The Perfect Mixology of Faith and Strategy - Local Image

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"

Chapters

• 0:00 Local Image
• 0:40 Best Seafood on the Coast?
• 2:16 A Windy Path
• 6:01 A Chance Encounter Turned Partnership
• 9:50 The Value of Values
• 17:14 Hire Right
• 20:42 NBD - Buying a Business
• 23:28 Balancing Faith and Strategy
• 27:24 Salesperson Take 2
• 34:30 Born or Made?
• 37:28 The Frugal Nature of Ownership

Transcript

0:02

Welcome to An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. From the excitement of starting up the first big sale, passion, doubt, fear, freedom, and the emotional rollercoaster of growth, hear it all on An Agency Story podcast. An Agency Story podcast is hosted by Russel Dubree, successful agency owner with an eight figure exit turned business coach. Enjoy the next agency story.

Russel: 0:40

Welcome to another episode of An Agency Story. Today's guests are a truly dynamic duo, bringing the heat all the way from Maine to the coastal waters of Charleston, South Carolina, reshaping the landscape of local business marketing every single step of the way. Founders of Local Image. Welcome to the show today, Holly Bruns and Amber McDonald.

Holly: 0:59

Thanks for having us.

Russel: 1:01

I'm really excited but I've got a hot take or a hot seat, I should say. Question for you right off the bat. Better Seafood, Maine or Charleston? Oh my

Amber: 1:09

gosh. Maine, hands down is Maine.

Russel: 1:11

So, so definitively like you didn't even, you didn't even blink an eye at answering

Holly: 1:15

that. This has been a, this has been a hot topic question since we moved to Charleston.'cause it is such a food scene. Um, but Maine really, really just hits it out of the park.

Russel: 1:24

Okay. Now we've already got people just, uh, ears are glued to what's gonna happen in the rest of the conversation. Who wants to take a stab? Tell us what Local Image does and who do you do it for?

Holly: 1:34

So we are a full service digital marketing agency. We really pride ourselves on working with local businesses, so small to medium. I think Amber says it best, the near me businesses when you're doing a search. We have a variety of services from website development, ads management, social media management, SEO. Our goal is really to be a one stop shop for the local business owner.

Russel: 2:00

Yes. And perfectly well said and we're gonna, we got all kinds of great topics today to talk about what the agency looks like. But before we do that, I just want to hear about the lives of Young Holly and Amber. What was going on? Who did you want to be when you grow up? Tell us all the good stuff.

Amber: 2:16

Honestly, it's so funny, like I think back on this question and I don't really ever thought think I had like a clear answer for that. It was more so not knowing who I was gonna be. I just always was a very entrepreneurial, big work ethic work all the time. Person and I flew where life took me with careers. I don't have a college degree. I went from nannying to bartending and then I ended up getting recruited for a sales job because of my bartending or bar management experience. And I literally naturally just flowed into marketing and it became my whole career. So, yeah, I feel like just like big work gal, I've always had a work ethic from the time I was 14, and it led me to building a company.

Russel: 2:56

I love a good varied experience story. I'm in the same bucket. Yeah. But when you think about any one of those unique experiences that you shared, what do you think most applies to what you do today?

Amber: 3:06

It was my career before this. It's hard because it depends, like, there's two questions to that, the agency and then also my role in the agency. So I'm big with the sales and the client relationships, which if I had to pick one that helped me develop that was my bar management and hospitality experience, like just learning to deal with people. But if we're talking about marketing skill sets and running my company, it is my job before this, which was a sales rep for a national marketing agency where I really got to learn the ins and outs of the industry and the strategy, the strategies, digital marketing itself. So I think it's a two-faced answer for that.

Russel: 3:42

Imagine there's probably, if you really even broke that down further, there's probably even more faces Oh, yeah. Than even those two roles. Tell us what about you, Holly? What was going on in your, oh goodness. Your young life.

Holly: 3:51

Yeah, absolutely. I. I think I really struggled to figure out what my direction would be early on through high school and the college days. But I ended up getting a degree in pre-law. I thought I was gonna go continue on to be a family law attorney. And I quickly learned that was not for the faint of heart. And I was interning at the DA's office and just like any family law. Case that gets to that level. It's really, really trying. So I learned I was not emotionally strong enough and got out for that. Um, and then had kind of a windy journey. I've definitely dabbled in like hospitality and got into pro property management, like climbing the corporate ladder in that world for a while. That definitely made me a little bit tougher, and ended up. Getting brought into sales and marketing roles through a few different companies and that led to Amber and I doing some networking and meeting each other. And we both ended up working for the same national digital marketing agency that she mentioned. It's a high level overview of like my twisty road there, but never did I ever think I was gonna be in marketing or be the owner of an agency.

