The Charleston Marketing Podcast
Welcome to The Charleston Marketing Podcast, the podcast that dives deep into the world of marketing, with a specific focus on the vibrant city of Charleston. Join us as we explore the strategies, trends, and success stories that shape the marketing landscape in this historic and captivating coastal city.
Each episode of The Charleston Marketing Podcast brings you exclusive interviews with local marketing experts, industry thought leaders and Charleston entrepreneurs who have harnessed the power of effective marketing in the Lowcountry and beyond. From strategic communication, social media, PR, digital strategy and everything in between, we uncover valuable insights and actionable tips for our listeners.
The Charleston Marketing Podcast
Charlotte Berger
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Charlotte is the founder of CharlotteBergerPR, an award-winning marketing agency based in Charleston that provides PR, Social Media, and Influencer Marketing services to clients across the US and beyond.
She has spent the last decade working marketing for various clients nationwide, from resorts and restaurants to cruise ships and culinary products. The only thing she may love as equally as using her PR skills to help deserving businesses succeed is providing driven professionals with careers they truly feel empowered by.
In this #CAMACast episode, she shares valuable insights on agency growth and team building, reversing the hustle culture, and how she harnesses the power of PR, social media, and influencer marketing to achieve remarkable results for her agency’s clients.
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Title Sponsor: Charleston American Marketing Association
Presenting Sponsor: Charleston Media Solutions
Annual Sponsor: SCRA; South Carolina Research Authority
Quarterly Sponsor: King and Columbus
Cohosts: Stephanie Barrow, Mike Compton, Rachel Backal, Tom Keppeler, Amanda Bunting Comen
Produced and edited: RMBO Advertising
Photographer | Co-host: Kelli Morse
Score by: The Strawberry Entrée; Jerry Feels Good, CURRYSAUCE, DBLCRWN, DJ DollaMenu
Studio Engineer: Brian Cleary and Mathew Chase
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Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, powered by the Charleston American Marketing Association, broadcasting from our home base at Charleston Radio Group. Thanks to CRG, we're able to talk to the movers and takers of Charleston, from economy to art, from hospitality to tech, and everything in between. These leaders have made a home here in the low country. They live here, they work here, they make change here. Why? Let's talk about it.
Speaker 1:We're recording in the Charleston Radio Group Studios. My name is Mike Compton, president of Roombo Advertising, go Roombo.com, and your Cama director of membership experience. I'm joined here with my fellow co-host Stephanie Barrow. Steph, tell them about yourself.
Speaker 2:What's up, guys? I'm Stephanie Barrow, uh, founder of Stephanie Barrow Consulting. Extremely clever name, I know. A digital marketing strategy agency here in Charleston, and your CAMA past president. I'm very excited to be joined by a very special guest and my friend, Charlotte Berger. So now, Charlotte, this is the awkward period where we're going to talk about all your accomplishments right in front of you. So here we go. Charlotte is the founder of Charlotte Berger PR, an award-winning marketing agency here in Charleston that provides PR, social media, and influencer marketing services to clients across the U.S. and beyond. She's a Michigan native with CBRJ 40 under 40, CBRJ Charleston Women Influence, and 2021, Charleston AMA Marketer of the Year. Lots of accolades. Charlotte's passion for public relations industry brought her here to Charleston. She has spent the last decade working in PR, social media, and influencer marketing for various clients nationwide, from resorts and restaurants to cruise ships and culinary products. The only thing she may live as equally as her PR skills to help uh deserving businesses succeed is providing driven professionals with careers they truly feel empowered by. Oh that is awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, I feel good, sir.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me. I'm excited. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the show. Thank you. Michigander, where are you from?
Speaker 3:Gross Point. So Detroit. Okay, Waterford. Yeah. Waterford.
Speaker 1:Grew up in Waterford. Weiss from Royal Oak. I love Michigander. We're all Michiganders. You went the Hope.
Speaker 3:I did, yeah. Small school on the east side or west side. Um, I played golf there and just got my communications and business degree.
Speaker 1:Oh, you golf too. Cool. She's a golf.
Speaker 2:She's fair. If you don't follow her on Instagram, she's got a really cool supermom. Like, I don't know about her. Her husband are precious and the cutest dog ever.
Speaker 1:Is he from Michigan? He is the husband.
Speaker 3:He is from here, but he's kind of a funny breed because he was born here, but then he lived in Philly and Florida and kind of all over. So he's got like hints of him that are southern, but then he's kind of like a fast-paced East Coast guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it it's a special click here in sh in Charleston, isn't it?
Speaker 2:You gotta kind of have to melting pot of people from everywhere.
Speaker 1:I came from Tampa and was going really fast, you know. Well, like New York City style fast because that's a whole different speed, right? But more like you know, Tampa sized, you know. It takes you get to breathe it in, you have to really relax and get to know people versus just those quick interactions that you get. Right. In bigger cities, you really have to build relationships. Um you grew up in Michigan, you went to Hope. Did you go to you went to Hope? Did you go to Hope for marketing? Did you go to what did you start?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, in high school, I loved journalism and I was on staff at the school newspaper, and I loved the idea of like writing the golf section. I loved like doing the morning announcements in middle school. So I always kind of thought I wanted to be at like a news reporter, and then I kind of saw the behind the scenes of what exactly that was and was like, I don't actually know if that's for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Um, but I certainly loved writing and loved storytelling. So I had an idea that I wanted to do some sort of marketing. Um, and I just so happened to my first job ended up being in PR, and then I knew it was just like exactly what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1:Right there.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But a lot of my friends ended up in Chicago or kind of Detroit area. Right. I was the only one that look like was looking in the southeast. And I wonder why.
Speaker 1:I mean, why did people stay up in Michigan? My family's still there. I got a blessing. My mom and my dad are still there. Yeah. A couple of my sisters.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think Charleston's the best.
Speaker 1:Some family in northern Michigan, too. Mackinac Island is my island.
Speaker 3:Oh, shout out to everybody in Michigan.
Speaker 1:Yeah. The whole the whole state of Michigan.
Speaker 3:I've never been there. It's so underrated. You have to go just at the rain months. Just for the lake.
Speaker 1:No, the summer. In July, August. Mid Rock wasn't messing around. Summertime in Michigan. It's just northern Michigan.
Speaker 3:There's no.
Speaker 2:Yeah, get your tubing. That was my jam right there. Tubing is I'm a really good water skier. It's just FYI.
Speaker 1:It's a great place to be from, is what I say. Yeah. Midwest probably had a really fun childhood. Loved growing up there. Uh loved the people there. That was what I miss the most, is the people there.
Speaker 3:Just honest, hardworking. Like they're I like Midwest people. We're happy to have you here in Charleston now.
Speaker 1:So what so why what why did you land here in Charleston? Can I just bogart this conversation with Stephanie?
Speaker 2:Go for it.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, I just had this like kind of fascination with the city in a way that I knew that I wanted to end up here before I even had traveled here.
