own dream, one that would allow me more time with the people that I love, the ability to serve my clients at the highest level, and to make a great living. It wasn't always easy, and I've made my share of mistakes along the way. Fast forward to today, and I've learned a thing or two. This podcast is for you - the inspired, creative, ambitious, and let's admit it, occasionally overwhelmed interior designer who shares this dream of transforming lives by transforming homes. Join me and my guests each week as we walk through practical ways to build an interior design business you love, and helps you transform your clients' lives. You can do this.
Kate Bendewald
Today, I'm chatting with Ericka Saurit of Saurit Creative, a strategic brand marketing and storytelling agency for interior designers and Home Brands. Ericka believes that how you tell your story matters. It needs to be clear, concise, and consistent. And she's going to talk more about that today. She is on a mission to help interior designers clarify their value. And to get that message out. She says that interior designers are underestimated and undervalued for their work. They're brought on to projects far too late for a scope of work that doesn't take advantage of their full potential. And she wants to help you fix that. Ericka shares the three pillars that you have to understand and get right. In order to shift from being a business to a brand. There is so much value packed. In today's episode, you're definitely going to want to tune in for the whole thing. Let's listen to Ericka's conversation today. Hi, Ericka. Good morning. Welcome. How are you?
Ericka Saurit
Hi, Kate. I'm really good. Thank you for having me. How are you?
Kate Bendewald
Oh my gosh, I'm fantastic. I am so so so good. Thank you for asking, I have to tell you, I am a little bit fangirling over here about having you today.
Ericka Saurit
Oh my gosh,
Kate Bendewald
I was introduced to you through you know your partner. And I started to go down a major rabbit hole just researching you and your firm and your work that you do. And as I mentioned in our chat just a minute ago, before we got started that I branding is really important to me. And when I say branding, like all the aspects of branding, not just the visuals, but the storytelling. And then of course, it goes without saying the experience that you provide your your clients. So but the storytelling is something that I find to be really fun, energizing, interesting. And it's always so different for everybody. So when I was talking with my assistant, Megan, I was like, this is an easy, yes, let's talk to her. So welcome are thrilled to have you.
Ericka Saurit
Thank you, I'm really thrilled to be here. And it's truly an honor to talk to you too. I love your podcast, and I love that you're providing so much insight to designers who need it, you know, we we're all working in different kinds of aspects of this industry. And everybody has their own approach, you know, but we all struggle with I've found in my business, we all struggle with how, what are the best kind of ways what's the best process or systems to run a business and there isn't, at least from my experience in my education, it's really hard to find sort of one, one source so I'm grateful for you and this podcast and the value that you bring to designers to help them understand and explore all the aspects of building their business. Likewise on the fan girling thank you yeah, this
Kate Bendewald
this community is really special to me. I mean, just the the craft and the love that I have for interior design as a whole, you know, is one thing but then just doing what it means to As designers to have a business that can thrive, that they can call their own, that provides them you know, a good income that allows them to families or do whatever it is that they want to do outside of work. It just, it delights me so, but you know, there's so much to running a business, know from the process to the clients relationships and all of that. But what we're here to talk about today is storytelling. And so Ericka, you are a strategic brand marketer and storytelling expert specific to the home industry. I love that you have chosen this for your niche because it's so needed. I want you to why I love it. Good backstory. So if you don't kind of give me a walk us back a little bit to your getting to get to this place where you are in helping designers at home brands. Okay, storytelling and getting that message so clear. So the super, super
Ericka Saurit
short headline, the story, my story is that the first half of my career, the first 10 years, I worked as an interior designer, I studied Fine Art. And then I went, I went to art school. And then I went to design school. And, and then after I finished design as graduate program for interior architecture, I began my career in design, and it worked all over the world. And it was super exciting. And then about 10 years ago, over 10, a little over 10 years ago, I got pulled into doing kind of more marketing roles, more business development, more pitching for our agency for design, firms, that evolved into a kind of more solid position in marketing, where I was more happy, like I was happy to leave CAD behind, I was happy to leave well sections. Because what I was starting to realize was that my skills by in communicating the value of other people's, what I was able to do best and I did this in various kinds of parts of, of my career. Before that, I was always good at drawing, I was always good at, you know, maybe the presentation boards, which is back when we actually had to still do physical boards when we were presenting the clients. You know, before everything went digital, even when it went digital, how to create kind of something really quick a story really quick headline, some quick copy that was, you know, really, you know, interesting and fun to read something that was memorable, something that that client if they were seeing multiple, you know, pitches per day or multiple, you know, presentations from different clients that they could easily remember, I was really good at that. And I really love doing that. And then going back and kind of building the rest of the design was sort of like womp, womp, womp. To me, it was like okay,
Kate Bendewald
it's really interesting. I want to pause for a moment because yeah, I've talked with my designers, I call them my designers in a very loving way, not in a like parental way that, you know, when you can hone your storytelling craft, it's not only something you will do for your business, but it's also something you'll do for your clients. When it comes to developing
Ericka Saurit
this design story for eautiful way to say
Kate Bendewald
started is what you're suggesting you found that storytelling capability came naturally for you when it came to your your project work. And I am in my researching of you I saw some of the firms that you had worked for these are huge firms doing incredible work. Can you talk a little bit about the kind of projects that you're working on?
