We were lucky to catch up with Michael Cinquino recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Michael, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

We encourage our clients to take a front and center stage role in their businesses, to be visable. And, ideally, get on camera and tell their story.

Michael, 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?

Soho creative studio is actually a relaunch, or rebirth of a previous business. The original Soho creative studio was a rental space in Soho, New York City. I was a professional photographer, shooting a little bit of video, and I bought a studio rental business down in Soho back in 2018. It ran very well for a couple of years and then the pandemic came. And like many things, in the pandemic in New York City, that business went away. My partner then about two months after New York had closed down had also lost her job. And we were left sitting our apartment, wondering what to do. The prospects didn’t look good. In New York City. So we decided to look elsewhere to rebuild. We looked north to New Hampshire we had both never been there before, and took a trip up over the summer of 2020. Fell in love with a little town called Portsmouth and decided to relocate there was a long process. It took a few months, quite a few months actually. But we eventually created a new business up there and rebirth Soho creative studio as a branding agency or a creative agency. To tell you the truth we didn’t know what seal Soho creative studio would be. At the time, I knew that I could create photos and videos my partner Rebecca had pivoted into UX and web design. And our associate Taylor was a really great copywriter. So we combined all of our talents and explored the market up there up in New England to see what people would need what businesses would need. Two years later we create authentic branding for small businesses that helps to attract their ideal client. This is in terms of websites, photos, videos and copywriting. And the great thing about us is that we truly believe in authenticity, vulnerability and spontaneity. And the clients that we work with and choose to work with have to believe and value those things as well. Because we know that brands that embrace authenticity, vulnerability and spontaneity always present better than the brands who don’t. The problem that we solve for our clients is to help them stand out in a crowded marketplace. And we do this through bespoke web design, standout photos and videos and copywriting that is honest and speaks to your clients heart. I think we’re most proud of the fact that we have reinvented and we are serving our clients at the highest possible level. And that we do things a little bit differently. We’re not the kind of agency where we want to find out what your clients want to hear and then tell that to them. We don’t believe that’s an honest way to go. We don’t believe that’s an effective way to go. But we do believe is telling your story telling the truth. And another thing that we do, that a lot of web designers can’t do is we create content for the website. So instead of just designing a website, sure we’ll design a website, but we’ll also create fresh photos and videos for that website. We’ll also create copy, and then make sure the SEO and the back end looks good. when you put all those three things together. things tend to work very, very well. We are very, very good at helping our clients stand out and get noticed. and we’re very grateful We’re able to continue to do that.

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

I love this question. Our whole business and the last almost three years now is a pivot in so many ways. So whole creative studio is a rebirth of a previous business as I mentioned earlier. If you had asked me what I would be doing now if you asked me that question two and a half years ago, or maybe in December of 2019, would never say that I was running a creative agency that designs websites, and offers Photo Video and copyright services to small businesses in the Northeast. I would have never have guessed that I would have never have told you I moved to New Hampshire. I would have never told you that I restarted a business up there. I’m so for us, for myself and my partner. When New York got shut down, we weren’t permitted to work and if you didn’t live in New York and and you didn’t know what that was, like, come on up. We literally legally were not permitted to work I was a photographer and I was not allowed to work in the city. I was deemed non essential. My partner I was let go from her job about two months after I was deemed non essential and we couldn’t do anything. We couldn’t work. So we were literally sitting in our apartment with no income, no way to work and we didn’t know what to do. So we completely restarted our lives over in New Hampshire. We didn’t know a single soul didn’t know a person didn’t know anything about the state. We just started from scratch up there. And we’re able to build something over the course of two years. That is quite remarkable. And we we are third up 38% over over previous year for gross sales. And we’re already having a ton of interest going into 2023.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy we’ve had for growing our clientele is to do in person networking, or networking groups over zoom. We know that most business owners especially nowadays don’t do a lot of in person stuff. And because of that, and because we’re willing to do it, it easily sets us apart from anyone else. It’s also true that most anything you do in the physical world, especially with human relationships, has 10 times the effect of something you’re gonna do in the digital world. Human relationships are built much more deeply in the real world than they ever can be on social media. So when we moved to New Hampshire and restarted our business, we made the effort to meet as many people in person as humanly possible. Now I understand that this isn’t as scalable as social media but it is far more impactful than social media. So for us, we would rather have a one on one on Zoom, or meet a group on Zoom and then definitely meet in person for coffee or some in person networking groups, then continue to crank out content on social media. Of course we use social media we enjoy it. It’s a wonderful way to connect with people. It’s wonderful to get to connect with people that we might not be able to connect with in the physical world. But whenever possible, we like to meet people in the physical world. And I truly believe that business owners and entrepreneurs that are able to do that, to connect well to communicate well in a physical space will always have an advantage over those who can’t do that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sohocreativestudio.com
• Instagram: @michaelcinquino @sohocreativestudio
• Facebook: none
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcinquino/
• Twitter: none
• Youtube: none
• Yelp: none

Image Credits
Michael Cinquino, Sara Abassi (the group shot of Michael in black and white on set is hers). I have the rights to all the rest.