Founded in 2015, Designs Group Consulting is a full-service firm for all advertising requirements, including creative campaign concepts, copywriting, design, videos, visual marketing, magazines, websites, and more.
With its hands-on marketing approach, Designs Group Consulting creates the right brand story and then shares it through all available channels—print, digital, paid, social, and operational.
The Steadfast Leader
Dannet Botkin is the founder and CEO of Designs Group Consulting and the author of the Unleashed Book Series. She is a marketing, sales, and operations professional with over three decades of experience in the industry. Over the years, Dannet’s career has taken her to multiple regions, including Barcelona, Dallas, New York City, and Tampa, where she has held roles ranging from Director of Marketing & Operations to CEO, President, CMO, COO, and Account Executive.
Dannet’s international business experience includes creating marketing and operational strategies for companies such as Chanel Thomas, Coca-Cola, Neiman Marcus, Nintendo, Victoria’s Secret, Warner Brothers, and Hot Springs Village Property Owner’s Association.
Throughout her career, Dannet has received several awards and recognitions, including being featured in Marquis Who’s Who in 2022-2023, winning the 2016 HSV Area Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and being honored with various Reader’s Choice awards from the Hot Springs Village Voice.
Dannet‘s Inspirational Journey: From an Employee to an Entrepreneur
During her career, Dannet witnessed smaller businesses often find themselves trapped by lengthy contracts, website hosting packages, hidden fees, exorbitant prices, and other issues. These issues left many small businesses powerless as they did not always understand what they were buying and agreeing to, nor the complexity of the marketing or business product itself, including the lingo, technology, and/or how everything works together. Motivated to make a difference, Dannet then decided to open a Business & Marketing Consulting company to help small businesses thrive, which eventually led to the inception of Designs Group Consulting in 2015. Under Dannet’s leadership, Designs Group Consulting now offers a hands-on approach, where it explains, teaches, and assists its clients every step of the way.
The Key Lessons of the Dannet’s Inspirational Journey
Dannet feels excellence in project management and a skilled team are essential for businesses navigating today’s global marketplace. She fully agrees with the saying, “You don’t hire for skills. You hire for attitude.” She believes individuals are either naturally analytical, proactive, and driven go-getters, or they are not. These qualities cannot be taught; they are intrinsic to a person. Therefore, building a team composed of individuals with these inherent characteristics is essential for success.
She also feels project management is essential for any task in business and marketing. To ensure success within the allocated time and budget, one must know all the components involved. Even a small mistake can lead to a big problem, costing money and time that a company may not be able to afford. So, it is extremely important to completely understand the business inside and out – from the smallest details to the highest level. This mindset applies to every product, service, project, and procedure. Processes, tasks, milestones, systems, staff, locations, etc., are all interconnected in some way, so it is extremely important to understand the underlying rationale behind each decision.
The Creative Approach Towards Crafting Marketing Strategies
Dannet oversaw sales, operations, marketing, projects, and planning for numerous multinational firms, whether as Director of Marketing & Operations, Advertising Account Executive, CEO of the U.S. Division, or Business Owner. Each company had its unique set of branding rules, culture, processes, coordination, technology, services, and products. It was important to understand each company as an individual, including their goals.
The leading lady handled each business as though it were her only client. The success of each project, product, service, or design she was engaged to oversee, as well as the distribution and sales of each line, received personal attention, time, and funding. As a leader, Dannet had to not only turn the company’s goals into attainable visions but also effectively communicate them to her teams so they could achieve their goals.
Addressing the Major Marketing Obstacles
Dannet feels the biggest corporate challenges are time management, project management, human resources, technology, customer service, and ongoing education. Every activity people engage in involves technology, be it social media, CRM databases, websites, operational software, etc. Therefore, it is vital to master each tech used (take the classes, do the work) as well as analyze its ROI, functionality, and overall success with a consistent outlook of how it can reduce workloads, save money, enhance customer service, increase efficiency, assist staff, and better manage time.
The Core Values Behind Dannet’s Unique Leadership Style
As Dannet stated, Designs Group Consulting’s motto is “We succeed if you succeed,” and Designs Group Consulting truly lives up to that motto.
Dannet’s leadership style is based on beliefs and values that motivate people to dream bigger, create more, learn more, and be more. She works to inspire, encourage, instruct, and motivate everyone on her team and with her clients by helping them develop a sense of self-worth and confidence. Under her leadership, Designs Group Consulting carries a no-drama culture, and the team listens to every member. Instead of working for each other, DGC’s team works together and aspires to help others. Unlike other marketing firms, DGC not only focuses on making a profit but also constantly strives to support others in its growth.
Efficiently Juggling Her Personal and Work Life
Finding a balance between her personal and professional lives took years for Dannet. As a businessperson, work was always on her mind, but she had to teach herself how to turn it on and off for her health and wellbeing. Moving from big cities to living in nature helped her massively. Even though she enjoyed living in the city in her 20s and 30s, she now feels that a slower, more tranquil pace of life would be ideal for her. She takes a nature stroll when she feels worried. She goes swimming when she cannot decide what to do. She retreats into the comfort of the woods when her creative spark is not working. Her serene environment enables her to assist others. She works less stressfully and achieves more.
Painting the Future Canvas of DGC
Dannet is aggressively striving to achieve its objectives, which include growing the company’s influential presence throughout the United States as the premier virtual business and marketing coaching and consulting provider. The leading lady is passionate about empowering others. She aspires to share the cumulative experience of over 70 years and the acquired skills and knowledge with every small business that needs it.
In the coming years, she also plans to write several motivational “how-to” books and guides on marketing and small companies.
Pearls of Wisdom
The visionary leader advises all aspiring entrepreneurs to completely understand every facet of their brand and business, both inside and out.
To effectively manage projects, digital profiles, and stakeholders. To create standard protocols for processes, products, and services with semi-annual or quarterly reviews. Be flexible, mitigate risk, encourage staff, and keep things simple. She also advises that aspiring entrepreneurs should use technology to their advantage and always keep customer service at the highest level, and they should also create dynamic marketing and business plans with clear visions, goals, tasks, and milestones.