Boss Ass Lipp: an Interview with Nicole Lipp
Nicole Lipp is a director/photographer born and raised in Los Angeles. She received her BFA in Acting from UC Santa Barbara where she acted in and directed several theatrical productions. Since returning to LA, Nicole switched from theater to on-camera work, acting in and directing several film and television projects; and photography, shooting for musicians and brands. Off camera, Nicole runs a social media marketing agency, AYF Media, where she creates Instagram content for brands. Follow Nicole on Instagram @flowerhitstheBIGtime or visit her website to see more of her work.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Tell us about yourself.
[NICOLE:] I founded and run a social media marketing agency called AYF Media and I specialize in creating content for brands. I’m a director, photographer, and actor. I’m always making stuff, I do my best to create everyday!
[UNPUBLISHED:] When did you first get into directing videos and photoshoots?
[NICOLE:] I got into directing in college but mostly theater. I started directing videos because I was an actor and I was like, “I’m not going to sit around and wait for my phone to ring to get an audition to be on the CW because that’s not going to happen. If I want to make movies, I have to make them myself. I made my first short film in 2015 just before getting into the social media world. I ventured more professionally into photography after being in social media for so long. In the beginning, when I was producing content for brands, I was hiring photographers and I would shoot secondary stuff on the side. I thought, “Why am I hiring someone to do the thing I love when I could be hiring myself?” A lot of it was about confidence and I hadn’t given myself permission to call myself a professional. I directed my first music video just over a year ago. Since then I’ve directed four more and have six more in pre-production – we’ll shoot as soon as COVID allows!
[UNPUBLISHED:] What advice would you give to young artists starting their own photography business or who are trying to go in a creative direction?
[NICOLE:] My number one piece of advice is to just do it. Don’t wait for someone to give you permission. Don’t wait for someone to call you up and hire you. If you want to make something, make it. No excuses. For a long time I made excuses and put myself into a box. I thought since I got my degree in acting, that was all I could/should pursue. I think I was just scared but once you start making stuff, you learn. I’m a big fan of the school of experience. Yes, get a degree, it provides a strong foundation, but you’ll learn so much from just creating IRL.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How has being an actress affected the way you direct?
[NICOLE:] I think every single human on the planet should take an acting class. You learn so many skills from studying acting, whether it’s learning confidence in public speaking or communication or listening. Really listening. Listening is everything. In a lot of ways, acting taught me how to direct. I understand the language of actors and I understand what it takes for me, as an actor, to get somewhere and I can pull from those tools to help the actors I’m working with. I also think photography has helped me so much in directing because in addition to understanding actors, there’s this super visual part of me. I know how to create an image in my head and bring it to life or how to see things through a unique lens. The combination of those things is why I love directing so much.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Tell us about your social media boutique. What inspired you to start your own agency?
[NICOLE:] My life journey has been anything but linear. I have done and tried so many things – but I wasn't always like that! Until I was 22, I was like, “I'm an actor and nothing else.” I put myself in a box and I became really depressed. I started my Instagram, Flower hits the BIG time, as a creative outlet. When I started, it was a music festival fashion blog, it has since evolved a lot. This was in the beginning of the Instagram boom and it grew really rapidly to 20,000 followers in my first few months. Everyone has a million followers these days but at the time it was really exciting! At that time, I was pursuing acting, I was working like 10 different day jobs just to make some money, I was running Flower hits the BIG time, I was teaching acting/improv classes to kids with autism, I was making a short film, I was dealing with my depression. I was doing a million things and really exploring for the first time in my life!
Then this opportunity kinda fell in my lap – I knew a girl who was a recruiter and she called me up and said, “TOMS is hiring a social media person, do you want to interview for it?” I figured sure, why not! I got the job and all of a sudden I was working a nine-to-five in an office in corporate America and I had to drop all of those things I was exploring. It was crazy culture shock – this job was so all-encompassing. Nine-to-five is a myth, it's really at least eight-to-seven. I learned so much but after doing that for two years, I was super depressed again. I now know that I go through cycles of pushing really hard and burning out. I learned that later in life but I wish I knew that then. I wasn't ready to take the plunge into a fully creative career, but I knew that social media was something I was good at even though I didn't like the corporate lifestyle. I was like, “Fuck it, I'm gonna start my own business.” So I did.
