059 | Scaling Success: 10 Strategies to Build a Thriving Creative Agency with Octavia Gilmore

Picture this: a teenage passion turning into a global empire, complete with the rollercoaster of entrepreneurial highs and lows. 

In this episode, Octavia Gilmore, founder of Creative Juice, dishes on everything from bouncing back after a soul-crushing review to harnessing the power of AI to skyrocket her business. She spills the tea on the magic of a multicultural team, the real-deal challenges of scaling up, and how empathy and compassion are the secret sauce to leadership. 

Whether you're a startup dreamer or a seasoned CEO, Octavia's journey is packed with gold nuggets you won't want to miss.

In this episode, you’ll …

• Uncover the 3 game-changing steps to transform from a solo freelancer to a powerhouse business owner.
• Unlock the secrets of entrepreneurial resilience and learn how to bounce back stronger after setbacks.
• Explore innovative AI tools to transform your business processes and efficiency.

This episode at a glance:

[2:12] - Octavia shares her early passion for graphic design and launching Creative Juice at 23.

[15:48] - Overcoming self-doubt and learning essential business concepts.

[45:18] - Resilience in entrepreneurship: Learning from setbacks and negative reviews.

[1:00:37] - Octavia’s goal to inspire young black and brown entrepreneurs.

[1:05:28] - Encouragement for female founders: Eliminating self-limiting beliefs and taking bold steps.

Resources and Links mentioned in this episode

• Octavia Warren
• Creative Juice
• Chroma Creators
• Free Range Thinking
• AI Tool Highlight: CHAT GPT
• Join Female Founder Society

You might also like

• Expand Your Reach: 8 Strategies for Niche-Bound Businesses
• The AI Blueprint Strategy for Female Entrepreneurs Ready
• Boost AI Strategy Framework

More about the “My Good Woman” podcast

My Good Woman is a podcast for new and future female leaders, hosted by me, Dawn Andrews.

I’m a happily married hockey mom, proud female leader, and founder and CEO of Free Range Thinking, where we turn founders into confident CEOs with strategic consulting and leadership training.

Grab a seat at the table with me each week for candid conversations with culture-shifting, glass ceiling-busting, trailblazing women, who are leading enterprises that are making a change in the world. 

We discuss what makes them tick and how they get it all done. And we share actionable strategies to help you and your team get organized - so you can focus on your company’s growth, profit, and impact. 

If you liked what you heard, don’t forget to follow along, so you never miss an episode. And before you go, le

Want to increase revenue and impact? Listen to “She's That Founder” for insights on business strategy and female leadership to scale your business. Each episode offers advice on effective communication, team building, and management. Learn to master routines and systems to boost productivity and prevent burnout. Our delegation tips and business consulting will advance your executive leadership skills and presence.

Transcript

My Good Woman
Ep. 59 | Scaling Success: 10 Strategies to Build a Thriving Creative Agency with Octavia Gilmore

Octavia Warren: Being an entrepreneur is one of the hardest jobs you could ever have. Again, very rewarding, but literally every day you're having to figure something out. 

Dawn Andrews: Welcome to the My Good Woman podcast where we help female founders break past plateaus and get to the next level of business growth by refining their strategy building systems and streamlining operations. 

I'm Dawn Andrews, the founder and CEO of free range thinking business strategy consulting. Join me each week for candid conversations, with culture, shifting glass ceiling busting trailblazing women who are leading impactful enterprises and grab their strategies to help your business reach extraordinary levels of growth. 

Ready to build a dream team and scale like a boss? 

In this episode, you'll uncover the three game-changing steps to transform from a solo freelancer to a powerhouse agency owner. You'll find out why relying on a mentor could be the secret sauce to your success. And you'll discover the surprising ways AI tools can revolutionize your business. 

It's an action packed episode with my guest Octavia Gilmore of Creative Juice. Stay tuned.

Hey ladies, it's Dawn Andrew's here with a little secret sauce for your entrepreneurial journey. If you're a female founder looking to up your game. You've got to join the female founder society. This incredible community is where savvy women like you share tips, get real advice and support each other through the wild ride of running a business.

Seriously, the value here is off the charts. I think live Q and A's practical resources and a community that totally gets you. Want in? just click the link in the show notes and join us. It is 100% complimentary and your future self will thank you. See you there.

Dawn Andrews: Octavia Gilmore, thank you for joining me on the My Good Women podcast. I'm so glad to have you here as my guest.

Octavia Warren: Hello, Dawn. Thanks for having me.

Dawn Andrews: I have so many questions for you today and I think we're just going to have a really good time talking about your, incredible journey. And as the listeners of the My Good Women podcast are also female founders like yourself, and they're in a place where they have a business similar to you. Maybe not in the same space necessarily, but meaning they have an operational business, it's profitable, they're making some money.

They're serving some people, they're doing great work, but they also want to grow and scale and I think there's so much that they have, an opportunity to learn from you in this conversation. Thanks for giving me your time, I'm so appreciative.

Octavia Warren: Thanks for having me. I'm super excited to chat with you today.

