Company: Monomoy Social Media
Owners: Nicole Porter
Year Started: 2017
Employees: 1 – 10
“An Agency Story” podcast delves into the dynamic and inspiring tales from the agency world, focusing on personal stories, innovative ideas, and the unique challenges faced by agency professionals. The episode titled “Transition” stands out as it features Nicole Porter, the founder of Monomoy Social Media, and explores her fascinating journey from chocolatier to social media agency owner.
This episode uncovers the seamless blend of passion and pragmatism that defines Nicole’s professional life. Key discussions include the full spectrum of services provided by Monomoy Social Media, aimed primarily at supporting small businesses and nonprofits. The episode also dives into the heartfelt story behind the agency’s name and Nicole’s early entrepreneurial spark, which illuminated her path from selling chocolate to mastering social media marketing.
Nicole’s candid recounting of her professional pivot provides invaluable insights into the necessity and art of adaptability in business. A particularly engaging discussion revolves around the integration of family life with business aspirations, highlighting how personal challenges can lead to professional reinventions. Nicole shares humorous anecdotes and powerful moments, like the time a simple act of communication at a restaurant profoundly shaped her customer service approach, emphasizing the episode’s blend of light-hearted moments and deep insights.
“Transition” is more than just a business podcast episode; it’s a source of inspiration for anyone contemplating a significant change in their professional lives. Listeners are left contemplating the power of resilience and the unexpected paths to success. Tune into this episode of “An Agency Story” to discover how personal journeys can profoundly influence professional landscapes, and perhaps, inspire your next big transition.
You can listen to this episode of An Agency Story on your favorite podcast app:
Listen to other episodes like this one…
- Meaningful – Glo Creative Co. with guest Kelly Ghom
- Thankfulness – Meerkat Media Group with guest Kristin Chambers
- Sociable – Ebove & Beyond with guest Jennifer Myers-Ward
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. On this episode, we’re joined by Nicole Porter, the innovative founder of Monomoy Social Media based in the picturesque area, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Nicole’s agency specializes in comprehensive organic social media management and email marketing, serving a heartfelt clientele of small businesses and nonprofits. In this episode, Nicole shares her unique story from her unexpected start reaching clients nationwide to the humorous mishaps that shaped her approach to business, including a particularly memorable lesson learned from running a chocolate shop. We also explore significant turning points that marked her transition from choclatier to social media maven, emphasizing the power of flexibility and the role of parenthood in her entrepreneurial journey. Stay tuned is Nicole unveils how a simple act of teaching a fellow business owner about Facebook sparked a career, defining pivot. Enjoy the story. Welcome to the show today, everyone. I have Nicole Porter with Monomoy Social Media with us here today. Thank you so much for being on the show, Nicole.
Nicole:
Thank you so much for having me. Excited to be here.
Russel:
Very excited to have you. Start us off right out of the gate. What does Monomoy Social Media do and who do you do it for?
Nicole:
Monomoy Social Media focuses primarily on full service organic social media. We do everything, soup to nuts, completely take it off of our clients plates. We do strategy. We do all their content, all their graphics, their captions, their scheduling, we make sure they’re visible, and we do interaction for them as well, which is really important because it is social media, it’s not marketing media. We also have a membership program where we give people content, group coaching but they do it for themselves, and then we do email marketing, we do some ads, and some email funnels as well, so we really stay in our lane with social media and email. Oh, and who do we do it for? We do it for small businesses and non profits. We love, love working with nonprofits, and then smaller sized businesses.
Russel:
Lovely. Those folks certainly need it as much or more than everyone else. How did you come up with the name, Monomoy Social Media?
Nicole:
Monomoy is my local area where we live, and it’s actually a wildlife refuge. There’s a Monomoy lighthouse, it’s this little island off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. When I first started my business back in 2017, I thought, okay, well I’ll be a local business because people know me locally. And then my first client was in Canada, and my second client was in Texas, and I’ve been working nationwide ever since. I do have some local clients, but, it definitely was nationwide faster than I thought. I thought about rebranding at some point, but I love the name and I love the space where I live, and it’s just a talking point, so we kept it.
