Meet Samantha Smith + Traci Bushur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Samantha Smith + Traci Bushur and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Samantha Smith + Traci Bushur, what is the most important factor behind your success?
There are so many amazing marketing agencies and creators in this space, but what we attribute a lot of the success of On Brand to is the friendship and trust that we have in each other and the way we extend that to our clients. We always say that working with us is more than an exchange of services. It is a partnership, a collaboration, a friendship. We truly try to treat every person we work with how we would want someone to treat us or our brand, and we genuinely care about their success and I think (and hope) that our clients feel that. We have been so fortunate to have long-lasting relationships with all of our clients and many of them have referred us to their friends which tells us we’re doing something right.

Alright, so let’s move on to what keeps you busy professionally.
We became fast friends when we studied abroad together in London in 2019. We returned home to the COVID era and went our separate ways – Sam went to Chicago to be a live-in nanny and Traci went back to London to get her MBA. We reunited for some contract marketing services digitally, and then On Brand Marketing Co. became official in 2021 offering services in branding, social media management, and email marketing.

Because we’ve had such low overhead costs, we’ve been profitable since day 1 but it’s really been in the last year that we’ve gotten a solid roster of clients, hired our first employee, and felt like a true agency. We’ve tried not to skip any steps and truly do our best work for every person we’ve worked with and we both believe it has paid off as we’ve always kept clients on beyond their contracted dates and so many of our inquiries come from word of mouth.

As co-founders, one of the biggest lessons we’ve learned is that communication is truly key. We have a very open and honest relationship with a lot of trust and respect for each other. We hope that anyone that interacts with us can see that, and that we truly come across as a united front. We also believe in collaboration and are always trying to help people (especially fellow female creators) when we can. We are so honored when other people ask us our opinion or for advice and love answering DMS and helping other creators, and if we don’t know the answer, we try and find someone who does.

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?
Neither of us are local to Denver but we have clients and friends in the city so we are fortunate enough to visit. Some of our favorite places they’ve shown us are: Snooze – delicious brunch. I (Sam) recommend going with a friend who will split a sweet and savory item. Fellow Travelers – a vegan restaurant and cocktail bar. We brought a deck of cards, split an appetizer, and had a few drinks for the perfect weeknight out. The 1Up – an arcade bar. A retro night out with old-school games, cheap pizza, and drinks.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
As co-founders, we’ve largely had to rely on each other. Both of us have extremely different strengths. Traci has an eye for design and a strong sense of creativity while I (Sam) handle more of the project management side, but we both come together for strategy and client meetings. Many people strongly advise against doing business with your friends, but both of us agree that we wouldn’t be able to do it without the other and there has been such power in collaborating together.

As we mentioned, we’ve been lucky enough to not only have each other but also cross paths with other extremely intelligent, kind, and hard-working women who have always been open to sharing their knowledge with us. While the list could go on and on, we want to take time to specifically shout out Colorado-based females who have inspired and supported us in our own business:

Hannah Reach – an incredible friend and an attorney at Associate Immigration Attorney in Denver, CO.

Brittany Collins + Ashley Loya, founders of Mōv Aesthetics – also our clients and while we might be biased, they are incredible businesswomen paving the way in medical aesthetics. We are consistently inspired by their commitment to their work and each other.

Website: https://www.onbrandmarketingco.com/

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

Image Credits
Both incredible photographers:
Bekah Wriedt
Maggie Adams