My Business Backstory

About the episode:

Welcome to the very first episode of Rebrand with RuthAnn! Today I want to talk about my personal story, my business journey, and how I chose the niche of rebranding. Listen through till the end of the episode because I’m sharing some things to keep in mind if you’re at the point in your business where you’re thinking of a rebrand. I hope this behind-the-scenes episode really helps to set the stage for the amazing episodes and guest interviews that are to come!

What you’ll hear:

How R Artspace was born out of RuthAnn’s boredom at her past 9-5 job
The importance of having a creative outlet, especially as an enneagram 7
How RuthAnn uses her experience as a wedding photographer in her business now
Stepping into your role as CEO and the opportunities that come with being a business owner
RuthAnn’s ideal client and how she found her through trial and error with her first clients
Giving yourself permission to allow your business to change
What to keep in mind if you’re thinking of rebranding whether it’s for the first or second time

Episode resources:

RuthAnn:
Hi there, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited that you're here today. Today I am going to talk a little bit more about my personal story, my business journey, and how I niched down to rebranding, how I got here, and yeah, just a little bit of behind the scenes. So I started my business back in 2016, and it was a side hustle. I had a day job, I did a nine to five, I worked in downtown Kansas City. and I would commute to work and it was a job that I liked. It was at a printing company and I did a lot of different things there, but it got to the point where I was extremely bored. And I did get my degree in graphic design and I knew that I wanted to do something creative, but it was, I couldn't find a job at the time that I wanted and so I landed on the printing company. It just seemed like a good fit at the time. I was, you know, finish college and yeah, it just seemed like a good like stepping stone job situation. So while I was at the printing company, I was just getting really bored, I think. I started listening to a lot of podcasts. I was reading blogs. I was, you know, doing like listening to things in my earbuds while I was at work because there was just a lot of times where I was... in the copy room, just like making copies or printing something or setting up things for print. And it was just one of those normal just clock in, clock out type of jobs. And so as I was getting more and more bored as the time went on, I was looking for creative outlets. So I remember getting a job as a painting party instructor. So after I would be done with work, at the printing company, I would go to my other job and be a painting party instructor and do that till the evening, get home at like eight or nine o'clock. And obviously that wasn't every day, but I just managed to find all these creative jobs on the side to my day job. And it was just, I needed a creative outlet. I think I am an Enneagram seven. And for us, what we really cannot stand is boredom. We like having a lot of things going on. We like being busy. We like looking forward to things. And for me, having a creative outlet has been everything in my life. I just have always been artistic. I just remember back when I was little, the Lion King, this is probably gonna date me, but the Lion King came out and I was about seven years old. And I remember making drawings of all the Lion King characters and I would take them. and take all of my little drawings that I would color them with colored pencils. I would take them to my neighborhood and like knock on the doors of my neighbors and try to sell my drawings for 25 cents a drawing. And I just have always been, I guess a little entrepreneurial, but I've always been creative too. Something that my sister and I did in high school was we would make our own calendars. It was just something that we loved to do and we did that for many, many years. We would Yeah, in like December we would make our own calendars for the year. I still have a lot of them from the past. But yeah, I've always looked for things I can do to be creative and things that would light me up. So back to my job at the printing company. I was a painting party instructor for a while and then I got a job as a wedding photographer. at a photography studio and I didn't know anything about photography at the time. They trained me and I learned all about photography. And I love that I have that background. Now that I do websites and branding, it really, really helps to know about images, to know about photo editing, and it's just so, so helpful, you know, having that knowledge and skill set. But as a wedding photographer, I remember really loving it. Like I... loved it. It was so much fun and you know I got to do, I did family shoots, I did wedding shoots, I did engagement stuff, I did all sorts of stuff and you know did a lot of the editing and it was definitely a very fun chapter in my life. I was at the photography studio I think three years and the husband and wife team who owned the studio they moved out of state. And I remember Jen told me, she was like, Ruthie Ann, you really should start your own photography business because you're so good at photography. You would be really good at it. And I was like, yes, thank you so much. You know, I don't know. And I just remember thinking about it for a long time. And knowing that I love being creative kind of is my North Star for like going and like starting my business and stuff. And with the photography studio, I think For me, after doing