Company: ColorWord Creative
Owners: Amanda Garcia
Year Started: 2016
Employees: 1 – 10
On this episode of An Agency Story, we dive into the fascinating journey of Amanda Garcia, founder of Color Word Creative, a full-service marketing agency. Amanda’s story, like many entrepreneurial paths, is a mix of serendipity, passion, and determination. What began as a spark during her college days in communications, combined with early experiences in nonprofit fundraising, eventually evolved into a full-fledged agency specializing in brand identity development and messaging. Amanda shares her love of storytelling, honed through interviews with C-suite executives, and her belief that everyone has a story worth telling.
A major theme in this episode is the balance between creativity and the realities of business ownership. Amanda discusses the challenges of starting her agency from scratch, particularly learning to navigate the intricacies of running a business, from taxes to client management. Her openness about saying “yes” to almost everything in the early days, and the relief of learning to say “no” as the business grew, is relatable for many business owners. Amanda’s candidness shines through as she recounts her journey to finding her lane and the significance of pivotal moments such as becoming a StoryBrand Certified Guide—a milestone that transformed her agency, offering her both new resources and a supportive community.
One of the most engaging aspects of this episode is Amanda’s humorous and heartfelt reflections. From the early days of working at Starbucks, where a quirky customer with “extra horsepower” mustang jokes helped her land her first nonprofit job, to her experiences with growing pains and success in implementing the Profit First framework, Amanda’s stories are filled with authenticity and wit. Her reflection on how “getting that first check was magic” but quickly became a stressful necessity as the agency grew offers a real glimpse into the highs and lows of entrepreneurship.
Listeners will be intrigued by Amanda’s dedication to celebrating wins—whether it’s throwing a birthday party for the agency each year or acknowledging daily victories, big or small. This celebration of success, amidst the grind of agency life, is a refreshing reminder that entrepreneurs should stop and appreciate their progress.
Tune in to this inspiring and insightful episode to discover more about Amanda’s journey, her thoughts on business growth, and her perspective on how entrepreneurs are both born and made. Whether you’re starting your own agency or looking for ways to grow, Amanda’s story will leave you thinking about the importance of embracing your path—no matter how curvy it gets.
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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 Amanda Garcia, the founder of ColorWord Creative based in the Chicago area in Illinois. Amanda shares our journey from a career and nonprofit fundraising to launching her marketing agency focused on brand identity and messaging. Discover how Amanda’s StoryBrand certification became a turning point for her business, opening doors to new opportunities and a vibrant community of marketers. You’ll also hear about her early entrepreneurial days where saying yes to every project, no matter how unrelated shaped the agency’s direction and how a birthday party tradition brings her team together and a fun and memorable way. Tune in to hear Amanda story of creativity, resilience, and the powerful role storytelling plays in her approach to helping businesses thrive. Enjoy the story. Welcome to the show today, everyone. I have Amanda Garcia with ColorWord Creative with us here today. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Amanda.
Amanda:
My pleasure, Russel. Thank you for having me.
Russel:
Excited to have you. If you don’t mind, start us off. What does ColorWord Creative do and who do you do it for?
Amanda:
ColorWord Creative is a full service marketing agency. We specialize in brand identity development and messaging, and we do it for anyone who has a messaging problem. We work quite a bit with nonprofit agencies as well as for profit small businesses. It tends to be businesses between the one and 20 million dollar range that we service pretty well.
Russel:
I imagine a lot of businesses have messaging problems. Clear, succinct messaging seems to be a hard thing to achieve.
Amanda:
It is very difficult. I would say we all have a messaging problem. Most people have messaging problems which is why we always have so much work to do. It’s fine. That’s good. Good for me.
Russel:
We love job security. I want to hear certainly a lot more about all the things you do inside your agency, but let’s go back a bit. How did you start out in your career and how did that lead up to actually starting your agency?
