Company: Upframe Creative
Owners: Shay Vandendriessche, Carrie Kuhl, and Hannah Merritt
Year Started: 2019
Employees: 1 – 10
Welcome to “An Agency Story,” a podcast dedicated to unraveling the unique journeys of agency owners and entrepreneurs. In this episode, we dive into the inspiring stories of Shay Vandendriessche, Carrie Kuhl, and Hannah Merritt, partners of Upframe Creative. Join us as we explore the challenges and triumphs of this dynamic trio in building a thriving marketing agency in the heart of South Dakota.
This episode covers the evolution of Upframe Creative from its inception in the wedding industry to its current state as a dynamic marketing agency. Discover how Shay, Hannah, and Carrie combined their individual talents and businesses to create a stronger, unified agency. Learn how their unique position in the agriculture marketing sector has set them apart and fueled their passion. The trio shares their experiences of navigating the complexities of merging businesses, defining roles, and maintaining a cohesive team culture.
The conversation provides a wealth of insights into the agency’s journey, including the fascinating tale of how three competitors turned collaborators, blending their distinct skill sets to form Upframe Creative. From mispronouncing client names to navigating a minivan in Iowa, the episode is peppered with light-hearted moments that showcase the team’s camaraderie. “You wouldn’t send your taxes to your mechanic, so why let your accountant do your marketing?” – a memorable tagline that encapsulates their mission to offer specialized marketing services.
Whether you’re an agency owner or simply curious about the world of marketing, this episode promises to inspire and entertain. Join us on “An Agency Story” for a deep dive into the lives of those who shape the industry, one story at a time.
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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 the fabulous trio of Shea, Hannah, and Carrie the inspiring partners at up frame creative based in Brookings, South Dakota. Tune into the journey of Upframe, highlighting how three competitors turned collaborators merge their distinct skills to create a powerful, unified agency. Discover their unique focus on agricultural marketing, which sets them apart in the industry and hear about the humorous moments that have punctuated their growth, including a memorable mix-up involving a client’s business name. What I really enjoy about this episode is their candid reflections on overcoming challenges and defining roles, providing valuable insights into the dynamics of a successful partnership. Enjoy the story. Welcome to the show today, everyone. I have Carrie, Hannah, and Shay with Upframe Creative with us here today. Thank you so much for being on the show today, ladies.
Hannah:
Thanks for having us.
Russel:
Absolutely. My pleasure. This will be a fun one. Never done, three guests before, so we’ll have a great conversation today, looking forward to it. But if you don’t mind, someone start us off, tell us what Upframe Creative does and who do you do it for?
Shay:
This is Shay, I am our Director of Sales. A lot of times when people ask about our business, Hannah and Carrie are like, here, Shay, take the stage. I’m happy to do so. We are Upframe Creative. We are a micro agriculture marketing agency located in Brookings, South Dakota. I say agri marketing, but we have a lot of clients outside of the agriculture space. We’ve recently tried to, hone in on our agriculture clients, but we service, the marketing industry. We do have a lot of marketing clients. We have website clients. That’s where we get into, a wide variety of clientele I always say. Anyone from an ethanol plant to a dentist office, some local foundations or associations. Our clientele ranges widely when it comes to websites. We also do logos and brand development and graphic design. I don’t, I get wary of saying full service marketing agency, cause there are definitely little things we don’t do, but usually we can try to do it all.
Russel:
Very disparate, client base. Ethanol plants and dentists are though, there might be more similarities than some might think. Can’t wait to hear and learn more about, your agency and your evolution. We’ll take a ride on the time machine, but before we do, I think it almost starting, I wouldn’t call it the end in mind, but I’m just really curious. You guys have a very unique origin story in terms of how you came together. Can one of you just briefly describe why Upframe Creative became what it is today in terms of your unique partnership?
