Sister duo Amber and Jasmine Baudler have built a flourishing video production business in Kansas City that’s now searching for a larger office — and both will tell you that networking made all the difference in the growth.
Some clients Stellar Image Studios (SIS), founded in 2017, gained directly through networking include Visit KC, Women’s Foundation, Johnson County Library, Bank Midwest and AdventHealth Shawnee Mission. They also secured projects with Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Stock, thanks to their networking prowess at a Las Vegas conference.
“It’s been such an efficient and cost-effective way to help the business succeed,” Jasmine Baudler said.
Neither sister embraces an in-your-face approach. Although they hope that networking leads to clients and other opportunities, both are focused on building relationships and getting to know people.
“I never go in trying to sell video. I think that’s a very old-school way,” Jasmine Baudler said. “Most of the time, I’m talking more about them than about what I can provide them. … It’s a lot less pressure and makes the other people feel more comfortable with me if I’m just going in to build relationships. And those relationships have a lot of times turned into clients.”
The Baudler sisters enter meetings and events with the mindset of “How can I help you?”
In the beginning, picking the right networking events was trial and error, she said. It comes down to choosing ones that make the most of her time and include decision makers. She has attended a variety of area events, including ones hosted by the Kansas City Business Journal, area chambers of commerce, Central Exchange and the Women Employment Network Legacy Circle. The events led to invaluable connections, she said.
At the events, Jasmine Baudler listens to “who they are” and what drives them, she said. If she knows something about their company, she’ll mention something positive that she’s heard about.
When she met Sean Casserly, a librarian for Johnson County Library, she asked about his job and found out he worked for the library. He talked about the library’s maker space, and Jasmine Baudler shared how she and her sister regularly used the space for their business. The library later hired SIS to produce a video on the maker space and share how it benefited their business.
“The events have been a gold mine — and not just for clients, but for resources,” Jasmine Baudler said.
One networking event, for example, led to a company that has since designed the SIS website.
Amber Baudler, who brings expertise in video production, taps networking to find freelancers and employees. She uses social media to research prospective candidates and then meets them for coffee to get to know them. She likes finding out some of their challenges and how she can help. SIS' two non-Baudler employees were hired as a direct result of receiving recommendations through networking.
“Networking has helped us expand and understand more about our own industry — not only that, but about other industries,” Amber Baudler said.
Having a foundational knowledge of other industries helps the SIS team better showcase a company’s voice through video, she said.
Beyond gaining clients and employees, networking has helped the sisters grow the business by learning from other entrepreneurs’ successes and failures, Amber Baudler said.
Jasmine Baudler said: “Capitalizing and leveraging those connections is really what we’ve built our business on.”