Amanda:
My career started with a degree in communications and I always loved storytelling. Some of my favorite classes were creative writing, script writing. I had a job at Starbucks during college and after college and was antsy to try and get in somewhere anywhere and use my degree. I had a customer who came through the drive through every day, twice a day. Her name was Lori and she drove a Mustang. In the back she had two horses, like, stuffed animal horses that she had seat belted in the back. One day I asked her why and she said it was for more horsepower for her Mustang. She was great. It’s hilarious. One day I was complaining about how I wanted to get a job in my field. She said, you know, there’s a job opening at my place. Let me send you the information. And she did. I went to the interview. I, didn’t actually get the job I applied for, but they offered me a different one. That was working in the nonprofit space in fundraising and donor development. That is where I cut my teeth on things like email marketing and learning how to tell a story in a compelling way that inspires other people to act. I enjoyed telling those stories, very compelling. But at some point I got antsy again and wanted to tell other people’s stories. I started doing some freelance writing interview based freelance writing and content marketing for some publications in Chicago which was awesome. I got to interview so many people in the C-suite across so many industries. It was fascinating. At the same time, I decided to go back and get my MBA. Right after I graduated with my MBA, I officially quit the job at the nonprofit to start ColorWord Creative. My whole desire was to be able to start an agency that told stories for other people, because I really believe that everybody had a story worth telling and worth hearing. That was the impetus. That’s what we’ve been doing ever since.
Russel:
Here you are telling your story on An Agency Story. You make it sound like a pretty, just nonchalant, path to take of, right, go from the corporate world and to say, oh, I got my MBA, I’m going to go start my own business. Do you think that was very much always in the back of your mind as you wanting to run your own business or was that just more of a serendipitous leap of faith?
Amanda:
That’s a good question. What I always wanted was to be a part of a great team. I interviewed for other jobs. I turned down a couple of offers in that process when I was trying to figure out my next move. Ultimately I decided that I wanted to try and see if I could do it on my own. My dad’s an entrepreneur. He started a couple of businesses. I think you, if you grow up with watching that, it gets into your blood. There’s something to be said for that. I don’t know. I know some entrepreneurs wanna start a business’cause they don’t wanna work for anybody. The point is, I wanna be my own boss and that was never my goal because I would be fine working for somebody who I really respected and doing work that I really love. There’s just the perfect situation wasn’t available to me so I thought I’d try it on my own. It’s not seamless. The journey is hard, starting something from nothing. Fun fact, when you get your master’s in business, they don’t really teach you how to start one from nothing. They just teach you how to walk into one and help manage it. That was very different. A lot of hands on the job training for starting a business.
Russel:
That’s one good perspective there. Before I forget to ask the question, I’m just curious and always someone that gets that higher level of education. How helpful was having an MBA at any part in your journey so far?
Amanda:
I got the certification. I worked so hard for a couple of years to get that degree. Having an MBA is absolutely like with, if you need a credential, an MBA definitely, it helps, I suppose, with the gravitas of your signature in your emails. But the education, while it was very interesting and I did learn a ton, there have been other educational programs that helped me more in my entrepreneurial journey that I, that were not nearly as expensive. My favorite parts about it were the cohort that I was in. Building that network was actually very important. Leaving school and having these different connections from across the country and case studies, which were fascinating. I really, really enjoyed the case studies and analyzing them and then creating our own. That was awesome. Learning a lot about leadership, actually. I enjoyed my leadership class quite a lot because they’re of, there’s so much involved in so many different styles of leadership and so many different communication styles as well. That was a good class too. The whole thing was good. It was a very positive experience. I just thought it was going to be like maybe some kind of golden ticket. There’s nothing like there’s nothing like lived experience.
Russel:
There is nothing like lived experience. That makes sense, right? To your point, it has a lot of credibility and it just sounds like as you think through it there were certainly some valuable experiences, but maybe that just an ode to, you know, I talk to some folks that maybe dropped out of school or didn’t go as far as they wanted in their education. Maybe that’s just a healthy reminder that you didn’t miss some silver bullet, some train or anything like that. That lived experience is what matters most. Thank you for sharing that.