weddings and doing the whole thing for a long time, it was very enjoyable and I did love it. But it takes a lot out of you. For any photographer who is out there listening, it's exhausting, especially if you're doing weddings. Weddings are very exhausting. So you do the engagement shoot, you're basically documenting the most important day of someone's life and there's a lot of pressure. You have to be on. the whole day of the wedding, whether it's a six hour shoot or a 12 hour day or depending on the length of the day, you are on and you have to make sure you capture everything. There's just a lot of responsibility, a lot of pressure. I did love it when I was doing it, but it takes up your whole weekend. On Sunday you're recovering from the day that you were just on your feet all day and it's a lot if you are a wedding photographer. I did think about that when I was getting really restless in the printing company. I was like, what if I started my own photography business? Maybe that's something I could do. At the time I was reading a lot of blogs and I was just looking into what are the other options for me. If I wanted to, instead of running myself ragged, having all of these creative jobs, if I could just have one job that I was in control of. schedule and the work I take on and it would combine all of my different passions and things that I love to do in one job. That was the goal. So for me, I was like, you know, I don't consider myself a natural business owner person. I just am a creative. Like that's what I really am, is a creative. And so when I started my business, it was definitely, I did everything wrong. I launched my website, I didn't tell anybody, I didn't call myself a business owner for probably like two years, like the first two years of my business. It was just kind of, it was a hobby for a long time for me and it was learning how to do this thing online. It was getting good at design. I did have a background in design, but I didn't do a lot of freelance work and so it was kind of learning. from scratch in a lot of ways. And even though I went to school for design, I learned how to use Illustrator and Photoshop and all that kind of stuff, but you don't really know how to work with clients. You don't know how to move someone through a project. And so in the beginning, I was doing a lot of different things, a lot of different types of work. When my business started, I was doing branding, I was doing website design, I was doing, and I was designing on different platforms. and I was doing brand photography. Photography was a big piece of it when I first started because I had my photography background. So I was like, why not offer everything that I have ever done in my life? So I was doing, offering too many things. I was so feeling so nervous and unqualified for calling myself a business owner because I felt like I didn't know anything about business. I just know how to do these certain skillsets. So it was definitely a lot of, a lot of, just thinking back to that time, it just makes me feel, it was hard. It was really, really hard for me because I was so unprepared for what it is actually like having a business. I feel like there is so much personal development and mindset that goes into having a business that I was not prepared for, that I didn't really know was. part of being a business owner, part of being an entrepreneur, but it's absolutely true. And so, yeah, so I started my business in 2016 as a side hustle to my day job. So that went on for two years, and then after two years I was like, I think I need more time than just like the scraps left over like on the weekends, I had time to work. Before I started work, I was able to work. for like an hour, but it was just, it was a, you know, there's just a lot of limited time that, there was limited time that I had to work. So it was making it difficult to kind of like make progress. So I remember I went down to four days a week at the printing company and I was starting to get more serious, I was starting to get more like traction, you know, I was taking on. I took on all of the different projects and clients to start, but then I was starting to narrow into branding, photography, I was doing stock photography then, and yeah, things were kind of moving along, very, very slowly, but they were moving. And something for me is my business has been definitely a slow growth model, that is what I've wanted. And I think the thing that kept me... holding back for so long was because I knew what I didn't want. I did not want to go 100% to work 80 hours a week, to not see my family, to not spend time with my husband, and just make a lot of money. That was never really my goal and that was never something I wanted to do. So knowing that, I kind of did the opposite almost. I was just... I just took everything very, very slow and yeah. And I think knowing that you are in control as a business owner, we have the opportunity to dictate how we want our business to be. And so knowing that, okay, you might not wanna work 80 hours a week, but maybe you can work, you know, 25 hours a week, you know, there's, you can just set it up exactly how you want it. And so for me, I think knowing what I didn't want really dictated how I went about things in the beginning. But as time went on, I was able to kind of narrow in on what I do want instead of like just pushing things away because of what I don't want. So in 2019, I went full time in my business. I quit my job at the printing company and I was able to make more than I did at the printing company, which was very, very exciting. And in that first year of business, I felt