Russel:
Love it. Does Monomoy the word itself have a meaning or, I have to imagine it has some sort of origin.
Nicole:
I think it’s a Native American word, but I don’t know the exact meaning of it. I’ll have to look that up.
Russel:
I want to hear all the good things about the business and what you do for your clients. But before we get to that, let’s go back in time and I would love to hear what young Nicole was doing with her life and what she thought she wanted to be when, or what she was going to be when she grew up.
Nicole:
I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I always wanted to have my own business. I don’t really know that I knew what it would be when I was very young. I was the kid with the lemonade stand and always trying to, make sure that I had my own thing going. I was babysitting. I knew I wanted to be a mom really young and that was always a very large focus for me. But that desire also fueled my entrepreneurship desires as well because they work really well together.
Russel:
And as you were coming out of high school, starting to look at your career, what were those early days like? What were you doing to, to make the bread, so to speak?
Nicole:
Oh my goodness, so right out of high school I went to college, but I had no idea what I want to do. It took me a few years to actually pick a major. I pick a major until my junior year of college and, I went into marketing and I went into business and, that was really a passion of mine. I thought it would serve me well, wanting to be an entrepreneur, and then right out of college, I worked as a manager at JCPenney, which was horrible. I did a few odd jobs and then I actually went into the chocolate industry within a couple years getting out of college and I stayed in that industry for about ten years before switching to social media.
Russel:
Okay, well, you are by far and away the most unique origin of an agency owner that I’ve come across. A chocolatier. How’d you end up in that? I’m very curious about this.
Nicole:
It was kind of a really strange, journey. When I was in high school, my high school sweetheart, his family actually owned a chocolate store, and I got really interested in it that way. It was a family business for my husband, and I opened my own shop shortly after just having that experience and wanting to get into, having my own shop and, you know, having a desire to have my own thing. I had the experience from those sources and then opened my own shop and my own place.
Russel:
Okay, and then obviously we know you’re still not, or you tell us, it doesn’t sound like you’re running a chocolate shop today, but it sounds like, going back to that dream, you said when you were young of wanting to start a family, that ultimately became harder to do to have a brick and mortar. What was that transition like for you to leave the chocolate business and go focus on other things?
Nicole:
It was a bit of a slow transition. When I opened my first shop, my oldest, who is now 16, was about 2, and then I had my second son and it got a little harder to have that brick and mortar shop. I actually moved my chocolate making to my home kitchen. When I had the brick and mortar, I was marketing on Facebook and Instagram, and when I moved at home, I relied even more heavily on that. I would market through Facebook and Instagram, and actually Reddit at the time. I did a lot of email marketing, and that was really how I built my business, and so that was really where I started to get my education in social media marketing and email marketing. Cause I tell people, Mark Zuckerberg was still building Facebook in his dorm room when I got my marketing degree so it just wasn’t, I got a great degree but it wasn’t the same landscape that it is now. I got those basics and then really learned hands on when I had the chocolate industry. I was making it from my home for, for a few years, and then I had my third son and I thought, well, this is just ridiculous. It’s too labor intensive. I mean, I was literally hand dipping candy all day in my kitchen. At that time I was actually in a B&I group, and I would do corporate gifting and all sorts of stuff like that through the chocolate. The mortgage broker that was in that group asked me to come to her office and teach her how to use Facebook. A light bulb kind of went off at that moment. I took my newborn baby down there to her office and I showed her how to use Facebook and I wrote her a whole plan, and when I left, she paid me and I thought, well, wait a minute. This is something people need. They don’t have the education on this because it’s so new. It was something that I really understood the ins and outs of. That’s when I started to make that switch from being a chocolatier to being an agency owner. It really started as a side hustle and I grew it from there. But that was that moment that it was really, that, that transition really started to take place. I started to deep dive into social media marketing. I took a bunch of courses. I did it for free for a couple of people just to get my feet wet outside of the chocolate industry. I did a restaurant and I did a landscaping company for a friend of mine and then started, you know, started my bank account, registered my business and it all went from there.
