Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Walling
Hi Katie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
After graduating from college, I spent almost ten years running marketing departments. They ranged from start-ups where I was the only marketing employee to larger companies where I managed dozens of employees. This meant that I was required to be able to not only know how to do all functions of a marketing department, but to execute them, allowing me real-world, baptism-by-fire experience in all aspects of marketing and communications. Fast forward to 2021, and I found out that I was pregnant… with triplets. A few months later, I had to stop working altogether. I stayed home with them for the first year, but when they turned one I realized that I needed to continue to flex those marketing muscles that I had spent so long building—so I went rogue and started my own business. It started out with a couple of clients who fell into my lap through personal connections, and has now grown to almost 40 clients (past and present) in the last year and a half. There has been no paid advertising on behalf of me or the company, meaning they all either found me organically or were referrals from colleagues and friends. It has been the most challenging and rewarding experience, and I am so grateful to say that today I am able to stay home with my kids AND run a successful business, thanks to my incredibly understanding clients and family.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Working while also taking care of toddler triplets is no joke. It takes an incredible amount of self-discipline, something that I have had to work on along this journey. I’ve also learned the hard way that not every client is the right fit for me and my mission, and I am not the right fit for every client who comes my way—and that’s okay! It is both extremely humbling and incredibly rewarding to have grown so much over the past year and a half as I’ve been doing this.
We’ve been impressed with KSW Marketing, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I am a freelance marketer who partners with small businesses to build their online presence. I handle services like social media management, paid digital advertising, graphic design, copywriting, website design, SEO and email marketing. I meet my clients where they are on their marketing journey and use my skills to help them get where they want to be. My ideal clients are small, local business who do not need a full-time marketing employee in order to meet their needs. I am most proud of my ability to cover so many facets of marketing for so many different industries, and see proven results across the board.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
I wish that at the beginning of this I had given myself more grace. I relied very heavily on the feedback of my clients to prove to myself that I was worthy of being trusted with their companies and their money, when in reality I should have known that all along. The 10+ years that I spent doing corporate marketing taught me a lot, but realizing that my worth was not defined by how many edits a client requested for a design was a game-changer.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kswmarketingllc.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ksw_marketing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kswmarketingllc
