Meet Cori Ghougassian | Advertising Agency Owner

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

Hi Cori, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
When I first started college at 17 years old, I was introduced to the world of marketing and advertising. I was working on a project where I did some research on Advertising and Marketing Agencies and thought to myself, “Wow, it would be amazing to work for one of those companies!”. After doing the research for that project, I thought to myself, why not just start your own agency and create it the way YOU want it to be, and since then the idea of starting my Advertising agency just stuck with me. As my college career went by, I interned for other agencies, took courses aside from my college courses, and kept learning about digital marketing and advertising, and was so invested in that idea of having my own agency one day. After learning and trying to perfect my craft, I came to a realization while I was working as a Marketing Manager for a company in the Phoenix area. “Why am I working so hard to fulfill someone else’s dream? Why not put that energy into fulfilling my dream and helping others along the way?”.

At that point of realization, I was about 22-23 years old and immediately began to plan and work ahead to fulfill my dream. I would come home from my corporate job and get right to work on my business. I had a whole business plan outlined and then Covid-19 came and hit. I thought that this would be something impossible to work through, but as other businesses became more digital, I saw the need for businesses to pursue digital advertising. All through Covid lockdown, I would gather case studies through work I was doing to prove that I am more than capable of helping scale businesses to their needs, and now Depthscale Digital Advertising is fully and freshly launched, ready to help businesses with digital advertising and marketing.

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?
At the moment my advertising agency, Depthscale Digital Advertising LLC, focuses on scaling businesses with a digital presence through the use of Facebook and Instagram Ads, Google Ads, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Google Analytics.

What sets us apart from other agencies is that we have spent plenty of years in this fairly new area of marketing. We have been learning, executing, and perfecting these niche forms of advertising, whereas most agencies are very general with what they do in digital marketing and have some knowledge here and there about this niche.

To get where I am today in business, I started off studying Marketing and Advertising at Arizona State University. Although college isn’t necessary for this industry, it definitely helped me learn more about it and network with all kinds of different people. As marketing is always changing and adapting, I often took, and still, take online courses to keep up with the new trends and ways of advertising. I took on a lot of unpaid internships to learn the ins and outs of agency functions and digital advertising. I always felt that getting to where I am today wasn’t too bad, but as I reflect, it wasn’t an easy road. What made it hard was putting in a lot of unpaid hours with bills needing to be paid, taking a lot of extra courses that I could barely afford as a college student, not being present with my loved ones because I was dedicating a lot of time to building up a foundation.

I overcame these challenges by maintaining organization, working extra jobs to make ends meet at times, making sure I was on a schedule so that I could have enough time to do everything I wanted, staying positive, and gaining confidence and the ability to say “no”.

Some lessons I have learned along the way is that it’s okay to say no to people. You don’t have to go the “traditional” route to get where you want to be. Failing is okay and is part of life, it’s about how you respond back to those failures and keep moving forward. The last lesson I learned is to do what makes you happy and remain positive no matter how down things may seem.

Depthscale is a brand that I created through, figuratively and literally, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Depthscale has spent a lot of time in the background to honing and becoming experts in Digital Advertising. Depthscale is more than just an agency, but proof that if you work hard and persist, your dream can become a reality.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
This is a great question! Living a lot of my formative years in Tempe, I’ve really come to appreciate the city’s art and music scene, so the first stop would be Shady Park Tempe. You can grab some really delicious ramen or sushi, some great Sake and beer, and some amazing live music. You really hit the grand slam when you go to Shady Park.

The next place in Tempe would be Four Peaks Brewery. I really frequent there with my friends to catch up and hang out, not mention their beer is amazing and their food is always top notch!

Taking it back to where I grew up and now live in Chandler, I absolutely would take them to Sleepy Whale for really good beer and trivia night and then to Hidden House down the street. Let me tell you, I’m not a huge brussel sprout guy, but their food and drinks are absolutely delicious and affordable.

I’m a huge fan of music and live music, specifically EDM music (Electronic Dance Music), so depending on the week I would have to take my friend to Sunbar in Tempe to catch a live DJ set or down to Rawhide in Chandler for a super fun music festival!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
To be specific, my parents have always pushed for me to achieve more than I thought I was capable of and they sacrificed a lot of things for me to be where I am and continue to go towards.

My girlfriend, Kyla, who is also a Marketing Agency owner, encouraged me to pursue my passion, gave me tips, and helped show me what I was capable of achieving as an entrepreneur.

My brother and my group of friends, who supported and encouraged my endeavors, and didn’t think of me as crazy for pursuing my dream and leaving a “normal” career.

Everyone in my life has played a part in me being able to do what I love, and I don’t want to leave anyone out, so if you’re a part of my life, no matter how present you are in it, thank you for your support.

Website: www.depthscale.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/depthscaleads/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/depthscale-digital-advertising/?viewAsMember=true

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Depthscaleads

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/depthscaleads