natalie brite

A lil’ quickie Instagram marketing tip based on something we’ve been testing for a few brands we provide marketing management services for. 🌈🌈 Have you noticed a difference in your IG story views & results based on how many / how often you publish stories? Lemme know what you think about this advice to REDUCE the amount of stories you’re sharing!! Another tip I didn’t mention: instead of publishing one story every few hours every day, start thinking more strategically & publish a SERIES of stories once a day. Publishing once a day instead of publishing many times throughout the day may help increase visibility & overall efficacy of your story marketing efforts! 🤠☁️

We gotta take care of each other cause the powers at be surely don’t have our back. Community care is not just a buzz word or a nice thought. It takes action, accountability, critical thinking, education, empathy, and much much more. Community care is not status quo, as much as we’d like to think it is. If it were, our realities would look a lot differently. This week I’m turning 39. Noticing that the older I get, the less I subscribe to any one party, person, or politic. Getting a bit anarchist in my old age I guess 🙆🏻‍♀️ lmao. I’ve been finding it hard to even say much of anything publicly regarding the current state of the USA & world. Instead, I’ve been trying to focus on 1:1 and group conversations with folks… listening, learning, watching, witnessing and just being CURIOUS. Alls to say: no one is coming to save us, y’all. No one person or group of politicians, celebs, or rich folks that we often turn to for direction & solutions are actually gonna bring us into some semblance of balance. We need more than ever to turn to each other. Community care is what we are in need of. And when I say community, I include ALL beings on this beautiful earth; flora and fauna ancestors included! Meme credit goes to those who can def say it better than me: Lilnativeboy @iamjoelleon @gretathunberg @danawhite

Doom scrolling < Creating cool shit. Just over here trying to cope with the VV scary world around me by pouring myself into creative projects 😆. I got the itch to start playing around with a few DGB brand updates as I am going to be doing a big update to our website & services next month! Thinking about bringing in some new iconography and illustrated patterns… among other things. Creativity has always been one of the most powerful ways for me to process things & helps tremendously with staying grounded amidst very tumultuous & weird AF times. Lemme know whatcha think of these cutie illustrations! 🌈🤠

I could add about a million other items to the list of awards we try to chase…but this should suffice for now 😜. What awards are you caught up in the hamster wheel of chasing? What do you need to swap that chase for? 🌈🌈🌈🌈

Consider this my current playbook for building balanced & sustainable marketing ecosystems! 🕺🏾🌈🤠 Save this so you can come back to it when you’re wanting to work on advancing your marketing approaches. Marketing ecosystems are so fun to develop IMO. This is something we are going to be focusing on more & more within DGB studio because we often find that most folks we connect with come to us with pretty imbalanced & unsustainable ecosystems. Some of the most common holes 🕳️ I see folks have in their marketing ecosystems include… 😧 Unfocused / un-established brand identity. This is the heart of your brand - making it pretty hard to keep your biz breathing if it’s not well formed + maintained. 😬 A lack of emphasis on website optimization & traffic. Now more than ever before, I 100% think your website should be top priority in building + maintaining! 😑 Sole focus on social media marketing and not thinking BIGGER with marketing activities. Most small businesses & solopreneurs focus almost entirely on social media marketing… a VV unsustainable approach that often leads to burnout. 😵‍💫 Lack of focus on conversion optimization. This one connects heavily with the above- as a lack of solid brand identity, website, and more robust content marketing strategy often causes a weak conversion rate. I get that it can feel like A LOT to develop & manage all of the moving parts of your marketing dept. Instesd of trying to do all the things, focus on ONE PART of your ecosystem to establish strongly at a time. My suggestion? Begin with your brand identity, then your website, then your content marketing strategy. Otherwise you’re going to spend a ton of time marketing yourself (probably via social media alone), only to wonder why you’re not experiencing more conversions. 👽 Have thoughts or questions? Drop them below! We also have a new blog on our website on this topic if you’d like to explore more. And of course, if you need help with developing your marketing ecosystem, hit us up. This is something we LOVE supporting folks with. We will be accepting new partners to work with at the end of summer / beginning of fall! Xx 🌈☁️

