Building a Startup Brand in Record Time with Carly Jefferson

Eric (00:03.069)
seconds in the meantime in the meantime you're okay you're you're from South Africa or from Canada I forgot okay I thought you were Canadian yeah yeah okay Vancouver or what part

Carly Jefferson (00:09.24)
I'm Canadian. Yeah. I'm Canadian. Yeah.

Carly Jefferson (00:16.698)
Yeah, I'm from Vancouver. So was born in Vancouver. I mean, my, it's such a hard question when someone's like, where are you from? I'm like, where was I born? Where did I grow up? Where do I live now? Which one do mean? I grew up in Uganda, actually, in Africa. And I would move there and I was two and I am originally Canadian, have a Canadian passport, have just been living five years in South Africa. Lived, I think, Canada for 10 years, but Vancouver, yeah.

Eric (00:24.067)
Yeah. Yeah.

Eric (00:30.053)
Okay.

Eric (00:45.029)
All right. I think Vancouver is the most beautiful city in North America. went many years ago and would love to go back. Okay. Yeah. God, this is like 2002 maybe. And I used to work for continental airlines. And so every weekend I would go to a different city and travel with people who I worked with. And we just stayed at a.

Carly Jefferson (00:51.068)
That's amazing. When were you there? You were there.

Eric (01:06.361)
You know, at a hostel or something, but I remember exploring the city and going to like Stanley park and you know, the downtown area and all that. It was really nice.

Carly Jefferson (01:14.038)
Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I mean it is. It's known for the nature and it is super beautiful.

Eric (01:19.065)
Yeah. Okay. All right. Carly, Carly Jefferson. Welcome to Innovators Can Laugh. How are you doing today? I'm pretty good. You know, I'm actually a foodie and I was, I was stalking your LinkedIn profile and you actually worked for a company called Foodie. So tell me about that.

Carly Jefferson (01:24.844)
I'm great, how are you?

Carly Jefferson (01:37.522)
Yeah, my gosh. I joined it because I too am a foodie. when I, they are a B2B food delivery service. I joined them, it feels like a lifetime ago. But when I originally was there, I think we were in...

cities and by the time I left we were in like 14. So I helped really scale and grow across North America and everybody there is a foodie. We all just really believe and you know getting around the table and that's how you connect with people is through food and eating and yeah that's really where I started my career as a growth marketer.

Eric (02:13.401)
How did you get into different cities? Because obviously restaurants can do that in the same city being local, but you guys were in six cities.

Carly Jefferson (02:21.71)
Well, actually, I think they're now, when I left, were at 14. It's a SaaS platform. So we would work with different local restaurants, bring them onto our platform, and had the tech to be able to bring them to offices. So it was really cool because we got to work with, you know, your mom, pot, whether it's like a taco shop, a local taco shop in Austin that didn't have that, you know, lunch catering.

Eric (02:29.272)
Gotcha. Gotcha.

Carly Jefferson (02:49.128)
option and we would just be able to plug and play into different cities to be able to enable them to do that in the business world. Yeah, very, very fun and cool. Obviously took a hit in COVID, but yeah.

Eric (02:58.51)
Okay.

Yeah. Well, it sounds like it was Uber Eats before Uber Eats came around a little bit.

Carly Jefferson (03:05.806)
of accept Uber Eats is definitely more B2C, or sorry, like it's just it's definitely more like home. And this is really like B2B, right? And so it's like, and I think offices are a lot different to cater than just like me ordering on Uber Eats, right? Like you're looking at like, how do you, how do you get a local restaurant and then all of a sudden delivered to 50 people in the office? It's a much different food experience. And so

Eric (03:21.988)
Yeah.

Eric (03:30.703)
Yeah.

Carly Jefferson (03:32.399)
that was the problem we were looking to solve. yeah, since I left, they were acquired and I think they're doing great now. yeah.

Eric (03:40.325)
Yeah, no, I used to do that. I worked at this restaurant in downtown Houston and we would cater to all the companies in downtown. And I'll never forget one of the companies was Enron. This is before Enron declared bankruptcy and everything. They ordered like 20 pizzas and I couldn't carry all the pizzas. And so I asked my little brother to help me out. I just picked him up and I told him to carry that bag over there and it was especially designed pizza bag.

Carly Jefferson (03:42.872)
video.