Ericka Saurit
Yeah, so I, I started working. And again, just to go back to kind of the storytelling, the the my focus in graduate school was on exhibition design. So I started working right out of school with Ralph Appelbaum associates in their office in Beijing. So it's a US company, but they specialize in museum design. And what that firm is really famous for is telling stories about history that are engaging and really kind of unforgettable, unforgettable, the first kind of landmark project for that firm was the Holocaust Museum. And so the idea Yeah, was if you've ever been, you know, or if you've heard of it, as an interior designer, it sort of set about the idea that museums weren't simply about place to learn about history to read, see a timeline on the wall or to read a story about, you know, a particular battle or a particular event that happened, they could be more experiential, they could be immersive, and when they were that kind of storytelling, whether it was done with objects in space, whether it was done with how your body moved, right, how the experience of the design moved you through the space, whether it was done with like the size of the graphics or you know, really everything about how you took in the information of that story of history impacted you and left you remembering it or being impacted by it. And so I was so excited by that I was thrilled, you know, was just changed by this work. And I wanted to do that as a designer. And so I started working in the office in the rough Applebaum office in Beijing. And our clients around this was around 2008. And while the US was going through a recession, and the designers and architects and friends I had working in the the built environment, weren't working on such exciting projects or weren't working at all, you know, China was booming, China was kind of a place to go and work on projects that, you know, would never be built anywhere else. And so I had this incredible experience of being, you know, led through time, a time when we could do, the clients wanted to see things that had never been done before in space. And then cultural projects, which is crazy, because typically, cultural clients are quite conservative. Yeah, I really got to work with a lot of exciting brands. While I was in Asia, I was in Asia, about seven years total transitioning between design and also into marketing role there. So super, super exciting. Start. But I will say the one thing, just to take us kind of back to sort of what's driving this as a thread in my career, is the one thing I always saw with being in design school, I taught for a few years at the university level just after graduating, and then kind of going into practice, what I saw was a lot of designers kind of shied behind their work and didn't tell the story. They wanted their work to really speak for themselves speak for itself, people will just get it once they see my renderings like Well, no, they won't. They didn't, and they don't. And what I saw, unfortunately, was a lot of really, really incredible ideas, I say, die on the presentation floor, they just fall down, and they never can get back up. Because they're missing, you know, something quickly, that can help people understand exactly why it should be important to them. And that's typically that the story is, is written in the point of view of someone else. Most of the time we start stories, we talk about ourselves, we talk about our, our experience, or our idea, our style. The reason why we you know the whole story behind why this is so important to us. The clients will care about any of that, like clients, corporate clients, residential clients, clients of any kind, they only really want to know how you can make their life better. And so I saw this across many years, took me a long time to really put it together, like what's this? Like? How do you really succeed at this thing, like what's really making all of this work? And that's what I figured out what it was. And then I, I found a kind of a universe of information and marketing that helps support that. And now, my mission and in this business of mine, my work is to help and guide designers to understand how to tell their stories in that way, so that they don't die on the presentation floor anymore. And that they get the projects they deserve. And they get to help people, their clients have better lives. Yeah.
Kate Bendewald
Oh, my gosh, I love it. I could go down so many rabbit holes. Yes. Yeah. And you just listening to you. It's, it's resonating with me so much, that I think that you can't grasp the importance of storytelling soon enough, right? Because it shows up. And so it shows up everywhere. It shows up in your visuals, you know, how you show up on screen and in social media. But it also shows up in your conversations that you're having in virtual phone calls. It shows up in your proposals.
Ericka Saurit
Always. Yes, of
Kate Bendewald
course. You know, the storyline might change the characters in the stories might change and evolve. But the impact of the value of storytelling, it just it resonates with people because we're Brene Brown, you know, for story.
