Creative Turns: Kate Busby–From Public Relations to Development
Interview by Emily Parsons / WNW Member
“Creative Turns” is a new series about the unexpected paths that bring individuals to embrace a new creative profession. It’s never too late to transition into a role that energizes you and apply your experiences in a seemingly disparate field to your new career. In this interview, Kate Busby describes her journey from PR to co-running the design and development studio, Busby Potter. She shows us that a courageous, yet measured, look before you leap can take you to the career best-suited for you.
What was your first gig? Can you explain how you went from working in PR to then running and co-leading a design and development studio?
So I originally went to college for public relations. I did a brief stint at Tufts teaching English, but for the most part––for about three to four years after I graduated college––I was working either at a PR agency or a marketing agency in account executive roles.
Lots of internal communications, timelines, business, marketing communications, that kind of thing. I wasn't really passionate about it, and didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life. I was a bit frustrated on how my career was going but then eventually decided to do a web development boot camp, which I did at General Assembly in Chicago. It was totally life changing.
I enjoyed coding before I did the bootcamp. Obviously, you wouldn't go to bootcamp if you hadn't tried it. But being there for three months was awesome. I gained a lot of new friends and skills and definitely knew this was a good career change for me. My first gig after the bootcamp was working as a developer at a small development agency and I loved that job so much. It was the first time in my career that I'd really loved a job and was excited to wake up and go to work, which was super confidence-building.
How did you get over to Portugal?
A really big personal goal I had was to move and work abroad. I thought about freelancing but wasn't really sure it was for me. But then a designer––who would eventually become my design partner––needed development help on a project she was working on so I started doing hourly work for her clients. So I wasn't really looking to freelance but I just started falling into it by friends and former coworkers asking to work with me. It was then that I realized that instead of looking for a remote job, I should work on building my own business to move abroad.
There was the opportunity to pitch a huge project for a former colleague’s company and my partner and I ended up pitching against marketing agencies for this really large project. And it was one of those things where it was like, “okay, if I get this project, I am walking into my nine-to-five job and quitting immediately.”
We put all our effort into the pitch and eventually won. And it was crazy and awesome. And I don't think I quit the next day but I think I quit the following Monday. And I've been working as a freelancer ever since. So, that's a long story but that's how I meandered into development and owning my own development agency. I'm self-employed and then my design partner and I run a design and development studio together.
Was there anything that scared you about the transition of moving into your own and did you seek any advice from anyone?
I think the number one thing most people are afraid of when they go freelance full-time is not having enough work. That was definitely what scared me the most. I lined up that big client in order to feel confident in quitting my job. But then, the first day of no work you're like, “okay, I have that one client but what if I don't get anymore?”
But thankfully that was not the case and at some point, my first year freelancing it was the problem of having too much work and not enough time. Which is definitely the better problem to have. The person I sought advice from the most is actually my design partner. She had been freelancing for about two years when I decided to make the jump. She had all those first year trials and tribulations fresh in her mind and was a great person to just talk through all of the freelancer anxiety. It was also helpful just telling myself everything will work out and if it doesn't, I'm hire-able anyway. So it's not like I'll be destitute; I can make it work.
How do you think that your unique past––specifically in PR––has influenced the work that you do now with your studio?
My past work opportunities definitely gave me experience in doing all of the ancillary things that are required when you run your own business. I'm a web developer, but as a freelancer I also have to win new business, build relationships, create budgets, create timelines, send lots of professional emails back and forth. So when I was a developer at an agency, I didn't have to do much of that, but as a freelance developer, I have to be my own account manager.
Even though I wasn't super passionate about account management as a career, I'm passionate about running my own business. So ultimately, I'm super grateful to have the experiences that I did before I became a developer. I wouldn't have been able to feel as confident running a business if I hadn't been in PR before.
“I’m a web developer, but as a freelancer I also have to win new business, build relationships, create budgets, create timelines...Ultimately, I’m super grateful to have the experiences that I did before I became a developer. I wouldn’t have been able to feel as confident running a business if I hadn’t been in PR before.”
Do you ever miss anything?
For sure. But I think about when I was really frustrated with my career and crying about how much I did not really want to do it anymore. And now I am so grateful for it. It was a total 180––changing my career ultimately made me a better person.
Did you ever feel stuck or unsure? How did you get out of that feeling?
Yeah, definitely. So, this past summer was a slow period for me. I had been freelancing for about a year and a half and had had pretty much nonstop work until then. And I had finally achieved the goal of moving abroad and I'd been living in Portugal for several months. And now I'm several months into living abroad, a year and a half as a successful freelancer and then all of a sudden, at the same time, I have a couple of projects lined up that either got postponed or canceled because they were eCommerce projects or products that actually were not going to be sold. And just ran into this slow period for the first time ever.
It was this weird, I would say, sophomore slump of freelancing during my second year. That [slump] gives you so much anxiety as a freelancer because I kept trying to pitch business and for whatever reason the stars weren't aligning. So I tried to do as much maintenance work for existing clients that I have. Tried to drum up business from my network. Tried to keep busy with self-education.
