An Agency Story
An Agency Story
Saying Yes Opened Doors, Saying No Built Momentum - Bubbly Creative
When your brand is an extension of who you are, the work becomes deeply personal and powerful. In this episode, Cara Chatellier, founder of Bubbly Creative, shares how she built a values-driven agency that puts relationships first and strives to deliver marketing that actually connects. If you're tired of generic content and ready to build something more authentic, this one's for you.
Episode Highlights
- Why saying yes to everything early on creates long-term problems
- The hidden cost of generic marketing, especially in the age of AI
- A simple but effective approach to building trust through brand authenticity
- How knowing your own values makes it easier to attract the right clients
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.
Cara:Ever felt the nudge to take a leap even when you're scared? Welcome to an Agency Story podcast, I'm your host Russel. In this episode, I sit down with Cara Chatellier, founder of Bubbly Creative, a vibrant marketing agency serving health and beauty brands. From teaching English and Madrid to launching a Brooklyn based agency with a big personality, Cara shares how she built a business rooted in authenticity, relationships, and celebrating her client's unique voices. Whether you're pivoting, niching, or simply trying to say true to your brand, this conversation is a reminder that clarity and courage go hand in hand. Enjoy the story.
Russel:Welcome to the show today everyone. I have Cara Chatellier with Bubbly Creative with us here today. Thank you so much for being on the show, Cara.
Cara:Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Russel:I'm excited to have you. I have no doubt there is an endless amount of fun topics that we'll get to today. But before we get to all that, I'd love to just get a quick what does Bubbly Creative do and who do you do it for?
Cara:Bubbly Creative acts as a outsource marketing department for service-based businesses. Basically, when you think of anything, digital marketing, content marketing, we do it. Social media, blogs, web content, creative, all of the above. We primarily do it for female owned service-based businesses and we're looking to niche, niche down a little bit further for health and beauty female owned service-based businesses. We do that out of Brooklyn, where is, which is where I live, and then Boston, which is where my two employees are.
Russel:All right. Those are big cities with lots of opportunity there, and I've been told I should ask this more when we get to when you're actually forming the agency, but I just want to know sooner than that. So I'm gonna ask now, what is behind the name Bubbly?
Cara:I don't know if it comes across by voice or by video, but um, I kind of have this bubbly personality. I've had it my whole life. My family, friends, people who made me have always called me bubbly and one day it was that thing where, you know, you're in the shower and you're like, ah, that's it. Um, I was thinking of starting an agency and the name came to me and in addition to it being, you know, my personality and kind of how I am, it's just such a great way to market because you think bubbly, you think celebration, you think fun. I think marketing should be fun and exciting and you know, Bubbles rise to the top and they pop, and I just thought it would be a really cool name for a business.
Russel:I love it. I actually think it was brought this up not too long ago on an episode of just, I'd almost wanna just do a whole side podcast where I talk to agencies about how they came up with their name and their whole naming journey,'cause a lot of agencies even change their names over time because of, they just stop liking what they came up with and, and want something new. It's just always fascinating to hear that the naming story. Um, And I would agree with that, that, uh, that your personality definitely represents your brand name. When we match all the branding elements we're winning.
Cara:For sure. Thank you.
Russel:Absolutely. We'll get to more of all things Bubbly Creative, but I would like to hear about young Cara and who she wanted to be when she grew up, and how she walked down that path.
Cara:It's funny, I was talking to my friends the other day about a journal entry I found from, it was like a school mandated journal. I was like, freshman year of high school and I had written in there about like what, how I saw myself growing up and I think I was like, yeah, 14 or 15. And in it, it said that I, it makes me laugh at my younger self, but I wanted to carry a briefcase. That part's really important.
Russel:Okay. Sounds official.
Cara:Exactly. Wanted to work in a city and I never wanted to rely on a man for money, so I didn't know as far as like what my career path would be, but I knew those things, which I find hilarious. So far, so good. Minus the briefcase. I use a backpack, but that's fine.
Russel:Oh, darn it. You're letting young Cara down tremendously. No, just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
Cara:But in addition, additionally, like when I was in college, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. I majored in communication, uh, but I, I thought about broadcasting, so I had some interest in broadcasting and radio. So like Podcasting could be a, a good, like maybe something I'd be interested in the future. But, um. Yeah, so I guess I always wanted to do something a little more creative, a little less officey, a little less corporate. That never really appealed to me. I guess listening to, like hearing that I, I wrote that I thought like maybe an entrepreneurial route is something I always had in mind, but I don't know. I never really thought I'd be a business owner. It just kind of happened.
