8 Signs It's Time For a Professional Organizing Business Brand REFRESH
Your online presence is your employee that works 24/7/365--and today I'm interviewing Brie Morrissey of BK Branding Co. to talk about 8 signs your business needs a REFRESH!
Brie, a former Pro Organizer Studio employee, now specializes in helping professional organizers enhance their online presence with websites and other properties to attract more (and better!) clients.
We are talking about the significant impact of visual branding, effective website design, and proper use of fonts. You’ll learn about the importance of maintaining up-to-date branding, aligning business models with current services, and making strategic brand refreshes.
We want to give you insights on how to build a cohesive and attractive brand that will elevate your organizing business!
Here is my interview with Brie!
Melissa Klug: well, I love your business. Can you give people like the two second overview of your business? A lot of organizers know you, but for new people to get to know you!
Brie Morrissey: Yes. Yes. I started as an organizer back in 2017. So I have some experience in that world, both like in my own business, I'm working for other organizers loved it, but realized through that experience that I really prefer helping with the beautifying of your business. So the branding, the logos, websites, all that, and just really dove into that.
It's going on five years now since I started. So that's been really fun. Because of Pro Organizer Studio, I had a strong network of organizers when I first started. And it's been so much fun helping you guys get more established in your business and create that visual branding, but also like just the personality of your business and kind of figuring out who you're marketing too. And finding the strategies to relate to those people the best.
Melissa Klug: I am not saying this to be nice, I'm saying it factually. She builds the most beautiful websites for organizers, like truly beautiful. She has worked with so many people in Inspired Organizer and outside Inspired Organizer. And I just, I love the work you do because it is, this is something that's super important to me. When people come to me and they're like, Hey, can you give me advice on an SEO person or a website person or whatever? I'm like, “Please find someone who knows what organizers do.”
Because so many people, I cannot explain to you how many times I hear from someone I paid so and so $5,000 for a website.
They don't know anything about organizers. They don't know how to write, like they're making a website for an in person store. And it's not please, whatever service providers you use. Make sure they know organizing
Brie Morrissey: and that they know, who really know your ideal client too. I mean, I think everything happens for a reason. And there's a reason that I love organizing and I have that like feminine minimal aesthetic. I mean, it works for this industry. And it just makes sense. And I understand that your client is overwhelmed and they're looking for something that's very soothing and easy to navigate.
And so that's really important. It's really important in, in this industry—branding and websites.
Melissa Klug: I'm very big on your foundational pieces in your business. And the main foundational pieces are your website and your Google Business, and a lot of that is driven by the branding that is behind it. So it's all, it's incredibly important. Whenever people say “I don't know how to find clients. I don't know how to get strangers in, to know about my business.” I'm like, it always 100%, in my opinion, starts with a great website and I will die on that hill.
Brie Morrissey: Yes. It's crazy how much your person, the perception has changed just based on like visually how you're, presenting yourself online.
Melissa Klug: For sure.
So tell me a little bit about just your, your view on branding in particular. I know that you are very big on, it starts with your branding and that all drives everything else. So can you talk a little bit about that?
Brie Morrissey: I think there's like different aspects of branding too. I definitely sit very comfortably in the visual branding side of things, but that's not the only part of branding.
There's definitely your brand voice as well. How you how you communicate to your audience to your ideal clients. And then, there's like brand strategies as far as the tech side of things, like how, how you're making sure that you're converting well and everything.
Think all three of those are really important. And just me personally, I really love making things beautiful and making sure things match, which has been part of this industry, but it matters to me that things really compliment each other. And I think part of one of the best things about quality, good website is that you don't notice it. The better a design is not going to be visually jarring or it's not going to be like big chunks of texts or big colors that don't go well, or images that don't match the color scheme or whatever.
So I try to make things very calm and cohesive and make, just make sense so that the person who's looking at the site It's just soothing, they can actually focus on what you're saying and connect with you emotionally and not worry so much about how it looks, how something's spelled or how, the colors and fonts being crazy or not impaired.
Well, visually complementary.
Melissa Klug: I had Meg from The Lit Bulb on if you and you work with Meg on website
Brie Morrissey: team. Yeah, she writes for a lot of my clients. She's awesome.
Melissa Klug: One of the things that we talked about was the concept of user experience.
So it's called UX, if you ever see that on a website. And so talking about the user experience, and you might not be familiar with that. People listening might not be familiar with that, but that is something that's really important. So think about the people that are coming to our websites. They are Possibly doing a Google search at 1230 in the morning, cause they are sick of their house and they're just angry.
Or they are coming to you in the middle of the day because they are completely overwhelmed. They do not know where to start. And so giving them an experience when they find you total stranger on the internet, giving them an experience that makes them feel like, what am I going to feel like when I get done with this process and making that a calming experience versus a Let me throw a bunch of videos or like strobe lights in your face or like whatever.
I mean, that's extreme, but like you have to give them the experience that they're going to get by working with you.
Brie Morrissey: Yes. Yes. And it starts with your website, but like you might, you might spend a lot of time working on your CRM. You might spend a lot of time working with your team and building up, policies and procedures that really.
That really flow well. And that create an entire customer service experience, but it starts with your website. That's the beginning of that luxury customer service experience. And so you want it to flow well. You want it to make sense. You want people to be able to find the information they need really quickly.
I always say this, like your website is like your employee. You want it to be your best employee because it's working while you're asleep. It's working 24, 7, 365 to be really working well and like really dialed in and looking good. And all the links are working and your, forms are working and they're going into your your workflow seamlessly.
So yeah, definitely. It's part of the process.
Melissa Klug: You and I both look at websites all the time and one of the things that I see a lot is it's a combination of, you need to have that. It's like the Goldilocks principle. It has to be just right. The bed can't be too soft and it can't be too hard.
It needs to be just right. And so what I see sometimes is there's a mix of people who throw every piece of possible information about their business on a website. Like here are the 200 details of how we get things done. And then there are people who put nothing on there, including their location, which—please put your location on your website.
But there is a sweet spot of just the right amount of information to not be overwhelming to people, and then not having zero information where people are like, cool, I'm gone.
Brie Morrissey: I agree. And the same goes with branding. I think you can start kind of busy and then edit. It's all about editing.
