Building a Strong Local Presence Through Strategic Communication
Building a Strong Local Presence Through Strategic Communication
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In this week’s episode, Emily Steele chats with Casey Harrison, CEO and founder of Polished Strategic Communications located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Casey shares her journey to founding her own communications agency and touches on the incredible clients she’s gotten a chance to work with like Women's Equity Brunch, Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, Business Equity for Indy and Indy Crew. She shares her company’s core values and how they lead the way in the work she does. We also touch on the evolving landscape of event marketing, emphasizing the shift towards experiential and value-driven events. Casey shares insights on effective local marketing strategies, stressing the importance of clearly defining value propositions and understanding target audiences. Stay tuned for a sneak peek at what’s coming up for Polished!
TUNE IN FOR TOPICS LIKE:
2:33 Casey’s journey to founding Polished Strategic Communications
6:08 The inspiration behind Polished’s core values
8:15 Types of clients working with Polished
11:13 Navigating the intersection of marketing and PR
12:18 Setting strong goals
14:06 Transforming IndyCrew’s communications strategy
17:17 Becoming comfortable with networking and building relationships
21:22 The state of event marketing in 2024
28:08 Advice for business owners looking to cement their local PR and marketing strategy
29:28 What’s next for Polished
Listen to this week’s Local Marketing School conversation!
Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Casey’s episode:
#6: Aligning Values & Leveraging Creativity in Partnerships | Catherine Baxter, Nettie
#17: Leveraging Local Partnerships for Social Good | Brandon Puszkiewicz & Scott Soltys-Curry
Don't hesitate to reach out! We'd love to hear from you on Instagram and find out which episodes you're enjoying the most. Your feedback is so important to us! Please take a moment to rate the show and leave a review - it supports our ongoing Local Marketing School journey and helps us develop more content that addresses what you’re hoping to learn more about!
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Emily Steele (00:00)
Hello, hello, welcome back to another episode of Local Marketing School. It's Emily here and I'm so excited to have another incredible guest from the Indianapolis area. I am just becoming kind of an Indy fangirl. And I will say, I've been there once. I think it's called Carmel right outside of Indianapolis. So I have a very different experience in being like truly in Indy, but so far my experience has been great. I'm hoping to get back there super soon.
But all these people I talked to in the Indy area, we've hired some people from Indianapolis. We have two investment firms from Indianapolis. So I'm just feeling very, very pro Indy I'm not considering leaving Des Moines. So anyone listening that's like, wait a minute, nope, you've got me here for a while. I am very committed to this city. But I am just thrilled to bring Casey Harrison to today's podcast.
She's the president and CEO of Polished Strategic Communications and her journey has been one of lifelong learning and relentless pursuit of positive change in her community and beyond. You will absolutely hear that if you are someone who really leans into marketing for good, for community, for causes, for things you actually care about that align with your values, you will really, really appreciate this conversation I had with Casey today.
Her personal and business values align around equity and access, education, and community, and she continually is on a mission to help end cycles of systemic oppression by partnering with equity organizations and initiatives that include Women's Equity Brunch, Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, Business Equity for Indy and Indy Crew. When she's not working, she cherishes moments spent with her husband, her son, and their bow tie wearing rescue dog, Einstein.
Her life really is a testament to her commitment to advancing communication equity and wellbeing of her community. You can see that and feel that with the work she does with her clients. We really dig into some of the tactical things that she's working on, some of the advice she has for people who are thinking about upleveling their local marketing strategy or maybe just getting started, right? So I really hope you enjoy this episode. Let's dig into the show.
Emily Steele (02:22)
Hey Casey, welcome to the show.
Casey Harrison (02:24)
Hi, I'm so excited to be here.
Emily Steele (02:26)
Me too. Okay, tell us a little bit about you and your journey to finding polished strategic communication.
Casey Harrison (02:33)
Yeah, I mean, the interesting thing is like a year ago, I think I could have done this speech really well. But today I'm newlywed. My son just went to college. I'm an empty nester. And as I was thinking about just how I wanted to make an impact in the world and coupling that with like my life experiences, which have always been kind of the underdog and coming in in the fourth quarter to kind of make it work for myself.