Russel:Okay. Yeah, I think it's all the eighties and nineties business movies just, just glorified this idea of a briefcase. There was always something cool and important in a briefcase that really just clearly embodies something,'cause I was probably the same way. I thought a briefcase was like the coolest thing you could own. Now it seems like the lamest thing you can actually own.
Cara:That's how you know you made it. I think they do. I feel like it's like a corporate gift people get after like five or 10 years, maybe like an imported one or something. I don't know.
Russel:Yeah, as you said, and I think you've made young Cara proud. Lead us up to what was the, the twinkle in the eye, let's say, maybe not actually starting your business, but what was, when did that twinkle in the eye start of, you know, I might be going down this entrepreneurial path?
Cara:I graduated in peak recession time, so I had that communications degree, which you know, doesn't really give you a very defined path about what you should be doing after you graduate. It was 2009 and jobs were hard to come by and basically if you were outgoing, you went into sales,'cause those are the only things that were hiring. I started my career in sales and it was very much.
Russel:Selling what, by the way?
Cara:Started with advertising, so selling advertisements for like, it was a small business doing kind of like, it was like a Groupon competitor. I was doing that. I think I did that for like a year or two and then I went into recruitment. Recruiting salespeople for permanent placement positions, and this was at an agency. Both jobs I was like, I got to a point where I was like, I mean, I, I hate this job. Work is so bad, having a really hard time, super miserable. It was very like, the type of like sales environment where they're tracking all your calls and how like, submittals and dah dah.
Russel:I think the recruitment industry has to be the worst. I can't even imagine.
Cara:It was rough and it was like very startup mentality, so like, very aggressive, if you're the first person to leave, everyone's like, oh my God, I can't believe they left at 5:30. This is ridiculous. I was like, this is not for me. I'm having, uh, I was, It was rough. But then, um, I started working at a university doing corporate relations and marketing and I think probably my, like a little twinkle there for my entrepreneurial mindset. I started reaching out to people to do informational interviews and it was pretty aggressive that I wanted to work in higher ed. I kind of just felt like something like blew in the wind one day and I was like, I have to work in higher ed. I need to make this my career. Not sure why. I think I wanted to work with like really intelligent people. I went to higher ed and I did that. And then same thing started to happen where I was like, I hate this job. I'm so bored, I gotta get outta here. And um, I had lived in Massachusetts my whole life, so I'm from Massachusetts. I was living in the Boston area with all my friends from college and they were all getting married and having babies, and we were in our late twenties and I decided there's gotta be more to life than this. I need to make a change. And I decided to move abroad, so I moved to Madrid and started freelancing on the side and didn't really even know, like freelancing was a thing. I found Upwork. I had like Googled it maybe, like how do you make extra money on the side. and.
Russel:So did you like move before you really had an income plan or anything along those lines?
Cara:Yeah, I was like, I had gone on a volunteer trip, uh, to Costa Rica, did a solo trip and taught English volunteering, and I was like, oh, maybe I could do this abroad. Maybe I can do this in Europe. It was like, oh, that should be fine. I'll take a course when I'm there. Took a course while I was there, but it was always freelancing. Turns out Eng, teaching English, same as all my other jobs, I hated it. But I liked the marketing, so I was like, I could do this full-time and started doing it full-time. Cost of living in Madrid is a lot more affordable than it is in the Boston area or New York or many other places in the US. So I could take riskier choices, make riskier, riskier choices rather. Yeah, so I started freelancing on the side. Found some clients I actually still have today, which, um, is kind of crazy. That was really how I started working for myself.
Russel:Wow. I'm just so enthralled and I've had a few other people on the show that have, you know, did the whole abroad thing and I just, I think that takes such guts, says really a lot about your personality. Makes sense why you always fought this working in a corporate role sense that you've got this adventurous ambition about yourself. Ah, tell me, Tell me a good Madrid story so I can just live vicariously through you.
