Unconventional: What Should’ve Been Our Word of the Year for 2023
“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.”
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
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Since we opened in January 2020, it’s been a wild ride to say the least. Between a global pandemic, political unrest, and a struggling economy – we’ve had our work cut out for us. But despite everything that’s happened, we’ve managed to help hundreds of clients stay afloat and even thrive amidst the chaos. That’s pretty crazy, right?
If you’re anything like me, I love a good underdog story. And this year was our chance to prove what we’re truly capable of.
But before we sign off for New Year’s – we set aside today to recap our year, celebrate some wins, reflect on some lessons, and plan for what’s next. I wanted to take a moment to share these with you because you were absolutely essential to our 2023, and it’s my sincerest hope that you’ll join us in this next chapter.
If you only read one section, make it this one.
THANK YOU for being here. Seriously, it means the world.
We’re 100% remote now! That means flexible meetings, more resources, and fewer delays.
We’d love to keep working with you, or work with you again. Let’s book a call and do great things together in 2024!
What happened in 2023? In a nut shell – everything.
1. We transitioned to a fully remote workplace.
That’s right! We gave up our gorgeous office in downtown Oklahoma City. While we loved the art deco and history of the MGM Building – it just didn’t make sense. Our team members are passionate about the outdoors, pouring into relationships, and doing incredible work… and that doesn’t require being chained to a desk. (Not that I did that; but you catch my drift.)
Another factor that played into the mix was meetings. Only one of our retainer clients preferred to meet in person; the rest enjoy the flexibility of Zoom so it was a no-brainer. Don’t get me wrong – I still meet with clients around the OKC metro. I just visit their business instead. So, we experimented for a while with a hybrid schedule before off-ramping to 100% remote in the fall.
And if I’m being honest – I’m kicking myself for not doing it sooner. I’ve noticed a major difference in our team. We all seem lighter, and happier these days. Naturally, that’s carried over to our work. We’re producing at much higher quality now, with fewer delays too.
Quick Note: If you’re considering the move to hybrid or remote working, feel free to reach out with any questions! I’d be happy to share more details about our experience.
2. We heavily invested in education and new certifications.
And when I say heavy, I mean HEAVY. While we renewed our annual certifications with Google, HubSpot, and Semrush – we invested in over 100 individual courses and workshops. (In full transparency, I stopped counting after 115. My brain was tired.) A third of those pertained to SEO, while the remaining spanned web design and content.
My personal favorites were the green design certification and green UX/UI cohort! But all in all, it’s safe to say we’ve learned a lot this year – and we can’t wait to share these new insights with you in our upcoming blogs.
3. We restructured and refined our service offerings.
One of the beautiful (and sometimes annoying) things about being a young business, is we’re constantly testing and measuring. While each of our team members has over a decade of marketing experience, business ownership is a whole other beast. During my career, I spearheaded the creative department in various agencies. I never saw what was happening in sales or account management. So, to put it bluntly? This year was humbling.
It’s not like I was overly confident before or anything. It’s just that it’s a whole new role for me and frankly, I’m still getting used to it. While our quality of work was stellar, our processes and timelines weren’t great. In fact, they were downright chaotic at times. This affected our clients’ overall experience and THAT’s the #1 thing they remembered afterward. This gutted me.
Due to inflation and company budget cuts, we had to part ways with a few clients this year. (Most of which I’d gladly welcome back with open arms!) But instead of jumping to fill those spots quickly, we took a step back and re-evaluated every aspect of our agency. One of the biggest decisions was narrowing our service offerings to specialize in website development and SEO. As the owner, it was HARD. We lost money doing this and had our lowest financial year to date.
But, the outcome?
Our deliverables and fulfillment processes are clear as day. I’m much better about setting and maintaining boundaries, and projects are running smoother than they ever have. Spending intentional time on our own business has also created breathing room to hone our craft.
4. We gained a lot of really awesome, strategic partners along the way.
We often say “We’re small by design,” but we really leaned into that this year. We felt ourselves following the trajectory of every other agency out there… the office, the growing team, etc. At the end of the day, it just felt icky. When I opened Atlas Studio, I specifically said I wanted to build a “roundtable of creatives” and buck hierarchy. And here I was, following in the footsteps of everything I hated about the agency world.
There’s value in mastery. And I would much rather us build a reputation on excellence than be a master of none.
It’s all too common for corporate agencies to introduce you to their senior-level execs and then quickly pass your account to an intern. We take pride in the fact that we’re a small team, and each of us has over a decade of marketing experience. From the beginning, our goal was to cut out the middlemen so you interact directly with those who are working on your project. So instead of aiming to be a “full-service agency,” we’re focusing on where we perform best and bringing in trusted partners to help us fill in the gaps.
