Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: The reason the logo is like, I would say it's even 10 or 7% of what a brand identity. I think nobody's interested anymore in that final polished product. Do not wait for that polished perfection to happen. Because people want to watch you. People want to invest in you. They want to understand your hardships, your challenges. They want to build alongside you. Understand that nobody knows what they're doing.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Welcome to the Entrepreneur's Lockbook podcast. I'm your host, Zach Bernard. You can find me on social at. It's Zack B. In each episodes, I bring on experts from various industries for you to learn about their strategies and insights driving extreme business growth. Today we're joined by Arielle Tejar, founder of Whip Creative Studio, a creative and experiential agency helping brands build a rich story driven identities and unforgettable real world experiences. She's a Miami based serial entrepreneur who's built multiple company over the last decade spanning a creative agency, an experiential agency, a luxury wedding planning company, and even a viral cafe. She ran for five years. With a background in theater and film for the New School and a master's in film from Tel Aviv, Storytelling has basically been at the core of everything that she's done. She's worked on campaigns for brand like Gucci, Spanx and Elf Beauty and even serves as the agency of record for Hulkin, the viral rolling tote now sold in Target. And she's even planned weddings that have had guests like Lebron James and Adele, believe it or not. So she's built all of this while raising two kids on funding everything herself. Great to have you on board. Welcome aboard.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Thank you so much for having me. What a great intro that was.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: We try. But hey, keep in mind those are all your accomplishments. I'm not creating anything that's not true here. But no. Thank you so much for joining us on the show and one of the things I always love to do with anyone that comes on as it is a business occupation, entrepreneurship podcast. You've obviously been around the block. You built quite a. You're a serial entrepreneur to put it very simply. But I'd really love to understand if you had to like rebuild like your companies just from scratch, knowing everything that you know, what's kind of like the one thing that you would do differently that you feel like a lot of entrepreneurs get totally wrong or they just go like wrongly about it.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Wow, it's such a great question because I firmly believe that everything that happened and the trajectory of everything I've built happened for a reason. And was a lesson that kind of, like, led to the next step. Right. Like, I really, truly feel like the only thing I would tell myself to do differently is to chill and. And not have such imposter syndrome and understand that nobody knows what they're doing and, you know, and to just, like, go a little easier on myself. But in terms of, you know, the actual steps I took, I would even go to say that sometimes today, with all the knowledge and experience I do have, I think it's almost more of a deterrent to take some of those risks. Like, I think today if somebody told me, hey, start a cafe, I probably would be like, oh, hell no.
But back then, I was naive, and that naivete was actually a gift.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: So I really don't think. I think other than just telling my soul and spirit to chill, I wouldn't do anything differently.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And I feel like, again, based on what you mentioned, it comes from experience, doing things and learning from them. Like, again, everything happens for a reason. I'm a big person. Like that Moto, like, I always say to, like, everyone, but if you haven't gone through these experiences, you wouldn't have learned these other things. And a good example that I like that you mentioned, like, now knowing everything that you do, maybe you wouldn't, like, do, like, a cafe. It's like, when you're a kid, you might have, like, a big, like, water slide. You're like, oh, yeah, like, I'll definitely go through it. And then you become an adult. You're like, yeah, I'm not doing that. I'm going to hurt myself or something like that.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: That.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: And I feel that that applies to, like, business and entrepreneurship, too. Just, like, learning everything new.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: It's such a great analogy, Zachary. And I feel like, yes, it's a great analogy, because I think, you know, as you get older, you. You start to understand more of, like, risk and implications of certain things. And, yeah, there's a beauty to, like, going into something with no money, no investment, just diving through, putting your sweat into it.
Yeah. Sometimes I miss the days.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: The good old days.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: I'm still in them, you know, a little more. A little more.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: No, I get what you're saying, and I love to, like, shift it a little bit. So when you look at, like, brands that. Because obviously, you're on the branding side of things, storytelling, everything like that. When you look at, like, brands that really connect with their audience versus the ones that, like, just look the part, what's kind of, like the difference? What are most businesses missing? When it comes to building something that people genuinely like feel something about, because that's like very important. I mean especially like the experiential side of things, like experiencing things, that's a big one. But a lot of brands don't do it correctly for sure.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: I think, you know, it's changing so quickly as well with social media and trends and stuff like that. But I. The biggest thing that comes to mind is like an overall arcing theme, I think would be consistency, consistency in brand voice and tone.
