Creating Compelling Stories with Chrissy Mize
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Meet Chrissy
Chrissy Mize, founder and creative force behind Raw Honey Copy, is a talented copywriter with over 13 years of experience in the film, TV, and video industries. As a post producer, she has worked on projects for major brands like Apple, Visa, Facebook, Johnson & Johnson, and LinkedIn, as well as popular Investigation Discovery shows such as "Wives with Knives," "I (Almost) Got Away With It," and "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover."
After hanging up her producer hat, Chrissy partners with CPG brands, founders, marketers, and agencies to help capture the hearts (and wallets) of customers with strategic storytelling and copy.
Episode Highlights
During this episode of The Food Means Business Podcast, we discuss:
Getting to know the buyer's mindset
Making the buyer the central figure in your brand story
Developing your brand’s unique voice
Keeping your brand messaging concise
The importance of repetition in brand communication
Chrissy's favorite ways to unwind
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00;00;00;14 - 00;00;24;28
Djenaba
You were listening to the Food Means Business Podcast, which features the personal stories and secret ingredients behind what it's like to abandon your day job to start a food business. I'm joined now by Jonathan Jones, former marketing executive turned entrepreneur and founder of food business incubator Hudson Kitchen, joined a community of fellow food business owners and subject matter experts to learn and laugh with us as we explore a startup world that's a little more culinary and a lot less corporate these days.
00;00;25;06 - 00;00;28;08
Djenaba
All right, Krissy, welcome to the Food Means Business Podcast.
00;00;28;29 - 00;00;30;11
Chrissy Mize
Thank you so much for having me.
00;00;30;12 - 00;00;40;20
Djenaba
I'm so glad that you're here. So before we jump in to talk about Raw Honey copy, we'd love to hear your story. Like, give us your career trajectory.
00;00;41;14 - 00;01;00;17
Chrissy Mize
Awesome. And I just want to say, I think it's very astute that you've realized that so many people in the CPG space are like them to point out. It's like all these folks who are sort of reinventing themselves. And so that's like, you know who you've got on the podcast, I love it. It is like a really common theme, it seems like.
00;01;00;20 - 00;01;02;11
Djenaba
Thank you. It definitely is for sure.
00;01;03;01 - 00;01;27;03
Chrissy Mize
Yeah, and myself included. I my background is actually in video. I was a video producer for many, many years in the San Francisco Bay Area, so I was really passionate about filmmaking and started out as an editor and went on to manage editors and became a post producer. Worked my way up to that role and worked on all kinds of content.
00;01;27;03 - 00;01;53;02
Chrissy Mize
Some very classy TV shows like Lives with Knives, and I almost got away with it if I knew what I was doing as a discovery true crime fan, I worked on those. That was really fun. And then lots of web content. And of course, being in the Bay Area, Silicon Valley, tons of tech. So I worked for different studios and agencies who had clients like the Facebook, Googles, Apples, all of that.
00;01;53;21 - 00;02;22;06
Chrissy Mize
So I, you know, found myself working agency hours and had my first kid commuting an hour each way into the city and just was kind of like hitting the wall. So I quit my job in January of 2020, which was great timing to make a new start. Of course, right before the pandemic. And then my little girl at the time withheld from daycare, her daycare clothes.
00;02;22;06 - 00;02;43;29
Chrissy Mize
I got pregnant. I actually had a cancer scare there was lots of things happening and we ended up moving out of the Bay Area. We were really ready to get out of the city and move to a sort of more low key pastures. So we moved up to southern Oregon and in the mix of all that, I started sort of what I thought was just a side hustle of copywriting.
00;02;44;02 - 00;03;16;09
Chrissy Mize
And, you know, I'd always loved writing. I studied screenwriting for a long time. I had been a part of filmmaking cooperatives or a filmmaking cooperative in San Francisco, where we made short films on the weekends. So I made, you know, a few short films, and that was always part of my passion. And one of the reasons I left my job as a producer was I was always managing the creatives, the editors, the compositor, the writers, the all the folks that it takes to produce a creative spot, an advertisement or marketing piece.