Shay:
I can hop in and kick that off here. We do have a unique origin story in that myself, Hannah and Carrie, we all at one point owned our own businesses, or were doing freelance work of some capacity. Back in about, I think it was 2015, Hannah and I found each other. We both had services. I was doing graphic design. She was doing marketing that we needed help with. I started using, utilizing her and she started utilizing me, passing work back and forth. Realized we got along really well. We ended up purchasing a website development business in 2018. Then come 2021, we were in need of a website developer. That’s where we found Carrie and forced her to be our friend. We were actually, competitors, which is really unique. She was one of our direct competitors. We were constantly passing work back and forth. We said, hey, Carrie, want to grab some coffee? She did, and we all really enjoyed each other, started passing work back and forth and decided to merge businesses, which is now Upframe Creative. That’s a business that Carrie has, founded and, owned for many years. I’ll let her speak a little bit to that, but, cause that has a good history behind it also.
Carrie:
I started in 2014. I started a business with another friend of mine. It was called Hitch Studio and we did a variety of things. We did marketing, graphic design, wedding stuff. We had a, like, boutique style, high end stationary store. We diversified because we live in a smaller community and we saw the need for all of those things, but we weren’t sure which one of those things would stick or rise to the top. In 2018, we ended up selling our retail business and then it was just Renee and I, she did wedding stuff. I did more of the marketing agency type stuff. 2019, we ended up dividing. She kept the wedding business and I started Upframe Creative from there doing the same type of work. Same book of clients, just a rebrand, rename. As Shay mentioned, we shared a lot of clients back and forth. There would be a lot of opportunity for me to give them a call for them to give me a call. Every time we did, it was, although sometimes an awkward conversation, it was always really fun to chat with them. We had a really good relationship already. For them to reach out to have coffee with me, it was so amazing. We found during that conversation that we had a lot in common and, through discovering more about each other, I think they were the puzzle piece that was missing from Upframe that I was always wanting to offer to our clients because my background is design and web, and we were totally missing that marketing piece and that sales minded person. Hannah and Shay just stepped in and now it just feels so complete.
Russel:
I have to ask one quick question here. Who’s more difficult to deal with marketing clients or wedding clients?
Carrie:
That is a fair question. Honestly, I think wedding clients because I’m not as passionate about that. It was always a little bit difficult for me in the end to have, difficult interactions with those types of clients. With marketing clients, I feel like it’s more problem solving. That I’m more familiar with not where did the punch bowl go, but like, how do I improve my SEO? That’s how my brain works. I appreciate that kind of conversation.
Russel:
I empathize a lot with that. My brother actually, he actually owns a wedding events company in Tulsa, and I get to hear a lot of stories of things that he has to deal with. This notion of bridezilla, and I’m sure there’s some groomzilla elements as well, is a very real thing. A lot of empathy goes on that. Hannah, I can think of just how Shay was describing it as Stepbrothers. As, did we just become best friends. Is that how that origin story felt to you? What’s your piece in all this?
Hannah:
100%. Carrie really hit the nail on the head. When we were talking with family and friends about, the growth opportunity for our business, Shay and I had mass media and we were really excited about it and we had grown it. We had taken it as far as we could. Hiring has its challenges and looking to our competitor was really the natural thing for us to do. I think it was Shay’s idea, but after toying around with it and, going through the what if scenarios, it became very clear that was the best way to move forward. Carrie was gracious enough to have coffee with us that day. We quickly discovered that our conversations were very natural. Nothing felt forced. Nothing was awkward. Carrie has a very specific skill set that is different from mine and Shay’s. When we began passing projects back and forth, we quickly realized that she is able to not only teach Shay and I new things, but she’s also able to help us bring a new level of creativity and value to our customers. Hopefully we should go the same way and vice versa. Shay and I are very different with our skill sets than from what Carrie has. I think that we’ve been able to also help her existing customer base. It’s been really fun. It’s something we joke about, we were courting our competitor for about a year. We were playing this dating game and then, we went through the formal proposal and she accepted and we went through the prenuptial agreement, which was our partnership agreement and the rest is history.
Russel:
A three way marriage made in heaven. Sounds like it’s, started very naturally and it’s worked out very well for you. That’s awesome. Glad you, you folks were able to come together. One of the things we didn’t do is just go back to young Shay, Hannah and Carrie. What were you wanting to be when you grow up? How did that manifest itself to where you ended up today?
