Meet Nicole
You should feel confident in who you do business with, which is why at Merrygood we strive for transparency and authenticity when we share our case studies and client testimonials so you know what it’s like working with us. However, something you can’t glean from these examples is the history of Merrygood and how it guides our process and ethos as a company. That’s why we wanted to share an in-depth interview with our incredible founder, Nicole Fikes, on her background and motivations. We hope you enjoy!
When did you decide to go into creative in the online space?
NF: I majored in just about everything under the sun in the arts in college. I was an illustration major for a while, then I was a copywriting major, then a graphic design major, then a photography major. So you could say I had a well-rounded education and knew what I didn’t like. After graduating with an art degree, I ended up going back to school and attending some of the first formal classes for interactive design. There I learned basic coding and fundamentals of site design. That was over 20 years ago and I haven’t looked back since.
What has your career path been like?
NF: After studying interactive, I worked all summer at an internship, putting a portfolio together and mailed it off to my list of dream ad agencies on September 10, 2001. The date is memorable, of course, because the next morning the twin towers fell and it felt like the world had ended. Jobs were suddenly scarce, especially in advertising which tends to be the first budget on the chopping block.
Somehow though, I lucked out and got a junior digital design job in San Antonio with the internal creative team at Rackspace. That followed with a short stint at an ad agency in the same city that folded six months after they hired me. Still, in the aftermath of 9-11, jobless with prospects thin at best, I spent the next six months working full time in retail.
Eventually, the Austin ad agency T3 reached out and after a few interviews, they hired me as a junior designer. It was a job I felt very lucky to get. I worked on the JC Penney account, which was my first experience with a major national brand. I eventually moved on to Springbox, which was opened by two T3 alums, as their 2nd art director. There I got to work on pitching new business and helped them win Dell and Disney. I also worked on other cool accounts, like Livestrong, Metro PCS, and Austin City Limits. They were eight people when I started and over forty people when I left.
In 2007 I joined Drumroll, another startup agency in Austin at the time. I was the first art director hired there and stuck around through their incredible early growth. I worked there for years; it was a fantastic experience, and I think I’d probably still be working there, but things changed for me personally and it just wasn’t in the cards.
“After my mom passed, all I wanted to do was be with my family. So, we lived below our means and I set a business goal for myself. If I didn’t hit that after a year, I’d go find another job, but so far, it’s grown every year since.”
When and why did you decide to start your own creative ad agency?
NF: In February of 2013, my mom was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Her home was about four hours away and the amount of care she was going to need was too constant for me to stay in Austin full time. So, I took a leave of absence which turned into a permanent leave from Drumroll to help care for her.
A month or so before she died, and in her own humor, she told my brother and me about an insurance check she was leaving us saying simply; “split the check, spend it wisely” and; “If the insurance company doesn’t pay out I will HAUNT them.”
That was the first investment that allowed me to open Nicole Fikes Design. Agency life can be stressful, so even before my mom was sick, I was working so much I barely got to see my husband and then a 3-year-old daughter. After my mom passed, all I wanted to do was be with my family. So, we lived below our means and I set a business goal for myself. If I didn’t hit that after a year, I’d go find another job, but so far, it’s grown every year since.
Eventually, I wanted to position myself less like a freelancer and more like a business, so I hired a writer, Shelly Leyden, to help me reposition the company. I told her I wanted the company to be a legacy to my mom—after all, she was my first and only investor—so it had to include her first name, Merry. One day over lunch, Shelly suggested “Merrygood” because it sounds like “very good”. It just felt like a fit, so that’s when the name changed and the rest, as they say, is history!
“I love these clients and companies because I’ve seen their business grow and as they grow, they keep coming back with new projects to accommodate a new service or strategy. I love that we get to play a part in the evolution of their businesses.”
Why do you like creative advertising?
NF: I really enjoy the strategy that comes with it. I prefer digital advertising over print or social. I’m really fascinated with websites and how you can change things to affect your results. Print is so concrete and is difficult to measure, and on social you’re dealing with short attention spans and constantly churning out content. A website is a really solid piece that you don’t have to change every day. It’s there for a length of time and you can look at analytics and figure out what’s working and how to improve it.
What projects are you most proud of?
NF: I’ve had a lot of time to think on this during quarantine, and it’s the clients that we’ve had for several years now. I love these clients and companies because I’ve seen their business grow and as they grow, they keep coming back with new projects to accommodate a new service or strategy. I love that we get to play a part in the evolution of their businesses. It’s also the long-term personal relationships I have developed with these clients that make this job worth it.
What’s the hardest part of running your own business?
NF: I think running a business in the middle of a global pandemic is a challenge, to say the least! We’ve always had a steady flow of business over the years, and now with COVID we (like everyone else) are just trying to weather the storm. As a result, we’re pivoting but also trying to balance our current workload. Taking care of my staff is something I don’t take lightly.
What’s the best part of running your own business?
NF: My team is the best part of running the business. Thinking back to where I started and where I am now, with such a great team beside me, I don’t know how I ever did it all by myself. I like having a team, so it’s not all on my shoulders. I can have a bad day and there’s a team standing next to me to support me and get us to the next project. It got lonely working by myself for 5 years and then we had offices for a while, but due to COVID we are now working remotely again. It’s not as lonely now though because we can chat and video all day. My husband appreciates that I have other people to talk to about work too.
“I felt that there was a portion of the work that we could guide our clients through, and they could complete by themselves, saving time and money. ”
Why did you want to create The Complete Website Requirements Blueprint Program?
NF: I saw the need for businesses looking to pivot and aren’t ready for COVID to sink them. They want to create a better website or even their first website. The typical process for developing a website is an entirely custom project, and in any field, custom work takes time and money. I felt that there was a portion of the work that we could guide our clients through, and they could complete by themselves, saving time and money.
We’re here as a sounding board for questions and to provide feedback, so they aren’t doing this alone. Typically my team would be spending time creating things for the client to react to, but with Blueprint, the client is creating things they already know they like and asking us to react to it. It flips the script.
They’re still getting guided expertise but in a more cost-effective way. It also gives the client a higher level of involvement and more ownership in shaping their business and brand. They will come out of this discovery with an explanation of who the brand is, how it’s standing out, how the site should be structured, how to start conversations based on content, and more. Then at the end of the program, we offer packages if they want us to design and build their site. Those costs are optimized too because the strategy is done and we can hit the ground running. So, it’s a cost-effective way for people to have access to our expertise, but also do some of the work themselves.
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If you’d like to work with Nicole in The Blueprint program, you can learn more about it here. Or if you’re ready to kick off your custom site project, reach out to the Merrygood team. We’d love to see how we can help you be the best version of your brand.