Russel:
It’s something I, I hear quite a bit, regardless of what they were doing prior to that, but, a lot of folks, especially women get into agency business for the same reason, some of that flexibility. Some feel like became more inflexible than what they were doing before. But what was that like for you? Did it achieve some of those goals that you were trying to seek in terms of flexibility and in your environment?
Nicole:
Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s the type of business, really, that you choose because when I had the chocolate shop, because it was so labor intensive, you know, I had to do all the marketing. I had to do the setup. You have to melt the chocolate. You have to dip the chocolate. You have to let the chocolate set. Then you have to package it. Then you have to ship it. I mean, there’s so many steps to it. And having young children, it was really hard to do that. It was hard to get out to the B&I meetings and get out to the, I did a lot of craft fairs and farmer’s markets and things like that. You know, if I had unlimited time, then maybe that would have been great. That was a big reason to switch businesses, was I needed something that when the kids were napping, when I had a free minute, when they went to bed, when my husband was home, I could work on it and I wouldn’t have to leave the house and I was still there for support, but I could do it in those, those other moments. The type of business that I transitioned to really played a huge part in that. I actually, as when I stopped the chocolate, I actually started nannying. I nannied part time while I built this business up. Then when the pandemic hit is really when I was able to take it full time. So I built it up slowly. Like I said, I started as a side hustle and there was such a need for it that it continued to grow, and I’m very lucky that I’ve been able to, I’ve been able to do this full time and actually employ others as well.
Russel:
I mean, my, my question when you’re going through all that is, when did you sleep? But, obviously you sound like a person that you can certainly, manage your time well and juggle a lot of responsibilities. But I mean, I imagine that just had to be a lot. What’s your pro tip or how did you, navigate, having a business and you said nannying and then obviously, focusing on your family. We need some pro tips here.
Nicole:
Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of multitasking, but I really think that’s what got me through those first few years. I don’t honestly realistically think it’s sustainable, but I think it was a good way to start and it was a good jumping off point. I think that’s something to keep in mind is like it’s not forever, it’s just to get you going. I was lucky that, you know, I would be able to focus on my business a couple days, and I nannied for three days, and I was able to bring my kids with me when I nannied so that was really helpful as well because I didn’t have to put them in daycare or some of them were school age at that point, but I, I didn’t have to really separate that. I could do all of that at once and that particular piece was really, really helpful. I think it’s really finding what works for you, finding situations that work for you, and like I said in the beginning, just realizing that maybe it’s a bit of hustle right now, but that’s not always forever. And also realizing like, things don’t have to be perfect all the time as well. There are things like, focusing on my business, focusing on my family, those are my priorities. Doing the dishes is not my priority. Like yes, you have to do it once in a while. Your house gets a little crazy, but I think really focusing on your priorities is helpful as well.
Russel:
All right, that’s very helpful. Temporary, this too shall pass and focus on priorities. We can’t get it all done, but there’s obviously things that are more important than others and focusing on that. Those are very helpful. You mentioned that the pandemic was the, the jumping off point to, go all in on this. Why and what was happening that allowed you to do that?
Nicole:
For me, the pandemic ended up kind of being a perfect storm. I wasn’t able to nanny anymore because the people I nannied for couldn’t work. The hairdresser couldn’t do people’s hair because she couldn’t be near anybody. There wasn’t an option to continue with nannying. I had also built my business up to the point where it was getting busier and it was getting harder to juggle the two things together. That with the increase in need, because nobody could be around each other, businesses had to rely on internet marketing to get out to people. They were using social media to let people know when they were open, how they were open, how they were operating, especially in those early days where it would be like, I’m going to put your order at the front door and it’s going to have your name on it. People needed to know those very quick, up to date things. A lot of them did not know how to, um, you know, they wouldn’t know how to update their website. They wouldn’t know how to update their social media profiles. It was actually really rewarding to get that and help a lot of businesses with that and help them keep their doors open through the pandemic.
