Meet Heather Farris | Pinterest Agency Owner

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

Hi Heather, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I was working a corporate job when I first had the desire to find alternate work. I never imagined what I have today when I first started my business. When I initially started my business I had started a mom blog but I wasn’t monetizing very fast. I needed to get out of my accounting job where the environment was toxic. After getting really good results from Pinterest for my blog I was hired by someone else to manage their account for 3 months while they traveled.

This management gig went so well I was referred within a peer circle and quickly replaced half of my 9-5 income in 3 months. I started offering this service in January of 2017 and was able to quit my full-time job in May.

My only thought with starting my own business was having flexibility to work when I wanted to work, where I wanted and still provide for my family. Being a military spouse a lot of the family and household duties fell on me at the time.

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 started a Pinterest marketing agency on accident really. It was meant to be a side gig while I grew my blog but honestly I feel more in love with serving clients than talking about my own life.

What sets us apart from the rest?

We care about each clients business as if it were our own. We don’t take clients on for the sake of making more revenue. I feel like in our country businesses plow consumers over just to pad their bottom line. We aren’t like that. Our team is diverse and each client we have on our roster is cared for as if it were our own business we were marketing. Each client we take on is serving a bigger mission in the world. Whether they’re helping their audiences to find their decor style and bring more life to their homes or helping nursing students to better prepare for the halls of the hospitals. We care about our clients, their customers and the impact we are all making together in other people’s lives.

How did you get to where you are today business-wise. Was it easy?

I didn’t go to college for marketing so I got to where I am today by asking people to take a risk on me. I had used Pinterest as a platform since 2010 when my first daughter was born (their first year online) and knew it inside and out as a consumer. Given what I knew about the platform as a consumer I just started implementing and got really great results. It took trial and error. Lots of failed strategies but even more successful ones. Was it easy? In some ways, yes. It other ways, no. I didn’t know marketing when I started. I didn’t know how to design graphics but it’s all a skill that can be learned. So I started learning and just put one pin out after the next. After years of doing this I had learned to get better and started to see better results.

I also think I was born to be an entrepreneur. Being an enneagram 3 and a type a personality with a hint of neurodivergence I’m a natural risk taker. Believing in myself was easy.

If not, how did you overcome the challenges?

My biggest challenges in this business so far have been imposter syndrome. At one point I lost nearly all of my clients while in the middle of a one year long RV road trip with my family. It was a brutal lesson I needed to learn to stop doubting myself and my capabilities so much and just show up even when it was hard.

What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way.

Biggest lessons I have learned:

1. No matter how hard it gets or how many clients you lose there will always be more.

2. You can make more money but you cannot make more time.

3. No matter how much you think the world is worrying about what you post online they don’t. Those people you’re worried are judging you are too busy worried about what people think of them.

4. Imposter syndrome means you’re probably doing something right. Push into it and keep moving forward!

5. Save for taxes.

What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?

We believe our clients & customers come first before anything else. We also believe in being bold, leading by example, integrity, teamwork. We support our clients and students by being the best we can be and giving our projects everything we’ve got but also recognizing when we messed up and fixing it with ownership.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The first night they arrive I would lineup drinks and dinner at the Moonstone in downtown. Afterwards we would wander around downtown until we got tired. Perhaps dessert at Insomnia Cookies.

The next morning I would make sure to take them out to Sabino Canyon (preferably hiking) to see the beautiful scenery and saguaros as it’s just behind my house.

We would have to visit Zinburger for lunch then run by the market to grab dinner necessities and cocktails by the pool.

We would spend at least a day visiting Mt. Lemmon to explore and grab a cookie & pizza from the Cookie Cabin.

I would likely also take them out to the San Xavier Del Bac Mission and at least one night drive up the mountain just before sunset to watch it go down.

While they’re here we would lounge by my pool quite a lot as my friends and I are more homebodies than not.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Monica Froese gave me my first gig for Pinterest management. Without her taking a chance on me I wouldn’t have made it this far. She truly opened up, mentored, shared me within her communities and just opened the door.

Website: https://www.heatherfarris.com

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-farris/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HeatherFarris

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/heatherfarrisco

Image Credits
Lauren Peachie https://laurenpeachie.com/