Carrie:
I am the old lady of the group, so I’ll go first. I, loved art when I was in high school and I was not always awesome at it. But I also loved computers, and so I think that’s how I found graphic design. I loved to tinker on computers and, break them and then figure out how to fix them. I also loved to draw. I was always drawing. I always took an art class over a Spanish class every day I would pick art. When I went to college and found out that there was graphic design, I was really excited about the opportunity to mold the two of those things together. I am one of the lucky ones who knew exactly what I wanted to do. That’s what I did. I graduated and I kept doing it. When I think back to college, if anyone would have asked me if I was going to be an entrepreneur, I would have said, what is that? It was not on my radar at all to own my own business, to have an agency. I always thought after I was going to graduate from college that I would go work at an agency and I didn’t even do that. I was actually part of an in house team. That was my journey. The more and more I fell in love with, with design and the production of it, the more and more I wanted to do it every single day. The job that I was in was like growing me out of that stage. I was becoming more of like account exec, creative director. Wasn’t like digging in and creating things anymore and I missed it. I started freelancing and once my freelance grew a little bit more, I thought, okay, I could actually maybe do this. Then I taught myself how to run a business. From there, all of a sudden we grew into an agency. I don’t know how it happened. I feel like I blinked and here we are.
Russel:
There you are. Obviously it sounds like you have a really strong passion for the work. That’s always an inspiring place to start and great to hear. Whoever wants to go next?
Hannah:
My position today is actually a result of a quarter life crisis, I like to call it. After graduating college, I wanted to move to the Twin Cities. I thought I would work in marketing for a Best Buy or a Target. I was always interested in marketing. I really enjoy just the challenge with that. I had a lot of experience through that, with internships and in college those are the classes that I really gravitated towards. After leaving college, I worked for an organization, for four or five years. Actually on my 25th birthday, my position was eliminated. The company was not doing well financially and my position was on the chopping block. At the time I was living, in my hometown where there are not, are, where there are not a lot of, exactly marketing related jobs. With a little bit of encouragement of my husband and some soul searching, I decided to start freelancing. I’d always wanted to do more one off marketing. I just never had the guts to do it. That was my sign to take the leap. If it works, great, and if not, I can say that I tried it. That was the start of my freelancing, career. That’s when I eventually met Shay within that year. One thing led to the next, and here we are.
Russel:
All right, Shay. How are you compared to where young Shay wanted to be when she was growing up?
Shay:
I think young Shay would be very proud of where I’m at. My creativeness started at a very young age. I was very similar to Carrie, but my love for, the, for, I guess expressing myself creatively started with photography. My grandpa loved photography and he would always buy me these little disposable cameras, the ones that you have to wind up to take pictures. He’d buy me those and I would spend hours in my room lining up all my stuffed animals and taking different pictures of them. My mom would haul them to Walmart and get all the film printed for me. That kicked off my love for all things art. I was like, Carrie, I took every art class I possibly could. Went to college for graphic design and started doing freelance graphic design almost right out of college. I worked for one, one business right out of college for about three months. Then I was like, this is not for me. I want to work for myself. I want to do my own thing. I started, Shay Designs and Marketing Solutions way back in the day. Shortly after that, met Hannah and was primarily doing graphic design. For many years up until recently, I’ve stepped out of that role and more into our director of sales role. Who would have knew you can make a living off of enjoying talking to people? Cause that’s what I enjoy doing. I enjoy talking to people, getting to know people and sales is pretty much just that. I also do our project management too. Lots of client communications, right up my alley.
Russel:
When we know how this, all this magical partnership all came together, very cool stories, very cool backgrounds, love the passion and energy that you folks have brought to this. You obviously all operated your own individual businesses. Was there any stumbling blocks when you came together of stepping on each other’s toes or who’s going to do this, or this is my thing. What were some of those early days of coming together?
Carrie:
We did a lot of planning. We had the luxury of working on a few projects together, so we knew each other’s cadence and how things work together and how each other, implemented different processes. I think having that to start with was really helpful. But when we had the discussion about merging, one of the biggest discussions we had was about roles, because we were still discovering each other’s skill sets and passions and what people were excited to do. We decided roles upfront, and had an idea of what each other wanted to do. Luckily I feel like we all had our eyes set on different parts of the business, just because our skillsets are so different. Shay loves talking to people. I’m very introverted, so sales is really not my favorite thing. I love to talk to entrepreneurs and hear about their ideas and their businesses, but that selling piece was something I was truly missing and definitely needed a lot of work on, but it’s something that came super natural to Shay and to Hannah cause Hannah does a lot of our marketing sales as well. To see them in action, it was really obvious, where they fit into that, that organizational chart. For me, I am a total nerd. I love processes. I like to understand numbers. Now it took me a long time to get there. My creative brain, had a hard time figuring out numbers, but I love it now. It was natural. They voted me into the CEO role and I was up for that. I was excited for that challenge and I was honored that they would view me in that position.
