Stuck At $500K Revenue? This Unusual Rebranding Can Save Your Company

Hello, welcome to this episode of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur. Have you built a business and then after a couple of years, maybe 5 or 6 years, you've reached a plateau? Maybe you got a certain amount of revenue, a certain amount of staff, some clients, and then found that you might need to change direction slightly. I know that that happened to me. In my case, I moved from Singapore to China at that stage, thinking a new geography would solve the problems. And I've got news for you, it doesn't. But our guest today does have a solution of how he's managing to overcome the issues of when you grow a business and then need to transition to a slightly different one. And our guest today also works in the sports industry. So really interested in his perspective because it's quite a niche, but obviously in America, a huge one. We're welcoming Zach Coleman, who's in Gilbert, Arizona. Zach, welcome to the show.

Thanks, Jim. Thank you for having me on.

Well, I was debating having you on because Zach's company name sounds as though I've got a stutter. It's Creatitive.com. So I'm not pronouncing it, uh, incorrectly, I think. Zach, is that right? How do you say your company name?

It's Creatitive. Yeah, it's definitely a play on words, that's for sure. But you'll remember it now, that's for sure.

We'll all remember it. And just for the record, I haven't made a— I haven't made a mistake. Um, I make lots of them, I can tell you. I'm not saying I'm immune from them. I make lots of them, but today I've got it right. But Zach, on your website, you say we help legacy brands build competitive advantage beyond the game. Tell us a little bit about the company and the stage that you've reached that's led you to really think about how you transition to a new brand platform. So just give us a little bit of history first, please, about the creative. Company you've got there.

Yeah, definitely. Well, I think it all started when I was younger. My dad was a retired NFL player. He started— he was in way before I was born. I took up soccer, kind of be just like him. And over the years, I kind of got to a point where I realized that, hey, I can no longer follow in my dad's footsteps. I need to follow my own, right? And so I took up visual communications in college. I loved, I loved the situation of Being able to work on these, these amazing projects, no platforms necessary, just working on these amazing projects, going through the process of finding, finding, helping people find their why through visual communications. Right. And at the time I didn't realize it, but it was kind of a, it was kind of a way that I subconsciously went in due to me feeling like I was unseen and unheard as a child. I was very unseen and unheard through my young adult life. Always was that third wheel and anything that I did. Actually, in college, I would say that I was the guy that threw all the parties just because I wanted to be seen and be liked by other people. And it wasn't until I had children and I was at a point in my business, funny enough, the correlation where I started to realize that I could no longer run my business off of the fear of being seen and heard. Like, I just didn't have that motivation anymore. Funny enough, I was already succeeded to the point where you know I had this great family. I was pretty successful. Me and my wife don't have to worry about paying any any bills as of late. I'm only thirty eight, and we're probably we're pretty we're pretty I'm pretty successful with where I'm at. And I just got to a point where I was like, all right, if money's not an underlying factor, what is? You know, and it was a very similar correlation to how athletes. How athletes, professional and/or retired, go through their transition stage going out, coming out of the game. And that was part of my growing up with, with my dad and seeing his transition and what he did after the game. And so I purposely at the time was working with professional athletes, and I still do on occasions, but work with them, helping them find their why after they retire. So, a part of that is really understanding how to help them brand themselves personally and be able to build a business outside the game once they retire. And that's where most of that came in. And I'm a very techie guy. If you ever use a color scale, a color scale, my wife's a family therapist. And so, she likes to use the color wheel of what color you are. Definitely a green-blue, which means I'm very process-oriented, but I'm also very creative. And so I had that battling with me for some time, and the business grew to a point— the business grew to a point where I was doing so much marketing for clients that my creative, my creative side wasn't getting, wasn't getting the attention it deserved. And I didn't realize it at the time until I started having this burnout, and All those together kind of created this culmination of burnout. And I was like, what is going on? How do I— what does my success look like now? Why am I working so much and getting very little in return? What do I do here? And so, I think that that's kind of what led me to the point of what I would like to call my personal rebrand.