Russel: 5:01

Pre-law? All There's a facet I imagine has to come handy. I, I mean, obviously you, you said it was a struggle that particular type of law, was there mm-hmm a case you ran into and like, I'm done with this. Uh, this was like one-stop moment here.

Holly: 5:14

Not specifically, but I think it was just seeing so many and being in files and like being in court and just like seeing how that plays out. I would definitely have to pivot types of law. And I tried real estate. I worked at as a paralegal in a real estate law office for a little while, and real estate does not move in the winter in Maine, it's pretty slow. This was over 10 years ago now. But I was like, oh, this is so boring and social media just wasn't cutting it anymore. And when someone's like bored of social media, then that's a weird spot to be in.

Russel: 5:47

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 you have like the stepbrothers moment when you meet? Like did we just become best friends or how, how, what? Tell us about your first interaction.

Amber: 6:01

Yeah. No, we actually didn't, I look back now as oh it was all very meant to be, but it was organic. We met networking. We obviously like it liked each other 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 same job. We started working really closely together'cause it was remote. So we would spend our Thursdays just doing our cold calls or our work together and. I think slowly over that year and a half, a friendship developed, but it was more professional friendship. Um, and then that's when we both started complaining about the same things within our, like roles. Just frustration with the company, like caring so much about quotas and not the clients and not delivering with the products we were selling. And that was when we started talking about starting our agency and then basically we leaped and then like through building a company together, we became more personally friends. So it was a very windy Road to where we are now. And now we're like married people with mistake us for being married.

Russel: 7:00

Oh, yes. Oh yes. Well, we're gonna have to find out more about your, your marriage slash partnership there that I know is basically any, any business partnership. What was that moment, like when you just decided, okay, we're going to do this.

Amber: 7:12

It was a little, I mean, I feel like for me it was I went into a, a sales meeting for a client and I ended up literally mid meetings transitioning to be like, I can just do this for you for this much a month better. And then me going to Holly very. Irrationally and irresponsibly being like, I'm quitting my job like two weeks later. There was no like math behind the madness for me, which Holly, Holly was a little bit more like strategic with her.

Holly: 7:38

Oh my goodness. I absolutely honestly just like love reflecting back on this. It is like almost bring tears of joy to my eyes because it's such a funny experience. I remember sitting down similarly with a client and then leaving that appointment I. Getting on the phone with my manager, who's both of our manager, and I was just being pushed to sell a program that they really did not need. And it was just, it was unsettling to me because I was like, I'm gonna do right by this client. I built this relationship, I'm in the community with them, and Amber and I just kept having these conversations together. We're like, what are we doing? This is just not okay. And then, so it was probably like four months, maybe about four months later. I remember being on the receiving end of that phone call from Amber. And we had been talking about this for a while and I similarly had built a website on the side and we're like, okay, we can do this. It's pretty low level. Wasn't the high risk client to take on? But I was like, oh my gosh, Amber, if we quit our jobs, a, we have a steady paycheck, we have great benefits. There's potential for higher income with it being a commission based job as well. And I just bought a multi-unit. A bunch of crazy things were going on in my life and I was like, we need to think about this. We need an accountant. We need bookkeeping. We needed a attorney on our side. We've gotta figure this out. And she was like, I'm quitting. I'm like, okay, let's do this. But it definitely felt like it was this, hold my feet. Were digging in a little bit on the side of the cliff and Amber's just trust me. Let's sleep. And it ended up being great.

Russel: 9:10

Yeah. I mean is that like an analogy for really your guys' Yeah. Overall dynamic and one, one sounds like maybe a risk taker here and the other one sounds like, let's. Let's think about this. Let's plan this out a little more. I think

Amber: 9:19

within reason, like I think we're both definitely risk takers, obviously like you grow and develop to, and you become more of a risk taker. But I think it does just speak to one of the biggest things about our partnership is we're like a yin and yang when it comes to professionally, how we operate. And I am like leading more of the creative side of things like that. More just idea, whatever, and then Holly's very operational, 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 really grateful for Yeah, the balance of.

