Vixen’s Origin Story
While living in Long Beach CA for her formative years, Ren developed a foundation of artistic freelance work among her network of local artists and musicians. She was shooting portraits and album covers, capturing live performances, and making music videos. She gained experience in the film industry through college projects, on-set gigs in LA, and starting a production company with classmates after college, while regularly making award-winning short films of her own.
Having been a regular photo-taker since childhood, Ren fell in love with Instagram upon it’s inception. Evolving with everyone from the classic square photos and intensely sepia filters, she was able to express creativity in a new way and share it with others. What started as mirror selfies and plates of food evolved into, well, better mirror selfies and plates of food through practice.
In 2017 she experimented with social media management officially for the first time, knowing it was a growing area of need for businesses as social media was picking up as a marketing tool. After testing some side businesses of her own in that format, she turned her sights to an established business — the coffee roaster she worked for who had been in business since 1976.
Recent brand photo Vixen commissioned from Artist Collective member Heather Lemmon.
The seed of our company was planted in the back room of this shop. Here’s how we got our first client ever, Polly’s Gourmet Coffee (rebranded to Sheldrake Coffee Roasting under our care), who is still our beloved client to this day.
In February 2018 Ren saw an opportunity to try social media based marketing using her filmmaking/photography skills. As an experiment, she started an Instagram for the coffee roaster she worked at and filled it with photos she took herself. Knowing that the owner wasn’t interested in “social media” but had been talking about wanting to improve his marketing, she took the risk to show (not tell) how this would be exactly what he needed.
After a couple months of the experiment, Ren showed the owner Mike, hoping he would like it and want her to continue — and he did! Not only did Mike say he loved it, he said in all his years nobody has understood the soul of his brand like she demonstrated she did. “How much do you want to be paid to continue this?” That day Ren became the Director of Marketing for Sheldrake Coffee Roasting along with her duties as Back of House Manager.
Mike’s encouragement and belief in Ren helped expand her business for the next two years, getting clients by word of mouth exclusively and working entirely solo. With the growing success of her marketing work for Sheldrake’s it was becoming apparent that something good could come out of this, something bigger.
During the pandemic Ren worked alongside everyone at the shop to keep the doors open (safely) while also pivoting to online sales for the brand, which worked exceptionally well. For her few other clients, things had to pivot into digital-only services. Ren was able to help them ride the wave of change forward.
At the end of 2020 Ren left her job at the coffee roaster to move back to Nevada, but didn’t leave the brand behind. She still operates in her marketing position for Sheldrake and manages all online and traditional marketing for the brand, along with the website and e-commerce.
“When we hired Vixen Creative Agency, we set a goal of 15% sales increase in 3 months. They delivered a 95% sales increase. In the next 6 months they increased sales by 300%. They are and always will be our creative agency.”
Ren’s move back to Las Vegas allowed her to focus on her “side hustle” completely, with cost of living being much better in her hometown and a singular goal: no more day jobs. With thanks to Adam Gresch of VALINK, Ren was empowered to hire her first assistant and work toward launching a proper business.
Vixen Creative Agency on January 1st, 2021 with all of Ren’s freelancing clients becoming the foundation for growth. Infusing her values and interests into her mission sparked something truly special, something different. Through smart work, professional grit, and strategic partnerships Ren has been keeping Vixen Creative Agency on a progressive path toward ambitious goals.
With a growing team, Artist Collective, and network of collaborators our agency has grown from a cheeky little experiment to a fully functioning company with a range of quality services. More than that, it’s become a culture-first, safe work environment for everyone involved and we hope to stay a force for good in every life we touch.