074 | Your products & services need to solve a problem with Elle Drouin, Styled Stock Society

Elle Drouin is the founder of three businesses that she currently runs — wonderfelle MEDIA, Styled Stock Society and she’s the human behind @mochiandthecity. After several years working as the Director of Marketing & Digital Strategy for e-commerce businesses, Elle launched her own business to focus on helping other women build brands that are as profitable as they are pretty. Elle currently runs the Styled Stock Society, a stylish stock photography membership for women entrepreneurs, as well as works as a commercial photographer for beauty and lifestyle brands.

Elle’s dog Mochi is a 4 year old maltipoo model and influencer with over 100,000 Instagram followers. Elle and Mochi have been featured on Entrepreneur, CNBC, the Today Show, and a number of other media outlets. They’ve collaborated with brands like American Express, Disney, Google, and The Ritz-Carlton and also use their platform to raise awareness for organizations like the Humane Society and local shelters.

On today’s episode we talked about the benefits of using stock photography, strategies, processes and tools for streamlining social media and and why we need to focus on solving a problem as we build our products and services.

ON TODAY’S EPISODE:

Her three business & what she does for each
Her career path prior to becoming an entrepreneur
The types of customers Styled Stock Society caters to
How her customers are using her images and how she customizes her photos for specific brands and needs
The aesthetic of her photos & collections
When she realized that Styled Stock Society was going to be successful
How Mochi became a social media influencer
Mochi’s online persona
How Elle came up with who Mochi’s ideal follower is
The processes and programs Elle uses for social media scheduling
Which social media platform has been the most profitable for Elle
Her advice for entrepreneurs
What’s next for Styled Stock Society & Mochi

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KEY TAKE-AWAYS

“I wanted to figure out a way that I could help people with their marketing that didn’t involve me talking all-day long.” – Elle Drouin

“You’re solving a problem for these business owners that are wearing so many hats, and they just can’t do all of these things themselves.” – Katie Hunt

“There are a lot of different ways you can customize the photos to be more specific to your brand.” – Elle Drouin

“One of the things that we try to do is have a lot of negative space in certain photos in our collections so that there is room if you have maybe a desktop that has a few different items on it. You could actually drop a product image in it so it would look like it’s sitting on the desktop with the rest of the other things.” – Elle Drouin

“The level of effort that I put into the business just makes so much more sense to me than all the time I was spending doing things that were more one-on-one versus one-to-many.” – Elle Drouin

“Mochi is a very Cosmopolitan dog in New York. She dresses up. She goes out for cocktails. She’s currently in the middle of a summer in the Hamptons.” – Elle Drouin

“Similar to creating any other type of brand for business or your person, just really thought about who the people are that were following her at that point and decided to be more strategic about creating content specifically for them.” – Elle Drouin

“It’s less about her real life, because her real life is 90% napping, and more just like a fun, creative outlet and a way that we have found to connect with people all over the world.” – Elle Drouin

“I would say 80% of the time, we are trying to create engaging content, trying to get to know our audience, trying to relate to them and find ways that we can help them. Then, that 20% is the more obvious promotional sales focus.” – Elle Drouin

“I’m creating visual content and selling photos to people, so people are more likely to find me on visual platforms.” – Elle Drouin

“Solve a problem. Don’t start with an idea because it’s just something that you want to do but really think about who you want to serve and how you’re helping them.” – Elle Drouin

“The types of content that you create, everything you put out there is going to be affected by your why and what you’re just trying to do.” – Elle Drouin

CONNECT WITH ELLE DROUIN

Website: Elle Drouin | Facebook: @elledrouin | Pinterest: @elledrouin | Instagram: @elledrouin | Twitter: @elledrouin

LINKS

Mochi’s Instagram: @mochiandthecity/ | Styled Stock Society Instagram: @styledstocksociety/

Connect with Katie Hunt

Katie Hunt is a business strategist, podcaster, mentor and mama to four. She helps product based businesses build profitable, sustainable companies through her conferences, courses and coaching programs.

Website: prooftoproduct.com | Instagram: @prooftoproduct