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In this episode of the Bombshell Business Podcast, Amber Hurdle chats with Renae Keller, of Renae Keller Interior Design, about her rebrand experience. Renae, an award winning interior designer, partnered with Amber to elevate her business brand to better reflect her wealth of experience, qualifications, and her team’s energy. From the foundational level of developing her brand story to throwing a rebrand launch party, Renae shares what made her anxious and what she enjoyed most during her rebrand experience. Of course, it would not be a proper rebrand reveal without a before and after in the show notes!
Check out Renae Keller Interior Design’s brand transformation below and read Amber’s additional notes about this fun rebrand experience.
Amber Hurdle Consulting + Renae Keller Interior Design = Match Made In Heaven
I’m pretty particular about who I work with. Life is too short to try to convince someone to care about their business more than you do! That’s why when I met Renae Keller I was incredibly excited to show the world exactly who she is and what her team is capable of! Renae came to me ready to do the work. (And put her to work I surely did!) We instantly became friends because anyone who meets Renae most certainly wants to be her friend; and because she met her deadlines and laughed when things got hard. You know me–I love dedication and tenacity. Oh, and I also love someone who sees the world and wants to make it beautiful while pouring herself a glass of wine! (Did I mention she is also a mom of four very active kids, a wife, and a volunteer, too???) That being said, I might have put a little extra into this experience because I was just about as committed to Renae’s outcome as she was.
As usual, I asked all kinds of questions that had nothing to do with her logo, her website, or anything visual. We dug deep into who Renae is as a business owner and into her personal life. We talked about the history of her company, her favorite clients, the type of clients she desires to work with more in the future, how she wants her clients to feel when they work with her, and so much more. (Just ask her and she will tell you it is A LOT!) Just like my Business Success Pyramid reveals, we had to lay the foundation of Renae’s company culture before we could move onto the branding process. It’s usually at this stage that clients start to get antsy. They often want to skip answering the difficult questions and get to the “pick out the picture and make the website” part. But Renae trusted the process.
What Renae learned is that if you can’t clearly communicate your brand essence, neither can anyone else you employ or contract to help you. Graphic designers, website designers, videographers, photographers, advertisers, copywriters, etc…are inspired individuals, yet they are not mind readers. Not to mention they each have their own discovery processes. That could, based on their own experiences and perceptions, lead to their own interpretation of your brand if you are not consistently clear about who you are, what you do, how you do it uniquely, and who you do it for specifically. That often leads to an inconsistent brand experience due to multiple versions of your brand being represented, all depending on who was at the helm. What’s more, it leaves you, the business owner, frustrated. In your heart you know what you want that experience to be, but you can’t seem to explain it clearly one time, let alone multiple times, for various people, working on different projects. That’s where I come in to stop the insanity.
Developing Renae Keller Interior Design’s Brand
Using the information we gather during my Bombshell Business process, we first created a Brand Messaging Guide. This explains everything from the basics for communicating the brand story to more specifics, like what to talk about in interviews with media, website body copy, content creation, and more.
Once this was solid, we were (finally) ready to create the visual representation of the RKID brand via a new logo. I had her share secret Pinterest boards with me, we sent ideas back and forth via email, and we curated imagery that visually communicated various aspects of her brand expectations: inspirational brands, websites, ideal customers, photography shoot poses and more. From there, I called in my go-to peeps whose locations were not dependant on hers, and she was given homework to find and interview local vendors that were more cost effective to contract locally. It was her mission to find companies she thought would best mesh with her personally, would deliver her new brand’s refined experience, and would fit her marketing budget. Once all of these people were brought to the table we discussed the options and decided who would be on RKID’s rebrand team.
Renae Keller Interior Design Brand Before
Renae Keller Interior Design Brand After
First, we reached out to Tara Peterson of Stupendous Design. I’ve worked with Tara on various projects for about seven years, and even we are surprised at the ginormous things we’ve pulled off together! Tara not only created RKID’s classic, “inky blue” and orange logo based on Renae’s favorite colors, and even a chair she found as inspiration, she crafted her Visual Brand Guide so all of her logo variations, brand standards, fonts, color codes, etc…were beautifully pulled together in one document. Of course, part of Renae’s brand is her attention to every last tiny detail, and that came through on her updated stationary. The weight of her card and note cards was important, as well as the pop of orange that line the sides.
With the Brand Messaging Guide and the Visual Brand Guide prepared, we were ready to hand off everything anyone would need to know in order to help tell the RKID story. Next up was the video element. Because Renae is so incredibly personable, it was important that a potential client could experience that, even if they were surfing the web in the middle of the night. This was critical to me. So the videographer was hired next.