Ericka Saurit
I, I have that exact same thing. Same exact way. And I love that she has been able to say that like we are wired for stories. They come in our like deepest, kind of deepest, deepest, deepest memories, just as ourselves. But even as we've evolved throughout the history of humanity, like imagine sitting around a fire, there's no social media. How do you tell people like that? You know, I don't know something's dangerous. Don't go past the river. or there's there's wolves and bears, you know, how do you share a sense of danger or senses of things that are positive or maybe nutritious? I mean, just going back to being very sort of primal about why storytelling matters, but go back and take it to your to yourself, like how you grew up? How did you learn about your family? How did you learn about your culture? Or how did you learn about, you know, what really brought you and gave you an existence and an identity. And that was a story I'm certain. And just to take this quickly back to designers and marketing, if I were to say to you, date, like, let's say we meet at a networking event. And maybe I'm potentially a client, or you know, I'm, I'm interested in potentially, you don't know, I just say, hey, what do you do? How's it going like, I AmEricka? Who are you? And what do you do?
Kate Bendewald
What do you say? No, it's funny, I was just thinking about this earlier, I used to have this pretty clear when I was doing design work, but have transitioned in the last year full time to doing designers oasis. And so much of my work is is digital, and it's online. It's something that I really need to focus on myself for designers away. So it's been, I like to say that I help interior designers to launch, establish and scale their interior design business so that they can, you know, have a career that supports the kind of lifestyle that they want. And I guess that's I think
Ericka Saurit
that's, no, no, that's great. That's great, actually, because one thing that I was the one thing that makes a story, a story. And it can be, you know, a variety of things is that you just got to get people to lean in, you got to catch people's attention. And you had me at, like, of course, if I'm coming to this, as an interior designer, I'm coming with like, oh, make my business better. Okay, make me help me make more money helped me streamline my processes helped me like work less like, those things are really interesting. And you spoke about those, like, when you introduce yourself, you caught my attention, you made me lean in, you're gonna make me feel something about obviously, my business. If this were, you know, a networking event. And I think that's a great, that's a great story, and a great way to think about it. A lot of times people get kind of over, they overthink it, you know, wow, what am I going to say that's profound and unique? And like, yeah, you can do that? Well, that's, of course. Yeah,
Kate Bendewald
I do. And I think, you know, one of the things that I could work, you know, be better on is telling that story about how, how creating a business that thrives can help support the kind of lifestyle that you want, you know, in balance, because that's the piece that is so important to me. But anyway, the this is, this is really exciting for me to hear, I want. I want to ask you this question. What is the one thing that you see most often with, I'm just going to speak about interior designers, because that's about it. And I know you work with product based Home Brands. What is it that they underestimated that they get wrong most often that you wish you could just shout from the rooftops about storytelling. So I
Ericka Saurit
come to storytelling with a framework that is based on it really the headline for it too, is to say, are you thinking about yourself as a business or a brand? Right? If you're thinking about Yeah, if you're thinking about yourself as a brand, you're going to want to make sure that you are leading with what's going to make you obviously different. But as we just spoke in the example before is like you're gonna want to make something that's resonant you're gonna want to make a kind of an emotional connection with the person that you're talking to you need to know enough about them as your ideal or your target or your you know, that perfect client profile. What it is that motivates them on an emotional level, to want to work with you or to want to choose you over another brand. So as innocence brands, functions specifically because they are able to tell stories really well. So the biggest thing I want people designers to think about is start to think about yourself as a brand. Because you are even if your brand is your your the name of your company that has a brand if it's not specifically you if your name is in the is you know on the on the marquee then the brand is you but if you know the if the company has a has a different name, it's not yours that's it's still a brand. It represents a set of feelings and Emotions that you're going to express in stories that are going to be attractive to the clients that you most want to serve. So that's the first thing. I call that emotional resonance. It's really getting the core and key emotional motivations that drive people to you. And then once you figure that out, and it requires a lot of, you know, why why why why why lots of questioning? Yes.
Kate Bendewald
Just getting started in there. They're kind of doing this for themselves. Obviously, you guys would be the experts to help designers with this. But if they're just think about this, asking why, and then asking why that is so important. Okay. Can I give you an example of a a client that I guess work with where this really benefited? Because we got to the core of what's really going on, you know, this couple came to me and they said, they wanted to kitchen renovation? Well, okay, I do kitchens. Great. Why? And long story short, after continuing to probe and ask why and ask why and ask why what it came down to was that they had children who were getting ready to, to age out of the house and go off to college. And they felt like they weren't being their kids the way anymore as much as they used to. And I missed that mention. And admittedly, their kitchen was dark and cramped and small, and there's not really a good place for them to kind of gather in the kitchen. But food was really important gathering is really important. They had a pizza oven, they love to do a big pizza buffet, where they put on all these topics, or they could make their own there were just a really lovely, lovely couple, I was one of my very, very early clients, they were they were wonderful. And so what it came down to was she wanted to spend more time with their kids. And they both couples, and they felt like having a kitchen slash dining space that was inviting, and give their kids a place to come hang out and work on their homework or bring friends over, you know, always have the food at the ready and the drinks, because they talked about how much food their kids ate. Create this space that would invite their kids to to linger and to hang out. And when you got that story like Okay, now we're taking like literally, literally, it wasn't about the kitchen. Yes, they wanted it to be cool and functional, and all that good stuff. Yeah. But what they really wanted was to spend more time with their kids before they moved off to college, freaking cool, to be able to be a part of that and to help them.
