An Agency Story
First hand interviews of creative, digital, advertising, and marketing agency owners that have walked the talk of running an agency business. These are riveting stories of the thrill of starting up, hardships faced, and the keys to a successful business from agency owners around the world.
An Agency Story
A Love Story, a Record Store, and an Agency - Neon Moth
Company: Neon Moth
Guest: Lisa and Jason Cerezo
Year Started: 2011
Employees: 1-10
What happens when a laid-off marketer, a former music teacher, and a chance meeting lead to a design and web agency? In this episode, Jason and Lisa Cerezo share how Neon Moth was built through partnership, necessity, and a deep commitment to serving small businesses well. You’ll hear how they grew from $300 websites to a dependable agency built on clarity, communication, and care.
Key Takeaways
- Their first client that helped them build dependable recurring revenue
- How clear content, honest expectations, and agreed boundaries keep projects on track
- Why being “penny wise and dollar foolish” can damage your work
- The relationship dynamics that make a husband-and-wife team succeed in business
Want a more clarity and control for your agency in 2026? An Agency Story has three coaching spots available for 2026. Let’s see if one of those spots is right for you. Visit AnAgencyStory.com and click “Let’s Talk.”
Russel: Welcome to the show today, everyone. I have Lisa and Jason Cerezo with Neon Moth with us here today. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Jason and Lisa.
Lisa: Thanks for having us. Yeah, definitely good to be here.
Russel: Well, glad to have you as well. Let's get right to it. What does Neon Moth do and who do you do it for?
Jason: We are primarily a graphic design and web development firm working in the small and medium business SMB market. Any type of [00:01:00] client who has a business and needs our services, we're happy to chat with them. We have dealt with some larger corporations, but the majority of our focus is in that SMB sweet spot in terms of client.
Graphic design is where our focus began, making sure people's messages get heard expanded into web development very soon after starting, and then murals, brochures, business cards, if you can see it, we can make it basically,
Russel: all the things the small business needs and so well, I imagine it took a lot of time, effort, energy, and practice to get to be able to do all that for the folks that you work with.
But before we dive into all things Neon Moth today, let's go back to young Lisa and Jason. Probably before you ever met, maybe not, we'll find out. And what were you guys wanting to do with your life?
Lisa: If you're going way back, I mean, kid me wanted to be a movie star.
Like who doesn't wanna do that? Right. Um, but I [00:02:00] really got into music when I was a kid and when I went to school I wanted to keep going in that field. And so I actually got a degree in music education and I was a music teacher for a number of years before I got married and became a stay at home parent and got back into teaching a little bit, uh, further down the line after the kids were a bit older too, but yeah, my original dream was just kind of to make music with people.
Russel: Beautiful. Beautiful. What about
Jason: you, Jason? Um, it was actually a, kind of a similar path, but a little bit. Now, I guess when you say similar, you by definition, that means a little bit different. But anyway, no, I, I also was a musician, um, went off and went to college to study a music education like Lisa did.
We did not meet in college. We actually met after college. I did not end up finishing my degree, so I never did actually end up becoming a music teacher. I floundered career-wise that I found a home in marketing and sales. But when I was a little kid, I remember very [00:03:00] vividly wanting to run my own business.
And I also remember very vividly, I'm gonna age myself a little bit here, but I remember very vividly playing around with graphic design on a Commodore 20, um, when I was about. Years old. My parents got me one and they got a graphics card where you could program and create images. And I used to sit there and program and create logos.
I would look at a logo for a company, the more basic ones. Eastern Airlines was one that I always used to lock in on. Kodak was a little bit too complicated if you try to include the words, but you can include the, the symbol. I would try to program these graphics and I thought, man, it'd be really cool if at some point I could have a job where I just make graphics on a computer.
And, you know, seven, 8-year-old me in the early 1980s, this was not something that existed, but I always thought it was kind of cool. But yeah, that was kid me, I could never plan do it as a career, but, but it ended up becoming a lot more true than I think we expected.
