We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Julia Pearson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Julia below.

Julia, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the best thing you’ve ever seen (or done yourself) to show a customer that you appreciate them?

In my family culture, birthdays have always been important. While they have never been extravagant, they have always been meaningful.

As I built my business, I looked for ways to make sure my clients know how much they meant to me. Yes, Christmas gifts and personal emails were on my list, but I decided our signature sign of appreciation would be birthday gifts! At first we only had a handful of clients and it was easy to send them a personalized gift. As we grew, I knew I wouldn’t be able to scale this personal note so I partnered with Chippy’s Popcorn in Beaver Dam, WI. They make a DELICIOUS birthday popcorn blend. Every month we send them a list of our clients who have a birthday that month; they package and send the popcorn for us with a pre-written birthday card we supplied them.

Here’s the thing… we don’t just send them to current clients. We send them to our favorite past clients too! And 90% of our clients email us thanking us for it because it’s delicious!

We call it our “surprise and delight.” People in business aren’t surprised when they get anniversary or holiday gifts, but our clients tell us time and time again that because the birthday gift highlights them as a person, it holds extra meaning!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I started Stratos Creative Marketing back in 2018 as a freelance social media manager. I had been working in the nonprofit world for years, and as the youngest person on staff, I had been asked to manage our internet presence. After helping a friend raise $4,000 on Giving Tuesday in 2018, I began wondering if businesses might pay me to manage their social media so I could exit the social work world.

I quit my full-time job with three months of savings, telling myself that I needed to at least get one client in that time so I had proof that my business concept could work. One year later, I was making more than I had ever made in the nonprofit world (not that it was hard to beat) and already had one team member.

Now, Stratos has a team of 9 employees – four full-time and five part-time. We create social media content (both organic and paid), email content, and websites. When it comes to social media, we’re proud to have something for everyone – both DIY solutions and custom packages.

We believe everyone should have an internet presence they’re proud of.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

In March of 2022, I gave birth to my daughter. What should have been a blissful maternity leave morphed into 50 days in the NICU as my daughter needed a major surgery.

I had started preparing for this life change months earlier. I hired two pivotal people to do my work and we increased our client capacity. On paper, everything looked perfect for maternity leave. Reality had different plans.

– We ended up in the NICU.
– A handful of our retainer clients left at the same time which was a huge drop in income.
– Our lead funnel became more sporadic.

And in all of this, my attention was divided. I wanted to be with my daughter, but I also wanted my business to survive. I remember looking at my husband saying, “At this point, Stratos is a money-sucking hobby. I think I need to let it die.”

Thankfully, I have people in my life who wouldn’t let it.

– My management team stepped up. They helped cut expenses and made sure our remaining clients were served well.
– Our savings helped us make payroll for the couple months it was tight.
– We were able to decrease my salary and depend on my husband’s income.
– I was able to work (very lightly) from the NICU. It was exactly what my mind needed – a sense of usefulness amid the confusing medical world.

Nine months later, I’m happy to report that we’ve rebuilt the business to be something healthier. I’m more open with my management team when challenges happen. We have better safety nets built out should several clients leave at the same time again.

What I’m most proud of is that I feel like I was able to honor myself through the experience – both the entrepreneurial side and the motherhood side.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

You’d think that, as a marketer, I would be confident in the marketing I do for my own business. Sometimes I’m not. It took me a while to start practicing what I preached.

Every good marketer will tell you that you need to build an email list and send consistent content to them. For the longest time, I was scraping by – finding clients at networking events and selling to referrals. I didn’t have a plan for my own marketing. I also didn’t make time for my own marketing.

After about a year and a half, I decided I needed to start doing what I was telling my clients to do. If I wanted to sell social media packages, I should show clients what that looked like for me. If I wanted to sell email retainers, my clients shouldn’t be surprised that they’d never received a nurture email from me!

So I got to work…

You see, I had done a presentation to a group of non-profits and passed around a clipboard where people could sign-up to get a copy of my slides. I was determined that this would be the beginning of my email list. I started putting together short, information-rich emails to send to this list on a bi-weekly basis. Most of these non-profits weren’t in my target market, but I figured I’d start flexing my own marketing muscle as practice.

I shouldn’t be surprised when my own marketing works, but for whatever reason, I am shocked every time.

Three months after sending out these nurture emails someone replied. She was from the local school district and was in charge of a county-wide suicide prevention initiative. They needed marketing help and asked for a proposal. Two days later they signed a five figure contract!

This will always be one of my favorite marketing stories. It’s a testament to consistency and practicing what I preach.

Contact Info:

• Website: stratoscreativemarketing.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stratoscreative/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stratoscreative
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliablock/

Image Credits
Miriam Bulcher Photography Ashley Rhyner Photography