Dawn Andrews: Why don't we start at the beginning? Would you share a little bit of your journey from having a passion for graphic design as a young person? You told me when we'd had our pre chat, like it started in your teens and then you launched Creative Juice, your company at 23. Tell me about that journey. 

Octavia Warren: Sure, it's been a long journey, but a good one. So my uncle actually, I come from a family of creatives. My uncle introduced me to graphic design at 14 and I just fell in love with it.

Dawn Andrews: What did that look like, Octavia? Like, when he introduced you to it, how did that go?

Octavia Warren: It was more so introducing me to Adobe Photoshop and showing me how to use it. And that's when I just okay, I fell in love with it. And I knew back then that I wanted to pursue it as a career and one day own an agency. So I decided I'm from Jersey to move to Atlanta to attend SCAD.

And I studied graphic design. And then probably like my junior year of college is when I really started taking advantage of the school's career website. Different organizations, you could post like gigs on the website and as a student, you could apply. And I used to apply to everything. So that allowed me to really build up my clientele about in my junior year.

And then I graduated, I still had some freelance clients, but of course, everyone's you need a full time job. So  took a fulltime role at a company that did strategic planning software. So not very sexy. I was the only creative within the organization, but it was really unique because the CEO, I pretty much told him like, yeah, this is cool, but one day I'm going to own my own thing.

He was like, I support you as long as you get your work done here. So I would actually go meet clients during my lunch break. And after being there for a while, I just realized that I had something going for myself. And a lot of people who work full time, but then they have like their side hustles.

You're always like, worried, when do I know I should quit my job? So after working there, they wanted to transition my role into something that I didn't feel like would work for me. And then that was the aha moment, okay, maybe I can do this graphic design thing full time. I left that and pretty much told all of my clients, Hey, I'm doing this full time and they were super supportive.

So about six months after launching, I had way too much work and I said, okay, I could either turn down business or I could figure out how to get some help. So I hired like my first contractor six months in and fast forward 11 years later, I have a full team of branding and marketing experts, a global team. We switched to a global team once the pandemic happened and we closed the offices and I realized I could hire people from anywhere. So yeah, I'm really proud of our global multicultural team and yeah, that's pretty much how it happened.

Dawn Andrews: know. it's so funny. Cause that was like the high speed version all the way through your whole, I'm going to, I'm going to go back and pick up some little steps along the way. Cause that was amazing. So I'm curious, like it sounds in your description, you had confidence that you could run a business on your own. Did you have history, family examples, or you just knew in your bones? What was that like for you?

Octavia Warren: I will be honest. I think it is just being young and not having a lot of responsibilities. I'm like, Oh, here we go. So I didn't necessarily have the mindset like, Oh, I could run a business. I think because I was freelancing pretty successfully. And then I was making money. I felt like I could continue it.

And I will say going from a Freelancer to an agency is completely different. There was a lot I had to learn in terms of understanding profit margins, right? Because when you add team members, you're adding overhead. So that was a really huge learning lesson for me early on, like having to understand what are my cost of goods, which essentially was people, right?

Performing a service is for my clients. I had a mentor. He was like, you're very ballsy. I'm like, I guess I am. So yeah, just courageous. I've always been like a leader in terms of I'm the oldest of my siblings, and my mother raised me pretty independently. So I think from that perspective, I've always been a leader, but then also I'm a pretty, Marie Forleo has a quote that she says, everything's figureoutable.

I'm just a very I can figure this out type of person. And I think that's what contributed to my success, but I will be honest with you. I'm 11 years later. I'm just like, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Being an entrepreneur is one of the hardest jobs you could ever have. Again, very rewarding, but literally every day you're having to figure something out. And luckily I'm good at that, so

Dawn Andrews: Yeah. Yeah and it's interesting , tell me a little bit about jumping from freelance to starting the agency from leaving that full time gig. You had your graphic design on the side and then you started to have more than you knew what to do with. So you hired your first contractor, but tell me about that transition between first contractor to actually deciding, okay, this is going to be an agency. We're going to really do this. What was that time like? -cont here

Octavia Warren: would say like with the first contractor, So back then I was a designer and a front end developer. Now people expect you to have all these skills, but back then you were either a designer or developer. You weren't really both. And my school taught me a lot about WordPress. So my original services was just logo design, WordPress websites.

When I found the first contractor. He actually lives in another state. And again, this is before everything was so virtual. So I pretty much said, Hey, he had the same skill set as me. So it was like, I can duplicate myself in terms of services. And I said, I only need you for about 15 to 20 hours a week.

So that's how he started. And then he eventually started working 40 hours a week. And I was like, oh, okay, I think I have something here. so once he got full time, then he was at capacity. And then I said, oh, I think I need to hire someone else. And that's how it kept going. I honestly let my business dictate what it needed because I never worked at an agency before. So I didn't necessarily know what I was doing. when I had a bunch of designers and they were pretty much managing the clients at first, but then they were at capacities and I was like, Oh, I guess I need something called an account manager. So I just had to learn as the business grew, it's telling me what it needed. And again, just figuring it out along the way. 

Dawn Andrews: Were there any, moments for you of, did you have any self judgment, self 

Octavia Warren: Yeah. Yeah.