Like you can start with all the information and you can edit down. One thing that is a pet peeve of mine is when people just literally want to list every room in the house and say, I do this. And they have a bullet points of every thing. But you want to show that show it through the images that are in the paragraphs or in the testimonials. In those, people will say different places of your house where you worked.
And it's you can bring it through and it, in a dance, you don't have to list it out.
Melissa Klug: Correct. Yeah. That's a really good point is one of the things that Jen said all the time that I have just totally stolen is inspiration, not information. And I think that's incredibly important on a website.
To to really hone down as to what inspiration you need to give versus information. There is some information, but like it's minimal.
Brie Morrissey: It’s about selling a feeling more than like a to do list.
Melissa Klug: So you have created something that is basically the eight things that you see as signs it's time to pivot on your branding. Just eight things you want people to think about is maybe it's time for a rebrand or a refresh. We can call it a refresh too. Was there something that sparked you or were you just I feel like I just need to put this out in the universe? ,
Brie Morrissey: well, I just want to inspire people to kind of think through their business, make sure that they're relevant, make sure that they're, really reaching the people that they want to reach. And just through my experience working with so many organizers I think sometimes people come to me and they think they want one thing and like we have the consultation and then, we kind of go through their homework and then I'm like, actually, let's also do that. It's not just, this page on your site, it's like your whole brand. It's let's just do the whole thing, and I try to, carefully and thoughtfully be kind about it. But sometimes there's things that are, glaringly obvious to me, just because I do it all the time—reasons, why it would be time to rebrand.
And so I just wanted to share those reasons just based on my experience. And probably just some personal opinions!
Melissa Klug: Listen, personal opinions of someone who actually knows things are totally fine!
Brie Morrissey: So I just came up with a list of eight, different reasons why, and it might spark just a new conversation in your head or, an idea of like how to freshen up things for your business.
And that might just start a whole new trajectory for your business.
Melissa Klug: Before we get into this. I realized it was a little over a year and a half ago. I was like, I've had my Home By Eleven-my organizing website-I did it myself. I loved it. I really did love my website. But I was like, it's time for a little refresh. And so one of the things we're going to talk about is that I think is genius is you have templates that you make for people. And so I bought one of your templates and I love it. It makes me so happy. It really just spoke to me and it was colorful. I only wear black clothing, but I like color everywhere else!
Brie Morrissey: It’s your personality.
Melissa Klug: But I loved doing that. Like it really kind of re-energized me for my organizing business, if that makes sense.
And so, anyway, I just, it's, I'm here to say that you can do a rebrand and a refresh and it just, it feels really good. Like it's not, it's a confidence booster.
Brie Morrissey: Seriously. Yeah.
Melissa Klug: It would be like if you wear a new outfit, you feel better.
Brie Morrissey: Yes, exactly. Because you're, or if you renovate your house, you're like, Oh, I can invite people over now.
Yes. It's just redo your brand. You're like, I can show this off. Like I'm proud of this. It's a new outfit for business.
Melissa Klug: So anyway, I, but I'm just here to tell you that doing a rebrand, I think sometimes people are like, Oh my gosh, like I've done all this work or I've spent all this money or like whatever, but it's really important, especially if you're not getting the results in your business that you want.
I just want to make that point really clearly. It's about the results you're getting in your business. And if you're not getting some of those clients in, if you're not getting that, I just want people to look at all the parts of their business and starting with their branding and their website.
Brie Morrissey: Yes.
Melissa Klug: Okay. So give us some of the, give us some of the reasons for a real rebrand.
Brie Morrissey: Okay. I think I'm just going to start pretty basic and just say if your branding is dated, but what does dated even mean? Right. I think that's, that could be kind of subjective depending on your own visual preferences or your demographic.
But from my perspective I think that, if you're branding is 5, 10, more than 10 years old, that's definitely a good reason to look at rebranding. At that age, it's probably does have some dated elements to it. Sometimes it is occasionally very timelessly and well done.
In that case, I might recommend changing your color palette or just tweaking the layout of your website, but really just depends. And you're welcome to message me on Instagram and be like, how does this look? What do you think? I love giving my opinions. Yeah. But here's a few examples of what I would consider dated.
So if your logo is using rudimentary colors, just like really plain primary colors, say you have like green and red and blue or something. And if they're just like very basic, the shades of those colors, just shifting to a softer, palette with, within those color themes would help a lot.
It's okay, is that a preschool? Colors matter. They do. And that's the first thing people are thinking is okay, what's the theme of this business? Just based on the colors, like colors alone make a big difference.
Melissa Klug: Colors can be jarring or soothing depending on, and I will not name it, but there is a, like a large organization within the organizing industry that it like, when I go to their website, I just go, this feels. It just doesn't feel good. Like the primary colors here are not helping me though.
Brie Morrissey: And you can, that doesn't mean you can't have bright colors. It doesn't mean you can't be bold. It's just we can just shift it a little bit so that it's not so on the color wheel.
Ok so—gold lettering. This one might be a little bit controversial.
Melissa Klug: No, I'm ready.
Brie Morrissey: It might be the way it's done, maybe. And people were using that a lot, like 10 years ago, it was just that everything had these gold touches in it.
I just think that less is more and simple is better. And gold flair on everything to me looks dated. I would prefer if you're wanting something really interesting, if you want a business card and you love the flair of the shine of the gold, I think it'd be better to get something embossed, Getting it in like at the thicker cards or get something that feels good, like the velvety touch or something like that, there's elements that you can do that really look updated and modern without that like flash of gold.
Again, that's just my opinion, but I think it's dated.
Now also to go along with that dated script fonts. So script fonts are, there are so, so many, and you might think, Oh, they're script. And then people like scripts. So any script will do.
Melissa Klug: I have so many pet peeves about script by the way. You might like people listening might be like, I've seen you use script fonts. Yes, but I have a lot of feelings about them.
Brie Morrissey: Yeah. Well, for one, I do hold strongly to the belief that in your brand choose one.
It's your accent font. Choose one and use it. It's your law. The law is, you use this, these three fonts are the fonts that you use and the script accent font is the only script accent font you use. So, it's important to make sure you find one that is, easy to read. But what I was going to say was, script fonts that kind of looked, look
Melissa Klug: Crafty
Brie Morrissey: calligraphy?
