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

Alright, Lindsay thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

I battled postpartum depression after the birth of my daughter. As part of my healing and recovery, I moved to a new apartment and took a lot of walks around my new town with her in the stroller. About 5 minutes from my house was a baby boutique that I would often stop in, ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the adorable clothes and letting my daughter play with the toys. One day I was there, the owner Donovan introduced himself. We got to talking and he mentioned that he was looking for a local Mom who would want to help the store start a blog. I instantly, almost instinctively, said I’d like to do it. I had a photojournalism degree, but hadn’t picked up my camera or wrote anything professionally in years. I feel that meeting Donovan that day was divine intervention, someone dropped into my life to give me the opportunity to feel purpose and community. I went home bubbling over with ideas for the blog. When Donovan and I met again, I explained all of my professional background and how I could help the store and we decided on a flat rate of $1000 a month to handle their blog, instagram and local marketing efforts. I would go around town with my daughter meeting people, writing stories, taking photos and driving foot traffic back to the boutique. I set up free story-times and read to the kids myself to offer something to caregivers like myself looking for something to do. This was the beginning of my 7-figure marketing agency. Today, 7 years later, that baby boutique is still my client.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Authentic Community Marketing is a social media marketing agency that specializes in content that resonates with parents.

We handle everything in an organic community-first marketing approach. From telling a brand’s story through social videos, riding the latest trends, aligning influencer partnerships, and managing your paid spend on social platforms.

For us, community means your customers have a relationship with your brand that is much more than transactional – so we will often involve real customers in content, put on in-person events, or organize charitable partnerships to rally your people around a good cause.

The service we provides include vetted marketing tactics for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Blog Content, Traditional PR, and e-mail marketing.

We have built relationships with a community of over 4k parent content creators and influencers, so if you want to rebrand or launch in the Mom, Baby & Kids space – we’re your secret weapon!

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

My business has been bootstrapped since day 1. For the first two years, I was more of a part-time freelancer, doing local and social media marketing alongside full-time jobs.

In year three, I decided to hire someone to support me and that officially made it an agency.

One thing I learned in the process is that agencies don’t have the return multiple that tech companies or DTC brands can have – so fundraising is really not an option, VC firms would not invest in an agency.

My family had no money to put into my business, but I could invest my time, while taking care of my young children and relying on my spouse’s income + severance I had received from a startup I had worked at that shut down.

I was adamant that I would not even pay for childcare until the business could afford it on its own. I was angry about it, how unfair it felt my career had gone since becoming a Mother, as opposed to my husbands. It was a very difficult period, but it was also very motivating. As soon as I could afford to cover the part-time childcare with business revenues, I was so incredibly grateful to the Nanny who came to work for me 15 hours a week so I could work on the business. We built a strong relationship and are still great friends today. She eventually got upgraded to full-time, and has witnessed more closely than anyone how the struggle and transformation to start a business from nothing while raising young kids happens.

Once the business made 250k in annual revenue, I was ready to think big. I knew I needed a strong, experienced hire that could also lead this company with me. With every new client and price raise, we had to deliver quality work at a higher level. I knew exactly who the person was, because I had asked her years ago to go into the business with me when I was just starting. She blew me off at the time, but now, three years later – the timing was right.

She was the primary breadwinner for her family of 5, and needed a hefty paycheck. I decided to take out a loan from Chase bank, just in case, so that I had a buffer to make payroll. I also decided to delay paying myself above $40k per year, so that I could bring her in.

Taking that loan, hiring her, was the biggest risk and scariest thing I have done in my business. But we would not be where we are today without having done so. I now understand risk differently, and am actively looking for the right next big risk to take to propel us to new heights.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

The number one thing that has led to my success on social media is authenticity.

I share real stories from my real life, and face the fear and vulnerability of doing so.

To me, that is what people want from social – they want reality, not to be sold something.

So, be yourself, show your imperfections, tell the story of building your business – in public.

My most viral piece of content got over 20 million views on TikTok, millions more on Instagram, and won me both national and international press for weeks.

That content wasn’t me trying to sell something – it was sharing a REAL relatable and funny argument I had with my husband.

Think of the stories that you tell your closest friends, the ones you laugh over or cry over – if you can – that’s what you should be sharing with social media, too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.showupauthentic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/la.donnelly
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawadelton
• Other: TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@lindsaydonnelly2

Image Credits

FVI Photo