Dawn Andrews: of it? Cause your confidence and your courage comes through loud and clear. And I also just wanted to pull up those moments what have I gotten myself into?

the moments of self doubt that come because it's, they're inevitable. They're inevitable in anything you do. They're inevitable in a career path. They're inevitable in running a business. how do you overcome those moments where you feel like. you're out over your skis a little bit too much, you're like, Oh, now I need to understand overhead and I need to understand primary business concepts because a lot of women I think hesitate in starting something because they feel like they've got to have an MBA under their belt before they go.

Dawn Andrews: it's daunting, but I want to encourage women to go for it and figure it out along the way. So how do you manage those moments when you realize you might be a little, outpaced by the demands of your business versus your skills?

Octavia Warren: I think there are several ways. The first one is I built up a pretty strong network of mentors. So I just Googled one day agencies and I would look at their executive leadership team and I would say who looks like. I would just send them an email like, Hey, I'm an agency owner. Can I pick your brain, take you to coffee and just ask them any pointed questions that I had.

Octavia Warren: I also try to join any programming in terms of local things for Atlanta businesses where, they help you get to a certain amount of revenue. So that was extremely helpful. I will say in the very beginning, I did feel like. Oh, do I need to go back and get an MBA? I did feel that way very strongly because I went to school for graphic design.

Octavia Warren: And a lot of people, you start your business based on something you're passionate about. But you quickly learn just because I know how to do graphic design doesn't mean I know how to run a marketing agency. Those are two separate things. And then also as you continue to scale, or at least as I continue to scale, I was not the designer anymore.

Octavia Warren: I was the sales person in operations and HR. So I was like, Oh, this isn't 

Dawn Andrews: You're like, hold 

Octavia Warren: myself into. Yeah. So I think those just having conversations with mentors. I really did strongly contemplate getting an MBA, but people around me was like, no, trust me, like you have hands on experience that is priceless.

Octavia Warren: I even said, I wish I would have worked at a marketing agency before I started one. And people were like, yeah, but then you would have been maybe tainted. Because you might've had a negative or positive experience. So I think just me strongly relying on my mentors. And my network was really helpful.

Octavia Warren: there was even a point where, I started at 23. So I'm this young black. Woman who's super eager to, close these deals. And I was pitching against some larger agencies in Atlanta that have been around for 20, 30 years. And I just kept getting the door slammed in my face. no, you're cute, but you know, we don't, trust you.

Octavia Warren: Right. So I even contemplated like hiring a male. I did, honestly. I was like, maybe I need a guy to do sales for me. I think over time, just being in business for so long that slowly faded away. But no, those are all things I contemplated. because honestly, you don't, I didn't know what I was doing.

Octavia Warren: I just had to figure it out. And I think. We have this idea that we should know what we were doing. I think around like the age of 26, I had to have a come to Jesus moment with myself and just say, girl, you are 26, you're not going to know what you're doing. You have to just chill out a little bit.

Octavia Warren: cause I'm a bit of a perfectionist. And I don't want to make the wrong decisions, but I just quickly realized that the best way for me to learn is to make mistakes. They hurt, I've made a mistake before in my business that has cost me 20, 000. Not fun, right? 

Dawn Andrews: Yeah.

Octavia Warren: But it happened and guess what? I won't make the same mistake again. So you just have to be okay with making mistakes. Be okay with not knowing what you're doing all the time. and as long as you try, you put your best foot forward. Even if you make a mistake, you're just going to learn from it. And then you've, even if you look at large brands get in trouble all the time because they make mistakes.

Octavia Warren: They say the wrong things, or maybe they treated someone wrong. so then you realize, no one actually always knows what they're doing. Even if you did quote unquote, know what you're doing, there's going to be situations that pop up. That you are like, okay, this has never happened before.

Octavia Warren: So I think just having a network is ideal, but then also trying to educate yourself, whether it's listening to a podcast like this one, to just get other people's perspectives and their experiences. But the reality is, there's not one straight road to success. you're going to take a bunch of curves and turns.

Octavia Warren: And my experience is going to be different from someone else's. 

Dawn Andrews: I uh,

Dawn Andrews: you did, you did and it's great because what I appreciate in what you said Octavia is that there is no one right way that a MBA is not required to get a business started because your experience in your business is going to be different tailor made to you and whatever you choose to do.

Dawn Andrews: And it's going to have its own unique set of principles and challenges and clients that come to you and ways that you change your service having a basic business understanding. Great. Spending two years, three years in a high priced MBA program and slowing down your progress gives you a great business overview, but it doesn't necessarily ensure your success in your unique business any more than it would if you didn't have it.

Octavia Warren: you've been scrappy, you continue to be scrappy, you're creative, and because you've followed your own path, I'm sure that has led to unique choices and innovations that other agencies, comparatively, may not have. It's given you uniqueness and distinction that makes somebody want to hire creative juice over another agency. 

Octavia Warren: right.

Dawn Andrews: Tell me about that. you guys pride yourself on having a diverse team, a global team now, especially since we have the opportunity to work remotely. how do you feel that diversity has contributed to the success and creativity of your agency? And what advice do you have maybe on founders that are building and nurturing diverse teams?

