Talk Digi To Me
Excited to talk digital marketing, business and entrepreneurship? Let's go!
I'm your host Carlie Robinson and with my guests we'll uncover digital marketing tools and trends, and gather insights into how to make your business more successful. We'll also hear stories from successful business owners on what helped or hindered them along their path.
This year marks 21 years in advertising for me and I'm celebrating by sharing my passion for digital marketing and my studio in Barbados with all of you!
Talk Digi To Me
Talk Digi To Me March FWD: Kelly Johnally
What does it take to walk away from a successful 20-year career and bet on yourself? Kelly Jonnelly, owner of Pivot Productions and co-owner of Bloom Bistro, reveals the strategic, deliberate path she took to entrepreneurship after decades in media.
Kelly's transition wasn't impulsive—she built financial safety nets, created initial projects, and prepared mentally before making the leap. Her first year of entrepreneurship yielded remarkable results: a successful production company, a popular home renovation show, a magazine, and even co-ownership of a restaurant that materialised through a casual conversation. Throughout our conversation, Kelly shares how opportunities emerged from unexpected places, including a pandemic project that evolved into the sponsored Pivot Series and a home renovation that team members convinced her to film, creating another successful content stream.
The most powerful insights come from Kelly's reflections on her entrepreneurial journey. "Start where you are with what you have," she advises, noting that while plans don't always unfold as expected, they provide necessary direction and contingencies. She also observed that "you reap what you sow, but you don't always reap where you sow it"—highlighting how professional relationships cultivated over years provided support in ways she hadn't anticipated.
As we close off International Women's Month, Kelly offers thoughtful perspective on women's advancement, cautioning against assuming all women progress equally and emphasizing the importance of creating space for different communication styles in professional settings. Her journey exemplifies how preparation meets opportunity when you're willing to bet on yourself, even if that means leaving behind the security of a corporate paycheck.
Welcome to Talk Digi to Me. March Forward, a women-only series in celebration of International Women's Day. We're talking to women in the field of marketing, media and technology, Women who make an impact, Women who dare to march forward. Presented by Carly Robinson from Robinson Creative.
Speaker 3:Welcome to Talk Digi to Me. March Forward. I'm your host, Carly Robinson, and I'm joined today. Superstar Kelly Jonnelly is with me. Kelly is the owner of Pivot Productions, a multimedia company that produces edutainment content for businesses. In addition to managing client media work, Pivot develops its own projects, including the Pivot series I'm sure you've seen it, you've heard about it and beijing renovation. She's also the co-owner of bloom bistro um. But before all of this, kelly spent 20 years in sales and business development across the media and insurance industries. She worked as an advertising sales exec, digital manager and business development manager. All of that before deciding to take the plunge into entrepreneurship. Kelly, tell me about that journey.
Speaker 1:The journey towards entrepreneurship, I can tell you, was very slow and very deliberate. A lot of sometimes people ask the question did you always want to own your own business? And the answer is no. I didn't see myself necessarily as a business owner, but I do know that while working for different teams, I've always worked on projects and I was fortunate to work in companies that have what you call an entrepreneurial spirit, where they allow you to develop projects and allow you to take risks and do give you you do get some room to fail. So while I was not working for myself, I did, I guess you could say, develop the capacity to champion projects, but also the tenacity to follow them through. The decision to move out on my own, as I said, was very slow and deliberate, because who leaves the good good at work that they have?
Speaker 3:right Paycheck that appears every month magically. I said twice a month, you know.
Speaker 1:In my good office. I could shut my own door, order my own furniture and paint it whatever color I want, and decide to now go off to work from a kitchen island in my house.
Speaker 3:So believe me who does this?
Speaker 1:Who does this, but um?
Speaker 3:What called you? What called you out?
Speaker 1:Because it sounds like you were working in a great place, that you were allowed a level of personal development on the job I was. I was, and something I have to tell people every time a chapter closes professionally, it's not necessarily for a bad reason. Yeah, I wanted to be able to develop my own projects and I wanted the room to be able to do so, and I know that in doing so it would be a conflict of interest. You can't work at a media company and develop media projects. Yeah, you, you have to pick a struggle. So I thought about it for a while and it wasn't pressing, but the truth is it wouldn't leave me and I think a lot of people could.