Eric (04:06.081)
And I remember going into like the elevators and going up to Enron and I'm looking at the pizza box and he had laid it horizontally and not vertically. And I was just like, what the fuck? What are you doing? And he's like, what do mean? go, those are pizzas. You know, those were pizzas. And so I remember the elevator door opening and I just felt so embarrassed to having to tell the client like, okay, I got half your order. the other half will be here in about an hour because you know, we screwed up here. And, but.

The thing is, is that pizza tastes delicious, whether it's, you know, all the, all the toppings have been on one side or not. So me and some other people from the restaurant got to take those pizzas home, but I never forget that day.

Carly Jefferson (04:48.634)
my god, there's some silver lining. Doesn't work the same when you're like delivering curry or it could have been messy.

Eric (04:56.136)
Yeah, yeah, could have been really, really messy. Now, what made you take the leap and start Anson's Creative? And then also, where'd you come up with this name? Because it's very unique.

Carly Jefferson (05:08.288)
Yeah, and so basically I had left my corporate job in tech as my executive role and I started to do a little bit more consulting. Really focusing on my skill set at the time which is growth marketing and I was working with startups. I've always been passionate about the startup world and I found that when I was working with them

we would be working on these incredible digital strategies. I'd be looking at SEO, we'd be looking at paid ads. And if they didn't have strong, and it wasn't working, right? And I found all of these marketing efforts and spend was wasted because they didn't have their branding foundation. They didn't have a strong cohesive message. They didn't know how to say who they were. They didn't know how to articulate their value proposition. They didn't have a strong presence that really

visual identity that connected with their audience, let alone having that deeper understanding of what's going to work with their audience. And so I kind of was at this place where I was like, I can only go so far with the like, as I was consulting. And so at that time, I then met my business partner, she was coming off of her second mat leave, she had two kids at home, she had worked at, you know, Hershel, Hershel backpack.

Eric (06:24.217)
Herschel? The... No, never heard of it. No.

Carly Jefferson (06:27.502)
Maybe you will now if you see backpacks. Hershel, it's a big brand. I think they have, they're huge, they're very global. She was part of the founding team of about 20 of them. She'd been there for seven, eight years. And she was the design side. And I looked at kind of where I was and I'd done branding work, but more positioning, messaging, but I needed somebody with like a really strong design aesthetic. And so the two of us kind of came together and were like, why don't we just try this? So.

My last name is Jefferson. She's a Davidson. The idea is and Suns Creative. So it's your company and Suns. We really like from the get -go, we wanted it to be like a partnership. And yeah, it's been amazing because I think like both of our skill sets really kind of complimented each other that we can go in and have that really holistic branding experience with startups. Yeah.

Eric (07:00.997)
You

Eric (07:17.305)
Yeah. Okay. The name totally makes sense. Now I get it. Yeah. Okay. Now what is some practical advice or what is some of the advice that you share with companies that you're working with, in order to come out of the gate with a strong brand, or if they, if they're already out of the gate, what are some steps that they can take to, get the branding right?

Carly Jefferson (07:36.664)
Yeah, I mean, it's a good question. I really think it always starts with aligning your brand and growth goals, right? And so one example that I think is really strong, actually in the first year of business, we had a health fintech company come to us and the founder had this like incredible vision. he was, I, you know, when you meet someone, like, you're gonna do big things. And I knew that with him, but he didn't have any of the tech built. He didn't have the product at all. He had a vision and he had growth goals.

But his goals were very clear. He was looking for investment. And so we built a brand. We worked on his pitch deck. We built the website. That was all he had. In the next few months, he raised $17 .5 million. I mean, it was amazing. And that's such a success story. And not everybody is going to be able to do that. But I think we have a process where we start.

every single project with something called our brand blueprint. It's a 90 minute deep dive into your business. And I think you need to have, it's essentially a brand strategy. You need to have that first before you jump into a lot of people are like, think that their logo is going to make all the difference. And so they want to spend time, you know, on one piece of it, but branding is really all of it together. So if you can recognize that it's every single customer touch point, and you're being really intentional in all of those touch points and making sure that they all have that cohesive message that you're

trying to get across, it's going to be a lot easier. Do you know what I mean?

Eric (09:03.619)
So I can understand the messaging part, right? Making sure that, you know, maybe it's the specific tagline, the specific copy, the specific unique value proposition, the design part. This is where your coworker comes in, right? Your colleague.

Carly Jefferson (09:18.016)
Yes, exactly. So and I mean, it's all connected, right? look, I would say like we first year business, we didn't have our brand blueprint, we would jump right into the design. And but like, when you're building a website, the reason that we also do all the copy in house is because

the amount of words that you have in a section on your website, the way it looks visually, that's your first impression. That's how I'm going to be able to digest it as a customer. So your messaging works hand in hand with how the design works, right? It all is really integrated. I mean, it's called result design, and that means that everything as a whole is your brand. Everything as a whole works together. So yeah, it all works together. I think that that's the key there.

