Company: Glo Creative Co.
Owners: Kelly Ghom
Year Started: 2022
Employees: 1 – 10
“An Agency Story” is a podcast series that delves into the narratives behind various agencies, exploring the triumphs, challenges, and the unique journeys of their founders and key personnel. In the episode titled “Meaningful,” listeners are treated to an engaging session with Kelly Ghom of Glo Creative Co., a creative agency known for its innovative approach to branding, web design, and social content production.
This episode covers a wide range of compelling topics, beginning with the origin of Glo Creative Co. and its evolution from a full service to a creative-focused agency. Kelly shares her personal journey from a non-creative background to establishing a leading agency. Key discussions include the shift in business focus due to personal dissatisfaction with the corporate grind, the impact of COVID-19 as a catalyst for change, and strategic decisions in refining the agency’s service offerings towards more passion-aligned projects.
Kelly offers insights into transitioning careers, the importance of networking, and the entrepreneurial spirit. A standout moment is her recount of a humorous yet enlightening anecdote about their first hiring mishap during the early days of Glo Creative Co., which serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of thorough vetting in remote work environments. Her candid reflection on the lessons learned from letting go of a major client that wasn’t a good fit underlines the episode’s theme of aligning work with personal values and vision.
One powerful quote from Kelly in the episode is: “It’s really about relationships and making meaningful connections. When you have that trust, you have that relationship, and that’s so much more fun on the back half of it when you’re actually working together.”
“Meaningful” isn’t just the title of this episode but a reflection of its content. Listeners are left contemplating the importance of aligning personal values with professional endeavors, the courage required to reshape one’s career path, and the significance of meaningful work over monetary gain. For anyone looking to be inspired, to laugh, or to learn about the real dynamics of running a creative agency, tuning into this episode of “An Agency Story” will surely Glo up your playlist!
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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 today’s episode, we’re joined by Kelly Gohm, the dynamic co-founder of Glo Creative Co a creative agency based in Charleston, South Carolina. This segment explores Kelly’s unexpected shift from an English major to a marketing maven. Kelly shares laugh out loud, misadventures, including a memorable story about getting catfished on an internship hire; proof of the old adage hire slow, fire, fast discover how Glo Creative Co’s commitment to meaningful relationships and authentic storytelling has sculpted its unique identity and success in the Charleston creative landscape. Enjoy the story. Welcome to the show today, everyone. I have Kelly Ghom with Glo Creative Co. with us here today. Thank you so much for joining us today, Kelly.
Kelly:
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Russel:
Well, I’m excited. Get us started right off the bat. What does Glo Creative Co. do and who do you do it for?
Kelly:
Glo Creative Co so we are located in Charleston, South Carolina. As a creative agency, we specialize in branding, web design, social content production, really anything that falls into that creative storytelling side of the world. That’s what we do.
Russel:
Awesome. And how did you come up with the name?
Kelly:
That name took us some time and really, when we first opened our doors, we were a full service digital agency. Glo originally standed for Generate Leads Online, and we’ve since shifted more so into the creative space. So now Glo is just Glo. Our Glo Up. And now that represents our Glo Up and making brands Glo. It’s taken on a new meaning now that we’ve scaled back.
Russel:
Love a good naming story. I want to hear more about your agency for sure, but let’s go back before you were an agency owner. When you were young, coming up through high school, thinking about what you were going to do with your life, what did that look like?
Kelly:
I never growing up even thought about a career in the creative space. I never even thought that that was like a possibility, I could go design really beautiful stuff and I could make money off of that. That never crossed my mind. I graduated college with an English degree and I was like, well, I don’t want to teach. I don’t want to go into journalism. What the hell am I going to do? I went into sales for a little while with an English degree. I’ve always loved people. I’ve always loved that thrill of closing a business deal. Did that for a couple of years and then I was like, you know, I want more. I went back to school at that point. I got my MBA, focusing in marketing, digital strategy. That’s where I stepped into the creative world. I met the Managing partner of an investment firm that I then went to work for. This investment firm had this cool marketing hub that was based in Charleston. They had a bunch of companies and brands throughout North America. But we had this, this sort of centralized marketing hub here and one of those companies was a branding and design agency down in Atlanta. Some of the best creatives, in my opinion, in the country or the world. But I would go step into. marketing, digital strategy roles within the company, partnering with the agency. I got to see the creative side of things. I got to work with clients like Apple and JP Morgan and Coca Cola. But then, my last couple years with them, I actually, was full time at the agency level. I also got to see the inner workings of agency life, how you build, how you scale, how you deliver projects on time with excellence. I got to be exposed to both and that’s really what set me up for success starting Glo.
