Join us on “Think Big With Dan & Qasim” for an inspiring conversation with Ryan from Palmer Creative as he shares his journey of building a creative agency, overcoming entrepreneurial challenges, and navigating the digital world.
From wearing multiple hats to finding the right tech stack, Ryan offers valuable insights on business growth, networking, and the power of bold marketing.
Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, this episode is packed with motivation and practical advice to help you succeed. Tune in now!
welcome to Think Big with Dan and Kasim join hosts Dan Melnik and Kasim Massud as they explore big ideas limitless possibilities and engage with visionaries entrepreneurs and thought leaders who dare to dream big get inspired motivated and find practical tips for personal growth think big dream bigger and ignite your potential welcome to the Think Big with Dan and Kasim today our guest is Ryan Palmer ryan who are you doing today i’m doing good awesome awesome so Ryan let us know what you do and where you live yes my name is Ryan Palmer i live in Maran Illinois it’s a little town in southern Illinois about five or six hours from Chicago so we’re way down there in the south probably closer to like like two hours from St louis so we’re a lot closer there but yeah every time I say Illinois people you know assume Chicago but yeah we’re way down south little small town but uh yeah so I run Palmer Creative Co we’re a creative agency we do web design digital marketing copywriting pretty much anything creative yeah kind of been running this for a few months now just kind of uh started it back in November last year so awesome so when we talk about any creative company uh this is for sure that you involve thinking process in at every step so creativity and digital world have the really great combination nowadays so along with this combination are you using are you using or getting help from AI as well or till now you are working without AI there’s a lot of talk and stuff online about AI and I’ve seen people you know hate it and I’ve seen people love it and honest you know it’s one of those things where I feel like it’s just another tool where you know it takes a great idea first to kind of start because if you kind of just you know put in something in a chat GPT and use the first thing it gives you like you know you’re not doing any work you’re like it’s not going to give you anything good or usable but I think you know when done right using the right prompts and stuff I think it can really help out you know a just kind of you know think of ideas and stuff and then b also just kind of you know speed up the process of certain things and take you know some of that some of those boring tasks away so you have more time to kind of you know focus on the fun stuff and I feel like it’s a really good you know efficient tool when used correctly but I feel like a lot of people you know aren’t using it correctly so that’s kind of a kind of a double-edged uh blade but yeah I think like it’s not going anywhere so I think it’s the best thing to do is you know really like learn how to do use it correctly and you know kind of you know get ahead of another game because people are going to be using it so you might as well be the best at at using it you know awesome awesome so I I I think there are a lot of other companies as well there are a lot of competitors in the market uh the work that you are doing so but I I I haven’t seen creative word in the name of the company and uh I would believe this is some of your is this is one of your differentiators for sure but like what are the other differentiators uh in terms of your business from others in the market so I think my biggest differentiator at least personally is my background um I’m actually a engineering major i was I was a major in uh industrial manufacturing and applied engineering and I you know whenever I first got to college they told me you know engineering is going to be great for creative people you know and four years later I’m like okay when’s it going to get creative and so I’m like so I like got the major I mean I got the degree in that and then I stuck around for an extra semester for a advertising and journalism minor um and I got involved in like a local or I mean like a a studentran um agency when I was in college for a while so I got some experience experience there and then yeah after I graduated you know it was just kind of like engineering was fun and it was really good to learn and it it does come in handy for my business it’s just you know not something I wanted to do as a career it’s like you know it was just a little bit too boring for me and so but I use a lot of like the actual philosophies and stuff I uh learned in my engineering classes like on efficiency and lean manufacturing and just you know uh processes that really helps that you know to work efficiently and get things done the right way and I feel like that is one of my differentiators cuz I kind of have you know that logical side of me from the engineering stuff but I also am creative so I’m kind of you know a blend of the two where I can you know read the data read the stats and stuff but also understand the creative side of things awesome great so marketing is associated with every business I believe uh and today this is u one of the most important thing that uh digital marketing is becoming a part of every business day by day so I believe you are doing digital marketing as well so how you offer the digital marketing services and how you are offering your services like how