Russel: Yeah, well you're not the first Commodore [00:04:00] 64 inspired owner that I've come across.
So, uh, shout out to the old Commodore of the world. Um, but, um, wonderful story. And if in case anyone hasn't picked it up on it yet, you guys are married. So we've gotta hear just a quick little story about how you guys went and how you guys actually did meet. We met. Oh yeah. Yes.
Lisa: Uh, well we met through mutual friends.
Um, I moved away from the town where I went to college and moved back a year later, and some of my college friends were still there, and one of them had met Jason through work. And the four of us kind of got together just as a, it was an informal hangout, oh, come hang out and we'll watch TV or whatever.
And this guy was here who I hadn't met. Oh yeah. This is, you know, Michael's friend met at work, blah, blah, blah. And we hit it off right away and, uh, yeah,
Jason: always
Lisa: hit it off.
Jason: Yeah, we, I mean, close friends really quickly and then started dating about, I [00:05:00] dunno, six months after we met, I guess. Mm-hmm.
Lisa: Yeah.
Russel: Okay.
Like, was music like your common, interesting theme or
Lisa: actually, was that the
Russel: initial glue? It's
Lisa: kind of funny because the friends that I had at the time in that town were from the music school. We all went, we all studied music together, but Jason was also working part-time at a music store at the mall.
And when my mother and sister drove down with me to help me move into my new place. They stopped at the music store on the way back and they met Jason actually before I did, and called me later and said, you know, I'm ever the matchmaker, right? We met this really cute guy at the record store at the mall.
I mean, how fifties can it get? Right? Um, he seemed really nice, you know, like I should just pick. Go to the store and pick up a Jason Guy because my mom said they found this person here. Um, and yeah, it was really kind of funny when everybody met, what, I don't know how many months later, and my mom and sister were both like, yep, that's the guy.[00:06:00]
Jason: Yeah, I mean, music was definitely a big part of, our first date was a, it was an orchestra concert.
Lisa: Yeah, true.
Jason: Okay. They were playing the Greek piano concerto and was it piano, concerto and sea, I think. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Okay.
So,
Russel: so. Meeting at a record store because your mom set this up, uh, things that will not happen in 2024, most likely for, uh, 500 Alex.
Um, but what a great story that brought you guys together and give us, how was the concept or the idea or what led to the actual creation of Neon Moth
Jason: desperation? I mean, you know, I guess you could say it was kind of. Bad situations turning into a good one.
Yeah. Um,
you know, as I had mentioned, I, I did not end up in music professionally.
I was, I worked retail for a while. Um, and then at one point I was recruited by At&t to get into business to business sales. I got laid [00:07:00] off from that job after some restructuring and found myself selling advertising and doing marketing work for radio and newsprint. Uh. I fell in love with the design layout portion of the newsprint thing.
Um, but I was working for a radio station as part of this and they sold and laid everybody off. So I had actually been laid off from two incredible jobs within a period of about two and a half years. Uh, I was approaching 40 and thought there's no way I'm gonna be putting myself through this again.
Maybe this is the chance just to do something completely different about. Five years prior to that. And actually it was even longer than that. Um, but at some point we tried to start a web design company. Actually it was back in 2000. We tried to start a web design company, didn't know what the hell we were doing.
Like I didn't even know, I didn't understand business to business. I didn't understand making and sending an invoice. I didn't understand making an appointment to have a meeting. I mean, I was literally just walking into the front door of businesses, [00:08:00] hand them this little brochure I had done and said, we do websites.
Here's our website. Come talk to us. Then I leave. And of course, that crashed and burned pretty quickly. Um, but since I had had some really solid marketing training and, you know, worked with larger companies that taught me how to approach and work with SB Market, uh, it kind of seemed like a no brainer to give another shot.
A Have to Start
Russel: Well, sounds like it worked out well for you and for the reasons you intended. Uh, again, not the first layoff turned, starting an agency story I've heard for probably this very same reason of I'm not letting this happen to me again, and some of the other, uh, things that put you in the driver's seat.
