We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marissa D’Agostino a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Marissa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

Backtalk started as just me and my co-founder, Delainie, running every part of the business out of coffee shops and our apartments. We didn’t have employees from day one — it was a lot of long days and figuring things out as we went which is super classic. Honestly, I think that scrappy beginning is part of what shaped our work culture now. We know what it feels like to wear every hat.

When we finally reached the point where we needed to bring on team members, it was exciting and terrifying. Payroll feels like a huge leap when you’ve bootstrapped everything — it’s not just about keeping the business afloat, but also about creating stability for someone else. Our first hire, Shelby, came on as a Lead Digital Marketing Strategist. The way we found her wasn’t through a formal “corporate” process. Instead, it came through conversations in our Detroit creative network, word of mouth, and looking for people whose values aligned with ours as much as their skills did.

We’ve kept the recruiting process pretty personal and community-driven. Instead of rigid interviews, we lean toward conversations — we want to get a feel for how someone thinks, how they’d handle challenges, and how they’d vibe with the rest of the team. Training is similar: less “formal manuals” and more hands-on collaboration, Loom videos, and shared Notion boards. Hard skills can be taught, which we’re happy to do. Personality and values, however, are not things we can or want to teach.

If I were starting again today, I think the only thing I’d do differently is prepare earlier for growth. In those early years, we were reactive — hiring when we were already drowning in work. Now, I see the value of forecasting capacity and making thoughtful hires before you hit the breaking point. That’s been a big shift for us: building the kind of workplace we wish we had when we were working inside other agencies, and being intentional about creating a collaborative, flexible, human environment from the start.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Marissa, co-founder of Backtalk Detroit, a women- and minority-owned creative marketing studio based in the city. My path into this industry wasn’t traditional. My background is in operations and systems — I’ve worked in commercial real estate, small business accounting, optometry, finance, coffee, and no matter the field, I always found myself building the backbone: creating systems, streamlining processes, and looking for ways to make things more efficient and human at the same time.

When we started Backtalk in 2020, I brought that lens into the creative world. Where a lot of agencies lean purely into aesthetics, I’m always thinking about structure and sustainability. It’s not just about designing a beautiful brand or website — it’s about making sure clients have the workflows, clarity, and confidence to actually use those tools to grow their business. That’s where my love of operations meets creativity: turning branding and marketing into something approachable, transparent, and manageable for small businesses.

Backtalk offers branding, web, copywriting, and social media, but the heart of what we do is problem-solving + connecting folks to their audiences. We make marketing less overwhelming by giving business owners approachable strategies and collaborative support. We’re transparent about pricing and process, and we focus on building partnerships instead of transactional vendor relationships.

What sets us apart is how rooted we are in Detroit and in the realities of small business ownership. We’re not an agency that parachutes in with big promises and leaves clients to figure it out. We’ve built our team and reputation through community trust, word of mouth, and relationships, and I’m most proud of that.

If there’s one thing I want people to know about me and Backtalk, it’s this: we know that small but mighty businesses deserve systems and strategies that make their lives easier, not harder. Our work is about cutting through the noise, keeping it real, and making sure our clients feel confident and supported at every step.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One big lesson I had to unlearn is that the customer isn’t always right. I grew up with pretty traditional corporate values — things like “keep the client happy no matter what” and “professionalism means saying yes.” That mindset is drilled into you when you’ve worked across industries like finance, healthcare, and real estate, but in practice it can be harmful.

At Backtalk, I’ve had to relearn (over and over again) that our job isn’t to say yes to everything — it’s to bring our expertise to the table and guide clients toward what’s actually best for their brand and business. Sometimes that means pushing back or setting boundaries, even when it feels uncomfortable.

I lean on my co-founder, Delainie, for this a ton. She has a great instinct for when we need to pause and realign, or when a request doesn’t serve the project’s goals. Having that balance between us has been key — she reminds me that strong partnerships are built on honesty and clarity, not professional passive aggression.

Unlearning that old “the client is always right” mantra has made our work better, our relationships stronger, and our agency more sustainable.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Delainie and I met in 2019 , when I was taking a break from corporate life and went back to coffee — a job I’d had when I was younger and always loved. She was working in digital marketing, events, and communications at the cafe, and as I naturally shifted into more of an operations role, we found ourselves collaborating constantly.

It didn’t take long to realize our values lined up, we had fun working together, and we both cared about creating something bigger than the job in front of us. That overlap of skills and shared goals made teaming up feel natural. By the time Backtalk launched in 2020, the foundation was already there — a partnership built on trust, balance, and the kind of creative energy that keeps things exciting.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://backtalkdetroit.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backtalkdetroit/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marissadagostino/