Episode 3: From Teacher to Marketing Strategist: My Journey to Building a Marketing Agency

🎙️ Ever wonder how a second-grade teacher became a marketing strategist helping local businesses thrive? In this personal episode of Hometown Advantage, I'm pulling back the curtain on my journey from the classroom to running a successful marketing agency.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• How a simple blog about local businesses in Raleigh-Durham sparked my marketing career
• The emotional decision to leave teaching (and why it was worth it)
• My $6,000 leap of faith into the world of Facebook ads
• What I learned from working with marketing agencies (the good and the bad)
• How Hometown Advantage was born from a desire to make ads accessible to local businesses

Whether you're considering a career change or just curious about the person behind the podcast, this episode gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how following your passion can lead to unexpected success.

🚀 Ready to transform your local business with Facebook ads that actually work? Join my 3-month Local Ads Mentorship Program and get step-by-step guidance to create ads that convert followers into customers: https://hello.nicoleeldridgemedia.com/course

📱 Follow along for daily tips and strategies: Instagram: www.instagram.com/nicoleeldridge_ads

Transcript

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Welcome to episode 3 of hometown advantage the podcast for local business owners where we don't just focus on views and visibility. We prioritize turning your social media, scrollers and dealers into paying customers for your local business. I'm Nicole Eldridge. I'm a marketing strategist that supported over 100 business owners with Facebook and Instagram ads. And today I'm doing a little personal episode about me and my journey. Just in case you're curious. I love these types of episodes from other podcasts. So I thought, why not? Let's just get on and reflect on the journey, because it has been just a journey. I'm going to start by taking you back to just after I graduated college, which was 2015. I went to Central Michigan University where I studied teaching, and as soon as I graduated, I moved to North Carolina. I needed a fresh start. I wanted somewhere warm, somewhere fun and I just did not want to go back to my hometown and I didn't know what else I'd do. So I got my first teaching job in Durham, North Carolina, which is right by Raleigh. And I was so excited. About everything that Raleigh and Durham had to offer, because I am someone who loves going out, supporting local businesses, buying local eating at local restaurants and breweries, going to all the fun, local events, all of that, but. I didn't have anyone to go with to these things because I moved completely by myself. My husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, eventually did move down. And I remember the day I told him about an idea I had. For a blog and Instagram page I was so nervous to tell him cause it wasn't anything like, what I had done before. I was teaching kindergarten 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade full time, but I really wanted a creative outlet and I wanted a way to connect with people and share all of the amazing businesses that we were frequenting and the fun events and Different things to do in Raleigh and Durham and all of that. So I told him about my idea. Of course, he was all about it. And from then on, he was officially my Instagram husband, so to speak, taking pictures of me gallivanting around the town, dealing with me, like having to take pictures of our food before he could eat it. All of that fun stuff. We would visit restaurants, breweries, local festivals, all of it. And I would write blog posts. giving reviews and tips for people in Raleigh or who are visiting Raleigh. And then I used Instagram to share my blogs and get them out there. And this is like a totally different time for Instagram. I was proud to grow that page quickly to a thousand followers. And because I was doing this totally part time, just completely for fun and just learning it completely on my own, I never took any. Courses even followed any Instagram gurus or anything like that. I just did it. Like I said, completely for fun. So fast forward a little bit and COVID hit and I got pregnant and we decided to move home all in a year's time. And so when we moved home, the plan was I had. My 1st daughter, and the plan was to go back to teaching. And when I tell you. We are sitting in our new house in Michigan, the time where we moved and I had my laptop open and I was just crying applying for teaching jobs. I, again, walked into my husband's office and I was like, I can't do it. And of course, he said, fine. We'll figure it out. A part time teaching job did end up falling into my lap where I was able to work Tuesdays, Wednesdays and half days Thursdays, which was perfect or seemed perfect at the time for me, because I couldn't imagine not working. But I also couldn't imagine working as a teacher full time. So I took that job and I think I must've used all my sick days within like the first two months of having the job. My journey into motherhood was just a bit of a struggle. We are now almost four years in and things are, have been amazing. But when I first had my daughter, she was colicky. She didn't sleep. I was a big ball of stress and anxiety and just felt so lost. Ugh. On what I was just supposed to be doing with her as a mom and just with my life in general, like I could not focus at work because we hadn't found reliable, not the child care that we found was reliable, but it wasn't quality. And I was extremely stressed out and anxious about that and it affected. Work and just my life and my ability to parent. Basically, everyone was telling me this job is so perfect for you. This is great, blah, blah, blah. But in my head, I was just like, I still don't want it. I don't want this job. I want something else. I want something more. I want something I can. Build and operate myself where I can work flexible hours. I can still have time to take care of myself and. We, I don't have to use all my sick days and people like depending on me to come in when my daughter's sick, all of these things. So I ended up being served with an ad for a business and ads course that ultimately ended up being the catalyst for my business. I took the sales call and was flabbergasted by the price of the course and ended up taking six months to really, um. Dwell on it before I said, I just have to do this. And I literally remember the exact date because it was St. Patrick's day. And it was one of those Thursdays that I had a half day at work, but Savannah, my daughter was at daycare for the full day. And I was like, I'm doing this. I'm signing up for this course and I am learning how to run a business and monetize what I learned from my time, dabbling with social media when I lived in Raleigh. Of course, the 6, 000 dollars, which was a huge investment for us at the time. It still is obviously and my biggest thing was, like, I just need to make this money. If