So, all right, so you start a business and I don't know, just in how you described your story. It doesn't sound like you guys like started this together where you were in the business. Is that correct, Lisa? Is it, is it, or, and so much as you were naturally involved as being a spouse? Um, when someone starts a business,
Lisa: true.
And I had been teaching for a few years and [00:09:00] my contract had not been renewed about the same time that Jason was laid off from his work. So we were both in just kind of. Dire straits, right. Um, I was looking to get on, as a substitute teacher, I was thinking of, you know, temp jobs, things like that. I don't have the kind of passion for design that Jason has.
Um, I like working with words. You know, I like working with music, but graphic design was not a thing I was interested in. So it definitely started off as very much like being the supportive spouse while he's starting this business. But I think it really because. Some hobbies that I had picked up while I was a stay at home parent. Kind of moved me into having a bit of a role with this company. Um, when our oldest was born, he was the first grandchild of the family and. I had in-laws that you wanna make the in-laws happy, right?
So we had family [00:10:00] on either coast of the country who were very interested in seeing all kinds of pictures of the first grand baby and all of this. And we were not in a position to go spending tons of money on multiple prints of pictures and mailing things and all of that. So I picked up talk about things that don't happen in 2024, I picked up a book.
From Barnes and Noble of all places about HTML and I sat down with that Commodore and a book and no, that was, no, that wasn't Commodore by then, was it? It was something else, but yeah. Oh yeah, much better.
Jason: 4 86 Compact with a, with a color. We got it. A radio shack.
Lisa: That's right. So I'm sitting here in front of a computer with a book and a baby and just kind of teaching myself how to make very simple web pages on GeoCities.
If you recall that I'm dating myself too. Oh yeah. And so I just made very simple website pages with a little bit of text [00:11:00] and pictures of the kid, and then I could send that link out by email. 'cause that was such a great thing. You know, this is all. Feeling, feeling like very new technology, but this was, you know, 1998 and I'm making webpages to, to get out of having to send a lot of pictures to either coast of the country as a bit of a cost saving measure, but also just kind of was a, a fun thing I was doing.
And along with Jason trying to get, uh, clients in design, we had people asking follow up questions like, do you do websites?
Russel: Well, we are really going back old school with this conversation so far. We've got record stores, we've got Commodore, we've got Radio Shack that you even named dropped there. Um, I, I'm digging this.
Oh, this is great memory lane here. But, um, yeah, I mean, one I've just really enjoyed about your story in terms of how you turn hobbies and, and needs that you were kind of just kind of caring. [00:12:00] And in business and your work and able to craft that into a business, but how did you actually turn all that into getting people to pay you money for services?
Jason: I, I decided it was something I wanted to do, but I didn't have a formal education in design. Um, I understood it. I enjoyed it. I appreciated it, and I knew my way around a computer and knew my way about doing layout just from experience with various other businesses. But what we ended up doing is something I was literally just kind of trying.
There is, uh, I'm sure a lot of people is familiar with ELAMs. I think now it's called Upwork. I went ahead and just started advertising for basic design services, and I got a couple things, but it never paid anything really major. But it's like, you know, I was unemployed. We were both collecting unemployment, but you know, we figured, you know, this is an opportunity to try something.
We wanna try. So one night we had gone out, it was a Friday or Saturday night I'd account for which, maybe even a [00:13:00] weekday, I sit on boards together. But Lisa and I had gone out just to kind of get out and have an evening out. Walking down the sidewalk. Ran into a former radio client to bind that owned a bar, and he also knew Lisa and he was there with his wife.
Husband, wife, new husband, wife Lisa used to perform at their bar on, was it Tuesday nights or something? Mm-hmm. Toing. Um, and they just asked, they said, Hey, how you guys been? We haven't seen you, what you been up to? And I said, well, I'm, you know, thinking about starting a design agency, kind of getting back to the roots.
