[Top Agency Series] Building a Successful Marketing Agency With Lindsay O’Donnell

Lindsay O’Donnell is the Founder and Marketing Director of Piquant Marketing, a Vancouver-based agency specializing in promoting vegan and vegetarian food and wellness brands. Her passion for supporting food entrepreneurs began during her tenure at Whole Foods Market, leading her to establish Piquant in 2016, which also offers personalized coaching and consulting services to assist clients in marketing strategy, team building, and sales growth. Beyond her agency work, Lindsay co-owns and serves as the Marketing Partner for Planted Expo, Canada’s largest plant-based event.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [03:27] Lindsay O’Donnell shares her journey from activism to founding Piquant Marketing
• [05:36] The first services Piquant Marketing offered and how it landed its first client
• [07:32] Creating a digital potluck to build brand awareness and community
• [10:24] How influencer marketing helped establish Piquant Marketing’s reputation
• [14:14] The evolution of Piquant Marketing’s pricing, from early struggles to sustainable growth
• [17:43] Lindsay discusses niching and how Piquant Marketing found success in the conscious brand space
• [25:08] Transitioning from agency work to consulting and coaching
• [32:43] The biggest challenges entrepreneurs face when scaling to seven figures
• [40:59] Lindsay’s favorite brands and what makes their marketing stand out

In this episode…

Building a business is never easy, but scaling it while staying true to your mission can be even more challenging. Many entrepreneurs struggle with finding the right niche, pricing their services effectively, and balancing profitability with purpose. So, how can business owners evolve their companies without losing sight of their values and vision?

Lindsay O’Donnell, a marketing strategist and consultant, shares how she navigated these challenges by refining her niche and evolving her business model. She emphasizes the importance of targeting a specific audience and staying adaptable as market trends shift. Lindsay also highlights how businesses can leverage influencer marketing, digital events, and strong brand storytelling to gain traction. By understanding pricing strategies and sustainably structuring service offerings, she helps entrepreneurs build scalable businesses while staying aligned with their values.

In this episode of Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz interviews Lindsay O’Donnell, Founder of Piquant Marketing, about her journey from running an agency to offering high-level consulting. Lindsay discusses her transition from digital marketing to coaching, the role of influencer marketing in brand growth, and how entrepreneurs can define and refine their niche. She also shares insights on pricing evolution, social media trends, and creating meaningful client relationships.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Lindsay O’Donnell on LinkedIn
• Piquant Marketing

Special Mention(s):

• Second Bite Podcast
• Planted Expo

Related episode(s):

• “[Top Agency Series] Growth Through Acquisitions – What is Your KPI and Northstar? With Jason Swenk” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Building a Great Team and More Helpful Insights with Jason Swenk Host of The Smart Agency Master Class Podcast” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Agency Series] Most Valuable Advice When Selling Your Agency With Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “How To Start From Scratch With a Food Product Business with Peter Rahal Founder of RxBar” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable Moments:

• “When we started, I didn’t know what our main service was going to be.”
• “The most common mistake I saw was people trying to appeal to everybody, and you just end up lost.”
• “If you know your ‘why,’ then you know your audience, and everything else falls into place.”
• “Marketing should be smart and fun — at least don’t insult my intelligence with another boring sales pitch.”
• “I realized it wasn’t me — it was the model, the industry, and the way social media evolved.”

Action Steps:

1. Define and commit to your niche: Narrowing your focus helps build authority, attract ideal clients, and create stronger brand loyalty. 
2. Leverage influencer marketing strategically: Partnering with the right influencers enhances brand credibility and expands audience reach in an authentic way. 
3. Refine your pricing model as you grow: Regularly reassessing pricing based on expertise, demand, and market trends helps sustain business growth without overextending resources.
4. Know when to pivot your business model: Adapting to industry changes, customer needs, and personal fulfillment allows businesses to stay relevant and continue scaling.
5. Create engaging, value-driven marketing content: Focusing on providing value through education, engagement, and authenticity helps businesses stand out in competitive markets.

Episode Transcript

Intro 00:00

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, doctor Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weiss here, founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Lindsay O’Donnell of Piquant Marketing. You can check them out at Piquantmarketing.com.