Russel:
Wonderful. And looking back on your journey so far, what’s helped you more, your English education or your MBA?
Kelly:
That’s a great question. You know, I think what’s helped me the most is just being able to understand people and being able to communicate with people. I think English helps in that way. With MBA, really the value there was networking and being able to build my network of really talented people, and then help me figure out what I love to do.
Russel:
It sounds like you’re, you’re having a very good career, uh, and meeting lots of interesting people, growing your skills and experience. Then, somewhere along the line, it sounds like you wanted to leave the corporate world and start an agency. What started that idea in your mind and how did that start to manifest itself?
Kelly:
What happened for me, COVID happened and that was such a dark chapter for so many people. But for me, I had just bought my first house when interest rates were like super low. It was just my husband and I, we don’t have kids yet. For me, it was like, oh my gosh, I have all this extra time transitioning from an office role to at home. I don’t have to commute. I don’t have to squeeze all of my adult responsibilities into like the three hours at the end of the day where you have to do your laundry and cook and all those things. It really opened, You know, the door for me and I had all this extra time that for me, it was like, okay, this is my chance where I’m going to go out and hustle and I’m going to make a ton of money. And I did that. I was working a lot. I had my nine to five and then I had, you know, I was doing fractional CMO work and consulting and all the things. Made all the money and I looked up and I was like, I am miserable. I’m miserable right now. I’m not taking care of myself. I’m not eating right. I’m not exercising. I’m not taking care of my relationships, my marriage. Right when this was happening, it was like the stars aligned and my now business partner during COVID, she actually went out on her own. She used to be a designer for me at the investment firm so we worked together a lot in the past. She had branched off for a couple of years, was doing freelancing work here in Charleston. She came to me and she’s like, look. I have a ton of business that’s been sent my way, and I think we should, we should open a full service agency, but you’re the only person that I trust to do this with, like, let’s, let’s lock in, let’s go. I was like, hell yeah, let’s go for it. We decided to open our doors and take everything we love from the investment firm, everything we didn’t love and really built something on our own and work with the clients that we wanted to work with.
Russel:
That’s awesome. And was it right after that conversation, you quit your job and jumped right into it or how long did it actually take you to get officially up and running?
Kelly:
I was really blessed. My partner was, she was full time all in for the first couple of months, I did keep, you know, my nine to five while I kind of like phased out of that, I had a couple of projects I had to tie up a couple of client deliverables, I didn’t want to leave them high and dry. It took me about six months to really make that decision that, you know, it’s time to go all in and really go for it. A little bit of a transition, again, I could not have done that if I wasn’t working remote. Blessed that I was able to do that.
Russel:
And I assume all that sales experience came very beneficial for you right out the gate. It seems like maybe you didn’t maybe have to hurt as much as far as client acquisition, which was where a lot of folks focus on. But what was that like for you?
Kelly:
I think that I was like, I was born selling things and negotiating things. It was the perfect combination between my partner and I, because she’s, you know, super detail oriented and she’s, she’s a hustler. She’ll grind it out. She’s really great on the delivery design side. And then I can go out, step into business development, think through strategy and, uh, how we could merge the two. It was sort of the perfect marriage, in that way. And, uh, yeah, sales. You learn how to deal with people. The good and the bad.
Russel:
I bet. And what do you think makes you most effective at sales? Like, what’s your secret sauce? If you don’t mind sharing.
Kelly:
I think it comes down to people and making meaningful relationships. If I get an email where someone’s just like, hey, following up again, it’s like, you might as well just pick up the phone and be like, hi, trying to sell you something again. But you know, when you’re able to create those meaningful connections and, you know, ask this potential lead, how was your daughter’s dance recital? Like, I know that was last week. How’s it going? And actually making those, those meaningful moments is really where you begin to build trust and you get people thinking about you as a partner and not just a vendor to meet a quota.
Russel:
We’re going to come back to that. I got us a little off on our story as we were letting it unfold here. But I bet there’s quite a bit more nuggets you have there that can be helpful and that’s already a really great one. Thank you for sharing that. You mentioned at the start that you started out as a full service agency and many companies do, that’s very common, but that’s not the case today. How did that evolution occur in your business?
