March 9, 2025 • 35 mins
Company: Set Creative Studios
Owner(s): Emily Teater
Year Started: 2019
Employees: 1 – 10
What if running a business felt more like managing a family team?
In this episode, Emily Teater, Owner and Founder of Set Creative Studios in Boulder, Colorado, shares how entrepreneurship and parenting intersect in powerful ways.
From leading with intentionality to ensuring your business solves real problems, not just showcases a skill, Emily’s story reveals key lessons that every entrepreneur can apply.
Inside this episode:
- The surprising connection between parenting and leading a team
- Why your business should be a solution, not just a service
- The importance of teamwork at home when growing a business
- How intentionality shapes both your business and family life
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast where we share real
stories of marketing agencyowners from around the world.
From the excitement of startingup the first big sale, passion,
doubt, fear, freedom, and theemotional rollercoaster of
growth, hear it all on An AgencyStory podcast.
(00:24):
An Agency Story podcast ishosted by Russel Dubree,
successful agency owner with aneight figure exit turned
business coach.
Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel (00:41):
What if running a business had more in common with
parenting than we ever realized?
If you've ever felt likejuggling your business and
family life is an impossiblebalancing act, this episode is
for you.
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast, I'm your host Russel.
Today, I'm joined by EmilyTeater, owner and founder of Set
Creative Studios, who knowsfirsthand that entrepreneurship
(01:03):
isn't just about the hustle.
It's about solving real problemsfor real people.
In our conversation, Emily and Idiscuss how the same principles
that make for great parenting,guidance, patience, and
intentionality are just ascrucial in leading a team in a
business.
In telling her story, Emilybreaks down the mindset shift
from simply offering a serviceto becoming an indispensable
part of your customer's success.
(01:25):
And for those of you navigatingentrepreneurship with a family,
we explore the often overlookedrole of teamwork at home,
because let's be honest, noentrepreneur does it alone.
So whether you're building abusiness, raising a family or
doing both at the same time, youwon't want to miss this episode.
Enjoy the story.
Welcome to the show today,everybody.
I have Emily Teater with SetCreative Studios with us here
(01:47):
today.
Thank you so much for being onthe show today, Emily.
Emily (01:50):
Thank you so much for having me.
Russel (01:51):
I'm excited for you to be here.
To get us kicked off, I'd loveto just hear what does Set
Creative Studios do and who doyou do it for?
Emily (01:58):
We are a content creation and social media marketing
agency based here in Boulder.
Our client base, we workprimarily with, uh, brands in
the CPG space, which, for thoseof you out there that are not
familiar, that is consumerpackaged goods.
All those brands that you findon the shelves in your grocery
stores or online shipped to yourdoor.
Within that sector, since it'ssuch a wide industry, we focus
(02:22):
primarily on the health andwellness brands.
All the healthy food, all yourWhole Foods brands, those are
our clients.
Russel (02:27):
All right.
I know like kids, in the agencyspace, we're not supposed to
have a favorite child, but whatwould be one of your more
favorite children if we thinkabout a brand that you've worked
with?
Emily (02:37):
Oh gosh.
We are not supposed to havefavorites, but I would say one
of my current favorites is a upand coming brand called
Pistakio.
They are a pistachio butter, uh,founded by two young college
students they're fresh out ofcollege now.
They started making it in theirdorm room.
They have a long way to gobefore you probably see them on
(02:57):
your local shelves, but we foundthem recently through another
brand and their product is justso unique, so creative.
They have such a passion forwhat they're doing.
It would be hard to say thatthey are not a favorite at this
point in time.
Russel (03:08):
Alright, I mean I love anything pistachio.
But I'm curious, what would oneuse pistachio butter for?
Emily (03:14):
That was something that I was curious of too.
Personally, I eat it with aspoon.
It's just delicious, but you canput it on your ice cream.
You could put it in your latte.
I love to put it on top of agranola parfait.
They have tons of creative,inventive ways that they're
showcasing on their social mediaplatforms and on their website
for recipes for inspiration.
But essentially it's, like, anyplace that you would put peanut
(03:34):
butter.
You could use pistachio butter.
It's a little bit more expensivethan your peanut butter.
So you probably don't want to bethrowing huge amounts of it into
your smoothies, um, but it's agreat addition to any treat,
really.
It's delicious.
You got to check them out.
Russel (03:46):
Oh man, I got to have Pistakio.
I got to get me some of this.
All right.
Fascinating.
I can see why that might be afavorite.
Again, I have a little loveaffair with pistachio.
But before we get into all morethings agency, I still want to
go back and hear a little bitmore about young Emily's story.
Who did she want to be when shegrew up and what, and we'll get
(04:06):
to that whole agency ownershipthing down the road.
Emily (04:09):
It's funny because in, you know, in preparation for
this conversation, I was kind ofreflecting back on where, where
did it all start?
I think we get so caught upsometimes on, you know, where
we're going and, you know, justthe here and now that sometimes
we forget our why and where itall started.
I was reflecting on, like, what,first one, what, where did I
first want to get intomarketing?
It all started when I was inmiddle school and I saw the
(04:31):
movie What Women Want.
I really wanted to be DarcyMcGuire.
I wanted to be Helen Hunt'scharacter in the big ad agency
in Chicago.
I was just kind of, like, soinspired.
I loved the idea of this kind ofmix of, you know, creativity and
psychology and, um, you know,that, that movie obviously has a
different storyline, but thatelement of what they did in
(04:54):
their jobs was something thatreally drew me in.
I was kind of hooked onmarketing from that point in
time.
Fast forward a little bit and Ialways loved food.
Food has always been a huge lovelanguage of mine.
In college I would trade housechores with roommates for cooked
meals for things that theydidn't, they didn't want to do
for things that I didn't want todo.
And I was always obsessed withphotography and capturing
moments.
(05:14):
I always had a point and shootcamera with me when we were, you
know, out and about.
Then fast forward to today andall three of those have, have
come together.
But it all started with WhatWomen Want, which is weird to
trace it back to that, butthat's where we're at.
Russel (05:26):
Ah, yes.
This is actually not the firsttime, I feel like, this has been
brought up on the podcast.
I don't actually know if I'veever even seen the whole thing
all the way through, but theuniverse is clearly telling me
I've got to go check out thismovie.
Emily (05:38):
Oh, you've got to watch it.
Russel (05:39):
I love this path that you've created.
You traded house, house choresfor food.
That sounds like kind ofsomething I would have done, but
I don't think I was ever thatsmart.
Emily (05:47):
I think it just kind of evolved naturally.
I had a roommate who was, loveddoing laundry, and to this day,
it's still not my favorite thingto do.
Now I'm trading that with myhusband.
I'm making dinner, he's doinglaundry.
But yeah, it just kind ofnaturally evolved.
That I was like, I'll makedinner if you want to do that,
or I'll go grocery shoppingwhile you clean the house.
It worked really well.
Russel (06:05):
Hey, it's not weird if it works.
That's awesome.
What was the path before youstarted the agency?
Emily (06:11):
No, I have never worked a corporate job.
I have only really ever had highschool jobs.
And then out of high schoolstarted, high school and college
waiting tables in college wasessentially my last quote
unquote job before I ventureddown the entrepreneurial path.
I met my husband in college andhe was kind of just always an
(06:32):
entrepreneur and we moved out toCalifornia together.
I had my daughters at a ratheryoung age, while still trying to
figure out what it is I wantedto do, who I wanted to be and,
you know, just kind of thatculmination of love of food and
photography and marketing allkind of led me towards food
photography for commercialbrands.
(06:52):
It's all kind of just kind ofgone from there.
Russel (06:55):
Something I can identify there, I started a family very
young and, and, and I don't knowhow you feel about this, but it,
it, it kind of, I guess it mademe see, like, just a job was
never going to be enough.
And just having to have a familyat such a young age.
I knew I always wanted to dosomething entrepreneurial, but
it, I felt like it maybe pushedme there sooner than I would
have ever naturally ended up,um, just to even really provide
(07:16):
for my family in a meaningfulway.
I don't know if that was yourcase.
Obviously you said yourhusband's an entrepreneur as
well, but yeah.
Is that something you thoughtyou were going to do or, or did
the life push you in thatdirection?
Emily (07:25):
No, it was definitely life pushed me in that
direction.
Naturally I always kind of knewthat I didn't love having a boss
or having to adhere to somebodyelse's schedule, probably
inspired by the fact that I hadyoung children and did not want
to miss out on their lives, youknow, while they were growing up
and young.
I read some wild statistic thatyou spend like 70 percent of
(07:45):
your time with your kids betweenthe ages of zero and 12.
And then from there, they kindof start, like, living their own
lives.
I knew that I didn't want tohave to give up that time
working on somebody else'sdream.
This inspiration to just do myown thing, uh, that provided me
the flexibility.
Anybody that's an entrepreneuror listening to this knows that
you don't really get a ton oftime back.
Being an entrepreneur more orless means you work more, but at
(08:07):
least it's on something that'sfor you and it's on your own
schedule.
Life definitely pushed me inthat direction and just was
inspired by not wanting to missout on their lives at all.
Russel (08:16):
That's such a good acknowledgement of it.