Zach, thanks for sharing that honesty really in that journey. And I think that for all of us that have run businesses, for any length of time, we reach it. We reach the stage where the initial sort of rocket fuel that got us going is starting to be empty in the tanks. And maybe that original, certainly for me, some degree of anxiety, right, of being poor and being unnoticed drove me to be ambitious. And once you get some, some success, and also in your case and mine, you get some family, that dimension changes, doesn't it? But Zach, that then creates some business issues, doesn't it? Just tell us then, if you're transitioning from helping players off the pitch to transition into sustainable careers afterwards, what are you doing now then? Who are you serving and what problem are you helping them to solve?

Well, it's not that I didn't love working with athletes. I had a very big passion for athletes. This, this, I just couldn't get it going. You know, no matter how much money, time, energy I put into it, there was a validation of market that I had to push into with what I was doing. And it just, I was the first to market with it and it just wasn't getting validated with what I was doing. And I couldn't find, couldn't find, and what everyone, when everyone kind of looks at you and says, oh, just persevere, just kind of push through, push through it. It's like, okay, well, Well, that's great, but there's also the repeating the same mistakes causes insanity aspect, right? And so I had to really take a look at it and say, hey, like, I love working with athletes, but, you know, it's the one of the 1% that really want to open a business after the game. And I'm not in sports marketing, I'm in branding. And so I had to say, hey, I can't really validate my own products because every single one of these athletes wants something different. And I couldn't necessarily come up with my services at a certain point. I couldn't really keep— I was hiring all over the place because I was trying to fulfill too many needs, you know. And so I ended up as part of that, you know, I still say, hey, we will help professional athletes, you know, if their business is very related to what we're doing, like gym ownership, which is one of the things they love to do after the game, then I will— we can help them with that. But For the most part, for the most part, it was that. It was that validation. And I was a— I had this fear, this fear of starting over, right? I was like, I put all this time, I put all this money into creative. It's sustainable. We have these clients right now. We're making an average of $300,000 to $400,000 a year off of it. But we were— we were in that valley of death period where I was like, how do we make it to the next stage in business? And a lot of it was due to my mental capabilities to evolve as a person.

Really interesting and also really honest of you as well, Zach, about reaching a stage where the money is no longer a motivation, right? And I absolutely hear you on that. And I'm sure that many of us that are listening to your story Will resonate. When you decided to move across, you call it the valley of death, if like stepping off that plateau into the new zone. Tell us about what it is that you've created as a structure, a framework to help you move forward that will then help others to move forward.

Yeah, so we have something what we call the 3 C's of branding, and these are actually what actually helped me develop myself through through the process of trying to just refigure out, you know, honestly, you think it's nothing, but really it's everything, right? It's like, because you're so afraid of getting to that next level, you just don't do it. You just don't see the glimmer of hope, right? And so I call these the 3 C's of branding, which are connection, contribution, and confidence. And just to give a little bit about the process of what that is, and it's really just You know, ways that you personally can go backwards a little bit and find— refine your why, refine and evolve your why to what your new— what your new passions are, what you have evolved to as a person. Basically a rebrand. It's basically what a rebrand is considered. So connection is all about getting to know who you are yourself. It's all about getting back to the things that you value personally. I lost my I lost my premise of going to the gym. I I lost my runs. I was overserving, you know, my clients, and I was I wasn't I wasn't being present around my family. And so I had to go back and say, all right, I actually have to work less. I have to persevere. And I like I tell my my employees even, hey, this isn't about you working sixty-hour weeks. This is about you. You know, working 32 strong hours and spend that other 8 doing something that you personally love to do. And so I brought the gym back into my life. I brought my personal life back in. I had control over what I ate, and I used to do that quite a bit when I first started my business, and I lost it, you know. And so bringing that stuff in actually did something funny. It didn't just help me connect with myself and feel less burnout, but it also led me start to. Connect and have a tendency to connect with like-minded people within the community, within a community that I was trying to build. Right. And so connection is by far, I think it seems simple enough, but it's probably the hardest people think people have to get over is getting out of that disconnected mindset. And for me, for instance, was that seeking of validation. Right. And moving to a connected phase of This is my life. I'm happy. I'm able to connect with people I want to connect with. And that goes deep. So, it wouldn't just mean you're connecting with new friends or new people. It also means your clients and your employees. You want to be able to connect with them on a much deeper level. And so, I tend to say from a tangible perspective, I tend to say, hey, think about it this way. What are your personal values?