Kelly:
Especially in the role that I was in at this investment firm, like I was working on PPC, I was working on digital advertising strategy, but I was also thinking about branding and creative and content production campaigns. It’s like, I have all of this experience, and I think that when you first open your doors for business, you want to say yes to everything. And that’s a great thing to do, you know, it’s great to say yes, but then when you get into the weeds of it, I think that you kind of figure out, like, I love doing this type of work, I’m really aligned to it, and this is what I wake up excited about, and then there’s this other bucket that, I’m avoiding When it came to digital advertising, PPC, SEO, that whole world, around the same time that we decided to scale back, all these Apple privacy updates were happening, it was like the wild, wild west. And it still is to some point, but I’m having to argue and negotiate, like why your PPC or your ROAS has gone down. I don’t want to spend every single day in like the algorithm trying to figure out what’s going on. We’re here to build beautiful creative, to bring things to life. That’s what we love. It’s what we’re passionate about. It’s like, let’s go back. Let’s just focus on branding, organic community building content, creative. And when you love what you do, you really don’t feel like you’re working every day. That’s why we made that decision.
Russel:
What did that, uh, cause I think that’s, a lot of agencies go through that same transition eventually, but some it’s harder for, you know, there’s just certain scenarios that make that more difficult, such as how many clients they have and things like that. Did you start and stop this on a dime? What was the actual transition process like for you?
Kelly:
I think another thing that’s unique to my partner and I, unique to Glo is for me, I went out, I chased the money, I chased the check. For me, it’s not so much about the money. It’s more so the journey and like the work and the today, like, of what I’m doing and what I’m providing. For me, it was very easy to say, okay. Hey, I have these five clients. We’re not a good fit anymore. We like made the decision on Monday, we’re niching down. The clients were on and off boarding, you know, process the end of that next week. Decisions were made and we’ve had to make a lot of tough choices, but making sure we’re really in alignment with what we’re doing and it helps you, it helps you bring clarity. Now I know what to say yes to and I know what to say no to.
Russel:
That’s amazing. I’m definitely getting the sense from our conversation just how intentional and even, right, when you mentioned a couple of scenarios when things aren’t going in the direction that makes you happy and as you want, you know, fulfilling that, you’re very quick to make a decision and alter that. I think that’s very awesome trait. Speaking of that, you shared a story before about, you had a pretty large client that, to the point it’s not all about money, was footing a large part of your bill that you decided to let go because they weren’t a good fit. What was that like?
Kelly:
Painful. It was a really hard decision for us to make. In our first year of business, like you land that first big retainer client where you’re getting that big check. But we were still very much in that phase of my partner and I, I think there was three of us at the time. We’re wearing the entrepreneur hat. We are in the weeds of every single thing that we’re doing and we hadn’t transitioned into executive from entrepreneur yet. It ended up being my partner and I getting immersed in this really tedious work. The client wasn’t a good fit. The client didn’t value what we value on the creative side and it just all around wasn’t a good fit. We had to make that tough choice to cut the big retainer to open ourselves and our energy and our bandwidth to be able to attract, and go out and close and find those deals that you were in alignment with that were those dream clients. I think that that tends to happen a lot, when you can cut back, call it trimming the fat. Trim the things that are draining you. There’s always another opportunity, you know, around the corner, that’s in an alignment and meant for you.
Russel:
I think a lot of agencies have that client that’s paying some bills or, providing a certain level of security that isn’t, similar to your scenario, not a great fit, so that’s really good advice. I mean, does this come back to that you’re less afraid to maybe make those decisions because of your confidence in your sales ability? There’s plenty of fish in the sea kind of approach? You just seem so. good about just the positive thinking around these situations.
Kelly:
It’s a mindset. It’s something that I live by, cause I’ve lived that chapter of my life where I’m hustling just to get the money and it doesn’t make you happy. Sometimes that means that, you know, maybe our business isn’t making as much as it could, but we truly love what we do. I think when you have that clarity on this is the perfect fit or that dream client or that dream project that you want to work on. When you have that clarity and you know exactly what you’re going after, you can keep your eye on the prize. It takes just as much time to close a small potato or a bad client or someone who doesn’t fit as it does a good client or, that dream opportunity. When you can be really picky about where you’re putting your energy and where you’re putting your effort, um, that’s really how you attract those opportunities into your life. And yes, of course, sales is a big part of that.
Russel:
How would you describe where the agency is at today? What are you focused on and what’s the future look like? How’s that for you?
Kelly:
Yes, we’ve doubled in size. We’ve doubled in revenue in two years. We’re still very much in that startup phase. We’re going to double again this year. We have a lot of clarity around what creative agency means to us. I think that, you know, where we’re going in the future, where we’re really getting into our creative direction and content production, that storytelling side of things, social media has become so ingrained into really business growth and it’s such a crucial part. We want to think about growing your business in compelling ways, and I think that having this content production and having team members now that, that can help us with, videography, editing, photography, and really rounding out our, services in the creative side is what’s going to get us there. Especially in Charleston, we’re the only ones here that are really focusing on creative and content, not necessarily solving marketing problems, but really thinking about branding and storytelling and a different view on things.
