Meet Rylie Manross | Marketing & Branding Strategist

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

Hi Rylie, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Ever since I was 13 years old, I knew I wanted to become an entrepreneur when I grew up. My parents enrolled me in a young entrepreneurship program and I started a clothing line when I was 13 years old. As I got older, my interests changed and my passion for the clothing line dwindled. However, the entrepreneurial mindset never left me and I continued to seek my next venture. Finally this past summer, after many months of quarantine and plenty of time to connect with myself, I decided that my true passion is great business. For the past 5 years I have been working with a variety of small businesses to develop a strong marketing system and process. It is something that I absolutely love to do and it gets me fired up in the morning. I started being more vocal about what I was doing at work on my social media and my friends and family members started to come to me asking for advice and help on creating their personal brands — many of them being real estate agents, consultants, speakers, musicians, and actors. I learned that bringing the knowledge and strategies I was implementing with slightly larger companies worked really well for the personal brands. I found a lot more passion and joy working with people to build their brands from the ground up and really give them a strong base to launch their business from. With that, I started Modern X Minimal Marketing to provide online courses to those who want to DIY it and implement strong marketing processes into their businesses. I also take on a small amount of clients and work with them directly to create the brand, build the website, and build out the systems and processes to succeed. I am still working on creating the DIY courses; there are only a few up for now, but don’t fret! There are many more to come within the next few weeks. If anyone is interested, there is a subscribe button on my website www.ModernXMinimal.com where you can sign up to get notified of new course releases.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
What I am most excited about with my business is that I get to work with individuals that are passionate about what they are doing. Whether I am working to build the brand and site of a real estate agent, a musician, an actor, or a small business it is at a more personal level. I get to give these individuals a launch pad for their business and tools they need to look like a professional brand. I love being able to work with my clients and help them create their vision into a reality. I would say the biggest lesson that I have learned along the way is to just go for it. For a long time I was nervous to start, I sat on my website for months thinking that it wasn’t perfect enough or maybe my business model wasn’t right. I continued to tweak and tweak all my plans, but still never launch it. However, you never know until you try. You just have to put yourself out there and figure it out and tweak as you go. The best thing to do is listen to your market and what they want, which you won’t know until you put your product or service out there.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My favorite thing to do in my free time is to explore new areas and restaurants around Colorado! So it’s hard to narrow down all of my favorites. But if I were to pick 5 things to do in Denver: 1. Visit Downtown Louisville. It’s about 30 minutes north of Denver, but totally worth the drive. There are so many cute bars, restaurants, breweries, and shops. My favorite bar/restaurant is Waterloo! 2. During the summer and fall months, you will find me at the South Pearl Street Farmers Market every Sunday! They have amazing vendors. I always buy my fruits and veggies there for the week. 3. One of my favorite places to go to is Union Station. The building is absolutely beautiful and it is so fun to watch the trains roll in. There are many restaurants hidden, many with outdoor patio seating, and two bars within the station. This makes for a great happy hour spot. 4. I am an all-star shopper. There are many places that I often go shopping at, but my favorite would have to be the SouthGlenn Shopping Center. The environment there is so pretty, especially at night with beautiful lights anda water fountain. It’s perfect for a romantic date night or fun girls’ night out. They have major retailers, small business shops, and great restaurants. 5. Everyone loves tacos and margaritas, right? Adelitas Cocina y Cantina has an amazing Taco Tuesday deal and the best margaritas in town.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are a few people that come to mind that I would want to recognize and dedicate my shoutout to. First, I would like to give a shoutout to Charlie Warden for taking me under his wing and opening up my eyes to a whole new aspect of marketing that I didn’t know existed. This man is a total genius and has the biggest heart. He taught me the importance of data-driven marketing, how to implement strong processes and systems, and a slew of new concepts like paid search, SEO, and branding. However, the biggest mentor and contributor to my success is my mom, Julie Manross. I would not be where I am today without her unwavering encouragement and support. She taught me that no matter what other people thought or how difficult something was, my dreams were always worth pursuing. She also taught me the importance of being independent and having a career that I love. When I think back on all of the most impactful moments of my life that helped mold me into the businesswoman I am today, I think back to my high school years. My mom and I were living in LA at the time, I was doing online school and she was working remote. I loved getting to sit near her all day and hear all of her work calls. It always amazed me how she was able to problem-solve so quickly, manage people effortlessly, and handle difficult conversations with such grace and integrity. I am still nowhere close to how amazing she is, but she set the foundation for me on the kind of leader I want to be as I continue my career.

Website: https://www.modernxminimal.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rylie_manross/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rylie-manross-27251360/

Image Credits
Dry Creek Photography