Cause I think a lot of, a lot offolks do, you know, I'm doing
this to get flexibility and, andsome don't even find the
flexibility of your part, butknowing that, that it's, it's
more work perhaps, but you cando it when, sometimes at least,
and you can do it when you wantit and, and, and can still be
there for the moments.
Emily (08:34):
Do you find that that was the case while you were, you
know?
Raising kids and finding yourentrepreneurial side?
Russel (08:39):
I had a slightly different situation.
My wife pretty much had alwaysstayed at home when was doing
the business and I was just soyoung and dumb, I just wanted to
throw a lot of time at it.
I actually think I did theopposite thing is, I think I was
there less, but I know alsosometimes that's more of a,
could, can be a dad thing.
I know the natural instinctsfrom motherhood.
I think it was later in lifethat I really found a lot of
(08:59):
enjoyment or when they wereprobably a little older that I
could be anywhere I wanted orneeded to be when, when it came.
Not on the front side but I, butI think I made up for it on the
back side.
Emily (09:09):
That teamwork too, between you and your wife and
the time that you spent there.
I'm sure she appreciates thatshe had the time with the kids,
but it didn't work out for youto have that extra time on the
front end of their lives.
It definitely takes teamworkbetween two people to do the
careers, do the kids.
It's definitely not an easy pathto be an entrepreneur or be
married to an entrepreneur.
And while raising a familynonetheless.
Russel (09:28):
I should have her do a alternative podcast where she
always interviews the, the otherspouse of the of the person I'm
interviewing.
That would be an interestingtake.
But as you said, yeah, teamworkI think is, is gotta be the name
of the game.
You've got to communicate.
Maybe even when I was young,that was, what I wasn't great is
I just assumed that this was myfocus.
This is what I had to do andeverything else was taking a
backseat.
(09:49):
I think that is a big thing Iwould go back and do is just
communicate a little more and,and probably be a little more
intentive.
Boy, this is, this is like atherapeutic episode already.
I'm really enjoying this.
Emily (09:59):
Lovely.
It's all part of it, you know,like our, our work is so
important and, you know,building the agencies that,
which is, you know, the, thefeature of what you're, what
you're learning and what you'rehelping people with is so huge,
but it's, it's so complex in, inlife.
Trying to be an entrepreneur,doing the agency thing, you
know, having families, findingthat balance.
(10:19):
It's a journey that I think is apart of being an entrepreneur.
You have to kind of payattention to all the different
pieces.
Or you wake up one day andyou're like whoa, whoa, whoa.
What did I do here?
Russel (10:28):
I also want to know about, you know, what you shared
is your, your husband was alsoan entrepreneur and, and that's
a world I don't know very muchof it just cause I don't think
it's the same business oranything like that.
Two separate businesses in thesame household, what was that
like?
Emily (10:41):
Oh man.
It still is and always has beenthis very delicate balance of
teamwork.
The best word we really refer toour family unit as a team.
My husband is big into sports,always has been.
Grew up playing sports as well,but it's just the best
descriptor of, you know, what itis to be a family.
My daughters are now 11 and 12and we are trying to raise them
(11:03):
to be, you know, criticalthinkers and responsible.
We give them responsibilitiesand it's like, it takes a team
to make a household run.
It cannot just be on us asparents.
With bringing them into thefolds of that now that they're
getting a little bit older, itmakes it a little bit easier, a
little bit more challenging.
Preteen girls only want to behelpful to a certain extent.
It's teamwork, it's greatcommunication.
(11:25):
It is empathy towards each otherin our situation.
It is 15 years of learning, um,and understanding.
It's been really fun.
We just have always reallygotten along.
We were friends first.
Friends always and put eachother first over everything
else.
It's a great partnership.
Both in business, which we'veworked together in businesses.
(11:46):
We're not currently right now.
He does help me with some of themore administrative stuff that I
don't want to do, basicallynumbers and paperwork.
It's teamwork.
You have to find a greatteammate in order to run an
entrepreneurial household.
Russel (11:57):
I love that.
And so true.
I think that's another,probably, regret that I think I
had is, I didn't bring my,probably my kids really into
that journey.
It was more of a thing that daddid, but I've heard some really
great stories from other folksand, and kind of piggybacking
off that teamwork concept of,you know, just, I wish I would
have asked my kids like, hey,we've got this business problem.
(12:18):
What do you think?
We've got this person that'sscrewing around.
Whatever that might be and just,you know, it's not that I
necessarily needed their answer.
I'm sure they might actuallyhave come out with something
really profound, but this ideathat they would just kind of
hear what's going on through,you know, some conversation and
some critical thinking.
Emily (12:33):
It's a challenge.
It doesn't always go the waythat you want it to.
Russel (12:36):
I can see that too, especially preteens and teens.
Emily (12:39):
Oh, yeah.
It's tough.
But it's, it's fun, you know,working with people, hiring new
employees.
The two biggest pieces that welook for is problem solvers,
problem solving, and criticalthinking.
If you can do those two things,you're going to be succeeding in
life.
Even just the smallest things,you know.
Mom, where is this?
I'm like, well, think aboutwhere you had it last.
(13:01):
Don't just ask me to solve theproblem.
Solve the problem.
Think about it.
It doesn't always apply, like,in business, but just in raising
the kids and just trying to putthose pieces into their, you
know, into their toolkit as theyget a little bit older so that
they are set up for success inthe real world when they are on
their own is a big priority forus.
Maybe it stems from being anentrepreneur.
I'm not entirely sure, but it'sa, it's a big part of our
(13:22):
parenting experience.
Russel (13:23):
I tend to be in the camp and in some speaking I've done,
I even make this correlation of,I actually think parenting and
managing is the exact samething.
You just don't tuck your team oryour team members in at night,
um, or kiss them on the foreheadmost likely, but that it is the
same concepts we have to coach.
We have to get them to think ontheir own, be autonomous.
All the same things and, andlove them.
(13:46):
It's just in a different way, Ithink is a really important part
of the process.
It's those fundamental skillsthat are really going to make or
break, not how good I am atPhotoshop or something like
that.
That's always an importantreminder on who we're looking to
hire.
Emily (13:59):
Because if you can problem solve and you can think
through issues, you can becomereally good at Photoshop because
you know that you can Googlethings.
You can find an online class orlesson for what it is that
you're doing.
If you know how to solve aproblem, you can learn anything.
When we're hiring, when we werelooking at, you know, new team
members, I'm not necessarilylooking at the skills that are
(14:19):
on their resume in terms oflike, you know, it's nice if
they have been updated on, onsome of the softwares and
whatnot, but really it's in theconversation and how they, you
know, how they carry themselves,how they answer problem solving
questions, because I know thatif I can do that and I can throw
new things at them as the worldof social media is always
changing, I know that I can puta good solid team member on
(14:41):
within our organization thatwill always be able to figure it
out as, as we go.
Because it's, it's a big part ofbeing in this world of social
media and in an agency.
Russel (14:49):
In the world of Russel's crazy harebrained ideas now, I
feel like just the new interviewprocess is just set a Rubik's
cube in front of a potentialhire and then just walk out of
the room and just film thatprocess and see.
Did they try to, try to just,you know?
Do it all on their own withoutdoing any research or tools?
You can go to YouTube and figurethese things out.
I don't know.
Someone out there, try that, uh,and report back onto the results
(15:10):
and let Emily and myself know ifthat was a good idea or not.
Emily (15:14):
I would be so interested to hear how it goes.
Russel (15:17):
Yes.
Somebody please do that.
I'd love to hear just maybe morea little about the agency
journey.
We obviously understand how yougot started, but, maybe just
give us kind of a large swath onwhere you started from to where
you're at today and, and we'lldig back into some of the
highlights.
Emily (15:31):
To be honest, I had no intention of starting an agency
when I started on this journey.
We moved to Colorado about sixyears ago and I came with my
commercial photographybackground, obviously love of
food and three kids.
I quickly learned how difficultit is to break into a new market
as a commercial photographerwhen you don't have any
(15:51):
connections, so I was referredto a food CPG networking group
here in the Boulder area andimmediately started to see this,
this disconnect between theseamazing brands and their online
presence.
I would meet these reallyenthusiastic, very passionate
people with products that tastedand looked great.
(16:12):
And just like any millennial orGen Z, I'd immediately go home
and start doing some research.
I'd look at their website.
I would look at their socialmedia just to learn more about
it and to remember them andwould be really kind of shocked
and surprised to see that thepassion and the deliciousness
and all of that did not conveyon their social media platform.
This was 2019 at the time.
(16:32):
Before the pandemic pushedpeople into that e-commerce
space.
I think it was kind of beingundervalued, but as somebody who
always had a passion for thephotography and the look and
the, the, the visual story of abrand, I was like, there's gotta
be a way to kind of merge thesetwo things.
It was like, if they weren't ahuge, if they weren't a huge
brand that had endless amountsof, you know, budget for photo
shoots and for creatives, theyweren't, they, they didn't have
(16:55):
the ability to compete, uh, and,and invest in that.
That's kind of where SetCreative was born, was out of
the idea of how do I take theskillset that I have and the
passion that I have and helpthem elevate and be able to
compete with some of theselarger brands and be able to
represent themselves online in away that makes people want to
hit buy?
