April 28, 2025 • 39 mins
Company: Local Image
Guests: Holly Bruns and Amber McDonald
Year Started: 2019
Employees: 11-25
When Hope Meets Strategy
What happens when you leap before you’re ready and figure out the strategy later? In this episode, Holly Bruns and Amber McDonald, founders of Local Image, share how daring moves, deep faith, and smart planning fueled their agency’s successful trajectory. If you're weighing risk and reward, this conversation will change how you think about betting on yourself.
Inside this episode:
- Why hope without strategy isn't enough (and how to balance both)
- The hiring mistake that almost cost them their culture
- How betting on themselves created faster success than "waiting for perfect"
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 (00:40):
Welcome to another episode of An Agency Story.
Today's guests are a trulydynamic duo, bringing the heat
all the way from Maine to thecoastal waters of Charleston,
South Carolina, reshaping thelandscape of local business
marketing every single step ofthe way.
Founders of Local Image.
Welcome to the show today, HollyBruns and Amber McDonald.
Holly (00:59):
Thanks for having us.
Russel (01:01):
I'm really excited but I've got a hot take or a hot
seat, I should say.
Question for you right off thebat.
Better Seafood, Maine orCharleston?
Oh my
Amber (01:09):
gosh.
Maine, hands down is Maine.
Russel (01:11):
So, so definitively like you didn't even, you didn't even
blink an eye at answering
Holly (01:15):
that.
This has been a, this has been ahot topic question since we
moved to Charleston.
'cause it is such a food scene.
Um, but Maine really, reallyjust hits it out of the park.
Russel (01:24):
Okay.
Now we've already got peoplejust, uh, ears are glued to
what's gonna happen in the restof the conversation.
Who wants to take a stab?
Tell us what Local Image doesand who do you do it for?
Holly (01:34):
So we are a full service digital marketing agency.
We really pride ourselves onworking with local businesses,
so small to medium.
I think Amber says it best, thenear me businesses when you're
doing a search.
We have a variety of servicesfrom website development, ads
management, social mediamanagement, SEO.
(01:56):
Our goal is really to be a onestop shop for the local business
owner.
Russel (02:00):
Yes.
And perfectly well said andwe're gonna, we got all kinds of
great topics today to talk aboutwhat the agency looks like.
But before we do that, I justwant to hear about the lives of
Young Holly and Amber.
What was going on?
Who did you want to be when yougrow up?
Tell us all the good stuff.
Amber (02:16):
Honestly, it's so funny, like I think back on this
question and I don't really everthought think I had like a clear
answer for that.
It was more so not knowing who Iwas gonna be.
I just always was a veryentrepreneurial, big work ethic
work all the time.
Person and I flew where lifetook me with careers.
I don't have a college degree.
I went from nannying tobartending and then I ended up
(02:38):
getting recruited for a salesjob because of my bartending or
bar management experience.
And I literally naturally justflowed into marketing and it
became my whole career.
So, yeah, I feel like just likebig work gal, I've always had a
work ethic from the time I was14, and it led me to building a
company.
Russel (02:56):
I love a good varied experience story.
I'm in the same bucket.
Yeah.
But when you think about any oneof those unique experiences that
you shared, what do you thinkmost applies to what you do
today?
Amber (03:06):
It was my career before this.
It's hard because it depends,like, there's two questions to
that, the agency and then alsomy role in the agency.
So I'm big with the sales andthe client relationships, which
if I had to pick one that helpedme develop that was my bar
management and hospitalityexperience, like just learning
to deal with people.
But if we're talking aboutmarketing skill sets and running
(03:27):
my company, it is my job beforethis, which was a sales rep for
a national marketing agencywhere I really got to learn the
ins and outs of the industry andthe strategy, the strategies,
digital marketing itself.
So I think it's a two-facedanswer for that.
Russel (03:42):
Imagine there's probably, if you really even
broke that down further, there'sprobably even more faces Oh,
yeah.
Than even those two roles.
Tell us what about you, Holly?
What was going on in your, ohgoodness.
Your young life.
Holly (03:51):
Yeah, absolutely.
I.
I think I really struggled tofigure out what my direction
would be early on through highschool and the college days.
But I ended up getting a degreein pre-law.
I thought I was gonna gocontinue on to be a family law
attorney.
And I quickly learned that wasnot for the faint of heart.
And I was interning at the DA'soffice and just like any family
(04:14):
law.
Case that gets to that level.
It's really, really trying.
So I learned I was notemotionally strong enough and
got out for that.
Um, and then had kind of a windyjourney.
I've definitely dabbled in likehospitality and got into pro
property management, likeclimbing the corporate ladder in
that world for a while.
That definitely made me a littlebit tougher, and ended up.
(04:38):
Getting brought into sales andmarketing roles through a few
different companies and that ledto Amber and I doing some
networking and meeting eachother.
And we both ended up working forthe same national digital
marketing agency that shementioned.
It's a high level overview oflike my twisty road there, but
never did I ever think I wasgonna be in marketing or be the
(04:59):
owner of an agency.
Russel (05:01):
Pre-law?
All There's a facet I imaginehas to come handy.
I, I mean, obviously you, yousaid it was a struggle that
particular type of law, wasthere mm-hmm a case you ran into
and like, I'm done with this.
Uh, this was like one-stopmoment here.
Holly (05:14):
Not specifically, but I think it was just seeing so many
and being in files and likebeing in court and just like
seeing how that plays out.
I would definitely have to pivottypes of law.
And I tried real estate.
I worked at as a paralegal in areal estate law office for a
little while, and real estatedoes not move in the winter in
(05:34):
Maine, it's pretty slow.
This was over 10 years ago now.
But I was like, oh, this is soboring and social media just
wasn't cutting it anymore.
And when someone's like bored ofsocial media, then that's a
weird spot to be in.
Russel (05:47):
Well, it sounds like it all worked out well for the both
of you, and it sounds like you,I think you guys said you worked
at the same company, or did youhave like the stepbrothers
moment when you meet?
Like did we just become bestfriends or how, how, what?
Tell us about your firstinteraction.
Amber (06:01):
Yeah.
No, we actually didn't, I lookback now as oh it was all very
meant to be, but it was organic.
We met networking.
We obviously like it liked eachother like vibe, but we weren't
really friends outside of that.
And then it was like, oh hey,like I know you.
We were working for the samejob.
We started working reallyclosely together'cause it was
remote.
So we would spend our Thursdaysjust doing our cold calls or our
(06:22):
work together and.
I think slowly over that yearand a half, a friendship
developed, but it was moreprofessional friendship.
Um, and then that's when we bothstarted complaining about the
same things within our, likeroles.
Just frustration with thecompany, like caring so much
about quotas and not the clientsand not delivering with the
(06:43):
products we were selling.
And that was when we startedtalking about starting our
agency and then basically weleaped and then like through
building a company together, webecame more personally friends.
So it was a very windy Road towhere we are now.
And now we're like marriedpeople with mistake us for being
married.
Russel (07:00):
Oh, yes.
Oh yes.
Well, we're gonna have to findout more about your, your
marriage slash partnership therethat I know is basically any,
any business partnership.
What was that moment, like whenyou just decided, okay, we're
going to do this.
Amber (07:12):
It was a little, I mean, I feel like for me it was I went
into a, a sales meeting for aclient and I ended up literally
mid meetings transitioning to belike, I can just do this for you
for this much a month better.
And then me going to Holly very.
Irrationally and irresponsiblybeing like, I'm quitting my job
like two weeks later.
There was no like math behindthe madness for me, which Holly,
(07:33):
Holly was a little bit more likestrategic with her.
Holly (07:38):
Oh my goodness.
I absolutely honestly just likelove reflecting back on this.
It is like almost bring tears ofjoy to my eyes because it's such
a funny experience.
I remember sitting downsimilarly with a client and then
leaving that appointment I.
Getting on the phone with mymanager, who's both of our
manager, and I was just beingpushed to sell a program that
(08:00):
they really did not need.
And it was just, it wasunsettling to me because I was
like, I'm gonna do right by thisclient.
I built this relationship, I'min the community with them, and
Amber and I just kept havingthese conversations together.
We're like, what are we doing?
This is just not okay.
And then, so it was probablylike four months, maybe about
(08:20):
four months later.
I remember being on thereceiving end of that phone call
from Amber.
And we had been talking aboutthis for a while and I similarly
had built a website on the sideand we're like, okay, we can do
this.
It's pretty low level.
Wasn't the high risk client totake on?
But I was like, oh my gosh,Amber, if we quit our jobs, a,
we have a steady paycheck, wehave great benefits.
(08:41):
There's potential for higherincome with it being a
commission based job as well.
And I just bought a multi-unit.
A bunch of crazy things weregoing on in my life and I was
like, we need to think aboutthis.
We need an accountant.
We need bookkeeping.
We needed a attorney on ourside.
We've gotta figure this out.
And she was like, I'm quitting.
I'm like, okay, let's do this.
(09:02):
But it definitely felt like itwas this, hold my feet.
Were digging in a little bit onthe side of the cliff and
Amber's just trust me.
Let's sleep.
And it ended up being great.
Russel (09:10):
Yeah.
I mean is that like an analogyfor really your guys' Yeah.
Overall dynamic and one, onesounds like maybe a risk taker
here and the other one soundslike, let's.
Let's think about this.
Let's plan this out a littlemore.
I think
Amber (09:19):
within reason, like I think we're both definitely risk
takers, obviously like you growand develop to, and you become
more of a risk taker.
