The Alimond Show
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The Alimond Show
Sharon L. Wright & Deb Haynes Swider of Loud and Clear Marketing - Building Impactful Strategies: From Lifelong Friendship to PR Mastery, Branding Expertise, and Community Engagement
Unlock the secrets to impactful marketing and PR strategies tailored for small to medium-sized businesses with the dynamic duo behind Loud and Clear Marketing, Sharon L. Wright, and Deb Haynes Swider. With Sharon's rich PR background and Deb's expertise in branding and advertising, they share their collaborative efforts in media relations, digital community engagement, and data-driven strategies. You'll learn how they meticulously test and refine messages to craft compelling stories that resonate and convert.
Ever wondered how two longtime friends can reignite their professional synergy after 25 years? Sharon and Deb's journey from college friends to successful business partners is a tale of enduring friendship, professional alignment, and the power of diverse career paths converging for mutual success. Their unique skill sets and shared experiences have fueled the growth of Loud and Clear Marketing, showing the importance of personal connections in professional triumphs.
Navigating the challenges of COVID-19, Loud and Clear Marketing rebranded to provide essential support to struggling businesses, demonstrating the power of community building. Sharon and Deb discuss their commitment to issue work, community engagement, and nonprofit support, emphasizing that everyone can contribute to making the world a better place. Learn about their future aspirations, the importance of a strong internal culture, and how even small actions can have a significant impact.
So I'm Sharon Wright, I'm the owner and founder of Loud and Clear Marketing, and we were founded in 2012.
Speaker 2:And I'm Deb Hansweider, I'm co-owner of Loud and Clear Marketing, chief strategist as well we do what we call brand-led lead generation, which is helping basically small businesses grow, small and medium-sized businesses grow, small and medium-sized businesses grow. And then we also have another side hustle, I guess, as far as letting clear, which is a little bit specialized and we talk about it only really in specialized occasions, but it is something that we offer, which is called issue work. So we help with public affairs campaigns. So there's an issue that somebody wants to address within the community and we help them take the message to the people and get some mobilization behind it so that there's action that's taken on the issue. The best example of that is the recent Workforce Housing Now campaign led by the Community Foundation of Northern or of Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties, and they were tackling the issue of affordable housing in Loudoun County, the need for affordable housing in Loudoun County, which is a real pressing issue for Loudoun County.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, for sure. And now could you guys give me a rundown of all the services that you provide, maybe for somebody who isn't familiar with like marketing, pr, stuff. Break it down a little bit for us.
Speaker 1:We are a soup-to-nuts marketing firm, so we come from large backgrounds and I'm sure we'll get into that in a minute.
Speaker 1:But when you set up shop in a smaller town or a county like Loudoun, you tend to have to be everything for the clients that you serve starting out. So that's the beauty of our partnership and again we'll get into that. But I come from a PR background so I bring the entire gamut of public relations services to our company and when people think of public relations sometimes they think about just getting a client in the media. But there's so much more to public relations than that. It's really, like Deb said, the issue work. It's the thought leadership, it's even digital community relations. Media relations is a big part of it. So we love the work we do in media. So it's really the entire gamut and that's where I got my start. And then Deb brings in branding, messaging, advertising and that sort of is the other complement to our firm.
Speaker 2:So do so we do on. I kind of I lead the creative shop. So we do social media, we do email, we do websites, we do, uh, content, lots of content creation. So, uh, if somebody needs to tell their story in any way, we pretty much can do any of the storytelling that you would need in whatever format that you would need including like, if you need a shoot, we'll do a shoot for a day, but it's really storytelling in every avenue that you could use in marketing.
Speaker 2:And then we have an amazing digital team that looks at data and analyzes data and then helps us refine the campaigns that we build to make sure that we are getting the right message to the right people at the right time which is ultimately the core of what we do.
