#awinewith Stephanie Dutta
MEET Stephanie, Founder of The Jeanie Design Studio
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:07):
Oh my god, Steph, we're here and you have wine.
Stephanie Dutta (00:11):
Oh, you know, weekday Wednesday wine. I love it.
Danielle Lewis (00:14):
I'm so down for this. Also, like we're so on brand like you with the red wine and the red hair. Me with the bubbles. Yellow wine, yellow hair. Got blondie hair. So good. I love it. We've just really done this right today.
Stephanie Dutta (00:31):
Yeah. I always see a bubble in your hand.
Danielle Lewis (00:34):
Well, I think it's an important part of business that isn't talked about enough
Stephanie Dutta (00:38):
Coping mechanisms. I like it.
Danielle Lewis (00:40):
Absolutely. I need to put a responsible service of alcohol. Disclaimer on this podcast, I think. Oh my God. But thank you enough about me. Thank you for being here. I'm so excited to chat. We've known each other for a little while now, so excited to share your business story with the Spark community.
Stephanie Dutta (01:00):
Yeah, it's good to know you on a personal level and now I get to do fun things like this with you, a podcast. Yes.
Danielle Lewis (01:06):
So good. Why don't we start with just telling everybody who you are and what you do.
Stephanie Dutta (01:12):
I am Stephanie Dutcher. I own the Genie Design Studio and we're a full service branding and web design studio. And throughout the years I found that I started in print design and I worked lots of retail brands and B2B, B2C every time a marketing team. Then moved into social media when that started becoming a thing and then learned website design eventually. And I thought why not put that into one business and clients have the one person to work with the whole way through. And I get great feedback on that and that's how the junior Design studio was born.
Danielle Lewis (01:50):
Oh my God, I love it. I love it. And it's so true, isn't it? I work with a few clients who have a different agency for every task and everyone's always competing and everyone's always doing something a little bit different and comms suck. So I love the idea of having it all in the one place.
Stephanie Dutta (02:11):
Yeah, I think branding has always been such an important pillar of everything that I do. So when you have one designer to work on everything, it's super consistent, the messaging's consistent, obviously you need to work with a few other creatives to make it happen. But yeah, the end product is really seamless every time.
Danielle Lewis (02:30):
That's so good. And so tell me then, in your opinion for us business owners out there, why is that consistency of brand actually important?
Stephanie Dutta (02:41):
Yeah, I think just because online businesses are just so saturated. Anyone can create a website and anyone can get a brand online for fairly cheap. But I think when people are trying to choose between two different businesses online, they're going to pick the one that has a better online presence that's easy to use. And I say it all the time, it's about building brand trust. And I think when people are visiting websites, the one that's easy to use and that looks cleaner and looks more professional is the one that people think, oh, this person knows what they're doing so I can trust them and I can trust their product. So I think that is just going to help your sales across the board when you have that strong visual presence and consistency.
Danielle Lewis (03:35):
Yeah, it's really interesting because I know in a lot of business advice we say be scrappy, just get something live, just do it. And it's like I think that that does hold merit for maybe the very, very beginning, but you are so right. If you think about yourself as a consumer, if you were shopping around and I mean you take what I do, for instance, in influencer marketing, there's plenty of agencies out there that do influencer marketing, so why come to me? You'll come to me because yeah, you resonate with my messaging, you resonate with the brand, the style, the content we're putting out. And if that's all over the place then, and I don't even think it's conscious, I think consumers go to your website or go to your socials and if it's just confusing, they go, but with a strong brand then they just, if something just clicks and that helps 'em to take that leap into contacting you.
Stephanie Dutta (04:39):
Yeah, and I think 100%, a lot of people can start off do it on their own and have some really beautiful results, especially when they're first getting it off, getting their business off the ground, but the further down that business path you go, you really want to have solid foundations to build on. I think one thing I love about your brand for Spark is I think you are your brand and that's always, so the value of you being your own ambassador for your brand I think is so powerful. I think you've done that really consistently with your brand.