Emily Steele (02:41)
Mmm.
Casey Harrison (02:59)
I decided I wanted to create a company where I could be focused on using my marketing communications background and really working with clients who are doing incredible work to make a difference in the areas that I care about. So, Polished was born about a year, I don't know, a year and a couple of months ago and it's been an incredible journey since then.
Emily Steele (03:18)
Yeah, yeah. And I will just share a little bit more like how came up with the name Polished. I think it's great.
Casey Harrison (03:22)
Yeah, yeah, I will. So I initially was playing with my initials because I thought, let me build something around me and like it could be fun, you know, and going through the branding exercise of like using my initials. However, then I got engaged and I got married and candidly like my maiden last name always gets mispronounced. It's a joke that my family, we all share. And so I thought, well, I'm going to change my name. Maybe it shouldn't be so close to home. And that's I started really reflecting on what are some of the common themes, threads throughout my life. And it's not very eloquent, but I get things out of the mud. I'm used to getting dirty and having to shine myself up a little bit and doing my studying and doing my research and putting in my time and doing the grunt work. And so as I was thinking about just the fact that all of us have these innate fires and lights within us, but we really have to go on some missions and sometimes some soul searching missions to find them.
Casey Harrison (04:19)
And so I landed on Polished and I felt like, that feels like not only exactly what I'm trying to do, I'm trying to polish the things around me, but so they can shine brightly and they can make an impact and they can, you know, celebrate their stories. So Polished really hit me out of nowhere and then I couldn't unsee it. But I intentionally use strategic communications because I love PR, I love marketing, but I think for me, and my education strategic comms is really like the framework with which I approach everything.
Emily Steele (04:51)
Mm -hmm. It's like the blend of all of it right but at a higher level to pull it all together Yeah, and I think that's like our role is comms people is to Help those quote -unquote diamonds like that might need a little bit of polishing You're like no I see it like you have a great story. You have a great community. You have an awesome product You just like it's not in the right light It needs a little like you got to dust it off a little bit. It needs the shine like I don't help you get there, but it might be a journey, right? We might be in the mud for a little bit. Like, that's okay.
Casey Harrison (05:22)
Yeah, well, and when you think about like at Polished, we're really focused on working with clients in equity and access, education. And then I would say like that community economic development space. And what I hope is always true is that the clients who are small and in our instance, so diverse businesses, women, minority, veteran, disabled owned businesses, your story is just as worthy as those around you with more resources.
Emily Steele (05:46)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Casey Harrison (05:48)
So was just really important that everybody could see themselves as someone that could shine.
Emily Steele (05:52)
Yeah, yeah. How did you come up with these core values? It's obviously very true to who you are, and I think that always shows up from entrepreneurs and their stories, but can you share a little bit more about your core values and who you serve?
Casey Harrison (06:06)
Yeah. So honestly, I feel like the core values were clear before the company was even a goal, right? Like I very much fell into entrepreneurship. And when I say fell, I mean, like the universe tripped me and I literally fell into it. my so going back in time a little bit, when I had my son, I had my son at 17 years old, and my son was 15 weeks premature and he was born. He's biracial. He's also legally blind and had some severe complications.
Emily Steele (06:13)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Casey Harrison (06:36)
And so my journey into learning what I'm passionate about has been through the lens of motherhood. I mean, how do you advocate for a child, you know, getting safely around his community when he can't even see clearly to wipe his face off in the mirror? And so that journey has been really interesting and learning about my privilege both as a white woman, but also as a sighted woman. And then my world's collided a bit because I was a young mom who got her bachelor's and master's back to back. And I had the ability to do that.
