An Agency Story

From SNL Backstage to Franchise Front Stage - Elysium Marketing Group

• Russel Dubree / Elyse Lupin • Episode 175

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Starting an agency is hard. Starting one with a baby at home is even harder. In this episode, Elyse Lupin, Founder of Elysium Marketing Group, shares the real story behind building a food and franchise agency through uncertainty, motherhood, and constant industry change.

Key Takeaways

  • Why Elyse launched her agency with a nine-month-old
  • The fear of narrowing your positioning and finding the right balance of focus and flexibility 
  • How a stronger team and clearer boundaries made leadership and family life more sustainable over time 
  • A thoughtful approach to AI: using it for efficiency without losing strategy, judgment, or voice 
  • Elyse’s simplest advice after 11 years: keep going, stay steady, and don’t get pulled too high or too low 

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. Click this link to visit AnAgencyStory.com and click “Let’s Talk.”

Russel:

Welcome to An Agency Story podcast where owners and experts share the real journey, the early struggles, the breakthrough moments, and everything in between. I'm your host Russel Dubree, former eight figure agency owner, turn Business coach. Sold my agency and now helps agency leaders create their ideal business. Every agency has a story, and this is your front row seat. This is an agency story. Welcome to the show today, everyone. I have Elyse Lupin with Elysium Marketing Group with us here today. Thank you so much for joining us today, Elise.

Elyse:

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Russel:

Equally excited to have you. If you don't mind, start us off. Tell us what Elisia Marketing Group does and who you do it for.

Elyse:

Sure. So I founded Elisia Marketing Group 11 years ago. We are a food and franchise marketing agency and we are full service. So we have an entire digital team, an entire creative team, entire PR and content team.

Russel:

Okay. I'm always a big fan of when it's just. Straight and to the point like that.

Elyse:

Yeah.

Russel:

Well, we're gonna find out all the things that, that looks like, but before we do that, I want to hear about how young Elyse came up in the world. What's young Elyse's story?

Elyse:

Oh, young Elise. I have a lot of things to say to her. Sure. She has a lot of things to say to me too, but, um, yeah.

Russel:

Right. What'd you do to me? Yeah.

Elyse:

So, um, after I graduated from Penn State, I went to New York and I, uh, worked in the entertainment industry for a while, which was a huge dream of mine. I worked as an NBC page. So I had the chance to work on the Today Show and I worked on Saturday Night Live and it was an awesome, awesome, yeah, beginning of a, a career, so,

Russel:

okay.

Elyse:

I was flying high and I was like, this job stuff is easy. Yeah, yeah. Learned later how not easy. Yeah. So then I went from there. I'd always wanted to work for a record label. Back then, they were still, you know, pertinent and. I don't even know what record labels do now, but Matt Lauer actually helped me get my second job. He introduced me to someone at Columbia Records and so I worked there for a while. That was an interesting experience

Russel:

at Columbia Records.

Elyse:

Yeah, I mean, it was cool on one hand, like Billy Joel would call, and I don't think at the time I recognized like how weird it was that I was like on the phone with him, you know? I was just like, oh, okay. But I was really green. I can look back and say that now. I had a lot to learn at that point. So after New York, I, I went back home and worked in marketing. I worked for Radio Disney for a while, and then I loved the creative side of things, but I kind of wanted to get more on the number side of things. And so I went back to school to get my MBA, I went to Boston University, loved the city of Boston, and got my MBA there and I think it planted the seed a little bit for entrepreneurship. There was just a lot of different interesting people that I met through that program. I came back to Philadelphia, where I'm currently located, and worked for Comcast for a while, which was a great experience. Fast forward, I had a child and was really hating the job, not Comcast, the job I was at after that. And, I met with a mentor. She was like, do your own thing. I'm like, I can't. You're crazy. I have a mortgage, I have a baby. Like what? Thought about it. And then started Elysium in 2015 with a nine month old.