Speaker 1:Okay, because of marketing, right? Because have you heard of it? Because of stories you've heard of it.
Speaker 3:Because I yeah, I heard I think the size was perfect for me. I was trying in my head to make Chicago work for myself because there was more job opportunities. It's right there for us. And it's right there. But I was like, I'm just not a big city girl. Like at the end of the day, I love the idea of a smaller community getting deeper connected. Obviously, the weather, being able to play golf year round, it kind of made me wonder why I ended up playing in Michigan of all cities.
Speaker 2:Yeah, keep talking golf. Um I need to learn how to play golf. I live in a golf community and I do not in Rivertown. You gotta go sometime. Yeah. Yeah, I'll try to go with you whenever. Do you live in North Mount Plaza? You do, right? Yeah, do test.
Speaker 1:Look at that.
Speaker 3:Yes. I always like whimming golfers, like any any wimb and golfers listening, please email me. We'll play golf.
Speaker 1:And there we go. That's a great call out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, play field hockey in high school, but I do not think that's the same.
Speaker 3:Oh, you know what? If you've got like that kind of swing, my my good friend plays field hockey and she's a great swing.
Speaker 1:There you go. There you go.
Speaker 3:We're making it.
Speaker 1:So out of hope, then you came here? Like straight out of college? Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I flew, I was doing, I didn't know a soul here, and I knew it was a city that was a little bit, especially at that time, kind of insular with the PR opportunities. There was only a few agencies in town. Um, I basically just LinkedIn every single person I could find working in marketing here.
Speaker 1:Of course.
Speaker 3:And like flew back and forth for coffee dates and interviews. Um it took a couple months, but there the firm I ended up with had an open position finally and just got right in.
Speaker 1:So did you have to like serve tables or do anything else on the side? Or like I was I mean, I did. I bartended the whole day. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I actually had in my head like I was gonna get the job before I moved. Um I know a lot of people that's that's impressive. Yeah. Well, I think my parents were like at that point, kind of like, what is Charleston? It's like this little beach town. Are you sure you're gonna find a legitimate career there? Especially when they saw my like starting salary. And I'm like, just give me a minute. Like, we'll figure it out.
Speaker 1:Trust the process here. Parents trust.
Speaker 3:So yeah, so I ended up at a firm that specialized in destination work along with resort hotel cruise ships, hospitality, that kind of hospitality, yeah. And they we were small at that point, at least a Charleston office. They were mainly based out in New York. Um I think I was like the third or fourth person there. And I mean, it was a great experience. I got to, you know, work with very like sexy, high-profile clients and a lot of top-tier media outlets. Um, we did the likes of Brightline, which is the private train in South Florida, um, you know, really cool kind of destinations like Montgomery, Alabama, um, and learned a lot and it was great. I think, you know, I was there maybe seven years and then kind of knew it was time for a change.
Speaker 1:But seven years.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of experience and a lot of really commitment over here.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, I think I I really, you know, valued my boss and learned a lot. Um, and just kind of kept in my lane there. You know, a lot of people hop around a lot more now. But um, I think there can be value in kind of like sticking it out and learning as much as you can before you like know you're ready to move on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it's an old school mentality.
Speaker 2:After all of that experience working there, is that what kind of prompted you to start your own agency? Because I know that COVID came around, the landscape for marketing changed. Yes, the PR world changed. Uh, I know you're very involved in a lot of food and bed here. People were not going out for restaurants. So tell us a little bit about like the next steps in your career.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I actually left that firm to work as PR director at a F B focused um firm. And that was that was a great experience for me um being PR director because at that point I'd I hadn't kind of had that much responsibility, you know, managing like a team of probably had a team under you. Yeah, maybe like five or six um employees and maybe you know 20 accounts. And so for me, that was a big step up in terms of responsibility. And I also was given all the restaurant accounts at my first firm. Nice. So it was cool to go a little bit deeper with that passion because I've always had a passion for food.
Speaker 1:You like food? What if you don't like food at this point? You're like, ooh. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I like grew up just instead of watching normal shows, I'd watch, you know, Food Network, browse food blogs nonstop.
Speaker 2:I had you a good cook yourself.
Speaker 3:I I like to think I am. I mean, now with a young kid in you know, a business, it's pretty pitiful how little I cook. Right, right. But if I have a dinner party, I'll like go all out. That's amazing. So I do that like that.
Speaker 1:What's your go-to meal?
Speaker 3:I love making Detroit style like deep dish pizza at home.
Speaker 1:Oh, I just had the Tony's. Oh, nice. Yeah, I like Tony's. Tony's is good. Oh my god.
Speaker 3:It's funny to see that sort of pizza like trending now.
Speaker 1:I like Chicago. Yeah, obviously.
Speaker 3:Chicago has a style, but yeah, pizza and pasta, but I always had a passion for like just that world, and whenever I cook, I kind of like everything shuts off. I had a small nonprofit for a while where I would bake and donate 100% of the proceeds to a different nonprofit every quarter.
Speaker 2:I love that. That's amazing.
Speaker 3:Called Crumps for Charleston. I like did it on the side at my first job, and I was driving around the city with like, you know, flour on in my hair. Like a lot of mountains.
Speaker 1:I wonder you made friends so fast. You're giving away goods with flour in your hair? Downtown tells you.
Speaker 3:I would like price out, I'd go to you know, Costco and get like bulk bags of like sugar and flour. I love that. And then I would price out how much to make it, and then you know, price out whatever I would make, I'd give to the charity. But um yeah, that was fun. So so I did that. I I worked for that firm for a bit, and then COVID happened, and and this firm was pretty hit pretty hard. I mean, they were all hospitality and food and bev.
Speaker 1:I can imagine that would be very difficult to get having that one so that one vertical to to fall back on is just food and bev.
Speaker 3:There's quite a few restaurants in town that didn't even survive COVID. We like they were completely like just hit so hard, and I and I, you know, kind of naively thought, well, I'll be fine.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, we were all a hit a little bit, right? Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I kind of did see it as an opportunity though, because I think um there was still a need for help, but it needed to be kind of tweaked. So people needed PR, they needed social, they needed influencer marketing, but they needed it for a lot less money. And they also needed more of a cohesive model where you're kind of thinking about all the elements, not just checking the PR box or not just checking the social box. So I started with just um some friends in town like chef connections and restaurant connections, and then kind of spiraled into some nonprofits because I've always wanted to, I always wanted to work with nonprofits. I was always doing it on the side, never able to do it in my full-time job.
Speaker 1:Sure, sure.
Speaker 3:Just because nonprofits couldn't afford the likes of the firms that I worked at, which was, you know, understandable. But I certainly missed that kind of like rewarding work. Um and then from there things kind of you know started to get better with the market.
Speaker 2:I think you know, Charleston Were you a solo entrepreneur during this time or you did you or were you working? Did you partner with someone at the inception of your agency?