People want to kind of arrive and know, you know, once they get to know a brand or a founder or sort of tone of voice like that, it's consistent that like that humor level is going to continuously be there, that that kind of snark or whatever, you know, you've established in your brand tone stays consistent.
And then on top of that, I think today more than anything, people want to watch founders building. I think nobody's interested anymore in that fine, final polished product. Which is funny that I'm saying it because it's something that I as a founder am struggling to kind of like, you know, I can tell that to my, my clients and I can kind of say that, but still I'm struggling to kind of tell the story. But today, when any new brand is coming to me and we're kind of building out their brand identity and the strategy, I say start sharing today. Do not wait for that polished perfection to happen. Because people want to watch you, people want to invest in you, they want to understand your hardships, your challenges. They want build alongside you. So let them in on it.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: So I would say I think that's the most compelling thing that's happening in sort of brand, you know, brand storytelling right now.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think like it's that one movement that gone like viral. It's like building in public where people in like social etc, they build their company, they document like the entire thing. I feel like that's typically from like a, like an entrepreneurship like person setting, business owner. Like they're documenting like that the day to day, like the personal journey. But I feel that can be also applied to brands. And I'd be kind of curious to see like if you guys like what kind of the approach is like when you guys approach DOT for like brands that you guys work with.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, it's, that's a great question because one of the first things we ask founders when they approach us with like, hey, I'm starting xyz is how comfortable are you on camera? Like do you Want to put your face center. Because if that's the case, then we're going to weave that into the strategy.
If not, there are other ways to do that. There are ways to not necessarily talk to camera and sort of like, you know, you can do innovative carousels. But I think the brands that are standing out are the brands who are putting their founders front and center and their founders are telling their brand story throughout some of the content alongside the more polished stuff that's more sort of produced if you will.
I think brands and founders and the people behind them are becoming synonymous. Like I don't think that that's really a divide anymore.
If you want it, that's an approach. Yeah. It's not. There's no right way. And I think that's what I always tell everybody also in business and in branding and in everything, there's no right way to do it. I think when your story is true and heart centered and resonates with people, that's when you know the magic happens. But there is not a formula. If we knew, the formula would all be a different place. Right?
[00:08:05] Speaker B: Yeah. But like I feel with like brands and like nowadays when you look at AI, everything that's going on, people are going to resonate much more with like authenticity, like being able to see like the founders see what they're doing, building, seeing that the value is the company versus seeing like a few like posts or like an AI, like video. It's like it's not personal. And I feel like a lot of people are craving that nowadays more than ever now.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: I firmly believe that. Absolutely. That's, that's, that's really right. And I think there's so many ways to weave AI into a personal story where people don't feel that kind of disconnect and sort of robotic. There are ways and there are methods and we use those methods all the time.
But I think when someone's just trying to shove AI in the mix for the sake of shoving ar, because that's what everyone else is doing, I think very quickly we're going to see that people are going to tire of that and then people are going to lean towards the other direction of just like a real authentic human connection. And furthermore, I'll say that I think brands that are utilizing their community and you know, we're finding that with Hulken quite a bit that you know, it's such a community driven product, wool and tote, it's for the New York City or urban sort of schlepper if you will. The person who's carrying. So we want to. That person who's carrying, you know, we want to highlight those people, we want to give them a voice.
And that comes with tapping into community. And yes, sometimes shooting that content is going to be more expensive than giving, you know, AI a prompt and hoping for an output. But that content's going to resonate far more. It's going to tap. It's going to be a collaborative post. People are going to want to share it.
