Hey {{first_name | there}},

Have you ever met someone and thought, “How the heck didn’t I know them sooner?”

That was me when I met Devin Lee.

Not only was she the person I needed at the exact moment I met her, but it felt like we’d known each other for years. I immediately hired her to build the back-end systems in my business (and migrate me to a new CRM), and since then, we’ve been kindred spirits in business.

Since then, she’s become my ride-or-die business bestie (and also one of my non-business besties) and is the person I can go to with any question or random thought and know I’ll get an answer, empathy, or at least a laugh. If you were to eavesdrop on our Voxer chats, you would hear us discussing books and music (keep scrolling for her recs!) and asking questions like, “How would you respond to this email?”

We all need that friend in our life, especially as business owners. So today, I wanted to share mine with you!

You already know her (and probably love her) from our newsletter swap earlier this year, and from all the praise I give her any chance I get. But in case you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting her, Devin Lee designs and builds custom systems that remove Creative Agency Owners as the bottleneck in their business.

Today, I’m talking to Devin about her 2025 rebrand and what’s changed since, plus we’re talking all things networking, relationship marketing, and doing stellar work.

Enjoy!

Extraction feels relevant lately. I am told time and time again that my talent is pulling the process out of the creative agency owner's head and making it something that their business can run on.

Is there anything you’ve carried over from your professional organizer days and running a more in-person business to now an online one?

The greatest gift my organizing business gave me was that it forced me to feel the pain and urgency around creating efficient systems immediately. Unlike many businesses that can get by with wobbly systems for their first few years until they need to get it together once they have a team and steady clients, I did not have that luxury.

I wasn’t at my computer all day working remotely. I was in my clients' homes most of the day, leaving very little admin time.

Almost all of my clients hired me because they had ADHD or some sort of neuro-spicy element that made staying on top of things hard for them to do alone. My process had to be extremely efficient, which is the only way my business survived as long as it did.

Beyond that, there is an overlapping process:

I went through some things in my business that made me realize—I wanted to take myself seriously as a business owner! I was tired of playing small.

Up until that point, my brand had been super DIY. I had some cute colors for my website, a logo I paid not very much money for, and a vibey brand voice that was not very intentional. My brand was kind of… I’m fun! Isn’t that neat?

It made people feel like they would enjoy working with me, but didn’t really express the value they would get.

Once I made the decision to do a Serious-Big-Kid rebrand (which was not just about visuals, but also about who I am as a business owner, how I talk about my work, and who my clients are), everything changed for me. I finally found it was easier to connect with my ideal client because I had language for what I do.

Not only did I present as more professional, but I felt more professional. I felt like I really came into my own as a business owner, and potential clients NOTICED. The following year was the first time I finally hit six figures in revenue for my business. So — I’d say it made a huge difference!

I always tell people this work is never finished, and you’ve got to pay constant attention to your brand. So what’s changed or evolved since your rebrand? Have you had to revisit anything?

The benefit of having a lot more work than I used to is that I get to see what kind of projects and clients I’m the best match for. That has led me to focus on working with small creative agencies this year. So I am revisiting my brand positioning again (with you, Jamie!) to see how I can speak even more clearly to this very specific niche.

AND - for the first time, I started getting more clients than I could handle alone (Waaaay scarier than I thought it would be)!

Because of that, I've spent this year experimenting with different ways to build a team so I can handle the work coming my way. Do I find contractors who, like me, are savvy in many tools? Do I find contractors who are experts in specific tools and hand off just one piece of the build? Or do I stay fully involved in the build and hire someone to manage me?

These are also questions you have been helping me answer in our work together!

I think the nature of networking events is always in flux as community leaders experiment with different ways to connect people. But the heart of relationship building will never go out of style.

If I feel like I’m ever in a slow season, my go-to is always to schedule more coffee chats before I do anything else. I’ve really honed in on the type of people I want to meet and how to bring value to a coffee chat (You, dear reader, can learn these secrets via the email series included when you purchase my Relationship Database!)

I also use my Relationship Database to track lead data: Where do my best clients come from? Which kind of referral partners? Which communities? That dictates where I spend my time showing up.

And speaking of, showing up is the biggest piece. I could talk about that for several hours, so I’ll just leave it at that. 😂

What’s your experience with this?

I really see referral marketing as the long game, and part of my bigger strategy of “surround sound marketing”.

My referral partners don't just send clients my way. They’re also commenting on and sharing my LinkedIn posts. They’re tagging me in communities. They’re talking about me in rooms where I am not.

They are building my reputation for me, as a group.

A few times a year, I will send a blast out to all of my referral partners if I have a client spot I want to fill or something new to promote, and as you noted, not everyone has the space to shout me out in their newsletter at that time.

But what I find to be more valuable is that they bring me up in casual coffee chats or with a client who happens to need me right then and there.

I’m sure that’s true for folks reading, too. What advice do you have for someone who wants to pull that relationship growth lever?

Grab my Relationship Database!😂

AND - put on your extrovert hat and talk to as many people as you can. Show up in the communities you’re in. Set aside a few days a month just for coffee chats. Show up. Don’t worry about “selling yourself” or shoehorning your business into conversations. That will come up organically over time once people know and trust you first.

The song 'Work It (Soulwax Remix)' by Marie Davidson comes to mind.

When she says “You wanna know how I get away with everything? I work, all the fucking time,” I change it in my mind to mean: “I can get away with building a business that is exactly what I want it to be (and sometimes that means not working hard) because my work is fucking exceptional!”

This is something I try to impress upon my clients. Sometimes they’re spending time overdelivering things their clients don’t necessarily need, and it comes from a place of not feeling confident in the work they’re delivering.

So the systems I build explore a lot of that! We can “get away” with delivering less if what we do deliver is stellar.

And I also love when she says “I need real builders!” Because that’s what I do - I build!! That’s my favorite part of my job.

I also have a runner-up: Busy Girl by Tove Lo & SG Lewis.

“I've got skills, I've got power. Every second, minute, hour. I am good at what I do! Expert in my field, I can cut a deal!”

If you loved what you read, you can apply to work with me at devinlee.com. Or, if you want more pep talks and conversations around operations and systems like this, you sign up for my weekly email!

Thanks for reading,

Calibration Sessions are designed to help service-based business owners navigate inflection points while identifying their best opportunities. You’ll walk away with a 30-day Navigate Plan to help you chart your path to predictable growth.

My books are currently open for brand-led strategic advisory engagements. These engagements help ambitious, established business owners who want to develop the positioning and business structures that help them command premium pricing and pivot upmarket.