Speaker 3:I just did it. I think I took like a week off and then was like this is what I'm gonna do. Yeah, get the LC. I'm going for it. Let's just do it. I love it. And obviously, my husband was a huge um help. He comes from an entrepreneur like entrepreneurial family. But yeah, I just did it solo and then I hired an intern who we had enough business. She became a full-time employee. And then, yeah, now we we just hired our 13th employee. Good lord. So that's a mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:13th.
Speaker 2:I swear every time I go on LinkedIn, you're now hiring another rock.
Speaker 1:2020?
Speaker 3:20 May, 2020, that like really fun period of the first time.
Speaker 1:Like we just started that fourth year. So you grew from an idea to Yeah, I mean, it it's been really cool.
Speaker 3:I I've definitely it's been, you know, a lot of work.
Speaker 1:Like, how old is your kid?
Speaker 3:I had George in March.
Speaker 1:Love that name, by the way. My business partner is George. George is a great name. I have a Henry and a Jackson, so I love it.
Speaker 3:Oh, I love that. Yeah, I named him after my brother. Um, my brother doesn't want kids, at least he told me he doesn't. And I asked him what he'd think of that, and then he came on my brother's birthday.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. Which is wild. So how old is that?
Speaker 3:That is wild.
Speaker 1:George is ten months. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:She's done a lot in the last couple years. I've been following her journey and it's been pretty impressive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I think with with all of that, you know, my husband, like, he took six months off when we had George. I took seven weeks, basically enough to be like, okay, I I'm ready to go back. He stayed home and then he came on board full-time with the firm.
Speaker 1:Um with your firm. Yes, I saw that as a question here.
Speaker 3:And I didn't want to tell you spoiler alert, that's her. That's her hobby. You know, super helpful as instead of just me. I I truly don't know how any women that work in business that are moms do it alone. Like I I I'm thankful to have like having narrative.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Without really well, you know, and speaking to culture and agency life, our agencies like that. It's family first. Right. You know, you know, you have time off, you need to have kids, whatever it is, you gotta be somewhere, you be somewhere, and then you'll schedule around that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah.
Speaker 3:Having George, I mean, you know, my life was full beforehand, but now it's just immensely full in a way that it's like shifted my perspective on everything. It's a different kind of full. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, the best kind.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. So it's and I want to talk a little bit about the growth of your company because, like I was telling you, every time I go on LinkedIn, I feel like you're hiring another dynamic team member, and here's a new team photo, and like there's additional people. I'm like, it's been so impressive. Is it hard to find the people in Charleston? Because I know this is kind of a small community of marketers. She's baked goods.
Speaker 1:She gives baked goods to them, and that's how she's gonna be able to do it.
Speaker 2:That would be a wonderful welcome present. You'll take your logo and blow it on the phone.
Speaker 1:But yeah, recruitment's gotta be tough for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think for one of the main reasons I wanted to start my own firm is I saw this kind of trend in the agency landscape of underpaid, overworked, um, undervalued, crazy hours. Everyone's thin on like the entry-level side of things. Yes, yes. And the burnout. I mean, I went I went through like so many over and over team members leaving at the firms I was at. Um, and it was like, that stinks because why can't we have a better environment for people that are passionate about the industry? Why can't why does it have to be that way? It doesn't have to be that way. We why can't we pay more? Why can't we give more benefits? Why can't we give more, you know, time off? And why can't we create this culture of like everyone's not out for themselves, they're out for the team. Um, and you know, I think at the end of the day, like that was a huge catalyst for me starting because I just wanted to create a different environment. And I think part of that comes from hiring the right people. And, you know, I wanted to hire the best people I could find. And so I think in the interview process, if there was someone that had a good cover letter, good resume, good on paper, good in person, I wouldn't hire them unless they were like exceptional, unless you had that feeling of like this person's a leader, this person's passionate. And your intentional rate has been fantastic.
Speaker 2:People aren't leaving you, they're staying with you. In fact, you're growing.
Speaker 3:And yeah, I mean that I'm more proud of that than any client wins or any, you know, like I think our team is everything. And I look at our team and like there is not one remote weak link in the bunch. Every single person is like exceptional, like, really, really, really hardworking, really, really personable, just the sort of people that you like want to get a drink with, but also like you see their work and you're like, wow, you're you're just talented, you're naturally gifted at it. And we I got lucky with a lot of my hires being from out of market in the sense that um, like my AD Michelle, she's on attorney leave right now, but she's like my right hand.
Speaker 2:Uh-oh.
Speaker 3:And yeah, I'm like, oh my gosh, Michelle, please come back.
Speaker 2:What do I gotta be now?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Um, but she came from Charlotte. We just hired a supervisor from DC. Um, so and we've had plenty that have been from Charleston as well.
Speaker 2:And I like your model because it is kind of like a hybrid of remote work, working from home, but you also meet weekly, which is great.
Speaker 1:That's my question.
Speaker 3:Is everybody local or so everyone is in Charleston, which I think is part of like the reason our I love our culture. Like everyone is very close and we all get along, and I think it's so much better to produce good, so much easier to produce good work when everyone like each everyone likes everyone. There's no cattiness, no drama, no, it's just at the end of the day, like people cheering each other on, which showcase like just translates to really good work. You know? Yeah. Um, but yeah, we have a hybrid model which, you know, I asked my team, do any of you want to be in an office five days a week? Because if you do, I'll get an office.
Speaker 1:Right. Nobody wanted to be in a way answered, nobody said, Hey, raise your hand. I'd like to be in an office one day a week.
Speaker 3:Well, I said five days a week to start kind of thinking through like an office space. But we have folks, they're all local, but one lives on John's Island. I live in North Mount Peace, so I knew it had to be downtown to be centrally located. Um, but we have a membership at the Harbor Club and we love it. Oh, that's great. I was looking into that. It's perfect. Like we work there on Mondays, we do a second day that's optional, and we have the space mostly to ourselves on Mondays, which is and we have lunch there, they have like amazing food and drinks, they have a few water.
Speaker 2:Nikki here at the Charles Radio Group is pretty involved in that.
Speaker 1:Love that agency. Are you part of that too?
Speaker 2:No, I Nikki's uh I love Nikki, yeah. Yeah, she's great. Yeah. Uh no, I've definitely thought about it.
Speaker 1:I've been very good about it. They're part of the space.
Speaker 3:You can work there, you know, if you want to ever meet there. I'm there most days.
Speaker 1:So that's nice. It's been agencies working with agencies. Yeah, I love that. This is what I this is what we're trying to do here. Yes. So, what should you build at your agency is kind of what the culture we're trying to build here is. I love that with the market with the marketing podcasts and the AMA in general. I love that. How we can all work together instead of in these silos that we're going to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we didn't have a rebranding after COVID, but it was definitely a fallout because we couldn't have in-person events. Well, the thing is since then we've been trying to just listen to the masses and do the podcast and do more, you know, networking opportunities, happy hours, implementing other things that we just didn't have in play before, which is because that.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think the market here, especially when it comes to women business owners and marketing, like is so special in the sense that I just started this group. I didn't know who would come, but and I want you to come. I just started like a month ago. It was called PR pals, and I basically invited all the other agency owners that you know, quote, could be seen as my competition, but why not just work together, like or you know, and collaborate? And so, you know, the likes of Lee from obviously and Kat from Birdhouse and Kat from Warner Strategies.
