We recently connected with Brenton Hudak and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Brenton thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

Friends and family can be a make or break for your business. They can be your biggest advocates, but it is important that they have a firm understanding of what it is you do and where your specialties lie. It never hurts to have a conversation with those closest to you to let them know how your skillset can help them or others. This can be especially useful if your friend/family member is a business owner themselves and is highly connected to others in their field.

When I first got started, my aunt was my biggest advocate and actually helped me land my first client. Since I was already doing marketing in the Real Estate industry, it was an easy sell for her as an agent, to recommend me to one of her clients. We worked together to market and sell a community of luxury condos right by the beach! I learned a lot through that experience about client relations, communication, and managing a team. It was a great jumping off point to prove to myself that I could use my skills for others on a project basis.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hi! I’m Brenton

I am the Owner and Operator at Brenton Hudak | Digital Marketing Consultant. I combine my unique knowledge about digital marketing, social media, and web design to help my network enhance their professionalism, productivity, and profitability. “Let’s hit the ground running and put your best *digital* foot forward!”

I’ve worked with brands and individuals spanning a bunch of different industries with a focus on Real Estate and Wine. Day-to-day, I am the Industry Relations Manager at a local REALTOR® Association which helped me gain a unique perspective on advertising in the industry as well as given me insight into compliance when promoting/selling Real Estate. Although I do not sell personally, I have helped agents gain reach with their listings and establish a brand identity on and offline. Along with individual clients, I’ve also managed the organic social media for a luxury condo complex in San Clemente, CA. This was a unique challenge that allowed me to stretch my creativity both visually and strategically. I worked with them for about 6 months until all of the units were eventually sold.

I got into wine through my family. We decided in 2019 to take one of the biggest risks of our lives and assume ownership of a winery and vineyard just outside of Salem, OR. Through the help of many many wonderful people and hours upon hours of hard labor, we’ve slowly gotten an understanding of what it takes to run a vineyard and winery and have revitalized the property to something even greater than it was before. I personally manage the online presence and brand including the website, social media, and advertising. I regularly design graphics, had a hand in our logo design, and ensure all our communications fall within our brand identity. We are excited for what the future holds with regard to events, weddings, and of course the wine and I’m grateful to continue working on such a fun brand.

With all of these experiences in mind, Brenton Hudak | Digital Marketing Consultant offers a couple different services to help your business creatively thrive. I can help with social media, both paid and organic, via my management or audit services. I also offer individually priced branding projects and have recently begun offering a “Website in a Day” service, geared towards busy entrepreneurs who want to get online quickly with brand strategy in mind. You can learn more about specific services on the “services” page of my website www.brentonhudak.com/services.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients for me has been word of mouth. It is vital that you perform as you say you will and make sure that communication is number one. Setting clear expectations of what the client wants and taking a step back to fully understand what they are saying to you (even if it means reading between the lines) will benefit you in the long run. The more you can delight the client by not only completing what is promised, but by exceeding their expectations will encourage them to talk about you to their networks and can ultimately lead to even more projects.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

In my day job, I manage multiple committees of people that focus on creating events and unique experiences for networking, fostering leadership, and brand involvement. My best advice for managing a team would be to set clear expectations at the beginning of what they’re committing to time-wise and ensuring that you stay on top of communications, including any instances where you have to be the bad guy and reprimand those who don’t meet those commitments. Additionally, ensuring that your team knows that you fully support them will increase the likelihood that they’ll want to take ownership of new projects and get more done together. I am only as successful as the least engaged member of my team, so getting them excited to try new things, even at the risk of failing, has panned out well and kept our ideas fresh.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brentonhudak.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brentonhudak.dmc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brentonhudak.dmc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentonhudak/