Company: Honey Creative
Owners: Andi Dunn
Year Started: 2015
Employees: 1 – 10
“An Agency Story” is a podcast dedicated to uncovering the journeys of agency owners, sharing their triumphs, trials, and unique insights. In each episode, listeners get a behind-the-scenes look at the dynamic world of creative agencies, filled with inspirational stories and practical advice. This episode spotlights Andi Dunn, founder of Honey Creative, a design studio with a knack for building confidence in brands.
In this episode, we sit down with Andi Dunn of Honey Creative. Known for their collaborative approach and focus on rebranding, Honey Creative helps small businesses and non-profit leaders feel confident in their brand identity. Andi shares her journey from aspiring veterinarian and figure skater to becoming a pivotal player in the branding world.
Andi emphasizes how Honey Creative’s mission is to instill confidence in their clients by working with them, not just for them. This collaborative approach ensures that the brand identity truly reflects the essence of the client. Andi’s path to founding Honey Creative was marked by a passion for creativity from a young age. Her early experiences in art and a critical internship shaped her professional journey. Andi discusses the origins of Honey Creative, including the name’s inspiration from her time at the University of Kentucky, where she and her colleagues envisioned a creative “hive.” The episode delves into Andi’s experiences of handling abrupt departures of business partners, learning new skills on the fly, and the persistence that kept her going.
Andi’s self-described stubbornness is a recurring theme, illustrating her determination to succeed despite challenges. She candidly shares how this trait helped her navigate the rocky start of her agency. One of the highlights is a heartwarming story about a client who was so moved by Honey Creative’s rebranding work that she cried tears of joy during the final handoff. Andi’s reflection on her childhood ambitions—wanting to be both a veterinarian and a figure skater—adds a touch of humor and relatability. Her story about a project mishap with a mural design serves as a light-hearted lesson on the importance of double-checking work.
Join us for an inspiring and candid conversation with Andi Dunn.Tune in to hear about the highs and lows of agency life, the power of perseverance, and the ongoing quest for meaningful client relationships. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a creative professional, this episode leaves you with thought-provoking insights and questions about how you can infuse more authenticity and confidence into your own endeavors.
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Show Transcript
Welcome to An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. From the excitement of starting up the first big sale, passion, doubt, fear, freedom, and the emotional rollercoaster of growth, hear it all on An Agency Story podcast. An Agency Story podcast is hosted by Russel Dubree, successful agency owner with an eight figure exit turned business coach. Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel:
Welcome to An Agency Story podcast, I’m your host Russel. In this episode we’re joined by Andi Dunn, the inspiring founder of Honey Creative based in Nashville, Tennessee. Andi shares her journey from a young girl with dreams of becoming a veterinarian and figure skater to leading a design studio that focuses on building confidence through a collaborative branding. Hear about the significant turning point when her business partners left abruptly and Andy sheer determination kept the agency thriving. Tune in to discover how Honey Creative’s unique approach working with clients rather than for them as created lasting impacts and heartfelt relationships. Enjoy this story. Welcome to the show today everyone, I have Andi Dunn with Honey Creative with us here today. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Andi.
Andi:
Thanks, Russel. Happy to be here.
Russel:
Very happy to have you we’ll kick it off, if you don’t mind, what does Honey Creative do? And who do you do it for?
Andi:
The big question. Honey Creative as our elevator pitch is basically a design studio. I like to tell people that we work with and not for our clients. We support service based small businesses and nonprofit leaders to help them feel more confident in their brand. In turn, that really helps them feel confident to show up for it every day. We specifically specialize in rebrands. That’s our niche if you will.
Russel:
Confidence is absolutely important. And I imagine you’ve had to do a lot to earn that for you and your clients over the years. But before we dig into all the nitty-gritty on your agency, journey itself, take a step back. What was young? Andy thinking? What was the past? She was on, what did she want to be when she grew up?
Andi:
When I was very, very young I wanted to be a veterinarian figure skater, competitive figure skater, and neither of those had I ever tried before in my life.
