We recently connected with Katie Costa and have shared our conversation below.

Katie, appreciate you joining us today. Any thoughts around creating more inclusive workplaces?

The most exciting thing to me when I thought about building a business with a team of creatives was the thought of being able to give creative workplace opportunities to people who may traditionally be looked over or excluded due to gender identity, race, sexual orientation, or age. One of, if not our #1 brand values is inclusivity, because everyone deserves the spotlight to live their creative dreams!

There’s no denying that I’m in the position I’m in due to my privilege and position as a white middle class woman who was lucky enough to go through college with the help of my parents. I not only had financial support through schooling and to acquire necessary tools and equipment, but also emotional support from a strong family unit. Many aren’t so lucky to receive this kind of support.

As we grow the BLYNK team of part time freelancers and interns, I keep inclusivity at the forefront of my mind. A big struggle for college students, recent grads, or young adults is that they need experience to get experience. Seems almost impossible sometimes. This is why I love bringing on creatives who have that fire but haven’t been able to get professional experience yet. Being able to be alongside someone in their creative professional journey from the very beginning is such an honor. When we add to our team, usually education modules are involved so our team is able to build their resume and portfolio exactly how they want.

I’m very much an open book in terms of sharing my experiences and knowledge that I’ve acquired while being in the design and social media industry! I love taking the interests of my team members and turning them into real industry skills to take with them in the future.

Now that I have built a platform of just about 20k followers of BLYNK, I’m excited to provide more content creation opportunities, specifically for POC and LGBTQIA+ creatives to be able to build off of our preexisting audience and platform. Just as white cis-gendered privilege is alive and well offline and in real life, same goes for online as algorithms and digital money-making opportunities usually favor white creators and businesses.

Since the beginning, I have always been drawn to working with POC owned brands and have found these projects to be the most rewarding, insightful, and exciting. Living in the heart of Atlanta for 5 years now has given me the opportunity to be a guest in black spaces rich with culture, something I never got to experience in my predominately white hometown. I feel incredibly grateful to be in the position to learn more about the POC experience on social media and in business through my clients during our discovery and strategy sessions for projects. That’s not enough though, which is why the growth of our team is prioritized with inclusivity in mind.

I am excited for BLYNK to grow so we can continue to employ and provide opportunities for everyone to be heard and seen for their creative ideas and successes.

Katie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hey Hey! I’m Katie, the lead designer and founder of BLYNK Social.

We create playfully professional brand strategy, design, and social media content for bad*ss brands. Everything from brand mission and values, logos, web design, packaging design, and social media posts for brands that are tired of inconsistency and fading into the background. Our clients LOVE us for our bold and colorful branding and outside of the box designs. Some of the main industries we serve are beauty, fashion, lifestyle, and wellness.

I am most proud of the way I’ve been able to turn my quirks and eccentric style into a brand that attracts like minded clients. Have to brag for a second that just about every client inquiry is someone with a dope idea and an exciting creative eye. This tells me that I am marketing BLYNK as authentically as humanely possible, and people are resonating with our unapologetic approach.

You should be having FUN in your business, and we help with that.

We are also a Gen Z founded and ran agency, providing a fresh perspective on the digital world.

BLYNK is a safe space to explore creativity and embrace differences, after all this is what makes us so unique. THIS is where your competitive edge lives! We want to elevate those unique qualities to help brands stand out in the market.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

SOCIAL MEDIA!!!!

We are so honored to have clients come to us almost 100% of the time. This means no external outreach or paid advertising. THIS is how powerful social media can be for your business.

We put our most authentic selves out into the digital word with the freedom of self expression through content creation and in turn, we get to work with straight up bad*ss clients who are totally aligned with our creative eye. Tik Tok has been the most beneficial to us and we upload a mix of portfolio pieces, design time-lapses, quirky trends, and quick tips and tricks for business owners. We begin building a relationship with followers from the start so when they’re ready to invest in branding or social media, there’s no doubt they’ll be coming to us.

Consistency is key, you’ve heard this before. But it is so so so very true on social media. We are always prompt to respond to comments & DM’s, always having our door open for questions or conversation.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is when people just GET IT. Let me tell you, our clients just get it. There’s nothing more rewarding than getting paid and being validated for the art you create because it feels like you’re getting paid for being yourself. When clients love the creative work I do for them, there’s nothing better.

We can spend our whole lives looking to be seen for who we really are, luckily for me at 23, I feel like through BLYNK, people see me for who I really am. I’ve always known I was creatively inclined and it feels so good to be living a creative life so outwardly and unapologetically.

So I get to live a life I’m OBSESSED with, and I also get to help small business owners live a life they’re OBSESSED with, how cool?!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.blynksocial.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blynksocial/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-costa-12701914a/
• Others:
  BLYNK wouldn’t be the same without our team & clients, I wanted to spotlight a few!

  Ginger & Carrot Productions, Client & Partners: https://www.gingerandcarrot.com/

  Alondra from Le Miel, Instagram SMM: https://www.lemielthelabel.com/

  Authentic Aaveri Creative Agency, Client: https://www.authenticaaveriagency.com/

Image Credits
Hanna Middleton