Happy Wednesday! Our favourite day, because it's blog day! Today we are doing another #mplocal - we thought it would be fun to shine the light on ourselves and give you a little BTS of who were are.
So today's MP Local is one half of mint & poppy - Megan! Let's get into it...
Name: Megan Martensen
Your title: Digital Marketing Consultant
Your elevator pitch:
mint & poppy is a creative agency focused on working with female entrepreneurs and service-based small businesses to bring their brand to life.
One word to describe yourself:
Creative
Why did you choose that word?
I chose the word creative because that’s definitely who I am at my core. I always have wild ideas and I can visualize things so clearly. I always love brainstorming and coming up with new ideas.
Why did you start the business that you did and what was the inspiration or reasoning of how it came it life?
I’ve always had a background in ‘digital marketing’ – I went to school for communications and Public Relations and every corporate job I’ve had has been in that field. Being a creative, I struggled in corporate environments for a long time because I eventually – ran out of room to be creative. I always wanted to be my own boss and ‘create’ something of my own (really using this word a lot haha).
I also have a passion for helping people and teaching someone how to do something. I am super type A and always create clear, structured, ‘how-to’ processes for everything I do.
One of the biggest things I kept seeing with local businesses I loved, is that they weren’t ‘showing up online’ – to their true potential. After talking to my friend and co-worker at the time, Katie (spoiler alert, we’re now business owners together) about all of this – she had the SAME feelings. We would constantly talk about how we could help local business up their marketing game and the strategies we could implement.
Thus, mp was born!
First thought when you officially became your own boss:
mint & poppy was a side-hustle for about a year, 'cause you know – the type A in me just had to map out a 5 year plan of what this was really going to look like (jk jk). So it didn’t feel like I was my own boss until I decided I would quit my regular 9-5 job in September of 2019 and take mint & poppy full-time. When that happened, I think the first thought was ‘oh shit’ but also like ‘I’M DOING THIS WOOOOO’.
When you’re not hustling, what do you do in your free time?
Well if you’re an entrepreneur reading this, you know what I mean – but the ‘hustle’ doesn’t really stop, atleast not in the early stages which I’m in right now. I work WAYYYY more than I did at any corporate job. My hours are longer, I have way more on my plate and the hustle goes into the wee hours of the night.
But, when I do give myself some free time I really love to travel, so I do that as much as I can – otherwise I just do the usual stuff like spend time with my boyfriend Daniel, my friends and family! I love being outside, I love really good food and you can definitely catch me drinking some wine.
Describe a day in your life:
I could just copy my calendar here since it’s very detailed haha. But I wake up at 6:45am (usually get out of bed by 7am), I have a very strict LONG morning routine – we’re talking 2 hours LOL. It consists of reading non-fiction (currently reading: profit first), drinking warm lemon water, meditation (or just sitting and thinking for 20 minutes), I journal, pull morning cards and do some sort of movement – right now I’m doing ‘Yoga with Adrienne’ 30 days of yoga at home. Then I make myself breakfast and watch a quick vlog.
Once the morning routine is done, I make a coffee and head up to my office. I work until lunch time and then I take an actual lunch break. Then I work for a couple more hours to finish up the day. Before dinner I usually do one hour of course work (I’m in a few courses at all times). Then I cook + eat dinner… Then after dinner I usually do a few more things on my computer – more so creating content. Then I chill by watching something on Netflix or a vlog before crawling into bed and reading a couple pages of a book I’m reading (fiction) with my salt lamp on - it's a whole vibeee.
What is your biggest accomplishment?
Probably starting 2 businesses – mint & poppy and I also have a candle company – bodhi co.
What are your top 3 bucket list items?
1. Do a Bali yoga retreat
2. Live abroad
3. Write a book
What or who inspires you to keep doing what you’re doing?
I definitely have the common people that most people have like my parents, sisters, Daniel – they inspire me every day to be the best version of myself.
But I do have a slight girl crush – in a mentor vibe way on Christina Galbato. I’ve followed her journey for YEARS now and I find her so inspirational. She's the 'who I want to be when I grow up' person, even though I think I'm a couple years older than her LOL.
What animal do you relate with and why?
It’s funny, I ask this question a lot to other people but I’ve never taken a second to think about it for myself. I’ve always had a thing with elephants, not really sure why – I definitely don’t forget things (haha) but also I just feel like they are gentle giants – and I feel like I’m a very gentle/caring person.
What is your daily mantra?
Keep going.
What are some tips and tricks you use to stay motivated?
I definitely have days where I’m just not feeling it – but I do a couple things to help me out when I’m just not motivated… I remind myself why I’m doing something, I switch up the task to do something more creative and fun, I get the hardest things done in the morning, I go for a walk, watch a vlog (take a break essentially) but ya those are a few things. Honestly I’m a pretty self-motivated person so it doesn’t take much to get me in the zone.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learnt along the way?
That things aren’t as they seem on the outside. I definitely went into this with the mentality like ‘this will be easy’ or like ‘it will be easy to get clients – I have something to offer’ or ‘if so and so can do it, so can I’ - which, spoiler alert if you're starting a business is SO far from the truth haha. People don’t really tell you about the hard ass work you have to put in that no one really sees or notices. You wear A LOT of hats as an entrepreneur and none that you were prepared for, so you really have to adapt quickly, pivot and learn a lot fast. It definitely is not rainbows and butterflies all the time but it’s definitely the most rewarding feeling knowing you created something for someone that helped them.
What’s next for you?
A LOT. Ya girl is in a transformational stage of her life – so definitely lots of change and good things coming but I’m not going to share anything yet – stay tuned!
But for mint & poppy specifically – we actually just rebranded our website and got really specific on our services and our clientele, so I’m excited to see the shift in work we do and the creative aspect of it all! We've also been brainstorming a 6 week workshop to offer on all this digital marketing - so exciting!
How can our readers find you?
@megmarts is my personal IG but otherwise, if you’re reading this you’ve already found me on mint & poppy. You can also follow my candle biz @thebodhico
Well, there you have the inside scoop on one half of mp - next up: KATIE! I'm really happy I got to share a little bit more of who I am with you all since you don't see us often on IG (working on that!).
We are constantly looking to promote local businesses and freelancers in the community, so if you are interested in sharing a bit about your life and your journey, send us a DM or email us at hello@mintandpoppy.com.
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