IAM459- Creative Director Shapes Brands in the DC Metro

Reggie Holmes is the owner and creative director of Enthuse Creative, LLC, a B2B brand consulting and design firm based in the Tysons, VA area. The company's core services include B2B brand strategy, design, and brand management. Enthuse Creative has been shaping the brands of businesses and organizations in the DC Metro and beyond for the past 5 years.

• CEO Hack: Time blocking using a calendar color system
• CEO Nugget: Know your worth and prove your value
• CEO Defined: Creating Every Opportunity for Yourself and Clients

Website: https://www.enthusecreative.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/enthusecreative/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/enthusecreative/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/enthusecreative/

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I've Reggie Holmes of Enthuse Creative, LLC, Reggie, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Reggie Holmes 0:39

Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

No problem. Super excited to have you on and what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Reggie so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Reggie Holmes is the owner and creative director of Enthuse Creative, LLC, a b2b brand consulting and design firm based in Tyson's Virginia area. The company's core services include b2b brand strategy, design, and brand management. Enthuse Creative has been shaping the brands of businesses and organizations in the DC metro area and beyond for the past five years. Reggie, are you ready to speak to the IMCEO community?

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Reggie Holmes 1:10

I am.

Gresham Harkless 1:12

Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to get started with your business?

Reggie Holmes 1:19

Sure. Well, going back as far as 2009, I experienced the layoff, I was working as a designer for a university, and they had some budget cuts and, downsized my position. So I think it was at that moment that I realized that in the real world, people can take your job away in certain situations. So I sort of resolved to myself at that point that I was going to learn what I needed to learn and grow my skill set to the point where I could create my own opportunities.

And at that time, I didn't know that that would mean starting my own practice. But I think I got started on the path at that point. And I just kind of educated myself and went to a lot of seminars and workshops and learned from people who were doing what I wanted to do. And finally, I got to a point where I was ready to start my own business, doing brand new services.

Gresham Harkless 2:18

Awesome. Well, I'm super sorry to obviously to hear about getting laid off or to think I got laid off in probably about 2011. So I learned that as well, too. That's that's definitely a painful lesson. But it's a realistic lesson that you sometimes have to learn. But I appreciate you for, taking that entrepreneurial route. Because I think a lot of times, people don't want to necessarily do that even you know, when certain things like layoffs happen, but I appreciate you for doing that and starting your firm.

Reggie Holmes 2:44

Right. Yeah, I mean, when you get to a point where your all options are sort of on the table, I think it makes you kind of rethink what your path is going to be. And maybe that is the thing that is needed to put you on a different trajectory. So I learned about it much later. But there's a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. And I think at that point, I was just challenged to think about all the opportunities that were out there. And, that was maybe the push that I needed to go more in that direction.

Gresham Harkless 3:19

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And that's right in line with what you were talking about the growth mindset is that because a lot of times I say, things are necessarily happening to me. And you know, when that happens, you don't always think that way.

But it's always good to kind of learn that things aren't happening to me, they're happening for me. And this kind of speaks to what you were saying about, you know, these opportunities are presenting themselves because of the skills that I have. And this is what I can do with it. And I know we touched on a little bit when I was reading your bio, can you take me through everything that you're doing with Enthuse Creative?

Reggie Holmes 3:49

Sure. So my background is a graphic designer. And so the core of our services are around graphic design and providing creative consulting and actually executing, the creation of marketing collateral and brand identity and website design and services such as that, for clients, primarily, business clients, but we also work with nonprofits and organizations like think tanks and institutions.

So that's the core of our services, but sort of growing out of a desire to offer a little bit more value than just the creative products. We recently decided to incorporate it into our brand strategy. So that's more on the front end before any design is created, just being able to help businesses shape more of their messaging, and their positioning.

And that obviously informs the creative that is designed a little bit later on and then Brand Management is more or less, once that brand has been established and communicated, how do we need to refine that as the business grows or evolves, so that the client can stay in front of the right audience and also continue to attract the right audience.

So that's sort of the core services, and they sort of work along the brand lifecycle. So there's a tier of services for that beginning stage business, for that middle age business that may be looking to reposition or sort of pivot where it is in the market. And then that mature business that, you know, has a lot of things in place, but is maybe looking to realign some of their branding or marketing.

Gresham Harkless 5:46

That makes perfect sense. And I appreciate you for breaking that down, because that was gonna be one of the questions that I asked you a little bit more about, you know, what exactly that the brand aspect was? I know, I obviously, you know, touched on, and when I was reading your bio, and I guess it's more than you're saying more than, like the logo and more than the things that you see is a lot more than that.

Reggie Holmes 6:04

Yeah, because, as you know, there's a lot of visual competition out there, for your ears and your eyes and your mind, really, in terms of all the different messages that are being communicated to any given consumer at one time. So it's important to have strong visuals, but I think people make decisions when there's an emotional connection. And so that really gets down to what you're saying and how you're saying, and obviously, what you're showing people should align with what you're saying and how you say it.

But really, we think about branding, and how it works to differentiate what you do from someone else. There's more to it than just a pretty picture. I realized that in order to, again, create the most value for my clients, I needed to work with them on the strategic side because that only helps to make the visuals that are created and that support that much stronger when that crisp concise, and clear strategy is in place.

