Mary Hoffman ALC ChangeMakers Podcast Interview
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[00:00:00] Hi everyone, and welcome to the A LC Changemakers Podcast. I'm your host, Jennifer Sconyers, president and founder of Abundance Leadership Consulting. Today's episode features an inspiring conversation with Mary Hoffman, CEO, and majority owner of Faucethead Creative, a women-owned branding and web design agency based in Delaware, Ohio.
Mary and I first connected through the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program, and what stood out immediately was her clarity, authenticity, and drive to make business deeply personal and values aligned. In this episode, she shares her journey from corporate retail leadership to creative entrepreneurship, including how she stepped into ownership of her husband's agency and reshaped its direction during uncertainty.
We talk about how Faucethead is supporting small businesses with accessible branding [00:01:00] solutions through their new Signal Tower Microsites. Why visual storytelling matters now more than ever, how Mary is building culture within her team using the Managing Professional Relationships course from ALC and how she's finding new purpose by mentoring women through Ohio's prison entrepreneurship program.
Mary brings heart strategy and community focus to everything she does, and her story is a powerful example of pivoting through purpose. Let's dive in.
So Mary's gonna share her story of Faucethead, how she became a majority owner in her leadership journey. Mary's also a student of ALC now. She's taken a couple of courses, so she's gonna speak to that experience and also share what she's learning in her leadership journey now as things are just changing in this ever changing marketplace.
So welcome, Mary. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. Well, tell us about who you are and just your leadership journey and also Faucethead. I think people should know what Faucethead creative is. Absolutely, yes. We a lot of people wonder if we produce plumbing supplies and we do not. And anyway, my name's Mary Hoffman.
I'm, as Jennifer said, I'm CEO and majority partner of Faucethead Creative, which is a marketing strategy. Branding and [00:03:00] website design agency we don't stop there. We tend to do all things marketing, but we are, uh, quite the robust little group of creatives and we have a lot of experience to back this up.
And we love. Solving really tough solutions for our, uh, clients and their specific industries. So I, I would say like, where did this all start? My husband started it 25 years ago. He worked for very, a sizable agency in Chicago and decided that he wanted to do things his own way and he started up Faucethead creative then.
Fast forward, uh, probably about seven. Seven years ago, I decided to start doing some consulting work for Faucethead as I was. In my full-time gig, which was in the midst of decades of retail training, developing, [00:04:00] recruiting, market, introduction for new brands. That was my world. I was all things retail.
And I ended up, once we hit the furlough moment and, uh. The, uh, COVID world in March of 2020. I just really reevaluated things and instead of taking that furlough time to just kind of hang out and watch Netflix, I started digging in to see what I could do to actually help grow Faucethead and look at it from a business perspective as opposed to it being.
A creative running a business, and we all know creatives are amazing, but they have a tendency to have a hard time with the, uh, the background of the business and Yeah. All the things that you have to pay attention to. Yeah. So then that's where it started and I decided to buy into the company. And last year I.
Became a majority owner of the company and since then it's become this amazing resource for small [00:05:00] businesses. We've, we're working with local female entrepreneurs now, which is my passion. And, you know it's. Just been a wonderful journey. So that's the long and the short. Yeah. I love it. I love it.
Well, in our cohort, we had a number of marketing professionals, right? And I think it's, marketing is not like a, it's not, there's so many nuances to marketing, I think people don't realize. Can you explain, uh, the niche of Faucethead and what makes you unique and sets you apart from the pack?
Absolutely. So it's funny because the marketers that are in our class, you know, we all have this v this view that there's enough of the work to go around. So like, let's put our specific, you know strategies and strengths together to like make bigger projects and. Not look at each other as competition.
You know, for instance, we, branding is our jam. We [00:06:00] absolutely love when a client comes to us and doesn't even have a logo yet, and we can brand somebody from conception all the way to interior design of their space. We are really great at website design. We're really great at email campaigns, but I would say that our SEO strengths.
Not so much. We have a partner that we work with that, that we bring into projects who's fantastic, but we're not known for SEO. Yeah. We have a social media specialist now that works with us in our team, whenever that is included, but that's not what we're known for, you know? Yeah. So this is an interesting question, Jennifer, because we just had a conversation with our team that we need to really like start.
I can explain to people what marketing is, because a lot of businesses nowadays don't know what that encompasses. And you know, I think that it's doing a disservice to those of us that are [00:07:00] specialized because they think, well, I don't need marketing. I can do that on Canva, or I can, you know, that type of thing.
Yeah, Whereas if we're able to identify ourselves as marketers and what our strengths are, then it makes it easier for the client to decide. That's what I need. You know, so like, I'm glad you asked that. The niche part of it is we're your powerhouse for branding. We can do everything, but we love branding website design.