Yeah.

And what do you value? And then why don't you translate those to your brand values? Evolve your personal values to your brand values, because then you could start— your business is you, right? We've talked about this already. So connection is by far probably the most important, but the other 2 actually, actually kind of coexist with it. So connection really evolves around the why. Confidence, confidence, on the other hand, is people's ability to act. Once you kind of get to know yourself, you kind of understand yourself more, right? And if you're able to understand yourself more, you have that ability to build your stories and your voice off of your past experiences, which just builds confidence. So being able to self-lead, be able to now lead yourself and lead by example for other people. Is actually what confidence is all about. So instead of having an ego, for instance, my biggest thing when I was, you know, starting out was like, oh, I'm working with athletes, is this huge ego thing. Like, oh, everyone's gonna think I'm cool, you know. It was that validation seeking. And now it's, now it's like, no, like, I am now part of this tribe of this, uh, building this tribe of this, this direction that's actually who I am and who I want to work with. And so it just helps that momentum, you know, helps that momentum of confidence building and bringing on team members that, back to connection, have, have that same situation. So I can now confidently go out and talk about my successes, my failures, my struggles, and I will have this community around me that have fallen through that same concept. And that's really the whole point of confidence right there is that ability to act and fail but being motivated and determined based off of your connection with your fellow people, right? And so lastly is contribution. And I think this one really evolves around the who, right? I think that I didn't really know who I was, who I was evolving into as a person. And so I had to kind of take a step back. And as I started bringing back this connection with myself, I actually started to get more clarity on who I could contribute to the best way I can. Who are those people that I feel like I can help? You know, you get so mixed up in this agenda of, oh, I'm going to charge this much money and that's my agenda. I'm going to make this. I'm an expert on this. When in reality, the contribution side, you shouldn't be overserving your clients, but you should be naturally knowing that, hey, we have certain situations that we can help. Help people with because we want to, you know. Um, and that goes back to offers or certain situations that you could provide because you know you can give them the best service that you can, right? And it just waterfalls. And so contribution is all about, um, really building that, that community and that group. And it cannot— kind of helps build this overall vision, right? Your, your overall contribution to who you start working with will actually start building this vision, not just for your clients and your prospects, but your team. You'll start building this overall, this overall group vision where everyone's working together to start helping more people. Right. And so that those are the 3 pillars that I like to say are, are what you could start evolving to help you develop yourself as a person and how you can start kind of getting past whatever valley of death period you're in, if it be the half a million stage, if it be the $3 to $5 million stage, even the $10 million stage, I think it's a cycle, just a little bit deeper with each of those cycles.

Zach, that's wonderful. And perhaps I can almost sort of paraphrase that about sort of a transition from worrying about self to being committed to the community, right? And as an entrepreneur, of course, our role is also to help the community. And I personally believe that if you help the community, then the community will ultimately help you, right? And if it starts with service, which is why I have the Unnoticed Entrepreneur as a podcast, um, so that I can share great stories from entrepreneurs like yourself that otherwise wouldn't get a platform.

Yeah.

Zach Coleman, tell us in terms of getting noticed, because, you know, this show is also very much focused around how you're building the brand, how you're getting that message out. You're transitioning How are you sharing this message so that you retain the business in the creative company, but also then start to draw in business under this, if you like, new brand umbrella?

We'll be back after a quick break.