Speaker 1:Um call up Jenna and Jenna at Buffalo Group. Oh, yeah. Okay, sure. She's awesome. She was a listen to her interview, she was a guest. Oh, amazing. Or our first guest, she's badass. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And it's like, I know there are points where we might go after similar contracts, but at the same time, we all have our own niche. We all have our own way of doing things. We're all different.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:And the only people that didn't come was very few, and that's a good idea. I'll absolutely be there.
Speaker 2:I'm all about being a champion for other women. I get people reach out to me. I'm a solopreneur, so people come out to me all the time, and I'm like, this is who you should call. Like I'm sending, you know.
Speaker 3:Right, we pass each other business. Like for nice. Yeah. Yeah, it's nice. And I think I think people that are like confident in their work and their their culture and their their relationships, they're like all about it. I think, you know, I think there's nothing to feel threatened by. Like, let's just all support each other.
Speaker 1:We had status the other day and your name come up, came up for PR. A potential client comes by. We don't do PR. We'd rather pass it along. But yeah.
Speaker 3:And I'd love to, I mean, I just want to learn too. Like, we can talk after this, like what sort of clients I can pass. I wasn't supposed to bring it up. So now it's good.
Speaker 1:Because of the the way our conversation is right now, is like we can share business. There's not there's enough business to go around. So one of the best things about living here in the world. We all have our special right. We all have our special use. Niche like specialties, and there's no reason that you have to, you know, not get along with the the kids in the sandbox. Exactly.
Speaker 3:And I mean, who else can I relate to more than the sort of women that are doing the exact, you know, similar things? Yeah. Because it's it's it's you're kind of you in your own it's a very specific thing that we're doing when you're a business owner.
Speaker 2:Um it's a lot to manage at one time, especially if you have a family and you have child outside interests and that kind of thing. There's just a lot of moving parts. So I always find like solace in meeting with other women and hearing their war stories and all the the good things. You take that advice back, and it's like this woman ship. I just I love I love this city. That's why I talked to you earlier about the dames, because I thought about potentially joining, but I just don't know if I have the time commitment to care. The dames, but I really would love to be in some like more of a not working in a silo.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so yeah, the dames is awesome. Like they're Whitney McDuff's amazing. We love her. Yeah. I mean, such a great group of women business owners from marketing to real estate to design. And um they are also like I've had quarters where I just can't go. And that's fine. They do a lot of Zoom things and you they connect you with power partners all across the country too, at different chapters, which is cool.
Speaker 2:That's one of my favorite things about AMA is the community on that.
Speaker 3:It's called the Dames. It's no no, the Dames isn't it?
Speaker 1:Okay, uh the PR Pals is what you just yeah, I just that's a local you.
Speaker 3:I just started like we meet at Graft Wine. Uh we might switch up the once every um I think we'll do once every two months. I love it. Perfect.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:So I want to talk a little bit more about your agency because I'm I'm very impressed. I know I told you this all the time. I'm a solopreneur, I can't even imagine having a team like that to manage. Do you ever come into any I feel like if I had a team and someone called me and said, Hey, I can't work today, my kid is sick, I would be like, stay home, family first. Like, how do you balance all of that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, the good news is there's, you know, now 13 of us. So certainly, I mean, we have a girl on maternity leave right now, we have pretty generous PTO, um, and we want people to have lives outside of their jobs, but at the same time, we do work very hard. I I think um, you know, uh finding the right people and just delegating and learning to trust and not feel like you have to be in control was a learning process for me because I'm so passionate about the company and the work and I am very kind of obsessed with quality.
Speaker 2:Like I can relate. I am in that quality. Yeah.
Speaker 3:But I think if you find the right people and you find people that are really, really talented, trustworthy, honest, you know, kind, all the things, like then that's our successes come from our employees. I mean, every every one of them is just stepped up so much. And um, I'm still very obviously like involved in a very involved owner, right? I'm not someone that's like, you know, going on vacation for weeks. Yeah. Um the flagship. Yeah. But I think finding the right people was key for me. And then, you know, um delegating and enabling. Right. You know.
Speaker 2:So you haven't faced any challenges with like being a woman leader with imposter syndrome or anything like that in this in this city?
Speaker 3:Well, I think I mean, I think with PR being so female dominated, I've never, I guess, felt like I'm at any sort of a disadvantage being a woman. I know other industries certainly there's more struggles. Right. I think we I never set out to be an all-woman team. Um I always said male or female, great. I would love to see more males in the PR space for some reason.
Speaker 2:There's not a lot of males in marketing in general. Unless they're coders or digital generals. That's you know, web designers, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Oh squeeze. And I'm like three guys on the squeeze.
Speaker 3:Yes. There you go. But they that's true. Yes. So there are for sure. I love it. Across the board, it's been it it is typically more female. Really is. Um and I I mean, we oak we still have interviewed men, but the women have outbeat them every time.
Speaker 1:Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me here. You don't like men, it's fine.
Speaker 3:I'm I'm all about shopping hair one day. I mean, it'd have to be the right fit, obviously. Obviously.
Speaker 1:But that's yeah, that's it though, isn't it?
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think I think we always just hire the best candidate. And the best candidate's always been happening to be a woman. So sorry, Charlie. Sorry, listeners. I love the mic drop moment.
Speaker 2:And the best candidate. I love it. I'm still here. I'm still here listeners. No, you're fine.
Speaker 1:There is a I have a question though. Going back to your your your beginnings of of the agency. Um at what point and what were your th what was your thought process when you hired your first person? What was your tipping point when you said, Oh, I can't handle all of this? Help. Yeah. And then how did you budget all that? Like, you know, I mean, it's a whole dance, isn't it? Per project. It's such a dance.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think for me, I always wanted to err on the side of having more padding on the revenue side so that if, you know, I did lose X number of clients, I would never have to think about ever letting someone go. So I had a number in my head of like, okay, if I make it over this number, I'll be able to pay this person well, give benefits, and also be in a safe place where we could still lose, let's say, three, four clients. Because, you know, at the end of the day, hospitality industry, there are restaurants that close, there are sad as it is that pivot. And at that point, we weren't working with long contracts at all. So um, yeah, I just kind of had a number in mind, and then we continue to be, I think, error on the side of you know, making sure that we never are having to be in a position where we have to even question letting someone go. We always want to be in a position where we're obviously giving you yearly raises, and um also at the same time, we want to be a bit overstaffed versus under because I think the second you're spread too thin, everything just falls apart.
Speaker 1:Right, right. That's a that's a lot though.