Russel:
I’d love to get back to some more of your fascinating sales tips. One of the things I talk a lot about with folks is how successful some of your sales can be is your ability to nurture relationships. It’s something that I think it’s easy for a lot of folks to only focus on just the leads that are coming in right in front of their face. Then it’s just that, it’s that 60 percent or so that might be a client someday, but how do you pay attention to them? How do you nurture them? Then for some folks, the idea of sending a note or something like that, that’s like, how it’s going, sounds, I might say, like, they still think I’m just trying to sell them or why are you bothering me or something like that? But I’m guessing you would say something different to that.
Kelly:
I guess there’s a couple of different things to to unpack in that question. I think one thing is is authenticity. I’m not just here to sell you a product, I’m not here to just close a deal. I genuinely approach sales as I want to partner with you. I want to add value to your business and I want to be here for the long term. I’ll tell people, if you’re just looking for a vendor or a one off campaign, we’re probably not the best fit. We want to really get immersed into your business, your goals, and help you get there. I think when you know that, and you’re really approaching a deal or a sale from a really authentic place of being confident and what product or service you’re offering. I’m truly here to help you. That’s my goal, is to help you create something that you’re really proud of or excited about. When you think of it in that way, I think it gets a lot easier to think about how you’re following up with people,, that you’re not just spam. I think we’ve all fallen victim of this, but like you get those, sales emails that come through and through and through and through. It’s like, just trying one last time, like trying to make you feel guilty about not answering them yet. You don’t want to be that person. But if you can think like, hey, I saw this really interesting article about this. This is something that you guys might want to think about for launching your studio adding value and making meaningful connections. It builds trust and, and helps you, um, create meaningful relationships. And then when you have that trust and you have that relationship, it’s also so much more fun on the back half of it when you’re actually working together. I think it comes down to that authenticity, and making sure you’re adding value and confident in what you’re offering.
Russel:
I love that. That’s a good summary. Authenticity. Lead with value. Those seem like they will never go wrong as a strategy as far as anything you do. And then, do you use like a CRM or what do you do to manage to keep that top of mind and keep it all together?
Kelly:
We’re very selective in our pipeline. I’ll say that as well. I think another part of that too is we’re okay to say no. We’re okay to say like, hey, we might not be the best fit because we’ve lived it, where we’ve tried to make things work and like it just blows up. As far as our CRM, we’re very selective about our pipeline and like how we’re going to take all of these leads and then nurture them so we score them and you’ll know your business and who’s the best fit for you. If I get a DM on Instagram, it’s like I just want a logo, can you make me a logo in a week? I’m like, no, and we’re not a good fit and here’s why. But if someone comes to us with, a true problem and we’re able to, take the time to think through a proposal and how we would approach it. Those are the folks that I want to nurture and engage with. That’s my responsibility and I follow up every week. I’m not going to hunt you down. It’s not my style. I’m not going to chase you, but I am going to make sure that I’m getting those wheels turning and I’m getting you thinking about all the opportunities and exciting things that we could bring to life, and adding value along the way. Just making sure every single thing I do is not about me. It’s not about my company. It’s about my customer, my client, and how I can help them. They’re the star of the show.
Russel:
Love that. Authenticity, no chasing, lead with value, all very good things to think about and take away. Thank you for sharing those. Something that you mentioned that was really important, in your business focus is women and women’s empowerment. How has that looked and how have you made that a cause for you?
Kelly:
As a woman in business, I’m very well versed in what our problems and issues are. And so I think that, especially with women entrepreneurs, I think a lot of times, again, it’s like you’ve come up with every excuse in the book of like, why you shouldn’t do, I’m a mom, I have kids, I have all these responsibilities of why you shouldn’t go for it. I understand those problems so well. That’s one big piece of it. And also, our team. We are women owned, women led. We are a team of women right now. We’re growing. That could change within a year, but working with women and women centric businesses and inclusive brands that share the same values. We truly resonate with it. We get it, and I think that we’re really able to add, that, that special value there. Like, we know it, we get it, and we’re able to bring things to life in a really compelling way because of that, and we gotta support each other.
Russel:
Last big question for you, really, is are entrepreneurs born or are they made?
Kelly:
I think everybody, well, I guess you’re going to get some Kelly’s philosophy here, but I think everybody.
Russel:
That’s what I want.