you are marketing your services yeah so I do a lot of like you know cold outreach and stuff you know just connecting with the right people who run businesses like-minded people that I think would be fun to work with but I’ve actually you know the last couple months really been uh you know posting more on LinkedIn you know posting just content from my own profile and I’ve really been you know building a pretty solid following on there just you know in the the few months I’ve been doing it and I think you know I used to hate LinkedIn and I used to hate it just because you know how corporate and robot and boring it was but I’ve came to kind of realize you know that’s almost like you know if you go on there and you’re not boring you know you’re going to stand out more so I feel like you know it’s kind of like a double-edged blade again because you know you see all these posts like “Oh I’m excited to announce that I’ve accepted a position it’s blah blah blah.” And so I go on there you know I’ll I’ll use it like I’m using Twitter and so no one’s going to be out like no one else is posting those so you know it’s it’s obviously going to get some eyeballs and I feel like that’s really kind of building it up showing my personality a little bit more and kind of you know building a connection of uh you know different entrepreneurs and business owners and stuff on there i think your audio cut out sorry so what digital marketing services you are offering to your clients yeah so I do a lot of uh like for online stuff I do a lot of uh copywriting like email marketing stuff um I really like enjoy you know kind of you know figuring out a brand’s voice uh or if they don’t have one helping them you know kind of come up with one and I love you know like the kind of companies that are like you know not afraid to kind of think outside of the box have some fun with it be a little bold take some risks because I feel like those are the fun ones those are a little bit risky ones but you know whenever it works it usually works pretty big so I like doing that kind of stuff um I enjoy writing and then I do like uh designs and stuff that’s more for like uh usually more local stuff i do a lot of like logo design branding and stuff like that just kind of you know overall brand identity but yes like like for like online coaches and online businesses and stuff like that i do a lot of you know helping them with their funnels and their web copy and their email marketing stuff like that and who is your ideal client yeah so I kind of like uh I just like working with pretty much anyone that I find could be you know fun to work with pretty uh you know flexible with what I can do i you know I don’t really stick to one lane i know a lot of people have niches and I do a lot of stuff for you know different coaches and stuff because I feel like you know with email marketing specifically you can really you know get into you know the storytelling side of things and stuff like that but you know yeah I’m anyone who needs any kind of brand identity or brand or anything like help with anything pretty much I’m your guy so exactly so in terms of uh referral partnerships do you prefer these things because uh right now it is spreading everywhere everybody is doing partnerships on referrals on some particular services sort of these things so do you welcome all the partnerships as well uh or you have your own trades and uh your own way of working yeah so I’ve had some people you know kind of reach out to me had like uh some social media guys like you know kind of have the idea where you know they’d refer uh like business to me for like web design and stuff if I could you know refer to them you know social media clients or something but the point I’m at in my business right now is not to be cocky but I feel like I’m pretty good at everything so you know with certain things I got to be kind of picky because I don’t want to you know refer to someone who I feel like is going to be you know doing worse work than I would so if I feel like you know I could do better might as well you know give them the best yeah well that’s a good approach for sure awesome so in terms of your business growth uh like how you not the growth but but the success how you measure the success of your business yes i think you know just uh obviously conversions that’s you know the biggest thing is you know making sure you’re actually you know getting sales but I think you know a lot of the time sales will take some time to figure out the right prices and the right targeting and stuff but I think at the end of the day you know at least start off and stuff if you’re starting off a business I think the biggest kind of thing is if you have a vision and you and you aren’t really sure how to execute that vision you know that’s what I’m for is to kind of you know take your vision and run with it and you know if it’s not what you want you know we can keep on working until it’s it’s exactly what you want and you had in mind you know and that’s kind of my success is like you know having those clients that can see what they had in their mind finally come to life all right that made completely sense so uh in terms of your growth what are your short-term goals like maybe in next two to six months so yeah eventually I want to kind of you know leave southern Illinois you know I love it down here but it’s not uh especially the last few weeks have been really cold just slipped and fell on ice last week so that was fun that reminded me how how much I wanted to get out of here so yeah eventually you know as we grow I