So, yeah, and I think that's important. 'cause that was something I, shared with our Goldman cohort many years ago when I was, you know, an infant, uh, I was a marketing consultant. That's where I started my career. And that was an advertising specialty. So that was very niche, right? Yes. Based that marketplace.
Yes. And while that wasn't my calling in life, right it's where I started and. What I, think I took from that was the importance or power of telling your story. In that case, it's a brand telling its story. And you know, at a LC [00:08:00] storytelling, we use it very differently now. It's how you build community and connection, right?
There's so many ways we can use our stories, but that's, also a part of marketing. And this question of what marketing is, what would you want people to know? Because I think it's. It's like one of those things, I see it with training, people can devalue training. Like, well I can just do blah, blah, blah.
Right, right. But it's a skill to do it really well. Right. It's not just putting somebody together In Canva though, you can do that. Can you just explain from your perspective, like what marketing is and how a business or an organization can really leverage and utilize marketing? Absolutely. Our true North with any one of our clients is to.
To be able to provide the ability for a client, a customer, or a future client to land on their webpage without even meeting any Freddy from the team and get a sense [00:09:00] of their mission, their values, their overall energy. I was just talking with one of our cohort, uh. Members yesterday. And we were talking about the fact that I told her, I said, you have this amazing new space.
When I land on your website, I wanna feel like I'm in that space. Yeah. And you, can do templates on Wix and Canva and make things happen to be able to represent yourself however. Am I feeling like I am in your building when I land on that site and I'm feeling like I wanna call you right away?
Because I feel like we resonate with one, one another's energies and that's what we're really good at. And I think that working with an in-person marketing agency will give you because People we're not just a template. We come in, we. Visit you. We get to know you. We, when we're in our discovery process, we're asking [00:10:00] questions that people are like, why do you care about this?
Like, what? I want a website. Why are you asking me these questions? You know, who cares? What shows I watch on tv? You know, like, who cares what magazines or digital periodicals I, I look at? And it's all important to us because it's all about that personality piece. So, yeah. It's a representation thing when we wanna represent our clients in the best possible light, but authentically, you know, and it, doesn't matter how it happens, it's just this special sauce and this special chemistry that happens in our studio, and we tend produce that for them.
So it's great. Yeah. It sounds like what you do at Faucethead is you're telling it's a visual story. So as soon as someone goes to that website, they get a sense of who that company, that business, that organization is what they value. Right. Like it's super clear when you're there, who they are, what they stand for.
That's great. Absolutely. Absolutely. [00:11:00] So I'm curious because we're, you know for listeners whenever you listen to this, it is second quarter of 2025, so that's contextual. Yes. And we're in a really volatile market, right. Whether it's the Dow Jones doing weird stuff, tariff talks, the threats of defunding nonprofits.
There's just, there's instability across the marketplace. I don't think I've anybody yet who feels comfortable right now that includes its business owner. Like this is an unsteady time. So I'm curious at Faucethead, you know, how are you all navigating these challenges and what are some like choices that you all are making right now?
Well, we started out as, our bread and butter was attorneys, law firms and manufacturers. [00:12:00] I don't think I need to go into great length as to how that the current political environment has affected those clients. And so we're actually pivoting a bit because there are a lot of cuts when it comes to their budgets.
And marketing, unfortunately is usually one of the first things to go. Yeah, we have an emotional tie to a lot of these clients because they're what we call legacy clients that have been with us for five to 10 years, and there's a lot of things that they have gone through personally. In this current environment and we wanna help them.
So we're changing that, we're changing that relationship to more of consultants consultancy. Okay. As opposed to tangible items. And, you know, just. Kind of, a lot of the zooms have been just kind of like therapy sessions, so. That being [00:13:00] said, we still have our, we still have our legacy clients, and when they're ready to spend money again and, feel that they can we'll be here for them.
However, what this is done is inadvertently pushed me even quicker into the community and making a difference, not necessarily for the big corporate. Law firms and the huge manufacturers, but making a difference for those of us. 'cause I consider myself a small business owner. An entrepreneur. Yes. Yes. But those of us that are really struggling.
Yeah. And really don't know every day when they look at their new, the news, what's gonna happen with small business funding and Yeah. All of the stuff. Yeah. Very political. But yeah, I want to make a difference with those people in our community, our immediate community in Columbus, in Ohio, to be able to still offer them a professional presence.
Yeah. And be able to represent [00:14:00] themselves in a professional way. Yes. So we can all climb this mountain together and get through these tough times. Yes. Whether that means, you know, offering, we have a division now called Signal Tower Microsites. Okay. Which gives people the affordable ability to have a professional team get them on the online with a professional website.
