Bloomify Media: JCOM Alumna Sarah Marsden’s Journey to Entrepreneurship 

By Emma Lee

2012 JCOM alumna Sarah Marsden is an example of what can be achieved through dedication and hard work. Since her graduation, she has harnessed her strengths and entrepreneurial spirit to become the president and co-founder of Bloomify Media. 

At Bloomify Media, Marsden and her team specialize in social media, PR and digital marketing. The company provides website design and development, branding, full-service social media management, event management and strategic ad campaigns. Its PR sector includes pitching stories, securing interview opportunities and arranging events. 

At this point, Marsden’s main responsibilities within the company include client acquisition, employee training, ad campaign oversight and other areas of business administration. 

The two aspects Marsden enjoys the most in her job are client management and working with her team.  

“I love working with my clients, talking to them, getting them on board, getting them excited about what we can offer,” Marsden says. “And the other thing is just working with my team. I love collaborating on a project or solving a problem together and also helping them propel their careers forward.” 

Before her career success, Marsden began her PR journey at Utah State University. Initially, she was an elementary education major but found herself not enjoying the classes she was taking. 

One summer, Marsden was walking around campus, thinking about what her strengths were. She pinpointed two of her strengths as writing and communication – just as she walked past the JCOM offices. 

“I was thinking about my strengths and looked up as I walked by the Journalism and Communication office. It was just kind of a sign,” she says. 

Marsden went inside and discussed the major and the track options with one of the professors. In that conversation, she felt like the stars aligned and ended up switching her major to PR. 

Marsden remembers her time in the major fondly. “It felt like a perfect-size department where the teachers knew me; I didn't feel lost in the group, she says. “The teachers cared about us, we knew each other, could of collaborate together and celebrate each other's successes.”

Directly after her graduation, Marsden worked as an intern in New York City at a public relations agency. This led to another internship in the city at Affect, a boutique PR and social media agency. She stayed there for a few years and gained important experience and connections.

Over the next several years, Marsden moved to working at a remote agency which granted her the flexibility she sought as she started having children. After she had her second child, she decided she wanted even more flexibility to be home with her kids while still continuing her career. 

“The big kicker was that I was able to maintain a really good relationship with the CEO and VP of Affect,” Marsden says. 

“The management team at Affect was well connected in many industries. When they would find potential clients looking for services that, for one reason or another, wouldn’t be a fit for Affect, they would refer them to me. That led to a constant line of referrals.” 

While Marsden felt fortunate to have a steady stream of new client opportunities, she started to feel overwhelmed at managing them all herself. 

“I had so many clients coming in, but also didn't want to work 80 hours a week,” Marsden says. “So I just had this idea of, well, if I started a business, I can continue to grow and take on more clients, but divvy up the work between me and a team working under me.”

In 2017, Marsden’s idea for starting her own company became a reality. She got together with a friend who she met through the JCOM department and started Bloomify Media – a full-service social media and PR agency. She took on running the business while her friend, Natalie Curtis, took on most of the photography, graphic design and website development. 

Marsden’s advice to students who want to start their own agency is to take the proper steps needed to be successful. She recommends starting out by getting into a big market like New York, Boston or LA to gain five to seven years of experience and build a network within the industry to make a name for yourself. 

“This will make the transition to owning your own company, finding clients and maintaining those clients a lot easier,” Marsden said.