Holly: 9:50

It's something that we've really seen, um, develop and flourish and we've really figured out that really early on due to an exercise that I think it was Amber's aunt gave us about, excuse me, about values and that turned into us being, oh, like we do have different skillsets, let's evaluate this and let's trust each other with certain parts of the clients we were managing and do those things and divide and conquer. And it's been really cool to see. But yeah, I think I love it when Amber comes to me and says, Holly, I have this crazy idea and I'm already like, yes, let's go. Like I love the vision, I love the mind there. And when she's telling me, I'm already figuring how we with does. If you go for a walk with us when we're walking and having coffee or over dinner, I feel like it's a fun conversation to follow because ideas and things just 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's your 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 of different partnership stories, good, bad, and ugly, but the idea, right, and it's easy to get caught up in all the excitement and the energy of when you're starting a business. But I love that exercise you shared, you did of, of, of focus on values. At the end of the day, skill sets will work themselves out, but what are your shared values? And probably not a different, like you said earlier than a marriage, but, um, making sure you have those conversations about do you really want, what do you really value?

Amber: 11:21

Yeah. You know, it's interesting. So we didn't do that exercise until a year into our company. So when we first started, we took our own clients and we didn't merge anything. It was just building one brand. And it was that exercise a year in that we started merging, like Holly was saying. And then that's when like our growth blew up at the time, like I think that was about five years ago that we did that. I honestly don't even remember what our shared values were. I think they were like. A lot had to do with the lifestyle and family and friends and just professional. One of the values I think was career. And I think what's really interesting is how I think that's changed over the years. Like we've continuously had to change our company, that's just honestly it's like kind of something me to think back on. We probably could do that activity periodically. I think that was a really telling exercise and it was a very big propeller in a lot of our growth,

Holly: 12:14

It's so funny. I feel like this is a whole nother topic we could dive into. Okay. But I remember during that, those early days of conversation I had come from managing a team outside of this company that was so challenging. And I was like, I never wanna manage people ever again. And then we started growing. We're like, what? How are we gonna grow? I thought I was gonna operate more freelance style or just take a job on when I wanted, like flexibility in my time and schedule is always been one of my propellers. And I remember when Amber was like, I think I should hire someone. I was like, no. Um, but now it's one of my favorite pieces of it is our team and growing that culture and bringing people on and just like seeing their careers and them invest in something and get excited about something. Um, so it's really fun to look back and be like, I was so anti having a team at first and now I don't, we wouldn't. Be here without them, you know?

Russel: 13:09

Yeah. Never, never say never is probably what no business owner should ever do. That's an interesting thought process you shared and I'm sure for some folks out there might say your values never really change, but I imagine there's often, if, if that is true, we'll say for a second that, but how, how those manifest themselves and how you get to stretch those values or work those values. Can find many different ways in the business. So that might be an interesting exercise to do again.

Amber: 13:35

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Russel: 13:37

Call your aunt. Well, something you, you also dropped there is you, you said this moment and tried around the same time of values as, as I think you used the words blew up. Was that a pretty fast thing that happened for you? Tell us a little more behind that. Very, very s simple but impactful statement.

Amber: 13:54

Yeah. It was honestly, I, I think back on the timing, there was a few factors that happened. Um, it was one us merging, which essentially I think gave the energy of our company, way more, um, I don't even know the word for it, it just propelled it quicker. But then we hired and we had one employee for close to a year, and then it was like after that, within one year we had hired six more employees. It was crazy, we didn't always make the best educated decisions about things like we did a, took a lot of risks. We saw the vision. But simultaneously, we had COVID happen, which normally you think that would like make a com, like it kind of pulled back a company. But for us, we did a big PR effort where we created a fundraiser and we sold t-shirts and it, we got so much news coverage media, social media coverage. And I think alongside that and then hiring our first employee, it all just took off, so that was, it was one year that happened. And then from the year two to year now, it's just been a lot of continued growth. But it was that first two and a half 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 that alongside 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 of agencies experience that, especially the ones that are still around today, that everyone got their. Got punched in the mouth initially during covid and onset and probably obviously extends well beyond agencies as well. But then we did have this kind of rush to digital, uh, era of, oh crap. Now I really need to market in the business world. But it seems you guys have been able really to continue that, which has been, I will honestly say in the last two years, or even a little bit more now, has been a little bit more turbulent for agencies. But that doesn't sound like it's been 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 foundational marketing, so like telling your story, building our SEO, having a really strong online presence like. Having a basic social media strategy. And then on top of that we do ads and like more aggressive programs. So I think that has been why, because people know that no matter what they need to have that foundation. So I think agencies that focus just on ads, definitely a lot more turbulent, but I think that's been our saving grace with all of it.