Ericka Saurit
That's the heart of what makes interior design. So important. And that is why the message is, it's so important. Because your let's build on this because I think we can play on this for a second, I want to go into some other things. Imagine continuing to tell that story back to the client who comes to you and says, I just want you know, we need a new kitchen renovation. Okay. So there's some reasons there obviously, that is if they ever decide to resell their home, it's going to help with the you know, resale value, great. That's one reason they may be they may be focused on that. And you can go as that your marketing message. But obviously, they're going to make space for their kids to come, potentially, the kids or want to come back, you know, again and again, through their college years, because they're gonna have all these great memories of this time they had together just before they left, right. And that is about connectedness and creating a sense of a place of belonging that the kitchen is, as just a series of, you know, materials and appliances, a whole holds, right, and you're just your job as a designer is to be able to communicate that back to the client. And if you can, I'll layer on another message on top of that is because I've had a lot of designers come to me who are either very early in their career, or they don't just don't realize how to take, you know, they're saying, oh, everyone's saying, you know, they're creating spaces for families and maybe they are, but let's say you take on top of that the maybe your kitchen and bath specialized, maybe you have a particular type of education or training or accreditation, in specific types of rooms or systems that you can add on top of that, that give your client another way to understand how different you are from other designers who might be saying the same thing. And then if you were to say that same message, you know, over and over again, across let's and to be pretty consistent with it and in making it short and saying it across all of your different channels between On social media between email campaigns, if you're doing them on your website for sure, in any, you know, pitches or proposal documents that you send to clients, they're going to remember you as the one who can help transform their family's kitchen. And then really transform the relationships they're having with their family. Much better than someone who's just offering a service of interior design without being so specific. Yeah. And that's the power. That's the power of messaging. It's different. For every designer, I like to say one a lot of designers are talking about style, you'll be talking about substance. Because it's one thing to show pictures of kitchens, and I see them a lot on websites. But for someone who's not versed in the language of design, or doesn't understand what it takes to build out a space like that, or the value of it if you're adding words on top of that, that describe belonging, connectedness, you know, even telling a case story. I love the story so much about the family and you know, the pizza, pizza bar at home. I just think you you've got a winning formula for landing clients that are looking for this and I think a lot or
Kate Bendewald
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Kate Bendewald
Can you talk a little bit about your process? And how it's different? Because there's there's other people out there in your space? Yep. You know, do storytelling and that kind of dream person? was the word that is different than
Ericka Saurit
Yeah. So there's two ways that it's it's pretty radically different. Radically different is that we've obviously come from I have two partners that I work with have all come from a background in interior design. So we understand the industry, we understand the struggles and the pain points that designers go through in marketing, their their business. So we understand pretty much the entire commercial and residential space, and all of the things that go into it. The second is, I have created what I call an the E three storytelling framework. Each of these words, yeah, are unforgettable, because they start with an E just like Ericka, but they describe how to take a business strategy, how to take a look and what we've talked about, just recently, how to take a business strategy and turn it into a story and that the three E's are how do you create an extraordinary position? That's that means how do you make yourself you know, different and unique? Let's say in the in this example of the kitchen. You talk about your accreditation with designing potentially kitchens or baths. If that's if that's something that you have, or you can talk about your experience in doing you know, how I've had many designers who tell me over and over again how they attract clients. I like to cook they want to be amateur chefs. And so having a really well laid out kitchen helps make that better for them and helps that dream of their own To cook for their family come true, whether they're able to articulate the idea of connectedness or not, they're able to articulate their own hopes and dreams of cooking at home. So even without the accreditation, if they've done enough kitchen design, they understand like what it really means to be a good like to make a good kitchen design, there's this, there's a differentiator there that if you speak to clients will begin to understand. So that first extraordinary positioning is understanding what makes you different, and being able to really articulate it make it really into like something that like one or two sentences that really make sense. The second one is what we've been talking about is emotional resonance. And that's understanding what the core emotional feelings and motivations are, what people are going to take away, what are they going to remember about you, I've identified five, I think that interior designers work from a sense of belonging, right, creating a sense of belonging with their clients, and mostly that's about families, and space. The second one is being seen or heard being validated, a lot of times clients come and they want to be in this can, there's a range of different kinds of reasons