Russel:

My gosh. Okay. Yeah. Well, I can only imagine the journey, all, all the things that went into that and just the grit and, and things. But I have to imagine just as you're rolling through that career trajectory that had to make young Elise pretty proud. Um, all the cool things that when I just think of myself and the people I knew as a teenager, that would've cracked the top list of cool jobs to do. Just so I can live vicariously through you for a hot minute. Like just tell me a celebrity encounter or fun story

Elyse:

I'll keep the really interesting stories.'cause I don't wanna call out anyone, but, you know, part of my job as the page on the Today Show was taking the celebrities up to hair and makeup and like getting them down to their live shots and stuff like that. And there were some divas, but I'll tell you a nice exchange. I remember I really didn't get that starstruck just because it's your job every day. And so I. Kept grounded until one day Harrison Ford was on and he forgot his book Upstairs in the Green Room and he was about to leave and I was the biggest nerd. I was like, I'll get it. You know, like ran upstairs, grabbed his book. It to him. I was really, he said thank you, but I just remember being completely starstruck with like, you know, I grew up in the eighties. He was, uh, in a lot of my favorite movies growing up. Indiana Jones.

Russel:

Okay. What is your favorite Harrison Ford movie? I

Elyse:

dunno, but I'm watching him in shrinking right now and I'm enjoying him just as much now as I did back then. So, you know, he lasts through the times.

Russel:

I mean, yeah, some hair color change. He looks and he pretty much talks the same as he did back in the first Star Wars, I think was his first claim to fame.

Elyse:

Yeah. Well that's pretty cool. I'm not big sci-fi, you know, I have an older brother, so that's how you know when you're.

Russel:

Especially

Elyse:

back then, right? We only had like one remote. It's not like we had like 15 different devices. So there was a lot of Indiana Jones and Star Wars just'cause I had an older brother. Not'cause I was necessarily like super into it.

Russel:

There we go. For the younger folks listening today, just remember there was a point in time where there was only one thing to watch and whoever had control,

Elyse:

and we had a race to get up and my brother was an early riser and I wasn't, so I remember every morning it was like, okay, we're watching whatever he, he got to the TV first, so we're watching this.

Russel:

Oh my gosh, that's so funny. Yeah, I had younger brothers and we had to fight over if they got to Barney and all those kids shows that I just had to, yeah. Stomach through in the morning, so

Elyse:

Yeah. Yeah. I skipped a lot of those'cause my brother was like, nah, we're not watching. Okay.

Russel:

Well, I feel your pain there. Well, all right. We're pretty cool story. Pretty cool journey. And so, I mean, how scary was that for you to really, you know, not only let go of a career, have a new child and start a business? Like what were you thinking at the time? What were the emotions you were going through?

Elyse:

Yeah, it was very scary, mainly because I had a good salary. And so from going from a good salary to no salary is really, really scary. I just remember thinking, I can do this. And that's one of the pieces of advice I always give people if they're going to start their own agency, is like, don't have asset. Like if you're gonna do it, do it. And so I just remember being like, okay, I'm gonna, get my website and get my logo and I'm gonna tell every single person I'd ever met that I'm doing this. And I mean. I did have two clients when I started Elysium. They were both small, but I at least had some income coming in and I was just trying to get results from them so that I could share those results then with more people, and then get more clients. And it's funny, at the time I was scared, but I was determined. Now looking back, I'm like, what the heck was I doing? Right? You know? I do think it's also really, really important to point out, like I had a really, really, really supportive partner. My husband at the time, like if roles were reversed, I would've been like, no, you're getting another job. And like this is happening. You know? Instead he was, he works in education and so he was the more stable one, and so he was like, okay. And I did promise him, I said, if this doesn't work out, I think I might've said three or six months. I'll go back and get a corporate job. But he was cool about it. Like he, yeah, thank goodness, because I think if he were really not on board, I would've had to just go get another job somewhere else.

Russel:

I know we talked about this previously Getting your husband on board, but was it, do you think his support was more about, this is a really great chance for our family, or was it just, I wanna give my wife a shot at doing this crazy entrepreneurial thing and I'm just gonna support her along the ride?

Elyse:

I don't think either one of us knew where this was going to go, so I know now he's really happy that I did it. At the time, I was really, really unhappy at the job that I was at. He just wanted me to feel fulfilled and be happy, and he thought if this is really what she wants to do and she's determined to do it, then I'll stand by her. He's just a really good husband.

Russel:

Yeah. What's his name?

Elyse:

Phil.