Russel:
Where you combining these somehow, or was this actually separate?
Andi:
In my mind, I was thinking I was going to do one on the weekend, one, you know, Monday through Friday, but I have always had a passion for just creativity. Drawing, painting, my whole life those sort of hobbies were really something that I was always drawn to. As I grew up and started studying more and more, it became evident that needed to be a part of my professional journey as well. In high school, I took every art class I could think of, yearbook club, pretty traditional and true to on brand for this career path. Once I got into college, I had more of an emphasis on the creative path in communications and then got an amazing internship afterward. That really gave me a lot of my tangible skills today.
Russel:
And then somewhere along the line, I’m guessing the veterinary dreams dropped off the radar?
Andi:
Yeah. I just couldn’t make it work. I think some, sometime around middle school, I had more of a queasy stomach. Realized that I didn’t want to deal with any of that or in the medical field whatsoever. That fell off pretty quickly and understanding that competitive figure skating wouldn’t really work for a small town Kentucky girl who never actually figure skated before.
Russel:
Well, it’s never too late in case you want to go back to it. You always hear some amazing stories where people start things late in life, but it makes sense that you would put that on the back burner for now. It sounds like you’re doing really well. What led up to taking all the art classes and starting your agency. How did that all begin?
Andi:
Like I said, I had a really fantastic internship post college that afforded me a lot of organic opportunity to learn at a pace that wasn’t so demanding or financially restrictive. I would say we had as much time and space to explore different concepts for something as small as a flyer or as big as an internal rebrand. That sparked a lot of interest in branding and design on a broader scale in serving other clients as well. In that space, I had several coworkers. At the time we were like an in house agency of sorts for the arts and sciences department on campus. Two other co workers were like, you know what, let’s do this. We could totally do this and make money on our own. That is originally how we started. I remember vividly sitting around on our lunch break and trying to brainstorm different ideas and the department, like our department as a whole was called the hive. We thought, well, this is an evolution what’s the product of the hive? Well, honey sounds nice. When you say it, Honey is a product of where we’re starting from. It made a lot of sense. That’s kind of how it began.
Russel:
That’s fascinating. I just love a good naming origin story and where the inspiration comes from. I just never ceased to be amazed about what that looks like. So you’re sitting around, coming up with this idea. Did you guys just work yourself out of your day jobs to start the business? Or is this. Did you not just need a lot to jump right into it? What category do you fall in? Just that cold Turkey versus easing yourself into agency ownership.
Andi:
Shortly after we started, about six months later, I ended up moving to Nashville. From Lexington, Kentucky to Nashville, which, that was my cold turkey. I jumped right in and thought, what better time than the present, but my two business partners, they had, some part time positions that helped, alleviate some of the financial stress and tension, but ultimately it was not meant to be as far as the partnership goes. They decided to, one, went on for more professional or I guess higher education rather, and then the other one, just transitioned into a full time salary position. Running a business, I’m sure, you know, is pretty challenging.
Russel:
When you think about yourself and just maybe in comparison to what maybe set you up for success or want to stay in the business. How do you think you differ in that situation?
Andi:
It’s probably not the answer you’d want, but I’m just really stubborn. I was like, I’m going to make this work and this is how it’s going to happen for me. I was really dedicated to wanting to see it through. I felt like at the time, it just, it just needed more time. I was willing to put in additional hours and kind of network as needed. I was in a new city too, so that really helped motivate me to get out and to introduce myself a little bit more organically at different events or, entrepreneurial networking spaces that maybe I wouldn’t have if I had stayed back in Kentucky.
Russel:
Well, the answer I always want is absolutely the truth. And that’s an answer actually love, I mean, I imagine that has to be a pretty common trait. If we took a major, maybe if a bunch of different owners took a stubbornness indicator test, I imagine that would be a very consistent trait across the board. Just how important that is to really be able to stick it out and play the long game. So not too long into this you’re on your own. Was that freeing for you? Was that invigorating or was that like, oh crap. I’m on my own. I’ve got to make this work.