Cara:Oh, gosh, there's so many. The thing about Madrid that's amazing is they, the sun stays up like in the summer, the sun is up until, uh, honestly, And even in February, which, like for me, I'm from Boston, so the Boston area, if you say you're from Boston, you actually have to be from Boston proper. I don't want anyone to send me hate mail. I'm from the Boston area, north of Boston. Sorry. But it's so cold in, in the winter, but in Madrid, even if it's February, if the sun's out, you can sit outside on a terrace and have wine with your friends and eat olives. It's just such like a nice, like walkable, fun culture. The, like, I would have people come visit and there's not really landmarks there that you're super psyched to see, so we would just be like, you just need to experience the culture, which is sitting outside on a terraza, having wine hanging out. It's just the best. I love that European lifestyle. and that like if Stories, I could definitely give you one, gimme a genre though. Like I need to think.
Russel:Oh man. Like a culture, not a culture shock, but like a culture clash where it was a, a lesson learned in, in non-American culture.
Cara:Oh God. I'm trying to think of something that was, um, good. Oh, this is really silly but this is like, it's like just one that came up to me'cause I was just talking to my friends about it. I had a couple friends who were English, Spanish, what have you, different countries around the world, which is nice when you're living in a, you know, a ci, an international city, there's people from all over the place. We were having like a little dinner party and I was like, oh, I'll bring an app. And you know, my friends didn't say anything and I showed up and I was like, oh yeah, I made this like spinach and artichoke dip. They were like, oh my god. We thought you meant a phone app. We had no idea what you were talking about. I was like, appetizer, app, like, you know, and they like, no, we don't call it that. I was like, oh, sorry. I had no idea.
Russel:Oh, man. B-Y-O-P-A. Bring your own phone application. That makes total sense.
Cara:They're like, sure. Yeah. You're so generous.
Russel:All right. Books flight to Madrid is now on my task list. I love to see the sights when I go travel overseas or whatever, but I actually think all my favorite moments are when I just chill for a day. And I haven't gotten to do nearly enough of that. I have really limited experience, but, uh, you've certainly sold me on it and motivated me to do that more. And go to Madrid, by the way.
Cara:It is the best, you gotta.
Russel:All right, well, I'll, I'll hit you up for all the, the hot tips there when I head that way. Okay. Again, courageous, adventurous, doing this thing, making this kind of a full-time. I don't know that it really is a defining moment per se, but when, when would you say you quote unquote, officially became an agency?
Cara:I moved home from Madrid in December of 2018.
Russel:How long were you there, by the way, total?
Cara:Three years.
Russel:Three years. Oh my gosh. That is quite the abroad journey.
Cara:But I will say I initially went, I tipped, dipped my toe in, and I was only supposed to go for six months, and then I just kept extending it.
Russel:That's fair. I see why.
Cara:I moved home at the end of 2018, so all of 2019 I was, um, you know, thinking about it. Basically I was working with a lot of my clients that I had found, a lot of them via Upwork, some via word of mouth, some via referral. I was making a full-time salary that I felt comfortable with. I was able to buy, um, a condo on north of Boston, which is where I was living. But I was kind of coming to terms with the fact that I had a, met amazing people living abroad that were also freelancing, and either they were designers or writers or all of these talented people. I also was talking to my clients and telling them, branding so important, leaning into your brand, knowing who you are, you know, using that to reach your ideal, uh, target market. Having this brand consistency and this cohesive message that's threaded through your social and your website and all your written content is incredibly important. And I realized I wasn't practicing what I preached at all. I was just, you know, operating under the name Cara Chatellier and I wasn't a brand. I decided to change that and launched Bubbly Creative's website, logo, all of the above in February of 2020, so. Yeah. I was like, okay, here we go, big event, da, da, da, and then, um, obviously pandemic happened in March. I lost one client off the bat, which was hard, like a, a bigger retainer client. I just remember such significant anxiety, like anxiety I'd never felt before, which obviously everyone had that. I can't like compare what I felt to doctors or people who are on the front lines. But I think just like being a baby business owner and being like, oh, I have no idea what's gonna happen.
Russel:Yikes. We know how this plot goes a little bit, at least
Cara:it was definitely scary. And looking back on it, I'm just like, oh, I think I like blocked a lot of that out'cause it was just like pretty stressful.
Russel:Hopefully we're not, we're not triggering any, uh, PTSD by, by going through this history lesson here.