people want this, but it's sometimes it's about wanting to entertain more wanting to have, you know, you know, maybe they are transitioning in their life to either an empty nest, or maybe they're having more children, or they're, you know, there's something that needs to show up as a sort of being I can be seen and heard as a family or I can be seen and heard as a young professional, there's some validation there, and that interior design can help them articulate that as well. I believe strongly that one is tied to the idea of creating a legacy. And I see this a lot with clients who are building second or third homes or creating homes that are maybe homes that they will leave to family, or they are going to be something that stays in, you know, intergenerational kind of creating experiences for the next generation. And then my favorite, which is one about discovering, it's about all it's about creating a sense of wonder. And that wonder happening from understanding something about yourself inside and understanding as something about the world as a, you know, your place in the world. So you discover something about yourself and discovering something about a world, this one, I see much more for product brands than for interior designers, their clients aren't using the home to kind of necessarily discover something about themselves. But tapping into one of those is really the first, the first way to understand the core emotion. And then you can build a language of storytelling around that. And the third one, now we'll get to it is experiential engagement. So we have extraordinary positioning, finding out what makes you different, creating an emotional resonance, finding out what that core motivation is. And the third one experiential engagement. And that's really making sure that that story can be implemented across every touchpoint you have with your brand. That's how people will encounter your narratives. From you know, anything physical from your, I don't know, the mat outside, you know, your welcome mat, what does it say? Doesn't have anything to do with your brand? Or what's it like when someone walks into your office or your studio? What's that experience? Like? Does that speak to the message that your brand is putting out there? And all the way to after a project is delivered? Are you making probably, you know, are you making things right? If there's something that's damaged, or if you install in the, you know, if there's many, many, many things that I won't go into the details of that can happen, kind of at the end of a project, but typically, this is what the clients like what they remember most. And so you want to make sure that your brand touch point that you're you're touching on and creating a story there for them that's consistent with what they experienced when they first find out about you. And you have to control all those things. It feels like a big, big, big, big undertaking, but it's not. It just takes time. Just like anything else worth doing. It's just a matter of being consistent. And being intentional. And, and yeah, that's how you build that's how you build a brand with a message.
Kate Bendewald
So you clearly have been able to do that for yourself and your own. And, and I for anybody who's not watching the video version of this, I am sitting here quietly, but I am just nodding, to begin in agreement with everything. But there's, you know, a couple of things that I'm so glad you mentioned this because I think that there's especially for young designers, this misunderstanding about what brand is Yeah, and they they missed the part about the experience. And those touch points. And that is where, you know, my passion lies is creating a really extraordinary experience that, you know, exceeds your clients expectations, it delights them at every, you know, phase of a project. And that part is near and dear to me. And that's the part that I really teach on, you know, I enjoy Storytelling, I appreciate it, I have, you know, worked on that for myself for my own business, but I'm not an expert in that area. So I'm really glad that you mentioned that because it's, it, it's not enough to have beautiful graphics, and this, the, you know, the, these, like, catchphrase words or whatever that sound good. If you're a hot mess on the bathroom, they start working with you, and the wheels come off. That's it, you,
Ericka Saurit
you've been so, so true. And I think designers get, what I see a lot of times is people trying to quickly accelerate the process of looking professional or looking like they have it all together with a logo with, you know, even for designers just getting started. And I think this happens outside of design. Also, I'll just say they're, they're more of a company than a business, right? Company has a website, it has a logo, it has collateral, it might have social media page, a business has revenue, right? It has all those things, but it has revenue too, right? It's actually being able to exchange whatever, you know, product or service for money. Right. And, again, within businesses, they can run in a variety of different
Kate Bendewald
ways and not irritation with colors, a specific company that is coming to mind for me. Okay. You're describing them, but go ahead. I'm, yeah,
Ericka Saurit
no, I was gonna say, but the third thing, so we have a company, we have a business, and then we have a brand, right? And so a brand is when all of these and you know, some brands don't do it well, right. They they, they either flounder at the the last part, right? They're not able to keep up with the, you know, the customer kind of satisfaction side of the experience, or they do it wrong, or they they have to find they find themselves in crisis after some bad decisions. And we know all we always know those companies. But they, you know, brand is kind of the sort of summit of how to kind of build up an end, when you're a designer just getting started, you really need to be focused on generating revenue. But so investing in your brand might start on a sort of smaller scale, it might start with you thinking about what's really resonating with my clients, what is that emotion? How can I, if I can't do it right now, if I can't, you know, invest in even the time to start to think about that story, what it might be, how do I gather enough information to be able to find that later, when I get there,