want to kind of you know take it and maybe you know um either hand off some of the uh the duties for like locally maybe right now it’s mainly just me but so like I have like a team of people that I can like reach out to if I need help with certain projects or anything but yeah right now it’s kind of just me but I do want to kind of grow into a team eventually where I can kind of outsource some of the stuff and kind of be a little bit more hands-off so I have more time to you know do travel and stuff like that while I kind of you know control the team more of like uh actually creative directing than you know being being the guy for everything you know makes sense so as a founder this is a big responsibility and uh almost every founder is wearing a lot of hats so how many hats you are wearing at this point i’m I’m pretty much wearing them all right now i’ll reach out to the people if I have questions and stuff but I really do enjoy just learning everything i’m a fast learner and I them all like like every aspect of marketing and branding and everything i feel like they all you know work together to to a point so it’s almost like you have to wear all hats you know maybe you’ll uh wear a bigger hat sometimes than others but you know as long as it’s all running like a you know like a welloiled machine you know in order to make that happen you got to kind of be involved a little bit of everything well that’s interesting but don’t you think so like wearing a lot of hats uh maybe a problem and maybe can be a challenge itself yeah I think um yeah with certain things you know especially if you have you know a lot of projects at the same time it can get a little tough to you know handle them all yourself but I I think at least you know having a part in it and then maybe you know if if it does get a little bit too much you know having the right uh you know network or connections to reach out to that could help you out if you need it i feel like that’s important but I feel like you know it’s important to you know kind of be the one to kind of control everything and then you you can make the best decisions on on you know which tasks you think could be outsourced which ones you know are best you know to do yourself and stuff like that yeah that makes sense completely and in terms of having control at one point can be a bottleneck as well but can be the best decision as well where everything will be driven from one side and uh things will stay in control for sure i’ve seen it like um I’ve seen it with like you know different teams and stuff at you know past places teams I’ve worked with where you know they’ll be like more than one uh vision going on and so everyone’s kind of working towards a kind of similar goal but they’re not you know spot on and they both don’t know exactly what the end goal is you know so I think you know that can kind of like cause some confusion sometimes and maybe cause some headaches and you know make uh projects last longer than they should and so I think yeah like as long as you have a good team that you know are all are Well on the same page of what the end goal is I think you know having a team could be definitely helpful too makes sense yeah so in terms of challenges like every entrepreneur face challenges uh and I think challenges are meant to be for the for the entrepreneurs so uh have you ever faced any obviously you must have faced some challenges but can you share one of the biggest challenge that you have faced and how you were able to cope up with it yeah so I think one of the biggest challenges is like just personally sometimes you know that uh that fear of you know like being able to get the work and then not you know do good enough work you know just that like that fear that you might not be good enough or you know depending on how how big of a client you might get but I think the biggest thing is you know just to jump in and go for it because I think you know you can kind of do anything because as long as you have that motivation to do it you’re going to get it done and you know like I said whenever I do work with clients I’m going to keep on working until it’s exactly what they want and if they’re not happy with it I’ll keep on going until they are you know and so that it was kind of getting over that hurdle of self-doubt but yeah I think like the biggest thing is just to remember like you know everyone’s human you know people are starting businesses too you know the people you’re talking to and working with are just like you they’re business driven founders just like you so so everyone you know they’re just humans they’re not it’s not like uh there’s no reason for any pressure because you want to help them and they want to help you so yeah sure for sure so in terms of technologies because you are working with the technologies so what is the tech stack that you are working on for the web development and other things yeah so I do a lot of WordPress and like Woo Commerce stuff that’s kind of at the old agency I used to work with i did a lot of that and I honestly didn’t even think I was I had no idea I was going to like ever even really do much web design cuz you know even during the engineering and stuff I was always doing a lot of copywriting because I really enjoy you know getting in people’s minds and stuff but yeah whenever I started the job there I kind of um got really the hang of using WordPress and getting into the back end of that and stuff and so that that’s where I usually develop websites on but I’ve done stuff for Shopify stores and yeah pretty much uh mainly WordPress