Amanda:
Some of the entrepreneurs that I respect the most, didn’t finish their BAs even. A piece of paper is, is valuable but man, there’s really just nothing like that lived experience.
Russel:
No doubt and how I look at my degree. I have a history major that basically was just a piece of paper that allowed me to get a ROTC scholarship so I could enter the Air Force. That’s what I spent four years doing and did not do anything from that. Although I love the history component. I think that’s an important aspect of business sometimes. Very fascinating part of your journey. When you think about just the early days of your business, what was, what do you remember about that time period? How do you describe that to other people?
Amanda:
Not many people ask me about it so I don’t describe it to other people very often. Thank you for the question. Early days of my business were exciting because I was starting something new. There’s something about that fresh sensation of like when you land a client or when you finish a job and you get a check and it’s this, look at this, I made this this money is in my hands, it’s amazing. That I find wears off the higher your payroll gets, then it just becomes less magic and more stress. Cause you just have to keep making money. But the early days, I remember after we after graduation, we went for a two week trip to visit my sister in Switzerland. That was a big treat. Very special. But when we came back, my DBA papers had come in the mail. And so as that’s how I always remember when the business really started, I formed my doing business and was approved while I was, right after graduation. Then I had to, figure out the basics. Again, I say like you learn how to manage in business school and how to build things or how to structure inventory. But like, they don’t teach you how to find an attorney. Or to find like how do you vet an accountant and what’s the most important thing that you need to know about taxes and like all the boring business things. I remember that, a lot of trying to navigate that, figure that out. I can’t believe we made it this far when I think back then, because I was saying yes to everything. Anytime anybody would say, well, what could you do this? Can you do Facebook? Can you do a website? Can you make an ad? Can you do a push? And I just said, yes. Can you cater my party? Sure. Absolutely. I can do that. Anything you need? Yes. Yes. Plan my event. You got it. I’ve said yes to everything. It was exhausting and I felt this pressure to just like, keep making that money. That’s what stands out the most of the, those early days is trying to figure out my lane, I and gaining the courage to say no to things that weren’t a good fit. I remember the first time I was able to say no to a client and, because it wasn’t a good fit, it wasn’t what we do, and it was freeing, but to get to that point where I could turn work down was like a major milestone. That was good. But the best thing. A lot of learning all the time.
Russel:
You’re getting head nods, I’m sure, across the country as people are listening to this. That whole finding your lane, saying yes to everything. I think most, and if maybe even the ones that say they didn’t go through that, probably still did. Very natural course. This analogy was coming to my as you were describing, this, what it’s like to get your first check and then how that starts to feel, where did that go? And payroll makes me think of feeding a kid, right? When they’re a baby, you cherish every little bite you put into their mouth. And then when they become teenagers, you’re like, I just went to the damn grocery store. Where did all the food go? That’s what that made me think of.
Amanda:
I have a two and a half year old and a four year old and I’m already like, I, a teenager? How am I going to make it to a teenager? I agree. He is insatiable, it’s like, oh no, this is a problem.
Russel:
Make them forage for their own food. That’s funny. I love this journey of staying your lane. I think it’s very common, but is there a pivotal moment you can think back or a significant time period that when you look back on it as defines where you’re at today or that was very instrumental in where you’re at today?
Amanda:
There are several important pivot points along the way. The one that comes to mind most prominently is that, in December 2020. Oh boy, I better make sure that this is right. December, 2022.
Russel:
Fact checkers, give her some grace, but we’re going to run with this.
Amanda:
Yeah. I, became a StoryBrand certified guide for those who are familiar with Building a StoryBrand and Donald Miller’s, Marketing Made Simple, Business Made Simple university. I became a StoryBrand certified guide and that was pivotal. It took me a year to work up to finally making the commitment because it’s a pretty big commitment. It felt like a big risk to take on myself, or like a big bet to take on myself. Totally worth it. Definitely paid off. That was a pivotal for me because it was like an influx of resources that I did not have before and a community of top notch marketers that all of a sudden was at my fingertips. People who were better than me a lot of things, which just made me up my game. Access to information. Access to a different clientele even. The badge, if you know StoryBrand, that means something. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter. It’s irrelevant. But for the people who are StoryBrand aware, that badge gave me instant credibility. Like an MBA is supposed to. Just kidding. That was a very pivotal moment. for sure. That was only a couple of years ago and the business drastically changed after that.