That's where I started doingcontent creation on a monthly
basis.
Photography, stop motions,graphics, all that kind of
(17:17):
stuff.
I was kind of a one woman showwriting recipes, photographing
the recipes.
From there I quickly realizedwithin a, within a year or so
that we could give them theassets, but just because they
have them still didn't mean thatthey knew what to do with them.
This is where social mediamarketing was added on to our
list.
Those are today, the, the twomain things that we still focus
on within our agency.
(17:38):
We have other digital marketingofferings, but those are the two
things that we would be knownfor at this point.
Now I own an agency.
Russel (17:43):
Now you own an agency.
And is it mostly up and comingbrands kind of at the point of
really relatively unknown, like,like our Pistakio friend?
Emily (17:51):
Yeah, I would say we really focus on emerging brands.
I learned very quickly that theydon't like being called small
brands.
Russel (17:57):
Much more articulate term than I use.
My apologies to those emergingbrands out there.
Emily (18:02):
Oh, no, you're, you're, you're totally good.
Just like in the theater, thereare no small lines.
There are no, no small parts.
There are no small brands.
We do focus on emerging brands.
That is my passion.
I love working with brands wherewe have a real impact and we are
actually, you know, really justgiving them something that they
have felt is there all along andkind of bringing it to life.
However, we do still need towork with companies that have
(18:24):
budgets.
Emerging is my favorite word touse because they've, most of the
brands that we work with havegotten to a point where they
understand a basic line of whothey are, what they're doing,
and we obviously help themelaborate on that.
We can build their, build theirbrand voice.
We can build their visualstorytelling, you know, um,
branding, but they have an ideaand they're ready to start
(18:44):
hiring so we have positionedourselves in a way where we can
bring an entire team ofcreatives and manage social
media managers and all of that,uh, for the cost of typically
about one in-house hire forthese brands.
Living in that emerging space isa great opportunity for us to
still make an impact, uh, butthey have budgets, which is
always a plus.
Russel (19:03):
One of the things that I love, which is not always the
case, yes, you took your coreskill set, what you were best
at, and you took what you'repassionate about.
I think those are always two keyimportant things if we're going
to go do something hard likethis.
But then you also have kind ofthought about what do these
folks that you focus on, what dothey need and building your
product, your service aroundtheir core needs.
(19:24):
Not necessarily what, what Ithink sometimes agencies can go
down the path of is, um, justwhat, what they can do and try
to find people.
I'm probably going to quote thison every episode I do, but good
companies don't find customersfor their products.
They find products for theircustomers.
That sounds like what you'vereally done here.
Emily (19:41):
A big piece of it goes back to early in the
entrepreneurial stage, uh, TimFerriss's four hour work week,
the idea behind it, I I'm, I'malmost positive this is, this is
where it comes from.
But I know I'm doubting myself,but I'm pretty, I'm pretty sure.
But essentially what you do isyou solve, you find a problem
and you solve it.
Then you sell that solution topeople.
That's essentially what we, whatwe've done here is.
(20:03):
Finding a problem is, socialmedia is a huge beast that a lot
of emerging, growing brandscannot allocate the time and the
funds for essentially.
It's too much, especially thesedays with needing so many
different pieces of content,needing to build communities,
really needing to be presentconstantly, needing to make sure
that your brand voice isconsistent and that you have a
great, um, you know, like you'redoing outreach to other brands
(20:25):
and just remaining active on allthe different platforms.
It's a beast for, for a lot ofcompanies to take over.
Solving that problem for themhas given us a really unique
placement in this market to beable to appeal to them.
Like you said, using our coreskillset and doing something
that really we, we love, andthat is probably, most likely
not, not going anywhere anytimesoon, but it is important to be
able to provide a solution tothe problem.
Russel (20:47):
It's funny.
I feel like as a business from,from day one, it's constantly
trying to complicate itself.
It is constantly, you know,becoming more complicated.
We have to work harder tosimplify it, but that's one of
those foundations of the way youput that I think is so critical.
You said it far more eloquentlythan I'm going to remember, but
what did you say again?
Emily (21:06):
Figure out what a problem is, find a solution, and then
sell that to your consumer.
Your customer, your client,whoever that is.
Russel (21:12):
That's it.
And I think that's a underlyingchallenge for a lot of agencies
is probably so many folksstarted because they just wanted
income replacement.
I have skills and I need toreplace my, my pre or my
corporate income or whateverthat case is.
It takes the eye off the balloff of that thing that you just
said of, um, go, go find aproblem and create a solution
for it.
(21:33):
I think the, the, the trouble,and I love that I can just see
where this has been helpful foryou is, then if you build your
business for income replacement,well, then it's hard to undo
income replacement to get moretowards that.
For some folks, and this goesdown the line where they're
doing more positioning and stufflike that, that, that they have
a hard time, um, almost likerunning two separate businesses
in some ways.
(21:53):
But I'm glad that you havefollowed your passion and, um,
and your skill and solved aproblem.
That is a great recipe.
Emily (22:02):
Thank you.
It's not magic, you know, itstill takes a ton of hard work.
It still is constantly, youknow, evaluating, uh, evolving,
all of those fun E words.
It's feels like we foundsomething that works really well
and it still takes a lot of hardwork behind it but I do believe
that if you have something thatyou're passionate about and that
(22:22):
you can find a market for it,but just make sure that you're
setting yourself up in thatspace.
Where does your passion overlapwith a problem and how can you
help solve that for your, yourideal customer base or client
base?
Russel (22:33):
If I could probably just end this episode and just put
what you said there on repeatfor, you know, next five
minutes, I think that is socritical.
It really goes down to, I thinkwhat we were saying before of,
uh, you know, you gotta bringpassion.
This is too hard not to havesome natural passion to go about
it.
Emily (22:49):
We do.
It's important because you'regoing to dedicate a lot of time
to this, and so you better likewhat you're doing.
Russel (22:54):
That is so true.
Entrepreneurship is gettingkicked between the legs every
day and then showing up againtomorrow.
That's where passion just allowsyou to be more willing to get,
take the kick between the legscause it's coming and it might
come six or seven times one dayand it might not come the next,
but you just never know.
Emily (23:11):
It is, and you probably agree with this.
It's very similar to parenting.
Russel (23:15):
That is so true.
You mentioned as well as thisidea of the business owner
island.
Who do you talk to about all thethings going through your head
and, and the things that youprobably can't often talk with
team members about, you know, itsounds like you've experienced
some of that yourself.
Emily (23:31):
A ton.
Definitely, being a businessowner, being an entrepreneur can
be extremely isolating and it'sbeen nice to be married to
another entrepreneur, but evenat that point in time, uh, you
know, it's still my husband,still my partner.
It's nice to have other sources.
I honestly haven't been supergreat about building a group or
(23:52):
a foundation of, of otherentrepreneurs to speak with.
That's a huge goal of mine thisyear is to just continue to
build my network and find morepeople because the more I talk
about it, the more I realize weall feel it to a certain extent.
Anybody that's doing somethingon their own or, you know, going
out on their own in terms ofjust not working for a large
company, you know, so it can be,doesn't have to be an agency.
(24:12):
But anybody that's followingthat entrepreneurial path can
feel very lonely.
Sometimes working on ourcomputers we're working long
hours, working late hours, we'returning down invitations.
And then at the same time,sometimes we're raising young
kids, which means we're isolatedin a completely different way.
It's been important for me tohave at least close friends
nearby, uh, that have some sortof overlap, whether they're mom
friends or whatnot, but buildinga bigger network of
(24:34):
entrepreneurs is a goal of minethis year, because it's, it's
important to have people whounderstand the same struggles.
You don't have to talk aboutbusiness.
It's just nice to talk withsomeone who is in the same boat,
uh, even if you're just talkingabout life.
Russel (24:45):
Well, and understands.
I feel like it's, it's maybeeven somewhat, I, I, you know,
the military experience andjust, you know, people have
perceptions of the military,but, but no one understands it
other than, and right?
There's even different levels ofthat.
Those have been in combat andthose that haven't.
And you might, you know, I, Idon't want to diminish by any
means what someone that goesthrough the, you know, the, the
effects of combat, but, youknow, business ownership can be
(25:07):
very stressful and, and someonethat can understand that is, is
really important.
I love what, you know, whatseems like how you're
approaching that is very, veryintentional about finding that
and, and, you know, knowing thatit might not come, you might not
get off your island if you'renot very intentional about
finding that resources andsupport.
It sounds like you've been ableto do that for yourself.
Emily (25:26):
Definitely.
And like I said, the more I talkabout it, the more I realize I'm
definitely not the only one.
I'm sure you fully understand,um, after doing it yourself,
that it's, it can be, it can betough.
It's a tough business.
It's hard to be an entrepreneur.
There's a lot of ups and downs.
It's an absolute rollercoaster.
Having people around thatunderstand that is, is
important.
Russel (25:45):
If there was a daily therapy group that met at 6 p.m.
at night, every night, I think Imight go to that.
Nobody seems to have createdthat yet.
Emily (25:51):
The lonely entrepreneurs group.
Russel (25:53):
Yes.
We'll have to make it moreuplifting than that, but we'll,
we can know that that's really,that's the core thing we're
solving there.