00;03;16;09 - 00;03;40;08
Chrissy Mize
But I didn't get to do the creative work. I was always, you know, making sure the timelines and the budgets and assets were all in place. So I was really ready to get my creative juices flowing in my work every day. So it's been so fulfilling. And so I kind of found my way into e-commerce and food and bags and CPG and really like have niched into this space as a writer.
00;03;40;08 - 00;04;04;17
Chrissy Mize
And I love it. I think one of the things that I sort of have found is my sweet spot is really snappy personality and use copy that helps a brand sort of stand apart and find their own flow and cadence and vibe in their writing and in their brand voice. So that's what I do. I work with lots of brands, 1 to 1.
00;04;04;17 - 00;04;19;22
Chrissy Mize
I work with a few different agencies, agencies that are sort of incubator ish, some that are ecommerce focused, so lots of different types of teams and I really love this work, so I'm excited to get into it a little bit with you today.
00;04;19;23 - 00;04;32;13
Djenaba
It sounds like you love it. It's so great that you're able to to make that transition. Do you work with startups or is it ten? You mentioned agency teams, but do you do you tend to work with more established CPG companies? How does that work?
00;04;32;23 - 00;04;53;10
Chrissy Mize
I've done both. I've done both. I've definitely worked with a good number of startups that are like, don't have a brand book, don't have a tone of voice, don't necessarily know what that is. I need to get their website sorted and need to get, you know, some content out into the world and then with more strategic sort of larger teams as well.
00;04;53;13 - 00;05;02;12
Chrissy Mize
Or maybe do a campaign or a brand refresh and a very sort of targeted type of voice to sort of disseminate into the world.
00;05;02;14 - 00;05;07;25
Djenaba
So someone, someone comes to you, what is their pain point like, What are you helping to answer for them?
00;05;09;17 - 00;05;33;07
Chrissy Mize
You know, a lot of times a team will especially like an upstart team, an emerging brand team, will will have done a lot of writing and they'll have written, you know, they're about story, their their website, obviously their sales sales materials and but they're not writers and so they're like, this just doesn't sound like who we know we are.
00;05;33;26 - 00;05;58;06
Chrissy Mize
So there's this sort of step that needs to happen of like we know our amazing products, we know our story, but how do we get it out in the world and make it like, sure and compelling and resonate with our target audience? And that's sort of honestly like what I do for brands, whether that's an Instagram capsule or a website re hall, it's it's all helping to tell that story in the best way possible.
00;05;58;06 - 00;06;27;12
Chrissy Mize
And it's hard if you're not a writer and this is not what you do. It's like, Oh my gosh, these founders are wearing so many different hats. So this is what I'm here to do, is to help folks synthesize all the material and this is sort of one of my tips is that there's so much that brands often want to say, and it's really distilling it to sort of like the messaging hierarchy that we need to establish what's like the number one thing someone's looking for when they look at your product, right?
00;06;27;16 - 00;06;42;12
Chrissy Mize
Let's make sure that that is at the top of a website. You know, on pack, you know, retail, you know, messaging wherever people are looking like we need to make sure that what they're looking for matches up with what you are saying.
00;06;43;05 - 00;07;02;26
Djenaba
It's so hard because as you know, someone that has launched a company like you want, you have all these things that you want to convey to to someone. They kind of just distill it down to like what is the most important thing can sometimes be challenging, right? Because you want to be able to you want to be able to demonstrate the value of what you've created, you know, whether it be a product or a service.
00;07;03;03 - 00;07;05;22
Djenaba
And how do you do that without saying all the things?
00;07;06;05 - 00;07;26;05
Chrissy Mize
Exactly. Exactly. It's kind of knowing like where, you know, you can put your like origin story on your about page, maybe like a line or two on the back of a pack of your product, but you can't sort of, you know, do the podcast worth of that story on on your home page. This is not what people are here for.
00;07;26;05 - 00;07;28;02
Chrissy Mize
So it is it's knowing what to put where.
00;07;28;21 - 00;07;40;26
Djenaba
So let's talk about your tips for for food entrepreneurs in our in creating their copy and writing copy and the first one that you come up with it you said use clear language. You talk about that a little bit.
00;07;41;18 - 00;08;05;28
Chrissy Mize
Yeah. And I think this sort of definitely intersects with what we were just saying about like just tons of ideas and content and things that we're trying to get across. And sometimes, you know, in the the sort of desire to come off as clever and and creative and stand out brands will will write, but it's not actually clear like what they're saying.