Russel:

Shout out to Phil. Good job, Phil. Yeah. Did a good job. Well, talk a little bit about you just Right. New mother and most people will look back and say, yeah, the early years you're just hustle. You're just grinding. You're just doing everything you can to figure out how to make this work.

Elyse:

Yeah.

Russel:

How were you able to balance. That aspect in the early days.

Elyse:

So I think that wasn't as difficult as when I had my daughter two years later. Then that was almost impossible at that point. I had, I think, one or two full-time employees. Um, we were still working out of my house, and so having a toddler and a baby and. You know, my team was making fun of me at the time. I mean, she is gonna be nine soon, but I almost acted like I wasn't pregnant because we had finally been getting some traction and so it was a totally different ball game. Then when I started the agency, we were so new and it was, but at two years later we were really rolling and so I was petrified of losing my clients and I'm not proud of this at all and I wouldn't recommend it, but I almost like hid my pregnancy for a while and then I went in to have her and I was. Texting my team, this has to get done and this has to get done and make fun about it now. And they're like, you having a baby, so it was much harder once, she came and God love her. She's a force man. She is something, she has been a force since she came out. So she's,

Russel:

yeah,

Elyse:

she demanded a lot of attention and she's gonna be a boss one day. But that was definitely more difficult'cause we had more clients and I wanted them to understand like we weren't going anywhere and I was still gonna be able to give them the attention and so was my team. And so that was probably the most difficult part of the entire 11 years I've had the agency. Yeah,

Russel:

well one is like none, two is like 10 when it comes to, to children, to boots. So, uh, yeah, I can see

Elyse:

where that, and it just felt like I wasn't giving any attention, right. I wasn't giving my son enough attention because he was not used to having a little baby. I wasn't giving the baby enough attention because she was a little baby. I wasn't giving the business enough attention. My husband, it was one of those where I was just like, whoa. Everything was just going on at the same time and difficult.

Russel:

And I imagine just experience and learning and have you been able to balance those aspects more in recent times, and if so, what do you feel like helped you get there?

Elyse:

For sure. I think the biggest thing is that my team has grown and I have so many subject matter experts now that I'm not needed nearly as much as I used to be. You know, my team can do everything without me. They're the subject matter experts, so I think that's helpful. I also think my kids are now almost 12 and nine, and so. They understand that mommy works and I can have conversations with them and I can still spend good quality time with them, but then go into my office and spend good quality time there. I remember during COVID, my daughter was three and there were no boundaries, right? She used to just like come in and I'd be on calls and be like, okay, they're old enough now where I can say, Hey, I'm on a call. Do you need me right this second, or can we talk about this after? So I think combination of my team getting bigger, stronger, needing me less, and my kids also getting bigger, stronger. Maybe needing me differently.

Russel:

Well, it sounds like even, it may be even inserting a small point there of just how, when they can communicate just how important it is to just have an open dialogue about what and when you're doing. My kids were much younger when the things were, were tumultuous and stuff, but, uh, as they got older, that is something I probably wish I had done a little more often is just communicate when and why I might be working longer spells or on calls and stuff like that, is clearly a important part of the process.

Elyse:

Sure. I'll tell you too, like FaceTime is amazing. My daughter hates it. I travel way more now than I ever did in the past. Um, just'cause the nature of our clients are all over the country. We do so much franchise work that we're at lots of conferences, but FaceTime is money because not seeing her at all. I make sure that I touch base with both of my children, and then they fight over the phone and stuff and it's cute. But keeping in touch with them while I'm away is important. So I have a picture of them Fighting over the phone while I was talking to them. this is ridiculous.

Russel:

Yes. Sounds like some good LinkedIn content.

Elyse:

Yeah, exactly.

Russel:

Something too I'm curious just about is I would imagine your early journey just doing what you can, where you can and applying your skillset. However, clearly to our earlier conversation, you just have a lot more aligned positioning. Specific positioning. How and when did that come about?