Speaker 1:We love testing. So we'll put two messages into a market or more. That's called A-B testing and we will test our theories. We'll come in with a hypothesis on what we believe is the message that will resonate. But because we have multiple messages in market, we will then track those campaigns and watch to see what works. And as we see what the target market is responding to, then we either pull dollars from one campaign to apply to another and beef it up or we tweak a message. So we're constantly we're definitely numbers, geeks and results very results focused for our clients.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:No, I think that's awesome. I love that you both have your systems in place and seeing what's working and testing stuff out. Testing stuff out is a great strategy. I would love to know your backgrounds, how you guys got started in your industry, what led you into the marketing field and how you guys met.
Speaker 1:So I guess this is the quintessential story. So I got my start in public relations when I was 13. I didn't know that it was called public relations back then, but I did a campaign when I was a young girl. It was a story that I had heard on CNN about hostages that American hostages who were in Iran, and how the story was about how America had forgotten about these hostages who were in Iran and how the story was about how America had forgotten about these hostages because they had been held for over 400 days. And when I heard this story as a young girl, I heard about this yellow ribbon campaign that was happening nationally.
Speaker 1:I looked around my community I lived outside of Pittsburgh at the time and I didn't see any yellow ribbons. So I thought I need to help with this. I need to spread that word. So I was active in my church at that time. So I asked the pastor if I could speak. He said of course. Because what 13-year-old comes to the pastor and says can I get in front of the congregation and say a few words? So he welcomed me to the front of the church. I brought all my babysitting money and bought as many yellow ribbons as I could buy. I'm sure my parents probably pitched in a little bit and I handed out yellow ribbons that day and I talked about the hostages. And I was just thrilled when I looked around little parts of my community and I started seeing the yellow ribbons. So then I proceeded to go to another church and another church and there were about 10 churches in my little town. So for 10 weeks I visited a church a week and by the time that campaign was finished and I felt like it was my contribution to a very important larger national campaign. But my town was blanketed in yellow and I challenged everybody to go out and buy more ribbons and share those ribbons with their neighbors. So that was the start of my world in PR. But again, I didn't know what it was called.
Speaker 1:So fast forward to college. It's another four years down the road. I get to college. I have the right counselor. I didn't have that person in high school. But by the time I get into college I have the right counselor who sat down with me to talk about who I was and where was I going. And when I told this story about the Yellow Ribbon campaign he said Sharon, you've just lit up. He said this is what you should be doing. He said let me tell you what this is that you've just described. He said this is called public relations, and I said well, then, I want to do that. He said well, we have one small problem we don't have that degree at this college. And I thought to myself what am I going to do? I was already freshman class president, so leaving was not an option, and I think I was already giving tours because I had loved the college from the minute I stepped on campus.
Speaker 2:And you were also freshman class president. Yeah, I was freshman class president, so he said, no problem.
Speaker 1:He said what we're going to do is you're going to contract the major and you're, in essence, going to be the first person to have that degree at this college. So I said, ok, sign me up, I want to do that. So I founded the degree and I founded a public relations club, and you know I was. I was trying to create this, this whole world of public relations community.
Speaker 1:And it was it Like a community it was. It was a community. We had so many students who jumped right in with me and now we have thousands of graduates of the public relations degree all over the world, so it's really pretty fascinating that I can look up people through that network.
Speaker 2:So the interesting part of this story is fast forward, two years from her starting that degree, I walked onto the college campus, we ended up going to college together and I kept hearing about this amazing woman, sharon Barlow. At the time Her name was Sharon Barlow, my freshman orientation leader was a PR major. He had become, he had adopted the major that she had started. He was my vice president in the public relations department and was very active with the PR, the new PR degree, and she was just a rock star. I mean, I walked out and she was a rock star. And so I say, when I met her at 18, I formed such a positive impression of her and I respected her so much and that hasn't changed, right Like, my respect for her has only grown since that moment. So, um, to have, you know, literally decades of knowing somebody behind under your belt when you finally get an opportunity to partner with them, uh, has been a, has been an amazing thing, has been a wonderful thing.
Speaker 2:I had a little bit of a different story. I did not have such a great uh, I didn't have a. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but then I changed my mind and and so my road wasn't as straight. Assurance was that's okay. I went to school and was going to be a teacher and I changed my mind because I wanted to do something different. I wanted to. They basically told me it would take me five years to do it and I said I'm not staying in college for five years.
