Today we’d like to introduce you to Monica Doyle.
Monica, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was in a commercial art degree program in Vancouver, BC when I met my future husband. We were both taking flying lessons and he managed a large printing company. We fell in love and I ended up dropping out of college so we could start our own printing company. After some successful years, we wanted to expand our business. We were avid pilots, adventurers, and airplane owners, so we decided to expand our printing operation into the U.S. and chose San Diego as a second location. Coming from the rainy northwest, it was an easy choice! For the next six years, we would fly between the two companies in our Beechcraft Bonanza and our businesses did well. It was a wonderful chapter in my life but the printing industry was changing so we closed our businesses and each moved in different directions.
Fast forward and I worked at various agencies including a launch agency for the pharmaceutical industry – a McCann Worldgroup start-up. Those were fast, fun years and I learned a lot about client management, the FDA, and branding. After a number of years, I found a great fit as the Director of Marketing at UC San Diego Extension where I successfully promoted continuing education. I spent 16 years at the university and initially struggled to adjust to the culture and pace. It’s grindingly slow and extremely bureaucratic. I nearly quit in my first few years-I felt so stifled. But, I also learned a lot about diplomacy, politics, and interdisciplinary teamwork. I hired and trained a lot of people during those years and I loved what I was selling. Continuing education from a top brand-what could be better?
During those years I moved the organization from a print-driven business to digital. It took a decade to persuade the organization to drop its catalog. My final project before I took an early retirement was to lead the design and build of a large new enterprise website for Extension. This was a massive project fraught with political landmines, and torturous in its slow pace. But, after nearly three years we successfully aunched extension.ucsd.edu. When I left in July 2017 revenues at Extension were +$48M and growing. I took time off after I left to explore. I consulted with The Lotus Group at Coldwell Banker, developing their logo, branding docs, and marketing strategies. I studied and got my real estate license. I own rental properties, so I considered this continuing education.
In January 2018 I set my focus on design, which is truly at the heart of my skill set and launched Design It Dame. As I see it, the design does not just address the visual. Design is a solution to some problem. My idea with Design It Dame is to service small businesses that often do not have experience with branding or marketing strategy, yet want to become more sophisticated. Design It Dame can help them create a bigger presence in their given market. I educate my clients so that they understand the importance and power of their brand and to better understand the tools they have available to help them grow their marketing programs on their own.
Since many small companies have small budgets, I keep my prices very affordable. I can help create a big brand presence for a client with a new website for as low as $599, including design, content development, and SEO. It’s a pretty crazy low price, but I love what I do! I also design logos, branding guidelines, social media campaigns, print collateral, signage, and marketing plans. I love interior design as well, although I do that more as a hobby.
Has it been a smooth road?
I definitely have had my struggles to get where I am. Generally, I have struggled with self-esteem more than anything else. I was never sure I was as good as I perceived I should be. I mean, I was confident in that customers liked my work, but inside I felt that I was somehow just getting by. I believe this came from the lack of mentoring since I was self-employed for so long. By the time I worked at various agencies and then at UC San Diego, I was in management and it was my turn to mentor others, which I enjoyed.
However, not having someone I could turn to for career advice or professional development feedback was an organizational flaw in my opinion. It robbed both the agencies and the University of a critical channel for internal branding, training and secession planning. Because of this, I struggled at times with my confidence, and always felt I was operating 100% on my own no matter how large an organization I was in. On the flip side, my self-reliance never wanted which made starting up Design It Dame easy.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Design It Dame – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Design It Dame specializes in affordable website design for small companies. Websites can be very costly and confusing but they don’t have to be. Design It Dame can help make it an easy process. I can design and develop beautiful, effective and affordable websites because I am very experienced in this space and the tools have simply become easier to use. I also teach my clients how to use them so they too are self-reliant once the site is launched.
They save money if they can update their own site and keep it fresh. Of course, I am there to help if they need, but most of my clients like to take charge of their site after it’s built. Branding and logo development is another passion of mine. I have designed hundreds and hundreds of logos over the years in Canada and the U.S. Often a small company will be in need of updated branding or perhaps a complete identity package, along with a website. That makes a great bundle of services to offer them at a fraction of an agency price.
Design It Dame is only about 4 months old, but one of my first projects has been developing a refreshed brand identity and a new website for a plastic surgeon in Tijuana-Alicia Sigler MD. Her new site is https://aliciasiglermd.com I thoroughly enjoyed this project as Dr. Sigler was such an active and enthusiastic participant in the process. Her previous website had stock photo images of Barbie-doll women seen on plastic surgery sites everywhere. The content had a lot of grammatical problems, the navigation was confusing and the site template was poorly implemented. I started from the ground up, with a discovery meeting to identify Dr. Sigler’s desired market, her clinic’s primary procedures, and short/long range business plans. I went through an extensive questionnaire and completed a competitive research survey. Afterward, I put together a detailed branding document, developed a new logo, a new URL and created a sitemap.
Once approved, we moved forward, developing the new website with lots of new content, including a blog. Social media was audited and updated. Dr. Sigler’s target market is the U.S. patient crossing into Tijuana, so we focused on a keyword of ‘Trust’. Everything about her brand and on her site is designed to build trust and to encourage viewers to call for a consultation. The site just launched at the end of April and already there is a 25% increase in consultation requests. According to Dr. Sigler, 50% of consultations result in paid procedures. No additional paid social media or email campaigns have yet been initiated, so considering this increase is solely site-driven, we are pleased with these results.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
What I love about San Diego is its adaptability. I have seen it change from a military town to one that is both an entrepreneurial tech hub and eclectic health conscious wellness center. I especially love the health aspect change I have seen over the years. I teach yoga and eat 90% vegan so seeing the growth of restaurants and food outlets that sell organic vegan or vegetarian offerings has been tremendous. And pretty much everyone has likely seen the flourishing of yoga studios and other holistic centers in San Diego County. I am also proud of our universities and our tech start-up culture that is nurtured in this city.
What I like least about our city is the poor planning and infrastructure as it relates to livability and transit. I come from Vancouver, BC where you can walk and ride a bike everywhere-you barely need a car. To me, this is a sign of a truly great city. San Diego is far behind in this regard, but late is better than never! I am glad to see the trolley heading north to UC San Diego.
Pricing:
- Consultation – Free!
- Logos starting at $299.00
- Brand Identify starting at $499.00
- Websites starting at $599.00
Contact Info:
- Website: https://designitdame.com
- Phone: 619-253-9211
- Email: monica@designitdame.com
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/designitdame/
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