Russel: 16:20

It is just so funny. I feel like in so many parts of life, if you just say, go back to foundations, go to the basics, focus on those essentials. That's probably the winning recipe. No matter what. No matter what we're talking about.

Holly: 16:31

Yeah, absolutely. I think we really Is that in values?

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 just sales, everybody was a number and treated that way. And we really value creating a relationship with our client. We've navigated some really trying things with our clients, through their businesses as well. So I feel like just like having that partnership, we always want people to feel like we're a part of their team. Also, it's a little bit different of an experience for people that work with us. Um, rather than just being calling a one 800 number and okay, your marketing's going, I have no idea where my dollars are going. We're pretty invested and involved with the clients.

Russel: 17:14

I imagine there's no shortage of whirlwind stories. I mean, to your point of kind of, I think we said multiple times, there's so many tangents we can go down, but hiring as many people, as you said, in a relatively short amount of time, I imagine you've got a, oops, let's never do that again pro tip out there and then maybe something like, oh, I'm really glad we did this and we did that really well.

Amber: 17:33

I feel like both came to mind. I'm like, never do this again is like. I mean, this feels really self-explanatory and like a lesson we probably didn't need to learn, but like check references, call them, focus on experience, do your due diligence with hiring. I feel like sometimes in the agency world it can be we need help, we need this. This looks good. But taking your time, hiring I think is, is crucial. And making sure that you don't make really costly mistakes for your culture and your client experience. And then I think that one thing that I feel like we've learned that is so helpful and we would love to tell their businesses or agencies hiring There is really two types of workers, right? There's task oriented workers, so people that are really good at getting stuff done on a checklist with a clear procedure. And then there's like managerial creative, like more can look at stuff, manage it type of minds, and making sure that you place the right people in that managerial role can like, make or break your company. And one thing that we found a trait is that. Employees who have tried their own freelance or owning their own company in some way and are choosing to go back to a team and a company have been just the most. I don't know. It's just a very, if you're looking for someone that you can lean on, that's something that we highly consider.

Russel: 18:54

Yeah, that's a great one. We were in the same boat of the people that had just been in, been through it but decided it wasn'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 for everybody 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 pretty tried and true. I've spoken to other people who own companies and I've shared that as well and it makes sense because they just understand all the different hats that you wear. I feel like when you're an employee of a company, it's really hard to see sometimes, outside of your role. And so many times Amber and I like we do operations days and we like try to just like really focus on working on the. As you can see, like we ping pong back and forth and we were like working on a list of 20 things at one time. It's just how we operate and then sometimes it's like hard to see all those other things that are going on and I feel like that person who's been in those shoes a little bit has an understanding, the wheels are turning 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, I wouldn't feel too bad about the references piece and you, to your point, it seems so common sense, but I'd be willing to bet a lot of agencies don't check references until they have their Oh crap moment of. Well, that would've been good. We could have found that out if we would've checked references. Yeah.

Amber: 20:13

Or even just doing your research. Like I think we had one crazy experience where there was all, if we had just dug a little deeper, we would've found this information online. And I. Yeah, it's just, I think people not doing their due diligence or going off of a vibe of someone or liking them is just the biggest mistake.'cause you're also, you're not just putting your clients at risk, you're putting your company at risk, you're putting your other team members at risk too. One person can poison a company and it's just, it's so important.