But I think it does just speakto one of the biggest things
about our partnership is we'relike a yin and yang when it
comes to professionally, how weoperate.
And I am like leading more ofthe creative side of things like
that.
More just idea, whatever, andthen Holly's very operational,
(09:40):
gets it done.
So it's like us together.
It feels like without the other,it would never would've become
what it was So we're reallygrateful for Yeah, the balance
of.
Holly (09:50):
It's something that we've really seen, um, develop and
flourish and we've reallyfigured out that really early on
due to an exercise that I thinkit was Amber's aunt gave us
about, excuse me, about valuesand that turned into us being,
oh, like we do have differentskillsets, let's evaluate this
and let's trust each other withcertain parts of the clients we
(10:11):
were managing and do thosethings and divide and conquer.
And it's been really cool tosee.
But yeah, I think I love it whenAmber comes to me and says,
Holly, I have this crazy ideaand I'm already like, yes, let's
go.
Like I love the vision, I lovethe mind there.
And when she's telling me, I'malready figuring how we with
does.
(10:31):
If you go for a walk with uswhen we're walking and having
coffee or over dinner, I feellike it's a fun conversation to
follow because ideas and thingsjust like bounce so quickly and
it's really dynamic.
Russel (10:43):
I, we, we, you're just gonna have to start recording
your walks and, and maybe that'syour PO podcast is the, we've,
Holly (10:49):
we've talked about it.
Russel (10:50):
Walk and talk with Holly and Amber.
Holly (10:52):
Yep.
Russel (10:54):
I wanna highlight something, that stood out that
you said there.
I've certainly heard lots ofdifferent partnership stories,
good, bad, and ugly, but theidea, right, and it's easy to
get caught up in all theexcitement and the energy of
when you're starting a business.
But I love that exercise youshared, you did of, of, of focus
on values.
At the end of the day, skillsets will work themselves out,
but what are your shared values?
And probably not a different,like you said earlier than a
(11:15):
marriage, but, um, making sureyou have those conversations
about do you really want, whatdo you really value?
Amber (11:21):
Yeah.
You know, it's interesting.
So we didn't do that exerciseuntil a year into our company.
So when we first started, wetook our own clients and we
didn't merge anything.
It was just building one brand.
And it was that exercise a yearin that we started merging, like
Holly was saying.
And then that's when like ourgrowth blew up at the time, like
I think that was about fiveyears ago that we did that.
(11:42):
I honestly don't even rememberwhat our shared values were.
I think they were like.
A lot had to do with thelifestyle and family and friends
and just professional.
One of the values I think wascareer.
And I think what's reallyinteresting is how I think
that's changed over the years.
Like we've continuously had tochange our company, that's just
honestly it's like kind ofsomething me to think back on.
(12:03):
We probably could do thatactivity periodically.
I think that was a reallytelling exercise and it was a
very big propeller in a lot ofour growth,
Holly (12:14):
It's so funny.
I feel like this is a wholenother topic we could dive into.
Okay.
But I remember during that,those early days of conversation
I had come from managing a teamoutside of this company that was
so challenging.
And I was like, I never wannamanage people ever again.
And then we started growing.
(12:34):
We're like, what?
How are we gonna grow?
I thought I was gonna operatemore freelance style or just
take a job on when I wanted,like flexibility in my time and
schedule is always been one ofmy propellers.
And I remember when Amber waslike, I think I should hire
someone.
I was like, no.
Um, but now it's one of myfavorite pieces of it is our
team and growing that cultureand bringing people on and just
(12:56):
like seeing their careers andthem invest in something and get
excited about something.
Um, so it's really fun to lookback and be like, I was so anti
having a team at first and now Idon't, we wouldn't.
Be here without them, you know?
Russel (13:09):
Yeah.
Never, never say never isprobably what no business owner
should ever do.
That's an interesting thoughtprocess you shared and I'm sure
for some folks out there mightsay your values never really
change, but I imagine there'soften, if, if that is true,
we'll say for a second that, buthow, how those manifest
themselves and how you get tostretch those values or work
(13:30):
those values.
Can find many different ways inthe business.
So that might be an interestingexercise to do again.
Amber (13:35):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Russel (13:37):
Call your aunt.
Well, something you, you alsodropped there is you, you said
this moment and tried around thesame time of values as, as I
think you used the words blewup.
Was that a pretty fast thingthat happened for you?
Tell us a little more behindthat.
Very, very s simple butimpactful statement.
Amber (13:54):
Yeah.
It was honestly, I, I think backon the timing, there was a few
factors that happened.
Um, it was one us merging, whichessentially I think gave the
energy of our company, way more,um, I don't even know the word
for it, it just propelled itquicker.
But then we hired and we had oneemployee for close to a year,
and then it was like after that,within one year we had hired six
(14:17):
more employees.
It was crazy, we didn't alwaysmake the best educated decisions
about things like we did a, tooka lot of risks.
We saw the vision.
But simultaneously, we had COVIDhappen, which normally you think
that would like make a com, likeit kind of pulled back a
company.
But for us, we did a big PReffort where we created a
(14:37):
fundraiser and we sold t-shirtsand it, we got so much news
coverage media, social mediacoverage.
And I think alongside that andthen hiring our first employee,
it all just took off, so thatwas, it was one year that
happened.
And then from the year two toyear now, it's just been a lot
of continued growth.
(14:58):
But it was that first two and ahalf years that there was really
massive expansion.
Holly (15:03):
People also realized they needed to be online, um, in
order to still reach people.
Yeah.
So I think we saw a lot of thatalongside it, so.
Mm-hmm.
Um, it was some fast growth.
Trial and error along the way.
Russel (15:17):
What's interesting too, and just kinda hearing your
story is that I think a lot ofagencies experience that,
especially the ones that arestill around today, that
everyone got their.
Got punched in the mouthinitially during covid and onset
and probably obviously extendswell beyond agencies as well.
But then we did have this kindof rush to digital, uh, era of,
oh crap.
(15:37):
Now I really need to market inthe business world.
But it seems you guys have beenable really to continue that,
which has been, I will honestlysay in the last two years, or
even a little bit more now, hasbeen a little bit more turbulent
for agencies.
But that doesn't sound like it'sbeen the case for you guys.
Amber (15:51):
Yeah, no, I feel like we really focus, like at the core
of who we are on foundationalmarketing, so like telling your
story, building our SEO, havinga really strong online presence
like.
Having a basic social mediastrategy.
And then on top of that we doads and like more aggressive
programs.
So I think that has been why,because people know that no
matter what they need to havethat foundation.
(16:14):
So I think agencies that focusjust on ads, definitely a lot
more turbulent, but I thinkthat's been our saving grace
with all of it.
Russel (16:20):
It is just so funny.
I feel like in so many parts oflife, if you just say, go back
to foundations, go to thebasics, focus on those
essentials.
That's probably the winningrecipe.
No matter what.
No matter what we're talkingabout.
Holly (16:31):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think we really Is that invalues?
Russel (16:33):
Is that in your values somewhere?
Amber (16:36):
Yeah.
Holly (16:37):
I think it really comes down to as well, like we came
from an agency that was justsales, everybody was a number
and treated that way.
And we really value creating arelationship with our client.
We've navigated some reallytrying things with our clients,
through their businesses aswell.
So I feel like just like havingthat partnership, we always want
people to feel like we're a partof their team.
(16:59):
Also, it's a little bitdifferent of an experience for
people that work with us.
Um, rather than just beingcalling a one 800 number and
okay, your marketing's going, Ihave no idea where my dollars
are going.
We're pretty invested andinvolved with the clients.
Russel (17:14):
I imagine there's no shortage of whirlwind stories.
I mean, to your point of kindof, I think we said multiple
times, there's so many tangentswe can go down, but hiring as
many people, as you said, in arelatively short amount of time,
I imagine you've got a, oops,let's never do that again pro
tip out there and then maybesomething like, oh, I'm really
glad we did this and we did thatreally well.
Amber (17:33):
I feel like both came to mind.
I'm like, never do this again islike.
I mean, this feels reallyself-explanatory and like a
lesson we probably didn't needto learn, but like check
references, call them, focus onexperience, do your due
diligence with hiring.
I feel like sometimes in theagency world it can be we need
help, we need this.
This looks good.
But taking your time, hiring Ithink is, is crucial.
(17:55):
And making sure that you don'tmake really costly mistakes for
your culture and your clientexperience.
And then I think that one thingthat I feel like we've learned
that is so helpful and we wouldlove to tell their businesses or
agencies hiring There is reallytwo types of workers, right?
There's task oriented workers,so people that are really good
(18:16):
at getting stuff done on achecklist with a clear
procedure.
And then there's like managerialcreative, like more can look at
stuff, manage it type of minds,and making sure that you place
the right people in thatmanagerial role can like, make
or break your company.
And one thing that we found atrait is that.
(18:36):
Employees who have tried theirown freelance or owning their
own company in some way and arechoosing to go back to a team
and a company have been just themost.
I don't know.
It's just a very, if you'relooking for someone that you can
lean on, that's something thatwe highly consider.
Russel (18:54):
Yeah, that's a great one.
We were in the same boat of thepeople that had just been in,
been through it but decided itwasn't no longer for them.
Hands down.
Best team members.
Yeah.
Um, there we go.
You broke the secret sauce.
There's gonna be a huge rush foreverybody that's been in, I
shouldn't said
Holly (19:07):
that.
Seriously.
Russel (19:10):
To add Holly.
Holly (19:11):
Honestly, that was the one that I was going to lean on
too, just because it's prettytried and true.
