Building a business often requires entrepreneurs to pour most of their time and energy into their ventures and that is exactly what Carly did at the age of 25. Unlike most millennials, Carly was ready to build her own empire and reap the rewards of her labor and time at an early age. Carly’s goal was to create a business that offered recurring revenue that would eliminate the stress of having to find new business month after month. In addition, Carly wanted to create a culture that offered an opportunity to team members to do what they love, empower them to be the best they can be and offer flexibility for a work life balance. 5 years ago, the workforce was still in the mundane office space with a 9-5 schedule that offered little compassion to their employees.
Carly knew this was not the type of business she would ever want to run.
Today, Mountain Air Marketing (MAM) is a successful niche digital agency that offers its team members the opportunity to work remote three days a week and two days with the full team at local coffee shops, her home and other fun locations to cultivate commeroderity, compassion and a positive working environment. “As a business owner and mother, it seems there aren’t enough hours in the day. Having the ability to work and multi-task my life at home and also block out days to work with our team at fun local coffee shops is the best of both worlds. Rachel and I love and appreciate our team members and we look forward to the days we can all work together.”
The Hustle is Real
Needless to say, the first few years were hard. Carly and her business partner Rachel did everything on their own as most new entrepreneurs do. Carly emphasized the reality of starting a business, “When Rachel and I started Mountain Air Marketing, it was just the two of us doing it all. We ran our own books, we did all the sales, we attended every meeting, and we did all the
work, all while raising babies and having families that needed our attention.” Carly continued to say “Finding the balance of work and personal life was the biggest challenge, and as most people who have started a business understand, your whole heart and soul has to go into it.
Blood, sweat and tears, many late nights and early mornings. Many days of non-stop working to try and grow.”
The hustle was real and Carly was standing by for everything and anything that needed to be reviewed, managed and developed, even if that meant sleepless nights between work and waking up to feed the baby. As time went on and the agency grew, Carly and Rachel were able to start bringing on more employees to help offset the demands of what MAM was needing in order to grow.
Year after year the agency doubled and soon became recognized as one of the top agencies in Colorado and Top 30 Digital Marketing Agencies in the US, 2019 – UpCity.
Currently, Mountain Air Marketing is in a great spot where Carly has the ability to spend more time with her growing family and focus on building a team of highly skilled professionals. “ We have a lot of young women who will be growing their own families soon and we are excited to provide them an opportunity to work with us and also raise their babies and enjoy the experience of everything motherhood has to offer. When creating MAM, that was one of my goals, and I am thrilled to see it come to life.”
A Disconnect in Connection
Mountain Air Marketing has never and will never be an agency with a revolving door of clients and employees. With over 90% client retention, MAM has done their best to build long lasting relationships with their clients and team members. We asked Carly, how she as a leader and entrepreneur at heart has navigated the struggles of everything COVID and how it has impacted the agency. “COVID-19 has been hard for everyone. It’s unrealistic to say that our connections both personally and professionally haven’t struggled with the new change from in person gatherings to video chat applications like Zoom and FaceTime. There was a point, we had new clients whom we had actually never met (face to face) for over a year. Connecting with our clients is and has always been a big part of our success. During these uncharted times, we would still try to drop off treats and flowers to our local clients. We focused on processes and controls within our company and hired team members who had the discipline to work remotely without a concern of taking advantage of our kindness and flexibility. Rachel and I had a plan.
As soon as we were able to reconnect with our community and team in the same way we did when we started the business, we were going to be ready to scale and support as many businesses as we could. With lifted restrictions here in Colorado, we try to meet with our clients as often as possible. Even if that means stopping by to say hi and support their business. ” Carly advised.
The Next Big Change in Social
Over the last few years social media platforms have moved more towards audio based and short video trends than ever before. Gone are the days of creating a post with 150 characters and a simple emjoi. We asked Carly what she expects to be the next big change with social media and how Mountain Air Marketing is preparing to keep up. “At some point, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and (insert today’s trending platform) will become dismal. Many platforms have come and gone, and that will always happen, so making sure we stay up to date on new and emerging social platforms is very important for us. Different social media platforms will bring their only challenges with having to learn them, understanding which platform makes the most sense for our clients and how to properly advertise on them will be a big part of keeping us competitive among other agencies.” Carly further expressed that “Artificial Intelligence is definitely going to play as a big factor of change over the next few years, as technology is constantly booming and bringing new features into all aspects of life. I know facial recognition will play a big role in how apps will determine what consumers like and do not like.”
Teaming Up with Technology
Technology plays a pivotal role in digital marketing and how data and user behavior is used to connect the business and consumer. Advancements in technology are constantly changing and it’s important for every marketing professional to be on top of these changes and algorithm updates for their clients.
Carly is highly attentive to changes in analytics, new behaviors of consumers, and the highs and lows in website traffic. Carly’s use of tracking tools and her precise intuition built on years of experience gives Mountain Air Marketing’s clients a huge advantage. Carly focuses her SEO strategies on mapping markets and devising new ways of developing unique and successful campaigns. Though it often takes extensive research and endless A/B testing, she is dedicated to keeping her clients afloat in the most saturated parts of the Internet.
As Carly continues to climb mountains in the digital marketing world and the vast online landscape of SEO, she puts a focus on algorithms and the seemingly endless amounts of data she tracks on a monthly basis. New updates in search engine algorithms is the primary box on Carly’s checklist. Carly noted, “We stay up-to-date as best we can on upcoming changes that have been whispered around. Education and consistent training is the cornerstone of MAM’s success. It is also important to us to educate our clients on what is happening in the digital world, and make sure they are aware of the pieces we are incorporating into their marketing strategies.”
Social Kindness and Acceptance
We asked Carly, if given a chance, what change she would bring to the social media industry, to which she answered, “If I could bring one change to social media, it would be to make platforms more positive and uplifting. Lots of people tend to hide behind their profiles and create a lot of negativity in the space. People’s lives get affected by this, which is so horrible. I would love to see more filtration of hate, and more utilization of lifting people up to create a kinder world.”
