IAM2252 – CEO and Founder Helps Clients Revolutionize the Design Approach to their Brand

Rochelle Ratkaj Moser has nearly 20 years of experience in the corporate world and always dreamed of starting her agency.

In 2015, she launched Ratkaj Designs with a focus on doing things differently, prioritizing honesty and transparency in client interactions.

Rochelle discusses her agency's growth, team empowerment, and focus on accessibility in design services.

Rochelle explains the importance of functional design and building trust with clients.

Rochelle shares insights on creativity, including ‘artist dates', and the importance of taking breaks.

Website: Ratkaj Designs

LinkedIn: Rochelle Ratkaj Moser

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Transcription:

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Rochelle Ratkaj Moser Teaser 00:00 

So I really do come with a wide variety of options and a passion for transparency and my honest opinion on things.

And I think that that really resonates with clients and builds that trust that we need.

Intro 00:16

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:43

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have an awesome guest on the show today. I have Rochelle Ratkaj. Rochelle, excited to have you on the show.

Rochelle Ratkaj Moser 00:51 

Right back at you, Gresh. Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 00:53

Yes. I'm super excited to have you on. Of course, before we jump in and have a phenomenal conversation, I want to read a little bit more about Rochelle so you can hear about some of those awesome things.

And Rochelle is the visionary founder of Ratkaj Designs. With nearly 2 decades of experience blending design expertise with a marketing mindset.

Rochelle is dedicated to crafting visually stunning and highly functional solutions for clients of all stripes.

In 2015, Rochelle took the leap and founded Ratkaj Designs. Starting as a solo operation, her growth has continued unabated. Ratkaj Designs isn't just about numbers, it's about forging meaningful connections and delivering impactful solutions that propel brands to new heights.

With Rochelle at the helm, Ratkaj Designs is poised to revolutionize the way brands utilize the power of design.

And I really love the opportunity to kind of connect with Rochelle. And the first time we connected, we had a phenomenal conversation.

I said we should have just hit the record button then. One of the thing I absolutely love is just her spirit around business as usual is not as usual and not being afraid to try things in a different way and being a trailblazer from that standpoint.

She has an awesome LinkedIn Live that she hosts with her co-host Mel Rip of Peapod PR. And more than anything else, I really love like her desire and being open to be able to have conversations from different perspectives.

I think so many times we think that it has to be done this way because everybody's checking off the boxes and everybody's doing all those things.

But Rochelle has done it her way and I'm super excited to dig in. Rochelle, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Rochelle Ratkaj Moser 02:23

I sure am.

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Gresham Harkless 02:25

Awesome. Let's get it started then. So to kind of kick it off a little bit, I know I touched on it a little bit when I read your bio. Let's rewind the clock, hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Rochelle Ratkaj Moser 02:34

Yeah, so I started with a corporate background and I spent my entire career saying, I want to be an agency, I want to be an agency.

And when I finally had the opportunity, it was a little not quite what I expected. It's a lot of semantics, it's a lot of red tape, it's a lot of just not very fun stuff. I call it the red curtains.

It's the Wizard of Oz. Like, you have the one person who's corporate or a client facing and then everybody else behind them is behind the curtain and don't pay attention to the people behind the curtains.

And when I was laid off and when I, when I went out on my own, I decided, you know what, I want to do things differently.

And I went out on my own and my whole shtick was what you see is what you get. I'm fully transparent. I don't sugarcoat things.

I'm very candid with my clients, but I'm also very honest with my clients, which I think really stands out against other agencies or other individuals who feel like they have to be poised and they have to be prim and proper.

And I'm just not, I'm not above like telling a client that's a terrible idea. Or, but nicely, of course, nicely.

But as I've grown, my work eventually in 2022 outpaced me. And that's a beautiful thing to have happen when you're a business owner.

I realized that my clients trusted me so much that they kept referring more clients and their friends and their fellow businesses or organizations, but there just wasn't enough time in my day.

So I started to bring in some design help. And I realized that I was slipping into the same trope that I was trying to get out of the whole I have design help.

But I was always the one presenting I was always the one saying I did this and I will take care of that.