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Yeah, so there, there is this transitioning period right now. When I, when I started Kreatitive, it was all about the brand name, right? And like I said, I had to take a step backwards and look at myself and be like, oh, I need to bring in my personal brand. I need to start looking to be who I am as a person, and that's what's going to evolve with my team. And so as we're continuing to build GymMark right now, we're getting to the final stages of launching that. We're looking to transition. A lot of what I did in the past was very much what a lot of digital marketers preach. You know, it's, hey, let's do SEO, let's do PPC, let's do that. And even though that's important and we do do that as part of our package, it's thinking about that in forms of community, right? And so I'm very big on getting my name out there by going on podcasts like this, creating a platform creating a platform for people to hear me, understand, have me go through so I can help people on a much deeper level. And so contribute, right? Uh, we're going on stages, we're going a lot— we're, uh, we're planning on going on a lot more into a lot more fitness expos and fitness, uh, places that we can be around our tribe and our community a little bit more to help them more thoroughly. Um, and so speaking is, is becoming a huge aspect of how we're going out, if it be through podcasts, if it be through speaking.

That's interesting. So really, as you say, becoming more engaged in the market as you've plainly gained a lot of self-confidence as that younger man you said was a little bit left out at home. Now you've plainly sort of grown through that, which is wonderful to see, and matured and coming out into the market and showing Showing real leadership. Zach, you've run the business now for 7 years. You've got through those first 3 years and you've built the brand and now you're transitioning to the next stage. I do ask my guests if there's a mistake, something that you've done, experienced that you would like to give people a cautionary note about.

Yeah, I'm going to say this in kind of a 2-note and go a little deeper because I know we kind of talked about it a little bit. You know, I was grasping at so many things, so many things. You kind of go through this desperation phase when you don't know your why, when you're trying to evolve. Everyone says, oh, try new things, learn. And I did. And it was a positive that I learned new things and learned what didn't work. But I was listening to what everyone else wanted me to do. It was back to that confidence. And one thing that I did for a couple of years into the business is I, for instance, I brought on ZoomInfo. I used a platform to help send out and do email campaigns. But here's the funny thing. It didn't align with who I was. I knew in my gut that me reaching out to people, even if there was an intent feature, they were looking at it, it has its place and time for different types of company and different personalities. But for me, I— that it wasn't me. I'm like, I'm not going to reach people through This isn't who I am. I like to connect with people. And so I spent $20,000. We went through the process, we built these processes around it, and I got very little. We had great open rate, but we couldn't get any results because, you know, I wasn't building relationships, you know. And so it, it tended to be an easy $20,000 that I can now write off next— this year.

Right. And just to be clear, ZoomInfo is one of these sort of directories where you buy Access to lots and lots of names and addresses, isn't it? And with this profile—

No, yes and no. It's, it's, it's not like getting a list of, of, of very unvalidated prospects, um, but it is a directory with high-end marketing directors and business owners of companies, um, that you can, um, be accessed to this platform and you can go in and you can download, you can, uh, basically reach out and even set up campaigns through it. It's quite expensive, and the main reason I got it was because they had an intent feature. So I knew that that kind of helped me a little bit with the connection part. I'm like, well, if they're already searching for this and it shows them where in the pipeline they're searching for that service, I'm not— I, I, I'm not— I'm really just helping them by reaching out to them, um, because of it. And that's a good positive, but really it just would have taken so much time and energy to learn their platform, to train people on their platform to use it. It's like learning a whole new service, right, that you have to start doing internally. And it just didn't, it just didn't pan out the way I wanted. And so I persevered, I gave it a shot, I tried it for 9 months, and I said, all right, move on to the next thing because this is no longer going to be something that's sustainable for us right now.

Yeah, thanks for your honesty there. And I think that, you know, you're not alone in quite a few companies have bought into these big platforms and then they found the platform overgeared and also not in alignment with who they were as entrepreneurs, but also not with the systems that they have internally as well. So, I'm glad you've raised that because sometimes we buy things that look like they're going to be the holy grail and solve all of our problems. And actually, we'd be better off just putting the money in a 401 or or frankly having a nice holiday, probably.

Yeah.