Russel:
You mentioned, a big focus, I think a la kind of how you got into this business and what you’re seeking out of it is to hire women and mothers and provide these flexible opportunity for others. I’m just curious more about how that looks and how you’ve actually set that up in your business.
Nicole:
For me, um, that’s one of the core missions for my business is to hire women and hire mothers, if possible. Or, you know, it could be somebody older that has to take care of a parent or just, but somebody that needs that flexibility and that’s something I’m really proud to be able to offer to people, that support with the flexibility. We’re a fully remote team, which really helps, and we do have deadlines, but it’s not so strict as to, like, yes, you have to have it done by Wednesday, but the nature of the business is you can do it any time in between. You can do it after your kids go to bed, or, while they’re at school, or whatever works for you and your situation. We’re able to stay on track. We use project management systems. We communicate a lot through email. We do a weekly, or actually a bi weekly team meeting now, where we all come together on Zoom, and we’re able to stay in touch that way and work closely while still having the flexibility to do what we need to do for our families and really be present there as well.
Russel:
And so that gets to the idea. I think that’s the nirvana, I think when it comes to remote work is getting to this asynchronous place where we don’t have to be in a specific spot at a specific time, doing a specific thing that allows a lot of that flexibility. Was that difficult to build into your business to manage in that way. Cause I feel like that is a struggle for a lot of agents. Like our clients work nine to five, therefore we have to be available nine to five is sometimes some of the things I hear, but, clearly that’s not the case in your world. Curious a little bit more on the details of how you’ve managed to, to have that type of environment.
Nicole:
I think being available for client meetings and having certain hours for that is important, so I have my calender open for certain hours and then if we need to have a meeting I send that link over so that they can choose a time that’s best for them. Something like a Calendly, a lot of people use that now and that really helps. And I think just frequent communication as well with your clients. They understand like, yes, maybe business hours are nine to five, but we might be sending post approval in the evening, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they need to answer that right away but they understand that, you know, just because we’re not always like a nine to five business doesn’t mean that they don’t have access to us or that we can’t answer their questions or we can’t meet and we can’t provide the service that they need us to provide. Setting those clear expectations with your client. When we onboard somebody, we have, um, a list of things that we go over and they know what they’re going to get. They know they’re going to get this many posts per week. They know they’re going to get a certain amount of outbound engagement. They know they’re going to get a quarterly strategy call. I think they, they have that expectation set of what it’s going to look like before we go into it. That’s really helpful as well. Setting expectations and communication, I think, are the biggest, the two biggest things there.
Russel:
So many answers in this world of business and probably life just goes back to basics and fundamentals, right? Of just good communication it sounds like you’re saying there, and then I liken it to the idea that yes, we have to train our clients how to work best with us and how we work and we don’t always have to run around in this world of when they say jump, we say how high. We can treat this like a partnership and work in that way. That’s very exciting to, to hear how you’ve managed that. Another interesting thing that, uh, that I learned about your story is that you have a couple of employees that you’ve known since you were a kid. What is that like?
Nicole:
It’s so fun. I love it. I am very lucky. I understand that I’m very lucky to have them and that it’s worked out so well. I don’t know that it would work for every situation, but they’re great at what they do and they’re really conscientious. I’ve been so lucky. I wish I could clone them. I’ve known one since I was seven. There’s actually a video of us running around at Halloween together and she was dressed up like a bunny and I was dressed up like Minnie Mouse and, we would put our ears together. We ended up going to the same high school, but we switched high schools and then, met our third employee and we’ve all been friends since we were about 14 years old and we’ve stayed in touch through the years. It’s really nice for camaraderie and our our company culture. It’s very friendly, but it’s also, we’re able to communicate comfortably with each other, which I think is really, really helpful. I think we all feel very honest with one another. If something’s not working, we’re able to say that. If something is working, we’re able to say that. I think that really helps as we’re working together towards our client’s goals as well because they get really good service because we all communicate so well.