Elyse:

I hate that I keep referencing COVID, but right before COVID, I had in my journey been reading, I've been watching webinars and reading books and trying to learn as much as possible about owning a marketing agency. And every single thing said, you have to niche. You have to niche. And I was petrified. I'm like, I'm not nicheing. Like I, I have all these clients in all these areas. I'm not getting rid of them, you know? And so right before COVID I thought, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it in restaurants. That's food in general and you know, franchise with just food and food, food, food, food. And thank god I didn't do that because you know, we lost a good portion of our just restaurant clients. We got'em all back when that happened. But then I had like a small epiphany of we do franchising. It's still lots of different industries and I love the franchising clients that we had. I love the franchise industry. The people are so interesting. They're entrepreneurial. Everyone helps each other out. It's just an awesome, awesome industry. And so. I'm like, I can do both, so I'm gonna do food and franchise. And then it doesn't just limit us to food. So we still have franchise clients and the haircut and beauty we have in home services. You know, we have all sorts of clients and so it's kind of my workaround. I niched and we do, and it is really different in franchising. You have to understand the FDD and how, you know, franchises work. You know how to scale and, but still be local and there's a lot of differences in franchising than there is in general marketing, but that's how that came about.

Russel:

Okay. Now did you have franchise clients before or was that Yeah. You said an epiphany and Okay.

Elyse:

Yeah, we did. We had a bunch and, and we really liked'em and we worked really well with them. And, we really took the time to understand I have my CFE, so. It was gonna be food and franchise and it wound up just being food franchise. And then it just became like franchise in general. And now we have a good mix. I would say it's maybe about 50 50.

Russel:

Most everyone I talk to work with on a very similar type, uh, endeavor as far as positioning goes. There's the fear factor, um, but it sounds like you leaned into something you had experience in. Sounds like you found this nice balance of, I don't wanna be so specific that it's kind of maybe adhere boring. Exactly. But uh, that find something that there's some inherent versatility baked into it, what you've done with franchising. And so once you started, go down that path. How did you start acting differently within the business? How did the business itself change? As far as that evolution goes?

Elyse:

Well, I remember reading, you know, even when you niche, like people will still come to you. And that still happened, it just made us stronger within the industry. We started putting all of our focus there. All of our case studies were related to franchising. All the conferences we went to were related to franchising. So that's what we've been doing for the past six years, seven years or so. Just really just. Laser focusing in making sure that not only stay on top of all the marketing,'cause that's changing constantly, but staying on top of all the franchising trends and all the food trends as well.

Russel:

And I mean, I guess imagine at some point and having a bigger team, have you found ways to make that more, I don't wanna call it second nature, or just operationalize that to some degree within the business?

Elyse:

Yeah, so we've always been an agency that shares links with each other or you know, Hey, read this article, or, you know, shares. Blogs and, sign up for this webinar. But we actually have operationalized it a little bit more this year on two ways. One is that with ai, we've been, um, training each other. We called it Elysium enlightenment. We have a really cool logo for it and everything. Um, and that is just us teaching each other. So. Other week someone will pick an AI app or you know, something of that nature and teach the rest of us just what is high level, not like super in depth, just what is it, how could it help us? How could it help our clients? And so we're actually gonna be rolling that out externally as well.'cause we thought, well this might be a good tool. For others to know. You know, it's, instead of us just teaching ourselves what are these things, it will at least give other people a directional. Do I even wanna bother trying this one out or not? So that is one thing. The other is, um, we just joined the WSI Network, which it's like the largest digital marketing network in the country or something. And one of the biggest reasons why we did that was because they have, um. Round tables quite often that talk about the latest in digital marketing and ai. And I just thought that's another good way for our team to sit in these round tables and hear from the experts and you know, ingest this information in more ways than just like trying to read. You know, it gets hard every morning. I get all my newsletters and do I read them every single line? No, it would be impossible. And so it's kind of skimming. And so this sort of would be. Or is a way for them to skim for us and then tell us what the important pieces are.

Russel:

It's so funny. We basically had the exact same construct, uh, or at least similar construct. Um, and it started out, I think we did it weekly of just, Hey, we're gonna get rumors, gonna share ideas, like bring something cool to show and tell that day. And then it did eventually evolve into really teaching each other. So we would give. The different crafts, uh, once a week, and this is pre COVID, we'd bring in lunch as well and do kind of a lunch learn. But yeah, I dunno if I share, we call it life flu university. And yeah, different crafts would teach different angles of their crafts. And then this is what I part I like about you shared that I wish I would've invested more is bringing in even other people into,'cause we would bring in guest speakers that talked about all kinds of, number of things in and outside agency life and stuff like that. So. Get a lot more bang for the buck. Had we gone down the path that it seems like you might be going down with bringing in the outside to your, your little internal learning sessions.