00;08;05;28 - 00;08;27;02
Chrissy Mize
So it's like and I think this is especially true for brands that have either they are a new category in and of themselves or they have a new ingredient or function or, you know, like there's something new that needs explaining and it's like we've got to be as clear about that as possible so people know what it is and why.
00;08;27;02 - 00;09;13;01
Chrissy Mize
So one tip I would say this is to be clear, like say exactly what you're doing, like and then we can kind of find ways to make that edgy or romantic or hip, whatever the brand tone is. But like, let's first say the thing, if you know, adaptogenic coffee, like, that's cool. Like, let's start with that, you know, and then find sort of ways to to perk it up with, with language and sort of from there I would say like the one question you can always ask about writing when you're writing your copy as a, as a I'm speaking to the brand as the founder, and if you are writing your copy, you always want
00;09;13;01 - 00;09;41;13
Chrissy Mize
to ask why sort of so a doctor Adaptogenic Coffee, for example. Why does my reader or Prospect Care? It's like, well, okay, Westerners less, you know, coffee, hangover or less yet frazzled feeling all day. So you sort of get and you do your your your your features and then benefits but benefits often will leave it like this is why people are interested in your product is what's going to do for them.
00;09;41;26 - 00;10;01;25
Chrissy Mize
And then we can get into like, oh, it has the, you know, lion's mane and it's like slew of mushrooms ingredients, but really it's like this is what we do when we shop. Why should I buy this? Like, what is there, what is the why? And that is what you want to lead with. Typically, yeah, I'm thinking I often think about websites because that's what I do like a lot of.
00;10;01;25 - 00;10;10;19
Chrissy Mize
So if you think about like the flow of a home page, the why is what we should see first in the hero module is that's what's going to grab us is okay, why this product.
00;10;10;20 - 00;10;16;00
Djenaba
It's almost like it's why did you start this company in the first place? Like what was the point of this?
00;10;16;00 - 00;10;16;10
Chrissy Mize
Yes.
00;10;16;10 - 00;10;17;16
Djenaba
That's your priority?
00;10;18;00 - 00;10;18;12
Chrissy Mize
Yeah.
00;10;18;19 - 00;10;19;18
Djenaba
To get out there. Okay.
00;10;20;13 - 00;10;39;08
Chrissy Mize
And on that note, I will say that again, this is what I see a lot with sort of earliest age brands is that they had so maybe they had an issue. Maybe it was a health issue. Maybe it was just like, hey, I didn't like any of the gluten free cookies that are out there. So I started my own business to make the best gluten free cookies.
00;10;39;22 - 00;11;00;02
Chrissy Mize
And you kind of see this language, especially like maybe in social or on the home page, we make the best. I found this problem and I solved it. And really what we want to do is kind of flip that and put the consumer or the buyer as the the the hero of the brand story.
00;11;00;02 - 00;11;00;27
Djenaba
So how do we do that?
00;11;01;15 - 00;11;05;08
Chrissy Mize
Yeah, this is something that Donna miller talks about a lot. He popularized this idea with that.
00;11;05;08 - 00;11;07;00
Djenaba
Yeah, he's a story brand guy, right?
00;11;07;04 - 00;11;34;09
Chrissy Mize
His story brand out. Exactly. Which is a handy book to kind of look through and get this this down is really it's it's you is the magic words So you know if we're talking about adaptogenic coffee instead of you know, we were so tired of drinking two gallons of coffee every day and feeling like, you know, we were going to drop dead, you know, what's the benefit is it's like, you know, be energized, feel good.
00;11;34;09 - 00;11;37;13
Chrissy Mize
I mean, that's like a very I'm not saying that's good writing, but.
00;11;38;00 - 00;11;38;20
Djenaba
I get the point.
00;11;39;08 - 00;11;59;29
Chrissy Mize
That's the that's the benefit. So, you know, direct that message at the buyer. So instead of like, I really want to feel good, it's like you can feel good every day and not, you know, have to drink two gallons of coffee or, you know, you can get your caffeine and not crash. So it's really and and then, you know, really sculpting that language.
