We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shauna Kimble. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shauna below.
Alright, Shauna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We believe kindness is contagious and so we’d love for you to share with us and our audience about the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?
I had a boss named Robert Coop that saw a lot of potential in me that I didn’t see in myself. He took the time to push me in order to achieve at the highest level I could possibly achieve. He helped me shake the ‘poser syndrome’ that a lot of artists have, in order to step into my fullest potential as a designer, marketer, and now, business owner. Today, Robert has become my most treasured business mentor.
Back Story
I got married in 1996 and had a son only one semester before graduating college in May of 1998. I was an Graphic Design major from a small, Western Oklahoma college called Southwestern OK State University. In order to stay home and raise our son, I became a freelance graphic designer. Six years of Freelancing led to 3 years as a Graphic Design Instructor at an Oklahoma Technology Center. I was building clientele and momentum as an experienced designer in Oklahoma. Then, my husband took a job in Georgia, 15 hours from everything I had built so far. It was 2007 and I was back to square one.
With no local freelance clientele and no connections to teaching in tech centers in Georgia, I got started by getting my name out to people at my church. Everyone knew someone who could use my services, so I began building again. By 2012, something called ‘LinkedIn’ was becoming more and more reliable for connecting with good clients. That’s when a man contacted me about editing a logo. It was Robert Coop, owner of CCB Tech Group, an IT company located in Valdosta, GA. I did several logos for him and he was quite happy with the work. Eventually he and his business partner offered me a Graphic Design position with the possibility of learning some Marketing. I was all for using my skills and learning new ones. I was in. I had no idea exactly what I was “in” for. lol
Robert loves Marketing, even to this day, but he was building an IT company, not a marketing company. IT came very easy for him so the contrast of dealing with people, personalities, and researching completely different customer needs was quite refreshing to him. I was good with people, loved studying personalities and helping others achieve their goals, but unlike Robert, a complete contrast to me would be metrics and sales funnels, and they were not refreshing to me. I’m an artist. We are messy-free spirited and a bit disorganized. So when he said, “here are some metrics.” I was like a deer in headlights. He decided that we would stick to building a marketing clientele first, and he would deal with the metrics for the time being.
We were a great team. He was the concrete numbers and I was the artistic vision. Everyone was interested in what we had to offer. I learned that he was a prolific reader by total accident. I asked if he might have a book on sales I could read. That’s when my lessons in building a business and customer service began.
What started with one Napoleon Hill YouTube link, became a flood gate of audiobooks authored by Seth Godin, Dale Carnegie, Malcolm Gladwell and 10 more. This little Oklahoma artist was now weaving in and out of the subjects of sales and psychology, and into the power of influence, extreme customer service and how to be a purple cow. I read 30+ books that year and I haven’t stopped reading these subjects since.
His kindness will live on for as long as I do. Whether I am working with college students, new business owners, or friends exploring ideas, I always pass along to others what I have learned from him. One day I hope there will be someone like me come along and ask for one book to read, and I too will get to open the flood gates of potential for another to keep taking Robert’s kindness forward into their own life.
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.
1. My name is Shauna Kimble and I am the owner of a local Website and Marketing Business called Designed by Shauna.
2. I went full-time into Designed by Shauna after getting fired from my 9-5 marketing position at a museum. He was a terrible person to work for so it was a great relief not to be there. However, I did lose that steady paycheck, so I took this relief as a sign that it was time to ditch the 9-5 altogether. Next to building my house, it’s been my greatest work of art so far.
3. Problems I solve for my clients: Primarily, I help them build a strong online presence. Websites need more on the backend than anyone realizes, if they are going to be found. Monthly performance reports are sent out to help them make informed decisions with their advertising dollars. I don’t like waste, so I do my part to keep my end of their business from becoming wasted money. This is where marketing plans come into play. Driving audiences to a location rather than just hoping someone sees or hears something they’ve been putting out there.
4. I am most proud of the fact that my clients choose me and they stay with me. This tells me that I provide a valuable service to them and that they can trust me to do what I say I will do. No hidden fees, no dropping the ball. The work I commit to is the work that I see through to the end. Many companies in my industry can not say that. This is what sets me apart from the rest and this is what I would want potential clients to know about me: I do what I say I will do.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
The first thing you should know is that I have a filter that every experience must pass through, nothing gets by it: I believe that everything works for my good. The question is never ‘why is this happening to me?’ The question is always “How will it work for my good?”
I’ve had some terrible things happen to me as a child and as an adult but in all of those things, I have learned not to let those experiences go until I get something good from it. Getting fired forced me out of my 9-5 comfort zone – that’s a good thing. Learning to manage money was not fun at the time, but it made getting fired easy because I had reserves that bought me time to think rather than panic and react. Doing the unpleasant necessities pays off. Life will happen. Being prepared makes it so much easier to get tossed around the seas without capsizing.
I can elaborate on specifics later if you want.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I think it’s a combination of many things.
1. First and foremost, I do the work. I don’t promise what I can’t produce. I don’t spring hidden fees. I get the job done right and do all I can to make the client extremely happy with my services.
2. I foster positive relationships by contacting customers directly with relevant information, referring new customers to their businesses, visiting their stores myself, leaving positive social media comments on their business pages, shopping with them, etc.
3. I stay involved with my local Chamber of Commerce, which is very active. I also make a point to introduce myself to newcomers and speak to as many people as I can while we are all together.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.designedbyshauna.com/
Image Credits
All image credit goes to me. lol