DIGITAL CONTENT STRATEGY | NATALIE UNDERDOWN, PhD

My absolute favorite part about starting The Tallest Blade is having the freedom to work with people who inspire me, people who I truly love (like for real, I’m not just using the L-word freely), and in verticals I may not have ever been able to explore in my past work life.

Natalie is one who hits on all of the above. She’s BAD ASS. So freaking smart, so freaking driven, and one of my favorite people in the whole world. Again, this is not an exaggeration. She’s the best. She has been doing this entrepreneur thing longer than I, so while she was encouraging me to follow my heart, we realized she could use my expertise, and how fun to start your business with work for a friend.

We had video calls (ain’t nobody else I’m letting see me in my home office look) and input sessions, we brainstormed and shared learnings. I dug in to the world of organizational psychology and coaching (see what I mean about opportunity to do new things!?). I signed up for every coach and motivational speaker’s newsletters and followed them on social, and yes I’m still unsubscribing left and right. She thought she needed help on her website but SURPRISE - she had been working on it for a year, and it was JUSTABOUTPERFECT. So, I focused on digital content— type of, themes, photography, hashtags, like-minded brands, opportunity, cadence, channels, etc.

We found a comfy spot for her brand to live. She loves the woowoo, crystal-loving, feminine space— I love the more gender neutral, coporate-y type content for her brand because it gives her more room to play and nobody is targeting dudes in this space— we agreed to find some middle ground and had fun getting there. It’s kinda awesome to be able to have intelligent conversations that will help drive the direction of someone’s brand— and that someone is someone who you’re just dying for them to crush it. Vested interest? Yes.

We had naming sessions - NatChat? YES. Dr. Nat? Maybe later. I pitched her some digital content themes to help drive her social media and outlined a month of actual content so we could grid it out and play around and make sure it was telling a powerful story both visually and written while ensuring engagement with her audience. We messed around with MailChimp and got an automated welcome series up and running (I will reserve all thoughts on MailChimp for another day. Stupid monkey.). For Nat, she really just needed a guide that she felt comfortable with to make it easy for her to plug and play on social and not overthink it. On Mondays we won’t do #MondayMotivation like everyyyyyone but instead we created our own branded theme— #FiveSecondFridays— that would highlight her skill set and personal style in her business and give people a reason to look for her in their feed on Fridays.

I pulled in a Tall Blade friend, Kristin to do Natalie’s logo — and wow— the power of like-minded people coming together. Kristin had such smart insights behind her work. She got it. She got us. We worked fast and furious to Natalie’s launch date. It was so super collaborative and SO MUCH FUN and now I get to watch every post and then call Natalie and talk about the analytics. And our weekends. And our husbands. And our lives. It’s the perfect supportive balance that comes when friends work with friends (in this case, anyways!).