That's old. Crafty calligraphy is out. A lot of luxury brands now are using an accent of a handwritten script. So that looks nicer. But again, some of those are really sloppy. So you have to be careful when you're choosing. To make sure that it's legible as well.
Melissa Klug: I would also like to highlight your use of the word accent. It's an accent font. It's not an on every heading. It's not in paragraphs.
Brie Morrissey: I'm another pet peeve. Man, I'm getting into this. Another is all caps script.
Melissa Klug: Yes.
Brie Morrissey: Please don't do that. Yeah. So I love a good script, like a very beautiful script font as an accent. But the other thing that I will remind people of is So it's hard for some people to read it, especially some of the really artistic ones.
They're actually very hard to read. You know what it says,
Melissa Klug: But other people might not.
Brie Morrissey: The tilt of the words, sometimes the tilt goes like this on one letter and this on one letter. You kind of want it to be like,
Melissa Klug: Yeah. So what we want to think of always is our ideal clientele. And that is, who is going to be reading this?
Will they find this hard to read?
The other thing I'm just going to throw out there. Just a personal story nobody asked for the, like a lot of schools now are not really teaching cursive anymore. My daughter who is 17, my third grade goddaughter, they learn cursive at their school.
And I was like, hey, can you look over Sib's homework? And Emma was like, I can't read it because it was this might be a personal problem. I need to solve. You guys might be like judging me. It might be a regional, it's a regional problem, but what I'm saying is there are a lot of people now who cursive is not there.
Brie Morrissey: and maybe that's why some of these younger, creative brands aren't using it as much.
Melissa Klug: Yeah.
Brie Morrissey: I don't know. And that's fine. Let's just go with it. Go with a nice, go with a nice like serif or something. It looks very like editorial. So that's do it. You don't have to use script. Okay. And then the last two for this, so we don't talk about it forever. It are over detailed illustrations. So if you have a, I had a client recently who had we redid her branding, but her, she had a house, but it had so much furniture in the house.
Melissa Klug: Oh yeah.
Brie Morrissey: It was like, there was too much. It was too much. Or it was like multiple houses or multiple boxes with lots of different furniture and different colors. And it was just, it was too much. It was like, okay, let's do let's simplify this, let's have a simple line drawing and one little shelf or something very simple, and it looks more timeless. It's you can see it when it's small. Yes. So whenever you get your, your, whenever you're doing your branding, your logo, make sure that when you make it small, in a profile image or something. You can actually see what it is.
Melissa Klug: You know what it is. Yeah.
Brie Morrissey: And then the last one is overcomplicated illustrations.
So what I mean by that is if you have to explain how this abstract image it relates to your business. And it's not helpful. It would be better to not have an illustration. And just use some cool typography then to have something really complicated.
Let's make sure your brand makes sense to just the everyday person.
Melissa Klug: Here is my hot take about organizing logos and you can feel free to agree or violently disagree with me. Simpler is just better. Like literally it can just be the name of your business in a beautiful font with just a little something around it. You do not need to go all in on I have to have a house in it or I have, by the way, all of my logos have houses in them. That's just my choice. But you can also just say, this is the name of my business and it's got, I am going to put one very beautiful font and then organizing is going to be in a san serif font. Boom, you're done. It does not have to be complicated.
Brie Morrissey: Some people might criticize me for that, but there's a reason I do it. There's a reason that my, my logos are pretty simplified, I mean, I give several options of them so they can use them across different platforms and marketing materials, but yeah, simple is better.
And I definitely agree with that.
Melissa Klug: So, you mentioned that you, the timeframe of if it's been five to 10 years, which I fully agree with, I would also argue if it's been more than three, I might even take that down to if it's been more than three years, just take a look at it.
Brie Morrissey: in a three year period, three to five year period, you're shifting your business model or your services anyway.
Melissa Klug: Also, let's just think about, I have a lot of feelings about Instagram, but think about Instagram three years ago versus Instagram now.
Brie Morrissey: Yeah.
Melissa Klug: Wildly different, three years ago we were curating feeds and making sure everything look. Now we don't care about that as much. Right. It's just just throw some stuff up there and whatever and do a funny dance.
Brie Morrissey: Yeah. Right.
Melissa Klug: Like I'm just saying three year cycles are just take a look at it. If it's been, if it's been longer than that.
Brie Morrissey: I agree. Yeah. And then speaking of business model changing, that's actually my next one.
So another reason why it might be time for a rebrand is your business model has changed.
And what I mean by that is, there's lots of ways your business model can change, so your core service might change, you might want to work, have a different niche or work with a different kind of person or in a different space. Someone recently in Inspired Organizer said she decided to niche down and I'm now only doing pantries and that's great. In fact, people think you're an expert. If you do really, if you do it well, because also branding matters in a specialty and in your niche.
So examples like you've shifted from in person to online services only, you might be starting a family and then you're just wanting to just do blogging or just do virtual sessions or something like that.
You definitely have to shift not just your branding, but your language on your site.
Or you're building a team. If you're building a team, that would be a changing your business model. If you're building a team and you don't want to just be the face of your business anymore—if you started your business, say you, your name and you just say “me” and “I” in all of the texts in your site and you have like pictures of you organizing and it's been five years and you have a team of 10 women and you're hardly ever on site anymore. And we've heard this, your clients are like, “well, where are you? I expect to see you.” There's a big shift that needs to happen there. It just depends on where you are and what your goals are.
But change means you need a new logo and then you need, new branding photo shoot because you want to make sure you incorporate your team. You want to change your web copy to make sure that you incorporate the team feel of it and that your clients aren't expecting you to be there. So that would be another way that your business model will change.
Melissa Klug: I'll tell you an opposite pet peeve is If you are a solo operator, which I am by choice, if you do not have a team on your website, it shouldn't say we. Just say me, I, what, like that creates a more personal feeling. If you do have a team and you're using we then you need to show your team, show your team.
Brie Morrissey: Or en route to having a team. I think you can do it. It's that's your intention. Yeah. And either way that you go, just make sure your site is consistent.
Melissa Klug: Yep. Agree.
Brie Morrissey: Another way reason maybe would be your branding isn't attracting your ideal client anymore. Or your audience has changed or it's not specific enough. So these are all kind of still part underneath this business model thing. If you maybe you, I keep using this mom thing, but if you became a mom, all of a sudden you can relate or you feel like you want to shift in and specialize in playrooms or something like that, or you just understand or infertility, you under there's whatever you experience in life, it gives you, an empathy and a way that you can really niche down and relate to a specific type of person and have a specific specialty in your service.