Casey Harrison (07:03)
And then I went into the workforce and I was able to advance myself. I worked my tail off, but I also had resources. I had people who looked like me. I didn't really have mentorship in the way we think about it today, but women were represented at the executive level in the spaces I was trying to get. so throughout my corporate world, did a lot in spaces of equity and entrepreneurship and working with entrepreneurs. And when I reached this moment in my life where I was making a pivot. I really wanted to stay connected to and support that community. so creating Polished and being a member of the entrepreneurship or an entrepreneurial ecosystem rather, I wanted to not only be giving through services, but I wanted to be giving through pro bono and teaching other small businesses how to navigate this ecosystem so that they can do things that they love and advance their businesses, just leveraging communication. so honestly, like I wish I had a recipe of here's how I found my values and here's how you can too. yeah, lived experience and like just paying a lot of attention to what work refilled my cup when it was complete.
Emily Steele (8:15)
Yeah, yeah. Where does the community development interest come into play with this? Is it kind of like with your son and being able to experience a community in a way that like feels accessible?
Casey Harrison (08:26)
I think that and my husband is also black. And so I think we can't ignore the impacts of the summer of 2020 and what that did for communicators. It put us in a really pivotal seat and really leading up to then the pandemic did as well, where we finally were invited at the table and we were put almost at the head of the table in terms of how we were navigating as corporate communities. And so I think that's part of it. But for me, community also means like,
Emily Steele (08:30)
Mm. Yeah. Mm -hmm.
Casey Harrison (08:55)
Who are the people, the grass tops, the grassroots people in the community that are influencing or driving change or need supported in order to stay successful in whatever they're doing, right? Like selling ideas or selling products. And so I think community's always been dichotomous for me because it's corporate community and advancing how our businesses work together, but it's also been like truly grassroots by the community for the community? And how are we making sure that there are continual touch points so that these communities are in partnership with and supporting each other?
Emily Steele (09:33)
Cool, cool. I love kind of digging into that. That's so fun. So what does that look like in terms of what your clients do and who they are based on these perspectives and interests you have?
Casey Harrison (09:35)
It looks like a ton of diversity, which is so fun. And also, like, I also want to say it is so fun and it's such important work, but it also has reprioritized like the importance of rest, because I'm constantly operating in a space where I'm either a representation of or a spokesperson for the clients that I serve. So for some that's, you know, like the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership here that works on maintaining the workforce for Indiana's advanced industries, which are the industries really moving the state forward. I host their podcasts, but I'm also their community advocate. So I'm out here trying to connect students with these resources to help them uncover, you know, career opportunities and beyond right here in Indiana so that they stay in our state. But for other clients like Women's Equity Group or IndyCrew, which is Indy Women in Commercial Real Estate, it looks like doing that tactical work. So social media management, email marketing campaigns, thought leadership and earned media, right? Like it looks the same tactically, but it's the content strategy that really helps hone in on that messaging of inclusion and community building and access to resources for people who are struggling or have barriers to getting what they need.
Emily Steele (11:01)
Yeah, yeah, and that's where kind of that strat comm kind of comes in together. So as you see like the convergence of marketing and PR, what does that kind of look like in today's landscape? Let's go.
Casey Harrison (11:04)
Yeah. My gosh, this is one of my favorite topics because I feel like there are so many practitioners who are still talking about what will happen when it happens. And I would say respectfully, I think you missed the intersection. Like I think it's happened. The big boom is here. And I think right now we're in a really, really cool space where as comms professionals, we're able to now not just play with all the tools in the toolbox. But we're able to connect them in a lot of ways and be able to show how all of these connection points are driving impact to business goals. So I think as we talk specifically about marketing and PR, and often I equate that to like communications and sales within an organization, they have to be working hand in hand or goals are not going to be accomplished and revenues are not going to reach goals.
Emily Steele (11:39)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. So interesting. Yeah, I'm like that ship has sailed. We're here. It's happened. Yeah, I totally align with that. So when it comes to some of your clients goals, how do you back into that from a strat coms? Like what are your clients looking at moving the needle on and how do you kind of back into that with your plans?