Hannah:
That’s exactly what I was going to say. You spilt right out of my mouth. Carrie’s being very modest, but she has this natural instinct to, understand and has a way of teaching you things without you even knowing that she’s working her magic. It was an obvious choice for us to put her in that role.
Russel:
It’s giving Mr. Miyagi vibes. Is that your inspiration and intention, Carrie?
Carrie:
I, yeah, it’s secretly that’s what I plan to do.
Russel:
The paint the fence, wax the floor, wash the car, and then all of a sudden you know, web design.
Hannah:
I think the other thing to mention is we have our defined roles, but being a small business, we all do a little bit of everything, you know? I think we don’t get too caught up on yes, Carrie is the CEO, but we may need to pull her into a project for some problem solving, or if we have a flood of design work come through, Shay’s back in the saddle and she’s working on branding projects for us. While Carrie’s doing something, I’m helping with end of the month invoicing. I think that flexibility is another big piece of who we are.
Russel:
Who took on the finance piece? That always seems to be the cursed, role in the business that, some people, everyone run runs from. Who’s handling that?
Carrie:
I am currently handling that. But I have a lot of help. I lean on a lot of outside people. We have an accountant that helps us and then we have, I would call her like a strategist, maybe coach, maybe, but she is very good with numbers. She helps me build, a dashboard for our numbers to do some forecasting and planning and things like that. Day to day counting stuff and putting checks in and running reports and having a manager’s meeting with our PNL statements and stuff, I’m in charge of that stuff.
Russel:
Financial forecasting. Just wanted to give a stamp of approval for the folks at home that, that is a very important part of the piece of the business. If you’ve got to outsource it or find your carry, whatever needs to happen, make sure you do that folks. I’m glad to hear that you guys are, have that part taken care of. You guys have talked about this next question. You each sound like you have your strength or your superpower, if you will. Maybe less than what the superpower is what is the missing gap? Is there something there where you’ve got to bring all your combined powers together to make sure it happens, within the business?
Hannah:
That’s a really good question. I think the biggest thing for us right now is just how do we continue to grow and how do we, you know, we can’t clone ourselves. What does that process look like? How do we bring other people into our small team without changing the dynamic in our culture? We have such a great little team and we really enjoy having everybody. Everybody gets along. Everybody does great work, so we’re very protective of that. On top of it, going out, trying to find help, trying to find somebody to, fulfill the needs that we have, with the work coming in. It’s a balancing act and trying to make sure that we’re keeping the culture and we’re finding somebody that’s got the right fit with values and personality, but then also finding, somebody who is qualified to help us with the work that we need.
Russel:
That’s such an interesting point that you bring that up specifically. Y’all started out in your own right as a freelancer hey, I have to do everything on my own. You just tripled down on that by coming together and saying, I don’t want to have to mess with this. How do we hire talent and things like that. When now you’re faced with growth and probably the hardest part about the agency business is transferring that knowledge and getting that growth. When you’ve got to rely on people that aren’t entrepreneurs or going to wear all the hats. Anything to add to that Shay or Carrie in terms of your own experience or how you’re approaching that?
Carrie:
I think what Hannah said is amazing. I think one thing that we try to look for too is, bringing on people who understand a little bit about what it’s like to work with a small business. Just because it is different. We wear a lot of hats. We sometimes expect a lot, but the reward is really high and we have a nice small group and we know each other really well. One thing I think we try to look for is someone with that entrepreneur’s heart. They may not want to be their own business owner, but they love the process or seeing maybe behind the scenes of what it’s like to have a small business. We are super transparent with our team, and everybody understands and knows what’s going on. We have quarterly financial meetings. We take a look at our goals. They are very in the know, with what Hannah and Shay and I are doing. Have our eyes set on for the future. I think that helps a lot.