I've spoken to other people whoown companies and I've shared
that as well and it makes sensebecause they just understand all
the different hats that youwear.
I feel like when you're anemployee of a company, it's
really hard to see sometimes,outside of your role.
And so many times Amber and Ilike we do operations days and
(19:32):
we like try to just like reallyfocus on working on the.
As you can see, like we pingpong back and forth and we were
like working on a list of 20things at one time.
It's just how we operate andthen sometimes it's like hard to
see all those other things thatare going on and I feel like
that person who's been in thoseshoes a little bit has an
understanding, the wheels areturning elsewhere and like we
have to be doing things, um,behind the scenes as well.
Russel (19:55):
They're, they're accustomed to some of that
chaos.
Yes.
And I, and I, I don't feel, Iwouldn't feel too bad about the
references piece and you, toyour point, it seems so common
sense, but I'd be willing to beta lot of agencies don't check
references until they have theirOh crap moment of.
Well, that would've been good.
We could have found that out ifwe would've checked references.
Yeah.
Amber (20:13):
Or even just doing your research.
Like I think we had one crazyexperience where there was all,
if we had just dug a littledeeper, we would've found this
information online.
And I.
Yeah, it's just, I think peoplenot doing their due diligence or
going off of a vibe of someoneor liking them is just the
biggest mistake.
'cause you're also, you're notjust putting your clients at
(20:33):
risk, you're putting yourcompany at risk, you're putting
your other team members at risktoo.
One person can poison a companyand it's just, it's so
important.
Russel (20:42):
Hear it here folks..
Learn from Holly and Amberbefore you experience it
yourself.
Speaking of risks you guys atsome point in here,
nonchalantly, I think acquiredanother business or something
along those lines where, how didwe come about this idea and oh
Holly (20:58):
my goodness, go down
Russel (20:59):
that path.
Holly (21:00):
I love this question too, because it's not something we
often talk about.
But one thing that was reallyimportant to both of us along
the way is really having controlof the different departments in
our company.
So many marketing agenciesoutsource to freelancers or
companies overseas, and you do.
Everything else, like it's thatquality control, you lose that.
(21:21):
But something that I can hearAmber saying is we need to have
an understanding of like ourhosting and the tech and we need
to have an understanding ofwhat's going on here and here
and we are really fortunate to.
Connect a local hosting companyearly on when in our career in
starting this company, and oneof the things we would joke
about is we wanna own thiscompany in 10 years.
(21:43):
It was like a 10 year dream.
But we've just formed a reallysolid working partnership with
the owner of it.
And it was the one area that wehad that we were still
technically outsourcing and wedidn't really have an
understanding of what was goingon in the background of the
hosting piece.
I mean, your security, yourfunctionality of websites.
And so much goes into that andour support and we realized that
(22:07):
if that ever went away.
Like we would be really notokay.
And fortunately, timing justworked out where the owner of
that company, he now works withus.
We still have that beautifulpartnership, but he was like, I
don't wanna run the businessanymore.
So similar to that employeeconversation we just talked
about hiring.
He was like, I wanna just dowhat I do really well and I
(22:28):
don't wanna have to worry aboutbilling clients or like doing
all these pieces.
So we were able to acquire that.
Russel (22:35):
Just so like that.
Yeah, just acquire that.
Just that,
Amber (22:37):
you know, it kind of did just happen like that.
It was like he just hit, they, Ithink they hit that point in
owning a company too, where theywere ready for a big change and
we were their first call and itwas it, I think because of those
years of talking about it andvisualizing it, it came together
so quickly.
We all already knew what itwould look like.
Holly (22:55):
I remember, this conversation came about in
November, the year prior, andAmber and I chatted and we were
like, yeah, I think we'll be ina place to talk about this,
think about this in June.
And then he was like, can weclose on this for January one?
And I was like.
Okay.
Like we have a whole differentconversation to have, but
because we'd worked together forso long, there was already so
(23:15):
many procedures that werealready integrated into our
business.
So there's obviously a lot ofwork that's still continuing to
be done to make things seamless.
But it did feel like it wasrelatively a smooth process
because of that workingrelationship.
Russel (23:28):
Yeah, I, I mean, I love that.
We're talking about apartnership or a merger or
anything along those lines, thatwe gotta have the good working
relationship first before weever, it's really just like
dating.
I mean, I guess goes back towhat you guys said at the
beginning, it's like a marriage,right?
If everything's going well inthe dating process, then we
don't have to overly complicatethe next steps and we can trust
and we can believe in.
But really just even seems likeyou guys are just really great
(23:50):
about seeing an opportunity,seizing it, taking advantage and
not getting too bogged down inthe Well, what if it doesn't
work?
Oh,
Amber (23:58):
yeah.
Oh my gosh.
I mean, I think you hit acertain point in that I had done
a lot of mindset work beforestarting a company.
So like I knew a lot of this,but it's still just ingrained in
us.
But you go in business longenough and like you just realize
that's not even a thing on thetable.
It just doesn't matter.
If it doesn't work, it doesn'twork like you figure it out.
And I mean, you learn how to bemore strategic and make more
(24:18):
educated decisions to better thechances that something's gonna
go the way you want it to.
But I, it's, to me, there's noplace in my life where.
That's even an option to thinkabout really.
Holly (24:28):
I think there's a piece of that too, like calculated
risk, like some things that Ithink we've done, like people
would look at and be like,that's absolutely insane.
But it's, we do think about thethings that we're doing.
Sometimes it's like, well, I.
Just like we're living on aprayer, our plan is hope and
we've moved forward with it andit's worked out really well.
But I think we also do talkabout what is the worst case
(24:49):
scenario?
And are we gonna be happy andhealthy and surviving?
And, you know, we'll alwaysfigure out a way to take care of
people, our team and ourclients, and ourselves and each
other.
So I think that's what we leanon.
Russel (25:04):
See now you're challenging and you didn't even
realize you're doing this.
You're challenging somethingI've been talking with folks a
lot lately is not letting hopebe a strategy that we should do
enough groundwork to make surethat strategy is certainty.
But what I'm just gonna hear yousay there, and you can tell me
how you, if this is how youthink about it or not, and you
can challenge back by all means,is that hey, hope can be a
strategy if you're willing to dowhat it, what it takes, whatever
(25:27):
it takes, maybe to some degreeto ensure that.
It happens successfully
Amber (25:31):
I think that connecting the dots of what both of us
said, I guess is I don't thinkhope is fully a strategy.
I feel like we learned thatlesson a lot in the beginning.
I think that it's hope is a corepart of the strategy.
You can't like succeed withoutthe belief in it, but you do
need to do the research andcreate the plan.
To some extent.
I think where that becomes aproblem is the beginning, where
(25:52):
people paralyze themselves withI need to get all these things
perfectly in a row before I dothis.
When it's that's not the case.
It's like a balance of hope andstrategy to bring it together, I
guess.
So I think it's, I think it'slike a little bit of all of
that.
Holly (26:08):
I think that we are feeling really grateful.
This past year we're finally ina place where we're making more
strategic decisions based onlike data and information and
just not, you know, leaning onour guts.
And Amber was saying when wewere talking about hiring, just
oh, what is their vibe?
Does it mesh with us?
Do we like this person?
We're able to be a little bitmore strategic from who we hire
(26:29):
to our finances and makingdecisions based on the actual
business needs and like what wecan handle, what makes sense and
go to the numbers and look atthe projections.
And we just, were not in a placeto even do that for so long.
So it does feel really good tobe making quality decisions
based on information now.
Russel (26:50):
Nice.
I think that's so important,especially as a business grows
that it, it's just like a bigship.
You can't turn it and get aninstant results.
You, you have, it takes time.
So we have to leverage data andsome of that foresight.
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna amendthen, uh, that is, we might
leverage some hope and belief togive us the energy to make a
move.
But we're gonna quickly backthat up with, with strategy and,
(27:11):
and refine the intent and thepurpose and the execution of it.
We're just gonna, not, as yousaid, I think Amber of sit back
and wait for perfection tohappen to actually make moves.
Yeah.
Amber (27:22):
Beautifully said.
Russel (27:24):
Yes.
90% of my job is justsummarizing what people tell me.
So, uh.
Yes.
Speaking of another move thatmight sound risky for those that
know and experience is, you guysrecently hired a biz dev person.
Yeah.
And that might not sound likerisky to some, but as I shared,
(27:46):
prerecord, every agency has afailed salesperson story.
Um.
But we're, we've got our fingerscrossed this will not be the
case with Local Image.
So how, how'd you, how'd youarrive at this decision and how
are you not gonna fall into thattrap?
Amber (28:01):
Yeah.
Um, so I guess we'll start withthe failed salesperson'cause
that's kind of what got us tothis.
This situation or now, buthonestly, it's I don't even have
like a funny story around thisor like, because at the end of
the day, I really believe inradical accountability as a
company owner.
And if we have a failed hiringstory, there's probably a big
role that we've played in it.
(28:21):
Um, and not anticipating how tohandle that or what just, I
personally think that we shouldtake full accountability for the
experience we had, butultimately we're ready for a
business dev person a coupleyears ago.
And we hired them and it justessentially, we hired them to do
account management and businessdevelopment, which was what I
(28:43):
was doing.
And I think it actually was abig lesson for me in, you can
expect people to have the samework ethic that you do for your
own company or just in general.
I feel like as entrepreneurs weare a different breed
professionally and like I feellike nothing that didn't click
for me until that experience andwe just hired someone thinking
(29:03):
that like it was gonna beexactly what we needed without
doing our due diligence and likereally?