Knowing full well, it wasn't me. My team is all client facing. My team feels empowered to do their work, reach out to clients, present their own concepts, but also know that I have their back no matter what.

So I do review all the creative. It still has my touch, but it's amazing to have grown the way that we did.

So it's a little bit different, but also We have doubled year over year for the last 2 years. Insanity. We started 2023 with 3 people, one designer, myself, and a VA, and we ended with 9.

And this year we started with 9 and now we're at 12. So it's proof positive that this way of running our business, albeit the anti-agency, the anti-everything that you hear on social media, all the shoulds, have-tos, and you must do it this way or you're going to fail isn't true.

If you don't build it for you and build it the way that suits your life or suits for me, it's my personality. I'm very type A.

I'm very like things have to be a certain way because it's the way my brain works. If you don't build it for yourself, you're going to hit roadblocks or you're going to run into things where you're like, I'm no longer happy with the way that my business is running.

So I do challenge people to always look at those should's and have to’s that other people are saying and say, but, or what if, or I'll get that, but this is how I like to do it kind of thing. You have to build for you.

Gresham Harkless 06:16 

Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciate you so much for sharing that. So I want to drill down a little bit more.

Can you take us through a little bit more on how you're serving with and working with your clients? What does that experience look like?

Rochelle Ratkaj Moser 06:26

Yeah, so over the last couple of years, we've noticed a hole in the market. So we are a visual design agency.

We handle everything from branding to collateral, annual reports, impact reports, info-graphics, to social media graphics, to full-on website design and development, UX, UI testing.

But one of our passions is accessibility. The power of design is really the ability through graphic design to be able to reach a market that you are otherwise missing out on.

We make sure that all of our designs to the best of our ability and within the constraints of a brand are accessible to those that have visual impairment, cognitive or otherwise invisible disabilities to be able to access the information in a report or through a graphic.

Through alt tags and hierarchy tagging and accessibility plugins and things like that to make sure that our publications are.

So we really wanna make sure that our information is accessible and is as robust as we can, so that those individuals can access the information in the way that is most convenient to them, whether that be through an e Reader or other plugins.

Gresham Harkless 07:47

Yeah, I absolutely love that. Do you feel like that's part of your secret sauce, that confidence and ability to be able to execute that?

Rochelle Ratkaj Moser 07:53 

Absolutely. I think our secret sauce is two bottles. It's the fact that we are thinking differently.

We're really thinking about the power of design opposed to, how pretty it is or how, what we can do that's really cool to win us that award. That's extra.

Like we really want the design to be as functional and powerful as humanly possible to reach a wider audience.

But also, I think our clients really come back time after time because we build these relationships of transparency.

I'm the first person to say, like, I will tell them exactly how I feel about something. Or I will come with a variety of ideas and I'll say, but have you thought about this?

And have you thought about that? So many times I've dropped into a meeting and been like, I'm gonna poke holes in this entire strategy or this entire concept, because without poking holes, we're not going to reach the best possible solution.

So I really do come with a wide variety of options and a passion for transparency and my honest opinion on things. And I think that that really resonates with clients and builds that trust that we need.

Gresham Harkless 09:04 

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that trust ends up being so powerful. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit.

And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or even a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Rochelle Ratkaj Moser 09:18 

After a while, I started to feel really burnt out and I started to kind of lose my way as a designer and as an artist.

And I found that I needed a break. So a business bestie of mine recommended a book. It's called The Artist's Way. It's by Julia Cameron.

And it's a beautiful idea where she suggests artist dates. And your audience is going to be like, but I'm not an artist. So hear me out. Stay with me. Okay.

So an artist date is where you get out of your head. You get out of your day today. So for me, it's graphic design, get away from my computer, get out of Adobe, get off of, get out of my office, get away from my desk, be away from actual work.

But do something tangently creative. So it's these little things that get you out of your current space and allow you to think more creativity and a little bit differently about how to solve the problem.

And I found that this has been a good way for me to recharge my proverbial batteries to be able to come back to the work and not feel as burnt out as I was, to come with fresh perspectives.

But it also has allowed me to kind of think about, I'm gonna use stained glass as a great example.