Speaker 2:So, uh, changed my major to international studies at the time, so studied international studies in government, so interested in politics, interested in foreign policy, international relations, that kind of stuff, and ended up going to get a master's degree in foreign policy and then ended up in law school where I studied human rights. And I love policy, I love complexity and making complexity simple, I love the storytelling aspect of it, and that is kind of the thread that flows through all of this. I've always been a writer, I've always been somebody who loves to tell a story, which served me well in all the schooling. But I got out of school and I started practicing law, because that's what you do is you?
Speaker 2:practice law and just hated it. I just hated what I was doing and I realized that I needed to make a change and quit, which is for somebody to give yourself permission to quit the thing that you put so much time and effort into.
Speaker 1:Not to mention a financial commitment. A lot of money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a huge thing, but I knew that there was something better for me out there and I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew that it was there and I ended up in political consulting and so I was very lucky in the team that I landed in. They did they were in the middle of a presidential campaign when I landed in the shop needed to work on presidential campaigns, congressional campaigns, gubernatorial campaigns, so national campaigns across the country in the political side of things, but then also they did this idea of issue advertising on the side as well. So I learned to be a media consultant for all these campaigns, learned advertising through them. It was an interesting coming home for me because my dad was a nuclear physicist and my mom was an artist, so trying to figure out what to do with my life was not an easy proposition with those two weird bearing career possibilities.
Speaker 2:Like I was never going to be the, my dad taught math and electronics. I was never going to be that girl, but it was the way of bringing that logic from my father, the logic of these campaigns, together with the art of my mother, and so I really kind of came home with that. So that's, that's the genesis of what I was doing. I did that for 17 years. I was at that company. I did end up being general counsel for that company for a period of time and met Sharon and decided that you know, the creative life is for me. I just really like that a lot better.
Speaker 1:So so you rekindled in 2015. So it was 25 years after we graduated oh, 25. And it's just amazing, because oftentimes, you graduate from college and you pursue your career, you move off, which is what we both did. So at a homecoming 25 years later at the first, homecoming that either of us had come back.
Speaker 1:For we rekindled and when I found out that she was in DC and she was doing very complimentary types of work to what I was doing, then you could see these little light bulb moments going off between us and she was like you're where, you're in Loudoun Okay, I drive through Loudoun every day to get to this job, which is quite far, look at that. So there was these moments of enlightenment.
Speaker 2:I guess I said it was a drumbeat, it was a drumbeat.
Speaker 1:I was partner. We should partner. So from 2015 through 2018, we would meet regularly. We would and not to talk business as much, it started off personal. We would go to the wonderful wineries we have around here and we would talk and we were rekindling and we were talking about family and children and and life. Right, there are things that come into our lives that sometimes are challenging and we were both going through some things, but that that underlying drumbeat was always there and then it it sort of started to solidify. She came to a grand reopening that I had a celebration of 15 years of, you know, doing business and she's looking around the room, she's meeting some influential people and she said, oh wait a minute, sharon has something here.
Speaker 2:So I was checking out the team, let's be fair and the room right. So at this point she was leading a business and I was in the C suite of a business and we had really rapid growth. And so I've been through that journey of of um building a business from you know three. We went from three people to 50 people in three years, which is like a fire hose of growth. And so I'd been through it and I knew I knew, um some good, I need some, knew some bad and uh, and had a real idea of what it took to scale a business. Um had my own thoughts about what I would like to do with my own business, and so I had gotten to the point where I decided that I was either going to start a business or I was going to partner up with somebody. And Sharon was just there in amazing timing. It was just amazing timing, and so I think that that's the.
Speaker 2:The cool thing about our partnership is that. Number one we've known each other for a long time. Number two we have a lot of respect for each other. Um and we have a have a very similar values base. Right, like, the way that we make decisions is very it's very values based and and um. It's based in doing the right thing and treating people the way that, um, you know they should be treated. Uh and uh. So it's really easy for us to make decisions together. It's very it's been a very easy path Like we just don't we don't disagree on things. In fact, we've never disagreed.
