It Started With a Napkin
Poppy House Media began on a restaurant napkin.
I have loved marketing since high school. In college, as a communications major, I fell in love with influencing people through language and visuals, because that is exactly what marketing is. But when I went looking for a corporate job that would let me learn more about it, I kept running into the same wall: entry-level listings that asked for three to five years of experience. Rejection letter after rejection letter followed.
One evening, my husband and I went to dinner, and the weight of it all finally caught up with me. Right there at the table, we grabbed a napkin and started sketching out a different path. A hypothetical business name. A hypothetical mission statement. Everything a business needs. A year later, that hypothetical business became real, and today it operates as Poppy House Media.
If I couldn’t find a path for me, it was up to me to pave it.
The Training Ground I Didn’t Know I Was In
While I was building toward that napkin dream, I was also building something I didn’t fully appreciate at the time: seven years in hospitality. I spent four years in hotel hospitality and three years in premium sports entertainment hospitality. In October 2026, I left my hotel job to run Poppy House Media full-time.
Here is what I have learned since making that leap. Everything hospitality taught me about taking care of guests applies directly to taking care of a brand online. The businesses that grow on social media aren’t always the loudest. They’re the ones that make people feel welcome, seen and looked after.
Hospitality wasn’t a detour from marketing. It was my training ground.
The best hospitality is built on showing up for people, and that is exactly how I run my business.
So here are the lessons from the front desk that shape every account I manage.
Lesson 1: Your Profile Is Your Lobby
In hospitality, the experience starts long before anyone checks in. The arrival, the first look around, the first greeting: guests decide how they feel about a place in moments.
Your social media works the same way. A potential client sees a post, taps your profile, scans your grid, clicks the link in your bio and lands on your website. That path is your lobby. It is where someone decides whether to stay or keep scrolling.
Social media is the best free tool any business has access to. For business owners wearing multiple hats, it can feel like an inconvenience, but it shouldn’t. Treat it like the front entrance of your business, because for many of your future clients, that is exactly what it is.
A few questions to ask yourself:
- Does your profile clearly say what you do and who you do it for?
- Does your bio link take people somewhere useful, like a booking page or your website?
- Do your Instagram and your website look and sound like the same business?
- Do your captions, highlights and homepage answer the questions customers always ask, like what you offer, where you are and how to book?
One more front desk lesson: guests notice when the welcome is warm in person and cold on the phone. Your audience notices the same thing online. Pick a voice that sounds like you on your best day, and use it everywhere, from your captions to your website to your DMs.
Lesson 2: Consistency Beats Volume
There’s a big misconception that posting every day brings followers. It won’t.
Think about the best hotels you have ever stayed in. What makes them memorable isn’t that they do the most. It’s that they do the right things reliably, every single time. You know what to expect, and that is why you trust them.
The same is true on social media. In my experience, true consistency means showing up three to four times a week with captivating, curated content. That rhythm is far more sustainable for a small business owner than a daily posting schedule that leads to burnout, and it gives your audience something they can count on.
If you’re overwhelmed, start here: choose a few themes you can return to again and again, plan your week ahead of time, and protect the quality of what you post over the quantity.
Lesson 3: Build Community, Not Virality
I don’t promise my clients virality, because that isn’t my goal. My goal is to build a genuine community behind them.
In hospitality, success isn’t one great night. It’s the guest who comes back, and the friend they bring with them. That loyalty is built through steady, genuine care, not one flashy moment.
On social media, that means building an audience that engages with you consistently. Not just when you post an entertaining video, but when you share an informational carousel about the work you actually do. Those are the followers who become clients, and those are the clients who become referrals.
I see this in my own business. Most of my work comes through word of mouth, which to me is the greatest compliment a brand can receive.
Lesson 4: Every Client Is a Partner, Not a Ticket
Anyone who has worked in guest service knows the difference between being processed and being cared for. Guests feel it immediately.
When you work with Poppy House Media, you’re not a ticket in a queue. You’re a collaboration. I become a partner to your business, and together it’s on us to grow your social media presence.
That partnership also means honesty. I don’t sell dreams. I simply enhance what reality can produce. That isn’t always what people want to hear, but it means my clients get a partner who cares far more about their growth than their invoice.
If you serve clients of your own, ask yourself the same question: does every person who reaches out feel like a guest you were expecting, or like a number?
Lesson 5: Great Service Runs on Systems
Here’s something hospitality teaches quickly: great service isn’t magic. It runs on systems. Behind every smooth experience are routines and standards that make the right thing easy to do every time.
I learned this firsthand in my own business. When I first launched my Instagram, the response was incredible. DM after DM. Calendly emails every day about new consultations being booked. I am grateful for every one of them, but I was still working a full-time job, and I did not have the bandwidth to take on ten new clients at once.
So I stepped back. I kept three clients from everyone who had inquired, and I restructured. I redid my SOPs (standard operating procedures), streamlined my workflow, and found processes that resulted in work I was genuinely proud of. During that time, I grew a client’s account and helped her land a major partnership that brought significant visibility to her niche. I helped another business grow its assets through photography and UGC creation. I also had to let a client go, which is something every business owner eventually faces.
Stepping back wasn’t a setback. It was the system check that made the business stronger. Today that same thinking is part of what I offer clients: websites and systems that make their business easier to run, so marketing doesn’t depend on whatever energy is left at the end of the day.
Your Front Desk Checklist
Here is a simple checklist you can work through this week:
- Walk through your own lobby. Open your Instagram and your website on your phone as if you were a brand new customer.
- Fix your bio link. Make sure it leads somewhere useful, not a dead end.
- Answer the top three questions. Write down what customers ask most, then answer it in your bio, highlights or homepage.
- Set a realistic rhythm. Aim for three to four quality posts a week instead of forcing daily content.
- Mix entertaining and informational. Pair your fun posts with carousels that show the work you actually do.
- Write down your process. Even a simple SOP for how you onboard and follow up with clients will save you time and stress.
- Follow up like a host. Thank every client and make it easy for them to refer you. Word of mouth is earned.
Pave Your Own Road
I didn’t get here by following a perfect plan. I got here by sketching an idea on a napkin, learning from a mentor, and building one step at a time. At Canva Create at SoFi Stadium, I met my now-mentor, Ashaley, who runs her own marketing agency in Boston. After one conversation with her, all my questions had been answered, and the ball was in my court.
The best piece of advice I ever heard has stuck with me ever since: do it messy, do it tired, do it when you’re not ready.
If you can’t find the road you’re looking for, start paving it yourself. And if you’re dreaming of building your own agency, please reach out. As my mentor says, “We don’t gatekeep. There are millions of businesses in need of help and only one of us. There is enough pie for everyone.”
