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

Melissa , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

For over twenty years I spent my time living the 9-5 grind growing and nurturing brands and businesses that weren’t my own. I poured myself into companies and teams and was dedicated to the task and people at hand. Often times I’d find myself consumed with a work project, trying to figure out how to take it to the next level. It was fun and exciting, yet it often didn’t align with my passions or interests. Fast forward to a role in corporate banking where I couldn’t connect with the topic and felt a continuous internal tug that my time and energy was not being well spent. I was torn, the 9-5 was secure and steady, and with one of my top 3 needs being security it met what I thought was a critical personal need. This constant unease led to a curiosity about owning a juice bar. While visiting my stepdaughter in Cincinnati I stopped in the sweetest juice and smoothie bar and it got me thinking; we need one of these shops in our neighborhood and what if I brought it there? Now going back to my need for security, this idea was a fiery thought that intrigued and scared me all at the same time and it didn’t go away. After meeting with the owners of the Cincinnati juice bar and talking through what it would look like to open one in our town, I went for it! To accommodate my need for security the original plan was for me to continue with my full-time role at the bank and hire a manager to run the day-to-day. Well let’s just say that inner tug became a drastic push and 5 months before opening the juice bar I decided to leave the bank and start my own marketing consulting business. Not only was I opening a juice bar in less than 6 months, but now I was faced with establishing a new business. It’s been a year since I left the bank and the juice bar has been open 6 months. For someone that need(ed) security, these two risks have brought me the most fulfillment, peace and gratitude than 20+ years have.

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?

Hi, I’m Melissa! I live in Bay Village, Ohio about 20 minutes outside of Cleveland, I’m a wife, mom, business owner, marketer and yoga instructor. I am passionate about health and wellness and believe that food is medicine. I spent about 12 years at advertising agencies building brands, big and small. Categories I touched included CPG, building products, pharma, you name it, I probably touched it at some point. After an unexpected plot twist in 2012 I joined the client side, working for a Fortune 500 brand and had a whole new perspective on the agency – client relationship. I loved the work, the challenges and providing my client perspective as a former agency ‘person’. With deep experience on both sides of the business and a yearning for making a deeper impact, I took the leap and went out on my own in 2022.

Currently, I partner with brands, large and small, bringing my experience wearing client and agency hats to tackle strategy and communications challenges. A few areas I’m currently focusing on are developing brand identify for start-ups, creating consumer profiles, designing consumer action plans including creative and media and providing analytic insights. The beauty in my partnerships with my clients is that I’ve sat in their seat and understand the pressure they are under.

And when I’m not partnering with clients I’m focusing on growing my juice bar that opened in February 2023. I oversee operations and lead all marketing efforts to drive awareness and traffic to our shop.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Opening a juice and smoothie bar in February in Cleveland Ohio isn’t exactly ideal. The weather is gloomy, and juice isn’t top of mind. Our social strategy from the beginning has been a combination of organic, paid and partnerships. One cannot thrive without the other. Our opening week we were fortunate to have one of the largest community influencers stop into the shop and ‘broadcast’ our opening. This placement drove awareness, foot traffic and likes to our page. As we built likes we continued to support content via paid to drive more reach and awareness. We continue to have partnerships with influencers in our pipeline and nurture those relationships on a 1:1 basis. A strong social strategy is multi-dimensional and requires daily nurturing. My best advice is partner with experienced content creators and oversee the integration between paid, organic and partnerships.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Past relationships are the number one driver of new clients for me. Having various roles at different companies, I’ve met and stayed connected with people from many different industries and areas of the country. And while social media sometimes gets a bad rap, I would never be able to stay connected and aware of my network without it! Sending personal messages and being authentic to what’s going on in their world becomes meaningful and top of mind.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/melven
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissaveneriroddy/

Image Credits
yoga picture: @kristinpiteophoto