Russel: 20:42

Hear it here folks.. Learn from Holly and Amber before you experience it yourself. Speaking of risks you guys at some point in here, nonchalantly, I think acquired another business or something along those lines where, how did we 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 really important to both of us along the way is really having control of the different departments in our company. So many marketing agencies outsource to freelancers or companies overseas, and you do. Everything else, like it's that quality control, you lose that. But something that I can hear Amber saying is we need to have an understanding of like our hosting and the tech and we need to have an understanding of what's going on here and here and we are really fortunate to. Connect a local hosting company early on when in our career in starting this company, and one of the things we would joke about is we wanna own this company in 10 years. It was like a 10 year dream. But we've just formed a really solid working partnership with the owner of it. And it was the one area that we had that we were still technically outsourcing and we didn't really have an understanding of what was going on in the background of the hosting piece. I mean, your security, your functionality of websites. And so much goes into that and our support and we realized that if that ever went away. Like we would be really not okay. And fortunately, timing just worked out where the owner of that company, he now works with us. We still have that beautiful partnership, but he was like, I don't wanna run the business anymore. So similar to that employee conversation we just talked about hiring. He was like, I wanna just do what I do really well and I don't wanna have to worry about billing 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, I think they hit that point in owning a company too, where they were ready for a big change and we were their first call and it was it, I think because of those years of talking about it and visualizing it, it came together so quickly. We all already knew what it would look like.

Holly: 22:55

I remember, this conversation came about in November, the year prior, and Amber and I chatted and we were like, yeah, I think we'll be in a place to talk about this, think about this in June. And then he was like, can we close on this for January one? And I was like. Okay. Like we have a whole different conversation to have, but because we'd worked together for so long, there was already so many procedures that were already integrated into our business. So there's obviously a lot of work that's still continuing to be done to make things seamless. But it did feel like it was relatively a smooth process because of that working relationship.

Russel: 23:28

Yeah, I, I mean, I love that. We're talking about a partnership or a merger or anything along those lines, that we gotta have the good working relationship first before we ever, it's really just like dating. I mean, I guess goes back to what you guys said at the beginning, it's like a marriage, right? If everything's going well in the dating process, then we don't have to overly complicate the next steps and we can trust and we can believe in. But really just even seems like you guys are just really great about seeing an opportunity, seizing it, taking advantage and not getting too bogged down in the Well, what if it doesn't work? Oh,

Amber: 23:58

yeah. Oh my gosh. I mean, I think you hit a certain point in that I had done a lot of mindset work before starting a company. So like I knew a lot of this, but it's still just ingrained in us. But you go in business long enough and like you just realize that's not even a thing on the table. It just doesn't matter. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work like you figure it out. And I mean, you learn how to be more strategic and make more educated decisions to better the chances that something's gonna go the way you want it to. But I, it's, to me, there's no place in my life where. That's even an option to think about really.

Holly: 24:28

I think there's a piece of that too, like calculated risk, like some things that I think we've done, like people would look at and be like, that's absolutely insane. But it's, we do think about the things that we're doing. Sometimes it's like, well, I. Just like we're living on a prayer, our plan is hope and we've moved forward with it and it's worked out really well. But I think we also do talk about what is the worst case scenario? And are we gonna be happy and healthy and surviving? And, you know, we'll always figure out a way to take care of people, our team and our clients, and ourselves and each other. So I think that's what we lean on.

Russel: 25:04

See now you're challenging and you didn't even realize you're doing this. You're challenging something I've been talking with folks a lot lately is not letting hope be a strategy that we should do enough groundwork to make sure that strategy is certainty. But what I'm just gonna hear you say there, and you can tell me how you, if this is how you think 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 do what it, what it takes, whatever it takes, maybe to some degree to 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 think hope is fully a strategy. I feel like we learned that lesson a lot in the beginning. I think that it's hope is a core part of the strategy. You can't like succeed without the belief in it, but you do need to do the research and create the plan. To some extent. I think where that becomes a problem is the beginning, where people paralyze themselves with I need to get all these things perfectly in a row before I do this. When it's that's not the case. It's like a balance of hope and strategy to bring it together, I guess. So I think it's, I think it's like a little bit of all of that.

Holly: 26:08

I think that we are feeling really grateful. This past year we're finally in a place where we're making more strategic decisions based on like data and information and just not, you know, leaning on our guts. And Amber was saying when we were 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 bit more strategic from who we hire to our finances and making decisions based on the actual business needs and like what we can handle, what makes sense and go to the numbers and look at the projections. And we just, were not in a place to even do that for so long. So it does feel really good to be 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 big ship. You can't turn it and get an instant results. You, you have, it takes time. So we have to leverage data and some of that foresight. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna amend then, uh, that is, we might leverage some hope and belief to give us the energy to make a move. But we're gonna quickly back that up with, with strategy and, and refine the intent and the purpose and the execution of it. We're just gonna, not, as you said, I think Amber of sit back and wait for perfection to happen to actually make moves. Yeah.

