Naomi Johnson is a Brand and Build Strategist and the Wix Director at Big Red Jelly. She is a great leader, a hard worker, and a positive presence in the office each day! Naomi is originally from Providence, Utah, but has moved all around the state. She currently lives in Orem with her husband Scotty. She has a deep love for Capybaras and waffles. She enjoys watercolor painting, reading, and playing with her pet rat, Willow. Naomi graduated from Southern Utah University in 2020 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design and a minor in Photography. She found Big Red Jelly in August of 2021 through Indeed and started as a strategist shortly after. She has been an important part of our team ever since!
Naomi became the Wix Director in October, just a couple of months after starting at Big Red Jelly. As the Wix Director, Naomi makes sure all Wix sites are running smoothly. She guides her team to ensure projects are up to par, and she is constantly checking in with clients to be sure they understand how to manage their websites effectively. She does an excellent job making sure her team and her clients are succeeding in every way possible. Naomi is constantly looking for ways to learn and improve her processes and has seen major success as a result. Big Red Jelly has benefited greatly from Naomi’s work, and we can’t wait to see what she has in store for the rest of this year!
Our office manager, Callie, sat down with Naomi to help you get to know her a bit better. Check out their conversation below!
Callie: Hi Naomi, how are you doing today?
Naomi: I’m great, thanks!
Callie: Awesome! Well, we will just jump right in then! You found Big Red Jelly through Indeed. What caught your eye?
Naomi: I looked through the website, and I loved how it looked. I really liked the look of the team page and how personal it was. I felt like there was a good team culture just by seeing the website. So I applied and got hired in August of 2021!
Callie: Awesome. When did you become the Wix director?
Naomi: I think it was in October, so only a couple of months after being hired. It was very intimidating at first.
Callie: Since you’ve started, what has been one of your favorite activities we’ve done together?
Naomi: I really loved going to Glen Ray’s Corn Maze in the fall! That was my favorite!
Callie: That was a fun one! Can you give me a basic overview of your job? What do you do on a daily basis when you come in?
Naomi: Well, I am a brand strategist and build strategist. So throughout my day, I will be creating websites for clients. I design them, build them out, structure them, but I also do branding as well. So I’ll be creating logos and brand messaging. And then on top of all that I have regular meetings with clients where we look through the designs and make sure they’re enjoying it. I have a lot of one-on-one collaboration with them.
Callie: That’s cool! So what is your role as a director and how does it fit with all your other duties?
Naomi: In between all of my brand and build tasks, I have my Wix director duties where I check in on my team, make sure they have everything they need, and are reaching out to clients. Right now there are five people on my team, including myself. Every Friday, especially, I will look through all of their projects and make sure that they’re up to par with BRJ standards. Whenever they are about to finish a Wix site, I’ll look through it and just double-check that everything’s good to go live. Oftentimes, people will run into questions because Wix’s back end can be confusing, so it’s also my responsibility to look into that and help them solve any problems that they might have with their site.
Callie: It sounds like you have a lot to do every day! So what is your favorite thing about what you do, even though it is busy?
Naomi: I feel like I’m kind of a fairy godmother for my clients. They all have these really big dreams in their businesses and ideas but they just don’t know how to make it come to life. That’s where I get to step in and help them. It’s really exciting to see their joy when they see the website and they get to really start experiencing their business for the first time. That’s really fun for me.
Callie: That’s awesome! What are some tools that you use to design?
Naomi: Big Red Jelly uses three platforms for web design: Wordpress, Wix and Shopify. I use WordPress and Wix exclusively for my website build projects. For branding, we use the Adobe creative suite and Canva!
Callie: When do you use each platform?
Naomi: WordPress is the most frequent platform that our clients like to use. Wix is especially good for maybe some of the smaller companies that can’t afford to pay someone for regular maintenance on their site or just want to be more a part of the design and maintenance themselve.
Callie: And why is that?
Naomi: Wix is one of the most user friendly builders out there. It’s very easy to edit, and it’s a drag and drop builder so you don’t have to worry about any backend coding or anything.
Callie: I can see how that would make things a lot easier for you and the business! So is it harder to get Wix clients or how does that compare to your other sites?