It sounds like you're on areally good track with the
business.
What does the future look like?
What's your, as they like tosay, what is your five year
plan?
Emily (26:06):
Sometimes five years feels long, um, but I, I really
love what we're doing.
Like I said, we've been doing itfor about probably five years
now with the social media piece.
I just want to continue to helpand work with as many brands as,
as we can.
This year we're focusing onexpanding.
I have been the photographer fora long time now and I'm passing
(26:27):
that baton so I can focus onworking more on the business
instead of in the business.
Russel (26:32):
Congratulations.
Emily (26:33):
Thank you.
It's a tough one.
It's a big, been a, you know,being a photographer has been a
big identity piece for me as a,as a professional.
It has been an interestingstruggle to move away from that,
but one that needed to happenfor the business to grow.
I cannot be working in it andthe photo shoots while trying to
expand at the same time.
I kind of came to terms withthat over the last year and
started to put pieces into placeto be able to move away from
(26:54):
that.
Just really working on buildinga bigger network, um, of other
businesses that are doing whatwe are doing.
Referral programs, things alongthat line so we can all help
each other out.
I'm a big fan of, you know,rising tide lifts all ships and
so building more connectionswithin other agencies within the
space instead of just working onfinding more brands is a big
(27:14):
piece.
What's next to come?
Hopefully a larger studio spacewithin the next couple of years
as a requirement, um, as weoutgrow our space and just being
able to impact more, morebrands.
My focus is to be able to keepour services at a nice cost so
that we can actually continue towork with these emerging brands.
I think a lot of times companiesstart to get bigger and they
(27:35):
start to feel like they have toraise their prices.
Which is understandable.
I think there's a certain priceincrease that happens based on,
like, cost of living andwhatnot, every year.
That's understandable, that'ssomething everybody has to adapt
to, but I want to go about thisreally, really smart.
Especially with like the use ofAI being able to automate and
streamline more of our practicesso we don't have to expand our
team massively in order to fitthe amount of brands.
(27:57):
Just being very strategic aboutthe growth over the next handful
of years.
I, um, can tend to be a littlebit risk averse myself
naturally.
Trying to be comfortable whilealso being confident and taking
leaps.
Next five years should be,should be interesting.
Russel (28:11):
That sounds like an amazing five year plan.
I can't wait to see it play out.
I just, again, love theintentionality and the, you
know, focus on your core valueand who you're doing that for
and not, just not let the painsof growth, um, you know, not to
say again, like you saidearlier, it's always going to be
challenging, but not letting,letting the pains of growth get
in the way of that.
Sounds like a wonderful, wellthought out plan.
Emily (28:32):
Thank you.
Do you have any advice forsomeone in my shoes for a five
year plan?
you've done it, right?
You grew the business, you soldit, you're on to, you know,
chasing things that you feelpassionate about.
When you're at this point as anagency is looking at growth,
looking at expansion, do youhave any advice?
Russel (28:49):
Oh my gosh.
Emily (28:50):
I know I put you on the spot.
Sorry.
Russel (28:53):
No, you're more than welcome to put me on the spot,
but, but a very loaded questionfor sure.
I think going back to what Isaid a second ago, I, I, I think
the foundation of the way you'relooking at that, I think, is so
important.
Sometimes it's not always aboutadvice you don't know, but
confirming advice or a thoughtprocess that you already have.
I think that's where sometimesfolks can get awry, is it's
(29:14):
about the growth or the money,or, and not to say the money is
always for the money's sakes,that might sound greedy, the
money still is for folks wantingto do freedom to hire more
people, to do very genuinethings, but I think if that is
the focus, that can lead to somechallenges.
Really just getting back to thecore fundamentals of who do we
serve?
How do we continue to do thatbetter, provide better results?
(29:36):
You talk about costs going up, Ithink if we're, if we are
certain in that this kind ofproblem solution thing that we
talked about we can find ways tonot lose our value, but maybe
keep costs same, similar, or godown over time, not indifferent
than leveraging technology andthings like that, to deliver
that same value.
Again, I'd say most of that isconfirming kind of how you're
(29:58):
thinking about this.
Being just as good advice as,yeah, telling you something you
hadn't heard of before.
Emily (30:03):
I appreciate that.
It's nice to know we're on theright track.
It's always affirming.
Like we talked about, the um,the entrepreneur's island is
lonely and sometimes you wonderif you're doing it right.
Any sort of reassurance ishelpful.
Russel (30:14):
Our islands bumped into each other today.
Absolute wonderful conversation.
The last thing I have to askbefore we, before we wrap things
up officially is areentrepreneurs born or are they
made?
Emily (30:24):
I would have to say made.
I do believe there is a part ofmy husband that was born an
entrepreneur.
However, that's more of atenacious spirit, which I think
a lot of people are born with.
What you do with that can go oneof two ways.
In order to be an entrepreneur,you really have to focus and put
intention into following what itis that you are passionate about
or what it is that you believein.
In doing so, I believe that youare made.
(30:45):
I did not set out to be anentrepreneur in my life.
It's just happened by chance, byway of raising kids and wanting
freedoms and taking chances thatare scary as heck sometimes.
I do believe that anentrepreneur, with the right
pieces, is you're born with alittle bit, but then the, the,
the made is, is key.
Russel (31:02):
I love that.
And I just realized this.
I never even asked, what doesyour husband's business, what
does he do?
Emily (31:07):
He is currently working and we've, we've done multiple
businesses.
We actually, along with myagency, we own a ninja gym,
which is, uh, American NinjaWarrior.
I don't know if you've ever seenthe show.
It's a sport that our kids gotinto and we met all of the
coaches, and of course we had togo.
One of the young coaches wantedto open his own gym.
We said, we'll help you, we havebusiness experience.
(31:28):
Now we're co owners of a ninjagym here in Colorado, which is
doing really well.
He has been working as aconsultant in helping businesses
with their operations.
He's currently working with ourinvestor into that business to
redefine his operations.
Essentially taking all of hisskills that he's gathered as
being an entrepreneur andhelping other businesses
restructure and set themselvesup for more growth and success
(31:52):
in the future.
Russel (31:52):
Very cool.
I used to watch that all thetime.
I don't know, it just nevercomes across my eyeballs
anymore, but I used to reallylove that show.
I'm going to have to go watchWhat Women Want, and I'm going
to have to go rekindle my ninjawarrior roots here.
Emily (32:06):
You won't be disappointed.
Russel (32:08):
I have no doubt.
If people want to know moreabout Set Creative Studios,
where can they go?
Emily (32:12):
We are across all social media platforms.
Instagram, we are at SetCreative Studios.
TikTok is the same thing.
You can come chat with me onLinkedIn or follow us, it's
there.
Our website is alsosetcreativestudios.com.
Basically if, if you're on adigital website or a social
media website, you can find us.
Russel (32:30):
Wonderful.
And if you're in Boulder, youcan stop by your, your Ninja
Ninja Warrior place.
Burn out some entrepreneurialangst in there.
Absolutely wonderfulconversation today, Emily.
When I just think about thisidea of comes to integration and
teamwork and how do we bring inthese other facets of a life,
that it's not just aboutbusiness and introducing us to
Pistakio, which I'm totallygoing to have to check out.
(32:53):
Just really appreciate youtaking the time to share that
with us today.
Emily (32:55):
Am honored that you wanted to hear and share my
story.
I really appreciate you havingme on and I hope the listeners
can gather just a little nuggetof hope or knowledge that will
help them on their journey.
Thank you for having me.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of An Agency Story
podcast where we share realstories of marketing agency
(33:17):
owners from around the world.
Are you interested in being aguest on the show?
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
An Agency Story is brought toyou by Performance Faction.
Performance Faction offersservices to help agency owners
grow their business to 5 milliondollars and more in revenue.
(33:38):
To learn more, visitperformancefaction.com.
My daughters are always really excited when I come home
from shoots because I'mtypically bringing leftovers and
we have an amazing, we have anamazing recipe stylist or recipe
developer and food stylist whomakes delicious food and we
(33:59):
always have leftovers.
They think that my job isalways, it's, you know, nothing
but kind of fun and games.
They see pretty props on theshelves and they see all this
delicious food.
My oldest daughter just beggedme and I was like, it's a lot of
hard work.
You don't understand what goesinto these shoots.
She begged me up one side anddown the other during the summer
to come with me to a shoot.
I said, okay.
Some people might think this iscruel, so just, but bear with
(34:21):
me.
If you don't have kids, youmight not understand.
I said, that's fine.
You can come with me.
She started essentially thefirst day on the job.
She hasn't wanted to come backsince, but she started with me
the first day on the job as, uh,as essentially like the intern,
she was cleaning off the set.
She was taking out the trash.
She was helping with the dishes.
She was doing all of that hardwork because I wanted her to
(34:42):
truly understand that you don'tjust get to start, you know, at
the top, you don't get to startdoing all of the fun stuff.
And even when you are doing allthe fun stuff, when it's your
business, You're still doing allthe ugly stuff, like cleaning
the toilets at your studio and,uh, cleaning out the trash can
and all of those things.
She had a long day of hard work.
She did really truly enjoyherself.
It was nice to have her on set.