Octavia Warren: Yeah. I think that there is of course, a million ways you could think about something. when I actually sat down and thought about it, so going back to me being from Jersey, I grew up in Jersey city, which is actually was one of the, I think is second, now the most diverse cities in the country.

Octavia Warren: I grew up around diversity and I think that has set the tone as to why I went to this path of, wanting to launch a multicultural agency. I also felt looking at talent from other geographical areas, they have design elements or just again, like a mindset that's just different from what we typically see.

Octavia Warren: And I felt like that could be valuable to our clients. So I think that has helped me push the needle forward in terms of what we consider ourselves as a differentiator from other agencies. And I think also, even going back to my origins, there were people who were clients that said Oh, I've been doing this for 20 years and I've never seen it done this way.

Octavia Warren: And it's okay, this is the millennial way that we're doing this, right? again, because I, Don't have 20 years of experience. This is the way that I think it should be done. And it's not wrong. It's just different. and I think that is very unique and special in terms of what we can offer our clients.

Dawn Andrews: Did it take you a while to find the words to express that distinction you were talking about going from being the creative to then being the salesperson business development and being in the room with established agencies, bigger agencies. And you've got this uniqueness and I hear it.

Dawn Andrews: It's just a reflection of where you've grown up and what you value. it's those things pulled through into reality in your business. 

Dawn Andrews: How long did it take you to find the words to express that in a way that clients would understand that it would be valuable to hire a company like yours.

Octavia Warren: It honestly took a while. And even now the messaging still evolves over time as things evolve. But I will be honest when I first started my business. Everyone felt like, oh, you're black multicultural. And I was just like, no, I'm not doing that. Cause that's what you expect me to do. So I was like anti multicultural for a long time.

Octavia Warren: And then I went into different rooms with people who did not look like me. And that really helped me see Okay, these particular audiences that these brands need to speak to, they don't know how to speak to these audiences. And these audiences are me. They're my community. They're my family. They're my network, right?

Octavia Warren: I have instant access to them. So that was another like aha moment. Let me not run away from this, even though again, it's like expected of me because it is value in being able to if you need market yeah, if you need market research, I could just text, a bunch of people and they checks their network.

Octavia Warren: And now we have a hundred people who've responded to a survey for a client because I have instant access to those people. that's how I slowly over time. Just let it go. And I'm like, okay, Octavia, this is what makes you unique. It is what it is, right? This is the market that, you know, and understand.

Octavia Warren: So just lean into that.

Dawn Andrews: Yeah. Why do you think you resisted it? Just because you didn't want to do what was expected? was it just like a rebellious moment or was it something more? 

Octavia Warren: I think it was like, I want you to hire me. Because I'm good, not necessarily for a diversity reason. And, because my team is multicultural, they're from all different backgrounds. I just didn't want to be like pigeonholed into specific audiences. Because if you look like traditionally at a marketing agency, that income has a cap to it, right?

Octavia Warren: But I think even what has happened socially, politically and economically. I think the world as a whole is starting to understand the importance of diversity. So I guess I was doing diversity before it was cool.

Dawn Andrews: Yeah.

Octavia Warren: So now it's Oh, okay. I have this 11 year history of this, diverse services that we offer to these audiences and yeah, I just had to lean into that.

Dawn Andrews: Are you finding it now with the way that the world has changed to be limiting? Do you feel like there's a ceiling or a cap on what your agency can make or do you feel like the sky's the limit now?

Octavia Warren: I think if I expanded globally. I could reach some really huge numbers in terms of revenue, which is my part of my BHAG, which is my big hairy audacious goal for the listeners. So my revenue goal is 23 million. And I think the best way to get there is to expand more globally in terms of, just having global clients.

Octavia Warren: And I learned that from one of my business programs, they asked us like, how do you plan on expanding globally? And I was like, I never thought about that. So I think just thinking about the larger picture and not just staying in the U S we can certainly get to some of those higher revenues being a specific like niche market that we serve.

Dawn Andrews: Yeah, and I think 23 million is I appreciate that It's your behead your big hairy audacious goal And I will tell you I think there's a whole lot more in the tank than just that for you and what you're

Octavia Warren: Okay. 

Dawn Andrews: I'm pulling that in for you that said so there's where you are now There's that big goal that you have. What strategies have been most effective for you in scaling creative juice from your one woman creative self to a full team of creatives? what are one or two things that you've done that early stage business owners might be able to apply in their businesses?

Octavia Warren: So I think early on we as entrepreneurs, we're always, we want to hire someone because we feel like that's what makes us like legit, like, Oh, I have a team and that's cool, but then you realize, Oh, I have to manage other people with personalities, right? And they are a walking, talking reflection of this brand.

Octavia Warren: So what I learned was having a really strong, onboarding process. So when I interview people, making sure that I'm interviewing them, I'm asking them like, what are their own personal core values, interviewing them against our personal core values to make sure there's a culture fit, that's really important.

Octavia Warren: And then once you get people in, making sure that you develop standard operating procedures. Again, I didn't know this in the beginning. I didn't even know that word existed until a few years ago. And that is what allows brands to actually scale, having standard ways to do things, to make sure that, the client experience is consistent.