Um, I was fortunate that my brother is actually a graphic designer and had done. Was actually an adjunct professor at Oregon State for time, so he was training me. Be a real graphic designer without me having to go back and get a bachelor's degree graphic design. So we were telling our two friends about this and one of them kind of said, do you guys do websites?
And I'm thinking, I [00:14:00] don't wanna do websites. I don't understand the technology. I don't understand anything behind it. So anyway, he says, do you guys do websites? And Lisa just kind of leaned in and said. Yes, we do. And I, I looked at her, I'm like, what the hell? And since
Lisa: when?
Jason: Yeah. And I said, yeah, call me.
We'll get this figured out. So the rest of the evening was like, okay, so I guess we're doing websites. Uh, we built their website for 300 these days that, you know, no, do not call me wanting a website for, I'll send you away very quickly. Um. Happened to a sponsor for a local theater company. The local theater company needed a website.
And since they were nonprofit and I had actually been involved with the theater company quite a bit, we went ahead and built them a site pro bono, uh, which got the attention of a couple local business people who donated. And from there kind of grew, you know, we just, or we had a website and since we've had [00:15:00] people referring us, our SEO started growing a little bit more organically and people Google us and find us.
Russel: Wow. I mean, again, very organic natural growth here. And yes, I can see where $300 will not pay the bills. Probably, definitely not even back then, but certainly not today. I'm glad you threw that disclaimer out there, that you're not, uh, that your prices have moved away from that, just in case this doesn't send a, a barrage of people your way.
So when is the point in the business where, it sounds like a very natural path. Kinda like you shared organic and you moved very naturally. And this notion of maybe where you move beyond, Hey, this thing I'm doing to make money, but hey, we've got a real business agency here.
When was that point for you?
Jason: Right around that same time, I guess, wasn't it? I'm asking. I.
Maybe, yeah, so we came up with a business name, um, which actually isn't the name we use [00:16:00] anymore. But we came up with a business name, we got a domain name. And one thing that I discovered, and it's, I dunno if you can really call this, I dunno what you would call it, but I discovered when people.
Wanna hire an individual to do something. They wanna see that person's resume. They wanna see, you know, that you've got the bachelor's degree or the master's degree, or they wanna dig into you as an individual. People don't do that. Agencies, when they look at an agency, they look at a portfolio, at least this is true in my experience.
I mean, it's possible that it could be very different than other people's experience, but when they look at an agency, they look at a portfolio and we quickly realized that even though it was just the two of us working on this stuff from whatever computer we get our hands on at the time, we found that we were better positioned if we presented ourselves as an agency.
It increased the level of trust, and I really think that's kind of the dividing line between a, a freelancer and an agency, is just really how you present yourself, how you market yourself, [00:17:00] how you brand yourself.
A Couple's Business
Russel: It does, yes. Thank you. Well switch gears and. Talk to me a little bit about, so going back to even an earlier question, you guys were working on this business right outta the gate together.
What's that been like running a business as a husband, wife duo?
Lisa: It's not for everyone. I'll be the first to say. It is not for everyone. Um, my dad was a business owner. He took over the family business from my grandfather. My mother worked with him very briefly. That did not last long. Uh, I couldn't really tell you what makes that work or what makes it not work.
I think some of it has to do with personalities. We certainly dovetail between each other's strengths and weaknesses. We listen to each other, we communicate really well. I think we trust each other's opinions. I personally am a bit of a risk averse person, so. It's [00:18:00] not like I would be jumping up and down to start my own business, but if I have a partner that has a good idea and they believe in their idea, I can support that.
And so I think that's been kind of a, a key to making that work for us.
Jason: Yeah, I have to kind of echo that. It's, you know, being able to support each other and trust each, um, one of things. Figure out early on is that each of us serves a very specific role in the business. Um, there is sometimes overlap, but like for instance, when it comes to the website stuff, I, you know, how to make stuff work or how to make it function or, you know, all that.