Kelly:
We’re all born with, with hopes and dreams and desires. I think we’re all born with special gifts that we can provide to the world. But I think in life there’s sort of two life paths that you can take. One is, I’m going to meet every situation in my life from the energy of love and excitement and acceptance and abundance. Or the energy of fear, and I mean turn on any news station, right? I think so many of us unfortunately fall victim to taking that fear path. I need more, because I’m gonna lack this, or every excuse in the book, right, of like why you shouldn’t do it and why you shouldn’t go for it. And I think that for me, can I cuss?
Russel:
Yeah, this is a pg-13 podcast.
Kelly:
For me, and I think some entrepreneurs, it’s like, they’re just born with this energy of love and abundance. They’re like the daydreamers in the back of the classroom who are like getting C’s that end up being like the most business people ever. Then a lot of us, unfortunately, get pushed into this cog and they have like every excuse of why they shouldn’t do something. I think a lot of entrepreneurs have what I call a”fuck this event” and FTE. Another author came up with that term and I can’t remember his name right now. I can’t take credit for that. But I had my fuck this event, my FTE, where I was like, I’m so sick of this and I’m miserable, and that’s like the circumstance that really pushed me into starting my own business and going the entrepreneurial route and building something for my own legacy, my own, my own life and my own creation. I think that a lot of us are all born with it. Some of us have circumstances in our life, whether we fail or we risk something like force us into it. And a lot of other people end up, a cog in the wheel, afraid, afraid to take those changes, afraid to take those risks. I think we’re all born with it. I think we all have special gifts.
Russel:
Maybe that’ll inspire someone to go find their FTE and to create enough, there’s another formula out there, and I’m probably going to butcher this a little bit too, but it’s something to the effect of, your resistance to change is relative to your dissatisfaction, right? Until your dissatisfaction reaches a certain level, you’ll stick with the status quo.
Kelly:
Until you’re so uncomfortable or like, I’m just so sick of this version of my reality that I’m just gonna make a new one and I’m gonna go for it and I don’t care what I’m risking or what I’m losing because whatever it is, it’s better than this, you know, and I’m gonna go for it.
Russel:
Well, we got some new terms today, new acronym, FTE, love it. If people want to know more about Glo Creative Co., where can they go?
Kelly:
Definitely head over to our Instagram at Glo, GLO Creative Co underscore. That probably has the most accurate up to date stuff. We’re working on our new website. You can also head over there www.glocreativeco.com. Say hi. We’d love to meet you. Follow along, I’d love to connect.
Russel:
Perfect. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Kelly. These were wonderful tips you shared. Very inspiring, your journey and such a short amount of time and your success. Really appreciate you taking the time to share that with us today.
Kelly:
Of course. Thank you for having me.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. Are you interested in being a guest on the show? Send an email to podcast@performancefaction.com. An Agency Story is brought to you by Performance Faction. Performance Faction offers services to help agency owners grow their business to 5 million dollars and more in revenue. To learn more, visit performancefaction.com.
Kelly:
This is still embarrassing to even say this, but my partner and I, when we first opened our business, we got catfished one time.
Russel:
Oh, boy.
Kelly:
We, wearing entrepreneur hat, you’re doing everything and you start to lose bandwidth. You start to go crazy. What does every startup do? They hire an intern, they slap a bandaid on the gunshot wound and they hire an intern. We went out and we hired this intern, this girl, she sent her resume in and like her photo was on her resume, which, if you’re out there and you’re applying for a job, don’t put your photo on your resume. It’s such a, I hate it. Quick disclaimer, we do not hire, of course, based on how you look. We hire, if you’re a good person and if you’re a good fit for us. We do not hire based on how you look. But, this girl had her photo on her resume and so we do the in person Zoom call. We’re still a remote office right now, but we want to hire our talent in Charleston because next year when we have our office in our studio, we want to have our A team here. We meet with her, we do the Zoom call, and, my partner and I are like texting, and I’m like, that’s not the girl from the picture. Completely different people. Okay, that’s kind of weird, but you know, she has all the skills we’re looking for, so like, let’s go. We hire her. We made the decision probably quicker than we should have. Another tip, hire slowly, fire quickly. But we bring her on and have her first Zoom call. And then all week I’m trying to meet with her to get coffee, to get lunch. You know, I need to meet you in person. You’re going to be our Charleston girl. Long story short, she was in like upstate Massachusetts somewhere, completely not in Charleston at all. I don’t think she ever lived in Charleston. We like did some research online. There was like five different websites from her with all different colleges and different stories and different things and it was just like a complete catfish. We got catfished, so we had to let her go.
Russel:
All this for an internship to boot.
Kelly:
All this for an internship. Yeah. m
Russel:
I don’t know if I’ve heard catfish job story yet. I can’t say I’ve heard it all but that’s definitely a unique one.
Kelly:
Yeah. Yeah. It happened.
