Meet the Original iMarketer

A hard-working, entrepreneurial spirit landed smack dab on the Original iMarketer, Samantha Boyd, while growing up in small-town Iowa. She began babysitting at age 12, and, as soon as she got her driver’s license, she started a “shuttle service” for kids who needed lifts to and from baseball practices, church choir and other activities. She even advertised her services at the local Casey’s General Store. It was her first small business—and she was hooked.

Fast forward to today: Sam is still hooked on small businesses. And she’s taken her knowledge, acumen and passion for marketing and poured it into her latest venture: iMarketer, which gives marketing gurus (like you!) the tools you need to start and manage your own solo business from home or on the road.

Building the blueprint

Sam started her creative consulting firm, Zao525, as a side hustle in 2012, and within four years had turned it into a full-time business. DIY-er Sam realized there’s a lot to learn about building a marketing business from scratch; all the pieces were out there, but the puzzle still needed to be put together. And it took a lot of trial-and-error—and time—to find the right pieces and put them into place.

Once Zao was humming along smoothly as a full-time gig, the idea for iMarketer began to brew. As Sam was refining her own business, she was putting together a “how to build your own business” blueprint to share with other self-starters. She wished for a place to connect with like-minded marketing gals, so she built it. “I did the work so other women don’t have to,” she says.

In 2017, iMarketer was born.

Building community

Sam knows there are a lot of women who will benefit from the blueprint she’s built. One such person is Shelly, who she calls her first iMarketer, even though technically iMarketer hadn’t been named yet. Shelly is in her mid-30s and is married with three children. After her husband landed a dream job as a veterinarian near his hometown, Shelly took the opportunity to switch gears, pursue her lifelong dream of entrepreneurship, and move away from the corporate marketing world to start her own marketing business from home.

“I loved my marketing career, but I also love being available for my family and my community,” she says. “I knew that Sam’s experience and the templates she had created would help me build my business in the best possible way. I wanted to learn from her experiences and avoid any pitfalls of being a newbie. I was an iMarketer before iMarketer was a brand.”

Sam is excited to help Shelly and others like her live the iMarketer life. It’s an opportunity to custom-build your marketing business and your life, so you don’t miss out on important events and activities with family and friends. That means in the middle of the day there’s time to run an errand, volunteer or meet a friend for coffee.

Sam calls it work-life integration, and she loves it.

Having several nieces and nephews that range in age from newborn to 20, Sam attends many of their sporting events and enjoys sharing life experiences with them. You’ll often catch her using the hashtag #AuntLove! Sometimes, while cheering from the sidelines, she also makes connections with others, including meeting new subcontractors for her business. “Your friends are your clients,” she says. “You can meet new subs at your kid’s soccer game. It’s all one big happy work-life.”

She continues: “I want to grow the business so that there are a community of iMarketers all over the country.” That would mean Shelly in Iowa could talk to Amy in California about something that’s related to their marketing business, including subcontractors from various creative fields who they’ve enjoyed working with. Eventually, Sam hopes to create a virtual hub for freelancers who like working with iMarketers and the iMarketer processes. “If a designer or copywriter enjoys working with one iMarketer and using the iMarketer processes, working with the next iMarketer would be ideal for them,” she says.

Taking the leap

You might feel apprehensive to leave your secure 8-to-5 job, and that’s normal. Becoming an iMarketer and starting your own business as a side hustle, like Sam did with Zao525 nearly six years ago, is an option. However, Sam did that out of necessity—there wasn’t a blueprint in place. She had to build it.

You can have that blueprint, so that you can hit the ground running and not be divided between jobs. And you might be surprised at just how fast your business takes off. “You will be amazed by what happens when your passions become your income source,” Sam says.

Get started by learning more about the iMarketer Blueprint today.