I stay out of it. Could I figure it out? Yes, I probably could, but Lisa will always make the better call that I'll on that situation. On the flip side, being a risk averse person, she, um, I mean I'm not exactly, you know, walking on edges, cliffs here, but one of the things I'll never forget early on there was I [00:19:00] can't what piece of software it was, but there was some piece of software we were using and we kept using the free trial version of it, and we really needed to step up the game and get the version of it.
Do remember even what. We've gone through so many things. We really have, and I told her straight up, I said, this is a business. We need to treat it like a business. Yes, this is an expense, but we don't need our clients looking on the backend of their website and say that we've loaded up with free trial versions of plugins.
You know, let's figure out how much something costs. If we can't afford to spend it, then it's probably not something we should be doing, and if we can't afford to spend it, then we need to do it. And yes, this is gonna cost us, it doesn't, we're gonna make that're professional we're,
you
know,
this is what we're doing, the.
Russel: I think I might be in my early days as well, was a little, just because money [00:20:00] was scarce, a little too frugal for our own good at times. And I, someone told me the quote and it really resonated with me at the time and kind of changed my outlook in a similar way that you kind of mentioned. It's pretty wise and dollar foolish.
Yep. There it is. Um, and, and how important that is to not be. Business because we have to invest. We have to, and especially in this business and especially in the last 20 years, we have to constantly be improving, adapting, changing, you know, our technology because the industry is just moving so fast.
Lisa: Yeah.
Well, and I think that also, um. Spoke to how we ended up pricing our services. You know, it's easy to think small where we're gonna not spend a lot of money and we're also not gonna charge a lot of money. But this is a business that has costs associated with making the product that these people want, and we need to recognize the value in what we're bringing to the table and price accordingly.
Russel: We live in a world that's so easy to default to [00:21:00] time, but we really need to think about what it means to invest in the product that we need to create. Not even necessarily willingness to pay is always a factor, but we, we have to keep them from their own disinterest in the sense of, yes, everybody wants it cheap.
Fast and greatest quality in the world. But we've just gotta be the stewards of that and, and do what we need to do to make it happen. Great insight there. When you think about beyond Price, let's just say in terms of what you're delivering as a service, obviously you've been in this game a while now as you've shared.
How has your outlook, a little bit like what we were even discussing already of just bare bones, get it out the door to now we really focus on more technology integration or just how you're looking at your overall service and what you deliver.
And maybe even from strategy approach in terms of how you're creating and building what you're building for clients.
Saved by MRR
Lisa: I mean, I would definitely talk about our website management services. I mean, that really saved our bacon during the pandemic. [00:22:00]
Jason: Yeah, no, that, there you go. Great. That's, uh, that's actually a good one.
So when we, as I mentioned, when first started.
I never gave a lot of thought to having a recurring revenue model built into our business. I mean, it was something that I wanted to do, but I also didn't see it as something that could happen with design. You know, somebody needs a business card designed, it's not like they want you to redo it every other month.
This is what it's, and they stick with it for however long and send with a website, somebody gets a website built. They don't want you redoing their website every other month. So we have this one client. Had located us through ELs ages ago. And we built a website for her and once the whole thing was done, she said, can you help me keep this thing online?
Can you help me figure out the hosting part of it? And can you help me figure out, you know, if I need content changes, can I just send those to you? And I thought, well shoot, here's our recurring revenue model built in. So as I mentioned, I didn't really [00:23:00] understand the technology, but I learned it real fast.
How to handle hosting, how to handle management. I had had some minor IT experience in the past just through being a computer nerd. Um, so we expanded that and we started offering full hosting and management. Um, to this day, and this was 10, 12 years ago, I think that this happened. That one client is still one of our management clients now, unfortunately, this is a little bit of a sad story.
She actually passed away, um, yeah. And I have been working with her assistant and with her husband to kind of keep things going. As a thank you to her. We had been charging her the same rate that we charged her the day she started with us. Which is actually half what we charge.
