Today we’d like to introduce you to Melle Palmer.
Hi Melle, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started out my career as a book illustrator, actually. That led me into doing small marketing and PR campaigns for some indie authors, and before too long, I was doing more marketing and design than illustrating.
It was around 2007 that I broke out on my own as a freelance creative, and I’d say around 2008 was when I met Corey.
When we met, he was just opening up a gym called Train with Corey. He was looking for a logo design, and I was determined to get the job. We hit it off immediately. Corey lives for responsiveness and great customer service, and so do I, so it was a natural fit from the beginning.
After we finished the logo, he started throwing websites, posters, print materials, the whole shebang at me, and I kept making it happen. Before long, he was recommending me to everyone, and by the time I realized what was happening, I had this whole pocket of Pennsylvania-based clients that Corey had sent my way. He was building my business without my even asking for a testimonial or referral.
When he closed the gyms, we lost touch for a few years. I kept building my business in different directions. I worked with a partner to expand my search engine experience for a few years, and I was even lucky enough to get a chance to work out of New York City for a while, which was such an incredible opportunity.
Eventually, I found myself back home and settled into my design firm, which had grown to a small team by that point. Then one day in 2018, Corey dropped me an email and told me he was starting a new business.
He was still working somewhere else at the time, so together we set up all the bits and pieces of his creative and branding during his off hours. Then one day, he asked me if I wanted to run a design firm he was thinking of launching.
It was a great opportunity for me. It let me run a design team, which is what I love doing, without having to run the entire business, which was a perfect fit for where I was in my journey. So I became the Creative Director of the Dissin Design Team, and between Corey and me, I like to think that we turn out some pretty fantastic work for clients.
Our little team is definitely something I’m super proud to be running.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One of the biggest challenges has always been that creative work and running a business are two completely different skill sets.
I love the work itself. I love solving problems, building brands, creating websites and figuring out how all the pieces fit together. What I learned over time, though, is that being good at the work doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to be good at managing every other part of a business at the same time.
When you work for yourself, especially early on, you’re the designer, the salesperson, the project manager, the customer service department and the bookkeeper. It’s a lot to take care of on top of the actual work.
There were definitely periods where I took on too much, followed opportunities in too many directions or spent too much energy on the parts of the business I didn’t enjoy because I thought that was simply what being successful was supposed to look like.
The industry itself changes constantly too. Design, websites, search, social media and marketing all evolve incredibly quickly, so you have to be willing to keep learning without chasing every shiny new thing that comes along.
One of the biggest lessons for me was figuring out what I’m actually best at and building my role around that. I’m happiest leading creative work, working with a team and helping clients turn ideas into something tangible. The Dissin Design Team gave me the opportunity to focus much more heavily on that side of the work, and that has made a huge difference.
As you know, we’re big fans of The Dissin Design Team. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
At The Dissin Design Team we handle branding, websites, social media, print materials and marketing support, but I think what we really specialize in is helping people look as established and professional as they actually are.
A lot of our clients are very good at what they do, but they’re busy doing the work. They don’t necessarily want to spend their time figuring out whether their website is saying the right thing, whether their branding still makes sense, or whether all of their materials actually feel like they belong to the same business. That’s where we come in.
I think one of the things that sets us apart is how responsive and involved we are. Corey and I have always shared the same philosophy around customer service. If someone trusts us with their business, we take that seriously. We answer emails. We follow through. We solve problems. It sounds incredibly basic, but after doing this for as long as I have, I can tell you that it really isn’t.
We also don’t approach creative work as decoration. A logo, website or social media campaign has to do something. It has to communicate clearly, make sense for the audience and support the larger goals of the business. Pretty is lovely, but useful is better.
Brand-wise, I’m probably most proud of the fact that the Dissin Design Team feels very human. We’re not a giant agency and we don’t want to operate like one. Clients know who they’re working with, they can actually reach us, and we get to know their businesses well enough that the work becomes much more thoughtful over time.
More than anything, I’m proud that we’ve built a small creative team that does really good work, consistently. That may not sound particularly flashy, but after nearly two decades in this industry, I’ve come to think that’s a pretty great business to be a part of.
What does success mean to you?
Success, for me, is being able to do work I’m proud of, with people I genuinely like working with, and still have enough control over my life that the business doesn’t own me.
When I was younger, I probably measured success much more by growth, revenue and how much I could take on. Now I think about it differently. I still care about doing well financially, obviously, but I care just as much about whether the work is interesting, whether the clients are happy, whether my team enjoys what we’re building and whether I still like my own job at the end of the day.
I think success is really about sustainability. Not just whether a business can keep making money, but whether you can keep doing the work without becoming completely miserable in the process.
If I can make good work, solve real problems, take care of the people I work with and still have a life outside of it, that feels pretty successful to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dissindesignteam.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dissindesignteam
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560043834341
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mellepalmer/