Elyse:

There's so much, everything's changing so quickly. It's um, I heard actually the CEO of WSI speak at an event and he's like the master of AI and. He's scary when he talks about it. He makes me more scared than anything else, you know? And so had a conversation with him afterwards and I'm like, how in the world can we possibly keep up with this? And so one thing led to another and that is it. But you know, I've always been a learner and I always wanted a team that's curious and loves learning too. But it's like you gotta figure out a way to learn fairly quickly'cause you're doing the work for the clients and spending the time there as well.

Russel:

Well, I mean, just an underlying thing that's really coming out in your story is just how actively you've invested in your own professional development and your team's professional development. Reading. I'm a big advocate of that. And I'm just curious, going back to, you know, your reading books on positioning for you personally, like what is a book that maybe has had the most impact when you think about your business journey?

Elyse:

I dunno, you know. The one I enjoyed recently there was Robert Rosenfeld. His book about how he started Dunkin' was really interesting to me. So I love reading, but articles sometimes are a little bit more digestible, I think, than some business books where you're like, get to the point, you know? Um, and so I struggle sometimes, but that one was a good. His book about starting Dunkin' and especially'cause we do so much work with franchising, it was just fascinating to see how he went from basically a rival with his cousin in, you know, two different shops to Dunkin' now. Google of franchising. So, um, it was just an easy read and a good read and a kind of a good, like, there were leadership pointers in there. And sometimes I like to read books, not about marketers too, just to see, well, what do other people do and how do they lead their organization? So that was a good one.

Russel:

Wow. Okay, good. Well, I always love a good book recommendation. As someone in the franchise space, just reading that book and even your own knowledge like Dunking is having some kind of resurgence or just used to be just something that never came across my mind. Now I'm now I'm seeing and hearing about Dunkin all the time.

Elyse:

Yeah. I mean, I think they've been smart with a lot of what they do. First of all, they have a lot of good resources, so it's a, you know, but they use them really well too, right? So they have a really good tagline. They're from Boston, so they've leaned into that with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and Tom Brady, right? They've done really good content that people wanna be a part of. They have really cool clothing and other things, so they become almost like a lifestyle brand, not just a coffee brand. And as you know, that works in marketing and connects with people. You know, they don't just do donuts anymore so people can stop and get breakfast. And so I just think they've pulled all the right levers. I watch a lot of their content and what they do and, um, they're just doing everything right, right now. So

Russel:

that's all things but donuts anymore. It seems like it, right?

Elyse:

Well, that's why their name's Dunkin' too.

Russel:

Oh, they changed their name and they're not Dunking Donuts anymore.

Elyse:

Yeah.

Russel:

Oh, I didn't know that. Okay. Okay. Going back to ai, right? Hot topic. Two or three years ago on the podcast, COVID was always the hot topic. Now AI is the hot topic that everyone's bringing up. How are you approaching that in your business? What does that look like for you?

Elyse:

Yeah, so that's the Elysium Enlightenment where we're teaching each other, you know, what are the different AI. Assets that we could use. We also are very cognizant of what I like to say to my team is, if we're gonna use it for brainstorming, brainstorm yourself first and then put that brainstorm in and see what's going on. Like, we're very aware of the fact that AI is not perfect, that it hallucinates that it tells you what you wanna hear, you know,

Russel:

hallucinate. I like this word that it hallucinates. I'm gonna remember that. Yeah, more often when

Elyse:

interacting with

Russel:

it's,

Elyse:

and, and also frankly, in general, this still applies for AI as well. Garbage in, garbage out, right? So you have to feed the AI correctly and, you know, give it all the context before it gives you something good. The other end. So we also are very aware of like, you know, you don't just take what you get from it and use it, you know, you look at it and read it and make it more you and change some of the ideas. And we are absolutely leaning into it, um, for efficiency sake. But we also absolutely know that there are limitations and, you know, we have to use our brains. It's not gonna replace a lot of what we do. We'll replace some of it, but not all of it.

Russel:

Yeah, I was just sitting here thinking of how many times I really have put into as a response of, what the hell are you talking about when it goes walkabout on a concept or idea of, yeah.