Speaker 2:Speaking of being spread too thin, you have a PR background and a marketing background. All the things you just listed out is kind of like who who does all of that for you?
Speaker 3:So I majored, I did a double major in business um in college, and I've always kind of been business minded. I I would say honestly, the business part of the job is my favorite part. I love the marketing, but I um also having my husband has been helpful for some of those kind of like key pivotal kind of decisions. Um but yeah, just learning. I mean, we hired a accountant that gave us a good idea of kind of the numbers we can, you know, continue to try to just spot check all of our systems and ops. But it it was new for me for sure. And we're learning every day. I mean, um constantly trying to make sure that I'm you know doing the best I can from a business standpoint. Um, but you know, our accountant is always like amazed that we can, you know, have the numbers we're having as an agency. And I think I think it's just a lot of it's always a puzzle, right? Like always trying to figure out the bandwidth. It's never gonna be a hundred percent perfect, but you just gotta take a leap of faith, right?
Speaker 1:I mean, you just have to be like, okay, this is gonna work out. We need this person.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and being willing to like, you know, before I made those hires, I was doing it all myself and doing a lot, you know, to get. To that revenue where we could bring someone on. So I think in many ways that first year was the hardest. I mean, I was working basically around the clock.
Speaker 1:Burnout's a thing. It is a thing.
Speaker 3:Especially when you're a new agency owner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, especially when you're a you know a mommy.
Speaker 2:But if it was looking at me, I would do it, right? I'm always like, I'm busy, I'll get back to you.
Speaker 1:You just said it though. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.
Speaker 3:Exactly. I think I heard a qu I don't even remember from who, but it was like success is just the ability to handle more stress and more pressure without crumbling. And I do feel like at the end of the day, like the larger with each new hire or client, it presents more challenges. You have to be more strategic. You have to, you know, in any way.
Speaker 2:On boarding a new client takes a lot of work to get the personality, to get everything set up, to build that relationship, that trust, the brand voice. That's a lot of work. And you are onboarding new clients all the time. I'm so impressed.
Speaker 1:So my question to you, yeah, how? Why? Why do you contribute that to? Like, why all of a sudden in three years are you to 13? Like, is it so is it word of mouth? Obviously, it's the work.
Speaker 2:How many clients do you currently have? Do you know?
Speaker 1:She said 13. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, we have like, I think just over 30.
Speaker 1:Jeez Louise.
Speaker 3:Um, no, she's got 13 employees and 30 clients and talking big clients.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 3:I feel like I mean, I think the success comes from having one, the team, the employees that are just a very above average in their in their work and their intelligence, but also um just being aggressive with with new business outreach, with connections. I love meeting new people, constantly putting yourself out there, constantly asking if anyone needs help, constantly meeting new people through networking events, through um, you know, different organizations. But I think at the end of the day, I mean I'm really proud of the value we provide and the work we provide for the cost. And I think at the end of the day, if you're giving really good work at a good price point, and that's just gonna snowball, you know, like um also pivoting to know like the ever-changing landscape of like now, just getting print press is not gonna move the needle. You have to look at influencers, you have to look at events and brand partnerships, and certainly making sure your social media is, you know, heavy on reels and videos. So I think I think if you can produce like a great quality product, um, at the end of the day, you'll be successful. Yeah, your work speaks for itself.
Speaker 2:And consistently, you're a good person, you build relationships and you put your heart into everything you do.
Speaker 3:I definitely sometimes to a fault where it's like hard to unplug.
Speaker 1:But that's why you got your kid, the kid will fill your heart back up and then you go back out. Exactly.
Speaker 3:It's been it's been just I'm so grateful for the past couple years, and certainly not, you know. I'm I have I hope to continue to grow, but I think our growth has been very organic. Like we're not pushing for, you know, everyone that we work with has to be a good fit both ways, and I'm learning more and more about who that ideal client is. Um, but I think to grow just for the sake of growing doesn't make sense. I think I never knew how big I wanted to be, and I still maybe don't have a hard number, but I love the idea of like continuing to provide jobs that people not only like but love, and also um continuing to provide impactful work. And so for me, like why not just stretch that impact and see how far we can go with it?
Speaker 2:Have you thought about dabbling in any other kind of marketing?
Speaker 3:So to date, we've been pretty focused on just what we feel like we're really, really good at, which is those three industries. Um, PR social influencer. I think if we were to go into another vertical, I'd have to certainly bring on like some top level talent to help because my background, that's that's the extent of it. Um our team, pretty much, that's I mean, I have my AD has had more work in ad and advertising, more traditional ads. But um yeah, I have I've thought about it for sure. I mean, I think you know the digital space is interesting, but um it's also once you enter that, you want to make sure that you're not that you're like doing something different or better than and I look like there's such great digital firms here, you know, and like I would just want to make sure that I'm really offering something unique to the marketplace that doesn't already exist. Right. And I don't know what that would look like in that space. So for right now, no plans.
Speaker 1:Influencer. Okay. So that's semi-new, right? Help me out here. I mean, within the past decade, new, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Fun fact, Charlotte was on the AMA influencer panel a couple years ago. Right. So remember you remember. She was one of the experts of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was fun. Thank you for doing that. I feel like she talks about it all the time. Your favorite event. Well, it's because I want to have another influencer panel.
Speaker 3:We should. Why not do it again? Do it. I've I'm I'm not sure. You could get the director too. Like, you know, there's so many great ones here.
Speaker 2:I think there's in the works. So speak to Kim, but I think it's I'm I'd be happy to help with that.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll ask the question then too. But I I want some insight on on it's almost like the Wild West, when especially when you were starting it, you were one of the first people in town, I think, to really kind of touch on the influencer market and what does that entail and how does that work? And what the heck? I'm asking all those questions. Like, how did you get involved with that? You saw the positivity, saw the ROI, the you know, the the greatness that influencing marketing can do. What did you do? How did you did you formulate your own plan with these people? Did you take some Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I think so. In 20 started work in 2013. Around 2016, I we a lot of my clients were restaurants at the time, and they wanted to get influencers through the door, but they didn't know the first place to start in terms of who produces the best content, who's really good at communication, who's who charges.
Speaker 1:Professional enough, yeah.
Speaker 3:Who's flaky and like who was like a nightmare? Like who so I just formed a group of the influencers forming groups, another group you're forming.
Speaker 1:Okay, hold on.
Speaker 3:She's just a pioneer one.
Speaker 1:Drink on that real quick.
Speaker 3:Um called Tasemakers, which is um, and I think you guys are having Miguel on. Yes, we are. We are so I actually started the idea.
Speaker 1:I saw pictures of what that guy does. He's amazing.
Speaker 3:He hadn't heard of Miguel, and I was like, he actually started the idea with me at like in a coffee shop in 2016, and then we ended up having maybe like 12 members, the likes of like Jai and Stephanie from Charleston Foodie Babe, and some of those kind of like OG food accounts. And then we did an event once a month at a different restaurant, and it was a win-win because these influencers were getting to meet each other, form community connections, get content. The restaurant was getting free press. So smart.