But that does impact your messaging. So those are all reasons to rebrand. That's the business model.
Melissa Klug: Well, and I think too, that looking at where your business is—all of us have changes in our business every year. And I think what you're saying about, is there a certain kind of client you're trying to attract?
Either they're not coming to you or you want to aim your business differently. A lot of that is going to involve some sort of changes. It could just be changes in your verbiage. It might be your website is fine, but you need to really look at your verbiage or the services you offer or anything else.
Brie Morrissey: And another thing that I've seen is style of organizing—like some people, you don't want to come at it as we are like going to tough love. It's bootcamp kind of, organizing. And then there's some people who are like very soft and gentle and like careful about it.
Your website can share, can showcase that without you even talking to the person.
And I want them to know what it feels like to be around you.
Melissa Klug: I feel it. We've been talking a lot in the podcast about like showing who you are on your website and just in all of your stuff, like really being authentically who you are trying to be someone else is exhausting.
And so I really just think it's so important to be like, “Hey, here's what the experience of working with me is like.” I have had people that have come to me in the last couple of weeks actually, who are like, I really need, and they say it in their email to me, “I need a gentle touch. I cannot have someone that's coming in and yelling at me what to do.”
I appreciate knowing that. By the way, I'm not that person anyway. But there might be organizers that are like, you know what? I'm really not into the psychology as much. I'm just going to come make you have a beautiful closet. That's fine. That's it. There are all of us exist on this continuum for different reasons, though, just being really upfront with people about who you are, what it's like to work with you.
All of that can come back, can come through on your website.
Brie Morrissey: Totally. Another point that I wanted to make is if you're So we mentioned earlier how your branding can really affect like your confidence level. And if you are embarrassed for people to see your branding or to see, if you are you think twice before you give someone your website or your business card or something.
I mean, that's obviously an indicator that you might need a revamp. But his is where I mentioned like your brand is your hardest working employee. It represents you all the time. even when you're sleeping. So, you want to make sure that you're really proud of it. It reminds me of if I visit a friend's house and they're just going around their house and they're just pointing out all the things that aren't done yet. They're just like, “Oh, but I'm going to renovate that and I'm going to fix this. Oh, these curtains are changing.” Well, if you feel like you have to just explain over explain everything or you don't, you're embarrassed to show it off.
There's your sign.
Melissa Klug: I think when you first start your business, you might be in a place where you know, you kind of created everything on your own, which is by the way, there are a million resources to do that. If you are bootstrapping your business, there are so many ways to do that, but it might just be that you're like, I was in a different place.
X number of years ago, it might've even just been a year ago. It is okay for you to be like, I did the minimum viable product. I talk about that a lot, MVP, minimum viable product. It's okay to have just something basic out there, but you might be like, okay, I'm in a different place right now.
And I want to kind of come up to where I am right now. Yes. Yes.
Brie Morrissey: And I think, honestly, to speak to that, the more time it goes on and the more, options there are online for starting your business there are so many beautiful templates out there. There's no need, like even your DIY doesn't have to look like DIY anymore.
There's just so many affordable options out there that you can just like plug and play and make it look beautiful.
So another point I have on here is if you have new competitors in town or your competitors are rebranding, there's this industry is growing so rapidly.
And people are utilizing professionals or templates and they're coming on the show, like guns blazing, like beautiful. And so you definitely want to make sure that you're Just not for comparison sake, but just for just to be smart checking out your competition and making sure that visually, your site and your brand online and your marketing just looks very professional.
And if it's not out shining them, it's at least, running it, it equals standing. So, that's important. When I work with my clients, I actually have them when they're filling out their questionnaire, I have them send me like three or four of their top competitors. Yeah. I'm looking at them.
I want to make sure that when I'm finished working with you, like you look better than anyone in your town, you
Melissa Klug: I do. So I really feel strongly that I don't want people to go down a rabbit hole of comparisonitis. That is a dangerous place to go, but you have to know what other people in your area are doing.
And like you said, at least rise to the level, if not exceed it.
I will tell you as someone I've done audits for organizers before, where I look at all the other websites in their area, and I'm like, I'm going to be honest with you. These are all terrible. You could do the bare minimum and still look better than some of these people. And there are some markets where listen, if you are in just an example, Dallas Fort Worth area.
Brie Morrissey: Oh my gosh—there are the most organizers there.
Melissa Klug: So many organizers in DFW, but if you are in Dallas-Fort Worth and you need to rise, to you are going to have to up your game versus someone who lives in rural Minnesota, right.
You're going to have a different experience there. Not that you shouldn't have a beautiful website in rural Minnesota, by the way, but I'm just saying you've got to look at your competitors and see what are they doing and how do I up this experience for people who are coming to me?
Brie Morrissey: I agree. Totally. And that includes, I mean, sometimes it's just like disorganized copy. Too much copy, too many different fonts. I mean, just little things that you can tweak that are just going to make your site like a breeze to go through. And then I mentioned the templates it's just, there's so many options out there.
You ready for another one? Okay, you've moved or you've expanded to another city. Yeah.
So if you move, it's fine to keep the branding you have, but sometimes when you move, you're moving somewhere where the culture is different. The city life is different, the demographic is different. And so you really need to evaluate your brand.
And if the specific kind of service that you provide, makes sense to that demographic. If the imagery or the branding, visual branding that you have makes sense to that demographic, you're always wanting to, to key in, to, or to hone in on your ideal client in that area and make sure that you're really speaking to them.
And that's not just speaking in your words, but also visually. That is just part of moving.
And also, if you are working on building a franchise or just expanding to another city and having even bigger team and all that you just want to make sure that is clearly explained on your site. And sometimes that might require a visual rebrand as well. Does your audience in your new location resonate with your current brand? Or does relocating allow you to introduce yourself to a fresh audience?
Does your brand outshine your competitors? So you want to do that again? Like you're okay, you're in a new area now. So let's look at these guys. And does your new location require a shift in your services or business model? And then should you shift your branding or services to resonate with your local culture?
