Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brian Zimmerman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Brian, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share a story with us from back when you were an intern or apprentice? Maybe it’s a story that illustrates an important lesson you learned or maybe it’s a just a story that makes you laugh (or cry)? Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style.

Straight out of college with a fine art major, and zero real world graphic design experience, I returned to my hometown of Charleston, SC to try and land my first agency design job. After taking a part time job as a doorman at a local hotel to pay the bills, I knew I had to build my portfolio with some real client work, rather than just projects from art school. So, I decided to go straight to the best agency in town and ask for an unpaid internship. Lucky for me, I had a slight “in” with the creative director through a family friend, and she took me in and through me right into the thick of things in their creative department. Since it was unpaid, the internship hours were pretty vague, but I tried to be there as much as possible. Everyone in the creative department was super nice, and never made me feel inferior. I mostly worked on smaller projects resizing ads and mocking up brochures (I still call smell the spray mount glue), but I was always very efficient with my work ethic, and tried hard to remain eager about any small design projects I could get my hands on. About 2 months into the internship, I woke up sick one morning and called in letting them know I wouldn’t be coming in that day. They said “no problem,” but apparently it was a BIG problem for them, but a GOOD problem for me! The following morning I woke up feeling better, so I headed in to the agency to see if I needed to get caught up on any projects from when I was out. When I walked in to the door, I was called in to the creative directors office almost immediately. At first I thought I was in trouble, but I soon learned it was quite the opposite. THEY OFFERED ME A FULL TIME JOB! Apparently, they had really started relying on me to help with the workload, and they didn’t realize quite how much I was doing till I wasn’t there to do it. Never did I ever think calling in sick would land me my first full time job, but it made me realize that an efficient, and thorough, work ethic can lead to great things. I’ve tried to carry that with me throughout my design career and time as a business owner.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I grew up in Charleston, SC as an avid competitive sailor and lover of the visual arts. I decided to venture out of SC to attended Connecticut College to sail, and ended up graduating with a major in fine art and focus in graphic design. I moved back to Charleston and worked for a few agencies in town before deciding to go our on my own and form my first small agency (Cre843) in 2007 with a business partner. In 2019 I decided to branch out on my own and formed Zizzle. The name Zizzle comes from a nickname my old roommate gave me, stemming from my last name (Zimmerman) plus some Snoop Dogg (izzle) to form Zizzle.

Zizzle is a forward-thinking visual design studio, creating authentic brands and experiences that challenge normal. Our focus is to create and produce quality and unique visual content.

I work with agencies, corporations, businesses, non-profits and individuals to help develop and grown their visual brands. From logos to websites, we provide our clients with the best possible visual assets, so that they can focus on running their business.

We work with all size businesses (local to global). Our ideal client is a marketing director or agency looking for a partner to lean on as their creative arm. I work with clients both on an hourly ad-hoc basis, as well as project to project depending on what’s best for the business. We provide top tier customer service, and I pride myself on always keeping our clients informed, our deadlines met, and responding quickly to clients requests. These cornerstones have given me a strong word-of-mouth network that has allowed the business to continue to flourish and stay fresh with new and old clientele.

The lifestyle associated with working for yourself is impossible to match. I get to decide my schedule everyday, and while that can be daunting for some, I truly enjoy the freedom of being my own boss and helping client’s brand shine!

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Referrals. If you do good work, and provide stellar customer service, clients will quickly gain respect for you and refer you to their friends and colleagues. Make it clear what kind of clients you are looking for on your website and social media. That way you aren’t constantly turning away projects and clients that aren’t a good fit, and you get to work on more projects you enjoy. I reluctantly joined a networking group a few years ago (I am pretty introverted, so it was a challenge for me), but it forced me to define my ideal client and consistently stand up and talk about my business and services. I now feel much more confident going into initial client meetings because I know I can accurately convey how I can help potential clients. The work usually sells itself once you have a developed portfolio. From there, it’s really about a personality match and costs that seal the deal with new clients. Once you’ve got a client onboard and provide solid products and services, they will come back and provide repeat business. I feel like I’ve finally reached a critical mass with old clients where there is always a steady trickle of work coming in, which makes it a little less stressful trying to land every new client that comes my way.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

I was referred about a year ago by an old client to start working with a HUGE global data tech company as one of their creative arms to build out various assets and help grow their brand. I had a great initial chat with their creative director, and he “promised” me there would be lots of work coming my way. The on-boarding process was quite extensive and took over a month to complete. After that I was eager to start working with them, and told them I was ready for them to load me up with projects. They sent me one small white paper project which I thought was well received, then radio silence. Nothing, No more projects. I tried to be patient and followed up a few times to check in about workload, but was always given generic responses or no response at all. I was worried I had blown a huge opportunity, but I wasn’t sure what happened. Finally, after almost a year had gone by since I first chatted with them, I told myself I would check in one more time letting them know I was open to taking on more projects, then move on so as to not seem too needy or desperate for work. In addition to the creative director I had been in contact with previously, I decided to CC one of the other marketing/design contacts to see if she had any further insight. Well, I’m glad I did, because the marketing contact got back to me and let me know that the creative director I had been working with had been let go months ago, and they desperately needed design help with various projects. After a quick check in phone call, it was off to the races as they started firing projects left and right. Moral of the story, don’t ever feel bad checking in with an old client that may have seemed to gone extinct, you never know when maybe a little nudge is all they need to send you new business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://fozizzle.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zizzledesign/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-zimmerman-7a59a93/