Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Katlyn Bishop. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Katlyn, appreciate you joining us today. So, folks often look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight – but that often obscures all the nitty, gritty details of everything that went into the growth phase of your business. We’d love to hear about your scaling story and how you scaled up?
Love this question! I’ve been in my creative career for 12 years. I did the agency life for 7 years, and where you’re in that, you’re so heads down and even not allowed to post about the work you’re doing under NDA, so I never posted about my work. My career success was all because of word of mouth. So when I decided to go freelance in 2019, I had to start telling the world and showing my work! Anytime I’ve valued posting my work online, now I deeply benefit from it. In 2020 I moved to Miami, a city FLOWING with creativity and wild opportunities. I was able to work at one of the most creatively influential churches of our generation, VOUS Church. Through that, I worked on a project with Virgil Abloh (very indirectly of course) during Art Basel but this still BLEW MY MIND. And honestly opened up a lot of doors. I continued to post my work like crazy, and I could tell a lot of eyes were on me due to the projects I was abel to be a part of. Through this, I had the founder of Tribl records / Maverick City Music, reach out directly to me and say, “I’ve been keeping tabs on your for a long time, we’re looking for a Creative Director for an upcoming project, and we want you.” This period of time helped me realize that there were SO many incredible creatives out there that could have been in my position, and I realized it all comes down to right opportunity, right timing and right place. I got insanely lucky. And one opportunity would eventually lead to another one I couldn’t believe I got. This got me to a point where I was getting so much work word of mouth, that I couldn’t keep up with it. And someone a long time ago said, “turning away work is stupid.” So… through my network and meeting other really amazing creatives, I started to bring them along. “Hey, I have this work, and I can’t take it on, would you come on board and help me?” Instead of just referring people and “giving money away.” I decided to keep everything in-house. I oversaw the project, we created processes together, dialed it in, got better together as a team and grew. This started VERY slow of course. And honestly you start off feeling kind of dumb for making less because you’re giving most of the money to your freelancer. So most people go backwards at this point.. But then, I started to advocate for charging more, because if I charge more, I can pay my contractors more AND I can still get paid well. This all happened the year I got married and moved back across the country to Minneapolis. I took 3 months off that year to plan. my wedding and move. So I told my contractors, “all hands on deck, I’m passing EVERYTHING to you.” It blew my mind when at the end of the year I realized I made more money than I ever had before, AND I BARELY WORKED! That’s when something unlocked in my about scaling. We can do MORE, together. We can work on BIGGER projects, because we have more man power. And I can collaborate again instead of being on my lonesome island. It lights me up to see other creatives fly, and connect them to opportunities that wouldn’t have been possible without us expanding our doors. This year, 2025, has been all about scaling, figuring out our customer acquisition channels (so we can keep supplying our contractors with jobs), and being ON the business, not in it. It’s opened up my eyes in so many ways. You definitely do transition from being fully creative to being more of a leader / business owner. And some people would say they miss the craft, but to me it gives me the option to work on what I want when I want.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Went to school at the Art Institute Mpls, got my first job at Periscope Digital Ad Agency (now Betty). We officially started and branded our creative studio Monarch Collective in 2023/2024. When my husband and I got married and decided to merge our businesses and scale up from the freelance life. He is a videographer/photographer. So he oversees our film department. Then I oversee our branding, design, creative direction. We also do websites and social media. Again, we can do a lot with a collective. We sort of “assemble the avengers” when we win a project. We have about 15 contractors that we utilize and call upon when we win projects. Our network is vast so it makes our skillsets wide. Periscope was full service so I think it’s just in my DNA to think about brands in that way. From the top down, what do they need. Not just be siloed into one things they’re asking of up. We really level up their whole brand. We’ve worked a lot in the christian space. it’s a small industry, so once you’re in you’re in, so we’ve worked with a lot of big names there. (House of David on Prime Video, Tim and Juliette Ross, Natalie Grant, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Maverick City Music) We also work in entertainment, fashion, travel, and hospitality.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I think for a business owner / freelancer you’re playing the wave game. Waves of surplus, then waves where you have nothing coming in. A friend gave me advice a long time ago when I started and said that “it’s never as good as you think it is, and it’s never as bad as you think it is either.” He encouraged me to not pay attention to the waves, to maintain a steadiness even though everything around you is playing with your emotions. That stuck with me, and has helped me to not be phased by the emotional drama that is my bank account haha.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Yes. I truly believe God has put me here on this earth to activate creativity in the world. He told me once, ” there are so many inactive creatives in the world, and I need you to activate them.” I’ve seen so many creatives struggle with imposter syndrome and not believe in their own greatness simply because they think they aren’t enough. There’s this gap every creative has, and that’s the gap between your level of genius ideas, and your ability to actually execute on them. And in that gap, while you’re in school, you’re learning your craft and tools… you need to not give up! It takes TIME to be incredible with the tools you’re given. Far too many people don’t believe in themselves and aren’t patient with the journey. And then.. one day it clicks, and you’re no longer held back because you “don’t know how to make it happen.” There will be a day, when your most creative ideas are possible. AND THAT MOMENT FEELS GOOD. For me that was probably 8 years into my career. Then everything just started to flow, the stars start to align, and you start to win the projects that you’ve been dreaming about forever. You just have to KEEP GOING.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.monarchco.studio
- Instagram: @monarchco.studio
- Linkedin: Katlyn Bishop
- Other: other business – didn’t really share much about but you can add it if it feels relevant. www.brandyourchurch.co @brandyourchurch.co