Developing the role outline likewe should have.
So I take full responsibilityfor that.
But I think just, it is also abig lesson in how important
mindset is when hiring anemployee.
Like really paying attention tohow they approach, especially
(29:24):
for sales, but how they approachtheir personal life.
What's their mindset like?
Do they have a positive outlook?
Are they motivated?
Do they do that in their ownpersonal aspects and with this
new business development person,after we learn that lesson, it's
like night and day, seeing thedifference, just how they show
up with motivation andexcitement and positivity and
drive and wanting to learnversus that was not the
(29:44):
experience with the last one.
And I, I just feel like that'sbeen my biggest lesson is like
knowing who someone ispersonally and what their drive
is.
And mindset plays a big role init.
Russel (29:57):
So you already had your failed?
Amber (29:59):
Yeah.
No, we already did.
We did.
Yeah.
Okay.
Russel (30:02):
You guys are good then.
That will never happen
Amber (30:03):
again.
Russel (30:04):
So,
Amber (30:05):
yeah.
Our current guy is phenomenaland it's such a game changer,
when you have someone that canbring that to the table as well,
and it's not just the companyowners, it's been a game
changer.
Holly (30:14):
Yeah, so also it's hiring someone to be the face of your
business, which is a prettyscary, leap and that's a lot of
trust because they're people areused to me and Amber being out
in the community and like we arethe first points of contact.
So when you're sending someoneout there to talk about what we
do and build those trustedrelationships.
(30:35):
It's a huge thing to let go andjust release.
But it's been great.
Russel (30:40):
Yes.
Can I get an amen there?
We, if we had, we have, we had achurch choir in the background,
they would start singing.
But that's such a goodperspective you shared because a
lot of times, I think why itleads to that notion is why an
agency is doing it and it, andit's more, I think sometimes a
desperation tactic of we wantmore business.
Yeah.
So what do we do, we hire asalesperson.
And probably the only questionwe're asking is can they sell?
(31:03):
And what are salespeople reallygood at doing?
Convincing someone that they cansell.
And that doesn't quite work inthis space, but all the other
factors, it sounds like youshared in terms of that they're
gonna represent the face of theC community and what their total
person aspect, not just simplywhether that they're gonna be
able to try to convince someoneto sell our services.
I think that's, that's a greatinsight.
Holly (31:24):
We're solving
Russel (31:24):
the problem right now.
Holly (31:25):
Exactly.
I think with marketing too, ifyou just sell someone on a
service and they don't valuemarketing that relationship.
It's not gonna go very far.
Because we're constantlyeducating people that we're
working with on marketing andlike where those value points
are.
So we're continuously having toearn their trust based on
(31:45):
performance and what we'redoing.
So you can't just go out andsell someone for a quick deal.
I.
Because it won't last.
So there has to be more to it.
Russel (31:53):
Second.
Amen.
Um, lots of amens.
Yes.
I, I think that's really greatperspective as well.
And just the idea that I thinkowners sometimes forget how much
strategy and how much of thatbuy-in and expertise they're
sharing in a conversation thatit's very hard for someone to
walk in off the street and everperform at that same level and
that ultimately.
(32:13):
What, what you're sharing thereis that it's not just a service
and it's not just a commoditybuy, sell transaction, that this
isn't investment orrelationships far more strategic
than selling hot dogs or I don'tknow what is.
Whatever sells.
People sell cars.
Cars.
There you go.
Amber (32:29):
Love it.
Yeah, absolutely.
Russel (32:31):
Well man, so many more tangents can go on, but I guess,
we guess we gotta start to wrapthis thing up someday.
I'm just curious then, as youguys are looking at the future,
I know there's gotta be some bigdreams ahead of, for you guys.
Um, what does the future looklike for Local Image?
Amber (32:45):
You know, it's funny.
I feel like right now we're,this is one of the things we're
saying, you know, we've been atthis for six years and I think
personally both of our lives arechanging and evolving, and I
think that's something thatwe're recalibrating right now.
Just tentatively what we've beentalking about is we're gonna
continue going, like right nowwe're really on a path of almost
duplicating.
Instead of going from a smallboutique agency that has a
(33:07):
handful of clients with oneproject manager, what does it
look like to have two projectmanagers and two pods of clients
and really start being able toexpand markets and take this
thing more national?
I feel like we're at acrossroads where we have a
choice to either stay what weare or do that and I think
that's the goal right now, butwe're in the process of
developing that.
So, um, my goal, one last thingI'll say is I would love for
(33:28):
Local Image within a coupleyears to really be like a
nationally recognized resourcefor local business marketing and
have our name out there.
So that's our goal.
Holly (33:36):
Yeah.
I mean, we expanded and openedour second location, right on
our five year mark, that littlething.
So that was just a little thing,the whole acquiring a business.
It was just a little thing.
But we were, you know, we hadworked toward that and we really
wanted to do it and it's justbeen an exciting venture just
growing into a new market.
And Amber said, I thinksomething that's always going to
(33:59):
be important to us is thecareers that our team members
have as well.
We always want there to beopportunity for them to grow.
And the people who are with ushave been with us for, they've
been through the startup phasewith us, which is, you know,
something that's really special.
But we want them to always havea career and a home with us.
So just like continuing toexpand and look for
(34:22):
opportunities to do that in thiscrazy changing world of
marketing.
It's like a fun piece of thepuzzle for us to keep our eyes
open too.
Russel (34:30):
All right.
You got your posse, your ride ordies, and you got a great vision
and a great mindset to go aboutit.
Can't wait to see how thatevolves for you guys.
Last big question for you.
Are entrepreneurs born remain.
Amber (34:44):
Oh, born for sure.
Russel (34:47):
Oh, oh.
You know, my, my ears alwaysperk up a solid born answer.
It's a, I think it can be
Amber (34:51):
both, but I do think that you need the influence of a born
entrepreneur.
I feel that's my opinion.
I, I do think it's somethingthat you're born with.
Holly (35:01):
Ooh.
I think I honestly, I wannacontinue to ponder this a little
bit because just thinking aboutmy own personal experience, I
see that tried and true inAmber.
I never thought I was gonna likeopen or have a business or be a
business owner.
I had dabbled in the things likeMary Kay and along the way
through college, looking forsome supplemental income.
It just really wasn't on myradar.
(35:22):
I don't have people in my familywho have had their own
businesses and it just didn'treally an avenue.
I do agree like.
Certain pieces of yourpersonality and who you are
built in to be willing to takethose risks, to manage your own
time and to be hungry enough togo out there and get after it,
(35:44):
because no one's gonna do thatfor you.
So there's gotta be someinternal drive there.
Yeah.
Russel (35:49):
Our third amen of the conversation, probably more, and
I just missed them earlier.
Yes.
There we go.
Seeing it.
Well, people wanna know moreabout Local Image.
Where can they go?
Amber (36:01):
Um, we go to our website, so localimageco.com.
We also are about to like rekickup our new social strategy,
which is exciting, so you canfollow us on Instagram,
Facebook, and YouTube andTikTok.
Um, but I feel like probably ourwebsite and then from there, if
anyone's interested in talkingto us, booking a consult is the
best thing to do.
So.
Russel (36:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Did she get it all, Holly?
Holly (36:23):
Yes.
She got it all.
Yeah.
Pass
Russel (36:25):
the test.
Amber.
Um, wonderful.
Well, there you have it folks.
Um, thank you so much Holly andAmber for sharing your, your
wonderful insights, your ups anddowns, your lessons learned, uh,
really showing the power of agreat partnership, the power of
mindset, value, fundamentals.
So many great lessons we couldtake away from today and really
appreciate you taking the timeto share that with us.
(36:45):
Yeah.
Holly (36:46):
Thanks for the great conversation.
It's been a lot of fun.
Thank you.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of An Agency Story
podcast where we share realstories of marketing agency
owners from around the world.
Are you interested in being aguest on the show?
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
(37:09):
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.
To learn more, visitperformancefaction.com.
The ups and downs of owning a company and the
(37:31):
insecurity of money, right?
We're the first people that willnot take a paycheck if, you
know, finances are a struggle.
Two or three years ago, Iremember, Amber and I do so much
together.
We're grocery shopping and I'mgonna struggle to tell this
because we're like going throughthe aisle.
Amber and I are pretty healthconscious and really value
quality food and organic eggs.
We look at each other and wereally just didn't have much
(37:52):
money and we were trying to makereally big leaps and we both
just look at each other andwe're, we're like, we're buying
the styrofoam, bottom shelf eggsright now.
This is how low we are rightnow, but we just have to keep
going and we're still gonna eatprotein for breakfast.
But I just remember like lookingat each other being like, well,
this is like, this is real.
We are broke.
Broke.
We can't even get the eggs wewanna get,
Russel (38:10):
Life could be hard.
The real struggles of a businessowner.
Holly (38:14):
We were traveling for work, trying to open up another
location in Tampa and I rememberwe were like, we're gonna use
the hotel bikes.
We're not gonna get a rentalcar, we're not gonna get an
Uber.
We like biked across the bridgeto get those eggs and biked back
and we really worked for it.
Amber (38:26):
I think that's such a good representation of just like
the self-sacrifice that you makefor the bigger picture.
Over the past year, like Ireally feel like we finally made
it.
It's like all those moments wereso worth it, but like, holy cow.
You have to have some extremefaith and persistence.
I think that's honestly why Isay an entrepreneur is born
because those are the momentsthat I think like, like most
people can't handle or mostpeople are not willing to take
(38:48):
that type of like stress or likeexpectation and risk.