Octavia Warren: having that buttoned up. I guess you could say for the agency is like really important. And then also in terms of scaling, I would definitely say niching down. you can be a generalist, But people pay you like the top dollar when they see you as an expert. So I've learned over the past few years, making sure that I am positioning myself as a thought leader in my space, to command those higher price points and really offer value based pricing for clients. so yeah, just making sure you're clear on what makes you unique. Positioning yourself as that thought leader and then making sure you have that strong team who represents the culture.

Octavia Warren: And then again, has that consistency in terms of like how they operate that you can step out of the business and focus on being that true visionary, which is, doing the sales, which I don't love, but you got to do it. And just making sure that you're steering the ship in the right direction. And then hire people who are smarter than you. look, this is what I need y'all to do. And then they figure it 

Dawn Andrews: Yeah. 

Octavia Warren: so yeah.

Dawn Andrews: those are core business principles. Those are MBA business principles,and I think when people start their businesses on their own, those are the things that we resist so much. We have a flipped mindset because we believe that being a generalist will bring more people to our door. Like I want to help everybody with everything all the time. And it's not necessarily, misplaced thinking when you first get started because you got to have some cash in the door,

Octavia Warren: That's what you gotta

Dawn Andrews: but it, so true. but at a certain point, the niche is required to be able to grow and being able to do those SOPs, which is the most, at least in my opinion, for all you operational people out there. God, for you, seriously, I love you hard because I think SOPs are the most unsexy, unfun, in a way, uninteresting parts of the business, except I 100 percent believe in their value and their necessity. 

Dawn Andrews: in putting those pieces of the business together for yourself, did you delay in doing it simply because you didn't know what you didn't know or because you didn't want to do it. did you wait to niche? Did you wait to do SOPs because you just were resisting it or because you didn't even know that was something that could be done that would make your life easier?

Octavia Warren: For me, it was, I didn't know what I didn't know. and that's what everything in the business in terms of the financial piece. So for example, during the pandemic, when we closed the office and we switched to being virtual, I hired Actual w two people in other States. I didn't put it in my payroll system correctly.

Octavia Warren: So like they get their paychecks and it's like taking out Georgia taxes, but they live in North Carolina. I'm like, Oh crap. I didn't know what I didn't know. So it was always a learning lesson, but yeah, I had no idea what an SLP was. And then someone explained it to me. I'm like, Oh, that makes a lot of sense.

Octavia Warren: So even when I worked a job, I got trained, right? This is the way you do things, but it didn't like translate. again, cause I went from that freelancer mindset and it was just learning how to translate, okay. Now I'm not an individual anymore. I'm a business with people, And they have to like, follow that same similar process.

Octavia Warren: So yeah, it's definitely a learning lesson. But yeah, I wish I would have known. I think that would have helped me move a little faster or at least been able to standardize some of the business to scale faster. when you think about things like SLPs, that stuff takes like years to build out.

Octavia Warren: because you have to, you might have a specific way of doing like onboarding. This is how we invoice. This is how we off board, right? There's so many different pieces to your business. it takes a lot of time. And then once you build them out, you have to make sure people are being trained on them and things of that sort.

Octavia Warren: So yeah, 

Dawn Andrews: we were talking about things that you're doing to scale to get from where you are now to that 23 big, hairy, audacious goal. 

Dawn Andrews: So Tell me about that smaller sub agency called Chroma Creators.

Dawn Andrews: Tell me a little bit more about that. Yes. of course, we've talked about creative juice being this multicultural agency. we do get clients from all over, but over the past few years, again, I've just noticed that, brands really struggle to reach specifically African American audiences in an authentic way. I think that they try and sometimes they just fail miserably.

Octavia Warren: So that prompted me to launch. Chroma creators, which is specifically to help brands reach these audiences. But then it's also specifically to help African American business owners scale their companies as well. And one thing that we're doing that's super unique is we are. Integrating AI into our creative process.

Octavia Warren: that allows us to. Use what we know, but then likethe power of AI to ideate faster. And then we also launching, photography that's AI generated. years ago, sadly, if I wanted a African American hand holding an iPhone at one point that did not exist. all.

Octavia Warren: the major So now it's much better. However, there's still certain things where you might not see diversity in the imagery. So with the power of AI, I can create a visual representation of anything you come up with in your mind. No matter, what type of person it is. So we're really leveraging that to help break the barriers in terms of the limits of what is you would find in traditional like stock photography.

Octavia Warren: Yeah, I'm super excited about it. it took two years to think that through, and get the messaging and the branding correct, but I'm super proud of what the team came up with and I'm excited to, launch that agency and kind of hit the ground running. 

Dawn Andrews: so you're one of the first founders that has talked about using AI in business. And I'm an addict. I'm just going to out myself now. I use it for the same reasons that you're talking about to be able to iterate more quickly. 

Dawn Andrews: and especially to help my clients because You can get lost in strategy. You can get lost in an SOP. You can get lost in your values. You can get lost in your messaging. And I'm really excited about helping women launch businesses and get from a place to where they feel unsure or uncollected or not quite buttoned up and put together to a place where they can feel confident going out to have a sales conversation, like as quickly as possible, whether it's. a new business launching or whether it's a new division, a new product in a business launching. 