Russel:
Entrepreneur’s heart. I love that. That’s a great sentiment and perspective. Look out for those entrepreneur hearts, folks. You hinted at it, I think just given your location and I had actually been there not too long ago, you live in a very rural, remote part of our, country here. You service a different type of market than maybe your typical agency or agency located in a more urban environment. What does that look like? And how does that really come to light in your agency
Shay:
uh, we kind of, we kind of fell into, I never can say this word. Is it niche or niche?
Russel:
I don’t know either. And I say it all the time.
Shay:
We kind of fell into it. Hannah and I are both married to farmers. We literally married into these farm families and naturally you learn a lot. With those connections through some of Hannah’s friends, we started working with an agriculture cooperative and it just fueled our fire a little bit, a little passion in us that maybe we didn’t even know was there. We really enjoyed it and we found an underserved market. These agriculture driven, businesses just either had to hire a marketing team or what we found a lot of time as their marketing person was their accountant counting person or the HR gal. We found this pain point and we were like, we want to help. We’ve really just honed in on that and found ways we can help. We’re passionate about it. We’re excited about it. We know more about fungicide and different seed types than we probably cared to know. Hannah knows fertilizer schedules and all sorts of, she’s always spitting out fancy words. I’m like, Hannah, that’s impressive. They’re really salt of the earth, boots on the ground kind of people. We love that. They’re very humble and, a lot of times they don’t care so much about what something looks like, but they care a lot about speaking to their patrons in the right way and making sure communications are solid and there and getting out in the right way. We can help with that. Another area we found within agriculture, within the agriculture umbrella, I should say, is ethanol plants. We’ve recently been doing a lot of ethanol plant websites, and small local grain elevators, again, just an underserved industry. There’s a lot of templated options out there for them, but what we’re finding is a lot of times they need an employee portal for posting safety information or, investor portals. Those are things that these templated sites can’t build out for them, or if they can, typically it’s not very customizable, and doesn’t quite work for them or very expensive. We’ve found this little market that we really enjoy working with. I’ll say too, we’ve found kind of our women in agriculture, women leaders leading big ethanol companies, CEOs, COOs, and working with them has been so fun to meet the women in agriculture and, playing a big part in the future of egg and energy and ethanol. That’s also been a big passion of ours in a typically male dominated in industry.
Russel:
I’m already so fascinated just by that explanation and I want to ask 8 million more questions just about the whole agribusiness and what marketing looks like for that. But, I don’t think we have time for all that today. And I don’t know, I was just thinking there, you’ve got the best tagline in the world for to incite a call to action: is your accounting person your marketing person? If so, call Upframe. I don’t know how many agribusiness listeners we have out there.
Hannah:
We actually use, uh, you wouldn’t send your taxes to your mechanic, so why let your accountant do your marketing? That’s where we come into play. We’re on the same wavelength.
Russel:
There you go.
Shay:
That’s why Hannah’s our marketing guru. She’s got all the taglines for days.
Russel:
You got the marketing piece down, which is important. We all need some Hannah and in our marketing. I had a partnership and you know, I look back and I’d certainly have things I wish I would have done differently that would have made our partnership more, more, more effective, especially for the business side. I think we, we did the friendship side pretty good, but I’m not sure it was always the best for the business side. We actually had a third partner come in eventually, and then I called us the three headed monster, which really, as it sounds, isn’t a good connotation. But this seems like something you guys have navigated really well in terms of your partnership. What are some tips you guys have for the other folks in partnerships and, out there that you feel like would be effective for people to hear?
Hannah:
I think the biggest thing is like, I think about this as a marriage and communication, whether it’s, very aggressive communication, it’s calm communication, we communicate. I think Shay and I probably communicate a little bit differently than Carrie and I do, but that goes back to knowing each other and knowing how each person operates and what they respond to. Shay and I, if something’s not working, we’re at each other and we’re hashing it out in a respectful, professional way, of course. But, you know, it’s like, this is driving me crazy. This isn’t working. Why isn’t it working? Let’s figure it out, you know? It’s just very to the point. And then maybe with Carrie, it’s like, this is really bothering me. Can you help me walk through this? Or what do you think about this? It’s more of a, a process and she’s very good at listening and peeling things back one by one, until we can get to an answer. For me, it’s communication and just knowing how each member of your team communicates. I know this is a big piece of, what we look in our, look at within our employees as well. No two people communicate the same way so just understanding what their style is and being able to relate to them when there is something that needs to be talked about.