Casey Harrison (12:06)
Yeah, well, I think it usually comes down to, I mean, visibility and awareness. I mean, I really think a lot of it boils down to that. I think where we get to have the most fun is looking at audience segments and start figuring out who are you trying to reach and what messaging are you using? Because gone are the days where, and you know this, I mean, your audience knows this too, like gone are the days where we distribute a press release and that would get all the media, you know? Now we need to have a press release with various iterations and a whole strategy to launch that press release and a whole strategy of the words we're going to use to launch that press release to reach the right people we're trying to reach with the right engagement strategy. And so we just took something really simple and laid three different projector screens over it. And we're now looking at a very complex model of communication. And I think that's what's really fun and what I appreciate the most about my clients is that they typically know where they want to go or need to get in terms of their larger business goals. And we together work collaboratively on determining what communication or marketing goals need to look like. But then they allow us at Polished to really back into the strategy for that. And so I, in all of the world, typically in it's fun. Cause I get to say, Hey, I need to know where you want to be at like eight, nine, 10. And from there I'll be creative, but I need to be able to to lay the right pavers to actually get us to those outcomes.
Emily Steele (13:45)
Yeah, yeah, I love it. Do you have any examples of maybe a client you're working with that you've done something, especially in like the local marketing kind of space? I believe a majority of your clients are local in the Indy space, right? Yeah.
Casey Harrison (13:57)
Yeah, yeah, they are. are. You know, a few. And so I think one of the biggest that comes to mind right now is IndyCrew. And mostly because this is my first year working with them. So again, IndyCrew is the Indianapolis. Well, I think it's statewide. So Indiana chapter of Crew Network, which is a global commercial real estate network specifically aimed at the advancement of women. And so when I was brought in in January, IndyCrew was was just struggling to own their communication channels. And what we've been able to do through local partnerships is leverage our media partners to provide prospective pieces from the visibility of women that are members of IndyCrew, but they're more importantly established professionals and subject matter experts within the CRE or the commercial real estate industry. And so what's been really fun is looking at, you know, we're getting media coverage. It's for IndyCrew as mentioned in that, but like most recently the article placed was around who moved my cheese and five leadership development lessons for commercial real estate professionals. And so it's just, it's really interesting perspectives of these women and how they come in and they're successful doing what they do and yet tying that into larger narratives. But I would also argue, you know, a lot of that comes from community connections and being able to invite media partners to local events or partner with influencers and bring them out and letting them experience, you know, the role they could have in the commercial real estate industry. So I think at the core of everything we're doing here at Polished, and this is maybe more broad than IndyCrew, we're focused on what relationships need to be established in order to increase visibility or drive greater awareness or improve ticket sales or connect with new audiences. And so I think Crew is one example in the media space. Another might be women's equity branch. We do a ton of partnering with organizations like Boss Babe Network or BFF Indy, which is about women creating spaces for women or Create Connect Lab or Maven Space. And it's all about working boots on the ground in the spaces where women are already frequenting and making sure that there's a common thread connecting these organizations. So that you can have these different experiences with these different women's groups. But at the end of the day, they're all leading to supporting you as a whole woman in this world.
Emily Steele (16:24)
Yeah, yeah. It's so interesting because I think at the local level, relationships are so important and that network of people, I remember early days of running my local marketing agency and I was like, you really need to be out there. People need to know who you are and have familiarity with you. The personal brand strategy has so much weight, especially in a local environment. Do you find yourself kind of, I know you had mentioned you're kind of a representative of some brands, the face, if you will, yeah, and then others maybe you're more behind the scenes potentially, I don't know. I don't wanna put words here now, but I'm just like, do you get people to embrace that this is how you kind of do it, especially in a mid-sized city like Indy, right, like Des Moines, that strategy works so well. Does it take a lot of courage for some people to be like, okay, I need to get out and connect, what does that look like in real life?