Kate Bendewald
at the at the risk of being sued by this massive company, I'm just going to name them Restoration Hardware is a company that comes to mind that has put so much money into their marketing efforts. And any designer who's listening to this and has gotten their ridiculous catalogs. You see the store friends. And you see how much money they pour into this visual identity. Product behind it and customers, clients who don't know homeowners who don't know the difference, and understand how products are sourced and they don't understand what's on the other side of that transaction. But once that transaction happens, you are enslaved to them until you get your stuff which might fall apart very quickly with the product quality and the customer service. And this is not a dig on the people that work on the floor. You know, in the in the throes of trying to make people happy when they have no control over the actual product. This is not a dig on them I'm talking about the higher ups are responsible for this. But the customer service is lacking too. And then I just I was in this community group and we're having this conversation because it just keeps coming up again at this company continues to deliver. And this is an example of a business not a brand, but you wouldn't know the difference because on the outside it looks like a big shiny object. You know, you've I go to Cherry Creek here in Denver and I see the store that's it. And it just looks like from the outside. They've got it all together. But then once that transaction happens, that's when you see things start to fall apart. And so the difference between that company and if I were to add a second cup of coffee, I could come up with a ramp We'll have somebody better but I'm, I'm at a loss. But, you know, there's so many other companies out there that that they might not have, you know, who comes to mind? Lee industries? Which is, uh, oh, yeah, yeah, I love them. So they don't have flashiest website, although a recent upgrade, but their product is incredible their customer service and the reps that we work with are so good yesterday times are longer, but I will stand behind that product. Because it has, it has worked for me over and over and over again. So anyway, that's my little team. And if I were to come after him again, but I'm not worth much.
Ericka Saurit
I will say I will say from a brand strategy point of view, if you think about, like, what they're doing is over investing in the initial phase, which is the customer attraction side, like how do you get people in the door? Well, you make a really spectacular physical experience in, in a shop, or in a retail environment or and now they're doing hospitality. So you just, maybe restaurants, I mean, it's like a full kind of experience you they get you in the door, you're blown away, it smells good, everything soft, maybe you get a nice coffee, maybe some wine, and maybe someone's they're taking your order at you know they've taken, they've invested in that experience, which is great. That's important. That's called the awareness and kind of decision phase of marketing. What happens after that is when someone's made a purchase, and someone may be potentially has a problem, or the order is delayed, or something starts to fall apart? Because there's you know, is there a warranty, who do they call when something is late or damaged or needs to be repaired? If they haven't invested as a brand in that sort of last phase of the customer experience? Like you said, people are going to start to remember that. Conversely, what you just mentioned about with Lee is this, the opposite, you know, they they potentially haven't invested as much in having like a flashy, front end kind of attractive part of their marketing, but they really deliver when it comes to taking care of their customers. And what's you decide what matters to you. I know, because I talked to both brands and designers, what they really care about, I know designers really care about looking good in front of their clients not wasting their money or their time, and not wasting really damaging their reputation with a brand that's going to pull a fast one on them. Or leave them out to dry when there's a problem. Brands really care about that. Because they want to serve designers with the best experience and they want them talking and telling each other because you know, we're a great community. Yep. And saying like, Hey, you may not have heard of them, because they're not on the front page of whatever they don't, they don't have, you know, a big marketing budget. But if you really want good product, this is where you go. And so, as a designer, and as a brand, you decide where you're going to invest. And I would say try to spread, try to spread your investment across all phases. And that's that kind of experiential part of the framework is to make sure that you're you're standing behind something that you want people to talk about and think about and lean into.
Kate Bendewald
Yeah, yeah. No, and I, I appreciate that you're drawing attention to the fact that it all matters and that yeah, you know, if if one piece of it is overly invested in or overly emphasized, it can feel disproportionate to you know, the experience or vice versa. So thinking about creating, you know, the the initial attraction phase that is going to be reflected all the way through the very end experience. What, when a designer, or, or brand or firm starts to take this storytelling seriously, and they take these, these three E's that you just, they, maybe they work hard to, to help them develop all of that. And maybe they're, they're, you know, just getting started and they don't have that kind of budget, and they're DIY, or whatever the case may be, let's say to get it right, right. Like they they start to experience the benefits of doing this. What can you kind of talk about what those benefits aren't? What what, what will shift? What did they expect? What can I do something other than implementing what we're talking about today?