There's definitely a lot of days where you just don't know how to fix it. And sometimes you don't do the best practices or you just feel down. But just taking some agency back and trying to be active in my freelancing Facebook groups, posting answers to people's questions, and just trying to get little bits and pieces of projects where I could helped. And then eventually I had the best quarter I ever had last winter. And going into this year, what I have lined up for this year is definitely my best year so far.
So the sophomore slump definitely turned around. I don't really know the magic answer to what made it turn around. But I feel like I can probably weather that storm again if I need to. And you know, hopefully as I move forward into freelancing, I am working towards making life not be so up and down but a little bit more steady throughout the year.
It sounds like you have a lot of resilience. So, it seems like that was so important to get over that sophomore slump.
Yeah, for sure. I would love to say that I took a bunch of new courses and was smiling every day. But I definitely was not. I thought I made a mistake a year and a half ago, but maybe it's a mistake now and now I'm in a foreign country and what do I do? How do I apply for jobs? But I just kept working at it until something came into fruition. And then it was like three proposals got signed in one week and I'm like, “oh no, now I'm having the opposite problem.”
Have you ever had an experience that you perceived as a failure but you now see as a really helpful redirection or a blessing in disguise?
So as I mentioned, my first job after I became a developer was amazing. I had a truly awesome team of people. I'm still friends with them today, including my design partner. I met my design partner at my first developer job. There was a great culture and for the first time ever I knew what it was like to be excited to do work. But it wasn't a small agency. And so, after about a year there, there were some changes to the clients and there just wasn't enough work to go around. So there was layoffs throughout the company and I was one of the people laid off because I was the most recently hired developer. And I was devastated because I've worked so hard to change careers and not only that but I had landed what was an amazing job for me.
But to make a long story very short, I was actually headhunted for the larger agency I ended up working at the very next day. It was just timing. She popped into my LinkedIn inbox and was like, we have a job for you. So I went to work at the larger agency, which had some really great clients that I got to work with. And working at that larger agency definitely is what lit a fire under me to eventually start my own business.
So if I had stayed at the first company, I probably would've been too comfortable to venture out on my own. Because when you love a job that much, it's harder to quit and forge out on your own. So it was a blessing in disguise.
“I feel like, with the whole trajectory of my career, I’ve just failed in the right direction the whole time...Failure’s always a good thing, because then you can just figure out what’s a better fit for you.”
It’s inspiring to hear that you took all the doors that opened to you. I’m sure many people see a layoff as a failure when it’s not.
In terms of failure in general, I feel like, with the whole trajectory of my career, I've just failed in the right direction the whole time. Until I started working for myself because I was scared to work for myself. Now that I'm in it, there are pros and cons, but the type of personality I have, I realized this is definitely the best work experience I've ever had. I love working for myself no matter what the cons are.
So failure's always a good thing, because then you can just figure out what's a better fit for you.
Do you and your business partner have any dream clients or goals for Busby Potter? Do you want to hire a bigger team?
I see us thriving as a boutique studio. We've been working together now for two years. We have some great experience under our belt. But we're finally starting to find our stride in terms of ideal clients and project type and project size. So I really feel momentum going into 2020 and I do feel like we are growing but it's definitely slowly and intentionally.
Some people start their own agencies with the dream of building up really quickly and becoming big companies and that's not really where Eileen and I see ourselves. If you go in to create an agency that big, eventually, if you're the person that owns that agency and you're going to get so busy that you're not doing the actual creative work––you're running the company.
My design partner and I are both very much into our creative work right now. So we want to grow and to take on bigger clients but also stay that right size so that we still get to do that really rewarding creative work that we really like. That said, we probably will start to work with some assistants or junior employees in the next year or two. I'd love to successfully bring on somebody else that maybe is in a career change or just starting out as a senior developer and work with them and have somebody that I can work with side by side.
“I’m definitely all about taking an informed risk...You should think about the skills that you can bring from your first career to help you in your new career.”
Do you have advice for those that are seeking a career pivot?
First and foremost, my advice is always to just take the risk and just do it. But I'm definitely all about taking an informed risk. So, I think if you're trying to change careers, you should look at which types of companies and jobs are out there for junior level employees of your intended career. You should think about the skills that you can bring from your first career to help you in your new career.
And then also, just try to start networking for your new job. Because when you're finally ready to career change, you don't want to just be fresh out of the gate with no contacts. You want to try to start developing your community within that new career as soon as you start learning and taking things on. You can get advice from people and start to hear about openings or even just go to coffee meetings.
As an example, when I became a developer I started targeting agencies and potential employers because you know, even though my development portfolio was limited to a handful of personal projects, I could show potential employers I was a fast learner but also that I already knew how to work within an agency and manage clients and teams. So, while development work was new to me, their work environment was not. That helped me transition my career pivot because my work changed but I tried to keep as many running threads as I could so that I could build upon the experience I already had.
That's really great advice for anyone.
Yeah, definitely do it. Don't convince yourself out of it, but look before you leap. And just put yourself out there.