Danielle Lewis (05:18):
I try. I try. I know it's interesting though, isn't it, the difference between having a brand that's like a brand versus a brand that is heavily driven by the founder, and I always find that a really hard line to straddle, for lack of a better word to figure out. You've also got to think about the end game as well. Where is this actually going? If it's all about me, does that limit my options for the future? Does it seem small if it's about me? So I really, I don't know. Do you have any advice to people that are trying to figure out how to make that decision, whether it should be just themselves as a personal brand also, if you decide to make it just all about you, do you still have to think about branding?
Stephanie Dutta (06:12):
100%. I think you still have to think about branding when it is all about you because just your personality would then be your brand's personality and you really want that to shine through because when people are looking to work with you, they're looking for personalities that match. So if your personality shines through, then I think that'll shine through your brand as well. At the moment, the junior design studio is definitely, I'm the face of the brand and I love that and my clients really love that as well. So I'm definitely running with that in terms of whether people are deciding. Yeah, definitely don't fence it either go down that path of fully embracing yourself as the owner in the face, or if you do want to take a step back and be able to leave your business occasionally, then maybe the agency pathway and kind of branding for yourself is a better look because at least you have other people you can rely on to pass things off on. At the moment, I'm still in the first few years of my business, so I want to be here and I want to be working with the clients every day and I'm still loving that. So that's really enjoyable first part of business and I think people should enjoy that first part of business.
Danielle Lewis (07:35):
Totally. I think that's such a good point because I think it doesn't matter what stage of business you're at, you can choose to be stressed out in the very beginnings when there's heaps to hustle for when they're, oh my God, I've landed a whole bunch of clients and I dunno how I'm actually going to service them or the, oh my god, I've now got to hire people. You can literally choose to be stressed out every step of the way. So I like that idea of actually stopping to enjoy it and something stuck in my mind before that you said around brand and how yes, you can kind of be scrappy in the first instance, but then sitting down and actually establishing your brand and getting somebody professional to work on it. There's one thing that's annoying me at the moment is Canva templates. I see all of these brands cropping up that just look like Canva templates and I mean, don't get me wrong, Canva's great. I use it for some of my things, but I try not to use any templates. I try and create my own just using that tool. But yeah, I feel like having someone on your team like you to actually sit down and understand what it is you're trying to achieve is a much better strategy
Stephanie Dutta (08:49):
I think because it is just me. I try and set up more kind of design for other business owners so that they don't have to keep coming back to me because they don't want to be constantly spending the money every month. So setting up a web design that people can edit themselves is super important to us. And then setting up Canva templates that are custom to your brand, but then you can take away and use yourself. So it's like that middle ground where you can still have these custom and beautiful things, but you can still do it yourself so that you can keep the budget low. And that is,
Danielle Lewis (09:31):
I have to interrupt you and say, that is the most important thing. Do you know how much money I've wasted in the 10 years of scrunch on fucking custom websites? And every time I was like, this is ridiculous. I want to change one word and I have to get a software developer to do it. So people need to go with somebody that can set them up on a platform that is editable. And
Stephanie Dutta (09:57):
Especially in your first few years of website design, it's going to change and your target market's going to change quite quickly as you pivot and figure out what market you want to pick. So you don't want to invest too much money in that at the very start until you've figured out all those nickles and knots.
Danielle Lewis (10:17):
Yeah. Well speaking of that, as you are trying to figure out what it is you stand for and what your brand is, if you were sitting down with a new customer and talking to them and trying to figure out what their brand was, do you have any tips on what people should think about before they come to you or what you'd go through with them?
