Meet the McNutts: Helping Protect the City's Culture Through Online Branding and Marketing

MEET

THE McNUTTS:

Helping Protect the City’s Culture Through Online Branding and Marketing

BY NIKKI NAMDAR

Anew power couple is trying to protect our city’s culture through online branding and marketing. Ryan and Jenna McNutt, owners of One Source Branding & Media, were looking for something special that they couldn’t find in a corporate city.

Every Tuesday, they drove from Daytona to Palate Coffee Brewery and spent hours working on their laptops. Ryan, 37, had a relative who lived nearby, and after several visits, it sparked something inside the couple. With every trip, they made a connection that helped their enterprise grow. One Source was made for small businesses, and Sanford is built on them.

“We’d look forward to those Tuesdays,” Jenna, 29, said. “In our area, there weren’t community-driven businesses that you could just pop into and work all day. It was a breath of fresh air, and good things started happening.” On their way back home one day in 2017, they decided it was time to move to Celery City. By Friday, they signed a lease and moved the next day.

Following a difficult life in Daytona, they were looking for a drastic change in their lives—both

personally and professionally. “Us not being a part of a community, we were not taking care of ourselves,” Jenna said. “We were just in this bubble.”

So they took a leap of faith by moving to downtown Sanford in just 72 hours. When they did, it changed their lives. They developed an investments division within their company and built strong relationships with the townspeople. It turns out, all they needed was community.

Jenna and Ryan started their business in 2016—a year after they met—right from their apartment. After feeling like they were getting nowhere in their hometown, they were surprised by Sanford’s warm welcome.

They partnered with Palate to spearhead Made in Sanford, a project that corresponds to a subscription box with products like branded cups, T-shirts, coffee—all made right here. The merchandise allows the community to share the city’s unique culture, while providing a second chance at life to human trafficking victims.

“Our family met Ryan and Jenna to talk about a possible coffee subscription. As we talked, the Made in Sanford box was born,” said Tina Kadolph, co-owner of Palate. “We thought this would be a creative way to bring small businesses together and continue the fight against human trafficking, as a portion of every sale goes to our non-profit, Love Missions Global.”

They have gotten their name out across the commercial historic district by rebranding companies like Raw Press Juice Bar, Shantell’s, the Healthy Buddha, and The Old Jailhouse. But they aren’t done yet. These two plan to get to know everyone in town over time.

Ryan taught himself everything about websites during his 20 years in sales and marketing. Being a business owner prior to starting One Source, he also understood the trials and errors that come with entrepreneurship. When they landed their first client together at $100 a month, he called Jenna to suggest she quit her job for the business to really work.

“I was really, really nervous,” Jenna said, adding that she struggled for about six months with the transition. “I'm also glad I came into a self-taught industry because I had to learn the wrong way first then the right way. It builds character and growth. If you knew me back in 2016, you wouldn't recognize me now. We both found each other at our lowest points in life, we hit rock bottom together, and we were able to use each other to build ourselves back up.”

From there, they continued building. They did their first employee interview at Palate, where it all began. “She was the first person to actually take a risk on us. She worked in my kitchen the majority of her first year,” Jenna said. As the company grew, they hired another employee right before the pandemic started. They quickly outgrew their downtown office, so they knocked down a wall and expanded to the unit next to them.

With nationwide clients in countless industries, the couple has been able to scale their company to a million-dollar business. Locally, they use their forces to give back to the community. “Our main goal coming here was to do as much as we could for the community at a cost-effective price or for free,” Jenna said. “We did a lot during COVID. A lot of people weren’t building their presence online, so we tried to extend a helping hand when possible.”

“To know you took your little footstep is more valuable for us than finances because we love the community so much,” Ryan said. “We want it to survive so we can be a part of it and raise our children in it.”

When the Coronavirus halted the nation, Jenna and Ryan naturally had concerns about how local businesses would be affected, including theirs. Ryan told himself that “during this time the fearful will retract, and the fearless will expand.” Their team came together to discuss how to reconstruct and reformat their business model. Their philosophy is Ryan’s Four A’s: awareness, acknowledge, accept, and adapt.

“There’s no possible way I am going to let anything put us there again,” Ryan said, referring to when he lost his first business and only made $20 a week when One Source was established.

“A beautiful thing about our company is that we don’t require any of our clients to stay in a contract,” Jenna said. “In our minds, when COVID hit, we thought we needed to brace. Thankfully, our great clients understood it’s not a time to pull back; it’s a time to gun it forward. They were on board.” Once they started to help their clients get online, that’s when they started to provide services to Sanford. They built and optimized websites so the local businesses could be seen. “It happened fast. In February, we were in the kitchen. Now, we own nine companies and have a team of seven,” Ryan said. “None of this came without obstacles, but we remained so focused.

Their mindsets are one they try to express, not only through their business, but on their social media platforms as well. Jenna’s Instagram (@Jenna_MarieFit) is focused on fitness. Ryan’s (@TheRyanMcNutt) is all about motivation and entrepreneurship.

“We’re your marketing and branding team, but we’re humans, too. We like to share the struggles more than the highlight reels,” Jenna said. “We were just getting to that good mindset, but we had to crawl through the worst to get there. Running a business is not easy. People don’t hire us just for our skills, but for our personal experience and ideals that we bring to the table. We treat clients like family, not paychecks.”

Moving to Sanford made their priorities change. Now, it’s constant work with no days off—the way they like it. When they do get time for themselves, you can catch them taking walks with their dog around town while drinking Palate coffee or coloring with their children at Healthy Buddha. Jenna loves that Sanfordites live like they are in their own little bubble.

They want the people of Sanford to know that they can trust One Source and feel at ease when building their digital footprints. In addition to expanding their investment portfolio, they also plan on releasing a podcast in January 2021. Ryan will host and interview local small business owners to help get their message out.

It’s obvious that these two know a lot about taking risks, overcoming hardships, and sharing those experiences with the world, especially Sanford. “No matter where we go, this community is our hub,” the couple says fondly. Ryan continued, “This area is headed in a good direction. People see it. People feel it. We have done a lot of traveling and moving, but I have never found a place like this. We always come back here. We have ideas that could take us anywhere, but Sanford is our home base.” n

Nikki is a writer who enjoys telling stories that connect the community and spark emotion. In her spare time, she loves eating vegan food and sharing it to her Instagram, @OrlandoVegans, and spending time with animals.