Gresham Harkless 7:20

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And, and I appreciate you, you know, expounding upon and talking about, especially that emotional aspect, because I think so many times as consumers, we sometimes I guess we sometimes things, we make decisions based off of very strategic thinking, but a lot of times people say, you know, you do business with people, you know, like interest, or you maybe have some emotional connection, that's why you purchase this product or that product, something like that.

And sometimes we don't, I guess, brand strategy standpoint, or marketing standpoint, really understand kind of like the parts or the pieces that go into that, and how that is kind of created before. Sometimes we even ask the client to buy or not.

Reggie Holmes 7:59

Right. Yeah, you know, what I've learned and sort of been able to see in practice is that it's all really well thought out. You know, like, there's certain products, certain brands that you support. And you may not even know why you just feel like, they understand me, and I understand them that you know, that we speak the same language, we sort of share a worldview in common. And those things are well thought out by people who do branding and marketing, they are very thoughtful in the words that are chosen, and also the images that accompany those words. And so I try to bring that level of intentionality and thoughtfulness to the work that I do on behalf of my clients.

Gresham Harkless 8:55

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Especially, you know, when you're creating a business and you create, or you're creating an organization, or you mentioned, like think tanks and organizations like that. A lot of times you want to evoke certain things and correct me if I'm wrong, sometimes if you haven't done that brand kind of strategy work, you still do have a brand, it just may not necessarily be what you want it to be. I feel like every organization kind of has a brand but correct me if I'm wrong.

Reggie Holmes 9:19

No, you're right. You have to put in the work ahead of time, the market will sort of tell you whether or not it thinks that the brand that you have portrayed for yourself is authentic and accurate. And you in a sense, are making a promise to the consumer by saying this is who we are and where you sort of plant your flag and the customer will tell you if they think that you are doing that or not, but it's really important to the consumer can tell that if it hasn't been thoughtfully done or where executed.

So, you leave yourself open to someone else defining who you are, you can think about for yourself as a person, you know, you don't want anyone else saying that you are this and you fit in this box, you know, so you want to be able to say, No, this is who I am and invite people into that experience. So that's really what branding is saying, Hey, we are in this place.

And we are providing this type of experience for those who choose to partake of whatever our products or services and people will abandon you. And they will talk bad about you if you don't deliver. But you do get the first opportunity to go to market and say this is who we are. And this is the value that we provide.

Gresham Harkless 10:54

I know you might have already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And it can be for you personally or your organization. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Reggie Holmes 11:04

I have grown in my ability to listen and to ask good questions. Thus I am someone who loves to design and obviously create the different creative assets that I get to do in my work. But I really love to understand what I'm doing and what my client is doing, you know, so I have a simple three-step kind of process that is not unfamiliar to most people who are in the line of work that I do.

But there's you know, discovery, and then there's design. And then the last step is delivery or deployment. And what I like to do, I realized that as much as I liked to design, I liked the discovery process. And, and that's what kind of led me down the road of going to do more on the strategic side, as well as the design side. So I think that being able to think like a strategist and execute like a designer, is what kind of helps set me apart,

Gresham Harkless 12:25

I appreciate that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app or book or a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Reggie Holmes 12:39

Well, I like to block off my time, I use a color-coded calendar system to be able to block off time and ensure that I'm allotting the proper amount of time for specific tasks. And the great thing about using the color system is that I can look back over, you know, a period of weeks or months and measure how much time I've been spending on certain tests, you know, billable design work for his for instance, and be able to ascertain how the amount of time I'm putting on certain tasks has contributed to, revenue or to leads or appointments.

Gresham Harkless 13:30

Makes perfect sense. And so now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to a time machine. What would you tell your younger business self?

Reggie Holmes 13:42

Sure. So I have a phrase that I have come up with and that I like and it's Know your worth, and prove your value.

Gresham Harkless 13:53

I love that. And I definitely appreciate that. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is a definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Reggie, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Reggie Holmes 14:09

To me, being a CEO means that you are creating every opportunity. I love acronyms. So when I think about CEO, that's what I think about, you know, creating every opportunity so it's using creativity in new and different ways. And using that to generate opportunities for myself and ultimately for other people. By you know, bringing my unique perspective, processes, experience, and skills to the table on behalf of my clients. So yeah, the CEO is Creating every opportunity.

Gresham Harkless 15:01

Awesome. I love that that definition acronym in that perspective, because I think a lot of times, you know, we're kind of like the artists with a paintbrush and have the opportunity to create those opportunities. And if we're able to have that mentality, that mindset, it helps us, as we talked about before bring tremendous value in the world that we have before us. So, Reggie, I truly appreciate your time. And what I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Reggie Holmes 15:34

Sure. Now, I'm always available for no cost, no obligation, branding, consultations. Even if you just have questions, we'd love to hear those questions. We're @EnthuseCreative on all social media. And Reggie@enthusecreative is the best way to get a hold of me by email. But you know, I love to help people. And I'm really excited to have been able to be on this podcast.

Gresham Harkless 16:07

Yeah, definitely. I truly appreciate you, you know, for all the awesome things you're doing, and to have an opportunity to work with you in the past as well too has been awesome. So we will make sure to have those links and information in the show notes as well too so that everybody can follow up with you. But again, I appreciate you and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Outro 16:22

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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