00;11;59;29 - 00;12;20;13
Chrissy Mize
But is putting the the buyer in the driver's seat of the brand story and saying, like if and you could even ask a question if I was going to a new website for the first time or reading the back of a package or looking at even a sale sheet, this could work with, you know, retail your retail audience as well.
00;12;20;13 - 00;12;30;27
Chrissy Mize
Those buyers. What does this person what is their experience of the brand and really getting into that mindset? Does that make sense?
00;12;30;27 - 00;12;37;20
Djenaba
Yeah, that makes total sense. So so what's next?
00;12;37;20 - 00;12;53;03
Chrissy Mize
Yeah. And then I think, you know, so how do we how do we do that? How do we understand like what it is that our prospects are looking for and what do they, what are they going to love about our brand? What do they love brand? What are they, you know, in the market for? Like what's going to resonate with them?
00;12;53;03 - 00;13;14;18
Chrissy Mize
And one of the ways that you can do this is like a sort of cheat for writing when you're trying to figure out like the benefits and how to word them is looking at reviews. Reviews are a goldmine for language to get inspired by or even straight up by. Like take those words.
00;13;15;06 - 00;13;35;07
Djenaba
Yet you're so right because I always found and I have a marketing background before I started Hudson Kitchen and it was like, get people's words back to them. Like what? What did they say right when I was first starting Hudson Kitchen, somebody would say to me, I want to start my business the right way, meaning like, I want to be, you know, licensed and registered and all the things.
00;13;35;07 - 00;13;46;05
Djenaba
Because people, as you know, start food businesses and they're just kind of like randomly selling through direct message on Instagram and they like, No, I want to do this. Right, right. So so that was kind of something that that kind of came up for me.
00;13;46;18 - 00;14;05;09
Chrissy Mize
When I was. That's right. So like, you're like, what about like, start your Fitbit, start your food business the right way done. Exactly. Yeah. It's like you're being a mirror to people. They want to see themselves in your brand. So if I'm like, Oh my God, I love my coffee, but I hate the way I feel. It's like I want to look at this brand and say, Oh, this is for me.
00;14;05;20 - 00;14;27;00
Chrissy Mize
This was made for me. Like literally, I am the target audience and I am here and I'm going to add to Cart or put it in my basket. So you looking at those reviews and if you if it's a brand that is and you want to say you like I'm talking directly to the founder you're if you have a brand that's newer you can look at other reviews right?
00;14;27;00 - 00;14;53;13
Chrissy Mize
Like look at other maybe adaptogenic coffees on Amazon or other marketplaces, you know thrive wherever else you're seeing competitors. And like, what are people most excited about about those brands? Why are they hooked on those brands and look at that language? So you're going to be able to see sort of the auto emotion and behind why people buy and why they become, you know, super buyers and fans for life.
00;14;53;13 - 00;15;11;04
Chrissy Mize
And so that's a really great way to to get into the buyer's mindset. Obviously research and you know, doing all of that focus groups. But but this is a great way to get very raw, real data online quickly is is to dig into the reviews what are the yours or a competitors.
00;15;12;08 - 00;15;21;05
Djenaba
That's great. So what are what are some other tips for for those looking to kind of write copy for their brands.
00;15;21;05 - 00;15;34;20
Chrissy Mize
Yeah. So you know, I think one of the things that I like to tell brands is to not be afraid to be repetitive. So you might get a little bored with.
00;15;35;04 - 00;15;49;05
Djenaba
It so hard because I was like, I was like, as you said that I was like, it's such a challenge because we keep saying this same thing over and over again. We're telling our story, we've told it over here, we've told that over there and like, aren't people bored with it? But it's really it's just our problem, right?
00;15;49;05 - 00;16;13;04
Chrissy Mize
It's just you, your audience, the one yourself, right? Like, you know, even if you sort of like, okay, blast, you know, maybe have a campaign, you're doing a series of taglines or even one tagline or one headline, and it's on Instagram and it's on LinkedIn, and it's going to your retail audience, buyers and whatnot, even if it gets out there.
00;16;13;13 - 00;16;31;15
Chrissy Mize
Now, not the people that, you know, not everyone's going to actually sort of see it, receive it and like understand it and like have that login to their brain. We need the repetition, you know, over and over again, especially for newer brands that are trying to stick and trying to get sticky in the minds of customers. It's very competitive out there, as we know.
