Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the Tri-Cities region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The Tri-Cities.
Is your business serving the residents of Tri-Cities? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpTri-Cities.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 220: From Car Sales to Chief Marketing Strategy: How Diamond Adams Helps Small Businesses Thrive
What makes Diamond Adams with Skyline Creative a good neighbor?
Ever wonder why your marketing efforts aren't delivering results despite beautiful logos and consistent social media posts? Diamond Adams, founder of Skyline Creative, reveals the missing piece for small business success in this enlightening conversation.
As a fractional CMO firm owner, Diamond breaks down how small to mid-sized businesses can access high-level marketing strategy without the six-figure executive salary. She explains the critical difference between tactical marketing activities and comprehensive strategy that drives real business growth. Her journey from car sales to wealth management marketing to entrepreneurship provides a fascinating backdrop to her business philosophy.
What makes Diamond's story particularly compelling is her decision to launch Skyline Creative in 2019 with no safety net—just months before the pandemic upended everything. While homeschooling four children during lockdowns, she navigated the early challenges of entrepreneurship, including the temptation to take on misaligned clients just to stay afloat. Through this crucible, Diamond developed a purpose-driven approach that now allows her to partner deeply with clients who share her values.
The conversation explores common marketing myths that trap small businesses in expensive cycles of ineffective activity. Diamond emphasizes that marketing shouldn't feel overwhelming or purely transactional—instead, her firm becomes "an embedded part of your leadership team" that cares about clients' businesses as their own. This relationship-centered approach stands in stark contrast to the quick-fix mentality prevalent in the industry.
Ready to escape what Diamond calls the "marketing hamster wheel"? Connect through theskylinecreative.com or find Diamond on LinkedIn to discover how strategic marketing alignment might be the business growth catalyst you've been searching for.
To learn more about Skyline Creative go to:
https://theskylinecreative.com/
Skyline Creative
(828) 551-7509
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So today we've got a very special guest in the studio with us on this Friday and I am super excited to learn all about them and their business. And I'm sure you'll feel just the same, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, ms Diamond Adams, who is the owner operator of Skyline Creative Diamond. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Well, we're thrilled to have you and really excited to learn all about your company and what you do. So if you don't mind, why don't you start us off by telling us about what you do?
Speaker 3:Absolutely Well. Skyline Creative is a fractional CMO firm, which basically means we give small to mid-sized businesses the marketing brains of a full-time chief marketing officer, without the six-figure salary and corner office without the six-figure salary and corner office.
Speaker 2:Nice. Yeah, I'm very interested to hear more about that.
Speaker 3:So how did you get into this business? Yeah, so it's an interesting story. I spent years in sales and marketing and at the time I was running marketing for three companies under one parent organization and I started seeing a pattern Small businesses had this huge potential, but they had no real strategy. Marketing firms come in and they push advertising and quick fixes, but there's nothing that ties everything together. But there's nothing that ties everything together.
Speaker 2:So I took a leap of faith and started Skyline Creative to bring high level strategy to small to midsize businesses and that's pretty rare for a small business to actually develop like a branding strategy. Yes, it is very rare, wow. So are you like a full service agency, do you do? What all do you do? Let me ask you that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. We are the brains and the strategy, but we also have the back office support to handle all of the marketing needs. So we can handle advertising, web development, social media all of those things get grouped. We also do event marketing and things like that as well. So we cover the full strategy that we want to implement.
Speaker 2:Very good. Now I'm an old legacy media kind of guy who's delved into the world of podcasting and I'm loving it actually. So what's your background? What did you do in the past?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So after graduating I actually went into car sales. Oh, wow, yeah. So I was a car salesman. I did really well. I went into luxury car sales and then ended up meeting a gentleman who I sold a car to, who owned a wealth management firm and got into wealth management and marketing in the financial world world. Wow. So from car sales to wealth management to branding. That's awesome. Yes, it's been a fun ride.
Speaker 2:I bet Now, where'd you go to school?
Speaker 3:I went to school in Western Carolina University.
Speaker 2:All right, cullowhee.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 2:Cullowhee, are you originally from North Carolina?
Speaker 3:I am. So I'm a native from Marshall, North Carolina.
Speaker 2:Marshall. Yeah, I am not very far from Marshall. I'm just right across the line. In Tennessee my office studio is, but I know you guys got hit pretty hard by Helene and Hot Springs, marshall, weaverville, all through Mars Hill. Got hit pretty hard I hope that you guys fared okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all of my family members are safe and I'm very thankful for that my brother-in-law and his family. They did lose their hardware store that was in downtown Marshall, so they're working to rebuild that.
Speaker 2:Wow. Well, I tell you what I'm so proud of Western North Carolina and the Asheville area and East Tennessee as well, at how resilient folks have been and neighbors helping neighbors has really been. You know, does my heart good.
Speaker 3:That's right. That's right. That's how it should be does my heart good.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right. That's how it should be. Yes, yes, sorry, didn't mean to get off on that, but back to the, the strategy, branding strategies. What are some myths or misconceptions in your industry, in the branding marketing industry?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I see a lot of small business owners who really think that marketing is just about posting on social media or they think that a new logo is going to drive in business and those things are nice visually and social media is a great way to get your story out there. But marketing is so much more than just marketing a pretty face or a post. So you know, doing all those things it can be a pretty expensive way to stay stuck in what you're doing if you don't have a full plan to execute.
