We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Caitlyn Grad a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Caitlyn thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. The first dollar you earn in a new endeavor is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.

My first real client was a fireplace company, a small business that made handcrafted fireplace grates. They found me through a local Facebook group where I had been showing up consistently, sharing value, and building a presence in the small business community.
They needed something specific. Not just a social media manager who could write captions from a desk, but someone who could actually show up onsite, pick up a camera, and capture the product in a way that made people feel something. That was me.
When they said yes I remember the rush. At the time I was working part time at a marketing agency, learning the craft from the inside, but this was different. This was mine. A real business choosing me, not my employer, not a team, me. They signed on for $2,000 and I treated it like a $2 million contract.
The timing was perfect and poetic. A fireplace company in winter. There is something fitting about your first real spark happening in the coldest season. We only worked together for one winter season but it did not matter. That first yes lit something in me that has not gone out since. It proved the model worked, that I could find clients, show up onsite, create content that got results, and get paid to do exactly what I loved.
Every client I have signed since has come through that same foundation, showing up, building trust, and delivering work that speaks for itself. But that fireplace company will always hold a special place. They were the first ones to bet on me.
And I never forgot it.

Caitlyn, 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?

My name is Caitlyn Grad and I am the founder of Caitlyn Grad Marketing, a social media strategy and short-form content business based in Burlington, Connecticut. I help small businesses and mission-driven founders build a purposeful, results-driven presence online by functioning as their dedicated fractional Head of Social, owning everything from strategy through execution.

How I Got Here

My story starts in 2018 when my favorite pearl necklace broke. Instead of throwing it away, my dad and I fixed it and something clicked. I noticed pearl necklaces were trending, made a batch, and sold them at school. That decision became Made by Caitlyn, my first brand, and the moment I realized I was wired to build things.

What I fell in love with was not the product. It was the marketing. I was there for the rise of TikTok from day one, testing hooks and messaging until midnight, obsessing over what made people stop scrolling. I taught myself content strategy, community building, and short-form video through pure trial and error and watched it drive real organic sales. I closed that chapter in 2022 when I realized my passion was not jewelry. It was storytelling, strategy, and helping brands connect with people.

I went back to school for marketing communications, began consulting for local Connecticut businesses, and kept seeing the same problem everywhere I looked. Incredible founders doing meaningful work but struggling to communicate their value online. They were not short on passion. They were short on strategy. I founded Caitlyn Grad Marketing in January 2024 to fill that gap.

What I Do

I offer full-service social media management, social media strategy, content creation, and email marketing, all centered on short-form video designed to stop the scroll and drive real audience action.

Each monthly retainer is a complete done-for-you social media solution. I handle monthly strategy development, content planning, scripting, video filming (onsite or remote depending on the package), editing, 20 posts per month across all major platforms, daily community management and engagement, monthly analytics reporting, and a monthly strategy meeting. I do not hand clients a content calendar and walk away. I build the strategy, create the content, manage the channel, and stay accountable to real business outcomes.

I also offer standalone social media consulting for business owners and marketing teams, and email marketing services for clients who want to deepen their connection with their audience beyond social.

The Problem I Solve

Most small businesses are already posting on social media. The problem is they are posting without a clear point of view, a defined audience, or a plan tied to real business goals. They are visible but not growing. Hiring a full-time social media employee is not financially realistic for most small businesses, and agencies offer templated solutions that do not reflect the brand’s mission or community. I fill that gap, delivering senior-level strategic thinking and hands-on execution at a price point that works for small and mid-sized businesses.

What Sets Me Apart

I am not an agency. I am not a scheduler. I am a creative strategist who builds the plan and makes sure it actually gets made. Every client works directly with me, on every strategy decision, every piece of content, and every performance review. My approach is rooted in platform expertise, audience psychology, and a deep belief that great short-form content is both an art and a science.

I have generated over 7 million impressions for clients in 2025 alone. I maintain an average client retention of 2+ years because the results keep coming. And every client I have ever signed has come through organic social media and local community presence. I have never run a paid ad for my own business. Not once. Every lead, every discovery call, every signed contract has come from showing up consistently, building trust online, and letting the work speak for itself. If that is not proof that my approach works, I do not know what is.