Andi:
A little bit of both. I think I knew ultimately that their hearts weren’t in it. Departing really alleviated some of that for me. I felt like I could take the brand and the business in a direction that I solely wanted and was interested in, but also, they, they left pretty abruptly. One was right in the middle of a project, a web design project, which at the time I had zero experience and background and honestly interest in, but because it was client facing and we were in the middle of it, I had to see it through. A lot of late nights trying to figure out WordPress and make good on our relationship and repair it as much as I could without leaving the client empty handed.
Russel:
That sounds like that’s where that stubborn comes into play. There’s no way I’m not going to figure this out to the point that even something you’re not that passionate about, or even that excited about and having to pull that through. What was getting clients like in the early days of the business, how did you go about that? Part of it?
Andi:
Even still to date, it’s, it’s almost all been 100 percent word of mouth, which I’m really grateful for. Just people enjoying the working relationship and rapport that we have so far and spreading the word. We’ve invested somewhat in SEO and kind of some sales channels now, but especially early on, it was all hey, I’ve worked with Andi. At the time, I think a lot of people thought it was me plus a team, but it was just me wearing a million hats that, those first couple of years, especially after my business partners departed.
Russel:
One of the things I really enjoyed. And you can tell me how this evolved or how much is this something you were just starting out through the gate as an idea and approach, but I love it when you said, when you think of what branding is, you’re not creating the brand they want, you’re creating the representation of the brand that they are. When did that process flourish or develop, or how did that come to be from a mindset and approach?
Andi:
I really came to understand that as a concept when I was getting a million edits and feedback. Basically, I had a project and the client kept coming back to me, coming back to me with revisions. I don’t like this color. I want to change this minor thing. It was just getting exhaustive. I had this idea and this concept. Hey, let’s actually send this out to your community. It was an organization at the time so we had somewhat of a pool of people to be able to see, receptivity wise what they liked and what they didn’t. That really helped us come to that decision and it wasn’t me, it wasn’t my preference, it wasn’t her preference. It was the people that, the organization worked with every single day that helped come to that decision and make it a lot easier. It was a huge light bulb moment. Realizing, like, I need to do this because it will help them understand that it’s not either of our preferences. It’s really how they want to position themselves and how people are viewing them right now, both for the good and for the not so good. In the moments where, a brand approaches us and they’re not, their perception is an ideal or what they want, that gives us the space to rectify that through design. I’m able to redirect, but it, really it’s a way for me to skirt around feedback. I didn’t say this. I didn’t do this here. Your people are telling you what you may or may not want to hear.
Russel:
There’s that ever-present old adage coming into play necessity is the mother of invention. A love that. There’s probably an argument to may not to say we can’t listen to what our clients have to say about their business. We should listen to what they have to say about their business. But also when a client signs off an agreement say, great, we’re going to do this part of the process. And we’re going to ask everyone else what they think about your brand. And then we’ll ultimately share the Dilbert deliverables when we’re done going through that process. I know we can’t quite do that and leave them out, but you know, that might actually be a better serving process, at least in theory, to really not even involve the clients. If we’re doing a lot of that leg work of understanding the client’s client. Well, it sounds like you got there in a roundabout way. And one of the other things that I found really intriguing about your story is I don’t know exactly how you would characterize it, but you have a very specific focus on the makeup of your team and specific individuals that you’re trying to cater to as you’re thinking about growing and expanding your team, if you don’t mind sharing a little bit about that.
Andi:
Something that I really look for when I’m onboarding or just adding additional team members is, is passion. We like to say we like to work for nice people and, I enjoy working for nice people as well. Really it’s about if you have the heart, not only the skillset. That to me is second string to being able to show up authentically and feel like this is something you can get behind. Because of my history with, business, my business partners leaving, I really want to be intentional about the growth in, in making sure that feels strategic because I don’t want to fall victim to this concept of having a big business is a successful one. When ultimately you can still make a lot of impact with a smaller group of individuals, so long as you’re all bringing your best effort to the table. Today it’s myself, there’s a brain strategist and I have a junior designer and a web designer that support our projects, too, but they’re all fully remote. We get together a few times a year, but really it’s mostly me behind, behind the curtain with some additional support.