Some of my stained glass work has informed some of the graphic design work that I've done. I've used some of the same structures or some of the same balances, some of the key visuals and been like, this works in both mediums. Like this is an amazing opportunity.

So the artist way and the artist's date is an amazing way to kind of get out of your space and do something fresh and break the mold a little bit to allow yourself to sort of recharge or take a break if you will.

Gresham Harkless 11:15

Yeah, I absolutely love that. And so I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget, a little bit more word of wisdom or piece of advice.

It might be something you shared, but it also could be something you would tell your favorite client. Or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

Rochelle Ratkaj Moser 11:28 

Yeah. So it goes in the same vein. Hit pause. Not everything needs to be done right now. Not everything needs to be done by you.

And not everything needs to be perfect. Sometimes perfection gets in the way of done or good enough.

And you can always go back and adjust or you can always go back and refine. But we get into our head that we need to be on 24 hours a day.

It all has to be us. And I'm guilty of this too. I feel like I have to know the ins and outs of my business.

I have to know every nugget at all times and be on the ready at like as if I'm on Shark Tank and they're just gonna fire me questions at me.

I have to know all the answers right now and you don't. Nobody is gonna do that. And it's unrealistic to expect that of yourself. It's just taking up RAM in your brain.

So lean on others, hit pause, take a break, take a walk, take an artist date, step away for a little bit for some perspective.

Hire a business coach that will give you the, be able to see the forest when all you can see are trees.

Get somebody on your team that is able to kind of break your cycles and say, hey, hey, you're spiraling right now.

All you don't need to address this right now, you need to think about the periphery and that nugget will come to you later. So I would say the pause button is one of the most powerful nuggets I've got.

Gresham Harkless 13:00

Yeah, I love that. And so now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question.

We might have touched on this a little bit, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO and our goals to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So Rochelle, I want to be in a CEO.

Rochelle Ratkaj Moser 13:13

Yes. So I like to call myself the reluctant CEO. To me, CEO stands for leadership. It stands for putting my team above myself.

It stands for having a vision for the business and it stands for driving the ship forward. And that is all really scary stuff.

One of the biggest things for me when I decided to have the me to re-switch was I take that incredibly seriously. My people are more important than my livelihood.

I don't want to be that person who has to lay someone off. I don't want to be responsible for someone not being able to pay the rent.

I don't want to be the one responsible for sending somebody to unemployment.

So I'm cautious and I am methodical with my business decisions and I really put my people above all else I will pay my people.

And I won't get paid or I pay my people something that that I talk a lot about in other venues is I pay my people immediately.

There is no net 15. There is no net 30. I pay my people immediately upon receiving their invoice because It is not their job to worry about my clients.

It's not their job to worry about how I run my business. And to me, that is embodying a CEO.

Now, I don't like the title CEO. It gives me anxiety. And I'm a millennial, and I'm already full of my own anxiety.

So I don't need any help in that department. So I coined my own title of Chief Creative Officer because I am still a designer at heart.

I am still hands-on on the work, but let's all be serious. That's really just the CEO. I am still the CEO. I am still the owner. So there you go.

Gresham Harkless 15:07 

Nice. Well, I love it. I love the Chief Creative Officer. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know.

And of course, how best people can get in order of you. Find out about all the awesome work your team is doing and of course hear more about your LinkedIn Live.

Rochelle Ratkaj Moser 15:21 

Take a moment to do something that is outside of your day to day that will fill your bucket, will recharge your batteries

I'm going to challenge you all to also think about accessibility. Think about the ways in which you can get your message to an audience that is otherwise underprivileged and underutilized in a way that is truly meaningful.

So I really, I feel very passionate about being able to bridge that gap for my clients. I can be found on LinkedIn.

Like I said, host a LinkedIn live once a month. It's called Don't Feed the Freelancers. You can find that on my LinkedIn as well as MelRip from PPAPR. But you can also get a hold of me on LinkedIn or at my website at ratkajdesigns.com.

Gresham Harkless 16:12

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Thank you so much, Rochelle, to make that even easier, of course. We'll have the links and information in the show notes as well too. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Rochelle Ratkaj Moser 16:20 

Awesome. Thanks, Gresh

Outro 16:21 

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business at CEOhacks.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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