What I Am Most Proud Of

My biggest accomplishment is not a number on a dashboard. It is the ripple effect.

The pediatric therapy center I work with is reaching more families who need occupational, physical, and speech-language pathology services. The life skills program for young adults with varying abilities is building a stronger community presence and connecting with more people who benefit from their work. The local businesses I serve are growing their customer bases, filling their schedules, and strengthening their neighborhoods.

When a small business grows, its community grows with it. More people helped. More programs supported. More neighbors served. I sit at the beginning of that chain, and that is what gets me out of bed every morning.

What I Want You to Know

I started this business as a solo woman founder with a laptop and an obsessive love for social media strategy. I built it because I believed small businesses doing good work deserved to be seen, and I have never stopped believing that.

If you are a small business or mission-driven founder who is tired of posting without a plan, tired of agencies that do not get you, and ready for a partner who will show up with strategy and stay through execution, I am that person.

Every brand has a story worth stopping for. I make sure yours gets told.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Building my audience on social media taught me the same lesson I teach every client: consistency beats perfection, and people are always watching even when it feels like no one is.
I built my presence across Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn by showing up three times a week, every week, even on the days a post got zero engagement. Here is the truth nobody talks about enough: every single client I have ever signed was a lurker. They never liked my posts. They never left a comment. They watched silently for months or years and reached out when they were ready. My content does not always rack up insane vanity metrics and that used to feel discouraging. Then the clients started coming in. All of them strangers. All of them lurkers. All of them watching the whole time.
That realization changed everything. I stopped chasing engagement and started trusting the process. The right people are out there, silent, observing, waiting until they feel ready to trust you. Your job is to still be there when that moment comes.
For anyone just starting to build their social media presence, here is exactly what I would tell you. Stop trying to create from scratch. Find five videos that made YOU stop scrolling, over 100K views, strong comments, strong saves, and pull them apart. What was the hook? What did they say in the first three seconds? How did they structure the whole thing? Then recreate it. Not the content, the structure. Plug your story, your industry, your voice into the same frame.
Do not just look in your own industry either. An interior designer’s viral format works for a construction business. A fitness creator’s hook works for a marketer. The structure travels. The content does not.
After 50 attempts you stop needing to copy. You have internalized the patterns. But you have to put in the reps first. Most videos need five to ten attempts before the format clicks. The post that flopped is not a failure. It is iteration one.
Social media is not luck. It is pattern recognition. Learn the patterns. Add your voice. Stay consistent. The right people are already watching.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The resource I wish I had found earlier was not a tool, a course, or a platform. It was a simple pricing calculator that told me the truth about what I actually needed to charge.
I spent the first chapter of my business undercharging. Not because I did not believe in my work, but because nobody taught me the full picture of what it actually costs to run a business as a self-employed creative. I was looking at my hourly rate and thinking it sounded reasonable. What I was not accounting for was everything underneath it.
Here is the math nobody tells you. As a self-employed creative, before you take a single dollar home, you are responsible for self-employment tax, federal and state income tax, health insurance, retirement contributions, operating costs, and a profit margin that makes growth actually possible. By the time you account for all of it, if you want to take home $100,000 a year, you need to be charging a minimum of $118 per hour. Probably more.
So if you are a social media manager, a designer, a photographer, or any kind of creative freelancer charging $500, $1,000, or even $1,500 a month, I need you to hear this. It is not enough. It was never enough. You are not being humble, you are leaving money on the table while burning yourself out delivering work that is worth far more than what you are being paid for it.
The resource I wish I had was someone who sat me down, ran those numbers, and showed me what my work was actually worth before I spent years undervaluing it.
Know your numbers. Charge accordingly. Your creativity is not a discount.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.caitlyngradmarketing.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caitlyngradmarketing/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CaitlynGradMarketing/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlyngrad/

Image Credits

https://www.cherylkphotography.com