Quite literally half what we charge now for our basic management services. Um, but she set us on a path that absolutely gave us some stability. And during the pandemic, you know, we did have to furlough, we did the new projects dried up. Um, and it was unfortunate and I'm really glad that our staff had [00:24:00] unemployment to fall back on.
But the management costs are what kept us fed, kept our family going and our bills paid. And then he came out, which I was very thankful for. That helped get us back up and going again. I was able to rehire, we were able to, work on our internal marketing, on our own internal advertising and figure out how to go remote and all of that stuff.
Um, and our staff all came back, which we were really thankful for. But if it hadn't been for that recurring revenue model of having that website management plan. Would've been, yeah.
Russel: Glad you got that, glad you had that in place. And you know, I think for a while now at least, you know, it sounds like you might've been a little bit ahead of the curve there.
Agencies have definitely been searching for more of that MRR type model and even, especially more project prone based agencies. And so it makes perfect sense. One of the things I, you know, see done interestingly, and whether that's more web maintenance services or just any kind of [00:25:00] packaged retainer, MRR type.
Pricing setup is, it's still a lot of folks do more of a a time system, but it sounds like you have some good, maybe boundaries within your packages that don't expose you to the downsides of kind of one price for a line of services. Just how have you looked at that and thought about that and package this up to where it makes good business sense overall beyond just the income itself?
So I'm looking for a secret sauce or nugget or two, I guess you could say in the end about how you package and price these things. It's actually
1000 Different Ways
Jason: pretty straightforward. Um, the one thing that we started doing a few years ago is we started religiously and meticulously tracking how much time we.
New website, we do a deep dive into their business, figure out how large the business is, what their goals are, what their message is, that kind of thing. And then I kind of go back and look at three or four similar projects that we've had in the past [00:26:00] for similar ized businesses, similar size goals, that type of thing.
Um, new two businesses are identical. I have yet to see any two businesses that would, you know, work with us that are gonna be exact clones. We don't do, local McDonald's. So it's not like it's just like the one up the street. Every business is unique, but we can make some assumptions and from there.
So the initial proposal is built based on the estimated number of hours we think it's gonna take. And if it takes longer, we eat it. If less time, that's more money for us, but we're not lowering the value to get it to take less time. We're staying as honest and transparent as we can. And then anything that's over beyond that is outta scope and it's bill hourly.
And in proposals, I do have a, I call it a transparency and pricing policy. I say, this is why you're paying what you're paying. This is our hourly rate. This is how many hours we estimate it's gonna take. Do this one section, multiply those together and that added to all the other parts of the proposal or what make your price.[00:27:00]
Lisa: Yeah. He's meticulous about proposals at the start of a project. We definitely subscribe to that whole, uh, what's the saying? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, where, like he said, we treat every job as an individual. Every business is different, every project is different, but there are some parameters that we can establish in a proposal and sort of speculate out what it's gonna take, how to charge accordingly.
For things like website management services, we just have a real easy list of things that cover it. We set those parameters 'cause those are duplicatable, and that's just what people are told when they sign up. We're very strong on communication and making sure that we develop. Strong parameters and communicate effectively what they are, so there's no surprises during the project when something might change or something unexpected might happen.
Russel: Well, I'm being a hundred percent [00:28:00] honest and I listen through that process. There's some things I'm like, ah, yes, and there's some things that give me the, I'll just raise some hairs to just say, I'm curious how that works out. But the beautiful thing about an agency is it's not weird if it works, and it's, uh, really about matching what you're delivering to, how you're approaching it to your own personalities and the clients you're finding.
So I'll just recap a couple things that you know. One, I'm a little bit anti in the time-based world. However, what I do always appreciate is not tracking from time to try to do, um, to fool ourselves into certain things, but tracking time for real data points and try to line things up as closely as, which again, what it sounds like you're doing.
Um, one of the things I'm curious about in terms of how this works out is, you know, I don't know, do clients not start to get a little gun shy in your process? You know, maybe this is later down the road, are things they've approved that they come back and didn't like, and they're like, crap. I don't know if I wanna sign off on anything anymore because, I do think clients are always very, um, [00:29:00] hesitant in this kind of finality of.
