We were lucky to catch up with Caroline Heeren recently and have shared our conversation below.
Caroline, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
On the surface, Caroline Heeren Creative is pretty self explanatory. However, I chose the word “creative” for a specific reason. I’ve always considered myself as a creative. Even as a child, I have always been looking for creative outlets to express myself. Whether it was through fashion, interiors, art, writing, etc. I started CHC to serve as that outlet. It allows me to have a space to express my many forms of creativity– whatever they may be. Yes, my title is brand and website designer, but more importantly, I’m a creative. What inspires me is always evolving. So, I chose “creative” as the core of my company name to allow myself more space to be creative. The more I’m creating, the happier I am. The happier I am, the better my work is. The better my work is, the happier my clients are!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
In short, I’m a military spouse with a passion for creativity.
Born and raised in small town, south Alabama, I was always looking for the best way to express myself— whether it was through art, fashion, writing, design, etc. In 2016, I found myself with a BA in Advertising from the University of Alabama and a fiancé in San Diego, CA. I put my career on hold as we stumbled our way through flight school followed by a cross-country move to Beaufort, South Carolina. My passion for design took more of a back seat while I spent the next three years in social media management, digital marketing, and SEO copywriting. However, in my spare time, I began creating holiday cards, housewarming, and baby shower invitations for friends and family. When I came to a crossroads in my career and the start of our second deployment, I finally decided to take the leap, and start my own business doing what I love!
Since it’s inception, I’ve turned CHC to focus more on brand and website design for other creatives. I’ve found that creatives are always looking ahead to better their business for their clients. Whether it’s inspiration and locations for photographers or site visits and textile sampling for interior designers– the creative mind is always running full steam ahead. With this mindset and mentality, creatives never really take the time to pause and work on the basics or, let alone, create a space to show off their work. That’s where I step in to take the task of stabilizing their business off my clients’ plates which allows them to continue the grind. Whether it’s a full-fledged, 6 page website or a smaller, online portfolio, I want to help people like me create a visual space to share their work and sell their services.
Whenever I have a brand and web design client, I work with just the one at a time. I want my clients to know that they have my full attention. If they have any questions about anything, I am there to help in every possible way that I can. I know what hard work my clients put in to building their businesses, so I want them to know that the same care and diligence will be put into their branding/website. I also take the time to truly get to know my clients. By asking about their goals, inspiration, etc, I’m hoping to form not only a professional relationship, but a personal relationship. I want my clients to know that they are in the hands of someone who knows and cares about their wants and needs. I want them feel like I’m a friend they can call with any questions or concerns.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
When getting my business started, I quickly had to unlearn having every single duck in a row to avoid any mistakes– essentially, perfectionism. I’ve been a perfectionist my entire life, and running a business is never perfect. Particularly, starting a business. There were so many things I didn’t know about that I was trying to figure out all at once. In my mind, I wanted to know everything about everything and have all the answers to all of my questions before getting started. I wanted to know that I was doing everything exactly right to have the most successful result possible. This. Is. Not. Possible. I quickly learned that I need to just start. A mentor of mine told me to, “make a decision now, and move forward.” This advice has helped me out of many potential deep dives that almost always lead to no where. What should have been a relatively straightforward process of getting my business created, turned into weeks of researching this vs. that and unforeseeable future events that never happened. Learning to “just start” was a big concept that I was initially hesitant to do.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
Throughout my creative process, I form a relationship with my clients. I’m a pretty informal person, so I tend to communicate with my clients as if we are friends. We talk about their wants and needs for their business. A tend to work with photographers and interior designers, where a lot of the time, it’s just them running their business. By getting to know them and what their likes and dislikes are, I’m able to reach out in a casual manner and just check in. A couple weeks after I’ve finished a project with a client, I reach out and see if there have been any issues/how everything is going/if they need anything else from me. A majority of the time, the client has seen what a fresh brand design can do for them, so they tend to have more branding or web design work for me. And we just keep it moving!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.carolineheerencreative.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/carolineheerencreative
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/carolineheerencreative
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