Ranchero On Record: Allie Ro-Wilson

Allie Ro-Wilson is not only a wickedly talented illustrator (seriously, check her Daily Doodle project) but she is also a creative ideation force to be reckoned with. This creativity seeps beyond her creations and into the way she works her day-to-day role as Creative Director of the Ranch.

"Presentation Thinking"

^^This might sound like a phrase that recalls those pesky "critical thinking" essay prompts in school. But these two words have become a guiding mantra for GhostRanch work and the way Allie, as Creative Director, addresses client needs.

And one of the BIGGEST pillars of this —œPresentation Thinking— is—¦

LISTENING: The GhostRanch Golden Rule

(I know I know, the Golden Rule is the "Treat others the way you wanna be treated" thing but bear with me here)

Creating visuals only one part of the process —“ it shouldn't be the sole focus.

Presentation Thinking means we're ALSO problem-solvers.

Problem-solving is a useful way to think about the work that GhostRanch does (and MANY B2B —œbridges— like ourselves). We take something that is often abstract or hard to convey and craft a message that is both cohesive and compelling.

"As clients started to have more confidence in our ability—”I think because we're such good listeners, and we listen very deeply to their problems and what they're trying to accomplish—”we injected a lot more strategy. It wasn't just about patching things up and creating really beautiful visuals—” of course, that's part of it, you want everything to be communicating in a beautiful way."

Allie says she even sees GhostRanch itself as a —œdesign-thinking— problem: we focus on doing something very specific and doing it well is a product of figuring out how to be extremely efficient.

Reallly listening to your clients IS a method of being strategic and it helps to understand their language—”have you read up on —œmarketecture— yet??

"Being able to listen and be strategic about what the client is actually saying they need. And starting to understand their language. I started to see all these themes coming up when we were working closely with clients on a regular basis when that trust started to show."

Bam.

Listening builds trust. Trust builds relationships. And good relationships mean the client is going to keep coming back.

Thanks, Allie. Never stop sketching.

"The more that you listen, you start to listen well enough that you can read between the lines—”where it—™s not necessarily about deeply understanding the content but understanding what parts of that content are the most important things for people to walk away with."