Dawn Andrews: so since I have a fellow AI nerd with me, what are you using in your business? Which specific AI tools are you finding really helpful with Chroma creators and any other areas of your business?

Octavia Warren: I am using AI daily in my personal life as well. So I use a lot of chat GPT. Like a lot of it, whether it is, Hey, such and such, lost their job, give me the right words to say, or, Hey, these are the ingredients I have in my kitchen, give me some ideas of what I can cook, And then going back to the business. Okay. So I'm about to pitch this client. Here's the history of them. Here's the services I'm selling. Tell me five sales objections they might bring up and what are some ways that I could answer that to, sell my business. So I think using it creatively, is ideal. So I, we use chat GPT and then from an imagery perspective, we're using dolly and mid journey as 

Dawn Andrews: if you haven't yet, especially because you're in the branding positioning, the words, Claude is also a great one to try. If you haven't tried Claude yet. I find it a little bit more, Poetic, maybe, I don't know, like best way to, to put it, I applaud your use of the tools because they are amazing tools. And I think people are still, especially individual, early stage business owners are still a little nervous of them or nervous 

Octavia Warren: Right. 

Dawn Andrews: just hesitant to use them. So it thrills me to hear it.

Octavia Warren: Yes. And it's exactly what you said. They're tools. I know many people are like, it's going to take my job. It's a tool. And if you're using the tool, it'll get smarter of course. But then also again, just help you move a little faster using it as a tool. So 

Dawn Andrews: Absolutely.

Dawn Andrews: I'm going to ask you a real question because this is one of those things that like, this is like what me and my other founder girlfriends talk about and ask each other. There's thepublic facing side of your company, what shows up on Instagram, what you share in your thought leadership articles. even what shows up when you present and you're pitching for business, et cetera. And then there's what's going on back of house. how close in alignment do you feel your public facing versus your private facing part of your businesses? Do you feel like it's pretty close, like far away, pretty far away. and if you don't want to answer and reveal that it's totally okay. And I will share mine if you were willing to share yours.

Octavia Warren: would say we probably see more buttoned up online and what we present to the world. I think that, we try our best to not make mistakes. I will honestly say I'm a perfectionist and I'm a little critical of things. I'm a Virgo. That's just our nature. even like when I hire certain people, I'm just like, Oh, stuff's all over the place.

Octavia Warren: Blah, blah, blah. And they're like, no, I've worked at another small business. You're actually a little bit more organized than I thought you would be. So like we use Google drive and that becomes a nightmare sometimes. I would say we are like 60 percent of where I would like us to be. And maybe I'm being hard on myself, but, I want my business to operate like a well oil machine.

Octavia Warren: It's just not there yet. right now I'm in the process of hiring an operations manager. So that they can make sure it's a well oiled machine. because I'm operating a lot in my business and it's not allowing me to really grow it the way I would like to. But again, you have to have that strong team, who knows the processes and how to price and how to deal with clients and things of that sort.

Octavia Warren: no, we're definitely not there. We have a long way to go. we're getting 

Dawn Andrews: I totally get it. And I would say similarly, like if it was a one to 10 scale, I'd say the outward facing. is probably eight out of 10, like how I'm showing up online or in visible circles, LinkedIn, whatever. And then I would say behind the scenes, it probably changes a little bit from day to day, but it could go anywhere from a four to probably a seven or an And it also depends on the area of the business as well.

Dawn Andrews: the parts that I'm still in more, I probably would give a higher score to, but in a way those should probably get the lowest score because I'm still in them more. You know what I mean? it's time to move out of it. So when you think about you are with your business like that and scaling is finding your operational person, do you feel like that's the cornerstone moment for your next scale 

Dawn Andrews: move? 

Octavia Warren: I think that would free up a lot of my time. even when I look at my schedule, I'm like, I have seven to eight meetings a day, but they're not all revenue generating. They're like internal and answering this thing or putting out fires. So I think that would just free up so much more of my time.

Octavia Warren: Yeah. like physical time, but then also like mental capacity. the clearer my mind is, then I can focus on being strategic, when we think about like business strategy, how we're going to get to that BHAG, right? I think that the mental piece is huge for me to just be able to sit down and like ideate or whiteboard, right?

Octavia Warren: This is what we need to be doing. And then again, there's also a level of confidence. if you don't have a strong team, even if you like give them tasks and you're not going to feel you're like micromanaging them to make sure they do it correctly. So that piece to me, I think would allow me to really just step away in terms of the day to day.

Octavia Warren: And then I can be, meeting with strategic partners or figure out a strategy to. present our capabilities to various different types of like clients. yeah, 

Dawn Andrews: with all of those things in place, which you've continually been building and continue to build, do you see yourself at any point acquiring other agencies or partnering with other agencies for growth?

Octavia Warren: I have thought about it. I think that in my mind, one of the challenges was just because we are so unique in the types of clients that we service. I'm also an entrepreneur who started at a very young age. from a, like a culture piece, many other agency owners who are at the level that I'm at are a little more mature than me.

