We were lucky to catch up with Katie Gootenberg recently and have shared our conversation below.

Katie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I’ve had a lot of loss in my life — my dad’s health struggles loomed over my head from the time I was 17 until he eventually passed when I was 28, and (in my humble opinion) have lost too many people too early in life. So I have a skewed perspective about life and legacy.

The truth is that both life can be long. And it can also be short. And we have zero clue either way.

A lot of people talk about what they leave behind as their legacy, and I totally get that, but for me, the legacy is what I do while I am here.

I hope that I constantly show up with a kind, soft heart. I hope I’m present and warm to the people I love most. I hope I continue to live in a way and build a life that brings me joy and fulfillment. And yeah, I have big dreams about what I want to build for the agency and the life I want to create, and therefore what I want to leave behind one day, but the thing I’ve learned about legacies from all the loss in my life is that it’s the memories and moments you create while you’re here that mean the most when someone’s gone.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Digitally Enhanced Marketing is a full-service, cross-channel digital marketing agency.

Because we have all the marketing tools and channels at our disposal, we’re able to help our clients build simple, stunning and POWERFUL programs that truly move the needle.

A few industries have organically emerged within the business, but one that we’re heavily focused on now is supporting med spas and helping them navigate the seemingly complicated red tape they face when it comes to running ads and managing leads.

We’ve developed a proven system that not only creates Google & Meta-compliant ads, but we take it a step further by building them out an entire, automated funnel to manage the leads to handle things like cart abandonment, appointment reminders and pre-treatment procedure, reputation management, win-back programs and more.

Not only do these AI-powered automations take the heavy lifting off their in-house staff, but we’ve seen this work recoup tens of thousands in revenue that would have fallen through the cracks otherwise.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’m definitely in the midst of a pivot right now and it’s pretty sticky and uncomfortable if I’m being honest.

While I’m not one to try to harp on unfortunate circumstances, the economy has had a massive impact on my clients’ comfort with investing in marketing and therefore our bottom line.

What’s interesting is I could feel before any clients started pausing programs that I – and therefore the agency – was coming up to a time of transition, but I didn’t want or expect it to be as drastic as it has been.

I knew I wanted to elevate the way we did business; more creative projects, larger clients with bigger budgets, working with household names, etc., but I expected to be able to lean on the current clients to financially support us as we evolved and expanded. That, however, didn’t happen as some of our largest clients started putting programs on hold towards the end of 2024.

While we still work with lots of them in a smaller, less consistent capacity, it’s been a massive hit to the business and bottom line.

I don’t love it, if I’m being honest, but I do believe I have the right team, partners, tools, beliefs, etc. in place to pivot and can see where we’re going, even if we’re not there yet. I don’t know where this story goes next, but I do know that even throughout this chapter, it’s reaffirmed that this is what I want to do and that I’ll do whatever it takes to figure it out and continue to grow the agency and its impact to what I believe in my bones it can be.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When I first started working, I had a few identity crises about “is this my life until I’m 65?!”

I hated the idea for working tirelessly for something you don’t really care about. I hated that someone else told you how much you were worth and what you should get paid. I hated that my life and my happiness revolved around work and if I had a good boss at the time or not. I hated that you had to focus on how you were being perceived, rather than what you were building. I hated that it felt soul crushing, but there seemed to be no way out.

However, when I started my own business, that was the only playbook I knew to go off of because I didn’t know any other entrepreneurs or business owners.

So I woke up insanely early and went to bed too late. I worked around the clock, literally making up things to do so I could feel accomplished and tell people that I was “hustling.” And I treated every prospective client like a miserable boss I had to over-perform form.

And lo and behold, I was miserable and kept looking for a job to go back to.

Thankfully though, I finally made more friends in this world who were living the types of lives that I wanted to live and showed me that it was not only OK to drop all the rules corporate America ingrained in me, but that I had to if I was going to actually enjoy what I was building.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://digitallyenhanced.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/digitally.enhanced.marketing/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-gootenberg/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@digitally.enhanced.mktg

Image Credits

Photos of me/the agency are by Alisa Hart (https://www.instagram.com/alisanicholle/)

Client photos were done by Ali Stone (https://www.instagram.com/alialistone/) and Andres Ortiz (https://www.instagram.com/andresophotography/)