Melissa Klug: And it's also, if you're moving to an area where organizing is not as prevalent, then you sometimes have to go outside of your industry too. We've had a lot of people in Inspired Organizer that have moved to brand new areas that sometimes are smaller than where they came from.
And so then you have to start looking at what we always talk about analogous industries. So interior designers—this may seem crazy, but. Personal trainers. We always talk about like, how do personal trainers find clients in those areas? But yeah, looking at some analogous industries to us and how are they marketing themselves and out there is really important.
Brie Morrissey: Definitely. For inspiration for learning from people that are already doing a great job. Yeah. All right. Another reason you might need to rebrand is you just purchased someone else's business.
Melissa Klug: Yeah. This is happening a lot more.
Brie Morrissey: Yes. Yes. The longer the industry is, around the more this is happening.
And sometimes you might inherit a great business with lots of, clients and a lot of word of mouth and, just really established, but they might have that 10 year old branding. Yeah. And you're like, Oh do I keep it? Because people know what it looks like. And they know it, or do I shift and risk, not people not knowing who I am anymore.
So this one is a little more tricky. I've done this a couple of times and what I recommend Well, obviously, if you feel like, if you, if it ticks some of these boxes and you feel like you do it, you do need to rebrand. I would say like keeping some of the brand elements and letting go of the others.
Like you might have that over complicated or rudimentary color illustration. So you could remove the illustration and keep the name, like you could simplify it. Or you could keep, the colors, but just get a new logo.
Melissa Klug: Yeah. Well, I think when you buy someone else's business too, there's a sweet spot of changing everything the minute you buy it versus letting a little bit of time pass by, like it's a little bit of that sweet spot of knowing I'm not going to change everything on day one because we want people to feel comfortable.
But at the same time, it'd be just like me and my own business. I didn't sell it to anyone. I just changed the branding. Like you can also do that and it's still okay. That makes sense.
Brie Morrissey: I agree with that. Like just waiting six months or a year and kind of shifting in social, on social media, like creating that new brand, vision or the new values or the new brand voice, having that kind of established and then slowly integrating, your new visual branding, that makes sense.
Perfect sense as well.
Okay. So number seven on my list says you want to raise your prices without people questioning you.
So, If you want your brand to really appear as the expert, or you want to speak to that ideal, client sometimes the branding that you currently have, it might have that DIY feel, it might have that dated look, and you just want to shift to make sure that you're really speaking to the right people.
Sometimes this means, creating a more editorial luxury brand. Sometimes it might mean shifting into a smaller brand. niche. Say you just like only want to work in playrooms or something, then you want to make sure that your branding resonates with like busy moms and kids. You want to have that colorful, like really approachable vibe.
And you might not be there yet. So, so creating that, that shift in your business can really help people to trust you, to respect your brand to be like, Oh yeah, she definitely Like her pricing makes sense to not question your pricing. Just visually your presence online can just make a really big difference.
Melissa Klug: It really does. Well, I'm a big proponent of everybody raising their prices. So someone in Inspired Organizer posted the other day, like just in case someone's looking for permission, I just raised my prices on a random Tuesday afternoon. Yes, you can do that. So, but you're exactly right—you want a website that matches the price point of what we do. And it's not about even who your ideal client is—I'm not talking about, you do not have to have an ideal client that lives in a $10 million home. You can have an ideal client that is just like you or me, but you still want to give people the feel of what we do is a service that is.
There's an investment attached to it. And we want to give people that feel that, yeah, this is what the service is.
Brie Morrissey: Yeah. And the language on your site, your messaging of the value that you provide is just as important. It's just as important as the visuals really.
And so conveying the value that you provide in people's lives can. Make all the differences. Well,
Melissa Klug: for sure.
Brie Morrissey: Yeah, like that kind of goes back to what I was saying. Don't just list what you can do. Don't just list the rooms you can organize. Let's talk about like, how you like are really changing their quality of life.
Melissa Klug: What is the transformation they are going to get by working with you? It's not about picking up the LEGOs. It's so much deeper than that.
Brie Morrissey: Yes, exactly. Yeah. Okay. Oh, this one, this is my last one. But this one, I actually worked with a client recently who, this was kind of her main goal and it's different than all these other ones that we've talked about. So if you're wanting to build your team and if you're not attracting the level, the caliber of employee that you want and you keep finding people who are just like, Oh, I got this availability or they don't respect your process. They're not invested. And they're just not that quality employee—then definitely rebranding or redesigning your website could attract people in droves and really get you those. When I worked with my client a couple months ago, I think it was like in February or March, she was in like a week or two of launching her new site, had five really high quality applicants and then was able to get new people on her team right away. And she had for years struggled with people coming and going. But when you have that nice site, they're like, “Oh, I want to work for this company.”
They look so established.
Melissa Klug: This is fascinating. I have never thought about this in terms of rebrand, like I've never thought about it attracting not only the right clients, but the right people to work on your team. I think that's genius.
Brie Morrissey: Yes. Yes. It's important. I mean, they're looking at it too.
They're thinking about the quality and how you present yourself and how professional you look and yeah, is this someone I want to, do I want to be this, do I want this person to be my boss? It's not just visually too, it's creating. The values and the atmosphere and the culture of your business, you want that to be evident in your website. You want people to want to be on your team. It looks like fun. It looks like, you have a lot of business or, it looks like you have really good after photos. It's obvious that you're, doing really good quality work and, it's going to boost their experience and their resume. It's not just those ideal clients. It's the ideal employees.
Melissa Klug: Well, I think that this is all a really good example too, of there might be people listening to this being like, wow, that sounds like a lot of work, something my kids say to me all the time is, “wow, that sounds like a lot of work.”
But I do think that there is something about there is a feeling that you might be getting of Oh my gosh, this feels like it could be a lot of work, but I'm telling you it's worth it.
This is one of those, like you make the investment of time on this now, it will pay dividend or the investment of money to have someone help you. t will pay dividends, like countless dividends if someone spends, some amount of money on a refresh and a rebrand, you are going to get the clients to pay for that. The ROI on that is so high.
Brie Morrissey: Yes. I know. And people get stuck in that Oh, I don't have enough.
I will hire you when I have enough clients. Okay. Sure. I understand. Like I do. Yes. You're going to get to that point a lot faster if you're, if you look at, yeah,
Melissa Klug: there is there is something that I think about a lot is just, it's called opportunity cost. And it's about so you, and I understand, I do not want anyone to be fiscally irresponsible.