Zak, you have been successful, and it sounds as though as well you've done an amazing job on your sort of self as well in terms of self-discovery. If there's one piece of advice that you give me and my fellow unnoticed entrepreneur out there, what would it be in terms of building that brand and, and that self-discovery that, that you've plainly done? You've managed to keep the business going Whilst you've been evolving as an individual, as an entrepreneur, how— what's your advice?

Don't, don't crack on the foundations. And, and what I mean by that is I see so many people going straight to social media and, and saying, hey, we need to market, we need to start doing this, we need to start doing that. Those are all great, but if you don't kind of understand that, hey, you are going to be the first leader of this business no matter what stage you're at, If you have a multitude of CEOs or directors, if you're a one-man show and you have a couple of freelancers, whatever you have, you are the leader of your company and whatever you do is going to be portrayed amongst everyone. So you in turn are that marketing. You— it's you. And so you need to be able to understand that, hey, let's really look at the foundations and be able to look at myself and set these foundations up To give me a better understanding of where we're trying to go, or understanding my why enough so that I can persevere and get past these hurdles is detrimental to any business business owner, especially if they're I would say over a hundred or over five hundred thousand dollars a year, if not even a million.

Zach Coleman, that's. That's a wonderful thing. And as you say, ultimately, if you start the business, you are still the spiritual guardian, right, of the brand and the emotional guardian. As you say, if you make that connection in the community as well, you're really helping the community to grow. Zach, I like to ask people like yourself now that are obviously a thinker, what would you recommend in terms of a book or a podcast to me?

Uh, I love, I love taking my reading, reading my books on podcast. I actually, I'd say Grit by Angela Duckworth was a great, uh, book to help switch that mindset towards from, um, from the hustle culture to the grit culture. You know, like get into something and work smart, not hard, persevere, try through failures. And we've actually adapted grit and perseverance, the book itself, into our values. It's one of my biggest values personally. It's one of my biggest values I talk about with my team. And so I definitely recommend that book for anybody who's going through a period, going through a period. And one of our courses, we definitely talk, actually use the grit scale in itself to help people reevaluate their why and how they can kind of go in and try to push through things. So I highly recommend that book.

Thank you, Zach. And of course, as always, I'll put the link in the show notes to the book. Zach Coleman over there in Gilbert, Arizona, have you got something that you can maybe offer my, my fellow unnoticed entrepreneurs that will help them maybe learn some of the skills that you've got?

Yeah, definitely. We are starting to go through this phase, as you, you've talked about. We're going through, uh, pivoting, um, to our tribe, which is the, the gym leaders of, of the world. And, um, we're in the final processes of developing GymMark right now. And so we have, uh, some podcasts and some resources that you can get by going to leavethatmark.com. Again, that's leavethatmark.com if you want to hear more of our podcasts and how you can go from, um, you know, the smaller, the smaller gym that's burned out to starting to build a community and starting to build a more sustainable quality lead flow. I would definitely check out that.

Zach Coleman, thank you so much. And if people want to reach you directly, how can they find you?

You know, I say, hey, let's just start a conversation. Reach out to me on LinkedIn at @creative. We can start a conversation. That's my personal platform. You can also find us on YouTube at Creative and websites at Creative too. If you just want to go through a form and Zach Coleman, thank you so much for joining me.

Thanks for saying your company name so many times because then people will know that it's not—

I do. I get that on purpose.

Zach, thank you for joining me.

Thank you. I really do appreciate it.

Well, what a wonderful story of how someone has evolved as an individual and managed to bring their business along with them and go from some degree of sort of introspection to then reflection and then to contribution. And that's really a wonderful transition. And I think as entrepreneurs, we have that role to play in society, actually, no matter where we live, where we learn through what we're doing. And then we start to contribute back to our societies with the benefits of the gifts that we've been given. So I hope you've enjoyed this as much as I have today, our conversation with Zach. If you have, please do review the show. And do share it with a fellow unnoticed entrepreneur. And until we meet again, my name is Jim James. Thank you for joining me and just encourage you to keep on communicating.