And let me tell you… the partners we’ve chosen and collaborated with are phenomenal. (One of the biggest qualities I looked for is intrinsic motivation.) They’re all at the top of their game and the kindest humans, too. We’ll be sharing some introductions and insights from them in our upcoming blogs, so stay tuned!
5. And we teetered the line of closing up shop.
Everyone I’ve spoken with has been SHOCKED to hear we almost went out of business this year. Removing clients from our docket without replacing them and spending half of our capacity on restructuring our business was a gamble. But, you know what? I think it’s paying off.
This year, I was forced to choose between doing what’s easy and what’s right for the future of our agency. And oddly enough, a team member pointed out that my decision to pursue the latter fell under one of our core values – courage.
Courage isn’t the absence of fear, but the strength to move through it with a spirit of adventure. To pursue something different and see where it leads, to move forward when others go back, and to carve out paths when there isn’t one. After all, success (and much of the fun) lies in developing new ways to do things.
I’ve never been much of a crier, but I seriously bawled that night. I love celebrating our team and client wins, but often fail to acknowledge my own. This was a good reminder of how far we’ve come since 2020 and how much road still lies ahead. I opened Atlas Studio for several reasons – some are known while some have yet to be revealed. But for now, we’ve reached a point where the paved road no longer serves us. It’s time to brave the wilderness.
And that’s what I’m most excited for in the year ahead.
What’s next on the horizon for Atlas Studio?
Pricing. While going remote has allowed us to cut one of our largest expenses, we still need to keep pace with inflation and cost of living. In addition to payment plans, my goal is to provide value to business owners and in-house marketers at various price points – so we can meet them where they are while helping implement solutions that move the needle.
Some areas we’re currently exploring include website templates, group membership, email subscription, resource library, and online workshops.
Target Audience. With the addition of our green coursework and certifications, we’re looking to partner with more brands that value sustainable and environmental practices. If this is you, let’s discuss your needs over a free consultation. We’d love to collaborate with you in the new year! We’ll also be prioritizing brands in tourism, travel, hospitality, and outdoor retail.
Support Services. While we’ve chosen to specialize in website development and SEO, our other creative services aren’t going away entirely – they’re getting restructured. We’ll continue to offer branding, graphic design, copywriting, and digital advertising as add-ons. They just won’t be at the forefront of what we do, and will likely get phased out over time or be exclusively offered to retainer clients.
Transparency. Our first order of business in Q1 will be expanding the services section on our website. We’ll be carrying over information from our proposals like deliverables, processes, timelines and packages as well as FAQs. And while there are some nuances with custom projects, we’re planning to build a pricing calculator so you can get a quote more quickly.
Community. You know that old saying, “The cobbler’s children have no shoes.” Whelp, the same could be said about us. I’ll be honest – keeping up with our social media wasn’t a priority this year. But after conversations with several peers, I’ve come to realize something. It’s not about us, it’s about you. And by vanishing from the digital landscape, we’ve done you a huge disservice. There’s a lot of misinformation and trends out there, and many of you look to us for answers.
First off, I’m sorry for that. This is an area we’ll be actively working on in 2024. We’re blocking off Fridays to work on our own content. We’re starting with social media post per week and working our way up, as well as publishing a monthly blog and email. Personally, I’ve been a hermit so I’m planning to start attending events again around the OKC metro. (So feel free to come up and say hi!)
Coming along for the ride? Here’s how you can help.
Referrals. We’re a small agency trying to grow thoughtfully and intentionally. And to do that, we need more business. Not a ton more, but a steady flow of new clients would be lovely. Please tell your friends and colleagues about us!
Reviews. Reputation is everything, especially for a tiny shop like Atlas Studio that’s still getting its legs. If you’ve had a great experience, please take a minute and leave us a review on Google. If by some chance you haven’t had an excellent experience, we’d still love to hear about it (maybe in private though? Email us – we really do want to know and improve).
Follow us on Instagram, where we’re planning to share more case studies, interesting insights, and travel inspiration. Facebook and Pinterest are also active pages, so if those are more your scene, we hope you’ll look us up there too.
Send us photos of your brand in action! We’d love to collect images from your brand launch, your event, or even your ads running out in the world. Send them our way anytime! We would be grateful, and we’d be happy to feature them and tag you in our own social media.
At the end of the day, we simply can’t say thank you enough.
Trust isn’t built in grand gestures, Brené Brown says, but in the small moments that people treat what is important to you with care.
Working for yourself isn’t easy (let alone, managing a team), as many of you know better than we do. It takes hard work of course, but we also know it takes constant learning, grace for ourselves and others, and a little luck along the way. However we found each other, we’re really grateful to have been able to work with you this year, and we’d love to do more of it with you in 2024.
Onward and upward,
Kalie