Speaker 1:Whether it is changing jobs or taking up a hobby or something, there's something that sits with you for a while and I found, as I put pen to paper et cetera, I said you know what, kelly, you probably could do this, but understand, you're going to A have to finance it and it is not like what many people do if you have a side hustle, because people say you know what, build out your side hustle until it can support you and then leave. I didn't have that option. It can support you and then leave. I didn't have that option, it was a case of all right. You need to really give this some thought, map out how you think you can develop at least your first two projects, do what you can to build a nest egg, and you will need to then make a very clear decision that this is what you're doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so what kind of safety net did you decide you needed in place before you transitioned?
Speaker 1:Well, clearly not a big enough one. Oh really, because it's funny, and I mean the Lord works in mysterious ways I actually started to renovate my house At the same time, at the same time. At the same time, I mean, what else do you do when you decide to start working for yourself and build a house? So I'm pretty transparent with money. I think up to that point I had in savings maybe about $25,000, which I was saying, okay, I would use for the house.
Speaker 1:But what I knew was going to happen is that my property transaction was a pretty long one because it was a refinance of two other properties and without getting too deep into it, refinance of two other properties and without getting too deep into it, at the point that your mortgage is approved, whatever amount you owe at the time is what they're paying out for. But it took 11 months to close. So I knew I was still paying those mortgages for another 11 months. I also knew that when the transaction closed I would get back that money. So I knew somewhere along there that there would be, I guess, what I was hoping would be my little windfall. Unfortunately, it did come through, so it gave me back probably like $36,000 in hand, like two months after I was working on my own, and that gave me what I needed to mobilize the projects.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you sound like you're a planner.
Speaker 1:I am a planner to mobilize the projects yeah, you sound like you're a planner, I am a planner. I mean, I'll tell anybody, the best laid plans don't always go, yeah, as intended. But it is better to have a plan than to not have a plan, because usually once you start to plan, you also start to think of the contingencies of if this does not work, and I told myself I'll give this my best shot for a year. If it doesn't, I'll dust off my resume and this will be a really fun interview story.
Speaker 3:This will be a very fun interview story.
Speaker 1:But I said, as many of us reach this juncture, I'm going to bet on myself, and if it doesn't work, you know it doesn't work, but I'm not going to regret it. So, so far, so good.
Speaker 3:So so far so good. So you've just celebrated one year as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:One year, the longest year of my life.
Speaker 3:With that in mind, what have you learned in the last year? What are the key big things you learned?
Speaker 1:The big things. I would say start where you are, with what you have. I think a lot of us want a clear picture, including myself, and you have your dream resources that you need to start. But whatever faith you ascribe to, you have to start where you are and believe that you have what you need in the moment. And yes, I'm a planner. I like to know that you know.
Speaker 1:All of these I's are dotted T's are crossed well into the future, but I believe that the road rises to meet you once you begin, and I think I have proven that to myself and, in some instances, to other through various projects.
Speaker 1:I also believe and this was particularly heartening, um, you reap what you sow, but you don't always reap where you sow it, and I think a lot of times people think, okay, well, I did this here, so therefore this space should be good for me. Um, the past year showed me that I had cultivated good professional relationships and that I did have a strong community in place, and I think because I've never really had to, at least consciously, draw on it. I didn't notice it, but I think because there were so many people rallying, you know, even if not necessarily doing business with you. But even if it's just goodwill or pointing you in the right direction, it made the transition easier. And I would say to anybody whether you're working for yourself, working you know, working for people, remember that you are in a part of a community and you need to contribute to that community also, because in the right season, you, you also will pull from it.
Speaker 3:You will also. Yeah, so talk to me about Pivot Series because, that's something you've been working on in the last year. Let's hear about what it is and where you got the idea.
Speaker 1:It was actually my pandemic project. I know we all had very different pandemic experiences but, as someone who has been in the digital space for a very, very long time, I've always been a YouTube junkie and I love watching those movie, those documentaries and mini series on people doing business, particularly entrepreneurs, and I've always found an incredibly encouraging, but they always lack context. I tell people, you know, it's only so far. Inspiration is going to take you at some point. How do we practically apply this?
Speaker 1:So I would check out, like CNBC and MSNBC, it and those series, and I said you know what would be awesome if we had something here where people could talk about how they developed their businesses. Yeah, and that was, I guess you could say, the seed. Initially it was going to be a website and because I'm familiar with, I guess you could say, website architecture, I started to map out how this site would look and I said, but, kelly, these articles will be so long. If you were to ask people all these questions, this, this thing, we were scrolling forever, you'd have to film it. And I just said, hey, guys, I messaged the team because you know we all have time we all got time now.