Stephanie Dutta (10:40):
So particularly with the branding process, I always start off with a questionnaire so that I can really get people thinking deeply about their brand and starting, so I can start to build some of that strategy around the visual identity. And we always ask is what motifs come to mind? What symbols and imagery come to mind with your brand? It doesn't have to make sense. It can be a glass of wine. And then I'll synthesize that down
Danielle Lewis (11:07):
And just, Hey, don't steal my brand people.
Stephanie Dutta (11:11):
And then we ask things like what adjectives do you want people to associate with your brand when they come and work with you, and how do you want people to feel when after they finish working with you? And just having those emotions and getting the client to tell me what those three emotions are, just changes the game for how we look at the logo, the colors, the brand photography, everything else. And then also it's not always good to look at your competitors, but we do look at competitors and see what's missing in that market or see things that we want to avoid and not copy and how we can come at something in the industry with a fresh new perspective.
Danielle Lewis (12:00):
I love that because I think I reflect on, I guess just being a business owner for a little while now, and some of the things like with the bad voice in your head tells you you're an idiot. Some of the things that I reflect on, I feel like you've kind of solved with those things. So sometimes I kind of go, why would people work with us? There's so many people that do this right now, but when you are really clear on your point of difference and how you do stand out, that's so much easier to reconcile in your head. And even I love you saying, what are the emotions you associate with your business and brand? Because that's another thing. It's like if you can't show up for your business every day, if you don't love working in it, then that gets really hard. So if you've kind of done that brand work of establishing this is what we stand for, this is how we make people feel, this is how I feel, this is how I show up, this is how we are different. That's actually just great foundations for longevity in business.
Stephanie Dutta (13:04):
Yeah, 100%. And I think it's also a good self-reflection activity to see what you stand for. What do you want your business to stand for me, myself, working on your own brand is quite difficult, but I'm really outspoken and I am really opinionated and confident and I wanted that to shine through my brand. It does. Thank you. Good. So yeah, I wanted everything to reflect that and I want the people who I work with to have similar values and appreciate that when they go through the branding and web design process with me. So I think showing that people knew straight away what to expect when working with me. I'm not going to sit on be a wallflower and I'm going to be the one who tells them they're missing something. Tell them they're missing some groundwork, some marketing strategies before we even get to branding or website.
Danielle Lewis (14:07):
Yeah. Are there any things, well, that's interesting talking about I guess those foundations. What do people actually need to think about when it comes to a website? Are there things that they should be doing before they get to you or are there some best practices that you have to consider when you're building someone's website?
Stephanie Dutta (14:27):
Yeah, I mean website design, yeah, it really is only one piece of the puzzle. You've got to have the sales strategies to back it up. And also having a launch plan ready for when your website does go live. It's not going to make sales if the rest of your systems aren't working. And also making sure that you've picked the right target market to start with. Because if you are building a website and you've picked a completely a target market where there's no demand for your product or your service, the wrong words are going to be at the forefront. You are talking to the wrong people. So I think that's really important. So I always say getting some copywriting done first and foremost, and a lot of copywriters do that extra layer of strategy and talk about your systems and how to be a bit more strategic with your words. That's really important.
Danielle Lewis (15:28):
So much to bloody think about in business isn't there.
Stephanie Dutta (15:32):
It is. It feels quite natural once you start. But yeah,
Danielle Lewis (15:38):
That's why it's good having someone like you around that can step you through the process.
Stephanie Dutta (15:42):
And I worked so many different marketing teams. I worked at Michael Hill, jewel, and that was a massive marketing team, obviously with lots of different departments and you can kind of see how everything interacts and it's really prioritizing where you're going to get the most value and the most bang for your buck with your time and energy. Not everyone can afford to be doing social media every day, starting to thinking about those other lead generation channels.
Danielle Lewis (16:15):
And what are your thoughts about, so from a branding and web point of view, website point of view, is it like do it once, forget about it, or is this something that you should revisit often? What's your perspective on updating things?