I really believe in people being smart about their business, but if you spend a year dinging around, trying to DIY your own site. you have missed a year of full of clients, trying to save, 2, 000, you might've actually cost yourself 35, 000. Yeah. Okay. Depends on your location.
Yeah. Or more, there are lots of organizers I know that are in six figures. And so you have really lost out on, if your business is not out there, you actually have not saved anything. You have actually cost yourself tens of thousands of dollars. I really believe in how important this is.
Brie Morrissey: Yes. And I have processes. I have processes that make that happen. Really Pass, yeah. , right? Like I care about like the efficiency, like I like to organize, I like to be efficient and I care about the efficiency of this whole process. I don't wanna be working with someone for six weeks and they're like, Ugh, is it done yet?
Yeah. back and forth. And decisions. And decisions like decision fatigue are hard. We know. because we do it with our clients and I'd rather you make all the decisions in two days. Yeah. And six weeks. So that's what I do. I do it quickly.
Melissa Klug: Well, and that's, I think that's really important because again, like I said way earlier, I have had so many people who have come to me with really sad stories of, I have paid someone a ton of money and I have no website.
And I actually sent you one of those people recently. I was like, you got to call Brie because she had spent a bunch of money and had nothing to show for it. And so that's another thing is, please, I do not have people on the podcast that I don't believe in what they do. I do not recommend things that I don't personally believe in.
I turn down things all the time. I get pitched all the time. You guys. I turn down things all the time. I only tell you about things that I believe in. Yeah. And you are one of the people that I No, thank you. Believe in because you actually deliver what you say. You deliver it quickly. You have a process.
Tell everyone a little bit about you basically have like work days, right? Like you Yes. So yes. Or like organizing.
Brie Morrissey: When I started my business, I started it like traditional design because that's all I knew. And it would take me three to four, sometimes five weeks, just depending. Cause I was working with five or six clients at the same time.
I know everyone here listening understands it's a long drawn out process when you're working with a lot of people at the same time. And some organizers have done this too, or they've shifted to this, like organizing day model. And so I, I took a course a couple of years ago and it was like, how to shift your design business into just a day model.
And I was like, yes, I want to do this. And when I did my. My revenue doubled like the first year because I was able to focus on one client at a time. So like I have you do the homework. It's all automated instructions and everything's really, it flows well. And when we, when it comes to the design day, then I've already, we have a call the day before we're looking over your homework, making sure we're on the same page.
And then on design day, depending on the length and complexity of your project, sometimes it's. It's one day, two day or three days, just occasionally it's just like a half day, but usually my bread and butter project is two days and I'm able to help you create your branding. So that means like your color palette, your font pairings, and your logo, your family of logos, and then also your website.
And that's, enough time to build a website. A good like starter website with maybe four or five pages. I have clients who come back and I also have clients who've been established for a long time and we're like doing full rebrands and it's a bigger project, but if you're just getting started and you're just needing, that, that branding or switching from DIY to something more, more luxury or just established or just professional then yeah, having that, that two day process, it just.
It's amazing. It goes so well. And then we like meet on Facebook messenger and we're able to collaborate together. I'm able to get your feedback in real time. And then I've got that homework and your, your feedback and I can get the work done quickly. And you just see it, you see it, unraveling.
You see it building right in front of your eyes and it's fun. It's a fun process. And then they're able to launch it like right away.
Melissa Klug: So, so it's sort of the same thing as a client who comes to you and it was like, I want my whole house done in a week. And you're like, cool. We'll figure out a way to make that happen.
Right? Like you, you could get someone from nothing to a business launch in a short period of time.
Brie Morrissey: Yeah. Yes. And then especially with Meg's help, because she comes in and I can write if I need to ChatGPT helps me too, but she's just amazing. Like she, she can, she's worked with probably 50 to 75 percent of my clients and she can take any background, any story.
Any, why for your business and just turn it into this beautiful, emotional copy. That's going to really pull people in. And I don't know how she does it, but she's gotten different, new copy for every client. And then I'm able to, this is why those people do
Melissa Klug: what they do. We don't know how it happens.
Brie Morrissey: Yeah. So she writes the copy and then I build the site around it. And it's just like a perfect little partnership there. But So yeah, and then really quickly, it all comes together and then you're able to launch it like the next day, or that day or whatever, whenever you're ready. But I just love the efficiency of the process and how many more people have been able to work with and help because of it.
So,
Melissa Klug: yeah. It's great. And then I talked about it earlier, but I really, you are launching three new templates too. So templates is a great way. If you are truly in that area of, I really need to bootstrap my business, but I also don't know how to do this. Your templates are an extremely cost effective way to get a stunning website done in Very quickly.
They, I can say this from personal experience, super easy to use, like very beautiful. And you've got, you're going to have six? Yeah, I'm going to have
Brie Morrissey: six. Yeah. So
Melissa Klug: six templates. I don't care what your aesthetic is. You're going to be able to find one.
Brie Morrissey: There's, yeah, I like to, yeah, have a wide range of different like colors and layouts and stuff.
And so when I started, I did three. But that was back when Squarespace had like an older editor. And so I took a pause, decided to get married, got a little busy with that and then so I had my template shop on pause there. And I was like, I can't keep selling these on this old editor. I was like, I have to, shift. So I waited and I waited until I had some time and like this new energy after getting married, I just have so much motivation and I feel settled and it's just so fun.
And so I'll have my original, the three classic templates ready and available for you, and then three new ones that are just like, I think they're so much better. There'll be a difference in price as well. So there'll be some more that are a little more simple and some that are a little more detailed.
Melissa Klug: What's your price range for those?
Brie Morrissey: Like $300 to $500. Getting started like with, a very professional design. I think that's really good. That's definitely a fraction of the cost of working with me.
Melissa Klug: Totally. Well, and by the way, working with you is not like $82 billion. It's a very, it's a good investment. But yeah, this is a good way that if you say I can spend $500 or less. and have essentially a fully beautifully built website. And one of the things about your templates that I love is all the pages are there, right?
Yes. There's a page for blogs. Yes. There's, but you don't have to set up anything. Anything. It is just like it's all there.
Brie Morrissey: There's lots of pages because I know in this industry, like I know, well just from my own experience, I know what your skeleton or your core pages should be.