like I knew what I was doing and I felt like things were moving along. I also got pregnant with my first child in that year. And so, yeah, I feel like I have been able to build my business around my life, which is what I wanted in the first place. And I've been able to be creative, which is such an important thing for me. And I think... you know, to anyone who's listening, who's interested in having a business, like knowing what your values are, going into it is incredibly important. For me, I always knew that I wanted to have a family, I knew that I wanted to be home with my kids, and so that has really dictated a lot of how I approach my business and like what I do with my time. And so we did just put my son in preschool this year for the first time, and so that has opened up some time, but. Before that, I have been working during naptimes, and I have been working in the mornings and at night, sometimes, so it's been, I know what I want to do, which is be a present mom, be available for my kids, and be there when my kids are little, and so that's kind of what I'm doing right now, and that could change. I could, I probably wouldn't, I have a baby right now, a five-month-old, and she's... I probably would not put her in any type of daycare situation. I do want to be home with her, but things can change. And that's the thing, whenever you have a business, you can change your mind at any point in time. You can shift and change and sometimes priorities shift. And it's good to kind of take a step back and think, okay, as you're going forward in business, as seasons are changing, as things are changing, what do you feel like is right for you in this season and in this time? So for me, having the value of family has been a priority, you know, my whole business. And I feel like I've just gotten clearer in who I am and like what I offer as time has gone on, which has been great. So since going full time in 2019, I've had two kids. I am, I have let go of the photography portion of my business and I don't offer that anymore. With my website design, toned in on Squarespace is my platform of choice at the moment. I don't design in any other platforms because I really wanted to be really good in one platform and specialize in one platform. Things have shifted and changed. How I got to rebranding is I was doing branding and website design. There's so many other branding and website designers out there. If you don't know of any, you're probably just not looking very hard because they're in the space that I'm in, there's a lot of us out there. And for me, something that I wanted to do was I really want to stand out and I want to be different. I don't wanna be just like every other designer. I don't wanna look like every other designer. And so if you're looking around for different designers, I really wanna have my own unique look. I wanna have my own unique style, visual, all that kind of thing. And so as I was thinking about it with when it comes to branding, like what does make me stand out? And when it comes to my clients, something that I really, really honed in on was like, I love working with established business owners who are ready to go to the next level with their online presence. That is where I thrive. That is what I love the most because they are very clear in who they are. And They are very knowledgeable in who their ideal client is. They already have an established online presence. They might have a lot of multiple touch points. They might have a podcast. They might have courses. I work with a lot of coaches, so normally they have a one-to-one container, a group coaching program. And so after working with a lot of different types of business owners, this is the business owner who I connect with the most. I love helping her up level her online presence so it's all clear, cohesive, and it also is like an upgrade to what she had in the past. So maybe what she had in the past she DIY'd in the beginning, which a lot of us have done that, so there's no shame in that at all. But you get to a point where you are ready to look really professional and legit online and you're ready to have... like a really great customer experience, even when the customer comes to your website. That is when your customer experience starts, I think. And so it's really imperative to have an online presence that is working for you 24-7, something that showcases your personality, your expertise. And so after working with a lot of different people and a lot of different entrepreneurs, this is the person I have connected with the most, who I feel like I have the most. value to give to them. And while I love working with newer business owners, a lot of the times newer business owners can be a little indecisive, which is totally normal, but they might not know who their ideal client is. They might not know what they want. They can kind of be a little unsure. And so while I love newer business owners and I just really relate to that time. in my past, you know, being a new business owner a lot, I feel like my service is best for people who are already established, who already know who they are, who their ideal client is, what their service offers, and how they can really change someone's life. So that's kind of how I have over the years kind of narrowed into rebranding. And then early in this year of 2023, I did kind of like make the announcement like, okay, I am officially a rebranding designer. Like that is what I want to be known for is helping women who have been in the online space really up level their online presence and have a rebrand that is really streamlined and tailored to their