Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracy Petrucci.
Tracy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I studied global business in college, and that’s where it all started. I had no idea what to study, to be honest. So I thought, business! Every-THING is a business, so why not learn the basics, so I can apply them to any industry that I decide to fall into. I chose marketing as my focus, and back then they didn’t talk about digital marketing yet. It was all big business strategies of course, like Superbowl ads, billboards. But I learned core marketing principles that have not changed, and I’m forever grateful for those fundamental bits of knowledge that carried me through my experiments in social media later.
My mom had a store and I was helping her navigate the marketing waters when a customer overheard me discussing “link backs” (mind you this was 2007) and wanted to know if I could help her. Then one of our vendors reached out for help. Then she referred me to someone. And so it began. When my daughter was about 1.5 years old I finally convinced my husband to quit his day job. For the first couple of years, we tried the traditional way of life. Except instead of a house, it was a one-bedroom apartment.
Instead of a 9-5 for him and mommy yoga for me, it was him having to get up at 3:30a to manage a Starbucks, come home and nap, and head to his night job at UPS while I tried to keep my business alive, take care of a baby, and live on an extremely tight budget. I remember having these out of body moments where we’d be sitting on the floor eating dinner and I’d kind of hover above myself looking down and think, “Oh my God is this really your life?” Then I’d get a hold of myself, reel it back in, and keep plugging away at the day today. But you know what? It just got too hard.
I tried for a long time to convince him to quit Starbucks and let me try to build up my business. Of course, being that amazing old-fashioned, hard-working guy he is, he wouldn’t have it. But eventually our lifestyle wore on him too and we agreed we’d save up at least three months of his pay so he could quit and we could live on that until I started to make up the difference.
What dreamers! We could never get our savings up so after we’d had enough, he quit anyway. Sometimes you just have to step out in the universe and hope for the best.
Wouldn’t you know it, I made up the income he left behind in just one month’s time! And it has Never. Stopped. Since.
Now… my business didn’t explode overnight, although sometimes it feels like it did. I just put my head down and I worked really, really hard to get it where it is now.
So, here we are, years later. My life is nothing like I used to imagine it, but it’s mine. Our quality of life has dramatically improved. It’s not “perfect.” But we’re happy. We found something that worked for our family. We figured something out. We embraced something that still so many of our peers just don’t get.
My husband has morphed into super dad and husband, teaching our daughter how to swim and rock climb, while learning how to brush out her hair and actually getting pretty good at picking out her clothes I might add. He grocery shops, does the laundry, makes me dinner, and so much more. I even felt supported enough to have another baby, something I thought I’d never been able to do with my work obligations! That daughter is now 1.5 and her sister who is 6 years older, adores her.
My business has evolved from a one-woman show to a team of six hard-working, creative, amazing individuals and sometimes I can’t believe how lucky I am!
Has it been a smooth road?
I haven’t had as many struggles as one would think, business wise. Honestly, I think most of my struggles have been in just trying to be a working mom in a busy society and keep my sanity on the personal side of things. I don’t take time for myself, to work out, or laugh as much as I should, but I’m always working on it.
One of the things that have helped is realizing that I DO want to grow a team. In this industry you’re always seeing messages about “Get out of client work and serve more people!” which is basically someone saying that working with clients is stressful and you should sell courses or training online to find “freedom” – WELL I have tried both (making a supposed six-figure course, and making a team) and I finally have come to realize that I don’t enjoy course building as much as I enjoy team building.
I am having so much fun working with a group, learning how to delegate and trust, and feeling happy and fulfilled going in a direction that used to really scare me! I love that cliche saying, Team Work Makes The Dream Work because it’s so true! I could not do everything I do by myself, and would not be where I am without good people working alongside me. And guess what else? I LIKE working with our clients! To me, they are a gift. Not a burden.
The really early on challenges were pretty simple things, not using a good system for tracking hours or invoicing… not tracking expenses, charging too little, all the things you’d expect. 🙂
We’d love to hear more about your business.
My business offers a few select digital marketing services, such as social media management (Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc), Facebook Ads, and email marketing.
For sure my strongest service is Facebook Ads. I have been using them since 2008 and they are quite an art really, to do correctly. Lately, I am also realizing we have quite the specialty in Instagram feed curation. I am very picky about the aesthetic of the feed while balancing realism, and the team has done a great job embracing my neurosis when it comes to a well thought out Instagram grid.
I am proud that my company has found a balance between flexibility and focus. My team works flex hours, some days in the office, some days at home. They can take walks, go on a long lunch, work at night if they decided to take some “me” time and hit the beach or they have a new baby at home… They keep the attention to detail, focus, and energy going that I like to be known for, work hard, but also get to keep some of their sanity intact.
One of the things I used to always hear about agency life is that it was loooong, hard, stressful days. I don’t think anyone on my team can say they feel exploited or exhausted, and if they do, then I am the first person who wants to know! Massive profit is not my number one priority. We all need to live and pay our bills and grow and improve our place in life of course, but I do try to keep everyone’s health and well-being top of mind, as much as one can in a fast-paced industry like this. I mean, come on. Does posting on your page EVER END? No, it does not. So letting people have a little more control over their schedule can really help offset that workload.
I don’t offer fancy perks, but I do what I can, and I always tell everyone who works for me what our long-term goals are in terms of more fun things, and when I don’t know when they’ll happen, but what I can do RIGHT NOW to let them know I have their best interests at heart, right alongside mine and my family’s.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I do think it’s good to start a business like this somewhere that is crowded with people and opportunity. Although you can technically run this business from anywhere, you might not get it off the ground if you’re in the middle of nowhere. I used to do workshops, teach at schools, and really hustle to get out there.
Now I go months without even a meeting! My clients are all over the country, and sometimes the world, and I potentially could move wherever I want and keep things running. At this point, I don’t leverage the crowds like I used to.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tracypetrucci.com
- Email: tracy@tracypetrucci.com
- Instagram: @tracypetrucci
- Facebook: @tracypetrucci
- Twitter: @tracypetrucci
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