Amber: 27:22

Beautifully said.

Russel: 27:24

Yes. 90% of my job is just summarizing what people tell me. So, uh. Yes. Speaking of another move that might sound risky for those that know and experience is, you guys recently hired a biz dev person. Yeah. And that might not sound like risky to some, but as I shared, prerecord, every agency has a failed salesperson story. Um. But we're, we've got our fingers crossed this will not be the case with Local Image. So how, how'd you, how'd you arrive at this decision and how are you not gonna fall into that trap?

Amber: 28:01

Yeah. Um, so I guess we'll start with the failed salesperson'cause that's kind of what got us to this. This situation or now, but honestly, it's I don't even have like a funny story around this or like, because at the end of the day, I really believe in radical accountability as a company owner. And if we have a failed hiring story, there's probably a big role that we've played in it. Um, and not anticipating how to handle that or what just, I personally think that we should take full accountability for the experience we had, but ultimately we're ready for a business dev person a couple years ago. And we hired them and it just essentially, we hired them to do account management and business development, which was what I was doing. And I think it actually was a big lesson for me in, you can expect people to have the same work ethic that you do for your own company or just in general. I feel like as entrepreneurs we are a different breed professionally and like I feel like nothing that didn't click for me until that experience and we just hired someone thinking that like it was gonna be exactly what we needed without doing our due diligence and like really? Developing the role outline like we should have. So I take full responsibility for that. But I think just, it is also a big lesson in how important mindset is when hiring an employee. Like really paying attention to how they approach, especially for sales, but how they approach their personal life. What's their mindset like? Do they have a positive outlook? Are they motivated? Do they do that in their own personal aspects and with this new business development person, after we learn that lesson, it's like night and day, seeing the difference, just how they show up with motivation and excitement and positivity and drive and wanting to learn versus that was not the experience with the last one. And I, I just feel like that's been my biggest lesson is like knowing who someone is personally and what their drive is. And mindset plays a big role in it.

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 phenomenal and it's such a game changer, when you have someone that can bring that to the table as well, and it's not just the company owners, 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 pretty scary, leap and that's a lot of trust because they're people are used to me and Amber being out in the community and like we are the first points of contact. So when you're sending someone out there to talk about what we do and build those trusted relationships. It's a huge thing to let go and just release. But it's been great.

Russel: 30:40

Yes. Can I get an amen there? We, if we had, we have, we had a church choir in the background, they would start singing. But that's such a good perspective you shared because a lot of times, I think why it leads to that notion is why an agency is doing it and it, and it's more, I think sometimes a desperation tactic of we want more business. Yeah. So what do we do, we hire a salesperson. And probably the only question we're asking is can they sell? And what are salespeople really good at doing? Convincing someone that they can sell. And that doesn't quite work in this space, but all the other factors, it sounds like you shared in terms of that they're gonna represent the face of the C community and what their total person aspect, not just simply whether that they're gonna be able to try to convince someone to sell our services. I think that's, that's a great insight.

Holly: 31:24

We're solving

Russel: 31:24

the problem right now.

Holly: 31:25

Exactly. I think with marketing too, if you just sell someone on a service and they don't value marketing that relationship. It's not gonna go very far. Because we're constantly educating people that we're working with on marketing and like where those value points are. So we're continuously having to earn their trust based on performance and what we're doing. So you can't just go out and sell 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 great perspective as well. And just the idea that I think owners sometimes forget how much strategy and how much of that buy-in and expertise they're sharing in a conversation that it's very hard for someone to walk in off the street and ever perform at that same level and that ultimately. What, what you're sharing there is that it's not just a service and it's not just a commodity buy, sell transaction, that this isn't investment or relationships far more strategic than selling hot dogs or I don't know 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 wrap this thing up someday. I'm just curious then, as you guys are looking at the future, I know there's gotta be some big dreams ahead of, for you guys. Um, what does the future look like 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 at this for six years and I think personally both of our lives are changing and evolving, and I think that's something that we're recalibrating right now. Just tentatively what we've been talking about is we're gonna continue going, like right now we're really on a path of almost duplicating. Instead of going from a small boutique agency that has a handful of clients with one project manager, what does it look like to have two project managers and two pods of clients and really start being able to expand markets and take this thing more national? I feel like we're at a crossroads where we have a choice to either stay what we are or do that and I think that's the goal right now, but we're in the process of developing that. So, um, my goal, one last thing I'll say is I would love for Local Image within a couple years to really be like a nationally recognized resource for local business marketing and have our name out there. So that's our goal.