Casey Harrison (17:18)
It does. I think what's helpful is being able to make soft connections. like, it's a lot different when you show up alone at a networking group and you have to fan the flames, right? But when you're coming in with, know, in this example of strategic communications professional, I'm laying the foundation for both my clients and the connection point of here's why this is mutually beneficial. And here's where this makes a lot of sense. And usually what I'm finding is not just, not just is there an output of, you know, we end up collaborating on something or there's a sponsorship or what have you, but there's a relationship built. And that's the piece that matters the most. It's less about what can you do for me in this moment? It's more about, here's what I'm doing, here's what's energizing me. I'd love to know what you're doing and what energizes you and how can we build a sustainable way of supporting each other on that journey? And I think when you approach it that way, you're lowering some of the defenses on a hard ask and you're playing the long game of here's how we're both gonna benefit even more, even further.
Emily Steele (18:14)
Yeah, yeah, and just leaning in with curiosity. Like, what do you do? What do I do? Like, cool, our paths cross, great, but like, I don't have an ask. I don't need something from you, but there is ways, and I do feel like since we're so digital now, you can have those kind of like soft connections on LinkedIn and support people from afar, share their stories, tag them in things, comment, and like, to me, that actually goes really far. It's like you're present. I'm present for you, even if I don't see you out for coffee or like we catch up, but I think there's just so much about that. Have you ever read the book The Go Giver?
Casey Harrison (18:49)
No, but I will. The Go Giver? I'll check it out. I'm a leader, isn't it?
Emily Steele (18:51)
The Go Giver, I think you would love this book. And I think people listening, yeah. It's all about how do you build a business based on providing more value than you receive in payment? Just this ideology around being generous, being abundant, giving your time, and seeing and trusting that comes back tenfold in the success of your company and the success of your clients. just like, was the first book I read in business that I was like, this I just like it fully deeply resonated. think you'll love it. So I love it. yeah.
Casey Harrison (19:24)
Yeah, I will. But I think the other piece I was going to mention is it's not also just about that digital marketing piece and getting connected to people ahead of time. It's also about showing up. Like you can't replace attending events in the community and being present and cheering for your network. And so I think that's one of the things that I'm really fortunate about is all of the roles I've held have forced me to be out into the community, going to events and engaging. But because of that, I'm able to leverage those connection points with high efficiency because I put a lot of time into building those relationships.
Emily Steele (19:56)
Yeah, okay, so for the person who's like, I know I need to do this. I don't know if I'm designed for this. I'm not an extrovert. Do you define yourself as an extrovert? Is this very natural for you to get out there? It's just someone who's listening and is like, I need to do what Casey does.
Casey Harrison (20:10)
Yeah, I think yes, however, it's changing for me and it's shifted a lot over the last like year and a half because now I'm running a business. So I'm an extrovert. However, my time is in such high demand that I sometimes can't even muster the energy because my brain power is just zapped. So what I'm finding is like in this phase of life, while I'm an extrovert, I'm really, prioritizing rest, which means that I'm just really intentional about when I turn my extrovert switch up. And so I think there's something to be said about like if you're an introvert and you don't, it expends a lot of energy for you to show up in these spaces, that's okay. Just be really intentional with when you turn that flag on.
Emily Steele (20:37)
Yeah, yeah, it's not like you have to be at every single thing all the time. It's like, where can you have the highest impact? Where are the connections that actually can move your vision, business, idea forward versus all the things all the time? Yeah, yeah, I love that. Okay, so I'm thinking about local event marketing. Do you do a handful of those types of things with your clients? And if so, like, what does it look like from a community engagement standpoint to do those well in 2024 and beyond, do you think?
