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Boutique Brand Marketing Studio| Brand Strategy · Identity Design · Story-Driven Marketing

10/06/2026

The Main Character Series — Prompt 04: The Person You Built This For.

Most marketing fails for one reason. It’s trying to speak to everyone, and so it speaks to no one.

The brands that actually move people are written for one person. Not a demographic. Not a “target audience.” A real, specific human being who is carrying something you built your business to help her put down.

When you can describe her with the specificity of a character in a novel, your content stops sounding generic and starts sounding like a love letter to the exact right person.

Here’s your prompt: Picture the one person you built your business for. Who is she? Where is she? What is she carrying that you wish someone would help her put down?

Here’s how to turn it into a post:
Open with a specific scene she’s in.
Name what she is feeling or carrying.
Name what she has tried that hasn’t worked.

Speak directly to her about how your work meets her there.

09/06/2026

I have a secret to share. 🤍

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been quietly rekindling one of my deepest professional passions — place-making and tourism-based marketing for Pacific Northwest cities and communities.

It actually started long before Portia & Cleo existed. When I was managing apartment communities, I became obsessed with something bigger than occupancy rates: I wanted to build a life worth living inside those walls. A real community. An ecosystem. A place where people felt the value of where they chose to call home.

That love never left me. And lately, it’s been calling me back.

There is something extraordinary about helping a city, a neighborhood, or a community tell its story — and watching people fall in love with a place they might have otherwise passed through.

If you want to see the work, I’d love for you to take a look:
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This work has been made even better by the most wonderful collaborator — Sheena at . She is the kind of partner who elevates everything she touches, and what we’ve built together for our clients has been something I’m genuinely proud of.

More to come on this chapter. I’m so glad to finally be talking about it.

08/06/2026

The moment I say this in a workshop, the room always shifts. ⬇️

Take everything you want to do with your marketing — and cut it by a third.

Every time. Without fail. There’s this collective exhale — some quiet laughter, a lot of nodding, someone saying “yes” like they’ve been waiting for permission.

Because here’s the truth about female founders: we are extraordinary visionaries. We see what’s possible with a clarity that is genuinely one of our greatest gifts. And then we plan for all of it — the full calendar, the new offer, the event, the rebrand — all in the same quarter.

Not because we’re unrealistic. Because we’re ambitious.

But when the gap between what we planned and what actually got done shows up, it doesn’t feel like a bandwidth issue. It feels personal.

It isn’t. But it costs us anyway — in momentum, in confidence, and in that quiet weight of feeling perpetually behind on a race we set the rules for.

So I teach the Rule of Thirds.

Write out the full vision. Then cut it by a third. The two-thirds that remain become your real plan — the one you commit to, resource, and actually finish.

And the third you set aside? It doesn’t disappear. It goes on what I call the One Third List — a dedicated holding space for every idea that isn’t on the active plan yet. So nothing is lost. And when you work through your two-thirds with real focus and real margin? That’s when you pull from the list and bring something new into the work.

Not because you have to. Because you can.

You are not behind. You are not failing. You are running a plan designed for an imaginary version of yourself who has no body, no family, no fatigue, and unlimited hours in the week.

The Rule of Thirds is how we build a plan for the real version.

Does this resonate? I’d love to know

06/06/2026

Friday Night Foto Dump 🤍

04/06/2026

My newest E-Expert article is live on Entreprenista! Do you know what is actually costing you clients? I break it all down here with a mini-workshop for you to do! 🔗 in stories

03/06/2026

The Main Character Series — Prompt 03:

The Behind-the-Scenes Truth.

We’ve been taught to market the highlight reel. The launches. The wins. The before-and-after.

But audiences don’t fall in love with the highlight reel. They fall in love with the realness underneath it.

The middle of the story — the part where you’re tired, figuring it out, problem-solving in real time — is where trust gets built.

It is the part of your story that turns followers into clients.

Here’s your prompt: What’s the unglamorous, behind-the-scenes part of your business that no one sees — but that you wish they did?

Here’s how to turn it into a post:

Name the part of your work people don’t see.

Give one specific, sensory detail.

Name what it really takes — emotionally, physically, logistically.

Connect it to why your work is worth what it costs.

A main character isn’t defined by their best scene. She’s defined by the scenes no one was supposed to see.

Show your audience what it takes. They’ll trust you for it.

01/06/2026

Every brand begins with a narrative.

Not a logo. Not a color palette.

Not a perfectly curated feed.

A story.

The most powerful brands are built at the intersection of two things: the founder’s journey and the audience’s needs. When those two meet with clarity and intention — that’s where strategy becomes something people actually believe in.

That’s the work we do at Portia & Cleo.
If your brand is working hard but not quite landing, it might be time to start at the beginning — with the story.

→ Link in bio to start the conversation.

28/05/2026

Apparently business cards are controversial now. 👀

I recently had someone tell me that if you make a strong enough first impression, people will remember you — and you don’t need a card.

And honestly? Sure. Maybe they’ll remember me.

But will they remember my website? My Instagram handle? My email?

Why would I ask someone to do that work when I can just... hand them everything they need? I’m here to solve problems, not create them. Making it easy for people to find me is part of how I show up.

As a designer, my business cards have always been a statement. They’re the first physical experience someone has with my brand — and I don’t take that lightly.

My brand new cards just arrived from and they are showstoppers. (More on that soon.)

Tell me — what team are you on?

And if you’ve been thinking about designing a new showstopper of your own, this is your sign. I offer business card design services, and I get 20% off all products — savings I pass directly onto you. DM me today to chat about how we can get you into the hands of more clients.

27/05/2026

The Main Character Series — Prompt 02: The Belief You Defend.

Every main character has a stance. A line they won’t cross. A truth they are willing to stand alone on.

For founders, that’s your conviction. The belief you would defend in any room — even when it makes someone uncomfortable.

It’s also the thing most of us quietly water down in our marketing. We soften our edges to stay likable. We blend in so we don’t risk losing anyone. And we lose the very thing that would have drawn the right people closer.

Here’s your prompt: What do you believe about your industry, your work, or your audience that you would defend in any room?

Here’s how to turn it into a post:

Open with the belief itself. One sentence.
Name the common wisdom you’re pushing back against.

Share a short story or example that shaped it.

Tie it to how that belief shows up in your work.

Your audience isn’t looking for a brand that agrees with everyone. They are looking for a brand they can believe in.

Main characters don’t blend in. They take a side.
BrandStorytelling

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