That was a perfect memory toround it out.
Russel (38:54):
Yes.
You've given me a new idea for awhole nother sub niche of the
podcast, of the frugalitystories of agency owners trying
to make it.
But there's no shortage ofthose.
That's awesome.
Love that.
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 (00:40):
Welcome to another episode of An Agency Story.
Today's guests are a trulydynamic duo, bringing the heat
all the way from Maine to thecoastal waters of Charleston,
South Carolina, reshaping thelandscape of local business
marketing every single step ofthe way.
Founders of Local Image.
Welcome to the show today, HollyBruns and Amber McDonald.
Holly (00:59):
Thanks for having us.
Russel (01:01):
I'm really excited but I've got a hot take or a hot
seat, I should say.
Question for you right off thebat.
Better Seafood, Maine orCharleston?
Oh my
Amber (01:09):
gosh.
Maine, hands down is Maine.
Russel (01:11):
So, so definitively like you didn't even, you didn't even
blink an eye at answering
Holly (01:15):
that.
This has been a, this has been ahot topic question since we
moved to Charleston.
'cause it is such a food scene.
Um, but Maine really, reallyjust hits it out of the park.
Russel (01:24):
Okay.
Now we've already got peoplejust, uh, ears are glued to
what's gonna happen in the restof the conversation.
Who wants to take a stab?
Tell us what Local Image doesand who do you do it for?
Holly (01:34):
So we are a full service digital marketing agency.
We really pride ourselves onworking with local businesses,
so small to medium.
I think Amber says it best, thenear me businesses when you're
doing a search.
We have a variety of servicesfrom website development, ads
management, social mediamanagement, SEO.
(01:56):
Our goal is really to be a onestop shop for the local business
owner.
Russel (02:00):
Yes.
And perfectly well said andwe're gonna, we got all kinds of
great topics today to talk aboutwhat the agency looks like.
But before we do that, I justwant to hear about the lives of
Young Holly and Amber.
What was going on?
Who did you want to be when yougrow up?
Tell us all the good stuff.
Amber (02:16):
Honestly, it's so funny, like I think back on this
question and I don't really everthought think I had like a clear
answer for that.
It was more so not knowing who Iwas gonna be.
I just always was a veryentrepreneurial, big work ethic
work all the time.
Person and I flew where lifetook me with careers.
I don't have a college degree.
I went from nannying tobartending and then I ended up
(02:38):
getting recruited for a salesjob because of my bartending or
bar management experience.
And I literally naturally justflowed into marketing and it
became my whole career.
So, yeah, I feel like just likebig work gal, I've always had a
work ethic from the time I was14, and it led me to building a
company.
Russel (02:56):
I love a good varied experience story.
I'm in the same bucket.
Yeah.
But when you think about any oneof those unique experiences that
you shared, what do you thinkmost applies to what you do
today?
Amber (03:06):
It was my career before this.
It's hard because it depends,like, there's two questions to
that, the agency and then alsomy role in the agency.
So I'm big with the sales andthe client relationships, which
if I had to pick one that helpedme develop that was my bar
management and hospitalityexperience, like just learning
to deal with people.
But if we're talking aboutmarketing skill sets and running
(03:27):
my company, it is my job beforethis, which was a sales rep for
a national marketing agencywhere I really got to learn the
ins and outs of the industry andthe strategy, the strategies,
digital marketing itself.
So I think it's a two-facedanswer for that.
Russel (03:42):
Imagine there's probably, if you really even
broke that down further, there'sprobably even more faces Oh,
yeah.
Than even those two roles.
Tell us what about you, Holly?
What was going on in your, ohgoodness.
Your young life.
Holly (03:51):
Yeah, absolutely.
I.
I think I really struggled tofigure out what my direction
would be early on through highschool and the college days.
But I ended up getting a degreein pre-law.
I thought I was gonna gocontinue on to be a family law
attorney.
And I quickly learned that wasnot for the faint of heart.
And I was interning at the DA'soffice and just like any family
(04:14):
law.
Case that gets to that level.
It's really, really trying.
So I learned I was notemotionally strong enough and
got out for that.
Um, and then had kind of a windyjourney.
I've definitely dabbled in likehospitality and got into pro
property management, likeclimbing the corporate ladder in
that world for a while.
That definitely made me a littlebit tougher, and ended up.
(04:38):
Getting brought into sales andmarketing roles through a few
different companies and that ledto Amber and I doing some
networking and meeting eachother.
And we both ended up working forthe same national digital
marketing agency that shementioned.
It's a high level overview oflike my twisty road there, but
never did I ever think I wasgonna be in marketing or be the
(04:59):
owner of an agency.
Russel (05:01):
Pre-law?
All There's a facet I imaginehas to come handy.
I, I mean, obviously you, yousaid it was a struggle that
particular type of law, wasthere mm-hmm a case you ran into
and like, I'm done with this.
Uh, this was like one-stopmoment here.
Holly (05:14):
Not specifically, but I think it was just seeing so many
and being in files and likebeing in court and just like
seeing how that plays out.
I would definitely have to pivottypes of law.
And I tried real estate.
I worked at as a paralegal in areal estate law office for a
little while, and real estatedoes not move in the winter in
(05:34):
Maine, it's pretty slow.
This was over 10 years ago now.
But I was like, oh, this is soboring and social media just
wasn't cutting it anymore.
And when someone's like bored ofsocial media, then that's a
weird spot to be in.
Russel (05:47):
Well, it sounds like it all worked out well for the both
of you, and it sounds like you,I think you guys said you worked
at the same company, or did youhave like the stepbrothers
moment when you meet?
Like did we just become bestfriends or how, how, what?
Tell us about your firstinteraction.
Amber (06:01):
Yeah.
No, we actually didn't, I lookback now as oh it was all very
meant to be, but it was organic.
We met networking.
We obviously like it liked eachother like vibe, but we weren't
really friends outside of that.
And then it was like, oh hey,like I know you.
We were working for the samejob.
We started working reallyclosely together'cause it was
remote.
So we would spend our Thursdaysjust doing our cold calls or our
(06:22):
work together and.
I think slowly over that yearand a half, a friendship
developed, but it was moreprofessional friendship.
Um, and then that's when we bothstarted complaining about the
same things within our, likeroles.
Just frustration with thecompany, like caring so much
about quotas and not the clientsand not delivering with the
(06:43):
products we were selling.
And that was when we startedtalking about starting our
agency and then basically weleaped and then like through
building a company together, webecame more personally friends.
So it was a very windy Road towhere we are now.
And now we're like marriedpeople with mistake us for being
married.
Russel (07:00):
Oh, yes.
Oh yes.
Well, we're gonna have to findout more about your, your
marriage slash partnership therethat I know is basically any,
any business partnership.
What was that moment, like whenyou just decided, okay, we're
going to do this.
Amber (07:12):
It was a little, I mean, I feel like for me it was I went
into a, a sales meeting for aclient and I ended up literally
mid meetings transitioning to belike, I can just do this for you
for this much a month better.
And then me going to Holly very.
Irrationally and irresponsiblybeing like, I'm quitting my job
like two weeks later.
There was no like math behindthe madness for me, which Holly,
(07:33):
Holly was a little bit more likestrategic with her.
Holly (07:38):
Oh my goodness.
I absolutely honestly just likelove reflecting back on this.
It is like almost bring tears ofjoy to my eyes because it's such
a funny experience.
I remember sitting downsimilarly with a client and then
leaving that appointment I.
Getting on the phone with mymanager, who's both of our
manager, and I was just beingpushed to sell a program that
(08:00):
they really did not need.
And it was just, it wasunsettling to me because I was
like, I'm gonna do right by thisclient.
I built this relationship, I'min the community with them, and
Amber and I just kept havingthese conversations together.
We're like, what are we doing?
This is just not okay.
And then, so it was probablylike four months, maybe about
(08:20):
four months later.
I remember being on thereceiving end of that phone call
from Amber.
And we had been talking aboutthis for a while and I similarly
had built a website on the sideand we're like, okay, we can do
this.
It's pretty low level.
Wasn't the high risk client totake on?
But I was like, oh my gosh,Amber, if we quit our jobs, a,
we have a steady paycheck, wehave great benefits.
(08:41):
There's potential for higherincome with it being a
commission based job as well.
And I just bought a multi-unit.
A bunch of crazy things weregoing on in my life and I was
like, we need to think aboutthis.
We need an accountant.
We need bookkeeping.
We needed a attorney on ourside.
We've gotta figure this out.
And she was like, I'm quitting.
I'm like, okay, let's do this.
(09:02):
But it definitely felt like itwas this, hold my feet.
Were digging in a little bit onthe side of the cliff and
Amber's just trust me.
Let's sleep.
And it ended up being great.
Russel (09:10):
Yeah.
I mean is that like an analogyfor really your guys' Yeah.
Overall dynamic and one, onesounds like maybe a risk taker
here and the other one soundslike, let's.
Let's think about this.
Let's plan this out a littlemore.
I think
Amber (09:19):
within reason, like I think we're both definitely risk
takers, obviously like you growand develop to, and you become
more of a risk taker.
But I think it does just speakto one of the biggest things
about our partnership is we'relike a yin and yang when it
comes to professionally, how weoperate.
And I am like leading more ofthe creative side of things like
that.
More just idea, whatever, andthen Holly's very operational,
(09:40):
gets it done.
So it's like us together.
It feels like without the other,it would never would've become
what it was So we're reallygrateful for Yeah, the balance
of.