Eric (10:06.147)
What's the term that you just coined right now?

Carly Jefferson (10:08.866)
It's called Gizalt Design. I didn't coin it. I wish I made it. I wish I did. It's the strategy that we use. so it's, yeah, it's the process of everything working together because a lot of people think that just a logo, like a brand is just a logo, right? And it's not. It really is. Everything from your messaging to, I think your customer experience as well. It's how your customers perceive you and what they say about you when you're not in the room.

Eric (10:37.573)
Okay, this 90 minute blueprint, is it ideal for which type of companies like early stage startups or even bigger companies?

Carly Jefferson (10:46.19)
Primarily our audience is early stage startups, but we have done this with larger companies too. I I recently actually just did it for a company, a clean tech company in Canada actually that was launching a new product and they really needed to make sure that they have a strong and clear understanding of their positioning and how they want to enter the market. So yeah, it really helps us a lot of the time. I think I've seen founders try and be everything to everyone.

And I think that that is a real weakness. I've worked at companies and seen them do that. And I think it also is in campaigns and everything too. So we have a very structured interview that we take people through, which helps get to the core and really align those brand and growth goals. Where do you want to go? Where are you today? And what do you need to do to get there to reach it? And so we give you a tailored roadmap, how to get there.

and it's really designed to stand on its own. And then the idea is you can either choose to work with us afterwards if you want us to execute it for you, or you can implement it yourself.

Eric (11:48.614)
When you say growth goals, I immediately think of like revenue targets or a certain number of sales or something like that. Is that that's what you mean? Is that correct?

Carly Jefferson (11:56.896)
Yeah, I think it is. But I mean, it also is the same as are you are you looking to raise right now? Is that a priority for you? Or are you not interested in bringing in and bringing in other partners? Are you looking to do this more bootstrapped and on your own? It's also are you looking to hire? Right? Like I mean, I've worked with companies that were like, we need to be we want to appeal to Silicon Valley developers. We're not getting a lot of good

employees coming to us. it really depends. Obviously revenue is a big part of it, but it's also your employees. It's also whether you're raising and things like that.

Eric (12:38.821)
Okay. And your core offerings are primarily like the website copy and then the design of the website too, or does it go beyond that as well?

Carly Jefferson (12:46.668)
It goes beyond that. everything is outlined in our brand blueprint. So, but what's unique about us is I have this growth marketing background.

And so when I am speaking to startups, I'm trying to figure out where they are and honestly what resources that they have so that they can, we're gonna give them something that they can manage themselves and that is going to be something that they can keep consistent. So we take a very holistic approach to it. Our packages, can, we have three packages. Again, we try and be super simple. Our first package we call,

Eric (13:11.802)
Gotcha.

Carly Jefferson (13:23.212)
the essentials and our second package is the growth launch pad and the third is our brand evolution. And really what those look at is you have your typical visual identity. So you have your logo, you have your brand colors, you have your messaging and your copy. A lot of the time clients will come to us and they just need a brand and a website. We'll do that. The next layer though is

Do you, now that you have people, do you have the automation in place so that you can nurture and convert those into customers, right? And so the next step may be, okay, let's look at your welcome series. Do you have a lead product that you need help with so then we can make sure that when people come to your website, again, we're capturing them if they're not yet ready to buy. And so I'm always, really, again, like everything is very tailored to.

where startups and we work primarily with founders like where founders are in their stage of growth. Usually their teams are pretty small when they come to us but if they like for example if they don't have a marketing team I don't want to give them something that they can't manage themselves. Let's put some automation in place so that it's really easy for you to be able to have a brand that's going to scale with you.

Eric (14:35.173)
Okay. And how quickly can this be done? So assume a company signs up, you have this 90 day blueprint workshop that's done in a couple of hours or less. And if they're like, okay, let's move forward. How quickly can you guys move and maybe get a new website, know, spun up with maybe the welcome series created too.

Carly Jefferson (14:55.628)
Yeah, so we are different than your traditional agency in that we build entire brands, including your logo, website design, all of the copy and a lead product and email automation systems if you were looking for that in just two to four days. And what I mean by that is we do it in two in just two to four days of your time. So if you once you've done the blueprint.