Ericka Saurit
Yeah, well, first, everything will feel easy. Like everything, all the marketing, you need to do anything you need to say or talk about when it comes to like, when you go to a networking event, you're going to be like, Okay, who can I talk to? Or you're going to, you're going to, you know, it's you're not going to sit on Instagram. I hear this a lot. From designers like I'm so sick of Instagram, because I don't know what to say anymore. Like, I don't have any clue what to post, I don't know how to make, you know, not even how to make a real I don't even know make a real about. But once you have a kind of a clear story, right, there's a series of laddering, you know, elements to that story, which you can then start to extract that will help you with that content creation. But the first kind of signal is definitely that the marketing is easier. The second is, it's easier, like I said, to talk to other people about your business and that they'll have something to repeat. I love to say, once you have a solid, short story about your business, you can onboard new team members you can onboard, you give them more of a sense of purpose in their work, you help them really kind of understand what they're doing has meaning and value not just to your clients, but as their value value inside your company. You onboard them easier. You have, like I said, a script that's repeatable, that your partners people who bring Brisbane business to you can share like realtors or architects or developers or builders, whoever it is in your world that's kind of helping to share. They're gonna say, oh, man, she really gets kitchens. She's the Kitchen Master. She understands how to, you know, do that for people who want to be and feel like amateur chefs. She does it for families who like you wouldn't believe what, you know, this this family now does they have a pizza bar Lola and the kids come home every weekend. There's like a whole kind of like, easy to remember story and script that they can share that might help bring business to you faster and quicker. And obviously, you'll attract clients that this storytelling makes sense to you. Easy? Yes.
Kate Bendewald
So what you're saying is like, it just makes it easier to communicate.
Ericka Saurit
Everything takes a weight off your shoulders, I really does. Because you're not saying like something different to everybody you talk to you really solid and what you do and why you do it, and why it's different than other people and why it's important and meaningful. I
Kate Bendewald
think it also gives you a filter to look for like what projects guess what kind of clients to work with, you know, if they're not an ally, yeah, kind of storytelling you want to be capturing it can help give you that filter. And and I think that the biggest thing that I see designers in my community and in this industry struggle with is just clarity on what to be focusing on right now in business. And yes, there's just there's a lot, right, running businesses hard. There's a lot about there's a lot of hats together. And so anytime you could do anything that provides more clarity in your business, yeah. It's something that will pay dividends, I think in the long run, you you can just start to there's just like a flow, there's a hum, that gets in and and that's, that's the zone you want to get into. Right? And and does that mean there's not going to be bad days or hard days or regional blips in the client that shows up? You're like, Whoa, how did they get through like it or alert? Me experience? You know, I was, I had a really long stretch there for a number of years, I just consistently putting just amazing clients that I love to work with and would come back for more. And they refer me to friends. And it just was like, it finally felt like oh my gosh, I've really hit my stride you know, and then you get this person that gets through the cracks. And this was a repeat client from before I had like, honed my thing. So I retro actively, retrospectively was able to see what happened. But all of a sudden, you're like, Whoa, what just happened? How did
Ericka Saurit
how did this happen?
Kate Bendewald
That's the side. But I think what you shared with your partner is just, you know, doing this work can help you get clarity, it can help defuse danger, and it just helps everything to flow and it gets easier. So I love that. I know that you have a really cool brand audit tool that you've put together, which is sharing that because you know, all
Ericka Saurit
Oh, yeah. So bread audits, easy, easy, easy to do, and it will help you understand right away where your message is. Well, first, it will show you very clearly if you're being inconsistent and unclear, which is what you want to know right away. Second, it will show you where you need to you know prioritize fixing the message first. So you can download I have just a super quick like one page to PDF, you can fill it in on the PDF, if you want to type it, that's your process. Or you can take screenshots of each of your different media marketing channels and put them together, you know, into a visual doc, if you're a visual person, or you can write it down. In fact, if you have, you know, that's a process to, but it's on my website, sorry, creative sau r i, t creative.com/brand. Audit. And what it does is it allows you to go to each each different channel, like I said, First, your, your website, what's the very first line of copy? someone reads about you? Is it does it say I'm an interior designer? Does it say, you know, I, we craft extraordinary kitchens for extraordinary family, families or something? What is that first line of copy that someone's going to read when they land on your homepage or your landing page, I also want you to google yourself, Google your business and see what comes up. Because a lot of times, if you've built a website a few years ago, or someone else built it for you, or you're just maybe you don't have one yet, but you want to make sure that that's a super important part. That's sometimes the very first touch point people have with you. They may click off, you know, an email, or they may click from, or the you know, someone refers you, they may click over to your website, or they may Google you, right. So whatever that SEO copy says, it needs to be consistent with what you're saying and the rest of your channels. So you want to make sure you update that if it's out of date. Or if it's off brand or off message, go to any other touch point. And that's going to be what's in your email signature. What is, you know, what do you say again, at a party, is there any other collateral were there, your message is a headline. And you want to put all these together on one page. And just take a deep look. And it will give you the first step in straightening that getting that story straight, for sure. But also in kind of understanding like where you need to start. And these are very fast changes once you have the message to update really quick. I never thought about going
Kate Bendewald
through and taking screenshots to see how does this visually? Yeah, compare? And then are the same messages coming through on each of these channels. And yeah, designer you're listening to this some some other some of these channels you could be thinking about? Obviously, she mentioned your website is, you know, designer favorite Pinterest? How's your house profile? It doesn't matter if you're a paid if you're a paying user or not. You can and I suggest should have a profile there. LinkedIn is, you know, an often underestimated resource. Yes. Are there some other places that come to mind that I haven't mentioned that. Last,
Ericka Saurit
don't discount the physical touch points to, like I said, your business card if you're using a business card, but any kind of like if you're in a local directory, or if you're any kind of community profile, don't forget about those. If you are with you know a SID or Ida and you have a blurb somewhere, go dig up all of them. Anywhere your your business is mentioned. And you've kind of given a description of what you do a short bio, you need to include those and just make sure everything is updated and consistent.