Speaker 1:I kept thinking that would happen, but we're a solid five years in and we've never had a disagreement. So I'm thinking that's not happening. And I'll tell you what. I brought a sort of a way to handle conflict if it should come up, and I call it the strong opinion clause, and what that means is that if either one of us has a strong opinion about something, then they should voice that, because it's rare in a partnership, a marriage, where two people have an equally strong opinion. When when that happens, of course, that's when the fighting happens. But there are issues that we both might feel strongly about, but maybe not as strongly as the other person. So so there'll be times where I'll say, okay, I have a really strong opinion on this, and she's like Okay, well, if you have a strong opinion, then I'm going to back off because I care, but I don't feel like I need to hang my hat on that. So that has served us well. We're very we're communicators for a living, so we communicate well with each other.
Speaker 1:And so we have been able to maneuver through really everything that has come our way. So it's been wonderful.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Thank you for sharing that. I was going to say, like, what is the secret?
Speaker 1:but you just answered that question, I think good partnership and we and again Deb hit on it earlier as well Like she knew the person that I was and I knew the person that she was, and the only thing has changed is maybe a little extra years a few wrinkles, but the people that we are, the strong women that we are, has not changed.
Speaker 2:I mean, her work ethic was evident at 18, right Like somebody who goes out and says, hey, I'm going to has the confidence and belief in themselves that they can start a degree program. I mean, come on, she was amazing.
Speaker 1:The college likes to call me a pioneer, which I take an issue with.
Speaker 3:Why that word? I don't like it, it just sounds so old.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, I see I see, they did Do an article.
Speaker 2:Innovator, we'll call you.
Speaker 1:Innovator.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Innovator.
Speaker 1:I prefer Innovator, but it was an article to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the degree and they called me the pioneer.
Speaker 3:Like darn it. Innovator.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when we do the 30th anniversary, we'll change that to Innovator. There you go.
Speaker 3:And now can you talk to me about who is Loud and Clear?
Speaker 1:So the fun story about Loud and Clear is again. Deb talked about the journey that we've both been on. I didn't really get into mine so much after college, but because I learned about building this degree and studying what the top schools in the country offered to their students, I learned who the biggest PR firm in the world was, and that firm at that time was called Helen Knowlton, so that was exactly who I was going to go work for. I just had to figure out how to get there. So I joined Hill Knowlton, had a wonderful five-year ride in two different offices, both domestic and international, and then I joined a corporation. I joined Hyatt International. I then came to the second biggest PR firm in the world.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile, deb is simultaneously living her world with these large public affairs firms and the way I think what we took away from those chapters. Like Deb said, she learned some of the good and she learned some of the bad, and we knew that, or I knew, when I started Loud and Clear. As Deb joined me, I knew what I wanted to be. I knew what kind of firm I wanted to be, because I had worked at the biggest and I had worked at the most prominent, and they can be challenging for, especially for young people starting out. So Loud and Clear was born out of the original name of Loudon.
Speaker 3:That's what I was hearing.
Speaker 1:It was and it was wonderful. It served me well. In fact I would say that it served me beautifully at that time. This was the pre-Deb days, because people would hear that name, just like you did, and they would say, oh, what a brilliant name. But the problem, as it became down the road, as we grew outside of our borders and outside of the state and even well outside of the region, people in other parts of the country were saying what is?
Speaker 2:Luden Clear.
Speaker 1:Marketing. So suddenly the marketing team has a challenge. So we rebranded in the middle of COVID, in fact early COVID, because we never stopped. We didn't paint rooms or clear drawers, you know, like most people were doing, or sourdough starter. There was none of that. We were hustling, so we were helping people. We were we were hustling for our clients to keep them afloat and I was so proud that that we did hang on to all those clients and we got them through COVID.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think that that you know, covid was a great opportunity for us to really demonstrate who we are at heart and who we are at heart as community builders. We've got a team of folks who are really passionate about building something for the community. So, whether that's helping a small business grow which contributes to the tax base, which helps pay for roads and parks and schools, or helping a nonprofit grow which makes an impact, you know, in whatever mission that they're they're working toward, all of all of our work goes into making this place a better place. We feel like we want to be world changers and we believe we can be world changers, which I think some people don't always believe that they can, but we really do, really passionate about it.