Lindsay, before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast. People should check out some of the fan favorites. And this is part of the top agency series, actually Jason Swank. Jason Swank talked about how he built his agency up to eight figures and sold it, and then he actually has another episode that he’s been buying up agencies. So we talk about the valuation space, M&A space, the agency space.

He actually has a group for agency owners to support them. He kind of created it because he wished he had that group when he started his agency. So that was an interesting episode. Todd Taskey. Todd Taskey was a good one.

Where he helps pair private equity with agencies. So he helps sell agencies and he has a second bite podcast. So sometimes he finds when an agency sells to private equity, then they private equity sells again. Sometimes they make more on the second bite than they do on the first. So it was an interesting I never really thought about it, you know, like that Lindsay is selling and then still working the business and doing what you love.

So I love his kind of philosophy mentality and that was a good one as well. Many more inspired Insider.com. And this episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25, we help businesses give to and connect to their dream relationships partnerships. How do we do that?

We do that by helping you run your podcast, and we’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do the strategy, the accountability and the full execution. So, Lindsay, we call ourselves kind of the magic elves that run in the background and make it look easy for the hosts. They can create amazing content, create amazing relationships, most importantly run their business. You know, for me, the number one thing in my life is relationships, and I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships.

And I have found no better way over the past decade to profile the people and the companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on. So if you’ve thought about podcasting, you should. If you have questions, go to rise25.com or email us at [email protected]. I’m excited to introduce Lindsay O’Donnell. She was the owner and founder of Piquant Marketing, which is a digital marketing agency that’s worked with over 100 brands around the world.

She now runs Piquant Consulting, where she offers coaching and consulting and entrepreneurs looking to break into seven figures. We’ll talk about her journey, her pivot, and the evolution of the business. So Lindsay, thanks for joining me.

Lindsay O’Donnell 03:04

Thank you for having me. Yeah, it’s a PQ Consulting but PQ Consulting.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 03:08

Yes.

Lindsay O’Donnell 03:09

Yeah. If you if you.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 03:10

Search I figured I wanted to say Piquant because of the Piquant Marketing, but.

Lindsay O’Donnell 03:14

Yes, you nailed it. You nailed it.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 03:16

Well, let’s talk about right now what you did with Piquant Marketing, and then we’ll talk about what you do with PQ Consulting.

Lindsay O’Donnell 03:27

Yeah, absolutely. I never know how far back to go, but let’s go a little ways back. I was like a big activist in Greenpeace. I had my own nonprofit, Sea Shepherd, like I was the person protesting outside of Parliament. And when I like in my career, I went to school for marketing.

And then I got a job at Whole Foods Market, and it was like everything clicked, like I had found my people. They were creating change in the world through brands like small brands, local brands, whether it be fair trade, sustainability or, you know, animal rights, whatever it was.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 04:01

And so what was your position there? What were you doing?

Lindsay O’Donnell 04:04

It was called a marketing team leader. So back in the day, each store had an entire team. Like I worked at one store that did really well, and I had a team of seven just for that store, which was amazing. Yeah, we had like sign makers and graphic designers and a chef. And it was like, yeah, it was the best boot camp I’ve ever experienced.

And it was really fun. But after four years, you know, they were evolving and they were centralizing and they did some layoffs. And I, you know, I’d kind of reached as far as I was going to go there. And I was like, I just want to keep doing that. Like I loved all the marketing.

I knew the food business. I knew the retailers, I knew the food businesses, I knew the influencers like I knew the restaurants and the community groups. And so I just wanted to keep doing that. And so I had a partner at the time who was also from Whole Foods. She stayed around for about a year.

But we built Piquant Marketing as a digital marketing agency. Ultimately, until late last year, I had a team of, I think at the most I had a team of 12. And we did everything from like social media marketing, event planning, influencer marketing, digital ads, email marketing, content creation. And it was really, really fun and rewarding.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 05:14

Let’s talk about the evolution of the services for a second. So you learn a lot from Whole Foods. You’re like, I like doing this marketing piece. I’m going to serve these, you know, brands that are, you know, whole food like sustainable all that. So what was the first services you offered and how did you get your first client?