Kate Bendewald
Do that once a year guys?
Ericka Saurit
minimum, minimum.
Kate Bendewald
So I'm just gonna recap. The three words that kept coming up for me today wouldn't listen to you is that your messaging needs to be clear. Be concise. Yes. I always need to work on that one. So long winded sometimes. And it needs to be consistent.
Ericka Saurit
Yeah. Any emotional, I will add.
Kate Bendewald
We got to find a C word for alliteration. For that, oh, my gosh. So Ericka, before we wrap up, do you mind sharing if somebody wanted to come work with you to say, you know, I'm ready to hire a professional to help me do this. What are some different ways that folks can work with
Ericka Saurit
you? Yeah, I have two two ways of working with me. One is to work with me one on one in something called Brand camp, which is super fun. But it's to kind of 90 minute work workshops virtually, where we go through the E three storytelling framework for your brand. We really dig into what that core emotion driving the decision from your clients looks like what your differentiators are. And we do that one on one in the first session. And then in the second session, I present to you all the ways that you can PLI a create a quick message for you, based on the information we've gone through, and I show you how to then kind of like I said, there's a ladder of content you can create, once you have that narrative, I show you how to create content for social media content for a blog or an email campaign, how to create, how to apply it to your website, and then go into there some visual design principles, which I think are really key to reading and perceiving our written messages when they're on like a digital, like a website, or even if we're creating any kind of other collateral, anything, and that's brand camp, you can sign up on where you can find out more information on my website, sorry, at creative.com/brand, camp, all one word. And I even in fact, just started offering scholarships to that. So once a month, I'm giving away yet one brand camp session to a designer, either, who's demonstrates financial need, they're just starting out, or they have other reasons why they really are passionate about their brand, but they just can't afford to invest in brand camp. Because I think what we do is really important that the more you know, designers who can communicate their story clearly, to the right clients, obviously, they make their homes better, they make their lives better. And then eventually, it sounds so dreamy, but maybe one day, eventually, we'll all make the world a better place just through design through interior design. So this is my way of, you know, trying to solve interior designs brand problem a little bit, and helping, you know, helping, helping pay it back to the people who supported and helped me. So that's one way brand camp. And the second way is I with my partners, we do a full six month brand roadmap service, which is a an engagement. So brand camp is kind of a done with you approach and brand, the brand roadmap services a done for you. And we do everything, your new website, we do all your socials, we do all the updating of any kind of email launching campaigns, blog post, just to get it all out there. And that includes also visual design, which is one of the things that we do different than a lot of other services that focus specifically on messaging don't do. So. Yeah. Lots of do A's. There.
Kate Bendewald
Yeah. I love the fact that you do scholarship, that really rings true for me, I love that you're giving back and that way. I will link to all of this inside of the view. So when we get stuck there listening, go check out their work. Ericka, I am so grateful. I had this conversation with you today. And you need to share I love it. And I hope that we can have you back some time to chat more about
Ericka Saurit
all things I would love to be honored to. Thank you.
Kate Bendewald
Thank you so much. I'll talk to you soon. Okay, bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you so much for letting me spend part of this day with you. If you're loving this podcast, please share it with a friend who you think might also love it. Or perhaps you can take just 30 seconds to open your podcast app and leave us a five star rating. And if you have just an extra minute, go ahead and leave a review. This helps me so much and it helps other designers like you to find the podcast. It also adds fuel to my motivation to keep making great episodes just for you. However you choose to help, please No, I appreciate you so very much. Thank you, my friend. Have a wonderful rest of your day and I'll see you next time