Russel:
When you think about that, it makes sense on how all of that was helpful. I’ve talked to another number of folks that are StoryBrand, consultants. What do you think was the best part of that? Was it some of the natural positioning that it gave you? Was it the community? Was it the product to sell per se? If you could just name one aspect of that, that you found most impactful?
Amanda:
Hands down for me, the most valuable part of that is the community of other guides across the world. Our Slack channel is like always popping off on all kinds of different, topics. I have found camaraderie there, but also the, that iron sharpening iron is really, that’s the best part for me. Those guides who have developed resources, developed tools. It’s an incredibly generous community so both the resources that headquarters provides, but also the resources of the guides themselves. It’s astounding to me how generous that community is. And honestly, they’re the best people too. For me, if I’m outsourcing, my first place to look is in the guide community. It gives me even access to people in a different way, as well as I’ve gotten clients from other guides or gotten work from other guides. It’s just a nice shorthand to have to the, like that language. You say product. That’s actually been, a theme of mine this year is how to productize a service. How do I turn the service that we offer into a product? That’s been a big focus of our work this year because StoryBrand gives you a certification and they give you all these tools to help you create a product. I would say that they provided some foundation for that for sure. But what it did really was inspire me to figure out what my specific ones are, separate from StoryBrand. what are the ones that I can build that are not reliant on StoryBrand? And that’s great. I learned how to do it by watching them do it. That’s also been really useful, to see the people who are two steps ahead and follow.
Russel:
I think that’s where the market is moving or finding itself and is the importance of right? I think for so long the agency business was like, we’re just selling our time and that’s our only, mechanism to gain or extract value or give value. But I think we’re moving in the direction of how important it is to really think of your services as products. Some boundaries with that. Scalability becomes behind that in terms of deliverability.
Amanda:
Scalability is so key. Charging for value instead of charging for time. Time is, such a finite resource and we got to figure out a way around that for sure.
Russel:
Amen. Can I get an amen? I don’t know if you’re going to go to this, as well, but I know you also shared that you use the Profit First framework and sounds like that’s been instrumental in your business. What does that look like?
Amanda:
Yes, Mike Michalowicz’s book, Profit First, for sure. I know been a game changer for a lot of entrepreneurs. It certainly was for me. Shout out to Keith Rauschenberger, a mentor of mine who recommended that I read the book several years ago, that book I read before StoryBrand and yeah, you’re absolutely right. That was another very pivotal point in the business because, implementing his framework with all the bank accounts. It worked for me for the first time, and since I’ve hired employees, that was the first time that I had actually been able to take a regular paycheck. We implemented the quarterly bonus system and man, that was so exciting. Our first bonus was like 50 dollars. It was a really big deal. Then over the years as you, I mean, you follow this, almost like waterfall steps. Where the money goes and which direction in the bank accounts and then it grows. Last year we were taking 1, 000 dollar bonuses and that’s pretty fantastic. The jump in just those few years. That, yeah, definitely a pivotal point. Highly recommend the book if you’re not on payroll, if you’re not paying yourself, read Profit First because that’s the number one rule. You got to pay yourself first. Good book for sure.
Russel:
I don’t think I’ve read the book at any point, but I’ve talked to other folks that use it so I’m very familiar with the methodology. Was it hard to get set up or did you actually find once you were inspired and motivated to do it, that you just took to it?