Casey Harrison (20:56)
Yeah, so I do less right now, but I work in tandem with a lot of groups that are responsible for that. And so I think what I love about the event marketing piece of it is there are more grassroots organizations and community coalitions than there have ever been before. So in terms of knowing where to find the people and connect them to the information, in Indianapolis, we have so many channels today that either weren't existing or maybe they just weren't quite at their full potential even a year ago. I mean, if you look at groups like Silent Book Club or BFF Indy, which I've already referenced, like those organizations now have huge pull in terms of when people are looking to where to engage. I think the challenge is that over saturation piece and what we just talked about. It's knowing what to be at as a consumer, as an individual, like where do I want to go? And if I only have a certain amount of time or energy, where do I want to expend that energy? So I think event marketing is getting really interesting because the prices of hosting events have only exponentially increased since the pandemic. And the turnout at those events has only exponentially decreased since the pandemic. And we know the hybrid model doesn't work. So what the heck does that mean for the world? And what I think it means is like, people are looking for events that are either going to be experiential and truly offer a one of a kind or an exclusive experience, or they're looking for an event that's gonna add a ton of value. And so it's all about, you know, who's gonna be in the room and what I'm gonna leave enabled to go do, which is requiring us as marketers to think really differently about how we even articulate events and how we're getting that message out there.
Emily Steele (22:45)
Mm -hmm. I can say with certainty when I was running a women's networking group in 2016-17, like, I put something on the calendar and everyone would see it. You know, I put something on the calendar now for different events and I'm like, quote-unquote, fighting against so many competing events. And I'm like, that is not that long ago that Like things have just amplified in terms of groups, organizations, clubs, get togethers, walking groups, like silent book clubs, you know, like because people are looking for their people and they're being more specific about how they find them and how they interact and what they want to do and like ditto Same, like I am the same as a consumer. Like I have things I really care about and so I want to be surrounded by people who care about those things and that means I'm not picking broader events that maybe I used to go to. And so I definitely have that similar lens of just like, okay, how do people want to experience events in 2024 and beyond? It's wild how fast that shifted though.
Casey Harrison (23:48)
It is. It's so fascinating. know, in 2015, 2016, I was working for the city of Fishers. I was part of the team that helped transition us from a town to a city after we passed that we voted and we became a city and it was a beautiful time. But that was right around the time that Facebook events came like came onto the scene and had some prevalence. And so I can remember we had a movie in the park and let's just say it was Wall-E. Like I have no idea. We had a movie where we would host it at our amphitheater. We would have like some food trucks. People would bring blankets. It was chill, right? We had an 850% Facebook engagement growth percentage in a week because we created an event for that, an event page for that event. It reached Evansville, it reached South Bend, which if you're in Indy, you know, that's like a three to four hour drive to get to central Indiana. There were no way people, like there was no way that people were coming to this free movie. Absolutely not. However, because the tools were so new and the algorithms were so new, as people engaged, the algorithm continued to feed it. And so, and yet today to your point, you could create a Facebook event and not even the 200 people that like your page are going to see it.
Emily Steele (24:59)
Yeah, I know.
Casey Harrison (25:18)
Right? And so I just think we are playing in a very different landscape, the interesting opportunity there is now events are about who you know that's going and how you leverage the people. And so I think it creates a really interesting opportunity for influencer marketing. And I think the smart, whether organizations or cities or what have you, are starting to leverage influencer marketing in really creative ways.
Emily Steele (25:21)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, I was just at an event last week for an organization called Above and Beyond Cancer, it's an incredible nonprofit organization in Des Moines. they were like, we really want to shift the demographic. And I'm like, you really then have to double down on some of the strategies and tactics that reach a demographic like me and younger. I don't consider myself young, but like I'm definitely was one of the younger people there. And so it's just like, okay, like you want this. And so it's having those conversations of like, where do you find these people? And then for me, I'm like, yeah, I was like, who's going to be there? You know, like, who do I get to see? Like, I love that. And like that anticipation of like connecting with people where it's been a minute and I have something to really look forward to. So I don't bail on things where I'm like, I don't really know. So I'm not going to go, you know. And that wasn't the case for this event, but I do think you're right, like showing kind of that social proof. think that like even the smallest things of like the local brand accounts that I follow on Instagram, I'm like, if I see 20 to 50 other local friends or followers that follow a brand, I'm like instantly like, this must be cool. Like I didn't know about it. And it's like those like little nuggets of social proofing things along the way can just be so instrumental and hard to, hard to value, you know?
