I’ve mentioned hither and thither a new endeavor I’ve been working on for the past year – and in the spirit of new beginnings, it’s a great day for us to talk through this new project together, primarily so you’ll forgive me for being a fair-weather blogger friend, but also, I’ve shared with you all my projects from back in the day (from throwing baby showers at my first house, bargaining with Brian Meares for baby Rowdy and founding Furb with my mom in the basement) to more recently in the day (building my company, throwing a molotov cocktail in the middle of my life, starting over, etc, etc), so I trust this is the content you come to for confluence (the mix of good company, and influence).
With some very talented partners, I started a creative agency, called KILT, as the denouement to dozens of asks: “Can I pick your brain”. Mostly Raleigh folks were coming to me for advice on social media, building a blog, engaging your following, some interior design, a little biz coaching and most importantly, how to make cash money with all of them. About one year+ into it, we’re working with a smorgaboard of sensational clients, from all over the country on creative direction, social media management, full-service content creation, photoshoot styling, newsletter campaigns, interior design, brand building and business analysis, and development. I’m going to endeavor to share some of our clients in next few weeks – my before and afters have become a bit more robust since we started with DIY home design over 12 years ago…
Our very first client was a friend who had all of these questions, and coincidently, I was finally ready to value my opinion, and experience enough, to put a cost to my contribution. Kilt was born, and Mega was made.
Mega is Raleigh’s first megaformer and mini-trampoline studio (megatramp!). It was founded by Alicia Belle, who was my super-spirited Pilates teacher turned wine-friend, and she had a vision for a very-fun, and very-hard workout – based on the Lagree Method, that she was convinced Raleigh was ready for. I totally agreed, as I was a big fan of the mega machine, after trying it in DC about 7 years ago. So freaking tough – the technique is well-known for it’s wobbly mantra: Embrace the Shake. The torture machine is liked an amped up pilates reformer, and focuses on very slow movements that trigger slow-twitch muscles and kick in the fat burning fast.
Mega makes you strong. It’s harder than pilates – it takes way more effort, but the results are fast, and the learning curve is pretty quick. You’ll be as sore as can be after class, but it’s satisfying. You’re proud you got through, maybe you promise yourself to never do it again, but you’re back before you know it because it’s makes you feel pretty bad-ass.
Alicia wanted help with interiors, and social media, so we set out to support her by getting the studio set-up, the brand built, and the Mega machine moving to get bodies in bulk to find, follow and feel the burn.
Of course Covid fucked multi-levels of life things, but Mega is poised to not only weather the storm, but outshine its competition and welcome their cult-following fan-girls back in the studio full-swing soon. I couldn’t be happier for Alicia – she’s a certified fire-cracker and it’s been extremely rewarding to lend a hand to her on her trip down the yellow-brick road of entrepreneurship, one that’s paved with uncertainty, excitement, fits and fails, lots of learning and the contentment that comes from building your own thing, and committing to making it better everyday.
My love-language as of late is Instagram, and it sparks real joy for me to plot and plan an engaging feed for our clients. This process often ends up involving overall creative direction, campaign planning, promotional and editorial calendar creation, photoshoot styling, graphic design, and marketing messages. I found out quick an Instagram account can’t work just being pretty – it needs to be tied to your money-making machine, whatever that may be, for the investment to return. We don’t promise that good design increases revenue, but it’s very seldom you see a new brand set up for success without a thoughtful plan for customer experience – and that’s where we come in.
With Mega, we started by defining the brand and designing the studio to represent a 3D interpretation of all that Alicia is about. From there, we created email campaigns and begin to build her Instagram, months before the studio opened. The buzz made quick work of an engaging the local fitness crowd, eager and excited for a new workout, and Alicia hit the ground running with booked up classes, and wait-lists for weeks. She added in a megatramp studio several months after opening, where you can bounce around in an all-black room, lit by neons, and fueled with dope playlists.
Alicia’s instructors are a contagiously-happy crew who crushed photoshoots from the get-go. Between the team’s infectious energy and the vibrant vibe of the studio, Mega’s content is constantly inspiring to create each month, and it’s been a real pleasure to build her brand alongside her. Here are some highlights from Kilt’s work with Mega, and you can check out the Mega instagram account here.
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