E104: Building niche momentum with Bryon and Kellie McCartney
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Bryon and Kellie McCartney are partners at Archmark Branding & Marketing for Architects. They have each worked in branding, communications, and marketing for more than 30 years and both have guided agency operations for large firms serving major brands including Calvin Klein, Delta Faucets, Dow Chemical, General Motors, Lipton Foods, and many others. In 2007, they founded their first agency together while living and working abroad in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2012, they repatriated the USA landing in Estero, FL. In recent years, they have focused on serving architecture firms.
Episode highlights:
- Why Bryon and Kellie started their niche firm, what it’s like to be part of a husband/wife team, and what they wish they’d done differently.
- Advice for starting partnerships, and what might have helped tone down those heated moments.
- Find out what it was like to move back to the US, and what motivated them to start a new firm.
- Learn what Kellie and Bryon did to get going in the US, and why they went for a niche.
- Learn what being in UACADEMY taught them about building a successful agency.
- Learn what didn’t translate from the corporate world to working with small businesses.
- Learn first steps after you decide on a niche.
- Best advice ever received: Raise your prices and get comfortable saying “no”.
- Habit that contributes to success: We’re good at throwing ourselves into something.
- Recommended book: Essentialism by Greg McKeown and Pia Silva’s Badass Your Brand
- Recommended tool: Rev.com for audio and Nusii.com for proposals
Links:
- www.archmark.co
- Bryon Facebook
- Bryon Twitter
- Bryon LinkedIn
- Essentialism by Greg McKeown
- Pia Silva’s Badass Your Brand
- Rev.com for audio
- Nusii.com for proposals
Quotes:
- “This is home and this is work.”
- “The big mistake we made was we were so overwhelmed with that one client.”
- “It was completely starting from scratch.”
- “It was like you were in my head.”
- “We were trying to be everything to everyone.”
- “It was really eye opening.”
- “Somebody understood what we needed before we understood what we needed.”
- “They knew what they ate for breakfast.”
- “Before I had a niche… …every project was a high risk engagement.”
Takeaways:
- Create a physical barrier to separate work life from home life.
- Start partnerships with defined boundaries, and outline who sits in what seat.
- Don’t allow one large client to take over your head space.
- Find a niche!