It's a one page website. Yeah. And they have the ability to talk to a person and they don't have to worry about doing a Wix or a Canvas site, uh, overnight because they don't have time to do it during the day. We do it for them. Yeah. That has been so rewarding, just already, just the momentum that's picking up for people to realize, okay, I thought I couldn't afford this, but I really can.
And this, yeah and once again, because I'm working so much in the community specifically right now around women, I can't help it. It's just my jam right now. I love women. [00:15:00] I love men too. But we, us women in Columbus, a small business, entrepreneurial women are a force to be reckoned with, and I'm just making sure that our company is doing everything it can to support them through these tough times.
So that's how we've done, we've pivoted and we even laughed because six months ago we looked like a completely different company, and now it's offering solutions for the scrappy business owners that don't have resources and making them look fantastic in their industries. So it's been fun. No, I love that. 'cause it sounds like you've made a really thoughtful and intentional pivot. That's values aligned, right? So it's knowing you had, you still have those legacy clients, those were bigger clients in terms of their size and budgets. There's a lot of changes happening with them.
I'm hearing you're pivoting more consultancy with them, so I'm assuming marketing consultancy types of stuff for them. Exactly. Exactly. [00:16:00] Yeah. And then it sounds like the growth opportunity or the innovation has some of the micro sites and supporting women, business owners, community members, people where you're giving them something at an affordable rate to create a website.
Knowing these are people who are probably stretched thin, don't know where to begin, they have a conversation with your team. And they have a website that's values aligned that does the things they need it to do. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's great. That's great. And even with, like when we were talking about like bigger projects, like the FO on the Faucethead end, we were, we got the amazing opportunity to partner with Sky Now co consulting, Jennifer Walton and her team to put a bid in on the Dress for Success web.
Website redesign and we actually won that bid. So it's a bigger project, but it's still in alignment with where I want to be right now. And that is helping women in the community to roar and Yes, [00:17:00] you know, be able to have a voice and feel confident enough to be able to go out there and be in contention with anybody for a job.
And. I just, it's just really, it's so funny because a lot of times you wonder, you sit back and you think these opportunities, you know, I put the intention into the universe. I prayed for this intention, and then all of a sudden it's just, it's coming. Yeah. And it's just like, this is fantastic. If you set that intention and you really, truly work towards it and make it your goal and your nor, I always say true North.
Yes, starts to come, but it's not easy when, starts out. But now we're in that spot where it's like, I'm feeling that coming back. The it's providing. Yeah. Well it looks like you've taken a risk and the risk is paying off. That's what I'm hearing. I love the Absolutely. I love that.
Well, I'm gonna make a mini pivot 'cause Mary's only a friend and, was in our [00:18:00] cohort, Goldman Sachs. Mary also took some of her classes at a LC. So can you just speak a little bit to why you chose to take the classes and what also what they Yeah, what you, how you experienced them. Well, Jennifer, when you told me that you were going to be testing this workshop about, how to basically pivot in the post-election world? Yeah, I think that it was interesting because we were together in this class during the election and the aftermath, and we had a lot of conversations and breaks and, we both are very aligned with our concerns. And I just, I knew I needed something, I needed a direction, like what do I do from here?
Like, where do I go? And that workshop was able to center my focus on basically what I can do to support my team in an effective way. Yeah. [00:19:00] Not having it completely implode my team, but off it offered me suggestions of how to like. You know, basically fly up and look at my overall team from overhead and realize what it is that I need to do for each one of them.
They're all going to be handling this in a different way. Some ways I align with some ways I don't necessarily align with, but they're still my team and how do I get through that, shift? So, it really helped me. It was actually a, uh, after I had taken, after I was on the workshop, it was a live workshop.
Yeah. I remember sitting at my desk and just journaling and writing and, starting up like plans for each one, just writing down like my team members and where I felt their values aligned and what I could do to make everybody feel like they still were working with one another and not letting this be like the elephant in the room that nobody [00:20:00] wanted to talk about.
So I really gained a lot of insight from that. And then now I am still in the course that that you offer, and I wanna make sure the name of the course, so you can go ahead and tell me. It's Managing Professional Relationships. It's the e-learning course. Yes, that's right. The e-learning course. And so I have been in leadership for so long, most of my career.
This is something, this is a tool that I wish I would've had because I think that I can reflect back on some situations that I had in the workplace or with specific team members that I wish I would've had this knowledge or this insight actually evaluate the situation a little bit differently.