(35:02):
She did not complain one time,which I was very impressed with.
But that, that is, that is howwe are merging parenting and
teaching our kids aboutentrepreneurial tasks.
Russel (35:11):
I love that lesson and I'm equally excited by this
notion and want to receive theleftovers too from your photo
shoots, but, um, I'll, I'll bejust as enthralled by the
lesson.
That's wonderful.
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast where we share real
stories of marketing agencyowners from around the world.
From the excitement of startingup the first big sale, passion,
doubt, fear, freedom, and theemotional rollercoaster of
growth, hear it all on An AgencyStory podcast.
(00:24):
An Agency Story podcast ishosted by Russel Dubree,
successful agency owner with aneight figure exit turned
business coach.
Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel (00:41):
What if running a business had more in common with
parenting than we ever realized?
If you've ever felt likejuggling your business and
family life is an impossiblebalancing act, this episode is
for you.
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast, I'm your host Russel.
Today, I'm joined by EmilyTeater, owner and founder of Set
Creative Studios, who knowsfirsthand that entrepreneurship
(01:03):
isn't just about the hustle.
It's about solving real problemsfor real people.
In our conversation, Emily and Idiscuss how the same principles
that make for great parenting,guidance, patience, and
intentionality are just ascrucial in leading a team in a
business.
In telling her story, Emilybreaks down the mindset shift
from simply offering a serviceto becoming an indispensable
part of your customer's success.
(01:25):
And for those of you navigatingentrepreneurship with a family,
we explore the often overlookedrole of teamwork at home,
because let's be honest, noentrepreneur does it alone.
So whether you're building abusiness, raising a family or
doing both at the same time, youwon't want to miss this episode.
Enjoy the story.
Welcome to the show today,everybody.
I have Emily Teater with SetCreative Studios with us here
(01:47):
today.
Thank you so much for being onthe show today, Emily.
Emily (01:50):
Thank you so much for having me.
Russel (01:51):
I'm excited for you to be here.
To get us kicked off, I'd loveto just hear what does Set
Creative Studios do and who doyou do it for?
Emily (01:58):
We are a content creation and social media marketing
agency based here in Boulder.
Our client base, we workprimarily with, uh, brands in
the CPG space, which, for thoseof you out there that are not
familiar, that is consumerpackaged goods.
All those brands that you findon the shelves in your grocery
stores or online shipped to yourdoor.
Within that sector, since it'ssuch a wide industry, we focus
(02:22):
primarily on the health andwellness brands.
All the healthy food, all yourWhole Foods brands, those are
our clients.
Russel (02:27):
All right.
I know like kids, in the agencyspace, we're not supposed to
have a favorite child, but whatwould be one of your more
favorite children if we thinkabout a brand that you've worked
with?
Emily (02:37):
Oh gosh.
We are not supposed to havefavorites, but I would say one
of my current favorites is a upand coming brand called
Pistakio.
They are a pistachio butter, uh,founded by two young college
students they're fresh out ofcollege now.
They started making it in theirdorm room.
They have a long way to gobefore you probably see them on
(02:57):
your local shelves, but we foundthem recently through another
brand and their product is justso unique, so creative.
They have such a passion forwhat they're doing.
It would be hard to say thatthey are not a favorite at this
point in time.
Russel (03:08):
Alright, I mean I love anything pistachio.
But I'm curious, what would oneuse pistachio butter for?
Emily (03:14):
That was something that I was curious of too.
Personally, I eat it with aspoon.
It's just delicious, but you canput it on your ice cream.
You could put it in your latte.
I love to put it on top of agranola parfait.
They have tons of creative,inventive ways that they're
showcasing on their social mediaplatforms and on their website
for recipes for inspiration.
But essentially it's, like, anyplace that you would put peanut
(03:34):
butter.
You could use pistachio butter.
It's a little bit more expensivethan your peanut butter.
So you probably don't want to bethrowing huge amounts of it into
your smoothies, um, but it's agreat addition to any treat,
really.
It's delicious.
You got to check them out.
Russel (03:46):
Oh man, I got to have Pistakio.
I got to get me some of this.
All right.
Fascinating.
I can see why that might be afavorite.
Again, I have a little loveaffair with pistachio.
But before we get into all morethings agency, I still want to
go back and hear a little bitmore about young Emily's story.
Who did she want to be when shegrew up and what, and we'll get
(04:06):
to that whole agency ownershipthing down the road.
Emily (04:09):
It's funny because in, you know, in preparation for
this conversation, I was kind ofreflecting back on where, where
did it all start?
I think we get so caught upsometimes on, you know, where
we're going and, you know, justthe here and now that sometimes
we forget our why and where itall started.
I was reflecting on, like, what,first one, what, where did I
first want to get intomarketing?
It all started when I was inmiddle school and I saw the
(04:31):
movie What Women Want.
I really wanted to be DarcyMcGuire.
I wanted to be Helen Hunt'scharacter in the big ad agency
in Chicago.
I was just kind of, like, soinspired.
I loved the idea of this kind ofmix of, you know, creativity and
psychology and, um, you know,that, that movie obviously has a
different storyline, but thatelement of what they did in
(04:54):
their jobs was something thatreally drew me in.
I was kind of hooked onmarketing from that point in
time.
Fast forward a little bit and Ialways loved food.
Food has always been a huge lovelanguage of mine.
In college I would trade housechores with roommates for cooked
meals for things that theydidn't, they didn't want to do
for things that I didn't want todo.
And I was always obsessed withphotography and capturing
moments.
(05:14):
I always had a point and shootcamera with me when we were, you
know, out and about.
Then fast forward to today andall three of those have, have
come together.
But it all started with WhatWomen Want, which is weird to
trace it back to that, butthat's where we're at.
Russel (05:26):
Ah, yes.
This is actually not the firsttime, I feel like, this has been
brought up on the podcast.
I don't actually know if I'veever even seen the whole thing
all the way through, but theuniverse is clearly telling me
I've got to go check out thismovie.
Emily (05:38):
Oh, you've got to watch it.
Russel (05:39):
I love this path that you've created.
You traded house, house choresfor food.
That sounds like kind ofsomething I would have done, but
I don't think I was ever thatsmart.
Emily (05:47):
I think it just kind of evolved naturally.
I had a roommate who was, loveddoing laundry, and to this day,
it's still not my favorite thingto do.
Now I'm trading that with myhusband.
I'm making dinner, he's doinglaundry.
But yeah, it just kind ofnaturally evolved.
That I was like, I'll makedinner if you want to do that,
or I'll go grocery shoppingwhile you clean the house.
It worked really well.
Russel (06:05):
Hey, it's not weird if it works.
That's awesome.
What was the path before youstarted the agency?
Emily (06:11):
No, I have never worked a corporate job.
I have only really ever had highschool jobs.
And then out of high schoolstarted, high school and college
waiting tables in college wasessentially my last quote
unquote job before I ventureddown the entrepreneurial path.
I met my husband in college andhe was kind of just always an
(06:32):
entrepreneur and we moved out toCalifornia together.
I had my daughters at a ratheryoung age, while still trying to
figure out what it is I wantedto do, who I wanted to be and,
you know, just kind of thatculmination of love of food and
photography and marketing allkind of led me towards food
photography for commercialbrands.
(06:52):
It's all kind of just kind ofgone from there.
Russel (06:55):
Something I can identify there, I started a family very
young and, and, and I don't knowhow you feel about this, but it,
it, it kind of, I guess it mademe see, like, just a job was
never going to be enough.
And just having to have a familyat such a young age.
I knew I always wanted to dosomething entrepreneurial, but
it, I felt like it maybe pushedme there sooner than I would
have ever naturally ended up,um, just to even really provide
(07:16):
for my family in a meaningfulway.
I don't know if that was yourcase.
Obviously you said yourhusband's an entrepreneur as
well, but yeah.
Is that something you thoughtyou were going to do or, or did
the life push you in thatdirection?
Emily (07:25):
No, it was definitely life pushed me in that
direction.
Naturally I always kind of knewthat I didn't love having a boss
or having to adhere to somebodyelse's schedule, probably
inspired by the fact that I hadyoung children and did not want
to miss out on their lives, youknow, while they were growing up
and young.
I read some wild statistic thatyou spend like 70 percent of
(07:45):
your time with your kids betweenthe ages of zero and 12.
And then from there, they kindof start, like, living their own
lives.
I knew that I didn't want tohave to give up that time
working on somebody else'sdream.
This inspiration to just do myown thing, uh, that provided me
the flexibility.
Anybody that's an entrepreneuror listening to this knows that
you don't really get a ton oftime back.
Being an entrepreneur more orless means you work more, but at
(08:07):
least it's on something that'sfor you and it's on your own
schedule.
Life definitely pushed me inthat direction and just was
inspired by not wanting to missout on their lives at all.
Russel (08:16):
That's such a good acknowledgement of it.
Cause I think a lot of, a lot offolks do, you know, I'm doing
this to get flexibility and, andsome don't even find the
flexibility of your part, butknowing that, that it's, it's
more work perhaps, but you cando it when, sometimes at least,
and you can do it when you wantit and, and, and can still be
there for the moments.
Emily (08:34):
Do you find that that was the case while you were, you
know?