Russel:
Yeah. So if Ione,now as I remember it, this is a PG 13 podcast, by the way, but you had a slightly more crass way of saying who you want to work with. Probably sounds like both internally and externally, which you can just go out right out and say that by the way,
Andi:
okay, yeah, yeah, we, we like to do nice ass work for nice ass people.
Russel:
I think that’s a great tagline. I hope that’s written down somewhere where all the people can see.
Andi:
We’re rebranding and redoing our website right now, so I’ll, I’ll make a note of that.
Russel:
And there you go. Russell’s request. Please do. So one of the things that I just kind of curious to ask is what is your best client experience and what do you think was maybe your worst client experience you’ve had to do so far and I’ll even let you pick which one you want to talk about first.
Andi:
I’ll start with the good first, mainly because I actually just spoke with them earlier today, so it’s fresh top of mind. This is a relatively recent project, but it was a husband and wife and it’s a rebrand and we just finished up their project, just a short couple of months ago, but I remember vividly, it’s an architecture firm for context, a small team and they were having a lot of issues with perception. Again, what we specialize in and they’re wanting to go in a different direction. We conducted some perception surveys based on their current audience, and then overhauled everything. We left no stone unturned, if you will. At the very end, they were just incredibly fun and joyous throughout, and were willing to, give me a chuckle at my corny puns and, stick out some longer meetings and just had a great attitude the entire time. Were really excited to, to hire us as the professional and very trusting, which I think is important. But at the end, we were doing the sign off, off boarding and she started crying. She cried and she’s like, I can’t believe this is the end. I don’t want this to stop. We’ve enjoyed working together and this has been so reinvigorating for our business. After I got off the call, I spoke with my husband. I’m like, this is why we do it. If I could bottle this up and then, put it on all of our sales copy everywhere, we would be in a great position. That sense of impact and importance, and just, it’s not about the deliverables to me, ultimately it’s about being there alongside, why we emphasize the collaborative aspect, because, that to me means more than anything.
Russel:
Honey Creative. We’re so good, we’ll make you cry. Apparently I need to think back now and how many people cried during my own agency journey, because I don’t have a lot that comes to memory, but, uh, let me be an exercise I’ll go through. Well, that’s amazing. I just have to follow that question on a positive note of this. Anything when he could identify, when you look at is how do you recreate that magic that you were able to do in that situation?
Andi:
Over the past couple of years, we’ve really fine tuned our red and our green flag criteria with clients, and it’s not ever the type of business or brand, you hear people say, this is a dream client. This is, what, it would be so fun, of course, every designer, every agency wants to work for a restaurant or a hotel, but for me, it ultimately does come down to just working for nice ass people. I want someone, regardless of the industry that you’re in or the service that you provide, that is willing to show up and trust us as professionals. That makes it a million times more fun than exploring different, creative concepts. Like, yes, that’s a part of it too, but that comes and goes, trends go in and out, and deliverables are a dime a dozen, but your process, like that, is something that makes a big difference, and AI and other agencies can’t compete with.
Russel:
I love what you said when you talked about, I think when you asked the question for a lot of folks, who’s your ideal client, you’re most likely, always going to get some demographic information, revenue size industry, something along those lines. But to your point, there’s a lot more value oftentimes and understanding about the psychographics of who your clients are, what they represents their values more than it always necessarily is demographics. Even good companies that have a demographics that might make sense. Don’t. Necessarily always align the site psychographics in who works there or the owner or the clients they take on, and that can even still lead to some challenges. So remember those psychographic folks. Ah, that’s a great lesson there. Thank you for sharing that.
Andi:
Brains and businesses don’t send email, people do. That’s who I want to vet and have that connection with.
