Meet Misty Lam | Founder of aestheticreative Marketing

We had the good fortune of connecting with Misty Lam and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Misty, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I find risk to be a necessity behind the success of any field and at any scale. And by scale, I mean this could be you quitting your job or you taking out a business loan. No business just starts out of thin air. You need resources, you need material, you need time, and all of those investments are “risky” because there may not be a return for a while or even sometimes at all. But when your hard work and investment start to pay off, it is the most empowering feeling I can ever describe. Not because of the money, but because there is absolutely no better feeling than proving your self-doubts wrong. And it all starts with a little bit of faith and a whole lot of risk.

My whole business was created on risk. I quit my 9-5 to freelance as a social media manager. And when I was starting, some months were bad. Like really bad. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills. But I kept going. I kept calling people, I kept reaching out, I kept sending as many emails as I could, and I kept taking a risk. And I went from an unemployed freelancer to now owning and scaling my business to a digital marketing agency with a team by my side. If it were not for the risk, I would still be working a dead-end office job that left me with no fulfillment. So take the risk, we are far more capable than we think.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I own a digital marketing agency in Los Angeles. I’d say the main thing that sets my agency apart from others is our willingness to work with small businesses and smaller budgets, along with providing full-scale content creation to help boost clients that don’t necessarily have money for ad spend.

Right at the beginning of the pandemic, I got furloughed from my office job and I knew I had to find other ways to make income. TikTok was really booming in popularity during this time and I had grown my personal account to 25,000 followers in a span of a few weeks. From there, I decided to offer TikTok creation services through Upwork and grabbed my first client. I wanted to keep building up my clientele so every day I was cold calling, cold emailing, messaging on Instagram, reaching out on LinkedIn, you name it. After having 5 clients, I named my business aestheticreative Marketing and then contracted out two more freelancers to help me. We now have a small team, a large list of clientele, and are now producing 5-figure monthly revenue!

It was definitely not easy. There were many late nights followed by early mornings. I’ve had to go through the process of losing clients and letting clients go to learn what processes worked best for me and my team. Mentally, I was drained for months. There are new challenges that arise every week for my business but overcoming them comes from a matter of pushing forward, thinking unconventionally, and discipline. I’ve learned that not all clients will value you the way you should, but that should not define your work or how you value yourself as a business owner.

I want the world to know that aestheticreative Marketing is just getting started. And what makes us different? We actually care about your brand and your growth. I’ve heard too many stories from my clients of how they hired an agency and how it did nothing for their brand. From one small business owner to another, I am too familiar with the amount of hard work it takes to wear 20 different hats to keep your business afloat. I want to help other small businesses flourish and learn how to utilize their socials to conquer their market. That is why aestheticreative Marketing exists.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my best friend was visiting LA I would definitely take her to Sawtelle for food. Sawtelle is known as Little Osaka on the west side of LA and has a large number of delicious, ethnic, Asian food on one continuous street. For a night out I would head to downtown Culver City and grab a snack and drink at the Citizen Public Market where the nightlife is lively on the weekends and across the street, you can grab an ice cream at Salt & Straw. For activities, I am a hardcore thrifter and I love supporting small businesses. I would go to the Melrose Trading Post, Rosebowl Flea Market up in Pasadena, or check out some local fleas like Los Feliz or Silver Lake.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Thank you so much to Jennifer Nhan who has believed in me and supported me so much! You are so creative and genuinely kind, I would not have gotten the opportunity without you.

Website: www.aestheticreativemarketing.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aestheticreative

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/aestheticreative-marketing/