Today we’d like to introduce you to Katherine Lees and Michelle Lapides, the co-founders of marketing agency, dozanü innovations. They share their story of creating a marketing agency that focuses on serving and bringing awareness to marginalized communities.
In 2017, Michelle Lapides and Katherine Lees noticed that corporate America had a culture of individualism, and a focus on hiring freelancers, small and large marketing agencies to work alongside the company teams that were already in place. This concept forced many important project elements to fall through the cracks of the organizations, and led to work that was subpar. Becoming frustrated by this they decided to create something new to change the status quo, and deliver not only innovative marketing, but a customer focused experience.
Thus, dozanü innovations was established with the ultimate goal of being the “go-to” agency for serving marginalized communities, and bridging the gap between the current corporate landscape and the accessibility that is needed in order to serve all people in an equitable way. At the heart of dozanü innovations is a drive to develop a collective marketing agency concept that becomes the small business, organization, and/or company’s core team. No more juggling multiple contracts, freelancers, and agencies. They are a one-stop show for excellent marketing & business development services, offering everything from digital and creative marketing to social media and strategic campaigns.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely not! The biggest challenge was the misconception that deaf individuals couldn’t provide marketing services that are “up to par” with the mainstream agencies [both Lees and Lapides are Deaf women.] However, it became apparent that a lot of people appreciate universal, accessible marketing in place of “mainstream” marketing, they just have to be shown what they have been missing.
An example of this is that a staircase is only accessible to those who are able-bodied by having leg functionality, whereas a ramp is accessible to a much broader range of people including those with limited mobility, use wheeled modes of transportation AND those with leg functionality. When we apply this comparison to marketing, traditional marketing may rely on the auditory deployment of information in English, which means that information only appeals to people who both speak English and can hear. But if we deploy the same message in a video format that has an English voice-over, a person signing in American Sign Language (ASL), and using visual cues/graphics on the video. Now this marketing appeals to those who speak English, those who can’t hear and use Sign Language, and those who have limited English proficiency or learned English as a second language.
Fascinating! So you’re really changing the narrative around what actually is marketing “best practices”.
Yes! This is the philosophy behind EVERYTHING that we do at dozanü innovations. We take an inclusive approach to audiences by stretching the notion that marketing is only one dimensional and make it more accessible for everyone!
This emphasis and focus on marginalized communities allow us to support marketing teams in large corporations in making their marketing efforts more accessible, and up the marketing game of small business owners who are disabled to get their work out into the world.
Have you faced pushback on accessibility from organizations or businesses that are larger?
One big struggle has been advocating for the idea that disabled people deserve to have renowned brand name companies include them in their marketing campaigns and customer journeys. We have also seen this carry into various industries having a hard time trusting that our business model, and our team members are more than capable of meeting, and even exceeding their requests.
One instance of this stands out to us, which is that we have been turned down for business loans before because of our disability. The lender doubted our skills, and that the revenue would be able to keep the momentum and support the repayment of the loan. They were not sure “people like us” with disabilities would continue to be successful. We are proud to say that two years later after that loan denial, we’re still here and growing every quarter!
Wow, that is terrible that they would discriminate against your business just based on your ability to hear…
It’s not just a one-off experience, we’ve been met with plenty of obstacles and skepticism simply because we don’t hear, and do not speak for ourselves. It seems from conversations with our colleagues in the marketing agency realm that a physical disability is glorified, but when it comes to hearing or speaking disabilities there seems to be an innate bias that if English isn’t used verbally or auditorily, there must be limitations and a lower standard of work. This is far from the truth, as we are capable of the exact same standard, if not higher than that of anyone else in the industry.
How do you think about luck?
Luck? We are firm believers that there is no such thing as luck, but rather there are a series of hard work and right decisions that allow for alignment which can seem like “luck” after the fact.
Our relationship has been a perfect example of this type of experience. Michelle and I are both part of the Deaf Community. Michelle, who was crowned Miss Deaf America, was a bit more involved than me. We had mutual friends, and plenty of opportunities where we could have met for years but we didn’t meet until 2016.
Looking back, we both had high expectations for our lives, personal goals to meet, and both short and long-term plans. We believe that because we were working hard on our individual paths, if we had met we may have lost all of our progress. When the time was right that focus led us to meet through work as part of the next stepping stone in our journey. The alignment was there and now we are so happy to have met each other and have our paths cross!
Another example, was when we incorporated the business, we got the official paperwork in February of 2017. In March of that year a business consultant reached out to us for a contract worth roughly three million dollars, after we had been operating for one month! That could be considered a lucky timing, but the consultant was setting up a healthcare system geared toward Deaf senior citizens, and he knew Michelle. Because of Michelle’s hard work, networking and maintaining relationships with people of different magnitudes, and doing so with intention, we were given the opportunity to be their potential marketing partner. Could it be considered luck? Sure. But we believe it was hard work and strategic networking that led to that opportunity and the others that have come since.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about Dozanü Innovations, LLC?
dozanü brings intelligent and innovative marketing solutions to individuals, organizations and corporate management. We are poised to be the leading BX Design™ Team specializing in alternative perspectives delivering innovative, accessibility minded modern marketing and business strategies that focus on inclusion. We’re changing the game of marketing with five core services: digital marketing, creative marketing, social media, strategic campaigning, and business development. dozanü has a global presence, specifically in the deaf/hard of hearing community. Our main office is currently located in Austin, TX with satellite offices in Los Angeles, CA and Washington D.C.
We pride ourselves on being the best marketing agency to use for any accessible, inclusive, and widespread marketing efforts, and also offer video production, and photo shoots to expand companies’ assets to reflect authentic representation of people and their disabilities in their marketing materials. If you’re ready to make your business inclusive and accessible, we would love to connect with you!
Pricing:
- Branding/Logo *Starting at $999*
- Web Design/Development *Starting at $5000*
- Social Media Set-up/Maintenance *Starting at $1095/month*
- APP/Software Development & Deployment *Starting at $30,000*
- Consultant/BX Design™ Team *Starting at $92/hour*
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@dozanu.com
- Website: https://www.dozanu.
com/ - Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/ dozanuinnovations/ - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/dozanuinnovations - Youtube: https://www.youtube.
com/channel/ UC50d32uR64O44s00fD0ir8w - Other: https://www.prnewswire.
com/news-releases/redefining- modern-marketing-how-dozanu- championed-a-movement-to- promote-radical-inclusivity- 301295114.html
Image Credits
Tate Tullier Photography- Photo of Michelle and Katherine chatting at their desks and photo of Michelle seated with Katherine standing behind her.
Gallaudet University- Presentation/consultant Photos of Michelle and Katherine.