Stephanie Dutta (16:30):
It depends if it's working for you and are your visitors dropping off at a certain time? Are you not making sales always assessing how much or how little people are interacting with your website? If it's working well, I would focus your efforts elsewhere because we only have limited amounts of time as business owners. So one thing that is always good to keep top of mind is making a blog post every now and again for organic SEO, transferring a few words on each page, just so every couple of months, just so Google can see they're giving us fresh content. It doesn't have to be heaps of stuff, but just so that Google knows it's fresh content. Otherwise we'll just keep being bumped down the Google ladder
Danielle Lewis (17:23):
And we don't want that. We need to please Google Gods. Oh, I love it. No, that's so good. It's something that I feel like a website feels like a big project. Brand feels like a big project. You kind of do wonder how often you need to revisit it or once you do that kind of, I guess it's like foundations. If you kind of do it right at the beginning, then it is just those small tweaks rather than it being like a giant ordeal every couple of years or one to two years. So
Stephanie Dutta (17:55):
I like that. And if you have budget for it, invest early, get it done the first time so that you don't have to throw it out and start again two years later because it wasn't what you wanted. So yeah, striking a good balance.
Danielle Lewis (18:10):
Yeah, I can attest to that. I've thrown out many websites. Oh my God, I love it. I love it. Okay, so let's talk about your journey in business. So we know that you've gone from career woman to business owner. What was it like making the leap from employee to business owner and how did you make that decision?
Stephanie Dutta (18:38):
I think I always wanted to have my own business. I definitely worked at some really, I definitely burnt a lot of midnight oil at a lot of places, and I think I realized if I'm going to be putting in this much hard work, I want to be doing it for myself and my own business. And then I also just had a lot of support from friends, family, other women in business who just said, you can totally do this. And it was just about backing myself 100% and just diving in and doing it. And that's how I learned. That's how I realized I loved it and I was meant to be doing this.
Danielle Lewis (19:18):
I love it.
Stephanie Dutta (19:20):
But yeah, I definitely, I was often, I was at a design agency once where we weren't allowed to ask questions of the client because it was perceived as being difficult. And I just thought, that's so not me. I'm so open and honest and transparent, and I wanted to build a business where it's okay to have a bit of a relationship with the client. And definitely there's a market for people who just want you to go away and do the design, but I like the personal relationships that I build with people, and I think that's something that I really enjoy about running my own business. And I think that's why I did it
Danielle Lewis (20:02):
Also. I mean, I get it. Some things I get outsourcing and saying, this is what I want, just do it and come back to me. But I kind of feel like if you didn't ask questions and really get to know people that I almost am the first thing that comes back people wouldn't be happy with because I don't think people can really articulate things sometimes. I don't think people can actually say, I want it to look like X, Y, Z. This is exactly what I'm all about. I mean, I'm 10 years in and I'm still like, I'll listen to a podcast and I'll be like, oh yeah, that's what it is. That's how to say it, or I'm still trying to figure it out. If you didn't build those connections and relationships, I kind of feel like it'd be hard for you to do your job.
Stephanie Dutta (20:43):
And I think it's also about coming with questions to the client, but also already having solutions ready to go so that they feel reassured if they're not sure about something.
Danielle Lewis (20:58):
And how do you go, I know you are in a co-work space. How do you go, what's the structure of your day? Have you consciously done co-work space to be around other people? How do you manage your energy? And I know you already said when you worked in for other people, you burnt the midnight oil anyway, so you're probably just that type of person, but how have you found it when it is more solo?
Stephanie Dutta (21:26):
It's good because you can kind of embrace when you're feeling creative and then relax and try and take a load off when you're not feeling creative, like doing a nine to five. If you're not feeling creative, you still have to show up and try and be creative, which just burns money
Danielle Lewis (21:46):
Now. Yeah,
Stephanie Dutta (21:47):
Totally.
Danielle Lewis (21:48):
Sitting there staring at the screen.