Russel:
And I mean, maybe even myself, I don’t think I’ve really ever, I’ve certainly hired people I knew, but I don’t know that I ever hired someone that was like a friend. I feel like the answer I would feel, and maybe a lot of others would say, I don’t want to do that just because I’m just worried, you know, about so many aspects of that going South. Obviously you said again, communication, that might be the theme of a lot of things that have been successful for you. But, I guess to speak to some of those concerns someone might have, have you run into any challenges, because these folks are your friends that you’ve have on your team?
Nicole:
You know, I, I haven’t. The first girl came on before the pandemic actually and she’s still with me, so it’s been, you know, at least five years that she’s been with me now, and the second one I think she came on partway through the pandemic maybe a little bit after. So again, it’s been at least three years that she’s been with me. I did have those concerns of like, I don’t want this to ruin our friendship. You don’t want things to go south. Like I said at the beginning, I think I’m really lucky. And I think part of it is that I knew their personalities going into it as well, so I knew that they were conscientious people, I knew that they would want to do a good job. Again, that communication piece, like you said, is really really helpful. I think if you’re going out and you’re saying like, oh, I want to hire this person because they don’t have a job and I feel bad for them, or there’s some other underlying reason, it might not be the best fit. I think you really need to look at the reasons behind it, why you’re doing it, and, what the person you’re hiring is like, what you’re like, are you comfortable saying to somebody, this is not how I want it done, can you please change this? If you’re not comfortable saying that to someone you’re really close with, then it might not be the best idea. It’s really, I think, situational based. It’s not for everybody, but it’s worked really well for us.
Russel:
Well I have to imagine there’s a lot more skill or something there beneath the service and you, you kind of mentioned some of those nuggets even there, than luck, just to, to make something that work. Going back to communication, what you hit on really well sounds like, I imagine, that’s important. It’s just not letting some of that feedback fester and being just really forthcoming and honest about it and that works really well. Whether they’re your friends or not, that’s probably really great practice to have in your business.
Nicole:
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s not always comfortable, like it’s not comfortable to have a conversation with somebody that’s like, I need you to be more on time, I need you to do this or that, but it works for everybody in the long run. I always tell them as well, I’m like, I’m open to feedback. If I’m not getting something to you, you need more information for me, or I’m not training you well enough, I want to hear that too, because if I’m not doing a good job, the business isn’t going to do a good job. It needs to go both ways. They’re open to feedback, but I need to be open to feedback, too. I can’t be like, well, I know everything and I’m doing everything great. It’s always a learning process, and they are in the weeds with the clients a lot of times, so they can see things that I can’t. You mentioned earlier, like, there’s a really good partnership, right? We’re communicating with each other, it’s not one sided. It’s working together as a whole to get that, to get the business going, as opposed to, I’m the leader and you do what I say, because that’s not how I approach things.
Russel:
That’s such a good way to put it. I think so many things, whether this is with the client or with your team like you’re mentioning, that we still fall back to the fundamentals of a relationship. We tend to think of relationship as, you know, spouse or, or family or something like that. It’s really the same mechanics. We’re just not hugging them and kissing them and tucking them into bed at night. Anything that works in one generally works in others and a lot of the things that you’re saying, I think that’s really important to bring home to folks. All right. I’m very curious what, you know, some very cool mission, obviously how you’ve gone about this business is very inspiring. What does the future look like for you? What’s the big goal with all of this?
Nicole:
The big goal this year, we’re trying to work with a lot more nonprofits, that’s going to be a real focus for us. We really love the mission driven organizations and love working with our nonprofits. We’re going to try to push that more. Trying to grow and build our team and hire more moms and women. Kind of just keep going in the same vein. Just, you know, continue to grow, continue to support each other and keep going.
