Pursue your passion — but never alone

By Vicki Bohlsen
President

What’s one thing people might not know about me? I never wanted to be a business owner.

I know, hard to believe that now! And obviously, I love where my career has taken me, but it was never where I thought I wanted to be. When I had my kids, I always wanted to be there for them. Freelancing at that time in my career was a way to have the flexibility to stay home with them while still staying involved in the PR world. But I understand that everything in life happens for a reason.

My freelance journey spanned between Indianapolis and New York City for over a decade. Around the time of the recession in 2008, I was approached by an agency in Indianapolis to start a PR division of their company. When the division started to grow, it was a new experience in my career, leading a team instead of being independent. I saw just how much could be accomplished when you had a great team by your side. It was probably the start of one of the biggest lessons in my career: you can’t do everything on your own.

Surround yourself with people who help you grow

There came a moment when it was time to part ways with my partnering agency, and I was in a place in my life where I was excited to build an agency of my own. From the day we started in our office — actively being renovated and filled with card tables and roadside furniture — I knew that having good people was going to be an important part of our agency.

Most of my expertise focused on media relations, and as we grew into a unified marketing agency, I was humble enough to know that I couldn’t be an expert at everything. Even 15 years later, as the marketing and communications landscape continues to change, there’s always going to be something I don’t know. As a business owner, you have to allow others to shine in their own expertise, and be open to learning from them.

The people you surround yourself with can also be an influence in where you want to take your business. From where we started until now, we’ve adjusted our model to work with clients who do business for good. Once that became tied to our mission, it was important to have a team who was also on board — and who would keep me accountable in my vision.

You don’t have to do it alone — and you shouldn’t

I didn’t just stop with looking for marketing experts. One of the biggest adjustments with being a business owner was figuring out a plan for all the additional areas that are now under my responsibility. Finances, HR, IT, real estate — none of which I’m an expert. While we are a small but mighty agency, there are many people outside of the business that help make it run. Embrace the help and talent of others and it can make business management a lot easier.

If you had told me 20 years ago that future me would be running a business, I would have thought you were talking about another Vicki Bohlsen! But I’m not one to dwell on the past — like I said, everything happens for a reason, and I couldn’t imagine my career any other way. To any future business owner: give yourself grace and accept that you can’t do everything yourself. Trust me, surrounding yourself with a great team to help you turn your passion into a reality will make all the difference!