So, you know, I do still think it's worth it to think about your community and kind of activate them.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a differentiator as well. Like, if everyone is just posting the exact same content every single day, people are going to get tired. But if you have the personality to it, you have the founder, it's more like interesting. People are going to be like, oh, I want to go watch this. That's actually interesting to watch here. And one of the things I always find interesting is that in the marketing world, there's always the talk about brand identity. We obviously talked about this earlier, but I feel like a lot of people reduce it down to picking a logo, some colors, and then they basically call it a day. What I'd love to understand is, from where you sit, what is a real brand identity actually involve? And why does that distinction actually matter a lot compared to, like, what a lot of other people think?
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Yeah, huge. I mean, I think I always say, if somebody comes to the studio and it's like, can you just design me a logo? I just need a logo. I don't need all the rest. I say, like, I don't even.
I don't do that.
The reason the logo is, like, I used to say, 15%. How. I would say it's even 10 or 7% of what a brand identity is. A brand identity is a culmination of a palette. A palette tells a story. So color, right, color, automatically tells you a story. You put a couple of colors together and you can be transported to Europe, you can be Transported to the 70s, right? So Palette typography. Typography also you can have something more whimsical and fun and handwritten and seraphy. And how formal are you? How approachable are you? Type also gives off so much. So type, palette and then, you know, elements, illustrations, if that is part of it. And then I would say a photographic and a video language. So whenever we approach a brand identity, we're designing a logo, of course, but it comes alongside some of those other elements. And I always say, you know, the elements are one Thing, I call them ingredients. But when you're cooking, there's also how much are you using of a certain thing. Right. Are you using red a lot and, like, yellow a little, or are you flipping it? And then those are gonna meet many different things as well.
So the building of a brand and that cohesion I was speaking about earlier has so much to do with not only, you know, the ingredients you pick at the supermarket. Right. But also how you intend to use them and what's going to be louder than something else.
And then on top of that, of course, we go into brand values. What are the values that are guiding your brand? Both visually, because we always like to take those values and turn them into a visual sort of communicative device.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: But also, what are you trying to say?
What are you aligning with people today? I think are purchasing, you know, emotionally purchasing a T shirt, not because they love that T shirt necessarily, but because that brand represents something that they want to convey about themselves to the world.
It's important to align yourself with some kind of value system.
And all of those things come into an essence of a brand, just like a personality. Like, can you reduce your personality to the tip of the iceberg? Not really. Right. It's all the things that come together.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: So I like the way you frame that, like, the personality aspect of things, because everyone has a personality, and that's like, who you are as a person, but no one really thinks about, like, okay, what's the personality of the brand?
And yes, you can reduce that to 5%, because the personality is like, most of, like, who you are as a person and applies to a brand, too.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: The iceberg. Right. Like, everything underneath is. Is guiding what you see at the tippy top. And you need those things in order to resonate and stand out or else it falls flat and people smell right through it. Right.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: Doesn't work very well. But yeah, the emotion is, like, a big thing. And I mean, I think this also touches onto, like, even, like, personal brands. For example, like, you might have a singer, you're going to go buy their shirt because you like them. And that's, like, applicable to, like, a brand as well. If you like a brand, you like their value, what they're about, then you're going to be much more likely to want to work with them, promote them, buy their stuff. Not that applies in, like, so many different, like, ways and components here.
[00:14:02] Speaker A: And it's interesting, too, because I think, you know, I work so much with these brand partnership decks where everyone's basically, this deck, right? Where you're trying to, like, show how great you are and kind of bring all of those things that we just talked about into metrics. And of course, those metrics exist, and they're important, but I think they're also just people. I would say I'm one of them. And anybody who works in my field is typically one of them that are just attuned to this sort of, like, vibe.
Like, that brand is the vibe, and that matches. Like, there is an essence here that's aligned, that maybe I can put it into words, maybe into some numbers, but sometimes it's just like that magic kind of.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: It's like the gut feeling sometimes that you have. You're like, yeah, this sounds right. And then that applies to Brent, too.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And it can't necessarily be explained.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: No. It's not quantifiable. But when you feel it, you feel it, to put it very simple.
I love that. And because obviously, you run multiple companies and you work in, like, the experiences, I'd sign of things for, like, corporate brands and even for, like, weddings, which I thought was, like, interesting. But one of the things I'd love to understand is what kind of separates, like, an event or an experience that people forget the next week from one that actually stays with them. I know we talked about ingredients, but what kind of the ingredients that makes that difference?
