Opening the Door to a New Brand Identity

Opening the Door to a New Brand Identity
We’re excited to welcome back two very special guests to the Good Mood Marketing Podcast: David Williams and Kristen Poteet of Entryway (formerly known as Shelters to Shutters). Entryway has been a longtime for-purpose partner with Catalyst, and our latest venture with the Entryway team has been working together on their rebrand. Kristen and David walk through the process of their rebrand efforts through their eyes alongside the Catalyst team, and speak to the power of their mission, vision, and purpose-driven branding. Learn more about the Entryway team and their partnership with Catalyst by listening today.

Transcript

Katie Degutis (00:14):

Welcome back to another episode of Good Mood Marketing. I'm Katie, and I'm joined by my co-host Thomas and Lauren. Today marks our last episode of a great season two, and we're so excited to introduce our special guests. We've been partnering with this organization since 2017 and have had the pleasure of supporting their life-changing work, including their recent rebrand efforts that just launched. You may remember our guestsfrom our episode last year on Giving Tuesday. Please join me once again in welcoming David Williams and Kristen Poteet, Rresident, CEO and Vice President of Entryway.

Speaker 2 (00:42):

Welcome guys. Welcome.

Kristen Poteet (00:44):

Thank you. It's great to be here.

Thomas Demiranda (00:47):

David and Kristen you joined us for an episode last fall where we chatted about entryways, then Shelters of Shutters Mission approach to providing solutions for situational homelessness. But for anyone who might have missed that episode, can you please kinda give us a little background on yourself and just the organization as a whole?

David Williams (01:06):

Absolutely. I'll, I'll why don't I start and then Kristen, just jump right in. So, I joined well, was Shelters to Shutters. It's hard to say it now. <Laugh> two, two and a half years ago. And prior to that, had been in the nonprofit world make-A-Wish, America, habitat for Humanity International, the Houston Food Bank. But what we do is work with individuals who are what we term situationally homeless. Homelessness is is a very visible issue in our country today. You can't go to any major city without seeing encampments of of individuals that have, you know, no stable housing. But that's really much more of a chronic homeless situation. Whereas we're working with individuals that are very often couch surfing with friends or living out of their car or, you know just in a different situation.

David Williams (02:04):

And it's occurred because of a job loss, a health crisis, maybe a domestic situation. But individuals who have had a work history who are interested in being in the workforce maybe in fact are working, but in a part-time job where they're not able to have stable housing. And so we work with these individuals to upskill them and get them ready for positions in the multi-family industry. They're mostly entry-level positions around maintenance, leasing, groundskeeping, housekeeping, things like that. But they're positions that that have a trajectory to them. Multi-Family industry is a, is a very cool one from the standpoint that there's a lot of, or a lot of people in a C-suite right now that started off as a leasing consultant or as a maintenance tech. And so so that's the that's what we do and we get them prepared for jobs in the industry, and those jobs come with a housing discount, which makes it affordable for them to be able to typically live on site where they're working. So transportation becomes less of a less of an issue. So that's at a high level what we do. And then let me turn it to Kristen.

Kristen Poteet (03:27):

Sure. Hi everyone. So I've been with the organization actually since 2015. So when Shelters to Shelters was just starting as a nonprofit our founder, Chris Finlay owns Middleburg communities. So he had started the program in his own properties and had success and wanted to really start opening it up to other industry partners. And so that's kind of where I joined the organization to to help grow it and do marketing and development. And it's just really excited to see where it is today. We have, you know, 55 and counting industry partners that actually receive our candidate referrals for employment. We have a number of other industry partners that are providing in-kind services to us and supporting us in different ways. So we're just, you know, thrilled to see the trajectory and excited for, for what's to come as Entryway.

Katie Degutis (04:27):

Yeah, absolutely. So that, that perfectly sets me up for my first question for you guys. So, Shelters to Shutters originally was our first for-purpose partnership, and we've loved working on the different campaigns, website, things like that in the past. And of course, most recently the big rebrand efforts for Entryway mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. So, wanted to chat with you guys a little bit more today, kind of tell us a little bit about the rebranding process, how the experience was from your perspective, and kind of any kind of background on what prompted the rebrand.

David Williams (04:57):

Well, I'll, I'll go ahead and start and then turn it over to Kristen. And, and I do wanna acknowledge that Kristen really did the bulk of of this work with the Catalyst team. But when I started two and a half years ago in my first meeting with our, with the founder his first agenda item was we need to change the name. Now, I thought it was there was a little bit of irony, but I think also, you know, good for him because he was the one that selected the, the name. And but he felt like it didn't it really didn't tell what what we aspired to. I mean, it kind of I mean, yes, it was hard to, hard to pronounce but especially with the multifamily industry we really wanted a name that was gonna be talking more about the talent that these individuals were bringing to, to the organization, how instead of the idea that, Hey, you're doing us a favor by looking at these candidates, we're actually doing you a favor because we're bringing great talent to your, to your doorstep.