Octavia Warren: So just, trying to find someone that's like apples to apples was a little difficult when I was considering it. part of my, strategy to reach that big goal is how do I leverage agencies in other countries that are doing something similar so that I could truly have this global network.

Octavia Warren: that's where my mind is right now, but I have thought about, what would it look like to merge or acquire another agency? I just didn't necessarily find The right fitsomeone might be out there and if they are, y'all can hit me

Dawn Andrews: I know. Now it's been said. It's been said. It's out there. Okay. So let's go. Let's go internal for a second. resilience is key to being a great entrepreneur. where has that been put to the test for you in your journey?

Octavia Warren: everywhere I can give specific examples. Um,I think so 1 of the One of the biggest ones that I can talk about, and this is me being very vulnerable during the pandemic. We grew four times the size we were the year before. And I had to hire a lot of people very quickly and they were not, they were not on boarded.

Octavia Warren: They were just like, get in there and do the job. And, before that we had five star Google reviews. when you hire a bunch of people and they're not properly trained. It messes up the client experience. It damages the culture of the agency. one of my mentors told me if you don't create the culture, your people will.

Octavia Warren: So you got to be careful, So during that process, some balls were dropped and one particular client went on Google and she just trashed us. She was just like, they're terrible. I just read that. And I just cried. Cause I was like, yo, I worked so hard to build this agency. And I think people don't realize if you're leaving like a negative review for a small business, like this is my livelihood.

Octavia Warren: Like you're basically telling everyone, Don't shop here, right? I think you don't think about it that way, but  that's essentially what's happening. So that kind of just crushed me because I'm like, we try, I try so hard, to make clients happy. I am young. I'm trying to figure it out.

Octavia Warren: I work, there's like a lot of things that happen behind the scenes in terms of Staying up late, To get stuff done. I was working  12 or 15 hour days. the client, they don't see that. They just see, they just get their experience. So I would say that was a moment of true.

Octavia Warren: okay, Octavia, that's okay. everything she said was true. but it just like really hurt me to my core because I worked so hard on my business to avoid those things. And it just felt like, okay, all of these years of hard work were just like thrown in the garbage But again, my network, I'm very, I try to stay grounded in my spirituality and my faith and knowing that, what God has for me is for me essentially. And everything that I experienced is just part of my journey, good, bad, or indifferent. And, I'm like, okay, Octavia, a couple of negative Google reviews.

Octavia Warren: You're going to be okay. Again, look at the larger companies. Everyone's not always going to be happy all the time. but that did hurt my feelings. And then I had to just really buckle down and just be resilient and affirm myself. So giving myself those affirmations. Again, you're not always gonna know what you're doing. You had to hire like giving myself grace as well. I think was important. Yeah.

Dawn Andrews: Yeah. I appreciate it. I feel like I'm having a conversation with you and then I'm having a conversation with the you on your shoulder

Octavia Warren: huh

Dawn Andrews: because you've said, okay, Octavia, okay, octavia, like you, you're in dialogue with yourself. And I think that it's so important to be able to recognize our self talk. Because that's the stuff that can lead us to incredible innovation, have us take great risks that we wouldn't have seen coming and find the confidence, even when it seems completely ridiculous. And it's also the part of us that can tear ourselves down and have us really Make a mistake, but then beat ourselves up for the mistake and compound the mistake because of it. And it sounds like over time, you've really developed great relationship with your inner voice. Honestly,

Octavia Warren: It's still a work in progress, I talked to her. Yeah, I talked to her a lot, but no, for sure. I think just again, realizing that you, if you're trying your best and you fall short, that is better than somebody who didn't try at all. 

Dawn Andrews: Yeah, 

Octavia Warren: just the mindset that I take.

Dawn Andrews: I love it. okay, so let's, from that Google review idea, what is your perspective on getting feedback and pivoting based on whatever you hear or learn? how do you approach that and then integrate that?

Octavia Warren: So for me, I think also like making sure that I'm building rapport with clients. Because again, I think that sometimes you might have the tendency, especially in remote environments, people forget that the people on the other side are actual humans sometimes. So I think just, building that rapport, but then also having more check ins with clients to make sure, hey, how was your experience?

Octavia Warren: Is there anything we could have done differently? So opening up that line of communication is a better way to put it, right? I'd rather you pick up the phone and call me when you're pissed off and go on Google reviews. Because again, we're trying our best. Sometimes you do fall short and then being, holding yourself accountable.

Octavia Warren: again, I made a mistake or we made a mistake. What can we do to make this correct? and then also one of my mentors told me you are not your business. I think for a long time, I associated my identity with being the CEO. So if something went wrong in the business, I felt okay, Octavia is a failure.

Octavia Warren: And it's no, you're not a failure. And then even thinking about, the Google review, like my employees dropped the ball. I technically didn't drop the ball, but if I had specific things in place as a leader, the ball wouldn't have been dropped, but just not beating myself up for again, what I didn't know that I needed to put in place to avoid certain things from happening. So giving myself again, that grace was important. Okay.

Dawn Andrews: From your perspective, looking at yourself as a leader, what is your next area of growth that you want to tackle for yourself that you want to get better at so that an investment in your business. what do you want to do next?