Raising kids and finding yourentrepreneurial side?
Russel (08:39):
I had a slightly different situation.
My wife pretty much had alwaysstayed at home when was doing
the business and I was just soyoung and dumb, I just wanted to
throw a lot of time at it.
I actually think I did theopposite thing is, I think I was
there less, but I know alsosometimes that's more of a,
could, can be a dad thing.
I know the natural instinctsfrom motherhood.
I think it was later in lifethat I really found a lot of
(08:59):
enjoyment or when they wereprobably a little older that I
could be anywhere I wanted orneeded to be when, when it came.
Not on the front side but I, butI think I made up for it on the
back side.
Emily (09:09):
That teamwork too, between you and your wife and
the time that you spent there.
I'm sure she appreciates thatshe had the time with the kids,
but it didn't work out for youto have that extra time on the
front end of their lives.
It definitely takes teamworkbetween two people to do the
careers, do the kids.
It's definitely not an easy pathto be an entrepreneur or be
married to an entrepreneur.
And while raising a familynonetheless.
Russel (09:28):
I should have her do a alternative podcast where she
always interviews the, the otherspouse of the of the person I'm
interviewing.
That would be an interestingtake.
But as you said, yeah, teamworkI think is, is gotta be the name
of the game.
You've got to communicate.
Maybe even when I was young,that was, what I wasn't great is
I just assumed that this was myfocus.
This is what I had to do andeverything else was taking a
backseat.
(09:49):
I think that is a big thing Iwould go back and do is just
communicate a little more and,and probably be a little more
intentive.
Boy, this is, this is like atherapeutic episode already.
I'm really enjoying this.
Emily (09:59):
Lovely.
It's all part of it, you know,like our, our work is so
important and, you know,building the agencies that,
which is, you know, the, thefeature of what you're, what
you're learning and what you'rehelping people with is so huge,
but it's, it's so complex in, inlife.
Trying to be an entrepreneur,doing the agency thing, you
know, having families, findingthat balance.
(10:19):
It's a journey that I think is apart of being an entrepreneur.
You have to kind of payattention to all the different
pieces.
Or you wake up one day andyou're like whoa, whoa, whoa.
What did I do here?
Russel (10:28):
I also want to know about, you know, what you shared
is your, your husband was alsoan entrepreneur and, and that's
a world I don't know very muchof it just cause I don't think
it's the same business oranything like that.
Two separate businesses in thesame household, what was that
like?
Emily (10:41):
Oh man.
It still is and always has beenthis very delicate balance of
teamwork.
The best word we really refer toour family unit as a team.
My husband is big into sports,always has been.
Grew up playing sports as well,but it's just the best
descriptor of, you know, what itis to be a family.
My daughters are now 11 and 12and we are trying to raise them
(11:03):
to be, you know, criticalthinkers and responsible.
We give them responsibilitiesand it's like, it takes a team
to make a household run.
It cannot just be on us asparents.
With bringing them into thefolds of that now that they're
getting a little bit older, itmakes it a little bit easier, a
little bit more challenging.
Preteen girls only want to behelpful to a certain extent.
It's teamwork, it's greatcommunication.
(11:25):
It is empathy towards each otherin our situation.
It is 15 years of learning, um,and understanding.
It's been really fun.
We just have always reallygotten along.
We were friends first.
Friends always and put eachother first over everything
else.
It's a great partnership.
Both in business, which we'veworked together in businesses.
(11:46):
We're not currently right now.
He does help me with some of themore administrative stuff that I
don't want to do, basicallynumbers and paperwork.
It's teamwork.
You have to find a greatteammate in order to run an
entrepreneurial household.
Russel (11:57):
I love that.
And so true.
I think that's another,probably, regret that I think I
had is, I didn't bring my,probably my kids really into
that journey.
It was more of a thing that daddid, but I've heard some really
great stories from other folksand, and kind of piggybacking
off that teamwork concept of,you know, just, I wish I would
have asked my kids like, hey,we've got this business problem.
(12:18):
What do you think?
We've got this person that'sscrewing around.
Whatever that might be and just,you know, it's not that I
necessarily needed their answer.
I'm sure they might actuallyhave come out with something
really profound, but this ideathat they would just kind of
hear what's going on through,you know, some conversation and
some critical thinking.
Emily (12:33):
It's a challenge.
It doesn't always go the waythat you want it to.
Russel (12:36):
I can see that too, especially preteens and teens.
Emily (12:39):
Oh, yeah.
It's tough.
But it's, it's fun, you know,working with people, hiring new
employees.
The two biggest pieces that welook for is problem solvers,
problem solving, and criticalthinking.
If you can do those two things,you're going to be succeeding in
life.
Even just the smallest things,you know.
Mom, where is this?
I'm like, well, think aboutwhere you had it last.
(13:01):
Don't just ask me to solve theproblem.
Solve the problem.
Think about it.
It doesn't always apply, like,in business, but just in raising
the kids and just trying to putthose pieces into their, you
know, into their toolkit as theyget a little bit older so that
they are set up for success inthe real world when they are on
their own is a big priority forus.
Maybe it stems from being anentrepreneur.
I'm not entirely sure, but it'sa, it's a big part of our
(13:22):
parenting experience.
Russel (13:23):
I tend to be in the camp and in some speaking I've done,
I even make this correlation of,I actually think parenting and
managing is the exact samething.
You just don't tuck your team oryour team members in at night,
um, or kiss them on the foreheadmost likely, but that it is the
same concepts we have to coach.
We have to get them to think ontheir own, be autonomous.
All the same things and, andlove them.
(13:46):
It's just in a different way, Ithink is a really important part
of the process.
It's those fundamental skillsthat are really going to make or
break, not how good I am atPhotoshop or something like
that.
That's always an importantreminder on who we're looking to
hire.
Emily (13:59):
Because if you can problem solve and you can think
through issues, you can becomereally good at Photoshop because
you know that you can Googlethings.
You can find an online class orlesson for what it is that
you're doing.
If you know how to solve aproblem, you can learn anything.
When we're hiring, when we werelooking at, you know, new team
members, I'm not necessarilylooking at the skills that are
(14:19):
on their resume in terms oflike, you know, it's nice if
they have been updated on, onsome of the softwares and
whatnot, but really it's in theconversation and how they, you
know, how they carry themselves,how they answer problem solving
questions, because I know thatif I can do that and I can throw
new things at them as the worldof social media is always
changing, I know that I can puta good solid team member on
(14:41):
within our organization thatwill always be able to figure it
out as, as we go.
Because it's, it's a big part ofbeing in this world of social
media and in an agency.
Russel (14:49):
In the world of Russel's crazy harebrained ideas now, I
feel like just the new interviewprocess is just set a Rubik's
cube in front of a potentialhire and then just walk out of
the room and just film thatprocess and see.
Did they try to, try to just,you know?
Do it all on their own withoutdoing any research or tools?
You can go to YouTube and figurethese things out.
I don't know.
Someone out there, try that, uh,and report back onto the results
(15:10):
and let Emily and myself know ifthat was a good idea or not.
Emily (15:14):
I would be so interested to hear how it goes.
Russel (15:17):
Yes.
Somebody please do that.
I'd love to hear just maybe morea little about the agency
journey.
We obviously understand how yougot started, but, maybe just
give us kind of a large swath onwhere you started from to where
you're at today and, and we'lldig back into some of the
highlights.
Emily (15:31):
To be honest, I had no intention of starting an agency
when I started on this journey.
We moved to Colorado about sixyears ago and I came with my
commercial photographybackground, obviously love of
food and three kids.
I quickly learned how difficultit is to break into a new market
as a commercial photographerwhen you don't have any
(15:51):
connections, so I was referredto a food CPG networking group
here in the Boulder area andimmediately started to see this,
this disconnect between theseamazing brands and their online
presence.
I would meet these reallyenthusiastic, very passionate
people with products that tastedand looked great.
(16:12):
And just like any millennial orGen Z, I'd immediately go home
and start doing some research.
I'd look at their website.
I would look at their socialmedia just to learn more about
it and to remember them andwould be really kind of shocked
and surprised to see that thepassion and the deliciousness
and all of that did not conveyon their social media platform.
This was 2019 at the time.
(16:32):
Before the pandemic pushedpeople into that e-commerce
space.
I think it was kind of beingundervalued, but as somebody who
always had a passion for thephotography and the look and
the, the, the visual story of abrand, I was like, there's gotta
be a way to kind of merge thesetwo things.
It was like, if they weren't ahuge, if they weren't a huge
brand that had endless amountsof, you know, budget for photo
shoots and for creatives, theyweren't, they, they didn't have
(16:55):
the ability to compete, uh, and,and invest in that.
That's kind of where SetCreative was born, was out of
the idea of how do I take theskillset that I have and the
passion that I have and helpthem elevate and be able to
compete with some of theselarger brands and be able to
represent themselves online in away that makes people want to
hit buy?
That's where I started doingcontent creation on a monthly
basis.
Photography, stop motions,graphics, all that kind of
(17:17):
stuff.
I was kind of a one woman showwriting recipes, photographing
the recipes.
From there I quickly realizedwithin a, within a year or so
that we could give them theassets, but just because they
have them still didn't mean thatthey knew what to do with them.