Naomi: I think that we don’t have as many Wix clients because it is something a little bit newer. So we are still in the process of building up clients, but we’ll get there!
Callie: Awesome. So what are some of your biggest projects right now?
Naomi: I’m working for a church business consultant. He is a minister in Arizona, and he wants to help people digitize their churches so they can get some more people and better target their audience.
Callie: Oh wow, that’s interesting!
Naomi: Yeah, it’s very cool! It’s a big project. We’re doing a media kit for him, whole branding, and print assets so they have business cards. Then we also got a large website with his description and some contact forms.
Callie: Wow, that is really big! How long does it typically take for you to do projects like that?
Naomi: For this project, we’ve been working with him for a few months. But typically, I think five to six weeks is an average amount of time for projects to be finished.
Callie: That’s impressive! What has been the biggest learning moment for you here?
Naomi: There have been a lot! I feel like I’m constantly being stretched, which is great! One of them is the opportunity to build confidence. That’s something that I’m constantly stretching for. I have to present designs with the confidence of my experience to my clients to be able to give them that reassurance that I know what I’m doing and know what’s best for them! That’s been interesting to learn.
Callie: I can see how that’d be really important! What has surprised you the most about working in your field?
Naomi: That’s a hard question. Sometimes, how excited people get surprises me. You forget how personal it is when you’re doing design work all the time. I did a logo for this interior designer, The Cosy Goose, who is one of my favorite clients! I love how the logo turned out and I was really excited about it. But seeing her reaction surprised me because she was even more excited than I was! She left this really nice review about how much she loved the design and it just made me realize how my stuff is actually important to people, which is so cool!
Callie: That is really cool. I bet that makes all the difference. What has been your favorite thing about working here?
Naomi: I really love the team culture here! It’s really fun. I enjoy everyone here, which I think is pretty unique! They are all really hard working. And we always do fun activities together, so it’s just fun to get to know each other! It helps lift the spirit and motivation.
Callie: Yeah, I agree. It definitely makes it a lot easier to work if you like the people you’re working with! What is the most challenging aspect of your job on a daily basis?
Naomi: Sometimes getting the right direction from clients is difficult. It can be challenging depending on what they’re looking for. So I have to do a lot of research into their target audience. There’s also a lot of creative demand that can be hard to keep up with because if you have an artist block, then that is going to interrupt your work which can be challenging.
Callie: I can totally see how that would be challenging. It’s so impressive what you all can do! So we are in the middle of the first quarter of 2022. So what is one goal that you have for this quarter that you’re working towards?
Naomi: One of my goals is to learn Editor X, which is like Wix, but it’s a bit more elevated. There are some more things and creative stuff you can do with it. I really want my team to be able to learn it as well. So I got a Udemy course for the team to watch. Hopefully, once we start learning it, we can build Editor X websites for clients to give them that extra elevated side.
Callie: Wow that’s awesome! And do you have a goal set for the whole year?
Naomi: Wow, that’s so far ahead! There’s another tool in Wix called the brand app, which is where you can create an app based off of your website. I would love to implement that more into the Wix team. It would be cool for higher clients or Restaurants. WooCommerce shops and subscription type sites would also really benefit from having an app that other users can use.
Callie: That’d be awesome. Where do you see your team headed in the next five years?
Naomi: I would love to see the team just grow and for people to just get even more confident with what they’re doing. Right now we only have five team members, so it would be really great to have a whole department just focused on Wix specifically. And branding is pretty small, too. So I just envision a lot of growth and hiring people that specialize in certain areas.
Callie: Absolutely, I agree that’d be great. Okay, I have one more question: What are you looking forward to the most for your team this year? For any of your teams!
Naomi: I love seeing my team improve. For example, one of our recent team members, Harrison. He joined like a month or two after me so he hasn’t been here that much shorter than I have. But where he started versus where he is now he’s so much better. I love looking at his sights and just seeing his improvements. That’s really exciting for me as a director. I’m really excited to just continue to see all of us grow and become better.
We hope you enjoyed getting to know Naomi Johnson a bit better! Naomi is a huge asset to our team here at Big Red Jelly. Check out some of her work by visiting our portfolio! We hope you get the chance to work with her on your next project. Schedule a call with our growth team, and ask to work with Naomi!