David Williams (06:14):

And so so anyway, so it was his first agenda item, and and I was, I was I was not as I was not as gung-ho on this as he was initially. I thought it was important. I didn't think it was as important as as he was in. But then much to our benefit Catalyst came along and said, you know, we'd like to work with you guys again. You had done amazing work with the website way back when, and as we were kind of talking about ways that we could work together again, and then the website needed to be needed to be updated, but we then started talking about the rebrand and and the rest they say is is, is history.

Kristen Poteet (06:57):

Yeah. I mean, I think I would just add from kind of, from my perspective of being, being with the organization, you know, we had grown so much and evolved with, it's the same mission, but the, a lot of the individuals that we're serving, you know, are, are no longer coming from traditional shelters. They're coming from, you know workforce development programs, community colleges. We have individuals that, that come to us that are sleeping out of their car, but taking classes at night and that are couch surfing. And so we're also starting to work now with organizations that work with refugee populations. And so I think that, you know, kind of having a name that represents and is inclusive of kind of all of those different circumstances and situations where it's not just kind of this, when you think of shelter, you, you really do go straight to kind of that homelessness piece of it. And so I, I think I was excited about the idea of rebranding for those reasons and knew that it was gonna be obviously a big lift, but when Catalyst came on board and said, hey, we wanna do this with you I was like, awesome. There's no better partner for us to do it with. So.

Katie Degutis (08:12):

I remember from one of the brainstorms too, one of the really cool things was like, the way that y'all spoke about how you wanted the name to really honor the people that were involved in the program mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, and I love that because I think it's, it's just so important to, especially with the situational aspect of people, could be one paycheck away from being in that same situation mm-hmm. Most of the time. And just being able to honor that was, was really cool to be a part of.

David Williams (08:38):

And I think that that was ultimately, that might have been really the reason why our, our national board as an example you know, that, and Christy is a member of the national board, and she was very eloquent when we were having this conversation when they were deciding whether to, to go forward with it. But it was really around the dignity of the other participants. And and I think none of us wanna be defined by our worst or most challenging situation number one. And then number two, having a name that talks more about the future, about where you're going versus where you are. It's so much more, it's more positive, it's more future oriented. And and I think it's, it's I think it's, it's brilliant. And the reception that we've received really from everybody has just been so positive. I mean, this has been, this has been a home run.

Lauren Goodman (09:37):

That's so exciting. Well, I know early on, speaking of the rebranding process I know early on we went through a bunch of iterations of different names and different logos, colors, taglines, things like that really to make sure that we honored your mission and sort of your different audiences mm-hmm. <Affirmative> really well. And I liked what you said about how this was sort of, I love that this rebrand wasn't born out of trying to get away from any sort of negative perception. This was all like future focused mm-hmm. <Affirmative> setting you guys up for success, things like that. The question I have is, if you, you know, let's say there's a nonprofit or an organization out there that is thinking about going through a rebrand, what, what advice might you give them? What did you learn from this process? What are some things they might want to consider before they step into that process?

David Williams (10:30):

Yeah, I'll start and then Kristen can jump in. I think the first thing would just be, it's really, really, really hard. Yeah. And I think it's, I think it's hard in the nonprofit sector particularly because you, you know, in the for-profit sector, you can kind of make up a word and then spend millions of dollars to create, you know, yeah. What, what you want that brand to be. Where the nonprofit sector, you don't have those kind of resources, which means you want to have a name that it's, it's a short, it's a short journey that somebody can see that name. And it doesn't take long to at least get a sense of, you know, what you're doing or who you're helping or what you're aspiring for the people that you're serving. And so, so it's hard because, you know, there are a couple million charities in the United States alone, and they all have a name.

David Williams (11:23):

And so to find something that works and that you can own and protect is just super challenging. And again, it just makes it so that, that would be the first thing is that, you know, just realize that this is a very hard thing that you're working on. And I think secondly, it's and especially with an organization that has a lot of stakeholders, is that not everybody's, not everybody, number one, is gonna see the need the way you might to rebrand. And then number two, you'll have people that are not as excited about kind of what you come up with. And so there's, there's a whole change management piece that should not be underestimated, that it's, it's as excited as we are. And as you know, and, and even with all the focus groups that we had, and, and it was overwhelmingly positive. It wasn't unanimously positive. And so you just have to be prepared for that as well.