Speaker 1:I said, listen, this is something I want to do. And I casted it out and I said, okay, listen, this is something I want to do. And I costed it out and I said, okay, I could get five shows done for $12,000. At that time I wasn't considering who's going to sponsor it, but I said, okay, this is a pandemic. You need to make up your mind fast, because we can go film this quietly. It's not like we're going to night in the dark of night. You know, between curfew hours, we're all going to the supermarket today.
Speaker 1:All our last names, you know, we're all going to the supermarket at the same time, guys, and we put it out and I was always confident that it would sell in terms of sponsorship and I think sometimes it comes to trusting your experience. My background is in sales and I mean people. I made a point of not asking people what they think, because if you ask anybody in the middle of the pandemic would you say we don't.
Speaker 2:Do you think this is a?
Speaker 1:good idea? The answer would be no, but I know that whenever there is serious disruption in a space, clients find money to be in those spaces. They need somewhere to spend your money, and the season went very well, so we're now in production for a fourth one.
Speaker 3:I'm so impressed that you in the pandemic did that, Because most of us were hanging out baking bread and getting you know.
Speaker 1:Who was not a baker, was a horticulturalist, and then there was Kelly.
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly, but that is how that project started.
Speaker 1:So by the time I was ready to move out on my own I knew at least I had a project I could start again. I mean, you don't know how it's going to go, but you're not starting from zero. You already have the experience there and from there we would have built up the capacity to do shows. So we now do Beijing Renovation. I've always had a background in publishing, so Pivot has its magazine, which I think is just so beautiful, absolutely, and.
Speaker 3:I'm seeing it everywhere, I love it.
Speaker 1:I love to see it. I went to yesterday so I saw the little pictures on the fridge when I came and I was like look at it shining this little light in the world. That's yeah, and we're working on beijing renovation now the magazine for that, which we hope to have out by easter talk to me about beijing renovation.
Speaker 3:Is that like just your, your kind of you had mentioned earlier? When we were talking about your property and renovating your property and so on. Is that like a personal passion for you that you decided, hey, this would be a great show too?
Speaker 1:believe it or not, I cannot take credit for bringing this thing to a show. What so? What happened?
Speaker 1:you know, all good stories start as what happened was yeah, so what happened was, um, a team member actually two team members that I work with, nathaniel gunby and shaka mares. They both do videography work and I would have worked with them four years before. So when I bought the house separately, they were just like oh so we filming a home show? And I think it was stupidness they're talking about. You know, I just went show the back. Are you crazy? Do you understand the depth of my brightness at this moment? What show, what? But they kept saying it, so much so that Nathaniel went and said well, I'm gonna just go and take the before pictures for when we need it. I said why do you think we would ever need these? Anyways?
Speaker 1:One day I was out with Shaka, right? One day I was out with Shaka. We had just filming um, a commercial for a client, because pivot does client work and I said, hey, you want to see the house? He said he said, well, let me just film it as a show, right, and the truth is we were free for the evening. So I said, let me pretend that I'm just we're doing a show and I went about my business and about three days later he sent me back the clips together and it was formatted. He gave it an intro. Wow, it was color corrected and balanced and rendered out nicely and I watched it as though I was watching it for the first time, that it was interesting and it was helpful. So I just put it up online and I said, all right, what we see happen and it was not a case of it became of this big viral sensation. But what happened is like, I think, because that my background is in media and I know a lot of advertisers people immediately called was this you're doing? You know you?
Speaker 3:know.
Speaker 1:Now I am, you know because I mean what we, I mean what we will not do is kick a gift horse in its mouth right he's like what's this is doing and it has.
Speaker 1:I was ever so careful to make sure they knew it was a personal project. But I was surprised and these were clients that got money and have options and they were like no, all right, well, no, um, well, just let you know we, we're watching this and you have like two videos out, right, yeah, a real and a video not even two full videos. And then followers came and the engagement came and the engagement helped me, week to week, to shape what is now Bayesian renovation. And I remember strategically telling Shaka I'm not entertaining any clients or partnerships until we have six shows out. And he was like why? I said because I know that a show is really its audience and we need to hear what these people are saying and what they want to know. So we know how to ease what we call ease in the advertising in a way that it sticks.
Speaker 1:And one year later, almost 40 something episodes about a third or two third, maybe about half of which were sponsored. Yeah, we're still going and we have a magazine coming now that's fantastic so you see, your team knows you better than you know you. I can tell you if he did not have the gear on him and say and send it back like that. I can't tell you that I would have.
