Barbara: Hi. I’m here today with Melissa Boyd, one of my longtime clients, and we’re gonna talk a little bit about what it’s like to work together. Melissa, thanks for being here.

Melissa Boyd: Absolutely.

Barbara: When you first came to Wild Blackberry Studio, I think it was 2023 when we did your brand and the website. What was happening in your business, and what made you feel like it was time to invest in brand and design work?

Melissa Boyd: Yeah I was really moving away from doing one-on-ones with folks, which I love, and moving more into business coaching and really trying to create a cohesive look. And to be honest, I saw a website of a friend of mine that you did, and I said, “Oh my gosh, who did you work with?” And she said, “Let me introduce you.” And I’ve never been happier.

Barbara: Yeah, it’s been a wonderful project. I love your brand that we developed together; it is still just one of my absolute favorites. It’s so alive. It’s so inspiring. It’s just really still a delight to work with, so I’m excited that we’re here together. You do deeply intuitive work. What did your gut tell you when you first started working with me?

Melissa Boyd: I loved that I threw every idea under the sink at you, and you were like, “Okay, let’s put it into columns.” You really helped to synthesize my message and what I wanted to say because I had so many big ideas, but you helped me to bring it forward in a very concise way that represented the energy that I really wanted to bring to my clients. To make it more digestible. I was looking to work with someone to take me to a higher level in my business itself.

Barbara: Thank you. So we began with a brand redefinition. You already had a logo that was great, and we knew you were gonna stick with that. And then we moved to a full website redesign. It’s been a while, but if you can tell me what that process was like for you, and were there any moments where some of the visuals or something clicked and you thought, “Yes, this is it”? I can remember you being really decisive as we worked through the different brand board ideas.

Melissa Boyd: Yeah, I loved that you brought in different elements and the work I do I feel is gold, and you captured that. You literally put gold in my website. Anchored it with what I was already doing, and so it felt really strong. We talked about what it is like to be a user. We talked about the demographics of my clients, things I hadn’t always thought of. And so really making it, again, synthesizing the language, the look, the feel. And I also loved—and I’d never worked with someone before who did this—which was you and your team made sure that when people looked at it on the computer, it looked the same as on the tablet, it looked the same as on the phone. Because people access me in all these different ways, and I get really frustrated when I go to a website and you look at it on your phone and it doesn’t look good because someone hasn’t taken that time to design it in that way. You’ve always made sure that was very clear.

Barbara: Thank you. Shoutout to our development team. We love having them on board. So we’ve evolved our relationship into ongoing marketing, socials, the podcast support. How has having consistent creative support changed how you are able to show up in your business?

Melissa Boyd: Oh, it makes it so much easier. Talking to the dead is not the easy thing, I have to keep my energy to a certain level, replying to my clients, and then building out my other things that I’m doing. And to really have someone that I trust and I know is gonna support me and understands my vision. Since I’ve been working with you on social media and also marketing, I have had so many people join my newsletter. I think we’ve had about 180 people join the newsletter in just two or three months, which has never, ever happened ever before. So whatever you’re doing, I love it. Keep doing it.

Barbara: That’s great. And I really get that when you have to get into the weeds of those things in your business, it’s a completely different energy and mindset than who you need to be and what you need to be able to access in the delivery of your actual calling, right? They’re such different spaces. That look of relief is what we want all of our clients to feel.

Melissa Boyd: I think what I would add is that for years, I have a newsletter, right? So when people sign up for the newsletter, they sign up. But you were like, “Hey, let’s do this thing where people sign up and we send them an automated thing that says ‘welcome to my community. Here’s what I do.’ And then in a few weeks send another one.” I would have no idea how to do that. That’s not my strong suit. So being able to automate that and to make it look really polished and professional was incredible. And people have commented on it.

Barbara: Nice. That’s awesome. Yeah, that’s exactly what we’re here to do, so you don’t have to think of all the things. We’ve got the playbook, and we can help you reach more of the people and touch them when they’re ready for that kind of contact. They’ve just signed up, they wanna hear from you, so…

Melissa Boyd: Exactly.

Barbara: So you work with leaders and visionaries who need to trust their own inner knowing. How important is it to you that the people you hire to work with you in your own business operate in the same way?