But then I also have all the options that the typical organizer would want, like you're going to want to show off your favorite products. You're going to want to have a blog. You're going to want to have testimonials, so, and maybe a portfolio. So I've got those options there and even an option to add a team later on.
You can just add it to the page. So there's plenty of options. And then also one of the things I love about my templates. Is what I've noticed in the past, and I think they still sell them this way sometimes is when you buy a template, you're buying a template kit, which basically means you're buying a video that teaches you how to build it from scratch.
Right. That is so much work. It makes no sense. Yeah. You're buying a video and then like a file with some stock photos and you're, they're just like showing you every step of the process on how to build yourself. What I do is I literally duplicate. A completely finished website and then share it with you.
So you don't want to subscribe to Squarespace before you buy my template. But you start with the template that I send you and then you customize it from there. So it just makes the process so much easier. Cause then you're just changing like some colors.
And adding your logo and adding your text and maybe changing some of the photos, but I think even the photos I found are really pretty.
Melissa Klug: Oh yeah, I kept pretty much all of you, all the photos you did. I would say it's sort of like organizing Mad Libs. Did anyone do Mad Libs when they were a kid?
Like you just have to fill in the blanks, like it tells you to fill in a noun, right? Okay. So you get it and you're like, and the other thing too, is especially if you're newer to business by the way, you don't have to be new to business to get one of these as I was five years in and I bought one, but yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. You, when you're newer, you might not know all the pages you need, or you might not know all of the elements you need. That's the other thing is you're actually not just getting a template. You're getting a business guide, in my opinion, because you have, you show people like you need testimonials.
Here's where they go. You need a blog. Here's where it is. Please start blogging. Everybody start blogging. Like all the things are already there. So it's not, that's again, like the value of that's so funny.
Brie Morrissey: One of the things that I've noticed This might surprise you, but one of the things that I've noticed that people skip a lot is their about page.
Melissa Klug: Yeah. It's huge. It's so important. That's why I get most of my clients. My about page is how I get most of my clients. You guys.
Brie Morrissey: Yeah. Yeah. You need an about page for sure. And it's like a little bit, it's like 25 percent about you and 75 percent about the value you bring. That's like the equation.
Okay. So like your about page is really important. You don't just want. And also you don't want like a one page scroll website. Not good for SEO takes forever to scroll through on mobile, which most people are on mobile.
Melissa Klug: Yes.
Brie Morrissey: Yeah. So like you want a page that has individual website that has individual pages and you want an about page, even if you are self conscious and don't want to talk about yourself, you want photos of yourself and you want an about page, cause that's the second most highly viewed page statistically on a website.
So yes. Get it.
Melissa Klug: And. I will say this until people don't need to hear it anymore. People are hiring you and or your team to come into their house to like, it really takes a lot of trust for you to just invite people into your home and wander through all your things. Okay. As I say, we are in people's underwear drawers.
Okay. They need to know and trust. It's that know, like trust factor. They need to feel like this is a person I'd be happy to invite in my home. And having an about page that tells more about you than just, I like to organize.
Tell your story, whatever that story is. Do you like crime podcasts or other stuff about you that people are going to be like, Oh my gosh. I love hundred percent.
Melissa Klug: Like just please put that stuff in there because it is a way to connect with people. You would be shocked at how many people will take a little nugget of something I have on my about page and reference it in their email to me.
Just do it. It really, and I don't want to hear that you don't want to talk about yourself. And I don't want to hear that you don't want pictures of yourself and please do not come to me with those excuses because I will. Plow right through them. Yeah.
Brie Morrissey: Yes. Yes. Yes. Let's, I hope this is very motivating.
Yeah. Gives people fresh energy to up update their online presence.
Melissa Klug: Yeah. Just update. And the other thing too, Any changes you make to your website are positive for your SEO. So adding a blog, even just refreshing your website, it's good for your SEO because it tells Google, Hey, this person is out there.
They're changing things. They've got stuff on there. Like all of that. It's actually a really good move for your SEO. It's not a dangerous move for your SEO to do some of these refreshes.
Brie Morrissey: Yes. Yes. So go do it. Just a little side tip, not to overwhelm anyone, but just remember that when you rebrand, you want to make sure that you changing the profile pictures on like your email, your CRM, your Google business profile, like you forget all the, all, how many places that you, a lot of places
Melissa Klug: that
Brie Morrissey: you have it, but just take a couple hours on an admin day and just go through it.
Just do it all at once. Just go through and swap out all those profile pictures or business names or whatever. So everything appears super consistent across the board. I make this mistake. I mean, I forget to get where things are sometimes and I'm like, Oh my gosh, it's been a year and people are getting this and it's got my old logo, but I'm just, so from experience, I'm just saying update it everywhere.
Listen,
Melissa Klug: in case you think the two of us are perfect. We're not, we may, I mean, we make mistakes all the time. But yeah, that's it. It's a very real, it's a very real thing to realize, like all the places your stuff is out there in to the universe. And yeah that's a great suggestion. I just, I feel really strongly that you should have someone outside of yourself.
It's sort of like we talk about with clients. Sometimes an outside Set of eyes is really important like they don't see the things that our clients don't see the things that are right in front of Them. Well, we often don't see the things that are in front of us in terms of our own stuff I for sure am guilty of this So having someone take a look at it So ask a trusted friend another friend in organizing industry take a look at my stuff Can you give me a few thoughts?
Yeah. I think that's really important too, because you might not realize how you're coming across to someone. And again, we all, I a hundred percent suffer from this. So,
Brie Morrissey: You want my honest opinion. Cause I, yeah, you want to be able to please. And I'm like, do you really want to, are you sure?
Like I went on the consultation. I'm like, Are you sure you want to hear it? Are you sure you mean you're sure? And they're like, yeah, just be honest. I'm like, okay.
Melissa Klug: But I've had I have a hard time. It's hard for me to take even constructive criticism. Cause I feel like it's a personal attack. And that is a silly problem that I have to work on myself as a personal problem.
But I also realized as someone who offers feedback, like it's really just out, it's truly out of I want your business to be successful. Yes.
Brie Morrissey: Yes.
Melissa Klug: I want people to come to you and to say Hey, I'm excited to have you organize for me. So ask someone trusted for their feedback, ask for it honestly.
