We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brooke Latham a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Brooke, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I want to tell you a story about how purpose has led me and my business to success. Several years ago, I quit my job in the art world with no idea of what I wanted to do. I only knew that I was lacking fulfillment, and needed to find my calling. After my last day at work, I flew to Japan on a one-way ticket to climb Mount Fuji with a girl I’d never met.
We began our 12,388 foot hike at 10 pm, and I began pouring out my life’s story to a total stranger. We summited the mountain just as the sun rose, and enjoyed surreal bliss looking down on the world we’d left behind, delirious from lack of oxygen and sleep. I knew that the mountain was a metaphor for the challenges I needed to overcome, physically and mentally, in order to climb out of the rut I was in. On our way down the mountain, my new friend, who understood that I was at a crossroads in my life, told me about ikigai.
Ikigai is a Japanese concept for life’s purpose, and it can only be found when you have the following four components: what you love doing, what you’re good at, what you can make money doing, and what the world needs. Suddenly, it just clicked. So, I mapped out a plan to create a career for myself with all of these elements, and started Social Canvas to use my marketing superpowers to help purpose-driven brands get the recognition and success they deserve.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
As a marketing strategist, I am passionate about helping business owners grow their brands by creating comprehensive sales funnels designed to attract, convert and retain their ideal clients. My business, Social Canvas, is a full-service marketing agency specializing in working with organizations of purpose. I find it so exciting to help mission-driven brands expand their reach and grow their business! Social Canvas has been growing quickly, and since we’re constantly expanding our team we’re always excited to take on new clients.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Communication, courage, and resilience.
Of course, as a marketing strategist, communication skills are the backbone of all that we do at Social Canvas. Luckily for me, I’ve been an avid communicator since a young age. My mom jokes about what a talker I was as an infant, and how she should have seen the foreshadowing. After babbling as a baby I grew into reading EVERYTHING in my free time… including the thesaurus and dictionary. My passion arts was a natural progression from my love of communication, and eventually I made a career out of this skill that has always been central in my life.
Courage and resilience have also always come naturally for me, but required much more intentional practice. Breaking into entrepreneurship takes guts, and there are many moments along the way where you question yourself. Building a business is full of ups and downs, and you really have to believe in your vision and your ability to execute it.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
My business coach recently gave me a homework assignment to review the deals we’ve lost over the past year, and categorize them based on reasons why the deals were lost. I found the results to be quite illuminating. I knew that budget was a top reason, and I was already working on ways to bring in more qualified leads. But I was surprised to learn that our number 2 reason for losing deals was that people were ghosting us! People who I’d spent a considerable amount of time in meaningful conversation with, and developing a custom proposal tailored to their needs, suddenly seem to fall off the face of the earth, leaving me to wonder if I perhaps have cooties…? An unsettling yet VALUABLE insight.
In order to remedy that, I shortened the sales cycle from a week or more to now a single hour. This has made an obvious shift in our close rate. Since implementing some key changes, we’ve been able to keep our prospects more engaged, while minimizing the odds of competition swooping in. Our close rate has doubled, and it’s so gratifying to see the impacts of this strategy shift. It’s just another testament to the importance, in all areas of business, of looking at the data and adjusting your approach accordingly. I’d say that is what makes Social Canvas’ marketing efforts so effective for our clients, because we’re constantly being informed by the data.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.socialcanvasco.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/socialcanvasco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/socialcanvasco
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/social-canvas-ny/
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brooke-latham/
Image Credits
Gabrielle Peige