[00:15:27] Speaker A: Wow. So there are certainly ingredients that would come into making a very memorable wedding or brand activation. I would say they're the same.
I think first and foremost, it's knowing who your audience is and know or knowing who your guests are, and it's basically the same thing. And being very thoughtful about every moment and really thinking about from the moment they receive an invitation to the moment they have to step on, maybe some kind of transportation in order to arrive there to the mo. That entrance, and what are they tasting and smelling. And I think the more thought and detail you put into every one of those details, by really knowing who you're catering to, those are the events. Wow. They thought of everything. Right. Like, oh, my goodness, when. When people feel taken care of and people feel seen, that resonates. I remember.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: So whenever I approach any event, I. First and foremost, I'm asking about who the people are in the room, how old are they? Are they family? Are they friends? Do they know each other from before? Do we have to create some kind of atmosphere in which people kind of break the ice and get to know each other? Because obviously, that's also a huge part of energies and vibes. Right.
So really, really Knowing. And so while you have ingredients that then come into play to, like, service the thought, if you will, or, like. Yeah, I think thoughtfulness is number one.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
No, I mean, it's like a. I don't want to say it's a market research process, but in no way. You have to really do, like, a deep dive to, like, understand, like, how to properly create the events. Like, it resonates. I mean, for like, a wedding specifically, you want to get to know specifically who those people are, what they like, what their vibe is. And I don't remember if it was you that said that, but you want to create, like, an experience where people feel like they're in your kitchen. Like, you're all, like, together.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: Exactly. Ownable to you. Right. I think for weddings especially, a lot of people go around with this notion that their wedding is for themselves. Like, I'm doing this for me. It's like, no, if you were doing it for you, you would go elope in Las Vegas and not invite anybody. You're doing it because it's important for you to mark this momentous occasion with the people you love or people that are in your community.
So you do have to think about them, and you do have to think what's going to be great for them. So, for example, if you know you're hosting. I'm just making this up. Obviously, if you have elderly grandparents and people that you really want to respect and honor, but you've asked for, like, intense, like, heavy metal music, that's not necessarily honoring or respecting them. Right. And you can get to the heavy metal music. You can later in the night. There's always a time and place for you to, like, find a way to express yourself and who you are and tell your story. But first, like, think about how this community is also telling your story and how we can honor and respect them. And I think when people again, feel taken care of and feel like, wow.
You know, I always like to say in a wedding, it's so nice to weave in.
I always ask, what are the heritages of your families? If there's a family from a different. Like, how can we play a song that's gonna make those people, like, just melt? And it doesn't make a corny sound, but we remix it and we're like, oh, my God, that's that song. That's that, like, cultural song that, like, is nostalgic and amazing.
That's how you hook people. That's how you get them. Like, wow, they tweaked every moment of this to be Something that's super, you know, thoughtful and special.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: Yeah. And I feel like it just boils down to understanding, like, the journey, like, that they're going to be going through. Like, I know there's obviously a customer journey, but it's, like, applicable to, like, maybe attendees. Like, they're going to go to, like, a wedding, they're going to follow a certain journey, as you mentioned, like, by they might get in a car, they get to a certain location and everything. I spoke to, like, one client where they do, like, mammograms. Like, women. They have, like, a little bus. They go, like, around the place. And one of the things that he told me was like, yeah, like, it's so, like, important. Like, one of the first thing, we want to make sure that the bus driver that greets them, like, first thing, then make sure it's amazing greeting, like, they're really excited to be here. And I feel that applies into, like, wedding as well and, like, even brand as a whole. Like, it applies everywhere, to put it very simply.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: Absolutely. What are they hearing? What are they smelling? What are they tasting? What's that first? Hello. So that's the. Exactly the kind of thing that when we're producing any kind of event, then from wedding to brand activation to a corporate party, and which we do sometimes, we're thinking about every touch point in that run of show.
Who's standing there bringing the right people. I always say that too. Like, the right people. You want to work with the right vendors. We're only as good as the team that we build.