Elyse:

I like to pin them against each other too. Yeah. Like ask one a question and then get good results, and then put it in another one and say, what's missing here? And then it gets really, you know, you're like, oh good, they caught this, that this one didn't catch. And kind of have them,

Russel:

yeah. Go back and forth A little, little AI war and, alright, so someone, right, and from your perspective, and there's all different takes on this, so this is always a curious question of, right, is AI the beginning of the apocalypse or is it gonna essentially just be another tool similar to the evolution of the web or something along those lines? Where are you currently sitting on how much AI is gonna. Dominate our world,

Elyse:

I don't know is the honest answer. My hope is that it's something that really helps everyone become more efficient, but that it doesn't take over the world. That's my honest answer. So, yeah, I dunno. I think there are parts of it that are super scary and there are parts of it that are super useful. So I'm really leaning into the useful pieces and trying not to, I wouldn't mind a robot cleaning my house all the time. That would be awesome, you know? Yeah. But I don't want it to, you know.

Russel:

You don't want it to be eye robot.

Elyse:

For sure. And I also think like, not to go on this high horse, but like we need humanity now more than ever. And so. We're in the office four days a week. And I feel very strongly about that. And I know a lot of people wish that, we get people when we put out job posts that will apply and we, part of what we say is you must be in office four days a week. And to me it's so important. We're a marketing agency. We need to be all on the same page and working together and rowing in the same direction. And I just think that people need people now more than ever. And so. That's where I think the robots are not gonna be able to even come close to the emotional part or the human element, so that I feel pretty good about humans. Absolutely need. To be around each other and supporting each other and not just robots supporting us. Yeah,

Russel:

that's kind of where I think I personally land is at the end of the day, as long as the end products we're doing and working for are for humans, we will always need the component of being more human than ever. And certainly some lower, um, skilled type labor and components can be replaced. But the how to make it all work, the strategy, the feeling, the emotion, the connectivity. Exactly. Um, now that can't be replaced. I'm with you on that. And yes, I'm not one to. Try to create doomsday predictions one way or the other that we are still in this. Wait and see how it evolves and, and certainly we need to embrace it for what it is today. But, um, yeah. I'm not gonna jump on the apocalyptic train anytime soon. But fun stuff though. We'll, we'll come back to this episode 10 years from now and

Elyse:

Right. And laugh at ourselves. Oh, look what we didn't know.

Russel:

Yeah. Yeah. That'll be interesting. We're recording it one way or another. Um, well. Obviously, you know, I mean, it sounds like you've gotten to a good place in your business, you know, when you just think back, what is a piece of advice you would give yourself earlier on in your business that would maybe have made things a little less troublesome for you?

Elyse:

Yeah, I think I would just tell myself to keep going. And it's funny, my husband that I talked about earlier, a bunch of years ago, he was a football coach and so he is always like never too high, never too low. And you know, at the hard parts it's like you just gotta keep going and trying your hardest and doing your best and you make it through. And so I think when I started the agency, I had high hopes, but I didn't. Know where we were going, and I think now 11 years later, I could tell myself like, it's all gonna work out. Like just keep going. You know? Don't worry quite as much as you have in the past. I should tell myself that now too. Huh? I tell myself that

Russel:

and that funny how that works out.

Elyse:

Yeah. I do think that's an important piece of this though. You know, no one really knows what's gonna happen, but if you give it your all and you do your best, like that's all anyone can ask.

Russel:

It's interesting. Uh, well one, the quote just keeps coming to mind here, uh, as you're sharing that, of just keep swimming, by the famous Dory. Right. Um, that is such a good, just reminder, we were actually having a talk with our son last night. He is studying abroad and, he's doing an engineering degree and Right. He is just in the slog of. Very difficult classes. He is got friends that get to go out and party and he has to stay home and study and, and he's kind of questioning like, what the heck? Why am I doing this? And, you know, I wish I could be doing that. And we just, you know, had to reinforce. You're just in the messy middle. Yeah, exactly. You're doing hard thing. And you'll, you'll

Elyse:

get through it. Yeah. I hope he gets to enjoy being abroad, though. That's one of my favorite times of my entire life. So hopefully he doesn't have to study the entire time he can get to see new places and new sites and everything.