Speaker 2:And a full plan means, top to bottom, a lot of different components, right.
Speaker 3:It does. We start with budgeting for the year, so we want to align strategy with what we can actually implement cost-wise. If we want to have advertising dollars, we need to know where that money is going to go. We look at sponsorship dollars for what events we want to be a part of how we want to work with the community, with that particular client, what's most important to them. So it's very comprehensive.
Speaker 2:Very good. Now, outside of work, what do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:Oh gosh. So we're in that season of life where weekends are really revolving around the ball field, if I'm being honest and tournament schedules. You know how that is. We love it, but when we get a real break, we're usually outside. We like to go camping as a family, finding some quiet places to recharge just being outside in nature whenever we can.
Speaker 2:You're in a great place for that. We are in a great place.
Speaker 3:That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:How many, how many kids do you have?
Speaker 3:So we have four. Wow yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:That's busy.
Speaker 2:That's busy, I've got, I've got five.
Speaker 3:but yeah, you know what it's like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but mine are all grown now and all grown now, and the youngest is 22. She just graduated from App State and Boone.
Speaker 3:So that's it. That was a pay raise, congratulations.
Speaker 2:That's wonderful. One grandchild now. So awesome. Yeah, absolutely. How old are yours?
Speaker 3:So our oldest is about to be 14 and the youngest is nine.
Speaker 2:Wow, I thought I would have thought you'd have said three and six or something.
Speaker 3:Absolutely not.
Speaker 2:Absolutely not. I have a six month old grandchild, that's. That's, yeah, as close as I get to that, so yeah. So let's switch gears for just a second. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you've overcome and how it's made you stronger in the end, either professionally or personally?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I would say starting starting this business in 2019 with no backup plan? No, you know, no steady paycheck. No, let's try this for six months, safety net built up. Let's try this for six months, safety net built up. It was just kind of that kind of pressure can make you really chase some quick wins and can make you say yes to the wrong clients who actually don't fit your model, precisely, um, just to stay afloat, but, um, we wanted to build something really grounded and purpose and we want to work with people we believe in and actually move the needle for these businesses who build communities around them. So overcoming all of that has made our business stronger and, I think, me too, personally as a person.
Speaker 2:Well, especially, not only did you start a new business, which is hard, by the way, this is mine, and yeah, it is. I started about almost a year ago and I can't imagine doing it. You said in 2019.
Speaker 3:That's correct so within one year. Yeah, just before you're exactly right. Just before You're exactly right, just before COVID Ouch Homeschooling all of our kids. It was a wild, wild time to be alive, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Yes, it was, yes, it was Well. Congratulations. It sounds like you are, you know, blew through that and are, you know, got the right clients now and that does make such a difference to you, know, to get a customer that, hey, it's money, but are you really going to be able to help them and are they really going to be able to help you? And, you know, I totally get that and it sounds like you've done that, you've got the right clients and moving in the right direction, so congratulations.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. It's. It's been a rough ride, but definitely worthwhile.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Very rewarding the thing about. It's not easy to start a small business at all, but when you see success, it's unbelievably rewarding and so much better than the corporate world. I'd say, but yeah, yeah, I escaped that, and after about 40 years I got out of the corporate world and into my own business. So super, super excited about doing what I'm doing now too. So nothing like running your own business. So super, super excited about doing what I'm doing now too. So nothing like running your own business. That's right.
Speaker 2:In both directions. So yeah, so what if a diamond and such a pretty name? If you I'm sure you hear that all the time- oh well, I was.
Speaker 3:I was named after Lou diamond Phillips, so it's actually not.
Speaker 2:Oh really, wow, wow, okay. Well, I didn't expect that. I thought it was because when you were born, you were bright and shining.
Speaker 3:No, no, nothing that awesome.
Speaker 2:Lou Diamond Phillips. Very good, very good, diamond. If you could think of one thing you would like our listeners to remember about Skyline Creative, what would that be?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that would be that marketing does not have to be overwhelming or transactional. So for Skyline Creative, we become a part, an embedded part, of your leadership team, and we care about your business like it's our own and we build plans to reflect that.
Speaker 2:Good thing to remember, yeah.
Speaker 3:I think so.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. If any of our listeners have a small business or a big business and they're just posting on social media and and designing really cool looking logos, but that's about it and they have an interest in learning more about what they could do with your services and your company, when can they get that information?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So if you've been on the marketing hamster wheel and you're ready to try something different, our website is the skyline creativecom. That's T H E skyline creativecom. Or you can connect with me directly on LinkedIn.
Speaker 2:Very good, all right. Well, diamond, I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed talking with you and learning. I learned a lot. Actually, it makes sense to me and, moving forward, wish you and your four kids and your husband, your family and Skyline Creative all the best.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Well, thank you so much, scott, it was a real pleasure.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Glad to have you and maybe we can have you back sometime in the future when you've got a big event coming up or something.
Speaker 3:That sounds wonderful.
Speaker 2:All right, you have a great weekend.
Speaker 3:You too.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.