expertise and that kind of thing. So I am so excited to be doing this. Yeah. Like I said, this has been, so I'm recording this right now in August. So this has been almost nine months of doing, focusing on rebranding, and that has been really good for me. Like for me, it has attracted my ideal clients. They know what I do. They don't really need as much explanation as when I was working with newer business owners. They're like, now what do you do? Do you do... Logos, do you do, like what do you actually do? So when I talk about rebranding, a lot of times women who have been in the online space, they know exactly what I do. They're like, oh, you help with rebranding. That's what I need. Like, and so it's really helpful for me to communicate with my ideal client and it helps them find me a little bit better or it helps me, it helps my ideal client find me and know what I offer and know that I can help them as they're wanting to up level their online presence. So that is a little backstory about how I got to where I am now, a little bit of my business journey. It has been quite a ride and you know it's just if you were in business and you are thinking about... Okay wait hold on. So that is a little bit about my business journey, how I got to where I am now, a little bit about how I honed into rebranding and just, yeah, I love the work. I love doing what I do and I do help women from logo all the way through the website design process. I help with brand identity. It is just something that I so truly enjoy and the clients I work with are incredible and it is just been, it's been such a joy. And I want to say, if you have been in business for a while, it is natural and normal for your business to evolve, to change, to maybe move directions, to expand. I think all of those things are completely normal and welcome as you have an online business. Things do not have to stay the same. And if you have found that your business has evolved so much that it's not what it used to be, that you are offering totally new offers, that you... are reaching a different ideal client than you had to begin with, that you feel like you've outgrown your online presence, that it doesn't showcase your personality, all of those things are reasons and kind of hints that maybe a rebrand is in your future. And I feel like with rebranding, you know, it takes a lot of forethought. It's not something that you just jump into. It is one of those things that takes time to... you know, go into the rebranding process, you know, knowing like, okay, this is a huge step in my business. I tell clients when I'm on discovery calls with them, you know, rebranding is something that happens once or twice in your business lifetime. Like this does not happen every day. This is, you know, something that is a really big step for your business. This is, you know, up-leveling and showing, you know, the world that you are. serious, that you are professional, that you are, you know, that you can stand out online, all of those things. So, so rebranding, while this is a really big investment for you and your business, this is not something you do every day. This is something that you do once or twice in your business lifetime, depending on how long you've been in business. And so I just always keep that in mind is if people are, you know, if you're thinking about rebranding. or if you're shopping around, you're looking for different designers to work with, and the price tag can seem a little steep, it's because there are so many moving pieces, and I know for me, when I work with my clients, there are so many moving pieces. When it comes to really transforming their online presence, giving it a makeover, there are, like I mentioned before, there's the podcasts courses sometimes, there's your entire... website, there's a blog. I've had clients who've had a blog for 10 years. There's just a lot of different pieces that go into the rebranding process. So while it is an investment and it takes time and energy and all those things, it's something that can really, really take you to the next level and reaching more ideal clients, really making more revenue and income and just establishing yourself as the credible and go to industry expert that you are. So yeah, that's a little bit about me, a little bit about my story, and about why I care so deeply about rebranding. And I'm really excited for just this new chapter in my business and really focusing on rebranding and having this podcast and sharing my expertise and tips and ideas with you as you're maybe thinking about rebranding or it's something you are. considering or something you've already gone through, I think rebranding is a topic that not a lot of people talk about. So I'm so excited to be sharing this with you. And thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate it. I would love to hear your feedback. You can reach out to me on Instagram. I'm over there at r underscore art space. And I would love to chat with you if you are interested in rebranding or if you thought about it. I would love to hear kind of where you're at in the process. So head over there and let's chat. Don't use that. So I would love to chat with you. You can find me over at Instagram at r underscore r space and I would love to hear what you think about this episode. Did any of my business journey, can you relate to any of my business journey? Did you do your business as a side hustle? I would love to hear. So you can hop over there on Instagram and chat with me there. And so yeah, I look forward to chatting with you then and thank you so much again for being here and I will see you next time.