This is where social mediamarketing was added on to our
list.
Those are today, the, the twomain things that we still focus
on within our agency.
(17:38):
We have other digital marketingofferings, but those are the two
things that we would be knownfor at this point.
Now I own an agency.
Russel (17:43):
Now you own an agency.
And is it mostly up and comingbrands kind of at the point of
really relatively unknown, like,like our Pistakio friend?
Emily (17:51):
Yeah, I would say we really focus on emerging brands.
I learned very quickly that theydon't like being called small
brands.
Russel (17:57):
Much more articulate term than I use.
My apologies to those emergingbrands out there.
Emily (18:02):
Oh, no, you're, you're, you're totally good.
Just like in the theater, thereare no small lines.
There are no, no small parts.
There are no small brands.
We do focus on emerging brands.
That is my passion.
I love working with brands wherewe have a real impact and we are
actually, you know, really justgiving them something that they
have felt is there all along andkind of bringing it to life.
However, we do still need towork with companies that have
(18:24):
budgets.
Emerging is my favorite word touse because they've, most of the
brands that we work with havegotten to a point where they
understand a basic line of whothey are, what they're doing,
and we obviously help themelaborate on that.
We can build their, build theirbrand voice.
We can build their visualstorytelling, you know, um,
branding, but they have an ideaand they're ready to start
(18:44):
hiring so we have positionedourselves in a way where we can
bring an entire team ofcreatives and manage social
media managers and all of that,uh, for the cost of typically
about one in-house hire forthese brands.
Living in that emerging space isa great opportunity for us to
still make an impact, uh, butthey have budgets, which is
always a plus.
Russel (19:03):
One of the things that I love, which is not always the
case, yes, you took your coreskill set, what you were best
at, and you took what you'repassionate about.
I think those are always two keyimportant things if we're going
to go do something hard likethis.
But then you also have kind ofthought about what do these
folks that you focus on, what dothey need and building your
product, your service aroundtheir core needs.
(19:24):
Not necessarily what, what Ithink sometimes agencies can go
down the path of is, um, justwhat, what they can do and try
to find people.
I'm probably going to quote thison every episode I do, but good
companies don't find customersfor their products.
They find products for theircustomers.
That sounds like what you'vereally done here.
Emily (19:41):
A big piece of it goes back to early in the
entrepreneurial stage, uh, TimFerriss's four hour work week,
the idea behind it, I I'm, I'malmost positive this is, this is
where it comes from.
But I know I'm doubting myself,but I'm pretty, I'm pretty sure.
But essentially what you do isyou solve, you find a problem
and you solve it.
Then you sell that solution topeople.
That's essentially what we, whatwe've done here is.
(20:03):
Finding a problem is, socialmedia is a huge beast that a lot
of emerging, growing brandscannot allocate the time and the
funds for essentially.
It's too much, especially thesedays with needing so many
different pieces of content,needing to build communities,
really needing to be presentconstantly, needing to make sure
that your brand voice isconsistent and that you have a
great, um, you know, like you'redoing outreach to other brands
(20:25):
and just remaining active on allthe different platforms.
It's a beast for, for a lot ofcompanies to take over.
Solving that problem for themhas given us a really unique
placement in this market to beable to appeal to them.
Like you said, using our coreskillset and doing something
that really we, we love, andthat is probably, most likely
not, not going anywhere anytimesoon, but it is important to be
able to provide a solution tothe problem.
Russel (20:47):
It's funny.
I feel like as a business from,from day one, it's constantly
trying to complicate itself.
It is constantly, you know,becoming more complicated.
We have to work harder tosimplify it, but that's one of
those foundations of the way youput that I think is so critical.
You said it far more eloquentlythan I'm going to remember, but
what did you say again?
Emily (21:06):
Figure out what a problem is, find a solution, and then
sell that to your consumer.
Your customer, your client,whoever that is.
Russel (21:12):
That's it.
And I think that's a underlyingchallenge for a lot of agencies
is probably so many folksstarted because they just wanted
income replacement.
I have skills and I need toreplace my, my pre or my
corporate income or whateverthat case is.
It takes the eye off the balloff of that thing that you just
said of, um, go, go find aproblem and create a solution
for it.
(21:33):
I think the, the, the trouble,and I love that I can just see
where this has been helpful foryou is, then if you build your
business for income replacement,well, then it's hard to undo
income replacement to get moretowards that.
For some folks, and this goesdown the line where they're
doing more positioning and stufflike that, that, that they have
a hard time, um, almost likerunning two separate businesses
in some ways.
(21:53):
But I'm glad that you havefollowed your passion and, um,
and your skill and solved aproblem.
That is a great recipe.
Emily (22:02):
Thank you.
It's not magic, you know, itstill takes a ton of hard work.
It still is constantly, youknow, evaluating, uh, evolving,
all of those fun E words.
It's feels like we foundsomething that works really well
and it still takes a lot of hardwork behind it but I do believe
that if you have something thatyou're passionate about and that
(22:22):
you can find a market for it,but just make sure that you're
setting yourself up in thatspace.
Where does your passion overlapwith a problem and how can you
help solve that for your, yourideal customer base or client
base?
Russel (22:33):
If I could probably just end this episode and just put
what you said there on repeatfor, you know, next five
minutes, I think that is socritical.
It really goes down to, I thinkwhat we were saying before of,
uh, you know, you gotta bringpassion.
This is too hard not to havesome natural passion to go about
it.
Emily (22:49):
We do.
It's important because you'regoing to dedicate a lot of time
to this, and so you better likewhat you're doing.
Russel (22:54):
That is so true.
Entrepreneurship is gettingkicked between the legs every
day and then showing up againtomorrow.
That's where passion just allowsyou to be more willing to get,
take the kick between the legscause it's coming and it might
come six or seven times one dayand it might not come the next,
but you just never know.
Emily (23:11):
It is, and you probably agree with this.
It's very similar to parenting.
Russel (23:15):
That is so true.
You mentioned as well as thisidea of the business owner
island.
Who do you talk to about all thethings going through your head
and, and the things that youprobably can't often talk with
team members about, you know, itsounds like you've experienced
some of that yourself.
Emily (23:31):
A ton.
Definitely, being a businessowner, being an entrepreneur can
be extremely isolating and it'sbeen nice to be married to
another entrepreneur, but evenat that point in time, uh, you
know, it's still my husband,still my partner.
It's nice to have other sources.
I honestly haven't been supergreat about building a group or
(23:52):
a foundation of, of otherentrepreneurs to speak with.
That's a huge goal of mine thisyear is to just continue to
build my network and find morepeople because the more I talk
about it, the more I realize weall feel it to a certain extent.
Anybody that's doing somethingon their own or, you know, going
out on their own in terms ofjust not working for a large
company, you know, so it can be,doesn't have to be an agency.
(24:12):
But anybody that's followingthat entrepreneurial path can
feel very lonely.
Sometimes working on ourcomputers we're working long
hours, working late hours, we'returning down invitations.
And then at the same time,sometimes we're raising young
kids, which means we're isolatedin a completely different way.
It's been important for me tohave at least close friends
nearby, uh, that have some sortof overlap, whether they're mom
friends or whatnot, but buildinga bigger network of
(24:34):
entrepreneurs is a goal of minethis year, because it's, it's
important to have people whounderstand the same struggles.
You don't have to talk aboutbusiness.
It's just nice to talk withsomeone who is in the same boat,
uh, even if you're just talkingabout life.
Russel (24:45):
Well, and understands.
I feel like it's, it's maybeeven somewhat, I, I, you know,
the military experience andjust, you know, people have
perceptions of the military,but, but no one understands it
other than, and right?
There's even different levels ofthat.
Those have been in combat andthose that haven't.
And you might, you know, I, Idon't want to diminish by any
means what someone that goesthrough the, you know, the, the
effects of combat, but, youknow, business ownership can be
(25:07):
very stressful and, and someonethat can understand that is, is
really important.
I love what, you know, whatseems like how you're
approaching that is very, veryintentional about finding that
and, and, you know, knowing thatit might not come, you might not
get off your island if you'renot very intentional about
finding that resources andsupport.
It sounds like you've been ableto do that for yourself.
Emily (25:26):
Definitely.
And like I said, the more I talkabout it, the more I realize I'm
definitely not the only one.
I'm sure you fully understand,um, after doing it yourself,
that it's, it can be, it can betough.
It's a tough business.
It's hard to be an entrepreneur.
There's a lot of ups and downs.
It's an absolute rollercoaster.
Having people around thatunderstand that is, is
important.
Russel (25:45):
If there was a daily therapy group that met at 6 p.m.
at night, every night, I think Imight go to that.
Nobody seems to have createdthat yet.
Emily (25:51):
The lonely entrepreneurs group.
Russel (25:53):
Yes.
We'll have to make it moreuplifting than that, but we'll,
we can know that that's really,that's the core thing we're
solving there.
It sounds like you're on areally good track with the
business.
What does the future look like?
What's your, as they like tosay, what is your five year
plan?
Emily (26:06):
Sometimes five years feels long, um, but I, I really
love what we're doing.
Like I said, we've been doing itfor about probably five years
now with the social media piece.
I just want to continue to helpand work with as many brands as,
as we can.