I mean, we usually are booking about six to eight weeks out, but once we schedule that session with you, by the end of it, you'll have absolutely everything that you need to launch.

Eric (15:27.306)
Okay. All right. This sounds, yeah. No, no, this sounds very interesting because I've never heard that an agency can quickly deliver a website, maybe the Welcome Flow.

Carly Jefferson (15:30.606)
It sounds like magic a little bit. It's hard to like.

Eric (15:44.345)
And a short amount of time span. So I guess just for clarification, once they have, once you guys have everything you need from the client, which usually may be, you know, a couple of days of interviews or questions or surveys, whatever the turnaround time could be as short as, as what.

Carly Jefferson (16:03.554)
It depends what package you fall in, but if you fall in the essentials package, the small package in two days, that's how quickly as we can do it. I am, I make magic happen, I'm telling you. I mean, it always starts with our brand blueprint. That's what's gonna be key, and that's the foundation and the strategy, and that's what's gonna dictate what your deliverables are.

Eric (16:10.649)
Are you Wonder Woman Carly? Cause -

Carly Jefferson (16:23.832)
for us to make that come to life, right? And so we already have, we have that, we have some onboarding materials, but once we have that, we are coming to this session really prepared. And honestly, we call them intensives, we work in intensives because it's intense, not just for us, but it's intense for you too because, and it's so fun, honestly, because the way we're able to do it is the design decisions that you make at each point build upon each other.

So we're going to give you, for example, day one is always, day one we want to nail the branding and the homepage, if that's one of our most standard packages. And so we're going to show you your logo options, maybe three. They're all going to hit your brand and growth goals.

and then you're gonna have to decide and clients have a hard time deciding between two. But it's really fun because you get to see it build in real time. So by the end of that session, we're then gonna show you the homepage and then we get your feedback in real time. So it really is this interactive workshop and yeah, it's awesome. I mean, I've done it the traditional way when we first four years ago started our agency. I had...

so many clients on Retainer, it took us months to build a website. And I was like, this is so inefficient. Not only is it inefficient for us and trying to manage multiple different clients at the same time, it's inefficient for the client because feedback is just going back and forth and like, they're also not, they're not really in that moment maybe thinking about how it's related to the bigger picture, which we're there to help guide them through.

We have this dedicated time and this process also, which makes us different, allows us to work with only one client at a time. And so we're able to go extremely deep in this process to deliver big results really fast.

Eric (18:17.135)
Got you. Got you. What are some of your favorite tools or platforms that you use when you're working for clients and trying to make this magic happen?

Carly Jefferson (18:26.274)
Yeah, good question. mean, obviously AI. Who isn't a fan of AI right now? I think I love, for startups, I really love Webflow right now. I think it's an amazing platform. also, now I'm talking specifically about websites. I love Squarespace. I think that if you're a small business, it's a great start. I've been also loving Flowdesk for email. Yeah, mean, Notion, that's like how I like.

my life is on notion, you know, that's how I've organized my life and self. Yeah, do you have any tools that you love? Like that help you?

Eric (19:01.997)
Okay. my God. I don't think I could live without Canva. I mean, every week I'm designing a new podcast art cover and then everything else that I do, usually there because I'm not a real designer. But Canva is probably the one I use. Same with Riverside for recording.

Carly Jefferson (19:07.17)
yeah.

Eric (19:18.551)
notion for a lot of my documents and files and things like that. But one new one that I'm using is pipe drive. It's my CRM and I'm becoming more dependent on that. So I've got my deal flow, not just for our new clients, but then also new podcasters, podcasters that I'm onboarding, as well. So I'm starting to, to use that CRM to its potential and I haven't even done any integrations yet and it can do so much more, but I'm sort of a beginner there, but I think in a few months I'll be at the intermediate level because I'll have a few integrations.

Carly Jefferson (19:48.056)
How do you think it, have you used HubSpot before?

Eric (19:50.551)
No, you know what I have? We had it at another startup that I worked at and I just thought it was really hard to navigate. I didn't think it was user friendly at all.

Carly Jefferson (19:59.996)
my God, weird. love, mean, I think maybe because it's like what you know. So I, because I used HubSpot so often, like I, I love it, but.

Eric (20:08.282)
Yeah.

Carly Jefferson (20:10.048)
Yeah, I think it is kind of maybe what you're used to, you know? And that's the thing, and that I will say when it comes to tools with clients. I I love Canva too, because what I'm always trying to give is the best option for them so that they can manage it. So what's different is I think a lot of people come and they're like, I think I need a WordPress website. Let's talk about who's gonna manage it and whether you're going to be able to update it and keep it regular before we just, you know.