Speaker 2:And so, you know, our response during COVID was not to just sit back and like redo our houses. Our response during COVID was to go out and seek opportunities where we could, for free, help other people, because we felt like we had been gifted with amazing careers and an amazing knowledge base. And then there were people who are really, really struggling and really needed help and did not have the money to pay for it because they, you know, things were closed, they were losing business, and so we went out and did a lot of pro bono work during that time. We did webinars for, like, the small businesses administration, um, we just did a lot of um work locally and across the state even uh, trying to help people weather the storm do it yourself market their businesses and figure out how to pivot.
Speaker 2:Pivot was the word right how to pivot during this terrible time where, you know it's, the world had completely changed on everybody and you know, trying, they were all struggling to survive. And so we thought listen, this is our opportunity to give back to the community. This is our opportunity to be community builders, as we say we are. It was putting it into action. Putting into action the things that we talked about in our value statements and our you know, our mission statement. It was, it was a way for us to actually actually put in, put it into practice. And so that's what we did. We got busy and we did presentation after presentation and we did free consultations with the folks and just did rift and said you know, try this, do this, and just trying to give them ideas based on the knowledge base that we had. And it it paid off right.
Speaker 2:We had some clients that came on board during that period of time because they took advantage of the free consultation. They were like, listen, you guys just do it. And we've had those clients for years since and it's led to other opportunities. Some of our biggest advocates came from that period of time. It's just been a great not to be self-serving. I mean we didn't go out to be self-serving it, just those were just benefits that happened. Our hearts really are in service, our hearts are in serving the community and helping make the community a better place, and so so I think that's the thing that we share. It is that's something that we share just in terms of our, our base.
Speaker 2:Yes, and then our base and then being able to take that out and then build a team around it Right, like that is the best thing in the world that we have been able to find people that have just that heart to go out and make this place a better, make this world a better place, and see how we can do it Right. Every day we're doing it and every day we get to see it in action. And every day we get to see impact. Whether that's for a small business or a nonprofit, we get to see we're an issue campaign right, like we're. Issue campaigns are awesome because you get to change, you get to affect change across a large community of people. Right, if we can really make affordable housing a reality in Loudoun County, that would be amazing for folks who are in healthcare, who are in service industries, our teachers, our firefighters.
Speaker 2:Bus drivers right? Any of the first responders, I mean. There's such a need and for us to be able to be part of the solution is just very fulfilling and something that we love to do, so let me finish the one part of the beginning part.
Speaker 1:So we started with the clever name, the Loud and Clear, and then, during COVID, in our rebranding, I wanted to keep the name close to what it was initially intended and we had a brand. We had a solid, well-known, great reputation in loud and clear. So we just changed it to loud and clear and most folks were none the wiser. They still hear the same name and we're still the same team. It's just a slightly different spelling. So, but it's been. It's been good to to keep our roots close to what it was originally intended to be.
Speaker 3:Now, what has been the biggest challenge at the firm for you guys?
Speaker 2:I think the hardest thing is that you don't know what you don't know, and I think that we have come across challenges that we didn't know what we didn't know, and so that journey of trying to figure it out is the hardest thing in the world. The cool thing is, like I said, we have partners. We have a partner who has a different kind of body of knowledge that brings a different body of knowledge to the table, which is great because you always have a sounding board, you always have somebody who can commiserate and you have somebody who could, you know, share the journey with you. But then also, we've been really, really lucky in that we've had some trade associations that we've been able to be part of, who have had.
Speaker 2:There's one group in particular called the Counselors Academy as part of PRSA, and it is an amazing group of people. They're all agency owners. They all are going through the journey that we're going through. They're about the same size, they're having the same kinds of struggles. They're also leadership coaches within that community that are willing to share knowledge and help grow people and mentor people. So it's a really collaborative group of people, which has been fantastic. And we've been very lucky to meet other business owners who have helped us through that journey and introduced us to coaches in some instances, and helped us out.