Cara:Not yet.
Russel:No? Okay. It's interesting. It's a very common path for agencies to start, right, of this, this, lost a job or something like that. Now I'm in the market and I just need some income replacement. That was your journey to start abroad. That's some learning process and helps us get our feet under us, but this idea of you took a step back and you said, hey, what am I doing? What is my brand? What do I believe and want to create in the world? And I always I think that's, that's, that's the part that sometimes folks don't go back and do is, is be very intentional about their own brand and their own product even if they didn't start that way. Um, so it, it, let me, Let me ask now, to jump forward just a little bit with this question. Do you still practice what you preach in terms of your intentionality behind your brand?
Cara:Definitely. Even more so now where brand is so important. I was actually, I was, uh, listening to one of the pods today, one of the Agency, Agency Story pods, and someone was talking about creating this amazing video and it going on a client website that was built 20 years ago. It's like you have this gorgeous video that's on this really shitty website and that you just need, everything needs to connect, everything needs to be elevated and like that's something that we live and breathe all the time. With Bubbly, well, we, our brand, if, you know, I'm sure you know if I'll send people to the website, but it's like very pink, very like fun, very like kind of girly,'cause we do, we are targeting women. That's who I am and I wanted it to be very representative of me and feel like fun and something I was excited about. We're also able to help brands be exactly who they are. It's important for us to get to know people really well and relationships. In order to get people know people really well, you have to get to know them. Every time we start working with a client, we dive in so deep to who they are. We ask them 1 million questions and sit with them for two hours, ideally face to face, and um, I've always been very much a relationship person. I grew up in a family with two sisters. We're extremely close. I've like really valued my friendships and relationships and I feel that way about clients where I really get to know them on a friendly basis as well as a client. To be able to properly represent their brand, you have to do that. Brands need to communicate with clients, prospective clients, current clients in a way that feels comfortable and approachable. I think the way we do things is very warm. An example, and I actually don't even know if I'm answering the question, I think I'm answering another question that I asked myself.
Russel:That's all right. This is where we get to new topics.
Cara:One of our favorite clients came to me and they are an OB-GYN practice north of Boston. They have four different offices and they came to us and were like, our website is so cold. We're getting some bad reviews. We need to really elevate our look and reach a, a clientele, that is women and people who are about to give birth. We need to build trust. Can you help us do that? We were like, absolutely. First things first. Did a man build your website? And they're like, yeah, we have a male run agency. I'm like, okay. I can tell instantly when I look at it that a man who has never stepped foot in an OB-GYN office has built this because it's so clinical. Stock photos. It doesn't evoke trust. It doesn't make you wanna go and visit this practice like at all. So I feel like the first thing we did was, you need a professional photo shoot. We didn't change the logo or anything, but we were like, we need pictures of your actual staff smiling. We need pictures of your bright sunny office. We need to take your social to the next level where we're including individuals and personal quotes that of why they love working at this practice. We need to highlight these testimonials. You have these stories of people giving birth.'Cause if you think about something that's like, so personal, so important, so impactful. It's people trusting you to deliver their children. This is huge and we don't see an ounce of this on your site. I feel like being able to thread that needle throughout a brand's entire picture is so important to building trust, to getting their, their clients that they want and need. For us, it's like that is very much relationship driven, but it's also like, you think about the business at the core of who they are. Us getting to know that is so important.'Cause a lot of times they don't even know
Russel:It sounds like you know yourself really well, um, and adopting that in your own brand, which allowed you to take that same thought process and mentality to your clients. you know, Just to recap a couple things there I think are, are, are really important. In, what year are we in? 2025? The importance of connection and authenticity and representing that. I mean, right. Think about it like, who uses stock photos in 2025? We all know that nobody wants to see the next stock photo. Those were cool in the late 2000s, but we're trying to create, uh, via, initially, digitally a relationship here, which isn't done with, it's like cat, it's, was it catfishing? It's like catfishing. No catfishing in 2025.
Cara:Yes, exactly, but you still see it so much. It's crazy. I always push professional photography because it is so important and, but it is expensive, too, to have it done well. I think like there is like that when you're starting out, you can be strategic about the stock photos. There is a fine line between a terrible stock photo and a passable stock photo, right?