Speaker 1:I didn't have the brain space for it, right, because I was just thinking on on attracting client work and I remember, strategically in my spirit, I felt, kelly, for your business to work and to be sustainable, you need to have your own projects. You're not an agency. You can do client work, but you need to have projects that are yours, that you can manage, and it allowed us to develop from there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's not all You're also co-owner of Bloom Bistro.
Speaker 1:I just like to eat good food. Oh, makes sense. Well, so in a previous life I used to produce a series called how to Cook Like a Bajan Uh-huh, and Chef Craig was one of the chefs on it, and I've just from working with him we weren't friends before, we didn't have a relationship. I appreciated how he managed the kitchen, how he managed the budget, how he managed his time, and I don't know if every woman at some points wants to either bake on a coffee shop or a restaurant, but breakfast, you know, I took flirted with the idea and I said to him have you ever considered doing a restaurant?
Speaker 1:and he said to me and it just stuck in my head he said many times people have asked but, kelly, if you want to do a restaurant, I will do it with you. And that was more than a year ago. That was like maybe two, two and a half years ago, and while I was out on my own now, probably on the third month of working for myself, I did a recording for a client at Gaja Gaja, um, or what the business name is. They are actually the landlord for the restaurant space we're in.
Speaker 1:When I was walking outside, sophie, who is the landlord, said Kelly, you know the only boy that wants a restaurant, wow, um. So I said where is it? He said well, this space right here. So I said have you advertised it? And she said no, I want. I want someone that will deliver the look and feel that you know I have in my mind. And she committed. She shared what that was. So I asked her um? I said can I see it? Well, when I opened the door, I saw that the place was coming with the equipment. I called, I said I think I know somebody and this is all happening, you know, in the same day as I think I know somebody.
Speaker 1:I said, as I called craig, who had not probably spoken to in about five months. I said, craig, you still want to do a restaurant because I think I found some place for you. Yeah, you know, he said so you're doing it with me and I was like we could. Yeah, we are at home.
Speaker 1:So he said all right, well, go ahead. So I put down the phone and I called him back Because I said all right, but he didn't understand what I was saying, because it's a whole restaurant. This is like a real, real restaurant, yeah, yeah, yeah, like a real, real restaurant, yeah. So I called, I got the, the rent, and you know, I said I said I said no, sir craig, I don't know if you want to talk it over with shadi, that's his wife, you know, she was next to me. Um, when, when you call no, go ahead, go and tell them to give us the lease. You, you looked at it. I said yeah, he said the numbers make sense to you. I said I believe we could make this work and six weeks later we had a restaurant and that was it.
Speaker 3:Look at how the stars fall on you, Kelly.
Speaker 1:And that was it. It has been a lot of work, but a very satisfying journey.
Speaker 3:Exciting. Yes, Now I want to take you back a little bit. What did you want to be when you were a kid? What did you think about?
Speaker 1:I was deeply influenced by Barbie, whatever, but I grew up in the barbie era, yeah, and I remember the first time I probably first the only time I went to toys r us, and you know, when you're little, everything seems very massive yeah I went to toys r us and I remember it was like a barbie aisle and I saw so many barbies.
Speaker 1:a barbie was everything, so everything Barbie was. I wanted to be and I found obviously not as a child. I wasn't conscious of it, but I used to play a lot. I had the dream house, I had the car, I had it all Imagination.
Speaker 2:I had it there.
Speaker 1:And I find that's why play is so important, because you start to see yourself as whatever this person is or what you're doing, and I think in my head, because I had every career Barbie had. At one point I was even a vet, I wanted to farm, I was a horse trainer, I was a scuba diver, I was a skater. Yeah, I didn't grow up knowing what I wanted to be, but I did know that I wanted to be able to do a lot of things. Yeah. So when it got time to go into UWE doing a first degree and a second degree, I chose subjects which, to me, gave me the widest, the most tentacles, that would give me the most reach, where I could learn the most things, so that I don't have to pick a thing to do, I can just do things.
Speaker 3:I really love that about working in marketing and advertising is you learn a lot about lots of different businesses lots of different industries. You know, if you're working for an airport, you learn all about airport stuff. If you're working for consumer goods, you learn about drinks and food Exactly.