Signing off, or even in the idea of launching like it's over and it's done, or I've gotta pay a lot more money. I don't know what, what's that been like? Do you feel like from the, the client experience side?
Lisa: I'll say as far as websites are concerned, uh, we don't really have a, oh, bam, it's over doors closed because the vast majority of our clients sign up for our site management services.
So they know that yes, there's a bit of a finality for the site having been launched, but we're not, you know. Letting them off on their own, pushing their boat off onto the river. They know that they can contact us when they have questions. They know they can reach out to us just to do the maintenance stuff that they don't wanna do.
The content changes they don't wanna do. We remain partners with them. And so there really isn't a whole lot of, okay, that's done and now what? You know, we really try to position ourselves as a partner with the business, and I think that's partially because we've spent a lot of time [00:30:00] with local businesses, a lot of time in our community with some nonprofit organizations as well.
Um, we take a vested interest in what our clients are trying to achieve. We feel that their success is our success.
Jason: Yeah, and I've found that I can frequently, as Lisa said, having, being in constant communication with our clients is, is important. I have found that people don't mind us taking the approach when we ask them to sign off stuff as long as we keep them goal oriented. And that's true with a lot of stuff in life.
So we had a client, this is about a year ago, who flat out said, this design does not wow me. It doesn't excite me. It doesn't, I really thought it would be bigger or better, or flashier or, pick your adjective. And I asked him, I said, what are you not seeing? He says, I don't know what I don't like.
I just know it when I'll see it. You know, it's, I mean, every agency's heard that. I don't like it. Just show me something else. I'll know when I see it. Make it pop. Exactly, exactly. [00:31:00] Make the logo bigger. Make it bigger. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe if we make this red, can you fill in this blank space? Oh, I've heard all of them.
Mm-hmm.
Um, but anyway, I went back, I went back to the client and I said, let's take a look at the original goal of this project. What was your goal? And he said, oh, it was to, you know, get more clients for my business. And I said, absolutely. I said, do you see anything about this website? Prevent that and he said no.
I said, okay. Then let's look into the things that that I said. Do we have a specific call to action on your website? Yes. Does the brand image match your brand image? Yes. Is the tone of the text what you wanted it to be? Yes. What about the images? Do those align with your brand images? Well, yes. If you were visiting this website as an outsider, would you feel compelled to click the contact me button?
And he pause and he said, I would. And I said, then what's wrong with the website? If you want something different and if it doesn't really match your vibe or what you were expecting, show me and we'll absolutely do that. [00:32:00] I'll admit that we missed the mark, but
the look and feel and the brand and the overall site design is on here. We can go back, but let's make it better. Let's not just, you know. Happen to make this better and I put it back on them, and people don't feel pressured by that. They legitimately appreciate the fact that we have helped make some of decisions that they've had their own.
Russel: I'm thinking there, right? Like you're challenging a little bit and pointing back to the strategy, pointing back to the goal, and they're, they're realizing that in this moment that that's what matters most, and that's what you're actually doing by, you're not just doing it to try to save money and stuff like that, as to kind of what you were saying earlier, walking along with them and, and showing them that you have their back and that we're in this together and how we got there.
So, um, see. We can make all kinds of different ways work in this agency business. So thank you for sharing that. Well, I would love to keep talking about all the things, but uh, they do say podcasts have to end someday. So a couple more questions for you to round out. One, just kind of curious how [00:33:00] you guys are looking at the future of this thing and where's Neon Moth intended to be in 10 years?
Lisa: It's funny because I don't feel like we're looking at. Trying to become a super agency. You know, we set out with our own goal, which was to be self-employed in work that we found meaningful and sustainable. And that's what we've built. And I feel like we're happy keeping things as they are, as long as they're are clients who find us or we find them and they need help.
And we know what it's like because we've been there. We just wanna keep helping them.