Things I’m really digging lately 🌈🤠… Hand lettering. ✍🏼 I’ve been on a practicing custom lettering kick and it soooo reminds me of when I first tried it in the first graphic design class I ever took. I would sit for HOURS just writing letters in different styles 😅. Full circle moment as Ive been doing the same thing lately. Designing iconography suites & plant illustrations. 🌀 I’ve been working on a design series featuring various PNW native plants and making suites of icons from designs. It’s been SO FUN! My next project is going to create a series of nature studies based on different plants on our land. Watching social documentaries - including true crime. 🕵️ That last part is a bit surprising to me as I’ve never been into true crime and have to be careful not to over consume cause it can be heavy shit! I’ve been really interested in expanding my understanding of other people’s experiences and hearing other folks stories. Listening to 90s hip hop while gardening. 🧑‍🌾 Music has always been something that totally taps me into my flow state and, though our neighbors may not love it 😅, I love blasting some old school jams and getting sweaty doing laborious work in the yard. We are currently laying 6+ tons of dirt and mulch so this has been a daily occurrence around here. 🤲🏼 What’s been bringing you moments of joy lately?!

July vibes! 🌀🌈☀️☁️ I find summer months are usually pretty powerful portals for transformation & growth. Sometimes, though, growth can’t be seen with the eye. Sometimes, in order to grow we need to: Do less Slow down Scale back Say No Pause Or even quit the things that are no longer serving us. Growth is often painted as this beautifully exciting and magical experience - which of course it can be! But growth ALSO can be quite uncomfortable, challenging and even painful. July is a great time to hone in on the work that needs to be committed to in order to propel you into the direction/s you want to go … keeping in mind that our individual paths that we choose to walk ALSO influence & impact our collective path. Trust the flow of change. 🤲🏼

We can learn pretty much any lesson we could possibly need to receive simply by cultivating a relationship with nature. If we want to grow a sustainable, long lasting business or build a brand that withstands the test of time, then IMO the only option is to take a circular approach. Sustainability sometimes isn’t enough. Sometimes, instead of just sustaining what is, we need to actually create an ecosystem that is conducive for healing, regeneration, reciprocity. To be in business solely for yourself may be satisfying in the short term, but it’s not an approach that can withstand the test of time. This is because we don’t exist outside of the rest of the world. We are vital parts of the world, each with our own roles & responsibilities. There is a new blog up on my website all on how we can take a circular approach to marketing!! Being someone who is deeply deeeeeeply passionate about advocating for the care & well-being of the global community we ALL belong to and are a part of (plants included!! They are our allies after all)… it only makes sense that we turn to nature to provide us with the footsteps to follow so to create businesses + brands that are long lasting. The earth knows more about survival than anything else. Yet, the earth also knows a thing or two about collaboration, reciprocity, sharing, working together, sustaining life for one and all. Head to our website to read more about ways to re-imagine marketing to be CIRCULAR! 🌈🤠

SUNS OUT BUNS OUT ☀️💦🌈 HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE!

Kicking off the week w/ a lil’ partner spotlight as the SoulPod brand is prepping to releasing a really amazing new feature in their app and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the process! 🌈✨ I have been working with Crystal, founder of SoulPod, for like 4 years now…. And have been a part of every step of the conception, development and release of the SoulPod brand + App. We currently function as lead of their content marketing dept, providing full service multi-channel marketing management + ongoing creative as well as strategic brand + marketing direction to support ongoing growth. We strongly believe that strategy and creativity do not have to be mutually exclusive, and are both needed to create a brand that feels fresh but also produces concrete results. ☁️ Reach out to us to find out how we can do the same for you and support your business with marketing, brand and management. 🤠