Speaker 1:And what year was this?
Speaker 3:2016. But then I started thinking about like, okay, how do we how do we use this reach? Because at that point we had maybe, let's say, 200,000 followers across all the members' pages.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:And it promoting restaurants is awesome. And I get that they, you know, want to have a specific aesthetic for their feed to make it work. But I was thinking about the nonprofit space and how none of these nonprofits are getting any love from the influencer community. And how do we weave our messaging to support them? And so we started this nonprofit program arm of tastemakers where we picked a different nonprofit every month. Now we do every quarter. And we have um the restaurant because they're not they're paying for the food and drink for the influencers, but they're not paying anything else. So they're usually very um excited to have these people come in. They pledge to donate a dollar from every from a specific dish or drink for 30 days to the nonprofit.
Speaker 1:Amazing.
Speaker 3:And then we have the nonprofit director join for the event, talk to the group about the mission.
Speaker 1:Perfect.
Speaker 3:And then we put together Instagram story graphics that these influencers can use on their feed talking about the mission, talking about volunteer opportunities, events, but they're keeping the images of the food, which works their feed, but then you get into the caption, you get into the stories, and it's like we're giving these nonprofits like a voice um without having to pay an agency because none of them, you know, a lot of them don't have the funds for an influencer marketing budget.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I mean, now we've we've raised about 60k for about 20 different nonprofits locally. We're still doing the events every month. My um What is your next event? Our next event is we're doing a um dinner at 82 Queen. And then after we're going to the Doc Street Theater for um uh show, Chicken and Biscuits. I love it. Now we're going next week. Sounds like something I would like to get. They're both clients. So, you know, I slot in clients, obviously, where it makes sense, but we also work with other agencies and um like we we've partnered with like Sprout House and uh um and Bird House to do some of their because we want to keep it going. Like the whole point is to give these nonprofits love and raise money. And um Emma Watt on my team is now leading all Tastemaker stuff. So I've kind of pressed the baton. How many influencers do you get per we have like 20, we have about 25 members, but we only host like the restaurants only want to typically host about eight to ten people, which we want it to work for them. You know, we don't want it to be a huge expense, but it's been cool. Like a lot of new members are coming in. There's so many influencers, and then we work with influencers for all our clients as well. Um that's just what we do with taste makers.
Speaker 2:Fun fact there's been multiple times where I've did not have plans for Friday. Matthew and I are hanging out. I would go to her page, Taste Makers, and see what they were like the dishes, and I would go to that restaurant.
Speaker 1:Oh okay. How do you what is it?
Speaker 3:Uh Tastemakers CHS, but I'll say, you know, that's that's our page where we like a consolidate, but really the win for the nonprofits in the restaurants is the members' handles.
Speaker 1:Because we only have, I don't know, maybe 7K followers, but the influencers are the ones that have the reach to really what a great thing for the nonprofits to have eight to ten different and each one of those influencers what okay. Elephant in the room. What is it? How many followers do I need to be an influencer? Now that I'm in a public space here.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna go with 10K.
Speaker 1:10K?
Speaker 3:To join tastemakers, you only need 3,500, but everyone has their own kind of yeah, what makes an influencer.
Speaker 1:Do you need a certain level of engagement?
Speaker 3:Ooh, is that a level that we we definitely take a look at that, but um you know, more so big words. Certainly for employment marketing. Here we go. Shut your Yeah, like if you look at those pages where they have, let's say, you know, 50k and then their latest post is five legs, you're like, mm, they they paid for those bad boys.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay. That's a big thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I've worked with celebrities where they've had them all taken from them.
Speaker 1:Interesting. Like a big, big numbers. Okay.
Speaker 3:But a good a good rule of thumb, if you're ever like questioning if it's authentic and you don't have like a you can play pay for platforms, but if you don't want to pay for a platform, if you take like the number of likes and the number of comments, um add them and divide them by the number of followers, and do that in a couple posts, because it might just have like one off post, it should always be at least above 1% that number. If it's below, it's usually a red flag of like something's going on here. There might be like a bot or whose formula is this?
Speaker 1:This is your formula that or is this a key takeaway moment. Yeah, no, no, no.
Speaker 3:It's not mine.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But no, no, thanks for sharing.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's a good like if anyone is wondering. Um but yeah, we do a lot with influencers. I think the beauty of Charleston is there's a lot that are willing to promote restaurants, nonprofits, um folks like the Doc Street Theater that we work with or Halo in exchange for an experience. So we're really working a lot with micro influencers without contracts. I've done contract work before, and I know like Stephanie does a lot with like the bigger influencers, and that's its own kind of game. I think for our clients, especially locally, we find a lot, we can get a lot of success without having our clients have to pay an additional dime.
Speaker 1:Micro influencers. I like that. So you're looking for what 45-year-old white males?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you want to go to Queen and the Oxford Theater? He would say yes to that. I would go for sure. Perfect. Yeah, just start that page, Mike. It's never too late.
Speaker 1:Thank you. I might.
Speaker 3:You just have to go to all the restaurants. Where yeah, just do some reels, get some trending audio going.
Speaker 1:I need a team. Now all of a sudden I need a team for that.
Speaker 3:It's very time consuming. I mean, I give them all credit because it's it's like.
Speaker 1:My boy's just got a camera and they want to start a YouTube page.
unknown:Yeah.
Speaker 2:My kid takes her YouTube. How old? Eight. Yeah, she's yeah. So anyhow, it's gonna be dangerous. Oh, it'll be fun. It'll be funny. Yeah, my kid takes her iPad and she pretends like she's Barbie waking up and then she's like, like and subscribe. I'm like, no one's seeing this. Except you're on YouTube. No one's seeing this. You're not on YouTube. Oh my gosh. It's gonna live on your iPad.
Speaker 3:So that's so cute. It's very cute though. Two of the girls on our team, Emma Waugh and Sarah Louise, actually are their own influencers in the sense that they've built incredible followings on TikTok and Instagram. And not only do they do great works with social media for our clients, but they really it's been cool to kind of have them on the team so we know what sort of verbiage, you know. I think now influencers are getting asked to do X, Y, Z for free. And it's like you have to know what's it is the Wild West, but at the same time, you have to know what's appropriate to ask for in exchange for what you're giving them. And just that, like really like respecting their work, their time, and knowing when someone's a fit and when they're not, I think. So it's very like nuanced. It's certainly an industry that I feel like is continuing to evolve, but we're seeing like the power of influencer marketing is not going anywhere. If anything, more and more brands are taking it on.
Speaker 1:So the creative that comes behind it too is really cool sometimes. It is. How do you find an influencer if I'm company XYZ? Because our hope our listeners are entrepreneurs, you know, that wear the marketing hats and they're looking for tidbits. Yeah. Um do I go to an ad agency or an ad agency? Do I go to a talent agency? Do I do I have to look up where do I yeah?