Speaker 1:As we've grown, we have needed HR, for instance. So those folks are active with this group and we can vet them through the group, which is quite nice. Like Deb said, there's coaches of all kinds. We just recently hired a fractional COO because we don't need at this juncture a full-time COO, so we have a fractional and she has been amazing. She's brought some new thinking to our organization. So these are the kinds of relationships that we're making and as we grow and as we evolve, we think of new skill sets that we need to bring in. And as we evolve, we think of new skill sets that we need to bring in. We have a sort of a fractional CFO at the moment who counsels us, who guides us. One day, you know, that person might become a full-time person. So it's been really a beautiful thing. But Deb's right, you know, you don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's common too among agency owners, Like we became agency owners because we were good at what we did. We were really good within our subject matter, but that doesn't always bring a knowledge of hiring or staffing, or administrative things or financial things sometimes, or what financial statement should I be looking at and what do they mean?
Speaker 2:And so, even with a legal background right, like even with a legal background it's there's. You know, it was a little bit of a fire hose going for, even coming from a c-suite. Yeah, there's a little bit of a fire hose coming into um, because I went from more of a from the council role to more of a, an operational role, um, and it's just. There's a lot that you have to know, there's a lot you have to know as a business owner and there are a lot of things that you have to keep. Uh, you know juggling. Yeah, you wear a lot of balls in the air.
Speaker 2:You wear many hats when you own an agency like ours and so that's really a testimony to the people that we've been able to surround ourselves with. I mean, we've just got such an amazing team and, um, it was not easy to get to that team. We went through a lot of iterations to get to that team, but the folks that we have in our team are just amazing, amazing people, and we could not do what we do without the folks that are around us. And so it's been. You know, it's been a journey to get to that place, and it was a journey figuring out the culture of the organization too. I think that that's something. It's something that. So we offer brand services. That's one of the things that we do is we help people. Brand Brand is perception. It's about building perception.
Speaker 2:Well, there are a lot of elements to that, and one of those elements is culture, your internal culture, and talk to me about that. Yeah, how do you build your internal culture? That's, that's a hard thing to do. You got to sit down and think about it. You got to think about what you want to, what you want to do, what kind of culture you want to create, and so we help folks go through creating value statements and a mission statement and purpose statements. A mission statement is what you do and how you do it. A purpose statement is the why behind what you're doing, which I think is increasingly important as we have more conversations around who can we trust and how do we trust people? If we can't get to the heart of that, the why behind it, I think that you're losing some opportunity. I think it's hard.
Speaker 2:All of those things like sitting down and doing that exercise and putting it all on paper really helps drive an organization, because you become intentional about it. If you put it on paper, it becomes your intention. It's not just putting it on paper though, it's actually putting it into action. So once you have your value statements, once you have your mission statement, purpose statement, those need to drive things like hiring decisions, the way that you interact within the team, the processes that you build, all of those things I say. The values are like the guardrails around how you act and interact. So those become hallmarks for hiring, Like what's the kind of person, what kind of person are we hiring? As being part of Loud and Clear, and we had to sit, we had to. That had to be distilled, even within our own organization. We do it for other people all the time and we had to stumble right.
Speaker 1:We went through some stumbles. We would make some hiring decisions over the years that proved to not be great hiring decisions. No harm, no foul right. It was something that maybe the person wasn't the right fit for us or we weren't the right fit for them, but it helped us refine.
Speaker 2:It helped us really refine and figure out what exactly it was. And I think at this point we really do have that kind of ideology that we've built around. This is the kind of person that we want to hire, and it has a lot to do with that.
Speaker 2:community building heart is really the core, that kind of ideology that we've built around this is, this is the kind of person that we want to hire in there it's, and it has a lot to do with you know that community building heart is really it's really the core of it and we it took us a minute to figure that out, but that really did end up being the the we thought it was secondary but it ended up being one of the primary things that we look for been a journey in itself and it's. It's hard sometimes and I say this to my you know, when we talk to clients, we do this for people all the time and you know we get in, we get out, we do it in about. We can do about six weeks. It takes about six weeks to build a brand and that's, you know your messages and your all these. You know these, these kind of value propositions that you talk about Far, far to think about this beyond that I mean.