And then I'm telling you, do the work on your branding and your website is going to pay dividends. Dividends.
Brie Morrissey: Agreed. Agreed.
Melissa Klug: So many. Okay. So your new template shop is out there ready to purchase (CLICK HERE!) And then in terms of if someone is like, dude, I need all of this. Tell people how to get in touch with you and how to work with you.
Brie Morrissey: Yes. Okay. My website's BK Branding Co. I recently rebranded and made it mean something different 'cause Brie Kiesler, but now it means “Becoming Known Brand Collective.” So, if you want to become known in your industry, you can go to bkbrandingco.com. You can email me through my contact page.
You can also follow me on Instagram at @bkbrandingco. And email me at hello@BK brandingco.com, if you have any questions or you can just DM me on Instagram. I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to give you my opinions and work with you if you want. And then my, yeah, my template shop is open on my website.
You can find it in the templates.
Melissa Klug: Exciting. Also this is important.
The other thing that I want to talk about that you do is you do some Canva templates that are great.
Brie Morrissey: So if you are on social media and you're not great at like creating all these graphics that kind of match your branding. You can purchase my templates. I have a huge selection.
I think it's 300 or more than 300 for Instagram specifically. And then I also have, so sorry, these are on Canva. If you're not familiar with Canva, it's kind of like Photoshop online for dummies. And it's amazing. If you're not familiar with
Melissa Klug: Canva, I need you to get familiar with Canva. Yeah.
Nobody should have a business without a Canva Pro account. I will. That's another fill. I'll die
Brie Morrissey: on
Melissa Klug: 13 a month. Go spend. Yeah.
Brie Morrissey: So cheap. Amazing. I actually use it for the majority of my projects because I want my clients to be able to edit the work that I do so that when they change their business name or they change their phone number or they change a color or whatever, they can, get to it.
Like I want it to be easy for you and not feel like you're being nickel and dimed by your designer.
Melissa Klug: If Canada charged me 200 a month, I would still pay it. I'm telling you it's 13 a month. I'm dying. Please go get it
Brie Morrissey: every month. They're doing new updates and they're just making things insane. Cool. Yeah.
So it's getting better and better. Anyway, so I created templates for not just social media. But also I've got lead magnets. I've got promotional cards, which would be like anything, thank you card free consultation cards and business cards and flyers and that kind of thing. I also have a template for something that's gotten really popular recently, which is called the style catalog, or it's a,
Melissa Klug: like a look book
Brie Morrissey: product.
Yes. So when you're at a consultation. and you're trying to just explain to your client like, do you like hyacinth baskets? Or Do you like acrylic? Right? And they're like, and they're like, what? And you're like, well, looking around their house, you're trying to figure out what their aesthetic is.
I have a template that is like a catalog, so it's like 26, 27 pages. And you just pop the images in and then name them, and then, yeah, you can show different, like you can either show categories like by room or you can show categories by style. So you could be like a whimsical or classic or, modern or whatever.
And then show how you would do that. Like the Pinterest pretty photos, and then specifically show pictures of each product. Your client can pick and choose what they want. Then there's also pages that show the higher end option and the budget option. So you can kind of show that it's awesome.
People love this template. It's really a great add to your consultation to make it look like you're like super, super put together. Yeah. You're like, Oh, I have a catalog, this is my aesthetic and, or these, this could be your aesthetic or whatever. And that way also you're kind of showing your client organizing products.
And these are the products that you might even have a warehouse that you're like keeping your inventory in, you can just showcase the ones that you buy all the time. You don't have to find a new product for every new client. If you're using the same products a lot, then put them in your catalog.
That's another one. And then I also have like media kit templates. I don't know if I'm missing any, but you can check out.
Melissa Klug: There are lots of templates and they're super affordable. And so that's another thing is you do not have to create things from scratch, especially lead magnets. Just please everyone get a lead magnet on your site and you can go get a template and just do them beautifully and easily.
And boom, you are done. You do not have to build it from scratch, which is my favorite. So, okay. So basically we want everyone to go out and please look at all of, please look at all of your branding. Please look at all your stuff. It's a big process, but also it doesn't actually know it's not a big process.
It's just an important process. It's important to your business. It is important to you finding clients and it'll bring
Brie Morrissey: new life into your business, but also into your confidence around your business. So if it's feeling stagnant, I mean, I feel like last year was a really hard year for organizers everywhere.
There was a lot of a dip in sales that I've noticed just through my calls. It's going back up this year. And if you're wanting to kind of like Just revitalize it and give it that X factor and really bring in more leads. Then this is a great way to go about that.
Melissa Klug: I fully agree.
And I just think that this is one of those things that one of the things I hear a lot is that the things I, Have always done that have worked, aren't working anymore. That's one of those times that you sometimes just have to go back to basics and start over with the foundational things and then figure out the bigger things.
So it's really important. Well, I'm so glad that we have you in our community and in our industry. And you have so many people that have trusted you for many years with their digital properties. And I swear she is not going to take your money and ghost you. She will take your money. And it gives you a beautiful website.
Brie Morrissey: I tried to under promise and over deliver. That's right. Yes.
Melissa Klug: Also, I will say if you are someone who is and I know that you're, you have various packages for a full website build, but one of the things that I will tell you as compared to some of the things I hear, I've heard horror stories about people, like how much money people have spent for websites that are like one page, you are extremely affordable for what you do.
Brie Morrissey: You’re buying my time, but like I'm fast. I want to get as many pages, and I want it to look good.
Melissa Klug: what I just mean is you are a trustworthy person and you're also for what you provide to people. It is not. An investment that you're going to be like, really losing sleep over.
Brie Morrissey: thank you. Thank you. I really mean that. Yeah. I can't wait. I'm excited to be here. And I hope everyone is encouraged and inspired by, by this! I look forward to seeing how the industry continues to grow and people just rock it.
If you are interested in our Inspired Organizer® program, you can find us at www.inspiredorganizer.com and don't forget, we have a whole library of podcasts here, our YouTube channel, and you can find us on Facebook and Instagram at Pro Organizer Studio.
Still not sure about starting your own Professional Home Organizing business? Cick here to read about the 5 things you need to know BEFORE starting your organizing business.
Feeling ready to start? Great! Check out this post on how to start your business stress-free!