Octavia Warren: Right now, I am focusing on being a stronger leader. I think that being a perfectionist, being super critical, and understanding that, I have owned an agency for 11 years. I am used to problem solving and,moving very quickly on my feet because stuff has to get done. Everyone in my organization is not going to think the way that I think.

Octavia Warren: And they are not always going to be able to problem solve and think so quickly on their feet because they don't have as much experience as me. So I've really learned more recently the power of coaching your team. I think it's very easy for me as a CEO to be frustrated. But just taking that frustration and saying okay, what could I have done differently?

Octavia Warren: Or what could I put in place so that certain things don't happen? Kind of like dummy proofing things for lack of better words, If there was no process, I can't be upset with somebody who filled in the gaps of what they thought was the right solution, right? So I think leading with love and empathy and compassion Even with some of my employees, if someone is A player and they are operating at a C level, just sitting down with them again, human to human.

Octavia Warren: Hey, I noticed this. What's going on? Is this something in the business? Is it something personally? Okay. If it's personally, like, how can we support you? Do you need time off? So again, like really leading with empathy and compassion. Those are, they have the same people don't quit jobs.

Octavia Warren: They quit managers. just making sure that I'm building that rapport with my team, because the reality is I wouldn't be where I am without them. I don't do this by myself. that's the next level for me. Just really becoming that strong, empathetic who leads with love and compassion.

Dawn Andrews: you've shared so many wonderful things today, Octavia, that I think are really important in helping business owners understand how to go from being a founder to a CEO. the founder life is. Do it myself. get mad at everybody because they can't read your mind. Overworked, at capacity or beyond, and limited in growth and possibility because of all of those.

Dawn Andrews: behaviors. And, I just wanted to call out some of the things that you've talked about today that I think are so helpful for women that are interested in crossing over and getting from that founder mindset into a truly entrepreneurial CEO mindset and. The mentorship and building your network, you've talked about being able to, be self reflective and resilient and having a good conversation with your inner voice and then being able to understand that your leadership style and how you expect things to be done is not.

Dawn Andrews: Easily translated and needs to be pulled out so that other people get it. 

Dawn Andrews: So you can get things off your plate and continue to grow from there and all of that stuff starts Like that's all an internal conversation until you can make it external. I appreciate that I've been having conversations with two of you today

Octavia Warren: I love that.

Dawn Andrews: Okay, so I have two last questions for you one I understand that you have a goal to inspire black and brown kids to become entrepreneurs. what would you want to share with our listeners who are navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship and wanting to make an impact in their communities?

Dawn Andrews: advice could you give them?

Octavia Warren: I would say if you want to make an impact in your community, reaching back and grabbing someone and bringing them, with you. Right. Right. So for me, it was really important that I established partnerships with different organizations in Atlanta, where I could expose this next generation of leaders, into, my world and what I've learned and what I've grown so that they could see someone who looks like them, who is successful so that they know that it's possible, but I think that the more that you pour into other people.

Octavia Warren: and bless them, the blessings will come back to you tenfold. So I'm always trying to help someone. I'm never afraid to share lessons learned, or if there's an opportunity, like partnering with another company, because there's enough money and opportunity to go around. I think just being open to Giving would not necessarily having a thought of Oh, if, receiving it, just knowing that it will come back. 

Dawn Andrews: Not a give to 

Dawn Andrews: get. 

Octavia Warren: there we go. That's yes, exactly. Just giving freely with the general intent of helping others. and sharing your wisdom and what you've known and then you'll just be blessed tenfold. 

Dawn Andrews: I love it. So now let's talk to the women in the room. All the women in the room. So I'd like you to imagine standing in the middle of Times Square with all the big, beautiful, sparkly billboards and you get the biggest one to share a message to other female founders. What message would you like to share?

Octavia Warren: I would say just start If you are again wanting to start a business or grow it or scale it and you're just afraid I would just say just start somewhere just do it Like don't you know again? it's Again, things are fearful right but I think When you Take a leap out on faith and you take calculated risks and you're just open, the universe will surprise you.

Octavia Warren: I would say being open, starting somewhere again, might not be perfect. And then trying something different or new, again, you'll be surprised at the results. and then I think also a lot of what I've been working on is you mentioned like that conversation you're having to yourself, I'm not answering your question directly, but I guess I would say like eliminating your self limiting beliefs because everything that we think will be an obstacle is all in our heads. that's what it would say. Eliminate your self limiting beliefs. There we go. That's a mouthful

Dawn Andrews: I got it. And I couldn't agree with you more. It has been wonderful spending time with you today. Where can people find you?

Octavia Warren: sure. I am on. LinkedIn as Octavia Warren. You can look me up there. If you want to check out creative juices website, the link is it's creative juice. com. And if you want to look up chroma and see some of the cool things we're up to, that website is chroma creators. agency. 

Dawn Andrews: Excellent. I can't wait to go look. Thanks for spending your time with me today. I'm leaving this conversation just inspired and appreciative feeling like I found a kindred spirit in business. So thank you for being with me today.

Octavia Warren: Yes, I enjoyed it. Thank you so much..

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