00;16;31;24 - 00;16;43;23
Chrissy Mize
So you actually want to be repetitive so that, you know, you get identified as the whatever. I keep adaptogenic coffee, like that's it.
00;16;43;23 - 00;16;44;18
Djenaba
That's what we're doing today.
00;16;44;19 - 00;17;11;13
Chrissy Mize
Yes, we're this is the Adaptogenic coffee that is like you see feeling calm, whatever the, you know, is like you want you just to take that repetition for, for it to stick. It's like, you know, a really thoroughly researched phenomenon that it takes however many times to be exposed to a brand before you're actually ready. Your moves down that funnel from, you know, awareness into consideration, into purchasing.
00;17;11;20 - 00;17;23;23
Chrissy Mize
So you need multiple points of exposure. And that's what you're here to do with your marketing and your marketing, you know, assets and team. And you are here to to be that squeaky wheel for your brand.
00;17;25;13 - 00;17;31;06
Djenaba
So what are ways we can like convey our personality within the copy?
00;17;31;06 - 00;18;03;10
Chrissy Mize
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think this is, this is where I get to have the most fun is helping brands really stand out, especially for brands that are interested in. You know, I'm always a fan of the brands that are really not afraid to be cheeky and bold or edgy or have like a real point of view. Those are the brands that I like to buy the consumer, you know, I mean, there's so much fun that's happening these days with design and just really beautiful, colorful identity, like visual identities.
00;18;03;10 - 00;18;24;02
Chrissy Mize
And you can do the same with a voice identity. So we're sort of back to one of our earlier tips was like, you really want to be sort of succinct in writing to start. And this is sort of applies to every channel because no matter who you're talking to, it's a busy person. So they're, you know, if they're a buyer, they're getting on their phone.
00;18;24;02 - 00;18;42;06
Chrissy Mize
If it's reach a buyer, they are going through tons of sales sheets and they need to be able to see very quickly what you're about. And you know that data and what your brand stands for. So no matter what we're writing, no matter who the audience is, we want to be succinct. And so here's a little tip is like, if you are writing something for your brand, you're not higher, right?
00;18;42;13 - 00;18;57;20
Chrissy Mize
Hiring a writer to do it, do your first pass, whatever this is. If it's an email or, you know, similar kind of sales communication, do that first message pass, go back again and cut at least 30% of the words.
00;18;57;22 - 00;18;58;10
Djenaba
Oh, wow.
00;18;58;10 - 00;19;26;22
Chrissy Mize
Okay. Yeah. So really take an ax to that to that document, because it's hard to be succinct. It really is. That's what writers do, right as we is. We're really more editors as we're really trying to refine and sculpt this message. And it takes a lot of, you know, sort of chipping away. So but then once you have, you know, something that feels like, okay, I've got this message of what I want to say is how do you yeah, like you said, add some personality.
00;19;27;04 - 00;19;55;28
Chrissy Mize
And so I really love when brands can kind of find a unique way of talking about themselves. So I'm a fan of making up words. So I worked with a brand called Little Little, Little Gourmets, and they are a really fun, Chicago based, women owned baby meal brand, and the owner Shabani is amazing and they make fresh baby food.
00;19;55;28 - 00;20;14;11
Chrissy Mize
This is an example of, you know, like a sort of in its own category type of thing, because you're not going to find this product next to the Gerber jars. It's in the fridge, it's fresh, it's made with herbs and veggies and it's very low sugar. And it's I ate a ton of these. I actually worked with her when my little guy was transitioning into solids.
00;20;14;11 - 00;20;38;26
Chrissy Mize
So it was kind of perfect and so got chef guess so. Well, Gourmets And so we wanted to convey that, you know, okay, it's healthy, it's delicious, it's fresh. But like, let's not be so serious about it. It's baby food and it's really good. And it's this is a positive, you know, sort of yeah, it's a positive, fun brand.
00;20;38;26 - 00;20;55;18
Chrissy Mize
And so we came up with Veggie licious and so it's like, okay, it's there's vegetables and it's delicious veggie. It's not like this is some like, oh, no one's ever said that in the world, but like, let's own it as a brand. So like, we use the adjective, they use adjective now to describe their products. It's delicious, right?