Russel:
I talk to a lot of folks about this idea that communication, if we all just got really good at communication, I think a lot of the world might be a better place. In some relationships, you might hug and kiss others more than other people, but we’re still fall to the same relationship elements and basics and how important it is to meet people where they’re at. It sounds like you guys have done really well. I can see where that would be a big one. Shay or Carrie, what do you have to add to that conversation?
Carrie:
One tip I would have is, to just play off of what Hannah said, is to find a tool that helps you understand each other’s communication styles. One thing that we have all of our employees do is an Enneagram. I am obsessed with Enneagram, and I could, I like, I know you’re not supposed to do this, but when I meet someone in my head, I’m analyzing them and figuring out what number they are. We are all a little different, but what I love is when a problem does come up, referencing what Enneagram type that person is works out every time because it just I think opens your eyes and helps you understand where that person is coming from and maybe why you are frustrated about it. It tells you about you but also where they’re coming from. I feel like just knowing that information kind of levels that playing field a little bit and helps you be a little more open with each other. Just understanding that little piece makes such a huge difference.
Russel:
Love the Enneagram. I use it a lot in my own practice, and I almost wanted to play a game here where I’d try to guess your numbers, but to the point, I don’t feel like I know you guys well enough to really do that. Let me hear your Enneagram numbers the folks at home can get a sense of the personalities behind the voice.
Hannah:
Carrie, you can rattle them off because I can’t remember mine.
Carrie:
I am clearly a 9 all the way. I am low drama, I am the peacemaker, 100%.
Shay:
I think I’m a seven, but I don’t know what that means. At one point I was a three. I think I’m a combo of both, but the seven is honestly chaotic, all over the place, so I’m just I’m a visionary.
Carrie:
Shay is a 7, yep. The enthusiast, and Hannah is a 6. She’s our loyal skeptic. She loves to play the little devil’s advocate with us
Russel:
I can dig it. Me personally, so I’m with Carrie. I’m a nine. As my wife likes to tell me, I’m the ninest nine that ever nined. Which yes, is certainly the peacemaker. Some common ground there. We could go down a whole segment down this, but I’ll stop us there. Who’s left, tip for partnerships.
Shay:
I feel like Carrie and Hannah nailed it pretty well, but, Carrie mentioned this before. When we first merged, we were trying to figure out our roles and I think we’ve all been flexible in letting those roles grow and change over time and making sure we’re all doing things every day that we love. If there’s something we don’t enjoy, we try to outsource or, or pass it off to somebody else. I think we’ve all found roles that we’re really passionate about and enjoy, which I think eliminates a lot of, maybe conflict. When you get into doing things that you don’t enjoy or you hit burnout, I think that’s when sometimes conflict can arise between people, just because you’re not enjoying what you’re doing. I just think the fact that we all truly love our jobs and our roles, and we know there’s opportunity to change those and, hey, I’m not loving this right now. What can we do about that? That alone eliminates a lot of conflict, and then trusting each other within those roles. I know Hannah’s our marketing guru. I know she’s doing a wonderful job getting her work done. I know she’s taking good care of the clients. That’s so important. I know if I send Carrie off to help with a development issue that’s really complex and might take some, soft talking to the client. I know our clients in great hands. It goes back to the communication and trust, but also just really loving our roles. I do think that alone eliminates a lot of conflict. I could be assuming things, but, but for us, it seems to work. I think it helps that we all have different skill sets. Maybe the whole opposites attract thing is correct after all.
Hannah:
I don’t think Upframe would be what it is today if we were all the same. That’d be a recipe for disaster.
Russel:
I could see that. Something was coming to my head there while you were talking, Shay. What I love about what you said there is just, I think sometimes owners forget in terms of we need to love our jobs too, and how important that is to just like you said, find ways to get rid of the things that don’t bring you energy and that you’re passionate about and focus on what you do. That’s a great reminder to folks out there. Thank you for that. Shay.