and then for like graphic design logo stuff i use you know the Adobe suite Illustrator Photoshop all that and then yeah I also do like I’ve done anything from editing uh like short form videos for people on CFKA to you know writing copy and sending out their email marketing on Clavio so yeah kind of just anything like any tool that I think I might be able to use or need you know depending on the project I’ll use it so awesome awesome so uh would you let us know a little bit about the inspiration because yeah you you you told us that uh your background is the most influencing thing in your career but like what was the most influencing thing like uh the motivation what was the biggest why to start a creative agency yeah so I think I’ve just always kind of wanted to do this you know back in high school I had some marketing classes and stuff and it was always my favorite classes like I would always you know stay extra every class I I’d be the one that’s you know going extra even for like extra credit projects I’d do the best for no reason when I didn’t even need extra credit you know i And like I just always love the marketing stuff i’ve always loved art i used to love magic as a kid and I feel like that’s kind of similar you know like psychology stuff i just feel like all my different interests I feel like it all kind of led me to running a creative agency so yeah I’ve always I’ve also always been entrepreneurial so I feel like this is just kind of a perfect fit just running my own business and I also just feel like you know there’s a lot of marketing companies and also just like businesses in general that are yeah like too boring like they’re just like they don’t understand it like not everyone wants to see you know just boring updates on Facebook like in order to really build a community and like you got to be a little bold and you got to have some personality and I feel like that’s my biggest inspiration is I’m like I just think you know there’s too many good businesses out there that no one even knows about because they aren’t they aren’t bold enough and I feel like that’s my biggest inspiration is I just want to help as many good businesses as I can got it so what we will you will say if someone who who do not have a background of technology uh a technical background so and they want to start a uh an agency software development or the design agency so what you will say like they should start or they should not start and if they should start it then why like what should be the vision behind i think that if they think they have the willpower to you know stick through it and knowing like if they can look in the mirror and they can know that you know 10 years down the road they’re going to succeed go for it but if you have any doubt you know it might not be the best time but whenever you feel confident enough where you know like you know there’s going to be struggles and you know there’s going to be it’s going to be roadblocks but if you can look in the mirror and you just know that you’re going to succeed at something go for it awesome awesome great so uh R what would be your biggest piece of advice uh for the entrepreneurs who are struggling with the business or maybe they want to be they want to be their own boss i think uh you know it’s an online world you know it’s a digital world now that was honestly one of the reasons that I I decided to go for it when I did is you know I kind of realized it’s a digital world there’s all these opportunities online to make money where you you aren’t stuck at a nineto-ive anymore if you don’t want to be and it’s like you know it’s not going anywhere it’s only going to keep going and I think even like during COVID you know COVID was a blessing and a curse but I think one of the blessings of it was people started to realize that you know it’s more efficient sometimes as long as there’s good workers it’s more efficient sometimes to kind of be hands-off and with online businesses and stuff there’s uh so many different ways you can make money i think you know if you feel comfortable to go for it just go for it put yourself out there because everyone’s online word of mouth and stuff is great but everybody’s going to be online and they’re not going anywhere so if you want to make connections and make money and stuff online’s like you have to be online like that’s the only place that’s that you can contact anyone in the world at any time so you have to get out there don’t be afraid to outreach to people and make new friends online and connections and stuff like that because that’s where the growth really starts to happen you start meeting people even if it’s not you know doing business together you can learn from them and just connect with like-minded people and you know you’re just going to keep getting better so just go for it awesome thanks for the great and deep advice awesome so right at the end u would you please let our viewers know how they can reach you you can share your website your social media handles or whatever you want to share yep so uh our website is polymercreative.co my email is ryanpalmercreative.co and then uh I think Instagram and Facebook are just uh both palmercreative co and I think Twitter palmercreative uh LinkedIn uh I think that that’s also just Palmer Creative Co i think with with hyphens between the words maybe but yeah if you just type in Palmer Creative Co you’ll find it awesome well thanks Ryan i really enjoyed the conversation thanks for joining us today i appreciate it thanks for having me thank you stay in touch have a good day bye-bye you too
