Dani Kimble

Two years into running my marketing business, I almost quit.

Not because I lacked clients - but because I was buried in one-off requests for ads, SEO, and lead gen.

The problem?

Most of those tactics were built on shaky ground. 

No positioning. No story. No brand foundation. Which meant no real scalability.

So in 2023, I rebuilt my business around what was missing: brand strategy.

And in 2025, I layered in AI to help clients actually execute that strategy.

Today, I help businesses stop wasting money on disjointed marketing and instead:

Build a brand foundation worth recommending
Create a strategy that scales with them
Activate their story with an AI-powered system that turns strategy into consistent, on-brand execution

My core work:

Brand Audit – diagnose strengths + gaps
Brand Strategy – positioning, messaging, POV, story
Brand Activation + AI – a clear marketing plan + custom GPTs trained on your brand to help your team execute

Because brand strategy alone isn’t enough.

And AI alone is just noise.

But brand + AI together? That’s the multiplier that makes marketing work.

👉 Visit azeliestudio.com or DM me to see how your brand can run smarter, not harder.

Fractional CMO

5 kids later, and I finally gave myself permission to take a real maternity leave.

With my first four, I was back at my laptop within weeks. 

Answering emails from the hospital bed. 
Hopping on calls between feedings. 
3AM work sessions while everyone was asleep.

I wore the hustle like a badge of honor.

Baby #5? He slowed me down in the best way. 

He's almost a year old now - and for the first time, we've truly been home. 

Did I still tinker during nap times? Of course. 😉

Taking on a few little projects. Experimenting with AI. Posting here and there. Sending my weekly newsletter. Studying and obsessing over where branding and marketing are headed. (What a time to be in this industry!)

But those things? They filled me up. 

They didn't feel like obligations. They were curiosities I got to explore on my own terms.

The difference between "I have to" and "I want to" is everything.

I used to measure success by how quickly I could "bounce back."

Now I'm realizing success might look more like staying still long enough to actually rest and enjoy the season you're in.

To the families wrestling with that same guilt - it's okay to redefine what this chapter looks like for you.

You're not falling behind. (I know it can feel that way...)

You're exactly where you need to be. ♥️

P.S. Feeling ready (and really excited) to tip-toe back into a balanced work mode for 2026 - rested, with our little crew settled into a good rhythm here. Here we go!

Brand & Marketing Strategist @ Azelie Studio

"Do minifigures sleep with their eyes open?"

That's how the LEGO Group opens a job posting.

They're hiring a writer for their customer experience team. And look at the real customer questions they lead with:

"What are you doing to protect the polar bears?"

"Are there minifigures with prosthetic limbs?"

"My kid wants to know if minifigures sleep with their eyes open."

And then this: "If questions like these make you smile instead of sweat, you'll click perfectly with our team."

This is not corporate HR speak.

But here's the line that really got me...

Buried near the bottom:

"Children are our role models. Their curiosity, creativity and imagination inspire everything we do."

That right there is the culture filter.

More than a copywriter, they're hiring someone who sees the world through play.

The hiring manager literally says you might spend your day "playing with LEGO bricks for research." 

Most companies display values on a wall and call it culture. Then post job descriptions that sound like they were written by a compliance bot.

LEGO wove their entire brand philosophy into a job posting.

Warmth. 
Empathy. 
Imagination. 
Curiosity.

Not efficiency metrics. Not deflection tactics.

No wonder their customer service team is one of the most beloved in the world.

Job postings are brand moments. Most companies treat them like paperwork.

What does yours say about your culture when no one's watching?

📸 Pictured: the Kimble R&D department hard at work. ;)

Skull logos. Tallboy cans. A tagline that says "Murder Your Thirst."

This is a water company. Valued at $1.4 billion.

Liquid Death built a billion-dollar brand by doing something most companies are terrified to do:

They rejected everything their category stood for.

Every other water brand plays the same game. Clean. Pure. Blue. Natural. Soft pastels. Earthy imagery.

Liquid Death looked at all of it and said... nah.

Heavy metal fonts. Cans that look like they should come with a hangover. "Death to Plastic" as a rallying cry.

The water itself? Completely unremarkable.

The brand? Impossible to ignore.

Look at this ad below....

They're not trying to win over Michael W. They're using him to attract the people who think his disgust is hilarious. 

When we build brand strategy, one of my favorite exercises is mapping the trade-offs. What your brand refuses to be. What customers you're okay losing.

Most companies try to appeal to everyone... and end up blending into the noise.

Liquid Death made a different bet: Be sooo specific that some people hate you... and the rest become obsessed.

So, what are your trade-offs? What's your brand saying no to?

January 5th: New year, fresh goals, ready to finally get ahead.

January 21st: 5 of 7 Kimbles have been down with a virus, one by one. Sick days. Snow days. Early dismissals. Zero routine. Winter break vibes are back. 😅

I used to think the goal was to find the rhythm. Get the routine locked in. Then the real work could begin.

Turns out, there is no "normal" week waiting on the other side.