00;20;55;18 - 00;21;19;29
Chrissy Mize
So like, have fun, get a little playful. And then we came up with a bunch of really fun taglines and sort of catch phrases for them to use around their products like squash, picky eating. So kind of a fun one. Yeah. Yeah. And one of the sort of main headlines is baby Meals. So Good. You'll wish you were a baby.
00;21;19;29 - 00;21;49;28
Chrissy Mize
So things like that where you're kind of like if your brand is wave like this is on brand for you, right? Not being afraid to do that with your copy. Obviously staying very clear, we don't confuse anybody. We're not just throwing out jokes and puns left and right just for the heck of it, but like finding ways to communicate the, you know, the benefits that why that reason to believe with language that feels like somebody might just say it or it's a joke or it's, you know, we're having fun.
00;21;49;28 - 00;21;54;12
Chrissy Mize
So it's funny. I can't I don't feel like I have like a formula because that's the job of writing.
00;21;56;04 - 00;21;56;08
Djenaba
Like, I.
00;21;56;08 - 00;22;16;00
Chrissy Mize
Guess my invitation is to to go for it and just try it out and not be afraid to make that voice identity, you know, all that you want it to be for your brand. So thinking, I guess, sort of going backwards, what do we who are we as a brand? What do we want our buyers to feel? How do we reflect that in our writing?
00;22;16;00 - 00;22;26;08
Chrissy Mize
So really taking a beat to say, what is this messaging? You know, what does it sort of need to do? What's the work that we want it to do? And so then how do we craft those messages accordingly?
00;22;26;08 - 00;22;39;17
Djenaba
Great. So how do you talk about how you work with clients who say, Well, to make it up, I have my adaptogen coffee, here I am, I've come to you and I want to work together. I need help with my copy. How do you what what do you do from start to finish with them?
00;22;41;15 - 00;22;42;21
Chrissy Mize
You mean as far as the actual work?
00;22;42;21 - 00;22;46;21
Djenaba
Yeah, the actual work, Yeah. Like, yeah, the initial meeting. Feel like kind of completing the.
00;22;46;21 - 00;23;10;22
Chrissy Mize
Yeah. Yeah. So we would obviously figure out a scope like what's the, what are the sort of, you know, deliverables, what are the things that need attention. And then if a brand already has a voice guide, then that's really the foundation for what we're going to do. So if they've created a brand book and they have that tone of voice action, which I'll be honest is often missing, and if it's there is often incomplete.
00;23;10;22 - 00;23;11;05
Chrissy Mize
So I have to.
00;23;11;05 - 00;23;17;09
Djenaba
Tell you, I have a brand book, but I don't have a voice guide. So if you could talk a little bit more about that too.
00;23;17;14 - 00;23;43;20
Chrissy Mize
If yeah, so if you don't know, like, you know, your brand book is all the rules and sort of how tos for the brand, which is often the logo, the colors, the font, the typography, the spacing do and do not write it. Also, it should include a section for tone of voice. And this is sort of the direction to any writer, any person who's going to write for this brand, how to write.
00;23;43;20 - 00;24;14;11
Chrissy Mize
And the best ones have examples. So like, here's how we would say this in our tone of voice, to say if we have a, you know, and a cheeky, fun, light tone voice, we would use. Sure, we would use vegetables. Yes, we would use maybe we also, girl, you'll wish you were a baby. Here's how we would not say that fresh baby food, you know, in the in the fresh refrigerator section that's boring F like that's what I'm going to do anything for us, right?
00;24;14;11 - 00;24;34;04
Chrissy Mize
That's got no verb. And and so just sort of giving example of that is like the most effective way for, you know, whoever to come in. If you're hiring other writers or even people in your team, often it's people wearing lots of hats. And so folks within can look at this guide and say, okay, here's the sort of writer hat that I need to put on for this brand.
00;24;34;04 - 00;25;05;25
Chrissy Mize
This is that the personality and I like to do oftentimes what I'll do with brands is builds. So build out that section, that tone of voice section that's going to then help you write anything, right, with like a word bank. So here is like a list of words that we like to use. So like verbs, you know how we talk about our products, adjectives maybe, and then do a section on this is my most favorite thing to do ever is is the taglines and the headlines.
