We were lucky to catch up with Brady O’rourke recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Brady thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

The core of my mission is providing a work environment that my employees are happy to be in. Originally, I thought that translated to remote work. Social Link was fully remote from 2008 to 2020. It wasn’t until after COVID that we decided to embrace the hybrid model. Truly, there’s nothing like brainstorming something amazing in a room together.

Sure, there’s shared creativity that can be achieved virtually, but sometimes ideas roll out best when the browser windows are closed. Trust is essential for a team to work well with one another; it’s also a necessary component of the upbeat environment I’ve worked hard to create. Closeness encourages that trust, and is key to the collaboration that great ideas demand.

Brady, 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?

I grew up in Minnesota in a town with a graduating high school class size of 32. Although there wasn’t a lot going on in that small town, there was music, and there my love of marketing was found. Prior to starting Social Link, I was heavily involved in the music industry and learned a lot about event promotion. I later began working in hospitality for a management company overseeing hotel marketing strategy. I also had a three year stint at a billion dollar company running an internal marketing team. These experiences taught me about big business marketing, and what it takes to run a successful company in the corporate world.

I always had a side hustle, and continue to have plenty, but Social Link was the first time I took a real leap of faith and bet on myself. We didn’t have any investors–everything was built from the ground up. There were a lot of “fake it until you make it,” moments, but the lessons I learned through founding Social Link have made me a stronger operator, placing client success at the core of what our agency does.

Today, Social Link is a full service marketing and advertising agency. We help elevate brands and increase their revenue using custom approaches and strategies. Sometimes that looks like a simple lead generation campaign using social media or Google ads, or really sinking our teeth into something bigger, like full brand disciplines and media buying. If it hits a screen, we can develop it–commercials, app design, or interactive brand experience websites–Social Link can do it all, and do it well. Our services are rooted in creativity and our strategies are based on data.

Personally, I take a lot of pride in all that we do. Everything we put out the door has a client-first mentality. We genuinely want to bring positive impacts to our partnerships and their revenues. In the end, customer service is our salesman.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

For Social Link’s initial funds, I utilized Airbnb to rent out a room in our house. The extra income was great, but we got tired of hosting in our actual home, so we decided to start another business: short term rental management. Today, that company is closing in on 150 properties in their portfolio, and counting!

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

Near death moments for a business are the scariest kinds of moments for an owner. Naturally, you do everything you can to ensure you never miss a beat. You take care of your people first. There were times where I would go without a pay check for months just to keep the business steadily running. To combat this, I learned to diversify, and I created multiple lines of income to ensure stability on all fronts.

Managing growth and profitability is a difficult task if you want to go fast (and I always do). What I’ve found to be helpful is to lean on some credit cards, become friends with the local banker, and quickly make it to the next sale. Start up mode requires a keep-the-lights on mentality. But once you do keep the lights on, opportunities and sales will come. And when they do, the lights don’t shut off.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sociallink.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sociallinkco/?utm_medium=copy_link
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sociallinkco/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradyorourke/