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

Heidi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share a customer success story with us?

d’Offay is an elegant and sustainable luxury fashion brand produced in downtown Los Angeles. From the elegant branding, sophisticated marketing collateral and packaging solutions, to a beautiful and user-friendly custom e-commerce website, we worked closely with founder Kristen, to bring her first fashion collection to market. At launch we collaborated on digital marketing – from instagram content creation & curation, email newsletters and pinterest curation – resulting in increased awareness of the brand, and of course – sales. Owner Kristen recently opened her first brick and mortar in beautiful Santa Barbara!

Jennifer Griffith is a writer, host of popular podcast About Your Mother (AYM), mother and truth seeker. We’ve been with Jenn since day 1, creating not only her brand strategy, personal brand and website, but also all of the branding and ongoing social for her podcast. She literally calls me “Glue” because of how closely we’ve helped her. She recently signed a book deal for her memoir – it has been incredible to witness and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be on this journey with her!

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

Hi everyone, I’m founder and creative director of Spitfiregirl, cancer survivor, mother to 2 blondies, and wife to a very tall husband. We are based in Denver, Colorado and our clients are worldwide.

Spitfiregirl is an award-winning agency for visionaries, leaders and doers ready to take the next step. They are fashion insiders, luxury event planners, the hottest boutique hotel, or a talented author about to publish their next book. Most of our clients have been in business for quite awhile, so when they come to us they are looking to elevate their brand – maybe their growth has stagnated, or they have new ideas and need clarity to execute on them. Additionally, we work a lot with clients looking to establish their Personal Brand (say to promote a new book, a new offer, etc). Our clients are total powerhouses at what THEY do, but when it comes to promoting themselves online – they struggle. They either don’t feel comfortable showing up as a personal brand, or don’t know how.

One commonality? They are tired of DIY’ing it and are looking for a strategic partner to set them up for long-term success. Our deep experience across industries means we’ve got our pulse on what’s trendy, but have the wisdom to know what’s timeless. Our secret sauce comes in the unique blend of all of these elements to create branding and design that’s authentically them.

One thing that sets us apart from the rest?
We really GET our clients, and are as passionate about their vision as they are. About 95% of our clients are women, many are also moms, and we take their investment seriously. Because their success is our success and we consider ourselves partners in this creative journey…sometimes that means we’ll challenge them to think differently, because the only way to get totally new ideas is to think in totally new ways. They don’t call me “spitfire” for nothing!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My passion for art and design began at age 2, when simple stick figures quickly evolved into a love for all things creative—from crafting and jewelry making to sewing, painting, printmaking, and eventually, design. I earned my bachelor of fine arts from a small state school in Vermont (my home state), but I always yearned for city life in NYC or Boston. Eventually, I persuaded my school to let me spend my final semester in Boston at the Massachusetts College of Art, and I never looked back.

Lacking a formal design degree (I have a BA in Fine Arts), I leaned on my resourcefulness. This was before the era of instant online tutorials; you couldn’t just Google how to design a logo or get the latest tips on Illustrator. I would take any class I could find, from library sessions to continuing education, and even resorted to watching Lynda.com videos on CD-ROM. Gradually, I built my experience thanks to people who took a chance on me—like the art director who offered me a magazine internship despite already being out of school, leading to my first production job at a local newspaper. This opportunity led me to a fulfilling freelance career, which took me from Boston to Istanbul to San Francisco at the height of the dot-com boom, where design opportunities were abundant.

The pivotal moment came when I realized the trade-offs of freelancing: the freedom to enjoy Dolores Park picnics or go on long bike rides came at the cost of not earning money. As my income was directly tied to the hours I worked, I decided it was time to formalize my efforts. I enrolled in a Small Business Intensive at an Entrepreneurship Center and thus, Spitfiregirl was born, 24 years ago. The lack of a formal design degree might have left me with a small chip on my shoulder, but it also fueled my determination to prove my worth and be successful!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2014, after having just moved to Denver the year before – with a 4 year old and an 8 month old – I was diagnosed with stage 3A melanoma. I’m not a sun worshiper, I was just a woman with an angry mole (consider this your reminder to get your skin checked annually!)

I’ve always been a “go since day 1” kind of person, and this forced me to slow down. My treatment – an experimental clinical trial -lasted a year and was really grueling. Lots of time being poked, prodded, scans, blood draws – I lost a ton of hair and had all sorts of “fun” side effects. In that time, I had to take a serious look at how I was running my business (or rather, how it was running me). So I cut some dead weight, clients and relationships that weren’t serving me anymore. I also started implementing ways I could run my business more efficiently (systems & processes, offers and a focus on consulting). I’m grateful to continue to be cancer-free!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://spitfiregirldesign.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespitfiregirl
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiyarger/
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/thespitfiregirl/

Image Credits
Styled shoot: Boheme Fox Photo https://bohemefoxphoto.com/