Lindsay O’Donnell 05:36

Okay. This is actually kind of a fun story. I think. So when we first start, there’s a lot of imposter syndrome, particularly for like an agency because you could always do more. Right.

You look at all these big agencies and you’re like, oh my God. Like, I don’t do SEO and like, I don’t have a big studio. But the thing to remember is that, like, there’s a customer for every price point. Like, not all brands need a really slick, flashy brand and sometimes it works against them. So when we started, you know, I didn’t know what our main service was going to be because we kind of did it all, but we couldn’t seem to get our foot in the door.

We couldn’t seem to get even people. I just was just like, hey, I just want to say hi because I’m in the food community. People were really shut down. They were like, we don’t want to be sold to. So what we did was we did a digital potluck, which I had done this before as a blogger where everybody posts at the same time on the same day, the same hashtags, and you tag the person before and after you.

And then everyone agrees that when they post, they’ll spend 15 minutes engaging with all the other posts, right? So I think the first time we did it, we had 100 or 150 people sign up, including brands and that like really put us on the map. It helped like big brands that wouldn’t even answer our emails before. We’re like, hey, we want to be on this potluck. And then all of a sudden we knew the influencers in the space.

They knew us. We did gift bags and giveaways like it was this big free event, but everybody got what they wanted, which was like a higher profile. They wanted engagement and they wanted to be connected with each other. And so I think our first client came from like me, networking, but that really was like.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 07:05

How do you get them curious? I love that idea because it’s everyone’s kind of helping each other. And I, you know, that’s kind of just foundationally like how I think. And so how do you vet companies or people and I’m curious, how do you police it? Right.

Because some people may not follow it. And you, that’s kind of unfair to everyone else. So how did you vet companies?

Lindsay O’Donnell 07:32

Yeah, I’m not going to lie. It was really labor-intensive, so it was worth it. Like, would I have done it later in my agency? No, because it was so labor-intensive. So what happened was like a lot of it was outreach.

And us having to outreach over and over and be consistent, like an event like RSVP this kind of thing. But I will say that like once it was published, people were using the hashtag, which was fine. But if you were in the potluck, which meant that you were in the original list and you were entered for prizes and somebody was tagging you like you had to be vetted by us, and I don’t think we really like the second time we did it, we sort of had people that were like, not the best fit, but we were pretty clear as an agency that we were a food marketing agency. So it’s not like we got like dental offices or anything like that. But it was interesting, like after we posted it, people were using like the hashtag Vancity Virtual Potluck on their own.

So we were pretty clear, like with the invite and who we were, we were pretty clear about the site and but I mean, we couldn’t help it when people were using the hashtag later, which was totally fine. It just meant like, you know, they were just sort of like catching the outer ripple of it.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 08:37

So walk me through it. First. Give me an example, like what was posted and then what would people have to do.

Lindsay O’Donnell 08:43

So people had a few different options. It was a virtual potluck, which makes sense because we’re a food marketing agency. So you had to post something food-related, be it a recipe, food inspiration, or a kitchen hack. And it got too big. But what we originally were trying to do, because the potlucks that I had participated in, you would block all the appetizers together and all the mains together.

So we tried to do that and then all the kitchen hacks. So what would happen is like the reason it was so labor intensive is like, you would have a spreadsheet of 150 influencers and brands and they would tell me, like, okay, I’m doing a recipe and ice cream recipe. I’m doing like a.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 09:21

Where are they posting? Are they posting it like Instagram? Like where is it going?

Lindsay O’Donnell 09:26

It was Instagram.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 09:27

Instagram. Okay, so everyone posts on Instagram separately on their own account, and then everyone else has to go in and engage with everyone’s posts.

Lindsay O’Donnell 09:37

And they could do that easily. They also we would email them and be like, this is the person before you and this is the person after you like a menu. So if you were posting, you’d say like, hey, you might have come from this person’s page where they did like a blueberry pie. Now I’m doing like an ice cream recipe. And don’t forget to check this person after and all that, because no one knew about the event until we published it.

Like we told them, just click on the hashtag and engage for 15 minutes so that that made it easy to got it.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 10:00

So they don’t have to necessarily go in and comment on every single person’s post, but spend 15 minutes and get in and out and see what you can do as far as engaging with everyone else.

