We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Siri Borgen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Siri thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so one thing we think people don’t talk about nearly enough is investments – either time or money. What’s one of the best or worst investments you’ve made and what did you learned from the experience?

I’ve dabbled in multiple forms of investing – everything from the more “traditional” and “safe” forms of investing like stocks and bonds, to the more volatile and “riskier” investments like cryptocurrency and NFT’s. Through my personal investing journey, I’ve learned that while some investments can be very rewarding, they all have varying levels of risk.

I’ve seen huge gains, and I’ve also seen huge losses. In one instance I saw a $500 investment skyrocket to be worth over $200,000 (and then tumble back down by 90%). I’ve managed to take significant profits off of the table in several areas – but I’ve also poured thousands of dollars into projects just to watch it diminish into almost nothing.

After years of investing in the businesses and projects of others, I realized over time that one investment you will never truly take losses on is the one you make in yourself. Now as an agency owner, I have taken these lessons with me as I continue to pour into myself and my own business.

After many years of producing media and marketing strategies for everything from Mom-and-Pop shops to Billion-Dollar Brands, I incorporated Borgen Media in January of 2023 with the mission of helping other businesses solve problems and scale with holistic media strategies.

This is not the first time I’ve built a business from scratch. This time around, I did have some personal savings that I was willing to use as capital towards start-up costs. It wasn’t much, so I knew I needed to make every cent count.

After much deliberation on whether that should go towards film equipment, software tools, and other hard costs of production – I ultimately committed to investing in private consulting and coaching. The way I see it: investing in the knowledge, wisdom, and guidance from people who have already done what I want to do is far more valuable than any piece of equipment or fancy software. I soon confirmed this, because I used a significant portion of the first year’s revenue towards those types of investments as well.

Making this investment in myself and my education as the founder is one of the most important decisions I’ve ever made – and it’s one that I continue to make on a daily basis. Everything – from the food you eat, to the people you surround yourself with, to the media you consume and how you spend your time – can be considered an investment in yourself.

If you think about it logically, making an investment in coaching and education as a business owner can look like this: Say you’re just getting started and making somewhere in the range of 5K/month profit as a small business owner. If you’re able to save/invest 1K of that – you could be putting 12K/year into index funds, crypto or real estate. OR you could invest in learning the skills needed to get you to 10K/month and above. As soon as you do, you now have 6K/month or 72K/year to put towards savings and investments – and even then, much of that can be re-invested in the business to scale profits up even further. Of course, this is just an example and results will vary – but I personally believe the growth potential is too good to pass up. For me, it was a no-brainer.

No more than 16 months later from hiring high-level consultants, I see how much I’ve transformed in such a short time span and how much clarity I’ve gained through the process. I realize that this is truly the best ROI I’ve ever seen. Yes, even better than the 40,000% gains on crypto – because what’s more important to me than acquiring material success is who I become in the process.

That’s why some people can gain everything just to lose it all. And others can lose it all – then turn around and get it right back.

Building a business isn’t just about the work ethic. It’s not just having the “hustle” and the “drive” to “make things happen.” I always had the work ethic and the drive, but I didn’t always have the strategies and the frameworks needed in order to build a business that will not only scale sustainably, but that will last over time.

The landscape is always changing – And while it’s good to have a plan, it’s better to be ready for anything. Part of that is simply having the confidence and self-belief to know that you can handle whatever comes your way. To me, that only comes with consistently putting in the work to become a better version of myself over time.

Whether you consider yourself a creative or not – I think who you are and who you choose to become over time is some of the greatest work you can ever do. You are your own masterpiece. You are your own greatest asset

The next big investment I’m considering is in building a team. I’ve already hired for a few key roles in sales and marketing, and I have plenty of contractors and agency partners on the roster for production but I would like to add on more full-time personnel over the coming years. That’s another critical investment that deserves attention. After investing time and money into setting up the infrastructure and systems within the business, I am looking to bring in new talent to help me keep everything running smoothly as it expands.

Siri, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My creative journey began when I was just three years old. I had been drawing and painting since I could pick up a pencil. I was always captured by the art of storytelling and had a love for performance, theater and film. In my first year at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), I fell in love with the art of film production.

That was back in 2010 and since then I have worked on hundreds of projects – from award-winning feature films to music videos, documentaries, commercials and more. I’ve had the opportunity to work with huge brands like Adidas, Forbes, Ciroc, Call of Duty, Spectrum, and several others.

After over a decade of working with all kinds of businesses across industries, I founded my new agency, Borgen Media, with the mission of helping clients solve real-life problems and reach new heights in their business.

On the marketing side, this can look like a story-driven advertisement that boosts sales, improves conversions and lowers customer acquisition costs. Or it could be a documentary-style brand story, helping viewers understand the mission of the business on a deeper level and fostering greater brand loyalty.

It could also look like ongoing social media content that nurtures prospects and closes sales 24/7. On the other hand, we also help businesses operate more efficiently by creating internal media on everything from technical trainings, SOP’s and company culture. This helps companies save time and money, ultimately boosting profitability.

Video can be an extremely effective tool in a business, but this only works if you know how to properly harness its true power – and that’s where we see an opportunity to really help.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

The start-up capital was purely self-funded. In the years leading up to that moment, I had already become passionate about investing – so I had been working long hours across multiple gigs to maximize my income. I also kept my expenses very low so that I would be able to save and invest as much as possible.

This helped me build enough of a cushion to where I could really invest the time and energy needed to start the business from scratch. I knew it may take some time to become consistently profitable – so I needed to make sure I would have enough runway that I could sustain myself while working on the business in the first year or two.

Besides allocating cash towards keeping myself afloat, I also invested roughly 30K in the business in the first year, although much of that was covered by revenue. This went towards things like film equipment, hard costs of production, software subscriptions, LLC paperwork and more. But the largest portion of that was invested in private coaching and consulting.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

As much as possible, I’ve always done my best to over-deliver. I truly believe that clients should receive disproportionate value in return for their investment in my services. For example – I’ve delivered projects that are quantifiably worth 10-20x more than what I charged the client.

What’s more important to me than the quantity of clients I have is the quality of my relationships with those clients.

I always strive to not only help clients achieve the best results possible – but to also ensure that they have a great experience in the process. A large percentage of revenue in the past few years has been referral-based, so it seems to me that’s an indication that it’s working.

Still, there is always room for improvement, and I’m always in the process of refining my own skills, connecting with other creatives and entrepreneurs to add to our roster, partnering with other agencies, and all around exploring new ways to provide even more value to our clients.

I believe this results-driven, clients-first mentality has served me well and will continue to do so in the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.borgenmediaco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siriborgen/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siriborgen/

Image Credits

Images captured by John Kovalsky (@johnmrfon) Martel Mccornell (@martelllytel) Lincoln Byeoh (@link_in_bio) and Ben Thatcher (@benthatchervideo)