Kristen Poteet (12:21):

I would add for, for them to not settle I think, you know, we, we, we did spend, I mean, probably what, at least over a year, maybe 18 months I mean, we went through a whole whole iteration of, of names and that we ended up just saying, you know what, this isn't it. And, and we kind of started over again. And so, and that's okay because I think at the end of the day, you want really wanna feel excited and proud mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and have, have something that you know, I mean, changing the name is a big deal. And so I would just say make sure it's something that, you know, really is representative of, of kind of the, the values and mission of the organization. And don't, don't settle for something just because maybe there's a, a timeline crunch or some other factors that are at play.

Kristen Poteet (13:21):

And then, yeah, I think what David was saying is, you know, bringing people along that are stakeholders, like into the process and making sure you're, you're getting that buy-in is really important as well. So we did hold some focus groups where we were able to get feedback from our partners and our donors and participants themselves on this name change and what we were proposing. And, you know, that I think that was really why it was able to be so successful when we did ultimately move forward with it, because we did have, while maybe not everyone was on board the, because the majority was, and they were familiar with it, they were ready to help us kind of promote the new name and, and get behind it. And even the ones that maybe didn't agree, were still, you know, they're still a part of the organization and they, they champion it just as well for us, you know? And so mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, I would say getting that buy-in when you do make the decision is really important.

Katie Degutis (14:23):

And that's gotta just be so much harder with something. With a nonprofit, just there's that passion behind it. The people that are involved in it are, are involved because they truly believe in it. They love the cause, whatever it may be. Whereas a lot of times we're working on rebranding maybe a community, and sometimes the staff may have a little bit of input to it, but for the most part it's a developer and they've got 20 other communities. So it's, it's not the same emotional tie to it.

Thomas Demiranda (14:49):

Yeah. Especially, I think David made a great, great point being on the front lines and business development. A lot of times when I'm talking about naming and branding strategy sometimes the owner or the founder is not the one that's particularly wanting to push it forward. And so the fact that it started from the top down I think was probably really important of just making it all successful in the first place. Cuz you didn't have to convince one of the most important stakeholders in the room. Right. <laugh>. So cool. I, you know, like I said, as being part of business development, I didn't get to see the day to day of, you know, how Shelters to Shutters became Entryway from a branding exercise and perspective. But I did get to see some of that excitement when we met you guys in Atlanta in June. It was so great to, to see you and your team there. And then just seeing all the partners, the donors, the participants in the room, and really kind of curious, it's been maybe a month or six weeks since the reveal. How would you guys say the general reception has been of the name and the brand, or if you've even heard anything in person or social media that's really stood out to you?

David Williams (16:02):

I keep on going first, so Kirsten.

Kristen Poteet (16:05):

Oh no. Yeah, I mean I overall like, it's, it's been really positive. You know, I think we were it was great to be able to be at the National Apartment Association's Apartmentalize to, to launch it. I think it was, you know, kind of a fast timeline to get there mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. But it, it really, you know, we were able to bring together a lot of our existing partners and, and perspective partners and have people help us raise awareness throughout the week. And we really did get a lot of positive feedback. And I think from my perspective you know, on the social media side you know, the work that we did, we, you know, with Catalyst leading up to it with teasers that we were putting out there that y'all helped us design and the videos and kind of having everything timed out and, and getting people primed. And then when we flipped that switch, we saw the most engagement on our social media than we've ever seen before. So that was a huge win for us. And to be able to have those individuals not only in the room at the event sharing the information, but then to see kind of that ripple effect. When you look at our analytics, you know, you can see exactly <laugh> when the launch happened, a huge spike in engagement. So it's, that was a, a big win I thought.

David Williams (17:28):

Yeah. And I, I mean, I think that it's hard to believe it's only been six weeks. I mean, and I, I I, and again, I think this is a tribute to, to you and, and to Kristen and the entire team that it, this just went so smoothly. And and I think the reception has just been, you know, we have a lot of, of meetings with industry partners, prospective industry partners, and it's you know, whenever we explain, and it doesn't take long to explain, which is beautiful, but whenever we explain, yeah, we used to be this, but now we're this and this is why it's, everybody's nodding their head, it's like, oh yeah, that makes sense. That's, that's really good. I like the name. And so it, it's been great a absolutely the much smoother than I thought it was gonna be.

Lauren Goodman (18:19):

That's so great.

