Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Catryce Thompson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Catryce, thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
There is not just one story that ignited my drive to do what I do. I have always had a passion for helping others and believe that this passion is rooted in being the oldest of five kids, but also being raised in a church that puts a huge emphasis on community service. From a young age, I have been encouraged to serve others and be selfless.
If you had asked me at 16 what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would’ve told you that I wanted to be a high school family and consumer science teacher. My first “real” relationship was pretty toxic, and the relationship ended right as my health class was discussing sex & relationships. The unit opened my eyes to see that I wasn’t crazy for the anxieties and concerns that I had throughout the later part of the relationship. It was at that time that I determined that I wanted to be a family and consumer science teacher, because I wanted to teach about topics such as love, sex, and relationships. Learning about those topics helped me make sense of things that I didn’t have the words to talk about when I was in that relationship and I wanted to provide support for others as they navigated relationships.
Now at 23, I want to be the CEO of a business empire, but that empire will be focused on impacting people’s lives. Right now the business that I am working to build up to start this empire is Captured Media PNW (a small business support agency). I founded Captured Media with a friend in September 2022, but had begun supporting small businesses through social media management a year prior. It was actually helping my former business partner that really ignited my passion for supporting small businesses as I had helped them scale their business by investing in a web and brand designer plus a coach for them as well as assisting them at their events without pay as I knew that finances were a pain point for them as they are for many entrepreneurs in their first couple years of business. I saw how impactful my contributions and support were whether it was tackling tough conversations with clients or helping create content for their socials. I wanted to share my skills and resources with others. Nowadays, I work to support small businesses through a wide variety of services such as social media management, online course creation, and business consulting, and I try my very hardest to make my services financially accessible.
Catryce, 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?
As I mentioned before, I am 23 years old. I’m an entrepreneur based in Seattle, WA, and currently own and run two businesses, Thriving Human and Captured Media PNW. Thriving Human’s operations are currently on hold, but it is a young adult lifestyle & wellness brand. I also work as a swim instructor for Natura Splash, and freelance model primarily with my boyfriend, Reese. I am starting to get back into influencing, but am not in a rush to get brand collaborations, but influencing is what got me into working online.
Every week, better yet every day for me looks different and I absolutely love it. Growing up, I was told that I had to pick one thing and stick with it as a career. In high school I did a plethora of things, my favorites being: running varsity cross country and track, and being the sound technician for my high school’s jazz choir. When I graduated high school, I went to college and started working, and quickly my schedule became just work and school. I felt suffocated by the lack of freedom my schedule allowed. After graduating from Washington State University in December 2021, I determined that I would work until I hit my one year mark in my new position at my 9-5 job, and then would quit and pursue entrepreneurship full-time. Five months later, I was terminated from my job and though I thought I would fight the termination as I was not financially where I wanted to be and had consulted a lawyer who told me that they could get me my job back, I decided to take a leap of faith, believe in myself, and begin my full-time entrepreneurial journey three months early.
At the time of my termination, I only had one business which was Thriving Human, and I knew that I wasn’t in a place to make a lot of money from it. A couple months prior to my termination, my partner of five years ended our relationship (thankfully!!!) which had pivoted my focus for Thriving Human to building a community through sharing my life experiences, especially those surrounding the aspects of my relationship that I had kept quiet about prior to the break up. It was incredible to see how impactful sharing my story was, and it helped others know that they weren’t alone.
One of my business coaches, Jennifer Morilla, encouraged me to focus my money making efforts on social media management and virtual assistance as I had worked with a couple local photographers on their Instagrams and had been supporting another in a multitude of ways (business consulting, customer support, investing, etc.). Without really even trying or having a service suite ironed out, I landed Bold Beach Swim (BBS) as a social media management client through a word of mouth referral (thanks, Adya!), and in January 2023, I was promoted to COO. Around the time that I landed BBS as a client, I pitched to my best friend the idea of running a digital marketing agency together and in late September 2022, Captured Media PNW was born.