Speaker 1:what kind of personality do you want to have as an organization?
Speaker 2:What kind of tone do you want to project as an organization? Those are things that we put on paper after discussing it with CEOs our CEOs, our leadership teams. But for ourselves it was hard because we are so far in the weeds of this organization. It is our baby, right Like this is our baby, that we are growing up and sending out into the world.
Speaker 2:And I say it is not uncommon as a business owner to be so deep in the weeds that you really cannot see the themes, the overarching themes. So it's really great to have somebody come in and we actually had to have some people. So we've had some, we've got some great strategic partners that came in and helped us, helped us form our thinking on it and helped us see the themes that we were talking, we were saying it, we just weren't putting it together and so to have people come in and help us do it was very we were very fortunate in that. But it's not uncommon to be in the middle of it and to really have a hard time seeing it and needing somebody to come in and help you, which is why we have jobs, that's right which?
Speaker 2:is why we have jobs, that's right.
Speaker 3:Right, exactly, but yeah, that leads to my question about the culture at Loud and Clear, like, specifically, like, what are those themes, do you?
Speaker 2:want me to take it. Sure, it's kind of my thing. Community builders, we're community builders at heart. There's that piece of it. We generally work on the rule of threes. You know our brains think in threes, so we think about threes. So community building, excellence and integrity, those are three of our, you know, hallmarks of a loud and clear employee. You know you try not to be too generic about things that you put into these statements, but we really realized that as we were going through the process that excellence is very important to us. Like Sharon and I are not slackers, we're not women who, you know, phone it in.
Speaker 2:We've never phoned in a project in our lives, right Like, we're just not those people, and so it was really important to us to have a team that was. You know, we're just not those people, and so it was really important to us to have a team that was. You know, we have statements underneath each of these words, but you know, you're you're detail oriented, you're really thinking critically, you're thinking strategically, you're not just, you're not just checking boxes. There's a place for checking boxes, there's a place for having checklists for things, but we really do want a team that is thoughtful and strategic, and so that is part of that idea of excellence and then integrity. We want to do the right thing at all times, sometimes to our detriment.
Speaker 1:We'll do the right things. Yeah, we'll walk away from client engagements because it's just not the right fit. So you know, when that happens, we're always transparent and honest with clients, and we had a client who sat just across the table from us last week and said, wow, like I'm basically handing you a large amount of money and you're telling me no. And we said, but it's not the right time. We think there is a right time for us to come in in about a year, but please take the time to do these things first.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:So the integrity is really key.
Speaker 2:We don't want to take money if we don't believe that there's going to be an impact, and it's because that's just the right thing to do. We shouldn't. We're not. We're not going to swindle anybody. We don't do bait and switch Like that's just not who we are.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it's not time for marketing? Right, there are many. There's a time and a place for marketing and in this case, that organization wasn't ready for the kind of marketing that we were bringing to the table. They needed to go back and do a little bit of um, rebuilding and foundational work. So, yeah, that was, you know, the kind of thing we do. We're. We're very honest and forthright in everything we do.
Speaker 3:Wow, that is awesome.
Speaker 2:I love that you guys can be that honest and be like no, I'm gonna put my foot down now, like in the client's best interest, not yours. So I mean it's. I think that eventually word gets around that that's who you are and I think that you know we've we're. You know, whether you believe in karma or the law of sowing and reaping or whatever words you put on on the idea, um, we kind of believe that what you put out into the universe is what you get back. And we've been very blessed we really have.
Speaker 2:We've been, um, you know, in making hard decisions sometimes and and, you know, having to navigate some difficult terrain some days. Um, we really do stand in that, like we stand in that and and it's in that and it's come back to us. It's come back to us because people know that that's at the core, that's who we are and that idea of excellence. People know the quality of work that we bring to the table. People know the kinds of campaigns that we can do, the complexity that we can cut through and make simple. It just it shows.
Speaker 1:Good is not good enough. Well Right, simple, um it, just it. It shows like what we do is not good enough. Well right. So we believe that we should be excellent.
