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

Kristin, 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?

I had been operating my business since 2014, Modish Digital, for 6 years at the time and felt a disconnect with the name. While my business was primarily based around the digital world (branding, website design, digital photography, social media management), it didn’t resonate with the creativity + passion we bring to serving our clients. I felt it was time for a rebrand — I wanted a name that not only had a connection with my core beliefs as a business owner, but I wanted it to feel special to my clients experience as well.

When it came time to brainstorm on a name, I knew I wanted to incorporate the word “Creative” into it. While my Team and I were discussing options, I was asked to think about a special time or place in my life that I felt deep in my soul and I instantly was taken back to my trip to Marrakech, Morocco in 2019. I fell in love with the culture, the people, the food, the art + textiles and most importantly, the feelings we felt while there — invigorated, at peace, warm, happy & connected. These are the feelings + values we want our Client’s to experience after working with Marra Creative Studio and it instantly felt like we needed to infuse that into our branding.

Thus, Marra is short for Marrakech, a very special place in my heart and with that we incorporated the warmth and textures of Morocco into our branding and it feels genuine, authentic and just right to present to the world what we do.

Kristin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Marra Creative Studio is a full service creative marketing studio committed to elevating a brand through thoughtful and innovative brand identity development, web design, photography and social media strategy.

Collaboratively, we work together to bring your vision to life so that it feels authentic and genuine to you and your brand.

And when there are the moments in between, we seek out to capture beautiful, raw memories through our lifestyle photography so they’ll be cherished for years to come.

We are incredibly passionate about working with primarily women-owned, small businesses all across the country. We know what it’s like to walk in their shoes, we have experienced the setbacks and the milestones and we genuinely approach our work with intentions to watch our Client’s successes unfold before us because after all, we are their biggest cheerleaders. I firmly believe there is enough space for us all to thrive and that community over competition, especially amongst women, shall be uplifted and supported more so than ever.

I came into building the Marra Creative Studio brand first with a passion for creativity + photography. I instantly connected with small business owners who were so overwhelmed with their day-to-day tasks of running the business they created, that when it came to marketing themselves, the quality and intention took a backseat simply because of time + energy.

Our approach to working with clients is through thoughtful intention, we know that it’s a big investment to hire creatives like ourselves and we don’t take that lightly. Whether a Client is starting from scratch and we’re working on building out their new brand identity that will infuse into a stunning website design, it’s all curated with their goals in mind and who they want to connect with. We take that same approach when it comes to photography, we first discuss their goals of what they want to achieve with a photoshoot and then we work towards ensuring that we are incorporating their brand elements and how they want potential customers to view them. Again, it’s all approached with intention.

Our clients oftentimes become close friends and we’re celebrating the good times with them, listening and understanding to their difficult times and most importantly, championing each other’s successes. We’re so proud of whom we get to work with day in and day out!

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

Our number one source of new clients is through word-of-mouth. If you exceed your current client’s expectations, go above and beyond to ensure the results are more than what they hoped for, then trust us, they will talk about it with their friends, family and other entrepreneurs. Satisfied clients love to share their happiness and naturally, others want to feel that about their business or photography images too.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Gratitude for the day Christina Guzmán approached me to mentor her in photography was the best day ever for my business. I had been asked to teach a food photography workshop at the local Whole Foods and amongst the 22 attendees was Christina. Everyone had a great time, but afterwards Christina pulled me aside for a quick chat and mentioned that she felt such a connection with my teaching style and really wanted to take her photography to the next level and would I be interested in mentoring her. Of course, I was flattered and I wanted to learn more about her goals and I was excited about the opportunity to share my knowledge + experience with photography to another woman.

We met for coffee a few days later and not only did she come prepared with a beautifully designed resume, but also examples of some of her design work in case I was in need of any help on the other aspects of my creative marketing business that way she felt should could give me something in exchange for helping with her photography skillset.

Christina was such an incredible student of the craft that I invited her to join me on brand photoshoots so she could learn + experience first hand how to apply what we’ve been learning to real world settings. Within that time, we learned very quickly that we got along great, both worked hard and she brought a balance to my business by excelling at design skills where I was lacking. It didn’t take long before she was being paid for her work, and within a year or so, I had promoted her to my Creative Director and Associate Photographer for the brand.

When you find that one in a million person that you connect with through the highs and the lows of business, you grab them and do whatever you can to keep them. I’m so grateful, 5 years later that Christina is right there alongside me as we build the Marra Creative Studio business and the opportunity to work with incredible clientele all across the country, and even globally!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://marracreativestudio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marracreative/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marracreativestudio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marra-creative-studio/

Image Credits
All images shot by Marra Creative Studio, Inc