Today we’d like to introduce you to Liz Kroft.
Liz, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My first job out of college, I was Ben Stiller in Along Came Polly — also known as a risk manager for an insurance company. Glamorous, I know. I spent the whole time staring at the marketing department wishing I was over there.
Eventually I found my way into real estate and stayed 13 years. Grew from solo agent to running my own brokerage with 15 agents. I loved building the business, but what I became obsessed with was the marketing side. The branding, the websites, figuring out how to make a business stand out in an industry where everyone looks exactly the same.
My husband finally looked at me one day and said “you know, this is clearly the part you love…you should just start a marketing agency.” I brushed it off. Then I was alone at our family lake house, it was raining, something clicked. Within 24 hours I had a business name, a domain, an LLC, and the rough shape of Aviso Studios.
The name comes from a historical signal boat that built to carry communications between ships and shore. That felt right for a sailor like me, and for a business built around helping brands say the right thing to the right people.
I work with small service businesses who are genuinely great at what they do but whose marketing doesn’t reflect it yet. That gap is what I find most interesting to close.
Outside of work I surf and sail — longboarding in Pleasure Point, racing on the Monterey and SF bay, and occasionally longer passages. I’ve raced from California to Hawaii and sailed on David Crosby’s old schooner Mayan. Sailing shaped how I think about business more than anything else. You can’t force conditions. You read what’s in front of you and adjust.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth? No.
The first stretch was basically saying yes to everything. Web design, branding, social media, SEO, email marketing. If it touched marketing, I was doing it for anyone who’d hire me. I thought niching down would cut off opportunities. What it actually did was spread me thin and make it impossible to get known for anything.
There was also a real imposter syndrome piece. Even with 13 years of running a business behind me, switching industries made me feel like I needed to prove myself from scratch. I dove into every certification and course I could find including Digital Marketing from Harvard Business School. Some of that was genuine excitement about the craft, but some of it was just insecurity with a productivity mask on.
What eventually shifted things was realizing my business background wasn’t baggage. It was the thing that made me different. I know what it feels like to build something, manage a team, make payroll, and try to market your business while simultaneously running it. Most designers don’t have that context. Once I stopped apologizing for the unconventional path and started leading with it, better clients started showing up.
The more recent challenge has been the AI wave. I use AI in my workflow, I’m not precious about that. But I watch businesses grab AI-generated copy and templates and call it a brand, then wonder why nothing is converting. AI can move fast but it doesn’t know your story, your clients, or why someone should choose you over the person down the street. It doesn’t help you differentiate yourself from the masses. And honestly? More and more people are craving exactly that, the human thing. Real, specific, made-by-an-actual-person. That’s the pushback I’m seeing, and it’s the work I care most about.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Most business owners come to me at a specific moment. They’ve grown, evolved, or hit a wall and they know something isn’t working but can’t quite name what. That’s usually where I live.
What looks like a design or “more marketing” problem is almost never just a that problem. Once the thinking is right, everything else gets easier.
Here’s what’s different about working with me at Aviso Studios: you don’t need to hire five people. Strategy, branding, web design, SEO, social media — I see how all the pieces connect, and I do all of it. Most designers don’t think about business strategy. Most strategists can’t build you a website. And most of them have never actually run a business. I have. That background shows up in every single client conversation.
I’m known for two things specifically: the Brand Strategy Intensive — a deep-dive into positioning and messaging before a dollar goes toward anything else — and website builds that go from strategy to live without a six-month agency timeline.
Every client works directly with me. Recent projects have seen 250%+ traffic increases within the first two months. But the thing that stuck with me most was a client who said she finally understood her own business because of the process. That one meant more than any metric.
My work has been called “business therapy” and “nervous system support for my brand.”
Both made me laugh. Neither surprised me.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
StoryBrand by Donald Miller was a big one early on and still comes up constantly in client work. It fundamentally changed how I think about messaging — specifically the idea that the customer is the hero, not the business. I reference it on almost every project.
Atomic Habits stuck with me too, mostly because entrepreneurship is just consistency applied over a long time. Motivation is unreliable. Systems aren’t.
Outside of business books I listen to a lot of podcasts around psychology, behavior, and personal growth. I keep coming back to The Healthy Self with Dr. G. I’m fascinated by the connection between mindset, physical well-being, and how people move through the world. That curiosity spills into how I think about branding. A lot of brand problems are really just communication problems, which are really just human problems.
I do most of my listening on long low tide walks at Pleasure Point. Learning something while moving my body. That combination works for me.
But honestly some of my best inspiration comes from completely outside the industry. Sailing, surfing, travel, really good writing, really unique art. I’m constantly noticing why certain spaces or experiences feel memorable and others don’t and most of that happens on the water or in a restaurant or walking through a city, not reading a marketing blog.
The best creative thinking rarely comes from consuming more content about your own field.
Pricing:
- Brand Strategy Intensive — starting at $2,500
- Custom Website — starting at $4,500
- Brand Identity — starting at $1,700
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.avisostudios.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avisostudios
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizkroft/
- Other: www.pinterest.com/AvisoStudios/, hello@avisostudios.com