Speaker 3:I mean, there's certainly platforms you can pay for. Um really, I think platforms like what?
Speaker 1:Pl like search platforms that you can pay for?
Speaker 3:Influencity, for example. We have a subscription. I will say like all the local ones we work with are just we've gotten to know over the years and have that personal relationship, but we do do influencer marketing in other markets that we aren't based in. Like we had a client that had a diabetic meal kit delivery service, and we were tasked with finding 10 influencers a month that were in the wellness space based kind of in specific markets. So we used the likes of that platform to really dig in. But other than that, um it's really about the relationship.
Speaker 1:10 different a month? 10 different influencer.
Speaker 3:It was pretty intense.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, I'm working with a brand new, a C BD brand out of LA who's trying to get their products in like Sephora and all these cool places. And we're working with an an agency in LA who just does influencers. All they do is represent influencers. And they want them all to be California based. Right. That's that's interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I think finding influencers that are brand aligned is the key, right?
Speaker 2:I mean it's hard because it's you want to appeal, like in this sense you want it to the 20 somethings and the 50 somethings, and you want it to be aligned with their messaging that care about their health and the C BD qualities of this product. And so that's just not everybody.
Speaker 1:I know what I'm gonna do. What are you gonna do? Calling Charlotte.
Speaker 3:Oh, if you need like Charleston influencer looks for anything, I would love for you to be a be an influencer.
Speaker 1:I'm not trying to be an influencer, it's just a natural thing as a leader. He just exudes confidence and influence on his own. Like it sounds like you know it. Why do I want to?
Speaker 2:She is exactly who I recommend for influencer marketing in this town. It is Charlotte. There you go. Thank you. No, she's fantastic. That is not my back. I love it. I love I have friends that are influencers, and I'm I am s proud of them. Yeah. You put a camera in front of my face, I'm like, yeah. You're doing it. I'm certainly, yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, I'm no influencer myself. I couldn't do it. I'm, you know, someone that I get done with the meal and I'm like, oh, I didn't take one photo.
unknown:Whoops.
Speaker 2:Oops.
Speaker 1:Because I was too busy talking. No, and I like that about it.
Speaker 2:And enjoying the moment, right? Yeah.
Speaker 3:But it's interesting to see. And it is, it's it's it's Wild West. I mean, you could ask a influencer with 50k followers what they charge, and one might say they'll go to the restaurant for free and post for free, and the other might say they're gonna charge $5,000.
Speaker 1:So am I DMing these people? Am I sliding?
Speaker 2:I have contacted people through DM. I think that that's kosher. Yeah. I think that's probably more um than going to like their contact page on their website. You might not, that might be cricket. Yeah. But I I hear people through DM.
Speaker 3:If they have an email in their profile bio, um, I usually will do that. Just that tells me that they're like, okay, I prefer to be contacted that way. But we do a lot of work with influencers for wine water, um, which is like this, it's called Rose Water. It's this like 70 calorie drink. And it's very it lends itself to influencer marketing very well. So where can I buy this? This sounds awesome. Oh, like anywhere, any grocery store. It's so good.
Speaker 2:It's almost boat season, friends. Yes, we're getting close. They crush it, they're at all the grocery stores.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Um, they also have sandbar, which is significant. I go out in March on my boat. I'm in my boat from March through November. So I still haven't found a friend 10 years later with a boat in Charleston. Yeah, you didn't. Now what now? You gotta watch that. Bring your poodle and your baby. Tell me that too girl.
Speaker 1:Why can't she bring her husband too by the poodle and the baby? Well, I got your back. We all see that I'm really poodle to babies. Joseph. I got your back, Joseph.
Speaker 2:Matthew. I bet Matthew and Joseph would get along.
Speaker 1:Matthew gets along with everybody. So shout out to Matthew.
Speaker 3:Shout out to Matthew. Yeah. I could see them getting along for sure.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Emily too. Okay. So there. Hey, good for you. I like Emily.
Speaker 2:Emily and I hang by the pool. Do they listen to the Matthew and Emily? I love that.
Speaker 1:Do they listen to me or did the podcast? Because Emily doesn't listen to me at all.
Speaker 2:Who downloads the podcast and he'll call.
Speaker 3:He listens to them before I do it. She's a nurse. That's great. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Psychology.
Speaker 3:Hey, you never know. Maybe she plays it on the way to work.
Speaker 1:Hopefully. Yeah. Doubt it. Highly. Anyways, I like Joseph already. Does he golf? He has to golf.
Speaker 3:He doesn't. Well, he started when we met in 2017, like the end of 2017. But um it was funny because I went on so many dates with guys that golfed, and then I meet this boy that doesn't golf, and I'm like, I just didn't. But he loves it, and that's like the key.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:It's just like having the patience to get out there. Yes. We play, um, we don't play a lot now that we have a 10-month-old, but copy that. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Totally understand that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he loves it though. And he he he rode at CFC and then he was a CFC rowing coach. Oh, okay. So he's like just naturally athletic.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. He just kind of is one of those people where you like he picked it, picked up a club, hit it on the green on a par three, his first time playing, and I was like borderline pissed. You're like, are you kidding? I don't do that. My entire life. Yeah. Like how simpler. But then he shanked it in the woods five times. So it made me feel better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I I live, yeah, I live in Rivertown, so there's no reason why I'm not on the golf course with my poor husband. I'm like, have fun.
Speaker 1:No reason. So yeah, golf. Do more golf. Yeah. So take away the colour. Well the story. Do more golf. 90% of you are ladies. So fun.
Speaker 2:I love that you have so many interests, yet you still have this like thriving agency. You're like a wonderful mom. Like, how do you do it all? Like, how do you balance it all? Is it just the team? Because it's got a lot of it's gotta be you.
Speaker 1:Stephanie's crushing.
Speaker 2:You're I am crushing.
Speaker 3:I just I'm very impressed. You're so sweet. Well, I can say the same about the likes of you, you know. Like, how do you how do you have your company and do it all?
Speaker 2:And I have a very patient husband who lets me work at midnight.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think I think I've always been super driven and very hardworking. So that is kind of always been in my DNA. Me too. And I'm not afraid to like, if I have to, you know, pull a long work day just to get it done. But I wouldn't trade it, I think, for anything. I like being busy. I like having, you know, multiple kind of passions. And I think too, if you if you are passionate about what you do, which I truly am when it comes to marketing, like it doesn't feel like it it is work. To say it doesn't feel like work is probably a stretch. It it's work.
Speaker 2:But you love what you do day in and day out. I love it.
Speaker 3:And there's no cap like with what you can learn and what you how far you can grow.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3:It never gets old. It never I could never just plug in numbers and like call it a day. I mean, every day is so different. And I love that we work with multiple industries. We work with, you know, arts and theater orgs, nonprofits, food and bev clients, um events. We have an opera org.
