Kristen DeGroot is the CEO of The Campfire Circle, an agency for agencies. She has been helping agencies grow for over a decade. Kristen has an English writing degree so a lot of her strategies that she implements for her clients are content driven. Basically, Kristen grows agencies so that agency owners can spend more time on what matters: Doing awesome client work.
Kristen DeGroot, CEO of The Campfire Circle
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
I’m Kristen DeGroot and I’m the CEO of The Campfire Circle, an agency for agencies. When I’m not growing agencies, I can be found spending time in breweries with my incredible husband, playing at the park with my toddler, doing pottery, writing creatively, cooking with my mom, and laughing with my in-laws. Stevie Nicks has been my biggest inspiration both personally and professionally and I hope to meet her someday.
What inspired you to create The Campfire Circle?
I spent the past 12 years growing other agencies so I decided to harness all of my experience and expertise into my own agency that grows agencies. I tend to work with a lot of up-and-coming agencies as I love to be on the ground floor of something.
Could you tell me about the range of products or services offered in your business?
I work exclusively with agencies. A lot of times, agencies need leads so I start with a lead magnet. If you want to learn about lead magnets and my approach, check out this article. Once leads are generated after I heavily promote my clients’ lead magnets, I implement a lead nurturing sequence to convert leads into clients.
Other times, agencies need help with more of the day-to-day tasks and hire me on a retainer. In this scenario, I run an agency’s thought leadership strategy, get them listed in directories, earn them awards, amplify social proof, perfect social media marketing, run email marketing, and even implement new services.
Lastly, since I have experience being client-facing at agencies, some of my agency clients hire me hourly and white-label my services. This most often involves email marketing, influencer marketing, content creation, and digital PR.
Are there any unique features or offerings that set The Campfire Circle apart from other similar businesses?
I believe my niche sets me apart. There aren’t many agencies out there that just work with agencies. There are some in which that is part of what they offer but The Campfire Circle is exclusive to growing agencies.
Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.
I was working for an agency and ran virtual conferences for them. This entailed an entire day of virtual presentations so I had to recruit speakers, promote the conference, set up the lead nurturing strategy, and build the virtual conference environment. I only got a $10,000 budget to market the conference and was able to bring in over 2,000 qualified leads which resulted in over $100,000 in new business which was a lot as they are a small agency. The conference got covered in some high-profile publications and honestly, this is when I started getting recognition in this industry.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
Love this question because I have a great story. I was the Senior Marketing Director at an agency in New York. My sole purpose was agency growth and lead gen. I even implemented new services. I guess I generated too many leads because I got let go because the agency couldn’t handle more growth. It was extremely frustrating to lose my job because I did my job… It was all for the best, though, because that was the push I needed to finally start The Campfire Circle.
