After nine months, the website for Round Table Companies (www.roundtablecompanies.com) is up and running! While we’re still pending another two months or so of building out the portfolio sections, it’s in good shape and ready to unveil to our clients.

Developing the website was an arduous process in the beginning that turned explosively fun as we finally started seeing the buildout. That’s something I always talk to clients about: in one way or another, achieving something exceptional takes time, energy, and a lot of patience. For this website, we needed to get across that we not only specialize in strategic thinking, writing and design, but we build entire systems around our clients’ brands. From school curriculums and nonprofit foundation setup to extensive marketing, advertising and public relations, we work to create and draw attention to dynamic brands for clients in a very wide range of industries. Pairing this message with the visual and interactive components we wanted was a daunting task.

We spent a lot of time creating the right logo, which we felt we couldn’t build the site without. Then, in order for our creative director Nathan Brown to stretch and do something different with the functionality, we hired outside assistance to help create the menu. We’re still putting finishing touches on arguably the most important part of the site: the separate portfolios. I’ve worked on the author and press portfolios, and Sue is working with Nathan to create the niche business portfolios. Finally, we’ll have three different blogs on the site: writing (creativity), marketing (business), and design. Already, Nathan’s design blog receives 60,000 page views each month, and he’s working aggressively to build that out even further. Our goal is to create a place that makes it easy for people to see the depth and quality of our work, with a creative, interactive website that inspires as much as it informs.

There’s still work to do, but I’m hopeful that the website will become more of a destination site, which people want to visit regularly. Ultimately, we want to make people aware that RTC is not just a business, it’s a support mechanism for our thought leaders and the clients they partner with: Corey Blake (Storytellers and Authors), Sue Publicover (All things Marketing),  Nathan Brown (Design and Illustration).

What are your thoughts on the website (www.roundtablecompanies.com)?

The necessity for re-branding usually arises when the status quo is disrupted—hopefully, in a good way. If your company’s core values, target customer base, and/or product and service range have changed, for example, it might be time to consider re-branding to more accurately represent what you’ve become.

At the Table, we realized our own need for re-branding: Our writing for clients was successful, and our clients were happy with the work. So happy, in fact, that they were requesting other services from us. Non-writing services. So we brought on additional support and built a design division, an intellectual property division, a public relations division and a marketing therapy division. But because of our name—Writers of the Round Table—new clients weren’t aware of the full breadth of our new capabilities. They trusted their relationship with us and didn’t want to go elsewhere, but they didn’t realize Read the rest of this entry »

In the last few years, I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with hundreds of very creative, very brilliant people who find such joy in pursuing their art. But many of these same people find it difficult or impossible to see their art as a business-or, conversely, to make a business of their art. Art, some of them feel, has no place for business. It’s a place for passion and whimsy and discovery; how can business possibly fit in among these things?

Make no mistake: To make a business of your art takes courage; just not for the reasons many creatives think.

You don’t have to objectify or devalue your art in order to think like a businessperson. In fact, it’s quite Read the rest of this entry »

There’s something about being on the cusp of a new year that really inspires dreaming big—which is what we, as a company, are all about! I see 2010 as holding so much potential for our clients. There will be even greater opportunity for brand building and storytelling around our brands, and for harnessing the power of networking to reach as many people as possible. I want to urge all of our clients to set lofty goals for themselves in the coming year: Read the rest of this entry »

As we close up 2009, I want to offer a post expressing my appreciation for all the people who support what we, as a company do.

First, our clients. Because our clients are trailblazers, they have to trust in our guidance and expertise.  We utilize a “no cookie-cutter” approach to brand building, which means that we customize every program to suit our client’s needs. Within those tactics there are great successes and difficult lessons to learn. You each honor us with your trust as we carve out new niches that blend creativity, storytelling and business. To those of you who have referred others to us, I thank you for recognizing the value of our brand and our standards, enough to put your own name on the line.  We recognize that referrals are to be treasured and we hope you know how much it means to us when you recommend our business.

To our freelancers. You have hung in there through a tough economy that finally caught up to us in November. We have learned some tough lessons, but are regrouping now to replace some business that we have determined is no longer the correct fit for our company.  We understand that presents hardship to many of you and loss of regular income. We hope you will remain positive as we have, and trust that in the long run, this is an exceptional move for all.

To our staff. I want to give a special thank you to Sue Publicover, who has done an exceptional job expanding the capabilities of our business marketing division. Sue does what I could never do; she lights up with fire over industries like healthcare, technology, and real estate and construction. Her passion for those fields is an immense asset and one that will allow us to expand our client outreach in 2010.

Thank you also to our project manager, Erin Cohen. She has been dynamic in helping Sue create a streamlined process that can deliver exceptional work to our clients quickly. So often with writing and design firms, quality and speed battle one another with a clear victor. Together, Erin and Sue have created a fluid system that delivers top notch product at lightning speeds and that capability allows us to handle larger volumes of work without quality suffering.  Bravo!

Thank you to Nathan Brown for working to make the design side of the company into something that is exciting for him—that willingness has led us into the wonderful world of comic books and illustration, movie poster design, album covers, and other creative based industries. Nathan has also done extensive work on re-branding our company so that our clients understand the full breadth of services we offer (www.roundtablecompanies.com – it’s still growing, so check back frequently!). Make sure you check out Nathan’s design blog at http://www.roundtablecompanies.com/design/.

Here’s to wishing everyone around The Table a happy and healthy holiday.  We’ll see you in the new year!

Corey, Annie, and I had a great call today. After chatting for a few minutes on everything from colds to hypnosis, we got down to business. Corey was feeling compelled to talk about a ghostwriting project that had stretched and challenged him from multiple standpoints: business, creative, emotional, and financial. As I listened, I tried to figure out how the story would translate to writing. Though the story was engaging, it was really only skimming the surface, which doesn’t fly with the written word. Then Annie, mindreader that she is, paused the conversation. In her nurturing but firm way, she guided Corey to push beyond surface-level exposition and reveal the emotional depth of the story. I thought, Ah! That’s just what I needed! Sure enough, we got to the bruised softness of the story’s core, and Corey was excited to be making new revelations about the experience.

This call made me think about Read the rest of this entry »

There is a lot of under-par work out there, put out by businesses and artists alike. Some of it actually makes money—even a lot of money—and amid all the pretty rocks, it can often be difficult to spot the gems. But they’re there, and when you do find one, you keep it, you protect it, and you love it. However, as an artist or businessperson (or both), you should know that an exceptional product alone doesn’t always constitute a gem. In order for your work to leave a mark on the world and affect some sort of change, it must glow with your own personal character.

Think about it like this: There’s nothing quite like Read the rest of this entry »