Russel:
That sounds like a great recipe. Do you still make chocolate? Is there any other chocolate visions in your future?
Nicole:
I haven’t made chocolate in a really long time. I actually took out my candy thermometer the other day for the first time in eight years because my kids wanted to try one of those TikTok challenges where you boil the sugar and then you dip the fruit in it and it gets all hard on the outside and, um, my candy thermometer didn’t work because I had left it down there in the basement for eight years. I don’t know if that was a sign to just keep going on my same route now and don’t go back to candy making. For friends and family, we’ll do, like, cupcakes and things like that sometimes, but, I don’t think there’s going to be any hardcore candy making coming down the pipe anytime soon.
Russel:
Well, sounds like you’ve put your time to other great uses. As good of chocolat, I’m sure you made, we’ll miss it, but, you’re, you’re doing a lot of good things for good people and nonprofits. We’ll certainly respect that. Last big question for you, Nicole, are entrepreneurs born or are they made?
Nicole:
Oh man. That’s a hard question, I’ll tell ya. I think they’re born. I think there are some people who just have it in them. They have that desire. For me, I just, I’ve always wanted it. I’ve always wanted to find that way to do it. Even if I look at my kids, I have three. My younger one’s an entrepreneur. He’s always looking for the things to, the next thing to do. He pulled a bunch of books out of his baby, bookshelf and sold them by the side of the road one time when it was too cold for lemonade. I just think that it’s something you have in you and you, you push for it.
Russel:
Man, you know, I, I love all the answers I get to that question, but I just really love a hardcore born answer, um, which is, which is probably the least of the answers I get. Those are certainly my favorite. If people want to know more about Monomoy Social Media, where can they go?
Nicole:
They go to monomoysocialmedia.com. M O N O M O Y for people that don’t know how to spell it. We’re also on Facebook and Instagram as Monomoy Social Media and you can find me on LinkedIn as Nicole Porter and that is where I spend most of my time.
Russel:
Lovely. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Nicole. It was an absolute pleasure to get to hear all your different experiences and what you’re doing in the world of marketing. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your journey today.
Nicole:
Thank you so much for having me. This was awesome. Such a pleasure to be here.
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.
Nicole:
I was a waitress at Chili’s for years, and, Chili’s, honestly, their kitchen runs behind all the time. I was petrified to go to this table. They had their drinks, they had their free chips and salsa, and the kitchen was just so far behind. I didn’t want to go to this table and be like, I don’t know why your food’s not here. I was so stressed about it, and I finally brought their food out and, you know, whatever. Got them their new drinks after like a half an hour. When I left, when they left, the guy came, he stood up and he said, you know, we didn’t care that the kitchen was behind. If you had gotten us new drinks, and a refill on our chips and salsa, and just came by and made sure we were okay, we would have been fine. But instead, you hid from us, and you were, like, we were upset because we didn’t have anything to nibble on and drink. It was just such an ah ha moment for me, I was like, holy crap, if I had just communicated with them and told them what was going on, even though there was something wrong, they would have been fine. I created a bad situation by not communicating and I was like, holy crap, it completely changed my customer service skills. That one guy from Chili’s. All those years ago.
Russel:
Wow, such a entertaining and powerful story in that sense of just how the impact of giving someone some feedback might be. I just think of so many cases in a restaurant, someone would just be mad and leave a bad tip and walk out the door. Not only did they give you the feedback that I’m sure you took to heart at Chili’s, but it seems like it’s even shaped the trajectory of your whole business and career. Whoever that person is, thank you to you. Kudos to you. Good job.
Nicole:
And you never underestimate the value of free chips and salsa.
Russel:
As someone in Texas, I can totally attest to that. There is no truer statement than that.
Nicole:
It’s the main takeaway.