Speaker 1:It's enriching. It is very enriching and as you develop relationships with clients and they trust you, you learn a lot about their businesses and what their decision-making process is and how they decide to spend money. I'm very happy to say a lot of my clients are friends now. Yeah, you know they're friends now that we go to each other's houses at Christmas. But you learn a lot about people's businesses if you're listening and when you're in sales, a lot of people think you're trying to close, but a lot of time you are listening and if you listen well, you can respond properly. And I found that that skill set is a transferable skill set which has allowed me to. Ultimately, we're all selling something. So once you know in a new space whether it is a restaurant, whether it is a magazine or anything like that everybody's going to have an angle in which they approach their work. Regardless of how disconnected the projects may seem, they're all built on the same foundation now I want to take this back to International Women's Month.
Speaker 3:What are the things that you think we can do to help women march forward or to help women in our field?
Speaker 1:I'll answer that in two parts. So there are two things that stood out to me throughout the month, which, I'm very happy, is now a month and not what I call a cupcake day.
Speaker 1:It is now a month, I think we have to remember birds of a feather flock together and I've found, I've observed, that within my community we are doing well and it can give you the false perception that women are doing well because the person in front of you, beside you and behind you is doing well. And while I'm glad that within my circle we can support each other and stuff like that, you really do have to be very mindful that we are a pocket and that there are women who are struggling in every way. They're struggling financially, they're struggling spiritually, health-wise, they're doing a disproportionate amount of housework. They don't have housekeepers, they don't drive cars, you know, they can't pick up and go to dinner to decompress with a girlfriend, yeah, and I think that as we progress, I think we have to be very mindful that we don't progress at the same rate. To be very mindful that we don't progress at the same rate because you will leave people behind and that in itself creates another problem, because one of the things women's day does is that it advances our causes or things that are, I guess you say, uniquely feminine or gender related in the workplace.
Speaker 1:You don't want to have a lot of separation amongst women, yeah, and it is easy for that to happen when you're surrounded by a large circle of women that look like you, and I've realized it is something I need to be conscious of.
Speaker 1:The other thing I would say, um, that we need to do is that we really do, as women have to be proactive. I think people are at different spaces and places mentally where they are uncomfortable stepping forward or speaking up, and it doesn't always mean that you want to get into a boardroom or you want to own a company. But, for whatever reason, people have different confidence levels in themselves and different capacities, selves and different capacities. And if you're being mindful of people in a workspace, you have to treat to that, because people have great ideas but they're just not accustomed to anyone listening to them. And if you want to be in a workspace that is a healthy workspace, you actively have to know, as a leader, treat to that, make room for that and allow people to know that they are still very much a part of what is happening, even if they're not the person leading the team that's right, and if you, as a senior person, in your company or what have you can recognize that in someone younger who's now coming up.
Speaker 3:Maybe you need to give them that guidance as well the thing is they're coming up.
Speaker 1:I can't believe I'm saying it like this one. I feel like I'm really aging myself. They are coming up with way more pressure than I did. A lot of the pressure that I felt as a young professional, I think, was self-induced. I wanted to do well and I wanted to do quickly and I compared myself to people who were like 10, 15 years ahead of me professionally. They compare themselves to the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, they now can compare themselves to everybody's everything and in speaking to some of them, yes, they have the drive and the willingness to work, but you can also feel the anxiety, and I remember being in my 20s feeling that anxiety, and it was not because of anything anybody did you know. So that is something that I am always a little, you know, conscious of when you meet these very bright and ambitious women that sometimes what fuels it may not necessarily be the best oil. Right, you know, and I, you want them to do well, but you don't want them to do well fueled by the wrong motive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, as a community. I think we need to check in and, just if we recognize that, make sure that we can have a one-on-one conversation, maybe I think it's helpful and sometimes you know, just just to listen, because sometimes I don't know what questions to ask yeah, you know, listen as you know I don't know what to ask you, but I can see it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I can see it.
Speaker 1:I meet some very talented women or women who you just know and do well yeah right, but you feel the energy, but you can also feel the nervous energy, yeah, of this I need to do well. Yeah, and I need to do well by you know, to you know in the next 24 hours, and I mean I wish I could have told my younger self to relax. Yeah, it's okay, I promise you this life is not going to pass you by. Because I felt like that and I think that they are under more pressure than I was.
Speaker 3:Well, I want to congratulate you on your journey. You just had one year of entrepreneurship and it's been an exciting journey so far, and I want to thank you for taking the time to come on and talk with me this morning. Thank you for having me. Thank you, kelly. This has been Talk Digi to Me, march forward.
Speaker 2:Do you have questions about your digital marketing toolkit? Contact Carly directly via WhatsApp at 266-4847, on Instagram at CarlyTalksDigital, or send your email to Carly at myrobinsoncreativecom. That's C-A-R-L-I-E at myrobinsoncreativecom.