Holly (09:50):
It's something that we've really seen, um, develop and
flourish and we've reallyfigured out that really early on
due to an exercise that I thinkit was Amber's aunt gave us
about, excuse me, about valuesand that turned into us being,
oh, like we do have differentskillsets, let's evaluate this
and let's trust each other withcertain parts of the clients we
(10:11):
were managing and do thosethings and divide and conquer.
And it's been really cool tosee.
But yeah, I think I love it whenAmber comes to me and says,
Holly, I have this crazy ideaand I'm already like, yes, let's
go.
Like I love the vision, I lovethe mind there.
And when she's telling me, I'malready figuring how we with
does.
(10:31):
If you go for a walk with uswhen we're walking and having
coffee or over dinner, I feellike it's a fun conversation to
follow because ideas and thingsjust like bounce so quickly and
it's really dynamic.
Russel (10:43):
I, we, we, you're just gonna have to start recording
your walks and, and maybe that'syour PO podcast is the, we've,
Holly (10:49):
we've talked about it.
Russel (10:50):
Walk and talk with Holly and Amber.
Holly (10:52):
Yep.
Russel (10:54):
I wanna highlight something, that stood out that
you said there.
I've certainly heard lots ofdifferent partnership stories,
good, bad, and ugly, but theidea, right, and it's easy to
get caught up in all theexcitement and the energy of
when you're starting a business.
But I love that exercise youshared, you did of, of, of focus
on values.
At the end of the day, skillsets will work themselves out,
but what are your shared values?
And probably not a different,like you said earlier than a
(11:15):
marriage, but, um, making sureyou have those conversations
about do you really want, whatdo you really value?
Amber (11:21):
Yeah.
You know, it's interesting.
So we didn't do that exerciseuntil a year into our company.
So when we first started, wetook our own clients and we
didn't merge anything.
It was just building one brand.
And it was that exercise a yearin that we started merging, like
Holly was saying.
And then that's when like ourgrowth blew up at the time, like
I think that was about fiveyears ago that we did that.
(11:42):
I honestly don't even rememberwhat our shared values were.
I think they were like.
A lot had to do with thelifestyle and family and friends
and just professional.
One of the values I think wascareer.
And I think what's reallyinteresting is how I think
that's changed over the years.
Like we've continuously had tochange our company, that's just
honestly it's like kind ofsomething me to think back on.
(12:03):
We probably could do thatactivity periodically.
I think that was a reallytelling exercise and it was a
very big propeller in a lot ofour growth,
Holly (12:14):
It's so funny.
I feel like this is a wholenother topic we could dive into.
Okay.
But I remember during that,those early days of conversation
I had come from managing a teamoutside of this company that was
so challenging.
And I was like, I never wannamanage people ever again.
And then we started growing.
(12:34):
We're like, what?
How are we gonna grow?
I thought I was gonna operatemore freelance style or just
take a job on when I wanted,like flexibility in my time and
schedule is always been one ofmy propellers.
And I remember when Amber waslike, I think I should hire
someone.
I was like, no.
Um, but now it's one of myfavorite pieces of it is our
team and growing that cultureand bringing people on and just
(12:56):
like seeing their careers andthem invest in something and get
excited about something.
Um, so it's really fun to lookback and be like, I was so anti
having a team at first and now Idon't, we wouldn't.
Be here without them, you know?
Russel (13:09):
Yeah.
Never, never say never isprobably what no business owner
should ever do.
That's an interesting thoughtprocess you shared and I'm sure
for some folks out there mightsay your values never really
change, but I imagine there'soften, if, if that is true,
we'll say for a second that, buthow, how those manifest
themselves and how you get tostretch those values or work
(13:30):
those values.
Can find many different ways inthe business.
So that might be an interestingexercise to do again.
Amber (13:35):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Russel (13:37):
Call your aunt.
Well, something you, you alsodropped there is you, you said
this moment and tried around thesame time of values as, as I
think you used the words blewup.
Was that a pretty fast thingthat happened for you?
Tell us a little more behindthat.
Very, very s simple butimpactful statement.
Amber (13:54):
Yeah.
It was honestly, I, I think backon the timing, there was a few
factors that happened.
Um, it was one us merging, whichessentially I think gave the
energy of our company, way more,um, I don't even know the word
for it, it just propelled itquicker.
But then we hired and we had oneemployee for close to a year,
and then it was like after that,within one year we had hired six
(14:17):
more employees.
It was crazy, we didn't alwaysmake the best educated decisions
about things like we did a, tooka lot of risks.
We saw the vision.
But simultaneously, we had COVIDhappen, which normally you think
that would like make a com, likeit kind of pulled back a
company.
But for us, we did a big PReffort where we created a
(14:37):
fundraiser and we sold t-shirtsand it, we got so much news
coverage media, social mediacoverage.
And I think alongside that andthen hiring our first employee,
it all just took off, so thatwas, it was one year that
happened.
And then from the year two toyear now, it's just been a lot
of continued growth.
(14:58):
But it was that first two and ahalf years that there was really
massive expansion.
Holly (15:03):
People also realized they needed to be online, um, in
order to still reach people.
Yeah.
So I think we saw a lot of thatalongside it, so.
Mm-hmm.
Um, it was some fast growth.
Trial and error along the way.
Russel (15:17):
What's interesting too, and just kinda hearing your
story is that I think a lot ofagencies experience that,
especially the ones that arestill around today, that
everyone got their.
Got punched in the mouthinitially during covid and onset
and probably obviously extendswell beyond agencies as well.
But then we did have this kindof rush to digital, uh, era of,
oh crap.
(15:37):
Now I really need to market inthe business world.
But it seems you guys have beenable really to continue that,
which has been, I will honestlysay in the last two years, or
even a little bit more now, hasbeen a little bit more turbulent
for agencies.
But that doesn't sound like it'sbeen the case for you guys.
Amber (15:51):
Yeah, no, I feel like we really focus, like at the core
of who we are on foundationalmarketing, so like telling your
story, building our SEO, havinga really strong online presence
like.
Having a basic social mediastrategy.
And then on top of that we doads and like more aggressive
programs.
So I think that has been why,because people know that no
matter what they need to havethat foundation.
(16:14):
So I think agencies that focusjust on ads, definitely a lot
more turbulent, but I thinkthat's been our saving grace
with all of it.
Russel (16:20):
It is just so funny.
I feel like in so many parts oflife, if you just say, go back
to foundations, go to thebasics, focus on those
essentials.
That's probably the winningrecipe.
No matter what.
No matter what we're talkingabout.
Holly (16:31):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think we really Is that invalues?
Russel (16:33):
Is that in your values somewhere?
Amber (16:36):
Yeah.
Holly (16:37):
I think it really comes down to as well, like we came
from an agency that was justsales, everybody was a number
and treated that way.
And we really value creating arelationship with our client.
We've navigated some reallytrying things with our clients,
through their businesses aswell.
So I feel like just like havingthat partnership, we always want
people to feel like we're a partof their team.
(16:59):
Also, it's a little bitdifferent of an experience for
people that work with us.
Um, rather than just beingcalling a one 800 number and
okay, your marketing's going, Ihave no idea where my dollars
are going.
We're pretty invested andinvolved with the clients.
Russel (17:14):
I imagine there's no shortage of whirlwind stories.
I mean, to your point of kindof, I think we said multiple
times, there's so many tangentswe can go down, but hiring as
many people, as you said, in arelatively short amount of time,
I imagine you've got a, oops,let's never do that again pro
tip out there and then maybesomething like, oh, I'm really
glad we did this and we did thatreally well.
Amber (17:33):
I feel like both came to mind.
I'm like, never do this again islike.
I mean, this feels reallyself-explanatory and like a
lesson we probably didn't needto learn, but like check
references, call them, focus onexperience, do your due
diligence with hiring.
I feel like sometimes in theagency world it can be we need
help, we need this.
This looks good.
But taking your time, hiring Ithink is, is crucial.
(17:55):
And making sure that you don'tmake really costly mistakes for
your culture and your clientexperience.
And then I think that one thingthat I feel like we've learned
that is so helpful and we wouldlove to tell their businesses or
agencies hiring There is reallytwo types of workers, right?
There's task oriented workers,so people that are really good
(18:16):
at getting stuff done on achecklist with a clear
procedure.
And then there's like managerialcreative, like more can look at
stuff, manage it type of minds,and making sure that you place
the right people in thatmanagerial role can like, make
or break your company.
And one thing that we found atrait is that.
(18:36):
Employees who have tried theirown freelance or owning their
own company in some way and arechoosing to go back to a team
and a company have been just themost.
I don't know.
It's just a very, if you'relooking for someone that you can
lean on, that's something thatwe highly consider.
Russel (18:54):
Yeah, that's a great one.
We were in the same boat of thepeople that had just been in,
been through it but decided itwasn't no longer for them.
Hands down.
Best team members.
Yeah.
Um, there we go.
You broke the secret sauce.
There's gonna be a huge rush foreverybody that's been in, I
shouldn't said
Holly (19:07):
that.
Seriously.
Russel (19:10):
To add Holly.
Holly (19:11):
Honestly, that was the one that I was going to lean on
too, just because it's prettytried and true.
I've spoken to other people whoown companies and I've shared
that as well and it makes sensebecause they just understand all
the different hats that youwear.
I feel like when you're anemployee of a company, it's
really hard to see sometimes,outside of your role.
And so many times Amber and Ilike we do operations days and
(19:32):
we like try to just like reallyfocus on working on the.