Unfortunately, after a month and a half of working together, my friend turned business partner determined that they could not financially justify investing into the agency, and stopped working for Captured Media PNW. I was hesitant to keep building Captured Media, but after getting needed tough love from my business coach, Alex Porterfield, I determined that I would be just fine flying solo, and made the decision to pivot the business from being a digital marketing agency to a small business support agency which allowed me to diversify our service offerings. It’s been five months of flying solo, and business is booming in a way that I never imagined it would, and I am now beginning to expand our team.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In December 2022, I was faced with a PR nightmare after I posted a reel about not having to tag your photographer in every post where I then outlined in the caption usage rights as well as other ways to go about crediting your photographer. This reel struck a chord with my former business partner who went on to defame me and my businesses on their Instagram. Their posts outraged their followers who without gathering more information about the situation flocked to my comment sections to criticize me. It was crazy how very few people cared about the truth, but also how little someone I called my best friend cared about what they were doing. I had reached out to them to take down their posts, and they basically told me that the defamation was deserved. To some degree it made sense as defaming me could make it possible to get rid of me as a competitor as they opened their own digital marketing practice right after telling me they could not justify paying to officialize our agency by making it a formal LLC or investing in a CPA to help with taxes.
It was hard to see how my business would survive the defamation as they were better known in our local community and have a much larger following on social media than I do. If I am being honest, I almost closed Captured Media, but after some tough love from my business coaches, and some kind words from my friends and family, I came to my senses that I would be a fool to give up my dreams of helping people turn their entrepreneurial dreams into reality. In light of the defamation, I deactivated my social accounts to give myself the time and space to (1) enjoy the holidays and (2) determine what next steps I needed to take to move forward. Despite fears of not being able to rebuild after the defamation, following the holidays I reactivated my social accounts, and began to brainstorm and draft content such informational posts, I erased my lead tracker as several of my hot leads got poached during the defamation, and began nurturing new leads.I also booked a branding photographer as I was told that I was no longer allowed to use any of the photos that had been taken by my former partner and that I would not be receiving the remainder of the galleries I had been waiting on. Branding photos were an expense that I was unsure about as I had already spent hundreds of dollars and used up a lot of resources for the photos that I accumulated in the year and a half that I had worked with my former business partner (I had initially hired them as a content photographer way back in my influencing days). I tried to keep my head up, and tried my hardest to not let the sadness and hurt hold me back from getting work done. I went into the new year with the belief that the universe would reward me for the work that I had put in not only during that time, but from the moment I opened the agency. Almost halfway done with 2023, and Captured Media has blown up.
One of the hardest things during the defamation was to sit there and just take it. I consulted a lawyer who told me I could make a statement, and release the evidence that would debunk what was being said. They also told me that I could just put my head down, take it, and show that what was posted was lies. I’d be lying if I said that when everything was happening that I didn’t want my former business partner to hurt like I was, but I opted to just focus on building the best small business support agency possible. I decided to focus on competing with myself, and see just how far I could go. In the months that followed, I landed clients across the nation, I got paid to travel, I worked with Netflix stars, and was able to match my 9-5 salary. And like I said, we aren’t even halfway through 2023 yet. I am working on a really special offer that I think could change the game of early entrepreneurship, and it launches this summer.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I have invested in numerous programs and courses. My journey actually started when I decided to invest in an influencer course on a whim in April 2020. In the last three years, I have invested roughly $15k into learning how to run a business via social media, create online courses, negotiating with brands, and a bunch more. I have found it extremely helpful to be able to have people that I can bounce ideas off of, and ask questions to who have been where I’ve been and accomplished goals that I hope to one day accomplish.
As someone who is running a business who wants other entrepreneurs to invest in my services, I have made it a priority to invest in myself and my business. In late 2020, I started therapy, and while I was looking for a therapist, I was encouraged to work with a therapist who goes to therapy themselves. I was told that I should trust my mental health to someone who cares about their own. I think the same is to be said about outsourcing/hiring in business, you should work with people who invest in themselves in the same way they want you to invest in them.
The three course and program investments that I would say I have learned the most from are Naomi Genota’s Outside Your Cubicle group coaching program, Jennifer Morilla’s Simplify to Amplify mastermind, and Alex Porterfield’s Influencer Support Method course. Without Naomi, Jen, and Alex’s guidance and support, I would not be as successful as I am now and I’m only a couple years in. My best advice is to anyone looking to be an entrepreneur is to ask questions and invest in help.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.catrycethompson.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catrycethompson
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capturedmedia.pnw
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thethrivinghuman
Image Credits
Aesthete by Alexandrae Allison Haley Photography Nadja Seidal Photography