Russel:There's a place here, here and there. but, uh, I came across this website the other day and I think it was a construction, like a new home construction company. There wasn't a single picture, there wasn't a single name on the whole site and everything was like, we have all this experience and we, and we, and we, we, I'm like, who is we? I can't even tell you. I'll go look up that company, I'll give them your website. They clearly, clearly need you.
Cara:Send him over. Who knows, they might be good at building houses though. They're just bad at doing marketing.
Russel:I guess that that is true. This is why we all need our experts in all the different spaces, um, too, because it, it, I think it just, to that end. I talk a lot that marketing in 2025 is so noisy, it's so clouded. That's why this is all the more important than it's ever been in the history of the world, when you talk about brand and authenticity and it's, it's like having a PhD now. The world doesn't think of that quite yet, but it's that complicated and you shouldn't be rolling your own really in that sense.
Cara:Totally, but also think about like AI and how that is just making things more generic and people are just posting the same things as other people around the country. It's crazy. Wait, can I tell you a story about an AI driven thing that happened to a client?
Russel:I want to hear this story very much. Yes.
Cara:This is like a, an offshoot, but I had this client and they, there was, uh, I almost wanna say the name, but I won't. This client's a dentist and they ended up hiring this firm that promised they could like absolutely skyrocket your SEO results. They would do all your social media, they would do your Google business. They would put all these systems in place. My client fell for it and he started paying them on retainer. Eventually he was like, I don't know, something's wrong. Something's not working. So like When I started working with him, I was like, let me look into this and what they were doing. I found out that this company was giving the same exact content to hundreds of dentists across the country. Same content on Google business, same content on social media. Same website content. Once Google started cracking down on AI, all of these like companies, these local dentists, their search results were absolutely tanking and they had no idea why.'Cause they're dentists, they're not good at marketing. They're incredibly intelligent people, but they don't know how to market. They don't have time to do it. These dentists just had the same exact content, all, some of them in the same town, same content, same terrible stock photos, same generic videos that like, they would be like super vague like, but about like dental implants but not mention the dentist, but the description would have the dentist. It was just the worst marketing I've ever seen, and these dentists were falling for it and they were just printing money. A scam.
Russel:Scams. I'd say one, SEO especially is like, man, I, I need to be able to trust who I would let do SEO on my website the same, well, I need to trust someone to watch my kids. We never want to get burned by the Google machine. I know a lot of people outside the agency space probably don't listen to the show, but the ones that do is find a company you know you can trust that you would leave your kids with. Because there is no cheap route in 2025, if it's too good to be true, the reality is it is.
Cara:Yes, and maybe ask someone you know who does marketing to just, to run, run it by them.
Russel:That's a that's fair advice. Good advice. All right. So, So the pandemic was its own little rough spots. Clearly you made it out. I imagine like a lot of folks too, you got to experience the digital rush of late 2020 and 2021. I would imagine maybe like your, your story and like a lot of others that you, you know, you're just happy to take on business that may seemed interesting or exciting, but that it seems like you're starting to lean into more of a positioning path and, and getting more specific about what you do. Just talk to me a little bit about your positioning journey and, and what that's been like for you.
Cara:For sure. When I was starting out, I pretty much was just saying yes to everything. If someone came, a lead came into my website or someone reached out to me, I was just saying, yes, absolutely I can do that. With not a real regard for if it was of interest to me, it was just kind of like, okay, I need to grow. I need to pay my employee. I need to do X, Y, and Z. Keep the lights on.
Russel:Gotta feed the machine.
Cara:Totally, so you're just saying yes to everything. I think that it got to a point where I was realizing, it was last year, I believe, I was sitting in my Subleted apartment and I was like, wait. I don't like what I'm working on, and I was like, this is my business. I don't have to work on things I don't wanna work on. I can change this narrative. I can change who I'm working with, and I like working with this type of client, which is like the female owned health and beauty. I like working with that type of client. Why don't I focus on working with them? I kept coming up against this feeling and then realizing I needed to make some big changes in order to get there. Last year I moved, I moved to New York in January of 2024, and I did that after, I, I was living in north of Boston and I went through a big life changing breakup, a huge breakup where we had bought a house together and then we had a dog and I was living on a, in a single family house in a Massachusetts suburb being like, um, I don't think this is right for me anymore and decided to move to New York. With so much personal change happening, I didn't really focus on business. And then I decided in 2025, that was gonna be my business focus time, and that's where now I'm really making that big push to focus on these types of clients because I think when you own a business, sometimes you have to, you're working in it constantly, right? It's hard to work on it because if you're working in it, days can just fly by and you're, whoops. Oh wow, I forgot to make those changes. So You have to take the time to work on it, and I really just did not have the bandwidth to do that in 2024 so I'm doing that in 2025 and realizing like, okay, I have a lot. I have the control to do this. It's gonna take time, and I need to be strategic and I need to seek out these individuals rather than just letting people come to me, which I've been very lucky to have people find me, have referrals. That's been something that has been so great for me, but it's also not a great scaling strategy.