Melissa Boyd: It’s really important, and I think I said to you, I love the fact that I can say I work with all women. That’s something really important, and women who care about the work they do. So that’s really important to me, and it’s important that I’m having this synergistic trust throughout my work and the people that I have referred to you. I always say this about anyone I’ve ever worked with. I will say, “I will refer you to someone that I’ve experienced,” and if I haven’t experienced them, I will tell you. I’ll say, “I’ve heard good things,” but I’m always singing your praises and telling people “You’ve gotta call Barb.” And the people that I have talked to, I’ve seen one of the clients you worked with recently and said, “She did this for me, and now I’m ready to go another level. I better give her a call.” And I said, “You better give her a call.”

Barbara: That’s great. Thank you. I know I got to do a couple of really fun logos and some other things thanks to referrals from you, and logos are absolutely my favorite work. We talked about that. What do you wish more purpose-driven business owners understood about investing in their brand?

Melissa Boyd: Your brand is for me, it’s like my child. I always say, love is a business strategy, so you have to love everything about your brand. People will say to me, “Oh yeah, I just threw up a website. I just made it myself.” And you can tell they made it themselves, but they’re doing something amazing, and their website is not delicious, and my website is delicious. And it’s important, especially as we’re online all the time now, right? We can’t be everywhere, but it’s just like reading a newspaper. You’re gonna say, “Oh, what’s this website? What is this?” So I think it’s really important, especially if you wanna grow, you have to invest in your business if you wanna grow. And I love that we’ve worked really hard together on having a resource area for clients. I have the free Compassion Action Station, which we were figuring out how to do this, but you’ve made it really seamless because it’s how do people get to where they wanna be? How do you make it seamless? Because I feel like I provide an in-person quality service, and I wanna do that from the top of my business all the way down to me. I do that, and I’m so happy about it.

Barbara: Awesome. Thank you. So your work keeps expanding and we get to expand with you. So you’ve got the book in the works, and you’ve got your podcast that people can listen to pretty much every Thursday. You’ve got some great stuff going on Insight Timer. You’ve got retreats. You’ve got speaking. Where do you feel like things are headed next?

Melissa Boyd: I feel like really doing more luminous business coaching with folks, but also more retreats and leadership empowerment. I think we are all leaders in this world. We have to teach each other to show up with our high hearts, be of quality, and be of service, and to support each other.

Barbara: That’s exciting. I’m looking forward to working on what’s next with you. If someone in your community is on the fence about doing deep brand work, the kind of work that we did where what you’re bringing to the world is reflected back to you, what would you tell them?

Melissa Boyd: I would tell them that it’s an investment in your own authentic voice and that it’s really handcrafted. It’s not cookie cutter whatsoever. You worked hard to get to know my business, what I wanted to do. And I think brand work is essential because there’s people out there doing millions of things, people doing what I do, what other people do. But when you have a brand that everything is like the same font, the synergistic-ness about it, you’re out there whether you’re there or not. You’re creating quality.

Barbara: Yeah, I think what people may not realize about branding, and in particular for me, the way that I approach branding is I almost feel like I’m a conduit. Like I’m channeling what the person is already in the process of creating, and I help to give it the shape and feel that other people can feel it too. So there’s that whole intake process that I do. There’s lots of discussion and interviews and things that let me actually get a felt experience of the person and their creation, and that’s a lot of how my design process is. So I think for people in particular who are in a feeling, sensing, human connection kind of work, that’s a very specific flavor of branding that I think I’m particularly proud of that I do well.

Melissa Boyd: You are incredible at it. And if we go back to like energy psychology, everything comes back to color and texture. And you’ve weaved that in so beautifully. I’ve had so many clients, I’ve been in business now 16 years full time, and they’ve said, “Oh my gosh, your website is seamless. I know where to go. I don’t have to click through.” And it’s so intuitive, as you said. It saves me time, and then the clarity of working with you and your team is amazing. So timely and just excited to do this work.

Barbara: Yeah. Thank you. So if someone wanted to learn more about you or your work, where are some of the places that they can find you?

Melissa Boyd: So you can find me on Insight Timer, the world’s number one app for meditation and sleep and anxiety. And I’m at Grow Your Knowing on that. And I’m also on Instagram at Grow Your Knowing. You can go to melissaboyd.net, and you can also find me on the Mind Body Spirit FM podcast network every Thursday for Secrets to Luminous Living. Also, I do have an e-book you can download at my website, and I’m hoping to spread compassionate actions. You can order a compassionate action kit that will be sent to you. And hopefully in the next year or so, I will be out with my first book. So lots of places. Yes.

Barbara: So lots of places to dig in and go deeper with you. That’s great. Thanks for being here today.

Melissa Boyd: Thank you so much. And you just have such a huge heart, and I wanna thank you so much for that.

Barbara: Thank you.