It's a collaborative effort. So over the years, we've met amazing, amazing people that are so talented and special, but also our team players. That's super important for me, for anybody that I'm working with. Like, you know, if you see this vendor struggling with lifting a chair and you're the photographer, like, the expectation is, like, we're all in this together. We're all here to, like, help help us. It's not. We don't live in a vacuum. We're here to, like, support each other and make an event really, really special.
I brought it.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: And just, like, going back before, like, we wrap up, I'd love to go back to the. The branding side of things again, because there's obviously a lot of brands out there that are not exactly sure how they should be approaching building a good brand, the foundation. And I'd love to perhaps get out a few bullet points or, like, some insider secrets or, like, tips that you would have for, like, any brands. They, if they're looking to align your brands, like, a little bit more, have a better structure and know, like, how to present themselves effectively in a way that actually resonates with the potential customers.
[00:21:13] Speaker A: Well, first of all, hire a specialist, because I think. I mean, I know that not everybody can do that. If you're starting out and you're kind of strapping. And I think, you know, a lot of people also have a philosophy of, you don't need that, which I can firmly believe. If you're one of those people that can kind of jump into Canva and grow something together.
[00:21:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: But I think it's if you can hire a specialist, because we know what we're doing and we can really help bring things out of you and your story that you would have never even imagined. Like, you might think you're starting, like, a food. Whatever, a food delivery service, but we can bring that to a place that's so special and unique and niche and something that people really want to hook on to. You wouldn't have imagined. Right. So that's one. But if you can't hire a specialist, then make sure that you have a very, very strong and distinct tone of voice and point of view.
I think if you go to the T, if you are going to go the raw, real, authentic route, which, by the way, I'm obsessed with, like, I watch people do this and I'm like, go like. It's amazing.
Don't be like everybody else. Right. Because it's like you. You kind of have to pick which route you're going to go. Either you're going to come in polished and do it properly and have somebody, like, pull it out of you, or you're going to go for it and tell your story. And again, back to the building. Build in front of the people and build your thing. That way, people, I think, think like, oh, I'll start an Instagram account. It's just going to magically happen. Like, no. It takes so much time and so much effort and so much strategy to build community today.
Yeah. The algorithms don't want you to succeed organically. They want you to pay them. So if you're gonna come at it without a brand book and without sort of having your ducks in a row come at it provocatively, come at it authentically and differently, and then that's the only way to break through.
[00:23:04] Speaker B: I love that. Like, just being different, but by being yourself. That's how you're saying it. Because I feel like sometimes you'll look at some things online and then that's Got influence. Influence your perspective. You're like, oh, that's actually part of my, like, Persona. Like, that's who I am. But under that, that's not actually. You just saw other people doing it and you're like, oh, that sounds cool. Like, let's do that.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: And listen, it's a push and pull, right? There's a formula. You see things go viral on TikTok and then you see other people replicate these things and it works for them. But I think as a brand, if you're, like, trying to sell something and really get somebody to take action on your message, you know, you got to come at it with something really unique. Especially today, it is so saturated out there.
But don't let that deter you. Right? Like, you never know. It's gonna catch. You really don't.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: No, I love it.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:55] Speaker B: Well, thank you so much for, for taking that time to join us on the podcast here and for, like, anyone that wants to get in touch with you, because I know you're in a lot of different places. You ran multiple companies, you got your LinkedIn, Instagram. Where should people go if they want to, like, get in touch with you, reach out to or even, like, work with you?
[00:24:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I think webcreativestudio.com is a good baseline. The creative agency is definitely the starting point for all of the other wonderful businesses with productions.com, if you are interested in kind of wedding services or even just, you know, having a chat, I am always down to talk. I love, you know, meeting new people. So, yeah, all of that.
[00:24:32] Speaker B: So we're going to put that in the show notes. So if anyone wants, like, reach out or anything, they can obviously do so here. But if you. Great. If you heard that, everyone. So you can head over to whipcreativestudio.com if you want to learn more to your listeners. If you've enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast, like, review all that fun stuff and until then, keep pushing and we'll see in the next one.