00;25;06;04 - 00;25;24;07
Chrissy Mize
It's like a whole, you know, like you could have a couple pages of this. I worked at the brand, you know, last year. Mother Love, They did a big brand refresh. I worked with them through an agency and they had this like massive brand book. It was amazing. It was so thorough. And they really, like, did their homework.
00;25;24;07 - 00;25;42;18
Chrissy Mize
So they had headlines for the different products. So like, okay, here's our belly cream here. How about headlines we can use for that belly cream over and over again? Here's, you know, the ball, whatever. And it was very like. So then they have this big bank to use whenever they're talking about any of these products. It was great.
00;25;42;28 - 00;26;04;12
Chrissy Mize
So like that's, you know, sort of just this material that you can use. You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you going to write something like a social post or an email or a sales blurb or, you know, whatever, something on LinkedIn, you can you can draw from this, this bank. So that was a very long answer to how do we start?
00;26;04;18 - 00;26;13;01
Djenaba
Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Sorry, we got a little sidetracked, but I just wanted to like, I think having that knowing understanding what the what the voice guide is is really important. So yeah.
00;26;13;05 - 00;26;32;02
Chrissy Mize
Yeah. So that's really the foundation. If that's already there, then obviously capitalize on that. That's my sort of, you know, that gets me into the, the voice of the brand because writing for a brand is kind of like acting. You need to put on this personality, you need to learn this character. A brand should have their own character and voice, right?
00;26;32;27 - 00;26;56;17
Chrissy Mize
And so the that tone of voice guide helps us to know what do they sound like, How do they speak? What's their you know, what kind of words are they using? This is who this brand is in writing. And then we really go to town and decide like, what? So what needs to happen? Say it's like a web read site website, you know, re hall.
00;26;56;17 - 00;27;23;07
Chrissy Mize
So that's the project. Then it's it's kind of doing that foundational messaging hierarchy. So we have all these different, you know, maybe values as a brand brand pillars, all this internal work that we do to develop our, you know, our brand identity. And we have all these benefits and all these features and there's a lot of information. We really want to distill the sort of order of those messages.
00;27;23;19 - 00;27;44;28
Chrissy Mize
So this is a very collaborative exercise that we do together that I do with the founders or the marketing team or whoever this is, say like, let's really like create that list of that, like that hierarchy. What's the first thing people want to know about this brand? What's the first thing they need to know? You know, they land on the website, what's the next thing?
00;27;45;11 - 00;28;28;25
Chrissy Mize
And we want to create that flow so that it's a really seamless user experience on the site so that they're getting the information that they need to sort of continue to scroll or click through. Because obviously that's the goal of, for example, an e-commerce website is to click through an active part. So it's identifying that information architecture and then it's really it's doing the writing, which is it's sort of like mini stories, mini stories about a product, mini stories about, you know, about us, mini stories about if they've got like this really common, you know, our values or sustainability or, you know, partnerships, whatever.
00;28;28;25 - 00;29;02;05
Chrissy Mize
It's really trying to find the on brand way to talk about our story in these different moments online. So yeah. And then really that becomes again, like the tone of Westbrook, all of that writing becomes easy fodder to then repurpose for social emails, you know, different campaigns because it's really this is what we say as a brand. This is what we this is how we articulate who we are and what we do and and what our products are here for.
00;29;02;05 - 00;29;05;28
Chrissy Mize
So that is a big part of the work that I do.
00;29;06;06 - 00;29;23;15
Djenaba
So how long does it take? Like just I'm just like, what is like, how do you manage people's expectations around time? Like, it seems to me like especially if someone doesn't have this voice guide, like it's going to, this is going to be a project that takes some time. There's going to be iterations of, you know, different things that are happening.
00;29;23;15 - 00;29;24;15
Djenaba
So just curious.
00;29;24;15 - 00;29;45;06
Chrissy Mize
Sure. Yeah. Like if that if that if we're writing the tone of voice guide and sometimes it's like a brand wants like a more down and dirty, like I just hit a website, let's just just try to do it and you know, a month and like, that's it, that's fine. You know, like, that's, that's what it is. But if we're doing a bigger, you know, let's do the brand book, let's do the Yeah.