Lindsay O’Donnell 10:11

Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 10:12

Yeah, I love that idea. It’s really kind of forming a community around that. And so you were saying doing that, you had some inquiries from your first clients.

Lindsay O’Donnell 10:24

Yeah. It really influencers to like at the time there was a lot of food influencers trying to like get like trying to build and trying to make connections themselves. And so we had some strong connections with influencers and that was really helpful for us. So I guess to answer your question, with the service, we ended up doing social media and influencer marketing. First, like that was kind of like our big package.

That was the thing we were known for. And it was easy because when we went and pitched the brand, we were like, we know the influencers, we know which ones will work. We know the ones that will like, respond to emails that will give you high value. Like, we knew them intimately. That we could instantly like we instantly knew who’s going to give them good value and who would be the best fit.

And we knew, like, we’re in Vancouver and we eventually, like, grew, you know, across Canada and the sense of like influencers we worked with. But we knew Vancouver influencer that community so well. So even someone like Ben and Jerry’s actually reached out. We didn’t end up working with them, but at one point they reached out and they’re like, can we do a Vancouver event? Because we knew we knew the healthy foodies, we knew the greasy spoon foodies, we knew the restaurant foodies, we knew the nutritionists, like we knew that community inside and out.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 11:28

So how would an influencer campaign work? Did you then put together the deal? You know, I’m sure the influencers appreciate it too, because you’re bringing them brands.

Lindsay O’Donnell 11:38

Yeah, yeah. So it varied, like if you were doing a digital event. So we did everything from like in-person events to digital events to ambassador programs. And we like through my marketing to one thing, through the research I found before building the company was I found agencies often didn’t have a great marketing presence themselves because they’re so busy. Right.

But that was really something we wanted to do. So in our marketing, we I was like educating the influencer. I was giving them insider tips. So they trusted us. And so we would have people coming to us, like wanting to be on a waitlist or just being in our contact list.

And so yeah, it’s, you know, we did it. We would educate on like, hey, if you don’t have any money, this is what you can expect when you’re just sending free product. And we kind of had a list of people who we knew would work for just product. We knew for people who would just be paid. But we also knew, like, you know, if you pay this person, it’s worth it.

And in events like it’s a community, right? If you’re an influencer, you don’t want to show up to an event and not know anybody. So we knew like the prom kings and queens, if you plan an event and you invited like these key people, the other ones would just walk to the event too.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 12:42

Yeah. So it’s interesting. So you started with, you know, just helping the community and then you form these relationships and then the influencer marketing campaigns were really successful from there. It sounds like maybe people were asking you to do other things. So it sounds like you got into, you know, digital ads at one point, event planning, design, all of those things.

Lindsay O’Donnell 13:09

Yeah, I will say influencer marketing doesn’t make well for us. It didn’t really make a lot of money. However, it was the flashy, exciting thing where people were like, oh, who are you? You know, these people. Like, it was such a tiny percentage of money that came in was the influencer marketing campaigns.

But it was such a game changer when we were sitting in meeting with people like the money really came from the social media, like ongoing management, but the fact that we could do that cheaply and do it ongoing without this, like being a big thing for them. It was often like the most confusing things for brands on their own. So yeah, it was like, I don’t know how to describe it. Same thing with the potluck, like it was labor intensive. It’s flashy, didn’t bring in the revenue, but it brought in the people who needed the less sexy things done as well.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 13:50

I know I’ve heard you talk, Lindsay, about the initial days, and I’d love to talk about pricing. And I’ve heard you say at one point, you know, the companies were working with then couldn’t afford us anymore. So talk about the evolution of your pricing from the beginning. And then as you matured.

Lindsay O’Donnell 14:14

I mean, it’s embarrassing how low we how little we charge, because what happens is like, I mean, I was 30, but I was like, you feel like a kid when you start a business and you look at these agencies charging thousands and thousands of dollars a month to, like, run a Facebook page and you’re like, oh my God, we can do that for so less, you know? And then you’re like, oh yeah, there’s like programs and admin and like, this is what it costs. So you know, I think like when we started it was $500 for like two social accounts and posting every other day. But that was like Instagram didn’t have stories, it was just photos and Facebook and Instagram. You could post the same thing.

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