Katie Degutis (18:20):

I feel like I was in the same boat. I was always kind of waiting for like, okay, where's the panic moment going to come in <laugh>? What's the last minute thing? But Kristen, you had things so well outlined and had thought through so many different scenarios and all of the different use cases of the branding and things like that, that are easy to kind of fall by the wayside when you are working on a project that massive. So it was, it was really cool to see how seamlessly it all seemed to go. I'm sure that there were the occasional moment where it didn't always feel that way, but it, it seemed on our end, like you guys just had it so buttoned up of like this, we need this and then we can do this as the next step. And it, it was just so logical.

Kristen Poteet (18:56):

Yeah. There, there's always some some of those duck moments where it looks smooth, but underneath there's some Yep. You know, a couple of us paddling really quick to make sure it continues to look smooth. <Laugh>.

Lauren Goodman (19:11):

Oh, I was gonna say, for anyone listening, I mean the, on the reveal day, you guys were in Atlanta mm-hmm. <Affirmative> coordinating the event. We were launching a website, we were transferring a domain, we were changing social handles. Changing social art. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, like, it was so coordinated and everyone knew their job and we were on, you know, different time zones, but it just worked out so well and it was really fun and the adrenaline was pumping, so Yeah. Yeah. We had a blast.

Katie Degutis (19:36):

Yeah. Well, we've really enjoyed following along with you guys with the transition to entryway. And I know that in addition to the big rebrand milestone, you're continuing to do incredible work across the country. You mentioned, I think over 55 partners now wanted to just kind of see if y'all have any updates that you can share with our listeners about recent successes with job placements or new partnerships within the industry, or any other big moments that you guys have.

David Williams (20:01):

Yeah, I'll mention two and then, and then Kristen can mention a couple others. So last week we we hit the mark of 52 placements. And and so what's cool about that is that in 21, in 2021 we had 27 placements. 2022 we had 50 52. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> 52. 52. And so Oh wow. Almost we, we've almost hit with half the year. Yeah. What it took us the entire year. And, and I think the part that I'm really excited about, we actually got off to a slow start in the first quarter, but the second quarter we've, we've done a number of things. We're much more workforce development oriented, so we're doing a lot of our own trainings. And it's all about upskilling people so that they, so that they're more attractive to the industry. And so where I would say in the past we were a little bit more of a, of a matchmaking organization.

David Williams (20:56):

Like, here are the people, here are the jobs. We put 'em together. Now it's, it's a, there's a lot more to it where we're just really trying to help figure out a path so that they are so they're sought after. And one of the things, the cool things that we're seeing is a lot of these candidates are now getting multiple offers at the same time as they're as they're applying for positions or we have a hiring fair or that kind of thing. So, so again, it's so that's exciting. And soon we'll be launching our 10th market in Denver. Oh, cool. And so we're excited about that and we've got a fabulous board that that's there and a really great executive director who, whose story is pretty cool that he's, he's actually been working for the last year and a half as a volunteer in Denver.

David Williams (21:47):

Homelessness is something that's been very personal to him. He had a son that served in the military, had some issues when he came back stateside. And so cares very much about the issue has been in multifamily his whole career, and so has been kind of working away. And he will be our executive director going forward. And so, you know, we have someone with significant industry background and a very real passion around the mission. And that's that's a really good combination. And so so we're, yeah, we're excited. And, and I'll tell you, we I know you guys are based in Austin and that's, that's why I'm gonna set my sights on Austin next cuz that's, cause Austin's a place with a lot of, lot of resources, but also a lot of challenges right now as well.

Kristen Poteet (22:33):

Yeah. I think from, you know, there's, there's a lot of really great things happening right now, which is exciting. You know, we just brought on Cardinal Group, which is one of NHCs Top 50 mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And so really excited to start that partnership with them. And we have a number of other kind of partnerships in kind of in the queue that we're excited about national partnerships. And, you know, I think just even a lot of the training programs that we've been piloting this year that, that has been new for us, these in-person kind of two week, three week four week training programs where individuals are actually in the classroom, we're having instructors come, they're getting to do a mix of virtual training and on-hand training, and they're kind of graduating together as a cohort and having kind of community within themselves.

Kristen Poteet (23:24):

And then, you know, once they graduate, we're able to go to our partners and say, you know, we have these individuals that are now, you know, they've, they've become EPA Universal certified, they've gotten their, you know, OSHA 10 certification, their they've had this experience, they did job shadowing. So just kind of continuing to grow those training opportunities and, and, you know developing the talent for the industry is, is really exciting. And to, I think to David's point, to see more individuals getting hired and to see our retention rates, you know increasing and getting better. And I think just the whole trajectory is all really positive. So yeah, just a lot of good things to come.