As you can see, like we pingpong back and forth and we were
like working on a list of 20things at one time.
It's just how we operate andthen sometimes it's like hard to
see all those other things thatare going on and I feel like
that person who's been in thoseshoes a little bit has an
understanding, the wheels areturning elsewhere and like we
have to be doing things, um,behind the scenes as well.
Russel (19:55):
They're, they're accustomed to some of that
chaos.
Yes.
And I, and I, I don't feel, Iwouldn't feel too bad about the
references piece and you, toyour point, it seems so common
sense, but I'd be willing to beta lot of agencies don't check
references until they have theirOh crap moment of.
Well, that would've been good.
We could have found that out ifwe would've checked references.
Yeah.
Amber (20:13):
Or even just doing your research.
Like I think we had one crazyexperience where there was all,
if we had just dug a littledeeper, we would've found this
information online.
And I.
Yeah, it's just, I think peoplenot doing their due diligence or
going off of a vibe of someoneor liking them is just the
biggest mistake.
'cause you're also, you're notjust putting your clients at
(20:33):
risk, you're putting yourcompany at risk, you're putting
your other team members at risktoo.
One person can poison a companyand it's just, it's so
important.
Russel (20:42):
Hear it here folks..
Learn from Holly and Amberbefore you experience it
yourself.
Speaking of risks you guys atsome point in here,
nonchalantly, I think acquiredanother business or something
along those lines where, how didwe come about this idea and oh
Holly (20:58):
my goodness, go down
Russel (20:59):
that path.
Holly (21:00):
I love this question too, because it's not something we
often talk about.
But one thing that was reallyimportant to both of us along
the way is really having controlof the different departments in
our company.
So many marketing agenciesoutsource to freelancers or
companies overseas, and you do.
Everything else, like it's thatquality control, you lose that.
(21:21):
But something that I can hearAmber saying is we need to have
an understanding of like ourhosting and the tech and we need
to have an understanding ofwhat's going on here and here
and we are really fortunate to.
Connect a local hosting companyearly on when in our career in
starting this company, and oneof the things we would joke
about is we wanna own thiscompany in 10 years.
(21:43):
It was like a 10 year dream.
But we've just formed a reallysolid working partnership with
the owner of it.
And it was the one area that wehad that we were still
technically outsourcing and wedidn't really have an
understanding of what was goingon in the background of the
hosting piece.
I mean, your security, yourfunctionality of websites.
And so much goes into that andour support and we realized that
(22:07):
if that ever went away.
Like we would be really notokay.
And fortunately, timing justworked out where the owner of
that company, he now works withus.
We still have that beautifulpartnership, but he was like, I
don't wanna run the businessanymore.
So similar to that employeeconversation we just talked
about hiring.
He was like, I wanna just dowhat I do really well and I
(22:28):
don't wanna have to worry aboutbilling clients or like doing
all these pieces.
So we were able to acquire that.
Russel (22:35):
Just so like that.
Yeah, just acquire that.
Just that,
Amber (22:37):
you know, it kind of did just happen like that.
It was like he just hit, they, Ithink they hit that point in
owning a company too, where theywere ready for a big change and
we were their first call and itwas it, I think because of those
years of talking about it andvisualizing it, it came together
so quickly.
We all already knew what itwould look like.
Holly (22:55):
I remember, this conversation came about in
November, the year prior, andAmber and I chatted and we were
like, yeah, I think we'll be ina place to talk about this,
think about this in June.
And then he was like, can weclose on this for January one?
And I was like.
Okay.
Like we have a whole differentconversation to have, but
because we'd worked together forso long, there was already so
(23:15):
many procedures that werealready integrated into our
business.
So there's obviously a lot ofwork that's still continuing to
be done to make things seamless.
But it did feel like it wasrelatively a smooth process
because of that workingrelationship.
Russel (23:28):
Yeah, I, I mean, I love that.
We're talking about apartnership or a merger or
anything along those lines, thatwe gotta have the good working
relationship first before weever, it's really just like
dating.
I mean, I guess goes back towhat you guys said at the
beginning, it's like a marriage,right?
If everything's going well inthe dating process, then we
don't have to overly complicatethe next steps and we can trust
and we can believe in.
But really just even seems likeyou guys are just really great
(23:50):
about seeing an opportunity,seizing it, taking advantage and
not getting too bogged down inthe Well, what if it doesn't
work?
Oh,
Amber (23:58):
yeah.
Oh my gosh.
I mean, I think you hit acertain point in that I had done
a lot of mindset work beforestarting a company.
So like I knew a lot of this,but it's still just ingrained in
us.
But you go in business longenough and like you just realize
that's not even a thing on thetable.
It just doesn't matter.
If it doesn't work, it doesn'twork like you figure it out.
And I mean, you learn how to bemore strategic and make more
(24:18):
educated decisions to better thechances that something's gonna
go the way you want it to.
But I, it's, to me, there's noplace in my life where.
That's even an option to thinkabout really.
Holly (24:28):
I think there's a piece of that too, like calculated
risk, like some things that Ithink we've done, like people
would look at and be like,that's absolutely insane.
But it's, we do think about thethings that we're doing.
Sometimes it's like, well, I.
Just like we're living on aprayer, our plan is hope and
we've moved forward with it andit's worked out really well.
But I think we also do talkabout what is the worst case
(24:49):
scenario?
And are we gonna be happy andhealthy and surviving?
And, you know, we'll alwaysfigure out a way to take care of
people, our team and ourclients, and ourselves and each
other.
So I think that's what we leanon.
Russel (25:04):
See now you're challenging and you didn't even
realize you're doing this.
You're challenging somethingI've been talking with folks a
lot lately is not letting hopebe a strategy that we should do
enough groundwork to make surethat strategy is certainty.
But what I'm just gonna hear yousay there, and you can tell me
how you, if this is how youthink about it or not, and you
can challenge back by all means,is that hey, hope can be a
strategy if you're willing to dowhat it, what it takes, whatever
(25:27):
it takes, maybe to some degreeto ensure that.
It happens successfully
Amber (25:31):
I think that connecting the dots of what both of us
said, I guess is I don't thinkhope is fully a strategy.
I feel like we learned thatlesson a lot in the beginning.
I think that it's hope is a corepart of the strategy.
You can't like succeed withoutthe belief in it, but you do
need to do the research andcreate the plan.
To some extent.
I think where that becomes aproblem is the beginning, where
(25:52):
people paralyze themselves withI need to get all these things
perfectly in a row before I dothis.
When it's that's not the case.
It's like a balance of hope andstrategy to bring it together, I
guess.
So I think it's, I think it'slike a little bit of all of
that.
Holly (26:08):
I think that we are feeling really grateful.
This past year we're finally ina place where we're making more
strategic decisions based onlike data and information and
just not, you know, leaning onour guts.
And Amber was saying when wewere talking about hiring, just
oh, what is their vibe?
Does it mesh with us?
Do we like this person?
We're able to be a little bitmore strategic from who we hire
(26:29):
to our finances and makingdecisions based on the actual
business needs and like what wecan handle, what makes sense and
go to the numbers and look atthe projections.
And we just, were not in a placeto even do that for so long.
So it does feel really good tobe making quality decisions
based on information now.
Russel (26:50):
Nice.
I think that's so important,especially as a business grows
that it, it's just like a bigship.
You can't turn it and get aninstant results.
You, you have, it takes time.
So we have to leverage data andsome of that foresight.
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna amendthen, uh, that is, we might
leverage some hope and belief togive us the energy to make a
move.
But we're gonna quickly backthat up with, with strategy and,
(27:11):
and refine the intent and thepurpose and the execution of it.
We're just gonna, not, as yousaid, I think Amber of sit back
and wait for perfection tohappen to actually make moves.
Yeah.
Amber (27:22):
Beautifully said.
Russel (27:24):
Yes.
90% of my job is justsummarizing what people tell me.
So, uh.
Yes.
Speaking of another move thatmight sound risky for those that
know and experience is, you guysrecently hired a biz dev person.
Yeah.
And that might not sound likerisky to some, but as I shared,
(27:46):
prerecord, every agency has afailed salesperson story.
Um.
But we're, we've got our fingerscrossed this will not be the
case with Local Image.
So how, how'd you, how'd youarrive at this decision and how
are you not gonna fall into thattrap?
Amber (28:01):
Yeah.
Um, so I guess we'll start withthe failed salesperson'cause
that's kind of what got us tothis.
This situation or now, buthonestly, it's I don't even have
like a funny story around thisor like, because at the end of
the day, I really believe inradical accountability as a
company owner.
And if we have a failed hiringstory, there's probably a big
role that we've played in it.
(28:21):
Um, and not anticipating how tohandle that or what just, I
personally think that we shouldtake full accountability for the
experience we had, butultimately we're ready for a
business dev person a coupleyears ago.
And we hired them and it justessentially, we hired them to do
account management and businessdevelopment, which was what I
(28:43):
was doing.
And I think it actually was abig lesson for me in, you can
expect people to have the samework ethic that you do for your
own company or just in general.
I feel like as entrepreneurs weare a different breed
professionally and like I feellike nothing that didn't click
for me until that experience andwe just hired someone thinking
(29:03):
that like it was gonna beexactly what we needed without
doing our due diligence and likereally?
Developing the role outline likewe should have.
So I take full responsibilityfor that.
But I think just, it is also abig lesson in how important
mindset is when hiring anemployee.
Like really paying attention tohow they approach, especially
(29:24):
for sales, but how they approachtheir personal life.
What's their mindset like?