Speaker 2:We have Didn't you do something with Riverfront Festival?
Speaker 3:Riverfront Revival, we do their PR. Yeah. And like a hormone therapy client. So we're constantly learning about different industries. And I think being um having our hand in different industries also makes us better marketers because we take something that we learn from working on hubs peanuts. We can take that with us into our whiskey client or a contact that we work with for an opera org. All of a sudden, we want the Elvis whiskey client.
Speaker 1:Oh, whiskey cock. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're the they're the fourth fastest growing whiskey in the U.S. right now. Amazing. Yeah, they're crushing it. And they're they've got some really exciting stuff coming up. They're um we're really excited about that account. I should have brought you guys some whiskey.
Speaker 1:What was that? Yeah, don't tell me that.
Speaker 2:I'll come back with some. We're just gonna be on the golf course with the whiskey. Yeah. Exactly.
Speaker 1:Well, you're talking about growing, you know, the business, and and you guys both, you know, we all have successful ad agency businesses of whatever niche, right? And then we all have kids and families. And then we put all we put Charleston on the back trap of that. I think that's what helps it not make it like work. Because Charleston's so much fun. So much fun. And and there's no cap.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying that in slang term. I'm just you know what I mean, like no cap or on god or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah. What is he? I don't know.
Speaker 1:I said it. I said it. So so but my point is like putting Charleston back there with the beaches and the food and the people and the people and the people.
Speaker 3:At the end of the day, like, yeah, our work is so fun at the end of the day. And like I always say it's PR, not ER, and like, yes, we take our jobs seriously, yes, we work really hard, but we're let's have some fun while we do it. Like, we get to market whiskies and wine brands and theater companies and uh veteran surf org. And it's just like we're out there in the field trying dishes and taking videos and meeting with the things.
Speaker 2:That's rare in agency life. Is it? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think I think that culture is everything. And I were going to Bumpas for some fry plates at five today and like gonna just catch up and have happy hour and get some photos. So Bumpa. That's what I was saying. Bumpa's is amazing. They're off East Bay, right by the Palmetto Hotel, and they're like a pub style restaurant, but their food is like next level good. They have really good burgers.
Speaker 2:Once again, you need to you need to follow her on Instagram, her agency, and taste makers because oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Well, it's let's is there any other story life lesson you'd like to share to your younger self, to any younger, up-and-coming agency owners that I would say uh something to think about.
Speaker 3:I think, you know, I think seeing the younger generation, um, and there's such amazing women in marketing in the younger generation coming out of the likes of C of C. So smart. Now smart.
Speaker 2:We have a partnership with the College of Charleston. They have an chapter there that we do. Amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we've had so many great hires from there, especially the Martin Scholars program there. Okay. We've had like at least three hires from there. But um, I think it, you know, at certain points it was tempting for me to maybe stray the course of PR. And I'm so glad I stuck with it and stuck in my lane because I've been able to develop my experience and become more of an expert in the field. And I think there is a beauty and like tangible reward to sticking it out sometimes. And I think I think there is this tendency with the younger generation now to kind of like flee when things get tough, or maybe just this, you know, switching up things. And and if that's you, you do you. Right, right. But there there's something to be said about really refining your expertise. And I'm so glad that I was in the agency world for about you know nine years before I started my own agency, because once you start, you do have to consistently be learning and trying to better um your work. You can't just say, well, I've learned what I know and I'm gonna teach everyone. No, you have to continue to teach yourself, but you also have to like have a vast knowledge of working with different clients and on different teams and in different situations. And I'm really thankful that I worked in the agency world for almost 10 years before starting my own thing because I think the tendency now is like I want to be a girl boss and start my own thing. And it's like, but at the end of the day, you have to have those case studies to back up your work and like you have to have that experience because there is a lot of competition out there. So I think you know, just making sure that you're if you're thinking about going out on your own, certainly make sure that you've like really kind of gotten what you've what you feel like you've need to get out of where you currently are, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do your homework, and you have to continue with professional development.
Speaker 3:I think everyone now just wants to like immediate immediately be like there, and it doesn't work like that.
Speaker 1:It doesn't work like that. Rubo's been in in business for 15 years. I mean, it it takes time to to grow, you know. Yeah. And and finally we're we're having the best year yet type of thing. You know what I mean? But you just gotta keep doing the right thing to your point.
Speaker 2:And you have to stay abreast like the marketing trends because you don't become a dinosaur. That's the thing. Like COVID has brought all these new things like short form videos and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Constantly learning. That's why I like this podcast. I'm learning all every every other week I get to learn something new. Yeah, that's great people.
Speaker 3:I love listening. I've I've enjoyed all the episodes. I love the AI one. No, it's true. She was just talking about the AI one with Jessica.
Speaker 1:By the way, download the episodes because that's the only way they track.
Speaker 2:No, they track streaming on Spotify and that's the code. Oh, and leave a review, everybody.
Speaker 1:Oh, five stars. I forgot about leaving a review.
Speaker 3:And everyone that leaves a review following. If you see space light up with saucers, that's so cute. You should do like an incentive. I'm gonna get you an A of A podcast tournament this year.
Speaker 1:But you won't.
Speaker 3:I'll give anyone anyone that leaves a review following this episode will be entered to win a $50 gift card to Bumpus.
Speaker 1:Oh that just came out of nowhere, folks. That was amazing.
Speaker 2:I'm going to Bump Us. Oh, it's so great. Remember that.
Speaker 1:That's your that's your lead tagline for all of our posts right there. Charlotte, it's been fun. It's been fun. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. You're awesome.
Speaker 2:Thank you guys so much. Of course, of course.
Speaker 1:I'd like to uh thank Charlotte. Thank the sponsor.
Speaker 2:Charleston Radio Group.
Speaker 1:Charleston Radio Group and the Charleston American Marketing Association. I mean, if you're interested in being a guest or sponsoring the show, you can reach out to me at mike at charlestonama.org.
Speaker 2:Or podcast at charlestonama.org.
Speaker 1:That too. Yeah. Um man, Charlotte, you did great. Appreciate it. Please, this was really fun.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna take up golf lessons.
Speaker 3:And seriously, anyone that wants to golf with me, my email is CharlottePurger at gmail.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's nice.
Speaker 3:And then she gave her personal email.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2:I was trying to think. I was like, I love it. I love it. Which one? Very good.
Speaker 1:Uh your website and maybe your your tags for how do we get a hold of you?
Speaker 3:How do we get a hold of your?com and then at CharlotteBurger PR. And you can check out what we're doing at TastemakersCHS. Also tastemakerschs.com. Yes.
Speaker 1:It's Burger B-E-R-G-E-R. Correct. Okay, not not hamburger.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna be there with the kids this weekend. I'm gonna post it on my stories.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're gonna win this. You're not allowed to win, by the way.
Speaker 2:I'm just gonna I'm just gonna go and be a support and I will trade. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Charleston. All right. Bye.
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