I can make this money back. I will count this as a win right? Just so funny. Okay. Now. So I started it, I got some good knowledge on what it takes to run successful ads for a local business. actually, I started my 1st. Month in business was like, a couple months after I bought the course and I ended up reaching out to a local business owner that I really admired. I admired her business. I admired her and she was a teacher full time. And this was her thing on the side. So we had that connection and I just reached out and asked if she could use my support on this content creation for her Facebook and Instagram page and after some back and forth, I ended up landing with her. My 1st client with her, they are a 5 K company that hosts 5 K's at local breweries that if, me, it was, it's just right up my alley. I am a runner. I love, like I said, the local businesses. I love craft beer. So that was so fun. That client ended up leading to some referrals and other business and things like that. And It was amazing. So I kept taking clients. I also got pregnant with my 2nd, not too long after starting the business and we had some complications with that pregnancy and I was so sick. So things were slow, but I was taking on clients and when he was born, I decided, it's time to step it up. I actually spent a ton of time on marketing when I was pregnant with him and doing a lot of local networking, which I think really helped me land in the place. I am now because I connected with so many local business owners and I didn't even sell to them. I didn't even end up. bringing a lot of them on as clients, but I learned so much about what's working for them, what's not working for them, what do they struggle with, what are they not understanding, where do they need support? So that was a huge part of my journey too, just like spending so much time in the community, in different networking groups, speaking in different networking groups, and just learning, right? But once Xander was born, my son I actually ended up going on a little journey of taking several Jobs with marketing agencies like contracting jobs. So there was all different types. My first marketing agency job is actually with a boutique ads agency owner who I still work with. Because. Even though I don't make as much money from the clients I get from her as I do my own, the learning opportunities with her are amazing and working with several marketing agencies has taught me a lot on what goes on behind the scenes and what a good agency is like the that I work with now and what a so good is, the ones that are not so good, I did not last long at because they are just doing their clients such a disservice and I couldn't stand to be a part of it. was an agency for a specific type of business and it was very much like a volume agency. They're getting, serving 80 to 100 clients at a time. And I was in charge of overseeing the ads team there. They were very much giving their clients, the impression that all ads are just like, set it and forget it. and that's simply not the case. So much money and spend was wasted of, these businesses that are struggling to begin with. And with no explanation, so anyways, I won't go into that too much, That's where I learned a lot about what works, what doesn't work, what I want to teach people, and what I want to do for my own clients and what I do not want to do. Fast forward to this past summer I was in a mastermind, a business mastermind that was really focused on making sure that, we are running a kind of life first business. And at the time I was not, I was extremely. Overworked with my done for you services because I, want to serve everyone. And the fact of the matter is that running ads is a full time job for 1 business. Of course, I have people that help me implement everything, but taking 7 to 8 clients at a time over the summer. And a lot of these are online business owners, the ones that I'm doing done for you ads with. And I was talking in this mastermind about how I miss my local friends, my local business owners who can't necessarily justify the fee for done for you ads, but can so benefit from low cost as they just don't know the right way to set them up. And that's where the idea for the course, hometown advantage came from. I think this was in May. And so I decided, let's create this program. That's going to get ads In the hands or accounts of local business owners for extremely affordable in a way that makes sense for them. Because I really don't see many people doing that. I see 1 other person who teaches local ads and our strategies are extremely different. The idea was born and I got to work and in September, we launched the 1st round. I had 3 people come through do amazing. And I realized this is where my passions lie. If you know anything about human design, which is like a thing, but I'm obsessed with, I'm a projector. it means I was born to lead to guide to see a bird's eye view of things and help people. Make decisions based on, a greater picture, which I think is why I was such a great teacher as well. When I was still teaching in the classroom and now the programs running full steam and as well as done for you services. And when I just tell you, I'm obsessed with ads, I am obsessed with that. Because the results that you can see are just faster than any organic strategy that you're going to do. Way more trackable. And there's just so much fun stuff you can do to make money. Which is so fun, right? For your business. We would love to do more episodes on behind the scenes stuff of my business, like, how my launches go and how I sell my course and things like that. So let me know if that's something you're interested in. If I don't hear from anyone, I'll just stick to the local biz tips and local business marketing tips. But yes, we are now what 3 and a half or 3, 3 years running on just being there. Full time in my business just completely dedicated to helping business owners amplify their reach and their impact through ads and soaking up every bit. I can of learning and realizing like. I know what I'm doing here and I like this. I like this because I like how tangible it is to see the results. And how creative you get to be trying new things. So anyways, that's a bit about my story. I hope you enjoyed it. Please send me a message on Instagram. Tell me if you resonate with any of this. Tell me if you don't resonate with any of this. Let me know. I'm not speaking into a void here. I would love to chat. And if you are interested in learning more about odds, I have two. programs that I would love to tell you about. I have a mini course that will walk you through setting up your very first visibility ad for your local business. It's 97. The, I'll put the link in the show notes. It's also in my Instagram bio. And then I also have my 12 week program where you get super high touch support on running strategic ads for your local business. So that you can amp up your visibility back on content creation. And actually see real results like I was talking about with your marketing. Thank you so much for listening and I will see you again next week.