Russel:

I think he'll be all right. He was having a moment, so we'll certainly figure it out. But, uh, um, we'll see. So certainly, yeah, jealous of that opportunity, for him, but I'm glad he was able to do that. And so given where you're at today, how are you looking at the future? What does that look like for Elysium Marking group?

Elyse:

So I'm trying to focus on bringing in the best people possible, the subject matter experts that can really help us get to the next level. A lot of subject matter experts needed in digital marketing, um, in account management. And then obviously if they have, knowledge of franchising, that's a plus as well, or food because those are our two areas of expertise, although we can teach that pretty well, but it's definitely just all about bringing in the right people. To service our clients and then to get them results as well. So, um, like I mentioned earlier, we're in office four days a week, so sometimes they can limit the talent pool because you have to be in the greater Philadelphia area. But there are enough good people here that, that's what I really focused on, is just bringing the best people possible here. It

Russel:

might be a little more concerning if you're in, Podunk, Western, town of less than 5,000 people,

Elyse:

right? We're in a major city and frankly, we're not that far from New York or DC or Baltimore either. So there's still opportunities there in the northeast.

Russel:

And as I had shared before, I've never been to Philadelphia, so if someone like myself was going to Philadelphia for the first time, what is something I absolutely have to do?

Elyse:

I think it depends on who you speak to. Well, we're a huge sports town, so if there's any type of game going on, you have to go to the Phillies game or the Eagles game. I would say probably my favorite things to do in Philadelphia. Well, the food scene's really great now, so there's a lot of great restaurants, but I am a traditionalist. I like the Philadelphia Art Museum. It's one of the best in the world, and so I would say you have to absolutely visit. Okay.

Russel:

Never even heard of the Philadelphia Art Museum. That's good to know. What is the Secret gem on the food scene of that? You'd be like, you know what? You have to go here.

Elyse:

Well, it depends on what type of food you want. Right. You can go to South Street and get an amazing cheese steak, which is what we're known for. Right. But yeah, if you want high end.

Russel:

Doesn't have to just be high or high end per se. So

Elyse:

yeah.

Russel:

What's your little unknown? Does it make the TripAdvisor top list place to go to?

Elyse:

Yeah, well they really build up the Fishtown section. So you could go to any of the restaurants there. It's, new and hip and way cooler than me. I now just look hip. But that's where all like the scene is, so I guess you could always check that out. But I'm not down there as much as I used to be. You know, two kids a business. I just don't, there's not enough time,

Russel:

right? That is life. No, no. I, we used to, um, you know, we moved to the Dallas area about 20 or so years ago. We would drive an hour and a half to go try a new place for dinner or something like that. And this is still even with kids. Now it's like if there's a road nearby and if it's like, if it's past that road, it's like I'm not messing with it tonight.

Something

Russel:

changes.

Elyse:

Our agency where I live Is outside of the city and most ridiculous thing about Philadelphia is if there's no traffic, I could get to Center City right now from my office in probably about 25 minutes. Right? But you don't know. It can also take two hours. I mean, it's wild traffic is so unpredictable and there's only like two roads in, and so it's a skol expressway is brutal. So that's, it's just an unknown that it's like not willing to, to take,

Russel:

I'm gonna give myself grace and it's not because I'm getting old, but I think I saw a report recently since COVID in this, in the county where I live here in Dallas, it's grown by like half a million people. And the traffic has noticeably gotten worse. Yeah. So that's, that's what I'm going with.

Elyse:

We do have a train station. We're right next to the train station. A lot of our team takes the train, um, to and from. So that's an option too.

Russel:

Yeah, there you go. I'm jealous of that. There's not very good mass transit here in Dallas. So, uh, good, good to hear. Well, very fascinating journey you've been on and, um, appreciate you sharing so many insights and perspectives. So I got just one last big question for you, Elise. Are entrepreneurs born or are they made?