Eric (20:14.81)
Yeah.

Carly Jefferson (20:36.428)
I don't just want to build something that you're not going to be able to upkeep. And a lot of the time clients don't have that knowledge. So let's find the best fit for you and give you everything so that you can keep it updated in an easy way. If it's hard, no one's going to do it, right? It's already hard enough to be consistent. So how can we make that as uncomplicated as possible?

Eric (20:54.285)
Yeah, totally, totally agree. Okay, I've got some rapid fire questions for you. Give me the first thing that pops into your head. Are you ready, Carly?

Carly Jefferson (21:02.104)
I don't know, yes.

Eric (21:03.941)
Okay. What's the biggest win you have had in the past few months?

Carly Jefferson (21:10.114)
The biggest win in the past few months, honestly, I just led this messaging workshop yesterday and it just feels like a win. It's a win because usually my messaging workshops are two days. This client had a bit more of a tighter budget and I was like, okay, I love what you're doing. They wanted to just really lean into being contrarian and we just nailed their tone and their brand and yeah, I'm excited now because it has kind of me thinking about.

new offers that we can launch as well. So yeah, I think that that's the biggest win.

Eric (21:44.837)
Okay. All right, cool. What's the thing that you enjoy most about London because you recently just moved there?

Carly Jefferson (21:52.81)
Yeah, I'm obsessed with this city already, I have to say. I've lived in a lot of places and I think it's the energy here and it's the fact that nobody is from here and everyone seems really welcoming, I think, because of that. I'll also note that the weather is my least favorite about it, but yeah.

Eric (22:13.598)
Yeah, mine too. don't even live there, but every time I visit, it's always raining.

Carly Jefferson (22:18.156)
The sun's actually out today, so, but it's rare.

Eric (22:22.521)
Yeah, okay, blank is a contest or a game I have won before.

Carly Jefferson (22:30.599)
A contest or game that I've won before? my gosh, I don't know.

Carly Jefferson (22:37.24)
That's like a hard question. I can't actually think of a contest that I remember. Like Scrabble? I'm really good at Scrabble.

Eric (22:43.247)
There you go. Scrabble. All right. Last one is instead of stock options and bonuses that you'll be giving to new hires, they will now get blank.

Carly Jefferson (22:55.96)
Good question. mean, bonuses. doesn't? We all need cash right now, right? I hear you.

Yeah, and also mentorship and direction though and time off. think especially now with summer, everybody needs to unplug, take a break. Our nervous systems matter more than ever.

Eric (23:11.171)
Yeah.

Yeah. Well, Europeans do love their time off and love is not the right word. It's just, no, it's not even demand. It's an expectation. I'll just put it that way.

Carly Jefferson (23:25.772)
No, and honestly that is so new because I, most of my career was in North America. know, our brand has really, working with startups, a lot of them are in California. And I'm like so used to that grind and I recently just kind of got back from Greece and I was like, I can learn something here. Like I think that they're doing things in a better way. And there is just like, you get there and there's something about life just feels slower, you know?

Eric (23:35.14)
Yeah.

Eric (23:48.865)
yeah. Yeah. Well, everybody's not working 24 seven, like people do in North America. And it's taken a while for me to get used to that, but slowly and gradually I am, I'm shifting that attitude towards the European lifestyle and I like it. Yeah.

Carly Jefferson (24:02.562)
Yeah, I mean, what's not to like? I think we have a lot to learn, you know? think, yeah, I think it gives you the space to be more creative and actually find clarity in that space of stepping away. I think a lot of the time in North America, people equate working hard or busy work with productivity, and that doesn't always match.

Eric (24:21.027)
Yeah, so true, so true. All right, there you have it folks. Carly Jefferson from At Suns Creative. I'm going to put links to the show to her website, to her LinkedIn profile. Carly, any other place where people can get in touch with you?

Carly Jefferson (24:35.83)
Yeah, I mean, I'll leave it on something, a kind of teaser that's coming soon. Our Instagram right now actually is Uncomplicated Brands. And we, just bought that domain. And so you might be seeing a rebrand coming soon and a new name that seems a little bit easier for you to say. So yeah, stay tuned for that, but you'll see Uncomplicated Brands and us leaning into that a little bit more.

Eric (25:01.209)
Fantastic. All right, for everybody tuning in, this is Eric and I'll be back next week with another exciting innovator that's either based in the UK or living in London. All right, cheers.