Meet Mari Draughon | Designer. Brand maker. Creator. Collaborator.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mari Draughon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mari, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I was consulting for large CPG brands and although I loved the work I was doing, I didn’t always love who I was doing it for. I wanted to be able to work with brands whose products + services I actually believed in. Initially, I started off offering brand coaching through a business I had named Rock Blossom. Rock Blossom’s mission was to empower + support local individuals and businesses in developing brands that aligned to their values, talent, vision + purpose. Eventually the coaching led to burnout for me, so I switched my focus.

Today, I work with small business owners to help them create meaningful + memorable brands through the following specializations: Website design, creative + conversion content creation, logo design, visual identity,
Photoshoot + video planning, social media templates, Instagram grid planning, social media + content strategies + more.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I started my career in marketing in 2008. At the time, I was working for Dentovations, Inc. and their CPG brand, Luster Premium White. Damon Brown, Dentovations’ CEO, spent a lot of time (and applied lots of patience, haha!) teaching me the ins + outs of branding.

In 2010, I made the decision to move back home to South Florida. When this happened, I was able to keep my role with Dentovations, Inc., and transitioned from being in-office to working remotely. Eventually, Damon encouraged me to offer my skills to others and became my very first client.

Since my only experience at the time was within the OTC Tooth Whitening category, I knew I needed to immerse myself into other brand categories. So, I began offering my services for free to various local businesses in order to test my skills within other areas, and learn what my strengths + weaknesses were.

After a year of this doing this, I had learned so much about various types of businesses + had built up sufficient case studies that I felt confident enough to begin charging. The challenge? West Palm Beach lacked real opportunity for me to work with the types of clients that I had desired. I ended up in-house with Hyper Network Solutions. A year later, I left the role, HNS transitioned to a client + I began offering my services remotely through a Los Angeles-based PR + marketing firm, Light Years Ahead.

Light Years Ahead became another platform for learning + growth, but as much as I was adding to my resume + gaining knowledge, I felt uninspired by the types of brands I was working with. It seemed that most were primarily focused on taking advantage of the consumer vs. providing something meaningful to them—and this eventually made my work feel ‘dirty’ to me.

In 2015, I stepped away from this role and founded, owned + operated a blog + influencer account, The Goofy Mermaid (TGM). In a little over a year, TGM had grabbed the attention of 53K+ amazing + loyal followers on Instagram—all through an organic approach—and had participated in over 100 brand collaborations. Eventually I grew tired of constantly having to be on my devices in order to maintain TGM’s audience, so I sold the brand in August of 2016.

In 2017, I began offering brand coaching through Rock Blossom, which eventually led to me switching my focus to mostly design work (Mari Draughon Design).

It was a long journey to get here, but I learned so much about branding, PR, marketing, and MYSELF along the way. I had to overcome doubt, discomfort, and fear along the way, while also learning to trust my intuition + align my work to my personal intention, mission, and values.

Today, I say ‘no’ to work that doesn’t feel good to me. I strive to show up authentically in everything I do. I stay true to my design style + personality. I don’t offer services a client doesn’t need (even if they think they do), and I don’t lock anyone in to relying on me for efforts they can easily manage in-house.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
South Florida really has so much to offer! Having spent most of my life here, I find myself spending more + more time in the Juno Beach/Jupiter area, so this where I typically take out-of-towners.

Some of my fave places to experience the outdoors + get a little grounding action include Cato’s Bridge, Juno Beach, Jonathan Dickinson State Park, and Riverbend Park.

When it comes to food, I like to keep it local + fresh! I’m all about a locally-owned restaurant with good vibes, a comfy environment + unpretentious service. Leftovers, Food Shack, Blue Water Taco, Taco Chula, Agliolio, Sushi Moto, Jabrewski’s Pizza, and Thirsty Turtle are a few of my faves!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Damon Brown of Dentovations, Inc., for seeing something in me + nurturing it. He not only hired me in my first marketing role, but eventually became one of my first clients. It is because of him + all of the clients to follow that I was able to gain the knowledge + experience to create a meaningful brand in Eco Kleen of the Palm Beaches.

Others who have mentored, supported + encouraged me include: Bette Light of Light Years Ahead + Chris Tisi of Hyper Network Solutions.

Books that played an important role in inspiring how I approach business: Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic! + Peta Kelly’s Earth is Hiring.

Website: www.maridraughondesign.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/maridraughondesign

Other: I don’t actively participate in social media, but to get to know me a bit on a personal level, you can check out my inactive accounts @MariDraughon + @MariDraughonDesign 👈 (lots of great free tips on this one!).