Born or Made?
Russel: Beautiful. I can't say it better than that. Well, last big question for you, you can both answer this. Are entrepreneurs born or are they made?
Jason: That, you know, it's a hard one. I struggle with that because I do remember as a little kid wanting to run my own business. I remember that very specifically. [00:34:00] Every job I had before we started this, all I could think about was if I were the owner, what would I do different to make it better? Um, I worked in a piano store for a while.
I thought, man, it'd be great. A piano store, not what I really should be doing. So I'm glad that didn't work out. You know, I just, you know, I would always look at it and think, what could I do to make it better? What could I do to make it better? It was a question I naturally found myself asking. I remember at 12 years old, sitting in confirmation class at my church.
Telling my confirmation class teacher that one day I would run my own business. I mean, I remember that very specifically. So looking back, not even really knowing what that meant at that time, I would have to say born. But I also know that we had to dig through a lot of garbage to learn what we had to do to do it successfully.
Mm-hmm.
So the answer to that is made. You have to pick a side. No, I'm just kidding. Uh uh. It's kind like, I'll take that. It's kind of like
Lisa: nature or nurture, right? There certainly [00:35:00] is a mindset that is tending toward being an entrepreneur, and not everybody has that. But I also feel like if you discover an idea.
Decide you want to do this. Maybe you've never thought about being an entrepreneur before, but there are things you can learn. There are paths you can take, you can teach yourself how to do things. We certainly have, um, so it's, I would tend toward made because I feel like I wasn't born to be an entrepreneur.
But, uh, sometimes situations present themselves and if it's something you believe in and you wanna put the work in, it can be done.
Russel: Beautiful. Beautiful. Wonderful answers to on both sides of the equation. If people wanna know more about Neon moth, where can they go?
Jason: Neon moth com.
Just like it sounds. N we got the, we got the visual in your head.
Russel: Well, thank you both for taking the time outta your schedules today and walk [00:36:00] down memory lane on all things nostalgia and how to make this whole agency business work. And sounds like you guys have set yourself up really well for the goals you set out to and the lifestyle business it sounds like you've been able to create for yourselves and your family.
Wonderful to hear a success story in that sense, and really appreciate you taking the time to share it with us today.
Lisa: Thank you. Thanks for having us.
Russel: It's my pleasure. Thank you for listening to an agency story podcast where every story helps you write your own, subscribe, share, and join us again for more real stories, lessons learned, and breakthroughs ahead.
What's next? You'll wanna visit an agency story.com/podcast and follow us on Instagram at an agency story for the
Feed for Appreciation
Jason: latest updates. So our creative director, his name is Pat. When he first started working with us, he came to us with a, you know, he was a designer with a few years of experience, three, four years experience.
Anyway, young adult, definitely not a kid. Late twenties, I wanna say at the [00:37:00] time. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, we had a client who was a retired school teacher and she had started a business writing curricula for schools, and she would write this curriculum or curricula, curriculum, plural, I think. Anyway, we had a client who was a retired school teacher and she was writing curricula and she would have us design it and lay it out so that it could be printed in book format.
One day she opens up our office door, she walked into our office building, opened up our office door, and walked in with a box of donuts or cupcakes or something. I can't remember what it was, was some sort of sweet treat. Kind of a, you know, a thank you for doing this, and this is the kind of relationship we have with our clients.
She walks in with sweets and she says, oh, there are some here for everybody. I'm like, oh, thank you so much. And then she says, oh, we leave some for, pat had stepped out. He was at a meeting or had gone somewhere else, and she says, make sure you leave some for Pat. He needs to have some, because he's a growing boy.
Well, of course Pat [00:38:00] came back and here was this, you know, full grown adult, late twenties, early thirties. Again, can't remember exactly how old, and I said, said Pat, she brought some donuts and muffins for you because you're a growing boy.
Russel: Ah. I love two things. I love monikers that stick and I love clients that feed, feed you read us in the agency business, those are two great combinations. True.