318. How to Build a Brand with Ashley Viola of Meridian

Today, we highlight the amazing work of Masterminder, Ashley Viola, who founded Meridian in 2016 and has since grown it into an amazing, highly sought-after producer and purveyor of beautiful, handmade home decor pieces.

Ashley started her career working with the world famous Muppets. Specifically, she was a producer and director on Sesame Street, tasked with finding ways to produce content and grow the brand on new and emerging platforms. That’s arguably the start of her entrepreneurial journey, as she had to go out and discover new possibilities and turn them into reality before anyone else had laid a path yet.

The skills she developed on Sesame Street transferred right over into launching and running a product line – especially one like Meridian which is sold direct to consumer, and without a reliance on paid ads.

Ashley talks about how she believes the pandemic contributed to the rapid growth she's seen over the last couple of years - her business was fortunate enough to remain operational as the rest of the world closed down and, with everyone stuck indoors, people started making an effort to decorate their homes as nicely as possible. 

We also get into the deeper introspective side of business building. What is your identity? Are you a business, just a shop, or a full-blown brand? In Ashley’s case, it seems pretty clear that she’s now operating as the latter! Then we explore what the future holds for Meridian and how Ashley is continuing to turn her plans into reality.

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Resources:

• Meridian on Instagram
• Meridian Website
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