Stephanie Dutta (21:50):
Whereas now I'm like, I know I'm not going to be productive today so I can enjoy the fruits of my labor and relax today and do other things that light me up and then come back tomorrow and be five times more productive. And I think that's a really special part of owning your own business, getting to pick those hours. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (22:12):
That's so good. What about challenges? What's been your biggest challenge being in business for yourself?
Stephanie Dutta (22:19):
Definitely cashflow is really hard, but for me, I've always used that time to develop my skills further and develop a really premium process for my clients so that they feel really taken care of, taken when they come and work with me. And that's also meant, yeah.
Danielle Lewis (22:46):
Yeah. I think we were actually just talking about this before we hit record, what do you do in the quiet periods of business? And I love that we actually didn't say skill development, but that makes perfect sense. We were talking about building, I guess the on your business, so systems, processes, courses, eBooks, lead magnets, all the stuff that's like when you are busy, you actually never get time for, but it's really hard. I think I find it difficult in slow periods not to just be panicking.
Stephanie Dutta (23:20):
And I think one thing that I always picked up that other business owners told me is that as soon as you're busy, raise your breaks.
Danielle Lewis (23:30):
Oh my God, that's the best tip. Yes.
Stephanie Dutta (23:33):
So of course I'm going to have down periods and of course there's going to be some drop-offs in cashflow, but because I've raised my rate, because I'm offering more and a more bespoke custom service, there's going to be space in between. And so seeing it as a really positive thing instead of a negative thing. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (23:54):
I love that reframe. You've done that twice in this podcast of seeing the opportunities and the positive side of things. It's so important. It is, I think hard sometimes not to let your mind wander and worry about things, but if you do choose to reframe things as more positive, then that can only be a good thing, right?
Stephanie Dutta (24:19):
Yeah, 100%. And I think my business is changing a lot every day as well, I think as everyone's does in those first few years of business. So I relish all those opportunities to really refocus on what it is I want to be achieving.
Danielle Lewis (24:36):
That's so good. I love it. And what about, one thing I always ask people is if you could reflect on your time in business and give advice to someone that might be either considering starting their own business or is perhaps just started and is going, oh my God, what the hell did I get myself into? Do you have any words of wisdom or advice for female founders or women in business who might be feeding some advice?
Stephanie Dutta (25:05):
Yeah, look, honestly back yourself 100% more than any skills or more than experience, it's backing yourself and having the confidence in yourself day in, day out. And for me, that was quitting my nine to five, jumping into business, sink or swim. Doing that was just executing, showing myself that I have confidence in myself. So you can have those doubts, but forcing yourself through it anyway I think is just such an important thing about business. It's just a limitless amount of confidence you need, right, every day. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (25:45):
That's so true. Do you have tips to getting there? So I know you just said, okay, even on the days you don't feel like it, you've got to force yourself into it. Do you have any tips for how you do that on the days that you don't want to show up? How you find the confidence to back yourself?
Stephanie Dutta (26:01):
Well, it's not a nine to five anymore, so if I'm not feeling it today, then I have the rest of the day to pull myself back together and then tomorrow's a fresh day and you start again. And so although you might have those little downs throughout the day, blips those little blips, resetting yourself at the start of the day and coming back with confidence or forcing yourself to have confidence's, really important. And I think also just utilizing other women in business to lean on is really important. I don't know how many times I've come to you with my business problem, and I think especially in Brisbane, the business community is really close and really supportive of each other. So remembering who helped you and remembering to repay that back and say thank you is really important as well.