Yeah, and I honestly have to say too, that. Even if you may not be necessarily a direct manager or you don't have direct reports, that the course actually serves you in other ways [00:21:00] too. It actually helps with just working in teams and understanding different. Diverse personalities in the workplace, and that's really what I'm getting out of it as well.
So I am, I'm getting, once I finish the course, I'm actually gonna have my marketing director take it. Great. Yeah, and I really feel like it's, going to be kind of a staple as we grow for people to take and not, if not necessarily a leader in the company. I just think that it is going to be great course material for everybody, for working with teams.
So thank you. Yes. Well, thank you. And folks, I didn't care to say that this is from her mouth. Well, great. I'm so glad. I mean, when I created the course just for listeners, I created it years ago. We did this work in university systems and it was. Targeted to mid-level managers, but really it was built for anybody.
Yeah. And it's something I wanted to bring back out to the general [00:22:00] public and make it really affordable and accessible. The full price is $40 a seat, so you know, people can put a credit card down, you know, take the course. We want people's teams to use it, so it's not just for the managers, but for the whole team to do it and live the practices.
Right. So there's work on relationships and values and so. My hope is that, you know, teams like yours use the work to help build your culture. Especially now that things are just changing. You know our, org cultures are the things that we, where we have agency, we can do something about that, right?
The greater world's kind of a mess, but we, have agency when it comes to our organizations and our teams. Absolutely. Absolutely. Awesome. Well, Mary, is there anything you wanna inform listeners about? Anything you have coming up or any requests you wanna make? I would say take a look at our new baby, our new division, signal [00:23:00] Tower Microsites it's actually signal-tower.com.
Okay. And just see some of the wonderful packages that are available for those scrappy entrepreneurs that we just can't wait to work with. But also I think that one thing that I noticed in this current political environment was that I needed to make a difference, not only as a company, but as a person as well.
And I really think. My advice for anybody that's listening to this, that feels as though that they, their hands are tied and they can't do anything to impact their community right now. They're nervous, they don't know what way to turn, dig, find ways to help. And I actually am partnering with a wonderful man named Jason Dolan who leads the Ohio Prison Entrepreneurialship Program and.
He partners with Ohio [00:24:00] State and he actually has a curriculum for inmates on starting up your own business. So I just thought this would be an amazing opportunity. He's now opening it up to the. Ohio reformatory for women in, uh, Marysville, and I'm going to go and mentor there. And there's a group of Nabo members and I that are thinking about doing follow up mentoring for these women and really helping them gain their wings again.
And it's, the coursework is wonderful. It's not just about starting a business, but it's also giving them life lessons and life learnings, like how to build your credit and that type of thing. So that's what I'm saying, like. I know that sometimes we wanna just hide under a rock during hard times, or we just throw our hands up and say, there's nothing I can do.
You know? And I felt like that for a bit, but I started digging and figuring out ways that I could get out there and do something that I felt that I could make a [00:25:00] difference in. So that's where it's leading me. So who knew? I mean, even six months ago, I had no idea I'd be going into prisons and mentoring.
But that right now, to me, just. That feels like the right space. And then in another season it might be something else, but always cha, I'm always challenging myself to figure out where I'm needed. So love that. Love that Mary. Love that for you. Right? So building community, developing your leadership, those are all values of a LC.
We love to see people evolve and figure these things out and like you said, during times of challenge and change, really getting clear about where you can make an impact and a difference is just so important. Yes. Yes. Well, thank you so much. It's been a joy talking to you, Mary. So glad you could join me on the podcast today.
Absolutely. It was my pleasure. Awesome. Well, for listeners, if you wanna learn more about Mary, where does, where should they go? Faucethead's website? LinkedIn. Yeah, if you, yeah, I'm on LinkedIn. If you go [00:26:00] to Faucethead's website, it's Faucethead.com. On the About US page. My picture's there, but you can also read more about Mary.
I love to set up little coffees even through Zoom if anybody wants to chat. I just I, love meeting new people in my community, so yes, that's where you can find us, me. Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much, Mary. And for listeners, if you wanna learn more about a LC, who we are, what we do, just follow us at jennifersconyers.com.
Thank you for listening. Until next time.
Thank you so much for joining us today on the ALC Changemakers Podcast. If you found today's conversation inspiring or helpful, we'd love it if you'd subscribe, rate, and leave a review. It helps other changemakers like you find our show at Abundance Leadership Consulting, we believe in building sustainable leadership and connected communities through justice, [00:27:00] courage, and care.
If you want to learn more about our work access leadership resources. Connect with our community. Head over to jennifersconyers.com. Until next time, keep leading with purpose. Keep building relationships that matter and keep creating change one bold step at a time.
