Today we’d like to introduce you to Storm Pruitt.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
During my first year as an art student at the University of Texas, I took some courses where I learned digital design and saw all the potential of graphic design in business. I began taking courses outside of UT in addition to my current workload to specifically learn how to use all of the Adobe programs and some website design. During my junior and senior years of college, I began working part-time as a freelance website & graphic designer for businesses here in Austin!
As my client list grew, I got asked to handle their social accounts as well, and that’s where I got to see just how much of a difference social media can impact your business (and it was way more fun). The design elements of your business are, of course, very important, but the impact that organic marketing on social can have to shift not only the perception of your brand but also drum up business for it — is amazing! So from there on, I decided after college to focus all my attention on building up my social media management business.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As with any business, growing mine has had its ups and downs. I was literally learning as I went along — there was no one to help or assist me because this type of business is very new, and there aren’t very many other people out there even today doing this, or teaching how to do this, as a living. So, I made a lot of mistakes! However, my learning curve was quite quick, and as of the past year, I experienced an explosion of growth in my business. I was getting so many leads a day, I couldn’t keep up!
This exponential increase in client leads and conversion rate was all due to my own success on social media, thus proving that my methods worked. After experiencing that growth in business, the struggle then was to figure out how to continue to grow and how to manage all of my new clients… just by myself. I was unsure of what my client limit was, so I eventually ended up taking on 15 clients… which, let me tell you, was definitely too many! After figuring out my own limit, how to outsource certain tasks, and how to improve client communication, it has been much smoother sailing from there on!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I run a creative social media marketing studio here in Austin, Texas, although we have clients from all over the world. What sets our social media management apart from all other agencies is that at the heart of it, we’re artists and creatives. The posts we create are not your generic Instagram posts. We use Adobe programs to create unique content that sells, connects, and is remembered. We go seriously in-depth about your business history, competitors, the current market, and business goals for that year. At the same time, Asap Studios is a small and very detail-oriented studio, where every client gets the individual attention and customization that they need but typically don’t get from bigger marketing agencies.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I tried many different places to find a mentor — locally, Linked In, FB groups, etc. However, nothing ever came about from those efforts. This is particularly because very few people have done what I am doing, as it’s just a newer business, and so there weren’t many mentors to actually find out there. For this space, what I found most effective and helpful to myself, was building up a real community on Instagram (my own main platform). Through this, I got to grow my own business alongside others doing the same and had people to go to with questions which are actually in the same field that I am in. I also started my own internship program to help others learn and to pass on my own knowledge to people with the same aspirations.
Contact Info:
- Email: storm@asapstudios.co
- Website: www.asapstudios.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_asapstudios/
Image Credits
Courtney Cope Photography