I left TOMS, founded AYF Media and a month later I had three solid clients on retainer. Now, three years later, I’ve worked with a lot of amazing people/brands and I've learned and grown so much. I’ve been through a couple cycles of working really hard and burning out and I'm finally at the point where after all that, I realized what makes me happy and what really makes me fulfilled is photography and directing.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How did you first start out?
[NICOLE:] I had two years at TOMS under my belt. Plus Flower hits the BIG time helped me build a resume from collaborations with big companies like Sephora, Coachella, Absolut Vodka, Reebok, etc. I didn’t know the first thing about starting a business – thank God for my husband Michael who is my partner at AYF; he is super business minded! I told my friends and my family about AYF and people just started reaching out to me like, “Hey, my friend works for this company and they need social media, can I put you in touch?” Once I was in touch with these people I had to really prove myself. This was three years ago when this was more rare, now everyone and their mom is like “I do social media.” At the time it was novel to have a social media boutique, especially one run by a woman who was giving you all of her attention as opposed to hiring to a gigantic advertising agency with a social media wing.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What kind of services does your agency offer?
[NICOLE:] I have a different contract with every client I take on. Micheal and I are the only two full time employees at AYF Media. We have a network of contractors who we work with on a project by project basis. For each client we are working with we bring on a different person we think is perfectly tailored to the client. AYF offers content creation, strategy, engagement – the customer service side of social, ads/paid media, graphic design, and more. If it’s in the social media realm, AYF does it.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What have been your favorite brands to work with?
[NICOLE:] For Flower hits the BIG time, several vintage shops have reached out and sent me clothes. Those have been my favorites because I pretty much only wear vintage unless it’s a brand that’s explicitly sustainable and ethical. Vintage is guaranteed sustainable!
For AYF, I was working with a skincare company for a while that I really love, I still use their products everyday! It was a really awesome experience to work with them because they were brand new and I was working directly with the founder to launch their social presence and he let me have creative control. Some clients hold the reins a little too tight because the company is their baby, and I get that! But this was fun because the client let me make weird memes and quirky shit, he let me really have fun with it.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What have been some challenges you have run into owning and running your own agency?
[NICOLE:] Losing a client because of something completely out of my control is rough. Like that skincare brand, our contract was terminated because of COVID-19. They had to let go of every agency that they were working with and restructure everything. That was a big personal wakeup call to the reality of this pandemic. It wasn't because they didn't like our work and you just can't anticipate stuff like that. Agency life is hard because there isn't guaranteed consistency – you have to be able to adapt quickly because things can change in an instant.
This is such a cliché challenge to talk about, but being a woman, there are some sales calls that I wind up on with a potential new client where I can tell the guy on the other side of the phone is not taking me seriously. It’s frustrating for sure but you just have to hold your own and know your value.
A big thing I learned when I started was that as a new business, I needed clients in order to prove myself. I would take anyone who wanted to hire AYF. I'm at the point now where I'm very choosy with what clients I take on. I need to be sure I ethically align with every brand I work with. This was a big lesson: a client that I was working with for over a year is a huge fashion brand. It was a crazy feeling when they wanted to hire AYF. I mean, this was a legit, brand name and I had major imposter syndrome, I thought, “I can't believe this is a client I can book right now.” I signed a contract even though I'm so against fast fashion and so careful with my own consumption habits. I had major cognitive dissonance because I was supporting something that was against my personal values. So yes, I’ve learned to be way more deliberate about the brands I work with.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What advice would you give to creatives who want to start their own agency or work for an agency?
[NICOLE:] Again, just do it. Find a mentor. Email me, if you're hearing this advice, through this interview, reach out! I want to pay it forward. I get people emailing AYF via our website all the time saying, “Hi, I just graduated college and this is interesting to me, here's my resume.” Since I put together teams based on clients, I have this huge database of these really cool, qualified, badass people that I may call when the right project comes along. Reach out, just do it. Don't be afraid to ask for help and don't be afraid to fail, just do it and you'll learn as you go.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you have any plans to expand your boutique?
[NICOLE:] Always, I love expanding my community of contractors because you never know what's going to come your way and who's going to be perfect for it. We've been expanding more into creative production – I’m doing more and more video/photoshoots and that’s the most fun for me. That's where I want to be all the time! To me, expanding means making shit with cool people and creating every day. The hustle never stops!