Do they have a positive outlook?
Are they motivated?
Do they do that in their ownpersonal aspects and with this
new business development person,after we learn that lesson, it's
like night and day, seeing thedifference, just how they show
up with motivation andexcitement and positivity and
drive and wanting to learnversus that was not the
(29:44):
experience with the last one.
And I, I just feel like that'sbeen my biggest lesson is like
knowing who someone ispersonally and what their drive
is.
And mindset plays a big role init.
Russel (29:57):
So you already had your failed?
Amber (29:59):
Yeah.
No, we already did.
We did.
Yeah.
Okay.
Russel (30:02):
You guys are good then.
That will never happen
Amber (30:03):
again.
Russel (30:04):
So,
Amber (30:05):
yeah.
Our current guy is phenomenaland it's such a game changer,
when you have someone that canbring that to the table as well,
and it's not just the companyowners, it's been a game
changer.
Holly (30:14):
Yeah, so also it's hiring someone to be the face of your
business, which is a prettyscary, leap and that's a lot of
trust because they're people areused to me and Amber being out
in the community and like we arethe first points of contact.
So when you're sending someoneout there to talk about what we
do and build those trustedrelationships.
(30:35):
It's a huge thing to let go andjust release.
But it's been great.
Russel (30:40):
Yes.
Can I get an amen there?
We, if we had, we have, we had achurch choir in the background,
they would start singing.
But that's such a goodperspective you shared because a
lot of times, I think why itleads to that notion is why an
agency is doing it and it, andit's more, I think sometimes a
desperation tactic of we wantmore business.
Yeah.
So what do we do, we hire asalesperson.
And probably the only questionwe're asking is can they sell?
(31:03):
And what are salespeople reallygood at doing?
Convincing someone that they cansell.
And that doesn't quite work inthis space, but all the other
factors, it sounds like youshared in terms of that they're
gonna represent the face of theC community and what their total
person aspect, not just simplywhether that they're gonna be
able to try to convince someoneto sell our services.
I think that's, that's a greatinsight.
Holly (31:24):
We're solving
Russel (31:24):
the problem right now.
Holly (31:25):
Exactly.
I think with marketing too, ifyou just sell someone on a
service and they don't valuemarketing that relationship.
It's not gonna go very far.
Because we're constantlyeducating people that we're
working with on marketing andlike where those value points
are.
So we're continuously having toearn their trust based on
(31:45):
performance and what we'redoing.
So you can't just go out andsell someone for a quick deal.
I.
Because it won't last.
So there has to be more to it.
Russel (31:53):
Second.
Amen.
Um, lots of amens.
Yes.
I, I think that's really greatperspective as well.
And just the idea that I thinkowners sometimes forget how much
strategy and how much of thatbuy-in and expertise they're
sharing in a conversation thatit's very hard for someone to
walk in off the street and everperform at that same level and
that ultimately.
(32:13):
What, what you're sharing thereis that it's not just a service
and it's not just a commoditybuy, sell transaction, that this
isn't investment orrelationships far more strategic
than selling hot dogs or I don'tknow what is.
Whatever sells.
People sell cars.
Cars.
There you go.
Amber (32:29):
Love it.
Yeah, absolutely.
Russel (32:31):
Well man, so many more tangents can go on, but I guess,
we guess we gotta start to wrapthis thing up someday.
I'm just curious then, as youguys are looking at the future,
I know there's gotta be some bigdreams ahead of, for you guys.
Um, what does the future looklike for Local Image?
Amber (32:45):
You know, it's funny.
I feel like right now we're,this is one of the things we're
saying, you know, we've been atthis for six years and I think
personally both of our lives arechanging and evolving, and I
think that's something thatwe're recalibrating right now.
Just tentatively what we've beentalking about is we're gonna
continue going, like right nowwe're really on a path of almost
duplicating.
Instead of going from a smallboutique agency that has a
(33:07):
handful of clients with oneproject manager, what does it
look like to have two projectmanagers and two pods of clients
and really start being able toexpand markets and take this
thing more national?
I feel like we're at acrossroads where we have a
choice to either stay what weare or do that and I think
that's the goal right now, butwe're in the process of
developing that.
So, um, my goal, one last thingI'll say is I would love for
(33:28):
Local Image within a coupleyears to really be like a
nationally recognized resourcefor local business marketing and
have our name out there.
So that's our goal.
Holly (33:36):
Yeah.
I mean, we expanded and openedour second location, right on
our five year mark, that littlething.
So that was just a little thing,the whole acquiring a business.
It was just a little thing.
But we were, you know, we hadworked toward that and we really
wanted to do it and it's justbeen an exciting venture just
growing into a new market.
And Amber said, I thinksomething that's always going to
(33:59):
be important to us is thecareers that our team members
have as well.
We always want there to beopportunity for them to grow.
And the people who are with ushave been with us for, they've
been through the startup phasewith us, which is, you know,
something that's really special.
But we want them to always havea career and a home with us.
So just like continuing toexpand and look for
(34:22):
opportunities to do that in thiscrazy changing world of
marketing.
It's like a fun piece of thepuzzle for us to keep our eyes
open too.
Russel (34:30):
All right.
You got your posse, your ride ordies, and you got a great vision
and a great mindset to go aboutit.
Can't wait to see how thatevolves for you guys.
Last big question for you.
Are entrepreneurs born remain.
Amber (34:44):
Oh, born for sure.
Russel (34:47):
Oh, oh.
You know, my, my ears alwaysperk up a solid born answer.
It's a, I think it can be
Amber (34:51):
both, but I do think that you need the influence of a born
entrepreneur.
I feel that's my opinion.
I, I do think it's somethingthat you're born with.
Holly (35:01):
Ooh.
I think I honestly, I wannacontinue to ponder this a little
bit because just thinking aboutmy own personal experience, I
see that tried and true inAmber.
I never thought I was gonna likeopen or have a business or be a
business owner.
I had dabbled in the things likeMary Kay and along the way
through college, looking forsome supplemental income.
It just really wasn't on myradar.
(35:22):
I don't have people in my familywho have had their own
businesses and it just didn'treally an avenue.
I do agree like.
Certain pieces of yourpersonality and who you are
built in to be willing to takethose risks, to manage your own
time and to be hungry enough togo out there and get after it,
(35:44):
because no one's gonna do thatfor you.
So there's gotta be someinternal drive there.
Yeah.
Russel (35:49):
Our third amen of the conversation, probably more, and
I just missed them earlier.
Yes.
There we go.
Seeing it.
Well, people wanna know moreabout Local Image.
Where can they go?
Amber (36:01):
Um, we go to our website, so localimageco.com.
We also are about to like rekickup our new social strategy,
which is exciting, so you canfollow us on Instagram,
Facebook, and YouTube andTikTok.
Um, but I feel like probably ourwebsite and then from there, if
anyone's interested in talkingto us, booking a consult is the
best thing to do.
So.
Russel (36:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Did she get it all, Holly?
Holly (36:23):
Yes.
She got it all.
Yeah.
Pass
Russel (36:25):
the test.
Amber.
Um, wonderful.
Well, there you have it folks.
Um, thank you so much Holly andAmber for sharing your, your
wonderful insights, your ups anddowns, your lessons learned, uh,
really showing the power of agreat partnership, the power of
mindset, value, fundamentals.
So many great lessons we couldtake away from today and really
appreciate you taking the timeto share that with us.
(36:45):
Yeah.
Holly (36:46):
Thanks for the great conversation.
It's been a lot of fun.
Thank you.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of An Agency Story
podcast where we share realstories of marketing agency
owners from around the world.
Are you interested in being aguest on the show?
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
(37:09):
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.
To learn more, visitperformancefaction.com.
The ups and downs of owning a company and the
(37:31):
insecurity of money, right?
We're the first people that willnot take a paycheck if, you
know, finances are a struggle.
Two or three years ago, Iremember, Amber and I do so much
together.
We're grocery shopping and I'mgonna struggle to tell this
because we're like going throughthe aisle.
Amber and I are pretty healthconscious and really value
quality food and organic eggs.
We look at each other and wereally just didn't have much
(37:52):
money and we were trying to makereally big leaps and we both
just look at each other andwe're, we're like, we're buying
the styrofoam, bottom shelf eggsright now.
This is how low we are rightnow, but we just have to keep
going and we're still gonna eatprotein for breakfast.
But I just remember like lookingat each other being like, well,
this is like, this is real.
We are broke.
Broke.
We can't even get the eggs wewanna get,
Russel (38:10):
Life could be hard.
The real struggles of a businessowner.
Holly (38:14):
We were traveling for work, trying to open up another
location in Tampa and I rememberwe were like, we're gonna use
the hotel bikes.
We're not gonna get a rentalcar, we're not gonna get an
Uber.
We like biked across the bridgeto get those eggs and biked back
and we really worked for it.
Amber (38:26):
I think that's such a good representation of just like
the self-sacrifice that you makefor the bigger picture.
Over the past year, like Ireally feel like we finally made
it.
It's like all those moments wereso worth it, but like, holy cow.
You have to have some extremefaith and persistence.
I think that's honestly why Isay an entrepreneur is born
because those are the momentsthat I think like, like most
people can't handle or mostpeople are not willing to take
(38:48):
that type of like stress or likeexpectation and risk.
That was a perfect memory toround it out.
Russel (38:54):
Yes.
You've given me a new idea for awhole nother sub niche of the
podcast, of the frugalitystories of agency owners trying
to make it.
But there's no shortage ofthose.
That's awesome.
Love that.
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