Russel:I talk about it a lot that this idea of, call it the referral wall, and it, it is such a wall that I think is not often seen by agencies because, or maybe this happens in other business sectors as well, but this idea of that, you know, I've been in business for however long and I make however much money, but you really are close to step zero in terms of your own marketing and branding and getting yourself out there. I think that's really hard for people to see it, really. It's almost an invisible wall because it, it does take, you know, as you said, working on the business a, a decent investment to move in that direction. It sounds like you're, you're in the early stages of that, but you're, you seem like you're solid and dedicated to that effort.
Cara:Definitely dedicated to it. I think it's the, the right choice for us. In addition to working with women owned businesses, we're also open to, you know, working with marginalized parties, people of color, uh, the LGBTQ+ community. Not that I would, if they, if a, a male owned business reaches out and it feels like a good fit, then it's definitely not someone we would like turn away. It's not like we won't work with male owned businesses or anything, but I think for us it's just really important that a business and their mission and their values align with ours. We wanna make sure that we're lifting up people that align with us and that we feel need the support and that we can very much help them in their mission and who they're trying to, to find. you know, the OB-GYN example, that they sought out a male advertising marketing agency. It's just like, I feel like that I, that just makes no sense to me. They could have had an all female staff and maybe that would've been great. They didn't, and I just think sometimes you just need that touch of like, okay, we understand your customer because we are your customer.
Russel:And I think that is, you know, in a couple instances, I can appreciate about what you've shared about your journeys. One, seems like you're really good at recognizing your own feelings, where you're at in any given time, and not being afraid to make a change or pivot or move something that's gonna be in the direction that's more aligned with your skills, talents, desires, values, beliefs. I think that's never a bad thing in this world that we should do the work that matches that. We should find other people that match that. I think that's a great thing, whatever that is. I guess as long as it's not hurting people, but that's, that's what we should all be doing. This is too hard of work, uh, too difficult of a journey not to actually, not to be rowing in that direction.
Cara:But it's important to note that I'm very scared of these things. I've always been scared.
Russel:That's okay though. Honestly, I think, because that means you're not doing it flippantly. You're making a big change. You're not just like, oh, I'll just move over there. It's like you're, that causes you, I imagine being scared is what probably prepares you to, to make those big leaps, which are really important. I think if you're not pivoting in this space, in this industry, you're gonna fall behind. If you're willing to shed what's not working for you sooner than later, you're gonna move faster in that direction. So I'm, I'm all for it.
Cara:Totally.
Russel:I think you've got a good recipe going here. And so far it's, it's working out really, really well for you. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's all about those fundamentals. You know, when you think about, Obviously you're making concerted effort to work more on the business, which I think is a big important part of this next phase. It sounds like you're in for your business but just gimme a sense of what does the future look like? What are you trying to achieve? What's the 10 year plan, or five? What's a five year plan? That's what they say in the movies. What's your five year plan?
Cara:Five year plan, I've had Bubbly for five years, so that would be five years in the future is crazy to think about, but exciting. 2030. I can't believe that.
Russel:Business years are like dog years, so that's actually, it's the equivalent of 35 years from now.