Speaker 2:I get, I get challenged a lot doesn't have to be true I hear a lot of. It doesn't have to be perfect and I'm like no, but it needs to be. It needs to be 80 there yes, yes, yeah. So so yeah, I mean, we uh, we, we uh. It's just important to us, it's who we are.
Speaker 3:It's in our d us. It's who we are. It's in our DNA. No, I love that. Thank you guys for sharing that. Now, is there anything else that maybe, while our listeners are here, I could highlight that maybe we have not touched on? Before we wrap this up, what haven't we covered? Like maybe where you guys see yourselves in the next five years? Have you guys given thought to that? Maybe?
Speaker 1:Oh, we have.
Speaker 2:I'd like to hear some of it. Yeah, I mean, I think that, um, you know, we see opportunities in front of us. I think we're developing this issue, this issue section of our business. This is something that we're going more into because it's again, it's affecting change across large communities of people and it's something that we we can do and, and you know, have the skills, and it's something that we can do and, you know, have the skills, and it's not an industry that a lot of people have experience in.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of an interesting opportunity for us. We had a call this morning with a client prospect where we talked about that and we said this type of skill is not easy to find and we know that we possess that easy to find and we know that we possess that we have wisdom and experiences behind us that that make us uniquely equipped to do that kind of work. So I do believe that moving more into issue work over the next five years is going to be a big part of the work we do.
Speaker 2:I think we're always going to be passionate about brand. We're always going to be passionate about helping people build their brands, which also helps build their culture, which also helps build their future.
Speaker 1:Community will always be paramount to who we are. I'm very, very active in the county, and Deb is as well, and we like when our people are involved in the community. So and our clients. I had a coffee date yesterday with a prospect that myself and one of our one of my colleagues sat down and for the whole first half hour of that meeting, I gave this person a laundry list of things that they should do. This was unsolicited, right? Just a laundry list of how to get more ingrained in the Loudoun community. Just free advice, right? Just join this club, get active with this one, don't miss a single monthly event of this organization. So community and you know, helping uplift companies, whether they end up becoming our clients or not, we're going to do the right thing and we're going to help them along the path.
Speaker 2:And then we're always going to have a strong nonprofit focus, you know, within the organization. It's something that's important to us and it's something that we think is is critical to a strong community. So that's always going to be, that's always going to be part of our practice no matter what Part of what we do.
Speaker 3:Love it, love it. Now my final question, um, if you could leave a message for our listeners, what would that message be? It could be in regards, um, to your industry life. Anything at all, that's a good one take a moment to think.
Speaker 2:I know I'm putting you guys on the spot on me I think I would say um, don't be afraid to try to change the world, that everybody has a part to play in making this world a better place.
Speaker 1:And it might feel daunting.
Speaker 2:Well it but it may. It may seem really big, but there are little things that you can do to try to help help others within the community that would help advance the community. So, whether that's volunteering with a nonprofit or that's, you know, volunteering with your local church or synagogue, or just mentoring a kid that needs some mentoring or a colleague that might need some mentoring, think about what opportunities, what passions and what things you bring, talents you bring to the table, and how you might be able to use those talents to to help advance the advance the cause of the world.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely, one person at a time.
Speaker 2:Yeah Right, whether it's one person, one group, one message.
Speaker 2:Big. It doesn't take big and I think people think about world changing is a big. It has to be big, it has to be something you know, really impactful. But I think even the smallest of steps can be very impactful. Um, you can change one life, right, like, if you can change one life, then that person can grow up to to be a more, even more impactful person. And so I'm real, I'm a really big believer that we have opportunities in front of us, whether we see them or not, um, and we just need to really open our eyes and look around for opportunities that we can. We can make an impact and make this world a better place.
Speaker 3:I love that yeah, well said yeah, here we go fist bump. Well, ladies, it was such a pleasure to have you both here and sharing your insight and your passion. Like I can really see the passion behind your business and you guys really believe in your clients and your team and yourselves. It just shows through. So thank you both for being here. It was a pleasure you're very welcome.
Speaker 1:Thanks for the opportunity.