Russel:
That’s a good one. Definitely save that thought there. Well, now I wish we had started with the bad so that we could have, you know, rounded out this conversation on such a, a little bit better note, but go ahead. If you don’t mind, tell us about the worst client experience.
Andi:
The worst client, unfortunately, it’s, it’s the worst for a reason, right? It had all of the red flags from the start. It just, in my gut, I knew intuition just wasn’t there and, she was very, just very pointed throughout much of our conversation and meeting time and had very high expectations. Would really breach a lot of communication boundaries that I’ve since been very adamant about putting even in, in my contract, texting, calling all hours of the night. Ultimately I decided to terminate the contract and sign off our=designs. Ironically, it wasn’t the deliverable that she was upset about and to this date, our designs are still live on their website, which I find funny, but it just wasn’t a good fit. After our, our collaboration terminated, she sent me a four page letter of discourse that bullet pointed out and really detailed all of my shortcomings. Again, not had nothing or little to do with the design and the deliverable, but much to do about me as a professional and me as a person characteristically. That took a lot of therapy and ultimately, is why I’m so passionate about providing business owners with confidence because in that moment, it definitely felt like a lot of it was stripped away and feeling like I didn’t have a lot of authority to be able to advocate for myself in that space. Eventually, I do think it was a great experience because of so many lessons learned. My contract’s been revisited. I now have a really good relationship with a lawyer. I’ve really pivoted and refined who we want to work with and know exactly how to, yeah, just say no and put up those boundaries early on so it doesn’t sacrifice the product or my passion throughout the project.
Russel:
A very optimistic takeaway that you were able to pull from that and good on you. I’m just sitting here trying to think. Is there anyone I’ve ever been upset with that? I want to take the time to write four pages to, and I’m going to go have to go and say, I think the answer’s no.
Andi:
Single spaced as well.
Russel:
That is interesting, but let’s go back and think about that client that cried again. We just want to leave on a good note. And Andi made a client cry, in a good way, that is. So one of the other things That you shared is it sounds like not too long ago, you became a mother for the first time. How has that transition been in your life? Any takeaways from that?
Andi:
My baby girl is now nine months old, which feels like this massive time warp. I was speaking to a friend the other day, I’m like, I feel like I’ve aged like a presidency in this short amount of time. But it, it’s really been a gift in many ways, of course. Just having this separate human really come to light and be a representation of so much love and light in your life. It’s this constant reminder when I look at her to be kinder to my younger self and who I was, this person that wanted to be a figure skating veterinarian, but was obsessed with drawing and painting. It also has really helped shape my business and how I operate and inadvertently the people that I choose to work with, who oftentimes are parents themselves too, because they understand that, cancellations happen because of childcare or just things come up or she’s, made several cameos in Zoom videos just because that’s how it worked. It’s been really hard at times. In my worst moments, I feel like I’m not doing either one well, not showing up as her mom well, or not showing up as my business owner very well. But I think it really has a way of showing what your priorities are. It’s puts things into perspective for sure.
Russel:
I have no doubt. Uh, even going back to the beginning, what you were saying that there’s nothing like parenthood that creates more maturity perhaps instantly. Even when I think back on my own journey and started out fairly young and, think I aged 20 years overnight as well. So totally empathize with you there.
Andi:
I have so much empathy for every parent ever, even just passing by in the grocery store or other business owners or other clients that we work with that are parents too. I’m like, how, how do you do this shit? You had to make the plan to get to where you’re going and, packing up all of the things you have a million different thoughts running in your mind at one time. It’s just really impressive. Makes me want to show up even better.
Russel:
You’re doing far better than you’re giving yourself credit for, but you’re literally doing two of the hardest things in the world, raising another human being and running a business on top of that. Much respect to you and all the other folks out there trying to do a very similar thing. So many great points that you shared, but I’m very curious at this point, what does the future hold for Honey Creative? What are we talking about down the road?