Danielle Lewis (27:01):
Yeah, that's so true. I mean, it's funny. I like the idea of, you're right, it's not a nine to five, so you do have those opportunities to sort of reflect and look after yourself. I find sometimes with me, it's just like as soon as I give myself permission to just stop. So it's like when I go, if you're looking at this to-do list, it's overwhelming. I'm going, I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it. I don't feel like it rah. Having that moment as soon as I go, okay, well you know what? I'm going to go and have a bath and read a book and have a glass of wine depending on what time of day it is. And then it's almost like as soon as I get in, I've gone through, I've gone cool, I'm leaving that to-do list behind. I'll deal with it later. And then as soon as I get in the bath and two minutes later I'm like, oh, I really want to do that stuff now. It's just giving your permission, yourself permission to actually take a break and step away and go, you know what? The world's not going to end. If I don't do that right now, take care of me and I'll be reinvigorated.
Stephanie Dutta (28:01):
Yeah, I think that's especially true for you and you and me, our type A personalities.
Danielle Lewis (28:07):
Yes. Oh my God. It's just, I don't know, it's so bizarre. Yeah. I just find as soon as I start relaxing, I go into awesome. Now I can do everything and build the empire and take over the world mode. I'm like, no, you're meant to be relaxing.
Stephanie Dutta (28:23):
I think it's also just following your intuition with a lot of it. You can buy all the courses in the world, but in the end there's going to be a gut feeling that feels right for you and you're only going to learn when you try it. So I always want to be trusting my intuition and trying the thing and seeing if it works and then all learning from my mistakes.
Danielle Lewis (28:51):
Yeah, I love that. I think you're so right when you start a business, you don't know what's ahead of you, right? You've got to wear so many different hats. You have no idea what the path looks like. You kind of have a clue as to what you want to do for people, but even that changes over time, so you're right, trusting your gut and trying things out and sort of navigating the path. I love that. That's the best advice ever.
Stephanie Dutta (29:18):
And I think being how I positioned myself and my brand as being me and being open and honest, I can kind of afford to make mistakes occasionally and be really human and be upfront and honest with my clients about what's going on. It's not a big company where I need to put on a different face to try and show some sort of professionalism like I'm human. And I think that's one thing that people always come to me because they know, I'll be honest, no matter what happens down the road, I'll be the first to tell them if something's wrong with the website and then the first to fix it as well. So that little element of humanity in our brands and putting ourselves forward on social media and our websites, that really assists you further down the line with all your interactions.
Danielle Lewis (30:17):
Yeah, I totally agree. It's interesting when you see people interact with big brands, how they do forget that there's humans on the other side of their customer service emails or their posts on social media. So I think you're right. There is actually a benefit of showing up a little bit more human and being open with people being honest and sharing your journey. Yeah, that's actually really interesting. I've not thought about that. That's what I say when I talk to people about influencer marketing. I'm like, you've got to remember that the influencer on the other side of the email is a person. They're not just their Instagram account. And I'm like, to the influencer, you've got to remember that there's a human on the other end of the marketing email that you're emailing trying to get work. You are so right. It is. We're all just sitting here behind our email inboxes trying the best we can. So sometimes humanify, that's not a word the brand could probably bode well, I think for business growth.
Stephanie Dutta (31:27):
And I think a client came to me the other day and said to me, got this problem with our website. It was not my website, it was someone else's. And I said, I don't know if I can fix it, but I'll have a look and I'll let you know. And I think people like that switch in honesty, because I'm not going to tell you I can do everything I can't, but I'm a really good problem solver and I'll always find a solution. So instead of looking for someone who can solve all your problems, just find someone who has a good problem solution, way to work through issues. And I think that's what I do really well.
Danielle Lewis (32:06):
Oh my God, I love it so much. Thank you so much, Steph, for joining me on Spark tv. You're absolutely incredible. I know there's so many people listening in right now who are going, oh my God, I've got to get my brand locked in. So I know we would've inspired some people to have a reflect on their businesses. So you're incredible. Thank you for joining us
Stephanie Dutta (32:32):
Sales and a good website is all you need. So that's us too.
Danielle Lewis (32:37):
I love it. Oh my God. New podcast and a good website is all you need. Yes, that's perfect. Amazing. Cheers. See you later.
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