This year we're focusing onexpanding.
I have been the photographer fora long time now and I'm passing
(26:27):
that baton so I can focus onworking more on the business
instead of in the business.
Russel (26:32):
Congratulations.
Emily (26:33):
Thank you.
It's a tough one.
It's a big, been a, you know,being a photographer has been a
big identity piece for me as a,as a professional.
It has been an interestingstruggle to move away from that,
but one that needed to happenfor the business to grow.
I cannot be working in it andthe photo shoots while trying to
expand at the same time.
I kind of came to terms withthat over the last year and
started to put pieces into placeto be able to move away from
(26:54):
that.
Just really working on buildinga bigger network, um, of other
businesses that are doing whatwe are doing.
Referral programs, things alongthat line so we can all help
each other out.
I'm a big fan of, you know,rising tide lifts all ships and
so building more connectionswithin other agencies within the
space instead of just working onfinding more brands is a big
(27:14):
piece.
What's next to come?
Hopefully a larger studio spacewithin the next couple of years
as a requirement, um, as weoutgrow our space and just being
able to impact more, morebrands.
My focus is to be able to keepour services at a nice cost so
that we can actually continue towork with these emerging brands.
I think a lot of times companiesstart to get bigger and they
(27:35):
start to feel like they have toraise their prices.
Which is understandable.
I think there's a certain priceincrease that happens based on,
like, cost of living andwhatnot, every year.
That's understandable, that'ssomething everybody has to adapt
to, but I want to go about thisreally, really smart.
Especially with like the use ofAI being able to automate and
streamline more of our practicesso we don't have to expand our
team massively in order to fitthe amount of brands.
(27:57):
Just being very strategic aboutthe growth over the next handful
of years.
I, um, can tend to be a littlebit risk averse myself
naturally.
Trying to be comfortable whilealso being confident and taking
leaps.
Next five years should be,should be interesting.
Russel (28:11):
That sounds like an amazing five year plan.
I can't wait to see it play out.
I just, again, love theintentionality and the, you
know, focus on your core valueand who you're doing that for
and not, just not let the painsof growth, um, you know, not to
say again, like you saidearlier, it's always going to be
challenging, but not letting,letting the pains of growth get
in the way of that.
Sounds like a wonderful, wellthought out plan.
Emily (28:32):
Thank you.
Do you have any advice forsomeone in my shoes for a five
year plan?
you've done it, right?
You grew the business, you soldit, you're on to, you know,
chasing things that you feelpassionate about.
When you're at this point as anagency is looking at growth,
looking at expansion, do youhave any advice?
Russel (28:49):
Oh my gosh.
Emily (28:50):
I know I put you on the spot.
Sorry.
Russel (28:53):
No, you're more than welcome to put me on the spot,
but, but a very loaded questionfor sure.
I think going back to what Isaid a second ago, I, I, I think
the foundation of the way you'relooking at that, I think, is so
important.
Sometimes it's not always aboutadvice you don't know, but
confirming advice or a thoughtprocess that you already have.
I think that's where sometimesfolks can get awry, is it's
(29:14):
about the growth or the money,or, and not to say the money is
always for the money's sakes,that might sound greedy, the
money still is for folks wantingto do freedom to hire more
people, to do very genuinethings, but I think if that is
the focus, that can lead to somechallenges.
Really just getting back to thecore fundamentals of who do we
serve?
How do we continue to do thatbetter, provide better results?
(29:36):
You talk about costs going up, Ithink if we're, if we are
certain in that this kind ofproblem solution thing that we
talked about we can find ways tonot lose our value, but maybe
keep costs same, similar, or godown over time, not indifferent
than leveraging technology andthings like that, to deliver
that same value.
Again, I'd say most of that isconfirming kind of how you're
(29:58):
thinking about this.
Being just as good advice as,yeah, telling you something you
hadn't heard of before.
Emily (30:03):
I appreciate that.
It's nice to know we're on theright track.
It's always affirming.
Like we talked about, the um,the entrepreneur's island is
lonely and sometimes you wonderif you're doing it right.
Any sort of reassurance ishelpful.
Russel (30:14):
Our islands bumped into each other today.
Absolute wonderful conversation.
The last thing I have to askbefore we, before we wrap things
up officially is areentrepreneurs born or are they
made?
Emily (30:24):
I would have to say made.
I do believe there is a part ofmy husband that was born an
entrepreneur.
However, that's more of atenacious spirit, which I think
a lot of people are born with.
What you do with that can go oneof two ways.
In order to be an entrepreneur,you really have to focus and put
intention into following what itis that you are passionate about
or what it is that you believein.
In doing so, I believe that youare made.
(30:45):
I did not set out to be anentrepreneur in my life.
It's just happened by chance, byway of raising kids and wanting
freedoms and taking chances thatare scary as heck sometimes.
I do believe that anentrepreneur, with the right
pieces, is you're born with alittle bit, but then the, the,
the made is, is key.
Russel (31:02):
I love that.
And I just realized this.
I never even asked, what doesyour husband's business, what
does he do?
Emily (31:07):
He is currently working and we've, we've done multiple
businesses.
We actually, along with myagency, we own a ninja gym,
which is, uh, American NinjaWarrior.
I don't know if you've ever seenthe show.
It's a sport that our kids gotinto and we met all of the
coaches, and of course we had togo.
One of the young coaches wantedto open his own gym.
We said, we'll help you, we havebusiness experience.
(31:28):
Now we're co owners of a ninjagym here in Colorado, which is
doing really well.
He has been working as aconsultant in helping businesses
with their operations.
He's currently working with ourinvestor into that business to
redefine his operations.
Essentially taking all of hisskills that he's gathered as
being an entrepreneur andhelping other businesses
restructure and set themselvesup for more growth and success
(31:52):
in the future.
Russel (31:52):
Very cool.
I used to watch that all thetime.
I don't know, it just nevercomes across my eyeballs
anymore, but I used to reallylove that show.
I'm going to have to go watchWhat Women Want, and I'm going
to have to go rekindle my ninjawarrior roots here.
Emily (32:06):
You won't be disappointed.
Russel (32:08):
I have no doubt.
If people want to know moreabout Set Creative Studios,
where can they go?
Emily (32:12):
We are across all social media platforms.
Instagram, we are at SetCreative Studios.
TikTok is the same thing.
You can come chat with me onLinkedIn or follow us, it's
there.
Our website is alsosetcreativestudios.com.
Basically if, if you're on adigital website or a social
media website, you can find us.
Russel (32:30):
Wonderful.
And if you're in Boulder, youcan stop by your, your Ninja
Ninja Warrior place.
Burn out some entrepreneurialangst in there.
Absolutely wonderfulconversation today, Emily.
When I just think about thisidea of comes to integration and
teamwork and how do we bring inthese other facets of a life,
that it's not just aboutbusiness and introducing us to
Pistakio, which I'm totallygoing to have to check out.
(32:53):
Just really appreciate youtaking the time to share that
with us today.
Emily (32:55):
Am honored that you wanted to hear and share my
story.
I really appreciate you havingme on and I hope the listeners
can gather just a little nuggetof hope or knowledge that will
help them on their journey.
Thank you for having me.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of An Agency Story
podcast where we share realstories of marketing agency
(33:17):
owners from around the world.
Are you interested in being aguest on the show?
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
An Agency Story is brought toyou by Performance Faction.
Performance Faction offersservices to help agency owners
grow their business to 5 milliondollars and more in revenue.
(33:38):
To learn more, visitperformancefaction.com.
My daughters are always really excited when I come home
from shoots because I'mtypically bringing leftovers and
we have an amazing, we have anamazing recipe stylist or recipe
developer and food stylist whomakes delicious food and we
(33:59):
always have leftovers.
They think that my job isalways, it's, you know, nothing
but kind of fun and games.
They see pretty props on theshelves and they see all this
delicious food.
My oldest daughter just beggedme and I was like, it's a lot of
hard work.
You don't understand what goesinto these shoots.
She begged me up one side anddown the other during the summer
to come with me to a shoot.
I said, okay.
Some people might think this iscruel, so just, but bear with
(34:21):
me.
If you don't have kids, youmight not understand.
I said, that's fine.
You can come with me.
She started essentially thefirst day on the job.
She hasn't wanted to come backsince, but she started with me
the first day on the job as, uh,as essentially like the intern,
she was cleaning off the set.
She was taking out the trash.
She was helping with the dishes.
She was doing all of that hardwork because I wanted her to
(34:42):
truly understand that you don'tjust get to start, you know, at
the top, you don't get to startdoing all of the fun stuff.
And even when you are doing allthe fun stuff, when it's your
business, You're still doing allthe ugly stuff, like cleaning
the toilets at your studio and,uh, cleaning out the trash can
and all of those things.
She had a long day of hard work.
She did really truly enjoyherself.
It was nice to have her on set.
(35:02):
She did not complain one time,which I was very impressed with.
But that, that is, that is howwe are merging parenting and
teaching our kids aboutentrepreneurial tasks.
Russel (35:11):
I love that lesson and I'm equally excited by this
notion and want to receive theleftovers too from your photo
shoots, but, um, I'll, I'll bejust as enthralled by the
lesson.
That's wonderful.
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