Shay:
We have a recurring phrase lately and we’re, every time we’re talking about something or it’s something maybe a little bit hard to talk about, we’re always like, pause. This is a growing pain. This is a growing pain and it’s a good thing and we just that term keeps coming up. Just feel the growing pains. If there is a little bit of conflict or something that’s not quite perfect within your business, it’s a growing pain. One of our growing pains right now is just hiring and workload. What comes first, the chicken or the egg hiring or the clients? That’s been a recurring theme around here. It’s just a growing pain. It’s a good thing.
Russel:
Love that. Acknowledging it. Working through it. I’m sure there are challenges that you’ve expressed there, Shay at times, but you just work through them with communication as you’ve shared. It really sounds like you’ve got this partnership nailed down. You’ve talked about it a little bit as we’ve gone throughout the conversation here today, but what does the future of Upframe Creative look like?
Carrie:
I think we’re all in agreement that we want to stay a small agency. We love having a small team that gets to do all of the things that they love. Our designers aren’t just designers, they wear many hats. That’s the beauty of having a small business and a small team is that we get to be diverse. We get to learn new things constantly, which is another thing that we look for in candidates as well, is lifetime learners. For me, the future of Upframe looks like maybe 10 to 12, that would even be doubling. I’d be okay not, too. I just want to make sure that we are strong enough to help our customers in the best possible way that we can, and then I’m happy.
Russel:
Thumbs up or anything to add?
Hannah:
I don’t have anything to add to that. Stamp of approval there.
Russel:
Two, four thumbs up for that. Love it. You can have your own take on this. This is the ending question, are entrepreneurs born or are they made?
Hannah:
I would say they’re made. I never wanted to be an entrepreneur. I never thought that I would be in this role. But here we are. Now I feel like Carrie and Shay, you guys were, you’re hardwired that way.
Carrie:
I was not planning on being an entrepreneur, but when I found out what it was, what it entailed, it felt really empowering and I absolutely love it. One of my absolute favorite things to do is help other entrepreneurs. I love to hear their stories. I love to give my feedback, share all the things that I did wrong. Give guidance and that kind of selfishly is, it gets to be a part of our job. We get to talk to business owners and entrepreneurs all the time. It is one of my favorite things to do. I never imagined that I would own a business ever, but I’m super glad that this is where I ended up cause I think it’s what I was meant to do.
Shay:
I don’t know. I’m not bragging by any means, but I think I was born to be an entrepreneur. I’ll just say it. I come from a long line of entrepreneurs. My dad owns his own business. My brother-in-law does. It was always something that was maybe in the back of my mind without me even knowing it, but I remember in college hearing my professors talk about working for an agency and I was like, I do not want to do that, even though I own one now. I always wanted to do my own thing and build my own thing. I remember getting done with college and moving home and, my dad saying, just start your own business. I was like, are you nuts? But I did, I started doing photography, freelance graphic design and yeah, like Hannah said, and Carrie said, look where we’re at.
Russel:
I love every answer to the question. I love everything you guys shared, but, I do have to always appreciate a good born answer because it’s probably the least common of the answers I get. I don’t know what the right answer is or anything like that. If people want to know more about Upframe, where can they go?
Hannah:
They can head over to our website, which is under construction. Let me first and foremost put that up there. We’re working through that upframecreative.com, or they can follow us on Facebook or, or LinkedIn. We’re on LinkedIn. Can I flip the script and ask question?
Russel:
Noted. There you go. There we go. The socials, go to the website. Wonderful conversation. I love how all three of you came together, your partnership story, how you run your business. So many great insights to take away and especially along the lines of partnership. I appreciate you ladies taking the time to share that with us today.
Shay:
Thank you.
Hannah:
Thanks for having us. It’s been really fun.
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.
Carrie:
That customer that you pronounced their business name wrong as stripper instead of striper.
Shay:
Was that Hannah or was that me?
Hannah:
I think that was you, Shay.
Shay:
Yeah, I was like, I think that was me. I think I had a sales call and I was like Stripper? They did like, what is it? Striping on like roads? I thought it was stripping. In my defense, I thought it was, like, stripping of, like, paint or something. Not, like, you know, strippers.