Cara:Seriously, it feels like, I'm like, oh, the amount of things we've learned and the, like, the things we were putting out back then, it's just crazy to think about, but, okay, so five years from now. I would like to have a New York office. And a Boston office, at least a place where people can go that feels they're with their team members. It is so important to have in-person spaces and places where clients can come and visit. I would love to take on larger projects and have an on staff photographer, on staff videographer and be able to do really fun content shoots. We oversee those now, but I think having those on staff would be really great. I would love to be just overseeing everything and I'm, I'm trending towards that now, but I think having a more robust, more full team, being able to pay everyone so they feel that. They're making a lot of money. They love what they do, they feel really happy and they think everything's really fun and good and working with clients that we're excited about. And I think, like, I know that's not really saying like clients we're excited about is a little vague, but I think it really depends because I say health and beauty. It could be slightly adjacent. As long as it feels like, okay, these, this is a, a business that is doing something we believe in and we wanna support them. So growth, more money, supporting businesses we love. Maybe some office space.
Russel:You're checking all the, I think, the life happiness box. Work with people you wanna work with, both on your team and as clients, and if we can have some coin in our pocket to go do other fun things along the way, then, then we're winning at this game of life and business, and that's all we need to be doing.
Cara:Exactly. And I'd love to be on more podcasts, more speak at events, all those sorts of things too. I think that's fun.
Russel:I'm sure that will all happen for you. I guess then one last big question for you, Cara. Are entrepreneurs born or are they made?
Cara:So I was thinking about this one after doing some podcast listening, and I think they're made, but I also think that there are some elements that you may be predisposed to. So when you're born, I'm, there's some people where, you know, I guess it's a nature versus nurture question, right? But I was thinking back to when I was younger. I wasn't like a lemonade stand girl, but I remember thinking about this question. When I was in elementary school and with my neighbors, we started a hair salon where we bought L'Oreal Kids, um, shampoo and gel and would style the other neighborhood kids hair.
Russel:I need pictures of this. This would have to have been epic. I hope there's pictures of this.
Cara:So I was like, oh, maybe I was entrepreneurial back then. I don't know.
Russel:That's better than a Kool-Aid stand. That's innovative, right? There's a billion Kool-Aid stands.
Cara:Right. We just love the products. I don't know if you remember L'Oreal Kid shampoo, but they like smelled so good.
Russel:I'm sure it was. That is something, man. I bet that had to be a real sight, uh, because I'm, because I'm guessing at that point too, the talent might not have been there and you might have been trying to do something a little creative. I bet there was some interesting hairdos running around your neighborhood.
Cara:The talent was 1000% not there. But, um, it was really fun. I'm sure my parents were at work and had no idea. But I think overall, made. I, in like Outside of my hair salon beginnings, I, I learned a lot from like doing things scared and doing things that felt really outside of my comfort zone, that I could take risks and that when I did take big risks, they paid off. Knowing that, okay, I could stay status quo, I'm gonna be miserable, so I need to just push myself. Do it scared is something I very much live by. I also, this is like Tina Fey and Bossy Pants wrote like say yes and figure the rest out later. And I very much subscribe to that. Yeah, I think a combo of both.
Russel:All right. I love it. Very great stuff. If people wanna know more about Bubbly Creative, where can they go?
Cara:Well, They can visit our website, www.bubblycreative.com. We're Bubbly Creative on Facebook and LinkedIn and@BubblyCreativeMa on Instagram.
Russel:Perfect. I think you summed it up a few seconds ago in, in the big takeaway from today. Take big risks and be scared while doing it, and you'll probably end up in a good place. But recognize your feelings. Don't be afraid to, doing work for those you love and with who you love. That's the recipe for great success. Really appreciate you taking the time to share all those wonderful nuggets with us today, Cara. Thank you so much for being on the show.
Cara:My pleasure. Thanks so much for having me.
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.
Cara:Sometimes we'll have clients who want us to order print collateral for them so we'll order like envelopes or stationary, just'cause we do all the outsource marketing. So We had this one client who said, can you print us this, these postcards, these note cards? We're like, yeah, sure. We, um, worked with Moo, this, you know, fabulous print brand and um, we sent them the sample and they took a look at it and she said, okay, I like it. But the back of it, if you closed your eyes and touched it, you might think it was shiny, even though it doesn't look shiny. We were like, okay. I don't know how to explain that to the, the printer, but that's a problem for you? They were like, yes. We just don't want it to look or feel shiny. We were like, okay, so you closed your eyes and touched it. And that is a pro, okay. Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. I'm a people pleaser, so like, I was like, you know, whatever you need. Some people are difficult.
Russel:That is true. Clients can be like kids, you just never know what they're gonna say next. Unfortunately.
Cara:Very true.