Lauren Goodman (24:08):

That's great. Well, you kind of answered my last question mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, but I'll still ask it. Cause I would love to know, what does the future of entryway look like to you guys, whether that's, you know, the brand or the organization or both the team, what, you know, when you think about a year from now, a couple years from now, what do you kind of see? What's your dream for it?

David Williams (24:31):

Yeah, so I think my dream is that we're and, and I'll stay away from specific numbers, but but certainly that we're, we're, we're in more cities across the country that we're, that we're placing a lot more people than, than we are now. That the stickiness that, that we talk about is that those metrics hold up and that, you know, we start seeing people that started in entry level jobs and now they're in management jobs and, and someday, you know, there's gonna be the CEO of a company and it's gonna be someone who came through our Entryway program. I mean, that to me would be just that would be a great, that would be a great dream. So I think that, you know, from an organizational standpoint that we're continuing to, to grow, but to grow in a, in a very sustainable way.

David Williams (25:21):

I think that's I think that's the hope. And then from a brand standpoint that we I've been very fortunate in my career to be part of organizations that had very strong brands. You say the name Habitat for Humanity or Make-A-Wish, and it's, and number one, people have heard of it. And number two, most of the time it's gonna be a positive you know, a positive response. And that would be my dream for Entryway that at some point in time we're gonna be, we're gonna be that, and that we're gonna be known as just a first class organization doing great work, well known, changing people's lives and, and doing it in the right way.

Kristen Poteet (26:02):

Yeah. I mean, I don't know if I have too much more to add to that. But yeah, I mean, I think, I think all of those things that David said and just continuing to, to kind of hopefully be a, a go-to source of talent for the industry and when people say our name, they, they have good things to say and you know, wanna be involved in what we're doing. So, yeah. Well, I can't really add much more.

Katie Degutis (26:33):

<Laugh>. That's great. We, we certainly love hearing those success stories whenever they come through and, and love keeping an eye on social media to see even more of them. So can't wait to, to see what more of the Entryway brand kind of comes into and adapts as, as you continue with all of this great work. As you guys remember, we like to end each episode by asking what has you in a good mood today. So we'll start with you, Kristen.

Kristen Poteet (26:58):

Okay. Well, I guess like, what has me in a good mood, it's really simple and it's just, it's, it's basically that it's warm outside. And summer, I know that people complain about the heat <laugh>, I love hot weather and I love not putting a jacket on when I have to go walk my dog. So it's very simple, but that it has been putting me in a good mood this basically the last month, so.

Katie Degutis (27:22):

Awesome. What about you, David? What has you in a good mood today?

David Williams (27:27):

So last last Tuesday I hosted a group of guys to come over who were very passionate. We all played pickleball and tennis, and in talking with them they talked about how much they love ping pong. And so <laugh>, they all, they all came over and we spent two hours in some really intense competitive ping pong matches, singles and doubles. And it was just awesome. And I think we're starting a tradition, so we're, we've got a group coming over this Tuesday and, and and so I'm, I'm looking forward to that.

Thomas Demiranda (28:04):

That's awesome.

Katie Degutis (28:04):

You're just getting smaller and smaller paddles!

Lauren Goodman (28:09):

I was trying to think what might be smaller than Pong, but I, okay. Well, what's got me in a good mood? Pretty simple as well. Our creative team is trying to do more stuff offsite. So tomorrow morning we have a breakfast, we're gonna go out, get some pancakes, just have a good kind of team bonding session before we start the workday. So I'm pretty excited for that,

Thomas Demiranda (28:30):

Man. Can I enjoy that? Sounds great.

Thomas Demiranda (28:33):

Well, for me last night I actually played some soccer, indoor soccer, so I joined a, a league here. And so I'm excited about that as I start to do it two, three times a week.

Katie Degutis (28:45):

Nice. Yeah, it is. The warmer weather is definitely nice, but I think here right now you have to do indoor or you're going to faint. But my good news, what has me in a good mood, I'd say probably just I've booked a flight recently. I'm gonna be going to Boston in a couple of months, so I'm excited for that. Looking forward to it, going to Florida here in a couple weeks with my family, so looking forward to a couple of vacations.

Thomas Demiranda (29:08):

Awesome. Well, thank you guys so much for joining us. We're excited to see the new things that come about and so thanks everyone for this. Cheers. Bye.

Thomas Demiranda (29:35):

Hey y'all, Thomas Demiranda here remember for the rest of the year if you partner with Catalyst and Entryway, we're given 5% back to Entryway on those contracts. Thank you so much.