Holly: 33:36

Yeah. I mean, we expanded and opened our second location, right on our five year mark, that little thing. So that was just a little thing, the whole acquiring a business. It was just a little thing. But we were, you know, we had worked toward that and we really wanted to do it and it's just been an exciting venture just growing into a new market. And Amber said, I think something that's always going to be important to us is the careers that our team members have as well. We always want there to be opportunity for them to grow. And the people who are with us have been with us for, they've been through the startup phase with us, which is, you know, something that's really special. But we want them to always have a career and a home with us. So just like continuing to expand and look for opportunities to do that in this crazy changing world of marketing. It's like a fun piece of the puzzle for us to keep our eyes open too.

Russel: 34:30

All right. You got your posse, your ride or dies, and you got a great vision and a great mindset to go about it. Can't wait to see how that evolves 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 always perk 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 something that you're born with.

Holly: 35:01

Ooh. I think I honestly, I wanna continue to ponder this a little bit because just thinking about my own personal experience, I see that tried and true in Amber. I never thought I was gonna like open or have a business or be a business owner. I had dabbled in the things like Mary Kay and along the way through college, looking for some supplemental income. It just really wasn't on my radar. I don't have people in my family who have had their own businesses and it just didn't really an avenue. I do agree like. Certain pieces of your personality and who you are built in to be willing to take those risks, to manage your own time and to be hungry enough to go out there and get after it, because no one's gonna do that for you. So there's gotta be some internal 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 more about Local Image. Where can they go?

Amber: 36:01

Um, we go to our website, so localimageco.com. We also are about to like rekick up our new social strategy, which is exciting, so you can follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube and TikTok. Um, but I feel like probably our website and then from there, if anyone's interested in talking to 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 and Amber for sharing your, your wonderful insights, your ups and downs, your lessons learned, uh, really showing the power of a great partnership, the power of mindset, value, fundamentals. So many great lessons we could take away from today and really appreciate you taking the time to share that with us. Yeah.

Holly: 36:46

Thanks for the great conversation. It's been a lot of fun. Thank you.

36:52

We hope you've enjoyed this episode of An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. Are you interested in being a guest on the show? Send an email to podcast@performancefaction.com. An Agency Story is brought to you by Performance Faction. Performance Faction offers services to help agency owners grow their business to 5 million dollars and more in revenue. To learn more, visit performancefaction.com.

Holly: 37:28

The ups and downs of owning a company and the insecurity of money, right? We're the first people that will not take a paycheck if, you know, finances are a struggle. Two or three years ago, I remember, Amber and I do so much together. We're grocery shopping and I'm gonna struggle to tell this because we're like going through the aisle. Amber and I are pretty health conscious and really value quality food and organic eggs. We look at each other and we really just didn't have much money and we were trying to make really big leaps and we both just look at each other and we're, we're like, we're buying the styrofoam, bottom shelf eggs right now. This is how low we are right now, but we just have to keep going and we're still gonna eat protein for breakfast. But I just remember like looking at each other being like, well, this is like, this is real. We are broke. Broke. We can't even get the eggs we wanna get,

Russel: 38:10

Life could be hard. The real struggles of a business owner.

Holly: 38:14

We were traveling for work, trying to open up another location in Tampa and I remember we were like, we're gonna use the hotel bikes. We're not gonna get a rental car, we're not gonna get an Uber. We like biked across the bridge to 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 make for the bigger picture. Over the past year, like I really feel like we finally made it. It's like all those moments were so worth it, but like, holy cow. You have to have some extreme faith and persistence. I think that's honestly why I say an entrepreneur is born because those are the moments that I think like, like most people can't handle or most people are not willing to take that type of like stress or like expectation and risk. That was a perfect memory to round it out.

Russel: 38:54

Yes. You've given me a new idea for a whole nother sub niche of the podcast, of the frugality stories of agency owners trying to make it. But there's no shortage of those. That's awesome. Love that.