Oh has it been a crazy second quarter? Lot’s a fantastic clients projects and some Reverie projects in prep. How are you feeling friends, now that we are on the second half of 2017? Are your goals on track? Today I bring you a very special episode of ‘a day in the business of’ and hopefully that can help with your content creation to start the get back to school season with a bang! Allie is one of my favorite people on Instagram and one of the first feeds I fell in love with and started hm stalking, following, on the platform. I’ve gotten to know her a bit more since and she’s not only an incredible creative content creator but also she’s the loveliest gal! Check out our interview below and her website verbhousecreative.com for even more visual creative content goodness.
I’m Allie, the lady behind Verb House Creative – a bright, fun, happy, hardworking social media and creative studio based in Austin, Texas. I help incredible small business owners with all aspects of their digital marketing – from their websites, to all social media channels, to photography, to email campaigns, ads, and creative business strategies, and a smidge of PR – pretty much everything! I LOVE coming alongside these business owners and helping them to not feel so overwhelmed and stressed out. I love pulling up the chair right beside them and really diving into their business to find out what’s working and what’s not, what can be expanded on and what can be retired or reworked in a different way perhaps. I love taking their vision and turning it into a beautiful reality.
I serve small business owners, mostly within the retail and e-commerce industry. When setting out to create Verb House, I thought about the name of my business for months (almost an entire YEAR!). I really wanted it to encompass all that I and the business stand for. The Verb in Verb House Creative represents quite literally what the definition of verb is – action. I come alongside my clients to create action in their businesses and to put into play their dreams and our strategy and plans together. The House in Verb House represents how I want my clients to feel – like they’re family, like they found their ‘home’ within Verb House, and like they can truly come to me with anything and everything – their wildest dreams and their concerns and fears, and we will sort it all out and make an action plan of it all together, side by side. This mission is brought into every interaction with my clients, and it truly makes such a difference in all of our joy.
I went to art school for fashion photography but got very burnt out on that industry very soon after I graduated. I took a little hiatus from photography for a bit when one of my greatest friends suggested pairing my love for writing and marketing with photography for shops and small business owners for social media purposes. I tried to resist her idea for a while – this was before anyone was actually using Instagram as a marketing tool for businesses. But, alas, she was on to something! Once I finally reached out to someone to make it happen, I found the thing I was meant to do.
It’s a bit of both. I think with any good photographer, writer, marketer, artist, what-have-you, it’s important to always draw from personal experience and thought – after all, that is one of the facets that most likely sets you apart from your peers or those in your industry. But it’s when you truly listen to your clients or audience, read between the lines, and come to anticipate what they want and need, and combine that with your own expertise that the magic starts to happen.
I work with all of my clients long-term, so the process begins with an inquiry. From there, emails and phone calls are exchanged and once we decide to work together, there is an extensive getting-to-know-you process and questionnaire for my client to complete. I love these questionnaires and refer to them often throughout our time together. I just had a client go back to read some of her answers recently and she was reminded of all of the goals and long term dreams she has. They’re powerful stuff. From there, we work together to determine their social & digital marketing strategy and get to work! I’ll work on creating the first months content of photos, email newsletters, social media posts, etc.
I love being invited into these business owners life in such a big way. I often become pretty close with each client and thank the Heavens for them daily. It’s an honor to be able to use my knowledge and skills to help them reach their goals. What’s better than working with someone to make their and your dreams come true? My least favorite part is definitely all of the admin stuff – taxes, invoicing, emails, blahblahblah!
It’s definitely difficult to keep your creative mojo all of the time. I think first acknowledging that you actually aren’t going to feel 100% creative and brilliant all of the time is key. Picasso probably didn’t feel like a brilliant artist every day either. Exercise, travel, relaxation, reading, friends, dreaming & scheming – all things that actually aren’t on the computer or on your phone – those are the things/moments/situations that help to keep me inspired.
Having gone to art school (shout out to any fellow SCAD peeps!), we were taught early on how to accept criticism of our work. I’m extremely grateful for these experiences of standing up in front of twenty of my peers to present my work and have it constructively criticized each week. Because of this, I look at all feedback as purely constructive and helpful and very rarely view it as rejection. I actually really enjoy when a client says “I don’t like this” or “this isn’t right” because it helps me to get to know them even further.
Colorful foamcore and matboards & little sticky dots help make photo sessions run smoother & prettier!
For interesting photos, try to think outside of the popular flat lay. Our eyes will always be drawn to the three-dimensional. When we can travel around and through a photograph, we’re naturally going to linger a bit longer. When creating flat lays, try to create that dimension and interest by moving the eye throughout the frame. Place your objects in a way that creates movement and life – having objects travel through & out of the frame is an easy way to achieve this.