00;29;45;06 - 00;29;57;06
Chrissy Mize
The, the hierarchy. And then we really are going to build this, the messaging for the site that could be, you know, more like 2 to 3 months of like creating the whole foundation and then getting you sort of lift off with with us messaging.
00;29;58;07 - 00;30;14;08
Djenaba
Oh, thank you. So I'm going to switch gears a little bit. I want to talk about you and what you do for fun and to relax because I feel like, you know, as business owners, we're doing all the things all the time, you know, and don't take the time to like, take care of ourselves, but maybe you do.
00;30;14;08 - 00;30;17;05
Djenaba
So if you can share, like, what do you what's good for you? What do you do?
00;30;17;17 - 00;30;39;07
Chrissy Mize
Yes, thank you. I love this question. Well, I guess two things. I you know, I like I well, I was telling you beforehand, I have two young kids and so very busy life and I just this year I got back into trail running. So I don't do it every week. But as often as I can get out onto a trail, I love it.
00;30;39;07 - 00;31;10;06
Chrissy Mize
That is like my happy space is, you know, running through the trees. I'm not fast, but like just getting down to nature, moving, getting sweaty, exercising all those endorphins. That's that's awesome. And then the opposite is sitting on my couch and. And knitting. I love knitting. Just started a little weenie yesterday for my little guy. And I just love the different colors and textures and different needle sizes and making things that I can give as gifts and making things myself.
00;31;11;02 - 00;31;13;05
Chrissy Mize
So I'm a big knitting fan.
00;31;13;05 - 00;31;14;04
Djenaba
That is so cool.
00;31;16;05 - 00;31;16;18
Chrissy Mize
And fun.
00;31;17;15 - 00;31;33;29
Djenaba
So here at Hudson Kitchen, we have what we call what I call the money bell. We both ring the bell to celebrate things that we're that things that anything celebrate, anything that's important to us. So somebody, an employee can ring the bell for their paycheck or people can ring the bell and they get new take on new retail partners.
00;31;33;29 - 00;31;36;27
Djenaba
Wondering what you're celebrating.
00;31;36;27 - 00;32;01;10
Chrissy Mize
Yeah, it's funny. I was thinking about this and I was like, gosh, this is this feels like a tricky one to answer, but and this is back to the sort of like self-care sort of mental health, but physical health is it's actually something I did for myself was I recently bought a pair of weights, hand weights, dumbbells. So I'm going to call that a win because I'm like, all right, I'm ready to like, get stronger.
00;32;01;10 - 00;32;14;16
Chrissy Mize
I've never been, like, super strong, but I'm like, I'm, I'm ready. Let's do it. So, like, purchasing those baby blue dumbbells for myself was like, I'm going to ding, ding, ding that bell for myself. I'm like, Let's let's go, let's go.
00;32;14;16 - 00;32;26;25
Djenaba
That's really great. I have to say, I like I love weightlifting. That's like one of the things that I do. Yes. And just recently started taking another class. So, yeah, it's it's fun to be strong. Yeah, that's good. So that's.
00;32;26;25 - 00;32;31;17
Chrissy Mize
Good. And it definitely translates into like you're like, I can do this. Yes, I can have this. I can have this thing.
00;32;31;19 - 00;32;32;20
Djenaba
Exactly.
00;32;32;20 - 00;32;33;01
Chrissy Mize
Yeah.
00;32;33;12 - 00;32;41;02
Djenaba
Exactly. All right. Crazy. Thank you so much for being here. Tell everybody where they can find you and how to work with you.
00;32;41;12 - 00;32;54;17
Chrissy Mize
Thank you for having me tonight. You can find me at Roar Dash honey BIZ So. RADDATZ Handicap is online also on LinkedIn all the time. But that is where you can find me.
00;32;54;17 - 00;33;18;12
Djenaba
Thank you. The Booth Means Business podcast is produced by Hudson Kitchen. It's recorded and edited at the studio at Carney Point. Our theme song is by Damien de Sandy's and I'm your host, Nabil Johnson Jones. Find out more about Hudson Kitchen by visiting the Hudson Kitchen dot com or follow us on Instagram at the Hudson kitchen. Listen below and leave a review on Apple Podcasts Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
00;33;18;14 - 00;33;19;07
Djenaba
Until next time.