Andi:
If you ask me maybe in a year or two years it might change but I would really love to have an office space. Inviting more collaboration into a physical environment and have a combination of art and display kind of retail space too and being able to host art classes as well. Getting back into more of the community side of creativity would be fantastic. In the short term, I mentioned, you know, we’re enduring. We’re going through not a negative, enduring sounds rough, but we’re going through a rebrand this year. That’s been very slow, but steady because next year will be our 10 year anniversary. Really want to celebrate that.
Russel:
Well, congratulations on coming up on 10 years. Very fascinating story. I’m served some days, 10 years though. It feels like 30. And then some days, 10 years feels like one day. I’m very curious to hear your answer to the next question. Are entrepreneurs born or are they made.
Andi:
I think they’re born to be made. Let me clarify. I think, most entrepreneurs, like we said, the, the stubbornness characteristic, have certain personality traits that are innate in them. Over time it becomes self evident that entrepreneurship is a good fit for them, but adversity is a part of that too. I’m sure you’ve interviewed dozens of people, and just in my story as well, so I think that’s the piece of the component that has, it’s basically how you make it, is through adversity. If I can combine, is that allowed? Can I combine those two responses into one?
Russel:
Just as one time, we’ll let this happen now. Actually. Most answers given are actually a combination. And. It’s almost funny. Everyone feels a little bit guilty when they do that, but you know, there’s no right or wrong answer. No one way to go about this. Born to me made sounds like an amazing tattoo, quite honestly. If people know more about Honey Creative work and they go.
Andi:
Like I said, we’re overhauling our website, but it is there if you want to check out more about our services and who we are, but we’re also active on Instagram, TikTok, and maybe less on Facebook, but you can find us on most social media platforms and through our email newsletter, too. We send out lots of, uh, funny, just helpful tips for entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders on a monthly basis. Not exhaustive, but we’re all about a good jif or gif. Jif? Did they decide on that?
Russel:
I don’t know, I say GIF, but I guess that doesn’t necessarily make it right.
Andi:
I say gif too, but, yeah, I would love to connect with anyone.
Russel:
You’re one of the few agencies that’s on tick talk that I know of any way am gonna have to go check that out. What the hunting creative Tik TOK looks like.
Andi:
No, it’s, you know, it’s not terrible, but yeah, TikTok was, a strange space. We got kind of bigger, quicker, and then it scared me, so I like took a couple steps back.
Russel:
That’s funny. Yeah. Tik TOK is certainly a thing unto itself, for sure. Well, thank you so much, Andy, for sharing all the wonderful goods, highs and lows of your journey, love what you’re doing. Love the creative and just the genuine, authentic nature of what you go about your work. And certainly a positive and upbeat attitude, which is very important. Very inspirational. And then sincerely appreciate you taking the time to share that with us today.
Andi:
Thank you so much, Russel, for having me.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. Are you interested in being a guest on the show? Send an email to podcast@performancefaction.com. An Agency Story is brought to you by Performance Faction. Performance Faction offers services to help agency owners grow their business to 5 million dollars and more in revenue. To learn more, visit performancefaction.com.
Andi:
Do you know the, the breakout rooms? It’s a big chain. It was huge, I feel like five, ten years ago and I know that they’re still in existence. Anyway, I was contracted to do a mural for these breakout rooms where people would stand in front of it to get their photo taken after they finish the breakout room. We finished in this amount of time, and so it sends the print, the client approves it, looks great. They have an installer come and hang it. I go to check it out to make sure everything looks okay, it’s not, you know, pixelated, and there’s a giant white box in the background that no one noticed because it looked like it was the art board in the design and it was stuck up to the wall. I basically had to eat that cost and, and so many people were tagging everyone on, like, so everyone was actively taking photos of the mural and tagging them on social media, and all I can see was this giant white box behind it, and it was like this complex design that was a giant maze. It was entertaining, it was mortifying in the moment, but entertaining and funny now that I look back on it, like, yeah, you should always check your files, that’s the moral of the story.
Russel:
Always check your files. That’s kind of like the first rule of tech support is to check the on off button, but there you have it. Folks heard it from Andy. Always check your files.