Amanda:
It made perfect sense to me. I drive my team crazy because whenever I read something that I like, I do it like immediately. Sometimes I have to tell me to slow down and say, hold on, let’s not abandon what we’ve been doing yet. Let’s wait. But that one, it made so much sense to me. I devoured the book very quickly and I knew I had a, I still have the same bookkeeper and finance administrator and she does all of our invoicing and she runs payroll for us. She’s awesome. Love her. Wonderful. Her name is Leanne. I thought, okay, this makes so much sense to me and I want to do this, but Leanne is going to be the hardest thing sell because she’s the one who runs the books. I didn’t wanna do anything without her buy-in, you know? I explained it to her and she was hesitant, but she said, well, okay, if it makes sense, I can, as long as I don’t have to change the way that I do QuickBooks, then I’m okay with it because really Profit First is a budgeting system more than it is a bookkeeping system. There’s some mechanical things there that were a little bit of a trick, but I went in person and met with a banker and she got everything set up for me and it was pretty painless once that happened. Then it was fun because it brought me back to that, the fun of having the check again, because every check that came in automatically a certain percentage went to each one of those accounts. So I knew that I was going to get paid. Then to watch the profit account grow and say, look at how much we’re going to get this quarter. It was fun. It started to get fun to look at my bank account because it looked like a dashboard. Immediately I knew how much I had for which thing. Leanne has gotten used to it and she likes it now too. It didn’t change anything about the way that we wrote an annual budget for the year or the way that she runs QuickBooks. But for me, as the way that I think, it was so nice to be able to just log in and look at exactly what I had to work with and how much of it I was going to be able to take home.
Russel:
There you go. I’m sure you just sold a few copies of the book and probably got a convert, or two, by listening to that. Something you mentioned I think it is part budgeting system, but I liken it to a cashflow management system. I know that can be a challenge for some business owners where, they run the business by the cash in the bank, but we know there’s a lot of hands in that account per se that have or have not come out yet. Do you think of, and I’m just curious and I’m not, I don’t know because I haven’t used the system per se. Especially someone that has an MBA. Any framework I often liken it that it creates a good floor of which to help people do a certain thing, like you share with even like with StoryBrand, but that any framework also has a ceiling in terms of maybe the business eventually might scale out of it or just not be as effective system. Do you see that yet? Do you see that in the future when you think of something like Profit First?
Amanda:
That’s a great question, and you’re right, I do. Because we had originally set it up when we were working with less cash. It made sense. Part of the system is that every single quarter, you’re supposed to adjust the percentages that you put into each bucket, to be closer to where your ideal is. If you start with 90 percent of every dollar going into your operating expense account, but your goal is to be at 60%. Every quarter you move that 1 percent in the right direction, which is that it is supposed to move like that, to get you to where you’re trying to go. But we ran into this problem, when we were having such a great year where the bonuses were too big compared to payroll and it was causing some taxing questions, even. It required us to restructure payroll. We said, okay, we’re gonna give everyone raises so they have a more, a reliable income, then we’re going to reduce the amount that’s going into the profit account. Now I’ve restructured it because it became clear that isn’t going to work in the longterm. If we’re going to grow it, I need to be a little more discretionary in who gets bonuses. The answer to your question is yes, I think that it works absolutely to start paying yourself and I love the idea of spending less on operating and more on profit and definitely being able to pay yourself what you’re worth. but just like any rule or just like any framework, I also think you got to tweak it to work for you. Donald Miller wrote a book called How to Grow Your Small Business and he uses Mike Michalowicz’s Profit First framework, but he adds to it. He even took it and tweaked it for his business. I do think you reach the end of what’s in the book and then you have to write your own next chapter.
Russel:
Like any tool or framework in any business as it grows, regardless whether it’s technology, whether it’s a concept or whatever, it does need to be adapted, scaled and then sometimes just over, overwritten. Appreciate that in depth insight, give a lot of perspective on folks that have considered or are using it.. It might sound like a small thing in a previous conversation you had shared that you have a birthday party every year for your business. I know a lot of businesses recognize their anniversary and even thinking of my own business since we paid attention to our anniversary and did something, but something about the term birthday party stood out to me as like, you really took the time to celebrate your business’s anniversary, not unlike we do birthdays. I want to just hear what that looks like, maybe I’m reading too much into this. Is that indicative to how you approach the business in other ways?