Casey Harrison (26:48)
I could not agree more. And I think it's also putting an emphasis on the importance of strong creative, because I think that's become, at least in our Indy market, like I can think of a couple of community groups and, you know, some are doing some traditional creative, the flyers, and it all looks the same. And some are really spending time on creating interactive content that people want to watch and want to tune into. And maybe it has a humor to it or a distinct personality. And I think we're even seeing how the digital space is also impacting the aesthetic of the marketing, which is really cool. Yeah. I do too. same, same.
Emily Steele (27:33)
Yeah, right? I know. I was like, love the aesthetic level of some things. It makes me so happy. I'm not a designer, but I appreciate great design. I love it. Okay, as we think about kind of your strat coms perspective and just your background and experience, what are some pieces of advice for someone listening who's trying to understand how to show up with their local marketing strategy, build relationships, build a presence that allows them to start creating a reputation and some movement with their business. What are some ideas or things you would share with them?
Casey Harrison (28:08)
Yeah, mean, first and foremost, clearly defining who you are and what you offer. That value proposition is critical. And you're not going to get anywhere if people don't understand when or why they need your services. So I think that's really important. then for me, always goes back to target audience. Who are you trying to talk to specifically? And what are you trying to say with them? When I worked in corporate, I worked in a lot of either in or alongside a lot of nonprofits. And the two rules were always, what do want them to know and what do want them to do with it? And so if you really take your communication down to that basic principle, it gives you a really nice foundation to start thinking about, okay, we know who we need to reach and we know what we need them to do with it. Now, how do we formulate what we're gonna tell them?
Emily Steele (28:39)
Yeah, yeah, I love it. It's like so many people want you to say you need to post on Instagram five days a week, right? But you're like, no, do the work. Know who you are. What do you do different than everyone? Different, I've read this quote once, different is better than better. There's so many people who like, well, we're the best at this. It's like, it does not matter anymore. You have to be different and know why you're different and people buy different. So I just love it.
Casey Harrison (29:02)
People buy different. Yeah. Yeah.
Emily Steele (29:21)
Okay, this has been so fun. What is next for Polished? What's on the horizon? You're a little over a year into business. Do you see anything, anything changes ahead or what we double down on? Tell us the things.
Casey Harrison (29:32)
Yeah, big changes ahead actually. I'm really excited about the fourth quarter. Polished is going to be launching a new initiative really aimed at supporting the small business community and entrepreneurs and solopreneurs. And so I'm really excited. I have to be pretty tight-lipped about it until a few things get finished. But hoping to have some news to share about that in the fourth quarter. But then really looking at, for us specifically, you this first year has been this beautiful exploration of whatever was going to find us, found us. And that's a testament to the network, but year two is going to be much more intentional about the work, the clients, the causes that we really want to be aligning behind and focusing on building down those pipelines. So I think it's going to be the hardest year yet, but I'm really excited about what I'm going to learn in this next year.
Emily Steele (30:12)
Yeah, I mean you are in the trenches year 1, Like that is just like, what do I charge? Do I have margin? Am I over scope creep? All the things, I was totally there. So we need to chat offline about it. I've got you. my gosh.
Casey Harrison (30:27)
I know, know. Yeah. Yeah. huh. Yeah. I appreciate that. Yeah. It's cool. I'm also a big unpopular opinion, but if you're gonna fail, fail fast.
Emily Steele (30:47)
Yeah, figure it out. Yeah.
Casey Harrison (30:47)
Fail smart, you know what I mean? Like fail and use all of that data. So I feel like this first year has been just a lot of lessons and I'm excited to keep learning. Yeah.
Emily Steele (30:51)
Yeah, I love it. I love it. Well, thanks for being on the podcast today. It was so fun to get to know you. If people are looking to learn more about you, where should we send them?
Casey Harrison (31:00)
Yeah, send them to Polishcoms .comms. We're talking all things website, social media. That's where you can find us and plug into some of the things we're Thank you.
Emily Steele (31:14)
Amazing. Thanks, Casey.
