We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katie Harmon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Katie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
BUSINESS NAME: HawkDigital
How did you come up with the name of your company?
Like many of us, the name I chose for my business was not the first, and likely will not be the last. Not to mention, the name I REALLY wanted was not available as a URL. #21stCenturyProblems
So my latest rebrand took place in 2017. I attended a videography conference with a group of bad a** women known as The POSH Collective. These women are literally the coolest people ever. Crushing life AND running a successful business. One of my favorites of this particular conference was Heather. Heather lived in Santa Fe where the conference was being held. Heather can do all the things. She can take you through a guided meditation that brings you to tears (yup.) She can also lead a 5-day-off-the-grid wilderness training. During dinner, I am telling Heather about my latest rebrand thoughts and ideas, including my vibe, my ideal clientele, my location… all that goes into a branding experience. (Side note: I have some graphic design, marketing and advertising experience, so I took it upon myself to brand my own business. 10/10 would NOT recommend. If you can cough up the money to have someone ELSE develop your branding, absolutely, no question…. do it. There is nothing harder than marketing yourself.) So anyway, bouncing my thoughts off Heather, I tell her how my maiden name is Hawkins and nicknames my entire life have reflected this. While I don’t have any emotional ties to the animal, I’m pretty well known as “Hawks” amongst my college friends. I love it. It’s my identifier. Heather, being the outdoor, wilderness experienced person she is, looks at me with wide eyes and says, “You know what a hawk is known for right?” And I’m like, “Yeah sure…” (Nope.) She tells me how a hawk is a visionary creature, with amazing eye sight. Light bulb. This is perfect. She continues, “That’s what you do! You take ideas, and you make those visions come to life.” Done! Wait, no…I needed more. (Like I said, gotta’ have that URL. If the owner of hawk.com is reading this, you haven’t updated your site since 1999! Let me make you an offer!) So I needed an accompanying word that defined what kind of visions I create…. from graphic design, to videography, to photography. Words like “Creative” and “Media” came to mind. But I landed on “Digital”… HawkDigital to be exact. HD for short. And while we have 4k, 5k and 8k resolution these days, in 2017, HD was still pretty dang high quality. And that’s what my business is. High Quality. High quality work and high quality service…HawkDigital.
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?
Originally from Southern Indiana, I attended Ball State University where I studied Telecommunications (with a big focus in sports productions). When I applied to Ball State, I thought I wanted to study journalism but found I much prefer digital storytelling. I immersed myself in all things video production during college and graduated with a media-related job offer from the Northern Texas PGA. Within 2 years, I determined Dallas, Texas wasn’t my dream home, and even more eye opening, sports production (the career path I thought I would pursue the rest of my life) was no longer the dream. During college, my (now) husband introduced me to the beautiful world that is Colorado. So we decided to try mountain life.
Through all of my moves, I picked up freelance clients here and there. Eventually, I was able to take the jump, the plunge, the leap of faith. In 2015, I went “full time” with my own business. I get a lot of questions about this. “Did you have a business plan? How did you know you would make enough money? What do you do for marketing?” Luckily, I was surrounded by advisors, mentors, and, in a nutshell, people who really believed in me. I’ve learned a lot about positive reinforcement lately. And I now realize the power of what happens when one person says, “I know you will be successful.”
While the scope of my work varies from day to day (and year to year), my brand has nothing to do with the latest and greatest software or camera. I want to build a brand that reflects what I strive to be as a person. Reliable. Flexible. Creative. Passionate. Professional. Personable. I may not execute ALL of them ALL the time, but I hope one makes it on my headstone.
It’s just me. Emailing, filming, editing…. it’s just me. Upside: no team to manage. Downside: no team to work with. I offer a wide variety of multi-media content creation services. I’m super lucky that I don’t have to say, “Yes!” to every single project (like I did in the early, start up days). I live in a world that is routine-free. Everyday is different. Some are harder than others. Sometimes you just want to sleep, but you’ve overcommitted, and there’s no one else to “hand off” the work. My dad once said, “It’s hard enough to do a job that you love, let alone one that you don’t.”
As of today, I offer photography, videography and some graphic design / web design services. Due to the high demand last year (aka not having a social life), I now limit myself to corporate and commercial work. Boundaries are good, but boundaries can change. And I’m okay if things adjust again in the future. This industry changes very quickly, and it comes with a lot of educating. That’s what makes it fun. It’s a craft that you strive to understand, that’s ever-changing, and then you share the power of that craft with others.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
“It takes zero talent to be on time.” Many people in the video/photo/multimedia industry only offer their services part of the time, i.e. on weekends or evenings, because they have a full time job. Rightfully so, there’s no paid time off or benefits in my world. But I think my availability, flexibility and the sheer fact that I show up on time (or early) goes a long way. I live in rural (but luxurious) mountain town. One’s reputation can build quickly or crumble to pieces from “town talk”.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
In my self employed world, I work alone pretty often, and it’s easy to get out of touch with one of the fastest growing industries. So I have two part time jobs. I am an instructor at a boutique fitness studio called Pure Barre. This is such a great way for me to meet my community and get face time with potential clients. I’ve taught at Pure Barre for 7 years, and so many of my own clients are relationships I’ve developed through the studio. I’m also an adjunct faculty instructor at Colorado Mountain College. I teach photography and videography. Living in a rural mountain town means word of mouth is the best (or worst) form of marketing. Thus you have to meet people. Thus you must make a (good) impression. Thus you must get involved!
Contact Info:
- Website: hawk-digital.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/hawk_digital/
- Facebook: facebook.com/HawkDigital/
Image Credits
Shane Macomber