Elyse:

I'm gonna go with born. I think you have to have some sort of fire inside of you to be an entrepreneur, and I think the people who are entrepreneurs, they can't get it to stop. You know, it's like I have this new business idea. I have this other thing I wanna be doing. I wanna be, after I started Elysium, I had a whole other idea, and this was before it'cause it boomed right after. But for to help working women, and this was partially'cause of what I talked about earlier where I was like, how am I supposed to do this? Like even when I didn't even have my own business yet, I started back to work. 12 weeks after I had my son and I was like, how, how am I supposed to pump in my office and also be there for him? And how does this work? And then I had my daughter and you know, I did have my business done and it was impossible. So I started this organization called the OMO Network for Working Mom, and we did a bunch of these videos. About Mom Guild and all sorts of other things, and it started to take off and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I have no time. It was like the most ironic thing ever. I'm like, I cannot, I have to put all my focus into Elysium. And so I always think like, what if I actually, you know, continued that? But anyway, I think it's somewhat innate. I think that having the guts to do it, I think to be an entrepreneur you have to believe in yourself. So there's a little bit of an ego and you have to just be able to be like, I'm gonna. Do this and mean it and do it. So I guess I would say boring.

Russel:

Okay. All right. I can dig it. Traditionally, and I don't know the exact statistics on this, born is definitely in the minority of answers, but I'm starting to hear more and more born answers these days, and it's my favorite. I, I think it, yeah, just when you hear the passion of a good born answer, you

Elyse:

can, yeah.

Russel:

Um,

Elyse:

well, I'll tell you one last thing too. You know, when I was younger, I used to draw pictures and go around in my neighborhood. This is when you were allowed to, you know, like walk around your neighborhood and stuff and knock on neighbor's doors and sell them. Lovely. I was a great artist. Pictures for a nickel, and so I'm gonna think that it was innately in me because I. Figured out how to do that when I was like, six years old, ringing neighbor's doors. So

Russel:

yeah, I did literally the exact same thing, although, not to brag, but I sold mine for a dollar. Um,

Elyse:

wow.

Russel:

I was a really high prized neighborhood artist in my day.

Elyse:

You were, you know, we, I had some, um, people in our neighborhood that would pay us in like pencils or stickers and I was just happy with that as I was a nickel. So I did some trade as well.

Russel:

They old get off my porch, uh, payments. Then, what a cool timeframe. That's always fun to hear the, the burning young entrepreneur stories as well. Yeah. If people want to know more Aboutum Marketing group, where can they go?

Elyse:

Yeah, so they can go to our website, elysium mg for marketing group.com. Or you can type in the whole thing, eia marketing group.com, and then we are on all the social media platforms. So we have a YouTube page that you can follow us on that we're gonna be posting a lot more content to. We have Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, if you really wanna see some of the funny ones our team has put together. So yeah, you can find us all around the web.

Russel:

Well, very cool. Well, and for the listeners as well, when this episode launches, you can go to an agency story.com. We'll have all the links there for you to check out, uh, as well as, uh, any topics that we shared as far as book recommendations and stuff. So, and to that end, thank you so much, Elise, for taking the time outta your schedule away from your business to share all your wonderful insights from the power of just keep swimming, stay with it, find your happiness through positioning and so many under. Wonderful other nuggets. Really appreciate you taking the time to share that with us today.

Elyse:

Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Russel:

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 want to visit an agency story.com/podcast and follow us on Instagram at an agency story for the latest updates.

Elyse:

This was really, really early on in the agency, but it stuck with me. Um, we were doing a branding kit for a medical placement firm and one of the people that was, I feel bad, I shouldn't even be saying this'cause there's no way he's still alive. Watch, he's like 115 right now. But, um, it was like this Harvard trained doctor. And he loved to tell you how Harvard trained he was. Um, and so when we were doing the branding, we did like business cards and we did the front and the back. I have the email. It's my favorite email laid into us about how gimmicky and horrible it was for a two-sided, business card and like this whole big thing. And like two weeks later he made his, selection and he picked the two-sided business card. So it was a very early lesson on like, people are gonna give you a hard time and just continue going with what you know is right and they'll come around. But it just stuck with me.'cause I remember how horrified he was at a two-sided business card and then he went with it.

Russel:

Well, you know, I think it speaks to the adage in so many other areas of business there's this saying the clients or the customer is always right. I think we've started to learn in the agency business a lot of times the customer is always wrong and, uh, to stick to our guns. Well, honestly, we actually use that phrase quite a bit in our,agency and, in a very empathetic, nice way.

Elyse:

Awesome