Celebrating a Big Anniversary in My Career

I started KAC Marketing in February of 2022, and it grew really fast!

By April, I was making double what my 6-figure per year job paid me on a monthly basis, but I was still working there part-time.

Not because I wasn’t ready to go all-in on KAC Marketing, but because I had helped grow that agency for the prior 10 years of my career and had earned a part-ownership stake in it because of my success. Untangling myself from that web to go all-in on KAC Marketing was a several-month endeavor, but my last day being employed by someone other than myself was August 31, 2022.

That means on September 1st I celebrated the one-year anniversary of being my own boss!

A story that not many people know is that I started my first marketing “agency” right after I finished grad school.

I had burnt myself out working a full-time job as a marketing manager, being a full-time grad student, and teaching Public Speaking as a grad assistant to get my tuition paid for.

I needed a break so I left my marketing manager job and started Type K Marketing… the name was supposed to be a play on having a Type A personality but no one really got it lolol.

Because of the connections I had at my previous job I was able to sign a handful of clients right off the bat – some I REALLY loved working with like the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

But I had NO IDEA how to manage or grow a marketing agency, and business coaches were not a thing back then. I know it’s common to joke that business coaches are a scam but as someone who tried to start a business without a business coach in my early 20s let me tell you, I WISH I had a coach.

What I did have was clients and enough revenue to pay myself the same salary I made at my job, but I didn’t know how to manage the operations of my business, I was not good at project management at that time, and if I’m being honest, I felt like I was just kinda getting by… and that didn’t feel good when I’m used to overachieving.

Then, one day the owner of another agency reached out and asked if I’d be interested in interviewing for a position within his company.

I said sure, not really knowing what to expect; I was offered the job right away and started a couple of weeks later. I was at that agency for 10 years helping to grow the online marketing division (the agency had been in business for many years as a traditional marketing agency).

During those 10 years, I received so much real-world experience in how to manage agency operations, client relations, and everything in between.

That’s what allowed me to start KAC Marketing and grow it to $500K in revenue in just a little over a year.

A lot of people think being able to sign clients is what makes you a profitable and successful agency owner, but in my experience, that’s just one part of the equation.

A decade ago, when I was running Type K Marketing I had clients, but I was not thriving… I was working myself into the ground, and I constantly felt frustrated, exhausted, and worried. Not even stressed out, just straight-up worried.

Now, at KAC Marketing I have clients, but I also have the other pieces in place so I’m not worried.

Am I still stressed out sometimes? Of course!

I think all business owners are stressed out from time to time, but I’m also fully confident that I have built a very solid foundation for my business.

Do you feel like your business is built on a strong foundation, or does it feel a little like a house of cards sometimes?

Don’t answer that out loud, but maybe journal on it today…