Inside the Studio | No. 2
An Hermes magazine obsession, my onboarding process, and more!
Welcome back to Inside the Studio, my series where I share in real time the business lessons I’m learning, the tools I’m using, the books I’m reading, and more. Ever since posting the first one, I’ve been so excited to write the next.
I personally love learning how businesses are built and seeing people do it in real time is especially fun. The last year and a half of building The Market, my creative studio, has come with so many ups and downs. The whole first year was a whirlwind of ‘Is this going to work? Am I doing this right?’ to now, having a full client roster and meeting with my first contractor today to help with my work load.
Inside the Studio
I’ve always been curious into how other people are running their business. After starting my own last year, I spent a lot of time listening to podcasts of other business owners and reading books hoping to find some guidance.
It feels like a breath of fresh air not being in corporate and still being able to do what I love and make a living.
This week, I’m going over my client onboarding process and there’s a whole monologue on the importance of the customer experience beyond answering emails promptly. If you’ve read the book Unreasonable Hospitality, then you might know where this is going.
And of course, I’m sharing all the books, podcasts, and articles I’m reading along with the blue light glasses I’m loving, and more.
I can talk about this stuff for hours (clearly) so enough yappin, let’s get into it.
The Grocery List: Media I’ve been consuming
Japanese Color Combination Dictionaries - I’ve seen so many artists on Substack mention these handy little color combo books. I got both copies and I’ve already tabbed so many pages of color combos I like for the house and other creative projects.
How to See | I took art history classes in college but do I remember any of it? Not really. Lauren Sands has really inspired me to expand my horizons, learn about more artists, and this is one of the books she recommends. Each chapter is a different artist and it goes over their catalogue of work, references, and what inspired them. It’s more academic than leisurely but that’s why I like it.
Le Monde d’Hermès magazines | My latest hyper fixation. I’m working on building my own creative archive - full of books, magazines, collected print items I found inspiring - and my god I love these magazines. It occurred to me recently that books and magazines are a business expense, cause it’s education… so I ordered 7. Don’t worry my CPA doesn’t have a substack. The design and story of each magazine is completely different than the last and it’s a visual FEAST for the eyes. Stunning photography and the stories inside are beautifully written as well. I’m obsessed and I keep buying them on eBay for anyone else who’s interested.
HSR: Jun Yuh on Content Creation & Strategy Podcast Episode | I loved listening to this podcast and it gave me a different perspective on content creation. Rather than aimlessly scrolling for trends to copy, it dives into the deeper personal side of content creation. It’s focused more on solo creators but I plan on using the outline for coming up with new ideas for my clients.
The Tech Bro-ification of Marketing | This NY Times article by Miranda Shanahan (here on substack) talks about how recently job titles like ‘Narrative Engineer’ and ‘Growth Architect’ are repackaging marketing roles (that are predominately female) to make them more appealing for men. Previously I had just rolled my eyes at the absurd job titles for standard marketing positions but it’s so much deeper than that. I highly recommend giving this one a read.
On the Clock: What I’ve been working on recently
Onboarding a new client & My process
This month, I onboarded a new client in the educational tech world. The onboarding process sets the tone for the whole experience in my opinion. It shows how organized you are and sets the expectations not only of what you’ll be doing for them - but also what part they’ll play in the process. I always want my processes to be as streamlined and simple for the client as possible. It’s all about the client experience and it starts here.
Here’s a look into my onboarding process for when we sign a new client.