Turned out there was a bit of a hiccup with this step and her best self and her brand was not quite captured. In fact, and she will tell you this herself, her video was more robot mixed with deer in headlights than the warm, friendly, and super funny problem solver she really is. When it landed in my inbox in Nashville I knew it was not going to work. So…because I adore this woman…I made a client trip to Minnesota in January. (Do you even understand how cold it is in Minneapolis in January? Do you know that I hate the cold and was legitimately worried that my face would freeze off?) But we weren’t going to come this far to not get this right. Fortunately, the videographer was committed to the proper outcome and agreed to reshoot the video.
It just took a little bit of interview prep, following my instructions (ahem) to get her hair and makeup professionally done so she could just focus on her part (being the star), and maybe a glass or two of pinot grigio before filming to make it a success. (What?! Just keeping it real!) When she got flustered or ahead of herself we simply stopped, slowed down, and did it again. Then, once she was warmed up from the video shoot, we finished her photoshoot–Renae gracing the images, and me being bossy pants about camera angles, backgrounds, hairs that were out of place, wrinkles in clothing, etc…The end result was exceptional! (I’m so proud of her!!!)
Watch Renae’s confident video we mastered (with the help of a glass of wine or two)!
Renae Keller Interior Design’s Rebranded Website
To complete the rebrand process, we went to Anthony and Linh Tran at Marketing Access Pass. (You may remember Anthony from Episode 16.) While, like Tara, I have a good history of successful projects with MAP, which makes it more efficient and easy to communicate, they are also amazing listeners who earnestly desire to share authentic brand stories, no matter who the client or consultant is. Once again, we turned over the brand guides.
If you’re counting that is three times we handed over the guides instead of trying to start from scratch explaining what Renae wanted.
Additionally, we sent the website body copy (meaning the words found on each page), the logos, the photoshoot images, the video, the suggested navigation menu, the content for the forms and links required to make it functional, and all of the various elements that take a website from an online brochure to a sales conversion machine. And while I can try to describe this masterpiece to you, I’ll just let the MAP team show you through this video they made of the project.
Renae Keller Interior Design Rebrand Next Steps
Throughout alllllll of this other work, Reane also diligently worked on her Red Lipstick Marketing Plan (another Bombshell Business tool of mine). Part of her plan was to host a relaunch party. There is nothing better than an event to build buzz before the event, live share on social media during the event, then capture images, video, stories, and more to talk about after the event. It’s content creation gold.
Of course, since RKID’s tagline is “burn the candles, use the china,” Renae had orange candles lit, as well as new candles wrapped in bows as part of her parting gifts…you know to go with her inky blue, branded matchboxes. While the event was a way to share her new, elevated brand with clients, peers, vendors, and strategic partners, it also gave her the opportunity to show how she rolls simply by sharing a live RKID experience with everyone.
Needless to say, through Renae’s diligence and commitment to her vision, she was able to elevate her brand to whole new levels. While her network knew exactly how spectacular she was, an unfamiliar prospective client or referral source might not have understood, at just a glance, who they were lucky enough to come across. Renae knew it was time for her brand to tell her true story, and I’m so lucky she chose to allow me to walk alongside her on that journey. Not only did I gain a client whom I could praise in The Bombshell Business Woman, I found a friend for life!
About Renae Keller
(By the way, this is part of RKID’s Brand Messaging Guide)
Renae Keller is an award-winning, ASID certified interior designer in Minneapolis-St. Paul area, specializing in new construction and large remodels.
Trusted by homebuilders, architects and homebuyers alike, Renae is knowing for creating an overall design vision that blends functionality and aesthetics, while keeping the details intertwined, and her customer’s style in clear focus.
Renae has designed beautiful spaces since 1996, holding a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design. She is NCIDQ Certified and has Professional Membership status in ASID, passing rigorous acceptance standards while upholding her longheld reputation of experience and insatiable focus on the smallest of details.
Renae’s earliest memories reflect her grandmother’s drop-front desk that sat next to her harvest gold, rotary phone. Her grandmother kept her playing cards in this familiar desk, making the furniture functional, while the beauty of the walnut wood showed Renae early on that art and functionality can come together in harmony. It is this memory, and many like them, that prompted Renae’s motto,
“Burn the candles, use the china.”
Now always thinking several steps ahead, so her client does not have to, Renae’s friendly, calming presence and over twenty years experience moves even the most elegant projects forward in an approachable way.
Visit Renae’s website: www.renaekeller.com
Connect with Renae Keller on Instagram and Facebook.
Links & Mentions on the Podcast Episode
05: Develop Your Personal Brand
16: How to Work with a Website Designer for Your Small Business with Anthony Tran
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