Amanda:
The idea I got was from Tina Roth Eisenberg, who her Instagram title is SwissMiss. She started, Tattly and others. She’s a really impressive artist and a, a Swiss artist and an incredible creative leader. She has birthday parties with her at Tattly. I think it was at Tattly was where it started, every year to celebrate and mark the occasion. I took her idea and made it a ColorWords version. We’d have a barbecue, and everybody came over with their family, spouses, significant others. There’s birthday cake and candles, and I always like to give the team little presents and then we usually post something celebratory on social media, but it really, it’s a team building thing. Good memories. I’ve got some good pictures from some of those parties, too. They’re really fun. Especially, like, you gotta stop and celebrate the wins, and anytime you start something that makes it. One year is a big deal, and then the first year that you’re on payroll. And then the first year you hire somebody and all of those milestones, need to be celebrated. Otherwise we just get too caught up in the stressful parts of running a business. Before COVID and I had more local staff and it would be, uh, and I have a very small staff, but we would do it in person and it would be food and cake and champagne. Now everyone’s remote, so rather than having a party I send presents now. I like to do them with some kind of indicator of the year. I sent keychains last year that had a penny that said 2016 was when the company was founded. All the pennies were made in 2016 and they were stamped with CWC 2016. It’s to mark the year. It’s evolved over the years, but I do think in talking about wins, milestones and celebrations, that is definitely how I’ve tried to approach the work with my agency and with my team. It takes practice. It’s an exercise. I’m not always good at it. It’s easy to get bogged down and caught up in all the things that aren’t going right. But I find if I try every night at the end of every day to think of or write down, ideally three wins, even if they’re little wins. I got my steps in today or like my kid ate all his dinner. I made a dinner that he wanted to eat the whole thing. But sometimes they’re big wins, like landed a client or, you know, onboarded a new employee or launched a website. Writing those down has been such a helpful exercise because then if I look back in the journal, then I can see these bullet point wins and it reframes my whole life, my whole career as a series of wins when in front of me, it looks like only a series of struggles. If I look back, it’s only win after win after win. That’s just encouraging and empowering. I try to take that into our team culture as well. Shout outs are a big, important thing. Now I’m being reminded like I haven’t done that in too long. Everybody needs to be acknowledged. Sometimes when we get our heads down, especially being a remote team, their heads down and we’re focused and we have to come up for air sometimes and acknowledge everyone’s hard work and the success that they’re having. All of that’s part of the way that the, that our company culture is, yes, it’s all indicative of that. We try to celebrate.
Russel:
That’s amazing. I do just want to underscore there, because I think a lot of entrepreneurs, because they are ambitious people, that it’s easy to just gloss over wins and things to celebrate as just, I need something bigger, better, you know, look forward, not backward, but, how important it is to celebrate those wins. Love the way you’ve approached that. Just this idea, we are doing a very hard thing and it’s great to keep that record of where you’ve been and the wins. I can see where that can be so impactful in the micro sense on a day to day, but even the look back since it sounds wonderful aspect of your journey.
Amanda:
Thanks. I learned that in MBA school. Just kidding! just kidding.
Russel:
When you look at the future of your business, what does that look like?