Most days actually hum along just fine. But I'm learning to build a life that bends when it needs to... and that's not plan B. That's just... how it works now.

The margins are where the magic happens for me. The 90 minutes at wrestling practice. The work sessions during nap times. The early mornings before the house wakes up.

Perfect conditions aren't coming. And I think I'm finally okay with that.

So to the ones already re-adjusting their 2026 goals:

Same. ♥️

How's your January going... really?

P.S. They're all back to school today (we'll see if anyone calls home 🤞). Even managed to sneak this lunch box note in for my daughter - the real priority this morning. Ha!

Nobody budgets for confusion. But everyone pays for it.

I talked to a CEO last month who'd cycled through three marketing directors in 5 years.

She said each one "just didn't get the brand."

I asked for their brand materials to do an audit.

What I got back was a target market bio and a few ad samples:

CFO
age 45-48
Husband and father of 2
Listens to business podcasts
Attends industry conferences

The ads? Generic stock photos and taglines that could've belonged to any competitor.

That was it. The entire brand foundation.

No story. No stakes. No reason a prospect would choose them over anyone else.

So every new hire started from scratch. Every campaign needed six rounds of feedback because "it doesn't feel right." The sales team was making up their own pitch on the fly - and every call sounded different.

Here's the thing no one talks about:

Clarity is infrastructure.

You can't build momentum on a foundation that shifts every time someone new walks in.

Confusion doesn't show up as a line item on the balance sheet. It shows up as prospects who can't explain you to their boss. As talent that leaves because the vision keeps changing. As years spinning instead of scaling.

Three directors. 5 years. And the real cost wasn't in the severance... it was in the momentum they never got to build.

Confusion tax at its finest.

P.S. 📸 The Kimble creative department hard at work... and also what your sales team looks like without brand clarity. ;)

Insurance Office of America

Claims Advocate

Liberty Mutual Insurance

Providing claim reviews, special claim handling instructions and account services to high premium accounts 
Partnered with Underwriting, Sales and Risk Engineering to build cohesive relationships with external agents and brokers
Generated monthly claim insight reports to identify service issues and contributed to service improvement
Developed an understanding of the client’s service needs and communicated to internal stakeholders to improve experience and financial results

Agent Care & Claims Consultant

State Auto Insurance

Diverse background in P&C claims in both Personal and Commercial lines. Coach, mentor, and help develop claims handling  associates. Currently point of contact for our independent agency partners across 9 states in our Midwest region with any and all inquiries regarding escalated service issues with claims handling. Also provide loss summaries and risk control strategies for agencies. Work with vendor partners to resolve service issues and develop more effective communication. Overall focused on our Agency partner's success and trust with State Auto.

Agency CARE (Claims and Risk Engineering) Consultant

Responsible for managing, coaching, directing and motivating a diverse team that provides support for all of the Claims division. This large team works fluidly across several specific areas of support. These teams are extremely dynamic and ranging in skill sets. 
Some of the areas we focus on heavily are financial entry and error correcting and balancing of claims financials in legacy and more current platforms.... Manual assignments of claims to handlers in a very time sensitive environment... General office and administrative support... Specific team support, such as Total Loss and Examiner & GA areas... 
As a leadership team we are dedicated to recruiting and developing an excited, energetic and influential staff that will grow and contribute throughout our organization. 
Taking the time to facilitate the positive culture that our company desires to instill. 
We are team oriented from the top down with room for constructive criticism and an environment that encourages honest and open dialogue in a respectful atmosphere. 
We facilitate and manage small and large projects for many areas of the company when they need extra sets of hands for short or longer periods of time. 
Our purpose is to support the Claims division in virtually any way we possibly can.

CARE Manager

Motorists Insurance Group

Provided Business Analysis and Workflow Analysis to the Document Management Services division. Provided significant technical support to the administration in that division as well as facilitated several executive level corporate task force initiatives and provided administrative support to the division VP. Served as liasion to IT for all technological needs for the division. Was the Records Retention Manager and Records custodian for the DMS division.

Production Analyst

Supervised a corporate wide administrative support pool. Providing administrative support to Underwriting, Marketing, Claims, Accounting, and Executive staff areas.

Administrative Support Center Supervisor

Shemin Nurseries

Wholesale Nursery and Landscape Supply and Distribution of Greengoods and Hardgoods. Was HR, PR, Benefits, Staff relations, Shipping, Receiving, AP and AR liasion for all site activities on behalf of the corporate offices in CT. Managed all front end services and maintained credit applications and invoicing. Managed customer flow in the nursery yard and facilitated all customer service transactions.

Support Services Manager

Experienced insurance professional helping create profitable relationships with Commercial Accounts by providing world class service. Motivated and bringing my most curious, passionate self to the P&C Insurance world.
Connecting people and learning with curiosity keeps me continually developing. 

Focused on serving agency partners' with needs and questions around claims, skilled at keeping relationships and service a priority in the sometimes emotional and conflicting world of auto and casualty claims. Responsiveness/Flexibility/Trusted Adviser and Empathy are key behaviors.

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Dani Kimble

Rebekah Mynster

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The Battle

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