“Together Talks” #88: Prodio with Co-Founders, Kellie McCormick and Chelsea Thompson

Some Background on Prodio

For today's edition of "Together Talks" campaign, KLS had the opportunity to interview Co-Founders, Kellie McCormick and Chelsea Thomason, of Prodio, an exclusive creative collective obsessed with building brands. Their goal is to uncover profitable paths for their clients, helping brands sprout and grow. Their services are rooted in discovery, enhancement, and education, resulting in identity refinement, stronger market positioning and scalable business.

“The Prodio creative collective was not only designed to link our clients to expert level resources but to unite a community of creative and talented individuals across the state of Michigan...and beyond.”

Prior experience leads to 2019

Kellie and Chelsea first met years prior when they worked together on the rebrand and relaunch of a French bakeware company in the United States. After that project wrapped, each went their own ways exploring other opportunities, but ultimately stayed in contact. Then, during a happy hour discussion over industry challenges, the duo put their initial ideas together and started meeting weekly to explore the opportunity to implement their vision. They continued for nearly four months until they decided to officially begin building Prodio in December of 2019.

A motivation leading to the creation of Prodio was their frustration with the lack and quality of the resources and availability for small to medium sized businesses. They felt there was an opportunity to provide not only a better cohesive process, but also top-tier talent without the big agency price tag. They set out to achieve this and become a true partner for the businesses they wanted to help. Six months after their soft launch, they both agreed that the momentum was there to dive in full, and from then on, the Co-Founders of Prodio were full- time with their start up. As the business progressed, the meaning behind their company’s name would never be more evident, Latin for ‘to sprout or to grow’.

Helping small to medium sized

With the focus on small to medium sized companies, Chelsea mentioned that regardless of the industry, there is one common denominator for their client base - businesses in growth mode. Developing Prodio, their focus was to rectify high costs and accessibility to expert level marketing and branding solutions available to companies wanting to grow. Their process would involve scalable solutions to bring everything together in one place, under the expert management of Prodio and most importantly at an affordable price point. Chelsea and Kellie understood the importance of ROI and were determined to bring value to their clients with a focus on key metric results.

Building strong partnerships remains at the forefront of what they do. Getting to know who they are working with, the company, and their goals allows Prodio to customize and tailor their approach. Understanding the client’s trajectory enables them to develop the right custom path to help reach their growth goals. Kellie explained to us that it is easy for clients to view Prodio as an extension of the team. They also find it important to keep education at the center of all they do. Not just in providing the tools, but also teaching clients how to use them to enhance the value of Prodio’s services in the short and long term. Their client-focused, supportive and educative approach sets them apart from other growth marketing agencies in their space.

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Creative Collective: Building Dream Teams

At its core, Prodio’s strength lies within their talented Creative Collective network. They have united top level talent all over the country to build creative dream teams, capable of achieving any marketing or branding request. The collaborative team is just another way that Prodio provides a tailored approach for their clients. Utilizing Prodio’s services, the client can access specialized creators (ie. graphic designers,? photographers, videographers, social media managers, etc.) without having to manage an internal team or the overhead that comes with it. Prodio allows businesses to remain agile and evolves alongside the changing needs and goals. Creative Collective members are thoroughly vetted in order to maintain the quality of the work and maximize the creative collaboration. In fact, a good majority of the Collective is comprised of individuals Kellie and Chelsea have worked with throughout their careers from coast to coast in the US and globally.

Kellie and Chelsea look to continue building their creative community to meet their scaling business needs and expanded offerings. For clients, a large current emphasis is on 2024 strategy planning and execution, and a selection of audits for their clients. Prodio’s marketing, branding or digital audits are a great tool if you don’t know where to start in building a growth path. They provide an in-depth analysis and strategy moving forward that is realistic and achievable. Kellie explained, "Our whole intention is that working with Prodio, you, your team, and your entire business will be in a totally different place by the end of the year."

Prodio is planning an expansion of services with focus on internal company education in a shifting industry. Chelsea described to us that in the last 3-5 years there has been more change in their industry than arguably the last few decades. Constant evolution within their industry requires internal education to remain at the peak of the resources available to their clients. Staying on the cutting edge is imperative for Prodio to remain best-in-class; and not selling pre-packaged, old solutions to their clients goes back to their customizable approach. Chelsea told us, "Branding is a living, breathing thing, that constantly is and needs to be evolving. We ensure our clients remain competitive, reach the right audiences and invest in the right things."

Building a culture

Creating brand culture is something that both Chelsea and Kellie consider vital to the success and longevity of Prodio. Kellie explained how much she appreciates the flexibility of running the company that they have manufactured for themselves. The diversity of the work and the ability to create, adapt, and deliver while having a family is so fulfilling to her. Chelsea echoed those sentiments, summing it up, "Being an entrepreneur is a difficult journey but incredibly rewarding to build and see the impact we have on our clients' businesses."

Piece of Advice

The conversation with Kellie and Chelsea ended with each sharing their pieces of advice and also free marketing advice for everyone!

Kellie – "Never stop learning, whether that be in business or in life. It's definitely a reason we put a lot of emphasis and focus on education in our business. And, you know, we learn a lot from every project that we do. I can't tell you how many times I say to Chelsea, 'If nothing else, we're going to learn something.' So, just don't be afraid to explore something new or a new strategy, cause if nothing else, you're going to learn something."

Chelsea – "Lower your expectations as an entrepreneur, focus on the positive and don’t get stuck in your own head. I think that we all start our ventures with that exciting vision that inspired us to begin with. However, don’t get hyper focused on constantly searching for that perfect project, perfect goal or that perfect client. It's about identifying opportunity, building, and maintaining. Fostering those relationships, your network, and finding yourself around supportive, mindful individuals that are going to support you through your journey. And in general, see everything as an opportunity rather than having impossibly high expectations."

Marketing Advice:

1: First impressions in today’s world are often a digital impression. When it comes to your business’s digital presence, ask yourself:?

“Is this the first impression I want to have, is it a good representation?” "What am I trying to prioritize for the viewer?" "What are my main messages?"

Make sure that is reflected appropriately.??

2: Founders Syndrome:

“Look, we all started our businesses because we are passionate about what we do, but the good majority excel at only a handful of what it takes to run a thriving and growing business. Don’t fall into Founder’s Syndrome and get out of your own way by staying open minded and collaborate with specialists in their own businesses/fields, you will be amazed at what it does?for your business, network and peace of mind."

Interested in being featured with "Together Talks"?

KLS is booking our upcoming schedule now!

Contact us as we would love to learn your story and share it amongst our audience.

Weekly we provide 2 companies our platform to expand their reach courtesy of our campaign. Let's collaborate!!!

In Closing

KLS wants to thank Prodio and Co-Founders, Kellie McCormick?and Chelsea Thompson, for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for the Prodio journey with their social handles below!

Instagram?/ LinkedIn / ?Facebook