Amanda:
I know what I hope the future looks like, and I know what we are working toward. Also trying to hold that loosely because sometimes you cling too hard to plans and that’s not the right thing to do. One of my faults, is that if I set toward a goal or a vision and then push so hard that it hurts me or people around me and not knowing when to recalibrate. This is a long winded answer to your question, but I do think that’s been my theme this year is being able to stop and say, hold on, is this really the best use of our energy? I know we said we were going to do all these things this year by this date, but it seems like that’s going to be, we shouldn’t do that. We should step back for a second and reassess. All of that is to say, I have hopes for where the future of the business is going, and doing my best to work toward those with the caveat that it might not be the path that I thought originally. That path is not straight. It is a curvy road to get to where we’re going. What I would love is for the business to grow. I’ve set some pretty aggressive growth goals. What I’d really love is to have the business be set up in a way that is repeatable, so easy to train on. I want it to be easy to demonstrate the ROI and what we’re delivering for our clients. I’d like the company to be large enough to fund an offshoot that is a nonprofit. There’s a mission and a plan for that too. But I do, I have these ideas. What if this business grew to the point where it was not only supporting me and my family and my staff’s family and our clients and their families and their livelihoods? It’s such an honor to be able to create material and messaging for other small businesses, because small businesses are the backbone of our country and so many people are employed by small businesses and how cool it is to participate in building the middle class. And then if it could grow to the point where it started something else that poured more back into our community. Wouldn’t that be beautiful if we could start this tiny little thing in 2016 from my living room table and it grew to be this thing that supported us and people outside of us? That’s what I see. That’s what I would love.
Russel:
I have no doubt that it’s going to happen. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Can’t wait to see what that continues to develop and manifest itself for you and what the future looks like. I’ll leave you with one last big question here, Amanda, are entrepreneurs born or are they made?
Amanda:
Is it a cop out to say both?
Russel:
Everybody feels like it’s a cop out to say both. And I say, no, it’s a, the answer is unique to you no matter what. You just ride with whatever you feel.
Amanda:
All right. I think, like I mentioned, my dad is an entrepreneur and so I grew up with that. I suppose that was part of what made me made, but I was born into it. It’s hard to tell. I think there’s something a little bit crazy about entrepreneurs. We shouldn’t be so obsessed with being so stressed all the time. Who in their right mind signs up to do this? But if you talk to an entrepreneur and they’re like, oh, who in their right mind would sign up to do anything else? I would rather be this stressed than be doing anything else. I think that part is maybe born and then the, I don’t know, tenacity or motivation is maybe made. I think it’s both and I think it could be either. I don’t feel strongly enough about the answer to die on any hill. Don’t anybody get mad at me. Everybody’s an entrepreneur.
Russel:
I’ll shield you from the hate mail that will come from now. Now I’m sure it’s both all and or, and all the combination. I didn’t do very good in English, but I’m sure there’s a word there. If people want to know more about ColorWord Creative, where can they go?
Amanda:
Colorwordcreative.com is our website. You can follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram and Facebook. Those are the places. Colorwordcreative. com.
Russel:
ColorWord Creative, easy enough folks. There you have it. Easy words to spell. Go there, check it out. Thank you so much, Amanda, for taking the time to share all the highs and lows and all your schools of hard knocks, or actual schools that you’ve attended and how they’ve shaped you. So many deep insights into the workings of your business. It’s been very fantastic conversation. I appreciate you taking the time to share it.
Amanda:
Thank you. It was really a pleasure to be here, thank you for the invitation. I hope that your listeners get some kind of encouragement from our conversation today. It was a pleasure.
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.
Amanda:
Every week during our team call we take turns, one person every week shares things we love, and it was originally just supposed to be, this is another Tina Eisenberg thing. It was originally just supposed to be like, share a book that you read, and now, It’s like curated lists of, your skincare routine, plus the, all of the media that you’re consuming, plus your recent favorite brand, plus the new album that you’ve been listening to, plus, the seeds that you bought for your garden, and it’s like this beautiful conglomeration of things that my team loves. I get some great recipes and great recs, and I have a vastly improved skincare routine thanks to that. It’s actually really fun; people save up now. Like they, they don’t share throughout the week. They’ll stash them away so that it turns into this, like, presentation of what we should do. One time we got so into the skincare thing. I just like innocently said, hey, what do y’all use? I’m just curious. What’s your deal? I got like links from some people and like a bullet list from someone else. But Melissa created a presentation, like she put it in Keynote and she dropped in images, one page for each product, step by step by step, here’s what you do for, this is what I do, and this is what I recommend. I was like, what? That is incredible and I’m inspired, thank you perfect.
Russel:
Leave it to an agency to take something and run with it.