We’ve been going through a pretty horrific land dispute that I am not sharing much about publicly right now but I will say that it has been a HUGE reminder of the costs + consequences of not remembering this truth: We are all connected. 🌱 The land remembers. I can feel it each and every time I hike, explore, dig my feet into the earth or place my hands in soil. Our bodies / minds / souls remember, too. Even when we don’t think something may be impacting us… even when we may think we are immune to what is happening around us… it all still leaves a mark. What we’ve been experiencing in a personal level is just a micro level glimpse into the horrors that arise by the hands of greed, obsession over the accumulation of MORE (money/power/land/dominance) at all costs, and a pure disconnection TO connection. What we do DOES make an impact- in us and the world around us. Whether we want to see or admit it is another thing. I pray to experience a time in my life where compassionate & empathy driven connection to self and our surroundings becomes NORMAL until then- I’ll keep preaching just how utterly critical it is. 🌈

Since making the decision to pump the breaks and embrace SLOWDOWN FOR SUMMER ☀️type of business vibes… it’s made space for me to get a bit more clear on how I want to approach supporting folks with their marketing. We’ve always been a studio that prioritizes marketing from a lens of sustainability, ethics and impact. Though those words are easy to write - there are heck of a lot more difficult to implement consistently! When it comes to the lifespans of our content… there are loads of factors that go into what can help (or crush!) the longevity of our content. These numbers are averages. Yet- the whole purpose of me sharing this is to express how there are digital marketing styles that have much more of a sustainable lifespan than others. Honestly it sort of blows my mind that we place so much energy/time/attention/effort toward producing certain types of content that literally have a SHORT AF lifespan… when we could, instead, focus on creating content on marketing platforms that can benefit us far longer. As a studio, we support folks in establishing a multi-channel marketing strategy. One that doesn’t put all your marketing eggs in one basket, and instead, has you casting a wider marketing next that can create a more long lasting impact. I believe that blogging, podcasting, email, YouTube and Pinterest are some of the absolute most sustainable marketing efforts you can put into place right now. Shorter lifespan content like IG, ⏰ tok, and Facebook do not produce the same types of sustainable benefits. Yet that’s where we typically put the bulk of our marketing budgets and efforts into! Make it make sense 😆. I hope this empowers you to think more sustainably and long term with your marketing. Invest in marketing efforts that produce a return for you and others not just today- but tomorrow, next month, or even years to come. 🌈🌻☁️ Is there a type of marketing you’ve been considering starting to put more focus into? Lemme know!

In honor of #pride🌈 , let’s discuss a topic that always gets me SUPER ANNOYED 🤣!!! … And that is how we uphold gender stereotypes in design. Many designers have their own perspectives / opinions / thoughts on this topic… and in saying that I want to encourage taking a look at how design ‘rules’ have potentially caused us to uphold harmful norms. Just because someone somewhere at some point in time decided that something is a certain way doesn’t mean that it has to continue to be that way. We as people have the ability to choose to (or not to!) subscribe to whatever ideologies. We also have the ability to CHANGE- our beliefs, our minds, our hearts. If you’ve taken any sort of art or design class, then chances are you’ve been exposed to the concepts of color theory and color psychology. Now- I’m not a psychologist or color theorist, yet I am a non-binary person. So, I can firsthand say that I have some beef with the ways in which these concepts have ingrained gender binaries that have the ability diminishing our ability to design inclusively. We are often taught things like Pink = GIRL / feminine / soft and Blue = BOY / strong / masculine. 🙄 In color psychology, we are taught that that colors affect perception & behavior, therefore color is encouraged to be used persuasively to evoke certain emotions. We see this in marketing ALL. THE. TIME. Products for men are blue, products for women are pink… red is used to evoke excitement or urgency, white for calmness, purity and luxury, green for growth, health, peace… I could keep going but the point i want to get across here is: Gender stereotypes are upheld by gender norms and gender norms are often enforced + re-unforced thru the ways in which we design - among many other things. We can continue upholding our biases and stereotypes by just doing as we have been taught and not questioning any of it … we can take what works from the past and IMPROVE IT to make it better for our present & future…. Or we can say ‘screw it!’ And write a whole new rule book. What will you choose? More on this topic on my latest blog! Available on our website. ☁️